Turn with me to Luke chapter
7. In this chapter, Luke's been
showing us the works that prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ of God. And as we look at these works,
we've seen how compassionate and how gracious our Lord is
in receiving sinners, publicans and sinners, to himself. Now in these last few verses
here, we have a text that also shows us that he is omniscient
God. We see his omniscient wisdom
in addressing this Pharisee who sees Christ receiving sinners. He addresses the thoughts of
his heart and it exposes how that Christ's coming was contrary. It was not what men were expecting,
not what self-righteous religious men were expecting. And it was
entirely different from what the carnal, natural man thinks
of God. And Christ runs opposed to that. Very much opposed to what we
think. And he shows us by his grace and power who the true
and living God is. And I'm thankful for his grace
and mercy and salvation. So picking up in verse 36, one of the Pharisees And one of the Pharisees desired
him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's
house and sat down to eat. And so this is Simon the Pharisee,
and he had an interest in having this Jesus of Nazareth over to
his house for a meal. And our Lord accepted the invitation,
and he came and sat down and supped with this Pharisee. And it was very kind of Christ
to do that because, as you'll see, Simon was not sold on him. Apparently he wanted to know
more because he did have him over. He hadn't quite made up
his mind yet, but he was very suspicious about who this Jesus
is. Was he really the Christ or no? And I'm reminded of what our
Lord says to us over in Revelation 3, verse 20, when he said, behold,
I stand at the door and knock. If any man, even a self-righteous
Pharisee, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will
come into him and sup with him and he with me." And so rather
than shoot this man down and say, no, I'm not going to your
house, he said, OK, I'll come. I'll come and I'll sit with you
and we'll have a meal together. And through this, he taught this
man what he had need of learning. And through this man and what
this man needed, it's actually needful for us because we have
need of learning this lesson. It's for the church that Christ
did this. Now, The lesson begins here in
verse 37. Verse 37, And behold, a woman
in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat
at meat in the Pharisees' house, brought an alabaster box of ointment. Now, our Lord, you'll notice,
is teaching us something of our debt of sin, the debt that we
have to holy God. And to begin this understanding,
two times it's repeated that this took place in the Pharisee's
house. In verse 36 and 37, in the Pharisee's
house. And being said this way, it's
a repetition. And it reminds us that all this
takes place under the law, under the giving of the law. And for the Pharisee in the Pharisee's
house, what was their righteousness? their righteousness was in keeping
the Law. That's what they trusted in.
That was the ground that they believed was their acceptance
with Holy God, coming in the Law. But our Lord He agrees to
go into this Pharisee's house. He came into the Pharisee's house.
And that speaks to the truth of what Paul wrote to us in Galatians
4.4 when he tells us that it was in the fullness of time that
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And so it was under the law that
our Lord came. And that's how he was found perfectly
righteous. He fulfilled all the righteousness
of the law. He didn't accrue any debt of
righteousness that he owed to God. He paid it all in full,
fulfilling the law of God perfectly, fulfilling all righteousness.
Obeying the Father in all things, and in all things, being depressed,
and suffering, and the flesh coming against him, he showed
himself faithful. He showed himself to be without
fault. He showed himself to be without
a blemish, spot, or wrinkle. he showed himself to be the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." That is, he
is the Savior, the salvation of God's people scattered throughout
the world. There's one Savior, and it's
this man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came in the flesh
to stand in the gap and to save his people from their sins. came under the law to fulfill
all righteousness for his people, to deliver them who were under
the law, and to obtain for them the forgiveness of their sins.
He settled our debts with Holy God. Everything we owed, Christ
paid it all. with his own blood. He paid it.
He paid the price. Acts 13, 38 and 39, Paul said,
Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man the Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. Through this man. Not through
Moses, through Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. He is our acceptance with God. The child of God comes on that
ground, on Christ, the solid rock. That's how we come and
are received and accepted of the Father, in Christ alone. By him, all that believe are
justified from all things. I'm so thankful Paul didn't pull
back anything and leave anything sitting with us. He pushed it
all on Christ, because that's what the Spirit teaches us. Christ
is all our salvation. We're justified from all things
from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. And so that's
why our Lord came under the law. He came to fulfill it, to settle
all accounts for his people. Everything we owed, he paid it
all with his blood. And in his coming, he established
for us the covenant of grace. He took us out from that body
of sin under the covenant of the law, and he established us
in the body of Christ, in the covenant of grace in Christ,
so that we come to God on that ground. That's how believers
come, in Christ. Now this woman who now comes
to Christ, she had received forgiveness for her sins from Christ. We're
not told when she heard, but she heard Christ. She saw his
works and the Lord delivered her. The Lord healed her and
delivered her from all her bondage, her fears, her terrors, all that
was built up on her for her sin. She knew she was a sinner and
she heard Christ and knew this man is so kind and so gracious
to me and he heals the needy sinner. He's healing these diseased,
sick, filthy people and that's me, just like me. And she heard
him and she was touched by his warm hand of virtue and delivered
from her bondage. So that she came, she heard,
he's near, he's in the house, and I'm coming. I just want to
praise him and thank him. And that's how she came to him
in that manner, to show him that gratitude. And not looking to
do anything or gain anything by it, she just was that thankful
for what he had done for her. But this Pharisee was coming
to Christ much the way that men come to Christ today, in a very
fleshly manner, trying to understand who this Christ is according
to some mental understanding. And so we, by nature, we come
to God in a very carnal way, a very, fleshly way and try to
figure out what it is we've got to do to get ourselves saved
by Christ. And this woman didn't know any
of that. All she knew was that this was
the Christ of God and he set her free. She knew her burden
fell off. She believed Christ and she praised
him and worshipped him for doing that. She trusted him fully. Now, in consideration, who is
this woman? Who is this woman? We're told
that she was a woman in the city, which was a sinner. And that
fact right there sets her apart from this Pharisee. He would
not be called a man of the city, which was a sinner. He wouldn't
accept that definition or description of himself. She's a sinner. I'm not a sinner. That's how
he would look at it. And her name is never mentioned.
And I think that's on purpose. Her name is not mentioned. Now,
it's possible this is Mary Magdalene, who had been delivered from seven
devils. It's possible. Her name is actually mentioned
right in the beginning of the very next chapter. And I did
a search for it. That is the earliest mention
of Mary Magdalene in all the Gospels. Luke mentions it right
there in chapter 8, verse 2. And some say this is Mary Magdalene. Others say, no, it's not Mary
Magdalene. And they give their various reasons for it. But I
believe it's on purpose that her name is not mentioned. It's
a mercy of the Lord. What do I mean by that? Well,
she's a daughter of grace. And what does grace do? Grace
covers our sin. Grace puts it away from the memory
of God. And so her name's not mentioned.
We don't know who this is. We just know that she's a sinner
who's been saved by the grace of God and Christ. Quite likely, she was a prostitute. I mean, she was a well-known
sinner. But the blood of Christ put all her sin away forever. She was a filthy sinner. Probably
a very nasty person, a person well-known, a person despised
by the other women in the village, someone that they spoke of and
didn't speak nicely of. And yet, she's been delivered
from that all, has been put away from her by the blood of Christ. And so the fact that her name
goes unmentioned ought to be an encouragement to us. who are
guilty, awful sinners, now ashamed of what we've done, now ashamed
before holy God for our sins, will be encouraged, sinner, because
Christ's grace puts away your sin. He covers the sin by His
own blood, and He gives us a new name, a name which is His name. And all our wicked works are
forgotten. And he tells us, you're dead.
And your life is hid with Christ in God. It's put away. Put away. And so the following description
of what she did for Christ, it reveals that Christ had forgiven
her of her sins. We don't need to know the details.
You can see that Christ did it. You know it just by the fruit
that He bears in her. There's no hiding it. She's been
delivered from her sin. She had the hope of salvation
given to her, placed upon her head like a crown. She had that
hope of salvation and it was testified to with her love and
her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This sinful woman is now a daughter
of the Most High God." Well, we see it now. She always was,
according to God's election, but now we see this is a daughter
of God. And she came to show Christ how
thankful she is for His grace to her. In verse 38, proves,
is more of a proof that she is a daughter of Christ. She stood
at his feet behind him, weeping, likely because of the way they
would have sat on the floor, his feet being behind him, under
and behind him, to the side perhaps. And she 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 oil. And so these details
are given to express to us. This is a work of God in this
woman. He has saved her. He's bearing fruits of righteousness
in her. She didn't come there to merit
forgiveness. She has heard. She's been delivered. She's heard the voice of Christ.
She's been touched by Christ. She's been delivered by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the scriptures show us that.
This woman, she's broken but healed in Christ. She has a contrite
spirit. She knows that she's a sinner
saved by the grace of God. She knows it. There's no denying.
She can't hide it. She knows who he is and what
he's done for her. And the sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou
will not despise. And Christ didn't despise her.
He didn't turn her away. She's a broken woman, healed
by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. Now, in addition
to her contrite heart, we're given another evidence. We see
that she's made a willing servant of Christ. She's made a willing
servant, and that becomes those that are saved by Christ. We
see that numerous times in the epistles of the apostles. Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ. James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter, a servant and an apostle
of Jesus Christ. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ. Every one of them confessed,
I'm a servant. I was a servant of sin, now I'm
a servant of righteousness. He does that for his people.
And so this woman, she takes the form of a servant of Jesus
Christ standing at his feet behind him, weeping, and she began to
wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hairs
of her head. That's what a maidservant would
do. When David took Abigail to be
his wife, the first thing she said when those men came to take
her to David, she said, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash
the feet of the servants of my Lord. She said, let me take that
position of a servant. That's what the Lord works in
his people. She washed the feet of Christ
and wiped them with her own hair. Then we're told that she kissed
his feet. And her kiss is testifying, I love you, Lord. I love you. For what you've done for me,
I cannot repay you. I love you, Lord. That's what
her kiss is testified of. And she anointed his feet with
the ointment. And she's confessing, you are
the Christ, the anointed of the Father. You're the chosen one. You're the anointed one of the
Father. And you've come and had mercy
on me, a filthy sinner. And so Christ came under the
law for this sinner. Think about that. A woman of
the city, one who is obviously, just looking at her, a sinner.
A filthy, vile, stinking, wretched sinner. And Christ didn't kick
her away or push her away. He received her. He was very
kind, very gracious to her. He does not despise the needy
sinner who needs His grace. He will never despise you that
need His mercy, that come to Him broken, a sinner, confessing
your sin, Lord, help me. Don't pass me by, Lord. He'll
never despise one like that. You're his people. That's who
he came to save. That's who he came. And so the
Pharisee looked at this woman and said, oh, that's disgusting. But Christ looked upon her in
love, and she loved him, and he received her. He received
her. Now, the Pharisee was there,
and so he didn't see it the way Christ saw it, obviously. Verse
39, now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake
within himself. He didn't say this out loud.
He said it within himself, saying, this man, if he were a prophet,
and I thought maybe he might be somebody, but if he's a prophet,
he would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
toucheth him, for she is a sinner. Now mind you, this man did invite
Christ to his house for a meal, but he clearly had doubts as
to who this Jesus might be. And here he is making a very
severe judgment against the Lord. He's already expressing his doubts
in his heart. I don't know if this man ever
proved to be a child of God, but our Lord speaks his parable
to him. And it's pretty clear that the
man who is forgiven little is this Pharisee. It's this Pharisee
right here. And so he's teaching this man,
who is self-righteous and exalts himself over other sinners, he's
teaching this man what he has need of learning and a mindful
that I'm just like this Pharisee by nature. I've condemned others. I've looked at God and doubted
God. And I've done that to try and
justify my sin and to make myself feel good about it. And I've
condemned other people in my heart. and thought little of
others. That's me by nature. That's all
I am by nature, an unbelieving, wicked, high-minded, sinful man. That's what I am. And so we're
just like that, this Pharisee. And yet the Lord, by the grace
of God, had grace on us. And by grace and mercy, had mercy
upon Pharisees just like us. And so maybe this man is a child
of God, and our Lord's being gracious to him to teach him
what he has need of learning. Now, both of these sinners believe
that they were forgiven by God. This woman believes she was forgiven,
that's why she's there in thankfulness. The Pharisee, he's certain he's
forgiven of God. because of his works under the
law. One came believing she was forgiven for Christ's sake, and
the other comes and is confident in himself, believing the law
is my righteousness. God receives me for that. And if we're the Lord's chosen
vessel, he's going to teach his child that, no, you're not saved
by your good works. No, you're not saved because
you're a Christian. You confess you're a Christian
or you've been baptized or you've walked the aisle or raised your
hand and given your heart to Jesus. We're saved for Christ's
sake, not what we've done, but what he's done. And he's going
to teach us. If we're hoping in something
we've done, He will break us down. He will deliver us from
that. And we're going to find our all
in Him, because that's what He does. Otherwise, none of us would
be saved. None of us would be His children
if it wasn't for Him doing that work. Now, verse 40, And Jesus
answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee,
and he saith, Master, Okay, he's being a little generous there.
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 Jesus said unto him, Thou
hast rightly judged. Now God is the creditor in this
parable. The woman is the one who owed
500 pence, and Simon would be the one who owed 50. And translating
this into the debt that we owe God, what is it that we owe God? We owe Him perfect obedience. And all that he commands us to
do, it is what we are to do. We owe him perfect obedience.
Not do the best you can and God will accept it. No, he says it
must be perfect, without spot. No blemish, no fault, no wrinkle,
no nothing. You come to God in the law, you
come to God in perfect, spotless holiness without failure, without
fail. And so the first thing that we
see here is before God, both are insolvent. Neither one can
pay. The Pharisee couldn't even whip
out a buck and say, well, will this help? Nope, nothing. Both were insolvent, bankrupt,
had nothing at all to pay or give to God. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That's the first thing.
that our Lord shows us. And so if for some reason any
of us are counting on the fact that we're better than our neighbor,
or better than our brother, or better than so-and-so over here,
it's worthless. You're going to hell either way
if that's your hope and trust. You're in eternal separation
from the true and living God either way. Every one of God's
children comes to God as a sinner in need of grace and mercy. That's
what he's showing us there, is that we're all sinners, and we
don't have to pay down our debt, not even a tiny bit. We don't even have a penny to
flip up to him, nothing at all. So both are sinners. One owed
much, and the other owed little. And so it appears that This is
speaking to how this woman and the Pharisee understood their
coming to God. This is how they saw themselves.
One saw themselves as a great sinner, the other saw themselves
as somebody not so bad, but they were mistaken in thinking that
they were paying down their debt by their keeping of the law.
And so to drive this lesson home to Simon, verse 44. And he turned
to the woman and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered
into thine 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. You know, you think about that
again of coming into the Pharisee's house, coming in under the law.
The law doesn't give you any water. It gives you no quenching
for your thirst. The law says this is what you
owe, pay it. Pay that thou owest. Water, now
there's no water. You either do what's right or
you don't. But grace gives us water, living water in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thou gavest me no kiss. There's
no love in the law. No love. It's just this is right
and this is wrong. Do what's right. And live. Otherwise,
you die. And that's it. 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. Every hope, every trust, every
confidence we have is in Christ. And the law turns us to the flesh,
grace turns us to Christ and anoints Him King, Lord, Savior,
Christ, Husband, Friend, Almighty God, everything. everything to
us. Wherefore, in other words, we
see testified in her the work of grace, not the work of law,
the work of grace, the fruit of grace, we should say. Wherefore,
I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven. It's obvious
she's forgiven. She's forgiven, for she loved
much. It's oozing out of her that she's
forgiven. You can't help but see it. But
to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And so he tells us for a fact
this woman sins which are many are forgiven. Grace is testified
to. Wisdom is justified of all her
children. You can't hide it. It comes out
because God's work is testified to in his people. He gives his
spirit. He manifests his faith and love
and hope in them. They trust in Christ. And so
we're never told of the eternal state of this believer. It does
say that he was forgiven little. He was forgiven something, but
perhaps he's a lukewarm believer. And we know what the Lord does
with lukewarm believers, people. He spews them out of his mouth.
Because in other words, they're not his. That's what it is. They've put on a good show, but
they've entered the wedding with no wedding garment on, clothed
in Christ's righteousness. They've entered with their own
righteousness, their own works. And so it's evident that her
sins were forgiven, the proof being that she loved much. That
was an evidence, not why she's forgiven, it's an evidence that
she is forgiven. That's what the Lord is saying
is, you that are mine, if you're wondering if you're mine, has
the Lord given you his spirit so that you look to him and trust
him. No, it doesn't mean that you
don't ever see sin in your flesh. No, it's still in the members,
but we keep, we're kept held by his grace and power, looking
to Christ, confessing our sin to the Lord, asking the Lord
to save us and deliver us from the lusts of the flesh, but always
having our hope and confidence in Christ and having no confidence
in the flesh. And when we do, He corrects us. He'll chasten us as need be.
He'll bring us low as need be. He'll reprove us as we have need
of reproving, but it's all done graciously and in mercy through
His blessed Word, through the Gospel, through the giving of
His Spirit. He does it wonderfully, perfectly,
and for our good, always for our good. And so we see it. And the Pharisee had a profession
that he was a child of God, but his actions were skeptical of
Christ. And it showed in how he treated
Christ, because he trusted his works under the law. And so it
was evident that Christ really wasn't that much to him, because
he was already making it out pretty well under the law, according
to his own judgment and estimation. and his own work. So our Lord
records this parable for us, for us to read and ask, well,
who am I? Who am I, Lord? How great is
my debt? How great is my debt? Because
the Lord does show us, and he does teach each one of his people
our need of him, and shows us how great our debt is, and it'll
become evident in how much we do love the Lord. and look to
Him and trust Him in it. It can't be hidden. Verse 48,
and He said unto her, thy sins are forgiven. They that sat at
meat with him began to say within themselves, who is this that
forgiveth sins also? Is he the Christ? Does he or
does he not forgive us our sins? Because the scriptures tell us
that through this man, through this man has preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. He's the one that saves his people
to the uttermost. And Christ didn't even address
them. He just left them to themselves the way God left Esau to himself
and blessed Jacob. He didn't even address what was
in their heart. He addressed what was in this
other Pharisee's heart, but not their heart at all. And then
he said, To the woman, thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. And in other words, the Lord
comforted this woman with his word. That's what the Lord does.
He comforts his people with his word. To you that are his, this
gospel, seeing the grace of God and what he does for his people
is a great comfort to you that are great sinners. And that's
what he reveals to his people. It's a comfort. He gives us peace
by his word. He gives us peace through the
gospel because it takes our eyes off of me and my sin. Some call it works, a righteousness,
but it takes my eyes off of me and puts my eyes on Christ, who
is the righteousness of the children of God. And so maybe he did think
about it and hear it later and was turned. Again, I can confess. I, by nature, hold on to those
same competences, those same vain, dead, filthy, dead works. I can't say, but in grace and
mercy, He turns me away from those things to look to Him for
my all, my all. So the question for us today
is, what have you heard? Do you hear the voice of Christ
speaking forgiveness in your heart that He is all and your
deliverer of sin? The one, the one who was the
great sinner, was the one who was sent away in peace. He said,
go in peace. Thy faith, that which I've given
to you and brought in you by my grace, it saved you. I've
saved you. Go in peace. Go in peace. And so we see that our Lord saves
sinners. He receives the guilty sinner. He doesn't turn them away. He
does not despise you that are sinners. He's not asking you
to do your best to hide it and pretend like you're not a sinner.
He says, come to me, confess your sin. And I'm faithful and
just to forgive you of all your sins. You that believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And trust me, I'm not gonna destroy
you for confessing your sin. I'll be gracious and merciful
and I'll heal you. Our Savior is the Great Physician.
He heals the sinners. He said that, I've come not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So I pray the
Lord speak to each of us and that that word that he speaks
to us gives us peace. Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.