Alright, well, join me in your
Bibles. Luke chapter 7 this morning again. We're going to be closing
out this chapter today, I believe. And as a bit of background, in
our previous lessons, we had this interchange between the
Lord and those disciples of John that came to Him and asked Him
if He was the one that they sought or did they look for another.
And He said, go your way and tell John what things You see
how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is
preached. And then we have a little bit
of conversation after the disciples left where the Lord talks a little
bit about John and how he was a prophet that was to announce
his coming and herald him. And then it talks about the people
that that heard Him in our last week's lesson, those people that
heard the Gospel and were baptized of John, they justified God. They said their view of themselves
was entirely different. God in their view would have
been justified if He would have destroyed them. They realized that they were
just the recipients of grace. And they justified God. They
said, He is right. He is righteous. He is just.
And He's the justifier at the same time through the blood of
His Son. And then we go along and the Lord recounts
how they didn't like John the Baptist because he didn't look
normal and they didn't like And he didn't drink, and he didn't
eat, and they didn't like Christ because he did eat and he did
drink, but he just did it with the wrong people. And then we
come to this next section here through the end of the chapter
where again, Maybe he's invited to supper
at a Pharisee's house, and again, maybe some of the wrong people
come to dinner. So we'll read from starting in
verse 36 through the end of the chapter, and then begin with
the lesson. Luke 7.36, and one of the Pharisees
desired him that he would eat with him. And he went to the
Pharisee's house and sat down to meet, and behold, a woman
in the city which was a sinner." Boy, what a remarkable tale of
grace this is. What a remarkable thing this
is. a woman that was a sinner. And
when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees' house,
brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet and 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. And when the Pharisees, 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 said,
Masters, say on. And there was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, the Lord said. The one owed 500 pence
and the other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, He frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most?' And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto
him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said 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,
and 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 loveth 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 unto the woman, thy
faith, thy total reliance on Christ for salvation has saved
thee. Go in peace. Peace with God. So, as we look at this block of Scripture,
it gives us detail on the Lord's
grace in dealing with two persons, a Pharisee and a woman who was
a sinner. I always think of what our pastors
always say, a sinner is... a wonderful thing. The Lord hath
made him so." That's a misquote of that, I'm sure, but the sentiment
is there. It's a miracle. And you know,
the Lord's grace in dealing with them, this Pharisee and the woman
who was a sinner, a meeting that was ordained in eternity and
recorded for our edification. And it's just nothing less than
remarkable. And I'd like us to consider some
things as we read this closing passage in Luke. Again, we just
read there in verse 49 that there were more than just this Pharisee
and the woman and Christ at this this supper, it says, "...and
they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves..."
You know, they think the Lord can't know what they're thinking
in their mind and in their heart. It's like they're just oblivious
to it. Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? You know, they think their thoughts
are hidden from Him who knows and sees all. Hebrews 4.13 says, Neither is there any creature
that's not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." So people
that think they can pull the wool over the Lord's eyes with
an external show is just barking up the wrong tree. And in verse
39 also, the Pharisee spake within himself. Again, the same line
of thinking that the Lord doesn't know what he's thinking. This
man, if he were a prophet, he would know what manner of woman
this is that touches him. For she's a sinner. None of this
is hid from the Almighty. And He answered them even though
they didn't speak out loud. He responded to their thoughts
and the hidden intent of their heart. And the reference to who
is this that forgiveth sins also, that's taken from various texts
in the Law and the Prophets. I'm not going to go into them
in detail today because there's just a lot of them, but all of
them state that God forgives sins And so kind of in their
view, Jesus was a usurper. If this man was a prophet, he
would know. Who but God can forgive sins? And that's again from many references
in the Old Testament. Considering this Pharisee, we
don't really have a lot revealed about him, but there's a few
possible clues that we have revealed here. And the biggest hint that we have,
I think, is found in this parable that's spoken by Jesus regarding
the two creditors, or the creditor which had two debtors. The one
owed 500 pence. They had a lot. And the other
only 50. And when neither one of them
had anything with which to repay the creditor, it says he frankly
forgave them both. this is pointed directly at these
two people that are the object of the narrative here before
us. So it would be hard not to see the parallel between these
primary characters and those referenced in the parable. And
you know, we learn about other Pharisees who had their names
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. There were some that turned
out to be believers. So we have records of those. And this Pharisee here, maybe
at this particular point in time, as Jesus points out, considered
that he says, I don't owe much. I'm pretty good. I fast all the
time. And like that other Pharisee
that's recorded, I'm glad I'm not like that publican sinner. And I do all the things. I keep
the law. I do all these things. And I'm
not much of a sinner. But after the new birth, that
changes forever. John records one of these Pharisees
for us named Nicodemus in John 3 who was not only a Pharisee,
but he was a ruler of the Jews there it says in John 3.1. And
he came to Jesus by night. That's interesting. He kind of
reminds me of somebody else that our pastor deals with from time
to time. He kind of comes, but he's kind
of afraid to maybe to accept those things in the public because
they're hard to understand and hard to know. But he came to
Jesus by night and said, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a preacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest,
except God be with him. And for these things were done
that the Scripture should be fulfilled. It says in John 19,
verse 36, regarding Nicodemus. He's mentioned in John 3, John
7, and John 19. And I'm kind of cutting to the
end here where the crucifixion. And again, another scripture
said, they shall look on him whom they pierced. And after
this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly,
for the fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away
the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. And
he came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there
came also Nicodemus, which at first came to Jesus by night,
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.
And then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes
with spices as a manner of the Jews is to bury. So we see Nicodemus
as one that kind of came. The Spirit of God had touched
him and he came, but maybe not in such an open way as he did
at the close of the chapter. And then Paul notes of himself,
he said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I profited much among my religion. And in Philippians 3.14, and
he says, if any think they might have confidence in the flesh,
I more. Circumcised, I could check that
box. Circumcised the eighth day, I'm
of the stock of Israel. I could check that box of the
tribe of Benjamin. Check that box of the Hebrew
of the Hebrews. Check that box, and it's touching
the law of Pharisee. He's kind of the extremist of
the law, one who boasted in their keeping of the law and their
knowledge of it. And he said, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
In my former life, I was blameless. I didn't think I owed much for
forgiveness because I didn't seem to accumulate much sin in
my physical, natural state. But then, he says, after the
Lord reached down and touched him and found out that he was
a vessel chosen from before the foundation of the world. He said,
but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ? And you know what? He said, I
became the chiefest of sinners. a Pharisee that originally didn't
think he had much. Now we have another hint regarding
this Pharisee and the name that's revealed to us. Oftentimes we
find in Scripture that sometimes we have a name revealed to us
about Christ. Sometimes we have a name revealed
to us in those that He deals with that give us some kind of
understanding that's pertinent to what we're reading. This woman,
He doesn't really name her She probably would have an altar
set up to her somewhere if he'd have named her. But this Pharisee,
he said his name was Simon. And that's from a Hebrew Old
Testament name, Shimon, and it means hearing. And it says, that
is a son of Jacob. So I think that's revealing about
him in a measure here. So, it would be good to consider
the view also of this Pharisee regarding prophets. He said if
this man was a prophet, he would know. Well, I was thinking about
that in Norm's Wednesday night lesson. He read a Scripture from
Revelation 19.10 The testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy. The very Word of God. The prophets,
they declared the Gospel of Jesus the Son of God coming to save
His people from their sins, and yet the prophets declared, well,
who hath believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? And the prophets spoke the Word
of God and Christ is the Word of God. The prophets were faithful
witnesses. In Revelation 1-5 it says, and
from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness? And the first
begotten of the dead and the Prince of the kings of the earth.
Boy, this is just so appropriate to what we're reading today.
Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
You know, the Pharisees knew that Moses prophesied of a prophet
to come. In John, they said this man is
probably that prophet. They said that in John. We'll read that here in a minute. Many said, of a truth, He is
that prophet which should come..." That was from John 6, verse 14,
after he did some notable miracles. They said no man can do these
things unless God be with him. And that comes from Deuteronomy
18, verse 15, where Moses said, "...the Lord thy God will raise
up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren,
like unto me. Unto him shall you hearken."
So I think that's interesting. And when it coupled with this
name of this Pharisee named Simon, which his name means hearing,
and the root word of that has to do with hearing attentively
within some intelligence. And we know that that only comes
from God. The ability to hear the Gospel
with the heart and to have it applied by the Holy Spirit only
comes from God and not just the physical hearing of it being
read or spoken. And the fact that this is speaking
about Christ is borne out in Acts 3.20-23 where it says, And
He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto
you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution
of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his
holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto
the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you of your brethren. And like unto me, him shall you
hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it
shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that
prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." What a clear
passage regarding the Word of the Lord. And then again in Acts
7, v. 37-38, this is that Moses which
said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall
you hear. And this is He that was in the
church in the wilderness. They had an understanding that
the church is just not a New Testament recent thing that happened
on the day of Pentecost. The church was from the beginning
of time. The church in the wilderness
with the angel which spoke to Him at Mount Sinai with our fathers
who received the lively oracles. given unto us. And Christ Himself
spoke of Himself as a prophet. If you'll recall back to our
lesson in Luke 4, verse 24 where they said, hey, do some of those
miracles here like in your own hometown that you did over in
Capernaum and over in those other towns. And He said no prophet
is accepted in His own country. You know, a prophet just People
think of prophets and they just think, well, they just had a
crystal ball and they're in the business of projecting the end
times and all that future stuff. And what they did was they declared
the Gospel. They revealed God through the
Gospel and declared the truth. And our prophet, the Lord, He
declares truth and He is truth. And so now we come to the main
object of grace in our narrative after we've kind of taken a quick
look at this Pharisee. This woman who was a sinner,
her name's not given, but what is given is her total reliance
on Christ. her total focus on Him regardless
of the time or the place. You know, we just have to wonder
about the circumstances how she got there. And it's not really
revealed to us, but we look in other Scriptures. One time the Pharisees and the
scribes and the elders, they brought Him a woman caught in
the very act of adultery. How convenient. just to trap
him, just to see what he would do, because by law it says she
should be stoned. So they were just out to nab
him, they weren't really interested in that woman. And this woman
here that's there, A Pharisee wouldn't even let her touch him.
They wouldn't have nothing to do with her. So you have to wonder
why she was in that house. And the only answer is because
it was ordained from eternity. It was foreordained that she
would be there. Was she invited on purpose or
brought like that woman? Did she come of her own accord?
It's not revealed, but we know that something wonderful happened
to her before she came, because when she came, she was prepared.
She was ready to do a certain thing here. She was just broken in love,
a combination of love. She's all those things that we
have recorded in the Scriptures. To them that mourn, they shall
be comforted. To them that weep, they shall
laugh. And all these emotions are tied up in this woman whose
sins had been forgiven her, it tells us here a little bit later
on. And she just wanted to glom on to this one that had made
that happen for her. And isn't that what we see in
the pictures that we have when heavens opened and John looked
and he just said, man, there's just a multitude sitting around
the feet of the Lord Jesus saying, praise be to the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. He's worthy. And all those
wonderful things. And they just want to love on
Him and thank Him. And in the same breath, they're
saying, oh man, I look at myself and say, they're like that centurion
that said, I'm not worthy. And they're like Isaiah that
said, I'm a man of unclean lips. And like Ezra that said, I'm
ashamed. But in the same breath that they
declare those things about their recognition of sin in themselves,
yet in the Gospel that's right attached to those every time,
they shall be comforted. they shall be made to be full
of joy. So we have this mixture of tears
of those two elements in this woman. And what a display, though,
of her total reliance on Christ for salvation. Because that's
what it says in the end there, thy faith has saved thee. Not
that she mustered up some faith on her own, but it was her total
reliance on Christ And regardless of the time or the place or the
circumstances, it didn't matter to her. She was totally focused
on Him. And so I'd like to just look
a little bit at how Jesus viewed her in comparison to the Pharisee.
And He just looked at her as one of His redeemed. He looked
at her as one that He had laid down His life for. And He hadn't
actually accomplished that in our view of time, but we always
go back to the I Am-ness of Christ, that He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. All His works are known. All
their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. All their
names are engraved on His hands. He just didn't die promiscuously
for anybody. He died to save His people from
their sins. And we find throughout the Scripture
that He's tracking them down as He goes through these places
that he goes, I must need to go through Samaria. I must go
to your house, Zacchaeus. And things like that. None of
that by accident. And yet, the Pharisee at this
point, he just kind of viewed her as a loathsome sinner. I
don't even know why you're here. Unless he just snuck her in to
trap the Lord and see what he would do with some kind of a
sinner woman. If he was a prophet, he would
know what man or woman this is. How can he let her touch him?
You know what? He wants us to touch him. And
he was not upset by her doing that. He was the total opposite. And so, she was the object lesson
of this parable for this Pharisee and for the church. To one whom
much is forgiven, the same loveth much. And the Pharisee again,
he didn't see that he owed much in the way of sin. She was probably
as close to loving the Lord thy God with all her soul and all
her might as anybody that we see recorded in Scripture. and wanted to just hold Him and
touch Him and thank Him and worship Him. And like this woman at the
well, she became a true worshiper of God, worshiping Him in spirit
and in truth, because it says, the Lord seeketh such to worship
Him. And he's looking at the Pharisee
and he says, you haven't done anything. You haven't washed
my feet. You haven't anointed me. You
haven't really made me welcome other than just inviting me to
supper. You haven't thanked me. You haven't done anything. But
this woman, since the time I got here, she has just been on me. And He was not upset. And Jesus,
in recounting her actions toward Him at supper, made mention of
these many things. And the Spirit by the hand of
Luke makes known some other things. that she appeared at the house
of the Pharisee when she knew that Jesus sat at meat there.
And how she knew or how she was able to pop in is just not really
revealed to us. And it's not really material
to what's presented to us here. You know, the circumstances of
how or why. If they were critical to the
narrative, they would be provided to us. But the main thing here
is her devotion to the Lord that saved her from her sins. And we know that it was decreed
in heaven made to come to pass and written down for us for a
purpose, for the church. It wasn't just a nice thing to
write down. It was recorded for a purpose,
and we have to always keep that in mind. She was prepared beforehand
to worship the One who saved her from her sins. And that's
become such a trite statement regarding the Gospel and the
way that universalistic religion has promoted the universal death
of Christ, it's up to you to accept it or reject it. Because
when it comes down to the truth of it, it becomes much more personal,
much more affectual because he says a man laid down his life
for his friends. I give my life for the sheep. And this Pharisee, he just looked
at her like, eww. But she was prepared to worship
Him who saved her and laid down His life for her. It was personal
with her, as it is with everyone that's regenerated. He laid down
His life for me. How can that be? Her tears were
a picture of what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Plain. Blessed
are they that weep, for they shall laugh. What a relief. to be brought to a knowledge
of being saved when the specter of death hangs over you. The specter of eternal death. What a picture of tears for now
understanding the scope and the cost of sin. You know, it's just
so maligned in religion today. No one has a really good understanding
of the fall or sin and how serious it is. It's just trivialized.
It's minimalized. How serious it is. You know,
it takes nothing less than the blood of the Savior It tells
us here she had a lot of sins. She had a big score. She had
racked up a big debt. And the Pharisee, not so much
in his own view. But you know, it took the same
blood. You know, there's many people that don't really seem
to commit much sin. They seem to live pretty nice
lives, free and clean from error and stuff. And yet, when they're
regenerated, they have a totally different view of their standing
before God. They have a totally different
view of sin. It takes the same amount of blood
to clean a sinner up, no matter what. It doesn't take just one
drop for some and ten drops for another. It takes the whole thing. What a display of love for Him
who loved us and gave Himself for us and delivered us from
this present evil world. You know, that's what Paul wrote
to those Galatians just before he said, and I don't really understand
how you're so soon removed from that. He says, how can you go
from that concept to suddenly saying, well, on top of that,
you still need to do some works? Or you need another Gospel that's
not really another Gospel. And you know Jesus told her that
her sins were forgiven and to go in peace. And people have
kind of a warped view that idea of peace. And what we're really
talking about here is peace with God before we were at enmity
with Him. And He is the offended party.
It's not like, well, she's going to have peace with that Pharisee,
or she's going to have peace in the town where she lived,
or she's going to have peace from world conflict or whatever. There's something that comes
with knowing you're at peace with God through the blood of
His Son. He shall look at the travail
of His soul and be satisfied. Ezekiel kind of spoke of that.
There's kind of a parallel series of Scriptures here in Ezekiel
16. This kind of follows along with what we read in Ezekiel
36. And again, we find the I wills
present here of God and then the resulting thing that happens
to one that's regenerated. In chapter 36 of Ezekiel, he
says, I will clean you. I will sprinkle you with clean
water. I will save you from your sin. I'll give you a new heart.
I will, I will, I will. And after he does all those things,
then he says, you're going to look at yourself and loathe yourself. And that happens. But at the
same time, we look at ourselves and we loathe ourselves for the
very sin that caused His crucifixion. At the very same time, we're
just so grateful that He went in our place, in our stead, and
satisfied God. And here in Ezekiel 16, verse
59, it says, "...for thus saith the Lord God..." And here you
can take your highlighter and underline all the I wills again.
He says, "...I will even deal with thee as thou hast done which
has despised the oath in breaking the covenant." Boy, if you've
been paying any attention to the messages that Norman is bringing
regarding the covenant and all those things that the Lord has
done, that's the covenant that man
just totally failed in. Nevertheless, he says, I'm not
paying any attention to that. I will remember My covenant with
thee in the day of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee
an everlasting covenant." That same covenant that he explained
to David. The Lord has established for
me an everlasting covenant. And then in verse 61, he says, because of that, because I have
established My covenant with you, then shalt thou remember
thy ways and be ashamed." That's what Ezra said. Lord, I'm ashamed. My people have transgressed. And he says, our sins have gone
over ours. He didn't say, I am free of all
that. It's just the people that sinned. He included Himself in that. You'll remember your ways and
be ashamed, and when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder
and thy younger, I will give them unto thee for daughters,
but not by thy covenant, and I will establish My covenant
with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou
mayest remember and be confounded." You know, he said, I'm going
to do a work that even though a man tells you about it, you
will not even believe it. "'Thou may remember and be confounded,
never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am
pacified toward thee, for all that thou hast done, saith the
Lord." He's only pacified by the blood of His Son. And you
know what? We're never going to open our
mouth again about our own righteousness. When He does all these things,
we're going to say He is justified. He is righteous. And it's only
by grace are we saved through faith in that, not of ourselves.
And so Jesus said, her sins, which are many, are forgiven
her. In her heart was an awareness
of just how much she had been forgiven and what the price was
for that forgiveness and the very shed blood of the One upon
Whom she was lavishing all these eternal affections. Boy, we're
just amazed. We just wish that we could do
that in spirit. latched on to the One that saved
her from her sins, that gave His life in her place. In regeneration, sin just becomes
magnified in the One that's born again. You just see it everywhere
before you didn't really pay much attention to it, especially
in ourselves. And it was minimized and trivialized
and rationalized. And that's what we do by nature.
We say, well, it wasn't much of a sin. You know, if God was
righteous, He wouldn't really hold that against me. I don't
really believe much about Him. But He should take into consideration
my circumstances and the way I look at things, and then He'll
see things my way, surely. And so we rationalize things
by trying to impose our view on God. And we trivialize sin
to the point where it's not, you know, I'm just amazed every
year the things that were kind of looked at as sconce last year
now are the norm. And the things that are the norm
this year, well, that's old. It'll be clipped, no doubt, by
the new things that come along that that take it to another
level. In the Pharisees, their sin was
minimized by pretending that they kept the law, by relying
on works of righteousness, by fasting, by prayer, by tithing,
by the sacrifices. And on and on it goes. Circumcision. And today it's baptism and observing
communion and church membership. And we could have a long list
of things that people do to achieve the same thing. And Paul, again,
he went from being a non-sinner to being the chiefest of sinners. That's what he told Timothy.
He says, man, the Lord came to save sinners of whom I am chief.
You know, chief means the biggest, foremost, worst one. And he did
a lot. He was kind of like this woman.
Her sins, which were many. Well, Paul kind of chalked up
the things. He said, I persecuted the church.
I led them off in chains to be executed. I held their coats
while they executed Stephen. On and on it goes. It was to the state where when
he arrived at Damascus and that Lord appeared to that fellow
in Damascus, and that guy said, I don't think so. He's a bad
dude. He's coming to arrest me. And
the Lord says, you know, he's a chosen vessel. And part of
that lesson is no matter what, the Lord is effectual in calling
His people no matter what they've been involved in or what course
their life has taken at the appropriate time. He says, when it pleased
God to reveal His Son in me, that's when it happened according
to His purpose. So to this woman, He says, Thy
faith, thy total reliance on Christ for salvation has saved
thee. Go in peace. Because, I just
think of those words in Jeremiah 31, because I have loved you
with an everlasting love. And therefore, because of that
eternal love, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. What a beautiful
picture and what a wonderful way to close out this chapter
in Luke with this display of grateful affection and love for
the one who gave his all for us. So we'll stop there and pick
it up in chapter eight next time with the parable of the sower
and the seeds. So thanks for your attention
and as always, be free. OK, it's muted.