We're going to spend not only
this portion of time that we've got this morning, but we're going
to go back to this even again this evening as we look at this
wonderful passage of scripture that has been read to us from
Luke chapter 7, verses 36 through 50. This is a woman who was forgiven. And I know she was forgiven because
the Savior forgave her. He spoke those wonderful words
to her. And I hope that he'll speak those
wonderful words to each of us this morning. And if he does
forgive us, we may rest assured he'll do so in a just way. He'll do so through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't just forgive sins
because he wants to or just by word. He can make the world with
a word. But if he's going to forgive
sins, he had to send his son into the world. And I know that
All of America and some other nations as well are recognizing
the birth of Jesus Christ this time of year. But most of them
don't know why he came. But I do and you do because the
word of God tells us. His name is Jesus. The reason
he has the name Jesus is because the scripture says, he shall
save his people from their sin. And he did just that. He did
that by his death. He lived a life of perfection,
which showed him to be qualified to be the Lamb of God slain for
sinners. And having been set forth and
okayed, approved by the law of God, As being one fit and spotless
and without blemish before God, he then went to die for our sins
according to the scriptures. And he died the just for the
unjust to bring us to God. And the result of that is this.
Our sins, which are many, are all washed away. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? Did you hear? I've heard what
He said. Your sins are forgiven. Go in
peace. Go in peace. And if today the
Lord our God speaks to us through His gospel, shows to us the efficacy,
that awesome power of the blood of the Lord Jesus, of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus to remove our sins from us as far as the East
is from the West. If we're shown by the Spirit
of God that He, by His death, removed our sins from the very
memory of God, So much so that God says, your sins and your
iniquities will I remember no more. If the Spirit of God makes
this gospel real to us, then I can say to you and the
Spirit of God will say to you, go in peace. Go in peace of conscience. Peace of the heart. That all
is well between you and a holy God. through the doing and the
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, as you study the life
and the ministry of the Savior, you'll find He's always busy. He was constantly busy. He said
to Mary and Joseph when He was 12 years old, and they took Him
to the Passover, and they couldn't find Him because He stayed behind,
and then they went back and they found Him, They were so concerned
about him. He said to them, wished ye not
that I must be about my father's business? He was always about
his father's business. Everything he did was in obedience
to the will of God. He was the only perfect servant
of Jehovah. In Isaiah chapter 42 and verse
1, God says, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my elect, in whom
my soul delights, I have put my spirit on him, he shall bring
forth judgment to the Gentiles. In John chapter 8 and verse 29,
The Savior said, He that sent me is with me. The Father hath
not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. This God-man, was always busy
about his father's business. And we know the work that God
sent him to do was the work of redemption and reconciliation. But also the work consisted of
preaching the gospel, healing the sick, raising the
dead, effectually drawing sinners unto Him, whom to know is life
eternal. And in this scripture, we find
our Lord still busy. And He goes into this house of
a Pharisee, a man by the name of Simon. Our Lord has been invited
to his house for a dinner. It was customary back in those
days, especially on the Sabbath day, after a morning of teaching
the Word of God, for the rabbi or the teacher to be invited
out to someone's house for lunch. Not unlike, you know, the customs
of our day. Let's have the preacher over
for lunch. And I'm just dropping a little
hint there. But that's what they did back
in those days. And so our Lord Jesus was the
visiting teacher. But we know that the Pharisees,
they didn't have good motives when they invited him over. In
fact, in the New Testament, three Pharisees invited him over for
meals. They're all recorded in the book
of Luke. And the Pharisees, you're always
suspicious of them. Because they didn't have good
motives. They hated the Lord Jesus Christ. They hated who
he said that he was, the father's son, making himself equal with
God. They hated that he was gathering
a following, and they were losing power. So often these things
are about power, about control, and about authority. They were
losing their power over the people. And the people were looking more
and more to Jesus of Nazareth as being their teacher rather
than relying upon the Pharisees who taught both the Word of God
and the traditions of the elders, and both of those on an equal
level. But our Lord is the teacher. They invited this Simon, the
Pharisee invited him over to his house for a meal. Our Savior
was always busy, always active. In this chapter, in fact, we
find our Lord, His schedule was an exhausting schedule. As chapter
7 begins, and I'm not going to obviously read all of these verses,
but as this chapter begins, he heals the servant of the centurion
who recognized, this centurion recognized the sovereign authority
of the Lord Jesus. This centurion had a servant
who was dear to him, and he was very sick. And he sent messengers
to the Lord Jesus. And he said, I'd like for you
to come and heal my servant. And then as the Lord Jesus drew
near to his house, the house of the centurion, this centurion
sent friends out. He didn't even feel worthy to
go out himself. He sent friends out to meet Jesus
of Nazareth. And he said to the friends, this
is what you say to him. I'm not worthy that you come
under my roof. I'm not deserving for you to
visit me in my house. But I believe you have the power
to heal my servant, if you will." The Lord Jesus said concerning
that man, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And the friends went back to
the house. The servant was healed. Then the Savior continued. The
next day, He goes into the city of Nain. And He meets a funeral
procession. You see, our Lord, He not only
healed the sick, but He raised the dead. And He did all of these
other miracles to establish His identity. They validated who
He was. Even Nicodemus said, no man can
do the things that thou doest except God be with him. And all
of these miracles that he performed, They set before us in picture
the spiritual miracles that our Lord performs. He heals those
who are spiritually sick. Just like the centurion's servant
was raised from sickness, haven't we been raised from our sickness
of sin? We've been forgiven of all of
our sins. We've been healed of our spiritual
infirmities by the power of the risen Christ. And our Lord Jesus
raised the dead. And as He raised the physical
dead, He's still raising the dead today. He raised me. Didn't He raise you? If you're
alive under God, if you believe the glorious gospel, if you embrace
the Son of God, if you rest in Him for all of your salvation,
for all of your righteousness, for all of your life, the reason
you believe is because you've been raised from the dead. You've
been regenerated. You've been quickened by the
power of Him who must speak life. Our Lord Jesus confronts this
funeral procession. A widow had lost her only son.
Grief stricken, she's accompanying the beer, the coffin, the funeral
couch as her son in this couch is being taken to the cemetery. But that day life met death. And when he who is life meets
death, death must give way. And this young lad is made alive
to the glory of Jesus Christ. The Savior said, young man, I
say unto thee, arise. Arise. I'm sure that when her boy died,
she embraced him and she said, no, no, come back to me. Arise, come back to me. But there
was no life. And she called in the doctor
and said, isn't there something you can do? And the doctor went
over and he said, he's not breathing. I'm so sorry. Your son has died. Oh, make him arise, make him
come back to life. Nobody could do that. Nobody
but one. And he did. And so with our friends and our
family members and our sons and our daughters and our grandchildren,
our husband, our wife, how many times we've said, oh, God, would
you make them alive? Oh God, would you speak that
word, arise. If He says arise, then they will
arise. None of us have the power to
do that. We set before them the gospel of substitution and satisfaction. We declare unto them Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. But nobody but the sovereign
Savior can say arise. And when He does, all the powers
of hell cannot keep the one who's been dead from coming back to
life. And he does it by the power of the gospel, through the preaching
of the gospel. In verse 15, he that was dead
set up and began to speak, and the Savior delivered him to his
mother. He said, come with me, son. There's
his mother, still weeping. He said, dear, Here's your boy. Oh, what joy! Oh, what celebration! There's the power of the risen
Christ. He's always busy. Well, word
of these miracles made their way back to John who was in prison. And John sent two of his disciples
then to the Savior. And he sent them with this question,
look at verse 19 of chapter 7. John calling unto him two of
his disciples, having heard the things that had happened, the
healing of the centurion's servant, the raising of the widow's son
from the dead, word gets back to John, John, calling unto him
two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he
that should come, or look we for another? Now, I don't have
the time to go into this now, but some say John was having
his doubts. Maybe he was. John was a sinner
just like you and me. But my thinking on this is that
John sends these two disciples for the confirmation of their
faith. He wants them to see with their
eyes. He wants them to hear with their
ears, this Christ. So He said, Art thou He that
should come, or look we for another? And then He sent them. He sent
these two disciples. And look at verse 21, In that
same hour He cured many of their infirmities and their plagues,
and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind He gave
sight. See, still healing the sick,
always busy, always working. Then Jesus answering said to
them, now you go your way, these two disciples, you go your way,
you tell John what things you've seen and heard. Now watch this,
how the blind see, The lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised. You've witnessed me raise the
dead, which seems to indicate there were more resurrections,
more than just the son of the widow. You've seen me perform
these miracles. Now in the New Testament, there
are three undeniable instances of our Lord raising the dead
that are labeled, that are noted. One was a little girl, one was
a little boy, and then one was Lazarus. The little girl had
just died, the daughter of Jairus. She still had the color in her
cheeks. She had just died, but she was
dead. And then the widow's son, he had been dead long enough,
he needs to be buried. He's pale. The grip of death on him is becoming
evident. And then there's Lazarus. And
Lazarus had been dead four days. Even Martha said that when the
Lord Jesus said, roll the stone away. Martha said, you might
not want to do that. He's been dead four days. By
now he's stinking. There are three distinct instances
of our Lord raising the dead. And by the way, though each of
them had been dead for different times, the daughter of Jairus
just briefly, the widow's son a little longer, Lazarus four
days, though all showed different effects of death, all were equally
dead. And that's the way it is with
us today. All of us, by nature, are spiritually
dead. Now, we don't all show outwardly
the effects of that death. Some people are moral, decent
people, kind people. You have people that are your
neighbors, people that you work with, unbelievers in your family,
and they're just nice people. They're like Jairus' daughter.
They look good, but they're still dead. And then there are others
that are like the widow's son. And they're not too bad people. They're decent people. Oh, they'll
do some things to embarrass their family every once in a while.
But as men count goodness with people, so they're pretty good
people. But they're still dead. And then
there are the Lazaruses of the world, There's no doubt about
they're dead. They're openly vile and wicked
and ungodly. But guess what? They're all dead. And they all need the sovereign,
saving, effectual, spiritual power of God. Not one more than
another. All are dead in trespasses and
sins. disciples of John. They see what
our Lord is doing. He's raising the dead. And the
gospel is being preached to the poor. You go back and you tell
John what you've seen. And they did. And then after
they left, he began to speak to those that remained, multitude
around him. And he began to speak about John's
ministry and John's person. He said to them, what did you
go out in the wilderness to see when you went out to hear John?
Now, we know this. Our Lord Jesus, he spoke in the
synagogues. Every community had several synagogues. And depending upon what the population
was, some communities had more synagogues than others. But there
were several synagogues throughout the land of Israel, but only
one temple. Our Lord spoke in many, many
synagogues, and in addition, He spoke in the temple, but not
John. If you wanted to hear John preach,
you didn't go to the synagogue, He wasn't there. You didn't go
to the temple, which there was only one in Jerusalem, He wasn't
there. You went into the wilderness
to hear Him preach. He had unusual dress, He had
unusual diet. He was just an odd man. He was a very peculiar fellow,
but he had the message of God. He's the forerunner of the Savior.
His message is summed up in John chapter 1. Behold, the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. His message was
the Lamb. The Lamb of whom He's the forerunner. He said, there's coming one after
me mightier than I. I'm not even worthy to unlatch
His sandals. John's the forerunner of Him. But he was an odd duck, no question
about that. But he wasn't a reed. Our Lord
said, when you went out into the wilderness to hear John preach,
did you go to see and to hear a reed shaking with the wind?
Not my servant. He's like an oak tree. He stands
firm. He's unbending. He's unyielding. Listen, we want to be, as the
people of God, We should be the nicest people in the world. Don't
you agree? If there's anybody that ought
to be nice to folks, it's people of God. Friendly? I think we ought to smile. Actually,
we're the only ones God hasn't smiled about. Isn't that right? We've been blessed with innumerable
blessings in Christ Jesus. God's our Father. Christ is our
substitute. The Spirit of God's our comforter.
Angels of God accompany us no matter where we go. All of our
steps are ordained by the Lord. Well, let's us go forth smiling
and be happy. Not a silly happy. Not this smile,
God loves you that the world thinks about. But we can smile
because God does love us. Isn't that right? Christ Jesus
is our Savior. The Spirit of God does go with
us. Let's be a happy people. Let's be a joyful people. Let's
be a people who delight ourselves in the Lord. John, he wasn't exactly like
that though. He wasn't the friendliest fellow
in the world. And he had an odd personality,
but he had the message. And just to follow up what I
was going to say, we should be nice people, but when it comes
to the gospel, we've got to be unbending. We're not going to compromise
for the sake of just being nice to folks. I like to get along. I like to
get along with people. Don't you like to get along?
I don't like differences. I don't like confrontations.
And as long as you agree with me on the gospel of how God saves
sinners through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, this one
who's risen from the dead, who accomplished the work that God
gave him to do, you and I, we're not going to have any problems. But now if you believe salvation
is in some way conditioned upon man's obedience or man's will,
now we're going to have a fuss. We're not going to get along
on that. We can't get along on that. I can't walk with you on
that. You'll have to walk on in darkness
by yourself. Because those who know the gospel
love the gospel, and we will not tolerate any false gospel
whatsoever. I'll still try to be nice to
you about other things, because I realize if you hate the gospel,
it's because you're dead in trespasses and sin. It's because you're
blind. When I see someone who's blind
out on the street, Have they got a seeing eye dog? They got
a cane? They're just kind of bumping
their way along? I don't get mad at them. If they happen to
bump into me, would I get mad at them? What kind of person
would I be if that happened? What if I accidentally bumped
into them? They said, look where you're going. Can't you see I'm
blind? You know what I'm going to say? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And people who can't see the
beauties of Jesus Christ, who can't hear His gospel, who don't
love Him from a broken heart, I tell you, I pray for them.
I'm not mad at them, because as they are, I once was. And I'm glad people didn't write
me off. I'm glad there was somebody who came along and cared enough
about me to tell me the truth. So while we don't condone their
error, we reach out to them and say, let me tell you the truth
here. And I'm going to have to be unbending
about this. I love you and I want to be kind
to you, but we're going to have to stand firm. We're not like
a reed shaking with the wind. Well, anyway, our Lord kept on
talking to them about John. And look down in verse 29, and
all the people that heard him, who heard John, Let me back up verse 28. For
I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not
a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least
in the kingdom of God is greater than he. And all the people that
heard him, and the publicans who heard our Savior say that,
they justified God. They acknowledged God's justice. If the Spirit of God is dealing
with you by His saving power, you will acknowledge God's right
to do in a just way and a fair way all the time. You will acknowledge
that you deserve to perish in your sins. You will acknowledge
God is right in whatever He does. They justified God. being baptized
with the baptism of John. Not for salvation, but because
they believed the Savior and confessed faith in believers'
baptism. But the Pharisees and the lawyers,
and this is important, the Pharisees, and remember, our Lord has been
invited by a Pharisee into his house. And we're given this information
by Luke, the physician who was inspired of God to write this.
Luke tells us that the Savior said, that the Spirit of God
says the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against
themselves. And they refused this baptism.
Because they wouldn't acknowledge that they were sinners and needed
a Savior. The Pharisees. And then the Lord
spoke to them. He said, what shall I liken this
generation to? You're like a bunch of children
who can't be satisfied. Happy music is played and you
don't dance. And mournful music is played
and you don't cry. The Lord said, you're people
who can't be satisfied. God sent you two kinds of preachers.
He sent me to you, Christ is saying. I'm outgoing, you'll
see me in your synagogues and in the temple. And I go to your
wedding feasts, and I meet with you out on the street, and I'll
sit down and have picnic lunch with you while He would eat with
anybody. But they said of Him, He's a
gluttonous man and He's a wine-bibber. He's too outgoing. He's too friendly. He's too approachable. And there
was something about the Lord Jesus Christ anybody could approach
Him, even a little child. And I tell you, those of us who
know and love the Gospel and who try to teach the Gospel and
preach the Gospel, I hope that we have such an attitude and
such a personality about us that even the little children could
feel comfortable coming up to us and asking us a question.
Our Lord was approachable. I had a lady talk to me not so
long ago, and she said the church that she used to go to, she never
got to know her preacher because her preacher was way up here.
He's the clergy, and down here's the laity, and never the twain
shall meet. Always got to have that better
than you. I have the authority over you. She said, I never got to know
him. He was so unapproachable. That wasn't our Lord Jesus. You
could approach Him. Now listen to me, friend. You
could approach Him today. He's still receiving sinners.
Isn't He? He received me. I promise you,
on the authority of God's Word, you come to God through Him,
He says, I'll in no wise cast you out. He has never turned
away a sinner. Because if you come to Him, you
know why it is? Because He's drawing you with
the cords of love. And when you come to Him, He
won't say, you can't come any further. He'll embrace you. Say, welcome. Welcome. You're another trophy of my grace.
I appointed you unto everlasting life, and I redeemed you in my
blood, and now this is the time of the effectual call. But these people didn't want
to hear him. They didn't like him. They didn't
like his preaching. You're a gluttonous man and a
wine-bibber. Then he said, well, then the
Father has sent John to you. And he came neither eating nor
drinking wine. He didn't go to your public functions.
He didn't go to your feasts. He didn't go to the weddings.
He didn't go out and you didn't go out and have a picnic with
John. Unless you like locusts and wild honey. John was a loner. John was a
little odd. Lived out in the wilderness.
Out in an area that was known for where wild people lived. He was out there preaching. They
said of John, well, we're not going to listen to him because
he's got a devil. The Savior said what it is, you
can't be satisfied with any preacher God sends you because you hate
the message that they're preaching. No matter what kind of preacher
it is, you get hung up over his personality. Well, I don't like
his personality, I don't like his methods, or I don't like
the way he preaches. What it really is, you don't
like his message. That's the problem. That was
the problem with these people. They said of the son of man,
behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans
and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all
of our children. Now keep all that in mind. And there are two people that
I'm persuaded were really listening to this. One was a Pharisee,
Simon. The other one was this woman.
And she heard the words He's a friend of publicans and sinners. And so Simon invites Jesus of
Nazareth over for a meal. They go in, sit down, and the
way they did, they all would recline. They had couches like. They'd kind of recline your feet
furthest away from the table because The feet were a sign
of defilement. That's why they washed their
feet. It's a ceremonial washing. But their feet would be the furthest
away from the table, and they reclined generally on their left
side. And it wasn't like our meals.
We'd go to a restaurant, and I don't like it when they do
this. You just barely finish. You threw
that plate? Pull the plate. And I'll tell them, no, no. It's
fine. Just let it sit there. I like
to talk a while at my meal, don't you? But could I have that? Would
you mind passing me your plate, Danny? No, I have to do the dishes
at home. Just wait until I'm finished,
then you can pick it up. Okay? But a meal back there is long
and protracted. And they visited and they talked.
And I'll tell you, here was the custom. Because when the Pharisees
invited somebody over for a meal, it was usually a dignitary, or
kind of a big wheel, or a preacher. And people in community, they
wanted to hear the conversation. So it was not unusual for people
in the community, once the meal got started, and here's the family
and whoever the visiting preacher or politician or whoever it happened
to be, when he was seated and they started eating, the people
in the community would kind of gather around and listen to their
conversation, to learn about what's going on. Well, this woman,
while they were eating, After He sat down to eat, our
Savior, He is reclining, His feet are away from the table.
I can almost see it, can't you? Feet are away from the table.
He is reclining, kind of on His left side. And He is eating,
taking some food, and they are talking. And behold, look at verse 37. Behold, be amazed. Let's take
notice now. A woman in the city which was
a sinner. One translation says, a notorious
sinner. One writer said, Matthew Henry
said, she's not only a sinner by nature, but she's a sinner
by trade. She's a prostitute. When she knew that Jesus sat
at meat at the Pharisees' house, how did she know? Well, I'm sure
word spread, maybe she overheard the invitation. I don't know. But she slipped in behind him. Behind him. Weeping. Weeping. As she's behind him,
she's afraid and ashamed to come before him to his face. He's facing away from her anyway.
And she's weeping. Why is she weeping? Well, maybe
she's weeping because Jesus of Nazareth was not shown the common
courtesy of the day. Simon didn't have his feet washed. Maybe she's weeping over her
guilt. I suspect that's part of it. She's weeping over her
sinfulness. She's weeping over her defilement.
Not only what she had done. You know, in conviction, God,
oft times conviction begins with something you've done, but then
it enlarges to what you are. The reason why you did what you
did. But it generally starts off with
something you've done. And then the Spirit of God shows
you and teaches you, listen, you did what you did, you said
what you said, you thought what you thought because of what you
are in your heart. You're defiled by nature. And
she's weeping. And then those tears began to
wash his feet. And if it was a rainy day, his
feet would have been muddy. If it was a dry day, his feet
would have been dusty. She's at his feet. I'm going
to enlarge upon that this evening. And then she let her hair down
and wiped his feet with the hairs of her head. And she kissed his feet. And
the meaning is not that she just bent down and kissed his feet
once, but it's continually. And I know that because if you
look over a little bit further, look at verse 45. Joe read this
to us a while ago. He would say to Simon, Thou gavest
me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased
to kiss my feet. This is continual. She kept kissing
his feet. kissing his feet. There's several kisses noted
in the Bible. There's the kiss of greeting, as in Exodus chapter 4, where
Aaron met Moses in the wilderness and he kissed him. There's not
only kiss of greeting, there's the kiss of dignity. When Samuel
took a vial of oil, he poured it over the head of King Saul. And then he kissed him. It's
the kiss of dignity. Then there's the kiss of love.
As in Genesis 29, 11, when Jacob kissed Rachel, lifted up his
voice and wept, he wept for joy. Overcome by love. Then there's
the kiss of departure. as in Ruth 1.14, where Orpah
decided she would not go with Naomi and Ruth. They lifted up
their voices and wept, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. So
there's the kiss of greeting, the kiss of dignity, the kiss
of love, the kiss of departure. Here this woman is kissing the
Savior. It's a kiss of dignity. And it's
a kiss of love. Listen to the scripture. Kiss
the son, lest he be angry with thee, and you perish from the
way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all
they that trust in him. Kiss of adoration. Kiss his feet. She didn't step up and kiss him
on the cheek. like Judas did. She's not worthy
to even face Him. She kissed His feet. This is
humility. This is meekness. And such a
kiss is never turned away. And such a kiss will go on continually
in adoration to the Son of God. She kissed His feet. She began to wash them. The last
statement says, anointed them with ointment. That wonderful,
delightful smell began to fill the room with a fragrance that
exceeded, I'm sure, even the good food that was set before
those who dined that day. You see, when somebody blesses
the Lord Jesus Christ, I mean, when somebody worships Him, that's
what I'm talking about by blessing Him. When somebody honors Him,
when somebody adores Him, when somebody preaches His praises,
when somebody is worshiping Him from the heart, that fragrance
begins to fill the house. Oh, that the Lord would fill
this house with the fragrance of the worship of His Son today. And if that happens, all will
be blessed, that is all of God's people. Verse 39, when the Pharisee which
hath bidden him saw, the word it is italicized, our translators
inserted that for us, but when he saw all that had happened,
He spake within himself. He didn't say anything out loud.
He spake within himself somewhat sneeringly, I'm sure. This man. This man. I can almost hear him,
can't you? This man. If he were that prophet promised
by Moses, that the prophet that so many people say that He is,
if He were really that prophet, He would have known who and what
manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, for she is a sinner. Yes, she is. There's no denying
that. But He came to save sinners.
That's what this man doesn't know. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm the chief. I tell you, if this woman had
accidentally touched him while he would have just poured his
clothes off, he would have gone ballistic because he would have
been defiled, wouldn't he? According to his view of the
law, he would have been defiled and he would have had to wash
and wash his clothes. But she touched the Savior and
he didn't withdraw from her. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He passes by. You'll find it. We sing that
in the chorus. You'll find He's not too busy to hear your hearts
cry. He receives the touch of sinners. Well, that's who He
came to save. If you're righteous in yourself
like Simon, if you're going about to establish a righteousness
of your own, well, you can forget it. But He came to save sinners. I've got good news. If I could
find a sinner today, I would give them some good news. If
there's a sinner in the house, if there's a sinner in the house,
listen up! Christ Jesus came to save sinners. He died for sinners. He ever
lived for sinners. He's the Savior of sinners. That's
who He is. If I can find one, I'd tell them
some good news. If I could find a woman in here
today who says, I'm a sinner, I'd give you the good news. You
say, but wasn't Simon a sinner? Yes, he was. But he wouldn't
own up to it. He's not been convinced of his
being a sinner. Both of them are sinners. One's
a religious sinner. One's a needy sinner. Oh God,
show us. I'm the needy one. I can't speak
for anybody else here this morning. Lord, look on me. Receive my
touch. I bow at your feet and I kiss
your feet. as an emblem of my adoration
of you, of my high esteem of you. You're God over all, blessed
forever, and I need you. He won't turn you away. Religion
will turn you away. Religion will say, you've got
to stop doing this kind of stuff. You've got to clean your life
up. Let me tell you something, He
does something for you and then He cleans your life up. And she kissed his feet. And
she wouldn't stop kissing. Let me give you this, and I'll
quit. Three more things. And then we'll pick this up again
tonight. Notice the man spake within himself. Nothing spoken out loud, but
the Savior heard him and answered him, which shows he's God. Because he knows the thoughts
of the heart. But here are the three things that I want to give
you. If the Lord Jesus, if He heard and actually answered the
thoughts of a Pharisee who spoke against Him, and He did, He answered
Him. He answered the thoughts of a
Pharisee who spoke against Him, how much more readily will He
hear and answer the thoughts of the hearts of His people when
we cry unto Him. You don't have to I've had people
say to me, I can't pray in public. I understand. Public prayer,
it's difficult. Preacher, I have trouble praying
aloud. I understand. But you don't have
to pray aloud to really pray. Prayer comes from the heart. He hears his people. If he heard
the words of a Pharisee, and answer to him. Well, you know
he hears the prayers of his people and answers his people when they
cry. Secondly, the Pharisee said,
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.
I got news for you, Simon. He does know her. He has known
her from all eternity. I am the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and them known of mine. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. He knew this woman. Why, this
is all happening because he knew this woman. This is not for Simon's
sake. He's a hard-hearted Pharisee. Our Lord Jesus designed this
entire mill before the foundation of the world in order to cross
paths with this chosen sinner that He came to redeem. Oh, He knows her, Simon. He knows her with an everlasting
love. And then I say this, let every spirit-convinced sinner
who's been made to rejoice in Jesus Christ be encouraged. The one to whom you come will
receive you and never cast you out because He's the Savior of
sinners. I'm one. What about you? I'm not asking for a show of
hands, but I'm one. Convinced by the Spirit, he hadn't
turned me away. I come to him multiple times
every day. Just an old sinner who needs
his mercy shown to me in a just way through his substitutionary
sacrifice. And he always receives me. And
he always says, it's all forgiven. It's all forgiven. All right. Let's sing a closing song.