Alright, now back in Luke chapter
7, that Brother Ron read, we're going to look at the subject
this morning of a parable of two debtors. A parable of two
debtors. That's the title of the message.
There's a short little parable here in verse 41 of Luke chapter
7, where the Lord spoke about a certain creditor, a man to
whom people owe money. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, two men who owed him money. One owed
500 pence, that's a lot of money, and the other 50, 50 pence, so
one owed more than the other. And when they had nothing to
pay, that's significant now, when they had nothing to pay,
he frankly, the word frankly there means freely or unconditionally,
he frankly forgave them both And then the Lord asks a question
of the man who brought this issue to the forefront. He says, Tell
me therefore, which of them will love him most? Now that's the
parable. Very simple, very short parable. We've already sung in our hymns
this morning the theme of this message. First of all, that Christ
receiveth sinful men. And I'll tell you what, that's
the only kind of people he receives. Sinful men and women. And when
he receives them, then we can say with confidence, surely,
as the psalmist did in Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy. Which means this, that means
that the goodness that we receive from God is the product of mercy,
not what we earn or deserve. But surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life." Well,
here in this parable, the context of this goes back into a lot
of verses here in Luke chapter 7. I didn't have time to read
it all, but I want us to go back and look at a few things here. The Lord had been speaking here
of John the Baptist. The parallel passage to this
incidentally in the book of Matthew is Matthew chapter 11. And Matthew
actually gives more information than Luke does. Matthew probably
being an eyewitness to this. But the Lord was speaking of
John the Baptist. And you know who John the Baptist
was. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets. His ministry
signified the death of the Old Covenant. and the beginning of
the new, because he said the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. And he pointed sinners to Christ.
John the Baptist, he wasn't your usual preacher. He was a somewhat
strange man to most people's eyes. He didn't rub elbows in
society or come to the city to influence people. He preached
out on the back side of the desert. He didn't wear a coat and tie.
He didn't, you know, he didn't want to, I guess he just sort
of warped the universe when he didn't wear a tie. I guess if
I stood up without a tie, you know, some, you know, go crazy,
you know. Preachers got to have a tie.
Well, John the Baptist didn't wear a tie, you know. He wore
sackcloth, skins, animal skins. He had a strange diet. He ate
wild locust and honey. I don't know what honey is, but
I don't know what it is to eat wild locust. It might be grasshoppers
or something, but he ate that stuff. But he preached the message
of the gospel. He preached the message of God's
grace. Christ said that there was no
man born of woman greater than John the Baptist. And I believe
he was speaking there of John's office. and John's message. And then the Lord came along,
and he began to preach, and John the Baptist's ministry ended.
At this time, John was in prison, actually. And it wouldn't be
long, a few days, to where he would be beheaded. And he'd sent
disciples. John was a human. John was a
sinner saved by grace, and he'd sent some of his disciples to
question Jesus of Nazareth. Are you the Messiah, or should
we look for another? John knew the Gospel, and he knew that
Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, but in his moment of affliction,
he began to doubt. And that's the way it is with
all of us. That's why the Lord has to not only save us, but
He has to keep us. So don't look down on John because
of that. Just think of yourself in a moment
of trial, in a moment of affliction, when things aren't going well,
When one preacher said, you don't have the world by the tail on
the downhill slide. And so John sent this and sent
his disciples and of course the Lord being very gentle and very
compassionate towards one of his sheep, you know, he just
said, tell John that the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk. He said the main thing is the gospel is preached to
the poor. The gospel is preached. That's
the greatest miracle of all. You'd think somebody would heal
a blind man and make a lame man walk. That'd be a great miracle.
But the greatest of all is the gospel of God's grace in Christ
is preached to the poor. And so he asked him, he said,
what did you go out to see when you went out to see John? A reed
shaking in the wind? Somebody who was going to be
wishy-washy like the Pharisees or the Sadducees or the Scribes?
Religion today? Going back and forth, not really
sure what they believed. Like the woman who attended a
church, and a man asked her, he said, well, what do you believe?
And she said, I believe what my preacher preaches. He said,
well, what does he preach? She said, I really don't know,
but whatever it is, I believe it. You know, is that what you
went out to see? That kind of thing? There's a
lot of that going around now. Did you go out to see a man who's
clothed in soft clothing, soft raiment? As he said in verse
25, someone who's gorgeously appareled and lives delicately
in the king's courts. And he said, but this is not
John. This is not God's preacher. But look at verse 31. Now, this
is important. Here's a parable of vindication.
You might call this a parable because it's a comparison here.
And it's sort of like a prerequisite or preface to the parable of
the two debtors and the situation as it happened. He says in verse
31, the Lord said, Wherefore, or whereunto, then, shall I liken
the men of this generation, and of what are they like? How am
I going to compare the men of this generation? He says, They
are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, calling one
to another, and saying, We've piped unto you, and you've not
danced, and we've mourned to you, and you've not wept. What
is he talking about? He's talking about children's
games. And two of the most prominent events in that culture were weddings
and funerals. I begin to think that's two of
our most prominent events in our culture too. Weddings and
funerals. And what the kids would do is
they would play and they would pretend like they were having
a wedding. Somebody would be the preacher, I guess, and somebody
would be the bride and the groom and all that. And they'd have a joyful, play-like
celebration. And then on another occasion,
they'd play like they're having a funeral. Somebody's dead, somebody's
preaching or whatever. And they would have the funeral
and they would play like them. Well, what does he mean by that?
Well, it says in verse 33, For John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he hath a devil.
John's ministry, as I said, marked the funeral service, the death
of the old covenant. His ministry was a ministry of
repentance and sorrow in the sense of repenting of your sins. His baptism was the baptism of
repentance. And he preached the truth. He
preached the gospel. But they looked at John, they
looked at his appearance, they looked at his demeanor. And they
said, well, he's not going to please us. He has the devil.
He has the devil. Just like those children. They
said, well, now we've come along and here we're playing funeral.
But you've not mourned. And then he says in verse 34,
look here, he says, the Son of Man has come eating and drinking.
That's a sign of a festive occasion, like the wedding feast of Canaan,
where the Lord made wine. And you say, behold, a gluttonous
man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. The
Lord's ministry marked the beginning of the new covenant, the joyous
occasion, the gospel being preached to the poor like a wedding feast. The Lord's the bridegroom, and
the church is the bride, and his ministry was a joyous occasion,
and he came eating and drinking, and his message didn't please
them, so they're like those children in the marketplace. We piped,
and you won't sing. You're going to be contrary.
That's the way men by nature are. And so what did they do? They said, well, he's eating
and drinking. That means he's a drunk, and he's a gluttonous
man. They called him a drunk. That's
what a wine bibber is. You know, these churches today
that argue about whether or not they drink grape juice or wine,
that's silly. It's really stupid. They're not
going to call him a grape juice bibber. It might elevate his sugar, but
it wouldn't get him drunk. But you see, that's religion. They love to argue about stuff
like that. They major on the minors and
minor on the majors. That's it. They called him a
drunk and a gluttonous man. And then, here's the kicker,
he says, a friend of publicans and sinners. This is a fellow, he consorts
with publicans and sinners, the kind of people that we wouldn't
even want to be seen with. Well, look at verse 36. Now,
here's the parable of vindication here. He says, in verse 35, he
says, "...but wisdom is justified of all her children." Now, what
does that mean? Well, first of all, here's the
thing. Number one, if we preach the
gospel, we cannot please men, no matter what. If you dress
right, still not going to please them. If you dress wrong, still
not going to please them. And you know why? It's because
the gospel is offensive to the natural man. It's the message
they hate. They'll go after the preacher,
they'll go after the congregation, they'll go after the church,
but it's the message they hate. John 3 and verse 19, light has
come into the world and men love darkness and hate the light because
their deeds are evil. These Pharisees, these Sadducees,
these scribes, these religious generations, who were doing their
dead-level best to try to work their way into God's favor, trying
to work their way to be righteousness, the gospel of God's grace in
Christ exposed their religion as being false and wicked and
evil and proud and self-righteous. And they hated the message. They
hated John's message. They hated the Lord's message.
You can't please them. In Galatians, Paul spoke of this
as the offense of the cross. When we tell sinners that Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, His blood and His righteousness alone
are the only ways of salvation, the only way of salvation, and
our works and our efforts to keep the law are totally excluded
from that salvation as attaining or maintaining it, that it's
wicked and evil for a sinner to seek salvation by his works
when we tell sinners that they hate the light and they love
the darkness. You can't please them. Secondly, we're not to
try to please them. Paul said this in Galatians 1
verse 10. Somebody said, well, we can't
please them, but we ought to try. Oh, no, not according to God's
word. You know, when they accused the
Lord of being a winebibber and a gluttonous man, he said, well,
we better stop eating and stop drinking. No, he didn't do that.
He didn't do that at all. When they accused John the Baptist
of having a devil, he said, well, maybe I better straighten up
and put on a coat and tie. He didn't do that. We're not
to try to please Him. Paul said in Galatians 1.10,
let me read it. For do I now persuade men or
God? Or do I seek to please men? He
said, for if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of
Christ. The preacher that pleases men is not the servant of Christ. You see, we're not here for the
glory of men. We're not here for the pleasure
of men. We're not here to exalt men. We're here for the glory
of God, for the pleasure of God, to exalt Christ. And I'll tell
you what, verse 35 there says this, His children are going
to be pleased with that. In fact, His children If I stood
up here and pleased men this morning by exalting men and catering
to their every whim, God's children wouldn't be pleased with that
at all. They'd look at me and say, what's wrong with you? You've
changed. But wisdom is justified of her children. Now, what does
that mean? It means this, Christ and His truth, His gospel will
be vindicated by His children. Who are His children? all who
believe the gospel, sinners who come to Him seeking mercy and
find it at the mercy seat. Christ is our wisdom. He is the
very wisdom of God. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness to them that perish, but it is the wisdom and the
power of God to them who are called, called by the Holy Spirit
in the invincible, irresistible call of grace. What is our wisdom? Where do we find wisdom? In Christ,
in Him crucified, in God justifying the ungodly through the work
of another, His beloved Son, the God-Man, who came to this
earth and obeyed the law perfectly and went to the cross to pay
our sin debt. And even though the natural man
will not believe it, the seed of Christ, His children, His
sheep, His church, they'll believe it. Wisdom is justified of her
children. That's what that means. Well,
upon that, here's what we find. We see a sinner who comes to
Christ. Now look at verse 36. He says,
one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him.
Now you know what the Pharisees were. They were religious men
who were dedicated to their cause. They were the main religious
leaders of the nation at that time. They were men that everybody
looked up to, everybody admired and respected and followed their
teaching. Christ said this, He said, you
do indeed appear righteous unto men. So these were men who looked
righteous. And one of these men desired
that Christ, the Lord, would come to eat with him. And it
says in verse 36, he went into the Pharisee's house and sat
down to meet. So he went into this Pharisee's
house, he sat down for a meal. Back then they would have a table
for the dignitaries, they would have a place where men could
sit on the floor on pillows, and they'd even have a gallery
sometimes in these houses where people could sit and watch. I guess they liked for entertainment
back then, but that's what they would do. I mean, it was a big
affair. This wasn't just come over and
let's sit down and eat a bottle of lunch. This was something.
And that's what I want you to understand. This was a public
thing here. And this Pharisee, whose name
was Simon, we learn later, he knew this Jesus of Nazareth was
a great man, a great prophet. And so it would be something
to get him to come and eat a meal at your house. And so he says,
they went and sat down to meet. But look at what happened. Look
at verse 37. I don't know. You know, I've
listed a lot of messages on this and people try to climb into
these people's minds. I don't do that. I used to do
that, but I don't do that anymore because to me, if it's not revealed
right here by the Lord, then I'm not going to try to capitalize
on it and emotionalize it. You know, what in the world possessed
this woman to do what she did? The only thing I can tell you
by scriptural testimony, it was the Spirit of Christ that drew
her here. And I know that for sure, because
the Bible teaches that. Anybody who comes to Christ for
salvation is brought by the Spirit of God. Nobody's going to come
on their own. This woman just didn't wake up
one morning and said, hey, I've been living a sinful life, and
I'm better than that, so I better, of my own free will, just go
somewhere and find somebody who can help. No. That's not the
way it works according to the Scripture now. It may be the
way it works according to a particular denomination. Not according to
this book. But you think about this, verse
37. Behold a woman in the city who was a sinner, probably a
prostitute. She was a notorious sinner. One whom everybody, if anybody
saw her, would say, she's a sinner. And that's what that means. And
it says, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's
house, brought an alabaster box of ointment. She had an expensive
box of ointment here. Now again, you know, you think,
how could she go into that Pharisee? Didn't she think she'd be thrown
out? Now, nothing is going to stop her from getting to Christ.
And that's the way it is with Christ's sheep. I'll tell you,
if you're one of Christ's sheep, if you're a sinner who needs
mercy, nothing is going to stop you from coming to Him. I guarantee
you, God's already paved the way and He's bringing you by
His sovereign power and mercy. And so it says in verse 38, "...she
stood at His feet behind Him, weeping, began to wash His feet
with tears." Now, that's a lot of tears. This woman had sorrow
over her sin. She made it her business to know
where the Savior was, and she came to Him there. That's the
way it is, again, with a sinner who needs mercy. They're going
to make it their business to know where Christ is preached.
That's where they're going to be. She brought with her an alabaster
box of ointment. She came with a sacrifice of
faith and honor. Something that meant something
to them back then. And she stood at the Savior's
feet behind Him. A place of humiliation. A place of humility. Gratitude
and sorrow. And she washed His feet with
her tears and wiped them with her hair. She did wipe them with
the hairs of her hair. And kissed His feet and anointed
them with the ointment. Now then, look at verse 39. Now, this kissing His feet is
the ultimate act of humility and trust. You know, the Bible
says, kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish from the
way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all
they that put their trust in Him. That's what it is to kiss
the Son, is to put your trust in Him. She kissed the Savior's feet,
an act of faith, tender love, devotion, adoration. She anointed
His feet. And she did what she could just
for Christ. But then look here now. Here's
next in verse 39. Here's a self-righteous man offended. He says, Now when the Pharisee
which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying,
This man, if he were a prophet, would have... Now, when it says
he said it within himself, he's not thinking that the Lord's
hearing him. He's just saying, this is murmur, murmur. You know
how they murmur? And he said it within himself,
saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who
and what manner of woman this is that touched at them, for
she is a sinner. God's Word is so plain. She's a sinner. Somebody said, well, Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am chief." Christ receiveth
sinful men. Somebody says, well, is it good
to be a sinner? No, it's not good to be a sinner,
but that's a good place to be. There's a difference. We can't
condone sin. We can't justify it. We're not
to promote it. But my friend, that's what we
are. That's exactly what we are. Somebody says, well, how could
this Pharisee be appalled at that person? Now, let me give
you all something to think about, because I've thought about it
a lot, too. Last week, I saw on the news about a woman out
in California. And they kept saying she's a
Sunday school teacher. They love to do that now. I don't
know what she taught, I suspect, it wasn't anything, but she was
a Sunday school teacher and she got a little girl and raped that
little girl, I think the little girl was nine years old or something,
eight, nine years old, and killed that little girl and put her
in a suitcase and threw her into a body of what, a lake or a river
or something. Now I want to tell you something,
I am appalled at that. And if you're not, there's something
wrong with you. That woman's a sinner. But now
here's the point, and this is where we need to come to. And
I know this may shock people. But I'm going to tell you something.
You may not think this, and you may think more highly of yourself,
but I'm going to tell you, this is a scriptural saying. The saying
itself is not in Scripture. But therefore the grace of God
go I. Now that's right. Does that woman deserve to go
to hell? Yes. But do I? Yes. In myself, because of my sin,
based on my best efforts to keep the law, I deserve hell. And
if I don't deserve hell, there's only one reason, and that's the
mercy and grace of God in Christ. Now, that's the issue. We all
deserve hell in ourselves. There's none righteous. No, not
one. There's none that do us good.
No, not one. What if God removed His restraining
hand from me? What if a demon possessed me? I believe in demon possession.
Somebody said that woman was demon possessed. Maybe. It may
have been just the issuing forth of her depraved nature. Whatever
it was, it's appalling. But my friend, who maketh us
to differ? Given the right circumstances,
at the right time, in the right mind, what are you and I capable
of doing? You see what I'm saying? And
that's where this Pharisee wouldn't come to. He's better than that.
He's better than that. He's better. God, I deserve to
have this prophet sitting at my table. I deserve salvation
from God. I deserve because these Pharisees,
Luke 18 and 9, they counted themselves righteous and others they despised. Well, I'm here to tell you this
right now, that I standing before you, I have one righteousness
and one righteousness alone, and he's sitting at the right
hand of the Father in glory. He's the Lord Jesus Christ, and
He's my righteousness. I have no other claim upon God's
favor and mercy. God's Word is so plain that all
men and women born of Adam are equally in need of salvation
by God's grace. Over in John chapter 3, our Lord
confronted a Pharisee named Nicodemus. And this man, who was a member
of the Sanhedrin, he was a member of the court, he was a well-known,
religious, respected Jew. And he looked at Nicodemus and
he said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. You're lost in
your sins. Even though you appear righteous
unto men and everybody will follow you and respect you and love
you, you're a lost sinner. You're in need of a righteousness
you cannot produce. You haven't produced it up to
now and you will never be able to produce it. He said in Matthew
chapter 5 and verse 20, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then over in John
chapter 4, he confronts another individual, an adulterous Samaritan
woman. And you know what he tells her?
Basically the same thing he told Nicodemus, just in other terms.
He said, if you knew the gift of God, you'd ask Him and He'd
give you living water. That's the new birth. The Spirit
of God within. And what he was teaching in John
3 and John 4 is exactly what he's teaching right here. that
if any man or woman born of Adam, be he a Pharisee, a preacher,
or be she a prostitute, if we're going to enter heaven, if we're
going to be blessed of God, saved by God, it's going to be mercy
and grace alone. Undeserved, unearned. It's the
blood of Christ that cleanses us from all our sins, and it's
His righteousness imputed alone whereby we stand before God complete. I didn't have anything to do
with it. Christ did it all. And this man was offended. David
said in Psalm 130, verse 3, O Lord, if Thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who would stand? Well, you say, well, this woman
here, this woman who was a sinner, she wouldn't stand. That's right.
But neither would I. Neither would Simon the Pharisee.
Neither would you. If the Lord would mark iniquity,
that means if He would impute sin to you or to me, charge us,
we wouldn't stand. Here's the point. If God gave
me what I deserved and what I've earned, I'd be damned forever.
And justly so. I must pray, God, like this woman,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But look at this parable now.
Look at verse 40. Here's the parable of forgiveness.
He says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat
to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
Now that word master there just means a rabbi, a good teacher. That's how Simon looked at him.
And Simon had already said, if this fellow were a prophet, he'd
have known this woman and she wouldn't even let her touch him.
So he's already come down in Simon's eyes. So Christ asked
him, said, I've got something to say to you. Look at verse
41. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one
owed 500 pence, the other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom that he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou
hast rightly judged. You notice Simon's answer there,
he said, I suppose. What he's saying here is this,
well, I don't know what this has to do with anything, but
if it really matters to you, the guy who was forgiven most.
That's what he's saying. He's just not concerned with
these issues of judgment and mercy and truth. All he's concerned
with is looking at that poor old woman and saying, she's a
sinner. Get her out of here. That's it, isn't it? That's what.
Let's talk about this one. Let's get our eyes off me and
on to that woman. Because I know at least I'm better
than her. Even though if I'm not perfect. You know, that's
the kind of attitude. Listen to me. The Lord is teaching
here is that our fall in Adam and our sins under the covenant
of works have made us all debtors, owing a debt we can never pay. Did you notice here it says,
when they had nothing to pay? My friend, that's us by nature
and by practice right there. We have nothing to pay. If the Lord came to you, and
said, now I've done 99% of it, you pay the 1%. This, if you're
honest, this is what you'd have to say, Lord, I have nothing
to pay. What about a penny? Lord, I have
nothing to pay. Lord, I have nothing, nothing
to pay. That's us, spiritually bankrupt. And if you're trying to pay it,
you know what the Scripture says? Look over at Galatians 5. If
you're trying to pay the Lord, if you're trying to work your
way into righteousness, into eternal life, into glory, listen
to what the Scripture says. If you're trying to pay it, here's
what you have to do. Now, here what Paul's talking
about is people who are trying to pay it by circumcision. Now,
how do you try to pay it? Do you try to pay it with baptism?
With tithing? With church membership? How do
you try to pay it? It doesn't matter what it is.
Whether it's circumcision, baptism, good works, whatever. Faith?
You say, well, I believe. That's my payment. If that's
your payment, here's what you've got to do. Look at verse 3 of
Galatians 5. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, Every man who's trying to pay the Lord
is dead. That he's a debtor to do the
whole loan. You're trying to pay one penny, here's what you've
got to do. You've got to pay it all. That's what that verse
teaches. You've got to pay it all. You
can't just pay part of it. It's all or nothing. And you see, that's the thing.
That's the thing. Many times when I try to teach
children the doctrine of imputation, which is a gospel doctrine. I'll
use the illustration of banking. And here's the illustration.
You've heard me use it before. If you went down to a local bank
and they had on your account that you owed a million dollars
to that bank, That debt is imputed or accounted or charged to you.
It's a debt that you ran up and it's accounted to you. It's imputed
to you. That's what that means. It's
charged to you. Rightly so. And so you go off and you find
out you owe a million dollars and in your bank account you
don't have any money. You don't even have a penny.
You're broke. Don't have a job to pay it. Don't have anything.
And so you decide to go back down to the bank and just throw
yourself at the mercy of the banker. And he opens up the books,
and he turns to your name, and you're crying around and begging,
saying, oh, I owe a million dollars, and I don't have a penny to pay.
What am I going to do? And the banker looks up at you,
and he says, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You don't owe
anything here. Your debt's wiped clean. Somebody
yesterday came in and paid the full million that you owe. How do you think you'd feel? Wouldn't you? The banker says, now I cannot
impute a million dollars to you. I can't charge it to you. It's
been paid in full. You say, well, I'm going home.
The banker says, wait up. I've got some other news to tell
you. That same person who paid the million dollars, he put a
million in. And I'm imputing to you, I'm
accounting to you, I'm charging to you a million dollars that
you didn't have. That's what this is all about
right here. Christ came and He paid my debt
to God's justice on Calvary. And He paid it in full. He paid
it in full. And not only that, He gave me
back His righteousness. He imputed His righteousness
to me. Now that's what 2 Corinthians 5.21 teaches. For God hath made
Him to be sin. Christ who knew no sin, for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Not only did He
pay my debt, but He gave me salvation. He gave me righteousness. He
died based on my sins charged or imputed to Him, and I live
based on His righteousness imputed to me. And in time, the Holy
Spirit came and gave me that message and wrote it on my heart
and upon my conscience and upon my mind. And that's what this
parable is teaching. Look at it, verse 42. When they
had nothing to pay, He frankly, that word frankly means unconditionally,
freely, He forgave them both. Now the Gospel teaches us that
payment must be made. And the reason is, is because
God is just. My friend, who's going to make
the payment? Well, the Scripture says that it's the blood of Christ
that cleanses us from all sin. That God is faithful and just
to forgive us in Him. Well, he says, now who's going
to love Him the most? Simon answered verse 43 and said,
I suppose that He to whom He forgave the most And Christ said
unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. Look at verse 44. Here's the
response of love. 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. In other words, Simon,
you didn't even give me the common courtesies of the day. Gave me no water to wash my feet.
But she washed, he hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped
them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, the common
greeting of that day, 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. You see
that? He says, Wherefore I say unto
thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much,
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Her faith,
her love, her devotion, obedience was not the cause of her forgiveness
and her salvation. She had nothing to pay, but it
was the fruit of grace. You see, the great motivation
and driving force of obedience and service to Christ is not
to earn our way into His favor, not to pay our way into it, but
it's His grace, His love, His mercy towards us that brings
forth our love. and our gratitude to Him. True
godly love will never arise from the heart of a sinner who thinks
he's getting in any degree what he deserves or what he's earned
from God. It'll never arise from that heart. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
5.14, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus
judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. When Christ
died for my sins, I died with Him. He paid my debt in full,
and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again." That's the response. She had owed much, and she'd
been forgiven much. She loved much. She was spurned
and hated by false religionists, but loved by Christ, the Savior
of sinners. for Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. All right, well, let me conclude.
Look here at verse 48. And he said unto her, Thy sins
are forgiven. And they that sat at meek with
him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he said to the woman, Thy
faith is safety, go in peace. She was a great sinner, but she
was a chosen sinner, a justified sinner, a redeemed, a forgiven,
a called sinner. And Christ assured her before
her judges and her slanderers that He had forgiven her of all
her sins. Thy sins are forgiven. Now let
me tell you something. Only God can forgive sins. And
that's why they ask that question. Who is this guy? Thinks he can
forgive. Only God can forgive sins. Well,
he is God. He's God in human flesh. And
he is her advocate. He came to her defense. Christ,
her advocate, came to her defense. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our
sins. So therefore, in Him, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
He is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father
ever living to make intercession for us. He assured her of her
faith and spoke peace to her heart. Thy faith has saved thee."
Now, that's not her believing. Thy faith. What was her faith?
Her faith was in Christ. It's the object of her faith.
Christ and Him crucified. I don't expect God to forgive
my sins because I believe. I believe God has forgiven my
sins because of Christ. That's the difference. That's
her faith. What is your faith? My faith is in Christ. My faith
is not in my faith. My faith is in Christ and His
blood and His righteousness for all my salvation. And that was
her faith. Well, what motivates me? What
motivates you in obedience and worship? Are you trying to make
yourself righteous? Are you trying to pay The debt
that you think you owe? Oh, Robert Murray McShane, he
wrote that song that we like so much, How Much I Owe. Listen
to this. He says, When this passing world
is done, when has sunk yon glaring sun, when we stand with Christ
in glory, looking o'er life's finished story, then, Lord, shall
I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. We owe Christ
a debt. but not a debt of law, a debt
of love. And we're to spend our lives,
and we will spend eternity, paying that debt which will never be
paid. It's infinite. Ms. Shane wrote this stanza in
our clothes. He said, when I stand before the throne, dressed in
beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with
unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till
then, how much I owe. Now, I picked out a song to conclude
with, but I want to change it.