What a message. It's wonderful. Turn, if you would, to Deuteronomy
chapter 15. The name of the message is Release, or Released. Deuteronomy chapter 15. You ever held on to stuff and
maybe had stuff bother you? And how freeing and liberating
it is when you release those things? or something's been bothering
you and working you up, and then when you release it, it feels
like a weight's been lifted off your shoulder. Oh my, it's wonderful,
isn't it? It's wonderful. I know for me, when I have the
freedom and the liberty to preach and proclaim the gospel, it's
so wonderful when God gives you liberty and to just preach and
proclaim it. speak from my heart, it's so
wonderful. And those who have been released
from our sins, we speak of the one who released us. We give
him glory and honor and praise, don't we? Let's look here in
Deuteronomy chapter 15, we'll read verses one to 12. And we
have here in this chapter a continuation of Moses' discourse from chapter
14, Moses was bringing forth some of God's laws on clean and
unclean animals, and also on tithing. And here, in this chapter,
he brings forth what the order for the release of debtors every
seven years. And he cautions the people not
to withhold lending to their needy brethren on account of
the year of release. He says, he's telling them, just
because it's the year of release, don't not help your brethren.
If your brothers or sisters have a need, help them. Help them. And then he brings forth in the
latter part of this chapter particularities respecting the Hebrew servant,
and also particularities concerning the offering of the firstlings
of the cattle to God. So let's read verses 1 to 12.
We're going to focus on verses 1 to 2. But let's read the context
of these verses from verse 1 to 11. At the end of every seven
years, thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the
release. Every creditor that lendeth unto his neighbor shall
release it. He shall not extract it of his
neighbor or of his brother, because it is called the Lord's release.
Of a foreigner, thou mayest extract it or exact it again. But that
which is thine with thy brother Thine hand shall release. Save
when there shall be no poor among you, for the Lord shall greatly
bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee
for an inheritance to possess it. Only if thou carefully hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe, to do all these
commandments which I command on this day. For the Lord thy
God blesses thee as he promised thee, and thou shalt lend unto
many nations But thou shalt not borrow, and thou shalt reign
over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. If there
be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within thy, of
thy gates, in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shalt thou shut thy hand
from thy poor brother. But thou shalt open thine hand
wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need.
in that which ye wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought
in thy wicked heart, saying, the seventh year of the year
of release is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor
brother, and thou givest him not. And he cry unto the Lord
against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give
him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest him,
because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee
in thy works. and in all that thou puttest
thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease
of the land, therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open
thy hand wide unto thy brother to the poor, and to thy needy
in thy land. Let's read verses one and two
again. Now it says, At the end of every seven years thou shalt
make a release. And this is the manner of the
release. Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor
shall release it. He shall not extract it of his
neighbor, or of his brother, because it is called the Lord's
release. So I'd like us to look at verse
one and two today again. And we see here that at the end
of every seven years, the Israelites were to release every man who
was his debtor, every man who was his debtor from the debt,
which they had accumulated and owed to them. And verse one and
two here, I pray the Holy Spirit will take this and teach us gospel
truths here, which we see in shadow and which find their fulfillment
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has released us. He's released
we, who are great debtors. We owed a great debt, didn't
we? We owed a debt that we could never pay. We had accumulated
a debt, right, against God. Oh, we have a great debt and
we owe for it. Well, praise be to God. The Lord
Jesus Christ paid it all. He made an end of our sins as
believers. How? By the sacrifice of himself in
our room and place. Again, let's read verses one
and two. And we see here the release the
Lord will give his people. or the release the Lord would
have his people give. At the end of every seven years thou
shall make a release. And this is the manner of the
release. Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor
shall release it. He shall not exact it of his
neighbor or of his brother because it's called the Lord's release.
Now note here, note this wonderful transaction here called the Lord's
release. The Lord's release, Jehovah's
release. And it's to come at the end of
seven years. Well, seven's the number of perfection, right?
It's to come at the end of seven years. And it was according to
the gracious law of God for Israel. And it was only for Israel, wasn't
it? It wasn't for the whole world. It was only for Israel. It wasn't
for the Romans or the Egyptians or the Hittites. It was for Israel. And even and the gracious law
of God, were to rest one day in seven, right? The Israelites
were told to rest one day in seven. Now, for us, Christ is
our rest. We rest in him every day, don't
we? He's our rest. He's our eternal rest. And then
in the feast days, there were one month in seven. And then
they came every seventh year, a year of rest for the land,
in which they did not till it, but they were to leave it live
to follow. And after seven years were complete,
there came, on the 50th year, an extraordinary year of rest
in addition to the usual one. And this was called the year
of Jubilee. So two things happened at the end of every seven years.
The land was first to lie fallow as a symbol of God's ownership
of the land. You see, God owns everything. We just, it's on
loan to us, right? Everything we have is
on loan to us. He owns it all. I saw a picture
of deep space this morning. I was looking at some stuff on
the internet, and I saw a picture of deep space. And they said,
well, here's a star cluster. Look at this out in the middle
of nowhere. They can't explain it. It's just beautiful. They've
known it's been there since the 1800s. And they're just like,
oh. But until they got that Hubble telescope, they didn't realize.
that there is literally millions of stars in the cluster. God
owns all that, beloved. It's all his. It's all his. When I saw that,
I thought, this just glorifies my great God. He just spoke that
into existence. And there it was, man saw it
in the 1800s, it was discovered in the 1800s, and now we get
to see it close up, And God's given man the knowledge to make
a telescope like that so we can see into deep space and see the
marvelous things that he's done. And why? Then we glorify God,
don't we? We know who made that, but we
also know who owns it. It's all his. It's all his. And then we see here also that
fellow Israelites were released from all their debts. all their
debts. That's the second thing that
happened every seven years. Now again, seven is the perfect
number. Six days of creation and on the seventh day God rested.
And think upon this, this command was attended for the Israelites
only, not for the Moabites, not for the Edomites, not for the
Egyptians, not for any other countries all around them, not
for the Romans, not for the Greeks, This was for God's chosen people. And God's chosen people would
delight to do His will, right? They'd delight to do His will. They'd delight to do as He commanded.
And we see here how this passage teaches us that the Lord commanded
the Israelites that the creditor is to release the debtor at the
end of every seven years. The debt that his neighbor owed
him was forgiven. Was forgiven. And they were not
to extract it from them. They were completely and fully
released from the debt. Completely. Fully. It was like they didn't even
owe him anything. which is what had happened, right? It was wiped
out. Say you had something, it was
whitewashed right off. It was gone. It was gone. Oh, what a picture we have here.
What a picture we have here. We see here in type the release,
which the Lord Jesus Christ gives to his people. And what a release
we have. What a release the born-again,
blood-washed children of God have. What a release we have.
We are forgiven of all our sins. We are forgiven of all our debts,
all our trespasses and sins, all our trespasses and sins against
God, because that's who we really sinned against, isn't it? All our trespasses against fellow
men, all freely forgiven. all bought and paid for, all completely released. Every one of God's children released
from the debt, the great debt that we owed. Why? Well, because it's the Lord's
release. And I'll tell you what, when
the Lord releases someone from the debt, a sin that they owe,
they are completely released. They are completely released.
Well, how could this be? Because the lawgiver himself
fulfilled the law in our place. The very one who gave that law
at Sinai came down from heaven and lived the perfect life, fully
God and fully man, and completely satisfied God's law and justice
in our place. The price is paid. Well, what
is the price? Well, there must be a blood sacrifice, right?
Remember Cain bought vegetables. He bought the fruit of his hands,
right? But Abel bought the proper sacrifice, didn't he? And it
was blood. That shows you that there's only
two religions in this world, works and grace. You can boil
down every false religion into works, every single one. And
then there's grace. There's only grace and works.
That's it. That's it. There are no other
ones. You say, well, there's all kinds of religions. No, there's
only two, grace or works. That's it. No other ones in all
what free grace we see here. God's people are released in
picture here, released from all our sins, all because of the
dying and doing of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died as our substitute
on Calvary's cross. I heard talking to Brother Norm
this week and he was talking to somebody and the guy's a preacher
And he's been talking to him for over a year now. And the
guy says, well, my faith saved me. And Norm said, no, your faith
didn't save him. The blood of Christ is what saves a sinner.
Faith is a gift from God. Faith is a gift. And that faith
comes as a result of being born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
Christ saves us. Christ saves us. Faith is a gift. Faith has one object, doesn't
it? But it's Christ who's released us from all our sins. It's Christ
who's fulfilled the law in our place. It's Christ who has fully
released us from the demands of the law. Now the law had a
rightful demand upon us, didn't it? We're sinners. It's got a
rightful law. So that sinners, it must die.
Wayne Boyd must die. And what Christ do? Scripture
declares, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Crucified with Christ,
yes. He died as my substitute. Christ
died in the room and place of Wayne Boyd. Hallelujah, that's
what my lips sing now. Praise his mighty name. Put your
name in there if you're one of God's people. Isn't that wonderful? And he satisfied everything God
demanded. The law said, we must die. He dies in our ruined place,
the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. And why? For the
remission of our sins. He's sinless, right? He's perfect.
He's spotless. This is what makes it so incredible,
that the sinless one died in the ruined place of sinners.
And what's the result of that? We're fully forgiven of all our
debts. How many times did we sin? It's
billions in our lifetime. I guarantee you, it's billions
in our lifetime. Because we sin, we don't even
know we sin. We sin in our thoughts. We sin in our sleep. We be awake,
we're sinning. And when we're sleeping, we're
sinning. Think of that, this whole mass of debt that we could
never pay, gone. It's just saying he made an end
of all our sins. Gone. Gone. Gone. So that God doesn't even remember
them anymore. My, this is the Lord's release,
isn't it? We couldn't release ourselves
from our own sins, could we? We couldn't release anyone else
from their sins. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he's dying on that cross, he's paying the price for a number
that no man can number. That's Jehovah doing that. That's
God incarnated in the flesh. And the debt is wiped out. Look
at it. It says here, he shall not exact it of his neighbor
or of his brother because it's called the Lord's release. This
is according to divine command. God's telling them this. This
is divine command from God. Therefore, there would be no
extracting of his debt. They're not going to go back
and say, man, you owed me $100,000, man. You owed me $10. Gone. Gone. Not to be remembered anymore. They're not to extract it. The
debt's gone. So what loving kindness is on
display here, isn't it? We'll see later how, again, it
pictures the forgiveness that we have in Christ. And note it's
called the Lord's release, Jehovah's release. That's what it is in
the Hebrew. It's Jehovah, Jehovah's release. They were to do this because
God, because Jehovah commanded them to do this. And they were
to do it with the right spirit, with a pure motive, because it's
the Lord's release. They're not to give reason or
they're not to give release in their name because this is the
Lord's release. It couldn't be a release in their
name because it pictured the release that the Lord Jesus Christ
gave us. So they couldn't say, well, this
is a release of such and such. No, it's the Lord's release.
It's a picture of the release that we have in Christ of all
our debt. A great debt that we could never pay. And so this release is done in
the name of Jehovah. For his glory, for his honor,
and for his praise. Think of if you were one of the
ones who owed a vast amount of money and you were just released
from it all. Think of how you'd praise the name of the Lord as
a believer. Oh my. And we do our work and our labor
in this life, giving the Lord all the glory for giving us the
strength and knowledge to do what we do, whether it be our
jobs or whether we're serving. And we do it to the best of our
abilities, don't we, to glorify God, to glorify Him. The most powerful motive that
a Christian can have for forgiving the debts of others is the fact
that we are forgiven for Christ's sake. We are forgiven for Christ's
sake. The whole reason God has mercy upon you and I as believers
is for Christ's sake. Can you forgive someone who's
wronged you for Christ's sake? If you are redeemed, then think
about the great debt that you owed and that I owed. Think about how much we offended
God by our sin. Oh, my. And yet, we who are the
born-again, blood-washed saints of God are fully and freely forgiven. We're forgiven for Christ's sake.
You know, that used to be a swear word my parents used growing
up, and now it's so precious. For Christ's sake, I'm forgiven
for Christ's sake, the scripture says. God has forgiven me because of
him. As again, the song, God's chosen to look upon Christ and
forgive me for all my sin. That's mercy, isn't it? That's
grace. And so it makes it easy for us
to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ who have wronged us,
doesn't it? And if you can, this is true charity, true love, true
Christian love. And again, this is brought about
by the work of the Holy Spirit. It's not natural for us. It's
not natural for us to forgive. It's not. We have to admit that,
isn't it? It's not natural. I remember
before the Lord saved me, I could hold a grudge. Oh man, I could
get so mad at people. I could just get so angry. And now I can get angry still,
right? We can still get angry, can't
we? We can. Just somebody cross and see how
fast it takes to go off like a rocket, right? Right? But have
you noticed since the Lord saved you that it's easier to let it
go? That you may flare up for a while
and it just goes away when you start thinking about the Lord
or thinking about how much he's forgiven us. It just starts to
go away. Think about the great debt. Think
about the great debt of our sin. The law of God didn't just have
one claim upon us. It had millions upon millions
upon millions of claims upon us for our sin. Augustus Toplater, who wrote
Rock Ages, he figured if a person worked or lived till they were
80, they'd commit over a billion sins. Bruce Crabtree told me
once, well, I got that beat. My. My oh my, what a great debt we've
been forgiven. So in light of the great debt
which we've been forgiven and released from, it's the love
of God that bought our Lord to this world. It's the love of
God for us that bought him to come here to die on Calvary's
cross for us. Think of how great that love
is. I guarantee you've never been loved by anyone in this
world, no matter the person who loves you the most, You've never been loved as much
as God loves you if you're one of his people. Don't even come
close. I think how much I love my wife,
I love my kids, love you all. Don't even come close to the
love that God has for us. Isn't that incredible? It's absolutely
amazing. And that love, is what drove
the Lord Jesus Christ to come down to this world, to redeem
his people from their sins, to release us from the great debt
that we owe. And our love towards men, when
it flows out of acts of mercy and kindness, should spring forth
from the fact that Christ loved us and gave himself for us. Moses wrote of Christ, didn't
he, in the Old Testament? Scripture declares this in Luke
chapter 24, verses 25 and 27. Oh, fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and enter into glory in beginning
at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in the
scriptures of things concerning himself? Think of what we have
right here before us. We have before us the release
in picture that the Lord gives to his people. Look at this again.
At the end of every seven years, thou shalt make a release. And
this is the manner of the release. Every creditor that lendeth ought
unto his neighbor shall release it. Gone. Gone. Like he didn't even owe you anything.
He shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother because
it's called the Lord's release. Oh, how the mercy of God is set
forth right here before us. The mercy of God. Now, did this
debtor ask for a release? No. He owes the money, right? He knows he owes the money. He's
got to pay it. But what if it's a debt that he could never pay?
Well, at the end of seven years, he's released. Totally released. Released of
all that debt. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. Now the law is a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. It's a schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ. And also put your finger on Luke
chapter 4. We'll go there next after that. Galatians chapter
3. The law is a schoolmaster. Bring us to Christ. And again, this release that
we see here is the Lord's release, right? And it's a picture of
the great release that we have in Christ. Look at this in Galatians
chapter 3, verse 22 to 26. Now, law can never save. Never. All the law can do is condemn.
Shows us our guilt. But it can never save. So hence,
people who are trying to walk in the law, and supposedly trying
to fulfill the law, they're never going to do it. It's impossible. Because if you sin in one point
of the law, You've broken it all. Oh, we saw in Sunday school,
we're all guilty before God. Look at this one, Galatians 3,
22 to 26. But the scripture hath concluded,
all under sin. Look at that, everyone. All means
all there. Now, a lot of people, you tell
them they're under sin and they're sinners, they look at you and
say, I'm not a sinner. Several of us have had that happen to
us. People just look at you and say, I'm not a sinner. Yeah,
you are. Even if you don't believe it, you are. Doesn't change the
fact. I used to think, oh, I was a
good person. No, I found out I was a sinner. It says there,
all under sin. Every one of us who are breathing
in this room, everyone who's breathing on this earth, we're
all sinners. That's what it says, all under
sin. That the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Look at that.
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to what? To bring us unto Christ. That we might be what? Justified
by faith. Look at that. Faith in who? The Lord Jesus Christ. What's it mean to be justified?
Just as if I never sinned? That means a full forgiveness. That means all our debts before
God forgiven. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under school, Master, for you're all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Look at that. Wonderful. Again, the release in our text
is the release of how poor bankrupt debtors who cannot pay the debt
that they owe are fully forgiven. And think of that in light of
us. We come into this world bankrupt sinners, and we cannot pay to
God the debt that we owe. Men try, though, don't they?
If God doesn't save them, it'll lead to their eternal damnation. You cannot be saved by anything
you do. I cannot be saved by anything
I do, and that is in thought, action, word, or deed. Nothing. Nothing. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. Mercy. If you're a child of God, you've
received mercy. Isn't that wonderful? The Lord's
released you of all that you owed. And who did you owe it
to? Well, you owed it to him, didn't you? It's his law that
demands that satisfaction, right? It's his justice that must be
satisfied. It's him who we sinned against. and yet he releases
us. Mercy! What mercy! See, the gospel is good news,
isn't it? It's good news to sinners. The question is, are you a sinner? Has God shown you're a sinner?
Because if God shows you you're a sinner and he gives you faith
to believe, your praise is named for the rest of your life for
the great release that he's given you. It's incredible. All that we owed was paid for. Paid in full. I remember when
I was a kid, they used to use stamps when you're done. I always
used to like going with my dad when he bought stuff, because
they'd use a stamp. And sometimes the store guy would
say, you want a stamp? Yeah. So you get the stamp, put
it down there, and it'd say, paid in full. We're paid, beloved. All our debt is paid, stamped by the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paid in full, released from the
great debt that we owe. And oh, what freedom we have.
We are fully and freely forgiven. We're still sinners, though,
aren't we? Yeah. But we're forgiven. We're set free in Christ, beloved.
Look at Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. My oh my. Christ didn't come to save the
righteous. He didn't come to save those
Pharisees who thought they did no wrong. He came to save bankrupt
sinners like you and I. That's who He came to save. Broken
hearted sinners. Look at this Luke chapter 4 verses
17 to 19. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when he opened the book, he found the place where
it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. The poor
in what? The poor in spirit. He has sent
me to heal the brokenhearted, brokenhearted sinners, made so
by the Holy Spirit of God, showing their desperate need of Christ,
to preach deliverance to the captives, Well, we were on the
slate block of sin, weren't we? We were chained in the cell of
sin. We had shackles upon us. Our sin was like shackles. They've
all been broken, beloved. The door's wide open in the cell
now. We're set free, and we will walk
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk not
in the flesh, but after the spirit. No judgment. That's what that
means in the Greek. No condemnation, no judgment.
Why? Because all our sins was judged
at Calvary's cross when the Lord Jesus Christ bore all that was
demanded by God for our sins, paid in full again by the blood
of Jesus Christ. My. And he sent to heal the brokenhearted,
preach deliverance to the captain in recovering a sight to the
blind. Were we blind? Yeah, we were blind, weren't
we? We were groping around in the dark. Oh my beloved. We were blinded by our sin. We
were so blind, beloved. So blind. And then to set at liberty, that
means to set free them that are bruised to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. Oh my. And take note also in our text,
the man or woman here was set free at the end of the six years,
paid nothing for their liberation. They did not seek it. And yet
not having bought his liberty, he's set free. So the Lord's
release, there's nothing we can do to buy that release. We owe,
don't we? There's nothing that we can do
to bring about that release. There's nothing we can do to
merit that release. As a matter of fact, in our natural
state, we don't even seek that release. Do we? He seeks us. He sought us, didn't he? Every
one of us here know that the Lord sought us. We weren't looking
for him. He sought us out. Why? Because he purchased us
with his precious blood at Calvary's cross. My, oh my. And we're sent away
rejoicing, aren't we? Look at Deuteronomy 1 and 2 again. At the end of every seven years,
thou shall make a release. And this is the manner of the
release. Every creditor that lendeth ought to his neighbor
shall release it. And he shall not exact it of
his neighbor or his brother, because it's called the Lord's
release. Spurgeon brings forth here that the poor bankrupt sinner is sent away full-handed. Full-handed
by free grace. All the forgiveness of our sins,
justified before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
All of our sins forgiven. We leave from this great debt
we owe full. Because it's all in Christ. All
in him alone. All our debt is forgiven. Why? Because of the sufficient
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when he died, he, the
perfect spotless lamb of God, paid for everything. Paid it
all. There's nothing left to be paid.
Nothing. Nothing. The debt is paid in
full for the blood-washed saint of God. He shall not exact it
of his neighbor or of his brother because it's called the Lord's
release. And see, we see here the release
is followed up by a non-exacting of the penalty forever. Forever. In the book of Hebrews, turn
if you would there, Hebrews chapter 10, we'll have to look at this,
Hebrews chapter 10. We talk about, we talk about fully forgiven. Yeah, anybody ever ask, you just
say, I'm fully and freely forgiven in Christ. He's done great things
for me. He's done great things for me. He's forgiven me all
my sins. All of them. They're paid in full. They're
gone in his eyes. How do we know that? Look at
this in Hebrews chapter 10. Look at this. I know we've read
this before, but it's worth reading again in light of what we're
looking at this. Hebrews 10, verses 16 and 17.
This is the covenant that I will make with them, with God's people. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will
I write them. And their sins and their iniquities will I what?
Remember no more. Hear never exact the price of
our sins from us. That's what we see right here.
Why? Because they were all forgiven
in Christ. You see how scripture backs up
scripture? We've been released, beloved.
We've been released by Jehovah. Look at, I look at the, and their
sins. Put your name in there. Put your
name in there. And Wayne's sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Put your name in there. That's remarkable. Never to be
bought against me. You know, I still remember them.
And sometimes I bow my head in shame. And then I cry out, Lord,
forgive me for when I did that. You ever cry out, Lord, when
am I ever going to learn? We just seem, we just keep repeating
the same things over and over again, don't we? Oh my. But we keep confessing
our sin, don't we? Because the scripture tells us
to. Even though we know it's forgiven, we still come to him
and say, Lord, please forgive me. Please forgive me. And look at that. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. He will not exact the
price for our sins because it's already been paid for by Christ. It's already forgiven. A non-extracting of the penalty,
forever. That's what that means right
there. Here, never ever remember our sins against us, forever.
Forever. Now we remember when people wrong
us, don't we? And we have a hard time letting it go. I admit it.
Sometimes it's hard to let things go. I say that article helped
me tremendously in the bulletin. I just gotta let things go. I've been forgiven so much, I
just need to let things go. My, and God says, I won't remember
the sins against you. And who did we sin against? We
sinned against him. It's his law we broke. It's his
law that has to be satisfied. And the sacrifice of Christ was
so incredible, so perfect, so complete, that he says, and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more, never to be brought
up ever again. My, what mercy, what grace we
as the people of God have received. What a release. What a release. This is truly the Lord's release,
isn't it? Truly, I won't remember your
sins anymore. My son paid for them all. And
when I see you now, I see you clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. Oh my, what a picture of forgiveness
we have before us. Our spiritual debt debt is wiped
away by the redemptive blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my. And we could not do
anything about that debt. Chapter 7. We've been fully and
freely forgiven. We're free from the condemnation
of our sin. Completely free from the debt
that we owe Look at this in Luke chapter 7, we're closed with
this. Verses 36 to 50. Fully, freely forgiven, released
by the Lord. Look at this. In one of the Pharisees,
verse 36, in one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat
with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down
to meet. And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner. Oh, my, a sinner. See, the Pharisees would look
at this woman and say, oh, she's such a sinner. The self-righteous
would look at her and say, oh, she's such a sinner. Well, I'm
glad that's in there, because I'm a sinner, too. Aren't you
glad that's in there? This woman was a sinner. And
where did she go? Right to Jesus' feet, didn't
she? When she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's
house, bought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his
feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears,
and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet,
and anointed them with the ointment. Now look at this self-righteous
Pharisee here. Remember Paul said that At one
time, he thought that he fulfilled the law when he was a Pharisee. And then God showed him what
he really was. Look at this. Look at this self-righteous.
You know what? I was a Pharisee when I was in
religion. I really was. I'll tell you what. I praise
God that he delivered me from that. Look at this, though. Look
at this. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him, the guy
who invited him into his house, and little did he know, here's
God incarnated in the flesh sitting with him. He knows every thought
this guy's thinking, right? He knows it all. Look at this.
He spake within himself, so he didn't speak out loud. You ever
speak to yourself in your head? We all do. The problem is when you start
arguing with yourself, then you've got some trouble. But so he's
thinking in himself, right? He's thinking in himself, saying,
this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what
manner of woman this is that touches him, for she's a sinner. You could just hear it dripping
off his voice, couldn't you? Just a sinner with disgust, right? Oh, I thank God he's a friend
of sinners. I thank God he's a friend of sinners. I'm a sinner.
I thank God. Are you a sinner? Has God shown
you're a sinner? Oh, my. Look at this. So there we get
a glimpse of a self-righteous man's heart. Remember what we
looked at in Sunday school about Lord and over people? Right? Two weeks ago, we looked at how
people who seek standing within the church and they They seek
the Lord over the Lord's people. You can't walk around them without
feeling like you're walking on crushed glass and everything. And they seek standing, and they
seek the Lord over God's people, and it's wrong. This Pharisee's
a picture of that. Look at her. She's a sinner.
And you know he thought that way. You know he just despised
this woman. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee, and he saith,
Master, say on. Called him Master, but he didn't
really mean he was his master. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other
50. When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast
judged rightly. And he turned to the woman and
said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? Now, back in those days,
when you entered into someone's house, it was customary for them
to wash your feet. This was all customary things
that they did. Because they would wear sandals, and they would
have dust on their feet, and so they would wash their feet.
Look at this. I entered into thine house, thou
gavest me no water for my feet. But she hath washed my feet with
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head." And they
usually gave you a towel to dry your feet off. He didn't do any
of that. He didn't respect the Lord Jesus
Christ at all. Thou gavest me no kiss. This
woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my
feet. Wherefore, I say unto her, My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. They used
to anoint people sometimes with oil when they came into their
house, and it would give off a perfume-like smell. But this woman hath anointed
my feet with ointment. Not only did she wash his feet
and dry his feet off with her hair, but she anointed his feet
with ointment. Wherefore I say unto her, her
sins which are many, look at that, many, a debt she can't
pay, right? A debt she cannot pay, never,
are forgiven. She didn't ask for that, did
she? She didn't seek it. She just came to the Lord's feet
crying and washed his feet with her tears and anointed his feet
with oil. Her sins, which are many, are
what? Forgiven. Oh, let that warm your heart,
beloved. All your sins are forgiven, washed clean by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. For she loved much, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto
her, thy sins are forgiven. The Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate
in the flesh, looked at this lady and said, your sins are
forgiven. You know, all who believe in
Jesus, Those words are music to our ears, isn't it? Thy sins
are forgiven. How many of them? Well, there
are many, but they're all forgiven. And then, of course, they said
within themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins also? And
he said to thy woman, thy faith has saved thee, go in peace.
She'd been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. She'd
been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. She didn't even say a
word, did she? You notice that? She didn't pray
no prayer, and she didn't walk an aisle of the person's house. No, no. Thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace. She didn't even
speak about her faith. She's born again, again of the
Holy Spirit of God, granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God saved her without her
moving a muscle, right? Without a word of hers. Anything
on her effort. That's how God saves people.
That's how God saves sinners. It's a heart work, beloved. It's
a heart work. And he can save you. If you're
lost, he can save you without you moving a muscle. because
it's a heart work. Oh, may God give you faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you don't believe on him.
And for we who are the redeemed of the Lord, may we praise his
mighty name. May we think this week of the
great forgiveness of all our sins, the great debt that we've
been released from, all because of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, all because of the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So let us meditate upon that
this week. Let us think upon these wonderful things that we
looked at today. We've been released from all
our sins in Christ Jesus.