I heard a sermon last week that
set me thinking about our Savior's payment of our debt to God and
about a passage of scripture found in Luke chapter 7. I want
us to go back to that chapter tonight. There are three verses
here that I really didn't deal with as much as I should have,
perhaps, when we were looking at that earlier in our study
in Luke. Luke chapter 7, and let me give you the background.
Our Lord is in the house of Simon the leper, the Pharisee, who
provided a great feast for the master. Not so much because he
cared for the master, but because being a typical good religious
politician, he knew the master had a lot of disciples who followed
him, and he wanted to get in on a good thing. And while the
Lord Jesus was reclined at the table, a woman who was a notoriously
known sinner came into the house, having been forgiven by the Savior,
one whose sins the Son of God had put away, to whom he had
spoken mercy and peace, and one who seems to be the only of our
Lord's disciples who understood clearly what he said concerning
his death as her substitute and his resurrection and ascension
that was at hand. She came in and as she heard
the Master talking and thought of his great glory, his infinite
goodness, his great forgiveness, And to match the sacrifice he
was about to make on her behalf, she began to weep. She washed
his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head
and kissed his feet. And this Pharisee was indignant. He was just indignant. And the
Lord Jesus gives a parable to him. Luke chapter 7 verse 41. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. One of these men owed an enormous
debt, better than a year's wages. the other a large debt but not
so overwhelming. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly, the word is freely, when they had nothing
to pay, he freely forgave them both, the one who had an enormous
debt and the one who had a large but not overwhelming debt. Tell
me therefore, Which of them will love him most? Now, sin is set
before us in the Word of God in a number of ways. It is sometimes
compared to a loathsome, defiling disease like leprosy. A disease of uncleanness. A corruption. A corruption within that corrupts
everything without. Sometimes it is compared to death. We were born sinners, dead in
trespasses and in sins, without any life toward God, spiritually
dead, corrupting, decaying, rotting people. And here it's compared
to a debt. A debt, as you well know, is
an obligation, but an obligation that has not been met. It may
be a financial obligation or it may be a moral obligation.
We often speak of being indebted to someone simply because of
a good thing they've done for us or because of some relationship
that puts us in a moral obligation to them and we feel indebted.
How often do you hear folks who speak of being indebted to someone
the rest of their lives? Perhaps you find yourself indebted
to people in just that manner. I have some friends to whom I
am indebted for life, and I can never hope to satisfy the debt. And the debt's not a burden,
it's a delight. So debt is an obligation, moral
or financial, that must be met. Every one of us has been involved
in debt to God because we have not met our moral obligations
to Him who is our Creator, our ruler and our benefactor. Only
on background, not even considering his greatness, his glory, his
majesty, just the fact that he is our creator, our benefactor,
our ruler. We have a debt to God and debt
that we have not paid and cannot pay. But for God's elect, the
debt has been paid in full. Will you hear me? If you hear
nothing else I say, hear me children of God, the believing sinner,
the believing sinner, the believing sinner, do you believe on the
Son of God, owes no obligation before God's law. It's been paid in full. It has been paid in full. And the knowledge of that fact
puts us head over heels in debt to God with our lives. Head over heels in debt to Him
with our lives. I want to make seven plain, simple
statements to you about this matter of our debt and it being
paid in full. Here's the first one. We are
all debtors to God. The certain creditor mentioned
in this parable is without question the Lord God Himself, as the
parable found in the context in which it is found obviously
indicates. Our Lord is talking to this Pharisee
who probably did consider himself a slight sinner. He would be one of those fellas
like your relatives or your neighbors or mine. And if you challenged
him about his claim to perfection, his claim to righteousness, he'd
say, oh, don't get me wrong, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm
a sinner. After all, we are all sinners. We're all sinners. That's
just the kind of sinner this Pharisee thought he was. And
the other was a woman who knew she was a sinner. And she knew
that everybody else knew. Head over heels in debt. We are
all debtors to God because there are moral obligations due to
Him Debts of obedience and debts of satisfaction that we've not
paid. We all owe a debt of obedience
to God, as I said earlier, just because He is our creator, our
benefactor, our ruler. We live upon the bounty of heaven. Every breath of our nostrils,
is the gift of God. I mean as you sit here right
now and breathe. Take a breath. Go ahead. God
gave you that one. Take another one. God gave you
that one too. Life in this world, life outside
hell is the perpetual giving of God to you and to me. He it is. that have made us. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. We didn't make ourselves. That
means we don't belong to ourselves. We can't sustain life for ourselves. That means we don't belong to
ourselves. Like it or not, we're His creatures and He has a rightful
claim of ownership over us and rule over us. He is the living
God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. We owe our lives
to God Almighty. And He demands two things. Just
two things. Just two things. This is all
He demands of you. All He demands of me. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God And thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Love God with all your heart,
all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, and all your
being. That means Darwin Pruitt, God
Almighty, has a claim to the total life that is yours in this
world and mine. Nobody else. That lady sitting
beside you has no claim to it by comparison. Those children
and grandchildren, no claim by comparison. He alone has absolute
claim to our lives. Wait a minute. And the second
commandment is just like that, love your neighbor like yourself. God demands that we give ourselves
in relentless perfect love to those whom he has made in his
image and after his likeness. In a word, we owe God Almighty
a life of perfect righteousness, perfect obedience, perfect conformity
to His will. And any failure to render such
a life to Him involves us in horrible debt. That's how we
got in the mess we're in. The Lord God set Adam in the
garden. And He commanded Adam, He said,
you see everything I made? What did Paul say? He's given
us richly all things to enjoy. That's what He told Adam in the
garden. He said, look here. See those trees out yonder? You can
have all of them. You can use them for anything you want to.
Anything you want to. See those animals? Call them
what you want to. And you can have them for whatever
purpose you will. Do whatever you want to with them. They're
yours. Give it all to you. See that water? You can drink
it. You can bathe in it. You can
cook with it. You can flush your toilet with
it. You can do whatever you want to do with it. It's your water.
It's your water. Give it all to you. There's just
one thing right here. This one representation of my
right as God. This is one tree. This one tree. Don't you eat that tree. And
the day you eat that tree, you're going to die. And Adam chose
to rebel against God in utter contempt of God because he denied
God's right to be God when he understood that Eve had eaten
the tree and understood it involved her in death. Adam said, God,
you can't do that! And thus plunged the race into
sin. And this is what the sons of
Adam have been doing ever since. God, you've got no right to be
God. You've got no right to be God.
You don't have a right to tell me what to do. You don't have
a right to tell me where to go. You don't have a right to rule
over my life. You don't have a right to control me. I will
be my God. And so man is in debt. All of us. Oh, what a debt sin
is. Not only do we owe God righteousness,
we continually incur greater debt by continual sin. It is a debt that increases every
day. It is a debt of infinite proportion. It is beyond calculation. A debt
that will go on swelling as long as we live in this world and
even in eternity for the damned, a debt that continually goes
on swelling. It's a debt. that can never be
removed except by a power greater than ours. And our sin is a debt
with enormous consequences. You see, the issue of sin, it
matters not what the sin is. And I want to deal with this
in a minute. There are degrees of sin and guilt and iniquity,
no question about that. Degrees of condemnation, no question
about that. But sin, no matter what it is,
whether it's the sin of the Pharisee, or the sin of this woman of the
streets. Whether it's the sin of stealing
a watermelon out of a watermelon patch, or the sin of murder and
rape. Whether it's the sin of putting
on a false face, or the sin of homosexuality. Whatever it is, it all has one
common feature, making it a matter of infinite, infinite, infinite
evil. And that feature is every man
at heart with every expression of sin declares his hatred of
God. Sin says, God, if I could, I'd
kill you right now. That's sin. If I could, I'd kill
you right now. I would do away with God. And
sin involves consequences. The wages of sin is death. We are what we are. And the world
we live in is what it is. The cause of sin. death. All the pain, all the
sorrow, all the suffering that we endure in this world is but
the outward manifestation of death within. Spiritual death. Physical death coming. And it
is coming. Like it or not, we were kind
of Like we were talking about a little bit ago, everybody's
trying their best to make themselves look young and pretty. We just
can't stand the idea of getting old, driving folks insane. Just
can't stand the idea. But after a while, it doesn't
matter how many wrinkles you stretch out of your face, you're
still going to be laying in a coffin. That's just the way it is. We
are dying because of sin. And that wouldn't be too bad,
except for something else. eternal death and that I can't
even begin to imagine thinking about the second death everlasting
separation of soul and body from God and good into darkness and
depravity and torment everlasting confinement to what is in you, all around
you, under the horrid wrath of God. And you here who know our God,
and the man talking to you, we have a debt. It's not mentioned in our text,
but I can't think about not mentioning it to you. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. Let me remind you of it. Verse 19. What, know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Did you know God dwells in you?
Ron Wood, God Almighty has taken up residence in you permanently,
makes you His temple. This body, this temple is what
you have of God. And this is what that means. You are not your own. You are not your own. For you are bought with a price. The Son of God bought me. Lock, stock and barrel with His
precious blood. He bought me. Therefore, glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Celeste sang a hymn a few weeks
ago. Robert Murray McShane wrote it.
One line goes like this. 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. Head over heels in debt. Sin
is that which makes men and women debtors to God, and redemption
from sin makes us head over heels debtors to God. But sinners without
forgiveness. Sinners, yet under the wrath
of God. You, who yet live with your fist in
God's face, are like debtors in numerous ways. Debtors, did
you ever notice what a great propensity there is for debtors
to get more deeply in debt? Once you start down that slippery
slope, It gets easy to get more deeply in debt, whether that's
true or not, in reality with material, physical things. I'm
telling you this, every day we live, we continually increase
in sin and in iniquity. Sin, like a great debt, causes
people to be uneasy, uncomfortable. I've never had great debt. But
the little time, just what seemed to me to be overwhelming debts,
just crushing. How am I going to pay this? How
am I going to take care of this? You see, a person who is honest
recognizes that as long as he owes another man a dime, the
borrower is debtor to the lender and servant to the lender. And
so a person in debt is overwhelmed and uneasy with the thought of
debt. And when he realizes that the
debt is too great for him, I'll tell you what he'll do. He'll
quit answering the telephone. He tries to hide from his creditor. And men make desperate attempts
to hide from God. You who refuse to flee to the
refuge, Christ Jesus, You flee to another refuge. You're not
indifferent, I promise you. You either take refuge in Christ
or you take refuge from Christ, one of the two. Man forever makes
fig leaves and tries to hide himself in the trees of the garden
that God has made. Sinners, like debtors, in older
times are in great danger. I know that it doesn't happen
these days. These days, man's in debt. The law says, well,
you don't have to pay if you don't want to. All you got to
do is file bankruptcy. We'll take care of that. Wasn't always
that way, and it's not that way with God. Our Savior said, Agree
with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with
him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and
the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou
shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing. Now here's the second thing.
Some have greater debts than others. We all like to justify
ourselves and things, and especially when a fellow has gotten caught
red-handed or something, he'll say, well, one sin, sin, sin,
sin. And in a sense, he's right. But
here our Lord tells us that one of these debtors owed 500 pence,
the other 50. Obviously in the parable, he
is referring to this woman Simon looked at it as a sinner. He
said, if this man had been a puppy, he didn't know this woman was
a sinner. He was saying that she owes 500 pence. And the other
owes 50. Speaking to this Pharisee's opinion
of himself, I'm certain. The fact is, some sins are greater
than others. And involve greater consequences
than others. Both in this world and in the
world to come. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. I
want you to see this clearly. You remember what our Lord told
Pilate in John 19? He said, Thou couldst have no
power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.
Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee, Judas, hath the
greater sin. Judas has a far greater sin who
kissed me on the cheek than Pilate who writes out my execution order.
Those are the words of our Savior. Look here in Matthew 11, verse
20. Then began he to upbraid the
cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they
repented not. Now here is the reason for upbraiding
them. He performed mighty works among them, and by those mighty
works seized opportunity to declare who he is and what he had come
to do. But they repented not, and he
upbraids them. He abrades them for their unbelief. Is that what he's talking about
there? Unbelief. Now listen to what he says. Woe
unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment
than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven,
shalt be brought down to hell, for if the mighty works which
have been done in thee had been done in Sodom." What a word! What a word! Our Lord is rebuking
these folks now for unbelief because they refused to believe
Him as He stood before them and declared Himself to them. He
said, if the folks in Sodom, those moral degenerate perverts,
for whom the whole society of moral degenerate perverts has
been from that day to this known as Sodomites, look at what it
says, it would have remained to this
day. They would have repented. He
said, if I had told the Sodomites what I told you, If the Sodomites
had seen what you've seen, they would have repented. But I say
unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment than for thee. Looks to me like our Savior has
a different attitude towards sin than we do. Has a different
attitude by which he measures sin. Every sin is an infinite,
immeasurable evil, great enough to ruin us forever, but there
are some sins that have a special venom and vileness of offense
against God. Now, the Word of God nowhere
teaches that there are degrees of reward in heaven, because
heaven is altogether the reward of grace. And there are no degrees
of holiness before God. Either you are or you ain't.
That's all there is to it. Either you're righteous or you're
unrighteous. No in-between. But the scriptures do declare
and constantly declare that there are degrees of punishment among
the damned in hell because divine judgment is always proportionate
to the one to whom it is given. Always proportionate to the thing
that's being punished. God doesn't measure sin's evil
by our yardstick. Who are the greater sinners?
It was just exactly opposite of what this leper thought. Just
exactly opposite of what this Pharisee thought. Just exactly
opposite of what you and I think by nature. Just exactly opposite
of what the whole world thinks. Who are the greater sinners?
Let's see. Turn to James chapter 1. Let me show you three examples. Those who are placed in positions
of greater trust and influence, that misuse it and abuse it,
be they politicians or preachers or teachers or parents, Those
who are placed in positions of influence and trust, but abuse
it and misuse it, are the greatest sinners. James 1. My brethren,
be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater
condemnation. Remember what Paul told Timothy,
he said, give thyself Holy to the Word and to the doctrine,
to the work of the ministry. For in doing this, thou shalt
both save thyself and them that hear thee." Oh, now listen to
me. Listen to me. Sam Wall, you are
responsible for the influence you have over everybody you influence. The influence for good or evil.
Look at first John chapter 15. Those who have been given greater
light, as our Lord spoke to those in Matthew 11. They've been given
greater light, but they refuse to walk in the light God gives
them. You've been hearing the gospel of God's free grace. You've
heard the Word expounded. You've heard it expounded by
faithful men from all over the world. You've been instructed
and taught and instructed and taught. You have the Bible laying
in your lap. Other folks in other parts of
the world have never heard the good news. Those who've been
given greater light, but refuse to walk in that light, they shall
have the greater condemnation. John 15 verse 22. If I had not
come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. He's not saying
they wouldn't have been sinners if I hadn't spoken to them. It
would be better for them to stay gone. He is saying this particular
thing of them refusing me, they had not had. But now they have
no cloak, no covering for their sins. He that hateth me, hateth
my Father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had had no sin. But now have they both seen and
hated both me and my Father." Is he saying that unbelief, the
willful blinding of our eyes and stopping of our ears, is
the hatred of God? That's what he's saying. Look
at 1 John chapter 5. Who is the greater sinner? The
sodomite or the pew sinner? Who's the greater sinner? The
prostitute or the preacher who misleads people? Who's the greater
sinner? The thief And robber and murderer are the
man who hears and recognizes what he hears
as truth and says, no, I will not have the Son of God. 1 John
5, verse 10. He that believeth on the Son,
the Son of God, hath this witness in himself. He that believeth not God. Would somebody read that out
loud for me? Has made him a liar. Made him a liar. How's that? Now Alvin, if I told you something,
and you looked me square in the eye and said, I don't believe
that. You might as well ball up your fist, spit in my face
and knock me down and say you're a liar. It's the same thing.
The same thing. God's given us His Word. Revealed His Son. Shown Him to
us clearly in the pages of this book. No, I won't believe Him. I don't believe God's Word. I
don't believe God's record. Make God a liar. Our Lord calls
that blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The denial of God's righteousness.
It is the despising of the grace of God. Spurgeon made this comment
on this passage. This is the sin which above all
others drops the black wax upon your death warrant and sets the
seal of divine wrath there. Unbelief. Now here's the third
statement. The Word of God declares plainly
that the sin debt must be paid. Must be paid. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Let me ask you something. I speak
to you particularly who sit where you are and do not believe. Do
you have any doubt, whatever, that that's so? God's going to
send you to hell. God's going to send you to hell.
Did you hear me? God's going to send you to hell.
It's written in this book. And your conscience screams it
all the time. He's written it on your heart,
and you're not going to escape from it. Not going to happen.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But when you die, and God
casts you forever headlong into hell, because you fully deserve
the torments of His wrath, it's not going to change your nature. You will just continue in your
rebellion and hatred and cussing of God forever. And His wrath
will be unceasing forever. Forever. Here's the fourth thing. We have
nothing to pay. God demands righteousness. You
know He does. He said, Be ye holy if I am holy.
Is that what He said? He said, Be ye perfect, as I
the Lord your God am perfect. God demands perfect righteousness. And you can't perform it. God
demands satisfaction. And you can't give it. All the
crocodile tears you can cry won't make up for your sin. All the
repenting and turning of your life you do won't make up for
your sin. It might keep you out of the penitentiary, but it won't
keep you out of hell. You can never atone for your sin by all
your religious good works and moral good works that can be
performed from this day forward. It can't be done. Even the suffering
of your soul in hell will never make up for sin. It can't be
done. We've got nothing to pay. The
sooner we learn this, the better. Only when we realize. That we
are debtors, head over heel debtors, insolvent beggars with nothing
to call our own except sin and hell. That's all that belongs
to you and all that belongs to me. The sooner we learn that,
the better. And until we learn that, we will
never cry out like Augustine of old, Lord, I've done enough
to undo me forever. But thou hast yet enough to make
me happy forever. I acknowledge my debt. That's
all I can do. That's all I can do. Oh, cross the book and draw the
red lines of Christ's blood over the black lines of my sins. Only when you know you've got
nothing to pay. Will you look to Christ to pay
your debt? And that brings me to this fifth
thing. The only way our sin debt can be paid is by a surety. A surety of infinite worth and
value. Someone who willingly assumes
total responsibility for our soul. And bless God, Christ is
that surety. Surety of a new covenant, a better
covenant. A surety whose covenant is sealed,
ratified, and effected to us and for us by His everlasting
atonement, by His precious blood. The Lord Jesus Christ and He
alone is such a surety. Now learn this. by the sacrifice
of himself. He paid the debt. He paid the debt. Years ago,
there was a soldier in the army of Nicholas the Great who had
incurred terrible, terrible debt. Terrible debt. He came from a
noble family, but the young man had incurred horrible debt because
he was addicted to gambling. One night in his utter despair,
when he started to calculate what he owed and realized he
had no ability to pay, exhausted with despair and exhausted in
the late hours of the night, And he calculated everything.
He drew lines under it. And he said, who can pay such
a debt? He put an exclamation point by
it and fell asleep at his desk. Early in the morning, just about
daylight, Nicholas was going through the troops and he saw
this young man slumped over sleeping at his desk. saw that question
and that horrible debt, and he wrote one word, Nicholas. Will you hear me? Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, is He who has paid the debt in full. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. And by His infinite sacrifice,
He made an infinite satisfaction to divine justice. Once I sunk
in dark despair, exhausted in despair, and I cried
in my soul, Who can pay all this debt? And God calls me to look yonder
to Him who hung in my stead upon Calvary's tree. One word will
do, Christ. Oh my soul, the God of glory is so fully satisfied with the
sacrifice of His Son, with His righteousness and His atonement,
that the God of glory declares. And Lindsay, if He declares it,
it's so. If He declares it, it's so. that you owe nothing. No sin ever be charged to you. No crime. No offense. No infraction
of the law. No failure of righteousness. What does God say concerning
those people for whom Christ lived and died? Righteous. Holy. What about Burl Hart? Never said. Never said. We sometimes say
justified just as if I'd never said. That ain't it. Never said. Never said. That's what God says.
No said. Gone. Gone. Completely forever
gone. And let me show you one more
thing. Look back at our text. The Lord Jesus in verse 42 asked
this Pharisee, tell me, which of them will love most? Simon presumed he had been forgiven
a little debt, fifty pence, and he was showing great love for
the Savior because he had a party for him. He entertained him at
his house. And this woman didn't cease to
kiss his feet and anoint him. and worship Him. And Simon answered
and said, I suppose he to whom he forgave most. And the Lord Jesus said unto
him, Thou hast rightly judged. Here's the last thing. Sinners who have experienced the forgiveness of great debt by God's free grace
through Christ's precious blood, love the Redeemer. We love Him because He first
loved us. Amen.