to be able once again to hear
that gospel that gives God all the glory, all the honor, all
the praise, all the recognition. I agree with Maurice. I don't
believe I've ever—I've been coming now probably around ten years
now—I don't believe I've ever seen it or heard it any better.
The preaching has just been superb, the singing just amazing. I mean,
amazing. Amazing. If you would turn with
me this morning to the book of Luke, chapter seven. I'm going
to begin it and read verses 36 down through verse 50. And I thought, well, maybe I
can work on this and work some type of outline, some way to
follow it. And the more I worked, the worse
it got. So what I'm going to do is just
go read these verses and then I'm just going to come back and
we'll just take each verse one by one. And maybe, maybe God
might enable us to see something from his word. What is it we
want to see? We want to see Christ. and him
crucified. Verse 36 says, And 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, when she knew that
Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box
of ointment. And she stood at his feet behind
him weeping. began to wash his feet with tears
and had wiped them with the hairs of her head. And she kissed his
feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee
which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying,
This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what
manner of woman this is that toucheth him. For she is a sinner.'
And Jesus answered and said unto him, I have somewhat to say unto
thee, and he saith, Master, say on." There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence
and the other only fifty. 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, Well,
I suppose he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou
hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and
he said unto Simon, and here's the title of my message, Seest
thou this woman? I entered into thine house, and
thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she hath washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss. But this woman, since the time
I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head withhold
thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with
ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto
her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that said it meet with
him, began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he said to the woman, Thy
faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. As I said, I want
to tell the message, seest thou this woman, but this woman and
this and the Pharisee, we're going to look at him also. They're
not the main ones in this story. Christ is the main one in this
story. As we've heard all weekend, Christ
is the theme of this book. Many years I carried this book,
many years I memorized this book, but many years I did not know
the author and the meaning and the theme of this book. And that's Jesus Christ and him
crucified. But in this story, I see two
types of people. I see the Pharisee, which I'll
speak about him in just a minute, who was a religious man, a self-righteous
man. Then this woman who, it doesn't
even mention her name. It just says she was a sinner.
And I'll tell you, this morning, you're in one or two groups.
You're either in with this woman who pictures a sinner who is
saved by the grace of God, who Christ forgives her sins, or
you're this self-righteous man. You say, well, I'm not self-righteous.
You're born self-righteous. I heard Brother Henry Mahan that
Brother Rutherford, several weeks ago, he said, he read somewhere
that Spurgeon said, or someone asked Spurgeon, said, Mr. Spurgeon,
is the worst thing of a man that hinders him from coming to God,
is it not his self, his wicked self? He said, oh no, it's not
his wicked self, it's his self-righteous self. And I want to give you,
Tally, the background of what was going on in this passage.
If you would look back to verse 29. You know, John had just been
cast into prison, and John sends his disciples to go and ask,
he said, are you the Christ? And Christ said, well, what were
you looking for when John came? He said, were you looking for
a man in soft raiment? What was you looking for? And
he said in verse 28, I say unto you, among them that are born
of women, There is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.
But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Now
watch this. And all the people that heard
him and the publicans justified God. How? They being baptized
with the baptism of John. They identified with that message. They identified with this Christ.
They identified with God's people. But look what the Pharisees did
in verse 30. And the Pharisees and the lawyers
rejected the counsel of God. And I tried to think, now what
is that counsel of God? It said they rejected the counsel
of God. One time I remember Paul, when
he was preaching to the Ephesian elders, he said, I am free from
the blood of all men. How? I have not shunned to declare
unto you the whole counsel of God. And it says here that these
Pharisees, these religious people, rejected the counsel of God against
themselves, being not baptized of Him. Is that not what religious
people do today? They reject the counsel of God,
the authority of God, the rule of God. They say, we will not
bow to that God. We will not bow to that gospel. So here's what was going on.
But one of these Pharisees in verse 36, one of the Pharisees
desired him, that he would eat with him. And I tried to read
behind many people to say, well, why did he invite Christ to come
to his house? I don't know. It's not explained.
I don't know. You know, sometimes people just
wanted to be entertained by Christ. They say, well, why don't you
come over to my house? And Christ went. when he was
invited. And Hawker said, if Christ came,
went to this man's house for being invited, how does God's
people invite Christ to come and worship and meet with us? And he said he went to that man's
house. Now look at verse 37. As he went
to this Pharisee's house and he sat down to meet, behold,
a woman in the city, which was a sinner. She knew that Jesus
sat at meat in the Pharisee's house and brought an alabaster
box of ointment. That Pharisee, Christ went to
his house, he was a self-righteous man. I don't want to get ahead
of myself, but listen, this man knew doctrine, but he did not
know God. Someone said, you don't get to
Christ by doctrine, you get to doctrine by Christ. Listen, you
can believe in the five points of grace in your head and still
not know Christ. The five points of Calvinism
is not salvation. Christ is salvation. He's the issue. This man was
a Pharisee. He was a religious man. He carried
his Bible. He had his morals. He had all
these things, but did not No God. And here this woman comes
to this man's house, and it says that she knew that Jesus was
at that man's house. How did she know that? I don't
know. I assume maybe she asked. It says, where is Jesus at today? Like I said, you're either in
one or two categories. Either you're under like this
religious Pharisee today who you think you're self-righteous
and God just owes you something, or you're like this woman, this
sinner who desires to be with Christ and she says, well, where
is Jesus at today? She says, that's where I want
to be. That's where I want to be found is where Christ is at.
Listen, I don't want a medal. But listen, this morning, if
you believe in God, if you trust God as your Lord and your Savior
and your Master, you will be found where the gospel is preached. You will ask, say, where is Christ
preached? Where is the gospel preached?
I know it is preached in Danville. And I love to see people when
they go on vacation, they say, well, where's a gospel church
at where I can go worship with God's people? That's what this
woman did. She said, I want to be where Christ is at. I'll show you something. A lot
of people try to determine when is a person saved. You know,
when I was in religion, everybody wanted to talk about days. You
know, if you look at this book, and I carried this book for years.
I've got a date wrote down right there, and I've tried to throw
this thing away, and I thought about just marking it out when
I made a false profession. Now, that's the way it was in
religion, because you had big on these dates. I'll never forget
something I heard this man say one time. Salvation is not moving
a muscle, but it's when God enables a sinner to believe and trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope. Why did this woman
come to where Christ was at? Something's already happened.
Something has already happened in this woman's heart. The Bible
says, there's none that seeketh after God. There's none that
understandeth. She's wanting to be where He's
at. Something's happened. And I'll tell you, God's people,
God's people want to be where Jesus Christ is at. They want
to be. They want to be. And she came
to this house. It didn't matter to her. She
knew that when she'd come to this religious man's house, she
knew how she'd be treated. And it says where it says she
was a sinner, this is a word that used to describe a prostitute
or a woman of ill recruit. She knew where Christ was at,
and she was going to make sure she would be there. And it said
she brought an alabaster box of ointment. Many opinions on this, because,
you know, there's other stories about another woman that brought
an alabaster box of ointment. They're saying whether they're
different women. I don't think that really matters that much.
But the point is, she came to Christ. She brought this alabaster
box, this thing of perfume. She brought it to Christ. Why? Christ had done something for
her. He had done something for her.
Now, a lot of people get this all mixed up. And religion would
say, well, she's going to come and do all these things to Christ
so that she can earn forgiveness. She's coming because Christ has
done something for her. As Mike sung, he's been so good
to me. He's been so good to me. In verse 39. No, verse 38. This woman said she stood at
his feet behind him, weeping. You know how that when they sat
down at tables, it wasn't like the way we sit. They kind of
sat in a reclining position and their feet was behind them. She
walks up, stands at his feet, takes the position of a servant,
takes the position of a slave, looking to her master. She stands
at his feet. Weeping. You might not be as
some people are, that weep visible tears, but your heart will weep. Weeping. As Dawn said Friday
night, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. She said she stands here weeping,
and began to wash his feet with tears, and he had wiped them
with the hair of her head, and she kissed his feet. and anointed
them with ointment. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken spirit, of a broken heart, and saveth them that be
of a contrite spirit." God humbles the proud, humbles. You can't make yourself humble.
Let me tell you, you can't make yourself humble if you ever see
yourself It's who you really are. And you see Jesus Christ
as He's revealed in this book. It humbles you and it puts you
in the dirt. A sinner. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. She began to wash his feet with
tears and dry them with her hair. And it said she kissed his feet. I read from someone that meant
to kiss fondly. to caress, to kiss again and
again and again. She's not like Judas, who came
to the garden, and when he came to Christ, he walked up and kissed
him on the cheek. She bows at his feet. And that's
where you see sinners, at the feet of Jesus Christ, in subjection
unto him. He's our Master. We didn't tell
him what to do. He didn't save us because we
let him save us. He did something. Now, when all this happened to
her, I don't know, but something's happened to this woman, to this
sinner. Look at verse 39. Do you see the response to this Pharisee? Before I get to that question, what prompted this woman to do
this? What prompted this woman to do this? Our Lord said, He
that has been forgiven of much loveth much. Much love springs
from much forgiveness. I asked you a question this morning.
Do you need forgiveness? Has God ever forgiven you? of
anything. Much love springs from much forgiveness. This was the evidence of forgiveness,
not the cause. You have a cause and an effect.
Something must cause something to happen. Something has caused
this woman to do this, to prompt her to come and bow at his feet. A work of grace had already been
done in her heart. It is not her tears, nor her
prayers, nor her attempted reform that caused her to come. God's
grace and Christ's blood is the cause. Everything else is just
the results of it. Faith and repentance are precious
fruits of the Spirit, but Christ and Christ alone is the cause
of salvation. Remember when Jonah was in the
belly of the whale, what did he say? Salvations of the Lord. Salvations of the Lord. Oh, that
this world would learn that. Oh, that this world would learn.
Now, this is an important issue. Some people want to try to make
everything else the issue, but this is an issue. How does a
man get forgiveness? How can God forgive a sinner?
Isn't that an important question? How can God forgive a sinner?
I want you to see and look at verse 39. It says, this Pharisee
took offense to this. Why? He wounded his pride. You know, he said, Here he said,
if this man was a prophet, he'd know who this woman was, because
these religious people wouldn't dare let a sinner touch them. They thought it would defile
them. And you know what offends religious people? When God, in
His free grace, shows free mercy to a sinner. That offends them. They're offended. They're offended
at this gospel that gives God all the glory. He knew who this
woman was, that she was a sinner. He knew this. And he was offended. Offended. He might have invited Christ
to his house, but he didn't think much of Christ. This religious
world thinks very little of our Christ. And in verse 40, And Jesus answered and said unto
him, and Jesus is going to use this parable. He said, Simon,
I have some what to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say
on. And he uses this illustration of a creditor and a debtor. He
said there was a certain creditor which had two debtors. Two people
were in debt. The one owed five hundred pence,
the other fifty. One owed ten times as much as
the other, but they both were in debt. As someone has already
said, I can't remember who it was. It was Donnie. He said last night, he talked
about people being dead. Some people are just dead more.
Some people just stink a little more. It's just like Christ. I mean, this Pharisee and this
woman that was a sinner, they both were debtors. They both
had a debt to pay. But listen, it's said in verse
42, and when they had nothing to pay, Nothing to pay. We all, by nature, are born sinners. The longer we live without Christ,
the bigger our debt becomes. Except we sin, we're not even
aware of it. He knows our thoughts are far
off. The thought of foolishness is sin. And this debt, it keeps
getting bigger and bigger. How is a man to pay this debt?
He can't. It says they have nothing to
pay. Now man in religion thinks, well, surely if I read my Bible
and I'm going to make up my mind, I'm going to read my Bible more,
I'm going to pray more, I'm even going to go to more Bible conferences,
I'm going to do all these things, now surely God's going to be
impressed. You can't pay for the least sin. As you quoted, Psalms 130, if
God should mark iniquity, who can stand? If God can charge
you with one sin, one sin, a damn our soul, one sin. But there
is forgiveness with thee. They had a debt, nothing to pay,
nothing to pay. Well, what about the debt? Is
God just going to forget about it? Oh, no. The debt must be
paid. Like I said, the question, how
can God forgive a sinner of this great debt? I'll tell you how.
Someone's got to pay the debt. The debt has to be paid. The
just for the unjust. And that's what he tells this
Pharisee. They was two debtors. They owe
the debt one or ten times as much, but they're both in debt.
And neither one of them has anything that they can pay to pay off
this debt. But it says, he frankly forgave
them both. Someone said where it said, he
frankly forgave them both, meant he freely forgave, forgave entirely
their whole debt without any merits. without any motives or
any conditions to be performed by them. But how? But purely
of His sovereign grace. How can God forgive a sinner?
How can God forgive you or forgive me? How can He? He said He forgave them both. And he says, Tell me, therefore,
which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, Well,
I suppose he to whom he forgave most. He says unto him, Will
you rightly judge me? You got that right. And he turned
to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? Do you see this woman? This wretched, wretched sinner. You see her? He said, I entered
into thy house, you gave me no water for my feet. That was just
customary. You know, they wore sandals when
you come to someone's house. I mean, just out of hospitality,
you'd wash your feet. He said, you didn't even give
me water for my feet. Thou gavest me no water for my
feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them
with the hair of her head. He said, you gave me no kiss,
but this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss
my feet. Christ uses this woman to reprove
this proud Pharisee. He said, you see this woman,
you see what she's doing. She's doing this because she's
been forgiven. The scriptures say the love of
God constrains me. As someone has already said,
our love for Christ is not even worth mentioning. It's not. But His love for sinners is.
We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us.
But I'll tell you this. If God ever does anything for
you, if He ever forgives you of your sin, And you see that
it's of His grace and His mercy, you'll love Him. Because it ain't
worth talking about. The love of God is shed abroad
in your heart. You know what religion is trying
to do? They're trying to get people to love God. They're trying
to get people to do something they just don't want to do. Trying
to get them to give and they'll make them feel guilty and all
these things. But it says, the love of God constrains me. And
I heard someone say one time, and I believe you can see it,
restrains me. Constrains me. Motivates me. What made her want to do this?
What made her came? You remember, there was another
example, I think, where a woman brought an alabaster box and
she poured it on Jesus' head. And they said, what a waste!
Didn't they? Said, what a waste. Said, we
could have took this and sold this and took the money and give
it to the poor. Now, that sounds like a good
motive, doesn't it? Said, what a waste. What a waste. People say, why would you want
to do, why would you want to serve a God like that? They say,
what a waste of time. And our Lord also says to the
Pharisee, My head withal, thou didst not anoint, but this woman
hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her
sins, which are many, and here are some good words,
are forgiven. forgiven, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same love us little. Like I said,
she didn't love in her thing everything that she did coming
to Christ and to earn her salvation. This was the results, not the
cause. Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven. She loved much. God is to be loved for His perfections,
apart from what He has done for us. But still it is proper that
our love should be increased by consideration of His goodness. Has God been good to you? Has God been good to you? Doesn't it say, the goodness
of God leads a man to repentance? The goodness of God. The grace
of God. When these people, and we do,
we feel that we are the chiefest of sinners, the worst of the
bunch. We feel under infinite obligation
to love God and our Redeemer, and that no expression of attachment
to Him can be beyond. What is due unto him? I say unto thee, Her sins, which
are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same love us little. And verse forty-eight,
and he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And many people run to many different
places. Some people run to a priest.
confess their sins and want to hear Him say, ìYouíre forgiven.î
Some people want to run to the front of a church and hear a
preacher say, ìYour sins are forgiven, but they have no right.î
But Christ said to this woman, ìThy sins are forgiven.î And
you know, if youíre like me, youíre faced with your sin every
day. And when you sin, your conscience
bears witness to it. And you feel guilty under the
weight of sin. And how are you to get forgiveness? I tell you, there's still part
of us that thinks that it's something that we do. And it's not. It's what he's done. He's the
only one that can look to you and tell you, thy sins are forgiven. He's the only one, and he's the one I want to hear
saved. And they that said it meet, so
this must mean that there were more here at this Pharisee's
house, and they began to say within themselves, who is this
that forgives sins? Who does he think he is? As we think about this for a
minute, now they think that they had the right to forgive sins,
didn't they? They thought they had the right.
The Pharisees, they thought they had the right to forgive sins,
but this man doesn't. You see, their little thoughts
of Christ, but he said right in front of all of them, thy
sins are forgiven. He displayed his Godhead. He
knew their very thoughts. He knew exactly, they didn't
have to say it, he knew exactly what they were thinking. I can't remember the Scripture
exactly where Christ went. They brought a man to Him and
all these religious people were standing around and Jesus told
them to stretch forth His hand. The first thing He said, Thy
sins are forgiven. Oh, they couldn't stand it. They
cannot stand free forgiveness. Thy sins are forgiven. And he said to the woman, Thy
faith, the faith that I have given thee, if you believe this
morning, true, genuine, saving faith, that's a work of God. That's a work of regeneration.
That's a work called the new birth. That's how a man believes. It's when God gives him the ability,
the faith, the new heart to believe, thy faith that he gave you. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works, lest any man could boast. It's not by higher learning.
It's not by getting books and reading. Now, that's good in
itself, but God must give you faith. I can't convince a man
that this book is real. I can't convince a man that God
is real. But if God ever opens your eyes
and gives you faith, you'll believe He's real. Thy faith has saved
thee. Go in peace. What's that saying? Everything's
alright. You know, people, I hear this
all the time. By the time they think somebody's
going to die, they're calling a preacher. They'll get that
preacher to talking to them, and they'll say, I made my peace
with God. They sure didn't. There was a
gentleman in our church. He had some health problems. Both of his lungs collapsed,
and he was in the hospital. Some of his kids are religious,
so they'd invited their preacher to come see their daddy. He had
enough sense in his head. He was in a lot of pain. But
the man wanted to come talk to him. He said, Do you mind if
I talk to you? And he said, I'd just rather you didn't. And when
I went to see him, he said, Preacher, was I wrong in doing that? And
I said, No, you is exactly right in doing that. You know why? He knew exactly what that man
was going to say. And he didn't want to hear it.
Christ is his hope. Not some other Jesus that wants
to do something and he just can't because they won't let him. He
did something for this woman. Why? He just wanted to. He crossed
her path. Look at that Pharisee. Just think
for a minute. Christ sat in this Pharisee's house. And he despised
it. Is that not a picture of religion?
They can't stand Christ. They don't want to hear about
atonement that atones. They don't want to hear about
a forgiveness that's based wholly and freely on God's grace. They
don't want to hear that. You can talk about something
else and all they'll listen. And I'll tell you, if you're
here today and you don't know Him, Christ is the only one that
can say and speak to your heart and say, Thy sins are forgiven. Go in peace. God bless you.