I want to read beginning with
verse 36 in Luke chapter 7. Listen carefully to this story
that we're about to present to you today. 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, sat down to have a meal.
And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner woman, she
was notorious for breaking the seventh commandment. 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 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 when the Pharisee which had
bitten 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
answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. And the Lord Jesus in verse 41
and 42, listen to these words, says, there was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, He frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him the most?' Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast
rightly judged. 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, 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 that 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. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she
loved much. Now her sins were not forgiven
because she loved much, but she loved much because her sins had
been forgiven. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with
him began to say within themselves, who is this that forgive us sins
also? And he said to the woman, thy
faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Go in peace. Now, the Lord willing, I'd like
to speak primarily on verse 41 and 42 this morning, but I'd
like to preface my remarks by saying a few things that I think
are appropriate. Number one, let me say that many
places of business in this world have some gimmick to draw customers
in to their place of business. Some offer a chance to win a
prize. Some offer a door prize in order
to get the public to frequent their place of business. Others
offer maybe some popular product at a very discounted price. Or they may get some popular
celebrity or athlete to come to their store for a day, and
they will spend their money to do this because they know that
such an attraction will draw in a large crowd. of customers. Such gimmicks are very common
and they're legitimate. They're very legitimate in the
business places of this world. But in our day, it has become
quite common for churches to do the very same thing. professing
congregations of believers to do the very same thing. Most
churches have a special gimmick, at least once a month and some
even once a week, to entice people into coming into their services. And you might have heard or read
about some of these gimmicks. They have what they call, maybe,
Pack the Pew Sunday. Pack the Pew Sunday, or they
have a Family Day, or they have Youth Sunday, or an Old Fashioned
Day, or they have Break the Record Day. I read of one congregation
who would go out on Saturday and they would break up bunches
of bananas and go throughout the community and hand out these
bananas, these singular bananas, and then tell the people to all
come on Sunday to church so the bunch will all be back together
again. What a gimmick that is. Well,
I've heard of churches who have buses that hide money. They take tape and put a dollar
bill under some of the seats in the bus in order to fill the
buses with youngsters. and they give away door prizes
and one church i remember uh... advertising that they were going
to give away a pony on a certain sunday and somebody some some
uh... very fortunate uh... child was
going to win uh... this pony and so just come be
there just that's the main thing be there and one preacher i remember
reading about said that he would eat a goldfish if there were
a certain number of people present in the congregation. Well, all
of this is done in the name of evangelism. It's all done in
the name of the Lord. It's all done in the name of
Christ. And everyone has a big time.
poking fun, as it were, at God. But let me say that all such
devices of Satan are blasphemous and a mockery of the true gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such actions by churches and
preachers are, I believe, an admission that the gospel that
they preach is weak, that is inadequate and insufficient,
and the God that they serve is incapable of getting men to worship
Him without tricking them into coming to the service. The Lord
has given His church, I believe, but one drawing card. And you don't want to ever forget
this as long as you live. This is God's business that we're
about. This is the Lord's business.
This is not something that we're to bring our minds to and that
we're to connive and to figure out some way to help God in this
work. The Lord has given His church
but one drawing card to attract sinners to Himself And that attraction
is the simple preaching of the gospel of redeeming grace. And in this place, we will continue
to preach the old gospel of Christ, crucified in the fullness of
His saving glory, and leave it to Him to draw sinners to Himself. Now that's what this church here
is about. We're not about to put on any kind of a show in
order to entice people to come in and to gather with us in this
place. We believe God can do His work.
That's what we believe. And we believe that God is at
work. And many times we can't see what
the Lord is doing, but that doesn't mean He isn't doing something.
God is doing His work through the preaching of His Word. Now
then, I want to talk a little bit this morning about this story
First of all, you see that there was a Pharisee that was involved
in it. Now these Pharisees are the religious
people of our Lord's day, and they were very strict religious
people. And our Lord said, of these Pharisees
in Luke chapter 16 and in verse 15, and he said unto them, Ye
are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
hearts. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. These Pharisees,
religious folks, they always going about justifying themselves
in the sight of God. And so this Pharisee, he asked
Jesus to come home with him to eat a meal. And while they were
sitting in the house and while they were at the table, there
was a woman in the city and she heard about the Lord Jesus being
there in that Pharisee's home. And so she came and came right
in. It was in, I suppose, at a time
when it was very warm and they had openings in the walls where
the air could come through and circulate and so it was no problem
for this woman just to walk right in. And the scripture says in
verse 37, Behold a woman in the city which was a sinner. And
she knew Jesus was there, and so she came into the Pharisee's
house and brought a box of ointment. And she stood at his feet behind
him, weeping, 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. This woman had been touched by
the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of Christ, and the
Spirit of forgiveness that was in our Lord Jesus Christ. Her
heart had been broken over her sin, and she had been brought
to a place where she had to manifest the love of her heart toward
her Savior. toward a Redeemer, toward the
only one who could pardon her sin and put it away. She had
love in her heart and it had to be manifested. She could not
keep it back and so she came right in to this religious man's
house And this religious man, he had no love for Christ. He
had no desire toward him. He had never felt the healing
of the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here she is. She comes right in. And now when
the Pharisee that had asked Jesus in his home, he said within himself,
this man, speaking of Jesus, if he were a prophet, if he really
were a prophet. You see, he didn't believe that
Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He did not believe that he was
the Son of God. He didn't believe that he'd come
down from heaven, that he was God's bread who had come down
from heaven and God's Son. And so he said, well, this man,
if he would have... He would have known what manner
of woman this is, that's touching him, that's kissing his feet,
that is anointing him with this ointment, and wiping his feet
with the hairs of her hair. He would have known she was a
sinner, if he'd have been a prophet. But see, the Lord Jesus, in verse
40, he answered and said to him, Simon, he says, I've some what
to say unto thee. You see, the Lord Jesus knew
this woman. He knew she was a sinner. He knew exactly all about her. The scripture says, he needs
not that any man should testify of man. He knows what is in man. The scripture says that all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of the God with whom we have
to do. God knows all about you and God knows about your sin.
He's very much aware of your sin. He knows about it. And so
the Lord Jesus said, I got something to say to you, Simon. And Simon
said, Master, say on, say on. And I hope this morning if you're
here and the Lord speaks to your heart, that you inwardly in your
heart will say, Master, say on. The Lord says, I got something
to say to you out of this portion of the word of God. Master, say
on, speak to me. Tell me what it is that you want
to tell me in my heart. Say it to me that I might be
able to understand it. Well, the Lord Jesus, here he
told the story about these two, he says there was a certain creditor,
there's two debtors. And the one, he owed 500 pence
and the other owed 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, nothing to pay, nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me therefore which one of
them will love him the most. Now what the Lord Jesus is saying
here, Simon, you don't understand your heart. You don't know your
heart. And there's two things about
every religious man, every individual who's just religious, not a Christian,
but just as religious as all get out. Number one, they don't
know their own heart. You know the Bible teaches in
Matthew chapter 15 that our heart by nature is a cesspool of iniquity. That we're all sinners. And that
we're sinners through and through. We're sinners by nature. We're
sinners by choice. And we're sinners by practice.
We're all sinners. and the Bible teaches that clearly.
The second thing that a religious man does not understand, and
this man didn't understand, he did not understand the strictness
and the severity and the holiness of God's law. He did not understand
it. He thought that the law was something
that he could just, you know, he could just be a little religious
and he could tie something on his hand here that had prayers
on it or some scriptures on it and carry it around in public
and that would make him righteous before God. He didn't realize
that there had to be some heart work done. Something had to take
place inside of his soul that he had to be born again, that
he had to be touched by the hand of God and healed from all of
his sin in order that he might be able to be acceptable in the
eyes of God. So he did not know his own heart
and he did not know the strictness and severity of God's holy law. Now, beloved, I want to say this
to you this morning. It's not that we need, you know,
as we read this story here, someone might get the idea that what
we need to do is commit more sin so when God forgives us,
we'll love them more. Well, beloved, that is not taught
here in these verses. That's not what this is talking
about. The problem is not that we need to go out and commit
more sin so we'll have more to be forgiven of, so that we'll
love more when we are. The problem is that we don't
know our true self right now. If we knew our true self, then
we would always agree that we are the 500 pence sinner. that
we're the 500-pence sinner, that we're as guilty before God as
we can be. And I want us to get into this
this morning, and I trust that the Lord will be pleased to help
us with this story. Now, this one, as we said, this
one debtor, he owed 500 pence and the other owed 50. So we
have these two debtors that are in debt to one creditor. and
their differences in the guilt of sins and in the degrees of
men's criminality before God. It would be very unfair and unrighteous
to say that all men are exactly alike in the extent of their
transgression against God. It'd be wrong to do that. The
man who is moral and sober and industrious, maybe he is a 50-pence
sinner. or a 50-pence debtor, even though
he's just a natural man. He's not saved, but he's a natural
man that is moral and sober and upright in his community, and
he does right by his family the best he knows how. This man maybe
would be classified as a 50-pence sinner as compared with that
vicious, murder, or child molester, or that drunken blasphemer whose
debt is written at 500 pence. You see, there's a difference
between the measure of guilt between men. Our Lord here makes
this distinction between sinners. And there are distinctions among
unconverted men. Sinners differ from each other.
But let me ask you this morning, how great a sinner are you? How great a sinner this morning?
Only God knows for sure. about how great we are as far
as sinners is concerned, but how do we perceive ourselves
and how we look upon ourselves when God does save us will determine
how much we love the Lord, how much we love our Lord. But I call particular notice
to this fact that though there was one point of difference And
that was they one owed 50 pence and the other owed 500. That
there was just this one point of difference in the two debtors.
There were three points that were similar. Three points of
similarity. Notice, if you will, first of
all, they were both debtors. They both owed a debt. Both of
them did. And so all men have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Be it little, be it much. All
are debtors toward God. Second, they were both alike.
They were bankrupt. Neither of them could meet his
debt. Neither could pay his debt. Neither could pay his bill. The
man who owed 50 pence could no more pay than he who owed 500
pence, so that they were both insolvent debtors. But what a
mercy it is that they were alike also in the third point. When
they had nothing to pay, their creditor, listen to this, when
they had nothing to pay, their creditor frankly forgave them
both. Now we're all alike in the first
two points. No question about it, everybody
here is alike in the first two points. And oh, that we might
all be alike in the last point, that our Lord may grant to every
one of us free remission of sins according to the riches of His
grace through Christ Jesus. All that we could be like in
that third point. But I'm afraid this morning that
there are those among us whose sin has not yet been canceled,
whose sin has not yet been put away, whose sins have not been
remitted, whose sins have not been forgiven, whose sins are
not under the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
Jesus is exalted on high to give. remission of sins. And there is forgiveness with
God, the Bible says. He delighteth in mercy. He can
cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea that they may
not be mentioned against us anymore forever. And the Lord can say
unto us, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. He can speak those words to our
hearts today. Well, The first thing that I
want to talk about at this point in this message is their bankruptcy. They had nothing to pay. They
had nothing to pay. Now, it's necessary that we establish
these points, and I want you to listen carefully. I'll not
keep you too long this morning, but I want you to listen carefully
to what we have to say. They were bankrupt. They had
nothing to pay. This was their condition. They
were unquestionably in debt. Their debt could not be denied.
They couldn't deny it. They had nothing with which to
pay their debt. They undoubtedly turned their pockets inside out,
looking, but they had no assets. They were brought to the last
extremity. They were reduced to absolute
beggary. They had nothing with which to
pay. Meanwhile, their creditor was
pressing them for settlement. I believe that that idea lives
here in the very heart of this text. He said, these claims must
be met. Somebody's got to pay this debt. The time for payment, it's come.
And it found them without a dime to their name. It was a wretched
condition for them to be found in, as it is a wretched condition
for a sinner to be found without any merit, without any righteousness
to give to God, without any way to pay his sin debt toward the
Lord. And notice, if you will, that
this parable sets forth the condition of every man in a state of nature. We're all, by nature and by practice,
plunged into debt. Somebody said, well, how did
it happen? How did it happen that we got into debt? Well,
as God's creatures We from the very first owed Him the debt
of obedience. We are bound to obey our God.
It is He that made us and not we ourselves. We were bound reverently
to recognize our Creator and affectionately to worship Him
and dutifully to serve Him. This is an obligation so natural
and reasonable that nobody can dispute it. We got a debt that
we must pay to God. If you receive from Him, breath
in your nostrils and the food you eat, the clothes you wear,
then you're bound to him by the ties of gratitude and should
do his will. You should serve him and you
should obey him. Now, but we have not done his
will as the old confession says. We have left undone the things
we ought to have done. And so we have come into his
debt. We've come into the debt of our
God. Romans 3 and 23, all have sinned,
come short of the glory of God. Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. There's not one among us apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man himself, but what owes
to God's law a debt which eternity cannot fully meet, even though
it be filled with agonizing regrets on our part. Oh, the tears of
old age cannot bring back the neglected opportunities of youth.
And the agonizing regrets of a man if he dies and goes to
hell will never, never, never wipe out the debt that he owes
God. A life of forgetfulness of God
and the breaking of God's law must be recompensed by a future
life of punishment. God must punish sin. The debt has to be paid. Somebody's
got to step up that's got the ability to satisfy your debt
and to pay your debt in full. Now that's where we stand. Can
you rest? While this is your condition
before God? You owing a debt to God and He
has your breath in His hands? And you, when you lie down at
night and go to sleep, you can only wake up in the morning if
He wakes you up? Can you face this? You owe God
a debt! And that debt is going to be
called in ere long. And can you rest? Well, we're
debtors. The debt is overwhelming. The consequences are tremendous.
We're unable to rectify this condition. We're utterly unable
to make any amends for this. We cannot do it in our own strength. We have not the ability. Somebody
said, well, if a man doesn't have the ability to pay his debt,
then he surely will be exonerated from the duty of paying his debt. That is not so. Just because
you can't pay a debt doesn't mean that you don't have the
debt to pay. Doesn't mean that you ought to
go around acting like you don't owe it. You owe the debt, my
friend, and because you don't have the ability to keep the
law, it does not mean that you're not obligated to keep it. Somebody
says, well, I don't have the spiritual ability. And you're
right. You say, well, I just can't,
I'm not perfect enough to keep God's holy law. And it's true.
You're not. But that does not exonerate you
and it does not mean that you don't have the obligation. You
got the obligation. And if you got a bill, you can
go down to the bank if you want to and tell them, I can't pay
it. But they're not going to let you off the hook just because
you tell them you can't do it. That's not good enough. It won't
get you by. When he calls us to account,
as he surely will, we'll not be able to give him an answer.
And the answer, I just couldn't do it, is not going to be acceptable. It's not going to work. We cannot
excuse ourselves. We cannot excuse ourself. We're without excuse. Our mouth
is closed. We're guilty before God. We're
in debt to God and we cannot pay. I remind you of this, that
to cancel the debt we owe to God, we must pay it all. God demands, righteously demands
from us, the absolute full payment of our debt. It's not too much
to ask, and He demands full payment. If you're guilty of one infraction,
and here's the Ten Commandments, and they stand up in your face,
and they point at you, each one of them, and the Bible says,
and we say it over and over again, one infraction of the law, break
the least commandment, and you're guilty of every one of them.
You're guilty of all of them before God. And that's the way
God looks upon you. And so every one of them commandments
stands this morning before you, and they point at you and say,
you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty. Ten times over,
you're guilty. You're charged with these commandments,
and you've broken them, and you're guilty of them, and you owe a
debt to me. Now, a perfect obedience to a
perfect law is that which is required by the justice of God. Did you get it? A perfect obedience
to a perfect law is what is demanded by a thrice holy and just God. Can we pay it? Well, these debtors
could not, neither can we. Did you know that there are those
that have been in hell? for over a thousand years, and
their debt is still not discharged? Do you know that you can go to
hell and suffer for all eternity, and never will your debt that
you owe to God, never will it be paid? On every chain that
binds a sinner in hell, there is written the words, Forever!
Forever, forever you'll suffer in the lake of fire, but there
will be no deliverance because the debt will never be satisfied. It'll never be paid. You can
suffer for all eternity and the debt never be discharged. Did
you know that past sins cannot be removed and paid for by future
carefulness and by future obedience? Somebody said, well, I'll do
better, preacher. I'll do better in the future. I'll turn over
a new leaf. Things will be different with me from today on. My friend,
you cannot wipe out. You can go down to the bank and
you say, well, listen, I'll never borrow any more money from you.
I know I owe you now. I'll never borrow any more. But
I can't pay what I owe. Well, that's not going to change
the situation. It won't change the picture. They'll say, well,
no, it's true. You're not going to borrow any
more money from us. But your debt still stands. And you may
be free of debt the rest of your life. But you cannot pay what
you already owe, and God will not take future carefulness and
obedience. for your past sins and mistakes. The old song said, could my tears
forever flow? Could my zeal no respite know? All for sin could not atone. Christ must save and Christ alone. Now another temptation for a
man who's in debt is to ask for more time, ask for more time
to pay up. He wants more time. Isn't it
something that a man, he's in debt, he can't pay, he'd like
to have an extension. He wants extension. He wants
to put off the date when the note's gonna be called in. He wants to put it off. We cannot
pay any one of the debt today, but we think we can. If we just got a little more
time, we think that down in the future, we can pay the debt.
Well, this temptation, with this temptation, Satan, I believe,
has destroyed multitudes of souls, tempting them to ask for more
time, for more time. Just give me some more time,
Lord. That's all I need. I'll turn over a new leaf. I
will change things. Give me more time, Lord. Now,
if you're bankrupt today, let me give you what is your best
wisdom. If you're a bankrupt sinner and you can't pay what
you owe God, face the matter of your soul. Face it. Face it
in a Bible way. Your soul is the most important
matter you have. on hand at this time, your never-dying
soul. Your soul is going to live somewhere
for all eternity. When you're dead, your soul will
still be living, either in eternal happiness or in endless woe. It is the most important matter,
and so give it First place, give it the place of its true importance. Settle this business with God. Give up all attempts to pay because
you have nothing to pay with. You will never, my friend, you
will never pay what you owe. Plead absolute poverty. Appeal and cast yourself upon
the mercy of God. Now, let me just point out in
the next place, I want you to look at a word here. And that
word in verse 42 is when. Look at this word when. And when
they had nothing to pay. When they had nothing to pay.
Now this is the connection between bankruptcy and free discharge. When they had nothing to pay. Now there is a time when pardon
comes and that time is when self-sufficiency goes. when it's gone. If any person in this place has
in his own conscience come to the point that he feels that
he has nothing to pay with, then he's come to the point at which
God is ready to forgive him. Now everybody in this room that
has eternal hope in their soul, everyone here that is a believer,
everyone here that has experienced the grace of God in their heart,
everyone here who is truly born again, who is God's child of
faith, they all had to come. to this point. Every one of them,
before they got a discharge from their debt, they had to come
to this place. This place where they, when,
when they had nothing to pay with, when they could not raise
a dime, when they could not satisfy God upon their own, they could
not meet his demands, when And that's when they got their discharge. Whether you're a 50-pence sinner
or a 500-pence sinner, you're not going to get a discharge. You had nothing to pay. Have
you ever been lost? Well, God only saves people who
get lost. Who are done trying to save themselves. Give it up. would be if somebody's there
to rescue you is quit struggling and quit fighting and quit trying
to help yourself and abandon yourself into the hands of your
rescuer. And that's what I'm trying to
say. There is one, thank God, who can deliver and will deliver.
And so the Lord promises that one, he that will own his debt
and confess his own incapacity to meet it shall find that God
is there to quickly blot out all of his sin. A confession
of your insolvency is what's called for, and you're never
going to get an SS degree from God until you admit your insolvency. An SS degree is sinner saved,
sinner saved, sinner saved, and God only saves sinners. Only
saves sinners. Are you insolvent? Will you give
it up? Will you quit trying to raise
what you owe when you're brought to your own worst? You shall
see the Lord at his best. Why so? Because it is in utter
destitution that men vow you a discharge. This woman was that
way. I mean she was a sinner woman
and everyone knew it and it was when that she was brought to
her very end that God saved her and then she showed her love
by the way she treated the master. Now if God were to give mercy
to a man before he knew his sense of sin or feel his need of mercy,
he would not value mercy as he should. You think God ought to
have mercy on somebody that doesn't know the value of mercy? You
think God ought to save somebody who don't care whether they're
saved one way or the other or not? You think that God's ever
going to come and just give you everything He's provided in His
Son until in your heart there's a feeling of needs be? He's not
going to do that. God's going to bring you down.
Listen to me. The Lord's going to bring you down when the old
account is big. And whenever you can't settle
it, it's a blessed thing to see the Lord right, canceled. Canceled. And to see one's debt drowned
in the sea of the love of God. Christ is precious when sin is
bitter to the heart because it is only when we have come to
our last cent, as it were, that we really will look up to God's
provision, look up to Christ. If we have anything else to look
to, then we'll never look to Christ. As long as we have one
rusty counterfeit penny hidden away in the chain's purse, we'll
not have the riches of redeeming love. God scripts men and women,
in order that He might clothe them with the garments of salvation. God breaks us in order to make
us. We're emptied in order that God
may fill us with that, His precious Spirit and His precious Son.
When we cannot give, then God will forgive. If you have anything
you can trust to of your own, you'll be lost. when they had
nothing to pay. Listen to the words again of
the poet, "'Tis perfect poverty alone that sets the soul at large. While we can call one might our
own, we get no full discharge. But let our debts be what they
may, however great or small. As soon as we have naught to
pay, our Lord forgives us all." Isn't that wonderful? That's
blessed. Well, lastly, let me say just
a few things here about the discharge. He frankly forgave them both. Well, does that remind you, is
this not a picture of our Lord and of His grace? Is
that not a picture? He frankly forgave them both?
No. These two debtors, and picture if you will, here's a man, he
owes his creditor. one of these, this 500-pence
center, 50-pence center, and he don't sleep the night before.
He's got to go see him the next morning. Got to face him. The debt's been called in. He
don't sleep all night. And then he gets on in his transportation
on the next morning and Monday morning and he goes down to the
bank, you see, and he's trembling from head to foot. And he's going
into the office to see his creditor. And one day God's going to seize,
lay hold of you and you're going to begin to feel life slipping
out of your body. And you know that shortly you're
going to wake up and you're going to face a holy God at the judgment. And it's coming and life will
soon be gone, it'll soon be over. And you're going to face God.
And then you begin to tremble and you begin to try to beg God
to somewhere or another in this last hour to have mercy on you. Listen to me, my friend. I want
to point out something to you that, you know, Noah, he went
in the ark before there was ever a drop of rain that ever fell.
There's many, many people that if the rain had began to fall
and Noah then would have went in the ark, There'd have been
thousands of people that would have lined up trying to get in
the yard. One thing that you need to learn is a lot of these
deathbed repentances, there isn't a thing on earth to them. Not
a thing on earth to them. I'm here to tell you that you
better get in. before the judgment of God seizes you and lay hold
upon you. He that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. John 3 and verse 18. And so listen, we're talking
about these debtors, and now here they go in, and they're
going in trembling from head to foot. But when they come out,
when they come out, they come out with joy. I mean, they come
out with the burden lifted. They've been frankly forgiven. Even so, with us, the Lord has
blotted out, the Scripture says, the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, and taken it out of the way, nailing it
to His cross. Well, I admire the goodness of
this creditor, don't you? What a gracious heart that he
had, a heart like our Lord. freeness of forgiveness. This is a good picture of the
grace of God. Romans 3, 23 and 24. I've quoted
23 already, but all of sin that comes short of the glory of God,
therefore being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Verse 24, being justified freely
That means without cause on our part. He justified us freely. And that means the forgiveness
was free. That we didn't buy it. We didn't
purchase it. That it was paid for by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5, it says, But God who
is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together by grace,
By grace ye are saved. Grace, the divine favor of God. God's free mercy. A full discharge. Now, let's
look at this a little bit. If he had reduced the debt 90%, let's say that these two creditors
went in, or these two debtors went in and the creditor said,
now I'll reduce your debt 90%. 90%! You owe 10% and so on of the
debt. You owe 10% of the debt. Well,
if he had reduced the debt, it wouldn't have done any good,
would it? Because these debtors were hopelessly bankrupt, and
they didn't have any way to pay even Ten percent. They couldn't have done it. And
I'm persuaded that when our Lord Jesus died upon the cross, He
made an end of all the sins of all of His people and made full
and effectual atonement for the whole of those who would believe
in Him. Has God, the Holy Spirit, ever
brought the realization of this home to your heart? Here's pardon,
the songwriters said, for transgression past. It matters not how black
they're cast. And oh, my soul, with wonder
of you, for sins to come, here's pardon too, through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look for the sins of God's
people, they cannot be found. They're under the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's an old hymn that the
Course says, I will praise Him I will praise him, praise the
Lord for sinners slain. Give him glory, all ye people,
for his blood has washed away. Each stain. Marvelous, isn't
it? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's people, their sin has been hid under the blood of the Lord
Jesus. You cannot find any sin with
God's people. Believer, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's illness? Who can charge them now? It is
Christ that died. It is God that declared them
justified. just as if they'd never committed
one sin, just as if they never owed a dime. It's God that justifies. God can give you a clean slate.
He can wipe it away, remit your sin, forgive your sin, and you'll
not have one debt. The only person that can forgive
a debt is he to whom the debt is due. Remember that. And in verse 48, And he said
unto her, this woman, Thy sins are forgiven. Thy sins are forgiven. He could do that. Because it's
God to whom the sin was committed. God only can forgive sin, seeing
it's a debt to Him. All sin is against God. David
said in Psalm 55 and 14, Against thee and thee only have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight. And God says, I blotted out your
sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities. He frankly,
He fully, He freely, He affectionately forgave them both. And I believe
that it was an eternal discharge. Now this is important to see.
The creditor could never summons those debtors again for debts
which he had remitted. Once he said, I frankly forgive
you both, he couldn't drag them in again. He could not do so.
I will never believe the doctrine that says that God can love and
forgive a man today and then cast him into hell tomorrow.
I can never believe that kind of a doctrine. This town is full
of preachers today that believes that a man goes to heaven by
what he does and stays out of hell by what he don't do. And
I don't believe a word of it. If a man's go to heaven, he's
going because of what Christ has done. If a man's left to
himself, he'll go to hell. He cannot help but go to hell.
And anybody who saves himself will by themself damn themselves
sooner or later. There ain't nobody that's ever
going to get out of this world without being damned unless Christ
saves them. He's got to forgive them. And
once he does, You don't ever go back. The Bible says the gifts
and the callings of God are without repentance on God's part. It means that when God does something,
that's the way it is. And he's not going back on it.
He's no Indian giver. If he forgives your sin, your
sin is forgiven. Justification is not an act which
can be reversed and then followed with damnation. It cannot be.
Listen to this. If sin be pardoned, I'm secure. Death has no sting besides. The law gave sin its damning
power, but Christ, my ransom, died. He died. And so he delivered. Both debtors were forgiven then.
Are you forgiven? Are you forgiven? Has your eyes
been opened? Do you know how much you owe
to God? And has he forgiven you? How about your love to Christ
because of his forgiveness? Do you love him enough that you
would do his will in your life? Do you love him enough that you
would attempt to honor him? Do you love him enough to identify
yourself with him? Do you love him enough to walk
according to his word? to respect his word, to tremble
at his word, to attempt to follow as he leads you as his dear sheep
in this world. Do you love Christ? Remember
this woman, remember this woman, and remember the lesson of this
text. Which one of these debtors? Jesus
said to old Simon, old hard-hearted Simon, and old Simon reluctantly
said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave the most." Well, you're
right on, Simon. You're right on. But I'll tell
you what, may the Spirit of God so enlighten our minds that each
one of us will have an understanding about our sin, know how awful
it was, know how dreadful the consequences of our sin, and
that we may love the Lord Jesus, and identify ourselves with Him
in baptism. submit ourselves to believers baptism and honor
Christ and follow Him all the days of our life. We believe
in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Anybody that He forgives, they'll
love Him enough to walk with Him and obey Him and to follow
Him in the way. Do you love Christ? Do you love
Christ? Have you been forgiven? If you've
been forgiven, you do love Him. Some of us, we don't show it
very well. You know, I was telling somebody
just the other day, I believe I love Christ. I believe I do.
I don't love Him like I ought to, but I believe I love Him.
I believe I do. And I believe there are some
here that love Him. And I hope the day will come when everybody
that listens and hears the gospel here in this place will be able
to say, not only with words of their mouth, but with their acts
and with their obedience unto the Lord, I love you, Lord Jesus.
I thank you for what you've done in my life, blotting out my sin,
paying my debt, setting me free, giving me a full discharge. I'm
grateful. Father, in the name of Jesus,
bless as we close this meeting, and may the Spirit of the Lord
come in power to hearts, and may somebody here today, my Father,
be delivered.