Most of us here know, at least
in our heads, I hope in our hearts, the truth of what we've just
sung. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world, established righteousness by
his life of obedience as our representative, died under the
penalty of the law as our sin-atoning substitute, paying all the debt
we owe. Now answer me this, if you can. Why is there so very little love
for the Son of God in my heart and yours? We love him because he first
loved us. I do love Christ. I do love him. If there is no real love for
Christ in our hearts, our faith is nothing but a sham profession,
a delusion. Our profession of faith is merely
a trick of Satan. whereby he keeps our souls in
the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, if indeed
we do not love Christ our Lord. With Peter, if we are truly born
of God, we can honestly say, Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I love thee. But who among us does not lament
and mourn over the smallness the coldness, the fruitlessness,
the fluctuation, the often indifference of our love for the Son of God. Why do we love our Savior so
little? Here's the answer. Luke chapter
7, verse 41. Our Lord speaks a parable to
a Pharisee, and in the parable he gives us so very much instruction. Luke 7 verse 41. There was a
certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred
pence, the other fifty. One owed a great, great, great
debt. the other a relatively insignificant
debt. And when they had nothing to
pay, the one who owed much and the one who owed little had nothing
to pay. He frankly, freely forgave them
both. Tell me, therefore, which of
them will love him most?" Simon answered and said, that he to
whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast
rightly judged." Now try to get a picture of what's happened. Here's a Pharisee by the name
of Simon. He apparently had some respect
for Christ. He apparently acknowledged and
accepted the truth of our Lord's doctrine and desired to be numbered
among his disciples. He knew that the Lord had done
some great and marvelous things for men in his generation, and
he knew that he had done some sinful, evil deeds, and that
he needed mercy and grace. But he knew nothing of himself
as the sinner. Oh, there's all the difference
in the world in acknowledging the evil of our deeds, and knowing
ourselves to be sinful men and women. This man knew nothing
of himself as a sinner. As the Lord Jesus reclined, as
they did in those days, he reclined at the Pharisee's table, his
seat behind him, much like you would do if you were sitting
at your coffee table having a snack, you were sitting on the living
room floor, He was reclining at this Pharisee's table, lots
of people around, apparently in an open patio type of room
on the house, easily accessible to the public. As the Lord Jesus
reclined there, eating bread, drinking wine, whatever the meal
was, there was a woman who walked in, and everybody in town knew
her. Everybody knew she was a marked
woman. She was a sinner, apparently a harlot. a vile, loathsome creature. She walked in and stood behind
the Lord Jesus, weeping, weeping with gratitude, and she anointed
his feet with precious ointment. As her tears fell upon the Savior's
feet, she picked them up and wiped them off with the long
hair of her head. She kissed him, kissed him, kissed Unlike the Pharisee,
this woman was a great sinner, and she knew it. She had heard the Savior's message
of grace. Commentaries suggest that she
heard that message declared in Matthew 11. Father, I thank thee
that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babe, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. No man can know the Father except
he to whom the Son reveals him, and none can know the Son except
he to whom the Father reveals him. And then he cries to sinners,
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My yoke
is easy, my burden is light, and you shall find rest for your
souls. And this weary, heavy laden, worn out sinner heard
that message of grace and came to Christ in her heart. Apparently,
she had never come to him by a physical act. Apparently, she
had not yet come to embrace him physically as men could do in
that day, but she came to him when she heard those words in
her heart. And now she's heard that Christ,
the Lord, is sitting at meet in the Pharisee's house. She
had come to Christ by faith and obtained peace the peace of a
full, free, complete party, having experienced the great forgiveness
of sin by a great Savior, this poor woman comes now with an
alabaster box in her hand. Her purpose is to make a sacrifice
to Christ. Her purpose is to do what she
could for her Redeemer. Her purpose is to come and, by
this demonstration, publicly avow her faith in and commitment
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But as she stood behind him and
heard his words, her heart began to break. She wept, and at last
she broke the alabaster box and she anointed the Savior for his
burying, and she kissed his feet and dried them with her hair.
And our Savior says in verse 47, her sins, which are many,
are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little." As we read this narrative of
what took place in Simon's house a few minutes ago, several things
stand out as obvious lessons to the learned, those who are
taught of those who have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts
to discern the things of the Spirit of God. One obvious lesson
is this. Men and women may be very, very
religious, very knowledgeable in doctrinal things, and very
respectful of Jesus Christ the Lord, and yet utterly lost and
without grace. Simon was a very religious man.
He was a Pharisee, but he wasn't like the run-of-the-mill Pharisee.
Simon was a man, though a Pharisee, who was very respectful of Christ.
You remember that Nicodemus, another Pharisee, was also respectful
of Christ, but he, in cowardliness, came to Jesus by night seeking
some instruction from him. This Pharisee, Simon, was one
who publicly called the Lord Jesus Christ to come sit at his
table for a dinner. Apparently it was a public dinner,
and apparently it was a dinner held in honor of Jesus, the prophet
of Nazareth. It was apparently a dinner held
by this man for the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet
this Pharisee did not know Christ. He was lost, unregenerate, unconverted,
a graceless man. All that he did for Christ was
done sort of ritualistically. All that he did for Christ was
done with a cold, niggardly heart. He was nice, but not warm. He
was cordial, but not devoted. He was a man who held a dinner
for the Savior, but he really sacrificed nothing. It cost him
nothing to have this dinner. In fact, it gathered to him notoriety. It gathered to him a measure
of respect among the Lord's disciples. Here's a wealthy man who's come
now and he's set a table for the Lord Jesus and he's called
all his disciples to come eat with him. This Pharisee's proud
heart secretly despised the sight of a poor, broken, contrite sinner
being allowed to wash the Lord's feet. I can just about picture
it, can't you? That woman came in at a harlot,
that woman was distraught, that woman scorned by all society. She came in bad enough that she
should darken his door, but now she's saved, and she begins to
weep, and her dirty tears fall on the Savior's feet, and her
foul lips kissed his feet, and her filthy hair washed his feet. And the Pharisee prayed. Who's
this man? I must have been mistaken. He
couldn't be a prophet. If he were a prophet of God,
he wouldn't let that woman touch him. If he were a prophet of
God, he'd know what kind of woman she is, and he'd turn and rebuke
her for touching him, for standing at his feet, and for kissing
him. He wouldn't allow her to offer her sacrifice to him. The
Pharisee scorned the woman. Oh, he had respect for religion,
but he knew nothing of the gospel of free grace. He knew nothing
of the message of blood atonement. He knew nothing of personal depravity,
and he knew nothing of free justification. Simon was willing to have Christ
to eat at his table. Oh, that'd be an honor to have
the Lord Jesus come eat at his table. But he was not willing
to eat side by side with the sinner at the Savior's table,
and there's a big difference. Most anybody would be delighted
to have the Lord Jesus come and eat at their table, for at their
table they're still master. And with most religionists, they
have Jesus come and sit as a guest at their table, for they're still
master. But very few are willing to set
elbow to elbow side by side with a corrupt, vile sinner as that
sinner's equal, and eat at Christ's table as servants to the Master."
In a word, all of Simon's religion was outlawed. All that he did
lacked one thing. There was no part loved for the
Son of God. And where there is no love for
Christ, there is no faith in Christ. No life no grace, and
no salvation. The Apostle Paul speaks so plainly
in this regard. He said, If any man love not
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha, let him
be damned, the Lord's coming. He said, Though I speak with
the tongue of men and angels, and have not love, I am become
a sounding brass and a tinkling Though I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not love, this prophetess is nothing." There's another
lesson to be learned. The secret of devoted, sacrificial,
Self-denying service for Christ. His heart's love for Christ.
Now, that's the secret. That's the secret. The love of
Christ constrains us. This woman did much. She gave
much. If you want to read the other
accounts of this narrative, you'll find that she made a very sacrificial
gift because she loved much. Because she loved the Lord, she
thought nothing too great for her to do, and nothing too little
for her to do. Because she was full of gratitude
for His grace, she thought no gift would be too costly to bestow
upon Him and express her love and gratitude to Him. What will
produce good works for Christ? Everybody wants people to perform
good works, and I do. Oh, that God would cause us to
be zealous and maintain good works. Would to God that he would
cause us to give ourselves in relentless, unceasing zeal and
devotion and dedication to the glory of Christ and the service
of his kingdom. What will produce it? What will
cause men and women to serve Christ with sacrifice, self-denial,
and zeal? What will cause people to obey
Christ with willing hearts? Only one thing, one thing, love
for Christ. The fear of punishment won't
do it. The desire of reward won't do it. Only love, gratitude in
the heart will produce commitment in the heart. A sense of duty
will not produce this kind of service to the Savior. But once
let the love of Christ get hold of a man's heart and his whole
life will be changed. J.C. Ryle said, The heart must
be engaged for Christ, or the hands will soon hang down. The
affections must be enlisted into his service, or our obedience
will soon stand still. It will always be the loving
workmen who will do most in the Lord's favor. But here's this
third lesson. The mainspring, the source, the
cause, the lifeblood of love for Christ. is the conscious
awareness of the greatness of our sins and the greatness of
our Lord's forgiveness. This woman's many tears, her
deep love, her public reverence, her costly service for Christ
were traceable to one cause. She had been forgiven much, that
is, she loved much. Her love was the effect of her
forgiveness, not the cause. Her love was the consequence
of her pardon, not the condition. Her love was the result of grace,
not the reason. Her love was the fruit of salvation,
not the root. But it was real love which caused
her to do what she did for the Master. The Pharisee felt no
obligation to Christ. You see, he had no consciousness
of his sins. He had no sense of blood-bought
parties. He had no sense of personal debt
to the Son of God. Therefore, he had no love for
Christ. This poor woman knew that she
was a great sinner. She had a sense of great forgiveness
by the blood and grace of a great Savior. Therefore, she loved
much." Now, this is the message of our text. Love to Christ rises
in the heart of saved sinners in proportion our conviction
of our own sinfulness and of God's mercy in Christ Jesus. You might want to figure out
a way to remember that. Love to Christ rises in the hearts
of saved sinners in proportion to our conviction of our own
sinfulness and our conviction of God's mercy in Christ Jesus.
The height of the saint's love is equal to the depth of his
humiliation over sin. The deeper the root, the higher
the tree. The deeper the humiliation, the
higher the love. I want, my God and Savior, I want to
love Christ like this woman loves me. Don't you? I want to love
him just that way. How can we attain this love?
How can we love Christ most? What's the secret of this kind
of love for Christ? Number one, if we would love
Christ like this woman loves him, we must be saved like this
woman was saved. We must be saved by grace alone.
The road to love is the road of free, sovereign grace salvation
by the merits of a crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. All who
come to Christ must pass through the straight gate and walk the
narrow way. There is no way to God but the
way of the cross. You cannot come to Christ. Nobody
can come to Christ. Nobody ever has. Nobody ever
will come to Christ unless you come as a poor, helpless, justly
condemned, naked, bankrupt, penniless, pauper, beggar, sinner. That's
the only way you come to him. If you have anything with which
to pay, anything which you will offer to God, anything by which
you hope somehow to attain God's favor, you will not come to Christ. If you have it, you have not
yet come to Christ. Just heaven. Just as I am without
one flea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou
bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. That's the only
way to come. We are all head over heels in
debt to God. No one needs forgiveness but
a debtor. And you can never obtain forgiveness
from God until you acknowledge your debt to God. We owe God
Almighty a perfectly righteous obedience to His law. He made
it that way. That's the way it is. You and
I owe God perfect righteousness, perfect obedience, perfect Perfect,
perfect holiness. We owe God a satisfaction to
His law for all our sins. We must render to God somehow,
if we're to be accepted of Him, we must render to Him perfect
righteousness and complete satisfaction for all the evil we have done.
Though we are debtors, yet we have nothing to pay. This too
we must acknowledge. Most people will acknowledge
their debt. Most everybody will say, yes, I owe God this and
I owe God that, and God's been merciful and God's been gracious.
But very, very few will acknowledge that they have nothing, zero,
nothing to pay. Not a resolution, not a good
feeling, not a good work, not a good deed, not a noble thought,
nothing, nothing to pay. We must acknowledge that we are
debtors and have nothing to pay. Nothing with which to remove
the slightest particle of our debt. We are all penniless paupers. We do not have any righteousness.
We cannot produce any righteousness. We cannot borrow any righteousness.
And even if we could produce or beg or borrow or steal righteousness,
we could not satisfy justice. There's no way we can make atonement
for our sins. Our only hope of life is free
pardon. free forgiveness, free justification. In our text, the creditor, we
are told, frankly forgave them both. That is, he forgave without
consideration. He forgave without compensation. He forgave without condition. This is free grace. This is undeserved
favor. There is no forgiveness. There's
no forgiveness. except free, unconditional, unqualified,
absolute forgiveness. This is God's kind of forgiveness.
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgressions of his people? Our God freely, frankly
forgives, unconditionally forgives all the debts of his people.
He forgives them without qualification. This free forgiveness of sin
cost our Lord Jesus dearly. It was purchased for us by His
life's blood. We have the forgiveness of sin,
redemption through His blood, through the blood of His cross.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and bore our sins
in His body on the tree and paid the price of divine justice for
the satisfaction of God's law with regard to our sins. It costs
Him dearly. This forgiveness of our sins
is a matter of strict justice with God. God forgives sins on
the basis of satisfaction. Now, please be sure you understand
this. God cannot, He does not, He will
not ever forgive any sin without satisfaction. He can't do it.
His law, His righteousness and justice require satisfaction. But the Lord God, having been
satisfied for the sins of his people, now in absolute justice,
just as though he were perfectly, perfectly incapable of forgiving
sin, now forgives sin. Do you see that? Justice truly
and holy and righteous is his grace as is his punishment of
sin. The Lord God freely forgives
us because justice has been satisfied. And now his justice is just as
true in the pardon of sin as it is in the punishment of sin.
Now his justice cries aloud for the pardon of those sinners for
whom Christ has died, just as it does for the condemnation
of sinners who stand in their own stead before God. But this
forgiveness of sins given to us is full and it's freely bestowed
upon guilty sinners through faith in Jesus Christ. Let me read
a couple of scriptures to you. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. This is what God says about the
forgiveness of our sins. Isaiah 43 and verse 25. I, even I am he that blotteth
out by transgressions. How does God forgive sin? He
blots it out. He blots it out. It's out of
the record. It's out of the record. There's the black ink of our
transgressions written in the book of God. But it's all blotted
out with the red blood of Jesus Christ, His sons. I blot out
thy transgressions for mine own sake. And because they're blotted
out, I will not remember thy sins. Verse 22 of chapter 43,
or chapter 44 rather. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee." Because he has redeemed us, he's
blotted out our sins, and now he says, return to me. Turn to
Isaiah 55. Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord that is come to Christ by faith. And he will
have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now, this complete forgiveness
of sin. Is the cause of love. For our
Lord Jesus Christ. I love the Lord because he heard
my voice and delivered me from all my troubles. I love the Lord
because he has inclined his ear and been merciful unto me. It
is by a sense of God's free grace in Christ that we begin to love
Christ. The deeper our sense of grace
is and the deeper we realize its fullness, the fuller our
love will be. The more conscious we are of
our sinfulness, the more we will love our Savior. I'm sometimes asked why I have
so much to say about the sin of believers. I have so much
to say about my own sin and your sin. Well, here's one reason
why. Because just to the measure that
you and I acknowledge, recognize, and are convinced in our hearts
of our sin, just to that measure, we love our Savior. Just to that
measure, we value the pardon of sin. Free will prohibits true
love. It's impossible for men and women
who believe that salvation is hinged upon their free will to
love Christ. They can't do it. Love depends
on the knowledge of sin and forgiveness. It's impossible for men and women
who believe in work salvation, that is, believe that their works
in some measure attribute something to the grace of God and the salvation
which God provides. It's impossible for such men
to love Christ. The only person in this world
who loves the Son of God is a sinner who knows himself to be a sinner
and knows himself to be saved by God's free grace alone. That's
the only person who can love Christ. If we would love Christ
as this woman did, secondly, we must have a deep
God-given sense of personal depravity. A deep bitter sense of personal
sin is of great value to the person who has it. It's terrible
in the experience, but blessed in the result. It's a bitter
thing to taste, but it's wholesome for life. The very first step
toward heaven is a downward fall. Until a person is brought down
by the spirit of God in conviction to the very depths of hell in
his soul, he will not be lifted up to the throne of God by his
almighty grace. The flimsy religion of our day
arises from the fact that men and women have obtained peace
and obtained joy far too easily. That's the problem. In this day,
men and women obtain peace with God by saying a little prayer
rather than by seeking the Lord. In this day, men and women obtain
peace of salvation with God by walking down a church aisle,
coming to the front of the church, kneeling at an altar, at a mourner's
bench, rather than going to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They found peace easily because they never had any real trouble
except just surface trouble. Oh, somebody got sick. Maybe
they were in a car wreck. Maybe they had some tragedy to
occur in their lives, but just surface trouble and surface trouble
can be easily calmed by surface peace. But where there is heart
trouble, something else is needed. Too many think lightly of sin
and therefore think lightly of the Savior. But guilty sinners
cherish the one who removes their guilt. They cherish him. Find
me a sinner who stands before God Almighty, convicted, condemned,
helpless, with the rope around his neck, and I'll show you a
sinner who will weep with joy, gratitude, and love when he hears
the Son of God say, as he did to this woman, thy sins are forgiven. Oh, what good news. Thy sins
are, not maybe, not shall be, thy sins, all thy sins, past,
present, and future, thy sins are absolutely, unconditionally
forgiven. When a sinner hears those words,
he responds with love. Such a sinner will hate the evil
which he has been pardoned of, love the one by whose blood he
has been pardoned, and seek to live for the honor and the glory
of his blessed Redeemer. This poor woman loved much because
she had been forgiven much and she knew it. It was not her sin
that caused her to love Christ. Don't misunderstand me. It was
not her sin that caused her to love him, but her knowledge of
her sin, her consciousness of her sin. It was not her debt
that caused her to love the Savior, but the realization of her debt's
greatness and its complete forgiveness by an act of pure grace. She
knew her sin. She was a harlot. There was no denying it. She
was a woman. of evil reputation because she
had lived all her life performing evil deeds. She knew herself
to be a sinner and everybody around her knew she was a sinner.
But she knew more than most because she knew the source of her sin.
She knew that her heart was evil. Her heart was corrupt. Her heart
was base. And these outward things that
she did, they are just an outward reflection of the evil that's
within. And she knew Oh, she knew, as she stood behind the
Savior. She knew that her sins were forgiven. She knew it. She heard Him say
it. She heard Him say, thy sins are
forgiven. And this woman knew what the
price of her forgiveness was. It may be that no one else did,
but in Matthew chapter 14 or Mark chapter 14, you find that
this woman came and anointed the Savior's feet for His burial. She anointed Him in anticipation
of His death. If nobody else understood His
doctrine, this woman understood that this God was about to die
for her sins. She knew the price of redemption.
was the blood of God's own Son. Now, here's the application.
If we would grow in love for Christ, we must seek an ever deepening
awareness and consciousness of our sin. This woman was saved. She was
forgiven. She was justified before she
came to Simon's house. But after the Lord had saved
her, she became increasingly aware of her sin and increasingly
aware of his forgiveness. Until at last she had to publicly
express her love to Christ for his great grace toward her. When
she came to Simon's house, she brought that alabaster box with
her. She wanted an opportunity to break the box and anoint the
Savior. And she wanted to do it publicly
so that everybody would know her love and commitment and devotion
to Christ. But as she waited opportunity. She heard the Savior's words
of grace. She stood in his presence, right
behind his feet. There he is. And she's in the
presence of him who loved her, who came here to live for her,
and who was on his way to die for her. She stood in his presence,
and she heard his words of grace. Her heart began to break within
her. She began to weep. And as she wept, her tears fell
on his feet. And her heart was increasing
and increasing and increasing with love for Him. To the point
that she could no longer contain herself. But rather she became
more and more aware of her sin. And more and more aware of her
death. More and more aware of Christ's
forgiveness. More and more aware of His grace.
Of His atonement. And she now burst open weeping. And she breaks the alabaster
box and anoints His feet. Wipes them with the hairs of
her head and she picks them up. Kisses them. Kisses them. It was customary when a traveler
came into the house in those days that someone would greet
him, a servant or someone would greet him and have a basin of
water and wash his feet, dry them off, give him a kiss on
the cheek. But this woman washed his feet with her tears. wiped
them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet for her love,
her gratitude and her reverence for him. God, give me this tenderness
of heart. This hatred of my sin. And this
love for my savior. If we would have this ever deepening
awareness and consciousness of sin. We must seek somehow by
God's grace a clearer knowledge of God's holiness, His majesty,
and His glory. Job heard all about God. He heard
all about all that his friends had to say about God. And at
last he came to see God for himself. And he said, O Lord God, I have
heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth thee, and I abhor myself. Pastor, do you really believe men and women ought to hate themselves? We're going to have to. We're
going to have to hate what we are by nature, hate the evil
that's in us. If we would know something of
the corruption and evil of our hearts, We must have, by God's
grace, an ever-deepening understanding of the law's requirements and
its spiritual nature. You see, God and His law does
not only demand that we live in outward morality. Most everybody
thinks that God's going to be satisfied with folks striving
to do as good as they can on the outside. But God's law requires
that we love God with all our heart. all our soul, all our
mind, and all our being. God's law requires that we love
our neighbors as we love ourselves. God's law has to do with inward
things. It has to do with the principle
of life. It has to do with what we are
in here. Our Lord says, you look on a
woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery. Our Lord
says if you're angry with somebody without a cause, you've committed
murder. Our Lord says if you covet, you've
stole. Our Lord says if you think, if you just think lightly of
God, you've taken His name in vain and committed idolatry.
The law is spiritual. And God requires spiritual obedience. And we could live clean as a
houndstooth so that not even an angel in heaven could see
anything evil in us. And our hearts are still corrupt.
Still corrupt. It doesn't all break out at one
time, thank God. It doesn't all break out at one time. Sometimes
the inward passions of our heart break out in evil deeds of lasciviousness. Sometimes we control those. We
think, boy, we're doing good now. Doing good now. Hadn't murdered
anybody this week. Hadn't committed adultery today.
Hadn't stolen anybody's car this month. Doing good, man. Doing
real good. But now, that evil nature is
breaking out with pride, and self-righteousness, and covetousness,
and envy, and jealousy, and anger, and strife. Very same thing. Here's this Pharisee sitting
here, smug, and righteous, and good, and moral, and he looks
down his nose at this woman who was a harlot and a sinner, And
he's sitting there in his self-righteous morality, and God Almighty looks
down from heaven and charges him with sin for the evil that's
in him. For the evil that's in him. If we were to have a deeper sense
of our sin, we must seek somehow a clearer knowledge of our own
inward corruption. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this great evil in thy sight. My sin is
ever before me, ever before me." The Apostle Paul said, in me,
in my flesh, in my natural self, in my natural heart, in my natural
mind, in my natural spirit, there's nothing good. I don't know whether we believe
that or not. I just don't know. Nothing good. Nothing good. Only corruption. Only corruption. It doesn't take much proof, does
it? Doesn't take much proof, does it? We take the word of God and have we read it, our minds wander
to corruption. That very thing intended of God
to be for our hearts edification by the perversion of our minds
and the corruption of our hearts is turned to greater corruption. We pray, and as we pray, God
forgive me. We pray, I pray, forget you, I pray with
more selfishness and self-centeredness and self-will
than the tightest miser hoards up his gold. Men can call their prayers good
works if they will, by which they will merit God's favor.
By God, I've never thought about praying a selfless, disinterested prayer. I'm talking about a prayer that
has nothing to do with self. What goes on in here? evil thoughts, and murders, and
blasphemy, and idolatry, and witchcraft, and emulation, and
wrath, and strife, and variance, and sedition, and adultery, Nothing else but corruption arises
from this sinful, vile cesspool we call the human heart. That's all. That's all. Now that's true of the sweet
little girls and the nice little boys and the sweet old ladies
and the nice old men. but corruption. God teach me truly to know that
so that it's not just words and I love him who says concerning
all that thy sins are forgiven. I love it. If we would grow in love for
Christ, we must somehow seek from God
a deeper consciousness of his immeasurable love toward us. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. Me, vile, corrupt, loathsome,
wretched, no word can suitably describe the evil that's in me. Oh, behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the
Son's God. Who could ever imagine such a
thing? Here I stand, a man not fit for decent society. Problem is, there's no such thing
as decent society. There's just not any. If you
knew what was going on in here, you wouldn't come near me. unless you also knew what was
going on in there. Because we're just alike. Here stands before you a man more loathsome than I can possibly tell you, who's loved of God, loved of
Almighty God, unconditionally, eternally loved of God and made
to be his son by grace. That ought to cause me to love
him. We will grow in love for Christ. We must seek a greater
understanding of the cost of our redemption, the cost of our pardon, cost
of our forgiveness. He, his own self, spare our sins
and his own body on the tree. And we're redeemed not with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ, the lamb verily ordained of God before the world began,
without spot, without If we would grow to have this
love for Christ, we must have a surer persuasion of our complete
pardon and absolute forgiveness in Christ. Turn over to Ezekiel
16. Let me show you this. Ezekiel
chapter 16. The Lord says, I will establish
my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord,
that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open
thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified
toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. Nothing will make a man or a
woman hate his sin and love his Savior like an assured knowledge of
pardon and forgiveness by the blood of Christ. The prophet said to him, David,
the Lord has put away your sin. David went home and he wrote,
O blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute equity.
Peter, O impetuous Peter, a lot like
impetuous John. presumptuous Peter, a lot like
presumptuous you. Erring Peter, so much like erring
us, in the midst of his vile denial of Christ, was still loved of Christ. And
when the Lord Jesus came to Peter, as he said he would, go tell
Peter, tell my disciples and tell Peter, be sure you tell
Peter, I'm coming to meet him. He came to him and he said, Peter, and you said that all these would
forsake thee, you'd be with me. And look what you did. Not a
word of it. Not a word of it. I mean not
a word, not a word about it, not a word. He said, Simon, do
you love me more than you love these people and more than you
love these things? And three times over, he said,
Lord, you know all things. You know who and what I am. And you know what you've done
for me. And you know what I will yet
be, but you know what you've done for me. And Lord, you know,
you know that I love you. Now let me give you this, and
I'll send you home. Depraved sinners, saved by grace
alone, do love their Savior. Free grace, complete atonement,
unconditional forgiveness causes redeemed sinners to love Christ
just like this poor woman. Forgiven sinners desire to be
near Christ, even at His feet, because they love Him. Some of
the writers suggest that this woman here is Mary Magdalene,
and suggest that Mary Magdalene is Mary, the sister of Martha
and Lazarus. I don't know whether that's so
or not, but there's another Mary. And this woman, Mary, the sister
of Martha and Lazarus, when the Lord came to her house, you find
her sitting at his feet, hearing his words. She had heard his
words and she wanted nothing but to hear his words. I can't imagine, I cannot imagine for the life
of me a man or a woman who knows his sin and knows the pardon of sin. one who knows her debt and knows
the frank forgiveness of her debt. I cannot for the life of
me imagine such a one absenting themselves willingly from their place at his feet. I just, I can't imagine that. I suppose we take it lightly
because we take him lightly and take the pardon of sin lightly
and take sin itself lightly. I suppose that's the case. Forgiven sinners boldly confess
Christ before men. not only in the waters of baptism,
but confess him before his enemies. Confess him in the teeth of his
enemies, regardless of cost. Confess him before the gainsayers,
knowing full well they're going to ridicule your confession.
Forgiven sinners delight to serve Christ any way they can. proud, self-righteous men delight
to serve Christ like this Pharisee as long as they can be seen.
As long as somebody will pat him on the back and say, look
here what he's doing. As long as somebody will elevate
him a little bit and everybody looks around and says, my, look
what old Simon has done for the Lord. Forgiven sinners are honored Honored, honored, honored. To wash the Savior's feet. To
wash his servant's feet. To wash one another's feet. Kiss
them. And wipe them with the hairs
of their head. Read John 13. That's what he
says. I've given you an example. Go do it now. Serve one another. Forgiven sinners willingly consecrate
themselves to Christ. With forgiven sinners, I'm talking
about sinners who know their forgiveness, who know their who
know their sin and know his mercy. Their choicest gifts, their richest favors, their most excellent time is reserved for their Savior. They give themselves and their
substance willingly, generously, and sacrificially just because they love you. Just because they love you. No
other reason. No other reason. Now you can be religious and
not have this love. And you can ignore what your
pastor has said and go on your way, or you can cry out, Lord God, cause me to know my sin, and cause me to know the Savior, and cause me to know the pardon
of sin by the blood of Christ. And so teach me to love Christ. Oh, to be in the place of this
harlot. The church today is full of head
knowers. Everybody knows, everybody knows,
everybody knows. Oh God, give us some heart lovers.
Heart lovers. Make me one of them. Make me
one of them. Maybe if God would save some
sinners. Real bona fide sinners. Some pimps and prostitutes and
pushers. Dope heads and murderers. Maybe
if he'd save some. We might see what he's talking
about here. Most folks, though, are too good
to be saved and never know the love of Christ
because they never know their sin. Never. May God be pleased to save some
great sinners by his great grace. and cause great sinners to be
possessed with great love with a great sanctity. Amen.