I want to thank all of you for
having us. It's been a real joy, as always, to be with you. A
privilege to worship with you. I like the way you all do things
here. It's simple, worshipful, all
the music and the prayer. Everyone seems to be here to
honor the Lord Jesus. I appreciate that so much. Turn
with me tonight, if you would, to Luke chapter 7. for a little
while. Luke chapter 7, this will be
verses 36 through 50 we'll read. You won't hear anything tonight
that you haven't heard before, at least I hope you won't. But by the grace of God, may
he show us tonight the kind of faith that saves a sinner, and
who the object of that faith is. In verse 36, 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. And when she knew that Jesus
sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box
of ointment. We really just know a couple
of things about this woman. We know that she was a sinner,
and we know that she met the Savior. We know that the Savior
was merciful to her. And she stood with this alabaster
box of ointment, and then in verse 38, she 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 bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying,
This man, if he were a prophet, he 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. There was a certain
creditor which had two debtors, the one owed five hundred pence
and the other 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, 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,
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. 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, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto
her, Thy sins are forgiven." I guarantee you that's the best
thing she ever heard. Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with
him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he said to the woman, and
we'll look more at this phrase here than anything, this statement,
Thy faith hath saved thee. I want to know something about
that, don't you? The salvation of God and how it's performed,
how God saves a sinner. Thy faith hath saved thee. Go
in peace. You know, there are actually
those who are offended by terms like saving faith. If you use
the terminology saving faith, they're offended. You shouldn't
say that. Faith doesn't save. Who was it that said this? This is not some great theologian
that said this. This is the Son of God, and he
said to this woman, your faith saved you. That's interesting
to me. Is it you? Go in peace. If you are a doctrinal Calvinist,
but don't know anything about the work of God for and in the
sinner when he comes in saving grace in Christ and saves a wretched
sinner like you. You'd probably like to take verse
50 out, wouldn't you? Is there anybody like that here? My faith hath saved thee. I'm
not afraid of that, are you? Our Lord Jesus spoke these words.
And so we'll look in this passage here, it's some simple truth
concerning her faith, what the Lord is speaking of here. First
of all, very simply, her faith was her faith. He said, your
faith saved you. Faith is God's gift, we know
that. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. In this thing of saving sinners,
God is going to get all the glory. He gives what he requires. He
blesses what he gives. He goes and finds his lost sheep
and lays it on his shoulders and brings it home and then blesses
us for coming home. Well done, good for you, you
came to me. God's gift of saving faith. Religion talks about sinners
being given a choice by God, but God never gave a sinner a
choice, except in the garden, and really not there. He gave a command, didn't he?
We've never had a choice. We had a free will in the garden,
but never a choice. Never. So we ought to just shut
up about that. You reckon, let's just, whenever
somebody says something about God, give you a choice to make.
No, just shut up. Don't say that. That's not from
the word of God. God commands sinners to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. And I like to use this verse,
and I'll just quote it. Joshua 2415, if it seem evil
unto you, Joshua said to serve the Lord, choose you this day
whom ye shall serve. Well, there you go. You're given
a choice, aren't you? Well, you can choose the gods which your
father served, which were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. It doesn't
make any difference which one you choose. If you hate God and
you've rejected him and his word and will, And you choose whichever
false god you want. But God is not one of the choices.
The true God is not one of the choices given there. And so that's
falsely quoted and perverted by sinners. Her faith was her
faith, but she got it from God. It was God-given faith. That's
the kind of faith that says if you came up with it, then it's
like the faith of those that follow him in John chapter 2,
I believe it is. where they followed him because
of the miracles. That's man-produced faith. It says they believed
on him, but he didn't commit himself unto them because he
knew what was in man. He knew that they believed because
of the miracles. They believed some things. They
acknowledged that he was powerful, and even that he was from God. Nicodemus, before he knew anything,
said, we know you come from God. No man could do the things that
you do. Well, her faith was her faith.
It's God-given faith. Faith that said. Secondly, her
faith caused her to take her place in the dust at the Master's
feet. It's one thing to have the Lord
over for dinner. Simon did that, didn't he? He
wanted to, you know, the Lord. Who's this one everybody's talking
about? I think he ought to come have dinner with me, you know,
and let's talk. That's one thing. But Mary was
in another. This woman here was in another
place. And that was because of her faith. The Lord Jesus Christ
said at the end of this story, Thy faith hath saved thee. How
do you know she had faith? Because of where she was. Because
of where she was. She was at the Master's feet.
And then her faith caused her to be committed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. This alabaster box of ointment.
was most likely the only thing of value that she had, and she
freely bestowed it upon the Lord. Another lady in the scripture,
in another place in the word of God, was rebuked by Judas
for doing that, for spending costly substance upon the Lord. Oh, that could have been sold
and we could have done some good with that. Instead of giving
it to the Lord, we could have done some good with it. Oh, let's
don't ever be distracted by causes. Oh, it's good to give whenever
the Lord has blessed you. Anytime you have it in your hand
to help somebody, of course. But the Lord is preeminent. The
Lord's gospel and His work and His honor and His glory, not
the causes of men. She freely bestowed it on him
without giving it a second thought. And then, did you notice, I'm
sure you did in this passage, that this woman's faith was completely
misunderstood and foreign to those who didn't have it. Simon didn't understand anything
about what happened there. There's this beautiful thing that took place in that
passage of scripture. And it's what happens here. It's
called the worship of Christ. This woman very simply bowed
at his feet and worshiped him and honored him in whatever way
she could. Whatever way the Lord had blessed
her to do so, she honored him that way. And Simon had no idea
what just happened. He said if he would have known
who this is, he wouldn't let her do that. He wouldn't let
her touch him. What was she doing in Simon's
house, you reckon? Simon knew who she was, knew
she was a sinner. That seems to be the consensus
from everybody about this woman, she's a sinner. Completely misunderstood, had
no idea. 1 Corinthians 2.12, now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. That
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Not that we might do something
for him. That we might know what he did for us. Which things also we speak. Not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
We receive them, know them, and speak them. But somebody that
doesn't know God has no idea what God did, who he is, what
a sinner is, how God saves a sinner, what saving faith is. The natural man receiveth not,
for two reasons. First of all, their foolishness
to them. They have no interest in them.
They mock and scoff at them. It's ridiculous to them. And
then, the cause of that, neither can he know them, because they're
spiritually discerned. No ability, no desire, their
foolishness, and no ability to know them, because we're carnal,
we're fleshly by nature. You must be born again of the
Spirit, or you can't see the Kingdom of God. That's where
Simon was. But he that is spiritual, the
natural man receiveth not, can't know them, they're spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, discerneth
all things, understands the things of God. Not all of them, not
like we ought to. But we know what God said. We
know how God saves a sinner. We know what grace is. It's not
God doing something and then waiting on you to make good on
it. We know what grace is. We discern the things of God.
Why? Because we are they which are of the Spirit. God has done
a work in our heart. We have faith. God-given, saving
faith. He that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, discerned of
no man. Much of my family do not understand
me. They don't understand my God,
my gospel, or me. They're discerned of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him? But we have, oh, grace, mercy, wonder of wonders. We have the mind of Christ. And
that's what was going on here. Simon didn't have any idea. Anything
about her or the one she worshipped and loved. And then, fifthly,
her faith. Now, think about this. Do you think, Simon said now
that Christ, if he had known who this woman was, he would
not let her touch him. And he would have been right
not to let her touch him. Do you think she didn't know
that? Think about it now. Peter said when the Lord gave
him just a little glimpse of his power and sovereignty, Peter
said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. You ought not
to even be around me. You reckon this woman didn't
know what Simon knew? That Christ would have been right
to say, get away from me! You got no business touching
me. You're unclean. You're foul. Oh, certainly he
had the right to do that. She was well aware of that. She
was aware of her own unworthiness. And yet she came to him anyway.
Reckon why? Because she had to. She had to. She had nowhere else to go. come she must. Without faith it's impossible
to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
She knew she had no business touching him, but she had to. She had to. She had to honor
him. I know you've heard this poem
before, but Think about this in terms of
this woman. She knows what she is, obviously. She put herself in the dust and
got behind him and washed his feet with the hairs of her head,
with her tears. Got behind him and did it. Come,
humble sinner, in whose breast a thousand thoughts revolve.
Come with your guilt and fear oppressed. and make this last
resolve. I'll go to Jesus, though my sin
hath like a mountain rose. I know his courts I'll enter
in, whatever may oppose. Prostrate I'll lie before his
throne, and there my guilt confess. I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone
without his sovereign grace. I'll to the gracious King approach,
whose scepter mercy gives. Perhaps he will receive my touch. Then the sinner lives. Perhaps
he will admit my plea. Perhaps he will hear my prayer.
But if I perish, I will pray and perish only there. That's
where this woman is. I guarantee you. I know because
I've been there. By His grace, I've been there.
I can but perish if I go. I am resolved to try. For if I stay away, I know I
must forever die. But if I die with mercy sought
when I the king have tried, this word to die, delightful thought,
a sinner never died." He never told a sinner to get away from
him, did he? Of course he had the right to do that. Of course
we have no business, we are not worthy to come into his presence,
much less touch him. Oh, but he receives sinners.
This man receives sinners. Aren't you glad he does? And that's the way she came.
And we see that. And that's her faith. Thy faith
hath saved us. That's the kind of faith that
God gives. We know our unworthiness, and yet we're coming. Let me
go, Jacob. I will not let you go. I can't. Unless you bless me. Until you
bless me. That's the faith that God gives right there. The faith
that man comes up with, well, I think I'll make my decision
for Jesus today. The faith that God gives is quite
different. That Canaanite woman that cried
out for mercy and the Lord answered her, not a word, and she just
kept crying until the disciples said, make her shut up. She's
bothering us. And she just kept crying, Lord,
oh, son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. And he said to her, it wouldn't
be right. It's not right for me to take
the children's bread, that which belongs to my sheep, my people,
and give it to a dog like you. And she said, that's right. That's
the faith that God gives right there. That's how this sinner
woman came at his feet and wept and washed his feet. with the
hairs of her head and broke open that alabaster box of precious
ointment. Very costly, it says. Very costly. It doesn't matter. Costly? The Lord gave it to her. We talked
about that this morning. We're just giving Him what He
gave us. That's the faith that He gives.
It wouldn't be right. That's right, Lord. It wouldn't
be. But even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the
Master's table. Number six, saving faith is seen and revealed in a love for the
Lord Jesus Christ. She didn't just render service
to Christ. In verse 38 there, look back
at verse 38 with me. There's repentance there. There's service, there's love,
and there's worship. In verse 38, "...stood at his
feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet." She
was weeping. Why do you think she was weeping? Well, I know why sinners weep,
don't you, in the presence of the Lord? Because we're vile
and we're wretched. And we're heartbroken over our
sin. Why do you think Peter wept bitterly when the Lord revealed
to him that he had denied him? He heard that rooster crow and
he remembered the word of the Lord. Oh, and it broke his heart. And then there's service. She
broke open that box of ointments. She began to wash his feet with
her tears. She wiped his feet with the hairs
of her head. And then look at The rest of
it there is, and kissed his feet. And kissed his feet. There's
love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now many render a kind of service
to Christ. Simon had him over for dinner.
That was nice of him, wasn't it? That's real nice of him. And it was customary when somebody
came over to wash their feet when they came in. Simon didn't
even bother to do that. The sinner woman washed his feet,
but I'm pretty sure it wasn't customary to get down in the
dirt and kiss somebody's feet. That's beyond service, isn't
it? We're not saved to serve. They
sing that song, Jesus needs a few good men. No, he doesn't. He
doesn't need anybody. He doesn't need me, you, or anybody
else. And he didn't save us to serve
him. If he needs anything, he said,
would I ask you if I needed something? Oh, my. So it's not about that. We serve
him because we love him, but love goes beyond just fair service. She kissed his feet. Nobody required that. That wasn't
customary. She did it because she loved
him. She was the one described in that parable that loveth much. That's why she kissed his feet.
And she anointed them with ointment. That's worship. If you love him,
you'll worship him. Everybody that loves him, worships
him. And if you want to know who loves
him, look at who worships him. In this parable, did you notice
in the parable that the Lord told about the two debtors, there
was nothing about faith mentioned in that parable. And yet when
the Lord said to that woman, thy faith hath safety, that faith was evidenced by what? The parable didn't mention anything
about faith, it talked about love. But it was her faith that saved
her, and that faith was evidenced by love. There are some things we know
from the Word of God about faith. Without it, we can't please God.
We quoted Hebrews 11.6 just a minute ago. But with faith, if you have
faith, you do please God. You have pleased God. How? How
in the world? Is it because God is pleased
with our faith? No. How many times did he say to
the disciples, oh, you have little faith. God can't take that. God's not pleased with anything
that's pathetic like our faith. At one time he said, how is it
that you don't have any faith? Have you been so long with me,
Philip, and you don't know me? Have you been sitting under the
gospel so long and you still don't know him? Our faith is
not acceptable to God. That's not what it's about. But
faith vitally unites us to Christ. And in Christ, God is well pleased
with us. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. With faith, God is well pleased. Why? Not because our faith is
something great, something commendable, but because the faith that God
gave us as one object, and that faith embraces and unites us
vitally to the Lord Jesus Christ. And being united to him, being
found in him, The Lord is well-pleased. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well-pleased. And everybody in him is well-pleased
with him by God's grace. So we know that without faith
it's impossible, but with faith. In John 6, 28, they said unto
him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God. Now, they didn't say that we
might work some of the works of God, that we might take a
stab at it, you know, make a run at it. What they're asking is,
how can we satisfy God? What can we do that will make
God say, I'm satisfied with you? And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
here's how that happens. This is the work of God, that
you believe on him whom he hath sinned. Again, God doesn't accept
our faith as a substitute for obedience to the law. No, no. That faith whereby we believe
on him unites us to him, and in him we've done the work of
God. Not some of it, not our good outweighs our bad if we
had any good, which we don't, but we've done all the work of
God because we're in him. You see that? How simple that
is. He said, This is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he hath sinned. And they said
therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then that we may
see and believe thee? What dost thou work? He said,
Here is how you do the work of God. And they said, What work
are you going to do? In verse 31 of John 6, they said,
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written.
He gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread
from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven. And he's about to answer their
question. What work do you do? I'm the
bread of God that came down from heaven. I give life unto the
world." Does that answer your question? How can God be satisfied
with me? How can I work the work of God,
make God happy with me? What work do you work, they said?
I give life. That's what he does. For the
bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life
unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." For I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me." Now, the Lord said to this woman, Thy sins, which are many,
are many, are forgiven you. The Lord shows Simon here that
he knows his thoughts. But Simon's sitting there thinking,
boy, what a sinner she is. And at the same time, that he's
well acquainted with this woman. Simon had said, if he knew what
kind of woman she was, the Lord said, her sins are many. The
Lord's acquainted with us, isn't he? He knows us intimately. He
knows every thought we've ever thought. He knows what we've
been thinking since we came in here, to our shame. He knows every thought, every
word before we ever speak it. While it is still in our tongue,
thou knowest it, Lord, altogether, altogether." He knows us a whole
lot better than we know ourselves, doesn't he? Thy sins, which are
many, are forgiven thee. He had something to say to Simon, and he said it, didn't he? He
also had something to say to her. Go in peace. Blessed words from the Master.
Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. I want to close
with this thought. In the parable that the Lord
gave, remember again there are two debtors and one creditor. Different amounts are owed, a
relatively small amount and a relatively large amount. And both of these
debts were due. The time came when the debts
were due. And the Lord said the creditor frankly, he freely forgave
them both. No strings attached. You owed
me money, now you don't owe me anything. Now who loves him the most? And
Simon, he could answer the question, couldn't he? The Lord said, you've
judged rightly. There's a lot of folks that can
answer the questions right, and supposedly render some kind
of service to God. Remember, Paul said, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved, because they have a zeal of God. They're doing it. They're saved to serve. They're
serving the Lord. It's a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. And here's the problem. not submitting
themselves to the righteousness of God, they go on about to establish
their own righteousness." Simon can answer the question. He knew
the doctrine, didn't he? But he didn't love the Master. In this parable, when they were
forgiven, the one that was forgiven much, was he forgiven much because
he loved much? Or did he love much because he
was forgiven much? You see, you could read the last
part of this passage and you could, let's look at it again
together and we'll be through. Look at verse 41 again. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors and the one owed 500 pence and the other
50, one-tenth of the amount. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto
him, Thou hast rightly judged." And there are those who can rightly
judge. Paul said to the Corinthians, knowledge puffeth up. Knowledge without love puffeth
up. And there are those who have
knowledge. You rightly judged. Love buildeth
up. Love edify. See thou this woman, I entered
into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but
she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the
hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this
woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my
feet. My head with oil you didn't 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 wait
a minute, it sounds like she was forgiven because she loved.
Listen to the parable again. There's two debtors, and they're
both frankly forgiven. Which one loved him the most?
The one who was forgiven the most. So the forgiveness is the
cause of the love. Right? We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us
and forgave us. The wording there is, He sent
His Son to be the sin offering, the propitiation for our sins. That's why we love Him. And in this language here, when
it says, "...her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved
much." You can see by her love that she's been forgiven by Christ.
You see that? Religion's got it backwards,
doesn't it? Oh, the natural man, we've got it backwards, don't
we? If you just love the Lord now, do something for the Lord,
he'll forgive you. She loved him because he had
forgiven her much. And we see that she did, don't
we? And the Lord said to her because
of that, because he had given her faith in himself, given life
to whom he will, as he said was his sovereign right to do. He
had the authority to do. He said to her those three wonderful
words, Go in peace. He hath made peace by the blood
of his cross. And so he speaks peace to the
sinner. Bless his name. Amen. Thank you, Chris. Take your hymnal
and turn to hymn number 235. Let's stand and sing Pass Me
Not. 235. And. Bless me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble
cry, While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Let me at a throne of mercy find
a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition
help my unbelief. Hear my humble cry While on others
thou art calling Not pass me by Trusting only in Thy merit would
I seek Thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, Hear my humble
cry While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me by. you