Luke the 7th chapter, and I want
to begin reading in verse 36 and finish the remainder of that
chapter. Luke chapter 7 and verse 36. 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. to a meal. And behold, a woman
in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat
at meat 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 bidden him, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This
man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner
of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee, And he said, Master,
say on. 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 freely, frankly, graciously forgave them both. Tell me, therefore,
which of them would 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. He turned to the woman, and said
unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered unto thine house, and
thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she hath washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss, But this woman, since the time I came in, hath
not ceased to kiss my feet. My head withal 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 her. It's
evident, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins
are forgiven. And they that said it meet with
him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he said to the woman, Thy
faith has saved thee. Go in peace." I don't want to
go through this verse by verse or really look at the whole story. But really I wanted to dwell
upon what I think is a principle taught here in verse 36. Where this Pharisee desired the
Lord Jesus that he would come into his house and eat a meal
with him. And I was thinking about this
Eden with a Pharisee. The Lord of glory Eden with a
Pharisee. I don't know why this Pharisee
invited him to his house. It just said that He desired
him to come and have a meal with Him. I don't know if he was curious. Maybe he was curious. You read
the context of this chapter, and the Lord Jesus had been doing
great miracles. And His fame had really spread
in this area of Capernaum. Maybe this fellow thought, I
want to know what kind of a man this is. I want to know more
about Him. I'm curious. Maybe it was that
he wanted to prove or disprove whether Jesus of Nazareth was
a prophet. He had an issue with that, didn't
he? If this man were a prophet, he'd know who and what man or
woman this was which toucheth him. So he had all of these thoughts
within him. He could have had several motives
for inviting the Lord Jesus to come here and eat with him. Whatever his motives were, we
don't know. When Simon thought within himself
here if this man was a prophet, he would know who and what kind
of woman this was. It's obvious that he didn't know
the Lord. He never had experienced forgiveness. He knew nothing about that. So
what was his motive? We don't know, but you know something
our Lord knows. Our Lord knew exactly why this
man wanted Him to come into His house. And I tell you something
else, the Lord did know what kind of woman this was that was
touching Him. He knew all about where she had
been and what she had done. And I tell you something over
and above that, He knew Simon too. He knew Simon. He had known this woman. He does
know her, Simon, and He knows you. When you just now thought
in your heart, if this man were a prophet, he knows your thoughts. And you fellows sitting back
there on the back row on the table, he said, when you said,
ìWho has power on earth to forgive sins?î I know exactly what you
were thinking. I know exactly what you were
thinking. I donít know why this man invited the Lord Jesus to
come in, but I tell you this, the God knows. He knows. And you know something? And this
is the point, brothers and sisters, that I want to make this morning.
He knew this Pharisee. He knew the other Pharisees that
were there. He knew this woman that was going
to be there. But none of this stopped the
Lord Jesus from going to this man's house and sitting down
with him and eating a meal with him. He desired him to come and
eat a meal, and the Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, went into
this Pharisee's house and sat down with him and had a meal
with him. Now, brothers and sisters, self-righteousness, religious,
legalistic Pharisees need the same gospel. that publicans and
sinners need. You and I would never be standoffish
and hateful and mean to a miserable publican, would we? I hope we
wouldn't. I hope we wouldn't find some
propagate woman down in the red light district, as we say, and
be mean to that person. That person needs the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope when we met a Pharisee,
we'd be just as kind to him as we would to that poor publican
or that sinner. There are those who would commend
you for being friendly to a publican, but would accuse you of compromise
if they saw you being friendly to a Pharisee. The Pharisees
accused the Lord Jesus of compromising His integrity by eating with
publicans. Your Master eats with publicans. Simon, you accuse the Lord Jesus
of compromising His holiness. This woman is touching you and
you are compromising your holiness. But in our day that you and I
live in, there are those who would accuse us of compromising
the gospel if we eat with the Pharisees. Would they not? Our Lord never compromised anything. He never compromised His integrity
and His holiness by setting and eating with publicans and sinners.
And He never compromised His gospel by eating with a Pharisee. Our Lord was never standoffish
to anyone. He was a friend and He was friendly
with all of those who desired a friend. In all His being friendly
and kind, Never one time did he compromise. We don't have to be mean and
we don't have to be hateful to expose the lack of love of a
Pharisee to the Savior. You can gently do it. You don't
have to be mean and you don't have to be hateful to a Pharisee
to expose his heart's lack of love for the Savior. You can
do it so gently. You can do it so meekly and lowly.
You hear the Savior came into His house. He sat down. I can see Him smiling at Simon
this Pharisee, can't you? I can see Him sitting there and
eating. And all of a sudden, boy, He gives a scouring rebuke
to Simon. Simon? Yes, Master. There was no threat, was there?
He didn't feel intimidated by sitting across in front of the
Lord of Glory? But here's what he kindly and
respectfully said to him. I came into your house, Simon.
You gave me no water. No water for my feet. She has washed my feet. with
her tears. You did not anoint my head with
oil. She has anointed my feet. You
never kissed my face. She has kissed my feet. And boy,
what a scathing rebuke! And I bet you he felt it in his
conscience, didn't he? The Lord didn't say it in a mean
way. He said it in a kind, respectful
way. You know something about self-righteousness,
brothers and sisters? You know something about legality?
It has never one time did anything for the honor and glory of Jesus
Christ the Lord. It may have man's applause. It
may cause the world to think, oh, what a fine fellow and the
separated man you are. But it's never done anything
to please and honor the Savior Not one drop of water, Simon. Not one drop of oil did you put
on my head. But this poor sinner, this poor
sinner, look what she's done. This poor forgiven sinner. But
you know, he didn't get mean to say that, did he? He wasn't
mean. He was so gentle and kind and
so friendly. Now I know this morning I'm preaching
to the choir. I know that. But maybe the choir
can go tell somebody else. You don't have to be mean. You
don't have to be hateful. When we're that way, we do not
display a Christ-like spirit. If a Pharisee invited you into
his house, would you go? And when you did, somebody's
going to say, oh, you're a compromiser. You're a compromiser. We was
at Esther's mother's funeral. just the other day. And Esther's
mother had requested this pastor preach her funeral. They had
a graveside funeral. And this old pastor, he was old. I mean, he was feeble. And you
know how it is around the gravesite. The ground is unlevel and everything.
And Randy, like he does, running around everywhere, trying his
best to make this poor old pastor comfortable. I mean, he was feeble. Randy did everything he could
to help that dear old man. And he knew, and Esther knew,
and I knew, and Larry knew, and my wife knew. Everybody was there
that had any spiritual sense, knew what that old pastor was
going to say. Randy told me. He didn't know
what you were going to hear. You know, don't you? You know
when they get up. You know what denomination they
came out of. You know who they're affiliated
with. All of this. You know what that old Armenian
pastor is going to say. But here was Randy. You'd have
thought he was Randy's dad. Making sure that that poor old
man didn't fall. Helping him. Setting him. Picking
him up. I know people that would have
called Randy a compromiser. But here's the thing, you see.
We listened while that poor old pastor said what he had to say,
which wasn't much. But we also got to sit and listen
while Randy got up and give us the testimony of God's sovereign
mercy in Jesus Christ. And you know something? That
old Armenian pastor, he sat and listened. And he wasn't offended
by anything anybody did to him. If he was offended, it had to
be the gospel that Randy preached there. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. The Lord
Jesus was never mean to people, was He? He was never hateful
to people. He was a friend to people. And
He was friendly to people. I had a pastor friend call me
just the other day. Well, it's been a while back.
He was telling me this lady called his office and wanted to know
if he would mind if she came to the worship service to hear
the gospel. That's what she asked. And then
she says, I've got a girlfriend. We're lesbians. And the first
thing he said he told that woman, he gave them instructions. You
can come, but don't do this and don't do that. And then when
he said he'd hang up from her, his conscience smote him. He
said he thought within himself, would I have given anybody else
instructions like that? Think about that. I thought about
what if people called me? What if the lady had called me?
What would I have said? I wouldn't meet some old fellow
that I knew to be a drunk out here in the parking lot the first
time he come in here and said, listen John, you welcome here,
but don't bring your bottle in here now. If a fellow come in here I knew
to be a swearer and a user of God's name in vain, I wouldn't
say, now watch your language while you're here. If a man and
a woman come in here I knew was shacking up, I wouldn't say to
them, now you can't set together in here. Boy, we're judgmental,
aren't we? We can really be hateful, can't
we? And not even know it most of the time. Two things that's
very repulsive to me, and I can't help it they're repulsive to
me. Homosexuality is one of them. Abortion is another. But listen
to this. Every homosexual needs to be
forgiven. Every homosexual needs the Savior. Every homosexual needs to be
washed from their sin. Do you believe the Savior can
save such people as that? Every mother who has killed her
unborn child needs to be forgiven of murder. And while these things are repulsive
to me and I hate the sin, I tell you, I don't want to hate those
who kill their babies. Do you? I don't want to hate sinners.
Is that a Christ-like spirit who was so friendly? You think
the Lord Jesus hated self-righteousness? Oh, He despised self-righteousness,
didn't He? But he went and sat down with
this Pharisee and ate with him and instructed him. And I'll
tell you something else. He not only despised the self-righteousness
of Simon, he despised the sin that this woman was involved
with too. Let's don't forget that. Let's
don't make something romantic about this. He despises sin no
matter where he sees it. And I wonder, brothers and sisters,
if you'd have to take secret search to find something in you
and in me that was repulsive to Him? Would He? Could He? And hasn't He been
a friend to you? Hasn't He been friendly to you? If we treated others more like
He treated us, we wouldn't be so mean, would we? While we would judge the sin,
we would sit with the poor sinner and tell him of a great Savior.
I don't care if he's an open and profane man or a self-righteous
Pharisee. He needs the Gospel. Listen to this. This is the attitude
of our Lord. This was some things that were
said about Him and being a friend. Now listen to this. He was called
a friend of publicans and sinners. And he pleaded guilty to that.
He was. In Matthew chapter 20, there
was one man who was mad at him because he paid everybody the
same amount for a day's work. Remember that? And the one man
said, you've not did us right. You've paid us who have worked
in the heat of the day the same that you paid them that labored
for one hour. And this is what he said, Friend,
I do you no wrong. Friend. In Matthew chapter 22, and Matthew
is the one that mentions all of these, the king came in to
see the guest. Remember that? And he saw there
a man having not on a wedding garment. And he said, Friend,
How come you in here not having on a wedding gown? And listen
to this. This is the most appealing. Judas brought those band of men,
that mob with their sticks and their staves and spears to get
him when he was there in the garden. And this is what he said
to Judas, Friend, wherefore art thou come? He was a friend, wasn't
he? He was friendly. He was so kind
to the most wretched and miserable and ungodly. And this is what
makes it so devastating when He does speak in judgment. Because boy, He's a friend, but
He's brutally honest, ain't He? He is openly and brutally honest. You've never had a friend like
this. You've never sat with a man like Him. that will call you
a friend and tell you and help you and show you and teach you
not to get into the ditch. But boy, when you do, He can
skin you alive. He can skin you alive. Here's what He said about friend
Judas. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him, but woe
unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been
good for Him that He had never been born." And what made that
so scaven and so convicted to Judas Iscariot? Here was a man,
the Lord of glory, who called him friend. And the king said to those angels
concerning that man that didn't have a wedding garment on, bind
him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer
darkness. Thou shalt be weeping and gnashing
of teeth." There's two things we love about
Jesus Christ when we consider Him under the character of the
Lamb. One is, it's the Lamb that atones
for sin. when they were to make the sacrifice
down in Egypt and put the blood over the doors of the post to
keep them from death's angel, from the awful wrath of God?
It was a lamb, wasn't it? Every house had a lamb. And they
took the lamb's blood and it stayed the wrath of God from
them. Abraham went up to offer Isaac
And Isaac said, Father, where is the sacrifice? Where is the
Lamb? And what did Abraham tell him?
Son, God shall provide Himself the Lamb. God is the Lamb. The incarnate God is the Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And the second thing we lack
about Jesus Christ under the character of a Lamb is this,
that He is so approachable. He's so approachable. Are you afraid to approach Him
to a little lamb? You take an old goat, they'll
butt you. But you take a lamb, you can go up to Him, you can
run your fingers through His wool. He won't hurt you. He's gentle and He's meek. And
that's the best animal in this world to portray the disposition,
the heart and the character of the Son of God, isn't it? He's
like a lamb. You can approach Him to Him.
He won't harm you. He won't hurt you. He's led as
a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is
done. And listen as He describes Himself. Come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take
My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in
my heart." Now you won't find kings like that. Kings are usually
rich men. Kings are usually arrogant men,
flaunting their power and their position. But here's the Lord
of glory and He's like a Lamb that you can approach into and
pour your heart out to and find mercy with and forgiveness with. And get this, it will be under
the character of a lamb that will be so frightful to the lost
in the day of judgment. But a lamb whose wrath has been
stirred up? This is one of the most dreadful
things that I can think of, to have a precious friend To have
one who has never harmed you. One that is willing to come into
your house and sit with you. And yet, finally, His wrath is
stirred. This is what was said on the
Day of Judgment in Revelation 6. This is the wicked. This is the unbelievers. And
they cried out to the rocks and the mountains to fall on us.
And they said, hide us from the face of Him that sits on the
throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." The wrath of the Lamb. The Lamb who atoned for sins.
The Lamb who is meek and lowly. His wrath. That is what they
said. The wrath of the Lamb is more
devastating than the curse of the law, is it not? There is
no wrath so great as that wrath that comes to avenge mercy that
has been spurned. There is no punishment so great
that will come because of salvation that has been neglected. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Listen of how much
sore punishment. Suppose you shall he be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God. It is bad enough
to break Moses' law. It is worse to sin against the
Son of God. This poor Simon, He had no idea
that his sin in a way was worse than this woman. Oh, she may
have been an adulteress. Maybe she was a fornicator. But
she had sinned against God's law and maybe that was the extent
of her sin's reach. But Simon not only sinned against
the law, he sinned against the gospel. He stands against the
Son of God. So you tell me, which one was
in worse condition? Oh, he was a self-righteous man,
wasn't he? But he needed mercy. He needed
forgiveness just as bad, if not more, than this dear woman did. Scripture says, See that ye refuse
not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refuse
Moses, who spake on the earth, much more shall not we escape
if we turn away from Him that speaks from heaven, whose voice
then shucked the earth. But He hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not earth only, but also heaven." Oh, Jesus
Christ! He is the Lord of glory. You
know He was the One on Mount Sinai. when it shook. That was the Son of God. That
was God. And He shook it. And He said,
I'm going to shake earth. And I'm going to shake heaven.
And that's the One who now descends to sit with us and eat with us
and teach us of our need of mercy. And that's the very same One
whose wrath will be stirred during the Day of Judgment. Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
the Lord of Glory. And He doesn't need us. He doesn't
need us. But we sure need Him. We've sinned against God. We've
sinned against the Law of God. We've sinned against the Son
of God. And though He would be just and pronounce an immediate
judgment, He hasn't, has He? He hasn't. He's done none of us any harm. Is there anybody here this morning
whose conscience would let you stand up and say, He did me wrong? Anybody? Find the most wretched
and degraded sinner in the world and ask him that. And if he'll
be honest, you know what he'll say? No, He never did me wrong. The wrong lies with me. He's
given me breath. He's the one that gives me every
heartbeat. He's given me a family. He's
given me my job. The problem is not with Him.
The problem is with me. We've lived and moved and had
our being and protection to this very day. And we've had it from
Him who owes us nothing but judgment. But if we die in our sins without
a saving interest in this One who truly is a friend of publicans
and sinners and Pharisees, the thing that will make judgment
most terrible is that He who is now so friendly
and so near will turn in that day to be the greatest enemy. That's dreadful, isn't it? That's
dreadful. I don't know how it went with
this man, this Pharisee. The Lord Jesus had condescended
here to eat with him, to teach him, to teach him a forgiveness
of sins. And I tell you this much, I tell
you this much, Simon's in one or two places this morning. One
or two places. No middle ground. No middle place.
The world's wanting to find some middle places, aren't they? No
middle places. It's heaven or hell with Christ
or the devil. And he's in heaven this morning
looking on the face of the Savior saying, You're the best friend
I ever had. Or he's in hell screaming. I wish I'd have never laid eyes
on him. I wish he'd have never came into
my house and ate with me. I wish I'd have never heard his
voice. It's going to be one of those
two things, wasn't it? One of those two things. I don't want my hateful attitude
to hinder me enduring the gospel. I don't care if it's an open
and profane sinner or some self-righteous person. Simon the Pharisee was
a poor sinner, just as sinful as this woman, though he didn't
know it. And yet the Lord Jesus sat with
him and ate with him and was a friend to him. Most of you probably have saw
news about one of our Supreme Court justices, a man that we
all admired. They buried him, I guess, yesterday.
Antonin Scalia. Maybe what you don't know, if
you haven't heard, that for years He had been very close friends
with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was another judge on the
Supreme Court. And what makes this so marvelous
is they were at the extremes when it comes to political views.
Scalia, he was a constitutionalist. He said, when our forefathers
made our Constitution, they made it for as long as this country
lasted. When you want an opinion on the
law, you go to the Constitution. It never changes. I love that. I love that. Mrs. Ginsburg said
the Constitution was a living, breathing, moving thing. That it would shift to accommodate
what was going on in our society now. I hate that. But here were these two people.
Here were these two people. And when Scalia died, Ginsburg
said, I have lost my best bud. How in the world could that be?
How could that be? It's something about what I'm
trying to talk about this morning. It's difficult. to even get along
sometimes with those you agree with, isn't it? I wish, brothers and sisters,
I hope that the Lord would bless us and give us the Spirit of
the Master. That we could really and honestly
love people and be friendly with people. And at the same time,
when it comes time to tell them the truth, We never compromise
an ounce. But if we're hateful and we're
standoffish and we're mean, we'll never get an opportunity to witness
to some people. Our country is being torn apart,
isn't it? It's being torn apart and it's
because of this attitude of the people. We've got all these politicians
now running for office and all of them are Christians. And this fellow is standing here
and saying, that's sorry to low-down cuss of a liar. Well, I ain't
going to judge him since I'm a Christian. But I'm
a better Christian than he is. None of them are Christians.
If they're Christians, they're so unique. They're so unique
that they're not even in the Bible. Of course, I can't find
them there. But in the midst of all of this
division and hatred and strife, brothers and sisters, let's befriend
poor sinners. I don't care who they are. I
don't care what denomination they are. I don't care how astute
they are in sin. They need to hear of a great
and mighty Savior to save them from their sin if they don't
hear it from us. Who are they going to hear it
from? I have a local pastor. He pastors a local church there
in Springport. I know exactly what he believes.
He knows exactly what I believe. Me and him preached a funeral
together just not long ago. And he suggested a text to me.
And I took it and preached from it. And he came up to me afterward
and he said, I've never heard it like that. He comes to my
office. I sit and talk with him in his
yard. We're friends. We're friends. You know something? He's probably lost. He's probably lost. What am I
supposed to do about that? Worried that somebody is going
to say, Bruce is a big compromiser? There is something more important
than whether I am or not or what people think about me. And that
is that man's soul. And if I was mean to him and
self-righteous to him, he would not sit and talk with me. He
sits and talks with me because he knows I mean him no harm.
And we can talk about anything and be honest about it. That's a Christ-like spirit,
isn't it? And then when you do have to tell, that's when usually
conviction will really come. Because they know, He don't mean
me any harm. He's a friend to me. He's telling
me the truth. Isn't it an amazing thing that
Jesus, the Lord of Glory, went into a Pharisee's house and sat
with him and ate. Could you do that? Would you
do that? God bless His Word. Let's pray.