If you have your Bibles with you today, we do want to return once again to the Gospel of Luke as we continue to make our way through this Gospel. I'm thankful that God has given us four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In those four, we have uniqueness and yet consistency and no contradiction. and yet a fuller light and a fuller picture of the life of Christ. And today we find ourselves, our passage will be in chapter 7 beginning in verse 36. We will read down through the end of this chapter today. This is an account that many of you are already familiar with. We pray that the Word of God would have its effect on our hearts as it ought to, as it can, and I believe is God intends. So read with me verse 36 of chapter 7 in the Gospel of Luke. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner When she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then, turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. I would like to speak to you today about great forgiveness and great love. Great forgiveness and great love. Some questions to begin our thoughts as we look and ponder on this passage today. Why do some people love the Lord and others don't? Why do some men and women seem to love the Lord more than others do? Why, maybe to make it personal, why does my own love for Jesus seem to rise and fall? Why does it seem to wax and wane? Why does it seem to grow hot and then cool and grow cold? Why have some men and women given their very lives for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Why was Stephen willing to be stoned rather than recant his faith as the mob of the Jews threatened and then did take his life by stoning? Why did he do that? Why was his love for Christ in such a place that allowed him then also to lift up his eyes and see the home that he was heading to? Why did Paul endure beatings, shipwrecks, and imprisonment? Why did he do those things rather than abandon his proclaimed love of Christ? Why did he do this? Why did a man that I speak of with some regularity in preaching, Adoniram Judson, why did he endure imprisonment himself and torture and the loss of wives, multiple? Why did he do this in Burma rather than abandon The mission that His love for Christ set Him on to translate the Word of God into the Burmese language. Why did He do this? I believe the answer to these questions are answered for us here in this passage today. It's not that they were somehow more spiritual than others. It's not that they were somehow more capable than others. Why did they love Jesus? It's not because they were better than you or me. I believe the answer to the question is because these men and many others like them and women have understood the forgiveness that they have in Christ. And the greatness of their forgiveness that they feel has led them to such great love. The forgiveness that they had found led them to want to do the things that God led them to do, whatever sacrifice might have been called for in the exercising of the activity. Whatever that it was, their love for Christ is what drove them to great service. And their love for Christ was driven by the realization, the understanding, and the awareness of the sin that Christ had forgiven them of. These men merely didn't give their lives to prove the world was wrong or to prove themselves some great theologian or to prove to the world just how good they were. Their interest was not to be seen as pious men and women. It was not to be seen by others. It was driven, I believe, by a love for Christ that itself was fueled by an awareness of the sin that had been forgiven. by Christ Himself. That's what drives a love for Christ that changes our lives and changes the lives of others around us that God might have us influence. In today's scripture, we find a woman who was seen by many as nothing but a sinner. Well, that's that woman from the city, that sinful That's how she was known. We're not given her name. She's merely referred to as the woman who was a sinner. But this woman, despite the fact that she is not named, we see in her a service to Christ driven by a reality according to Jesus himself. Driven by the reality of her felt forgiveness that she had found in Him. She had felt that forgiveness and that drove her to this great outward act of love and devotion for Christ. Maybe, I pray that you want to be one such as this woman. One willing to offer to Christ such service. But there's another one in the room that Christ speaks to, that Jesus is invited to his house, we're given his name, it's Simon. And whereas this woman, in great understanding and awareness of the forgiveness that she had found in Christ that drove that great act of outward service in humility for the Lord, we also find a man named Simon who possessed all the outward signs of being righteous, but felt nothing Nothing of the love that this woman felt in her heart for the Lord. Now, the scriptures do not tell us what was in Simon's mind when he invited Christ, but it does reveal to us by behavior and by action, which of these two loved the Lord. And then Jesus tells us why that was. Because they understood. Those that love the Lord have an understanding of the sin that he has forgiven so that they might be made right with God. Simon had nothing of an awareness of this and the absence of his awareness of his forgiveness is what drove the absence of his love for Christ. If you or I have any desire at all to be like this woman, and I hope again that we do, and we want to look at this act of service that she performed, and we want to look closely at it so that we might see clearly what we need to see to drive us toward a place of feeling the love for Christ that would spur such behavior. But if we have any desire to be like her, then let us learn what she understood. If you feel a sense of pride at your own righteousness, but also sense a lack of love in your heart for God and His Son, then I pray we will learn the lesson of this sinful woman as she provided for Christ this great act of humble worship and dedication. The scene here is clear. The Pharisee named Simon has invited Jesus to eat with him. So in all proper form, no doubt that dinner had been laid out. And here then comes a woman uninvited, no doubt uninvited to this occasion. But the scripture says, upon hearing that Jesus was going to be there, nothing was going to stop this woman from coming and to offer her love and devotion to Christ. Nothing would. And we'll talk more about that in a moment. But here is the scene. This Pharisee's table, no doubt spotless, no doubt everything laid out where it ought to be. And the dinner proceeding precisely as the Pharisee wanted until this moment that this woman comes in. This woman with clearly a broken heart, or a humble heart at least, as the tears wet the feet of the Savior, and the humility of this woman is on full display. The depth of her humility is worth our noting, as she, choosing to be behind him and to anoint his feet rather than his head, in all of the things that she does, it clearly demonstrates a humility of heart that was offering to Christ service from a heart who, as Jesus says later and tells us, understood forgiveness. We're told that she wet his feet with her tears and she dried them with her hair. And we understand that in this time, the cultural situation that they were in for a woman to unbind her hair in public was considered immodest. It was not appropriate. It was not respectable of a woman to do this. but doing so here at Jesus' feet signaled a deep humility and a disregard in one hand for it to honor the order of society because her heart was focused upon honoring Christ. And she did that because, we're going to keep saying it, because of the great forgiveness that she had found in Christ. It drove this great love. If our love for Christ is waxing cold, it behooves us to be reminded of the great sin that we have found forgiveness in Christ for. Because even, I believe, a child of God can go down the road far enough and walk far enough away from it that that reality of the fact that we stand before God as sinners outside of the blood of Christ alone, it can cause our hearts to grow cold toward God and not, like this woman's, willing to be seen by others as breaking conventional expectation and the expectations of society. Washing the feet was reserved for the lowliest of servants. She didn't even use the tools, but the only thing she used was the tears that wet his feet. And I wonder now, as the thought occurs, I wonder spiritually, how many of my tears have wet the Savior's feet because of the forgiveness that He has given to me. Am I remembering it? Great love for God and for Christ. It's driven by a great forgiveness that we have found in Him. Have my tears washed the feet of Jesus? Am I willing to be like this woman was? She's a known sinner. That's how the world sees her. That's how Simon certainly did. Looking down his nose at this woman and this unexpected and no doubt in his mind unwelcome interruption as he has brought this teacher, this man Jesus, who's caused such a stir. Maybe he wanted to be identified with him because of his popularity. Maybe he wanted to be able to go around town and say, I hosted Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe he wanted to correct Jesus because he didn't agree with his theology. Maybe this or maybe that, but whatever the case, the real situation is demonstrated right here before us. It's not how righteous you are, Simon. It's how much love this sinful woman who's found forgiveness is showing Christ. That's the lesson of this passage. It's not about how good we look to the world. It's how much love that we have for Christ, and that love is fueled. It's fueled by the very reality that we have found forgiveness in Christ. She's a known sinner. It's a scandal for her to even be in the room, much less touch the teacher. It highlights her faith and her awareness that Christ would receive her act of service and her confidence in it. It actually also highlights Jesus' welcome of repentant love over some outward signs of purity of the Pharisee. She wouldn't even anoint his head, that was what was typical. She wouldn't stand to her feet, wouldn't deign to do such a thing, but just behind him, at his feet, anoint his feet, wet them with her tears, wipe them with her hair. This act of devotion goes far and away above anything that Simon did. And I want to highlight her courage as well because I think it's worthy of our note, of our notice. Here, this sinful woman has the courage to enter a Pharisee's house despite the scorn that no doubt she would anticipate receiving. As the Pharisee would look down upon her, what's this sinful woman doing? And by the way, I also wondered this as I prayed and considered and prepared I wonder if the thought even, and I don't think it did, but I wonder if it would have crossed my mind, I don't want to do that, because that would put Jesus in a difficult spot with the Pharisee. Because then He'd have to kind of choose, and I'd put Him in a difficult place. But the love that she felt for Christ, driven by the forgiveness that she'd found in Him, all of that was set aside. All that mattered was, I want to I want to give service to the one I love." Bold confidence that Jesus would receive her and courage to enter it. This self-forgetful love that disregards everything except the service that we feel compelled to give, driven again by a love for Christ. Why do you love the Lord? Why did this woman love the Lord? Jesus tells us because of the forgiveness that she'd found in Him, it drove her and it propelled her to this great act of service. She didn't care what she looked like to others. She didn't care what Simon might say about her. She didn't care that she would meet with the disapproval of many. She didn't care if her actions offended Simon or anyone else for that matter. She didn't care about the cost of the ointment. She cared for none of these things when confronted with the opportunity to offer humble service to the one who had forgiven her of her sin and who had made her soul right with God. None of those other things mattered. What matters to her in this moment is Christ and Christ alone and her love for Him driven by the reality of the forgiveness that she has found and the brokenness and the humbleness of her heart as she performs this service is on clear display. This woman's love for Christ overcame all selfish concern. She didn't intend to offend Simon. That was not her motive. And sometimes people can miss the step there. She didn't go and say, I'm going to show Simon up. I'm going to show him what real service looks like. She didn't intend to offend him, I don't think. But neither did she shy away from the service for fear of offending. Simon was not her audience. Simon was not her concern. Jesus was. And Jesus was the only one in the room in her mind, I think, because Jesus is the only one who had forgiven her sin and given her peace. And he speaks it outwardly at the end of this in a beautiful proclamation of her righteousness before God. She wasn't trying to be scandalous. But again, neither did she let a concern over how she looked to others prevent her from serving and worshiping Christ. What self-forgetting love is on display in this woman. I don't know her name, and none of us do, but I will one day. One day I'm going to know this woman. she's going to be able to tell me about this day. This day where she offered this service to Christ, and I believe, again, I don't know that I can be dogmatic about it, but I believe her mind, her heart, her eyes were on one person, Jesus. Maybe she was aware of the other things, but what mattered to her in that moment was Jesus was there, What though again explains a love like this? This love that this woman demonstrates, this is clearly not normal. This isn't... Your average person, this is not your average religious exercise. It's certainly not convenient, not for Simon. It's probably not convenient for her in a lot of human thinking ways. This question though is asked today about those who hold a special devotion to God as we've sensed them. And I hope that you have had people in your life where just, it's like the verse that talks about that we can become the aroma of Christ to God. It's like when you're around them, You see what that means. You sense what that means. This person just brings the aroma of Christ. So hopefully somebody in your life has been someone who just truly loves the Lord deeply, not perfectly. They have faults and they have failures. And we should never put a man on a pinnacle or a woman on a pinnacle. But at the same time, we have people in our life where you just sense they love the Lord. What drives it? What explains it? Is it just a sense of wanting to be a good person? Is it I want to be a good Christian? Is it I'm in a Christian school or I'm at church and I need to be a good person? Is that what drives love for Christ? If that was, then Simon would have shown great love. But he didn't. And he had all of those things. He had the white robes. He had the law and the commandments under his own command and could likely tell you all of them. What drives this kind of love given from this woman? Maybe it's a question we need to ask ourselves and pose to ourselves again if we sense an inward lack of what this woman, who was called a sinner, clearly possessed. If it's not in us, why? Why? I think it's because we've gone a distance for one reason or another. from the reality of the fact that we've been forgiven and Christ has forgiven us. If we know Him and we are saved, that answers the question. Jesus now gives a parable. We won't walk through this verse by verse, but He gives this parable. Jesus answers Simon's unspoken judgment, by the way. Boy, if Jesus knew who this woman was, He wouldn't be letting her do that to Him. But Jesus answers Simon's unspoken judgment with this parable of the debtors. 1 Ode 500. The other 50, who loved more. This logic of the parable is Jesus says, Simon, let me tell you, I have something to say to you. And the logic is clear. Well, the one who's forgiven more loves more. And Jesus said, Simon, you're right. You're right. And I can almost, can't you, by the way, can't you, when Jesus gives the parable and he asks Simon, which of these two debtors loved more, can you almost, and again, this is conjecture, but I can almost see Simon going, well, the answer's obvious. I know where you're driving, the one who was forgiven more. Almost maybe with a dismissal attitude of this is, what are you trying to say? I don't get it. Well, Jesus is trying to get him to the point where he does get it. and apply it to the very room that he is in at that moment. You know, self-righteousness does a lot of things to you. One of the things it does that's most harmful is it blinds you to what's right in front of you. I know this because I've experienced it myself. Self-righteousness that blinds me to something that has been right in front of me the whole time. But Jesus gives this parable And then he says, and he talks about the comparison of the two. Her tears and her anointing reveal an experienced forgiveness that she had found. Listen, her tears, her love is a proof of the forgiveness. I believe it's not the price of the forgiveness. Her love is not buying Jesus' forgiveness. Her love is driven by the forgiveness already felt and experienced. Otherwise, it's not really a love for Christ, it's more a love for self. Our hesitation, I believe, at times to come boldly before the world, It exposes a thin faith, a faith not based or not settled in the reality of our being forgiven. The parable reveals the principle, and now Jesus, in verses 44-47, He applies it. He says, yes, you know the answer, Simon, but you've got no idea how to apply the wisdom of the answer that you know. Simon, Jesus says, you didn't do any of these things. I want to read this again, because the scripture says it obviously better than I ever could. Verse 44, turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? Boy, you can almost sense Jesus saying, no, no, I mean it, Simon. Do you see her? Simon thought he did. Yeah, she's that sinful woman from the city. It's like Jesus is saying, no, you don't see her. Do you see this woman, Simon? You gave me no kiss. I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. You've not anointed my head with oil. But this woman has wet my feet with her tears, she's wiped them with the hair of her head, and she's anointed my feet with ointment." What a contrast. The withheld courtesies even of accepted hospitality of the day reveal Simon's lack of love. And Jesus rebukes him for it. You didn't even extend to me the common courtesies due a visitor in your house. This woman has done that and more. And she's done that and more because she knows me and loves me because she has been forgiven. Now listen, Jesus doesn't dismiss her sin. We must look at that. In fact, I believe it turns on it. The whole thing. Three words after noting her sin, which are many. Jesus doesn't say to Simon that you're wrong about this woman. She's not a sinner. It's not what he says. What he says is you're missing the point, Simon. She gets it. She gets it because her sins, which are many, And she understood that too. She understood that her sins were many. Our problem is not that we see too much of our sin. It's that we see too little of it. And I know that in our world today, no one wants to acknowledge their own sin. No one wants to be confronted with their sin. But Jesus confronts it. He says there are many. It isn't that we don't see enough of our sin or too much of it. It's we don't see it at all. And certainly we see too little of it. I'm not so bad. It's what we say to ourselves. We compare ourselves to others. And somehow we think we know their heart, which is what God's looking at. We can't. This is the heart of the matter. This is why we preach about sin. It's why we must preach about sin. It isn't to make others feel as though we are better than they are. Somehow we're not with sin ourselves. John said it. 1st John who says he's without sin is a liar and the truth isn't in him. We don't preach about people's sin to make them feel bad. We don't preach about sin. We don't talk about sin. We don't confront people with their sin so that we can take a bat and beat them over the head with it. We don't talk about sin that way. We talk about sin that way because we know that that's the fuel for the love. that we desire everyone to have for Christ. When you take away the confrontation of sin, you remove from them this beautiful reality of that's what drives love. According to Jesus Himself here, we don't preach about sin for these reasons that the self-righteous Pharisee would have. He would have listed them all gladly and in great self self-reflection and pride. He would have listed her sins and said, she ought not even be here. That's not why we do it. We preach about sin because we know that loving God truly represents. Listen, I want you to hear this, and maybe it'll be a help to you or somebody that you're speaking to at some point in the future. The mountaintop of human experience and existence is loving God. That's as high as it gets. That's the mountaintop for the human being. It's what gives peace in the midst of even the tragedies of our lives. It gives purpose in the midst of what otherwise seems meaningless. Loving Christ. It gives hope in the midst of a hopeless world. It brings joy from sadness. It fulfills and satisfies, yet leaves us ever wanting more. It's one height after another. It's the mountain that can be climbed. Even while we are here, as I heard Brother Bryson say one time, we ought to live as though we've already been resurrected. And what he meant by that was we ought to be striving to be what God has called and designed us to be, which is to be in relationship with Him and to love Him. Not to be an impressive preacher, not to be an impressive person, not to be somebody that the world might look up to or that the world might disdain. It isn't to go into the room and be worried about what Simon might think, and it isn't to shy away from the room because we're worried about what Simon might think. It is because Christ is there and our love for Him drives us to whatever service we're giving Him. We don't tell people they're sinners to beat them up. We don't tell people they're sinners to shut the door. We tell them they're sinners to open it. To the love of Christ. My question for all of us as we work our way towards being done Are we going to love like this woman did? Or are we going to be frozen at the table? Jesus now declares the truth of the woman's love. He makes no equivocation about it. He distinguishes for Simon the difference between him and her, and it isn't at all what he thinks it is. He says in verse 48, your sins are forgiven. And then later he says, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Your sins are forgiven. In the Greek, I believe that the verb tense of that is in the tense that it's something that happened in the past. but has an impact on the present. It's not that it just happened in the past and now it's over. This happened in the past and it brings along with it continued reality and results. You are saved. Your sins are forgiven and you stand uncondemned. Our conversion is not just something that happened in the past, though it started there and it must. There's that moment when we come to Christ in repentance for sin and as we find forgiveness in Christ and the love that we have for Him as it bubbles over and we feel a peace. So many people describe the moment of salvation Accurately with the idea that I just felt peace. I was at peace with God. And isn't it interesting? That's exactly what Jesus says to her. Go in peace. Your sins are forgiven. Not they merely will be or that they were in the past. They are. They're forgiven. There's no evidence, by the way, in scripture that there was any previous contact between Jesus and this woman. And I know that there's another very similar act that Mary gives to Jesus, but I do believe they're two separate times and we don't have time to get into that. But as you do look at it, I think they're two different occasions. It's my own personal conviction. Either way, there seems to be at this point, one way or the other, no direct contact between Jesus and this woman, but she had heard enough from somebody somewhere to trust him. Maybe she was in one of the many crowds where Jesus was teaching and she heard him and she understood and the Spirit of God enlightened her to her sin and she went in repentance and found Christ and felt forgiveness. Maybe she heard John the Baptist say, behold, the Lamb of God who does what? Takes away the sin of the world. And she thought, I can find forgiveness in this one, which I think that's what we're all seeking. That's what she desperately wanted. She didn't want to be seen by the world. She didn't care about that. She wanted to be forgiven so that she could be at peace with God. You may not be able to articulate it that way, and you may not even be willing to acknowledge it at all, but that's what the human heart seeks, is forgiveness from the God that created them, so that the relationship can be restored, which was the only reason you were ever brought into existence in the first place. He wants a relationship of love, and this woman found it when she found the forgiveness of her sin in Christ. She's an example for us all in this. Again, whether we recognize it or not, forgiveness of our sin and a restored relationship with God is the whole of our hearts as human beings. And Jesus' words here publicly declare what is already true. Her tears and anointing reveal the forgiveness that she had experienced in Christ. I believe already they are not a form of currency to pay for it. No tears were we to cry all our lives long would be enough for one drop of the shed blood of Christ on the cross. And so as we close today, let us do what Jesus did and examine what this means for each of us. Are we like the woman whose forgiveness in Christ fueled great love and devotion? Is our love for Christ such that we remember and acknowledge and admit in humility, I love Him because He's forgiven me? Or are we like Simon who's never known such forgiveness? Or maybe we're like someone else, we know, we've known it, but Maybe we've stepped away, we've forgotten a little bit of it, just how much we've been forgiven. I ask you today, has this sin-forgetfulness fed a self-righteousness which has now cooled your love for Christ? I ask you to examine your heart as I examine mine, that we remember now that love is the proof and not the price. Jesus died for our sin before we ever showed any interest in him at all. We know this because the scriptures tell us in Romans 5.8, God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I pray that you know the forgiveness of Christ, and that if you do, that that forgiveness would fuel the love like this woman had, and that you and I would all remember again What this is all about, what the greatest commandment from the early days of Scripture to the very end of them and all in between. What is the greatest commandment for the human being? This woman's service is not an extra. It's not something beyond what we ought to aspire to. It's not that, oh well she demonstrated that love for Christ. that way and again I know there will be different manifestations of it but do not think for a moment that this woman's love for Christ should be unique to her and it's not for us that's what God wants is a love shared between him and us that's what the greatest commandment is The greatest calling for the human being is not to be a great athlete. It's not to be a great businessman. It's not to be a great doctor. It's not to be a great scientist. It's not to be a great merely husband or wife or father or mother. That's not the greatest call of the human being. The greatest call that has ever been given to us as humans is to love God. Deuteronomy 6 5 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your might and I tell you you do those things he will allow you to be those others in a way far beyond you could ever be them without the love for God so Deuteronomy all the way back there and Matthew where you read it again Jesus asked, what's the greatest commandment? He says this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. Did you hear him? This commandment. This is the greatest commandment of any that we will ever receive. And the fuel for that. Is to remember the forgiveness that we have in Christ. Always and ever remember that He has forgiven us, that we stand before Him not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of His Son, whom when He looks upon us, He sees the righteousness of Christ applied because of our repentance for sin and our faith in His sacrifice. And this is the Gospel. This is the marvelous message of Scripture. God created us to have fellowship with Him. He gave us freedom to demonstrate our love for Him by obeying His commandments. He broke, or we broke, I should say, our Creator's commandment. All of us have. Jesus died on the cross and paid the penalty of our sin and offers us forgiveness. Like the choice to disobey, God now gives us the choice to repent and believe or not. And that is the gospel. And to find forgiveness in that. It is our forgiveness that fuels our service, not our self-righteousness. And this service has an impact on the world around us. And I ask you to think about this as we close. This woman was just trying to show the Lord her love. She was not trying to be seen of men, yet her service has been read about by countless men and women for 2,000 years. That wasn't her intention. She's just trying to show her Savior love. Great forgiveness and great love. I pray that God would use His word in our hearts today.