Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.

Listen at lunch with the Lord. This is a passage that you're familiar with and I'm familiar with, but as I've tried to dig into it this week, boy, I learned a lot and just some things that I needed reminded of and I hope that'll be a blessing to you today. If you're visiting, thank you for being here. We're glad you're here.

And I do want to say publicly, I appreciate our staff that has done such a good job of covering things while I was gone. And brother Frank did a wonderful job preaching last Sunday morning, brother David last Sunday night. And tonight we had the privilege of brother Jacob Gerald's ordination service. So be here at five o'clock, we'll have a reception afterwards and we'll be taking an offering for brother Jacob.

We don't get to do that a lot for staff and, but I hope that you'll be able to participate in that this evening. Look if you would at verse 36 of Luke chapter seven, and one of the Pharisees desired him, which is Jesus, this Pharisees name, by the way, we find out a couple of verses later, his name is Simon. And so this Pharisee desired that Jesus would eat with him and he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to meet and behold a woman in the city, which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at me in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and it wiped them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with 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 touches 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.

Now before we go on, let me just point out here that Simon had not said anything out loud. Now Simon was a Pharisee and Pharisees were interpreters of the law. They were religious and they were the religious leaders, but the law that they kept was a religious law. And may I remind you that you and I, Jesus came and died and rose again.

We are now under grace and not under the law. But these men obviously were the ones that kind of were keepers of the law, interpreting the law, and they would inflict this law upon people. So this is Simon. And the Bible says that Simon thought these things in his head and they weren't very good thoughts about this woman. And as he thought these things, as soon as he thought them, then Jesus said, Simon, I've got something I want to say to you.

And so Simon said, of course, so will master say on. Now Simon would not know that what Jesus was getting ready to say was a result of what Simon had thought. And this is a reminder for even go on to remind you that Jesus does not just hear what you say. He knows what we think. He knows our heart.

And that's just a reminder today. So what did Jesus say to him? Notice if you would, verse 41, Jesus gives him an illustration. He said there was a certain creditor which had two debtors and owed 500 pence to the one obviously and the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. So here's two men that owed him money. Neither one of them could pay them back and he forgave both of them.

One of him, one of them owed him 500 pence and the other owed him 50. And so if you will look at verse 43, Simon answered and said, well, I'm sorry, I skipped verse 42, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, Jesus says, 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 has to rightly judged. Now let me point that out, that being a Pharisee, these men were basically judges of the law.

And you know, there's not much good said or even written about Pharisees and Sadducees and things in the Bible. And they're always after Jesus. And these men were such believers and followers of the law that their loyalty was to the law. And you notice here how Jesus kind of appeals to Simon's own ego. When he gives him this scenario and he said, you know, who are these individuals, who do you think is going to be the most grateful?

The one who was forgiven 50 pence or the one who was forgiven 500 pence. And Simon said, well, I suppose that the person that was forgiven the most. And then Jesus says, he could have just said, you're right, but he says thou hast rightly judged. It's amazing how Jesus can always set you up before he knocks you down. Notice if you would, verse 44, and he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, see as thou this woman, I entered into thine house, thou gave us me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gave us me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

My head with oil, thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven. And when they that sat at meet with him began to say within themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.

Let's pray. Lord, I love you and we love your word and Lord, there's so much here for us to glean from. And I pray that you'd help me today, please, Lord. I'm preaching to the best people in the world and I pray that you'd help me to rightfully divide your word to them.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. At this particular passage, there's three main characters that I want to point out to you today and we just want to learn a lesson from each of them. And that's one of the best ways, you got to break God's word down and let's say, all right, what does this mean? What does that mean?

What can I learn from this? And so these are the three main characters in this story. First there is the self-righteous, that's this Pharisee named Simon, he was self-righteous. Notice the second character I want you to see is the savior. Now the savior Jesus was through this entire story, weaving in and out of every verse. The third character I want you to see is the sinner and that was this woman.

Now I want you to know in life that you're always going to find these three things. In life, you and I are the sinner. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, the Bible says. But you're always going to run across some self-righteous.

The individuals that think that they kind of have right to sit back and judge and critique everyone else for what they have to do wrong. Unfortunately there are many self-righteous at church. But aren't you glad thirdly that wherever you go in life, weaving in and out of your life, there's always going to be the savior.

He's always there, always willing to forgive and always willing to love. So as we look at these three characters, we're going to learn something. Now I will admit to you in the first service, all I made it through was the sinner. I didn't even get to preach two thirds of my message. What a pity. So we're going to get it all.

No, I'm just joking. We're going to see how far we go, but I want us to learn what we need to learn. Notice if you would first, as we look at the sinner, think of verse 37, the Bible says, and behold a woman in the city, which was a sinner. So for us to understand this story, we kind of have to understand the subjects of the story. This sinner, I want you to notice first how she had been bought. This woman was a prostitute. This woman was a harlot. The Bible says that she was a woman in the city and she was a sinner.

Now from these two phrases, we understand a couple of things. As you look into the meaning of these Greek words, the fact that she was in the city means that that was her dwelling place. That's where she stayed.

She was in the city. That's where she worked. That's where she did business. The Bible says she was a sinner and this word sinner obviously lets us know that this was a woman that literally worked in the city as a person that sold her body to individuals. Now you and I would say, well, that's just absolutely despicable and, and you know, what a, what a horrible, horrible thing. And if you think of this term, how she had been bought. That was her life selling herself. Before you and I become too quick to judge, may I remind you that what she was guilty of, I hope that maybe that's not your life, but may I say this, you and I have been guilty of the same thing. You say, well, I would never do anything like that preacher.

Can I ask you something? How many times have you and I sold ourselves for something in the world? How many times have we sold God's will, sold God's plan because our flesh wanted something. I'll be honest with you. Every one of us at times have sold something precious for something that was temporary.

All of us are guilty of the same thing. How she had been bought. I was looking up and kind of reading about this passage, digging into it to find out, Hey, you know, what, is there anything I'm missing? Anything that I would, that I would see and had one writer that was kind of describing this lady. He said that literally this was a person that basically would drink with her customers to try to get through it. They would, she would drink after her customers to try to somehow be able to sleep. And then she would drink during the day to try to somehow be able to keep doing what her life had given her. She was a woman that was used to being used a woman that knew she was only wanted for one thing, a woman that knew temporary fulfillment of another's pleasure, but knew nothing of lasting love. That's who this person was, how she had been bought.

I want you to notice secondly, who she sought. The Bible says that in verse 37, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees house, that means this, that this woman was trying to find Jesus somehow, some way she was asking people, have you seen Jesus? Do you know, do you know where he's at? Do you know if he's anywhere in town?

Is there anywhere that I could find him? And somehow she got the information that he was going to eat at the Pharisee Simon's house. Now from this passage, we can gather that somehow this woman had already met Jesus. Somehow he had already come by her way.

And this is a woman that was used to men looking at probably her body. But when Jesus passed by, he saw her soul. May I remind you that he saw your soul. And today I want you to understand that maybe you're an individual that over the years, it feels like you've been used by people and that, and that people have, have promised one thing and let you down and, and people have not kept their commitments and you've had family that have let you down, parents that might've let you down, children or grandchildren that might've let you down. But I'm here to tell you, Jesus is not one that will ever let you down.

He sees your soul and he loves you for who you are. So she was seeking Jesus. I don't know how he had shown compassion on her and I don't know how he had shown forgiveness to her.

We are not told of the story. I don't know if maybe Jesus had spoken with her and she became a believer. I don't know if Jesus had shown her a different life, had shown her real love and had explained to her how faith in him and faith in Christ, how it would change her life. I don't know, but we know what this woman was and we know what she had done, but now she was trying to find Jesus somehow in some way so that she could thank him. So I want you to notice thirdly, what she brought. The Bible says that she showed up at this Pharisee Simon's house. She was not invited, but she showed up anyway.

You say, why is that? Because she was seeking Jesus and this woman had been to the bottom of her barrel and individuals that have been to the bottom finally get to the point when they want Jesus and when they have tried everything else and been down every other road and have found out what that kind of life brings you and you get to the point that you realize I'm desperate and I'm hopeless. I've got no other option and nothing has worked and I want Jesus.

You'll find that you don't care how people look at you and you don't care what might come your way. You'll get through the crowd, you'll get over the obstacles, you'll get over the mountain, but somehow, some way you'll get to Jesus. God give us those kinds of Christians and church members that determined they want Jesus and will go through anything to get to them. Who she sought and what she brought, so you say, all right, preacher, I know what she brought. She brought this package of ointment. The Bible says an alabaster box of ointment, but may I explain that even in the Greek here, this is obviously a container, but this is probably something that this woman had hanging around her neck and I say that because she probably did not have her own permanent dwelling. She was a person that her body was being used.

She really didn't have a home and so anything that this woman owned or had, she would have with her and this was probably ointment that she used in her business to obviously put that perfume on herself that would attract attention, that would be pleasing to an individual and that would attract them to her. This is something that she had used for that, something that she had to have to even do what she did and she brings this to Jesus and you say, so I understand what she brought, but I want you to look a little bit closer today. After all this woman had been through and the life she had lived, that wasn't all that she brought to Jesus that day.

I want you to notice first that she brought brokenness. The Bible says in verse 37, if you'll notice that when this woman found out that Jesus was going to be at this individual's house at Simon's house. Verse 38 says this, that she stood at his feet behind him weeping. You say, preacher, I don't understand maybe the language of that, what do you mean she stood at his feet? This woman as she approached Jesus as he was in this house, she just came in this house. She was desperate to get to Jesus and as she got to it, this literally brings the ideal that as she came in and saw him, she began to bow down and crumble literally at his feet. The Bible says she was weeping. You'll find verse 44, 45, 46 that Jesus, as he retells this story to Simon literally and brings up what she had done, he brings reference to the fact that she was weeping.

She was broken. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says that the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Are you bringing brokenness to Jesus today? You know a problem, you and I sometimes don't need Jesus so much because we're not broken.

We have so many blessings and we have so many advantages and things are good in our life right now and you know, well, I've got some problems like everyone else, but I'm okay. You know what, oftentimes we come into church out of obligation, but we do not come in broken. But it's all the difference in the world when you and I bring brokenness to Jesus. Some of you might recall, I don't know, I guess it's a month or two now, Kaden's in junior church, correct? He's in junior church. Some of you remember a couple of months ago or however long it's been that we had preacher boys on a Sunday night. Some of our men that are preachers just try to give them opportunity as we can. We're blessed to have them, but you know, if I let them all preach all the time, I never get to preach and my son Kaden on the way to church wanted to preach and I, you know, well, okay, I'm figuring that'll pass and by the time we got to church, he was still wanting to preach that night and I said, well, now Kaden, this is not a joke.

This is serious. You need a verse. You need to share God's word that preaching is not just getting up and messing around. Oh, I know. So I figured that would pass.

So we had the service and had one of our preacher men or whatever or a couple of them, I forget, and we did the offering and during the offering, he, I want to preach. So I'm like, I have no idea what he's going to say. We haven't worked on it.

We haven't gone over anything. This could be a train wreck, who knows? Some of you would remember as he got up and he quoted this verse, an individual that's had three open heart surgeries, even at six years of age, for some reason, his mind saw something in that verse that applied to his life. And as that little six year old got up here and said, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.

And I had a broken heart and God was with me. Now I don't have any idea what a six year old brain has seen over these years. I will tell you this, that every once in a while, we'll talk with Kate a little bit about his open heart surgeries. You know, he had one at three days, three months and three years of age, but he sometimes will talk about a man that he saw in the operating room. Now, I don't know if that's case could have been the doctor, could have been whatever, but there's a lot of people in the operating room and a whole lot of people in his particular operating rooms, but he always talks about this one man. I don't know.

That'll probably pass and his mind will probably not remember that. You say, well, who do you think it is? I don't know what it is.

I know who it could be, but I know this. The Lord is nigh unto those of you who are of a broken heart. She brought brokenness. How long has it been since you brought God, your brokenness in church once you know, secondly, she brought not just brokenness, but she brought humility. The Bible says that she literally bowed at his feet, got down at Jesus feet, which is a position of humility.

It's subservient. And she literally was weeping in her tears. The Bible said, literally covered, dropped on the feet of Jesus. She bowed in his presence later on as Jesus is kind of teaching Simon.

He said, Simon, when I walked in the house, you didn't bow to me, but this woman has bowed weeping and covered my feet with her tears. You know, the Bible still says that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Maybe you and I think that we've lived such a good life now and we've been so cleaned up and we don't do these things and we don't do some of the things that the world does and we don't do this and we don't do that. And maybe we follow our little rules and follow our little traditions or whatever the case might be. But may I say that oftentimes you and I, we walk into God's house, not with a spirit of humility like we should, but with an arrogant pride about ourselves.

As if we're better than those outside these walls. And dear friend, may I say that there was a room full of religious people there that day, but only one person brought humility. How many times in a church is there a room full of religious people? But barely even one that might bring humility. Are you humble before God today? Are you able to really see what we are?

Are you and I able to really see some of the things we've done? How undeserving we are for the grace of God. There was a table full of religious men that thought they were above everyone, but this one person that came in full of sin, a life of filth was so humbled by the grace of God. Oh, if you and I would only bring humility to the Lord.

Notice this third thing. She brought gratitude. Why was she weeping and why did she bow at his feet? And why did she take her hair and clean his feet?

And why did she pour this ointment on because she was grateful because she had been forgiven a lot. Now I'll be honest with you. I'm an individual that grew up in a Christian home and my mom and dad traveled every week of our lives. I was in church just about every night and I'm not exaggerating about that every night of my life.

And I'll be honest with you. When I got saved, it wasn't like that there was a life full of sin for me to be saved out of. I was saved young at the age of nine. I lived in a travel trailer with my mom and dad.

What could I have done? I mean, you're never more than 30 feet away from your parents. It creates some need for counseling for me and them. So you know, I kind of grew up probably overlooking under appreciating church, preaching God's word God's grace, but you know, you get older and you make some mistakes and you really blow it. And sometimes you look in the mirror and you realize probably deep down what you really are, then you start appreciating it. Now our young people ought to be kept in church and they ought to be in God's house, but there's always the danger that because they feel maybe they've been forgiven from a little, that they don't appreciate it as much as from, as those that have been forgiven a lot. May I say, dear friend, none of us have been forgiven more than the other.

We're all sinners that have been saved by the grace of God. I want you to notice next that she brought sacrifice. Now she brings this alabaster box of ointment. Now you say, well, preacher, what, you know, what's the significance of that? This, this box of ointment was precious.

It was expensive. You say, well, I don't understand, listen, this was a sacrifice. This woman was trying to find Jesus so that she could bring something of value to him.

Now look at me, I want you to get this. She considered her own self so unvaluable that she had to bring ointment to have anything of value. That's how worthless she considered herself. So if I, you know, you say, well, she could have just brought herself. Oh no, she did, but she didn't consider that much of a gift because of the life she lived.

So what did she do? She found the most expensive thing that she had, which was this little container of ointment. And she willingly sacrificed that to him because he had done so much for her. You know, you and I have been forgiven a lot by the Lord.

It ought to be natural for us to want to sacrifice something for him. Now, I don't know if you've ever thought that or thought this, but may I explain something about this box of ointment that she pours on Jesus. You know, when we talk about the fact that she was humble and she was grateful, now look at me, I want you to get this. In Jesus' day, they often obviously wore sandals or they might've been barefooted. And the Bible says, when this woman came into this house, and oftentimes if there was any kind of a nice dwelling, they would take their shoes off if they had shoes because they would be so dirty, but their feet would still be dusty. And this woman, when she came into this house, as she approached Jesus and she fell at his feet, the Bible says that the first step was that there were tears that fell on his feet. And the Bible says when those tears fell on Jesus' feet, that she literally took her hair and began to wipe and clean that dirt because the tears, as they would mix with the dust on the feet, would create mud.

It would make his feet dirty. And so she would take her hair and she would clean off his feet. But why did she pour the ointment?

Listen to me, I want you to get this. Because as she had cleaned his feet and began to kiss his feet, this woman was so ashamed of her sin and saw herself for what she really was, that she was literally pouring that ointment over his feet as if to disinfect and cleanse his feet from the filth of her own kisses. She felt such a sinner that for me to kiss his feet, I need to do something to wipe that off of him.

I don't know if you've ever thought of this, but may I say this act says something else. This ointment that this lady had because she had no permanent dwelling and she basically lived on the street corners, this ointment was essential for her to be able to do what she did because she would have to put that ointment on so that she would have a scent that would attract others to her. Look at me, and whatever Jesus did, however he did it, and he had forgiven her and shown her love and shown her compassion and all these things, look at me, she was so appreciative that when she came and she poured literally out her very precious ointment, she poured it all out on his feet. That is a sign that she had no intentions of ever going back to that lifestyle because she would not need that ointment anymore. She wanted to give it all to Jesus. Have you and I poured everything out? Have we said no turning back?

Or do we still have a hand or a finger on something in the world and we're trying to kind of ride both sides? She was so grateful for forgiveness, she had no intention of ever going back to what she did. Let me mention this if I can lastly, she brought love. Now the Bible says that Jesus looks at Simon and he says, Simon, when I came in the house, you didn't have water for my feet, but this woman washed my feet with her tears. He said, Simon, when I came in the house, you didn't show love, but this woman has kissed me ever since she walked in the door. God bless you.