LUKE 7:36-50 FAITH VS FAKE2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 7:36-50 Faith Vs Fake

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. As we look at this portion this morning here in chapter 7, I titled it, Faith vs. Fake.

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Because what we're really looking at is a comparison between two people here and their relationship with Jesus. We have the Pharisee, and in contrast to the Pharisee, we have this unnamed woman, but it's declared, it's clarified that she is a sinner.

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So we have this religious leader named Simon and this unnamed woman who is a sinner. And Jesus here is giving us the contrast between these two. And from these two, I believe God wants to challenge your heart and my heart this morning. To really ask us, are you faking it or do you have a genuine faith?

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Is it for real for you or is this just something that you're faking, that you're putting on a show? And he gives us these two people as an example. Now as we look at this portion, I would ask you to consider, if you were in this story, which person would you be? If you were in this story, which one better represents where you are in your relationship with the Lord? Now I'm not saying which one would you want to be,

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But which one are you actually? Which one better expresses who you are? The Pharisee, the religious leader, or this unnamed woman who is a sinner? Of course, we'd all say, because we know the rest of the story, and she's kind of the hero of the story. So we'd all say, yeah, I'm just like that woman.

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But I want to encourage you to really challenge yourself and ask God to show you if that is really the case. Because as I shared just a moment ago, as Chuck was sharing, his wife is now in the presence of the Lord. You and I are dealing with eternity. You and I are dealing with life and death. This is for real. This is as real as it gets. And we need to know where we stand with God. And very often, we can...

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deceive ourselves and live with these false expectations or these false ideas that, well, we think that we're fine, but in reality, we're far from where we need to be. That was the condition of this Pharisee, as we'll see in our time together. So there's four things I want to highlight for you as we look at faith versus fake. And the first thing is

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Found in verses 36 through 38 is that faith produces love. Let's start off again in verse 36. It says, Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. And so we begin the account looking at this invitation. This Pharisee, this religious leader, invites Jesus over for dinner.

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I find this very interesting because it was not too long ago as we were studying through the gospel of Luke that we saw the Pharisees were really having a hard time with Jesus because he was having dinner with Matthew the tax collector. And tax collectors were notorious sinners and so when Matthew threw a feast and invited all of his friends a bunch of sinners came. And Jesus is there and he's

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At his house, he's having dinner with them. And you might remember the Pharisees had a real hard time with that. They argued with the disciples. They said, hey, how can he be eating and be there in the midst of all of those sinners? They despised Jesus as a result of that. But now here we have Simon, this Pharisee, inviting Jesus to dinner.

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I wonder, why did he invite Jesus to dinner? It causes me to wonder, was he curious about the Lord? Was it just a show? Or did he really have a genuine interest in the things that Jesus was saying? We don't really know, except as Jesus will point out later on, his heart really wasn't in the right place. But what's interesting about this too is that Jesus is given this invitation to

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The motives are questionable. The heart's not quite right. But even so, Jesus...

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the invitation. He goes to dinner at Simon's house. Even though the motives might not be pure, even though his heart might not be in the right place, Jesus goes. And so there's this invitation which Jesus responds to. Then in verse 37 it says, and behold a woman in the city who was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster flask of

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of fragrant oil. So first we're introduced to the Pharisee. He invited Jesus to dinner. And now we're introduced to this woman. Again, we don't know much about her, but it says she was a woman in the city who was a sinner. That's what we know about her. She was a woman who was in the city and she was a sinner. She's unnamed. She's unknown, but it was known that she was a sinner.

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Now, the Bible is very clear. Every one of us are sinners. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23 tells us. And so when it says that she was a sinner, it's not just saying that at some point in her life, once or twice, you know, she'd messed up and she'd sinned. No, when the religious leaders and the scriptures are referring to someone as a sinner, they're pointing out

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out that this person was in open rebellion. Their sin was open before everybody. It was just an outright, blatant, sinful lifestyle. Because of that, many scholars and commentators believe that this woman was probably a prostitute, that she was living a life of prostitution. It was open and outright sin, and it was the way that she lived her life.

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Tax collectors also were referred to as sinners. They had this open reputation, this open lifestyle of deceiving and ripping people off and being corrupt and greedy. And so whatever this woman's occupation was, whatever it was that she was doing or involved with, we don't know that for sure. But what we do know is that she was openly living in sin. It was an open lifestyle. There was no hiding it. There was no, you know, trying to pretend like she was good.

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She lived in open and outright rebellion against God. And this woman comes to the dinner party. She knows that Jesus is there. She hears he's at Simon's house. And so she goes to the house and it says that she brings an alabaster flask of fragrant oil.

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Notice that she sought out Jesus. She sought out where he would be. She found out and then she made arrangements to be there. She came to the Lord. She came to Jesus. You know, the scriptures say that whoever comes to Jesus, he will not cast out. Even for the open and blatant sinner, the person who is in open rebellion, who's just disregarded God and said, I don't care what you say. When they come to Jesus...

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Jesus will not cast them out. Whoever will, whoever desires, whoever desires the salvation and forgiveness that's found in Jesus Christ can come to him and he will receive them. And she comes and it points out that she has an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. Now that's going to be important in the next verse because she'll begin to use that oil as she's expressing her love to the Lord. But you and I, we don't

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really use alabaster flasks of oil. So what are we talking about here? What is this that she had? Alabaster, it's different than what's known today as alabaster. It's actually distinct and it's called oriental alabaster. It's kind of a type of marble, a little bit. It looks kind of marbly, but it's white. It's a real delicate stone. And so what they would do is they would fashion this stone. They would take it and they would make containers out of it.

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And then they would put inside of it this oil, this perfume, and they would carry it around. And then it would be sealed on the top. And so many Jewish ladies would carry around a little flask of perfume or scented oil. It would be on a cord around their neck, and they would carry it with them. And that's possibly what she had and what we're talking about here.

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Here's a couple pictures of what these alabaster flasks look like. The one on the far right is kind of a new modern one. You know, it's a little bit fancier and stuff. But these two here are more typical of what you would find in that time. These just little simple containers with long necks that would contain this oil.

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And they would be sealed once the oil was inside so that in order to obtain the contents, you broke it. And when you broke it open, then the oil would come forth. The oil would come out and then you could apply it however you were going to apply it. And so this is the type of thing that she had. She came with this. Perhaps it was always carried with her. Perhaps she made arrangements and went and got it from home. We don't know. But she goes...

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to Simon's house where Jesus is with this alabaster flask of fragrant oil. And it says in verse 38, And he stood at his feet behind, or she stood at his feet behind him, weeping. And she began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet and anointed them with fragrant oil. And so what we see happening now is she comes to the Lord and he's there with

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At the table, preparing to eat. There's a lot of cultural references here in this portion, so I'll be making reference to that. So in those days, they didn't sit around a table like you and I do, you know, with chairs, and you sit around a table, it's kind of, you know, this high, and that kind of thing. Their tables were low to the ground, and they would have cushions around the table, and you would lay down on your side, and be right there laying next to the table, and that's how you would eat.

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And so as you're laying there next to the table, your feet would extend away from the table. And that's the way that she came and approached Jesus. So he's at the table. His feet are accessible because they're extended away from the table as he's laying there for dinner. And so she's at his feet and she's weeping and she's wiping his feet with her hair. And then she breaks open this

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alabaster flask of oil and anoints his feet with oil. There's a lot of things that we could consider here, but I don't want to get too caught up in this because there's more in the passage that God wants us to consider. But there's this beautiful expression of worship that is taking place here. It's this outpouring really of this woman and her love for Jesus. Now, this is not all planned out.

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This was not, you know, that she thought about ahead of time and she thought, well, I need to wash his feet. How can I wash his feet? I forgot my bucket at home. I know, I'll get some tears going and then with the tears, I can wash his feet. Oh, how am I going to dry the feet? Oh, oh, I'll just use my hair. Let me undo it. Okay, it wasn't like she planned this out. Here's what happened. She is seeking Jesus, right?

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Maybe she's heard him teach. Maybe he's connected with her personally. We don't know. But she's had some kind of contact with the Lord and so she's seeking him out. And as she seeks him out, she's overwhelmed. She's caught up in this moment as there he is. As she has this understanding of

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that He is the Savior, that through Him is forgiveness, that through Him is salvation. She has this understanding that she is redeemed through Him. And she's overwhelmed. She's caught up in the emotion. And so there she is and she's weeping. Maybe it's weeping out of sorrow for her sin and repentance. Maybe it's weeping for joy. And she's overwhelmed at what God has done for her. She's weeping at His feet. And as the tears are...

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hitting his feet. Again, she didn't plan it. She's not trying to aim. There you go, got his foot. She's just in the moment. She's just worshipping him. She's overwhelmed by who he is and what he's done and the things that he's saying. She's overwhelmed at his work and her life. And so as she's weeping, she notices her tears are on his feet. And so she takes her hair and begins to wipe her tears. Not so much to wash his feet, but to say,

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I've defiled you with my tears. You're not worthy to have my tears upon you. Let me get those off. I'm so sorry I got my tears on you. She's caught up in this genuine experience of worshiping, of expressing her love as she's weeping and removing her tears from his feet. And then she breaks open this

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flask of oil and anoints his feet she's like i'm so sorry i got my tears on you what i meant to do was was to put this oil on your feet to anoint your feet with oil and so we see this beautiful expression of love this act of worship and adoration that this woman does for jesus there is he is prepared for dinner as we consider this again the point is faith produces love

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This was the result of her faith. This was the result of her believing in Jesus and what he has said. Believing in Jesus and who he is and what he came to do. And it produced this love for her that manifested itself in this act of worship. And as we consider that, I would ask you to consider, can you understand what she did? Can you agree with her?

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what this woman did. We'll see in a moment that the Pharisee, he didn't understand. He couldn't agree with it. At a different time, later on in Jesus's ministry, there was another similar situation where Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus, his head and his feet with oil. And the disciples, specifically Judas, were kind of upset. They were like, hey, this could have been sold and given to the poor. We'll see later on in Jesus's ministry that

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Judas, some of the other disciples, they didn't understand what this woman was doing. They didn't understand. They didn't agree with what was going on. But do you? Do you understand? Would you do it? Would you do this? Would you express your love to the Lord in this way? You see, you and I, we have a tendency to look on others like the Pharisee will do in a moment and have, well,

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An attitude like, well, I guess that's okay for them. You know, if they want to do it, just don't ask me to do that. We can read about this and go, okay, nice. She did a nice thing. Great. But what God was really challenging me with is the question, do you understand that? Do you understand that because you yourself have been touched by the Lord in a way

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That this expression of love and adoration and worship makes sense. Can you look at this scene and go, I know exactly what she's feeling. Because I've been overwhelmed by who Jesus is and what he's done for me.

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Oh yes, I understand what's going on here because I've been... Now, we've done the exact same thing, right? Because we don't have Jesus physically here. This love manifests itself in different ways according to what God prompts our hearts in the midst of the situations that we're in. But if you've had this experience where you've been overwhelmed, where you've been just overcome by these emotions, by this love, by who Jesus is and what He's done for you, by...

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By believing in Jesus and realizing your sins are forgiven. Does it work up in you, this expression? And you look at this and you say, I recognize, I see what she's doing. I understand it. I agree with it because I've been there. I know what that's like. I know what it's like to have my sins forgiven. I know what it's like to be given life, to be restored, to be given hope. I know what it's like to be touched by Jesus and ministered to in such a way.

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We tend to think of Christianity in a kind of like a once-for-all type thing. You know, I gave my life to the Lord. I said the sinner's prayer. I came to Jesus by faith. And we look at that past event that happened. But the reality is, is that's an ongoing process. That we are to walk by faith. And we come to Jesus continually by faith. Because we still sin. We still fall short. We're still a sinner like this woman.

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Hopefully not living in open rebellion against God, but we fall short. And the scriptures teach us that we need to come to Jesus by faith and receive his gift of forgiveness, his gift of life that he accomplished for us at the cross. And it's not just a one-time thing when you said the sinner's prayer a long time ago, but today are you taking your sins to the Lord and realizing he is forgiving my sins.

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It so easily becomes just old and routine for us, just normal and common, this Christian life. But there needs to be these times where we're caught up with, well, it's overwhelming what Jesus has done for us. This is what real faith produces. It produces this kind of love that expresses itself in adoration and worship in this way. Well, as we go on now, we begin to look at the Pharisee.

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And some things that the Lord wants to show us through that. Verses 39 through 43, we see that fakers can give the right answer. She was motivated by, she was prompted by her faith that produced in her this genuine love. The Pharisee, on the other hand, he's, well, we can see that he's faking it. He's pretending to know God. He's pretending to have a relationship with God. And yet, he can still give the right answer. Look at verse 39. Verse 39.

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It says, now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And so the Pharisee is looking on at this situation. As I said a moment ago, he doesn't get it. He doesn't understand. In fact, he doesn't even care about what she's doing. He's thinking about Jesus and thinking, yeah, I think I was right. He's not a prophet.

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Because if he was a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is. And he wouldn't let her touch him like that. He wouldn't let her touch his feet and anoint his feet with oil. Yeah, he's not a prophet. He can't be a prophet because a prophet wouldn't allow that. A prophet would know what kind of woman this is. So this Pharisee, we see a lot about his heart and his attitude here from this verse because, well, he's self-righteous. He's judging the woman.

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based on what's on the outside. He's coming to false conclusions about Jesus based on what he thinks. He's completely in the wrong place. He's way off base. But I love Jesus, how he addresses this, because the Pharisee's thinking, this guy doesn't know her heart. He doesn't know who she is or what she's like. And Jesus will now turn around and basically tell him, Simon, I know what's in your heart, and I know what you're like.

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Look at verse 40. Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, Teacher, say it. Again, Jesus now is going to address it. Now, it says in verse 39 that he spoke to himself. Simon is speaking to himself. He's thinking in his mind. He's not saying it out loud, but he's thinking to himself, hmm, if he was a prophet, he wouldn't let her touch him like that. He would know who she was. And Jesus is responding to his thoughts.

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You know, Jesus knows your thoughts. Jesus knows your heart. He knows what's really going on on the inside. And that's this idea of faking it. There is a tendency. There's a danger for you and I to fake it, to go through the emotions on the outside, to make sure on the outside we look right. Nobody will really notice or think anything different. But on the inside, what's really happening? What's really going on?

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This guy invited Jesus to dinner. A good outward expression, right? Seemed like, oh wow, this is a good thing. He wants to know the Lord. But we can see here in verse 39 that his heart is not really in it. And we'll even see that in the next few verses. He doesn't believe that Jesus is even a prophet, much less the Son of God. And so Jesus now begins to address his heart. And he says, Simon, I have something to say to you. And notice what he says. He says, Teacher, say it.

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Now this word teacher, it could also be translated master. It was a word that was used as a title of respect to the Jewish scribes and teachers. It was meant as a title of respect, a title of honor. And so he says teacher, but does he mean it? When he says teacher, does he mean I want to learn from you? I want to receive what you have for me? I want to listen to what you say? He says teacher,

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But again, where is his heart? He's saying the right thing. It's such a danger for us. We have that potential, guys, of getting caught up in the ceremony, in the ritual, and the outward expression in saying the right things when our heart is in the wrong place. Do we call him teacher and yet we're not willing to learn from him? Do we call him Lord and yet we're not willing to submit to him?

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He says, teacher, say it. Go ahead, tell me. I want to hear what you have to say. And through this parable that Jesus will now give him, he demonstrates that he does know what kind of woman this is. And he also knows what's happening in the heart of Simon, the Pharisee. Here's the parable he gives in verse 41 and 42. It says, there was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.

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And when they had nothing to which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him more? And so Jesus tells this parable. It's not an actual story of something that happened. It's a parable he tells to bring him to the point that he can teach him the lesson he wants to teach him. And so he tells the parable. He gives the story. There's a creditor who has two debtors.

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One owes him 500 denarii. Now a denarii would be roughly equivalent to a day's wages. So about 500 days wages or a little bit more than a year's wages. This debtor owes the creditor. And then there's another debtor who owes 50 denarii. So 50 days wages. Not as much. It's 10 times less than the other debtor. But it's still a significant amount. And Jesus says both of these debtors...

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do not have the ability to pay the creditor back. Both of them are broke. They can't pay him back. And so the creditor freely forgives them both. He says, I'm not going to charge you anything. It's not going to cost you anything. I'm just taking your debt off the books. You owe me nothing any longer. What an incredible thing. Don't you wish your debtors would do that for you, right? And so Jesus ends the parable with the question, tell me therefore which of them will love him more?

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So again, he's telling him this parable to ask him this question to deal with and address what's going on in the hearts of the Pharisee. Verse 43, Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him, you have rightly judged. You see what happens here? Jesus asks him, so which one will love him more? These two are both forgiven. And Simon says, well, I guess

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The one that was forgiven more will love the creditor more. And Jesus says, that's right. You got it. I think it's interesting. Jesus addressed the Pharisee in a way that he could understand. And that's why the Pharisee came up with the right answer. Because Jesus was communicating to him in a way that he could relate. He could understand. He could say, okay, this makes sense. And so he got the right answer.

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I point that out because sometimes, you know, we can kind of be like, when we're sharing with and talking to those who are not believers, sometimes our goal is to stump them, right? Well, answer me this then. Ha ha, you can't answer it. Gotcha.

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But Jesus wasn't trying to stump him. He was trying to lead him along the path and say, let me show you what's happening in your heart. Let me show you what's really going on in this situation. And so he presents him this parable in a way that he could understand it so that he could get the right answer so that Jesus could show him the truth of what's really going on. You've rightly judged. Now here's the thing. The Pharisee gave the right answer. He could give the right answer.

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As we're talking about you and I this morning, again, there's this tendency on our part to be like the Pharisee, where on the outside things are looking good. We look fine. Nobody would suspect what's really going on in the heart. And you and I learn like the Pharisee to be able to give the right answer. In fact, we even have a term for it that we often refer to. We call it Christianese. What's Christianese? Well, it's a

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It's those things that we say, that everybody says, to make sure that we sound Christian. To make sure that we sound like we're okay with God. We say hallelujah and praise the Lord and praise Jesus and thank you God and God bless you. We say, well these verses that we quote and we learn. Well if you quote this verse in this situation, it gets a good response. If you quote this verse in that situation, it gets a really good response. We learn the formula of

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To be able to put on a show. To say the right things. Just like this Pharisee could give the right answer. You and I, as believers, sometimes we get caught up in the mode like the Pharisee where our heart is really not in the right place. But nobody would know because on the outside we're giving the right answer. We're saying the right thing. But the real issue is even though we can say the right thing and look good on the outside, we're really not honoring the Lord.

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And that's the third point this morning. Verses 44 through 46. Fakers do not honor Jesus. And Jesus now gives us a side-by-side comparison of this woman who has a genuine faith which produces real love and now this Pharisee who invited Jesus over for dinner. Check it out. Verse 44. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet.

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So now Jesus lays them both side by side. He says, look at this woman, check this out. When I came in, you did not give me water for my feet. This was something that was pretty important for them in that culture. That when you were a guest in someone's house, when you entered into the house, well, all the roads were dusty.

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they wore sandals, their feet would be dirty. And so in order for someone to be comfortable and to be able to relax and feel refreshed, they would always give them water in order to wash their feet. In many cases, they would also have a servant actually to do that for them. So the guest wouldn't have to wash their own feet, but the servant would wash their feet as they entered.

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The very least that was acceptable, that was, you know, considered good hospitality, was you would provide a bowl of water for them to wash their own feet. And Jesus points out, Simon, I came into your house, you didn't give me water to wash my feet. But this woman, on the other hand, has washed my feet with her own tears. And you can see the big contrast here.

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Of the one, the Pharisee, who it was too much trouble to provide a bowl of water. But the other, who personally involves herself in it, involves herself in such a way that she's washing Jesus' feet with her own tears. And you can begin to see the difference between these two. And the honor, the reverence that they give to the Lord. Verse 45, you gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in.

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Again, it was normal for them in that culture, in that time. The customary greeting was a kiss on the cheek. It's still very common in many cultures today. It was the greeting that was normal, that was customary. But Jesus says, I came in and you didn't kiss me on the cheek. You didn't give me a normal greeting. You didn't welcome me into your home. But this woman, again looking at the contrast, not only did she...

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give me a kiss, but she's been kissing my feet continually since I came in. You couldn't bother to give me the one normal kiss on the cheek and she's humbled herself and has been kissing my feet this whole time. You see the contrast? He didn't even bother to give the normal greeting, but she involved herself and went way out of the way. And then finally in verse 46, you did not anoint my head with oil.

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but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Again, for them in that day, anointing a guest's head with oil was normal. It was customary. Now you and I think today, anoint my head with oil? That's weird. Get that away from me. You know, I work hard to get the oil out of my head. I don't want to put more on. Well, I don't, but you probably do. But for them in that day, it was customary.

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It was accepted. It was common. It was looked forward to. It was refreshing to be anointed with oil. And when he's talking about, you know, anointing his head with oil, it's the specific word for olive oil. And it was common for them. Olive trees were all over. And so they would all have olive oil. It was common. It was normal. Everybody had it. And so it was very accepted and normal to anoint a guest's head with oil as they came in. But he says, you didn't do that. You didn't anoint my head with oil. But she...

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has anointed my feet. And not with a common olive oil, but with this fragrant oil, with this costly perfumed oil. And so again, he's showing the contrast. Simon, look at the difference. Look at how you have not honored me, not given anything of yourself for me. You've not respected me or reverenced me, but she has overwhelmingly honored me.

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and expressed her love and adoration for me. The Pharisee did not provide the very basic, customary things for showing hospitality when Jesus came. He didn't honor him as a prophet. He didn't really even honor him as a guest. But the woman provided much more costly things and involved herself personally in ministering to Jesus and honoring him. He invited Jesus to dinner, but he really had no respect for him.

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And see, that's what we're really getting to here is that the heart of the Pharisee was far from the Lord. He was going through the outward motions. He invited him. He said the right things. But his heart was not right. He did not honor the Lord. And again, I would ask, would you do what this woman did? Really, do you have this love and adoration for the Lord? Do you do what this woman did?

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Do you involve yourself? Do you give? Is it costly to you? But you don't care because, well, He's Jesus. And you're overwhelmed with who He is and what He's done for you. Think about it. There's a lot of ways we could think about this, and I can't go through all of them, but think about in your own life. Think about your daily devotions. And you say, daily what? Devotions. It's what we call our time with the Lord. If you don't have a time where you personally meet with the Lord,

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Listen, something's wrong. We need to have those times where it's just us and the Lord and we spend time with Him, where we speak to Him and He speaks to us. That's why we always encourage you to be reading through the Bible with us day by day so that you have that time to get with God and His Word, but not just reading, but praying and hearing from Him and times of worship personally. We need to have that devotional life with the Lord.

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And for myself, just as an example, I notice, I begin to realize I'm becoming like the Pharisee when I spend time in the Word of God in the morning and then I cannot remember what I read later on. And when I begin to recognize that, when I begin to see that, then I begin to realize I'm becoming like the Pharisee. Outwardly, I'm going through the motions.

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I'm practicing the right things. I'm reading the Bible. Great, good job. And I can pat myself on the back. But if I can't remember what it was I was reading, then I know I wasn't really engaged. I wasn't really seeking God. I wasn't thirsty for Him. I wasn't overwhelmed by the opportunity to meet with God and hear from Him and have His words speak to me and change me and transform me. I begin to realize I've lost something within that passion, that desire, that

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And I become more like this Pharisee. I know how to do it outwardly. I know how to say the right things. But is my heart in the right place? Now as I talk about these things again, these are things that I recognize in myself where God's pointed out, hey, this is what's going on in your heart.

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These are not things, you know, for you to measure someone else by. So you can't go and say, well, George, what'd you read today? Oh, your heart's wrong. You know, George, you're not walking with God today, are you? You know, this isn't for, you know, to try to get someone else. This isn't like the Pharisee who's judging the woman and judging Jesus. No, no, this is for self-measurement. Are you right with the Lord? Are you spending time with him? Do you remember? Do you know what he's saying to you?

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Because God's real. He's alive. And He wants that real relationship with you. You could think about your times of worship. And I know those times where the Lord's shown me, you're just saying the words. Your mind's somewhere else. You're not thinking about me. You're in a different place altogether. But outwardly, nobody would know the difference because I'm singing the words. You ever have that happen? Did the Lord ever show you that? When I'm like the Pharisee, where I'm just like, hey, outwardly, I'm fine.

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Nobody would know. But inwardly, my mind's somewhere else. My heart's somewhere else. And see, God sees the heart. He sees what's going on inside. We can't fool Him by putting on the motions outside. We need to have that real relationship with Him where when we are spending time with Him in worship, whether it be here or at home or wherever, that there's a real engagement, that these are really the things that our hearts are crying out to God, that it's for real, that we're not just faking it.

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This is just a couple of examples. You could look at your times of serving the Lord, your times of coming to church and listening to Bible studies. And there's a lot of things that we can get caught up in and we're doing the outward things. But our hearts are not really here. Our hearts are not really connected. We're being religious. We're following the ritual. We're saying the right things. But it's not real faith.

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And again, faith is not just something that happens one time when you say the sinner's prayer, but it's right now today. I need to walk by faith and walk believing in Jesus and walking in that real relationship with him. Well, we finish it up in verses 47 through 50 with kind of a grand finale. And that is faith brings forgiveness. So we spent some time looking at this Pharisee and how we can be like him and

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I hope you understand we don't want to be like that. Because again, we're dealing with eternity. We're dealing with life and death. We're dealing with a God who loved us so much that He became man and died upon the cross for our sin. Let's not fake it. Let's have real faith. And that real faith brings about forgiveness. Verse 47, Therefore I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven."

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for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And so Jesus is talking to this Pharisee. He says, look at this woman. Look what she has done. Look how it compares to what you did. She is expressing this great amount of love and adoration for me because, well, although her sins were many, she's been forgiven. She's been forgiven. She's been forgiven.

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She's believed in me. She's believed in my message. She's had this encounter with God through me, Jesus is saying. And that's why she is able to express this great love and adoration. She presented herself, her sin to the Lord. And so she's experienced the forgiveness of God. The Pharisee, on the other hand, he presented no sin to be forgiven because he thought, I don't have a need for sin to be forgiven. I'm righteous. I'm fine. I'm fine.

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And he didn't believe in Jesus. He's not even a prophet, is what the Pharisee said. So this woman is forgiven of her many sins. I like what Matthew Henry says. He says, the more we express our sorrow for sin and our love to Christ, the clearer evidence we have of the forgiveness of our sins. The Apostle Paul maintained a real grasp. He grew in his understanding of sin.

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So that as he progressed in his life, you can follow it in his letters to the churches. He started out saying, I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. Then he went on to say, I'm the least of the saints. And then finally in 1 Timothy, he said, I'm the chief of all sinners. Forgiveness for sin is not just something, again, that happens when we first come to the Lord, but it's something that we, with real faith, believing in God, we come to him, we realize that

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Although we grow in the Lord, we're sanctified and we sin less, we're not sinless. And as we grow with the Lord, we become more sensitive to the sin that is in our life so that we can continually come back to the Lord, presenting our sin to Him and having this overflow, this expression, this awe over the reality that through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven.

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When sin becomes like, ah, no big deal. When it's just like, yeah, well, there's a little bit of sin in my life, but it's not that big of a problem, you know. We're like the Pharisee. But when sin is real for us, when we realize the severity of it, when we realize and remember that by faith in Jesus Christ, because of what He did for us upon the cross, by believing in Him, we can be forgiven, then we are overwhelmed. Then there's this love that is produced, as was produced in this woman.

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And so Jesus said in verse 48, your sins are forgiven. And it caused people to question in verse 49, those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? Now the rest of the people get involved. They're kind of shocked. Like, how can he say he can forgive sins? Why? Well, because he is Jesus. He is the son of God. He came. His whole purpose in coming is

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was to forgive sin. He humbled himself and became obedient to the form of death, even the death of the cross, so that sin might be forgiven. His name is Jesus. That's who can forgive sin. There's forgiveness found in no one else. We can't earn it. We can't deserve it. It's by faith in Jesus Christ. And that faith brings about the forgiveness that he offers to us by believing in Jesus and receiving what he did for us upon the cross.

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And so this woman believed in Jesus. She received his message. She received him as her savior. And he says, your sins are forgiven. She had many sins. She was living an open, blatant lifestyle of sin. And he said, your sins are forgiven. And then he tells her in verse 50, it says, he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Three main things we see about this woman here. Faith, love, and forgiveness.

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And they're all intertwined. They all go together. And it comes about as a result of her faith that she believed in Jesus. She received His message and His ministry. She received His forgiveness. Again, I would ask you, if you were in this story, which person would you be? The Pharisee or the woman? Again, not which one would you want to be, but which one matches the reality of your life? Are you faking it?

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Are you just pretending and putting on the show? You're going through the outward motions, but you're not overcome by this love for the Lord because of who He is and what He's done for you. So that you don't even offer Him just the normal customary respects. You spend time in the Word, but you're not really paying attention to Him. Now listen, normally when you spend time with someone, it's customary in our culture that you pay attention and hear what they're saying. But do you give that attention to the Lord?

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When you sit down with Him, do you stop and say, let me listen to what you're saying. Let me hear. Do you really engage with God? Or are you just faking it? Listen, David Guzik says this, Forgiveness is ready from God. There is no hesitation or shortage on His part. Our part is to come with humility and loving submission to Jesus and to receive the forgiveness He offers by faith.

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Wherever you're at in your life, wherever your heart's at, even if you're like this Pharisee, even if you've lived an open, blatant lifestyle of rebellion and sin, forgiveness is ready from God. Our part is to come with humility, believing in Jesus and receiving what He has for us, what He accomplished for us through His death upon the cross. And so wherever you're at this morning, I want to encourage you and challenge you

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Don't be the Pharisee. Don't fake it. Don't pretend to have a relationship with God when you don't. But have a real encounter with God through Jesus Christ by believing in Him. Draw near to Him. Let it be real. Let it be genuine. And when you notice that you're going back towards the Pharisee, the faking it, the pretending, come back and get right with God. Align your heart with His. It takes work. And we're lazy. We'd much rather just do a bunch of rituals and check off boxes and say,

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I'm good. I did my devotions. I gave money to a poor person. You know, I did good. I'm fine. Great. We would love that. But what it really requires is for us to have a real connection with God. And if you don't have that connection this morning, now's the time to get it. Because again, we're dealing with eternity. It's life and death. And we're reminded that what we do here matters for the rest of forever and ever.

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And that's why we need his forgiveness. Because we're lost without Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts, God. That you would draw us near to yourself. Lord, that you would protect us from faking it. Lord, that you would call us out and remind us and show us our own hearts that we would see where we're just pretending and not really walking in relationship with you.

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God, I pray that you would challenge us. And Lord, I thank you for your great forgiveness, for your great love for us, for your just amazing grace and mercy towards us, that no matter what, we can come to you and be forgiven by faith in what you've done for us. So Lord, right now, once again, we receive the gift of forgiveness in life that you offer to us. And we confess to you our sins, God. We confess to you the wickedness, the laziness.

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of our hearts. We ask, God, that you would cleanse us, help us to have a real, overflowing relationship with you. I pray, Lord, that you would speak to each and every heart, and Lord, that we would all abound with this love as the woman did. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.