The Beauty Cost and Scope Of Forgiveness

The Old Testament we're reading this morning is Psalm 32, the entirety of that chapter, which, if you'd like to

read along, is found on page 462, going through 463 in your few Bibles.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up, as by the heat of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and brittle,

or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

A New Testament reading is from Luke chapter seven, begin in verse 36.

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the 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 answered him and 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 has canceled the larger debt.

And he said to him, you have judged rightly.

And 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.

And he who is forgiven little, loves little.

And when he said to her, your sins are forgiven, then those who were at the 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.

You may be seated.

This is the third week of having a friend preach, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, it's my real privilege to introduce to you Dale Shaw.

Dale is the Pastor of Urban Outreach at College Park Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I know Dale because Dale was a deacon here when I came here in 1985.

He, I remember the first time he called me.

Yonce was only about a week old when he called me and said, no kidding, answer the phone,

this guy says I'm Dale Shaw, I'm from LaRue Baptist Church, and this is the church for you.

And I hadn't even met this guy yet.

Hadn't even met this guy yet.

And I said, oh, okay.

And so I came and preached, and then they asked me to come back and candidate.

And so Dale was part of that leadership group that called me here.

So I've known Dale since that time, and he's just been a real dear friend.

So it's really great to have him come and preach here to us and to share the word of God.

And so Dale, Lord bless you, brother.

Wow, this is an amazing privilege that no lie, I've thought at least 25 years about this moment.

Unfortunately, every time I've thought through it, I was standing back there preaching that way because that's the way

the building used to be.

40 years ago today, my wife Sarah and I had been married for 28 days.

And I was a school teacher in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the pastor at LaRue

Baptist had been my college roommate named Kimber Kaufman.

And he was getting married that summer, and he said, is there any way you would wanna come

and live in LaRue and just serve in this church?

And I ended up getting a job teaching school.

For two years, it was a school called Marian Christian that's not even here anymore.

And for two years, I taught first grade at Pleasant Elementary School.

So we lived in LaRue for four years.

Our oldest son Sammy was born right off, he was born in Marian General Hospital, but we lived

on Market Street.

I just wanna say this, friends, that these four years that we had here like shaped our lives.

And they had a disproportionate influence on our lives.

And so for me to be able to come back today and to still be married and to

still be walking with Jesus is an amazing tribute to grace.

And Sharon was so kind to let me choose the songs.

And here's what I want us to happen.

Here's what can happen this morning.

As people gather together in the spirit of God and the word of God comes down to us,

that the songs that we have sung might actually become like vibrantly real.

And we leave and we're different people.

We sang a song that said, ever since by faith I saw the stream, your

flowing wound supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

We are gonna sing, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought.

My sin, not in part, but the whole.

It's nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, oh, my soul.

We sang wonderful, merciful savior, precious redeemer and friend.

Who would have thought that a lamb could rescue the soul of

men?

This is our moment, friends.

And God has brought me back for this moment.

We sang to the great one in three.

Eternal praises be.

Hence, evermore, your sovereign majesty, may we in glory see

and through eternity love and adore.

My prayer has been for a long time that this moment God might use in a unique way, just like he

used LaRue Baptist in my life, in a unique way.

And so one of the nice things about coming back is like Tim has to take the text and preach it week in and

then week out.

I get to just give you the best of my best of 40 years this morning, all right?

I mean, I get to just tell you.

I wanna just share some things that have really helped me, like they really have helped me.

And I would love it if they helped you.

Here's one.

I would title this, Rehearsing the Gospel.

Listen to this quote by Milton Vincent.

You ever heard of him?

The gospel is so foolish according to my natural wisdom, so scandalous according

to my conscience, and so incredible according to my timid heart that it is a daily battle

to believe the full scope of it as I should.

That's our biggest battle.

Rosario Butterfield said, God didn't save me from homosexuality.

He saved me from unbelief.

Unbelief, your biggest issue, your biggest sin, your biggest struggle, isn't that issue.

It's rooted in that you're not believing God.

And when we hear God's word and we ask God, even if we're reluctant to help us, he will.

There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart,

and the lies of the world and the devil than to overwhelm them with daily rehearsings of the gospel.

That's one reason we're here today.

And for me, the best way that I have found to rehearse the gospel is to

take chunks of scripture, chunks, could you say that with me?

Chunks, good.

Take big chunks of scripture and get them into my bones and then have them so I'm not

working on what the next word is, but I got it out.

And guess what happens?

God's word, when I memorize it, it leads me to meditating on it and chewing on it.

And when I chew on it, it brings this transformation.

Thousands, Brian Savage, thousands upon thousands of decisions you make every day, you're making

unconsciously, subconsciously.

And if you can get the word of God in your bones, those decisions are gonna be different.

And over the course of time, you're gonna have a love of righteousness and a hatred of wickedness.

And the life of God in you will be great.

Some of you might say, well, I really can't memorize.

I'm not very good at it.

And I would answer the way I answer a lot of my friends back at College Park Church.

I would say, sir or ma 'am, if I gave you $1 million

to memorize the first chapter of John over the next 30 days, would you be able to do it?

How many think, if I literally had a suitcase right here and I said, here's a million dollars if you memorize it, you say, I could

probably get her done.

Go ahead, give me a show of hands.

Oh, some of you are really not being honest today.

Yeah, of course you could, of course you could.

And so Sharon graciously wrote out copies of why I

memorize books of the Bible.

It's not an article written by me, but it's a very helpful article.

And if you want to grab that article at the end, ask Sharon and get it and read it.

You know what I thought?

What if five people in this room promise that they're gonna chew on God's word, get it in their

bones and memorize it?

Those five people would be totally transformed.

I've seen it, I've seen it.

Here's another reason I gotta have God's word in my bones.

You still with me this morning, church?

Okay, good.

So in May, I helped a funeral for a man named Finest Gent

in his 80s, and his wife's name was Sue Gent.

And in June, I got a call that Sue Gent has pancreatic cancer.

And so every week, I can make this beautiful, wonderful commitment.

I get to go to Sue Gent's house.

And I don't realize, I ask her how he's doing.

We hold hands, she's real little bag of bones lady with these vivid blue eyes looking at me,

and I'll recite chapters of scripture to her.

And you know what she says?

Oh, this sounds so good.

This sounds even better than when it's red.

And it's true.

Another reason that we gotta have God's word in our bones is so we can be bold and answer.

This past Monday, I was sitting across from a woman named Beverly, whose

husband has chronic pain, and she was telling me very candidly that she was thinking about having an

affair with an ex -high school boyfriend.

And it was a weird story how it even came together while I was sitting there with her.

And you know what I said to her?

I said, Beverly, you better remember this.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

She started weeping.

And then I said the next verse, therefore, since we have such a great high priest who has gone through the

heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

And she left that meeting feeling like she'd been rescued.

We need to have God's word in our bones.

As the world gets darker and darker, you need to have a power that's outside of you, and I wanna encourage you to get the word

in your bones.

So what I thought I wanna do today is, we read in Luke 7, the story of

the sinful woman and Simon the Pharisee, and I want us to look at that.

But I want us to do something different today, and again, like I said, this is my one -off sermon, so Tim can

either invite me back next year, or if I don't get invited back next year, I'll know this didn't work, but it's

okay.

But what I want us to do is, I want you just to hear a portion of God's word, okay?

I want you to hear in Hebrews chapter one about the fact, the

reality, that Jesus is God.

See, my mind, I know that Jesus is God, but I'm not

grabbing hold of it, I'm not believing it like I should, and then in Hebrews chapter two, it's

real clear that Jesus is man.

What I want us to do, what I prayed a lot about, is that as we hear Hebrews one,

Jesus is God, and we hear Hebrews two, Jesus is man, and then we take those two truths, and we

look at Luke 7, that we might see it a little differently, all right?

So here is what Hebrews one says about Jesus, you ready?

In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, at many

times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has

spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all

things, and through whom He made the universe.

Do you hear that?

The Son is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being,

sustaining all things by His powerful word.

After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the

majesty in heaven, so He became as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited

is superior to theirs.

This is Jesus, this is real.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, sit at my right hand?

No, to which of the, excuse me.

In speaking of the angels, He says, He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire.

But about the Son, He says, your throne, oh God, will last forever and ever, and

righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, your God, has set you above your

companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.

He also reminds us that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world.

He also says, in the beginning, oh Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment, but you remain the same.

Like a robe, they will be rolled up, but you remain the same, and your years will never change.

To which of the angels did God ever say, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your

feet?

And then He does this warning to us.

He says, what's He say, Sarah, in chapter two, verse one?

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do

not drift away.

For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience

received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?

He confirms the salvation.

He says, this salvation, it's real, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by

those who heard Him.

God also testified to it by signs and wonders and various miracles, and gifts of

the Spirit distributed according to His will.

Now listen, friends, when you're struggling, when you're weak, like I am often,

these next verses mean that Jesus can identify with you.

We think of Jesus as some kind of robotic human, and the Bible says very clearly He was not.

It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking,

but there is a place where someone has testified.

What is man that you are mindful of him?

The son of man that you care for him.

You made him a little lower than the angels.

You crowned him with glory and honor, and put everything under his feet.

Listen to this, in putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject

to him.

Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to him, but we see Jesus, who

was made a little lower than the angels, do you believe that?

Now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God,

he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it is fitting that God, for whom and through whom

everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Both the one who makes men holy, Jesus, and those who are made holy, us, are of the same

family.

So Jesus is not ashamed to call you

his brothers and sisters.

Do you realize the gospel means on your worst day when you're so full of shame and you're so sick of yourself and you're so

sick of your sins, that Jesus, by an oath from the Father, has said, I am

not ashamed to call you my brother and my sister.

That's good news.

He says, I will declare your name to my brothers.

In the presence of the congregation, I will sing your praises.

And again, he says, I will put my trust in him.

Listen, friends, that is Jesus talking, and Jesus, the writer of Hebrews, is taking Jesus

and pointing back to the Old Testament, and he's quoting a verse that says, I will put my trust in him, and he's

attributing it to Jesus.

So that when Jesus Christ, the man, woke up in the morning, he had to learn

how to put his trust in the Father just like you do, and he can identify with you.

And then it says, and here I am, and the children God has given me.

Hang with me just a little bit longer.

Since the children, us, have flesh and blood, he too shared in

their humanity.

So that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the

devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.

For this reason, he had to be made like the people of LaRue Baptist Church in every

way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in

service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able

to help you when you are tempted.

And so let's just take a break for just a second, and let's think about the reality that

this Jesus, who we just read about, who is the exact representation of the being, who's

sustaining all things by his powerful word, who's the heir of all things, who's the radiance of God's glory, who's

provided purification from sins, is also the one who's identified with us in his

humanity this morning, like for now, not for yesterday, not for tomorrow, but for us

now, so that as we go to this story from Luke chapter seven, we

can remember, think about these two distinctions of Jesus, and I promise as I've been doing this,

it just washes over you what a wonderful savior he is, and the more our hearts can see what a wonderful

savior he is, the easier it is to follow him and to hunger after him, because we find out how great

he is.

So we've already read the passage, and I'm just gonna take you through the story, and I'm assuming

that most of you are familiar with it, but if not, you can still grab the points, all right?

So we know this, that Simon was a Pharisee, he was a religious man, he was highly regarded

in circles, he was basically, a lot of it was built on the law, the Mosaic law

that he followed, and he took pride in that, and he had heard previously in Luke five or

six that Jesus had performed miracles, so he invited Jesus to his house,

and maybe the room in the house was about half of the size of this, and there would've been low tables on the

floor, and there would've been cushions, and someone would've brought food, and they would've kinda just been

lounging around, and Simon is trying to dial in to who Jesus is, he's trying to

figure out who Jesus is.

Back in that day, because people were walking, and it was hot, and it wasn't air conditioning, their feet would get

real dirty in their sandals, and they might get a little smelly, so when they came to somebody's house for dinner, the

right thing to do was to clean their feet, or have their feet cleaned by a servant, or even just give

them water, the right thing to do is to give them something to clean their hands with, the right thing to do is give them a little

cologne so they could kinda sprinkle on it so they weren't odiferous to the people around the

table, so that's the man, there's really three characters, the man, and

the woman, and Jesus, and the woman doesn't

tell much about her, but we know from the implications that she's a woman who's been used

and abused by men, that she's probably lost her identity

and who she is, and her identity is in how men treat her.

We know that she was not very highly regarded by those people around her,

and I want you just to realize that she met the Jesus of Hebrews chapter one and two,

and when she met him, he treated her

differently than any other man had treated her.

He treated her with respect, he was not wanting to get anything

from her, he listened, do you know somebody that's a really good listener, how

comforting that is?

Jesus is the best listener in the world, and she found great comfort in him, and something

over time opened up in this woman, and in Jesus, she found a hope

that she had never had, and I've been a pastor for about

21 years, and let me just make a little statement here that God's design for sex

is beautiful and right, and when it's used the way God designed it, it is glorious,

but when people try to use sex on their own terms, it always leads to deep pain and isolation.

I have a box of Kleenex in my office, and the reason I have a box of Kleenex in my office is because life is

really hard, and people come into my office and they are weeping, and I would guess that six

out of seven people that come into my office are weeping because they tried to abuse and break

God's seventh commandment, and somebody once said, you don't break the seventh commandment, the seventh commandment

breaks you, and so here's a woman that's full of pain, and Jesus, she just

loves him, and I want to tell you, this is my favorite story in the Bible because over the

last 40 years, I've gone to this story hundreds, maybe thousands of times

when I felt shamed, when I felt like I can't go back to Jesus, when I feel like

I can't do it, I'm too tired, or whatever reasons I have, when I ponder the idea

that this woman in all of her sinfulness coming to Jesus, and Jesus not turning her away,

but accepting her worship, the beauty of forgiveness washes over me, and I come

back to Jesus, the Jesus that we sang about, and so this woman,

she comes in, she's not invited to the table, she sees Jesus,

she's so overwhelmed with this human being in front of her,

she knows the Hebrews two Jesus, and she senses the Hebrews one Jesus,

there's something different about him, and she just, as she stands over him, and she thinks of her shame,

and his goodness, and her wrong choices, and his

grace to her, she just starts crying, and he hadn't

had his feet washed, and you can get a picture of Jesus with these feet dusty,

and the woman's tears come down, and they drop on his feet, and she just loves

Jesus, and she's overwhelmed with love for him, because he's so worthy

of her love, and so then she gets down on her hands and knees, and Tim

can verify whether this is true, so some of the stuff I read said that she let her hair down, the

Bible says she did that, and back in that day, that would've been a scandalous thing, women didn't let their hair down in

public, but she did, because she was so caught up with her love for Jesus,

that she didn't have a lot of self -consciousness, self -awareness, and she then

begins to kiss his feet, and then she takes a bottle

of cologne that some people think was worth at least a year's salary,

and if you just kind of connect the dots, where would a woman like that have gotten the money to

buy that kind of valuable thing?

She probably got it through illicit means, and she breaks the bottle open, so it's

irrevocably towards Jesus, and she pours it on his feet, and she gets

on her hands and knees, and she puts her hair there, and she starts rubbing her hair and

cleaning his feet, because she loves Jesus so much.

Jesus is really worthy of that love.

The more we know him, the more we think about him, the more we stay in community with him and his people, the

more we get his words in our bones, the more we pour out our heart every morning with raw honesty and

detailed thoroughness before this friend of sinners, the natural outcome of that

church is that we'll follow Jesus in a happy, more glorious way.

We'll find more pleasure in him.

Now here's Simon's response.

Simon basically says, if Jesus knew what kind of woman this

was, he would not let her touch him.

So he's kind of saying, if he's not a prophet, because if he was a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman she was.

It's really kind of interesting in the story, because it says Jesus knowing what Simon was thinking, which kind of

articulates that he was prophetic.

He said, Simon, I want to tell you a story.

He said there were two men, and one owed 50, and one owed 500, whatever the currency

is, and so whoever they owed it to, the bank or the person,

forgave them, and when they forgave them, they went free.

And so who's gonna be more grateful?

Who's gonna be more grateful, Larry, by natural thought?

The one who owed more.

Now I want you to make sure you understand this.

Jesus isn't making the point that the woman has a bigger debt than the man, because

Simon couldn't, he was so sinful, he couldn't even recognize the love of God when it

sat across the table with him eating food.

But the point is, for me, and for the woman,

and for you, do you see your need?

The one who has the bigger debt will love more.

The point is the woman saw her need.

She remembered who she was, and then she remembered who Jesus is.

And Simon makes this analogy.

He says, or Jesus does, I'm sorry, Jesus does, and he says, Simon, when you came in, you didn't give me

any water.

And this woman wet her feet, wet my feet with her tears.

You didn't give me a towel, and she used her hair.

You didn't give me any oil, and she used the whole bottle.

One of the points that I prayed about is that you would see something so beautiful

about a person who really understands their forgiveness.

One way we can be a witness to Jesus and also be a bridge to others is to talk

about forgiveness.

I've been forgiven.

Fran Rayburn, we've been forgiven.

One way we can be a great witness is to respond to Jesus with gratitude like this woman.

And as we live out our lives, people will ask us for the hope that is in us.

It's interesting, too, that Jesus is trying to help Simon see his need for forgiveness.

He sees his need for Christ, and he pushes into this.

It's interesting, too, that when we see, when someone like the woman does see her need for Jesus, how gracious

he is to her.

This week, as you go through your struggle of being a human in a fallen world,

and you feel separated from him, and you're not knowing how to turn to him, and you're confused, and you're alienated,

picture this woman weeping with relief as she hugs Jesus' feet, because Jesus has

promised through the gospel he will never, ever point a finger at you, but he will always

open his arms.

It's been a life -changing thought to me.

Jesus is never, he, it's been paid.

By one sacrifice, he has made perfect for all those who are being made holy.

It's good to confess your sin, but if you grovel in your sin, you're not honoring the king who's paid the price.

And it's actually subtle pride, thinking I gotta somehow deserve it.

You don't deserve it, you never will deserve it.

Andy, you know you won't, I know I won't, I know you won't, you know I won't, you know?

And we just need to embrace how good he is.

When you feel that way this week, remember Jesus opening his arms to that woman and

fall at his feet, and give him all your weakness, give him all your sins.

John R. W. Stott said, "'Jesus Christ,' we believe, "'is the fulfillment of every truly human aspiration.

"'To find him is to find ourselves.'".

The woman has deep gratitude, the woman is generous, she seems satisfied and content,

she's so absorbed in Jesus that she's totally non -self -absorbed.

I so wish that my passionate love for Christ was so strong that I was willing to be a

fool, and I didn't even know I was willing to be a fool.

I aspire to be caught up in the love and forgiveness as this woman was.

And then you know what Jesus said?

After he got done, he went to the woman, and he said, "'Your sins

are forgiven.'".

And I wanna think for just a few minutes, we only have two more points, I want us to think for just a minute

about the cost of forgiveness, because when we understand the cost of forgiveness, we will also more

deeply understand the beauty of forgiveness.

So, I hope you can follow this, this has been so helpful to me.

In Hebrews chapter 10,.

The writer says,.

"'It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats "'to take away sins.'".

But then listen to this, and think about this in Jesus's humanity.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, don't forget, the writer of Hebrews is looking back on

Jesus and looking on the Old Testament so that we can understand this.

And when I understood this about Jesus's humanity, it made me love him even more.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, "'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

"'but a body you prepared for me.

"'With burnt offerings and sin offerings "'you were not pleased.'.

"'Then I said, "'Here I am.

"'It is written about me in the scroll.

"'I have come to do your will.'".

Do you know how Jesus identifies with you?

Jesus, according to these verses, Jesus didn't wake up one morning going, "'I'm the

Messiah, and here's my plan.'".

Jesus was so human that he had to read the Old Testament,

and he had to discover himself in the Old Testament.

Then I said, "'Here I am.'".

Talking about Jesus, "'It is written about me in the scroll.'".

One day, Jesus, as he's growing in his stature and wisdom and knowledge of God,

he begins to figure out, through the study of the Old Testament, that he is the one who is the

Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world.

In John chapter three, Jesus is talking, and he goes, "'Just as Moses lifted up "'the serpent in the

desert, "'so the Son of Man's gonna have to be lifted up.'".

That wasn't just anointed to him.

He learned that as he studied the scriptures.

Think about this, friends.

You're just like that woman, and Jesus comes up to her, and he comes up to

you, and he says, "'Your sins are forgiven.'".

And he knows.

I wouldn't be surprised if he groaned in his soul, because for him to say, "'Your

sins are forgiven,' he's gonna have to pay an eternal price.

We all know Psalm 51.

Just think about the cost of forgiveness.

In asking for mercy, you are reminding yourself that God would

show it to you, but has withdrawn it from Jesus.

In asking to experience God's unfailing love, you're asking that Jesus will feel

that it's been removed, past tense.

In asking to taste God's great compassion, you are asking him to refuse it to

Jesus as he dies, on the cross.

In asking God to blot out your transgressions, you are asking that they will be obliterated

by the blood of Jesus.

In asking to be washed, you're asking that the filth of your sin will overwhelm Jesus like a

flood.".

And I could go on, and on, and on.

But the point is, is every time we have sinned and failed, Jesus has paid

that price, and he's not holding it against us.

And he's not saying, oh, here you go again.

He's saying, that's covered.

The gospel means it's covered.

You're free.

I got it.

That's the cost of forgiveness.

The last thing I wanna look at, and I might even use an illustration here, a physical

illustration, talking about our pastor Tim Pasma this morning.

But I just want you to walk through just a couple different thoughts about the scope of forgiveness.

Says in Isaiah 57, this is what the high and lofty one says, he who lives

forever, whose name is holy.

I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit

of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

So, about done here.

Tim, do you mind just stepping up here one time and let me use you as an example?

I won't hurt you, I promise.

All right.

So, this is just a small example, but I did wanna have him up here just to share the memory.

This means a lot to me because I love him so much.

So, let's just say that Tim and I are having a meal and I ask him to give

me the shaker of salt.

And he begins to give me the shaker of salt and he spills it, spills it.

And what if Tim, when that happened, goes,.

Oh, Tim, I'm so sorry, I spilled the salt.

I'd be going, okay, you know, pick it up, we'll refill it.

Because the scope of that little air is very small.

And what if Tim and I pledged to meet at a coffee shop

somewhere in Marion and I don't show up.

And Tim's there and he's sitting there and he calls and I don't pick up and he texts and I don't respond.

Is Tim gonna be able to forgive me for that?

Yeah, but is it a little bigger than the salt?

Yeah, sure, yeah.

So, what if I don't have this book?

Or let's just say Tim, what if Tim had a Porsche and he asked if I could

borrow his, or I asked if I could borrow his Porsche and he said, sure, sure, go ahead, take it for a

spin.

And I took it for a spin and I wrecked it.

And I totaled it and I'd forgotten to tell him that he hadn't renewed his insurance payments.

Would the scope of that be a little bit bigger than a coffee?

What if, what if this Porsche had multiple seats?

And what if some of our children and our offspring were in the car?

And I was careless and I wrecked it.

The scope of forgiveness would begin to be

staggering.

Easy, wasn't it?

So let's go back to Hebrews chapter one and two.

Who is Jesus?

He's the heir of all things.

He's the one through whom the universe was made.

He's the exact representation of the Father.

He's the radiance of God's glory.

He's sustaining all things by his powerful word.

And that's the one that we have turned against.

That's the one that we have violated so that the scope of our forgiveness,

as R .C. Sproul says, I call it cosmic treason.

And you and me in our cosmic treason

have been 100 forgiven.

And there's nothing anybody in this room can do to earn anything

of it other than this.

Come you sinners, poor and needy, bruised and broken by the fall.

If you wait until you're better, you will never come at all.

So there's a beauty in forgiveness.

There's a cost in forgiveness.

And the scope of our forgiveness is mind -boggling.

And what we need to do is just keep rehearsing these realities and God

will begin to, or has already begun, but he will continue to bring about a

change.

This is the last thing I wanna say, and then I'm gonna sit down after a wonderful experience of

preaching to you this morning.

You know what?

You know what's different for me from 1981 and 2021?

There's a lot of different things, like, yeah.

Oh man, I was riding my bike on Thursday, I think, well, Sarah was painting and I

was riding my bike.

We were having a little getaway and I was just riding my bike and I looked down at the time that I'd spent riding my bike and I thought, I

used to run faster than I'm riding my bike right now.

So that's one thing that's happened, but much better thing in this, and I really am done with this.

As I followed Jesus for 40 years, not perfectly, and I got all kinds of scars in my soul,

and every one of the scars is covered with grace.

But one of the things that's said in Hebrews 1,.

I don't know if you heard it,.

But he's talking about the son.

He says, but about the son, he says, your throne, oh God, will last forever and ever and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

And then listen to this, you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

And if you'll just keep following Jesus and keep trying to rehearse the gospel, the Bible says he will rewrite his

laws in your minds and put them on your hearts.

And what's changed in me imperfectly is I love righteousness more

than I did 40 years ago, a lot more.

You know what it also says in Hebrews 5, talking about mature people.

It says, but let's see what it says.

Solid food is for the mature who by constant use

have trained themselves to discern good from evil.

As you keep following Jesus, he's gonna help you be mature and the mark of maturity is that

you discern good from evil.

The last verse about the same idea of loving righteousness and hating wickedness is found in Hebrews

6.

And it's a parable about our souls.

It says, land that drinks in the water, often falling on it.

That's the land is our hearts and the water is God's word.

Listen, land that drinks in the water, often falling on it and that produces a harvest, that's the fruits of the

spirit, helpful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.

And one of the blessing of God is that he does something inside you so that you love

Jesus more than you love anything else.

So that you can be a good neighbor, so that you can love your wife well or love and

submit your husband well and you can just submit to one another well

because the spirit of God is making you new and you're full of love for Jesus

like the sinful woman was.

So let's just close our eyes and I'll pray and we'll move forward in the service.

Father, thank you for this church that has endured and done more than endured.

It's thrived, it's healthy, it's broken, it's repentant,

it's waiting for you, it's trusting in your word.

We pray as they go through transitions and changes in leadership, God, that you'll just

keep that baton going forward.

And I pray, God, somehow that your word about the sinful woman

who just responded to Jesus with such a humility and a love,

that that can be our experience and we can see our need and experience the forgiveness in great

measure in Jesus' name, amen.