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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/nothing-to-pay/
Turn with me, please, to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 7, and we'll begin at verse number 40. Now the context here is the Lord Jesus is having supper with a Pharisee, and there's a woman who is coming to the supper.
Verse 40,. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee, and he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence, and the other 50.
And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, 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 hast rightly judged.
And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head 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. Chapter 23, please, for a verse or two. Luke 23, verse 39. Verse 39 says,. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss.
And finally, Acts please, chapter 13. Acts 13, verse 37. But he, that is the Lord Jesus, whom God raised again, saw no corruption, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of His Word. Sometimes things come into our lives that really cause us to stop and to think.
Even as Christians, circumstances and events and people that we meet, they cause us to really contemplate the Scriptures and really try to understand different situations. This past Tuesday was an instance for my wife and I.
We had a young couple at our house and this young couple had a problem. It was a problem of debt. They weren't believers and they needed someone to talk to. And so as I listened to the story, it was very evident that what they were talking about had a real spiritual connection.
You see, this young couple, before they were even married, the husband, he had co-signed a note for his girlfriend at that time. And what had happened was this, she defaulted on it and they found out now they owe this vast sum of money.
And they come to our house, we just invited them over so they could listen to us. And this is what I heard. We have nothing to pay. We have nowhere to turn. It's a burden. Is there anything that can be done?
Nothing to pay. Nowhere to turn. And a burden. And as I sat and I listened to those young people, and the dear woman, sometimes she was in tears. My mind went to Luke chapter 7. What we read in Luke chapter 7 is a story of a creditor or someone who had loaned someone money.
Two people, one owed 500 pence and the other 50. And he simply says they had nothing to pay. I hope tonight it is my prayer that in this meeting that each and every one of us comes to an understanding, comes to grips with reality as far as our sin.
Because that's really the message of the Lord Jesus in this portion. He's talking about sins, isn't He? He's talking about a woman who had been freely forgiven, and how she loved much. And just like this couple that was sitting at our dining room table, they had come to grips with reality.
They had nothing to pay. They had nowhere to turn. And there was a tremendous burden upon them, you could see it. That's the way sin is, isn't it? Tremendous burden. And you know, if you notice in the testimonies, all three of the men, in one way, shape or form, come to a grasp of reality.
Every one of them. And if you're saved tonight, you'll look back in your life's experience and you'll remember when you come to reality about your sin. And what your sin really deserved. And the debt that you had that you couldn't pay back.
And the awful reality of the consequences of sin in our story here. They had nothing to pay. Sins. Nothing to pay. Can we come to a really simple grip of reality tonight? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. My question tonight is this. Have you ever realized your sin? Have you ever discovered that your sin has separated you from God?
That is a tremendous problem. That is a tremendous burden. A heartbreaking, heavy, heavy load. He's giving this story to this man who is a Pharisee because he had never come to a grip of his sin. You see, in the story, he's looking down on this woman.
This woman came to his house. And she'd come to the Lord Jesus because she loved Him. Why did she love Him? Because of who He was. She understood who He was. And so this man, Simon, he had no clue really about his sin.
He really had no clue who the Lord Jesus Christ was. And so the Lord is very graciously and very tenderly pointing to his problem. He says a certain man had two creditors. One owed 500 pence and the other 50.
So they're both in debt. And he could understand that in a simple way. He didn't get the point yet. And then he says, He frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore which one will love Him most. Obviously, it's the one that's been forgiven most.
We would have come to the same conclusion, wouldn't we? We'd come to understand that if I owed 500 and you owed 50, that I would be more thankful for you because I was worse off than you. And that's his point to the Pharisee.
But the problem is this, he had nothing to pay. Nothing. Sometimes in life, we have to go to banks and we have to borrow money or whatever the case might be. Always read the fine print. Because sometimes creditors will throw things in there that are most unpleasant, like they did to this young couple.
They'll take everything you have. They'll ruin your life if you can't pay. You know, there's fine print to sin tonight. Oh, it's fun for a season. It might satisfy the flesh. It might make us happy for the moment, whatever it might be.
But there's always consequences and there's always debt and there's always burden with sin. And so it's a necessity tonight that we come to an understanding that we have nothing to pay in the sight of God.
That's where mankind has gone wrong. We've devised religions and we've devised different things that we can do to pay God, that we can do to show Him our sincerity, to show Him that we feel sorry for what we've done.
But there's nothing we can pay. Nothing. We can't pay for our sin. We could spend a lifetime trying to pay for our sin. We could never pay it off. And this young couple, as they sat there and they were weeping, they said, I ruined my life.
Ruined my life. Sin ruins lives tonight. It ruins eternities. Coming to terms with reality tonight. That's what the Lord Jesus was trying to do to this man Simon. Trying to get him to see the point that he had a debt too.
And though maybe there's a lot of Christian children tonight and your debt isn't really black or really deep or really ugly, you've got a debt too. You've got sins that need to be forgiven. Sins you can't pay for.
A real grasp of reality. Then he goes on about this woman and all the things that she did out of appreciation for the Savior. What do you think of Christ tonight? Honest question. For those of us who are saved, we're like this woman.
He's altogether lovely. He deserves our tears of praise. He deserves whatever ointment of praise we can pour forth. Why? Because he paid a debt that we can no wise ever pay. We couldn't pay it. Frankly, forgave them both.
I wonder tonight, have you come to honestly, in the sight of God, to a grasp of reality of your standing before God, concerning your sin, you have nothing to pay. See, because this is what it does. It brings an urgency.
It brings an urgency to the matter of a soul's salvation. It brings a real urgency to eternity. It brings an urgency to life. When we understand that there's nothing that we can do, we're going out to meet God.
We're going out in our sins. And when a person finally grasps that, they want to change. They want to be rid of it. They want to be free. The dear woman there in my story, she said if that could only be paid off, we'd be relieved.
The burden would be gone. We would be free. It was ruining their life. They couldn't go get money for a house. They couldn't go get money for anything. They have a small child. They wanted to move on with their life.
And they couldn't. It ruined their life. And sin has ruined all mankind. It has separated us from God. We need to come to an understanding of that reality tonight. The reality of our sin. We come to Luke 23.
And here's a man. He really gets a grasp of reality in his own world at that time. He's a malefactor. He's nailed beside the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we would have read earlier, he railed on the Lord Jesus just like his partner did.
They mocked him. They wanted him to come down from the cross and save him, to deliver him, get him out of the jam that they were in. But one man has a change of heart. He repents. And he rebukes the one who just won't give it up.
The one who never really acknowledged his guilt before God. And he says this, the man that repented, does not thou fear God? You come to the reality of meeting God. Do you fear God tonight? Is there a reverence in your soul for going out into meeting a holy God?
This man said, does not thou fear God? I'll tell you, before I was saved, I grew up in a Christian home. I didn't fear God for a long time. I would have said I did. But not until I really gripped my soul that if God put me in hell, that's what I deserved.
Did I really fear God? That's what happened to this man. He's going to die. He's nailed to the cross. He's not coming off the cross alive. He's going out into eternity. He's going out to meet God, the Holy One, the Creator of heaven and earth.
And he's going out to meet Him. You're going out to meet God. Buried my neighbor 35 years Thursday. He went out to meet God. 35 years. I lived on one side of him for probably 30. And on the other side of him for 5.
I could throw a baseball and hit his house at either two of the places. Nice gentleman. Professed to get saved three years ago in Gospel meetings. But he went out and he met God unexpectedly. Do you fear God tonight?
I just want to be exceedingly simple but exceedingly real tonight. You have nothing to pay. You're going out to meet God. And you may be closer to death than this malefactor. Just a step. Just an instant.
Just a moment. This man was just a few hours. But his question is so real. It's so filled with the reality of eternity. Dost thou fear God? It's yes or it's no. His body never did fear God. He said, "...Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
For we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.". If you got what you deserve tonight, friend, what would you get? This is a land of entitlements. Entitlements for this and entitlements for that.
And people think they deserve everything. But really tonight, if we got what we deserved, we'd be just like this malefactor. We would deserve to die. We deserve the judgment of God. Ezra said, "...Seeing thou hast given us such deliverance as this, and punished us less than our iniquities deserve.".
What do sins deserve? Reality. The bondage of sin. Reality of the fear of God. Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan preacher, he preached sinners in the hands of an angry God. And as he preached the message of the wrath of God, you know what the people did?
They went to the columns that held up the room, the building, and they held on to them. Because he preached about sinners walking over hell in a rotten crust. And the Spirit of God moved in the company.
And souls were touched with the fear of God. And they were afraid to take a step lest they fell into the burning hell. You won't find that today. Very often, sinners that fear God with reality. Reality.
Dost thou not fear God? Young one in the meeting tonight, do you fear God? Are you ready to meet Him? Have you discovered the reality of the fear of God? And we come to Acts 13. I'd like to look at the discovery of the reality of the forgiveness of sins.
Matthew 7 and this chapter have much in common. It's talking about the Lord Jesus, the One that is risen again from the dead. He saw no corruption. God raised Him a third day. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by Him, by Jesus, all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. The reality of the forgiveness of sins. We heard about that in the testimonies tonight, didn't we?
These men knew that their sins were forgiven. They knew that the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary had suffered on their behalf. He bore the wrath that they deserved. And there's a reality, there's a moment, there's a time, when, a place, where, and a manner how in their life's experience that they come to know the reality of Calvary.
The forgiveness of sins through this Man. The One who was explaining to Simon about the debt. The One who was explaining to Simon about having nothing to pay. And the reality of coming short. And the reality of being hopeless and bankrupt in the sight of God.
This is the One. The One at the cross of Calvary beside the malefactor. The One in the middle cross. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The One who told the thief that this day He would be with him in paradise.
You see, the thief had a great understanding that day. He'd come to the realization of his sin. He'd come to the realization of fearing God. And he'd come to the realization of the work that the Lord Jesus Christ was accomplishing and who He was.
He said, Lord, remember me. What words, huh? Today shalt Thou be with me in paradise. The forgiveness of sins. Our verse in Acts, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
There's only One that forgives sins. That's God. There's no other forgiveness of sins tonight. Though we search the world over and over, there's only one. And it's through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The forgiveness of sins. This couple in our house, when she said that the burden would be gone if they could only be rid of that debt. You know, I could just relate. Because what she was describing in a monetary way, she was describing about me in a spiritual way 21 years ago.
If I could only be forgiven. If I could only know for sure that them sins were gone. That's all that I wanted out of life was to know that I would be saved. And all these people want now, they've been invited to the Gospel meetings, hopefully they come.
But all these people want right now is to have that debt forgiven. And sinners who get saved, you know what they want? All they want is the forgiveness of sins. All they want is to be clear. They have an understanding in the fear of God.
They have an understanding of their sin. And what they're looking for, what they're longing for, is to know what this verse is teaching. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
Forgiven! He frankly forgave them both. And He'll forgive every sinner tonight that comes to Him. Trust Him. Trust Him as our Savior. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's the purpose for Him coming.
He comes to satisfy the righteous claims of God against sin. And by going to the cross of Calvary apart from sin, He suffered the wrath that sinners deserved. And it's good for whosoever tonight. He died for my sins in the cross of Calvary.
You know what I enjoy the most? That if I was the only one ever to be saved and get this friend tonight, if you were the only one ever to be saved, He'd have had to die at the cross of Calvary and shed His blood.
Because that is the righteous payment for sin. You see why you have nothing to pay? Took the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. Took the blood of the innocent one to cleanse us from sin. And now, through Him is preached the forgiveness of sins.
You can be forgiven tonight. You can be rid of the burden. You can be rid of the weight and the anguish and the agony of considering eternity separated from God. The forgiveness of sins. Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Free. Free. There's no forgiveness in any other person. There's no forgiveness in any other thing. There's no forgiveness in any religion. Forgiveness is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it can only be preached through Him.
Our verse says this in verse 39,. "...and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.". They're cleared of guilt. They're reckoned righteous. Those that trust Him by faith. "...from which He could not be justified by the law of Moses.".
So by keeping the Ten Commandments, we can't pay for our sin. We have nothing to pay. It took His work. His shed blood on the cross of Calvary. But you know, the problem tonight is this, it's not good enough for people.
It's not good enough. If people don't realize that they're not good enough for God's heaven, if they never come to an understanding that they have nothing to pay, the work of the cross is nice. It might touch their heart.
But until we realize our sin, we'll never find salvation there. We'll never find forgiveness. Through this man has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Verse 40 says this, "...Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.
Behold, you despisers and wander and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.". What's it talking about? It's talking about people who won't believe the message.
It's talking about people who won't come to terms with reality. You see, this couple, they ignored this problem for years that they had. They got letters in the mail and they ignored them. They threw them away.
They didn't take them seriously. And what was happening the whole time? Debt was growing. The interest was compiling and compiling and compiling. And now it was time to pay. It was time to pay. What are you going to do, dear friend, when it's your time to pay?
You ignore the issue. You throw away the warnings. You disregard the letter, the Word of God. You just let it go. And it will work out all right. They'll forget about me. I'll be able to get under the radar.
And then all of a sudden one day it's time to pay. And you have nothing to pay. And it's too late. He frankly forgives tonight. His work on the cross of Calvary is sufficient for the vilest sin on this side of hell tonight.
I believe that with all my heart. It doesn't matter the debt of sin, whether it's 500, if I could put it that way, or 50. Every debt needs a forgiveness. Every sin needs forgiveness. And through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
The one who was crowned with thorns upon the tree. The one who suffered there in agony. Dying crushed beneath the load of the wrath and curse of God. The one there who suffered and paid the penalty that wasn't his to pay.
Get that, friend. He had no debt of his own, but he was there for others. Who was he there for? He came to save sinners. He satisfied God. He saw no corruption. He was raised again the third day. And since he is seated at God's right hand, the forgiveness of sins can be preached.
And I trust in the first half of this meeting, there's a burden. Burden of nothing to pay. I hope there's a little touch of the fear of God in the meeting tonight. And that God would just speak one word to your soul.
Nothing to pay. The fear of God and the forgiveness of sins.