I feel, on occasion like this, one only
really needs, perhaps to indicate, as one sees
it, the direction in which the Holy Spirit
is likely to lead us in these days.
It's a good thing if we really have
some understanding of the direction.
Otherwise you may be expecting one thing, and
all the way through you may find that
he's leading you in another direction from what
you expect.
Now I'm going to turn you to a
familiar passage, Luke chapter 7, verse 36.
And one of the Pharisees desired him that
he would eat with him.
And he went into the Pharisee's house and
sat down to meet.
And behold, a woman in the city, which
was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus
sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought
an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at
his feet behind him weeping, and began to
wash his feet with tears, and did wipe
them with the hairs of her head, and
kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment.
And when the Pharisee which had bidden him
saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This
man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this
is that toucheth him, for she is a
sinner.
And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I
have somewhat to say unto thee.
And he saith, Master, say on.
There was a certain creditor which had two
debtors.
The one owed five hundred pence, and that
was quite a sum.
Pence meant something different from what it means
to us.
The one owed five hundred pence, and the
other fifty.
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.
Therefore, this is what it really means, not
for, therefore she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven, the same
love is little.
The verse I want to bring to you
is that last one.
Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.
Therefore, she loved much.
And that was evidenced in the way she
treated the Lord Jesus.
But to whom little is forgiven, like you
Simon, the same love is little.
And that has been evidenced in your attitude
to me.
It seems to me, from that passage, that
there are two sorts of Christians.
Two classes of Christians.
The one class is the class who is
forgiven little, represented by Simon the Pharisee.
And the other class of Christians is the
one to whom, who is forgiven much, as
represented by this woman.
Just two classes.
Those who are forgiven little, and those who
are forgiven much.
And if there's a division in our meeting,
it's simply that division.
Those who've been forgiven little, those who've been
forgiven much.
And I believe the direction in which God's
going to lead us is simply this.
He's going to lead those who've been forgiven
little to be forgiven much.
I don't think your halo is going to
grow as a result of being here.
I don't think you're going to feel you've
attained new goals.
It's going to be a very simple progress.
Simply the progress from being forgiven only a
little to being forgiven much.
And if you already feel you've been forgiven
much, then the progress for you is going
to be from being forgiven much to being
forgiven more.
Now, which class of person do you think
is most acceptable to God?
Or if you like, to use an awkward
phrase, which class of person is the better
Christian?
The one who's been forgiven little, or the
one who's been forgiven much?
If you asked an ordinary man of the
world, I know the answer that he would
give.
And I believe many of us, if we
didn't think deeply, would give the same answer.
Why, obviously, the one who is most acceptable
to God is the one who's been forgiven
little.
He hasn't done so much sin.
He hasn't kicked over the traces.
He's walked very largely in the straight and
narrow way.
Since his conversion, he's been a consistent Christian.
His life hasn't been marked with much failure.
Therefore, in the nature of the case, he
only needs to be forgiven a little.
And obviously, says somebody, that man is infinitely
preferred to the one whose sins are many,
and who's been forgiven much.
But not so with God.
In the school of grace, everything is upside
down.
The bottom is in the top, and the
back is in the front.
God is standing on the ground of grace.
And on that ground, he says, there is
no difference for all of sin.
The idea that one is a better man
than another doesn't come into it on the
ground of grace.
God says there's no difference.
The whole lot are a bunch of failures
and sinners.
And that goes for converted persons, as well
as for unconverted persons.
But there is a difference on the ground
of grace.
But it's not the difference between much sin
and little sin.
It's simply the difference between the forgiven and
the unforgiven.
And amongst the forgiven, the further distinction between
the forgiven, those who've been forgiven little, and
those who've been forgiven much.
God judges you and me on, by entirely
different norms from which the world would normally
judge men.
He's not looking at your consistencies or inconsistencies,
firstly.
The final thing is, are you forgiven little?
Or are you forgiven much?
You might be perhaps forgiven not at all.
But what the things are is not so
important.
For he says there is no difference.
I mean the man at the top of
the Himalayas is virtually no nearer at all
to the stars than the man at the
bottom of the coal pit.
They're infinitely far away.
There's no difference for all of sin.
But the difference is, how do we stand
with regard to the forgiveness of God and
our sins?
Are we forgiven at all?
Yes, you say.
Well, alright then.
Are you a man who's only been forgiven
a little?
Or are you a man who's been forgiven
much?
And those that are acceptable to God over
which He joys and finds infinite delight are
those who have been forgiven much.
Oh, if we're going to use that word
better Christian, they are the better Christians of
God's season.
Look in the story.
The man who was forgiven little.
Because he didn't think he was very bad
and had little to be forgiven, he found
no debt of love in his heart to
Jesus.
And he manifested it by his attitude and
behaviour toward Jesus.
He gave him not even the ordinary common
courtesy of someone to wash his feet and
to anoint his head.
Being forgiven little, he loved little.
And I wonder what his relationship would be
to other people.
I wouldn't like to cross Simon the Pharisee.
He wouldn't make allowances.
He'd be quick to condemn, quick to blame,
and insist on his pound of flesh.
You see, being forgiven little himself, he would
forgive others only a little.
And I want to tell you, the Christian
who only sees himself as forgiven little is
going to be a Christian who loves Jesus
little.
In the nature of the case, he's obligated
to the Lord Jesus to a less extent.
There's no debt of love to the man
who's forgiven a little, the consistent Christian, the
one who's always been victorious, who never needs
to repent, can't understand Christians repenting.
He's had such a victorious life, my dear
friend, I want to tell you.
In ways that you perhaps will hardly realise,
you manifest the fact.
You love him little because you've been forgiven
little.
And I believe such and one because he's
been forgiven so little will forgive others little.
And that man cannot but be an unforgiving
man to others.
He's not a melted man.
He won't make allowances for others.
He'd be hard and sensuous to others, as
if he's so right and they're so wrong.
This is characteristic of us when we see
ourselves as good Christians who've only needed to
be forgiven a little.
But what about those whose sins are many
and who've been forgiven much?
Why?
Because they've been forgiven much.
They love much.
This prostitute of the street.
Morally you would think inferior to Simon.
But she's been forgiven a lot and she
loved much.
That what she couldn't do enough for Jesus
and yet she was so humble about it.
You notice she never got any higher than
his feet.
She kissed his feet.
She washed his feet.
She anointed his feet.
She didn't dare to anoint his head.
There was a sweet humility about this woman.
She'd been forgiven much and she loved much.
And when we see ourselves as having been
forgiven much and know it is and can
tell where we've been forgiven there'll be a
love for Jesus we never knew before and
that'll be manifested.
These are the people whose prayers make your
heart melt.
These are the people whose praises rarely reach
heaven.
Being forgiven much.
They love much.
And their attitude to others.
Unless they forget how much they've been forgiven
and we can all do that.
They forgive others.
Who am I to take umbrage at that
when I've done so much else?
How melty.
How loving.
How quick to forgive and quick to repent
of any reactions of resentment of a wrong
done to them.
These people are you see they've been forgiven
much and therefore there's every motive for them
to forgive others much.
It is the much forgiven over whom God's
delight.
Which cast do you think you're in?
I mean you must compare yourself with a
prostitute.
Has she been forgiven more than you?
I think she has.
How blind we can be.
No, no.
The two classes.
But you see does this mean that the
outrageous sinner has an advantage over the respectable
Christian?
Yes.
Sometimes it means exactly that.
Yet an outrageous sinner who has been gloriously
converted to God there's more grace about him
than the Christian who's never been an outrageous
sinner.
Sometimes the outrageous sinner has an advantage.
The advantage is simply this.
It shows how wonderful the grace of God
is that a man's failures could even be
made an advantage to him.
That being forgiven them he loves so much
more.
And the other great thing about it is
that if this is so it humbles the
righteous.
And God is always out to humble the
righteous.
It was the younger son who had the
big welcome not the older son to humble
the older son.
And grace always has a negative action rather
than a positive.
In reaching down to the unworthy it passes
by those who think they're alright.
That was why they opposed the Lord Jesus.
When did they take him to the brow
and want to throw him over the hill?
When he said there were many lepers in
Israel in the days of Elijah.
But to none of them none of them
was healed except the Gentiles.
And grace in reaching down to the unprivileged
passed by the privileged.
And they didn't like it.
But grace always does that.
And the grace of God reaching down to
the needy always humbles us who don't feel
ourselves to be needy.
This is part of the whole business.
And it is true that very often the
outrageous sinner has an advantage over the one
who's not been an outrageous sinner.
But not necessarily so.
Because that sinner can forget how much he's
been forgiven.
The man in the story that Jesus told
did been forgiven that vast debt and yet
he took another servant by the throat who
owed him a trifling sum.
There's always an advantage if he forgets.
Then do you mean to say that to
have lived a respectable good life is a
disadvantage in the school of grace?
Yes, sometimes it is a disadvantage.
If it blinds you to how you really
look before God it were better not to
have had that excellent, wonderful life if it
makes you a Pharisee.
If it blinds you to what you are
because sin isn't what we do it's what
we are.
And the man who lusts and plays with
impurity is as bad as a prostitute who's
actually doing it.
Isn't a fig to choose between us?
The only reason the man, and we're all
in it I'm guilty of these things as
much as anybody else sometimes the man will
play with it in his mind he'd actually
do the deed were he not held back
by selfish motives afraid of the consequences or
his reputation or he lacks the opportunity.
Why would he do it in his mind?
He wouldn't do it in the deed.
But because his outward life would seem to
be right it can blind him and therefore
that outward life can be a disadvantage.
But not necessarily so.
He had wisdom to know that God doesn't
look on the outward appearance but on the
heart.
Very good to have an outward appearance that's
all right as long as you know that
that isn't enough.
And that your heart is every bit as
rotten in the sight of God as is
the other person's.
Do you know there's no need for any
one of us to remain in the class
of the little forgiven.
If Jesus as I hope he will I'm
sure he will introduces us to ourselves in
these days your sins, my sins will appear
to rise up to heaven.
But you'll see the grace of God is
enough even today.
And you'll find that it's all been anticipated
ahead of time in the cross of Jesus
in the blood and the fountain that's been
opened for sin and uncleanness.
And we'll know what sinners we are.
I believe that's one of the essential preludes
to blessing.
And in the school of grace it's the
only way to grow in grace to grow
in the apprehension of our sinfulness.
Then we see the grace that's adequate and
the blood that cleanses of the Jesus who
knows how to put wrong things right for
us to restore all that sin has taken
away.
And so I would simply say this the
direction in which grace would lead us is
simply the direction from being forgiven little to
being forgiven much.
And from being forgiven much to being forgiven
more.
I've been forgiven today of some very wrong
reaction to a certain situation What couldn't I
do to that person if I knew who
it was that did it?
But Jesus didn't pray like that on the
cross.
I've been forgiven that.
I've been forgiven many things at ever deeper
levels.
And I believe that is growing in grace.
Growing in grace doesn't mean you've got to
grow in goodness but to grow in grace.
Seeing how much you need the forgiveness of
Jesus Christ that kindly hand of grace to
reach a sinner again.
You're growing in grace.
The story is told of George Beverley Shea
and he went back to the town in
Canada where he was brought up as a
boy and he met the little lady who
was his school teacher years before when he
was a youngster.
She said, Bev, I remember something about you.
He said, you know you've done something wrong
and you're in some trouble and you know
when a little boy you wrote me a
little note saying I'm sorry I did that.
Please forgive me.
And you know Bev I've still got that
little note of yours.
And the great big Bev Shea put his
arm round the little woman and he said,
bless you madam.
I've been asking people to forgive me ever
since.
That's a gracious man.
You can get along with a man like
that.
And because a man is forgiven much he
loves much.
This is the secret of holiness.
Not some complicated theory of sanctification.
It's the only motive God is counting on
that because grace is extended because Jesus forgives
what he convicts you of you begin to
love him and when you love him you
don't want to go on with things that
dishonour him and you start putting things right
being forgiven much.
We love much.
I have already decided on the text I
want put on my tombstone.
I've told Pam unless she gets there before
I do.
It's a verse from Numbers forgiven from Egypt
until now.
That's your testimony.
Nothing more.
Forgiven from Egypt until now.
And you won't have a bigger blessing as
you go from Cleveland if you can say,
ah he went there only forgiven a little
I'm going forgiven much burdens gone the sun
shining over my head Jesus precious and loving
him and loving others that I never did
before.
And it's a simple secret in this lovely
school of grace the centre of which is
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus forgive us for thinking that we
were we only needed to be forgiven a
little.
Forgive us our blindness for not seeing there's
not a thing to choose between us and
the very worst that men call worst.
Forgive us for loving thee so little because
we've been forgiven so little and Lord forgive
us for these hard unforgiving attitudes to others.
Lord Jesus perhaps thou has got a lot
of work to do in all of us.
Begin it even tonight and may we know
the comfort of those things that are upon
our consciences being forgiven by thee washed and
cleansed away.
Lord Jesus maybe there's somebody who would give
anything if they could only know it was
forgiven who's been punishing themselves.
Lord Jesus speak thy word of grace for
such.
Show them what thou hast done for them
on the cross.
I hear the words of love I gaze
upon the blood I see the mighty sacrifice
and I have peace with God.
Lord Jesus may we move on in this
direction in this lovely school of grace of
thine.
We ask it in thy dear name.
Amen.