← Back to sermon library

Good morning to you all. Or as 
some of the greetings have been to me lately, good day, eh? My wife and I have had a wonderful 
time here in Canada. We've just had just a wonderful 
time and how friendly all of you have been to us. So keep 
it up. Been enjoyable. Well, I'd like you to take your 
Bibles and turn to Luke chapter seven. I'm gonna preach two messages 
from the book of Luke. It will not be from the same 
passage. I'll preach Luke 7 today and then Luke 9 this evening. But in Luke 7, I'd like you to 
read along with me as I begin in verse 36 and go through 50. This is the word of the living 
God. 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 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 fragrant 
oil, 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. 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 me for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered 
and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he 
said, teacher, say it. There was a certain creditor 
who had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, the other 50. And when they had nothing with 
which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, 
which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose 
the one whom he forgave more. He said to him, you have rightly 
judged. Then he turned to the woman and 
said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, 
but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with 
the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this 
woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came 
in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has 
anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, 
her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. 
But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Then he said to her, your sins 
are forgiven. And those who sat at the table 
with him began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives 
sins? Then he said to the woman, your 
faith has saved you. Go in peace. The Bible primarily teaches two 
things. Those two things are what is 
man to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of 
man. And within that context of the 
Word of God, there is a vast difference between the righteous 
and the unrighteous, between those who have faith and those 
that are not believing. Now, when I use the word contrast, 
while they may be vastly different, there's a relationship there. 
For example, summer and winter. Here, they're quite different. 
In California, we have one season, that's it, and it's great. But 
here, you definitely have two seasons. I was born in Chicago, 
Illinois. You had two vastly different 
seasons, winter and summer. Those are different, but they 
have a relationship. They are seasons. Black and white, vastly 
different, but they're the same color. Some have argued that 
black and white are not colors. I'm not here to argue that. All 
I'm here to say is that there is a great contrast in God's 
word And Luke is no exception to that as well. When you consider 
Herod, who is seeking to kill our Lord at his birth, and the 
shepherds who went to worship, quite a difference. Their relationship 
is that they're made in the image and likeness of God. They were 
born with the sin nature of Adam. In Luke's gospel too, you have 
our Lord's healings and his teachings. As we just read, our Lord preached 
with authority where the scribes didn't. Big difference between 
our Lord's ministry and the ministry of the Pharisees. You had the 
parables of the tax collector and the Pharisee, quite a big 
difference, the prodigal son and his brother, and of course 
the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16. Now, here in Luke 
chapter 7, we have this nameless woman and this righteous, religious 
leader, teacher of the Jews. Now, this is only recorded in 
Luke's gospel. And I wouldn't make any judgment 
about that. We don't elevate one part of God's word above 
another. All of God's words should be 
elevated before our eyes. But this woman is not to be confused 
with Lazarus' sister, where she anoints our Lord before his crucifixion. in Matthew 16, as well as in 
John chapter 12. And what we'll look at today, 
this morning, are four things. First of all, we will look at 
the episode. Then we will look at the parable about the episode. Then we'll look at the application 
of the parable about the episode. And then fourthly, what can we 
learn from this? So the first thing is, is normally when I 
preach, I like to give context briefly. explain the text, and 
then apply the text. So that's how I approach preaching. 
I'm assuming that's similar to what Pastor Butler does here 
as well. But let's look at the context 
here. Earlier, the common people heard our Lord gladly, and they 
praised Him. In verse 29, all the people heard 
Him. Even the tax collectors justified 
God. However, the Pharisees rejected 
Jesus, and his father and the will of God, where it says in 
verse 30, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of 
God. And then our Lord poses a parable 
to these religious leaders. And he says, we played the flute 
for you and you did not dance. We got a celebration. Usually 
there's dancing that goes on. And he says, we mourn to you 
and you did not weep. You had a funeral, there's weeping. 
What he's saying is that John the Baptist came. He didn't come 
eating bread or drinking wine and you say he's got a demon. I come eating bread and drinking 
wine and you call me a winebibber and a glutton. What our Lord 
is saying is here God comes to you in two vastly different ways 
and you reject it and you find fault with them. So that's the 
context. this. Now we have the incident 
from verses 36 to 40, and Simon the Pharisee invites our Lord 
to dine with him, and I'm always suspicious of Pharisees when 
I'm reading my Bible. I just don't trust these men 
as far as you can throw them, so I would say it could have 
been out of suspicion, it could have been out of suspicion to 
see if he really was a prophet, or might have been gaining information 
to throw our Lord into jail, regardless of the reason, and 
I can't exegete the plain white parts of my Bible, it's just 
not there. I just don't trust the Pharisee here. But bottom 
line is, our Lord, regardless of the motive, accepts it, and 
he goes into dine with him. And then, I love the way that 
Luke brings this out, and behold, in other words, stop for a moment. Stop. and look at this woman, 
this nameless woman of a bad reputation. Now, some have suggested 
that she was a harlot, but I would say that's a hasty judgment. I mean, you don't have to be 
immoral to be ungodly or to be, in this case, wicked. But it is clear that what she 
once was, she no longer is. Notice that word, who was a sinner. Now my teachers in my library 
say that this verse could rightly be translated, who used to be, 
in times past, a sinner. And we do that very easy with 
our English word was, who was, in times past, a sinner. She had a bad reputation. And 
she must have heard Jesus preaching, or she heard of Jesus preaching 
in the contents of what he brought out, and as a result, She applied 
it savingly to her soul. She believed that message. It 
also appears that she was pardoned from her offenses against God, 
and she knew it. I think she knew it. She demonstrates 
lavish, abundant love to Jesus Christ. It's an offering of thanksgiving 
to Him who saved her. He saved her. Now, it was not 
out of the ordinary. Let's just stop for a moment. 
We'll just take a little excursion here just for a brief second. 
It was not out of the ordinary for uninvited guests to come 
into prominent teachers' homes. Even though they weren't invited, 
it happened. They would come in, and just so they could hear 
the teachers that were going to be teaching. Some of them, 
if they got permission, could also serve. So it wasn't out 
of the ordinary for this woman to go in. But this woman, consider 
this, she showed great courage with her bad reputation as a 
grove sinner to enter the house of this esteemed leader, this 
Pharisee, this strict Pharisee. However, her urge to show love 
to Jesus was so irresistible that she couldn't hold it back. She had to go into this house 
and instead of water for our Lord, she gives him tears. Instead of a towel, her hair, 
instead of a greeting, a simple greeting, she kisses and anoints 
our Lord with fragrant oil. And then we see the reaction 
of the Pharisee in this episode. He doubts that Jesus is a prophet, 
which is a harsh and quick judgment. You could see that when he says, 
this man, if he were a prophet, would know Kind of woman's touching 
him. Now the custom of the day, I 
mentioned this last Sunday evening, was that whenever a Jew would 
go out and have an interaction with Gentiles, if they were even 
to touch someone that was a sinner, they were defiled. And they usually 
did some type of a ceremonial cleansing of their hands just 
to get the Gentile filth off of them. Now, imagine this woman 
is notorious as a sinner And she is not only crying our Lord, 
but anointing our Lord. And the prophet, I mean, what 
the Pharisee is assuming that if he were a prophet, he would 
despise her and reject her. Instead, he is receiving her. And then Jesus being God manifested 
in the flesh. So to speak, he reads his mind. It's difficult to say if he said 
this outwardly, but he said he spoke it to himself and sometimes 
that's just something, it's a form of speech that shows that he 
was just thinking this. So our Lord shows the fact that he is 
God in human flesh, knows the secrets of this man, Simon, and 
announces that he has to say something to Simon. He's going 
to say it to him directly, which brings us now to the parable. Now, The parable, I've read it, 
I don't need to reread it again, is that there's two who owe their 
creditor one 500 days worth of work and the other 50. So it's 
using modern math, one owed 10 times more than the other. One 
was a greater debtor, the other was a lesser debtor. Both had nothing to pay, and 
yet he freely forgives them both. And so Jesus directly now asks 
the question, who will love more? It's simple. It doesn't take 
an MDiv to figure out that particular parable. And so Simon, almost 
in a spirit of indifference, he says, I suppose, I might be 
over-dramatizing, or I guess the one he forgave more. Was 
he right? Yeah, he was right. Did it do 
him any good? Doesn't appear so. It was a plain 
and easy case that the one who owed the most and was forgiven 
the most will love the most. He will love the one more earnestly. And that is the parable there. Now 
I'm going to expand a little bit on the parable because I 
think we see just in light of God's word is that the creditor 
obviously is the Lord. The debtors are two sinners, 
a greater sinner and a lesser sinner. Sins are debt. I think we can see that. Sinners 
are in need of God because God has made them He provides for 
them. He gives them food, shelter, 
and clothing. But He also, because of the fact 
that God has made us, He has given us commands. He has the 
right to do that. And if anyone breaks those commandments, 
they are indebted to God with punishment. And I would submit 
to you everlasting death. All the sorries in the world 
cannot pay or satisfy God. These sinners here in the parable 
are bankrupt, have no money, they have no righteousness. Even 
if they had any righteousness, it wouldn't be enough to pay 
for that great debt of violating the Ten Commandments. But the man freely, God here 
freely forgives, or the one here in the parable freely forgives, 
and it's not because of any for any good he's going to see them 
do or any righteousness of their own, but he freely forgives them. 
So that briefly, and I'll explain the parable because there's some 
problems people will have with both being forgiven. We'll get 
to that. So just hang on. Don't jump to that conclusion 
yet. But that's the interpretation of the parable. And now we have 
the application of the parable about the incident. And so here 
we have our Lord comparing this woman with this Pharisee. This 
would appear to be an unfair fight. I mean, here's this woman 
who's a great sinner, and here is this Pharisee who's not that 
bad. She is an ignorance. He is an 
esteemed teacher of Israel. She's just a common woman, and 
he is an esteemed teacher. Now, I'm keeping track there. 
Right now, it's four to nothing. That means anything for those 
of you that are sports related. But in all seriousness, our Lord 
now turns to Simon. He says, do you see this woman? 
Do you understand her actions? And now Jesus is going to expose 
the shabby treatment that he received from this Pharisee. 
They were in a dry, hot, dusty place and the normal A bit of 
hospitality when a guest came in as they were given water to 
wash their feet, get the dust off. And a simple greeting. The Pharisee did none of that. 
That's what our Lord says. You did none of that. She gave 
me her hair. You gave me nothing. She has 
dried my feet with her hair. You gave me nothing. Simple greeting. You didn't give that to me. She 
has not stopped to show love and affection towards me and 
to anoint me with fragrant oil." So he says to Simon, I declare 
to you that she, being a heinous sinner, she is freely pardoned, 
forgiven of her sins. Many though they be, yet she 
is forgiven. And it's shown that she knows 
that she has been forgiven by her love that she shows to the 
Savior here in this Pharisee's house. It is the person of no 
forgiveness or considers their sins to be little, they show 
no love, and therefore they are not forgiven. She was pardoned, 
not because we're loved to Jesus Christ, but because of the God-given 
faith granted to her. Notice he says, your faith has 
made you well. Your faith has saved you, I should say. And our Lord makes His declaration 
in front of everyone, including this Pharisee, so that she would 
not be regarded as condemned, but she is a pardoned sinner. The guilt of her sin being removed, 
and she is no longer to be looked upon as, oh, this is a wicked 
and vile person, because our Lord has freely justified her. Now Jesus turns the table on 
this Pharisee, who never even thought to apply that parable 
to himself. Now the Pharisee considered himself 
to be righteous, maybe forgiven of his little crimes. There were 
just little mistakes that he may have committed. This Pharisee, 
being 10 times better than the woman, saw no need of forgiveness. 
No need of a Savior since He was His own Savior. And therefore, 
our Lord justifies this woman. This man was self-righteous, 
remember that. We all come into this world self-righteous, 
so it shouldn't come as any surprise to see it being laid out here 
in front of us in our Bibles. What this woman knew in faith 
is affirmed by Jesus' word of assurance that all her sins were 
blotted out. Jesus protects her as He delights 
to forgive sinners. He protects her. He tells her 
to go in peace. It's as if God, and He does, 
embraces this woman with peace, love, and protection. I'm reminded 
of Romans 5.1, having been justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even Paul the Apostle 
said that he walks by faith in the Son of God who has loved 
me and given himself for me. This woman will not need to fear 
that her sin will be to her ruin. Instead, the smile of God is 
upon her soul. She is accepted. Now, there's 
two last things I want to mention before we get to what it is that 
we can learn from this. And that is the question still 
needs to be answered there in verse 49. Did you notice that? 
Those who sat at the table and began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives 
sins? Well, I would submit to you, 
I think you know this, this is the Messiah. This is the Messiah 
that's prophesied in the Old Testament. This is the prophet 
that was prophesied by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. This 
is the Son of God. The same nature. Look at His 
miracles. Look at His teachings. This is 
the Lord. God manifested in the flesh. That question needed to be answered 
because When you take a look at what our Lord's ministry was, 
His teaching, remember the people very gladly, His healing, His 
healings cannot be doubted. And then He says things like 
this, I would submit to you, that should get some people's 
attention real fast. It really should. And the Son of Man has authority 
on earth to forgive sins. To forgive sins. Does that sound 
familiar? Do you remember in Luke 5, the 
man that was paralyzed, not, yeah, Luke 5, the man was paralyzed 
and his friends wanted to take him there to be healed. But the 
place that our Lord was teaching at was just filled with people. 
They couldn't get in there. So what they do is they take 
them and they put them up on top of the roof. Open up the tiles, 
let them down. Jesus sees their faith and he 
says, son, your sins are forgiven you. And they're upset. The Pharisees 
are upset about this declaration that our Lord makes. And our 
Lord knows that. And he says, which is easier 
to say, your sins are forgiven you, or rise up and take your 
bed and go home? Which is easier to say? It's 
easier to say your sins are forgiven you because it's something you 
can't see. You really can't see it. But that you may know. that 
the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say 
to you, rise up, take up your bed, and go home." People are 
amazed. Here, no miracle. But this had 
to be in some of the minds of the people, saying, this man 
is something else. He's different than any of the 
teachers at all. There's something else I want 
you to consider before we look at what is it that we can learn. 
I'm sure we're learning things here as I go along. But I noticed 
that there's a lot of words by the Pharisee, Simon. There's 
a lot of words by our Lord. Even those who sat there said, 
who is this who even forgives sin? But there's one person you 
don't hear a peep out of. At least it's not recorded. That's 
the woman. Did you notice that? She doesn't say a word, nothing 
at all. And I don't know if you make 
any conclusions on that, but I think sometimes we do better 
when we just talk a lot less. She says nothing. and she shows 
love and affection to our Lord. Our Lord declares her righteous. 
Go in peace is what our Lord says. Well, what can we learn 
from this particular passage? And I've got a few things for 
us. The first thing is only God can forgive sins. Only God can 
forgive sins. While I'm a minister of the gospel, 
I don't have the ability to forgive sins. I do, have the authority 
to say, if you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins 
are forgiven you. But I'm not a priest. Now, down 
in California, there's a lot of Roman Catholicism down there. 
I came out of Roman Catholicism. I was a strict Catholic. And 
for me to get my sins forgiven, I had to go to a priest every 
two weeks and confess my sins. And he told me my sins were absolved 
as long as I did four Our Fathers and seven Hail Marys and I would 
just try to do better. That's how my sins were forgiven. 
Christ isn't even there. The priest is a mediator between 
me and God, and therefore he is a false mediator. He is not 
to be trusted. The priesthood, there's only 
been one priest right now, and that's Jesus Christ. His priesthood 
is according to the order of Melchizedek, regardless of what 
the Mormons say, regardless of what the Catholics say, those 
priests are counterfeit. Now, for you here in Kent, I 
think I've only seen maybe one Catholic church. I was talking 
to one of the brethren there and he said, no, Catholicism 
doesn't appear to be the issue. There's other things that go 
on here in this area. All I can say is that a minister 
doesn't have the ability No man has the ability to forgive sins. 
Our sins are against God. It's always best for us to go 
to God by His appointed means of forgiveness of sins, which 
is through the cross, through Calvary. Christ died for sinners. 
He died for sinners that we might be reconciled unto God. That's 
the first thing. Second thing I find interesting 
is that This is, please forgive the term, but this is women's 
liberation right here. Our woman here has been liberated 
from her sins. She's free. My brethren, we are 
free. We have been given access to 
God through Jesus Christ. The sins that we used to love 
to do, we hate. The things that we used to love 
doing, sins, we hate. being in church now, we love. We love being in the house of 
God. God's changed our heart. Granted, I know there's Sunday 
mornings where you probably don't want to come in here, okay? Or 
maybe I'm the only one that thinks that. But there's some days, 
it's just not easy at all. But the thing that helps me is 
know that Jesus is a great Savior of sinners. He can revive me. He can turn my heart away from 
those things. I've been liberated to die to 
sin and live unto righteousness. I have to say this too, as well, 
in light of, I don't know what it's like here in Canada, but 
down in California, they're blurring the lines between men and women. 
This is a woman here in the scriptures, and God calls her a woman. And 
the Pharisee is a man. We are different. God has made 
us different. But remember, he made men male 
and female. man and a woman, and those lines 
should never be blurred. There should be contentment in 
the calling that God's given to women, as well as the unique 
situation for men, the unique calling of men. That's all I'm 
going to say about that. A word to the wise is sufficient. 
What's another thing that we can learn? Well, we might have the right 
answers to spiritual questions and yet still be lost and unforgiven. The Pharisee knew a lot, and 
yet he was condemned. He had no hope. Now, we should 
have the knowledge of God, right brethren? We should grow in the 
grace and knowledge of God, correct? But head knowledge alone does 
not save. We should teach our children. 
We should teach our children about saving faith in Jesus Christ. 
Repentance unto life. to go through the scriptures 
with our children, teach them how to sit in church, teach them 
about prayer. Kids, when you get up in the 
morning, I got three things for you to do. I hope I haven't trampled 
on any parent's authority here. But read your Bibles, if you 
can read, and pray, and make your bed. That's all. And whatever 
else your parent wants you to do, your parents want you to 
do, do it. You're honoring God by this way. Now, what I'm saying 
is that head knowledge alone doesn't save. This is a grief. I've seen so many that champion 
the cause for the doctors of grace, and yet they are lost. Their books abounded. They were 
intellectually stimulated, but they love their sins. They wanted a platform to talk 
and to see how great they are. And yet they were lost. No heart, 
no faith, No love for the Savior. It's a terrifying condition to 
know the way of life and not travel it. Enter through the 
narrow gate. Broad is the road that leads 
to destruction. Now, we should have head knowledge. 
I'm not putting that down. We should grow in grace. Big 
difference is saving faith, humility. Which brings me to another thing 
that's of concern, is that many are distracted with the hatred 
of the sins of others, but what about our sins? How about our sins? This Pharisee 
considered himself much better than this woman, this sinner. But he had a plank in his eye. 
He couldn't see his own sin. Now, my brethren, we hate the 
sins of the homosexuals. We hate the sins of our government 
leaders, and we may even be vocal about it, and we should hate 
their deeds, but are we distracted by that to 
keep us from dealing with our own sins? Simply asking the question 
because it is very easy to condemn and judge others, but we should 
use that same judgment on ourselves. Use the law of God. While we 
are greedy of the sins around us, we are more greedy of the 
sin that goes on within us. If we do that, it will make us 
humble and not obnoxious. We won't be willing to drop the 
gloves just because someone disagrees with our political or even our 
religious views. We should be gracious, deal with 
our fellow sinners, friends, our relatives, and our neighbors 
in a gracious, humble manner. Peter said, be ready to give 
an answer for the hope that lies within you with meekness and 
with fear. The idea with the fear of God. 
We do not condone the wickedness of those around us, but we seek 
to win them, to befriend them, to love them, though they are 
unlovable, just as we were unlovable. Look at the mercy God has shown 
unto us. Dear Christian, you have been 
forgiven much. You have. The question is, do 
you love much? This love that the woman had 
for our Savior traces back to her sins, how heinous they were, 
and yet she was forgiven, and she loved him freely. That's 
what the parable is all about. the great forgiveness of all 
of our sins. That's man's greatest need, is 
to be forgiven of their sins. Are your sins forgiven you? For 
those of you in Christ, yes, they are. And that should make 
us to be a different people. We have peace with God. We can 
have peace with one another. Remember, it was God who loved 
us first. We love because He first loved 
us, not we love God and now He loves us back. God initiated 
the love with us. God loves to save sinners through 
His Son. An increase of our love can be 
traced all the way back to how much the Lord has forgiven us. 
Think of what you were like before you were in Christ. Now granted, 
children grow up in a church, they get converted, hopefully 
get converted, teenage, whatever years, you may think, well, not 
like I was a drug addict, but you have been forgiven of much. 
Now, for my case, I came out of a very, very bad area of history 
in the 60s and the 70s, and I bought into that system. And God has 
forgiven me much. It has humbled me greatly. Initially, 
I was too proud, and then the Lord humbled me. And throughout 
the years, I'm just so amazed that God would save a wretch 
as me, as a wretch as you. I want you to notice that this 
parable does not teach that this Pharisee was forgiven. Notice 
our Lord justifies the woman, He doesn't justify the man. He 
declares the woman righteous, He doesn't declare this Pharisee 
as righteous. And the concept of love to the 
Savior, I think, is sometimes misunderstood. Just some good 
feeling about the man upstairs, or Jesus, and they use such irreverent 
language to deal with our Lord. The love to our Lord is shown 
in many ways. In as much as you've done it 
to Lisa, these my brethren, you've done it unto me. We show love 
to Jesus Christ by being under His Word, partake of the sacraments, 
baptism, and the Lord's Supper, all with an eye towards our Lord, 
and then how we have love for one another in the church. His 
body, His body, that's how that love is shown. Showing love to 
the least of these, my brethren. Well, I have two quick things 
I want to say. First of all, to the unbeliever. 
If there are any here that do not believe, I want you to think 
for a moment about God's kindness to you. He's given you parents, 
you get to live indoors, you enjoy food, music, friends, sports, 
whatever thing that you find of enjoyment. You live in an 
incredibly pretty area. Like I said last Sunday, my wife 
and I live in a concrete jungle. This is incredible. We get on 
our bikes and we go for a couple of hours just going through all 
these beautiful farmlands. We're so quick, though, to thank 
the Lord for the beauty of His creation, which man can't make. 
He can't make a flower. It's incredible. It really is 
incredible. All of you that do not believe 
should be thankful to God for those mercies, especially the 
mercy which is found in His Son. Acknowledge your sin. Confess 
your sins. If you feel like I just don't 
have any faith, then keep praying to God that he might grant you 
saving faith and repentance unto life. Keep praying, keep praying. God answers those prayers. And 
for those of us that believe, I've already brought this out, 
but we should be thankful for all of his blessings. It's easy 
to say that when you pray, oh Lord, thank you for all of those 
blessings. I would submit to you, start naming those blessings. Be specific. Husbands and wives 
should thank the Lord for giving you your marriage, your children, 
your grandchildren, your church, your job, living indoors, all 
of these things, and especially the forgiveness of sins, the 
blessedness of the knowledge that Jesus Christ died for my 
sins according to the scriptures and was raised from the dead 
according to the scriptures. That is a blessing for us We 
never grow old of that. We never grow out of that. We 
never graduate from that school of faith in Jesus Christ. In 
fact, our faith increases when we come in here. We come in here. Then he said to her, your sins 
are forgiven. Who is this who even forgives 
sins? He said to the woman, your faith 
has saved you. Go in peace. Let's pray. Our Father, with you there is 
forgiveness that you might be feared, and we draw near unto 
you at the close of this sermon. We give you thanks and praise 
you for your son, the forgiveness of sins, the blessedness of being 
right with you through faith in our great high priest, our 
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Pray that you might seal these 
words to our souls, that we would remember this message, that it 
would be that which is of great help and benefit. You would save 
our children here as well as those that do not believe. We 
pray, believing Father, that you're able to do far above what 
we could even think or ask. Thank you for another Lord's 
Day, where we remember the resurrection of the dead by our Savior. Richly 
bless these brethren the rest of this day with your truth, 
for we pray in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to close by singing 
the doxology. But before we do that, just a few instructions 
so we keep things orderly and not chaotic. We will sing the 
doxology, and then there will be a brief time of meditation, 
as is our custom. Afterwards, any parents that 
have any children down in the nursery, please go and collect 
them. Gather your troops. And everyone that would like 
to be part of the photo, whether you're a member or not, been 
coming to this church, you want to be in the photo, come up here, 
we will get that done as quickly and as orderly as possible. So 
we're going to sing the doxology, 568 in your hymnal if you need 
the words or the music, and then we'll have a brief time of meditation, 
but when the piano stops, everyone, rather than usually our usual 
dispersion and visiting, please come forward. Please stand with 
me as we sing. ♪ And saints glow ♪ ♪ Praise Him 
all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise Him above the heavenly host ♪ 
♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH