We turn in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 34, and then Luke chapter 7. Let's stand for the reading of the Word. Moses has been on Sinai. Israel has made a golden calf and sinned against the Lord. Moses has sought the face of God to mediate for Israel. And now the Lord responds to Moses. And the Lord said to Moses, cut two tablets of stone like the first ones and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. So be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. No man shall come up with you and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain. Neither let flocks nor herds feed before that mountain. So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. And he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. And all the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there. and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generations. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Then he said, if now I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and sin, and take us as your inheritance. Luke chapter 7 beginning at verse 36, the same forgiving mercy of God. Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him and he went to the Pharisees 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 Pharisees house brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him weeping and she began to wash his feet with her tears. wiped them with the hair of her head. She kissed his feet and anointed them with the 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 him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, teacher, say it. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and 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. And 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 her, 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. This is the Word of the Lord. And we turn to Luke chapter 7 verses 36-50 for the preaching of the Word. As Christians, we are supposed to be a maturing people. That is, we are supposed to change over time. That when you first come to Christ, that is the beginning of a new life. If we have His Word and we have His Spirit in our hearts, there is something He is doing over time as He makes us, loosens our grip on the things of this world, teaches us to turn from our sins and makes us ready for glory. But sometimes there's another kind of change that can come over us which isn't so good. As our Lord addresses the seven churches in the book of Revelation, He had to warn one church about a kind of change that was a bad sign, a sign of spiritual danger. And he said this to the church at Ephesus, nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love. But they seemed to have started with an affection for Jesus. But it cooled. It didn't just cool. The language that our Savior uses is that they left it. That what so captivated them at the beginning was in danger of fading away and perhaps for some had faded altogether. The reason they thought they first needed Christ and their hearts were moved towards Him no longer seemed so compelling. I was dealing with a dear friend this week who was wrestling with that very reality, a profound temptation to walk away from the Lord and leave behind an entire life of following Jesus Christ. It's heartbreaking to think about, to pray about. The greatest commandment we have is to love the Lord our God. And that love is not simply an intellectual commitment, but it is the response of our whole heart, including affection, that we love Him. The greatest temptation we have is that we would love anything else before Him or in place of Him, that our hearts would be captured by something else. Some of you have professed Christ for years. What is the nature of your love for Him now? Do you love Him? Have affection for Him? Is there a warmth between you and Jesus Christ? Is there a thankfulness towards Him and for Him when you think of Him? What's in your heart? In the visitors class this morning, I didn't realize that I had probably was thinking about preaching, but I'm gonna describe something for you today for a second time, but there is something about affectionate love that is so warm and happy. Our little Miriam, who I can see back there, she now is at the age where she can run to Laura Lee and I, or other members of the family, and give us a hug. And she'll hang on now. hang onto my neck and put her other arm on my shoulder and pat me on my back a little bit. And I can hold her and she can hold me. And this is not just simply an intellectual exercise. There is a love and affection and communion. There's a desire for me to protect her, teach her, care for her. And she has a simple trust in Laura Lee and I and her older siblings that they will do that. And if that were to be broken in some way, we would be heartbroken. There is something about the response of the whole person to Christ, which is at the heart of Christianity. You can ask yourself this morning, do you have an affection for Jesus Christ that captures your heart? Is there something about Him that grips your heart, that drives your decisions, that shapes your ambitions, that changes your actions, that forms your hopes every day? It's a matter of the forgiveness of sins and love for Christ runs right through this text. In Luke chapter 7 and verse 36 and following. I'm going to do a little bit of review. Last week I did review, and I said that one of the great questions in the Gospel of Luke, before we get to this matter of love for Christ in this text, is the identity of Jesus Christ. Things about the Gospel of Luke make it clear that Luke is seeking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he is seeking to Answer the question, who is Jesus Christ? He teaches us His origin, the forerunner John the Baptist, the angels who came, the virgin birth, His birth in Bethlehem, the angels who came again, the shepherds who confessed Him, Simeon and Anna who met Him in the temple, the Holy Spirit who descended on Him like a dove at His baptism, the voice of the Father, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The whole text pulses with this, Jesus Christ is the God-man. He is the One who has come to deliver Israel according to all the promises of the Old Covenant. He is the Savior of sinners. He is unique and distinct in all of human history. No one like Him. He is the One who faced Satan, who preached with authority. He worked miracles, healed the sick, cast out demons. He could raise the dead by divine command. The confession of Israel was that when Jesus came, believing Israel, God had visited his people. But there's another question that the Gospel of Luke raises, and I've already answered it to some degree, but we focused often in the last weeks on the who question, but now how about the why question? We're gonna shift to a why question. Why did he come? Not just who came, inseparably there are two things that we often talk about when we talk about Christ, his person and his work. Why did he come? Why the incarnation? And there are perhaps few narratives in the Gospel of Luke that more clearly answer the why question than this one here. Why would I say this? Because this narrative actually does two things. This narrative bats down or eliminates some bad answers to the question. It helps us understand how we might answer that question the wrong way why he came. A lot of people think that Jesus was a good teacher. There's a Pharisee here who calls Jesus teacher. And in one sense he honors him, he has him over at his home, he's interested in him, he has some sort of outward interest. And He was a good teacher, but to limit Jesus to be a good teacher is to not know Him and know why He came. He's the supreme example, some would say, the most selfless person who ever lived in human history. To describe Him as this is to limit Him and not know who He is. I mean, to describe Him as this alone. The Pharisee, it appears in this text, wants Jesus to affirm him, and especially his legal view of what it means to follow Jehovah, the Lord. This was the Pharisee's early hope as a group, and then this Pharisee here will see that Jesus would join them in affirming their understanding of the law of God and the scriptures. That He would publicly affirm them, that He would not influence Israel in another way, but that He would join with them. It appears that something of this is in this invitation here in the text. We'll get to it in a moment. These answers will be eliminated. These wrong answers will be crossed off the list. But instead, this text will answer the true and central reason why Jesus Christ came into the world. To save sinners. Let's look at the narrative itself. We're going to look at a number of things, the narrative itself, and see that it's doubly surprising. And then we're going to see how our Savior, the Lord Jesus, explains what happens in the narrative, His explanation of this woman who comes. And then we're going to see that a contrast deepens between two characters in the text, and the contrast is gonna be between the Pharisee and this woman, and as we look at that contrast, what will jump out is why Jesus Christ came into the world, which is to save sinners. So the doubly surprising narrative, two surprises in the text. First of all, you might be surprised after what you've read in the Gospel of Luke that a Pharisee invites Jesus over for a meal. Matter of fact, the Pharisees have heard a bit of his ministry and in numerous places they have conspired against him. They've called him a blasphemer and they are not thrilled with his public ministry just as they weren't thrilled with John the Baptist. He's a very notable public figure. And he here receives a dinner invitation. One of the Pharisees asked him, Jesus, to eat with him. A Pharisee is a member of one of the ruling parties in Israel. They had essentially, they were the dominant influence in Jewish history and religious life at this point. They were religious leaders. They were seen to be the primary interpreters of the Old Testament law. Josephus, who counted himself as a Pharisee, would later write the following, the Jewish historian, that every ritual act of worship and all of life, in a sense, was dictated in his age and in the prior age of the Pharisees by the Pharisees and their teachings and interpretation of the Old Testament scriptures. They were the dominant political force in Israel and the dominant religious teachers of Israel. As with many in Israel, the question was here, where does Jesus with his powerful public ministry fit in with this dominant group? Will he or will he not? It appears that this Pharisee has invited Jesus over for a dinner at which he is skeptical of who Jesus is. And if you jump down to verse 44, you'll see some evidence for that from Jesus' language. He said, I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, you gave me no kiss, you did not anoint my head with oil. Jesus is saying something about the nature of this man later in the narrative that tells us that this is not a warm-hearted invitation. This is an invitation, maybe something like this, keep your friends close, your enemies closer. A minimal and skeptical visit seems to be, in a sense, the nature of this man's heart. An invitation maybe to get to know Jesus. To continue to ask the question, what should we do with Him in Israel? What happens at this meal? Something very surprising. The text says, a sinful woman appears. And behold a woman in the city who was a sinner. She appears to be a publicly known example of a life lived against God. And we'll get to that in a moment. I want to clear something up. There is a similar narrative in the Gospels. Matthew 26, Mark 14, John 12, where Mary takes costly oil, anoints Jesus' head and feet, wipes his feet with her hair. Jesus says that she did this for his burial. It's later in his ministry. And because of the similar action and the fact that there is a Simon mentioned in both narratives, some have thought that this is the same narrative. But I will point out a number of differences. This one is in Bethany, rather the later one's in Bethany, this appears to be in Galilee. The Mary, Martha's sister is identified in the later narrative, this is an earlier narrative. And then the matter of the similar Simons, I want to remind you of the following in the New Testament that we have Simon Peter, Simon the Zealot, Simon Judah's father. Simon Jesus' brother, Simon the Siren, Simon the Magician. In other words, this name Simon was very common in Israel. These are two different narratives. Just to say that someone with the same name appears in two narratives is the same narrative. No, it appears to be two Simons with the same name. But back to the narrative, so not to confuse it with the later but similar narrative. A sinful woman approaches. She was a sinner. It's an interesting way to introduce somebody. And this word in the New Testament means someone who is living with a conscious, willful opposition to the law of God. In other words, God says this, and she publicly is living the other way. She is known for not obeying the Lord. She is known for rejecting God's lordship. She is known for living a life at odds with the revealed will of God. She's swimming against the current of holiness and she's doing so publicly. As a matter of fact, verse 39, the Pharisee knows what manner of woman this is. She is a sinner. It's a public scandal that this woman has brought. to this place. And it's not unlikely, when we read of Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, that she is a prostitute. Someone engaged in a public and scandalous pattern of sin. She is known for being a public sinner. Jesus also knows that she's a sinner. Look at verse 47, her sins which are many. In other words, Her public testimony, Pharisee or Jesus Christ, all the same. She's introduced as a sinner. She's repeatedly told to be a sinner, a public sinner. Everybody knows she's a sinner. And she doesn't just approach Jesus, but she does something. She approaches him with a, what we could call a lavish display of affection. If you look at the text, she makes a beeline for the table. She saw Jesus was at the table in the Pharisee's house. She brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. She's crashing the party. She is unashamedly approaching Jesus. She's weeping. She's crying. She's overcome with grief. Why? We'll see that later. She's washing His feet. She's crying so much that she has enough tears that fall onto Jesus' feet that she can wipe His feet with her hair. She does more. With a very public display of affection, she starts kissing his feet. She's on her face before Christ, holding on, weeping, kissing his feet, wiping them tenderly, public sinner. And then she finally anoints his feet with oil to honor him. and to say something publicly about what he means to her with no care or shame in the world for what everyone else thinks. She has two things, a deep grief, she's weeping, combined with a proud, unashamed affection for Jesus. And the result is that the meal ends up confirming, in the Pharisee's mind, that this Jesus is not what a teacher ought to be. Look what he says in his mind. 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's touching him, for she is a sinner. If he had any ounce of regular sense or divine prophetic insight, he would not publicly humiliate himself with contact with this kind of woman. He could maybe tell his friends, you know, I gave him a chance, but the things we thought earlier in chapter 5 verse 20 and chapter 6, the conclusions we've been coming to about Jesus are true. We should have nothing to do with him. He's a problem. But what just happened in this narrative? What actually happened? Verse 40. Christ's response. An explanatory conversation. A couple things to note from the narrative. It would be publicly awkward. You could imagine if a strange woman with a bad reputation came to any man in this church and did this. Publicly awkward moment. That would be true. Clearly, we also know that, as I said a moment ago, this did not advance Jesus in the view of the Pharisees and their political purposes for Israel. This would have been the kind of thing that would sink his ship if the Pharisee had any hope of Jesus coming over to their side. It ended quickly. But what's interesting about our Savior is that he appears to be in the narrative before he even explains to be unperturbed and quiet. He's not bothered by this. He doesn't tell her to stop. He's unperturbed and unsurprised. It becomes clearer when he addresses Simon, Simon I have something to say to you. This is interesting because he's answering and saying it to him. Second time in the Gospel of Luke he knows what he's thinking and he begins a conversation. Humbling. He knows what you're thinking. And he now is having a conversation with you. He tells a simple story. Do you see this woman? Rather, he tells a simple story, verse 41. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. One owed a year and a half wages and the other about two months. And the man to whom the debts were owed forgave them both. Tell me. This is sort of a low-hanging fruit test question. Tell me who loved him more. Simon doesn't really have a choice. It's a simple question. Simon answered, I suppose, I suppose. I suppose the one whom he forgave more, he said to him, you've passed the test, you've rightly judged. It's obvious. Very obvious. He nails the answer, he passes the test, maybe grudgingly. Then Jesus does something which gets back to the beginning of the sermon. Do you love Jesus Christ? He starts pointing out a contrast. between the Pharisee's heart and the woman's heart. He starts to draw a line, and you realize that what Jesus is doing here, he's making two visits at once. He's there for the woman, and he's there for the Pharisee. He knew what he was doing, he's on his mission. And he begins by exposing the disingenuousness of the Pharisee. Do you see this woman who you think is a fool? Do you remember what happened when I entered your house? You gave me no water for your feet, verse 44. Verse 45, you gave me no kiss. You didn't even give me the ordinary greeting. A kiss would be an ordinary greeting. You didn't greet me, I noticed. And then, you did not anoint my head with oil, you showed me no special honor, you call me teacher, but you have no love. You did nothing. We already know his heart, verse 39. This man, if he were a prophet, he would know what manner of woman is this. He disdains Jesus. And Jesus says, you did when I came in the door, and you still do now. Your heart is empty. Second, he contrasts the woman. But she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. Wow, Jesus is welcoming this. You did nothing. She washed my feet with her tears. But she did not cease to kiss my feet since she came in. But this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Simon, I came. You did nothing. She came. She gave me her heart. That's the difference. He goes on to explain the heart contrast. What is her heart? Why is she weeping by the way? Let's go back to that question. She's ashamed. She's ashamed by how the course of her life testifies to what she thought of God and of Christ. She's weeping because she wasted her life. And the things that she did wrong have left her to be broken hearted. She's under conviction of sin. She knows that she's the great debtor. She owes the equivalent in the story of 500 denarii. She has a debt bigger than she can pay. But something she knows about Christ, and that's why she's there, she knows what Paul would later write, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. J.C. Ryle, commenting on this passage, says the following, he said, I wonder if she heard this invitation. Come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And she knew the depths of her sin and her rebellion against God, public, continued, repeated. And she found in Jesus Christ someone who could wash them all away. And so she comes in with two things on her heart. Lord, I've broken your holy commands, but I believe that you can wash my sins away. I give you my life. Let me honor you publicly with my tears, my kisses. Let me wash your feet. Let me pour this anointing oil on you. You alone are the way of salvation. This is me, I must go. But the Pharisee, he invited Jesus over to sit in judgment over him. Jesus says, you've invited me, I know why, to scrutinize me, to judge my ministry. But verse 47, no love. Here's the contrast, I say to you, her sins, which are many, I know them, they're forgiven. She loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. You believe that you're here, and you don't need my forgiving mercy, so you don't love me. It's striking. What does Jesus mean when he says, to whom little is forgiven? He's not saying that this man came with a few little sins and only a little was forgiven. He's saying this, because of your sense of self-righteousness and that you believe you don't need me. You don't love me because you don't know me. and you don't know why I came. Your sense of self-righteousness is the one obstacle to your salvation. You cannot understand me because you don't know yourself, but she knows herself, so she knows me." The parable and the events come together. Verse 47, again, therefore I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven. She loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Our Savior isn't finished. He's interested in ministering to the woman more. The contrast deepens here at the end of the text. He turns from the Pharisee, and now his interest is in the woman. Listen to these words. He said to her, your sins are forgiven. They're gone. The public, scandalous sinner who has no hope in herself, whose heart is broken. They're gone. They're forgiven. The Pharisees keep grumbling. It's quite remarkable. Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? It's the same question they asked in chapter 5. They believe he's a blasphemer. Then Jesus said to the woman again, your faith has saved you, go in peace. Why did Jesus come? He came to call not the righteous, that is those who believe themselves to have no need, but sinners to repentance. The why question is answered in this text. This is the faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I am chief," said the Apostle Paul. Isaiah about the cross, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The angel speaking to Joseph about Christ, and she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. John the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is his mission. This is what he came to do. He died to pay the debt owed to God for sin. So this is at the heart of Christianity. We don't argue for our own righteousness. We come to Jesus in our need. And we lay before him all that we have ever done that is wrong and sinful. And we ought to do it with tears and then honor him and ask him for mercy. The first lesson, this is the answer to the why question in the text, why Jesus came second. You also can understand now why the mission of Jesus Christ is completely missed by the natural man. I was talking to some neighbors this week, and we were talking about what Christianity is, and, well, I won't tell the whole story, but we had a pretty different understanding of what it means to be a Christian and what Christianity is, and we began a very interesting discussion. There's a lot of people who know about Christianity and about Christ, but know nothing about His mission. And if you read the Bible and if you have the Holy Spirit, the whole Bible is full of this mission. We just read from Exodus chapter 34 that the Lord, fundamental when He proclaims His name, His goodness and glory, He says, I forgive iniquity, transgression and sin. And you would think, you people, there's so many people say, I'm a Christian. You don't even know this. How can you not know this? This is why there was a cross and a resurrection and there's preaching of the gospel. How could you have a Christianity with no forgiveness of sins at the heart of Christianity? Why is that? How can a Pharisee miss the glory of Christ? Because Jesus Christ in this mission also is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense. What does it take in order to recognize the mission? You have to come to terms with yourself. Ryle, men may even show some outward respect for Christ and remain unconverted. Why are they unconverted? Because what it takes, as you read this text, is to identify with the sinful woman and fall on your face before God and weep. But the natural inclination of the human heart is to say, I'm the respectable Pharisee. And it takes divine power to break you so that you would see who you really are. And until that power is at work, you will remain like the nonchalant Pharisee and you will not be like the weeping woman who finds salvation. The Pharisee stands here as a warning. He's a principal feature in the text, a principal character. He's even deeply religious. He knows the language of the Old Testament. He would have known Exodus 34. Might have had it memorized. Could not see the glory of Jesus Christ because he thought he was well. Another note here, the place of conviction of sin in the life and salvation, the salvation of sinners. Look at verse 47. The Holy Spirit gives conviction and you should welcome it and pray for more of it. It is good to weep. It's good to be embarrassed and ashamed. It's good to regret sin. It's good to feel it. Not to stay there. Not to stay there. If rightly used, look at verse 47. Therefore I say to her, her sins which are many, that's why she's crying, are forgiven. And now what does she do? She loves much. Because the more you understand your need for Jesus Christ, which will bring you to the ugly side of who you are and what you've done, you will see in him something so beautifully glorious that you will love him more than you ever loved him. And you'll want to honor him with all your life. And so there's something paradoxical, the deepest grief leads to the deepest joy that a human being could ever have. and we honor him. Third thing to learn, the right place of feelings in Christian experience. There's two contrasting figures in the text. One thing that makes them different that we haven't touched directly, but let me touch it, is that the Pharisee is cool and apparently unfeeling. He's unmoved. He doesn't appear to have. He has no feelings for this woman. He doesn't see her need. He should see her need. He's a Pharisee. He knows the Word. He's presented with Jesus Christ. He doesn't seem to care. He argues to the very end. As a matter of fact, when Jesus says, your sins are forgiven, he's still grumbling in his heart. He is calm, cool, and connected as he rejects Jesus Christ. He's got it all together. And the second figure, grief and love. Look back at the parable. Tell me therefore, which one of them will love him more? Who will have the greater affection? Later, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. These affections are part of the Christian life. I have a friend I was walking with in Seattle a few months ago, and he said something so profound to me, it's been rolling around through my mind for the last months. He said, I was asked to be an elder. I don't know if I told you this already. I was asked to be an elder in my church, and I was praying about it, and I came to the conclusion that my convictions about God were far greater than my affections for God. In other words, I knew a lot of Reformed theology and I knew a lot of the scriptures, but I could rehearse that and I would find that my heart was strangely unmoved by the majesty and glory of the things I was confessing about God and myself. So I devoted myself to a year of prayer and fasting and meditation, that God would give me affections for him. And then he said this little phrase and the Lord answered my prayer. He warmed my heart again. I wonder if we think about this. What is the nature of your love for Christ? Not an intellectual calculation of your indebtedness, but a grand view of your unworthiness and His loveliness. That changes the deepest currents of your heart. That makes you a lover of God and a lover of even those who find themselves far from God, that the compassion that you've been shown overflows, that it tempers your speech and your action, your interactions with everybody around you, that you cannot be unchanged by an encounter with Jesus Christ. Love for God. Paul, what did he write? If I do not have love, I am nothing, no salvation. Finally, the nature of God. There's a mystery in the scriptures. Why did God in his permissive will allow the fall? I don't have the answer to that. There are mysteries. God's will and purposes in His eternal degree. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. The things which are revealed belong to us and to our children. Against the backdrop of sin, however we know this, something shines about the nature and power of God. The text says three times, she was a sinner. Her introduction, the Pharisee knows and Jesus knows. What is a sinner? Someone who has willfully, purposefully, and openly said, God told me to do this, and I'm gonna do the other thing. What is it about God that in response to our sin, he would send on a mission of salvation his only begotten son to take a publicly scandalous woman and wash her sins away and say, come into my kingdom forever. The nature and power of God, he regards those called sinners as true sinners and then he draws them to himself. He sent his son to meet the need of sin. Remember Jesus, he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. This is what God is like. You're here today and there's something in you that's resonating with the grief of that woman who says, all that I have ever done has made a mess of my life and offended his name and broken my relationships. What can you do? What is he like? Go to him. Jesus said, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Let's pray. What a God we are thankful not only for the identity of our Savior, the one who is strong to save, the mediator, who both God and man, in His boundless glory, His complex person, is suited to be and is the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. But Lord, we think of that ministry of the mediator who came for sinners. Deliver us from cold externalism, skepticism, and doubt, self-righteousness that would leave us outside the kingdom. And we pray that you would make us more like this woman who knew her sin and her Savior, who loved much, honored publicly. received mercy, the forgiveness of sins. Lord, we thank you that it came simply by faith. We thank Lord Jesus of your final word to her. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Lord, grant us this faith, either for the first time this morning, or in new strength and glory, together with the peace that you bring to our hearts by your Spirit. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. but go also with the blessing of the Triune God. Peace to the brethren and love with faith from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. In grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.