The Worst Sinner in Simon’s House
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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 meat.
37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
38 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 the ointment.
39 Now 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.
40 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.
44 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.
45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
47 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.
48 And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
49 And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?
50 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
Introduction
Introduction
Tapes: “Meanest Man in Santa Maria” “Meanest Man in Town” “Worst Sinner in the City”
(Dramatize story)
Who was the worst sinner in Simon Pharisee’s house?
Everyone in Simon’s house, except Jesus, was a sinner.
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
We know the Bible says Noah was a just man, and perfect in his time. Did Noah find Grace because he was a just man, or was he a just man because he found Grace?
The grace of God reached over in Noah’s time. Noah, just an ordinary man, he and his family. But because Noah feared God, he believed God! You can’t fear God without believing……
Then when the fear of God come upon Noah, God called him by grace, and saved him and his house because it was grace that did it.
Not because Noah was a great big handsomer man than all the rest of them, not because Noah went to the best church there was in the country, not because he belonged to the best in organization, not because he could dress better, not because he had more money, not because he was some special person.
But because of the grace of God, God saved Noah. Grace saved Noah (not his works; but His grace) and also saved his family. 61-0827 - "The Message Of Grace"
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Now, we say “sin.” We just call it sin. Break it down. What is sin? A lot of people say, “Drinking, committing adultery.” No, no. That’s the attributes of sin. See? That’s what sin causes, see.
But real sin is unbelief. That’s where it’s named and called out. If you are a believer, you don’t do those things.
But no matter how holy you try to make yourself, and how religious you try to be; if you do those things, you’re an unbeliever. That’s Scriptural. 63-0317e - "The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals"
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Unbelief or faith is manifested in your life by your actions.
(Woe unto thee, Capernaum)
I’ve passed across this country. I’ve made remarks about Mrs. Kennedy, with her Jezebel haircut, and all like that, and her big waterheads, and these women. I wonder, if Mrs. Kennedy would have heard the Messages I have preached, she might have let her hair grow out, a long time ago.
But I’ve crossed this country, back and forth, showing by the Word, that it’s wrong, and a condemnation for women to cut their hair, and the Pentecostal women continue, go on the same way. She might rise in the day of Judgment, not knowing it, but you know better. 64-0208 - "The Token"
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
That’s THUS SAITH GOD’S HOLY WORD. If we disbelieve wilfully after we have seen It and heard It, then we’re across the line. There will never be no more forgiveness for it, you have crossed the line. 65-0911 - "God's Power To Transform"
Paul said “I did it ignorantly” I was a Pharisee
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Let’s examine some of the principal actors in this story.
Judas
Judas
I do not believe that Judas was the worst sinner in Simon’s house. Judas was born for that purpose.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Ninety percent of those sing in choirs, the Elvis Presley, and a Pat Boone, and all that, and a Peabody Ernie, ever what they call him down there. Why, it’s worse than Judas Iscariot! 62-0705 - "Jehovah-Jireh #1"
Pat Boone and those people who claim to be religious, and them rock-and-rolls and twisting, and vulgarity of the world, and then claim Christianity. Why, it’s a disgrace.
It’s worse than the bootlegger. It’s worse than the prostitute on the street. God would respect a prostitute better than that. 63-0123 - "Identification"
Judas left here and immediately went to betray Jesus, but he wasn’t the worst sinner in Simon’s house.
The Sinner Woman
The Sinner Woman
Just by virtue of the quantity of immoral acts, the sinner woman has a great case to be the worst sinner in Simon’s house.
Bro. Branham taught us that “An immoral woman is the lowest thing that can be thought of, in the earth.”
4 A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: But she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.
She is the heroine of this story. by the end of the story all her sins have been washed away.
God doesn’t care about your past.
There are seeds that you can sow in life that must be harvested, but if you are a child of God from the beginning there is nothing that you can do that will change that fact. The truth is that some of God’s children get involved in horrible things, but they do not remain in the pit.
If you have “Eternal Life, “you always was.” There’s only one form of it, that’s God. You were His attribute, He thought of you and knew you before the foundation of the world, in His mind. (Prodigal son)
Woman at the well
She looked around. Look what a sinful shape she was in. But, see, He couldn’t get that priest, because the priest was an educated scholar, a theologian in the Word, but no representation in Heaven, see, wasn’t in God’s thinking at all.
But this woman was. She said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” That’s just all He wanted her to see. 64-0816 - "Proving His Word"
Look at that little woman. See, she had fallen from God’s thoughts. She could be redeemed. She was a subject. She had representation is Heaven. She turned around. 64-0409 - "The Identification Of Christ In All Ages"
Her life was complete and total darkness, but when she met Jesus everything changed.
(Silo Picture)
This little pond lily, look where it come through; dirt, muck, mud, muddy waters, dirty waters. It pressed its way through all of that, this little germ of life, working itself from the bottom of the pond where the frogs and things are at, and then brings itself up through all of that.
But when it gets in the presence of the sun, it’s born. The little seed bursts open into life.
It cannot do that until it goes through all that process. It’s got to come through that. That’s what makes it, is because that the sun itself is what’s drawing it.
And when it gets fully above all the dirty waters, and muck, and so forth, then it’s so happy, it just gives its life out freely. And it’s a beautiful life when it gets in the presence of that which is drawing it up. 65-0124 - "Birth Pains"
Simon Pharisee
Simon Pharisee
Bro. Branham taught us the worst sinner in Simon’s house was Simon.
Oh, what about Pharisee? Oh, the party stopped. Sure. The embarrassment, oh, I can see that Pharisee. There’s the sinner, not the woman, the Pharisee. Sin is unbelief. That woman was a believer.
The Pharisee was all religious, but he was the worst sinner in the country. And it’s still the worst sinner the world has got…is the stiffy, starch, backslidden church, the pastor the same way. Hallelujah.
You’ll hate me after this, but God’s the One that’s telling me to say it, so there it is. Amen. There it is. That’s the sinner, that starchy one. 56-0218E - "The Worst Sinner In The City"
The Bible tells us he was a Pharisee.
From his youth he was trained to do everything that Moses taught, plus the traditions of the elders. Simon Pharisee would have learned to keep his house clean of people like the sinner woman.
Today the word pharisee carries a negative connotation, but in Jesus time they would have been respected for their holiness.
They were the best of Jesus time. The closest to the truth.
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Jesus tells us how they lived.
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
One of the marks of pharisee-ism is to publicize the sins of others and hide your own.
Example: (Woman caught in adultery)
The Pharisees were grateful, not for mercy, but for their own righteousness.
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
And people who claim to be religious, go to church, pious, and still rank unbelievers, sinners, Jesus said, “You’re of your father, the devil.” And yet they were just as pious and religious as they could be. The worst demon there is to deal with is a religious demon. 58-0225 - "God's Eye"
There are seven times more demons in a religious unbeliever than in a regular unbeliever.
43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
Sometimes a person saved off a barstool can become a Pharisee. (Peter)
Sometimes Pharisees get saved.
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Who loves the Most?
44 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.
45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
47 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.
Conclusion
There is no worse sinner than a Simon Pharisee, Paul knew that, so he loved God that much more.
Softly and Tenderly