Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the profound significance of humility and repentance through the story of a notorious sinner who weeps, washes, and worships at Jesus' feet, contrasting her actions with those of Simon the Pharisee. He highlights that true worship stems from a deep awareness of one's own sinfulness and the need for Christ's forgiveness, which leads to genuine love and devotion. The sermon calls for a heart transformation that recognizes our guilt before God, urging believers to approach God with humility and brokenness to truly understand the depths of Christ's sacrifice. Beach encourages the congregation to seek a deeper revelation of their own sin and the love of Christ, as this is essential for spiritual growth and understanding the teachings of Philippians.

I pray that he'll help us to receive his word today. Father, we thank you, Lord, for Jesus. We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the blood of Jesus that cleanses sinners who acknowledge their sin and who come to you as sinners, who come to you in their guilt, who acknowledge their guilt, who come to you and their pride and acknowledge their pride, who come to you in their immorality and their drunkenness and acknowledge it, who come to you, Lord, just the way we are. And so, Lord, we pray that today you'll help us by the Holy Spirit to see the significance of Christ, to see the significance of his suffering. And Lord, that you'll help us today to find the highest place we could ever aspire to walk in, and that being way down low at your feet. Please, Lord, we are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to make these things known to us unless we simply learn some nice spiritual sounding doctrine and deceive our own hearts. So we pray, Lord, that you'll help us today to see as you see and to be broken as only you can break us, Lord, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen. Luke chapter seven. We have begun the book of Philippians, as you know, and we're going through the book of Philippians. But we've learned that we can't enter into the book of Philippians. And be able to walk in the truth and in the life. That is contained in the book of Philippians, unless God does a deep work in our hearts. We can't learn the book of Philippians doctrinally. We can't just read through the book of Philippians and extract the life from it. And so we want to read a little story that Jesus taught us in Luke chapter seven, because it is in this story that the truth is contained. That is the key into the book of Philippians. It's the key into the book of Philippians. It's the key into entering into the good, the spiritual life, the realities of what is taught in the book of Philippians. Luke chapter seven, beginning in verse number thirty six. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him, and he went into the Pharisees house and reclined at the table. And behold. A woman of the town. Who was an especially wicked sinner when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment perfume and standing behind him at his feet. Weeping, she began to wet his feet. With her tears. And she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet. And anointed them with the ointment. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself. If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what sort of woman this is, who is touching him. For she is a notorious sinner. She was a social outcast. She was devoted to sin. She was an especially wicked sinner. And Jesus, replying, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, Teacher, say it. A certain lender of money had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they had no means of payment, he freely forgave them both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered. The one, I take it, for whom he forgave and canceled more. And Jesus said to him, You have decided correctly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon. Now, Simon was the name of the Pharisee. Dear ones, we need to pray. Oh, God, help us. To see the truth here, because this is this is what's going to bring us into the book of Philippians. And if we and if this doesn't happen to us, then we'll read through the book of Philippians and simply learn doctrine and time truth, become experts in talking about the purpose of God. And self-deceived, and we don't want that. We don't want to be self-deceived. Simon, I have somewhat to ask you, if a man had two men who owed him money, the one owed him a million dollars. And the other owed him $50. And they both came to him and said, Sir, we have no money to pay you back. And he said, Well, I'll tell you what, I'll cancel both of your debts. Which one would love him more? Which one do you think would love him more, the one who was canceled a million dollars or $50 a million? Jesus said, Simon, you've answered correctly. Verse 44, then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman, Simon? When I came into your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But she, from the moment I came in. Has not ceased. To kiss my feet tenderly and compassionately. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet. With costly, rare perfume. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, many as they are, are forgiven her because she has loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, Your sins. Are forgiven. There's a lot of lessons that we can learn from this story, and we could spend the entire session this morning on it. But we're not going to. What we are going to do is just make a few observations. We have two people who were visiting with Jesus. We have Simon, the Pharisee, and we have a notorious sinner. Simon, the Pharisee, was reclining with Jesus. The notorious sinner was at the feet of Jesus. Weeping. Washing and worshiping. Weeping, washing and worshiping. Simon. Resented the weeping. Wiping and worshiping of this notorious sinner. But Jesus received it. And now the question we want to ask ourselves today, what was the difference between Simon, the Pharisee, and this notorious sinner? Well, there's a lot of differences. You could say, well, Simon was reclining with Jesus, but this woman was at his feet. Well, that's that's that could be defined as different actions, but let's go deeper. What was the difference between Simon and this notorious sinner? She what? She knew she was a sinner. Simon didn't. A lack of conviction. What moved her to weep? At the feet of Jesus. And wash them with her tears. She wanted to be clean. Her faith, she wanted to humble herself. Do you think it's possible? That she saw that this holy man was going to have to horribly suffer and she began to realize why he was going to have to suffer. Why? Because of her. Because of her. Brothers and sisters, listen to the Holy Spirit today and the word of God. Those who wash the feet of Christ. With their sin tainted tears and wipe his feet with their hair and out of that worship, the anointing of oil was worship and out of that worship do so for one reason alone. It's not because they're schooled theologians. It's not because they learn the language of Scripture. It's not because they're Bible students and they've sat under great teachers and they know all the great doctrines of the Bible. No. No, not at all. They might. But that's not what moves us to weep. To wash and to worship. There's only one thing that moves a heart to weep, to wash and to worship. And that is a revelation from the Holy Spirit of our personal guilt before God, not just our personal guilt, Daisy, but that our guilt, our sin. Cause Jesus to bleed. It caused him to endure. The shame of the cross, we see by revelation that God himself, who never did anything wrong to us. Suffered our wrong. Because he loved us. This is what moved a notorious, especially wicked sinner to fall at the feet of Jesus and weep and wash and worship. Now, in John, chapter four, verse number. Thirty four, Jesus said, God is a spirit. And they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. And then the scripture goes on to say. For such kind of worshippers, God is earnestly seeking what kind of worshippers, the ones who love him, but who love him? Those who see that their sins. Crucified Christ, Simon was blinded to his own spiritual condition because he supposed that he was better than someone else. He was blinded to his spiritual condition. And therefore. Several things were true with Simon. This notorious sinner was a worshipper. She wiped the feet of Jesus. And she wept at the feet of Jesus. But Simon. Reclined with Jesus. The notorious sinner was bowed in her heart, but the blinded Pharisee. Was erect in his posture. Number two, the blinded. Pharisee, whose name was Simon. Did not understand. The heart devotion of this notorious sinner, and therefore he despised it when he saw it. He despised the worship. The reason why Simon despised that kind of worship was the same reason why the apostles. Didn't want to go to the cross or didn't want Jesus to go to the cross. They didn't want Jesus to go to the cross. Why? Because they knew. They might have to go. Simon despised this kind of worship. Because he knew. That if he was going to experience that kind of worship, he would have to bow himself down to the feet of this rabbi. And he was in no way planning to bow himself down to the feet of this Jewish rabbi and wipe his smelly feet. With his tears, wash them with his tears, wipe them with his hair and worship him like this woman. And the reason why he could not do it was he saw himself better than this notorious sinner. Brothers and sisters, the root cause, the root cause to our unwillingness and inability to bow down before Jesus is our blindness to our own guilt before God. And in our blindness, we become smug and arrogant and think ourselves to be better than others. Now, don't put this into an application way out here, start in your home. Do you know where conflict comes in home? Ninety nine percent of the time it comes because you and I are unwilling to humble ourself in our relationships with people. We're willing to prefer. We're unwilling to prefer our brother. We're unwilling to prefer our sister. We're unwilling to acknowledge our guilt. We're unwilling to acknowledge our pride. We're unwilling, unwilling, unwilling. And the reason why is because our hearts have become blinded to the depths of our guilt before God. And we have forgotten that God in his son was rejected and crucified for our sins. Now, when we look into the book of Philippians, we see a man, Paul, who never forgot. And we see a choice group of saints in Philippi. Who hadn't forgotten? And because there was a mutual heart sharing of an unforgettable revelation that Paul knew he was a guilty sinner. Paul, after 30 years of preaching, was still acknowledging that Christ came to die for sinners. And what did he say? He was the chiefest of sinners, and it wasn't the past tense. He didn't say of whom I used to be. But now that I've been a Christian for 30 years, boy, I tell you, I'm just really doing pretty good now of whom I am present tense. And he was writing to a group of Christians in Philippi who were walking in brokenness. They the proof of their brokenness was that they never, ever, ever abandoned Paul or abandoned what they knew God was doing in Paul. They had one heart. One heart and one soul. Now, it would be very profitable for us. To pray, God, I can't force this thing. I can't pretend it. I can't. Act it out. All I can do is ask you, Lord, to show me how many here want to grow in your love for God, your love for brothers and sisters, your love for your family. Can we grow in love without growing in our capacity to see our guilt? The answer is no. That's why there's little love. We want to become spiritual. And in our, quote, unquote, spirituality, forget about the fact that we're sinners. We want to become spiritual so we don't have to acknowledge guilt. We actually want to become spiritual so that we can. Cease from acknowledging guilt. That's self-deception, that's not being spiritual. Listen, one day we will become as spiritual as we will ever be, and that will be when we're in heaven, right? And there's a scene in the book of Revelation where those who were in heaven saw the lamb and they had crowns on their head, and what did they do with those crowns? They threw them at the feet of Jesus and they said. Thou alone art worthy. What were they saying in heaven? You alone are where I am not worthy in their perfected state. I'm not worthy. Spiritual maturity does not result in our recognition of our guilt before God without Christ. It grows. And the true work of the Holy Spirit, the true work of the word of God, the true effect of any real godly revelation that you're getting from the scriptures will always result in the heart being lowered more and more and more and more as it sees its guilt before a holy God and the vision of Calvary comes before us. And we see the horror of Calvary, the horror of what Christ went through, and then we realize it's because of my sin. That's what breaks the church. That's what opens up to the church the riches of Christ. And that is what the book of Philippians is all about. First Peter, chapter two, just a few scriptures that'll help us. First Peter, chapter two, verses 21. Through 25, for even to this were you called. For Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you should follow in his footsteps. He was guilty of no sin. Neither was deceit ever found on his lips. Isaiah 53 9. He was reviled and insulted. Why was he reviled and insulted? Because of me, the woman saw it, didn't she? And she wept, she wiped and she worshipped. She saw it. Never, ever, ever be afraid of God setting you up so you can see more clearly. Your guilt, because the soul that sees its guilt in ever increasing measure is the soul that sees the remedy in ever increasing measure. The remedy is the lamb. The cause is my guilt. You don't see the lamp. Now, the problem today and it's always been is we can learn about the lamb, but not see our guilt. We can learn about redemption and not see our guilt. We can learn the doctrines. We can learn the songs. We can learn the smiles, the mannerisms. We can learn how to act like a Christian and look like a Christian and pray like a Christian. And we can fool everyone but God. The only safety we have, brothers and sisters, from falling into this dangerous error is to beg God to keep our hearts soft so that when life under God's providential hand breaks us down to where we see our guilt, we're willing to acknowledge it before God and not deny it. And that's the safety that keeps us broken, that keeps us weak. And then in that safety, there's a living revelation that keeps flowing in our hearts. Can you still say, I'm sorry? I was wrong. Can you still say that? Do you have a hard time? Your heart's getting hard. Your heart's getting hard. You might have just went to a seven day conference. If you can't say you're sorry. If you find the tears. Are not there anymore. Washing the feet of the Savior, wiping them with your hair and out of that worshiping, you're getting hard, you're getting hard. Getting hard. He was reviled and insulted. He did not revile or offer insult in return. He didn't because he had to suffer. For the sins of the world, he was abused and suffered, he made no threats of vengeance, but he trusted himself to him who judges fairly. He personally bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That was an altar. That was God's altar where he where he killed his own spotless lamb, which was the requirement in the Old Testament. But this time it was for real that we might die, cease to exist, to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you and I. Have been healed. Second Corinthians, chapter five, you will find that if you stay on the path of truth. The eyes of your heart will grow in their capacity to see the depths of Christ's suffering, but it will never be detached from a revelation that it's your sins. That caused his suffering when it's my brother's sins in my eyes more than it is my sins. There's danger. Oh, yes, he did die for my brother's sins, but the Holy Spirit is not going to give me an overwhelming revelation of my brother's sins as the cause for Christ's death. Although I'll know my brother's sins caused his death. But the Holy Spirit. Well, focus on showing me my sin. If Christians, while talking on the phone and having little prayer meetings and Bible studies and getting together, would be more willing to talk to each other about their own sins instead of the sins of. Brother, so and so. We would have a genuine move towards spiritual maturity in our midst, but it's because everyone's sins, except our own, are so big in our eyes. And then we talk about it. And then the devil has a heyday. You said, well, how? How can I how can I walk like this? I know it's a truth, but I feel so I feel so distant from the reality of this. How can it become real to me? Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Let's not ask for homes and lands and. Things our father tells us not to ask for them, he says, the Gentiles seek after such things. Your father knows what you have need of. He says, as far as you, the children of the kingdom, don't be asking. He said, ask for these things. Ask, dare to ask God for a growing revelation of what Calvary meant to Christ as it relates to the suffering for your sins. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21. For our sake, he made Christ virtually to be sin for our sake. He made Christ to be sin. All that. Listen, all the virtues that Christ wants to display through our life. Love, patience, kindness, temperance, long suffering, faith, joy, kindness, all of these virtues. Are born and grow out of. Living at the lowest place and where's the lowest place at his feet? That woman had the lowest place. Now, Simon, he was reclining with Jesus. He was up with Jesus. But see, God says, you humble yourself and you'll be exalted. But when we take it upon ourself to stand erect in our heart, we've lost sight. Because the real work of God wasn't going on with Simon discoursing with Jesus. The real work of God was going on at the feet of Jesus, where a broken hearted sinner was weeping. And so if there's ever a prayer in your life, if you've ever prayed a prayer, brothers and sisters. Oh, God, please. And we've all prayed it more of Christ, right? More of Christ. We know we know the truth. We know the church is Christ, right? Yes, the church is Christ corporately manifested. That's what the church is. Christianity is Christ. And we can get so caught up in that, so caught up in that doctrine that we forget. We forget that that whole revelation comes out of and is born at the lowest place. So every prayer we've ever prayed that has to do with I must decrease and he must increase comes out of comes into being through an ever increasing unveiling to the heart, to the eyes of our heart of Jesus. Calvary, his suffering and my sin. He who knew no sin became sin that in and through him we might become the righteousness of God in him. One more scripture, second Peter. This is one that I wanted to mention last week, but we ran out of time. This is a very, very, very important scripture. Second Peter, chapter one, verse five. Now, brothers and sisters, these next few verses demonstrate the progress of the Christian life. All of these scriptures that we're about to read talk about an ever increasing expression of the virtues and qualities of Jesus Christ being seen in our life. And everybody here wants that right now. Let's notice very carefully what the scripture says. Verse five, for this reason, adding your diligence, employ every effort and exercising your faith to develop virtue and in exercising virtue, develop knowledge and in exercising knowledge, develop self-control and in self-control, steadfastness and in steadfastness, goodness. And in exercising godliness, develop brotherly affection and in exercising brotherly affection, develop Christian love. Now watch. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you. They will keep you from being idle or unfruitful unto the full knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch verse nine. Right here it is in the word for whoever lacks these qualities is blind, spiritually shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him and has become oblivious to the fact that he was cleansed from his old sins. The failure. For an ever increasing display of the moral perfections of Jesus Christ in our life, namely the fruit of the spirit, the graciousness that we ought to be demonstrating as Christians, the love, the forgiveness, the humility, essentially all of the qualities we see in the book of Philippians that we're going to see as we go through it, the incredible qualities that were being displayed through that church when these are lacking in our life. It means one thing. Our eyes have become blinded and we have become shortsighted and we have forgotten. We no longer clearly see. That our sins were purged. By a suffering savior. We have forgotten. And so the way to spiritual renewal is not learning new principles, learning new doctrines, learning new songs. The way to spiritual renewal is not learning new music. It's not coming up with a different program, hiring musicians, coming up with better programs. It's not the way to spiritual renewal. Is for us to humble ourselves before God and in humility, cry out and say, God, show me Calvary, show me Christ, show me the suffering Christ on Calvary and renew in me the horrible revelation. That it was my sin that brought him to Calvary. Every time we seem to come to a standstill on our spiritual journey and we seemingly can't go to the next plateau, it's because God is waiting for our hearts to awaken to a greater capacity to see Calvary and Gil. That's the gateway into greater glory and greater participation with the blessed lamb of God. And so the question we must ask ourselves is this. Are we willing to go this way? Now, you can go another way. You can go another way, but it's an outward way. It's a pretend way. It looks good. It sounds good. It smells good. It tastes good. It feels good. People will get excited about it, but it's not real. There's no way but at the feet. And if we rise up, we are setting ourselves up for a fall. A great fall. Pride comes before a fall. Pride always comes when we lose sight of our guilt before God, if it weren't for Jesus. That's where pride comes. Philippians. That's why it takes time and great dealings of God. To work in us what is necessary in order to display through us the beauty of Jesus Christ in our lives individually and in our lives together as a company of people. It takes time. There are many substitutes. That are being introduced into Christendom today, and I say in a loving way, beware of substitutes. There is no other way other than at the foot of the cross, at the feet of Jesus. And we stay there. And as we stay there, God perfects the work. Of his son in our lives, Philippians chapter one. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Jesus Christ. Philippians one, Paul, Timothy bond servants. We learned that Paul meant insignificant, small. We learned that Timothy meant to value divine things. And Paul and Timothy bond servants of Jesus Christ. They didn't claim anything but being bond servants. Bond servants was a permanent slave. Consumed only with the master's will. A permanent slave consumed only with the master's will. The reason why that is a hard saying for us in America to accept is because, bless God, we're not the slave of anyone. That goes against our grain like. Fingernails on a chalkboard. But you know who can receive that? That woman in Luke chapter seven. Who was at the feet, worshiping and weeping and wiping. She can receive that. Because she knows that she's in debt to this man who died for her. A permanent slave consumed only with the master's will. Listen, possessing no personal rights. Demanding no personal rights. One who has been bought by another. And has become the personal property of another whose life exists to serve the purpose of the one who owns him. That's what a slave is. Dulles, brothers and sisters, God's word just defined what true freedom is. Did we hear that? I just read God's word. Ask any teenager today what they think freedom is, and they'll tell you, well, if I could just. Bypass these rules that mom and dad have in the house. If I can just get enough money where I can get what I want. If I can go where I want, if I could be whatever I want, if nothing would stop me from getting exactly what I want, that's freedom. Guess what that is? Slavery, true freedom is acknowledging that we were created. For the purpose. And pleasure. And satisfaction of another, namely God himself. So let me ask you a question. How do you define freedom in your life? I want freedom. I want out of this. I want my way, my life. I know a dear person who claimed to be a Christian was married at a very young age. Was a mother at a very young age. Twenty five years later, she left her husband. She left the state. She's living in another state now. She told someone. I did it because I want a life. I never had a life. I got married too young and I never had a chance to live. Brothers and sisters, a chance to live. Does not come by doing what we want. A chance to live comes. When we see Calvary. And see the depths to which Christ went to rescue us from rebellion, Satan's jaws and eternal hell. A chance to live comes when we see that and are broken in the presence of God. Cry out for mercy and then forever give up our own rights that we might become a love slave to another, that his. Will might be fulfilled in our life. Be careful of the world philosophy. Be careful of this country. Be careful of what the media and the television and the radio and the newspapers and your peers that don't know the Lord are telling you and saying to you and and exemplify. Be careful. It's poison. It's not true. It's a lie from the devil. You are not the most important person in the world. Life does not revolve around you and I. It's not about getting and getting and getting and improving and growing and getting more and more and more. It's a lie. It's a lie, brothers and sisters. Declare it a lie. Go to your home in front of your children and say it's a lie. Children. It's not true, Carl. Freedom is being able. To be brought to the arena. Like many Christians were and there. Be fed to hungry lions for the sake of Christ. And while the lions are devouring your innards, you are singing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Verse number two, grace. And peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. In every prayer of mine, I always make my petition for you with all joy. I thank my God for your fellowship. In advancing the good news. Of the gospel from the first day you heard it until now. And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ. Developing and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. Now, in the first chapter of Philippians. Each chapter. As we mentioned last week, is going to feature a certain aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first chapter features the love of the lamb. The second chapter features the lowering of the lamb. The third chapter features the loss of the lamb. And the fourth chapter features the living of the lamb. Each chapter and each truth contained within the chapter. Is only accessible to the heart that is able to see that particular feature of the lamb. We can't understand chapter one of Philippians unless we see the love of the lamb. What we've been talking about for the whole morning here. The love of the lamb, the love that brought him to Calvary. The love that caused him to endure the father saying, saying, I have turned my face from you. And he cries and says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the love of the lamb. And seeing that love will unlock the truth of Philippians chapter one to our hearts. It'll unlock the truth. You do not learn the truth of God's word by trying harder. You learn it by being given clearer vision of God himself. I just want to mention for a few more minutes these key verses so you can begin to do your homework. All right. Philippians chapter one, verse number eight is the key verse in the first chapter. Philippians 1.8 that comes under the love of the lamb. Philippians chapter two, the lowering of the lamb. The key verse there is 2.5 Philippians 2.5. In Philippians chapter three, the loss of the lamb, the key versus Philippians 3.7. And in chapter four, the living of the lamb, the key verse is Philippians 4.8. And so as we go through the book of Philippians, I want to challenge everyone to read through it. Begin to ask the Lord to open it up to you. And we'll discover unsearchable wealth and riches in this book that can help us together. That's all that we're going to have time for today. But before we close out, we do want to give opportunity. For a little season where we can just wait before the Lord and just ask him to help our hearts. He's snow plowing. We want to pray that the Lord will help our hearts to see more clearly. I just want to say that every single prayer request that you have right now in your heart. That, you know, is a legitimate prayer request. It might be for a relationship. It might be for a spiritual need that you have. It might be for someone that, you know, whatever it is. The key to discovering the answer to that prayer request is found in the heart, more clearly seeing the suffering of Christ and what your sin and my sin did to Christ. So let this become the way now that we all seek in order for God to get more of what he's after in our lives. And I promise by God's word, we'll see the results and it'll be unspeakable and full of glory. So let's bow our hearts for a moment and just ask the Holy Spirit to speak these into our hearts.