That last line says, suffer a sinner whose heart overflows, loving his savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell it would I embrace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. You wanna know what our message is and this message is? That right there, that's it. Go with me if you would to Mark 14. Mark 14.

I pray this will be educational and I say that because I wrote this intending for it to be the Bible study but after I finished it I felt led to make it to be our message. But I do pray this will be educational and I pray this will be a blessing. This is a precious account. This right here is a precious account. Let's read these first nine verses again.

After two days was the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread, and the chief priest and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she break the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? or it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

And Jesus said, let her alone, why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For you have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will, you may do them good, but me you have not always. She hath done what she could. She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, This also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. Our Lord said, she hath done what she could. He said, leave her alone because what she has done will forever be spoken of in the preaching of the gospel throughout the world. What she has done will be set forth as the example to be remembered every time the gospel is preached. Now, what did she do? Verse three.

And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she break the box and poured it on his head. She had this alabaster box, which is a very dense, stone container. It's so dense it can hold liquid. And the liquid inside of it was perfume, ointment.

And John chapter 12 says, it was very costly. That's the wording in John 12. If you look right here at verse four, it says, there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence. In today's money, that would have been about $40,

000. It was approximately a year's wages for a typical laborer or farm worker, a year's wages.

And she broke that box open and poured every bit of it on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the end of verse six, he said, she hath wrought a good work on me. He said, leave her alone. She did what she could. Do I have anybody's attention? All right, leave her alone. She did what she could.

Now, I would venture to say that this is one of the most misunderstood and mispreached scriptures in the Bible. People read this and think the natural response is, well, we need to do what we can. Everybody in this room has thought that. Well, we need to do what we can. She did what she could. I need to do what I can.

And I'll tell you why we naturally think that. Is doing good and doing what we can, is that a good thing to do? Sure it is. Should we strive to be good citizens and good neighbors? And sure we should. But the reason that we see that as being a necessity of salvation is because the first commandment from God that was given to us was do this and live.

Another way of saying that is in Adam and Eve's case it was don't do this and live. Don't eat of that tree and you'll live. Let me quote Deuteronomy 8 verse 1 to you. It says, all the commandments which I command thee this day shall you observe and do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers. Do it and you'll possess the land.

Turn with me to Luke 10. Verse 25, Luke 10, verse 25, it says, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? What does the law say? Verse 27, And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself.

And he said unto him, thou hast answered right. Do this and thou shalt live. This do. And thou shalt live. If you want to live, you have to do something. You have to do a good work. That's why we naturally in our natural thinking, believe that the Lord was pleased with Mary pouring that ointment on him. It makes sense to us because he said. She wrought a good work on me in doing what she could. She did what she could.

With that being said, there's something that we must understand before we get it in our mind that God will be pleased with us doing what we can. All right, before we walk out of here, With this, okay, this is what we just took from that message. God will be pleased with us doing what we can. Turn with me to Romans 3. We must understand this. Romans 3 verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. Man will seek his religion. He'll seek his works. He'll seek heaven. He'll seek rewards and crowns and such on and so forth.

But there's none that seeketh after God, not naturally in their flesh. Verse 12, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that do with good. No, not one. There is not a soul on this earth that does good works in God's eyes. God's word doesn't contradict itself. He does not say one thing today and another thing tomorrow. You know, everybody has it in their mind. Well, God wants you to do good works. God says you got to do good work. What did God say?

There is none that doeth good. Surely you don't mean none. Surely there's somebody that does good. No, not one. Not one. All you have to do is take second and a half and go into your own mind and that'll be proven to you. That's all you got to do. Just get into your thoughts for just a second and then come back out.

Nope, I am pretty wicked. I'm pretty evil. The commandment is do good works. That's God's commandment. Do good works. Can man do it? No. Look with me at Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, that means good works, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

That right there tells us something about what was taking place in Mary. She's the woman. Mary Magdalene, she's the woman that tells us something about what was taking place in her while she was pouring every drop of that ointment on Christ. Every drop on Christ.

Verse three, they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness. have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.

I entered into this in studying it. It was quite a wowing moment for me. But I just understood it even more right now than when I studied this and when I went over this this morning. And I pray the Lord will open your eyes to see something right here. I want you to really hold on to this. I want you to right now really listen to what this is saying. Verse three, okay, really see if you can get a hold of this.

They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. The word submit means, the best way to understand it is to hold a door open. It's not bondage, it's an inner willingness. When you go to a store and you're walking up, two people coming at the same time, and you grab that door and say, after you, that's submission. It's an inner willingness on our part to say, nope, not me, you, okay?

They have not submitted themselves unto God's righteousness going about to establish their own righteousness. They haven't submitted themselves to God's rights for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Titus three, verse five says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. Our salvation didn't come that way and our favor from God doesn't come that way.

Isaiah 64 verse 6 says, all of our righteousnesses are filthy rags. That's a horrible definition for that word. Look it up sometime. Everything that we think is a good work, I'm going to put some money in the offering box. I'm going to mow my neighbor's grass. I'm going to everything that we think is a good work is a filthy rag in God's eyes. It is a filthy rag.

OK, well, then why did God command us to do good works in the Old Testament, knowing doesn't God know we can't do them? Sure, he does. That's why He provided a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Why did God command us to do good works in the Old Testament knowing we couldn't do them? Why does He still command good works in the New Testament? If He knows we can't do them, why did He move the Apostle Paul to write all of these epistles that say, don't lust, don't lust, Don't lie. Be holy and separate yourselves from sin.

If with man, that's impossible. We just read in Romans three, that's impossible with man. That's impossible. All right. If with man, that's impossible. Why does God command that? Number one, it's because he is holy and he cannot have anything to do with sin. God is holy.

That means he cannot have anything to do with sin. There is nothing else that his holiness can command. God cannot say, well, I know you're incapable of righteousness, therefore it's OK, just go ahead and sin. He can't say that. God is holy. and just and right. He will by no means clear the guilty. Why? He can't.

He demanded absolute holy perfection in the Old Testament because he is the absolute holy God. And he demands absolute holy perfection in the New Testament because he does not change. People say, well God changed. You're a liar. What is it? Malachi 3 verse 6, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Hebrews 13, 8, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, forever. He does not change, therefore His commandment does not change.

This ought to be a very eye-opening thing for all of us. In these New Testament epistles, He is not saying, do the best you can with these. Okay, don't lust, don't get angry, all right? He's not saying, do the best you can with these. What He's saying is, do this or die. You know that's what He was saying in the Old Testament? Either do this or die. And in the New Testament, he's saying the exact same thing. You either live like this or die.

God has not changed. His law has not changed. His way of salvation has not changed. Thank God His gospel has not changed. His gospel has not changed. Christ is the gospel. All right, people want to talk about the gospel and they want to preach the gospel and they want to sing gospel song. If it has anything to do with man, it's not the gospel. Christ is the gospel. Christ alone is the gospel. If it's Christ and man, it's not the gospel. Jesus Christ is the gospel.

Everything that God wrote in the Old Testament, It was not written for us to do the best we can with it. It was written to point us to Christ and to declare Christ to be the only one who could accomplish the work that God would consider to be good. Everything in the Old Testament was written to show us the only hope you have is Christ being your substitute before God and standing there in your place representing you. And now everything that God has written in the New Testament has not been written for us to do the best we can with it. It has been written to point us to Christ and to declare and reveal Christ to be the only one who can accomplish the work that God will consider to be good.

If any good work is going to take place in a center, It's going to be God's work in that center, God's work credited to that center. Our Lord said, without me, you can do nothing, nothing. Well, Gabe, our Lord said she did what she could and our Lord said she wrought a good work. Are you going against the word of the Lord? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Now, let me show you what our Lord was saying, and I'll just tell you, I have three check marks written by this, okay? Turn over to Matthew 19. Really see if you can get a hold of this. Matthew 19 verse 16.

And behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, Keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which, which ones do I have to keep? And that's what people think. Well, I kept most of them. At least I didn't murder anybody. Which, which ones? Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

The young man said unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? All right, now really watch this. Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, you want to be perfect? You want to be perfect before God? If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give it to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Now, according to the good deeds of the law, If Mary was going to do the deed that the law said was good, she should have sold her possession and taken that money and given it to the poor. Isn't that what we just read? Our Lord said, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, give it to the poor, and you're going to have treasure in heaven. That's what the law said. If Mary wanted to do what was good according to the law, then this is what she should have done. She should have sold her possession, taken that money, and given it to the poor. That's according to the commandment of God's own law. That's what she would have had to have done for it to be considered a good work. Now go with me back to Mark 14.

Verse one, after two days was the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread, and the chief priest and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they said, no, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious, and she break the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

That was Judas that said that. Big, self-righteous, religious Judas. He was arguing the law. He was arguing religion. Do we see that? He said, she didn't do the good work of the law. She was supposed to fulfill the law with that. The law said, sell it, give the money to the poor. And she didn't do it.

And the Lord said to him and everybody that he influenced, it's so easy to be influenced by self-righteous religious people. Somebody will get all puffed up about the law and religion and this and then everybody's like, yeah. And the Lord said to them, him and everybody he influenced, she can't fulfill the law.

She has done the only thing she can do. What was that? She cast her all on him. She literally cast her all on Christ. That was the good work that God wrought in her enabling her to do. It wasn't the good work of the law. That's what was argued against her. It was the good work that God's Spirit wrought in her, causing her to ignore everything and get rid of everything and cast her all on Jesus Christ. That's all she could do. That's literally all she could do. She did the one and only thing that the Spirit of God had enabled her to do. Cast her all on Christ. Have you ticked the letter of the law? No. All my hope is that Christ has ticked every letter of the law for me. And he did. He did. Let me skip to that part.

He emptied himself. of all of his worth, all of his value, all of that sweet smelling savor. That alabaster box was a picture of Christ our rock. It was a stone box, Christ our rock, and inside that box was the sweet savor, the sweet perfume of heaven. And it couldn't be smelled without that box being broken. It was in there and they had it. She had it that whole time. But that sweet perfume, that sweet anointing of the cross, she anointed my body for burying.

That sweet smelling savor to God could not be smelled without our rock being broken. That's what she pictured in that. She wasn't trying to do a work for her salvation. She wasn't trying to do a work to evidence her salvation. She wasn't saying, well, I can't do much, but at least I can do this. She wasn't saying that at all. She was saying, all of my hope of redemption is in the body that you're about to break to make sweet smelling intercession to God for me.

Christ is the one who was emptied. and given to the poor. The poor and needy, his poor and needy people, every soul who he was emptied for, we'll see his broken emptying on the cross of Calvary as our only hope before the judgment of God. We will not see us breaking a box and pouring it on Christ as our good work that we've established. We're not going about trying to establish our own righteousness. We break the box and pour it on him and say, his righteousness. His work, His emptying, His giving, His paying, His dying.

That's our only hope before the judgment of God. Every soul that's caused to see Christ as the end of the law for righteousness will say, He's my all. He's my all, He's my only hope. His good work is the only good work I have. I cast my all on Him. I cast it all on him.

Look, I'll close with this, verse nine. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done, shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. Every soul who truly hears the gospel hope in Christ alone will say, yep, what she has done, that's what I want to do too. That's all that I can do. Lord, we cast our all on you. That's it. Amen.