We just read in Psalm 50 that The expression of faith is that
of thanksgiving, and the attitude of the believer's heart is to
be thankful. Thankful first and foremost for
the hope of his salvation, the finished, successful work of
Christ. Thankful for all the blessings
of God, particularly the blessings that they have with one another
as they're able to enjoy each other's fellowship and encourage
one another in the faith. And I just want to say, in light
of Thanksgiving coming this week, how thankful we are for you all. And Philippians chapter 1, I
read this in the study this morning with the men, and I can identify
so well with these words when Paul said, grace be unto you
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what we're in need of. We're in need of His grace and
of His peace. It comes from God our Father,
and it comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you. How grateful we are of the fellowship
that we have here among God's people. Always, in every prayer
of mine for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day, even until now. Just a week or two ago, that
was last week, wasn't it? We celebrated 22 years from the
first day, even until now, always thankful, always prayerful, being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it. until the day of Jesus Christ. If this is of the Lord, if it's
of the Lord, it's going to last. It's going to last. The Lord
said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. He will keep his
people. Every one of them. I'm so very
thankful for you and I know Tricia is. I hope you all have a good
Thanksgiving with your family. We will not have services this
Wednesday, okay? So we'll see you next Sunday,
all right? Tom, him on the back of your
bulletin, let's stand together. ? Glory to God on high ? ? Let
earth and heaven reply ? ? Praise ye his name ? ? His love and
grace adore ? ? All who by sorrows bore ? ? Sing aloud evermore
? ? Worthy the Lamb ? Jesus, our Lord and God, bore sin's
tremendous load. Praise ye His name. Tell what His arm has done, what
spoils from death He won. Sing His great name alone, worthy
the Lamb. While they around the throne
Cheerfully join in one Praising His name. Ye who have seen His
blood, Sealing your peace with God, Sound His dear name abroad,
Worthy the Lamb. Please be seated. Would you turn and open your
Bibles to Genesis 22. Genesis 22. If you are here this morning and
you know the answer to this question by faith, what will God require
when you breathe your last? You are most blessed of all the
people of this world. But the truth is every single
one outside of Christ doesn't know the answer to that question
and don't care. So as we read this passage, it's
a passage of substitution. I pray the Lord will bless your
heart. Verse one, and it came to pass after these things that
God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And he said,
behold, here am I. Here I am. And he said, take
now thy son, thy only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham
rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took
to his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place, of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here with Dias and I and the
lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife And they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto his Abraham,
his father, and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And
Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering So they went both of them together, and they came
to the place which God had told them of, and Abraham built an
altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his
son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched
forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the
angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham, And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not
thy hand upon the land, neither do anything unto him. For now
I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son, thy only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place, Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day in the
Mount of the Lord, it shall be sin. I thank the Lord for substitution. Just like that knife that was
about to plunge into Isaac, God's sword of justice has been meted
out to his dear son, not on me. Let's pray. Our merciful and heavenly father, we are so thankful that it pleased
you to take out all your wrath upon thy dear son instead of
thy people. For he alone is the perfect sacrifice,
the sacrifice in which you are satisfied and are well pleased. Oh Lord, give us the faith to
flee to him, to rest in him, to put all the hope of our salvation
in him. We ask that you would be pleased
to do that now. Forgive us of our sins, especially
the sin of unbelief that keeps us from coming. Lord, we ask
that again, this very moment that you would be pleased to
reveal yourself in the person of thy dear son, in the preaching
of thy gospel, the perfection of beauty. And Lord, that we
would have the ability to hear you and see you this morning.
Pray for our brother once again, enable him to speak. For we ask
it in thy dear son's name, amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number eight from your Spiral Gospel
Hymnal, number eight. ? O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire ? ? To lift up from this earthly mire ? ? O may we think
of heavenly things ? ? And know the joy thy presence brings ?
? Lord, let us see the Savior's face ? ? And let us taste of
thy sweet grace ? ? May open, dears, thy glories here ? ? And
may we smell thy fragrance near ? Be pleased to open heaven's
door, And on our heads thy blessings pour. All wretched, poor, and
needy we, Where can we go if not to thee? O may this day be blessed the
most That Jesus Christ becomes the host ? To feed our souls
with living bread ? And with our souls in joy to wed Please
be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me again, please, to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. I assume most of you at one point
in your life have visited our nation's capital. It's quite
an impressive place of memorials mostly. There's the Washington
Monument, which I suppose is the tallest memorial. There's
the Lincoln Memorial, which I think is the most impressive. There's
the Vietnam Memorial. There's Arlington Cemetery with
thousands of memorials with men and women's names on them. There's
one memorial in Washington D.C. that gets more glory and more
honor and more respect than all the other memorials. This memorial
has an honor guard that guards it 24-7, 365 days a year. Inclement weather, terrorist
attacks, doesn't matter. These guards guard this memorial
all the time. Matter of fact, I read a little
bit about these guards. The honor guards for this memorial
are put through such stringent training that the badge that
they earn as an honor guard to this memorial is second least
given honor in all the branches of our military next to astronauts. Next to astronauts, the honor
guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier is the most rare honor
given to anyone in our military services. Now, I don't know who made that
decision, but how wise it was to give the most honor and the
most glory and the most respect to someone that we don't even
know. who sacrificed everything they
had for the freedom of our country. And there is one person, there
is one who knows every single individual that that tomb of
the unknown soldier represents, and that's God. In our text this morning, we
have the story of an unknown memorial. It's the only time in all the
Word of God where the Lord commends an individual for having done
a good work. And the person that accomplished
the good work is not named. She's not named. God himself
knows who she is. You have your Bibles open to
Mark chapter 14. After two days was the feast
of the Passover of the unleavened bread and the chief priest and
the scribes, I'm sorry, 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." Well, that's exactly when the
Lord was to be crucified, not only on the feast day, but at
the exact moment when the evening sacrifice was being made at three
o'clock in the afternoon on the Passover. The Lord Jesus Christ
was ordering the events of his death, not these men, They thought,
let's put it off until after the feast day. Let's put it off
till after Passover. There's too many people in the
city. It's gonna create too much of an uproar. Let's take him
later. No man took his life from him.
He laid down his life willingly for his sheep. And he was ordering
the events right down to the minutest detail of his death. And being in Bethany, in the
house of Simon the leper, he sat at meat, there came a woman. This story is also given to us
in Matthew chapter 26, and she there is referred to as a woman. Having an alabaster box of ointment
of spikenard, very expensive, very precious. The disciples
are going to be indignant because of this waste and they said could
not this ointment be sold for 300 pence? Now a pence was a
drachma which was a day's earning for a common laborer. So this
oil, this perfume was valued at a year's wages of a laborer. She broke the box and poured
it on his head. And there were some that had
indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste
of ointment made? For it might've been sold for
more than 300 pence and had been given to the poor. And they murmured
against her. Oh, such hypocrisy, such hypocrisy. The Lord had already made it
crystal clear that he was going to die. And this woman believed
what he said. She believed what he said. And Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? For she hath wrought a good work
on me. For you have the poor with you
always, and whenever you will, you may do them good. But me
you have not always. She hath done what she could. She has 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. An unnamed memorial. God gives the highest honor to
this work, this good work that this woman performed and he doesn't even tell us who
she is. Now the point of that is that God alone is qualified
to judge a good work. Let me just repeat that. God
alone is qualified to judge whether or not a work is good. She wasn't thinking I'm gonna
do a good work. The disciples thought it wasn't a good work.
They thought it was a waste. You remember when the Lord says
he's gonna separate the goats from the sheep on the day of
judgment? And some will say, but Lord, we did many wonderful
works in thy name. We've cast out demons. We've
been down to the soup kitchen. We've been to the rescue mission. We've done all these things.
And what does the Lord say? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. Those things that you thought
were good works, I have deemed them to be iniquity. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. A person thinks
they have a good work. you can be sure it's not a good
work. If you think you've done a good work, you can be sure
it's not a good work. And then in that same story,
the Lord says to his sheep, I was hungry and you fed me. I was
thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was in prison and you came and visited me. I was a stranger
and you took me in. And all of these things have
to do with the preaching of the gospel. The Lord is saying to
his people, to his church, to his sheep, you were faithful
in preaching the gospel. Enter into the kingdom, you good
and faithful servants that have been prepared for you. For when
I was hungry, you fed me the bread of life. When I was naked,
you put on me the robe of righteousness. When I was thirsty, you gave
me of the water of living water to drink. When I was imprisoned
by my sin, you came and delivered me. When I was a stranger, a
stranger to grace, a stranger to the gospel, you took me in. And what does the child of God
say? Lord, when did we do these things? And the Lord says, in
that you did it unto the least of these my brethren, you did
it unto me. Now what is the Lord saying?
A good work, a good work has everything to do with the gospel.
It has everything to do with faith. This woman, this woman believed what the
Lord had said about his death. And she came to anoint him for
his burial. The disciples, when the Lord
told the disciples, they're going to arrest me, they're going to
kill me, they're going to put me to death. And Peter said,
Lord, this is not going to happen. This is not going to happen.
and in that same passage of scripture the Lord said that he made these
things known not just to the disciples but to all men and
the Lord said to Peter get thee behind me Satan for thou savest
the things of Satan not of God this woman heard and she believed
she believed now the point of this message is that What God
calls a good work, only God knows if it's a good work. We look at what we do and all
we can see in our works is our sin. We see how mixed our motives
are. We see how lacking we are in
faith. And the Lord says, no, No, you've
done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto
me. And man, we can't tell if what
we've done is a good work and we can't look at someone else
and tell whether or not it's been a good work. God's the only
one that can judge a good work. Do what you do as unto the Lord,
not as unto men, knowing that your final reward will come from
Him. Then the Lord said, when you
pray, when you pray, go into your closet and pray unto your
Heavenly Father in secret and your Father which hearth thee
in secret will reward thee openly. In another place the Lord said,
don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
Don't be like the Pharisees who love the praise of men and they
love to pray on the street corners and they love to call attention
to themselves. They've got their honor. They've
got their honor. You do what you do secretly,
secretly as unto the Lord. And the Lord will judge, the
Lord will judge whether it's a good work or not. And the hope
is that everyone who's found in Christ Everyone that's found
in him is going to be found walking in good works. Why? Because they walk in faith. They
walk in faith. Now, some will hear this term
good works and they'll think, well, you're putting me under
the law. You're saying that I have to have good works. No, I'm saying
that you don't know whether your works are good or not. and you
can't make judgments about someone else's works, whether they're
good or not. Only God knows whether it's a
good work. This is an unnamed memorial. What is it that makes a work
a good work? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
two, Ephesians chapter two. you're familiar with this passage
will begin at the beginning of the chapter. Verse one, and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now a dead man can't do
anything. It's a miracle of grace when
a dead man comes alive. Lord Mary, Martha said, he stinketh. He's been in the grave for four
days. His flesh has begun to decay. You can't remove that stone.
Lazarus, come forth. Loose him and let him free. The
new birth is a miracle of God. And when God speaks and says,
let there be life, there's life. you hath he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, were born spiritually dead in
our sins. God has to quicken us or make
us alive. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. You walked in unbelief. You weren't
concerned about your soul, you didn't believe God, you just
were like everybody else, spiritually dead, spiritually asleep, spiritually
unable to do anything, among whom also we all had our conversations
in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. It was no difference in your
nature and another man's nature. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you have not received? You see, prior to the
new birth, you were just like everybody else. Had God not intervened,
had he not given you faith to believe, you would still be in
that state of unbelief. But God, but God, here's what
makes the difference, but God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love were with He loved us." The love of God, the eternal
love of God. The Lord said, I have loved you
with an everlasting love. The first cause of the salvation
of God's people is His love. Election is not the first cause.
Redemption is not the first cause. Regeneration is not the first
cause. All of these things came as a
result of God setting His love on His people in Christ before
time ever began. The love of God is the first
cause, but God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved us. The mercy of God, the grace of
God, the power of God is all the result of the love of God. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. When were we quickened? When were God's people made alive
before God? When the Lord Jesus Christ as
the firstborn among many brethren came forth from the grave. All
those that he died for were made alive in him. You see, our regeneration,
our calling is just our experience. It's our experience. And it's
necessary. Oh, we want to be made willing
in the day of His power. We want to be born of the Spirit.
And we need to be. But these things have to do with
our experience. They don't have to do with the
decree of God. They don't have to, or they don't
have to do with the, with the salvation of God's people in
the sense that God has saved his people. He has saved his
people. He quickened them together in
Christ for by grace are you saved and has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So everyone
that God chose in the covenant of grace, everyone that Christ
lived and died for are in Him right now in the heavenlies.
That's why in Romans it says that we are glorified. And all the blessings of God
are in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus right now. So all of God's
people are in Christ. Where is Christ? Seated at the
right hand of God. ever living to make intercession
on behalf of his people that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards
us through Christ Jesus for all eternity for all eternity we're
going to be thanking him for his work of salvation for his
work of grace for by grace For by grace, for by grace, grace
is demerited favor. It's not just unmerited favor,
it's demerited favor. We didn't do anything, deserve
it. We deserved the wrath of God.
For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourself. God has to give us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's a gift
of God, not of works. Not of works. If it was of works,
we would boast, wouldn't we? If we could identify a good work,
we would, and we would glory in it. And men by nature love
the praise of men more than the praise of God. They don't care
whether or not God recognizes something as good or bad. I want
the praise of man. Four. Four. We are His workmanship. We're His Creation. Created in Christ Jesus. And when something's created,
it's made from nothing. We talk about a person being
creative. Every person who ever creates
anything started out with something else, didn't they? They started
out with some raw material that they reorganized and made it
into something else. When God creates us in Christ
Jesus, he's making something out of nothing. He's taking those
who have nothing in and of themselves and he's creating them, he's
giving them life. They are dead, they're separated
from God. He's giving them life, for we
are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which He hath ordained that we should walk in them. Now let
me ask you a question. If God ordains something, is
it possible for that not to be? Is it possible for that not to
be if God ordains it? Not possible, is it? God ordained
before the foundation of the world those who would be saved.
God's ordained every event in every person's life ultimately
for His glory and for the salvation of His people. What God ordains
must come to pass. It must come to pass. And what
the Lord is telling us here in Ephesians chapter 2, that we
are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which he hath ordained that we should walk in them. Not that
we should do them, but that we should walk in them. Now how
does a believer walk? How does a believer walk? As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in him. How does a child of God walk
this walk of faith? Always dependent upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Always looking to Christ for
the hope of their salvation. Always a sinner. Always a sinner. A sinner is a person who can't
do anything but sin. That's what a sinner is. God
makes you to be a sinner, you realize you have no righteousness
whatsoever outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the child
of God is constantly walking, looking, trusting, believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. God says that is a good work. That's a good work because it's
my work. It's not your work, it's my work. Men go about boasting in their
good works. They go about thinking that they're
going to register some good works with God. Remember in John chapter
six, when the Pharisees said, Lord, what work can we work to
do the works of God? And what'd the Lord say to them?
This is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he hath sent." Where did your faith come from, child of God?
Where did it come from? You know where it came from.
You know you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You know
you didn't make a choice. You know that you weren't able
to pull something up out of your dead corpse in order to get right
with God. You know that it was all a creation
of God's grace in Christ Jesus. You know that it was a gift of
God. And you're as dependent, no, you're more dependent on
Him now as you've grown in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're more dependent upon Him now than you were when
you first believed. You see more of your sin and
more of your need for a Savior now than you did when you first
believed. What do you do? You anoint Jesus
unto His death. You're looking to the death,
burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only
hope of God saying to you, enter in to the kingdom prepared for
you, my good and faithful servant. You're not registering your works.
You're not taking notice of your works. You're like that You're
like that sheep who said, Lord, when did we do these things?
When did we do these things? Every child of God participates
in clothing the naked and giving food to the hungry and water
to the thirsty just by being a part of the body of Christ. How is it that God creates something?
Well, how did He create something in the beginning? How did He
create creation in the beginning? And God said, let there be light,
and there was. God creates by His voice. He creates by speaking. He speaks to the hearts of His
people. and they hear his voice and they
believe him. They believe him. You can't judge a good work in
your own life, you can't judge a good work in someone else's
life. God's the only one that can judge a good work and every
good work is a memorial to his grace and every good work will
go unnamed among men. Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter
15 verse 10, I am what I am by the grace of God. That's the
only claim that I have. It's all of grace. Turn with me to Mark chapter
8. Mark chapter 8. The Lord asked the disciples
in verse 27, whom do men say that I am? And they answered
John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, some say one of the prophets. And he said unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? Now that's the only question
that's important. The important question is not whether or not
you believe that you're saved, or you believe that you have
faith, or you believe that you've done a good work. The question
is, do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ and who He is? Do you
believe that He's the sovereign, successful Savior of sinners? Do you believe that He accomplished
the work that God sent Him to do? putting away the sins of his
people once and for all by the sacrifice of himself and establishing
a good work, a good work. He said unto them, But I say,
verse 29, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter said, Thou art
the Christ. Thou art the anointed one. Thou
art the Messiah. Thou art the one sent of God
to save all of Israel. Now that's the only thing that's
important. You believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. What you believe about Him has
everything to do with whether or not God's going to commend
you for having a good work. and I charged them that they
should tell no man of him but he began to teach them that the
son must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and
of the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after
three days rise again." Now words can't be any clearer or simpler
than that but the disciples didn't understand it and they spake
against him openly and And he spake that saying, I'm sorry,
he spake that saying openly. So he didn't just say it to the
disciples, he said it to everybody. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looks to his
disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for
thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things
that be of man. This woman, this unnamed woman,
that the Lord records in his word as a memorial of good works,
heard and believed what the Lord Jesus Christ said about his death,
burial and resurrection. She believed him. The Lord said
she's anointing me for my death. She knew what she was doing. Did she do it thinking I'm going
to do a good work? No. No, she was just acting out
of faith, believing, believing what the Lord had said about
what He was going to do. Child of God, a good work has
everything to do with believing God. And believing God is a work
of grace. Believing God that you're a sinner
that you have no righteousness outside of Christ. Believing
God that the Lord Jesus Christ is the successful Savior of sinners. Believing that He is sovereign
in salvation. Believing that He is omnipotent,
all-powerful to save whomsoever He wills. Believing God. Believing everything that God
says. Believing everything He says about salvation. believing
that salvation is of the Lord. That's what this woman believed.
And the Lord says, she hath done a good work. She had done a good
work. She didn't know it was a good
work. The disciples didn't know it was a good work, but the Lord
took notice of it. The Lord took notice of it. In
this life, all good works, truly good works,
the good works that God recognizes as good works, will go unnamed
to men. They'll be like that tomb of
the unknown soldier, that memorial that only God knows the names
of. You see, faith gives to the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory.
It gives to him all the glory. And it anoints him to his burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever
the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this
also that she hath done shall be spoken for a memorial. a memorial. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works that we should walk in them.
Why? Because He's ordained it. He's
ordained it. God's people walk by faith. God
acknowledges that faith giving glory to Christ for their salvation. And one day, we have the hope
of knowing that God Almighty will say, enter in, good and
faithful servant, the kingdom that's been prepared for you,
it's been prepared for you. Lord, when did we do those things?
When did we do them? And that you did it to the least
of these, my brethren, He did it unto me. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the faith that you are merciful
and gracious to give. We ask Lord that you would continue
to enable us to set our affections on Christ and to rest our hope
in him. Lord, that this memorial will
always be to your glory. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 300, let's stand together.
Number 300. More secure is no one ever than
the loved ones of the Savior, not yon star on high abiding,
nor the bird in home nest hiding. God his own doth tend and nourish,
In his holy courts they flourish, ? Like a father kind he spares
them ? ? In his loving arms he bears them ? ? Neither life nor
death can ever ? ? From the Lord his children sever ? ? For his
love and deep compassion ? ? Comforts them in tribulation ? Little flock, to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with his defender,
At his will all foes surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us shows the Father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose
wholly, tis his children's welfare solely. Okay.