To reveal Christ to our hearts
through our worship, through the preaching of the gospel,
through our fellowship together, that's been our heart's desire.
And I'm just, we're so thankful that you're here. We have many,
many guests that are with us and we're grateful you're here.
If you're from up north where it snows, you need to know snowbirds
don't go home until March around here, so y'all are just welcome
to stay. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Jeremiah chapter 32? I'd like to begin reading at
verse 37. How many times the Lord says
to his people, behold, behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sins of the world. Job said, behold, I am vile. The Lord tells us to give our
undivided attention to what's about to be said whenever he
says, behold. Here he says, behold. Men love
to talk about their will, but I want you to notice how many
times in these few verses God says, I will. If we're going
to be blessed this weekend, it'll only be because it'll be the
Lord's will. It'll be the Lord's will. Behold, I will gather them
out of all countries, whether I have driven them into my anger,
and in my fury, and in my great wrath." The Lord knows where
all of his sheep are because that's exactly where he put them.
He drives us out and he gathers us together. And I will bring
them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. Oh, that the Lord would enable
us to rest safely in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they shall be my people. And I will be their God. And I will give them one heart.
I love being with God's people. They don't want to debate the
gospel. They just want to rejoice in what the Lord has said. I
will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me
forever for the good of them and their children after them." Our heart's desire is that God
would be pleased to minister grace to the hearts of our children
and our grandchildren. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do
them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts, and they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice
over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus
saith the Lord, like as I have brought all this great evil upon
this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I
have promised them." Would you bow with me for a word
of prayer? Merciful Heavenly Father, we
come before Thy throne of grace in the name of Thy dear Son,
thanking Thee for the surety that He established in His person
and in His work of that covenant of grace that You promised to
make from eternity past. We ask that You would cause Him
to be lifted up in our hearts. We pray for these brothers that
have come to preach the gospel to us and we ask Lord that you
would enable them to speak with clarity and with simplicity and
with conviction. We ask Lord that you would give
to your people ears to hear, hearts to believe, eyes to see. Lord Jesus said that if I be
lifted up I will draw men to me. Lord that that you would
enable us to be drawn by your grace to thy very presence. She would be pleased to save
us and to give us the safety and security of knowing that
our sins have been put away. We ask it all in Christ's name
and for his glory. Amen. If you'll stand, please,
Brother Tom's going to come and lead us in the hymn that's on
the back of your handout. We have gathered in this chapel. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul at rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what He does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, knowledge, truth,
and power, all abiding with thee blest. The enraging storms and
fiery droughts, it keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting love. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth
and kind combine to make it last. My God with skill infallible
And with designs of grace With power and love that never fails
Shall order all my ways So be still my heart and doubt no more
Believe and find sweet rest God's wisdom, love, and truth and power
combine to make me blessed. My life's most minor circumstance
is ordered by my God, who promised that in all things will ever
truly grow. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth
and love combine to make thee blessed. Thank you, Brie. That's our prayer this weekend. The Lord would enable us to be
still and find rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The only way to escape the fear of death and the wrath of God
is through faith in Christ. I've asked some men to come preach
that I'm confident are going to tell us about the Lord Jesus
Christ, who He is, and what He's accomplished on behalf of His
people. And I'm so thankful they're here. Mike Walker pastors Millsite
Baptist Church in Cottageville, West Virginia. And he and his
dear wife, Sandy, drove all the way down yesterday. And we're
so glad you're here, Mike. I love this brother. Sandy, we've
had a chance to fellowship some in Cottageville and here. So
looking forward to this weekend. Mike, thank you, brother, for
coming. Your brethren here anxious to hear what the Lord's put on
your heart. So you come. Enjoyed that last song. Don't you just wish that you
could just believe God? And find sweet rest? We worry about so many things,
don't we? I guess I could say this for
every preacher before we stand, but we think, well, we're going
to make a mess out of it. All we are is messes. But He's
a great God. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. And I pray He'd meet with us.
That He may enable us to see Him. Because if you see Him,
that's what it's all about. God enables you and gives you
sight to see. And if you see Him, nothing else
matters. Nothing. Nothing. If you would, open your Bible
to the book of Mark, chapter 14. You're reading verses 1 through
11. Mark chapter 14, beginning in
verse 1. And after two days was the feast
of the Passover and of unleavened bread. And the chief priests
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 set it meet, there came
a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of sputnod, very
precious, and 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 the ointment made? For it might have been
sold for more than 300 pence and had been given to the poor.
And they murmured against him. And Jesus said, Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath
wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you
always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. But me ye
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
for a memorial of her. And Judas Iscariot, one of the
twelve, went unto the chief priest to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they
were glad, and promised to give him money, and he sought how
he might conveniently betray him. We find this account given
in all the other three Gospels account, it's very similar. But
here in this setting we see these, in the first verses, we see these
very religious people. It calls them chief priests and
scribes, the ones who transcribe the scriptures, and they are
plotting, scheming, to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
two days before the Passover. when Christ who is the true Passover
would give his life, make his life an offering and sacrifice
for sin, give his life for his people, and these people are
plotting this hatred, hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ. This
one in John's Gospel chapter 12, this happens right after
he raised Lazarus from the dead. He raised the dead, he healed
the sick, he gave hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind,
and these people are plotting to kill him. Now what they want
to do, what they're scheming to do, they said they wanted
to do it privately. You know what they wanted to do? They'd
like to have got him apart, away from the disciples, and they'd
like to have just grabbed hold of him and took him in some back
alley somewhere and just killed him and threw his body in the
trash. That's what they'd like to have done. They said, but
we don't want to do it on the feast day. We don't want to do
it on the Passover. Now this is what they're plotting
to do. This is what they're wanting to do. And if they had their
own way, this is what they would have done. But what they wanted
to do, they couldn't do. They said, we want to do it in
the corner somewhere. We want to do it in some back alley.
But you know how it was done? Outside Jerusalem. God hung his
son on a cross. Now this is not something that's
done in a corner. He did it in such a way that
everybody could see what he did. Our God's in control of all things,
but we see this hatred, this enmity. Now listen, this is not
just something that happened in our Lord's day. This still
happens today. This just shows the deceitfulness
of every man's heart, the depravity of his heart. He don't love the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you don't either unless God does a work
of grace in your heart. This is all of us. By nature
we are religious people. Most all of us, if you were like
me, we were raised in religion, we carried our Bibles, we memorized
verses, we said our prayers, didn't we? That's these people.
This is us. We said, we ain't gonna have
this man reign over us. We can have our way, we'll kill
him. We have our way, we'll jerk him off the throne. But they
didn't have their way. They didn't have their way. Listen
to what it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 23. Him being delivered,
the Lord Jesus Christ being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and the wicked hands have
crucified and slain." They did what they wanted to do. We all
had a hand in it. But we did exactly what God determined
to be done before the world was ever made. And let me remind you that this
same God is still on the throne. And is all this stuff that we
see going on in this world, God's in control. Don't forget it. Don't we need to be reminded
or we hear the news and in about two days we're so discouraged
saying, what's going on? God's in control. God's in control. Man still hates God. He hates
Him. Despises Him. But then in light
of all this, we have this woman. If you'll notice, it's sandwiched
in between two pictures of hatred. You've got the scribes and the
Pharisees who hate him, and we're going to see, you're going to
see Judas who hates him, but in the middle of that, there
is this woman. This just says, one place it
calls her a sinner. That's what she was, she was
a sinner. That's what makes, why is she any different? You
notice it doesn't mention her name because she's not the important
one in this story. The most important one is him.
And he said, a woman, just a woman who's a sinner, she has this
alabaster box, a very precious ointment, and she wants to take
it and pour it upon the head of her Lord. What makes the difference? Why is this woman any different
than the other ones? Grace. Grace. You want to see faith? You see
faith here. Faith without works is dead.
But where there's true faith, God-given faith, the faith of
God's elect, there's going to be works. Works. This woman was as much a sinner
as all the other rest. No different. And you're not
any different. Some believe that she was a street
walker. prostitute, you're not any different from the streetwalker
that walks the street. That's it. The same heart that's
in them is in us. That's us. But something we do know, something
had to happen to cause her to do what she did. Something has
to happen. She knew where her Lord was at
And she went to where he was at with this precious ointment
on purpose to pour it on his head. This alabaster box, some
say that it was a hard stone resembling white marble. And
this was used to keep what was in the box pure and unspoiled. And it was sealed to prevent
the perfume from escaping. Now ladies, you know about this
perfume, something that's And when you smell it, it has a distinct
fragrance. Spotnod. It is a small, uninteresting
shrub. You that like flowers, if you
ever saw it, you would have just walked past it. It's insignificant. But they said its smell has a
distinct smell. Distinct smell. If you ever smell
its fragrance, you would never forget it. You see where I'm
going? This spotnod was in this box. It was kept in this box, and
it was very costly. It says here that it was about
300 pence, but from what I can understand, that's about a year's
wages. What's the average person's wage now for a year? You can
just kind of figure it out. That's about what it would cost.
You know why it was so costly and so precious? Because it was
so rare. You just don't find it everywhere.
It's precious. Now this is what she's bringing.
This is what she's bringing. Let me tell you this. This spacknard
is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And every time the gospel
is preached, it's like the box is opened. And you know, if you've
ever smelled that fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, you never
forget it. When I was in religion, you know
what it had the smell of? It had the smell of death. It
didn't have a sweet fragrance, and one day, If you've ever smelled
this gospel, if you've ever seen the Lord Jesus Christ, you know
what I'm talking about. You go, man, there's nothing. I've never smelled anything like
this in my life. Isn't that how it is? It's distinct. It's rare. Try to find it. Try
to find it. Look all over the world and see
if you can find it. If you ever find it, you go, that's it. That's
it. That's him. All this picture's
him. He's a root out of dry ground.
When he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see him, we're not
going to desire him. We go, there's something. Is any good thing can come out
of Nazareth? This is despondent in this precious
box that it's kept. Well, if she, if this was so
costly, How in the world, I got to thinking about this, how did
she ever come up with this money? How did she ever get the money
to buy this? How did she? My only conclusion is that grace
had provided it. Provided her with the means to
purchase it. We know we don't purchase salvation,
but it's all of grace. Lord Jesus Christ is the spotlight
of our soul. It is his grace that he puts
within us. It is his person, his blood,
his righteousness is like this fragrance that comes up before
God as a sweet smelling savor. Songs of Solomon, lesson 1, verse
12. When the king sitteth at his
table, When the Lord Jesus Christ meets with us, it says, My spot-nod
sendeth forth the smell thereof. Do you see that? He puts grace
in your soul. And when that box is broken, and
he's satisfied with what he smells because he gave it. It's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. I tell you, when Christ meets
with his people, it's a blessed time. It says, I think it's in
John's Gospel, when she opened this box, poured out this precious
ointment, it said the whole house was filled with that ointment. And it does, it fills the whole
house. And you know what happens when
it fills the whole house? Our thoughts are concentrated
on him, not on nothing else. On him. Why did she do this? Why would
this woman do this? Why would any sinner do what
she did? Why? I'll tell you why. She did
it out of love for him. Greater love hath No man in this
earth can give his life for his friends. He should have brought
his love in our heart. And you know what it does? It
creates in us a love for him and we love him supremely. It
says to those who believe he is precious. She wanted to honor
her Lord. Would you see this? Can you picture
this? Okay, they're all sitting here in this house. Here's our
Lord and she walks in. And she walks over and opens
that box and pours that out on his head. And you know what happened?
Everybody was looking, not at her, but they was looking at
him. That's what she wanted. She wanted to honor her Lord.
Isn't that the desire of every believer? Isn't it? Isn't that
what we struggle with when we even come to worship or get in
our closet? We want to honor our Lord. And
this is what she did. This is what she did. She brought the most costly thing
she had. She went to her house, wherever
she had it, She went and got it on purpose and took it to
him. This woman, listen, she had this
crucible too costly for her to use on herself, but not too costly
for him. She took and broke it and poured
it out on him as a testimony of her deep affections for him.
and her devotion for the one that loved her. If he ever saves you and sets
you free and shows you mercy, he puts it in your heart to love
him more than anything in this world. If he hadn't, you're still
a Pharisee. You're still dead in your sins. She knew exactly what she was
doing. She had planned on doing this. This is not some spare
of the moment thing. I don't know if she had to save
up her money. We don't know how long she saved it. She knew who he was. She knew
where he was. And she found him. She did what
she did without any thought to what any person may think. You know what's hard for us? If you was to stand before people
or to do anything, the first thing that comes to your mind,
and this is humanly speaking, is what will somebody think?
Isn't it? Let's just be honest. And she does this, she doesn't
do it in private. She had to do it in public. Didn't
she? And she did it. She did it. And she did it because
she wanted to. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. She had eyes for only one that
day, and that was her Lord. She was not there to obtain the
praise of men for what she did. She was not there to draw attention
to herself. She was not there to secure the
praise of men or to avoid their scorn. She was there for Him. Oh, that everything we did, we did
it for Him, not for us. Remember a message that your
pastor preached at our place last fall? He said, it's not
about us. It's not about us. It's about
Him. Him. She knew what she was doing.
She was anointing His body for the burial. What she did was
a great sacrifice and a great faith. Like I said in James it
says faith without works is dead. Faith without works. True faith
works. How do we know that Abraham believed
God? He offered up Isaac. How do we
know that Rahab the harlot believed God? She sent the spies out another
way. If it's real faith, real genuine God-given faith, it'll
produce works. I know religion, all they talk
about is their good works and their dependence and their assurance
is in their good works. Our assurance is in Him. And
I don't see anybody whipping her over the head and saying,
why don't you need to do that for him? No, she did it willingly.
Willingly. From the moment she laid her
hands on that alabaster box till she broke it and poured it on
his head, she had thoughts for only him. Something else we see, what this
woman did was misunderstood by a lot of
people. It says, I can't remember the
gospel account, but it says that, you see Judas sitting over here.
Judas is the one with the bag, he's the treasurer of the twelve.
He sees this woman come in, he sees what she does, and he says,
what a waste! He said, she should have brought
that ointment to us. If she'd have brought it to us,
I'd have took it and sold it. Then I would have given the money
to the poor. Doesn't that sound so sweet? That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. He said,
I could have done better with it. But what I want you to see
is she did what she did to draw attention to him and Judas did
what he did to try to draw attention away from him. misunderstood and let me tell
you this this world has no idea they do not understand that fragrance didn't smell sweet
to Judas he didn't rejoice in it it actually
made him mad mad And not only did Judas, what
Judas said, even the other ones were affected by it. And they
said, well, maybe that is a good idea. Maybe we should have done
that. And they looked at what she did as a what? As a waste. What she did, she did not try
to draw attention to herself. But I'll tell you this, true
devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ will always bring out the hatred
of those who do not love Him. Mary worshipped Christ. Judas
was a thief. Judas said it was a waste. Let
me tell you, this love is never wasted. Generosity is never wasted. Sacrifice is never wasted. I tell you, this love cannot
give him too much. What a dead O. What a dead O. That's what Paul said in Philippians
chapter 4 verse 18. He says, But I have all, and
I abound, I am full, having received of Ephroditus the things which
were sent from you, an odor and a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,
well-pleasing to God. He wrote to those people and
he said what they did was a sacrifice, and it was well-pleasing to God.
How can it be well-pleasing to God? Because God gave it, and
it pointed to His Son. That's the only way. That's the
only way. People are just cold-hearted
toward our Lord, and stinginess toward His cause always goes
together. To whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little. How do we know this woman loved
our Lord? How do we know she loved our Lord? She gave the
best and all she had. It's like the woman with two
mites. Our Lord is standing there at the treasury that day and
he sees all these people coming and casting all their money.
Some are casting a lot. Here comes this widow woman.
He said she cast in all her living. It was a sacrifice. Why? Because he won her heart. She's not trying to win his affection. She did it because she has his
affection. That's the difference. This world
does what they do to try to earn God's approval and God's acceptance. It's because it's united to His
Son that it is accepted. He's the spike nod. He's the
sweet fragrance. Can you imagine how shocked this
woman was when she heard the response of these people? I thought,
why is not everybody rejoicing? Why doesn't everybody rejoice
in our Lord? Why doesn't everybody rejoice
in our gospel? They'd look at you and see how
far you traveled. To go somewhere on a Friday night,
they'd say, what a waste. This is no waste. She wanted to show in some public
way. how much she loved him and how
thankful she was for his goodness and his grace to her. I tell you that girl right there,
we've been married five years and I cannot show her enough
how much I love her. I still open the car door What would you say when nobody
else does that? I'm not worried what nobody else
does. That's between me and her. And it's between you and our
Lord. There will always be people who
do not understand. But I'll tell you this. Our Lord knew why she did it. He understood. And he's the only one that understands
why we do anything. He sees our motive. We may even
think we're doing it for the right reason, but we really don't
know. We hope we are. But I'm glad
he understands. I'm glad he knows, and that's
all that matters. Isn't it? He understands. You know what our Lord said? Don't you see this? Everybody's
looking at what she did. What a waste. He said, leave
her alone. I see who she is. I know what
she is. I know what she was. But I know
who she is now. And you leave her alone. She's
mine. There's other times in scriptures
our Lord said leave people alone and it was in judgment. Not to
this woman. She's mine. You know what she
is? She's one of his little sheep. You leave her alone. She's mine.
You don't understand what she's doing but boy I do. I do. And to me that's the only
thing that matters. And you know what he said? You know what he said about this
woman? He said, leave her alone. She hath wrought a good work
on me. This is the only place I find
in the scriptures where he ever called a work good. And he said
what this woman did, this sinful woman, This sinful wretch, he
said, she hath wrought a good work on me. I said, how could he say that? Because he put it in her heart.
You can't make anything you do good. You can't make it good.
Try it. If we touch it, we defile it.
We, you know, we come and we try to pray and we want to pray,
but there's just a little bit of pride mixed in there. There's
a little bit of selfish mixed in there. And when we do, you
know what we do? We defile it. But I tell you, when it goes
up before God, and our Lord God smells that sweet fragrance of
the Lord Jesus Christ, He said, I'm well pleased. He said it's
a sacrifice well pleasing to God. How come when we sing praises
and we want to sing from our heart, how can God receive it
in his darling son? He said it's a good work. And
if it's a good work, it's a good work. Whom he did foreknow, he
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Ordained
unto what good works? If there's no good works, you're
dead. Did you hear what I said? If
there's no good works, you're dead. And you know, hear what
I said? Good works. Good works. We are saved by the
good work of another. And his good work is applied
unto my account and God said it's good. Isn't that right? It's a good work. Can you imagine what them disciples
thought? That's a good work. Because when men in our fallen
state, when we want to do a good work, we want everybody to see
it. We want everybody to recognize
us. She had eyes only for him. And
she had his approval and that was enough. I'll read you this
in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1. A lot of people do a lot of
things. But I tell you, God sees a man's motive. He sees his desire. He sees why he does it. I heard
Henry say one time, it ain't as much what a man does, but
why he does it. What's the motive behind it?
Listen. Though I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels,
and have not charity, or have not Christ, I am become as sounding
brass and tinkling cymbals. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge,
so that I have all faith, all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, or Christ, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Nothing. Our Lord said, Leave her alone.
She hath wrought a good work on me. And then he said, Don't
you see this? She has done what she could. What an honor. Blessed be that
person who does what he can for our Lord. He said she's done
what she could. She can't preach, she can't do
what the disciples did, but he said she done what she could.
She did what she had the opportunity to do. The night cometh when
no man can work. It's two days to the Passover.
And I believe she knew. How she knew, I don't know. But she knew, if I'm going to
do this, I've got to do it now. And she didn't have the
opportunity. If I'm going to do it, I've got
to do it now. She did what God had given her the ability to
do. You said, how did she get the
omen? I believe God gave her the grace to get it. She did
what she could when it had to be done. The disciples don't
understand, but some way she understood what she was doing.
Listen, had she not done this thing right now, She could have
never done it at all. What am I saying? God enabled
us to do what we can for His honor. Today is today
of salvation. You know what our biggest excuse
is? Let's put it off till tomorrow. You say, well I can't do anything.
I've used this illustration I don't know how many times. There was
a man years ago where I used to pastor. He had a lot of health
problems. He was retired. He had emphysema,
couldn't hardly breathe. And we didn't have a whole lot
of grass to mow. And he always wanted to mow that yard. And
if I could, I'd beat him down there just to beat him for mowing
it. And he looked at me one Sunday, and he said, Preacher, he said,
they ain't a whole lot I can do. But he said, don't take that
from me. And I said, Jay, you mowed as
long as you want to mow. He said, well, it's just the
grass that needs to be mowed. He'd done what he could. Let me ask us this question. What
can I do? Ecclesiastes 9.10 says, Whosoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy mind. There is no
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whether
thou goest. Our Lord honored this woman.
He said, wherever the gospel is preached. We're still talking
about what this woman did. He said, wherever the gospel
is preached, This will be done for a memorial unto her. It's what it says in Revelations
14, 3, And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write,
blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.
Yes, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and
their works be followed them. Let me read you this from a man
named C. H. McIntosh. He said to bring
honor to her Lord at the very moment when earth and hell was
raging against him was the very highest act of service that man
or angel could perform. May our great God enable us not
to be so occupied with the thoughts of men. Help us to not think
of their indignation or their misunderstanding, but to pour
out our alabaster box of ointment upon the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Empires have risen, flourished,
and passed away. Monuments have been erected to
commemorate human success, and they've all crumbled into dust.
But the act of what this woman did still lives on. May God give
us grace to do that. Don't you see this, those last
verses? When Judas heard this, it was
more than Judas could stand. To me, it's like the last straw. And when Judas Iscariot, one
of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray him unto them,
and when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give
him money. And he sought him opportunity.