As I said earlier, this is one
of the most remarkable and beautiful pictures in the Scriptures. Let's just read, have it there
before you in Mark chapter 14. Just read this section down to
verse 9. After two days it was the Passover
and the feast had unleavened bread. And the chief priests
and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and
put him to death. But they said, not during the
feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany
at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman
came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and
poured it on his head. But there were some who were
indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil
wasted? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticised
her sharply. But Jesus said, Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has
done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you
always, and whenever you wish you may do them good, but me
you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come
beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly I say to
you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world,
what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to
her." Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, you promised
that your word is living and active, and that your words are
spirit and they are life. And we pray that you would speak
to our hearts this morning, our Father, and that you would cause
us to go away from our time here with something of the devotion
that this dear lady showed to her Saviour. We pray in Jesus'
name. Amen. I've titled this message,
A Word Believed and A Promise Fulfilled. And it's remarkable
given what is written in the scriptures about the necessity
of Messiah to suffer and to die and then to enter into his glory. that after all that was written
by Isaiah and in the Psalms and all that the Lord Jesus spoke
and repeatedly spoke for over three years, this woman Mary,
as John tells us her name is, the sister of Martha and Lazarus,
seems to have been the only human being on the planet who really
understood what was going to happen in Jerusalem in just two
days' time. All this, of course, is worked
out, as Simon showed us earlier, as the outworking of God's eternal
plans and purposes. And so while the Lord Jesus is
having this meeting, this supper down in Bethany. The chief priests
and the Pharisees and the scribes are having another meeting in
Jerusalem. They actually gathered together
in council and they gathered together to see how they might put the Lord
Jesus to death. And their plan and purpose was
that it couldn't be during the Passover, Passover which was
to be the last Passover to start in just the evening of two days'
time. And then it was followed by the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, so it was a whole week. So their
plan was that while Jesus, as a faithful Jew, had to be in
Jerusalem for that week, They were planning that by trickery
they could have him killed in a week's time or a bit over a
week's time. As I put in the notes there,
God sovereignly rules all events. God sovereignly rules over the
plans and purposes of all people to achieve His purposes and to
fulfil His words. These hostile men planned that
he was going to be killed in a week or ten days' time. had
planned that this Lamb of God was to be crucified outside their
city in just two days' time. God sovereignly rules over their
trickery. They sought by means of deceit
to put to death Him who is the truth. and God sovereignly rules over
all events to achieve His purposes and to fulfill His Word even
when the enemies of God seem to succeed. And here we have
again the nature of the enemies of God revealed. They operate by deceit. The Lord operated openly before
all people so that everyone knew what He said and what He did. The enemies of God operate by
deceit. The enemies of God and the enemies
of God's people operate with malice. Their intent is to kill
and to harm and to destroy. The enemies of God, as we see
in these verses, operate in fear of man. They were frightened the Romans
would come and take their nation away. They were fearful that
the Lord Jesus would destroy their religion and their power
and the honour they got from it. They feared the crowds and
they operated on the basis of human wisdom and human activity. for human ends. God's children, according to
2 Corinthians chapter 4, they receive a ministry from God. And as we have received mercy,
we do not lose heart, verse 2 of chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians, but
we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, commend ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God." But even if our Gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing. God's children have
nothing they need to hide from the people of this world. Of
course in the scriptures we just have again and again two pictures,
don't we? We have a picture of grace and
a picture of judgment, a picture of mercy and a picture of the
hardness of man's heart. All of it can be summed up in
two words, can't it? We have pictures of unbelief
and then laid beside them we have testimonies to faith. So we have, we don't want to
spend much time on it, I want to spend most of my time on the
beauty of what Mary did here this morning. But we also see
down in verses 4 and 5, that these men, this poison, that this came into
this happy band, as Judas, according to John's Gospel, spoke these
words, why was this fragrant oil wasted? What an extraordinary thing to
say. One of the things that's so sad
to see of human nature in the Gospels is that almost every
time the Lord Jesus mentions His suffering and His death,
the response of those who had every reason to know better was
some selfish, merciless, attack upon him. He says he's going
to die. They say, can we have some special
seats in heaven? Who's going to be the greatest
amongst us? And here Judas says these horrible words. She's anointing
him for his burial and he, as a thief, because he was the treasurer
of this band of apostles. So therefore he was one of the
senior apostles. What cruel and heartless words
to say to the Lord Jesus and to say to this dear lady. We
have again another example of the depth of the depravity of
the heart, the mind, It's in you and in me, and if it wasn't
for grace, it would well up in such a way that if we could see
how wicked we really were in our hearts, we would be horrified
by ourselves. God hides so much of ourselves
from ourselves that we wouldn't despair. The other thing we have here
is another sad example of how negative words can spread like
gangrene and like poison even amongst God's elect children. According to John's Gospel, Judas
uttered the words and instantly it seems, eleven other children
of God joined in without a moment's hesitation. No wonder God warns us that when
we think that we are strong, we need to be careful that we
do not fall. It's so easy, so natural for
us to think in human terms to use human wisdom and reasoning
and the results of that in this world where we think that things
are gained by human activity. These are God's children who say these things. We can
be led so easily to fall victim and to be the perpetrators of
poisonous words. We can fail so easily to see
what true faith in action really is. We have to be mindful of
the words that we say and be mindful of the words that we
hear because it's so easy for us like these apostles to fail
to see what love and what gratitude drove this woman to do these
things. We can misunderstand. That's why it's so important,
isn't it, that we just pray for grace. Pray for grace to be careful
about the words that we say Be careful and pray for grace
that we won't attribute motives to people on the basis of necessarily
human wisdom and human understanding. As we read earlier in Song of
Solomon, if these men had Bibles opened and laid before God on
their heart, they would have seen that this Mary, who had
been forgiven so much, this Mary whose brother just a little while
beforehand lay rotting in a tomb, this Mary who waited no doubt
despairingly wondering why the Lord Jesus took those extra two
days or more to come when she and her sister needed Him most. This Mary who, according to John's
Gospel, had kept this expensive, precious fragrance for this particular
moment, She treasured these things in her heart and yet, according
to human wisdom, this is all a waste. May God give us the
grace to know how weak we are. May God give us the grace to
see how damaging our words can be. May God give us the grace to
know something of the emotion of our Saviour. He was a real
man. He wept real tears. His love was a real love. He had real feelings. He has
real feelings. He doesn't change. He is 100%
God and He is 100% man. We need to be mindful of things
that we do and say so often that are hurtful to God and to His
people. But we have a wonderful picture
of what the Lord does in the lives of his people. Enough of the negative things.
This is too beautiful a picture to spend so long there. One of
the wonderful things that God shows us here is that Mary does
not say a word in all of this transaction Not a single word
is recorded by God the Holy Spirit. She comes in quietly, she takes
a place of submission silently, and she breaks open this incredibly
expensive bottle. A year's wages, they say. In
Australian terms today, that's something in the order of $50,000.
It was a huge thing. And she broke the bottle so it
couldn't be put back together again. And she anoints his head
and anoints his feet. And when she is rebuked for this
act of love, she doesn't have to defend herself. Look who steps
in to defend her. Look who stands up to defend
his bride always. What a lesson, what great lessons
we have here. Lessons about misunderstanding
God's sovereign purposes. Lessons about misunderstanding
words and deeds. But also a great lesson that
God's children are defended by God Himself. We have no need
in the normal course of events to defend ourselves in this world. Let's just read a few psalms. Psalm 7 verse 10. My defense
is of God who saves the upright in heart. Psalm 62. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. and the plea that I pray the
Lord puts on our hearts so often. Plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive with me. Plead my cause, O Lord. If spiritual
good is going to happen in this world, then spiritual things
must be done by He who is the Spirit. God must act. God will defend. He's a helper
for the helpless. He'll defend his people. Just
like Mary, act in faith, act in love. Let the Lord sort out
the troublemakers. Why do you trouble her, says
the Lord Jesus? Let her alone. He'll defend us. It's a great
comfort. We're asked so often, aren't
we, challenged so often about if we don't bring law to bear
in people's lives, how do we get God's people to do what they
ought to do? Surely we need some rules and
regulations. Surely, like the people who came
to see the Lord Jesus in John 6, what must What shall we do
that we may work the works of God? Isn't that a question that's
asked again and again? What shall we do that we may
work the works of God? Jesus' answer in John 6.29 is
a beautiful, beautiful answer, and the words need very close
scrutiny to see the power of what he says. He answered and
said to them, This is the work of God. So at the very start
he doesn't say this is God's activity, not man's activity.
He said this is what grace does. Grace does. The work of God is that you believe
in whom he sent. Just believe. Mary, of all people,
just believed what Jesus said. She has done a good work for
me. See, Mary heard the words of
God. She may have heard the words
from the Old Testament. the Lord Jesus spoke often of
His death. And with these, in that little
town and in that particular household, which was the one place on this
earth where He seemed to have a place of love and closeness
of fellowship, I'm sure the question came up often, when is this going
to happen? Why is it going to happen? What's
going to happen to us? and the Lord Jesus would have
ministered to them out of his word and out of the scriptures. But also this lady is a testimony
to us of what God does in the lives of his people. that brings
a memorial to them and brings honour to Him. For those who
have been forgiven much, love much. The love of God compels. The love of God constrains us. The love of the Lord Jesus for
our eternal souls motivates us. It's love which is the fulfilment
of the law. It's love that comes from Him
and creates faith in His chosen objects of love. And then they
respond in love. Sisi, according to verse 8, has
done what she could She couldn't be a preacher. She couldn't be
an elder. She couldn't be a deacon. But
she's done something which is left to memorial to all of God's
people for 2,000 years now. She's done what she could. She
actually believed Jesus. She kept this flask according
to John 12. She kept this flask this precious
ointment for the day of my burial. And when she broke the flask
and poured it on his head she kept nothing back. Human wisdom
would say there's an awful lot of money there and there are
an awful lot of needy people there and surely you can do something
better with some Spikenard. She broke the flask poured it
on his head, and the house, according to John 12.3, was filled with
the fragrance of the oil. It's just a beautiful picture
of what happens when God brings his gospel and gathers his people
together. We break open this word and God
shines a light on it and then he fills this house. This is his house, he says. He
fills it with the fragrance of his anointing. And he fills the hearts of his
believers with that same fragrance. You see all of us, nearly all
of us here, all of us who are a bit older, have been in situations
of love, haven't we? I don't know how well you remember
those first moments of love for your dear bride. But absolutely
nothing is too much trouble. In fact, the one thing you want
in those Halcyon days is another opportunity to serve. When Rob
was courting my daughter Kate, it was almost embarrassing the
lengths he'd go to, just so he could be with her. He'd drive
all the way to Sydney and wait outside while she was at Selma
Shore, just so that she didn't have to catch a train. It wasn't
anything about trains and her safety. He just wanted to be
with her, didn't he? I don't know how many of you
remember things like that, but I thought absolutely nothing
of driving to Sydney 30 years ago, just for a few hours. It was just to be with them. Love is always and only the motivation
for God's children. And she filled the house with
the fragrance. And then remarkably, in verse
8, the Lord Jesus says what she's doing and why she's doing it.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. By the grace of God, she had
an understanding of what was going to happen and the cruel
events surrounding the crucifixion of her Lord. And there was maybe no opportunity
to anoint His body at that time. In fact, People who are crucified
like the Lord Jesus in the normal course of events do not have
their bodies anointed at all. They are treated like slaves. Their bodies are treated like
nothing other than the carcass of an animal. Mary was wanting
to honour the fact that He was going to die and He was going
to be buried. In verse 9 we have this promise. A promise of a memorial. We are
now bearing witness to the fulfilment of God's Word. We again are remembering
what She has done. We are now telling her story
as a memorial to her. It's really a memorial to the
Lord Jesus' work of grace in her life. But he says that it's
a memorial to her. And then he says something that's
remarkable, isn't it? He says, I say to you, whenever
this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman
has done will also be told as a memorial to her. Where's the
Gospel in this? Where has the Gospel been proclaimed? It's interesting, isn't it? The
Holy Spirit says, wherever this Gospel... See, the Gospel is
the declaration of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in the
eyes of the world, it seems like an insignificant thing.
Jens put in the bulletin a beautiful article by Robert Hawker on spikenard,
and I looked it up on the internet, spikenard, and it's an ugly,
jolly plant, and its flowers look like spiky thistles. There's
nothing attractive about it. There was nothing attractive
about the Lord Jesus to worldly men. He was, in the minds of
the religious leaders of the day, someone who was just a nuisance,
someone who, as we'll see, Lord willing, next week, is worth
nothing more than the price of a slave. Seems as if he is nothing. Just like God's children in this
world seem as if they are nothing, like God's church in this world
seems to the worldly-minded people as if it is nothing, but in fact
in God's purposes, hidden behind what the world sees as something
insignificant, is something immensely valuable and immensely precious. And the fragrance of this Gospel,
the fragrance of this Gospel will fill this world In 2 Corinthians
chapter 2 we have another picture of this fragrance. Now thanks
be to God, verse 14, who always leads us in triumph in Christ
and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God. We are to
God. the fragrance of Christ, among
those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of
death, leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life,
leading to life. See, what was a wasteful extravagance
in the eyes of Judas, was something that was beautiful in the eyes
of God. Faith acts in love are remembered
by the Lord. His grace creates them. His love compels them. His word of promise, the faithfulness
of Him to His promise motivates them. His sacrifice inspires
them and then remarkably After we have finished our time here,
God says to his children, well done, good and faithful, serve. What remarkable grace that we
have. It's a memorial, a prophecy fulfilled. So to go back to what we must
do as we hear so often, The only works that survive this world
are acts of faith and love and devotion to the Lord Jesus. We are so often, like the others,
wanting to collect things and collect toys and collect experiences. The only things that survive
this world are things that come from God, are motivated by God's
love. carried by His grace and bring
glory to His name." She heard God and believed. She just heard God and she believed
it. She picked up this book, she
read it and she believed it. She used this book, this word
from God, as the lens through which she judged the things of
this world. And she acted on that regardless
of what people thought about her and said about her, regardless
of the cost. She just believed God. She proclaimed the Gospel. in her act, and now she is a
memorial to us. And what a challenge she is,
what an example, what a trophy of grace is our dear Sister Mary. I'll just finish with those words
from Spurgeon at the bottom of your notes there. We shall bring
our Lord most glory if we get from Him much grace. If I have
much faith so that I can take God at his word, I shall greatly
honour my Lord and my King." We're going to now have communion,
if you can hand it out. As we participate in the Lord's
Supper, we have a reminder again of a broken body. The spikenard
was an ordinary plant until it was broken and all of a sudden
then this fragrance came out of it in a wonderful way. The
Lord Jesus' body was crushed and His blood was shed and out
of brokenness comes new life. In His work of grace in the lives
of His people, He brings brokenness. And out of brokenness He brings
healing. And out of healing comes love
and faith. Let's just remember our Saviour
together. Amen.