Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, how we need you. Lord, we ask you to hear our
Lord Jesus. intercede on behalf of Your people. We ask You, Father, behold us
in Him. Lord, would You give the ability
to preach Your Word, the message that You've given. Help me, Lord, on my own self
to be the most vile sinner. Forbid me, Lord, to preach to
your people and at your people, or even read at your people. Make me such a worm, Lord, that
I can't preach but to myself. One iota of merit to stand on. Save Christ Jesus, our Lord. And Lord, bless Your people to
hear the Word the same way. Give us hearts to hear it as You speak indirectly to us. Lord, create in us a clean heart,
pure heart. We ask you to enable us to truly
come bowed down at your feet. Humble us in heart. Help us, Lord, Seek Christ alone as being the
one worthy of praise and honor. Help us to see ourselves as only
sinners. We ask you, Lord, to meet with
us now. Exalt Your Son. Make us truly worship in our
heart. Lord, we thank You. Forgive us,
Lord, our sins. Sins that have been committed
right here in this pulpit. Sins that have been committed
right here in these pews. Lord, we need your righteousness. We need you constantly, every
hour. How we thank you for your promise,
Lord. How we thank you for your Son. In Christ's name we pray,
Amen. Alright brethren, let's go to
John chapter 12. It says in verse 1, Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus, which had been dead,
whom He raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper,
and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table with Him. We saw last time that this was
a very happy occasion. Not long ago, right before this,
they were at the tomb and they were weeping. And our Lord wept
with them that wept. And then, now here, our Lord
is rejoicing with them that rejoice. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, yet without sin, so that when we weep, He's
able to weep with his people, be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but he's able to comfort us and it won't be
very long he brings us to rejoice. Just like he did right here,
he brought them to rejoice. To rejoice. Lazarus, who he raised
from the dead, was sitting there at the table with him and Martha's
servant. And then in verse 3, and this
is where I want to focus a little more this time, it says, Then
took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and
anointed the feet of Jesus. Mark says she anointed his head
as well, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled
with the odor of the ointment. In Song of Solomon, chapter 1
and verse 12, the bride says, while the king sitteth at his
table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. You know,
everything that took place here, our Lord brought it to pass.
He's the fulfiller of Scripture. And that Scripture was fulfilled
that day when Mary came and poured out this ointment. And the smell
went through the house. It's that song of Solomon, chapter
1, verse 12. Our Lord brought that to pass
in Mary to fulfill that scripture. And it says, verse 4, then saith
one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray
him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given
to the poor? Now more than Judas had indignation
in their heart, toward Mary, even some true disciples had
indignation toward Mary over this. And it appears that more
than just Judas spoke out. Matthew 26.8 says, when his disciples
saw this, they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this
waste? They didn't see the purpose.
There's a lot of things we don't see the purpose in. And they
didn't see the purpose in that. And they called it a waste. Is
anything done for our Lord a waste? Could this ointment poured out
on the Lord be a waste? That's what they called it, a
waste. We're told here why Judas had this indignation toward Mary. Verse 6, this he said, not that
he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. and had the bag
and bear what was put therein. Judas said this so that men would
see him as being benevolent, as being godly, as caring for
the poor. That's why he said it. But the
truth was he was a thief. He carried the bag where they
put the offerings and he'd been stealing from the bag the whole
time. He was a thief. and he was upset
because they could have sold that, put 300 pence in the bag
and he could have stole some of it. That's what his real indignation
was about. Can you imagine what kind of
indignation he had against the Lord Jesus himself in John 6
when he watched that 15 or 20,000 that the Lord had fed and then
the Lord preached the gospel to them and Christ watched them
walk away. Don't you know Judas had indignation
toward Christ because of that? Because all Judas saw was money
walking away. He saw offerings walking away. Money he could have stole. So
right after this, because the Lord rebuked him, he went straight
to the Pharisees, made a deal with them for 30 pieces of silver
to betray the Lord. Now we know Christ has the preeminence
in all things. And even in 1 Timothy 6.10, Christ
has the preeminence. It says, the love of money is
the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. Christ receives the preeminence in that verse because
the greatest of all evils ever done The betrayal of the prince
of life was done against him by Judas out of covetousness
for the love of money. For the love of money. Christ
gets preeminence in every word in this book. But why did the
Lord's true disciples have this indignation in their heart? What
made them say this is a waste and have this indignation in
their heart? Well, they were covetous in their heart too.
But it was another reason, Ecclesiastes 4.4 says, Solomon said, I considered
all travail and every right work, that for this a man is envied
of his neighbor, envied of his neighbor. This is vexation and
vanity of spirit. Envy at Mary, had a sister in
Christ from true disciples, because she did more than they did. That's what it was. That's exactly
what it was. What a cesspool is the sin nature
in every sinner and especially even in God's people. Even in God's people. But I want
to focus on something positive. I want to look at what our Lord
said here. And I want to compare it with some of the other accounts.
First of all, he defended her. Secondly, he commended her. And
thirdly, he presented her. That's our title. Defended, commended,
presented. That's our outline. First, the
Lord Jesus defended her. He said in verse 7, then said,
Jesus, let her alone. Let her alone. The Lord defends
his people. He said in Matthew, Why trouble
ye the woman? Why trouble ye the woman? Being
critical of Mary's worship. Being critical of Mary's worship. Being critical of Mary's worship. Of the work that she did for
the Lord. Was troubling to Mary. Very troubling to her. But Christ
defended His child. He stood between Mary and her
accusers. And that's what the Lord did
for His people from eternity. When He became the surety of
His people, He promised the Father that He would protect His people
from the wolf and bring all His sheep to the Father, perfect
in His perfection. That's what He promised the Father.
And so our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and stood between
us and all our enemies. All our enemies, our sins, the
curse of the law. the wrath of God, the accuser,
the devil himself, self-righteous religious men, our sin, all of
these things that were troubling to God's people. Our Lord stood
between us and our enemies and conquered all our enemies for
us. He went to that cross and He stood between His people and
the law. He satisfied justice for His people so that the law
won't condemn His people anymore. He freely justified His people,
He redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse
for us. And He stood between His people
and the chief accuser, the devil. He's the chief accuser, the devil.
And He stood between us and the devil and He crushed his head.
I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven now comes salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before God day and night. He
cast him down, he crushed his head, and the only way to resist
the devil for you and me is steadfast in the faith. That is, run to
Christ our refuge and trust Christ to defend you. Commit your cause
to Christ who judges righteously. He defended her. Right now in
heaven, He's our advocate with the Father, our mediator between
us and the Father, and the Father will not condemn His people because
Christ Jesus has made us righteous. And so, He's advocating for His
people, and His people are received of the Father in the Beloved.
And our Lord is going to defend His people, protect His people,
so that He brings every one of His people to the Father faultless. Absolutely faultless. So commit
your cause to Christ who judges righteously. He defends His people.
He defended her. Now here's the second thing. Because the Lord judges righteously,
the Lord commended her. He not only defended her, He
commended her. In Matthew's account, the Lord
said, she hath wrought a good work upon me. This is the only
time, Matthew 26, 10, he said, she hath wrought a good work
upon me. It's the only time in the scripture when our Lord walked
this earth that he said of another, of one of his people, they have
wrought a good work. This was the woman he said this
about. She has wrought a good work upon me. He said, In one of the gospels, she has
done what she could. She has done what she could.
Now this is what the Lord says is a good work right here. She
hath wrought a good work upon me. That's it. Whether it's done to our brethren,
whether it's done to a stranger that knows not the Lord. If it's
from the heart and it's for the Lord, it's unto the Lord. Doing what we can. Doing what
we can. The Lord doesn't expect us to
do what we can't. Only what we can. And if it's
to the Lord, from the heart, done unto the Lord, He says it's a good work. And
He gives the can-do. He said she did what she could.
And that's all He calls His people to do. Do what you can. And He
gives you the can-do. He gives it to you. She did this
because he made her willing. She did what she could because
this is what he made her able to do. She could do this by what
he did for her. She did this with purpose. He
commended her for saving this ointment just for him at this
time. He said in verse seven, against the day of my bearing
has she kept this. She had been saving that ointment
up, saving up her money to buy that ointment. The Lord does
everything on purpose. He saved His people on purpose. He ordained every detail of our
salvation and sent Christ to accomplish it. He did it on purpose
and she purposely set about to save and buy this costly ointment
so that she could go to the Lord and do this for Him at this time. She did this on purpose. She
saw something of His purpose toward her and she did this on
purpose. The Lord saves His people on purpose and our Lord's great
sacrifice for Mary made her willing to sacrifice for Him. She was
willing to pour out this costly ointment for Him. The Lord sees
the heart. He sees the heart. He knows the
heart. He knows yours right now. He
knows exactly. He knows what you don't know
about it right now. He knows it. And He knows the
heart that He's put in His people, and He approves the work that
He's caused His people to work, and He calls it a good work.
He does it. Now, it's because His people
are His workmanship, and the work that's done is by Him. Now
listen to this. Go to Romans 2. I know you're
familiar with this, but I want you to see the last part of this
verse right here. Romans 2. The Lord sees the heart
and He approves of His people and the works they've done and
He commends His people, just like He did Mary. She brought
a good work, He said. Look here in Romans 2.28. He's
not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter." Now look at this last phrase, whose praise
is not of men, but of God. Now without a doubt, the sinner
God circumcised in heart gives all the glory to God for circumcising
the heart. We don't make ourselves be born
again. He does that. We don't praise ourselves for
making ourselves be born again. We don't praise ourselves for
our works. He gets all the praise and the glory for that. But that's
not what the verse means. Here, praise means approval or
commendation of God toward the believer. It's praise of God
toward the believer. The Spirit says, not he that
commended himself is approved. That's what Judas was doing by
putting down Mary and condemning her. He was approving himself
and commending himself. We don't commend ourselves, but
whom the Lord commendeth. who the Lord commendeth. The
Lord commended Mary. He approved of Mary. He praised
Mary because she's his workmanship and he created this in her. The
Pharisees were Jews only outwardly. They were Jews outwardly only. Natural children of Abraham,
circumcised only in the flesh. That's what Judas was. Yeah,
he was with the Lord and with his disciples, but he was a Pharisee.
That's what he was. Their confidence was in their
outward keeping of the law, in their outward works, and this
could have been given to the poor. That was his confidence.
That was his salvation. They did all to be seen and approved
and praised of men. How can you believe, the Lord
said, which receive honor one from another and seek not that
honor that cometh from God only? They love the praise of men more
than the praise of God. This is what will make a man
refuse to renounce the religion of his mama as being free will
works religion because she professes to be saved under an Armenian
lie. It's because he wants the praise
of men rather than the praise of God. Afraid to offend men
rather than God. And the result of the confidence,
because the confidence is in their works, They're always judging
one another. That's the sure result of a man
whose confidence is in his flesh. He will judge another and he
will never give the benefit of the doubt to his brother. He
will condemn him. This was Judas's heart. It was
Judas's heart. But Mary was a true Jew. Mary
was a true Jew. Only God makes a true Jew by
circumcising the heart. Circumcising the heart. God creates
true worship. Romans 2.29 says it's in the
heart, it's in spirit, it's not in the letter. You can do everything,
dot every i and cross every t in the letter. That's what Paul
was doing when he was Saul. He said, I was lost as a goose
in a hailstorm. I did not know God. But in the
heart, in spirit, not in the letter. And the outward may not
look as good as the one that's dotting every R and crossing
every T. That's why they looked at Mary and said, what a waste. What a waste. She wasn't impressive
outwardly to them. But Mary didn't do this to be
seen of men. This was between Mary's heart and the Lord who
knows the heart. That's what he says here. It's
in spirit. It's in the heart. And the Lord
looks on the heart. He knows the heart of His child.
That's true worship. It's in spirit from a new heart.
Between the Lord and His child. True worship is rejoicing only
in Christ. only in Christ and whose righteousness
alone we want to be found. Mary brought costly ointment. That was a year's wages. Have
you ever given a year's wages for the cause of Christ? I mean
at one time. That's what she did. It was just
like taking a year's worth of your salary and at one fell swoop
giving it to the cause of Christ. That's what she did. costly ointment because the balm
of Gilead was costly to her by which she was healed. The unsearchable
riches of Christ were costly to her. She poured it out in
abundance upon him because he blessed her abundantly. He did
this abundantly for her. She was willing to spend everything
she had for his cause. He said, she saved us to anoint
my body before Baal. She knew Christ was laying down
His life unto death for His people, doing it for her, and He was
her only righteousness. She'd have done more if she could
have. She did what she could though. She redeemed the time
she had. He said, the poor you have always
with you, but me you don't have always. And she knew she didn't
have him with her always. That's redeeming the time. Brethren,
the time is short. We don't have a lot of time to
be fussing and fighting with each other when the whole world's
out there that needs to be saved through the preaching of the
gospel. We've got to redeem the time. Redeem the time. Indeed, it's good to do good
to all, but especially them who are the household of faith, the
Lord said. And true worship is having no confidence in our flesh. That's what a true Jew is, who's
been circumcised in the heart. No confidence in the flesh. Knowing,
because you know this, that in my flesh dwells no good thing. Somebody want to accuse of sin?
You don't know the half. What you think is sin ain't even
remotely close to the sin. In my flesh, in everything that
I am of Adam dwells nothing good. Absolutely nothing. That's what
keeps you from having any confidence in your flesh. And it keeps you
from having confidence in your brethren's flesh by judging and
condemning them when they don't measure up to you. Mary bowed to the Lord's feet.
She used her hair to dry his feet. What would you do if you walked
in here one day and one of these ladies was bowed down at one
of the men's feet and washing his feet with her hair? Would
you think, that's being too zealous. That's what Mary did to Christ.
That's what she did to the Lord. And it was nothing to her to
do it. She didn't do it to be seen of anybody. She did it between
her heart and the Lord's heart. That's laying down your glory.
That's not being too proud to go down to His feet. That's taking
all your glory, all your good works, all your self-worth and
saying, here's what it's worth. Lord, you can just tread it under
your feet. It's not worth anything. It's
your feet that are precious. Because you brought the gospel
to me. You brought the good news to me. It's your feet that are
precious. And Christ judged her. He judged
her. Because He judges righteously.
He saw her heart. He saw her heart. He beheld her
heart. And He commended her, whose praise
is not of men, but of God. It's of God. And that's what
you see in our text. Nathanael was under the tree.
No man saw him. He had no desire for any man
to see him. He was under the tree. Only God
saw him. And God saw his heart. And so
God commended him. When he came walking up, God
said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. No guile. He created the heart, a new heart,
a new heart. And that's what our Lord is saying
of Mary. She's His workmanship. He created this fruit and He
commended her because the work she did was to Him from the hidden
man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, no sin whatsoever,
because His seed, His incorruptible seed abideth, the Living Word,
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of
God," he's the only one that can see it, "...in the sight
of God is of great price." Everyone in the house smelled the odor
of the ornament. But our Lord Jesus Christ smelled the odor
of the pure, loving heart of a child, a new man that He had
created. That's what He smelled. Love
and gratitude from a heart just in love with Him. That's what
He smelled. Like Paul said, an odor of a
sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. That's what he... Wasn't well-pleasing
to Judas. Wasn't well-pleasing to the other
disciples. They had indignation in their heart. You know what
they were doing? They had indignation towards
the Lord's workmanship. They had indignation toward what
the Lord had worked. They were critical of what the
Lord had done. Now lastly, he defended her. He commended her
and He presented her. What do you mean by that? He
presented her. Not only did He hold her up that day as a trophy
of His grace, commending her that day, He presented her right
here in His Word for every generation to see what she did so that she
might be honored. He said in Matthew 26.13, Verily
I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the
whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done
be told for memorial of her. Wherever this gospel is preached,
this is going to be told, what Mary did. And that's how to be in the end
of the world. In the end of this world, our Lord Jesus Christ
shall present every one of His people to the Father before the
whole world. Christ shall present you holy
and without blame, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight. Unblameable, unreprovable in
His sight. I pray the Lord will let us worship
the Lord from the heart. doing what we can. Not because
we get paid to do it. Just doing it because we can.
Because He's given you the heart, and the want to, and the ability
to do what you do, redeeming the time. Redeeming the time. And when we see brethren doing
what they can unto the Lord, and unto brethren, and unto strangers
in the cause of Christ, Let's be an encouragement to them.
An encouragement to them. Thank the Lord for what Christ
has worked in their heart. Do what our Lord did here for
them. Defend them. Commend them. Present them. Judah's confidence was in his
flesh. That's where his confidence was. So he judged himself worthy
to condemn Mary And in the process, He made sure to act before men
to be seen of men like He was really benevolent. But it was all an act. But brethren, God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed
toward His name in that you've ministered to the saints and
do minister. The Lord won't forget what His...
He worked it in the heart of His people. He worked it in your
heart. And the Lord won't... He is not unrighteous to forget
what He's worked in your heart. The Judas's will forget you and
treat you like... They looked at the Lord and never
saw one good thing the Lord did. Never saw a good work He did.
There's no telling what all Mary had done for Judas. And He does
this one thing that He judged to be wrong And he didn't even
know her heart. But the Lord won't forget you.
He's not unrighteous to forget you and the work He's worked
in your heart. Christ sees the heart He's made
in His child. He sees the works He's produced
in His people. And let's do this for one another
like what He did. He defended her. God's people
aren't going... You will say a critical word
about your brethren, but the Lord will correct you and you'll
stop. And you will defend your brethren. You won't isolate them, you won't
turn your back on them, and then as soon as you find something
on them, flip flop, turn your back on the other one. You'll
defend them. That's what God tells us to do
in his word. and you'll commend them. Because
you'll love them. You'll know the love that they've
shown you, and you have the love of Christ shown to you, and you'll
commend them. And he presented her unreprovable
for others to see. And so it'll be an end for those
that he's made true Jews. for those He's made true to you.
What do you do with that? When you really have this in
your heart, what do you do with that? Turn to 1 Corinthians 4. When you know that in your flesh
dwells no good thing, when you have no confidence in your flesh,
when you know that Christ is all you rejoice in, and you rejoice
in Him alone, And you're really worshiping Him in spirit. And
you know Christ is the head of His church. He's able to rule
in the heart. You know His power. You've experienced
it. And you know He can work in your
heart. I mean work in your brethren's
heart just like He's worked in your heart. You know this. So
what do you do? This is what will be in the end.
1 Corinthians 4, 5. judge nothing before the time
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the
heart." That don't make me hope against anybody that professes
to be a believer. That doesn't make me have malice
in my heart and hope, oh, I hope your darkness is revealed. It
doesn't make me feel like that. It makes me rejoice that the
Lord's gonna defend his people, he's gonna commend his people,
and he's gonna present his people. He's gonna manifest the counsels
of the heart. Every work he worked, every thought
he put in the heart, the new heart that has no sin whatsoever. And then shall every man, every
true Jew, that's who he's talking about, every true Jew that he
circumcised in the heart, his people, they'll have praise of
God. Do you get that? God praised
Mary for this. That's how it's going to be in
the end. And you know what his people are going to say? Lord,
when did we ever do any of this you're talking about? The Pharisees
are going to say, oh, Lord, when did we not do it? Look at us. We're splendid. But his people
are going to say, Lord, when did we ever? And he's going to
say, Kristen brought me a glass of water. Kristen, he's going
to say, as much as you brought a glass of cold water to one
of my people, that's what he's going to say, you did it to me.
And he's going to say, and think about this, because Christ did
everything for us, and he is the only one who's, he breathed
righteous breathing for us. I mean, I'm trying to just say
it as, It's that much indeed. He breathed righteously for us,
because we can't breathe righteously. Sin's mixed with our breathing.
From your first breath to your last, and everything you did
in between, everything he did and everything he is, is our
righteousness. It all is of him, and yet the
Lord's gonna look at you because of him, and say, well done, my
good and faithful servant. And what are we going to do in
that day? We're going to take our hair, our crown, and we're
going to put it down at his feet, just like Mary did, and lay all
our glory at his feet and say, to thee be the glory, to you
alone. Praise him and worship him all
our day. This is the heart he gives in his people. All right.