Okay brethren, we're going to
be in Mark, chapter 14, verses 1 through 9 is our text. And
we come here to the passage that speaks of Mary's good work. And this work, our Lord tells
us in verse 9, that 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. So we're going to look at
her work today, and we'll see it relative to what our Lord
says concerning her work. One, that she hath wrought a
good work on me, and then second, that she hath done what she could. And we'll see these things this
morning. What we see is the product of
the Holy Spirit. It's the grace of God worked
in his people. And we see this in Mary, this
faith, love, and devotion that she has for the Lord. And we see that in the believer.
A believer has faith, love and devotion to Christ. And that's as opposed to the
unbeliever who's cold, hard, and indifferent to the things
of God. And so the believer, we labor
in this life, not for justification, not for any special earned favor
with God, not for our sanctification. We labor with a heart of thankfulness. And it's the Spirit that produces
that fruit of the lips, that thankful worship of the Father. And we labor trusting the Lord,
that He's doing His will, that He's working all things according
to His will in the earth. We don't need to be afraid of
what the wicked will do to us when we are open and honest about
our hope in Christ. We don't need to fear what they'll
do. The Lord will take care of that.
He'll take care of that, and we'll see that in the passage
today. He takes care of that, and so the Lord's doing His will
in the earth, as opposed to the wicked, who have a will, but
can't fulfill their will in the earth. They want to do things,
but they can't do them, but God, His will is what's being done
and established in the earth. So I called this message, A Memorial
of Faith, Love, and Devotion. a memorial of faith, love, and
devotion. And we'll just have two headings. First, we'll see the good work
that Mary does, and then we'll see how that she had done what
she could and what the Lord is saying there. So in verses three
through nine, verses three through nine, this details the account
of the good work that Mary does. And we're given an example in
Mary here of a believer. This is what believers of the
Lord Jesus Christ do, and this is what we see as a pattern that
we're to follow, or at least this is the fruit that the Lord
will bear in his people. And this appears to be the woman
that we know as Mary Magdalene, the woman out of whom the Lord
cast seven devils and we also know her as the sister of Mary
and Martha. That's who this Mary is and the
reason why I say she's a believer is because she's given as an
example where we see her love and faith and devotion in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in the text here, in verse
3, we see that she anoints our Lord. And it's done with very
expensive ointment that's called spikenard. It's a spikenard ointment. And look at verse 3. And being
in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat,
there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment, of
spikenard, very precious, and she break the box and poured
it on his head. And we find out this is approximately
a year's wages. This would have taken an average
person a year to earn and save up for this precious ointment
which she took. and broke and poured it on his
body, on his head and on his body there. And so, the Lord
tells us in verse 8 why she did this. Look at verse 8 at the
very end there. She has come beforehand to anoint
my body to the burying. And when I saw that, I asked,
well how did she know? How does she know what she's
doing? How is she coming here with this precious ointment for
in preparation of the Lord's burying. How did she know this? We think so little, I think so
little in my flesh, how weak I am and unbelieving I am that
I have to question that. Why, how did she know this? And
I think it's in Matthew, it says that against the day of my burying
hath she kept this. She's had this against the day
of the Lord's burying. At some point, she purposed in
her heart that she would use this precious ointment on the
Lord. She would give it to him. She would pour it on him in preparation
for his burial. So how is it that she knew that
he was going to be buried? And that soon, that very soon,
how did she know? you can see how she knew by looking
at her life. There's a few accounts given
to us of Mary in the scriptures. And one of them is when the Lord
would come to Bethany, he would go to the house of Mary and Martha. I don't know if Simon the leper
was their dad or what it is, but it seems like this is where
he was in that same house where Mary and Martha dwelled. And she sat, when he was there,
Where would Mary be found? Where was Mary found when the
Lord would come and be sitting in the living room there talking
with the disciples? She was found sitting at the
Lord's feet. It says that she sat at Jesus'
feet and heard his word. She heard him. She heard the
gospel he declared. She would listen when he was
preaching, when he was speaking. She listened. She wanted to hear
everything that he said and she heard it. and she believed, she
heard it. So you see here how this child
of God prioritized the hearing of the word. It was important
to her, to the point where even her sister criticized her because
her sister was laboring and ministering to serve all the people that
were there in the house, and Mary wasn't helping her. Mary
said, I'm gonna be listening to what the Savior, what the
Lord has to say. I wanna hear what he says. And
she was just absorbing that, and it was being revealed to
her, and she was comforted by what he said, but she heard what
he was saying. You can imagine what she was
picking up. She was hearing what he said,
and that just shows us the importance, the value of what the Lord's
doing here, in that he's giving you the gospel, so that we come
together to hear what the Lord speaks, that the Lord is teaching
and revealing in his word. Don't minimize that. Don't think
it's just a small, insignificant thing. This woman, she heard. And so she understood the things
of Christ, and so she had an understanding that He's talking
about His death. He's going to be put to death
soon. He's going to be buried. And so she was thinking of that
when she put this ointment aside for Him. And so we too hear His
word preached, By the Spirit's power, we're given an ear that
goes beyond just a natural hearing. We're given faith. It's the hearing
of faith, Paul says in Romans 10. The hearing of faith. That's how God reveals to us
his truth. All right? Another thing that
we see is that when she had a great need, she turned to the Lord. When she suffered great sorrow,
she went to the Lord with her sorrow. Remember, her brother,
Lazarus, died. A little while after this, her
brother, or actually before this came up, her brother died. And she was greatly affected
by that. And when she heard, when Martha
told her the Master's here, she went out to him because she needed
him. She turned to him like a woman
turns to her beloved husband, whom she loves when she's suffering
greatly. She turned to Christ. and was very sorrowed. So before, when she's sitting
on his feet, that's love. Here, when she goes up to the
Lord, that's faith. Because when she came, she said,
Lord, had you been here, I know that my brother would have lived.
You would have healed him. She believed. She knew that this
is the Christ. She knew what he was capable
of doing. And so she trusted him. It says in John 11, 32 and 33,
that when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell
down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died. And then it says, when Jesus
therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which
came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
And if you just pause for a moment and think about that, What a
sweet relationship they had. There was real love there. He loved her and she loved him. And she was there crying before
the Lord. And it broke his heart. He had
compassion on her. This is his beloved Mary who
trusted him and believed him and loved him and hung on every
word that came from his mouth. He loved her. There's a sweet,
dear, kindred relationship there between them. And so that all
has a part in what we're seeing here today. She really does love
him. She really believes this is the
Christ. And so tight were they, to use
the language of today, so close were they that when she came
to the tomb, right, she came to the tomb while it was yet
dark, while it was yet dark, She came, that's devotion. She
came to embalm His body, believing He's going to rise from the dead.
She came to embalm His body, and so that this Mary, this Mary
of all the apostles, all the disciples, it was this Mary that
was first to hear the angels declare, He's risen. It was this
Mary that was the first to see the risen Christ. And it was
this same Mary that went and declared to her brethren, the
first one to declare to the brethren, He's risen, just as He said. That's this Mary. That's how
much she loved the Lord, and knew the Lord, and was in fellowship
with the Lord. She was the first to hear of
His resurrection, the first to see Him resurrected. You read
John 20, And the first to declare it to her brethren, he's risen,
he's risen. She saw it. The Lord did that
for her because of that relationship that they had. And so that's
how Believers are made in that same way. There's a desire that
the Spirit of God works in us. He bears that fruit. We know
we can't produce that in ourselves. We've tried. I've tried. I've
tried to be more diligent, more faithful, more loving, more devoted,
and fail miserably. But we know how the Spirit is
able to do that, how He produces that in spite of ourselves, in
spite of my sin, in spite of my weakness, the Lord brings
forth that fruit where we desire to hear Him, we delight to hear
Him, we're thankful when we hear from Him, and He works that nearness
so that He's revealing and teaching us and showing us the mystery
of godliness revealed to us, the righteousness of Christ revealed
to us. He does all that. And so, when we're in trouble
like Mary, He teaches us, go to Him. Go to Him. Cast all your
care upon Him because He cares for you. And the Lord, He's the
one who works that and teaches us in us and establishes that. You know, we're so hard, we're
so doubtful, we're so unbelieving that we think, you know, oh,
God's getting me back now. I'm getting what I deserve. No,
no, no you're not. Not you child of God that believes
Him and trusts Him. He's teaching you. He's separating
you from the love of this world and all that this world has and
the destruction and death of this world. He's separating you
from that and He's driving that wedge and He's drawing you near
to Himself in patience, in tenderness, in compassion and in kindness. He's doing that for you and so
That relationship is created by the Lord because we must know
Him, right? We can know doctrine and be dead
as a doornail. You can know a lot of true doctrine
and not know the true and living God, but we want to know Him
the way Mary knew Him. We want to know the Lord and
He creates that in us. And the fact that we're here
hearing that, that's Him doing that. He's brought each of you
here today to hear that and to put that seed in your heart so
that there's a desire. Yes, Lord, I do need to hear
this. And yes, Lord, help me to turn to you and stop being
so quick to turn to this world and being comforted with the
vain jangling and shiny things of this world. Lord, turn me
to him and help me to be devoted so that I too know by faith and
see what Mary saw that Christ is risen and be willing, made
willing to declare that very truth to the people of God, whether
they confess it yet or not. I don't know who they are, but
let us declare that Christ is risen. And so we see it also
even in the Apostle John. He testified too of the love
and the faith and the devotion that God had worked in his heart. In his epistle, 1 John 1.1, he
said, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
he heard it too. He heard Christ speak and was
moved, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon. Brethren, we hear his voice. We pray we hear his voice. I
hope it's not just the voice of a man that we hear, but that
the Lord reveal Himself to us in His Word, and we see Him,
we see Him by faith, faith which is the evidence of things not
seen. The Lord reveals Christ to us in His righteousness, and
our hands have handled of the Word of Life. And you think of
how these brethren, Mary, The Apostles, how they laid down
their lives, were so moved and affected and touched by the Lord
Jesus Christ, who revealed Himself to them, that they gave their
lives for this Word that you and I today, 2,000 years later,
might hear and know of how God saves sinners. That is not by
our works of righteousness which we've done, but by His faithful
work there on the cross to lay down His life and put away our
sins. Alright, so the Spirit which
revealed Christ to John is the same Spirit that revealed Christ
to Mary, and it's that Spirit that reveals Christ to us. We
must be born again, and that's His precious work, whereby you
hear what He's done, and He gives you faith to believe. to rest
from your labors, to rest from striving to please God by your
works, and to rest in the salvation, in the Sabbath rest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to rest in Him from all your labors, knowing
that God, just as He promised, He's provided salvation to save
His people. He's done that very work. And so it's the Spirit. If your
faith is of your flesh, then it's not the faith of God. It's
just the faith of this world. It's just like believing one
thing versus another, but the Spirit reveals our need that
we're sinners unable to save ourselves and that Christ is
the salvation God has provided. So it's through that regeneration
of the spirit that we're given life from the dead to have that
veil lifted to be brought out of the prison of darkness and
bondage of sin and just laboring about under a sense of our own
works and guilt and shame. We don't do that as the Lord
reveals Himself to us. He brings us from that. He keeps
delivering us from that because we're so quick to go back to
it in the flesh. But the Lord keeps bringing us
out of it. So, this revelation in our understanding
and having heard Christ speak and it being brought to her mind
and shown to her, revealed to her in the Spirit, by faith,
she knew what He was soon to do. That's how she knew it. That's
how she knew it was for His burial. She knew Him. She knew Him. And
we need to know Him. Christ is the Savior, the personal
Savior of His people. We've got to know Him. We're
not saved by doctrine. He's going to reveal the true
Christ to us. We're going to know doctrine, but that's not
how we're saved. We're saved by Christ and knowing
him as he reveals himself to us. So she knew him, heard him,
and she believed. She came beforehand to anoint
his body to the burying. And so that's what the Lord's
displaying to us here. That's what he's showing to us
here. He's revealing Christ to us. And this pattern, this is
what we see in the believers. This is what we see as opposed
to the unbeliever. The unbeliever. And unbelievers
can be very religious. They can be right in here with
us. I don't even trust myself. I
don't look to myself. I have no confidence that I'm
standing here. I could be a castaway too. My hope is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It ain't by our works that we're
anything. And unbelievers can be very religious
and seem to have an interest in Christ, but yet be empty and
vain and destitute and have no relationship to Christ, not really
know that he's the Christ. And we see that in Judas. We
see that in Judas, who was with them all those years and yet
didn't know that this is the Christ and what that meant. Didn't
understand that at all. Look at Mark 14 verses four and
five. And there were some that had
indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste
of ointment made? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. And they
murmured against her. And John is in the Apostle John
in his gospel where he tells us, this started with Judas.
Judas started this. It says in John 12, six, this
is Judas Iscariot. 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. And so, you know, seeing how
Judas, started this thing. But also the disciples who believed
Christ, they were led astray too. And that's a good thing
for us to remember as we labor and live with one another, to
be careful with what we say. Because it's so easy to offend. We come from different parts
of the country, different cultures and backgrounds, and it's so
easy to get offended. And we ought not to get offended
so easily, but we do. We are. We think what we think
and feel what we feel and say what we say. Be patient with
one another as you would hope others are patient with you when
you say something hurtful or something wrong. It's so easy
in that sense, and it's easy just to say things that cause
others to stumble as Judas did. You think about it. You know, at first they're looking
at, you know, the disciples, they're standing there and they're
looking at Mary and they're thinking, wow, this is amazing. I know
that's expensive stuff there that she just took. I know that's
not a cheap thing. And she went, look at the love
and the devotion and the self-sacrifice that she has for the Lord. Truly,
this is the Christ. Truly, this is the Christ. And
they're looking at this work, you know, she didn't come and
say, hold up everyone, I have an announcement to make. I've
taken this alabaster box and I'm gonna, pour it on Christ,
I'm gonna do this. No, there was no fanfare, just
quietly, she purposed this in her heart to do it, and she went
and did it. She just did this work. And they're
looking at it, thinking, wow, this is pretty amazing, that
she would just pour that expensive bottle on the Lord. And then all of a sudden, Judah
speaks up. And he says, wow, someone's gotta
say something here, that's not right. What a waste that was. We could
have sold that and given that to the poor and done some good
works. Jesus doesn't need that. That's
a waste. There's the efficiency of the
flesh, right? We know better. He doesn't need that. I'm going
to speak up and say what needs to be said. Then there goes out
the judgment and the hurt and then people are turned. It immediately
sours the whole thing. Others are like, huh, yeah, that's
a good point. I didn't think about that. Yeah,
you're right. Why was this done? We didn't
need to do this. And then, you know, they're all
upset with Mary, who did a good work. And she just wanted to
do for Christ what the Lord had put in her heart. And, you know,
they said it, Matthew records it as saying, to what purpose
is this waste? So now, serving Christ and doing
the work for Christ is a waste. He doesn't need that. It's just
a waste in the flesh. But Romans says, Paul says, who
art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master
he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. And so, you know, just be patient
with one another and try not to judge. What I learned from my pastor,
I do the same thing, and I endeavor to do the same thing. Clay didn't
listen. If you had something to say about
somebody else in the congregation, he didn't hear it. He wouldn't
hear it. I'm thankful. No one comes to
me and tells me anything. You might think it, but nobody
comes and tells me anything. There's a real purpose in that.
There's a specific thing. One, because it's just, it's
a waste of time. It's hurtful to do that. It's
hurtful. And there's, you know, we all
do things and I know that we all do things and I get it. I
do things that, that can be hurtful and offensive. So I'm not looking
to get upset with, with anybody, but the purpose in that is because
I'm standing here in the pulpit speaking in the name of God,
I want to be impartial and different. I don't want to know what, I
mean, if you want to come and talk to me because you're struggling,
fine, by all means, I'll talk to you about you, but not about
another person. I don't want to hear about another
person. I don't hear from Michelle. Michelle knows not even to bring
it up to me because I don't want to hear it. And I tell her, don't
hear it. We just don't talk about it. And that's how Clay was.
He just shut it down right in his house. He wouldn't stand
for it because You have to know that if you hear something, if
the Lord reveals something to you, you don't want to think,
you don't want to know that, I mean, what good is it if I'm
saying it here because I've heard it. No, you, don't be so quick
to dismiss it and say, well, he knows, you know, something
and that's why he's saying it. Do I know that? Are you sure
that I know? Because I know from experience that back in, you
know, speaking back in New Jersey, There were teenagers that their
parents had them go. They didn't believe, but the
parents had them go to services. And they would go, and they were
old enough to drive, and so they'd go home first usually. And by
the time the parents got home, they'd beat them at the door
and say, why did you do that? Why'd you tell him? What are
you talking about? Why did you tell pastor that?
I didn't tell him nothing. Yes, you did. He wouldn't have
said what he said from the pulpit if you hadn't told him. They
didn't believe God, so they just assumed that the only way he
knew what he knew and said what he said was because somebody
had told him. And it isn't that way. You're praying about things,
you have questions about things, you're struggling about things.
Isn't God God? Isn't He able to cause you to
hear the things that you need to hear? And so, it's important
for me. I don't want to hear what you
have to say about another brother or sister. You know, we all,
any one of us, you can peel back and look at us and see our sin
and our depravity. Any one of us. So, that's not
what it's about. But, we're gathered here trusting
that the Lord is going to speak to us and minister to us and
reveal to us what we need to hear. Just like Mary heard what
she heard when she needed to hear it. Alright? Mary, another thing here is just
that Mary didn't respond, if you notice. Mary, when they started,
you know, heaping, I don't know exactly what she heard or how
much of it she heard or understood, but she didn't respond at all.
She didn't say nothing. You know who responded? The Lord. The Lord rebuked them. The Lord.
And that's what I'm saying, like the Lord knows what we have need
of hearing, and He knows what to say and how to say it, and If I'm hitting a mark with anyone,
it ain't me, that's the Lord. Trust the Lord that he's able
to do it. Like Paul said, we're sincere. We're speaking and ministering
sincerely, out of sincerity, not trying to use a cloak or
get anything over on anybody. That's not what it's about. We're
trusting the Lord. And so the Lord rebukes them.
Look at verses six and seven. Mark 14, six and seven. 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 ye won't. You know, we, you know, religious
people like to say things and judge others. You could be doing
this better. You should be doing this. You
know, I want to do this. But they never do. We don't do
it. You know, we talk a good game,
but we don't do anything like we say that we're going to do.
We just like to criticize others. But he said, me, he have not
always. And so trust the Lord. He still
does this for his people today. He still ministers to his people. He's still revealing himself
by his spirit in the hearts of his people. And so if you have
a need, come believing. If you're praying and seeking
the Lord, trust him. He'll, he answers. prayer, and
he reveals himself in his word, and he tells us what we need
to hear. And if I'm saying it, it's because
I need to hear it too, and I've heard it, and I am hearing it,
and the Lord's dealing with me, because otherwise I wouldn't
say it with conviction and understanding. So the Lord teaches me before
he teaches you. in what I'm saying. And so you
can be sure of that, that the Lord does that. So another thing,
too, that we see in there is when you're moved, if the Lord's
put something on your heart, some good work, some desire that
you have for the Lord, don't tell others. You know how quickly
when you have an idea and you say something to somebody and
they, they just like knock it down, boing, you know, and they
just say something and it's like, oh, that really stings. Don't
even say it, just do what you're going to do, trust in the Lord,
and believe, and don't worry about what others are going to
say, because as you can see, there's always somebody who's
going to say something, and somebody's going to find some criticism
with it, and knock it down, whether it's a Judas or a brother who,
you know, is sinning against you. They're going to, it'll
get twisted, but like Mary said to the servants at the wedding
there, whatever he said to you, do it. do it. If the Lord's laid
it on your heart and you really believe that it's of the Lord
and work unto the Lord, do it. And don't worry about what others
say or how they criticize it, because it's going to happen.
Alright, let's move on to the next point. What she could. Our Lord says in verse 8, she
had done what she could, she has come aforehand to anoint
my body to the burial. And what we see here is that
the Lord has a way of humbling us, right? And instructing us
and leading us and bringing us to see the weakness of our own
will, the weakness of our flesh, right? Because we're not going
to be saved by our works. He's going to separate us from that.
So we're going to learn that I'm weak. I'm weak and I'm utterly
dependent on the grace and the mercy of God that He reveals
in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so we see that it's His will
being done, right? As the Lord taught us when praying,
when He said, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. He gives us that prayer, that
desire. We may not say it in those words, but our desire is,
Lord, Your will be done. Whatever Your will is, let that
be done. We don't always mean it in the flesh, well, we never
mean it in the flesh, but in the Spirit, there's times when we're
brought just in resolve to say, Lord, Your will be done. And
what I want us to see here in this point, it'll be more brief
than the last one, but is our Lord God, He reigns and He's
doing His will. He's doing His will, executing
His will here, on the earth, and so you brethren that have
a heart to serve him, serve him trusting the Lord to do his will,
to do all things. You can trust and rest him as
we've been seeing on Wednesday nights in Isaiah 26. We saw a
couple weeks ago, trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the
Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. He's the one that brings down
him that dwelleth on high. His foot will trample The wicked,
you don't have to fear them or worry about them. The Lord's
gonna rebuke them just like he did here. The Lord's gonna trample
the self-righteous and those that think they know everything.
He'll deal with them. He'll deal with them. And we
believe even our brethren that are his, he'll call them out
and draw them to himself. But we see that. And what I want
us to see here is that the God of man, man has a God, It's a
vain, weak, puny, little, empty, no-good-for-nothing, puny, little,
idle guy. And he wants to do good. He tries
to do good. He would do good for the people,
but he's frustrated by the works of the devil. He's stopped and
kept from doing things because the will of man won't let him,
right? Isn't that the God of man, that puny, little idol that
wants to do good for you, but, oh, The people just won't let
me do anything for them. I'm trying, but I keep getting
frustrated. That's the God of man. That's
the idol Jesus of man. But the God of the Scriptures,
we see, does exactly what He wills to do in the Scriptures. He does exactly what He does
as He wants to do. Whatever He wants to do, wheresoever
He wants to do it, that's what He does. And, you know, going
back into the past, I remember being told by a Spanish Pentecostal guy, actually.
He was like, God is a gentleman. God is a gentleman, and he'll
never offend the will of man. He'll never offend the will of
man. Well, the God of the Bible just offended the people, their
will, here, because they wanted to do something to Christ, and
they weren't allowed to do it. They weren't able to do it because
God purposed something else. Look back at Mark 14, verses
1 and 2. Verse one and two, 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. They wanted to take him away
secretly and put him to death. But they said not on the feast
day lest there be an uproar of the people. So these wicked men,
they were always trying to kill Christ. They always wanted to
kill him, right? One time they wanted to stone him. Another
time they drove him up the side of a hill so they could accidentally
push him off and nobody would really know that they did what
they did. Oops, that's too bad, he fell over the side there.
They were always trying to do what they wanted to do, but they
were never able to execute their will. And the reason is because
God had purposed that Christ would die for the sins of the
to the scriptures. He's the Lamb of God, spoken
of, prophesied of, witnessed of before he ever came by the
prophets. They all laid out how Christ
should die, right? We know that he had to be betrayed
by his close friend for 30 pieces of silver, which he was. He had
to be crucified, which means the Gentiles had to get involved
because it was only the Romans that were crucifying people.
So he had to be hung on a cursed tree, according to the scriptures. And this had to be consented
to by the Jews. They had to turn from him. They
had to reject him as their Christ. They didn't believe on him. And
as the Lamb of God, not a single bone in his body could be broken.
And his heart was pierced. And he bled and poured out water
and blood. He had to be numbered with the
transgressors as he was. According to Isaiah, he had to
be mocked and beaten, spit upon, and have his beard pulled out,
which occurred. He had to be led as a lamb, is
led to the slaughter, silently, before her shears his dung, and
he was slaughtered. And then his clothes had to be
divided up among them, and they had to cast lots for that single
vesture, that last piece. They had to cast lots, and it
went to one person. So all this was prophesied and
spoken of in the Old Testament. And that's how Christ had to
die. And none of those things have been done yet. And so he
couldn't just be killed the way the Jews wanted to do it. It
had to be according to the scriptures, according to the will of God,
so that when you and I hear that glorious good news that all the
prophets bear witness of him that whosoever believeth on him
and his name shall receive remission of sins and you can believe that
because every single thing that was prophesied of him in the
Old Testament he fulfilled perfectly in his death he fulfilled everything
that they spoke of concerning the way that he should die. And
so these chief priests and scribes, they had a will, and they thought
when we kill him, his kingdom will be over, his influence will
be over, his followers, they'll all be scattered. What ended
up happening was that they became instruments in the hand of sovereign,
omnipotent, almighty God, who fulfilled all his will and purpose
in the death of Christ. Turn over to Acts 2. Acts 2,
and look at verses 22 and 23. Here, Peter is speaking to the
Jews. And he says, ye men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Look over in Acts 4, Acts 4,
27 and 28. Here the disciples are praying
in the upper room. And it says, for of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and
Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were
gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. They weren't doing their will
the way they wanted, they were doing it the way God determined
and purposed it to be done. And look at one more in Acts
13. Acts 13, verses 28 through 30. And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a supplicar,
but God raised him from the dead. So don't believe that devil's
lie of man's free will. Man has a will, but it's bound
in sin and darkness. He can only do what man can do,
which is not believe on God. He might be very religious, but
be totally dead in trespasses and sins. And it's God that overrules
the heart and the will and the minds of men to do what he has
purposed to do for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
doing all things well and good. And what we see here from this
passage in Mark 14, one through nine, is the Lord takes weak
foolish things of this world, things that this world despises
this woman here, this Mary, probably the youngest of them, this Mary,
and uses weak things like that to fulfill His will and purpose
in the earth, to do good, to do good for His people in serving
His people. She was nothing, and yet there's
so many sweet, beautiful stories. I want to know Christ the way
she knew Christ. I want that love and devotion and faith that
she had. That's what I see. I want that,
the Lord to do that for me and for his people. And we see this
truth of how the Lord uses weak things. Look at verse nine. Verse
nine says, 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. And I was thinking, why is this
thing spoken of? Why is it that this work that
she did here is spoken of, what she did for Christ in anointing
his body for the burial? And I realized that what she did was actually the
very catalyst, that everything that I just described that had
to be done by Christ, it was this work. this very work that
was the catalyst that set that whole thing in motion because
when Judas saw what she did and said what he said and was rebuked
by the Lord, he realized this isn't going where I thought it
was going. I'm expecting a kingdom, a literal physical kingdom here
on earth where I can be part of it and have my will and be
able to rule over the hearts and will of men and have money
and do what I want to do and this ain't going there. Clearly,
this isn't going that way. This man, I don't want no part
of this. This man's a waste of my time. I'm done with this.
And then he went out, and it says, he went out unto the chief
priest, this is from Matthew's account, Matthew 26, and said
unto them, what will ye give me? And I will deliver him unto
you. And they covenanted with him
for 30 pieces of silver. And from that time he sought
opportunity to betray him. And so, if she hadn't done what
she did, I mean, we know the Lord would have done it another
way, but it was this work that was that work, whereby now, if
Christ hadn't gone to the cross and was crucified the way he
was crucified, none of us would be saved. If he didn't put away
our sins, there would be nothing to talk about. Who cares what
she did? It would have amounted to nothing. But because she did
what she did, because the Lord was in it, he did it, he worked
that work, in her that set off the whole thing where Christ
was crucified just as the scripture said everything he died for the
sins of the people exactly the way God laid it out in the scriptures
and it all began right there with that work it was her work
that then Judas said, I'm done with this. And he went out and
betrayed him. And so that's how and why her work is spoken of
as a memorial. And so Judas was provoked and
we have a sweet memorial of a believer who loves and is devoted and
faithful to Christ. And that's all. We can't take
any boasting. We have nothing to glory in ourselves.
That's all the work, the fruit, the righteous fruit that the
Spirit of God produces in his people and so I'm thankful for
what we have and what we know and who we know really, who we
know and so let's just thank the Lord for that and pray that
the Lord keep that ever present in our hearts and in our minds.
Let us be fixed on him. Alright, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, thank you for In this example
of what we see that you do in the heart of your people, how
you take the weak things of this world, things that are nothing,
things that are despised, because Lord, you've shown us that that's
what we are, just weak things, unable to do that which we ought
to do. And when we do that which is
right, Lord, we're still unprofitable servants. Lord, we thank you
for your Spirit. We thank you for the grace, the
abundance of grace in your blood which covers the multitude of
our sins and makes us acceptable to holy God. Lord, we're thankful
that your will is what's being done here in the earth, that
what you've determined to do beforehand is exactly what's
done. And so Lord, with that reminder,
hold that ever before our eyes and help us to walk before you
in faith, trusting you, Lord, that you're going to do your
will and your way is going to be done and you're going to have
your way. And Lord, help us to be happy, thankful servants and
children, dear children of God, and walking in Christ before
you, Lord. Father, we pray that you would
bless this people, bless this Word to our hearts, help us to
hear what we need to hear, and grow us. Help us to hear like
Mary, and believe as Mary believed, and help us ever to be turned
to Christ in our time of need, Lord. Which really is always. Lord, we thank you for your grace
in Christ. And it's in His name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Before I forget, too, I'm sorry.
Next week we're not meeting here. We're meeting around the corner
in the library. So we'll have to show you guys where that is.
But basically, I don't know if you come up Mount Vernon when
you turn before you come here, but if you go out of here, which
is this way, if you go out of here and you go back into Nixa,
that center there, when you get to that light you would turn
left. And that would be what, right before the McDonald's?
and you turn, there's a nice pretty red brick building. It's
the library. I think there's a bank there
on the corner, and then behind that is the library. But if you're coming
from the other direction, there's a McDonald's, and you would turn
left at the McDonald's. So we'll try to get you more
information.