Someday, someday, we will know
how great thou art. We have a glimpse, and that's
what we have, a glimpse right now of God's greatness. We see it in creation, we see
it in providence, we see it in salvation, but someday, We are
going to see how great they are. And I believe we will spend eternity. Learning and seeing the greatness
of God. One, one old prophet said it's
unsearchable. He's unsearchable. God is our
God is great. Our God is great. We preach a
great God. Now turn back to John chapter
12. I titled this the true church.
We could call it family worship. We could call it family worship
or we could call it the sweet smell of worship. True worship
has a sweet smell to it. Now, six days before the Passover,
our Lord came to Bethany. Well, that time was blessed,
wasn't it? To have the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. To
have his presence. And he came there to meet with
Martha, Mary, Lazarus. And they made a supper for him.
But he came there to sup with his true family. This is his
true family. You know, believers are his true
family. He said, who are my mother's brother's sisters? It's those
who do the will of God. They're my true family. That's
what he's saying. And he came to Bethany because shortly he's
going to have to go to Jerusalem because of the Passover and he's
the Passover. They don't realize that. They
don't realize that the Passover is the Lord Jesus Christ. He
came to fulfill the Scriptures. He came to put an end to the
Passover, to the ceremonies. He came to put an end to all
of that. Paul says it like this, Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us in our Passover lamb. has come to Bethany, and in just
a short while, he'll just six days, he'll go to Jerusalem and
be crucified. Sacrifice. He came to offer himself
as a sacrifice for the sins of a multitude of sinners given
to him by the Father. He came to offer up himself as
a sacrifice for his family. The Passover was for Israel,
wasn't it? Well, all who believe are the true Israel of God. We
are the true Israel of God. It's what scripture says. Paul
said, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit
and have no confidence in the flesh. Those Pharisees said,
we be Abraham seed. Well, that does not make you
a child of God. It makes you a child of Abraham, but not a
child of God. A child of God are those who are the promise.
They are the ones who are the children of promise. That's what
the scripture says. They're the children of promise.
They are accounted for the seed. Now in this narrative, we have
our Lord. He's the reason for the gathering.
He's the reason why we are gathered here this morning. This is not
a social gathering. This is a gathering of God's
family to worship the Lord. That's what it is. He's the object
of their worship. He's the object of our worship.
He's the reason we are gathered. He's the central figure in this
chapter. He's the central figure of this
book. Jesus Christ is a central figure of the universe, isn't
it? All things were made by Him.
This is what the Word of God says. All things were made by
Him and for Him. He's the central figure of everything
that exists. He's the center of it. And bless
God if we know it. Bless God if you know it and
I know it. And we worship Him as such. And then we have also
here, we have One that's not mentioned in this Gospel, which
is Simon the leper, over in Mark and over in Matthew 26, it is
said that he's in the house of Simon the leper. He's in his
house. And then we have Lazarus and
then we have Mary and Martha and Judas. And then we have the
people who came to see Lazarus, not just the Lord. And we have
the Pharisees that they all make up this picture here going on
now versus one or two, six days before the Passover, our Lord
came to Bethany and he went to this family. He gathered with
this family. He always gathers with his family.
Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ is here this morning?
See, I have to ask myself that when I come here to preach. You
know, I come out here to preach Sunday morning, Thursday night,
and I pray this every time, Lord be with us, be with us. And the scripture is so true
where it says, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there are mine in the midst. There's Mary, Martha, Lazarus,
we know that. And we have Simon the leper,
and the Lord's in the midst of them. He's there. I believe the
spirit of our Lord is with us. He's with us in spirit, which
is really, it's not any different than being with us even in the
flesh. I mean, he's here, he's here. So our Lord comes to this family
and he has a supper with them and he's in this house of Simon
the leper. When the Lord saves a sinner,
He not only opens his heart, He opens his house, He opens
his pocketbook. He's generous. Everything I have
belongs to Christ. What do you have that wasn't
given to you? Whether you believe or not, God gave it to you. He's allowed you to have it because
all things are His. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullest thereof, and they who dwell therein. Psalm 24. Everything
belongs to Him. Nothing's mine. Nothing's mine. He even made my sins His. Isn't
that something? When He was made to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him, He even took my sins and made them His. It all belongs to Him. It all
belongs to Him. Someone said this, our relationship
to Christ is more than an acquaintanceship, it's a companionship. We are joined to Him. We are
in union to Him. It's not just being friendly
with one another. He's the vine. He said, I'm the
vine and you are the branches. There's a real connection to
us in Christ. He said, when two are joined
together in marriage, they become what? One. become one. You know, in the new birth, in
the new birth, there's a new creation, there's a new nature,
you know, that God creates, you know, a new, a new nature in
me, a new, a new man. Well, that new man is in Christ,
Christ is in that new man, and they're one. That's how we are
one with him, completely one. Listen as our Lord received us
in the covenant of grace in time we received him they received
him into the house Simon the leper Opened his house and received
the Lord into his house. We received the Lord we do as
many as received him that is a difference and I didn't look
up the Dictionary different, but there's a difference in accepting
and receiving There's a difference. We receive Him. You see, you
can be given some facts and you accept those facts, but to receive
Him is to embrace Him. It's to embrace Christ. It's
to love Christ. Simon, he asked Peter, do you
love me? Simon Peter, do you love? He
didn't ask me if he believed. He knew that. Do you love me? He went right to the heart. It's
a relationship. You can believe something and
not have a relationship with it, but you can't love something
and there not be a real affection and relationship with that. You
can't do it. And so our Lord received us in
the covenant of grace and we receive him in time by the work
of the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, we have now,
we have Lazarus. He is a representative of all
whom the Lord saves, being raised from the dead. You know, when
the Lord saved us, all of you who believe, when the Lord saved
us, there was a literal, a real raising from the dead spiritually. We were raised from the dead. We were dead, the scripture says,
in trespasses and sins. And He has raised us from the
dead to have fellowship with Him and to be in union with Him.
Listen to these scriptures in Ephesians 2, 1. And you hath
He quickened, given life to, made you alive, spiritually alive,
who were dead. and trespasses and sins. This
is why I don't ask sinners to do something for God, for Christ. They're dead. You don't ask a
dead man in a casket to do something, do you? He's dead. But I tell you what I do, I ask
the Lord to do something. I ask the Lord this morning,
if it be His will, that He give somebody who does not believe
the gospel life this morning. that they would live, that the
Lord would give life to an unbeliever. Wouldn't that be something this
morning, if God called one from the dead this morning, like He
did Lazarus? Colossians 3, 1, If ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. If ye then be risen with
Christ, that's a spiritual resurrection, that happens in the new birth,
when you're born of God. And listen to Colossians 2 13
and you being dead in your sins You can't convince somebody who
loves sins and drinks iniquity like water to come to Christ.
That's the last thing they want Darkness does not want light
Our Lord said that lest your deeds should be reproved. You
don't want somebody reproving you for your deeds. You don't
want to be exposed tell you You don't be exposed. That's why
you won't come to that's why sinners won't come to the light
unless the Lord gives them light He makes him alive and you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened
together with him Having forgiven you all trespasses Even before
you ask him You know that You know, I was forgiven all my trespasses
before before I ever asked I asked the Lord forgive I asked for
forgiveness every day. I But when the Lord put away my
sins, I was forgiven. I was forgiven. When David committed
adultery with Bathsheba, and he had her husband murdered,
he had him killed on purpose. Nathan came to him and said,
he gave him that story about the little lamb. And he said
to David, thou art the man. Thou art the man. You're guilty.
You're the one. But you know what else Nathan
said? You're not going to die. The Lord, he said, the Lord has
put away your sin. When did he do that? And how
did he do that? Christ is a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. God did that back in eternity
in that covenant of grace. He put away our sins. And then
in time, Christ came and died on the cross, made to be sin
for us and put them away on Calvary. And then whenever there's a new
birth and you come to God as a guilty sinner and you say,
Lord, forgive me, your sins are put away. You experience, you
experience the forgiveness of sins. You experience it. But brother, he put, he having
forgiven us all trespasses. That's why God can come to me
and have mercy on me because he's, he's, he's satisfied. His
justice is satisfied. There's no barrier between me
and God. God removed the barrier. He did it. And then he said, and then we
have here in verse two, also Martha, Martha, Martha served. It says Martha served. Martha
is always spoken of as serving. Isn't she? I'm thankful for the
Martha's that serve. I'm thankful for them. I know
oftentimes she's spoken of in a negative way, but I mean, everybody
that serves every now and then gets a little attitude, don't
they? Every one of us. Every one of us every now and
then gets a little attitude in serving. We do. But I thank God for the Marthas.
I thank God for them. What would we do without the
Marthas? What would we do? Martha demonstrated her love
to Christ by serving him and his that's how she demonstrated
You know listen in Mary Martha and Lazarus in in these three
characters We see a believer Risen from the dead serving the
Lord and worshiping him We all three of those characters are
are in us That's how that's how we live like that Martha demonstrates her love
to Christ by serving him now listen in Matthew 25. This is
how we serve him And the king answered and The
king shall answer and say unto them verily I say unto you in
as much as you have done it Unto one of the least of these my
brethren you've done it to me remember that story in Matthew. It's in the Gospels and Lord,
when did we ever see you in prison? When did we ever see you hungry?
When did we ever see you naked? And he says, if you've done it
to one, at least, the least of one of these, you've done it
to me. You've done it to me. And notice what really stands
out here. You have Lazarus raised from
the dead. That's a miracle, isn't it? You know that you who believe,
you know you're a miracle. You're a walking miracle. I don't
need to see any hocus-pocus. I see a miracle every time I
come here and preach the gospel. I see men and women who believe
the gospel. That's a miracle that you believe the gospel. But Mary, listen here in verse
3, then took Mary a pound of ointment of sphagnard, very costly,
a year's wages in that day, a year's wages. and anointed the feet
of the Lord, of Jesus, of the Lord Jesus. And over in the other
gospel, she anointed his head and his feet. But here John takes
notice of the most lowly act, the most humble, the most humble
act. She pours it on his feet. Then
she takes that long hair of hers, pulls it around and wipes his
feet, wipes that oil off his feet, cleans his feet. That's
humility. That's thankfulness. She is so
thankful that the Lord has forgiven her, that the Lord has saved
her, that no service was too lowly for her. None. None. She wiped his feet with her hair
and the house was filled. This statement right here caught
my attention more than any of it. The house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Whoa, she broke open that alabaster
box. That odor just filled that whole
house. If you come in the front door,
you could smell it. If you came in the back door,
you could smell it. If you're standing at the window, you could
smell it. You could smell true worship. God does. It's a sweet
smell to God. Mary is always spoken of being
at the master's feet, isn't she? Martha serving we do that Lazarus
is raised from the dead that happened and he seated with the
Lord and Mary is seating at his feet that's what you're doing
this morning if you're truly worshiping if you and I are truly
worshiping the Lord we're sitting at his feet and learning of him
this morning we're not just learning about him listen now we are learning
from him Come unto me all ye laboring heavily, I'll give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you." He said, it was burden, it was
a light. And learn of me, he said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. He's the lesson and he's
the teacher. Mary was always in a humble attitude
in worship. Now she takes a pound of very
costly spikenard ANOINTED THE LORD'S FEET, WIPED THEM WITH
THE HAIR OF HER HEAD, AND SHE DID IT FOR THIS REASON IN HER HEART, AND WE HAVE ANOTHER
REASON ALSO BECAUSE OF HIS BURIAL, THOSE WHO ARE FORGIVEN MUCH LOVE
MUCH. MARRIAGE DEVOTION TO CHRIST, NOW LISTEN, CAME FROM A HEART
OF GENEROSITY. It came from a heart of generosity.
She held back nothing. How often have you seen, or even
in yourself, you looked at what you're going to give, and you're
like, well, I can't. We can only afford to do this. We can only
afford to give so much. We can only. She held back nothing. That was a year's worth of wages.
And she broke that open and just poured it on. by those who have been forgiven
much, love much. And her devotion and love and
worship came out in her generosity. Then Mary's act, listen here,
her act of worship was spontaneous. It wasn't forced. If you're forced
to be here, if you're forced, worshiping is not going to happen.
It's not going to happen. True worship is spontaneous.
You want to worship the Lord. You want to be here. You want
to hear of him, don't you? You want me to preach Christ.
You want me to speak of him. And then her act of worship was
open. It wasn't secret. Everybody in
that house knew what Mary did. They watched her pour all of
that out on him and then take her hair and wipe his feet. It
was in the open. She wanted everyone to know,
this is my Lord. This is my Lord. This is the
love of my life. This is the one who has cleansed
me from all my sins. And she had a lot of them, just
as we do. We do too. And the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. True worship has a pleasant smell
to it, especially to God the Father. It fills the room with
a sweet fragrance of grace. Oh, nothing smells better than
grace. Nothing. Someone said this, what
the eye cannot see, the nose can smell. I thought this was a good observation. The nose can smell the tiniest
molecule that the eye cannot detect. God smells horseshit. The smell of a certain odor can
take you back to a special time like nothing else can. Can't
it? You can smell something and it
can take you back home or it can take you to a certain place
to a certain time. Just that smell, it triggers
it, it triggers it. Boy, when you smell the gospel,
when somebody's preaching the gospel, that sweet fragrance
of grace, it takes you back to that covenant of grace made between
the Father and the Son. It takes you back to Calvary
when your sins are put away. It takes you back to the time
you heard the gospel. Oh, what a smell, what a smell. But I'll tell you something else,
what a smell can detect, a foul odor. You can't see, you know, if you
have a gas leak in your house, can you see it? You can't see
it, but you can smell it. And you can smell it when the
gospel's not being preached. You can smell there's something
not right. You can smell the sweet odor
of grace when the gospel's preached. And when the gospel's not being
preached, It's like, boy, that's a bad odor. There's something
wrong with that one. Smells. And we can smell it. In the next
two verses, then Judas Iscariot. There's got to be one in every
place. He shows up everywhere. Satan will not let a true worship
service go undisturbed. He's not going to let it go undisturbed. Why was not this ointment sold
for 300 pence and given to the poor? Judas, here he is, partaking
of this supper there at that feast with the other disciples,
but he is unsympathetic as can be. He's hard-hearted as can
be. First of all, he gives a false
sense of value You know what he's saying? Mary, why did you
just waste that on him? Man, can you hear that? Can you
smell that? Why did you take that ointment
that could have been sold for a year's worth of wages and give
them to the poor like he cared for the poor? He didn't give
a flip for the poor. He didn't give a flip for the
poor. at all. And here's what we also see with
him, a hypocritical attitude in caring for the poor. He came
across as this philanthropist, oh, we could take him, we could
just, like he's going to make, the Lord knew his heart. And
John, John said, no, no, no, that's not why he said that.
He's the treasurer. He held the highest office right
at that time of those disciples. He was a treasurer. And you know,
this is interesting. The Lord knew that. The Lord
knew that. The Lord made him treasurer. He brought that covetousness
right out of him. That covetousness is the reason
he sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. The Lord knew that. All this is providential in bringing
Christ with the cross. There's nothing less than a chance
in any way, shape, or form. And then another thing about
Judas here, here is a heartless intrusion into true worship.
A heartless intrusion. Why, he says, why was this ointment
not sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said in verse six, not
that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. And he
had the bag and he bared what was put in it. You see, he couldn't
say that. John said that about him. John,
but Judas couldn't say that about himself. He's not going to expose
himself. He's not going to say you could have put that in a
bag. I could have took, you know, my cut out of it. That's what
he would have done. That's what he was mad at. Here's
a year's worth of wages. I could have took a cut out of
that and nobody would have known it. No man, no person has a right
to trouble another believer on account of his or her services.
That's between you and the Lord. Her worship in that alabaster
box was between her and the Lord. It's none of my business. That's
none of Jesus' business. And then, listen here, the Lord
defends Mary. He comes to her defense. He said,
let her alone. Let her alone. Against the day
of my burying has she kept this. You see, this act of worship
was against the day of his burying. Now, what she knew in that, how
much she knew there, I don't know, but she did it against,
he says, she did it against the day of my burying. Let me say
something here about funeral service. A funeral service, when
we have a funeral service, it's to be a worship service. When
we have the funeral service of believers, it's a worship service.
This is the way I want us to have these from now on. If at
all possible, to have it here and to have it as a regular service
and the congregation sing just like when the person was with
us singing. It's a worship service. It's
a worship service. I made someone mad because I
wouldn't let a certain person stand and say something in the
service. And I told this person, I said,
no one's going to stand there, doesn't believe the gospel, and
is going to say something that I'm going to have to straighten
up. I made him mad, but do you agree with me? They can't stand
here and preach another gospel and say stuff off the wall. Now,
I have in the past, I've asked other believers to, you know,
family members that believe the gospel to talk about their loved
one. That's fine. You did with your
grandmother or great-grandmother. That's good. But I'm not an unbeliever. Not somebody who's going to just
come off the wall with something. And he says, here, you leave
her alone. This is a worship service. This is a worship service
concerning his barrier. And I'll tell you something else
here. One of the ways to tell whether a person's confession
is real or not is, is how they pick on the Lord sheep. How they
pick on his sheep. He's picking on Mary. Judas was a high-ranking person
there, but he was the one that was lost, and he was picking
on the Lord's sheep. The Lord's sheep love one another.
They don't pick at one another. And we see here, the Lord will
vindicate his children. Mary's love and offering was
accepted and recognized. You know that in the other gospels,
they said wherever the gospel is preached, this is going to
be spoken of her. So every time we preach through
the gospel, we come across Mary doing this. She's preached. I
mean, this incident is preached many, many times in recognition
also of her. Your worship does not go unnoticed
by God. It doesn't go unnoticed. And there's something else about
Mary sitting at his feet. She was a good listener. She
was a good, you know, I've learned listening is not the easiest
thing in the world. Listening is not easy. To really
grab your attention and listen, and pay attention. Our Lord said this, and I'm gonna
wind this down. For the poor you have, or always you have
with you, but me you have not always. He's speaking here of
his immediate presence, because he's about to die and go back
to the Father. That's what's gonna happen, but
listen. Let's listen to this. For the
poor always you have with you, but me you have not always. Take
advantage of his presence. Every time the gospel is preached,
if at all possible, be there. Be where it's preached, here
or somewhere else. Be where it's preached, if at
all possible. Much people the Jews therefore
knew that he was there, verse nine, and they came not for Jesus'
sake only, but they might see Lazarus also whom he has raised
from the dead. I heard this story, I believe
Spurgeon told it, I don't remember the man's name, but he went and
heard this man preach the gospel, and he went away, I mean just
He went away thrilled. He was just, the man preached
with such power. He said, I'm gonna go back and
hear him again. Then the second time he went back, it was dead. It was just empty. He just, he
didn't get it. And he was relaying this story
to a friend. And he said, I don't know why
that is, why that happened, why it was like that. He said, well,
the first time you went to hear the gospel, the second time you
went to hear him. Big difference. Big difference. You come to hear
me. You're gonna hear me. If you come to hear Christ, you're
gonna hear Christ. I'd much rather you hear him. Much rather. But many came to see Lazarus,
not the Lord. They didn't come to see him.
You see, natural man, he's so dead, he wants to be entertained,
not saved. That's what they want. That's
what so many of these so-called churches are doing. They're entertaining
sinners on their way to hell. But also this, listen, miracles
are a witness of the deity of Christ, but they don't produce
faith. You could see a dead man raised from a casket here and
it will not produce faith. That's the work of God. That's
the work of God. It comes by the Spirit of God
through the preaching of the Word of God. It says many of them believed,
but it was like over in John 12 where it said many believed
in Him. They believed what they saw, they believed some facts,
but they didn't believe on Him, they didn't trust Him. You know,
I believe everybody in this room, everybody in this room believes
the Gospel story. You believe the Gospel story,
you believe Jesus Christ the Son of God, you believe He died
on the cross, you say you believe He died for sin, you believe
God chose a people and He died for them, you believe that. But
there are some here that absolutely trust Him to save them. You trust Christ to save you
and represent you before God and bring you to glory without
spot or wrinkle. That's a difference. There's
a difference in believing the story and believing God. And then the chief priest, and
I'm going to close, the chief priest there in 10 and 11, they
were angry. They were angry because of the
notoriety of Christ that he had received from raising Lazarus. And they were so angry, they
wanted to kill Lazarus. Isn't that? Think about it. They said, listen, we're going
to kill Lazarus because of all this attention he's getting because
he raised Lazarus. He raised him from the dead.
This shows you how spiritually dead people are. And these were
the religious people in town. These were the outstanding moral
people, moral majority in town. They were the men that everybody
looked to, the Pharisees. They were the instructors, the
teachers, and they were mean as... They were mean. Mean, mean. They said, we're
gonna kill Lazarus. Because of him, he's getting
so much attention and we're losing our following. Well, I hope I lose my following.
I want you to follow Christ. I want to point you to Christ.
I want you to go to Christ, run to Christ, look to Christ, believe
on Christ, and pray for me. Then I'll preach the gospel,
truly. They took counsel that they might
put him to death, put Christ to death, and Lazarus also. Here's
what they wanted to do. They wanted to remove every trace
of the Lord's ministry. If this world, even this country,
if it could, it'd get rid of the gospel. If it could. Now you can have all the other
trash in this country, but they'd get rid of it. The sovereign
Christ of God. God on the throne, they'd get
rid of. God who wants to make you healthy, wealthy, and all
that, they'd keep that. But thank God they can't get
rid of it. They couldn't get rid of him until his hour had
come. And this scene is played over,
listen, week after week. The Lord's family gathers to
worship Christ. He's the object of their worship,
but not everyone there believes. And there'll always be somebody
that'll cause controversy. Always be somebody that's gonna
pick on the Lord's people. And I see in Mary, Martha, and
Lazarus, every believer. You serve, you're being raised
from the dead, you worship. All right.