Good evening. There's a bold bluegrass song.
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning. Keep your lamp trimmed and burning.
And I finally got something right, worth singing. Keep your lamp
trimmed and burning. Oh, and see what the Lord has
done. That broke clock was right twice that day, wasn't it? That's
a frightening thing. It could be if a man didn't have
someone to interpret these things. And they said, you know, if you
ain't got oil in your lamp, off with you or you get old. The Lord was speaking to Hosea. He said, you married Gomer. She's going to run off on you.
She'll be your bride. She's going to leave you. And
he said, she did not know that I gave her corn and I gave her
wine and I gave her oil. He provides everything needed
for his bride in abundance. If it was left to me, if all men were most miserable and
without hope, that's a terrible thing. The Lord has to pray,
keep your lamp turning and burning and see what the Lord has done.
See what the Lord has done. All right, let's turn over to
John chapter 12. Merry Christmas, everybody. I'll
see you, Lord willing, on Christmas Day. I hope you have a good Christmas
Eve. And we'll have one service on Sunday, one service at 1030.
And that'll be our only service that day, one service at 1030.
John 12, we're gonna hopefully just look at the first three
verses. We'll see how long, how far we get. Talus messages, love,
hope, and faith. Love, hope, and faith. Here in
John 12, verse 1, it says, Then Jesus, six days before the Passover,
came to Bethany. We've been coming through his
first 11 chapters of John, and that covers three years of our
Lord's earthly ministry. It covers before that. It covers
his earthly ministry. And now, we've got the whole
rest of John for how long? A week. A week. He's got a week left of that
Passover, till that hour cometh. And he goes to Bethany. His earthly
ministry is done. Him preaching in public. That's
it. He's teaching his people and he's ministering to those
that are his until that hour comes. It says in Jesus, six
days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was
which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. The specific
man in Bethany. Bethany's a precious place, about
two miles outside of Jerusalem. That's where the Lord came. That's
where the Lord's presence was. That's a precious thing. Bethany's
a precious thing. I know of a whole lot of Bethany's
in this generation, for now, around this world. There's no
gospel there in that Bethany anymore. There's some Bethany
still, the Lord sustained those. Falkville, Kentucky, a little
hole in the wall. Ain't nothing there that's a Bethany. Now we're
in Australia, way down south of Sydney. What are they just,
they got farms down there. That's a Bethany. That's a Bethany.
Places in Mexico, little Pueblos. India, Africa, the Caribbean,
where else? Here and there, off the side
of the road, out in the county, little place. That's where God
meets his people. That's where God meets his people.
How do we treat such a Bethany? Just tax them and don't drive
around the city? That's a precious place, isn't
it? Verse two says, there they made him a supper. That's the
third meal of the day. I always say them backwards.
You don't take a supper bucket to work, you take a dinner bucket
to work, don't you? Breakfast, dinner, and supper.
They made him a supper. Imagine sitting down to eat a
supper with the Lord. Imagine that. God Almighty is
going to sit down and eat with you. What if it's broccoli? What if it's gluten? For me,
what if it's carbohydrates? What if we decide to have cheesecake?
That don't matter, does it? What if it's little tiny white
balls of bread? Whatness, manna. Oh, it's who you eating with,
isn't it? They made him supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus
was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary
a pound of ointment of spikenard, Very costly. And anointed the
feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house
was filled with the odor of the ointment. This house smelled
so good. This house where these two sisters
and a brother were. This house where the Lord met
them in Bethany. That's a special place, isn't
it? And they made the Lord supper.
They fixed him dinner. Fixed him supper. What a precious
thing. All the Lord's ministers are
given to hospitality. To be his servant, you must be
given to hospitality, to open your home up to feed others and
care for them and those things. That's all of God's people. We
labor together. This ain't my church. We use
that as, well, they sit under Gabe and they sit under John
or they sit under Todd or something like that. But this ain't my
church. This is the Lord's church. I
didn't found nothing. Nobody found nothing. If they
did, you ain't got nothing. That's the Lord's, isn't it?
And we're his tabernacle. We're his temple. This house
where he is, this is a precious thing. We all serve. We're all
given hospitality. Philemon. Paul wrote to Philemon
about Onesimus. And he said, Philemon, to you
and your wife and the pastor there and the church that's in
Your house, that's what he said. The church that's in your house,
the church house, this family here in Bethany, they gathered
there. The Lord met them. He gathered two or three in their
home, that threshing floor outside that field. Boaz told Ruth, he
said, I'll meet you over here. This is where you're gonna feed.
This is where you're gonna get fed. There'll be a portion on
purpose. Purpose is given here. That's
where he'll meet with you. That's where our Boaz meets with
us, isn't it? at Philippian Jail. Turn over,
left, turn to the left there, one book. To the right, I'm sorry,
I got my rights and lefts. I've slept in my bed two times
since we've been back, so I'm getting there. I'm getting there.
Act 16. Act 16, one book to the right,
Act 16. You know, there's another house here, wasn't there? Where's
that? Look up in verse 14. Acts 16, verse 14, here's Lydia.
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city
of Thyreta, which worshiped God, heard us. She heard us preaching. Whose heart the Lord opened,
and she attended unto the things which were spoken of of Paul. That word came to her in power,
and something happened. She heard, and there was something
different that took place than what always did take place, wasn't
it? She heard, she attended. And when she was baptized, that's
what happened. Go in all the world, preach the
gospel, baptize them. She was baptized and her household,
she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful
to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained
us. Don't leave. Remember them to the row of Emmaus,
and he act like he's gonna keep on going. They said, no, you
stay. Stay, I want you with us. I want you with us. That's a
precious thing to have brethren over it. Well, here in Acts 16,
there in verse 25, Paul and Silas pray, and they sing praises to
God. And all those prisoners, they heard them. They heard them
singing and praying. And then that great earthquake
came, didn't it? That earthquake came and shook the ground. Oh,
what a horrible thing. What news? No, that's a good
thing. Tore all the walls down in that prison. That jailer looked
up and he saw there was accountability and responsibility in those days.
And if he failed at his job, that is going to kill him, probably
torture him. That's on his head. Responsibility. You did it. It's your fault. You're going
to pay the piper. And he thought this would be
much better for me to commit suicide. And he's going to kill
himself. And Paul screamed, don't do it. Don't hurt yourself. Look here
in verse 30. They brought them fellows out
at 1630. He brought them out and said,
sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and now shall be saved and the house. Our Lord
tells us over and over and over and over. Believe, believe, believe. Why? Because you don't. That
ain't our instinct. We don't have that nature. He
has to put a nature in us to believe. We have to be born again. He has put life in us. We got
just as much to do with that second birth as we did that first
one. Believe. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord, verse 32, and to all that were in his house. He
said, you come over to the house, preach to us. Tell them the same
thing you told me. And he took them the same hour
of the night, and he washed their stripes. Who gave him those stripes? Why would you stripe somebody?
He was at war with them. He was at war with them. And
he said, oh, let me make it right. What have I done? If you haven't
ever woke up one day and said, I've been at war with a holy
God, what have I done? God ain't saved you yet. and the people's been saved way
too long. There's a time when not the place I went to was wrong,
that I was wrong. I was wrong. I was sat underneath
the gospel growing up. I had a faith, the pastor, one
of the best pastors this nation, this continent's ever seen, if
I ever will. I woke up one day and I realized
I was wrong. I was wrong. That's what it takes. He washed
their stripes and he was baptized. If you won't publicly confess
Christ before me and you, he won't profess you. Well, it happened
when I was in that Armenian church. Well, that's just a good excuse
for not doing it now, isn't it? I'm sorry. That's out of love.
He's baptized. He and all his straightway, they
straightway left the boat. They straightway obeyed the master
when they had a master. Now he's got a master. Master
should be baptized. He's baptized right then. What'd
that eunuch say? Well, there's water. What keeps
me from being baptized? Philip baptized him. Verse 34,
and when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before
them and rejoiced. He made them supper. Midnight
chow, this was then. That's army folks. And he rejoiced,
believing in God with all his house, his whole house. Why was
they blessed? The gospel was there. That's why. The gospel was there.
Christ was there in power. That's why they were blessed.
Why was it a supper? I was so blessed, Christ was
there. While we're having this supper tonight, that's what we've
come here to do. If you come here to be seen of men, or to
get you praying in, or to do this, or sing real loud so everybody
can hear our lovely voices, or do anything else, you're in the
wrong spot. You're gonna be a two-fold child of hell. That's what the
scriptures say. We come here to feed on Him. Hear Him. Sir, I would see Jesus. I wanna
hear about my Lord. Anything else is hogwash. It
ain't gonna do you no good. Go get you some tickets to the
football game. You'll be better off. We come
here for him. For him. Oh, and it's blessed. It's blessed to have a place
where the Lord meets with his people. He said, where two or
three are gathered. Not where two or three gather and we're
going to pray until we bend his arm. That ain't God. That's a
mutiny. That ain't going to work out
good for you. Where he gathers two or three in his name because
he's cared for them. He supplied their oil. That's
what he's done. He gave them a lamp. He gave them a sight
to see if it was light or dark. He gathers them. He meets with
them. And that's a precious place. Remember when Uzzah has come
back and that ark went to fall and he stuck his hand up and
it killed him? David was scared. Do you know that? David was afraid. David was afraid of God that
day saying, how shall I bring the ark of God home to me? Well, what are we going to do
now? This is bumpy terrain. The road's rough. There's going to
be some ups and downs. How are we going to do it? So
David brought not the ark to himself in the city of David,
but carried it aside to the house of Obeddom, the Geddite. He took
it to Obeddom. And the ark of God remained with
the family of Obeddom. In his house, three months, that
ark stayed there. And the Lord blessed the house
of Obeddom and all that he had. He blessed him. That ark was
Christ. Christ abode in that house for three months, and boy,
what a blessing. Does that mean that If we have a gospel preacher
come over to our house, they're going to save everybody in our
house. Absolutely not. But the only way God saves his
people is through the preaching of the gospel. You can sit down
with all the commentaries you want. You could sit down with
all the Spurgeon you can read until you throw up and all those
things. It ain't going to do you a lick of good unless the
Lord sends somebody to preach the gospel to you. That'll bless
your whole house. Well, it didn't say my children
or my brother or my sister or whatever. What'd our Lord say?
Your mom's out there. She's wanting you. He said, this
is my mother. You're my brother. You get that? You're my brother. This is my house. It'll bless
the house. Hands down. Where's that come from? That's
why we do these things. We don't have to have children's
programs and coloring books. How did the Lord save children
before they had crayons? He gave them the Passover, that's what
they're about to, the Passover. Why do they have the Passover?
He said, that way whenever your children say, Daddy, why do we
do this? We was gonna die, son. And it was something that died
in our place. And God passed over and he saw the blood and
we lived. Why you going to church? Why
we come here to eat on a Wednesday night? Because God saved us. And that's all the way God saves,
folks, is under that blood. How they gonna know about it?
Gotta tell them. Gotta tell them. What's the result
of that? A friend of mine said this years
ago. He said, let's bring, pay attention to this, boy, the first
thing I thought of was Abraham. Abraham wrote, this is a foreign
concept, I'm just gonna say it. My house, my rules. You young
people hear me, especially you that live in my house. My house,
my rules. If you don't like it, get your own house. Abraham governed
his house well, didn't he? We looked at that in Genesis.
A friend of mine said this, let's bring the gospel to our house. Why does something good happen
in our home? God did it. What mankind says,
why does something bad happen? Oh, this is terrible. You know
what happened? I'll tell you exactly what happened. God did
something. Let's bring the gospel. That's called good news, not
bad news. Oh, the government, that's the
Lord's government. Stand back and watch what he's going to
do. Let's bring the gospel to our house and let's bring our
house to the gospel. Let's bring our gospel to our
house, and let's bring our house to where the gospel is preached.
Reasonable service, least I can do. If I love them, if I love
them, children, I love you. That's why you're sitting right
there where you're sitting. I had a whole, I'm jumping over my
notes, I had a whole message to preach to these young people,
and you're the only young people here, and you get it night and
day. You're here because I love you. That's the best thing I
can do for you, is put you under the sound of the gospel. What's
the result of this blessing? What's the result of the preaching
of the gospel? What's the result of being where the word of God
is blessed? Look back in our text there,
John 12. There's three people I want to
look at here. There's three brethren. I want to look at them individually
and then collectively. Here, John 12, verse two. They
made him a supper and Martha served. Martha served. What's that mean? Love. Love. She served before, but
it was different. The Lord corrected her, didn't
it? This time she's serving and it was servitude out of love.
She had to be taught that. You understand that? Martha gets
picked on a whole lot. She had to be taught how to love,
and then she served. She's doing a whole lot of stuff
before she'd be taught that. She's still wired to serve. The
Lord just, he has some from nature and nurture from the get-go.
That's what he, the mold he used to make them, and they're gonna
serve. That's what she was geared to do. But her heart wasn't right
before. Now her heart's right. Now she's
serving. She didn't tell the Lord to make
Mary get to work, did she? I'm cooking supper. Have her
get up, Lord, with her hands on her hips. Don't you care?
I'm working my fingers to the bone. You have her get up and
be meh-meh-meh-meh and picky and... He and Pecky and nasty,
nasty is what that is, nasty. No, now she served. She didn't
dare say, would you get Lazarus up, get him chopping wood or
something. You know how hard it is for me to chop wood? No, you stay right where
you at. I wouldn't have Mary get up for nothing. I wouldn't
have Lazarus get up for nothing. She served and she was happy
to do what the Lord put in her hand to do. Why? It was a debt
of love. We ought out of a debt of love.
It was reasonable service, reasonable service. We need some Marthas. We need the Lord to teach some
people about his love towards them, and we need Marthas that'll
get after it. You see that glass of water right
there? I was studying. I was writing all over these
notes, trying to change gears real quick before we started
today. And I thought, what if I run out of water? Well, a Martha
beat me to it. I woke up this morning. I had
to have coffee. Well, the coffee's already on. My cup was sitting
there. Wow, a Martha beat me to it, didn't she? There's a
desk and a chair in my office. That was there when I got here.
Martha's beat me to it. I could study and preach and
travel and pray and go after these people, because most everything's
already done. Martha's were there, isn't it? I had tickets to Australia
a couple weeks ago. I didn't pay for that. Martha
paid for it. Lord put that in somebody's hand to do. Bought
a lot of plane tickets this year. I went to Australia, Texas, and
Florida, and Tennessee, and Virginia, and New Jersey, and Rescue. A lot of Marthas, isn't it? That's
needed. How did she learn this love? How did she get this heart
of service? Where'd that come from? Look
over in Luke 10. Now we turn to the left. Luke
10. Here in Luke 10, Martha got on
to the Lord. Why won't you make her help me?
Here in verse 41, and Jesus answered, said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful. You're careful. What's that mean?
You're full of care. Full of care. You're careful
and troubled. When we're full of care, the
things of this world and what the burden that we have laid
on us, we're troubled. Is that right? Is that your experience? Have you just been like, oh no,
and you just wring your hands. Oh, is that helpful? Man, I don't
think I'm gonna take a nap. No, you're troubled. You're full
of care. You're careful and troubled about
many things, but there's one thing needful. Martha, one thing's
needful. Those other things are gonna
have to take place. The Lord will handle that, but one thing is
needful, and Mary's chosen that good part. What's that? Christ. We get wrapped up in
serving God, but we're not served by him. I may never preach another
message ever. I need Him. If I wake up tomorrow
morning and I don't ever preach again, I need Christ. Hands down. You may never hear another gospel
message. God may dry us well up. You need Him. Two Wednesdays in a row, y'all
didn't have anybody here to preach for you. You really need Him. Now you're starting to owe Him,
don't you? You go through a little bit of a micro-famine. I need Him. Martha, there's one thing needful.
Mary's chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away
from her. Boy, that's good news to me.
What if I get tongue cancer and I can't preach to them? Well,
my preaching ain't got nothing to do with it. It's the Lord
that did it. It's the Lord that provided it. It's the Lord I
need, and he shall not be taken away from me. He shall not be
taken away from me. That's good news. No matter what,
people say, oh, you can't tell folks that. No, I sure can. I'm
delighted to tell you that. If he saved you, you're plumb
saved. It don't matter. I'll make them do what they want.
That's exactly right. They'll serve him. They'll love
him just like Martha did. And they won't gripe and complain
about what somebody else is doing or not doing. They'll just do
what God put in their hand to do. Christ is an equal. That's the person, isn't it?
Look here in John 11. John 11, verse 21. Here's the work he accomplishes.
Lazarus had died and Martha says to our Lord whenever he comes
to Bethany, verse 21, John 11, 21. Then Martha said unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But
I know, she knows a lot, don't she? Knows everything. I know,
I know. But I know that even now, whatsoever
thou would ask of God, God will give it to thee. And Jesus said
unto her, thy brother shall rise again. And Martha said unto him,
I know. I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection
at that last day. She had her doctor now, didn't
she? Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection. I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. You believe that? Believe that,
Martha? And she said unto him, yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which shall come
into the world. She believed him. She had a Lord.
She had a Lord, didn't she? Before, Martha had to serve.
I gotta do this and she ain't helping me. Now she gets to serve. That's liberty. She gets to serve
the Lord. And if you serve the Lord, you're
serving his people. They're one and the same. They're
one and the same. Love does something. Love does
something. It serves the Lord. It believes
Christ and loves the brethren. That's what we learned the first
thing when I got here, wasn't it, 1 John? Believe Christ, love
your brethren. Believe Christ, I told you that 114 times. It does it. If you believe him,
you're gonna love his people, ain't you? But what about Lazarus?
Stay there, John 11. Lazarus is hope. Martha's love,
example of love. Lazarus is an example of hope.
He had an expected end. Hope doesn't mean, well, there's
a 50-50 shot and I hope it lands the way I want it. No, no, no,
no. Hope's an expected end. This is surety. What was he doing?
He sat at the table. He waited on the Lord. He was
waiting on the word of the Lord. Lazarus came out of that tomb.
He came forth, didn't he? He wasn't a cripple. He was able
to work. He probably did that whole day
leading up to this or the week leading up to this. Where do
you think Martha and Mary got this stuff? He went to work. And when he
got all his work finished, well in time, well prepared, because
he built his life around the worship of God, not the worship
of God, around his life, and he was there waiting, sitting
with the Lord, waiting on Him, looking at Him. What was his
expectation? What was his hope? Paul wrote to that church at
Thessalonica. He said, but I would not have
you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. That's
what Lazarus was, remember? The Lord said, he sleeps. They
said, why are we waking him up? He said, he's dead. Don't be
concerned about those who are asleep and those that sleep in
this body that's with the Lord. He said that you sorrow not even
as others which have no hope. As a Christmas gift, I got a
funeral preached about a believer that was dear to me. And boy,
that's hopeful. I said, that's good. I was taking
notes. I said, I'm going to preach a
funeral someday for a believer, and I look forward to it. Boy,
this would be wonderful. If the world wasn't around, we'd
just have a good time. This is great. Our brother's
with the Lord. Paul said, we're not like other
people who have no hope. He said, for if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. That spirit's with the Lord right
then, and you're going to have a new body. And however that
works out, I'll find that same time you do. We'll see it together. Lazarus had died. The Lord raised
him. He was asleep. He brought him
out of that sleep, didn't he? He knew that, and he said, boy,
if this is so, imagine what's going to happen when I'm plum
dead, when I'm over, over. I ain't going to just see him,
see how he's mortalized. I'm going to see him because
I'm going to be made like him right then. Oh, that's hope,
isn't it? What are you going to do? I'm
going to sit here and wait. That faithful man of God down
in Arkansas has bodies in the grave, and it says on the tombstone,
waiting. Waiting. I thought bodies do.
He's waiting, isn't he? Why did he have hope? The Lord
made him alive, didn't he? Or maybe I've done John 11 verse
39. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of
him that was dead. What's, what can you say good
about Lazarus? I'll tell you what his own sister said. He
said, Lord, by this time he's stinking. We ought not have opinions
about people, should we? And let me give you some good
advice. You ought not voice them. If you've got opinions about anything
in this world, keep your mouth shut. Just hush. Sit, be quiet,
and wait for the Lord to do something. I hope I can do that. Whether
it's politics or public policy or whatever, road construction,
just hush. That's good. Martha said, he
stinks. He did stink, didn't he? Was
that too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Hmm. He's been dead four days, verse
40. And Jesus said unto her, said I not unto you? Did not
tell you that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the
glory of God? Then took away the stone from
the place where the dead was. And Jesus lift up his eyes and
said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew
that thou always hearest me, but because of the people which
standeth by, I said it. that they may believe that thou
hast sent me. Thank you, Lord. And when he
had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about the neck, and Jesus said to him, Lucy, let him go. Lucy, he was dead, and now he's
alive, and he's gonna set with the Lord. He got unwound. He's all bound
up in religion and all those grave clothes of death. And the
Lord said, knock that off of him. He told his servants, Lucy,
take that stuff off of him. Get him unwound. Be good for
him. Where's he at now? Sitting and waiting on the Lord. Many that are given new life.
That's a new life, isn't it? He was in a grave and now he's
up. That's a new life. Picturing God putting a new life
in his people. Whenever the Lord puts a new
life in his people, they're so excited and so energized and
motivated and the birds are singing sweeter and they want to do something.
They want to serve a lot. They want to serve the Lord and
serve his kingdom right then. They want to do things around the
church. You know what's good? It's good to sit and listen. Just wait.
Sit and listen. Well, what about this? What about
that? What about that? You're going to learn. The Lord's going to
teach you. Give it, I always say, six weeks, six months, or
six years. I don't know how long it's going to be. Sit underneath
the preaching of the gospel, and the Lord will, through that
one man, not through 50 of them, through that one man, God's going
to teach his child. He'll teach you, I promise, just
wait. And if the Lord's pleased to put something in your hand
to do other than sitting, and that's important, He will. He
will equip you. If the Lord's gonna give somebody
a voice, He's gonna give ears to hear, isn't it? That's what's gonna
happen. If the Lord wants you sweeping
floors, He's gonna give you a broom. It'll be fine, don't worry about
it. Turn to Ephesians 2. We know this, but it's good to
see. He's sitting, isn't He? That's the thing I want you to
get. He's sitting, Ephesians 2 verse 1. Here's what happened to Lazarus.
Seasons 2, when a new hath he quickened, made alive. That's
what it was. He made Lazarus alive, didn't
he? Who were dead in trespasses and sins. Where in time past
you walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. The exact same thing you hate,
that's what you was. That's what your old man is.
You get that? Don't be getting down on people, just because
you ain't drowned some babies in a bathtub. Verse three, among
whom also we all had our conversation and time passed in the lust of
our flesh. And most of that's religion.
Most of that's not committing crimes and turning tricks and
selling dope and all that stuff. Most of that's religion, way
worse. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That's
how we were born. But God, he did all the work. who's rich
in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, not we
loved him. That's what Martha and Mary sent
word, and they said, Lord, the one you love's dead. He's sick,
the one you love's sick. Not that, well, he loves you
a whole bunch. No, that's what matters, his love. Wherewith
he first loved us. His great love, wherewith he
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace are you saved. This
is all his grace, unmerited favor. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together." Sit down. God might teach you. You
might learn something. Just sit down and learn something.
Made us sit together in heavenly places. Where? Oh, that's the
streets of gold. No, in Christ Jesus. He's capital
H Heaven. Why would we do such a thing?
What would the Lord do if we just sat and listened to him
and was instructed in his word, verse seven, that in the ages
to come, throughout eternity, he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. He's going to show us Christ.
Set with Christ, where he's preached, and you're going to learn about
Christ. Well, I need to learn how to live in this world. You
need to learn Christ. That's what you need to learn.
I need to learn how to love. You need to learn about His love.
I need to learn how to be more faithful. You need to learn about
He is my faithfulness. That's what you need to learn.
Sit still. Be still is a good way of putting
it. Stand still. That's what Moses said. Fear
ye not. Stand still. and see the salvation of the
Lord, which he will show you today. Today's the day of salvation.
God saves people. People don't save themselves.
He just might save somebody today, finally. Boy, wouldn't that be
something. He ain't out of business, is
he? Martha loved, so she served. Lazarus hoped he had an expected
end. Life was put in him, and he sat
down and he waited on God. Sit there and listen for him.
Maybe he might say something. Let's just sit here and be quiet. What
about Mary? Oh, what faith. What faith she
had. Remember those, everybody wants
rules and numbers, doesn't it? And Peter said, Lord, how many
times do I have to forgive my brother? That's what they're
used to their whole life. They're used to law. It's all
they've ever heard. It's all they've ever known. It's the framework. That's the
grave close. How many times? He said 70 times, said infinite,
infinite. You know what those disciples
said? They said, Lord, give us the grace to do that. No, that's
not what they said. They said, give us faith. Faith. People go around talking about
how much they know about faith, don't know squat. We have to believe
God to do that. Wouldn't believe him to do anything,
no way. Lord, give us faith. Mary had
faith. She poured. Martha served. Lazarus
sat. She anointed. Look here in John
12, verse 3. Back in her text. John 12, verse
3. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard. Comma. Costly. I'll add in what it says. Very
costly. Does that say very costly in
your Bible? Mine it says very costly. Very costly. And anointed
the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Knowing God
is faithful. Knowing that everything comes
from his hand. Believing him. Believe in everything
he says. I may not understand it, but
believe in it. She gave every last drop of that spotner to
the Lord and poured it on his feet. She didn't dribble it,
she poured it out. Did she pick it up at the dime
store? No, it says it's costly, very costly. She didn't go down
to Goodwill and get a half empty jar and say, well, we'll give
him some and we'll keep some for later. Martha didn't say,
what are you doing? Lazarus says, hey, just use half.
He don't need that whole thing. No. He poured it out very costly,
at great cost. Why? Because it was for the Lord.
It's his anyway. It's his. I don't have time to
keep going, but Judas is about to pop up. You're wasting the
church's money. He didn't care about this. He said, we could
have gave that to the poor. He didn't care about the poor. It says so. Look that next week,
but whenever we, if Lord's put something in your heart, you
give the absolute best to him and his people and you'll do
a second rate. You know, I'll give you an example. I hope don't
marriage nobody. I went to a church that's brand new. Them brethren
have labored and labored and spent and spent and did overtime
and got second jobs and did everything they could to build that church
building. And it's beautiful. And I was walking by and I saw
something hanging on the wall. You know what I saw? One of them
Dyson stick vacuums. That's right there, $450 hanging
on the wall. That old Judas and Mesa boy could have saved that.
Oh, this is the Lord's house. I'll get a broom and a dustpan
for my house. This is the Lord's house. You give him your first
fruits. Not your first twigs and your first leaves and your
first mulch, your first fruits. That's commitment. God did a
work in somebody's heart to do that. People say, well, you got
a big deal with the Lord's money. He ain't gonna run out. It'll
be alright. We're gonna be good stewards.
Not be foolish, but he ain't gonna run out. Was she worried
about it? Was Mary worried about it? No.
Why? She had faith. She believed God. She didn't
give a half measure, she gave the whole pound. And she worked
it out just like her brother, just like her sister. She got
it from somewhere, and I tell you what, she didn't steal it,
and she didn't get it from a government handout neither. She went and earned,
worked for it. Sweat for it, didn't she? And
she did it by his feet. She gave that ointment of Spacknard
very costly, and she anointed the feet of Jesus. Why'd she
do that? Humility. Humility. Not uppity. Judas kissed him,
didn't he? Saw him face to face. Eye to
eye with him, because there's equals. Not this one. She got to his feet. I thought
of Ruth on that one, too. Naomi instructed Ruth. She said,
you wash yourself. Therefore, anoint thee. Make
sure you smell good. Put on thy raiment. Get up and
get down to the floor. She said, you go get dressed.
Prepare yourself for what's about to happen. Don't come in haphazardly.
Prepare yourself. Be diligent." She said, you go
down to the floor and make not thyself known to the man until
he had done eating and drinking. You let him eat and drink first.
Don't interrupt him. Keep your mouth shut. Get yourself
ready. Go down there. And when he lies
down, thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie. You pay attention
where he goes and you go in and you uncover his feet. Naomi told
Ruth, you go down there to Boaz, and whenever he lays down, you
keep quiet, dress yourself up, and whenever he lays down, you
uncover his feet, and you lay down by his feet, and he'll tell
you what you should do. Bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Bow. You come to his feet. Don't
you come to his hip. Don't you come to his hand. Everybody's
coming to Jesus for a handout. Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a
new Mercedes Benz and heal my cancer? You come to his feet
thanking him. And you know what Boaz told Ruth?
He said, you ask and I'll give it to you. Whatever you want.
If you come to the Lord Jesus Christ's feet, you want life,
you want forgiveness, you want mercy, you want to be with Him. And he says, you ask, I'll give
it to you. Ask, I'll give it to you. and she wiped his feet
with her hair. This costly ointment that she
labored for, she sweat for. That's how she got her bread,
wasn't it? Sweatin'. Good thing, if you got a fever, go break
a sweat. Go to work. If you're bored, go to work.
If you're broke, go to work. That's good, isn't it? And it
was costly, and she got it, and she just poured it all out on
his feet, and she was by his feet, and she wiped his feet
with her hair. Paul told the church of Corinth,
he said, but if a woman have long hair, It is a glory to her,
for her hair was given for a covering. If a woman's got long hair, that's
a glory to her. Now let me tell you something,
if you think that means if you've got long hair, you've got glory,
you're a fool. And you don't know God, and you don't know
the scriptures, you better ask him to teach you something. What's
that mean? Oh, it's given to her for a covering. Long hair
for a woman's a covering. We need a covering. How much
do you need covered? A little bit? How much of your
leprosy do you need took care of? A little bit? To those that
are forgiven much, they forgive. Those that are loved much, they
love much. Those that's been shown a whole
lot of mercy. Being covered a whole lot. Yeah,
they're more likely to cover, ain't they? They are. She took
her hair. What was her glory? What some
people think, well, look at me. There's beauty salons all around
this place. Oh, Henry said, they walk in there, they walk out
better looking than they walked in. He said, I guess they earned
their money. People spend a whole lot of time, that's their glory.
And they flaunt it in ignorance. Look at my long hair. She took
her hair and she wiped his feet with it. Anything that's my glory
is nothing compared to you who is my righteousness, you who
are glory. All glory is to you, Lord, to
you. Believers are all three. We see
one that serves, that's love. We see one that's sitting still
and waiting, has a good hope, solid hope, steady hope. I ain't leaving. I love my master,
love my wife, love my children. I ain't going nowhere. And Lazarus
sat down right there, and we see one that has deep faith,
that trusts the Lord for everything. And each one of his children's
all three. We're all three. If he's loved you, you love him. And if he's loved you, you serve
him. He said, my sheep hear my voice. They know me. I love them,
they love me, and they follow me. He don't have any lazy servants
in his house. If I owned a company, I don't
have any lazy people work for me, I'll fire them. He makes
his people that way. And boy, do they have faith,
because he's faithful. He's faithful. Believers are
all three at different times, and sometimes all at once. Amen. But when we serve out of love,
not out of necessity, when we trust the Lord, we sit with him,
and we sit with his people, and we wait on that good hope, and
when we have faith, to discard all of our experience, to throw
away all of our glory, all of our accomplishments, all the
things that we think we've done something, all of our pomp and
our ceremony, and we just worship. When we serve in love, when we
trust and sit with him, and when we have the faith to actually
worship, to sacrifice ourselves and say he's our only sacrifice.
Oh, that smells good. That's a sweet smelling savor,
do you know that? Look here at verse three. And Mary took a
pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house
was filled with the odor of ointment. Oh, that whole place smelled
like spikenard. That was humility. Humility smells good. Y'all grown,
even you young people, you know, somebody's uppity and arrogant
and they know everything underneath the sun and the name of every
helicopter and the name of everything underneath. Ugh, they don't smell
good. You turn your nose up, don't
you? And they're humble. When they
do something out of necessity, well, I gotta do this. When they
do it out of love, boy, that smells good. That's relaxing,
isn't it? That's good. When I have a good
hope, somebody's just fretting and worried and going around this
world like, oh, oh, oh, oh, just worried and flailing their hands
and arms, and they don't know what to do, and they're scared
all the time. Oh, when they fear not. Lord did this. We haven't
expected then. God saved his people. Well, that
smells good. That smells good, don't it? Paul
said, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, to them that
are saved and to them that perish. To them that are, to the one,
we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other, the
saver of life unto life. Who's sufficient for these things? All I can do is tell good news.
And there's gonna be people that say, I hate that man, and if
there wasn't a law in this country, I'd take a rock and bash his
brains in. That's what we're gonna see. Here soon, they're
gonna try to kill Lazarus. Next week, they're gonna try to kill
him. Not just the Lord, Lazarus too. He said, let's kill him.
Lazarus hadn't said nothing ever. He was sitting there quiet. They
wanted to kill him. But to those that get good news,
it's good news too. Oh, how precious. Turn to Ephesians
5 and I'll close. Ephesians 5. We'll begin in verse one, Ephesians
five, one, be there for followers, servants, ministers, followers,
sheep, be there for followers of God as dear children, loved
children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and
hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God. for a sweet-smelling savor."
For a sweet-smelling savor. That's just like we looked at
Jacob and Esau. I'll overcome. I want to look like my older
brother. I want to feel like my elder brother. I want to have
the works that my elder brother performs. I want to smell like
him. I want to smell like him. I want to go by his feet. Nothing
in this world matters. I want to worship him, trust
him, have a good hope, and love him and love my brethren. That's
what my desire is. That smells good. I like being
people that's got the same thing. No matter what continent we're
on, no matter what age it is, it don't change. It's the same
thing. All right, let's pray together. Father, thank you for this hour.
Thank you for your word. Lord, bless us. Make us sit. Make us love. Make us Have a
faith of Christ, Lord, and keep us as you've promised you will.
We're so prone to wonder and so prone to forget. Turn to this
world and turn to the things of this world, turn to ourselves,
Lord, turn us, repent us to Christ. Oh, what a sweet savor he is. Keep us as you promised till
that day we're made like him or give us a word to bring our
whole house where the gospel is preached and make us faithful
servants. Put things in our hands and then
enable us, make us, give us the power to perform the will that
you've given us. Make us know the difference or forgive us
for what we are. Be with our brethren who aren't
here with us and comfort them make Christ their all in all.
It's in his name that we ask, amen.