John Chapter 12. Go to John Chapter
12. I hope you enjoyed the message,
the first message, and hope this will be a blessing. Hope it fills
you with gratitude and praise. The wind blows where it listeth.
You know, we've read that in Psalm of Solomon 4. Come, O Waco
north wind, come thou south, and blow upon thy garden. That's
one of my favorite verses. That's God's people asking for
the Spirit of God to Blow on them, the spices thereof flow
out of his garden. Spices of faith, hope, love,
fruit, spirit, joy, praise, and thanksgiving. Wouldn't you like
to worship God once in your lifetime? On the heart, truly? May this
house be filled with sweet-smelling savor. Come, O come, and fill
me now. If He fills you, this house will
be filled with His praises. Sweet smelling savor, the Gospel
of Christ. Look at it again. John 12, verses
1-3, Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where
Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead.
And there they, Three of his loved ones made him supper. Martha
served. Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table. Then took Mary. Now Mary does
something. She anointed 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 that ointment. As we looked at, there
were three siblings, two sisters and a brother, three siblings,
but more importantly, they were disciples. of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How blessed, how blessed to be
a disciple of Christ. How blessed if your sister or
brother or your spouse or someone you love, your child, is a disciple
of Christ. How blessed. How are the disciples
of Christ known? Well, how were these known? They
were with Him. Where He was, that's where they
were. He was with them when he came
to their house where they met in his name and made him a supper.
They ate with him. They were at the table with him. We looked at that. How do you
know Lazarus is alive? He's sitting at the table eating. We saw how that's every son of
God that's dead in trespass and sin and God gives him life and
an appetite for the gospel. They served him. How do you know
they're his disciples? They served him. They served
him. Martha served him, literally.
Served him food and did things for him. Our Lord said, as much
as you've done this for one of the least of my own brethren,
you've done it for me. We've got some Marthas in here who
serve God's people. They literally do that. Lazarus
sat. Is that serving him? Oh, yes. Virgie. Virgie Jones used to
sit there, sit there, and she always said, I don't do nothing.
I said, Virgie, you just don't know what it does for me to see
you sitting there. Didn't you? My dad, when he could
no longer preach, what'd he do? Sat. What'd that do for you? See him crawl up those stairs
and sit in that pit. That's serving the Lord. Mary
anointed him. Mary anointed him. There were
two women and one man. I thought about this. Is that
the ratio of believers of female to male in the Kingdom of God?
I believe it is. I believe it is. Two to one.
I really do. There were many women that followed
Christ. Many, it says. Doesn't it? They were women at the foot feet
of the cross where His disciples, they lived. The women's foot
of the cross. Who came to the grave? The women. What a picture this is of the
bride of Christ, the church. The women brought the disciples'
word. And they didn't believe them.
Like Manoah's wife. Paul, when he went to Philippi,
Couldn't find anybody worshiping God, but he found a bunch of
women down by the river praying. Why is that? Oh, there's so many
women and not so many men. Are they smarter or better? No,
because there's such a picture of God's true people. They're
called the weaker vessel. God's people, women's called
the weaker vessel. We must be weak. to be His disciple. We must be weak. Every believer
is the Lamb's wife and we're the weaker vessel on it. Christ
is our head. The man's the head of the woman
as Christ is the head of the church. And Christ is our head.
We're the weak vessel. We depend completely on Him.
A woman, when she marries a man, she denies herself, loses her
identity, yes, I said that in the 21st century, and I don't
care what anybody thinks. She loses her identity and takes
his name, and he is her head. She bears his name, his identity,
and she loves to have it so. And that's God's people. We must be weak, we must be nothing,
we must be totally dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is only all when we are nothing at all. Christ is all our strength
and all our salvation when we can do nothing for ourselves.
So, is that the ratio, disciples? It just may be. But these were
three siblings, three disciples who loved the Lord. Why did they
love Him? I looked at some of it. You caught
it in Song of Solomon. You caught it. It says that He
loved her and she loved Him. Who loved who first? Who loved
who first? Did Lazarus and Mary and Martha
love the Lord first? Oh, no. They didn't even know
who He was. They were all dead and trespassed
sin. Not just Lazarus. The Lord loved them. and found
them and revealed Himself to them. So it is with all of God's
people. And they showed their love by serving Him. Martha served
Him. Lazarus sat and Mary gave. Mary gave her all in this story. She proved the sincerity of her
love. Now, there are several Marys
in the Scripture. Which Mary is it? I know you're
wondering that. Is this Mary Magdalene? Does it really matter? There
are three or four Marys, and we get them confused. What difference
does it make? Who's the important one here?
People talk about this matters and that matters, black lives
matter, white lives matter. None of it matters. Only Christ matters. If you're
found in Him, right? Black, white, I'm black, become
me. You're black and white. You're
black and white, mixed breed, that's right. My beloved is altogether lovely.
The sun has shined on me, she said. Well, who is she? It doesn't
matter. All three, the Marys, Mary Magdalene, Mary the Virgin,
and the Scriptures even calls the other Mary. That may be her. They all three glorified Christ
and abased themselves. Two of them anointed His head,
but they still ended up at His feet. There are stories, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, of a woman anointing his head with oil. This woman,
Mary, anoints his feet. But all of them ended up as his
feet, didn't they? All of them washed his hair with
their feet. They all abased themselves. They
all came down at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. As all
of God's people do. They abased themselves. They
humbled themselves. They fall before the Lord Jesus
Christ. Mary is a sinner at the feet
of Christ. Verse 3, it says, Mary took a
pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. She's at the feet
of Christ. You'll often find her at His
feet. The first time we hear of Mary is in the house. What's she doing? She's sitting
at the feet of Christ. Do you not picture her kind of
on the floor and the Lord has the chief seat in the house.
They didn't have many chairs in the house back then. In fact,
when they ate supper, they didn't sit in chairs at the table like
we did. They reclined. That's how that
woman came in and washed his feet. His feet was out, leaning. You've seen it. Low table and
they're all around it. Well, Mary, who gets the chief
seat? Who gets the preeminence? Huh? Our Lord said that when one greater
than you comes in, you give him the chief seat. Our Lord. They gave him the chief seat
and Martha went in and served and Mary sat at his feet. She
thought, this is the best seat in the house. At the feet of Christ. Would
you rather be anywhere else? She sat at his feet often later
at the tomb. This Mary, this other Mary, later
at the tomb, all three Marys, or four, however many there were,
Mary Magdalene, when He revealed Himself to them, you know what
they all did? Grabbed Him by the feet. Why is that? Because Scripture
says, How beautiful are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings. The Gospel. Beautiful feet. Our
Lord's feet. The fact that He wore feet. That He took feet. That He took
flesh. Isn't that infinite condescension
and mercy that the God of glory would be manifest in the flesh?
He took flesh. He had feet. Oh, how beautiful
are His feet. Number one, because He took feet
and walked through this world as we do. We have to walk by
faith. We have to walk through this world. Have you ever had
foot ailments? Oh, it's crippling and debilitating. I had that plantar fasciitis
for a year. So painful. Our Lord's heel was
bruised. Our Lord came into this world
and suffered everything we suffer in the flesh, willingly, voluntarily. He didn't, we do because of sin,
it's our just doing, but He willingly suffered in the flesh as we do. He took a body and His heel was
bruised and He walked through this world in pain and suffering,
a man of sorrows and acquaintance with grief. What mercy, what
grace, what love. His feet were sinless feet. Men's feet are swift to run to
mischief, their hands swift to shed blood. Not his. His feet
were always going in the direction of mercy and grace. He was always
going about doing good. He said that one time when they
went to stone him. He said, what good work you stoned
me for. Not bad, that's fine. You can
feed us and all that. But you say you're God and we
don't like that. His feet were beautiful. They
were sinless feet. They were serving feet. They
were seeking feet. These are the feet of the shepherd
seeking his lost sheep. Picture this story. Picture lost
sheep. He was doing fine. He was in
the fold, but he, like sheep, prone to wander. And he wandered
off and got in the briars and the brambles and got dirty and
got down, got caught. I was just watching the other
day a video. They pop up on your phone all
the time. And it was an animal that was
caught and wrapped up in ropes. And it was slowly dying. It was
choked to death. Some poachers had got it. and cruelly wrapped it up and
just left it there to die. And that poor animal was just
choking to death. Somebody came along and set it
free. And that animal was down on the
ground and all that animal could see was their Savior's feet. Feet. If you get down far enough and you can't look up And you
hear the gospel that speaks of Christ's feet being pierced for
you. If you see those blessed feet,
it's the best sight you'll ever see in your life. You'll think,
my, my, my. When our Lord rose from the grave,
he showed them his hands and his feet, pierced. Everybody shall see their hand
in Him whom they've pierced. To the world it means nothing.
His feet. It means everything to us, doesn't
it, Sister Robin? Beautiful feet. This Gospel. Precious feet. Pierced feet. That's Isaiah 52
about the beautiful feet. What's the next chapter? 53. He was wounded and bruised. Chastisement
of our peace was laid upon Him. Oh, beautiful pierced feet. Mary
anointed His feet. She didn't feel worthy to anoint
His head. She laid down at His feet. And
she anointed, verse 3, it says, she wiped His feet. She did this
for Him. What she was doing was for Him.
Mary did this for Him. Nobody else. Him. Because of
who He is. The one she loved. Her Savior.
Because of what He was about to do. Verse 7. Look at this. Jesus said, Let
her alone against the day of my burying hath she kept this. She had this costly ointment
for years kept up. She kept it in reserve. She kept
it saved up for Christ's burial. That's what Christ said. What
did Mary know about what Christ came to do? Huh? John knew. Do you not know that John, she's
always at his feet. Always at his feet. John was
always at his bosom, leaning on his bosom. John asked, Who
is it that betrayed you? He told him. John was at the
foot of the cross. John went into the courtyard
where they were trying to cry. John didn't leave him. John knew
why he came. John was right there. He's the
only one that didn't leave him. And he asked the Lord and he
told Him. So he knew why the Lord had come and what He was
going to do. Did Mary know that? I believe
she did. How can a woman like this, a
poor woman like this, know such things? You want to answer that
for me, sister? Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it, didn't it? How is it that you know these things and other
people don't, huh? Your Lord told you. He told you
why He came. He told you what He's come to
do. And she knew He was doing it for her. She anointed His feet for what
He was about to do and for what He had already done for her.
She anointed His feet for what She had already done for her.
He raised her like He did for Lazarus. For what He did for
her and what He did for her brother. What would you do if the Lord
saved your brother? Mindy and I would... We're here because He saved us.
We're singing these songs because He saved us, aren't we? What
if He saved your lost rebel son? What's it worth? What would it
be worth to you? What's this Gospel worth? It's
the power of God and salvation. This is how dead sinners are
raped. I'm telling you the truth. That's how I was raised. What's
it worth? Mary thought, the whole world's
not worth Him. He's worth everything I've got. For who He is, and what He's
done for me, and what He's done for so many that I love. Bless
His holy name. I'm just going to follow His
feet and worship Him. She brought this very costly
ointment. Very fragrant and very much. It's a great deal of a pound.
Judas said, we could have sold this for 300 pence. You realize
how much money that is? When Joseph of Arimathea was
a rich man, he was a rich man. When he came to anoint the burial,
the body of Christ, he brought a hundred pounds. Multiply 300 times 100. The gift
he came with cost a million dollars. What was Christ worth to him?
The sky's the limit. But this ointment that she brought
was very costly, very fragrant, spikenard it's called, and we're
going to see it in Exodus Gospel. principal spices that were used
to anoint the high priest and his sons were several, and spikenard
was one of them. Most believed, and once again,
what spikenard is, is not so important as what it represents,
okay? Because people make gods, and if I start talking about spikenard,
It's like that bread in Ezekiel. People run out and buy it like
it's got magical qualities. Ezekiel bread. In the Bible,
you know. No, it's just food. And this
was just its ointment. It smelled good. It had no special
qualities. But what it represents does. Who it represents does. All right? Now surely this costly ointment,
this fragrant ointment, this precious ointment, what could
that represent more than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Surely this represents, surely
a greater gift that Christ bestowed upon us Himself. the unspeakable
gift, at a much greater cost than Mary. Precious ointment. His feet were literally covered
with it one day. His own precious blood. God said
this. You know, Brother Gary Williams
came up to me down in Crossville, Obie's father, precious believers. And he came up to me and he said,
you know, he said, I sure like hearing about the blood. He said,
you don't hear much about the blood these days as you used
to in preaching. Well, God forbid that we should
leave out the blood in any message we preach. Our God said this,
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and so is the life of
the soul. Our God said this, it is the
blood that makes the atonement for the soul, covering at one
reconciler. Our God said this, without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Our God said this, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Whose blood? The blood of lambs
and bullocks and goats can't put away sin, but Jesus Christ,
by his own precious blood, obtained eternal redemption for God. And God says, when I see that,
I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you in judgment
and show mercy upon you. Where did Mary get this costly
ornament? Where'd she get it? Very costly. She's a poor woman. I believe
somebody gave it to her. Where'd you get the costly ornament?
Huh? Where'd you get this precious
gift? How'd it come to you? He was giving it to you. A man
can receive nothing except to be given. In fact, everything
we have, what do we have that we have not received, huh? Well,
that's the reason Paul said, God forbid that I should glory
in anything, because everything's been given to me, especially
the gift of the blood of redemption. How dare anybody take credit
for glory in anything but that precious gift of the blood of
Christ for guilty sinners? We had nothing to do with that.
He freely gave it, his own precious blood. His blood was applied by the
Spirit of God. That precious ointment, that
precious blood, the Spirit of God, God said, go apply that
blood to Mike Anderson and Karen Anderson. Go apply that blood,
that gospel, to that house! Think about it! How many houses
around you, Mike? That house. The Pendry house. Go apply the blood to the Pendry
house. To the Patterson house. The Ogle
house. The Hudson house. Boy, we ought
to be singing, shouldn't we? The Canterbury house. Hallelujah! Where did you get
this blood? He gave it to me. He applied
it to me. I had nothing to do with it.
I was not interested. I counted the blood of the covenant
as an unholy thing. I walked all over it. But God! Man! Mary is lying at His feet thinking,
why did He come to me? Me! Nothing's too much to give to
Him. In fact, I don't give a thing. Everything I give, He gave it
to me. You know what? Our Lord accepted
that gift. He commended that gift. He commended
and accepted the gift that He gave her to bring to Him. Are you with me, John Davis?
You know what our Lord will accept? The gift He gives for us to bring. What's that? His blood. Faith. Faith is not of yourselves. It's
a precious thing. Peter said the trial of our faith being
more precious than gold. More precious than spikenard,
more precious than anything. It's a gift to those who have
obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how blessed, how blessed.
And I'm way ahead of myself just telling you what this spikenard
is. It's faith, yes. But she brought this kiss. I
think, I know, it's love is what it is. What does this ointment
represent? First, foremost, chiefly, it's
the blood of Christ, which is our faith. But then love. She loved the Lord. Why? Because
He first loved her. Greater love hath no man than
this, and He laid down His life. And the Lord is about to go to
Calvary's tree and lay down His life for her, and she knows it.
And so she's going to lay down her all for him. As she comes
to him, she loves him. My dad once said this, and it's
a good statement. Love, true love, seeks to bestow
the best that it has on the object of his affections. That nothing
too costly, nothing. This costly, what that is showing
is this person was worth more to me than anything. And she put at his feet like,
not his head, his feet. We're going to walk on the streets
of gold to show our disdain for gold. Men and women live for
gold and silver and all these things. Not God's people. No,
Christ is the treasure. See, this costly ointment meant
nothing to her. Our Lord loved Mary and she loved
Him. And she gave all she could. Oh,
may the love of Christ Fill this room. This is what it says. It
was costly, sweetly. The odor of the ointment filled
the room. She brought the ointment of faith.
Faith anoints Christ. You know that? You know what
faith does? It anoints Christ. It says He's
the one. That's what she's doing. Anointed, she anointed his feet,
they anointed his head. The word Christ means anointed
one, doesn't it? What she's saying is, he's my
Christ. This is my Christ. This is my
salvation. This is my all. Faith believes
on Christ, not just in him, but on him. She cast her all on him,
at his feet, on him, at his feet. Faith fills this room. Fragrantly. You know, unbelief is, unbelief will fill us full of
doubts and fears and worries and when you're worried and fearful,
you're nervous and it literally makes us smell bad. Sweat profusely. Unbelief is
obnoxious, like pride. Faith is a beautiful thing. Faith is a fragrant thing. Faith
fills with peace and joy and thanksgiving and praise. You
know, we're builders of one another's faith. That's what we're told
to do. That's what I'm trying to do.
Build you up on this most holy faith. Help us together of one
another's faith. And that's a beautiful thing.
A fragrant thing. Fragrant thing. It'll fill this
room. It'll fill every... It's like
fear, you know. It's contagious. Fear's contagious. Everybody's fearful and all.
It's awful. It's ugly. It's an unbecoming of God's people. It's dishonoring to our Lord,
fear of this thing. But faith! also helps others. Helps others. Oh, may this room
always and only be devoted to his to his fear and this faith
of God's elect. May we always fill this room
with praise and thanksgiving and and fill us with peace and
joy. God forbid that I should preach
in such a way that you won't go out of this room full of peace
and joy. I may start a message with, whoa,
whoa, whoa, but I hope it ends with, yay, yay, yay. Until you
go out of this place, oh, it was a fragrant place to be. Wasn't
the gospel a sweet-smelling savor of Christ? Wasn't it just wonderful? You like perfume? I do. You know, Mindy buys me soap
to wash with, and I say, get me some of that girly soap. You know you do, Dan, you know
you do. Seriously. I've bought soap before, manly
soap, supposed to smell like saddle leather. I don't want
to smell like that. One time I got some brown soap,
and the water was brown rolling off me. I thought, I'm not getting
clean at all. Give me some fragrant soap. Right, I say all that. Got in
the flesh, didn't I? But oh, may the gospel be a sweet-smelling
savor of Christ. That's who we're here anointing
and saying is to Christ and all our hope and faith, hope and
love. This ointment is a costly thing. Faith is a costly thing. What does faith require of us?
Well, nothing from us. It's all faith looks to Christ
and Christ alone. It's not something we don't believe
in our faith. God doesn't save us because of
our faith. We have faith because God has
saved it. But yet it's a costly thing.
What does it require? Everything you have. Our Lord said. Except you forsake
all that you have. You can't be my disciple. Unless
Christ is everything to you. If He's not everything to you,
you know what you'll do? You'll leave. Guaranteed. If Christ is not
all, you go after something else. Something else means more to
you, and that's what you'll end up on. That's a fact. Whether
it be a person, or a thing, a job, a home, whatever, children, if
Christ is not all. But if Christ is all, you'll
leave all to Him. Yes, you will. It's a fact. And I tell you, if you don't
feel like he is, ask him, Lord, make me, make yourself my all. Make everything else nothing
at all. You're going to see one day,
aren't we? This ointment is the ointment
of God's Holy Spirit. Oh, how good and pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity, is it not? The ointment
of God's Holy Spirit. You know, when God shows us Christ,
our great high priest, the gospel of Christ is preached, He's anointed
before our eyes. We see something of His glory.
We dwell together in unity, the unity of the faith. This precious
ointment runs down upon the head of Christ. It comes down on His
head to the beard and reaches to the skirt of the garments.
Who's that? That's us. We're there to be.
It comes down on us. Like the dew of Hermon. And it
says there the Lord commanded to bless Him. Spirit of God,
go bless that Davis family. January 29, 2023. Bless that
family today! Even life forevermore. What a
blessing. What a blessing. That's the ointment of the Spirit
of God. She wiped his feet with her hair. Now, 1 Corinthians 11 says a
woman's hair is her glory, doesn't it? And most of you women show
that you think a great deal of your hair. You spend a lot on
your hair, don't you? I know you do. Beauty parlor. Yes, you do. Did she? She's a woman, isn't she? Yeah? But when Christ comes in, what
does she do? She takes her hair down. If it's
braided, she takes it down. What she's saying is, when I
see Him, my cumulus melted to corruption. I have no beauty
at all. His feet are more beautiful than
my head. I have no glory. I have nothing
but shame. Let me not glory in what I should
be ashamed of. Let me not be ashamed of my glory
in Christ. So she lets her hair down and
wipes his feet with her hair. And the love of Christ... If
you love Christ, you'll hate yourself. If you exalt Christ,
you have to deny yourself and abase yourself. If you see him
as beautiful, you'll see yourself as ugly. Every time. The ointment
must have been in a vessel, wasn't it? Matthew, Mark, and Luke say
it was an alabaster box. That's good. You know what alabaster
is? A white stone. Revelation. But if it was in a vessel, she had
to break it. The other three were broken,
they broke the vessel. The only, the sacrifices of God
are what? Broken heart. The only good heart's
a broken heart. A broken heart. As pride is ugly,
humility and meekness and loneliness of spirit is a great pride, a
great pride. The most beautiful and most fragrant
The house was filled with the fragrance and surely God himself
smelled it and everybody in that room smelled it. Is there anything
more beautiful to us than humility? Have you come to Christ like
Mary? What does Christ mean to you? What does the gospel mean to
you? What has Christ done for you? Ask yourself that. Does the gospel bring you great
joy so that nothing in this world compares to it? You're willing
to give it all? Huh? Do you enjoy sitting at
His feet? You think His feet are most beautiful,
do you? You're going to be sitting with
Mary one of these days, Rebecca. You've got a good name, Rebecca.
You're married to the son of promise. My, my. I've got to say a few words about
the following verses. Judas, verse 4. Judas Iscariot. My, my, how frightening as this. He's one of those disciples.
He heard every single sermon Jesus Christ preached. He didn't hear one of them. He saw the works, the miracles.
He smelled this fragrance. It wasn't beautiful to him. He's
fake. He's phony. Christ doesn't mean
all to him. Money does. And it's going to
show. It's going to come out. That's
frightening, isn't it? It ought to be. It ought to be. And he said, why wasn't this
given to the poor? It could have been sold for 300
pence and given to the poor. And this he said, not because
he cared for the poor, because he was a thief. People robbed
God of His glory, robbed Christ. Look at this, though. He said,
this was a waste. This was such a waste. That's
what he's saying. This is a waste. You know what, the fact of the
matter is, everything we ever do in this world, accumulate
in this world, is wasted. The only thing that's not wasted
is what we're doing right now. The only thing worth anything
is what we're doing right now. Everything is a waste of time.
All my life, brother, this fellow has wasted his substance. Oh, may I bring him this precious
ointment of faith and cast it at his feet. And our Lord said, Let her alone. And you see the look out of his
eyes. This is his daughter. This is his wife. Judas is a
phony as a fay. Let her alone. You know we don't
have to defend ourselves. You know that? We got a husband. He says, vengeance is mine. I
will repay. Mary, she's been falsely accused by a phony accuser. But she doesn't defend herself.
She doesn't have to. Our Lord defended her. You let her alone. Like you said concerning those
disciples in that garden. He said, if you seek me, let
them go. And He said this, the poor you
have with you always. The poor always you have with
you. You know, there are opportunities to do things for the poor. It's
a good thing. It's not commended by our Lord
in the Scripture. It does say whatever you do for
the poor you do unto the Lord, but He doesn't say well done
for that. It's our reasonable service.
That's what we should do. He that has been given much, much
is required in it. He that loveth much, forgiven
much, will love much, like Mary. But he said, the poor, you have
these opportunities all the time, every day, and day in and day
out. You have these opportunities. Now here's what he said. Me?
Not always. What a picture this is. Do what you can for whomever
you do, whoever you can, but there's one person that we need
to give our all to. And this gospel is not going
to be around forever. It's not going to be forever. All right. Brother John, you
come. So, you know, my question is, what is Christ to you? What
is the gospel to you? What is this place to you? It
won't be here forever. It won't be here forever. Amen. Okay.