I go back to John 12 with me. John chapter 12. I read verses
1 and 2. John 12, verses 1 and 2. Then Jesus, six
days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was,
which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There they
made him a supper. Martha served. Lazarus was one
of them that sat at the table with him. Bethany was a town
often visited by our Lord. We've seen that. He came here
often. It was a blessed place. Blessed is the place that God
has chosen to put his name there. That God has chosen. To be there,
to be there in the form of the gospel. How blessed is this place,
huh? The Lord wasn't in Jerusalem
at this time, was he? He never went and stayed in Jerusalem
for long. He always left and went out into
the villages, the little towns, like Capernaum and Nazareth where
he grew up, and now Bethany. He was always in Bethany. How
blessed was Bethany? How blessed was Bethany? He was
there constantly, wasn't he? What about this place? How blessed
we are, Rocky Mount. Everybody in Bethany was not
blessed. They were blessed and didn't know it, the Lord was
there. As are everyone where the gospel is, but yet they don't
come. God's people do. Why was Mary... Mary and Martha and Lazarus were... favored, highly favored by the
Lord. He came to their house. Why?
They loved Him. Why? He first loved them. He chose them. Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene now. Ask her who did she choose. What
a blessed family. What a blessed place this town
was. What a blessed family. Two sisters and a brother. Two
sisters and a brother. They're sitting in this service
this morning, three sisters. Do you realize? I think you do. How blessed you are. Some have siblings and none of
them know the Lord. How blessed you are. Some of
them are still dead. We're sure praying for them. Blessed place, blessed people.
How rare this was. Some parents in here with children
and grandchildren. How blessed. The Lord saved some
whole houses. Some, though, according to His
will, don't have a believing spouse,
don't have believing children. That's the Lord. That's His purpose. That's His will. You see, it's
of great mercy and great grace if the Lord saves any of us,
let alone all of us. Noah sure was grateful. All his
sons and daughters-in-law were on
that ark. What a blessing. This was Martha's house. Again. Again. She opened her house to
the Lord and His people. I remind you that wherever the
Lord was, His disciples went. She didn't just have to feed
Him. She had to feed them. But she
complained before. She's not complaining now. You
don't hear her complaining now. But here's something I want you
to see. Verse 1 says, six days before the Passover came, they
made him a supper. Six days. Six days later, he's
going to make them a supper. The Lord, our Passover is going
to be sacrificed for them. And it will be said in Isaiah
25, in this mountain shall the Lord make unto us a feast of
fat things and wine on the leaves, well refined. Oh, the Lord is
going to make them a supper and us a supper of his precious blood,
of his broken body. And we're all going to be eating
of that supper for the rest of our days. It's the least they
could do to make Him a supper. The least. Martha was always
serving. Always serving, wasn't she? And
don't be critical of Martha. Don't do it. Now, the Lord can. Don't you. Forgive me a minute. I remember
as a young husband, my wife scurrying around saying, Martha, Martha. Men don't do that. Don't you
dare do that. The Lord may do that. Don't you dare do it. Or you
risk His anger. She's His Martha. And she's His
to rebuke as He sees fit. And you'll find out very shortly
that you wish you were like her. We need Martha's. The Lord gently
rebuked her, not for serving. He didn't rebuke her for serving.
He rebuked her for her priorities were wrong. She was up serving
and careful and cumbered about many things when she should have
been sitting with Mary. Sitting and listening to the
Lord. They needed food, but the Lord plainly said there's one
thing needful, didn't He? And when the Lord comes in the
house, first things first, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness. If you need food, you reckon
He'd provide it. Martha, did you forget the loaves and the
fishes? Oh, but we've got to, we've got
to, you've got to watch. We've got some Marthas in here. I'm
thankful for the Marthas. We've got some Marthas in here.
My, my. They serve us all well, don't
they? Aren't you glad? We have some
Dorcases that labor. Oh, if the Lord took them, we'd
be greatly sad like the church was with Dorcas. Marthas serve,
and that's a good thing. It's good. It's vital. Here she
is again. She's serving. The Lord doesn't
rebuke her this time. Why? She's not complaining. I don't think she ever complained
again. She counted it a great privilege
to serve. But when he came in, you'd just
reckon, you'd think that she didn't sit down first and say,
now, Lord, speak. And he probably said, Martha,
you may go. And she went and served. Thank
God for the Marthas of this world. But they made him a supper. They
made the Lord a supper in His honor. His appearance, His presence
with them was their delight. He was their Lord. He was their
life. He was their love. He was the one they loved greatly. And they desired His presence
more than anyone or anything. That's why He came to this house
all the time. He didn't come uninvited. Not
this time. He did the first time. But they
always, if they heard He was coming, Lord, Lord, please come
home with us. Well, I'd be delighted to. Like
the house of Obed-Edom. Remember? They took the ark in. They said, David, please let
us have the ark. And the Lord blessed the house
of Obed-Edom for the ark's sake all their day. And oh, did the
Lord bless this house. Saved them all. for the gospels, for Christ's
sake. Isn't that what we do here though? Isn't that why this house
exists? Isn't that why this house is
here, the church house? Isn't it not for the honor and
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we not come here to sup with
him? Do we not? Do we do anything
else? Huh? Is this for this cause or that
cause? Do we open our doors for all
these humanitarian efforts? No. The Lord said plainly, you
have that with you always. There's a place and a time for
that. But this place is for one thing. This place is in honor
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate His summer here. We have suckers, yes, among our
people and all that, but that's not how we get people in. That's
not why we exist. We exist for the honor and the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of the sucker that He
served us. But we do make Him a sucker like
that. Revelation 3, which so many people
misapply. Revelation 3. Let's get this
clear, okay? Revelation 3. And all of these
letters are written to the churches. To the churches. Revelation 3. And this is, you know, the church
of Laodicea, which all of us are so guilty of being like. Rich and increased with goods
and not a great need. Or like Ephesus that left their
first love or lost their first love. And he said, repent, do
the first work. You've lost your joy, your enthusiasm,
your appreciation for the gospel. And here he said, you've got
too much and you don't realize how spiritually you're wretched,
miserable, poor, blind and naked. Verse 18, he said, I counsel
thee, buy gold and try it in the fire. Spend all your gold
upon this gold. Provide bags that wax not old. Spend everything you have for
this is gold. This is better than much fine
gold, this gospel. Verse 19, he says, the many as
I love, I rebuke and chase them. But verse 20, behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. Who's he talking to? Look at
verse 22. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He's talking to
the church, wasn't he? He's talking to believers, saints
at Laodicea. And he said, I stand at the door
and knock. Christ is present wherever his
people meet, wherever people two or three are gathered. What
door? He is the door. And he says, if any man will
open, I'll come in and do what? Save him? I'm not talking about
salvation. I'm talking about fellowship.
I'm talking about supping with Him. I'll come in and supp with
Him. Once He supped with us, what
do we supp? What do we eat? What do we drink?
That which He provides. He doesn't need... He said, if
I were hungry, I wouldn't ask you. And we come, we prepare the Lord
a supper here, but it's in hope that He'll come sup with us.
And we bring to Him what He promises, which He delights in. All right,
go back to our text, John 12. So that's what we do here. And
we hope, we pray that the Lord will commune with us in fellowship
around the Lord. Lazarus was there. It says, Lazarus,
which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. And verse
2 makes it very clear, amazingly, behold, Lazarus was sitting at
the table with them. Oh my, Lazarus was dead. A few
days ago, Lazarus was dead. Stinking dead. His sister said,
he's stinking dead, Lord. There's no hope for him. That's
what his sister said. He's been dead a long time. Lord,
there is no hope for him. He's stinking dead. Lord said,
roll with the stone. There's no case impossible to
the Lord. No stinking sinner that stinks
too much. People, I'm here, aren't I? Would you like to raise your
hand with me? I'm here, the chief of sinners. I'm here to tell
you, even now, that's what Martha said, even
now, you just say the word. And that's what it's going to
take. He makes a great point to tell
us that Lazarus is there. A few days ago, he was dead,
people. And you hath He quickened who
were dead in trespass and sin." And He's made us to do what?
Sit together in heavenly places, supping on, feasting on the body
and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which just a few days ago, a
few years ago, we had no interest in. No interest in. but God. This is my story. Lazarus was
there laughing, crying, loving, and listening to the Lord Jesus
cry. He's sitting there at that table
thinking, I'm sure glad to be here. I once was dead And now
I'm alive. Praise be to the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who called me from death unto life. Lazarus
said, in no place on earth I'd rather be. Anyone? Anyone have a brother
dead in sin? You know, you can be dead in
religion. Same as the gutter. Dead's dead. Saul of Tarsus was in religion.
Some of you, I know some of your brothers. They're in religion,
but it stinks, doesn't it? It's self-righteous religion,
and it stinks, doesn't it? Some of you have sisters and
brothers-in-law. It stinks, doesn't it? It's worse. No, it's not
worse. It's the same. It's the same. And I tell you, it seems even
harder, though, to save, seems even more impossible to save
someone that's in self-righteous, full of morality like Saul of
Tarsus was. It seems harder, but it's not.
Same Lord, same Spirit, same power, same gospel to save them.
And even now, dead and old and in religion, all those years,
like Saul of Tarsus in his 60s, even now, the Lord can save them
if He's pleased. And he'd pray for them like Martha
and Mary did Lazarus. John Newton was meeting with
William Jay, a friend of his. They were close friends, both
of them preachers. William Jay, many, many years,
60-some years, pastored the same church. Great preacher. John
Newton and William Jay were good friends. They were sitting talking.
And John Newton, who was a prolific letter writer, like my dad, That's
his legacy, really. He wrote letters, and his letters
are just marvelous. But he wrote letters, and he
got a letter back from someone at Bath where William Jay was
preaching. And Jay came in, they were talking,
and he said, Brother Jay, he said, I just got a letter from
so-and-so in Bath. And it sounds like the Lord has
done something for him through your preaching. And Jay said,
Not him. No, not him. He said, oh, Brother
Newton, if it's so, he said, I'll not despair of anyone being
saved. John Newton, that old African
blasphemer said, Brother Jay, I've never despaired of anyone
since he saved me. Lazarus was there. Isn't that
a good message? Then Mary. Martha serves, then Mary. Mary
is always sitting at His feet. She's sitting at His feet. She's
probably thinking all the time. Every time she's sat at His feet,
you reckon she's thinking of her past life. Hmm? What do you
reckon? Do you not reckon, you know it
so, that she's like David, my sin is ever before me? That's why she sat at his feet. She had to hear him speak peace
to her broken heart over sin. And she sits at his feet. And
do you reckon that much of the time when she sat, she would
hang her head? That if she would open her eyes,
you know what she would see? His feet. his feet. Right now, if she,
I don't think she hangs her head, but if she did, she'd see nail
scarred feet. The price of her being Mary, she got up from the table
and went into her room, if she had a room, or went in and found
a chest, whatever, and came back and had this alabaster box, a
very costly box or vessel in itself. And she had in it a pound,
16 ounces of this very costly white mud. Very costly. An ointment of spikenard, it
says in verse 3, very costly, anointed the feet of Jesus and
wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with
the odor of that ointment. Oh, may the Lord fill this house
right now. Go back to Canticles. I said that not to impress you,
but I said it in case you're reading sometime. These people,
you read Gill and all of them, and that's how they'll say it.
Canticles. I remember the first time thinking, what's that? Canticles chapter 1. Go back
there. Now, for those who the Lord loves,
they love the Lord. And His presence is everything
to them. His word is more costly, more
precious than fine gold. David said it, and all of God's
people say it. Whatever it costs me, it's of
no real sacrifice. I've got to hear His Word. It's
more precious than gold and fine gold. David said, it's more sweet
to me than honey, fine honey, on the comb. Job said, it's more
than my necessary food. He said, I'll go without food
to have this Word. Mary took this pound, a large
portion of very costly spikenard, means pure ointment, pure ointment,
spikenard, very costly, anointed his feet. Look at Song of Solomon, Canticles
chapter 1, look at verse 1. Verse 1, look at verse 1. This
is the song of Psalms, which is Solomon's, or Christ's. Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. That's the word of
Christ. Thy love, this gospel of his
love is better than wine, because of the savor of thy good ointments. Thy name is as ointment poured
forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. Draw me, we'll run after thee. The king has brought me into
his chamber. Oh, we'll be glad and rejoice
in him. We'll remember his love more than wine. The upright love
thee. They think they're black, but
they're coming. Oh, Mary could sing this, couldn't she? I don't
think she's thinking about this verse. I don't know if she knows
these verses. I don't know if she has a Bible. But she's doing
exactly what these verses say. I'm quite sure the Lord is smiling
right now. He's smiling. Mary may not have
known these verses, but the Lord did. As do we. We know it. The Lord arranged
all this. Why? Everything must fulfill
the Scripture. All Scriptures must be fulfilled.
This song of Solomon Canticle is fulfilled by Mary at His feet
right now. Scripture must be fulfilled.
Look at verse 12. While the king sitteth at his
table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. Let me read that again. I didn't
see much recognition on your faces here. While the king sits
at his table, my spikenard, she brought him
spikenard, Solomon. And the smell went everywhere. This is God's Word in it. Who does it speak about? Christ. And His love for His people and
His love for them. Now I want to talk something
about Mary's love for Him. Mary's humility. Mary's faith. But wait a minute. Hold on. Don't
let anybody... Anybody hearing this over the
airwaves or whatever, this is not for Mary's glory. She wouldn't
be there if Christ hadn't brought her. If Christ hadn't loved her,
she wouldn't love Him now. If Christ hadn't drawn her, she
wouldn't be here. If Christ hadn't saved her, she'd
be out on the streets right now, plying her trade, selling her
soul, selling her body. And she knew it. This is not for her glory, but
this is for the glory of Him who loved her and washed her
in His own precious blood. Him who saved her. Him who gave
her this faith that she had. Alright? Let that be perfectly
clear. All Marys know. Don't you? Because the Lord first loved
her and gave Himself for her, She gives her all to. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8,
listen to this, he wrote over in 2 Corinthians 8, prove the
sincerity of your love. He said, and I was going to read
the whole thing, but time won't allow it. He said, the church
at Macedonia, that's Philippi, that's Lydia, They, oh, the extreme
liberality of their joy, but deep poverty, they abounded in
riches, their liberality. I say it, Paul said, they did
to me more over and above they were able. Oh, but God is able
to provide. And He did. So he says to us, he says to
every church, he says, Do you know that through the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, He who was rich, yet for our sake became
poor? That you through His poverty
might be made rich? So He said, in your love, see
that you abound in this grace also. Giving. Talking about giving. She gave
the best. She gave the most costly. It
was nothing to her. She poured it out. She broke the box and poured
it out on His feet. Judas, ugh! If she'd had ten boxes, she'd
have poured them all out, wouldn't she? What's she saying? This
is nothing! Christ is all these feet! This Gospel and those who preach
it, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings
of good, that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God
reigneth. Do you need to hear this over
and over again? What's it worth to you? For her, Christ will soon pour
out His precious blood. And she has a little box on her.
She's been saving up for maybe to give to her daughter or granddaughter
someday. That's love. That's someone who
esteems the Lord Jesus Christ. And she humbled herself. Look
at verse, in our text, look at verse three. She took this pound
of spikenard, very costly, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his
feet with her hair. She wiped his feet with her hair. Ladies, have you ever wiped somebody's
feet with your hair? Would you think about it? Probably
not. Isn't a woman's hair her glory?
Huh? Isn't that what... Don't say
it's not because you wouldn't be spending a million dollars
a year on your hair getting it made up. Right? And Teresa's
glad that they do. But it's so. Well, it's vanity. The hair is vanity. It's pride,
is it not? She stoops at His feet. She undoes,
does her due that she took great pains to do, maybe some money
to do it of. And she took it down and got down at His feet. and just wiped his feet with
her hair, saying, oh, these feet are the most lovely thing on
earth. This man that no one thinks is beautiful, he is altogether
lovely to me. Oh, my vanity and my pride. Be gone. Be gone. Your mother, Hannah's mother,
Gabe's mother, your grandmother, Linda Stonica, was a Martha,
and a Mary, and Lazarus. She served many people. We were in their home many times,
one day and another. She served many, many meals,
didn't she? She was a beautiful lady, wasn't
she? Her beauty was even more so on the inside. Some of you
knew her. She had beautiful hair, didn't
she? I swear you got it. Beautiful hair. The Lord gave
her cancer. And he took all that hair. Took
it away. She was sitting in our home.
She wore a wig, didn't she, in the last day. She was sitting
in our home. And she's so comfortable with
us, she said, I've got to take this off. It's so hot. And she
took it off. She's bothered. I know you've done this. I know
Marvin's done it a thousand times. And I went over and I kissed
her on the head and I said, you've never been more beautiful to
me in your life. That's beauty, it says, inward.
And I wish you two knew her. If you know the Lord, you'll
know her. And you too. Be done with this vanity and
pride. That's the reason the Lord hates
a proud look more than anything. That outward beauty is nothing.
You remember how the Lord made Himself to be? No beauty. Oh,
but He was altogether lovely. Be done with this vanity and
pride. The Lord said about the daughters of Zion in chapter
3 of Isaiah, I see them skipping and mincing with all their jewels
and so forth, proud and all that. And you know what he says is
going to happen? He said, I'm going to smite them with baldness.
as will all flesh. The Lord of hosts has purposed
it, Isaiah 23 now, to bring into, to stain the pride of all glory
and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. You
see these women, young ladies, don't do this. You see these
young, these ladies, beautiful ladies strutting down the aisle,
strutting their stuff? It's ugly to God. Positively abomination to God.
Don't do it. Beauty is inward. Beauty is Christlike. Beauty is the beauty of holiness.
You may lose all your hair, and the Lord said it, that if you're
in Christ and He is in you, you won't lose your beauty. You'll never be more beautiful.
I thought about this. I thought about it the other
day. You know, I thought, I've said this many times, how I'd
love to lose my head for Christ's sake, like Paul did. He lost
his head. Can I lose my hair for Christ's
sake? Limited. Witnessed a good testimony, didn't
you? Huh? Didn't complain. This is the
Lord. I'd like to lose my life for Christ's sake. I'd like to
lay down my life for Christ's sake. We might be called to lay
down in sickness and bear witness of Him on our dying bed. That'd
be good. If persecution doesn't come and
we're not called to go to the burning stake, we will be through
the furnace and we can bear Him witness through the furnace,
Kelly. In fact, I had an eye around my chef and said, we're
not going to serve you. Throw us in the furnace. It doesn't
matter. That'd be a good one. I thought
about that. I thought, whatever the law I'm called to bear, let
me bear it for His glory. Look at her faith with that.
Verse 7, the Lord said, you know, Judas, he said, we could have given
this to the poor. He didn't care a thing about the poor. I tell
you who he didn't care about. He didn't care about Christ.
He cared about himself. All he could do was complain.
This is a waste. Pour it out on his feet. What
a waste of precious ointment. Yeah, Judas, you love ointment. You love stuff. You love the
things of this world. You don't love his feet. Our Lord said, leave her alone,
verse 6. He didn't care for the poor. Our Lord said, you let
her alone. She's done this for the day of
my burial. She's kept this for the day of
my burial. And the Scripture says it will
be done, spoken of her from memorial from now on. By bringing this
ointment. She heard. The Lord told them
all. Mary was around when the Lord
was speaking to His disciples often. She heard Him say, the
Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and be betrayed and be cruelly
treated and die in the third day rising. She heard that. He said it many times. She heard
it. She believed it. The disciples didn't believe
it. She believed it. And the Lord said, She brought
this My burial. And she believed, and she brought
this, His burial. That's her faith. See, faith
does all that it does toward Christ, doesn't it? Faith anoints Him, doesn't it?
Faith doesn't anoint faith. Look at my faith. She wasn't
doing this to be seen. She would do it as unto the Lord.
who well deserves the praise, honor, the glory, His holy anointing
oil." The Lord said, let us render the sacrifice of our lips unto
Him. And these things we give, let
it be as unto the Lord. The poor you have it with your own. Habitat for humanity, they
have all these soup kitchens and all that. Go do that, it's
fine. But that's not what this building exists to do. That's what the Lord plainly
said to him. Now look at verse 3. This is
wonderful. We'll end with this. It says
that the house was filled with the odor of that ointment. It
was filled with the odor of that ointment. Precious, sweet-smelling,
spiked nard. Every time a burnt offering of
a lamb or a bullock or a turtle dove, was offered in the Old
Testament, the Lord called it a sweet-smelling savor. Every time. Every time. If you're hungry, we cooked hamburgers
yesterday for the girls. And stonkers, you know, eat everything
inside. They do, they just do. How in the world do you feed
those two? Anyway, so I was cooking this
and the smell, they just... What it is, is you smell,
first you smell it, don't you? But that's not good enough. That
won't do. Well, what do you got to do?
Eat it. And this is the first thing that
happens in saving faith. The Lord, the gospel comes along.
You don't have any smell. You don't have any sense of need
for the gospel for Christ, who's true food. And yet someday, one
day, He opens, gives life. Oh, I love that. That sounds
so good. You reckon I can have some of
that? Some? You know, that woman said, the
dogs eat crumbs. Crumbs? God's people don't ever eat crumbs. Like Solomon's table, they eat
a large portion. You're hungry. He said, open
your mouth wide. And I feel it. But it comes a
sweet-smelling savor. Then you taste it and it savors. It's savory meat. That's what
Isaac said to Jacob, wasn't he? Do you have that savory meat
such as I love? Yes, here it is, Dan. What's
your name? Come near, kiss me. Oh, no, I
can't come. You got that savory meat? Yes,
I do. Come near. That's another story. Same story. Sweet-smelling savor. Would you go back to Song of
Solomon one more time, chapter 4? One more time. Song of Solomon,
chapter 4. Sweet-smelling savor. And this
nard, it was pure. This spiked nard means pure ointment. It was pure ointment. It was
undiluted. It wasn't watered down. It was pure. And people, when
the pure gospel of God's sovereign electing, there is no gospel
without that. Sovereign electing, ask Mary
if she likes election. Oh my. The heart and soul, it started
with that. It all started there. God's sovereign electing a pure
gospel of God's sovereign electing, redeeming, justifying, sanctifying,
love, mercy, and grace is a sweet-smelling savor indeed to sinners. It is the pure, unadulterated,
undiluted, the Lord said of that Passover feast, He said, don't
sodden it with water. Don't water it down. Don't add
anything or take anything away. Leave the fat. Okay, eat fat.
You better. That's the taste. Undiluted. Not sodden with water. Don't
take off the edges. Don't make it palatable to man
because he can't eat that stuff. Whatever they don't like to hear,
stand up and shout it. Because my people do. Mary, God
chose a people before the foundation of the world. I can hear her
now. Hallelujah! Say it again, preacher. That's
my story! Anybody? The pure, unadulterated, unmixed,
unwatered down gospel of the holiness and the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. You'll never hear these things
in religion today. You'll never hear these things. You'll hear
about the holiness of a man in Rome. I'm here to tell you and
every truth preacher will stand up to tell you about the holiness
of one that's in heaven and his righteousness imputed to. You want to hear this? How does
it smell to you? Righteousness. Perfect, pristine
righteousness. A robe of righteousness. Am I
naked? Anybody want to hear this? It
will cover you. All of you. Nothing uncovered. All hid. A bloodshed for the
remission of how many sins? All of them. All men of sin. I ate my one millionth hamburger
yesterday. It was just as good as the first. Judas turned up his nose. Judas That smelled good to me. This
is a waste. That's too much money. Mary said, it's not enough. We lavish our preachers, don't
we, Mac? When the missionaries, they make,
grovers make a lot of money. Do they make enough? Huh? I wish we could give them a million
dollars. Every preacher that comes here, I love this about
our treasurer, when they come here, he'll call me and say,
how much do we need to give so and so? I say, well, just give
him this and he'll say, can we give him some more? I said, yes, give it all to him. The Lord gave it to us. David,
in 1 Chronicles 29, he rejoiced that the people gave so willingly. He rejoiced over and over again
that he gave willingly. He told how much he gave. He
was a vast sum. And he did that as an example.
He led by example. And he thanked the Lord, though,
there in 1 Chronicles 29, that they were all made willing in
the day of His power to give so generously. Because He's worth
it. And it was all for one thing. Those priests make too much. They don't make enough. You know I didn't say that, because
I wanted it. Oh no, your care of me here at
the last is wonderful. Wonderful, and I thank the Lord
for it. But this gospel is a sweet-smelling
savor to those that love it. A sweet-smelling savor of Christ
and Him crucified. And they can't get enough of
it. And they can't spend enough. It's never too much. It's just
as the Lord. This is everything. Everything
to them. What did I have you turn to Psalm
and Solomon one more time? Look at it. Chapter 4, verse
9, it says, You've ravished me, the Lord said of His people,
His church. Verse 10, How fair is thy love,
my sister, my spouse. How much better is thy love than
wine, the smell of thine ointments. It's more beautiful than all
spices. Do you know who thought that ointment smelled better
than anybody in that room? Christ. He's smiling. He's looking on her with great
affection, great love, great joy. And it's like when your
daughter does something for you, brings you something, no matter
how small it may appear to you, doesn't it give you great satisfaction? And he smells it, and to him
it's a sweet-smelling savor. And here's my closing prayer.
Verse 14, spikenard and saffron, calamus, that's calus, and cinnamon. All the trees of frankincense.
That's what our Lord was anointed with at his burial. Chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well
of living waters, a stream from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind. That's the Spirit of God. And
come, O south, blow upon my garden. Christ prays about His Church,
that the spices thereof may flow out, and then let my Beloved
come into His garden and eat His pleasant food." My prayer
is this. Stand with me. Stand. Say, we don't do this. Well,
let's do it then. When Ezra read the book, everybody
stood for hours. This is my prayer. I hope that
you, oh Lord, come into this house. Let the spices that are
Christ's word and his words, let them flow out to every sinner
vexed like Lot with a conversation that we can vex in this world. Everyone that the stench of this
sinful world fills them up, the stench of their old man within
them. Let everyone smell this sweet smelling savor, which is
Christ and him crucified. And let it be the joy and rejoicing
of their hearts. Amen. You're dismissed.