Let's go to the book of the Gospel
of John, chapter number 12, if you would, this morning. The
Gospel of John, Gospel According to John, chapter 12. You know, there are four gospel
narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But that doesn't mean
there are four gospels. There's one gospel. set forth
from old eternity. In fact, John in the book of
Revelation calls it the everlasting gospel. So it is the gospel according
to John, just like the gospel according to Matthew, according
to Mark, according to Luke. And here is John's inspired narrative
that he gives us here in John The Gospel of John, and I want
to read, first of all, just the first phrase of verse one. I'm sure you're there by now.
John chapter 12, verse one. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, he came to Bethany. Our subject is simply six days
till Passover. Six days till Passover. You will
remember, I'm sure, that in John chapter 11, our Lord had a dear
friend, three friends in Bethany, but one of them was very ill,
and his name was Lazarus. And the sisters of Lazarus, Mary
and Martha, they sent a word to him, he whom thou lovest is
sick. There is one that we especially
call upon in a time of sickness, and that is our gracious Lord. He is, after all, the Great Physician,
and we rejoice to know Him, and we rejoice to know that He is
the Great Physician, physically, certainly, but especially spiritually. He's the great physician of sinners. Well, in course of time, as you
know, Lazarus passed away. Lazarus died. And then our Lord
delayed his entrance back to Bethany area. And then when he
got there, Lazarus had been dead four days. And our Lord, raised
him from the dead. What a miracle. Our Lord, it's
recorded in the gospels, the gospel narratives that our Lord
raised three people from the dead that we know of. Maybe more
than that. Because after his resurrection,
the graves of many of the saints of God were opened according
to the scriptures. But three that we know of, a
young girl, and then a young son, and then Lazarus. And our Lord, when he raised
him from the dead, obviously nothing like this had been seen
in the Bethany area before. And it was such a glorious thing,
and people were just overjoyed and rejoicing in the goodness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And most everybody was very happy,
but there were some people that weren't happy about it at all.
And that was the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the highest
judicial body in all of Israel. It consisted of 70 men and one
who was the president, that was the high priest. And they weren't
happy about the miracle at all because it brought more fame
to Jesus of Nazareth and they already hated him. They hated
him with a great passion. Going all the way back to John
chapter five, they wanted to kill him then. Several other
times it's recorded in the gospel according to John that they tried
to kill him. And then once he raised Lazarus
from the dead, it's like that's almost the straw that broke the
camel's back. They could bear with him no more.
And so we read, if you would, in verse 53, I'll just ask you
to back up to chapter 11. And verse 53, then from that
day forth, they took counsel together for to put him to death. They have had enough of Jesus
of Nazareth. Because you see, there were lots
of people who were making a profession of faith, of believing on Jesus
of Nazareth. Back up to verse 45. chapter
11 verse 45, Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and
had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. Now whether this was belief unto
salvation, I rather doubt it. I rather doubt it. Remember this,
the salvation that they're most interested in is a salvation
from Roman oppression. And they hoped and thought, most
of the people, that Jesus of Nazareth would be to them as
Moses was to Israel when they were rescued from Egyptian bondage. They hoped that Jesus of Nazareth
would be the king, They would gladly anoint Him, and if He'd
be the one who would run the Romans completely out of Israel,
they would give thanks to Him and they would believe Him. But
I don't think they believed unto salvation. I don't think this
is a God-wrought work in their hearts. And the reason I say
that is because when our Lord Jesus died on the cross, Where
are all of these multitudes? Where are all of these people?
They wanted an earthly monarch. They wanted an earthly deliverer
from their captivity and bondage to Rome, but they had no interest
in a real salvation from God that is a salvation from their
sins. Well, the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
the members of the Sanhedrin, they see many people expressing
that they believe on Jesus of Nazareth now. They actually held
a council together and said, what are we going to do? And
they finally decided he must die. They would not honor Jesus
of Nazareth as being the Son of God. They would not honor
Him. Now, when we get to John chapter
12, we find several people who did honor Him. First of all,
Mary honored Him. Look in chapter 12 and verse
3. This is one of the sisters of
Lazarus. And then 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 the ointment. Mary did what the Sanhedrin refused
to do. She honored the Savior. And then, next, there were some
people who came to visit our Lord. Drop down in chapter
12 here to verse 20. Chapter 20. There were certain Greeks. Mary
wasn't the only one who honored Him. There were certain Greeks
among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore
to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him,
saying, Sir, we would see Jesus." We would see Jesus. They desired to honor Him. But
there was someone else who honored Christ. Now, the Sanhedrin wouldn't
honor Him, but Mary did. And the Greeks did, but there's
another one who honored Christ like nobody else could ever honor
Him, and that is the Father. Drop down further here into chapter
12 and look at verse 28. Our Savior is praying and He
says, Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again."
God did indeed glorify His Son. He honored His Son. In fact,
in Hebrews chapter 1, if you read that, you'll find that God
called Jesus of Nazareth God. He honored the Son. He honored
Him by sending Him to this earth to be the ransom price for the
purchase of His people. He honored Him in His life. He
honored Him in His death. He honored Him by raising Him
from the dead and by exalting Him back to glory. The Sanhedrin
refused to honor Christ. These are the most religious
people in all of Israel, but they would not do what Mary did
what the Greeks did, and what God the Father did. And then
look further into chapter 12, look at verse 37. But though He had done so many
miracles before them, these Jewish leaders, yet they believed not
on Him. Our Lord had raised a man from
the dead. They still refuse to believe
Him. If you want to know the true state of man's heart by
nature, just look at these people. Though our Lord did all of these
miracles, and no doubt many of these people, who came to Bethany
or who lived in Bethany, they knew about the resurrection of
Lazarus, and they may have even been there to witness the raising
of this dead man. Though our Lord performed this
tremendous miracle before their eyes, yet they believed not on
Him. They wouldn't honor Christ. notwithstanding
the greatness of his miracles. And continue reading verse 38,
that the saying of Isaias, the prophet, might be fulfilled,
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom
hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could
not believe because that Esaias said again, he hath blinded their
eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with
their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted
and that I should heal them. Now watch this. These things
saith Esaias, Isaiah, when did he say these things? When he
saw his glory. and spake of Him. Here are all
of these people, including God the Father, who honored Him,
but the religious leaders of the nation refused to do so,
which leads me to say this. Do you honor the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, how is it with you? Do you truly worship Him as Mary
did? Do you want to see Him as the
Greeks did? To see Him by faith? And someday
to see Him face to face? Do you honor Him in some way
similar to the Father honored Him? Is it your desire that Christ
be glorified? And have you honored Him as Isaiah
did? Have you seen His glory? You know, back in John chapter
8, our Lord was speaking to these same sorts of people. And He
talked about Abraham. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see My day. He saw it and was glad. He saw
Christ by faith. Do you? He honored Christ from
his heart. Do you? He believed on the Son of God
who was coming. Do you believe on the Son of
God who has come? And then our Lord said to them,
before Abraham was, I am. He identified himself as the
great I am who spoke to Moses out of the bush that burned but
wasn't consumed. Do you honor Jesus of Nazareth
as being God over all, blessed forever? He's not, as the Mormons
say, a God. He's not a son of God. He is the son of God. He is God
himself. You believe that? Honor him by
believing that. And may he give you grace to
do so. And I'll tell you this, you may
not honor Christ, at least in this life, but you will honor
Him someday. Because there's coming a day
of judgment in which every knee is going to bow, every tongue
is going to confess that Jesus Christ, He is the Lord. All to the glory of God the Father
who sent Him You see, God made Him Lord. He was already Lord
before He came to this earth, but He came, He humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
in order to save His people from their sins. He enabled God to remain just
and holy and yet justify folks like us. and you'll either honor Him and
bow to Him in this life, or this one who has been exalted, you'll
be forced to bow to Him and exalt Him at the judgment, and then
the Lamb of God will cast you into hell. But I promise you,
He will get glory from you. He will get honor from you. He
will get honor from everybody. Oh, God, help me. Oh, God, help
you to bow now. Bow as a poor beggar, bringing, as it were, your empty
cup before him. Lord, if you will, if you will,
you can fill my cup. Lord, if you will, you can heal
me of my spiritual leprosy. If you will, if you will, it's
up to you. Honor Christ as the sovereign
king that he is. He's not a doormat to heaven.
He's not a hell insurance policy. He's Jehovah. He's the great
I Am. He's God over all, blessed forever. So, the Sanhedrin, the religious
leaders, they hated him. They refused to honor him. The first thing I see, and I'll
get right into the meat of the message here, the first thing
I see is the Passover. I read to you, then Jesus six
days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was,
which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead, the Passover. Now we've been studying the exodus
of Israel out of Egyptian bondage for several weeks and every year
they commemorated that glorious time of leaving Egypt when the
Lord sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians with the last one being
the death of the firstborn. And God passed over the Israelites
None of their firstborn died, for God had appointed a Passover
lamb, the blood to be shed, and then blood to be sprinkled upon
the doorposts and above the doorposts. And then every year after that,
every year after that, they were to keep that Passover. to remember what God had done
for them, to remember the deliverance God gave, the redemption of Israel
out of captivity. Well, that Passover was just
six days away. Our Lord, He will die on that
day as the Passover lamb. You see, the Jewish community
as a whole failed to recognize that Jesus of Nazareth was himself
the Lamb of God. You know, they were, in many
ways, they liked the preaching of John the Baptist, but though
they heard him, and I'm sure John preached with much enthusiasm,
He wasn't one to go into the temple, he didn't preach in the
temple, he didn't preach in a synagogue, he was an outdoor preacher. And
he didn't preach in Jerusalem, he preached out in the wilderness.
But there was something about John the Baptist, they liked
his preaching to a degree. But they failed to hear him say,
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. John
the Baptist identified Jesus of Nazareth as being the Lamb
of God. There's not another one like
Him. He is God's propitiation for sin. He's God's satisfaction
of divine justice. He is God's Passover Lamb. Due to the death of Christ and
the shedding of His precious blood, all of God's firstborn
people and all of the churches called the church of the firstborn
in Hebrews chapter 12, all of God's people have been redeemed. We have been saved by the bloody
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Passover lamb. But they didn't recognize him
as such. And they didn't hear John when
he preached, behold the Lamb of God. Oh, that God would give
you ears to hear, to behold, to look to the Lamb of God. And learn this, when our Lord
Jesus, when he died, that ended forever the carnal ordinances
of the old law. That is, it's not in force anymore. There are no more sacrifices
to be offered. You see, this is the foolishness
of those who talk about, they say, well, the Lord Jesus is
coming back. Well, I believe that. But they
say He's coming back and He's going to be in Jerusalem. He's going to split the Mount
of Olives, and then all of Israel is going to come back to Israel,
and they will resume their sacrifices. Why, that would be heretical. There are no more sacrifices
to be offered. God's sacrifice has died. God has offered His own Son as
the price for the payment of the sins of His people. God's
Passover has died. The Passover is no more. I don't
care how many lambs anybody might kill today and say, well, we're
sacrificing this to God. They might as well be offering
a pig to God. It's useless. In fact, it's an
insult to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. There's only
one way you're accepted by God, and that is through the Lamb
and His sacrifice. And you offer another sacrifice
to God for sin, you don't know anything about substitution.
You don't know anything about the gospel of the grace of God. Tell you, as a result of the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ, two very significant days came
to an end in the Jewish economy. First, the Passover. But second,
the Sabbath. Read Matthew chapter 28 in verse
1. It says, in the end of the Sabbath,
when our Lord Jesus Christ died, that ended forever the Sabbath
day observance. And for those who want to observe
a Sabbath, I'd say, all right, well then it better be Saturday
because that was the Sabbath day. I don't read anywhere in
the New Testament where suddenly the Lord transferred the Sabbath
from being the last day of the week to becoming the first day
of the week. You see, it's a failure on the
part of people to understand everything in the law of God
pointed to Jesus Christ or some aspect of His ministry. And that
included the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day of rest. Don't work. If you work... Remember one time in the Old
Testament, whether it was Numbers or Leviticus or Numbers, somewhere
in there, a guy was picking up sticks on the Sabbath day, he
died. They killed him. You say, whoa,
boy, that's tough, isn't it? You got to remember what the
picture is. Him working on the Sabbath is like a sinner working
to find rest before God. God will kill you for that. The
only rest to be found is in Christ Jesus, the Lord, and with you
not working, but resting in Him. Can you rest in Him? Can you
just lean on Him? Can you just hug up to the Savior
as a poor needy sinner? I got nothing, Lord. You have
everything. I'll lay here at your feet like
the beggar that I am. Please show me mercy. He is our rest. When our Lord
Jesus died, he did away with the Passover. When he rose again,
he did away with the Sabbath. And I know I've had people in
my own family, you know, they said Sunday's the Sabbath, didn't
let kids play ball, couldn't do anything like that. What they're
doing is sitting over there in the corner, doing nothing. You think that's honoring to
God? You see, that in itself is a
work. It is a work. Well, it's the
Sabbath day, so I'm doing nothing. And that's your work. People fail to see Christ is
our Sabbath. He said, come unto me and find
rest, rest. Well then, talk about the Passover. Let me talk to you a little bit
about Lazarus. It says that, Lazarus which had
been dead, whom he raised from the dead. Look at verse 2. There
they made him a supper. Can you imagine? Lazarus had
been raised from the dead and now, He's sitting at a table
eating with the Lord of glory who raised him. That's fellowship. As we read, let me show you the
rest of verse two. There they made him a supper
and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the
table with him. And then Mary took a pound of
ointment of spikenard, very costly and anointed, the feet of the
Lord Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. So here are these
three, two brothers and a sister. Martha is serving. Lazarus is
fellowshipping. And Mary is worshipping. But
remember, all of these three things are necessary for us to
fellowship with Christ. to serve Him and to honor and
worship Him. And there's Lazarus. He'd been
dead. He's not dead anymore. What's
he doing? He's eating. Who's he eating with? His favorite
person. He's eating with the Master.
You're talking about proof of life. He's sitting at a table
and eating and talking. That's proof of life. I know
I'm very much alive because I like to talk and I like to eat. Sit at a table and eat. There's
just no way to dismiss Lazarus as being, well, like a ghost
or a spirit who just kind of an apparition or whatever. No, he's real. I just heard him say, pass the
lentils. Pass the lamb. He's eating. For you see Lazarus is a picture
of you and me who are saved by the grace of God, quickened by
the Spirit, born again, regenerated, the new birth. The Spirit of
God takes the seed of the Word of God, just like what I'm preaching
now, then mysteriously and miraculously, it's as though the Master calls
you by name and you live spiritually. And the evidence of life is you
breathe a prayer out to the Savior, save me or I'll perish. And I'll tell you proof of life
is you're hungry. You're hungry to feed on the
truth. And that's what we're doing right
now. We have an evidence of life. We're made alive by Christ. And
we're here this morning. We came to feed. To feed on him
who is the bread of life. to drink of him who is the water
of life, and to drink in the very wine of the gospel that
makes the heart merry. Lazarus, there sat Lazarus in
the flesh eating and drinking and talking. And then there's Mary. I'm thankful that Martha served.
We need people to serve. We need people to visit and fellowship
with the Savior. And all of us need to worship
Christ. And Mary, in her we see a sinner
honoring her Savior. And she had saved up and she
bought this precious ointment that was worth A year's worth
of wages. Very costly, the verse says in
verse three. And she anointed the feet of
the Lord Jesus. And then she took her hair and wiped his feet with her hair. This is adoration. Take your
place at the feet of the Savior. honor him. She did. And I'll tell you what, when she broke open that canister
of ointment, the fragrance filled the whole room. And when somebody honors the
Lord of Glory, It's like breaking open an alabaster box of precious,
expensive perfume. Just fills the house with delight. Our souls are fed. Our hearts
rejoice. We're honoring God. That's what happened. Mary honored
the Savior. This is love that is extravagant. Extravagant. But everybody wasn't happy about
that. The last statement says in verse
3, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Now
look at verse 4. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, which should be true, he said, why was not this
ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? Oh, he sounds
so pious. We've got poor people who are
hungry. You're wasting this money on the Savior? And John gives us this explanation
in verse six, this he said, not that he cared for the poor, but
because he was a thief and had the bag, the money bag, and bear
what was put therein. And then Jesus said, leave her
alone. You know who is stingy toward
the Lord's work? People whose hearts are hard. But you showed me somebody who
gives extravagantly, like the widow who gave all she had. I don't really think about that
kind of giving. Maybe you do. I wish I did. Tell you what, you honor Christ.
Others may say to you, you're a fool. What do you give your
money to the church for? The Savior said, leave her alone. I bet they did too. I just, I
got a feeling they left her alone. He says, against the day of my
burying she had kept this. She foresees me laying down my
life for the sins of my people. She's anointing my feet for the
burial. Poor Judas. It's a sad case. Yet he got just
exactly what he deserved. Think of the time he had with
the master. Remained hard-hearted. Filled with unbelief. He was even a preacher. Huh? Remember that? And I would say
he preached the truth. Because the disciples went out
together, and I don't ever read of any of the disciples saying,
we were out with Judas Iscariot, and he didn't preach the gospel
that you preach. Oh, I think he did preach the
gospel. But with a bad motive. And from a heart of unbelief. You say, how can that be? I've met some men through the
years who preached the gospel. I've heard men from this pulpit
right here. And then, poof, they vanished,
right? Several of you can attest to
that. Where are they? I don't know. Fell by the wayside. Judas. He wound up kissing the door
to heaven on the cheek and perishing in his sin. Oh
God, I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want that to happen
to you. Leave her alone. He said in verse
eight, the master did, for the poor always you have with you,
but you don't have me always. You know, we give money. You
look at the financial report. We give money to help feed the
hungry in Ashland, to the kitchen, various other places that help
out the poor. But the very thrust of our ministry
is preaching the gospel exalting Christ. That's what we do. We've got a missionary that we
support over in Africa right now, Jean-Claude Souyault is
over there right now preaching. And we have the African Sovereign
Grace Ministry over there that we support. And we have Tim James
in Cherokee and Brother Shepard in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
These are efforts of preaching the gospel we're glad to support.
I'm glad, I'm thankful we can do that. And we have our own
ministry, part of which is the internet ministry. And that's
how we can preach to people, to those of you who are watching
by way of the internet this morning. This is not a waste. When you
give to support the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
not wasting money. It's being used for the glory
of God, for the exaltation of Christ. Well, verse 10, the unbelief of the Rebels, verses 10 and 11. Well, let me back up and read
verse 9. Much people of the Jews therefore
knew that he was there. And they came not for Jesus'
sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he raised
from the dead. But the chief priests consulted
that they might put Lazarus also to death. Because it by reason
of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Now
they're going to gang up on Lazarus. Who is that sitting at the table
with Jesus of Nazareth? Why, that's the man who was raised
from the dead yesterday. We'll kill him too. But they
didn't. But they got the one they was
really after. But that was in the purpose of God. It all worked
out what the Jews did and the Romans and Pilate and Herod and
all the rest of them. They did what God had purposed
to be done. Acts chapter 4 says that. God
help us to honor the Son of God, to worship Him.