We come this morning to look
once again at the book of Mark and we have been looking at chapter
13. The Lord told the things that
would soon transpire in the coming years after his death and the
great destruction that would come upon Jerusalem and the temple
and those things that would surround that. Now, there were a couple
of verses, I kind of went over these things pretty quickly the
other day, and there were a couple of verses
that I'd like to go back and look at. And one of them was
verse 27 in chapter 13. It says, and then shall he send
his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds
from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of
the heaven. Now when we see the word angels
in the scripture we usually are in most eyes and the thoughts
of most people we are they go to heavenly creatures and surely
there are angels that the Lord has created that occupy a realm
which is above the human realm. He has made us a little lower
than the angels for his own purpose. But every time that you see the
word angels in the scripture, it's not necessarily referring
to those heavenly creatures. Because the word angel is translated
as messenger. An angel is a messenger. And
the Lord used angels. He used heavenly creatures as
angels. But he also uses men as angels. Now that's not to say that men
are angels in the sense, you know, when we think of angels,
we usually think of some sinless creatures. And surely those angels
that dwell in the presence of the Lord, they are sinless. But remember there were angels
that were cast out of heaven and reserved into darkness forever. And so we must know and understand
that no creature in and of itself apart from the mercy and grace
of God can be without sin. It's only by the direction of
Almighty God that such things occur, and we are made lower
than the angels. keeping that in mind. But here,
he's not speaking about the angels going out, the heavenly creatures,
but he's talking about he's sending messengers. He said, and then
shall he send his messengers and they shall gather together
the elect from the four winds. He's describing the fact that
he would send them out as witnesses. He says, ye shall be witnesses
both in Jerusalem and in Judea and to the uttermost parts of
the world. The Lord sent them out as angels. And so he has sent over the years
men as angels to declare the glory of God. And he said, heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Now that's the basis upon which
all of our hopes are built, is it not? That God changeth not. I mean, if God is a fickle God
and does one thing one day and one the next, we would have no
basis really to have any trust, would we? But God who cannot
lie, he will not turn. Some people look at that as though
God lacks some ability. God lacks no ability. This is
not speaking about God's lacking of the ability to do something,
but rather it's speaking about the fact that he will not do
something. He will not lie. He will tell
the truth. In fact, the Lord Jesus said,
in the 14th chapter of John, as He told them, I'm going away
to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also. He said, if these things were
not so, I would have told you. And we can trust Him, can we
not? Now you can't trust me. Don't trust me because I'll let
you down. But you can trust Christ because
he will not turn from that thing which he has undertaken to do,
which is to redeem his people and to bring them unto himself
as he sees fit. And so his word shall not pass
away. Now we're looking at 14. And
I'm gonna read about half of this chapter and then we'll stop. But it says, after two days was
the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread. And the
chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him
by craft and put him to death. But they said, not on the feast
day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany
in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came
a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very
precious, and she break the box and poured it on his head. And
there were some excuse me, that had indignation within themselves
and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it
might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been
given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
And Jesus said, let her alone, why trouble ye her? She hath
wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you
always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. But me ye
have not always. She hath done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily
I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout
the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken
of for a memorial of her. And Judas Iscariot, one of the
twelve, went into the chief priests to betray him unto them. And
when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him
money. And he sold how he might conveniently
betray him. And the first day of unleavened
bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him,
Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat
the Passover? And he sendeth forth two of his
disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there
shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in,
say ye to the good man of the house, the master saith, where
is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large
upper room furnished and prepared, there make ready for us. And
his disciples went forth and came into the city and found,
as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover.
And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. And as they
sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, one of
you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to
be sorrowful and to say unto him one by one, is it I? And another said, is it I? And
he answered and said unto them, it is one of the 12 that dippeth
with me in the dish. The son of man indeed goeth as
it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the son of
man is betrayed. Good were it for that man if
he had never been born. And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread, and blessed, and break it, and gave it to them, and
said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when
he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
of it. And he said unto them, This is the blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you,
I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that
I drank it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung
in him, they went out into the Mount of Olives. And Jesus saith
unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. For
it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall
be scattered. But after that I am risen, I
will go before you into Galilee. But Peter said unto him, although
all shall be offended, yet not I. And Jesus saith unto him,
verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night,
before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. But he
spake the more vehemently, if I should die with thee, I will
not deny thee in any wise, likewise also said they all. I'll stop right there. Now the Feast of the Passover,
of course, as we studied uh... the scriptures and the ways of
the jews that was the highest and holiest of days uh... that they had to celebrate the
passover uh... when the lord brought them out
of egypt and they were very mindful to keep the passover even as
orthodox jews are in the present day they still maintain the keeping
of that And the chief priests, being
fine religious men, they had no qualms about taking the Lord
Jesus by craft, but they didn't want to do it on the Passover
day, because you know that was a holy day. You've got to keep
those things in mind, they thought. And they feared the people also,
because they knew that the people, in a general sense, regarded
Jesus with some high regard because they thought him to be a good
man, went about doing good, and they figured if they took him
and arrested him on the day of the Passover when all the people
could see it, that they would be upset. So they decided that
they would take him in some crafty way. In other words, that they
would set a trap for him, so to speak, and that they would
take him by night, which of course, as we know in reading things,
that he did. But prior to this, while all
this is going on in the background, now we don't have any reason
to think that Judas, up until this point in time, had gone
to the Pharisees and there was none cooking. They were still
trying to figure out a way that they could captured Jesus because
they couldn't just go into the marketplace and get him and of
course later on we read when they did come out and get him
he said you know why are you coming after me with with staves
and spears he says the whole time he says I've been teaching
in the temples as you could have took me any time and so it was
that they knew who he was but their plan to take him in this
crafty way, they needed somebody to lead them to where he would
be, and somebody that would point him out in the midst of the crowd.
Of course, keep in mind, it's dark when they went to get him,
and so they would need somebody that could pinpoint the one that
he was. And so it is that Being in Bethany
in the house of Simon the leper as he sat at meat, there came
a woman having a box of ointment. Now this is recorded for us in
the other gospels. And one place it says that Lazarus
was there and Mary was there. And Mary is the one that brought
this box of ointment. Now some have thought, well this
was some kind of a contradiction, but the fact of the matter is
this took place in Bethany at Simon the leper's house, but
it doesn't say it took place in the other gospel at Lazarus'
house, but Lazarus was there. And Mary were there, but it took
place in Simon the leper's house. And there were a number of people
there. This wasn't just those few people, but it was a number
of people that were there. So Mary brought this box of ointment. And she poured it on his head.
Now, another place it says that she poured it on his feet. And
there is another account that took place prior to this, in
the early days of his ministry, when a woman of the streets,
a prostitute, came and broke, or poured ointment on his feet,
and it says she bathed his feet with her tears. So all of these things, you know,
have a place and a purpose. Now this is a little bit different
here because this was one that knew him and one that you know, was with him, and of
course, you know, he raised Lazarus from the dead, and Mary and Martha
were there. He had been in Mary and Martha's
house quite often. But evidently, I believe that
he had given Mary some insight, because you remember that Martha
was concerned when she was fixing the meal that Mary wasn't taking
enough time to help her with the meal. to prepare the meal,
and she spoke to the Lord, and he said, Martha, Martha, you're
cumbered about much serving. He didn't say this is wrong to
do this, but he said, you're worried too much about this,
but he said, Martha, I mean, Mary hath chosen the better thing. And she was sitting at the feet
of the Lord. And so I believe that she was a little bit more
in tune with spiritual things, perhaps, than Martha was. And so she was coming here, and
I believe the Lord had given her some insights as he had taught. And I believe she had been given
some understanding of what it is that the Lord Jesus was going
to do. Now keep in mind that his disciples
didn't really understand this, did they? I mean, they were ready
because Peter was ready to fight there in the garden. As he said,
Lord, I'll stand with you to the end. He meant it. He thought
he would do it. I mean, when the time came, he
was ready. He pulled out the sword and cut the ear off of
one of the men that came there. And the Lord told him, put the
sword up. Because that wasn't, you know, he said, this is ordained
of God. It must take place like this.
And so we see the hand of the Lord in directing all of these
things to take place, even to Mary coming and pouring this
box of ointment upon his head, and I believe upon his feet as
well, as one of the other gospels says. And those that were there, keep
in mind there was a number of people there. Not all of them
necessarily were friendly, to the Lord Jesus, but they were
kind of curious. They were there. I don't know
what all happened, but in any event, there were some that with
indignation within themselves, why was this waste of the ointment
made? Now, we remember that Judas was
a ringleader in this. In fact, one of the other Gospels
says, he said, why has this not been sold and given to the poor?
And then the scripture goes on to say he didn't really, wasn't
concerned about the poor, but he was a thief. And he was the
one in charge of the money and he wanted the money. So I think
that this is an interesting aspect of things that immediately after
this incident takes place is when he goes to the Pharisees
and says, I've had enough of this. See, he didn't have any
consideration of that which the Lord had given to Mary through
the Spirit of God of who this man Jesus was and what he was
going to do for the children of God. He said, let her alone. Why are you troubling her? She
hath wrought a good work on me. You know, men are often concerned
with amounts of money, are they not? Religious men are concerned
with amounts of money. You know, there's probably not,
there's very few churches around where they don't pass a plate
around, because they don't want anybody to get out, you know,
that might have some money that they can put in the plate. And
so they're concerned about money. Now, money has a place in the
world. I mean, you know, we all have to have money, and it takes
money to do a lot of things. But keep this in mind, the kingdom
of God is not concerned with money. And the Lord said, you know,
this money could have been sold, given to the poor. Did the Lord
not care for the poor? Well, sure He cared for the poor.
He showed that every day. You know, I mean, the Lord did
minister to the poor. Sure He did. But you see, he
would have them to know and understand that no price could be put upon
worship. See, there's no value of money
that you can place upon worship. Because worship's not a thing
that men can do. Now, most men think they can
worship, don't they? I mean, don't we think, well,
we're gonna go worship the Lord? Well, are we? I mean, I guarantee
you this, you won't worship the Lord one lick, except that the
Spirit of God moves in your heart to do so. Because the Lord seeketh
such to worship Him as worship Him in spirit and truth. not
in outward forms and ways of men. And so I believe she brought
this, this is an evidence of true worship. Now this was a
costly ointment. How did she get this? Somehow
or other, over time she had worked probably in some fashion, she
had gotten some money, she had bought this ointment. This was
a precious possession. But she gave it to the Lord.
See, she didn't consider what the cost of it was. The money
wasn't important. She didn't think, oh my, this
is going to cost me a lot of money. No. She says, I want to
do something for the Lord. And it didn't matter to her how
much it cost. It didn't matter what other people
thought about how much it cost. See, some people do things because
they like for people to think they did something that cost
a lot. Ananias and Sapphira, we've just been reading about
that. They thought, well, you know, this is a good deal. We
can get some notoriety among the saints and have a little
money in our pocket, too. And they'll think, you know,
that we're just doing this as a good deed. Well, she didn't
have any concern, just like the woman that we read about a few
weeks ago, about the, who gave the mite, the two mites. She
gave all that she had. She wasn't concerned how much
it was. She just wanted to serve the Lord. She wanted to worship
the Lord. And he says here, You have the poor with you always,
and whensoever you will, you may do them good. See, it's a
privilege to help the poor, isn't it? He said whenever you will,
you can do them good. It's a good thing. When you help
people, that's a good thing. When you give money to help others
with problems or whatever, that's a good thing. But he said, you can do that,
the poor's always gonna be with you. There's never gonna be a
time when there's not somebody in need of something. That's
always gonna be up to the end. But he said, me, I'm not gonna
always be here. And he said, she hath done what
she could. What a glorious thing. Oh, I
hope that that would be said of me when I'm gone. He did what
he could. Now, brethren, that's a blessed
thing. How many of us have done what
we could? I have to say many times, I have to say I have done
what I could. But see, the Lord said, she hath
done what she could, and she hath done, she has come aforehand
to anoint my body to the bearing. Now remember, she was one of
the ones that helped in anointing the body of the Lord Jesus. I
say beforehand. Somehow, the Lord had put it
in her mind that she wanted to give something to the Lord. She
wanted to bless him. Now we can't bless the Lord,
can we? I mean, he doesn't need anything we've got. He owns the
cattle on a thousand hills. But he privileges the people
of God to be able to give unto him. She hath come beforehand. Verily
I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached, what she hath done shall be spoken
for a memorial of her. Isn't that the truth? You know,
how often have we heard of this account? And every time the gospel's
preached, whether it specifically mentions her or not, what she
hath done shall be remembered. Because you see, the worship
of God's people unto the Lord is that which is pleasing in
his sight. And it will be that which renowns
unto his glory through the ages to come. And then we see immediately,
Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went to the chief priest to betray
him. He'd had enough. See, he had
no regard under who Christ was. He had no understanding of the
spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus had been teaching.
And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give
him money. They said, man, this is our plans
coming together. We've got a way now that we can
bring this thing to pass. And they were happy. And so was
he, because he was a thief. he got 30 pieces of silver. I
don't know how much money that was, but it was not an inconsiderable
amount, because remember whenever they, after his death, they took
the money and they bought this field, Potter's Field, to bury
the poor. And so it was not an inconsiderable
amount of money, so they promised, to give him money, and he saw
how he might conveniently betray him. It was working in his mind. He planned it out. Now, he planned
it out, did he not? But, keep this in mind, that
though he planned it out every step, of his journey was predestined
by an almighty God who determined by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. And Judas
was an integral part of that. And the Lord said, it would be better if this man
had never been born. Now that's caused a lot of people
a lot of problems over the years. But the problem that men have
with it is that they think that men are in a neutral condition. And they think that Judas was
this happy-go-lucky guy who was going along just wanting to do
good in the world, and the Lord made him betrayed. No. Judas betrayed the Lord because
of the wickedness of his heart. Just like Pharaoh hardened his
heart before the Lord when the Lord sent Moses to him to tell
him to let his people go. But never forget this, the Lord
hardened his heart because he did exactly what the Lord preordained
and determined that he would do. And so it is. What can we say about that? Now
some people get mad and they think, well that's not fair.
Who art thou, man, that replies against God? Has the potter not
power over the clay to make one vessel unto honor and another
to dishonor? as it pleaseth him." Brethren,
we don't take any pride in that or any boast of anything that
we know, but we fall on our faces and realize, you see, the only
thing that makes us different from Judas is not some goodness
that's in our heart, but it's the grace of God that keeps us
back from doing something, because there is an evil heart of unbelief
in every man, and every man would betray the Lord. Any one of the
disciples would. I mean, look at Peter. He said, Lord, I won't do it. But he did, didn't he? Yes, he
did. And the Lord had to show him
that. And, you know, we see again the
power and order of God in all, in every minute detail. They say, Lord, you know, it's
time for the Passover. What are we going to do? They
were concerned about, oh, we've got to do something. He said,
I tell you what, he said, go on into town, and he said, you're
gonna find a guy carrying a pitcher of water, you follow him and
tell him the master needs the thing. Now, I've read people
say, oh yeah, well the Lord, see, behind the scenes when the
disciples didn't know it, he had gone to this man and set
up this thing and got it all. I don't think that's the way
it was at all. You see, he just called somebody somewhere to
prepare a place, and at the appointed time, He sent his disciples to
take that place. And he said, he'll show you a
large upper room, furnished and prepared. There, make ready for
us. And his disciples went, and they
said, we've made it ready. And in the evening, he cometh
with the 12. And as they sat and did eat, He said, verily I say unto you,
one of you which eateth with me shall betray me. Now remember
when we take the Lord's Supper, and Paul in his description of
this, he always mentions this. He says, and in the same night
in which he was betrayed. Because you see, dear brethren,
that's as much a part of what we ought to remember. as is the
blood and the righteousness of Christ, the broken body of Christ. He'd have us to remember that
we could be just as Judas was. It's only by his mercy and his
grace that we're not. And they began to be sorrowful
when they heard this. Their hearts were pricked and
they said, is it I? You see, the man that knows himself
to be a sinner, he knows it could be him. And so each one of them was worried
about that, because the Lord had taught them something of
what they were. And they said, Lord, is it I? He said, it's
only one of you. He says, one of the 12 that dippeth
with me in the dish. And evidently, at that point
in time, Judas had reached forth to dip in the dish. And then
that's when he said, woe to that man by whom the son of man is
betrayed. Good were it for that man if
he had never been born. And then as they did eat, Jesus
took the bread and he blessed it, broke it, gave it to them,
said, take eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, when he
had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank of
it. And he said, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is
shed for many. Shed for many. How many? I don't know. Many. Are there few that be saved?
The Lord said there were, but it's still many, because there's
a multitude which no man could number, who shall gather around
his throne. But many is not all, is it? He
shed his blood for many. I know that some get sentimental
about what the Lord Jesus Christ did. And they say, well, He died
for every man in the world. He took away everybody's sin.
If that be true, then He failed, did He not? Because some, as
He says, are not going to be given an entrance into the Kingdom
of Heaven. Did He fail? No. He didn't fail. He came to shed
his blood for many. And he shed his blood for many.
And that same many are given eternal life according to the
purpose which he purposed from before the foundation of the
world. And not one of them shall perish because the salvation
of God's people does not depend upon them. It depends upon him. And He is the Savior of His people. He said, this is the blood of
the New Testament. Verily I say unto you, I will
drink no more of the fruit of the vine till that day that I
drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung a
hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. that they didn't know what the
Lord would do, did they? I'm sure they were puzzled by
this. Because it still wasn't clear to them, you see, as to
what was gonna transpire. Because, you know, even after
the Lord had died, and rose again, and was there on the verge of
ascending into the heavens, they were asking, well, Lord, wait
a minute, Are you now going to restore the kingdom unto Israel? See, they didn't know. They didn't
understand. But it would come clear to them.
The Lord had told them, just wait. Go down to Jerusalem and
wait. And He said, the Holy Ghost will
come upon you. And when Peter stood on the day of Pentecost
and declared the truth, the Lord showed him. Was that not what
He said, Peter, when thou art converted? feed my sheep. You see, the Lord ordered all
these things. None of this stuff happened by
chance. None of it could have occurred
any other way because He determined, dear brethren, to save His people. And He went to the cross to save
His people. He went to the garden and He
poured out His life's blood in the garden as He sweat great
drops of blood. And he said, I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me out of the world.
Thine they were, and thou hast given them to me. And he prayed. He prayed for
his people in that place. He prayed for them there with
groanings and cries. Now he intercedes for his people.
But he does not intercede with groanings and cries, because
all of that is past. See, the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes
for his people by his very presence at the throne of God, because
his people are hidden in him. And where Christ is, there's
where his people are. And so he's pleased with those
for whom he paid that price. Oh, what a glorious Savior he
is. As we come today to this supper, very pointedly, as the Lord said, that this bread is his body and this
wine is his blood. And we know that it's nothing
but bread, nothing but wine, that you could go to the store
and buy or make or whatever in either case. But we know that because He has
given this to us, and He said as often as you do it, you do
show the Lord's death till He comes again. And what a precious
thing it is for the children of God to be reminded that he died for us. He didn't have to, but he did so because he determined
to do so. He wanted to do so. He was under
no obligation.