Well, good morning, everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. Before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord and give thanks and seek his blessing. Our Father, we're so thankful. To be able to be here this morning
that you've given us both the health and the desire to be here
this morning to one more time hear the glorious gospel of your
son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And father, I earnestly beg you
that you would send your spirit upon us and enable us this morning
to worship you in spirit and in truth. How I beg of you that
you would deliver us from going through the motions of religion,
going home and thinking that we've done our religious duty
for the week, but Father, that you would speak to us through
your word and by the power of your Holy Spirit, enable us to
hear and to believe, to see the Lord Jesus Christ, either for
the very first time or for the 1,000th time, enable us to see,
to see the Lord Jesus Christ and come to him, to cast our
soul upon him find our rest and hope and peace, to find everything
that you require of us in Him, in Him alone. Father, I pray
for this congregation that you would continue to be with us,
that you continue to bless your gospel that's preached from this
place. Father, how I thank you for a
place where we can meet together and worship in peace and unity
and love. And Father, I pray that you would
Give each of us the grace and the wisdom to not be a discouragement
to our brethren, but to be a help one to another. Bless us, Father,
for Christ's sake, we pray. Father, for those that you brought
into the time of trouble and trial, it seems like right now
that there are many of them. Father, I pray that you would
comfort their hearts with your presence. Father, give a fulfillment of
your promise that your grace is sufficient and that we pray
you deliver as soon as it could be thy will. In all these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. And I've titled
the message or the lesson this morning, A Good Work. In our
text this morning, this is the only thing that someone did that
our Lord called a good work. And what I want us to see out
of this good work mainly is this, the motive for it. The motive
for every good work is faith in and love for our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I find it very interesting
that this story begins with a display of the sovereignty of our God.
Look at verse one, Mark chapter 14. After two days was the feast
of the Passover and of unleavened bread. And the chief priests
and scribes thought 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. Now this is the
Passover. The weekend of the Passover is
right here upon them. This is one of their high holy
days. A day where they remember how
they were redeemed from bondage in Egypt by the blood of the
Passover land, by the blood being shed, the blood being applied
to the door. And God said, I'm going to pass through and kill
every firstborn in the land of Egypt on this night. But where
there's blood on the door, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. This is what they're remembering. This is what they're celebrating,
this glorious picture of redemption through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And what are they thinking about?
They're not thinking about worship. They're not thinking about the
awe of God's grace and power and mercy to them. They're thinking
about murder. They're thinking how they might
murder this one, not knowing that they're talking about killing
Christ our Passover, but they don't know what they're talking
about, but their hearts are set on this high holy day, set on
murder and evil and hatred. And the enemies of Christ had
determined that they wanted to kill him privately. They didn't
want any witnesses to this thing. If they could just get it done,
you know, say, well, we don't really know what happened to him. They
could lie about what happened to him. They even say here, let's
not do this on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the
people. And that was exactly the day he was crucified, on
the feast day, because our God's sovereign over all things. It
was the eternal purpose of God that his son be publicly, very
publicly, put to death for the sin of his people. Not just for
all the people gathering together in Jerusalem to see, but hung
between heaven and earth. This was God's eternal purpose.
When he puts away the sin of his people, this thing not gonna
be done in a corner. This thing's going to be done
publicly so that his people will see it and hear about it. And
if we don't see it with eyes, physical eyes, we're going to
see it with eyes of faith, aren't we? This thing's going to be
done very, very publicly because that's God's eternal will and
purpose. And it's going to happen and it's going to happen in two
days. And it seems like Nobody's realizing as much as our Lord's
talked about this event. It seems like the only two people
that know what's coming are our Lord and Mary. She knew about
it by faith. Look here at verse three. 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. Now, as often as our Lord spoke
about his death, it seems like none of the apostles, the future
apostles, got it. Our Lord told them he's going
to Jerusalem to suffer and die, and it still doesn't seem like
they get it. They still don't think that it's gonna happen,
but Mary did. And I wonder, you reckon maybe
she heard this message, and the Lord gave her faith to hear it
and really believe it, Because she's the one sitting at the
feet. Because she chose that good part, sitting at the feet
of the Savior. Instead of worrying about running
around, you know, serving tables and getting glory for all the
work that she's doing. Instead of arguing with the apostles,
who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Who's
going to sit on your right hand? And who's going to sit on your
left hand? From what we have recorded in the scripture, Mary
never one time got involved in any of that junk. Where do we
see her? At the feet of Christ. And she
learned something there, didn't she? The Lord taught her, the
Lord gave her faith to believe this message, that salvation
is coming through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
gonna be sacrificed. She knew this. And here's what
more she knew. And you only know this by faith.
She knew that the Lord was getting ready to die for her sin, not
just the sin of all of his people. And although I'm sure she had
a very good understanding of that, But I just seem very certain
about this. What is gripping her heart at
this moment is the Lord's getting ready to suffer and die for her
sin. That's what saving faith is.
Saving faith is just not knowing the facts of Christ's death and
that he's gonna die for a number no man can number, that he'll
die for his elect and only his elect. All of those things are
true. What saving faith lays hold on
is this, when Christ died, he died for me. It was my sin. that nailed him to the tree.
It was my sin that caused his back to be lacerated, his face
to be beaten and battered, the beard plucked out of his face. To have that crown of thorns
shoved down on his head and the spear shoved up in his side,
that was for my sin. That's what saving faith lays
hold of. And I'm confident this is the thing that is just gripping
Mary's heart at this very moment. And this is what she's afraid
of. The Lord's going to be put to death in this public spectacle. She heard the Lord say it. He's
going to be taken by the Pharisees and the scribes and the chief
priests and the Romans and all these people are going to be
working together to put him to death. And she's pretty sure
after he dies, I'm not going to be able to get to his body.
I'm not going to be able to anoint his body with the spices and
the ointments and wrap his body like the Jews normally did. I'm
not gonna have the chance to do that after he's put to death,
because they're probably gonna wanna dispose of the body. So
Mary came to do it now. She came to do it now. She didn't
wait. She wanted to anoint the Savior's
body even before that he died. And our Lord says, that's why,
look at verse eight. She says, she had done what she
could. She's come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.
That's what she's doing. She's doing it before he even
died. This is an act of faith. What Mary did is an act of faith.
Because saving faith is not a dead thing that's in the heart. Saving
faith is not giving mental credence to a bunch of doctrines somebody
wrote down on a piece of paper. Saving faith is in the heart
and it must act. If faith in Christ is in the
heart, It must act. And that's what Mary's doing.
She's putting her money where her mouth is. Judas, we read,
said that this ointment that she comes to anoint the Lord's
head with, why, that could have been sold for 300 pence, I think
is the number. It took the average working man
300 days to earn that much money. This ointment in today's money
would have been worth roughly $60,000. And Mary took it and
broke it on the head of our Lord Jesus Christ. And John's account
says she anointed his feet with this ointment too. She's honoring
the Savior with everything she has. Mary is, from what we read,
is an unmarried woman. Lazarus is probably the one that
owns everything. This may be, The only thing Mary
owns and she took it all and anointed the Savior's body with
it out of faith. Faith commits everything to Christ. I don't hold anything back and
hope that any of my works can contribute to this thing of salvation.
Faith commits all to Christ. Either Christ is gonna save me
all by himself or I'll be damned. That's what saving faith says.
So the singular motive for this good work is faith in Christ
and love for Christ. And wherever there's faith and
love, genuine faith and love, there will always be indignation
from the world. Look at verse four. And there
were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why
is this waste? Putting this ointment on the
safe. This is a waste of the ointment made. For it might have
been sold for more than 300 pence and be given to the poor. And
they murmured. They murmured against her. Now
look over at John chapter 12. I'll show you a little bit more
about where this murmuring started. John chapter 12. It started from
Judas. And Judas, you know good and
well, was not interested in the poor one bit. Judas wanted that
money sold so he could steal out of it. That's why he started
all this. John 12, verse four. Then saith
one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray
him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given
to the poor? This he said, not that he cared
for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and
bear what was put therein. Judas just wanted to put that
money in the bag so he could steal out of it. That's all his
motivation was. And we understand that, don't
we? We understand that motivation of the flesh, of the betrayer,
of someone who's apostate. But here's the scary thing. This
is something that ought to frighten every believer. Judas, was able
to lead true believers aside so quickly. By his complaint, he led true
believers into indignation against Mary doing an act of faith. He
led them, just with a sentence, into a bad attitude. With just a sentence, he led
them into bad-mouthing this humble believer who had come in this
act of faith and love for Christ. And he had them all bad-mouthing
her. These are the future apostles, the writers of scripture. I mean,
these men believed Christ, they really did. Peter is among this
group who spoke for the whole group and said, we believe and
are sure you're the Christ, the Son of God, which we believe.
And look how easily they were led astray. And the disappointing
thing, for me anyway, is this, knowing that if I would have
been there, I'd have been led astray just as easily as they
were. It's very frightening, isn't it? It's something that
we need to guard against with each other. And I kind of show
you a little bit more about that for the lessons over. But while
they're murmuring and complaining against her, the Lord defends
and protects his own because he sees the heart. Verse six,
and Jesus said, you let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath
wrought a good work on me. What she has done is a good work.
And like I said, to open the message, This is the only thing
our Lord ever called a good work. He said, if you have the poor
with you always, and wheresoever you will, you may do them good. But me, you have not always. She had done what she could,
and she's come beforehand to anoint my body to the bearing. Now our Lord called this a good
work. It's an act of faith in Christ. That's what a good work is. It's
just acting in faith in Christ. Mary did this because she knew
that very soon he was going to die for her sin. And she was
confident, this faith is confident, he's gonna put my sin away. He's
gonna die for my sin, he's gonna put it away, he's gonna be the
successful Savior, and I'll be accepted of the Father by his
sacrifice. So she came to anoint him in
faith, believing he is the successful Savior. But here's the second
thing I want us to see. A good work is a work that is
born out of an act of love. Love. Mary did this because she
loved the Lord Jesus Christ. She loved him. She loved the
one who is getting ready to suffer and die for her sin. And she's
awed by it. I mean, she just awed. that the
Lord would love me? Of all people, the Lord would
love me? He would love me enough to suffer
and die for my sin, to take my sin away from me and take it
into his own precious, holy body on the tree and put it away by
his suffering. The Lord would do that for me?
Oh, just awe, awe. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene. And I wonder, I knew, I wonder
how could he love me, a sinner condemned unclean. Believers
love the Lord. They love him. It's because he
first loved us now, but we do love him. And he proved his love
for us by being the propitiation for our sin. And in return, his
people love him. Now they do, they love the Lord
Jesus Christ. That love is genuine, but at
the same time, you won't find a believer bragging on their
love for Christ. I mean, if someone genuinely
loves Christ, they're not bragging on it. But you do love him. You do love him. Every believer
can say with our brother Peter, Lord, my friends may not know
it, I mean, people may not know it by looking at me in my flesh,
but Lord, you know, all things, you know, I love you. You know,
I love you. And love always acts. You know, if whatever feeling
of emotion that it might be, if it doesn't act, if it doesn't
act in, in sacrifice and in giving and doing things for someone,
then you don't love whatever that emotion is. It's not love.
Love acts. And by faith, this is what Mary
knew. Now faith and love always go together, don't they? By faith,
Mary knew that the Lord is getting ready to suffer and die in just
a couple days. And because she believed him,
she acted in love. And what did she do? She gave
the best that she had. She gave the best that she had. Well, here's the third thing
about a good work. A good work is a work that's
done on the body of Christ. Mary took this ointment and she
anointed the Lord's body for burial. And I would just imagine,
I mean, I don't know. I didn't live in that day. I
don't understand how it was in that day, but I know it's a hot,
dry country. It's dusty. Somebody doesn't
take a shower every day like we do. And I'm just guessing
this, that when Mary put that ointment on our Lord's head and
she put it on his feet, it's just a guess of mine, I think
it's a pretty good guess, that it felt good. Don't you think
that felt good to his body? And it was so fragrant that two
days later, even after all of the Lord's suffering, Two days
later, you could still smell that ointment. Now, you and I
can't touch the physical body of the Lord Jesus. We can't do
anything for his physical body, can we? But we can touch each
other. And scripture is very plain on
this. Believers are the body of Christ. And believers are
to serve and to help one another at every opportunity. If you
would do a good work on the body of Christ, look around you. You
got lots of options. Somebody's in need, help them. You might not even know that
they're in need, but let's put them on your mind. Pray for them. Give them a kind word. Send them
a car. Let them know. You know, I love
you and I've been praying for you and thinking about you, you've
been on my heart. You just might not know how much
they need a kind word. Do it because you love the Lord.
Believers here on earth, this is the body of Christ. And serve
one another. Do kind things one for another. in faith. Remember the motive
is faith in Christ and love for Christ. Do this in faith in Christ. If I believe Christ, if God's
given me saving faith in Christ, I have some understanding of
how it is that God saved me by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he saved you the same way.
If I have faith in Christ that way, I'm just gonna see it as
my reasonable service to do for you what I can. It's just reasonable
if you have faith in Christ. If you see Christ by faith, it's
reasonable to you to do what you can for his body, for other
believers. And do it in love for Christ. Serve one another, sacrifice
to help one another in love for Christ. If I love Christ, I can't
brag about it. There's nothing for me to write
home about, but it's genuine. If I love Christ, I'll love his
people too. I really will. In spite of their
warts, in spite of the things that they don't do right, I'm
gonna love them anyway. And in spite of my warts, and
in spite of the things I do wrong, they're gonna love me anyway.
Because that's what love does. And like I said a minute ago,
love acts. It acts automatically. It doesn't
have to be asked. Don't wait on somebody to ask
you to help them. If you see a need, you jump in
and help because of love. Because of love. Don't think, well, this has been
on my mind to do this for someone. But they might think it's dumb.
People might think that's stupid. They might not think that that's
very helpful or very good. So I'm just not going to do anything.
Love doesn't wait to be asked. Love acts automatically. And since she's not here this
morning, I'll use my dear wife, Janet, as an example. Most of you know I had this biopsy
done on Thursday. And Thursday and Friday and Saturday,
I was pretty much a slug. I mean, just pretty much a slug.
I felt horrible. And poor Janet is running around
just getting me stuff and bringing me stuff, stuff I never even
asked for. She's just trying to anticipate.
You know, Frank might like this. Sometimes, she says, this is
going to make you feel good. I don't really want to do that.
She said, do it because it's going to make you feel good. She didn't wait
for me. And she ran herself ragged. Now she's sick. because love
acts. Do that same thing for one another. Don't even do it because you're
wanting thanks. Don't do it because you think, well, they're gonna
send me a thank you note, and if they don't send me a thank
you note, I'm never gonna do that again. You're not doing it for thanks.
Just do it out of love. Just do it out of love. And when
Mary anointed the body, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
was an act of faith in him. It was out of love for him. She
was doing this for him, wasn't she? But everybody in the room
benefited. That sweet smell of that ointment
just filled that room. And everybody in the room benefited
because of her work on the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
I tell you this, whatever it is that the Lord's laid it on
your heart to do for someone here or believers in other places,
whatever it is, just do it. Just do it. It'll be a sweet
smell that'll benefit everybody. You'd be surprised. Here's the
fourth thing. A good work doesn't necessarily
have to be a great monumental work. The Lord said, Yeah, verse eight, she had done what
she could. She'd done what she could. Just
do what you can. You might think, well, I can't
do a big monumental work. I can't do something that's gonna
be, you know, stand out and be so helpful and be so impactful.
Do what you can. Just do what you can. Don't let
what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do. Does that
make sense? Don't let what you can't do stop
you from doing what you can do. Do what you can. It doesn't have
to be a great big monumental work. You'd be surprised, and
you know this when you've been on the receiving end of it. Something
as simple as a kind word, I mean, it just doesn't have to be much.
When you're the one that's in a time of trouble, and you're
in the furnace of trial, what little thing somebody can do
to make you feel so much better, to give you a lift for the moment,
do what you can. Do what you can. And here's the
fifth thing, and this is a very important aspect of doing a good
work, a good work will not seek recognition. Someone who has
been enabled by God to truly do a good work is not doing it
so people will notice them. They're not doing it so people
will say, oh, what a good Christian they are, and they do these good
things. They're simply doing it out of love, love for Christ
and faith in him. When Mary took this ointment,
this is really, really interesting to me. She didn't take the ointment
and dump it out. When we were dating, I don't
even know what kind of perfume it was. Janet wore this perfume
and I just thought, you know, this is the best smelling thing
ever and they don't make it anymore. But for a long time, she saved
that empty bottle and I'd take the lid off of it and give a
sniff of it and put the lid back on because I could still get
some smell out of it. Mary didn't do that. She didn't save that
box so years later she could open back up and get a smell
of it and remember, I did this good work on the Lord. You know,
the Lord said, look at my, I remember, I did a good work. The Lord said
so. She broke the box. She destroyed
the evidence. There's no evidence left to her
of this good work. And good thing there's not. If
you, if the Holy Spirit ever enables you to do a good work
for somebody here, destroy the evidence and don't go looking
at it anymore because if you do, it's going to become an idol.
Isn't that what the brazen serpent became? Moses lifted that brazen
serpent up on a pole because God told him to do it and whoever
looked lived. And they saved that brazen serpent and it became
an idol. And they had to grind it to powder and throw it in
the water and have everybody drink it to get rid of it because
it became an idol. If God lets you do a good work
for somebody, break the box. Because you're not doing it for
somebody else to notice. Remember, you're doing it in
faith in Christ and love for Christ. Whether anybody notices
it or not, you've done what you could. And then verse nine, the
Lord says, 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. Now, wherever the gospel is preached,
This good work that Mary did is spoken of. And as you know,
it's not to promote Mary, although it is a very good example for
us to follow, isn't it? This is the only thing anybody
ever did, the Lord called it good work. So this is a good
example for us to follow, but we're not promoting Mary when
we talk about this. But wherever the gospel of Christ
is truly preached, the gospel of salvation through his death,
his burial, his resurrection, wherever that gospel is really
preached, wherever the whole counsel of God is preached, good
works will naturally follow. It's in the heart. It's what
God, when God puts faith and love in the hearts of his people,
good works will follow. To do good wherever you can,
for the body of Christ. And that's something we have
to teach. When the Lord says wherever the gospel is preached,
this will be spoken of as a memorial for her. We're to be taught,
believers must be taught to do good works. But you know what? It's already in the heart. That's
the way God birthed you. When you're born again, you're
born again with a nature that that desire to do good works
is there because God put faith in Christ and love for Christ
in your hearts. So it's in you, isn't it? It
just has to be taught, but it also has to be taught. And I
believe that's what the Lord is talking about there in verse
nine. So my hope and prayer is that
that's been something that's been taught this morning and
over the years here, so that we're careful. We're careful
to maintain good works, that we're careful to watch out for
one another. If you don't do it, if we don't
do it, watch out for one another here. And let me ask you this,
who's gonna? I want it to be me, how about you? All right,
well, hope the Lord bless that to you.