Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 12. The title of the message is seven
people that we meet at worship services. If it's a true worship
service, these seven people are at every service. Now this morning,
we begin studying a very precious portion of God's Word. We're
going to begin to look at the six days leading up to our Lord's
crucifixion, looking at the events and the private conversation
our Lord had with his people during those six days. The first
11 chapters of John cover a time period of about three and a half
years. The next eight chapters, John 12 through 19, cover six
days. And all the details of those
days are rich with blessing. I look forward to this study. Now, beginning in verse 1 of
John 12, Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to
Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, to be raised from
the dead. There they made him a supper.
Our Lord kept coming back to Bethany. I don't know how many
times. I didn't try to count them up. During his earthly ministry,
he just kept coming back to Bethany many times. Isn't that a blessed
town? The Lord kept coming there to
visit Bethany. He kept coming there because
he had friends in that town. There were many towns he had
no friends, but he had some friends here in Bethany and he kept coming
back to visit them and spend time with them. And this time
when our Lord arrived in town, they made him a supper. They
made him a feast. And this is the first person
we meet at every worship service. If it's a true worship service,
the first person we meet is our Lord Jesus Christ. You can't
have a worship service without him. Now you can have a religious
ceremony, a religious service, but you can't have a worship
service if the Lord's not present. And isn't Ashland, Ashland, Kentucky,
a modern-day Bethany? The Lord's visited here many
times. The blessing on Ashland was not when Ralph Barnard rode
into town. The blessing is when Ralph came preaching the gospel,
the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ came to town. As far as I can
tell, he hasn't left. So from then until today, he
has not left. Now that's humbling. I'm telling
you that's so humbling. He hasn't stayed all this time
because we've done things right. He stayed because he's gracious.
Just because he's gracious to his people. And I'm so thankful. It's just very humbling. He's
not been pleased to visit every town and every burg in this state,
in this country. But he's been pleased to come
to Ashland and to stay. Preserve his gospel to feed and
save and edify his people. The Lord stayed because he's
got good friends here. He's got sinners that he's made
his friends. He chose us to be his people.
He came and redeemed us. He called us by the preaching
of his gospel. He gives His friends eternal life. Just like He raised
His friend Lazarus from the grave, He gives His people life. He's
given us a new nature. Now, with the nature we were
born with, we couldn't be His friends. But He gave us a new
nature. So we became His friends. What
a friend. What a friend we have in Jesus.
And their friend came to town and Martha and Mary and Lazarus
made a supper. This was a feast for our Lord.
They prepared this feast. Thanksgiving, what the Lord had
done for Lazarus. But you think what's happened
in their life. Lazarus died. They had a funeral service and
they buried him. And the Lord raised him from
the dead. What a blessing for Martha and Mary. I mean, can
you, we just really understand how thankful that they were.
I'm not sure how much of a blessing this was to Lazarus. I mean,
just, we just, there's scripture silent on that, in that area.
But it sure was a blessing for his sisters. And this is a picture
of how the Lord saves His people. He comes where they are and He
gives them life. And they worship Him. They worship
by thankful, grateful hearts. And they have a desire to honor
Him who's done everything for us. And this making the Lord
a feast, that's a worship service. You notice the supper wasn't
made for Lazarus. To honor Lazarus being raised
from the dead. The supper was made for our Lord Jesus, who
raised Lazarus from the dead. Now, a worship service. A worship
service is not a time where we check off all of our doctrinal
beliefs, you know, that separate us from everybody else in the
world. A worship service is not held so all of our friends can
see, you know, how good and faithful we are when we come to the service.
These meetings are a time of worship. They're a time to worship
the Savior. and to feast on him. That's why
we come together. And here, people gathered together
for the supper, and the Lord came to the supper. Well, sure
he did. He promised where two or three
had gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
They gathered together for this supper, and he came. In the last
chapter, our Lord wept with them that wept at the grave. And now
he rejoices with them that rejoice at the feast. And now that the
Lord's there, They can have a feast. They can have a true worship
service. And that's the first person we meet at every worship
service. It's him whom we worship. Now, the next three people we
meet are all believers. Every believer is all three of
these rolled into one. The second person we meet at
the feast is Martha. Verse two says that Martha served.
Now, Martha was doing what Martha did. She served. This is what
Martha does. Now, poor old Martha. She gets
a bad rap, doesn't she? You know, she had a bad attitude
one time, and every person in this room who heard Martha, that's
what we thought of. She gets a bad rap because of
one time she had a bad attitude. Look over in Luke chapter 10.
You know, I thought of this. How would we like it if our entire
reputation came from a picture somebody took of us one time?
More likely it would have been a time around a bad attitude.
We wouldn't like that. That's why I say she gets a bad
rap. Let's look at this in Luke 10, verse 38. And it came to
pass as they went, he entered into a certain village, a certain
woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a
sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard
his word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving and came to him and said, Lord, Does thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha,
Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but
one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which
shall not be taken away from her." Now the problem there in
Luke 10 is not that Martha was serving, it wasn't it at all.
The problem was she had a bad attitude. She was cumbered about
much service, about much care. And this service, she put it
ahead of worship. That's the problem. Now, every
one of us has to admit that can happen and does happen to us,
doesn't it? These other things come up and
we put them ahead of worship. But our Lord corrected the situation.
He did it gently and kindly, but he corrected her attitude.
And after our Lord's rebuke, after she corrected her attitude,
what did Martha do? She didn't quit serving. She
didn't go to the other extremes. She kept serving. Now she's just
doing it with a better attitude. And we'll see more of this in
a minute. Martha served the Lord by serving others who came to
the supper. And thank God for Martha. Now, I remember a message. Jan and I hadn't been married
all that long. I remember a message Henry preached in defense of
Martha. Where would we be without Martha? I mean, really, you think about
that. We have a building that we come, we worship in, but you
know, the thing's got to be paid for. You support a pastor and
missionaries, the lights are on, the air conditioning, the
heat, the water, all that stays on and running because somebody's
a Martha that serves by giving to support the gospel. Marthas
come and cut the grass and do the landscaping. I came out here
yesterday morning, there was a bunch of Marthas running around
planting flowers and bushes and shrubs spread mulch and cutting
the grass and cleaning everything up? Martha's. Martha's every
Sunday morning go in these rooms and teach our children Bible
classes. They're not just playing games in there. They're teaching. That's an area of service. Right
now, some Martha's up there keeping the nursery. And I want to tell
you, that service, I mean, now that's real service. I don't
say this lightly, I had a whole lot right of preach to keep the
nursery. But what service is that? Where would we be without it?
A bunch of two and three year olds running around in here making
what we can't worship. That's service. Thank God for
Martha's. This place is full of Martha's. I've got to be careful now what
I say, because you talk about something that needs to be done,
and people say, man, they just get right off and seem to enjoy
it. Now look over Mark chapter 14.
You know, invariably somebody's going to think, well, I can't
do much. I don't have much ability or, you know, I can't do much.
I just won't do anything. Well, I'll tell you this. Do
what you can. Do what you can. Serve the Lord
with all the ability that the Lord's given you. Luke 14, verse
6. Now, our Lord here is talking
about Mary, but what he says about Mary applies to every believer. She did what she could. See that? Mark 14, verse 6. 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 good to them. But me
ye have not always. She hath done what she could,
and she is come beforehand to anoint my body for the bearing.
She did what she could. Now look back at Mark chapter
9. How little is that? Is real service that makes any
difference? You'd be surprised how little you can do that is
real service for the Lord. Mark 9, verse 41. For whosoever
shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because
you belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not
lose his reward. I believe everybody can pour
a glass of water for somebody. that service to the Lord. Do
what you can. Last week, I came back a little
earlier than Janet did. I came back from the funeral.
I don't know what happened. Somehow in that drive, I got
down in the back. Sunday afternoon, Ed and Deb Sparks showed up at
my house. Ed had a problem with my back gate. He fixed that.
I'd been hanging the ceiling fans partially installed. Ed
got up and he finished installing that. He got done with that and
Deb said, She's real willing for Ed to be Martha and just
serve. She'd have him remodel the room or something. But that's
Martha. I still couldn't hang that ceiling
fan. He was up there leaning back. With my back the way it
was, I still couldn't do it. But Janet got home and she was
thrilled. It was beautiful. It was up.
She just loved it. Thank God for Martha's. See what I'm saying?
So that's the second person we meet at the worship service.
It's Martha who serves. The third person we meet at every
worship service is Lazarus. Verse 2, Martha served, but Lazarus
was one of them that sat at the table with him. Now, not too awful long ago,
Lazarus was dead. His body was rotting and stinking
and decaying, and now he's feasting, sitting at the table with the
Lord, and everybody can see He's really alive. He's not a ghost
or some figure. He's eating and drinking to prove
he's alive just like our Lord did. He told his disciples, have
you got something to eat? To show he's really risen. He
wasn't a ghost. And that's the state of every
believer. We were dead in trespasses and sins. This is the way we're
born into the world. We're stinking and rotting in
the deadness of our sin nature and our unbelief. But life himself,
came to the grave. He came where we were and gave
us life. Christ saved us from our sin.
He washed that filth and stink and decay of our sin nature away
in His precious blood. He loosed us and let us go. And
now we sit with Him at the banquet of grace. You were dead. Now here you are. Sitting at
the table with all he's here. He's one of the first person
we met the worship service He's here here. You are sitting at
the banquet table with him feasting on him Look over at Ephesians
chapter 2 see if this is not your story If you're a believer
it is this is your story Ephesians 2 verse 1 And you hath he quickened, who
were dead, stinking, and rotting, from trespasses and sins. Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. who
is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.
By grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." There sat Lazarus
at the table, feasting with our as a trophy of God's grace and
life-giving power. Now, here's the fourth person
we meet back in our text, John 12. The fourth person we meet
is Mary, verse 3. Then took Mary a pound of ointment,
a spitener, 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. Now, Mary gives us Very many
good lessons about worship, true worship healing. Now here we
find Mary, just like we find Martha doing what Martha does,
she serves. We find Mary doing what she does.
She's at the feet of the Savior, worshiping him. And here she
comes, she brought a pound, a whole pound of very expensive sphincter. And she poured it upon the feet
of our Lord, got down on her knees and wiped his feet with
her hair. And that's such a good picture
of worship. Mary's at the feet of our Lord in submission. Submitting
to His will. Submitting to His authority.
Submitting to His kingship. And she's at His feet in humility. Now that's the only way you can
truly worship. In submission and humility. And
Mary brought the best that she had to worship the Lord. This
ointment is very costly. Judah says it's worth 300 pence. 300 pence is the annual wages
of an average working man. Just the average working man
would take him a whole year to earn 300 pence. I looked up on
the IRS website the average wage, according to them, in the United
States today is somewhere between 45 and 50 thousand dollars. Mary
took 45 thousand dollars and dumped it. on the feet of Jesus
the Master. Put it on His feet. And Mary
would tell you it's worth every penny. He's worth the best. That nothing we do, even the
very best that we can ever do, is worthy of our Lord. But bring
the best. He's worthy. Bring the best.
And Mary poured out that ointment generously. She dumped it all
on the feet of the Master. And she did that in response
to his grace. It's how generous he was with
her. That's why she thought he's worth it all. Our Lord had raised
her brother from the dead. Yeah, he's worth everything she's
got. He is worth the best. And she
pours it out generously. Look over in Acts chapter 5.
She wasn't holding anything back. And if she had, suppose she held
some of that back. You know, as far as I can tell, perfume
is pretty valuable to the ladies. What if she thought, you know,
I'm going to hold a little bit of this back so I can dab it behind my ears,
you know. Then it wouldn't have been acceptable service at all.
Acts chapter 5, verse 1. But a certain man named Ananias
and Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part
of the price. and his wife also being privy
to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles'
feet. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price
of the land? Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after
it was sold, was it not thine own in thine own power? Why hast
thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied
unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all them
that heard these things. And a young man arose, wound
him up, and carried him out and buried him. And it was about
the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what
was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her,
Tell me whether you sold the land for so much? And she said,
Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How
is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which had buried thy husband are at
the door, and they shall carry thee out.' Then she fell down
straightway at his feet, and yielded up to go. So the young
men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried
her and her husband. And great fear came upon all
the church, and upon as many as heard these things." But Mary
didn't do that, did she? She didn't hold part of it back.
She dumped it all on the feet of the Savior. And you know,
this wasn't a spur of the moment thing. Mary had been saving this
ointment to use on our Lord. It was too good for her to use
on herself. But she saved it up to use on
our Lord. That's what our Lord said in
verse 7. Let her alone. Against the day of my bearing,
she hath kept this. She's been saving this up to
use on my body. To worship me. Now Mary brought
this spikenard. And this is worship. Spikenard
means pure. It's not mixed. It's not watered
down. It's pure. And that's the only way we can
truly worship the Lord. We worship the Lord through the
pure, sincere, unadulterated Word of God. We worship with
the Gospel of pure grace. It's not mixed with something
else. It's not mixed with words. It's pure grace. We worship God
the pure, sovereign mercy of God. It's not watered down. We
don't water it down to take the offense of the cross out. It's
the pure, unadulterated, sovereign mercy of God. And she did this
for the Lord. Mary didn't do this to impress
anybody else. She didn't bring this ointment in and in a show
of humility do this on our Lord's feet and wipe His feet with her
hair to impress anybody. This was an act of worship. of
the Lord. Mary didn't care what Judas thought.
She didn't care what Peter or James or John thought. She was
doing this to worship the Lord. It was an act of worship. Heart
worship between the sinner and the Savior. That's what worship
is. And I'll tell you, a big part
of worship is talking about the death of the Lord. Mary, our
Lord says, did this for my burial. Mary spent a good deal of time
thinking about the death of our Lord. Now, the Jews, when one
of their loved ones would die, they would anoint the body with
these sweet-smelling spices. Mary had some divinely given
knowledge about the coming death of our Lord. Now, she didn't
know the exact day, but she knew it was coming. This was knowledge
that the other disciples didn't even have yet. Mary learned a
lot sitting at the feet of the Lord, didn't she? There she sat
listening to His words. She learned a lot. She had some
knowledge about the Lord's death the disciples didn't have. And
if we want to learn more, I tell you what, it would be an awful
good idea that we'd spend time in worship at the feet of our
Savior. When His gospel is preached,
it would be an awful good idea to be here and hear it. This
is how we learn. You just show up. You'd never
know what the Lord might be pleased to teach you. You just don't
know. But if He's going to do it, He's going to do it through
His Word. And Mary, she thought a lot about the death of our
Lord. And she had a real good idea about the value of the substitutionary
death of Christ. That's why she brought such precious
ointment. She knew the value of His death.
And the smell of that expensive ointment was still on our Lord's
body when He died. She didn't know it. She didn't
know, you know, when they'd come and she thought it might be any
time. And she did know this. When they come to take the body
of her Lord, she was pretty sure she'd never have another chance
to get her hands on his body. But she has an opportunity now.
So she took it. And she is worshipping now. She
anointed his body for the burying now. It could be. that four days
later, and this, you know, the different writers, this same
story is recorded in three of the Gospels, maybe four of them.
There's some question about Luke, if this was the same event or
not. Whether this was all the same
event or whether this happened twice. I happen to think it happened
twice. This is six days before Passover.
Two days before the Passover, here in Simon's house, this time
she comes and does the same thing, except she puts the ointment
on his hair. So I think it's two different
times, but whatever. The point of it is this. Take
every opportunity to worship the Lord whenever the opportunity
presents itself. That's what she did here once,
six days before the Passover. She thought this would be my
only opportunity. She came, worshiped him, anointed his body for the
burial. Four days later, she saw another opportunity. She
came to it again. This is another opportunity to
worship my Lord and anoint his body for burial. Now look back
in Matthew chapter 26. Now Mary didn't do this worship
of the Lord, this act of worship. She didn't do that for anybody
else. This was an act of worship of the Lord. But yet this anointing
of the Lord's body is a good work. It was for the good of
all of God's church. In Matthew 26, verse 10, like
I said, this could be the same incident, I think it's a separate
one, but the same things our Lord says applies. In verse 10, when Jesus understood
it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought
a good work upon me. If you'd like to do a good work,
here's what you do. Do a work that's purely for the
good of the body of Christ. What's the body of Christ? He's
ascending. His body is his church, his people. We are the body of
Christ. If you want to do a good work,
do something for one of your brothers and sisters here, just
purely for their good. That's what Mary did. She came
in, she put this ointment on the Lord's feet. And the ointment,
the smell of it filled the house, absolutely filled it. Mary didn't
go around putting a few drops in every room in the house so
everybody could get a whiff. She put everything on the feet
of the Savior. And everybody was blessed because
of it. Then everybody in the whole house
could smell it. And everybody got a blessing
because Mary loved Christ. See that? Verse 13, this is in
Matthew 26, our Lord says, Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this
gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also
this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her."
And here we are 2,000 years later still talking about it. God's
church is still blessed and still taught by Mary's act of love
and worship. Now, true worship is an act of
humility. Humility. Mary wiped our Lord's
feet with her hair. Now, just like perfume is pretty
important to the ladies, the ladies' hair is pretty important.
Pretty important to you. What humility that Mary would
wipe the feet of this man with her hair. But do you want to
know an even greater act of humility? Look in Luke chapter 7. Worship
is an act of humility. I want you to look at this, this
will be a blessing. Luke chapter 7, beginning in verse 37. Now
again, this is, some people think this is the same instance, some
people think it's different, but either way, the teaching
here applies. Verse 37, And the old woman in
the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat
at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
and she stood at his feet behind him, weeping. and began to wash
his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her
head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment.
Now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake
within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would
have known who and what manner of woman this is that touched
him." She's a sinner. Which is the greatest act of
humility there? Is it this sinner coming and weeping putting ointment
on our Lord's feet, wiping His feet with her hair? Or is the
greater act of humility, our Lord allowed her to touch Him?
Our Lord allowed a sinner, a sinner, to come to His feet
and worship Him. That's humility. Look at verse
40. In Jesus' answer, He said unto
Simon, I have so much to say unto thee. And He says, Master,
say on. There was a certain creditor
who had two debtors, one owed five hundred pence, the other
fifty. When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?"
Simon answered and said, "'I suppose that he to whom he forgave
most.'" And he said unto him, "'Thou hast rightly judged.'"
And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, "'Seest thou
this woman? I entered into thine house. Thou
gavest me no water for my feet. but she hath washed my feet with
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest
me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not
ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil, thou dost not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she
loved much. But whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins
are forgiven. Now that's humility. That our
Lord would humble himself. How can her sins be forgiven?
Only one way. That our Lord would humble himself
to be made flesh. And that he'd humble himself
to be made sin for her. Sins which are many. He was made
sin for her. And put that sin away with the
sacrifice of himself. That's humility. That must happen. That great act of humility must
happen before any sinner can ever worship Him. He shed His
blood to forgive our sins. He's forgiven much. And we love
much. And we come in worship. And He
welcomes us. He says, come. And rest in Him. And He forgives our sin. That's
true worship. And you know, this is just the
way it is in this flesh, in this life. Too many things get in
the way of true worship. Even good things. Things that
have to be done. And we need to be aware of this.
That nothing permanently, or even for an extended period of
time, takes our attention off of worship. Off of worshiping
Him. It's Him, Him, Him, Him, Him. It's Christ. Do you get that?
This is what Mary's teaching us. She came to worship Him.
We can't let anything for any period of time take our attention
and our focus off of Him. That's why we preach Him, preach
Christ. Verse 7, back in our text, this
is what we see here. Jesus said, Let her alone. Against
the day of my bearing has she kept this. For the poor always
you have with you, but me you have not always. Now this is
some of those things that can get in the way of us worshiping.
Getting in the way and take our attention off Christ. We should
do good things to help the poor and the less fortunate. As much
as God blesses us and enables us to do that, we must do that. But don't build a ministry to
do it. Don't do it. The purpose of the
church is one thing. Preach Christ. Preach Him. That
is the purpose of the church. and exalt Christ. And we do these
other things as God enables us, but we keep them in their place
because Christ is King. Christ must have all the preeminence
in everything we do. And the best thing that the church
can do for the poor is preach Christ to them. Preach Christ
to the poor in spirit. Now that's the first four people
we meet at every worship service. And I wish there weren't more.
kinds of people that are assembled that we must talk about, but
there are. Sadly, this is true. Everybody here this morning is
not worshiping. Somebody is not. That's just
the way it is every time a group of human beings assemble. The
fifth person we meet at every worship service is Judas. Look
at verse 4. Now this is interesting. These are the first recorded
words of Judas in Scripture. Then says one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why
was not this ointment sold for three hundred 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 bare what was put
therein. Now Judas didn't care about the poor at all. This is
just a cover. He was the treasurer, and he
was stealing out of the bag. So if they sold the spider, there'd
be more in the bag, there'd be more for him to steal. That was
his interest in the whole deal. And you know, Judas instantly
knew what that spikener was worth, because a thief always knows
what everything's worth. I mean, they just, they're constantly
evaluating what everything's worth, so they know what's worth
stealing. He knew exactly what it was worth.
And Judas represents false professors. False professors of faith. Now,
in every congregation, there are those who falsely profess
faith in Christ. And that's what Judas was. And
He was a leader in this business. If you read the other accounts
of this, even the other disciples got carried away with Judas'
lead here. They got being hateful about
this waste. He was a leader. When our Lord
told His disciples, we'll see this in a few weeks, one of you
twelve is going to betray me. Not one of them said, I knew
it was Judas. I knew it all along. Not one
of them said that. Every one of them said, Lord,
is it I? I know my heart, it could be
me. Lord, is it I? Keep me from following my own
heart. Judas was a believable false
professor. It was a false profession, but
it was a believable one. Judas heard every message Peter
heard. Judas saw every miracle John
saw. Judas helped distribute the loaves and the fishes. And
Judas helped gather up those fragments. He saw the miracle.
Judas may have been one of the very ones that loosed Lazarus
and let him go, but he didn't love Christ. That's why he hated
the pouring out of that ointment on the feet of the Lord, because
he didn't love Him. I promise you, if you do something
nice for Janet, I'm going to just enjoy that, because I love
her. Judas didn't love the Lord. That's
why he said this is a waste. But look at Philippians chapter
four. Now, there are false professors in every situation. People aren't going to appreciate
something that you do or, you know, it's going to be taken
the wrong way or it's not going to be, you know, it'll be forgotten
or, you know, whatever. But you mark this down. Nothing
given in the name of Christ. Nothing sacrificed for the name
of Christ is ever a waste, ever. It's always sweet. Philippians
4, verse 18. They had sent this gift to Paul.
He said, but I have all, and I am bound, I am full, having
received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you,
an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God. That was acceptable, well-pleasing
to God, because it was given out of love. But God shall supply
all your needs. You're not going to out-give
the Lord. This gift's not going to put you in the poorhouse.
He's going to supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Judas doesn't have to worry about
this being a waste. Nothing given in the name of Christ, nothing
sacrificed for the name and glory of Christ will ever go to waste.
It will always be a sweet savior. Now, here's the sixth person
we meet at every worship service. It's the curious. Back in our
text, John 12, 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'd raised from the
dead. Now, these folks didn't love the Lord either. They didn't
come to worship Christ. They didn't come to exalt him.
They came to see Lazarus. What a sideshow. Here's a fellow
who's been dead, he's eating at the feast. I'm going to see
that. And at every worship service,
there are those who came just because. Maybe they're dating
a cute girl or a handsome young man. Maybe they drive up and
down the road, they see this building and wonder, what did
they preach there? Maybe they like the preacher.
Maybe, much more likely, they like the people of the congregation.
Maybe they want to feel religious. You know, feel like I did my
good thing, you know, by coming to church today. Just because. Who knows why they came? And
you know what I say about them? I say, good. Good. Let them keep
coming. Just let them keep coming. Who
cares why they come? Just let them keep coming to
be under the sound of the gospel. People come for worse reasons
than that to the Savior. Henry said one time, some of
our best missionaries are our young ladies. Abby, Andrew, and
Tara. One day, here they come with
this boyfriend. Now, I don't know, is this guy
going to stick around or not? They weren't coming to worship.
They weren't coming to exalt Christ. They were coming to that
cute girlfriend. And they met the Savior in spite of themselves. Here they were in the sound of
the gospel in spite of themselves. They met the Savior. I say, good. Let them keep coming. I know
this. Nobody here this morning is here
on accident. You're here this morning from
an eternal, divine proclamation that you'd be here this morning.
Maybe. The Lord would be pleased to
reveal himself to us. Maybe he would. The last person
we meet at every worship service is those who are hardened in
their unbelief. It's very scary. You can be gospel
hardened. Verse 10, But the chief priests
consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because
that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed
on Jesus. And the greatest enemies to the
gospel are religious people. It's not people out here in all
kinds of open sin and rebellion. It's religious people. People
are steeped in religion and self-righteousness. And that's these men. Now these
fellows are steeped in religion. I mean, steeped in it. And here
they saw an outpouring of love for the Savior. They saw an outpouring
of true heart worship for Christ. And they got mad. I mean, they're
angry. And even more hardened in their
unbelief and their hatred of Christ. They even wanted to kill
those that sat at the table with the Lord. They even wanted to
kill Lazarus. What's Paul Lazarus done to them? He's done nothing
to them. What do they want to put him
to death for? I can tell you why. I can tell you what he did
that made them want to put him to death. He did nothing. They did everything. They kept
the whole law. I mean, man, they took their
spices and typed out of them. They did everything. He did nothing. Not one thing did Lazarus do. And there he sat, feasting at
the table with the Master. They hated Lazarus because Lazarus
was a trophy of sovereign grace. They hated him because he did
nothing. Lazarus was a living testimony to the power of Christ,
the life-giving power, the sovereign grace of Christ that he could
say, Lazarus, come forth. And he'd come forth. He that
stank and was rotting came forth. And that just shows us we can't
be Martha who served. We can't be Lazarus that was
dead and now sits at the table with the Lord. We can't be Mary,
as much as we'd like to be, we can't be Mary, the humble, thankful
worshiper, until God gives us a new heart. He's got to give
us a heart of flesh. He's got to give us a new nature
that loves Christ and worships Christ, that just absolutely
enjoys Being at the feet of Christ absolutely enjoys it. I pray,
oh how I pray the Lord be pleased to do that for us this morning.
That we sit at His feet and worship. He's worthy isn't He? Alright,
let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
You for this portion of Your Word that we've just read. How we thank You. That despite
by nature, we're Judas. We're these chief priests hardened
in hatred and unbelief. How we thank you for your grace.
That you save your people. That you give us a heart to serve
you like you did Martha. That you give us life. That you
give us the ability to sit at the table and feast with our
Master upon the blood and the body the sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ. How we thank you that you break
that stubborn spirit that's in us and give us a humble, willing
spirit that worships at the feet of our Savior. And how we thank
you that you humble yourself to allow us to worship. We're
so thankful. How we thank you for the forgiveness
of sins in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us think often and speak
often of his death that purchased our life. Father, we're thankful. Pray your blessing upon your
word as it's been preached this morning. Bless it to our hearts
that we might be enabled by thy grace to behold our Lord Jesus
Christ and go home thinking on him. It's in his precious name
we give thanks.