to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. We now approach the closing scenes
of our Lord's earthly ministry. Up to this point, we have read
of his sayings and of his service. We're now about to read of his
sufferings and his death. We have thus far seen him as
our great prophet who has come to reveal God to us and to teach
us the will and the truth of God and the way of life. We're
now about to see him as our great high priest by whose sacrifice
we are made accepted with God Almighty. Now, over the course
of the next few weeks, I hope you will carefully read these
closing chapters of Matthew frequently. I wouldn't exalt one portion
of scripture above another, I have no desire to do that, but these
chapters ought always to be read with peculiar reverence and careful
attention. These chapters record for us
that picture that was first prophesied back in Genesis chapter 3, where
our Lord God promised that the seed of the woman would come
and he would crush the serpent's But in the process, his heel
must be crushed, his heel must be bruised. And here we see the
Lord Jesus Christ, the speed of the woman, fulfilling that
prophecy. Here we see the great sacrifice
being offered, to which all the sacrifices and all the prophets
of the Old Testament pointed constantly. All of them were
leading up to what we're about to read in Matthew chapter 26,
27, and 28. Here we read of him whose blood
was shed that cleanseth us from all sin, of him who is the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Now, in the substitutionary
death of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it's recorded in these chapters,
the Holy Spirit shows us how that God can be both just and
the justifier of the ungodly. And so these things are things
that are peculiar peculiar salinity and peculiar necessity, they
must be understood. All the things that are recorded
from here through the end of Matthew's Gospel, all the events
that are here recorded, are repeated by the Holy Spirit's inspiration
in all four Gospel narratives. You can find the events that
we're going to look at tonight and that we will be looking at
until we finish the study of Matthew, you can find them written
in Mark, Luke, and John. The reason for that is obvious.
They are matters of great, tremendous importance. Other events that
took place in our Lord's life and ministry, if Matthew records
them, chances are Mark may leave them out, or Luke or John may
leave them out, and it's thought sufficient that they should be
recorded by one or two, or perhaps three of the Gospel writers.
But the things recorded here are recorded by all four Gospel
narratives, and they're recorded that way for our learning and
for our admonition, for our instruction, so that we might learn to reverence
and hear earnestly these final words given in the Gospel narratives. Now tonight we're going to look
at verses 1 through 13. I think we'll just save the reading
and go directly to the text because I'm going to be reading each
of the verses as we go along this evening. In these verses,
our Lord Jesus shows us what high regard he has for his people. and for every work done by them
for his name's sake. The title of my message this
evening is A Good Work Done for Christ. That ought to get your
attention. A good work done for Christ. Now men call many things good
works. Men ascribe the adjective good
to many, many things that they do. Our Lord Jesus Christ never
spoke of a good work being done by a man for him, except the
work that's spoken of here, and it was done by a woman. That
ought to get your attention. This is the only thing ever done
by a human being that our Lord Jesus says was done for him,
and he calls it brutal as he walked upon this earth. Now,
I want to show you four things in these verses of Scripture.
They are obvious, and there won't be any difficulty at all for
you. There won't be any difficulty at all in seeing exactly what's
being taught here. First, in verses 1 and 2, the
Spirit of God is recorded here by Matthew's hymn, the message
of the Bible. And it came to pass when Jesus
had finished all these saviors. Now remember the context. You
go back up to Matthew chapters 24 and 25. Our Lord Jesus had
been speaking clearly and distinctly about his glorious second advent. the end of the world, the day
of judgment, the eternal state to the righteous end of the wicked,
heavenly glory, and it came to pass, after he had spoken about
all these things, when he had finished all these things, without
any pause, without any hesitation, without any interval, we read,
he said to his disciples, you know that after two days is the
feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed, to be
crucified. Now notice how carefully our
Lord constantly calls the attention of his disciples to his sin-atoning
death at Calvary. The connection between this passage
here and what we have already seen in Matthew 25 cannot be
lost or ignored. Our Lord Jesus has been talking
about those things that are most commonly the objects of men's
care, concern, and thought when they talk about He's been talking
to them, answering questions about the end of the world, the
second coming, the judgment day, eternity, the states of the righteous
and the wicked in eternity. But he moves directly from those
things and says, this is what you must beware of. I'm going
to be betrayed by the hands of the Jews to be crucified at the
day of Passover. He called their attention again
and again and again. all the way through his earthly
ministry for three and a half years, he constantly directs
their attention to that which he must accomplish at Calvary,
the redemption of his people by the sacrifice of himself.
He wants them and us to understand that before he can assume his
reign as the king of glory, he must die as the substitute for
sinners. Before he takes his crown of
universal monarchy, He must endure the painful, shameful, ignominious
death of the cross and satisfy the wrath and justice of God.
Before he could step down on the right hand of the majesty
on high and from henceforth expect to his enemies be made his footstool,
the Son of God must put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now I call your attention to
these things and to these two verses because I want you to
understand That we can never attach too much importance to
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can never say too
much. We can never think too much.
We can never promote too much. We can never lift up too much
the sin atoning death of the Son of God. God help me. God help me. Never, never, never
grow weary of meditating on this. of hearing this or of proclaiming
this. The focal point of Scripture,
upon which our minds are always to be fixed, is the death of
Christ. When you read the Scriptures,
ask God the Holy Spirit to always direct your heart's attention,
no matter what you're reading, no matter where you're reading,
to direct your heart's attention to Jesus Christ crucified as
your substitute. That's the focal point of Scripture.
Our Lord teaches us this, the apostles teach us this, and the
prophets teach us this. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. This is the foundation doctrine
of Holy Scripture. Without it, there is no gospel
in the gospel. Without the doctrine of the cross,
the Bible is a meaningless book. I meant to say that. Did you
hear me? Without the doctrine of the cross, the Bible is a
meaningless book. If this book is used only to
teach morality, only to govern men's lives, only as a book about
religious dogma, it is a meaningless book, as meaningless as the Qur'an
is. But this book is designed and
intended to teach us of the redemption of sin by the sacrifice of the
Son of God. Now it has meaning. For it portrays
to us a new and living way, even Jesus Christ himself, by whom
we have access to God Almighty, catering to the holiest of all.
And we must never, never minimize our Lord's incarnation. We must
never fail to follow his example. We must never ignore his parables,
forget his miracles of mercy, or despise his words of instruction.
But our Lord intends for us above all things to make much of his
cross. Oh, I'd be like to think of his
second coming. I'd be like to think of heavenly
glory. I'd be like to think of that
day when he shall show forth his grace and his glory in us,
and that day when he shall show us all the fullness of his glory.
But these things, great and glorious as they are, are meaningless
without our figure's They're meaningless. They would never
come to pass. Without the doctrine of the cross,
the Bible is, as I said, a meaningless book. It is like a cloth without
a face or without a string. It's like a building without
a foundation. It's like a solar system without
a sun. The central, focal, foundational
point of gospel truth is the death of Jesus Christ as our
Redeemer. The doctrine of the atonement
is the master truth of Scripture. This is and must be our daily
bread. Christ died for our sins. What
can be more marvelous than that? What can be more inspiring? What
can be more instructive? Some, like the Greeks of old,
sneer at this message and call it foolishness. Others, like
the Jews of Paul's day, looking for signs and wonders, stumble
over the doctrine of the cross and perish under the wrath of
God. But to every sinner saved by God's free grace, this message
is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Do you see here the wisdom
of God? Have you experienced the very
power of God in your soul through the preaching of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified? This is the message of the Bible.
I don't know how to stress this. I don't know how to get the point
across. We must not be turned aside. We must not be turned
aside. Religion goes through cycles
of things that get kicks on, you know. Today, most religion,
most all of it, doesn't matter what name it goes by, is involved
in this business of family counseling, family life, and teaching folks
how to do this, how to do that. Radio broadcast programs, entire
ministries built around this stuff. Now listen carefully to
me. Listen carefully. Bob Hopson needs an occasional
word of instruction concerning how to behave as a husband with
Saturn, but only an occasional word of instruction. When you
begin to dwell on it, this is what happens. Let's suppose that
I begin to write a series on marriage in the home, and I'm
going to preach on it now for six months or a year or whatever.
After a while, when you first hear the message, your fellows
preach to you about being good husbands and good fathers, and
you, you know, being sincere, honest men, you said, well, I
need that. I need that. And start to apply
the word to your life. And after a week or two, you
come and you hear the instruction over and over again. And you
begin to sit down and think, oh, Mark needed that. You start to measure up and you
start to feel pretty good about yourself, because as far as the
outward conduct, the outward thing's concerned, you're doing
alright. You're doing alright. And you recognize that you, as
far as your opinion's concerned, are just a step or two above
other fellows. And it promotes self-righteousness
and self-confidence, and takes your minds and your hearts and
your attention away from Christ. That's the reason the constant,
incessant messing of the pulpit must be, and in this place will
be, the cross of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. That's the message
of Scripture. This is that by which we are
motivated, this is that by which we are inspired, this is that
by which we are guided, this is the example, this is the pattern,
in all things, Christ Jesus and Him crucified. The message of
the Bible, the message of the Gospel, is the substitutionary
atonement of Christ. Let me show you one text of Scripture
in this regard. You're familiar with that passage
in Luke where the disciples walked with our Lord on the road to
Emmaus and he opened to them the scriptures and expounded
to them things concerning himself out of the law and the prophets
and the Psalms, things concerning his death and his resurrection
and the accomplishment of redemption by him. But look here in 1 Peter
1, 1 Peter 1 verse 25. The apostle Peter tells us that
the word of God, this book right here, this book right is the
seed of life. I know some fellows object, they
say, well, we don't want to limit God. I don't either. Who's going
to limit God? But I'm going to tell you this,
what God has revealed, God will do. And God Almighty regenerates
sinners by the power of his sovereign grace, using the word of truth. A fellow asked me the other day,
he said, do you believe in gospel regeneration? I said, of course
not. No, I believe in regeneration by the Holy Spirit, but I don't
believe he does it apart from the gospel. You understand the
difference? The Word of God, applied to your
heart by the Holy Spirit, is the seed of life. Now then, what
part of the Word? What's he talking about? He's
talking about the Word of God in its entirety, as it is declared
in its context, declaring the message contained in it. Look
at verse 25. But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and
this is the word, do you understand it now, which by the gospel is
preached unto you. This word is not preached unto
you until the gospel is preached unto you. A man can stand up
here and recite scripture and quote scripture and talk about
scripture, he can talk scripture for an hour, but unless he's
preaching the gospel, unless he's got the message of the word,
he hasn't preached the word. You understand the difference?
You watch these fellas on TV, this fella comes on late at night,
I've heard of him once in a while, I've known of him for years,
and he used to call around the school, Mr. Bible, because he'd
quote the Bible, front to back, he'd quote the whole thing, or
he used to do it anyway. I mean, never miss a beat, never
miss a beat. But I've never heard him come
within a thousand miles of preaching the gospel. Never. Not one time. Because he doesn't know it. He
knows the words of scripture! He recites the words of Scripture,
but never does he preach Scripture. Because this is the Word which
Bible Gospel is preached unto you. So that I open the Scriptures
up and show you in the Scriptures Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and thereby declare the Gospel to you. And declare to you the
Word of God. This is the message which God's
servants are sent to preach. And Shelby and I were in a meeting
a while back. A fella got up and opened a scripture.
He, uh, you wouldn't know him. There's no need for me to call
his name, but he opened the scriptures and he said, now I know the gospel's
here, but I didn't come here to preach the gospel. And I thought,
oh my soul, why'd you come here? Why come at all? And all he did
was preach law, law, law, work, work, work, do, do, do. And no
Christ and no gospel at all. And what he said was utterly
Utterly useless. Well, preacher, don't you think
any kind of talking is good to men? No, I sure don't. That which
profits men's souls is the preaching of the gospel. The apostle said,
I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. We're going to look at this alabaster
box this woman opened as she anointed the Lord's feet or anointed
the Lord's body for His burial. John Gill suggested as she comes
in and opens this alabaster box, she portrays for us what a gospel
preacher ought to do every time he preaches. That alabaster box
represents the holy scriptures. And the preacher comes in and
he breaks open the scriptures. And the sweet aroma of Jesus
Christ crucified fills the room. That's exactly what preaching
is. It's just opening the scriptures, proclaiming Christ and Him crucified. The sacrifice of Christ is the
motive, it is the inspiration for devotion, faith, godliness,
worship, and obedience to him. I challenge folks over and over
again, find me anywhere in this book where a believer in the
New Testament is motivated, inspired to do anything apart from the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the doctrine of the cross
is the very glory of the redeemed. My credit in the office back
there. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. This is our salvation. This is
our redemption. This is the revelation of the
knowledge of God. This is how it is that we've
come to know God. This is how it is that we grow
in the knowledge of God. This is how it is that we are
governed by our God, through the glory of the cross. Second,
look at verses 3, 4, and 5. Here the Holy Spirit shows us,
almost casually, the hypocrisy and viciousness of lost religionists. Then assembled together the chief
priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, under
the palace of the high priest who was called Caelus, and consulted
that they might take Jesus by You see that? They consulted
together how we're going to sneak around and hatch a plan by which
we can deceive the people and take Jesus by stealth. These
are upstanding religious folks. These are the folks who carry
the scriptures around, big Bible in their pocket. These are the
folks who have scriptures These are folks who have bumper stickers,
stickers, smile, God loves you, or honk if you love Jesus. These
are religious folks. These are religious folks. These
are the kind of people you expect only to be most upright, and
outwardly, they were most upright, but they were sitting together
in a meeting, planning how they might, with some of them, take
the Son of God and murder Him. But they said, not on the feast
day. Let's not defile ourselves now
on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. I'm not going to spend much time
talking about these men. Little needs to be said. They
were lost religious zealots. They were the religious leaders
of their day. They spent their lives in religion. They did all that they did in
the name of God, not in the name of some pagan deity, not in the
name of Allah, not in the name of Confucius, but in the name
of Jehovah God. But they were lost. And you can
mark this down. You can mark this down. As a
general rule, the most vicious, cunning people in the world are
lost religionists. Lost religionists. Here are men of the cloth, as
they say, consulting on the business of trumping up an excuse for
murdering the Son of God. Why? Because they despised his
doctrine. They despised his doctrine. They
despised the message of free race. They despised that which
declared them to be sinners. in need of mercy like all other
men. They despised that which declared the Jew and Gentile
would be united as one in one kingdom and one body. They despised
the spiritual because they loved the carnal. They despised the
message of effectual substitutionary redemption by crucified and redeemed. They despised it. It wasn't his
life they despised. It was his doctrine they despised.
It was his message they despised. Most of you have had experience
with it. Maybe I've had a little more than some of you have. I
was utterly dumbfounded my first year of college. And I'm not
lying. I'm not stretching this in the
least. Not in the least. I told you many times when I
was in school at Springfield, Missouri, there was a constant
row concerning the doctrines of grace. But we weren't allowed
to talk about it. You weren't allowed to talk about
election unless you were talking against it. You weren't allowed
to talk about predestination. You couldn't even mention the
word unless you were talking against it. It was against the
rules of the school. This is a Bible college now.
This is not some infidel school. Well, it was, but they called
themselves a Bible college. One of the professors decided
he was going to get rid of those of us who believed the gospel
of God's grace. He actually did this. He went around and planted
material in mailboxes. Planted material in mailboxes.
and told folks that we were distributing literature contrary to the rules
of the school, so they had to kick us out of school. That's
just one example of many. But I'm telling you, this is
exactly the picture of what was taking place here. Our Lord Jesus
Christ did nothing but declare the truth, and because of his
declaration of the truth, those who despised the truth in the
name of God and in the name of religion planned a subtle scheme
of destruction. by which they could find an excuse
for murdering the Son of God. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit shows
us here the weakness of many true believers. Read with me
beginning at verse 6. Now when Jesus was in Bethany,
in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having
an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his
head. as he said it meet. And when
his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what
purpose is this waste? For this point might have been
sold for much, and given to the poor." Now, if you want to make
a comparison, read John's narrative of this in John chapter 12, and
read Mark's narrative in Mark chapter And you will find that
this scandal, this reproach, this
vile reaction from the disciples was led by Judas. Judas led the
disciples to scandalize this woman for what she had done.
Remember, these were our Lord's disciples, bold, courageous Peter, faithful
James, along with the rest of the twelve, were indignant at
this dear woman, but they were led astray by the actions of
one wicked man, whom they mistakenly trusted and highly esteemed.
I do not have any question at all, but at this time, Judas
was the most prominent member of the church, at this time. Judas was the most highly esteemed
of all the disciples. Judas was held almost aloof from
the rest by their opinion of him. Not by the Lord's doing,
but by their doing. They looked at Judas and put
him on a pedestal, but they didn't know Judas. They didn't know
him. And by Judas's behavior, they were led into evil actions
contrary to their genuine character. Now there are a couple of things
that need to be understood here. Number one, understand this. We must
not harshly and rashly condemn one another when our weaknesses
are made manifest. Frequently genuine believers
do things contrary to their true character. That does happen. David's behavior, Lindsay, was
not a reflection of his true character. Peter's denial was
not a reflection of his true character. The split that Paul
and Barnabas had was not a reflection of their true character. Those
actions that they did were horrible and they were inexcusable, but
they did not reflect their true character. And that which is
here exposed about these disciples doesn't reflect their true character.
These men were, at the time, led into wickedness because they
highly esteemed a man. who led them into wickedness.
They paid too much attention to a man. They followed a man
too closely, rather than following the master. I've seen this over
the years happen a number of times. When I was a pastor at
Lookout, there was some fellows who got bent out of shape and
caused a lot of difficulty by leading astray simple-minded
people who were genuine, genuine, genuine believers. I have no
question concerning that. and caused lots of havoc in the
congregation. Don't let that happen to you. Don't let that happen. Don't
allow yourselves, number one, to be led astray by others, and
number two, don't allow yourselves to become harsh judges of men
because of the actions performed by them. Don't judge Bobby Estes
by what you see him do here and there. Don't do that. That's
not fair. That's just not fair. but rather
by the general tenor of his life that tell what he is. Does that
make sense to you? Don't judge one another by ill
temper, don't judge one another by something that happens to
them on a bad day or something they do on a bad day, but rather
consider the tenor of believers lives and highly esteem one another
in Christ. Secondly, this passage certainly
teaches us that devotion and commitment to Christ is seldom
understood by men. Can you imagine how shocked this
lady was? She comes into Simon's house,
quietly, unassumingly. She takes this alabaster box,
and the master is sitting at the table, just crowd of folks
around, crowd of folks around. And she's just, she's quiet,
very quiet. And she walks up and breaks open
that box and announces, And the disciples start talking.
What's she doing? What's she doing? And Judas leads
the instigation. This indignation, this pretentious
indignation. This could have been sold for
300 pence. This is valuable! While we could
have taken this and given it to the poor and taken care of
the poor for a long time. how this lady must have been
shocked. She wanted to show in some public way how much she
loved her master, how thankful she was for his goodness and
grace to her. The sad fact is, if you're committed
to Christ, if you're inclined to do some unusual thing for
his honor, for the interest of his kingdom, simply because you
love him, simply because you're grateful to him for his goodness,
You need not expect other folks to understand what you're doing.
They won't. Not even your brethren. People usually consider that
which is done for Christ, just for Christ, to be a waste. They usually do. But fourthly,
I want you to see the honor that our Lord gives to his servants.
Look at verse 10. When Jesus understood it, when
this thing was reported to him, he said unto them, Why trouble
you the woman? For she hath wrought a good work
upon me. He said a long time before him
that honoreth me, I will honor her. Why don't we trouble her?
She's wrought a good work upon me. For you have the poor always
with you. but the whole world. There shall also this, that this
woman had done, be told for memorial for her. Others found fault with what
she did. The master quickly reviewed the fault finders and honored
the woman. Not only did he approve of her
sacrifice and accept it, He gave her the highest honor imaginable.
He called her work a good work. He declared publicly she has
done what she was able to do. She could not do what you fellas
did. She could not go out and preach. That would be wrong.
She could not ride and perform miracles. She wasn't given that
talent. But she could do this. She did
what she was able to do. Oh my God, I rebuke you to me.
She did what she could. She did what she could for Master. And he established her work as
a memorial to be proclaimed throughout the world. And since the Lord Jesus was
pleased with what she had done, this dear soul was just indifferent
to the opinions of others about what she did. She didn't say
anything. She didn't even respond to them.
She considered it A matter between her and the Master, knowing that
they didn't understand what was going on, she simply went about
her business. You see, their opinions mattered
nothing. Her faith, love, and devotion to Christ gave her the
courage and boldness to face the opposition she faced. Let's
see if I can illustrate what I'm saying. Ian will like this. Don't imitate it, but he'll like
it. When I was eight years old then, my dad was active in forming
the Teamsters Union in Western South, and establishing the union
and reclaimed trucking company. And I used to go into the Teamsters
Hall every Saturday. And they had some rough times.
Those were, you seen pictures on TV, about like they were,
smoke-filled rooms with pretty rough things going on. I walked
into the office one day, and just as I walked in, granny begged
to talk. He's bigger than I am now. He
jumped right straddled my dad and was working him over. I mean,
he was working him over. Caught dad sitting down and jumped
right straddling him and beating the Lord out of him. Well, I
loved my dad. Before I knew it, I had a coke
bottle in my hands on his back working him over. I wasn't but
eight years old. I couldn't do anything, so they
dragged me off of him. But something gave me courage
to deal with that man. And that's called love for my
father. Something gave this woman courage to deal with opposition
to what she was doing, called love for Christ. Faith in Christ
gives boldness. Love for Christ gives boldness.
Confidence in Christ, gratitude to Christ, inspires boldness
and confidence. If I'm conscious that what I'm
doing is something as earned through the Lord for his glory,
that what I'm doing is for the interest of his kingdom and for
the purpose of his gospel, then frankly the opinions of men,
either their approval or disapproval, is totally irrelevant. Totally
irrelevant. The consequences, good or bad,
are totally irrelevant. Only one thing can be said, and
that's what David said to his cowardly, envious brothers when
they were objecting to him going out to fight Goliath. He said, I ask you, my brothers and sisters,
is there not a cause for commitment, this kind of commitment to Christ,
this kind of wholehearted, careless devotion to the Son of God? Is
there not a cause? Indeed, there is. If we would
serve Christ, we simply must not allow the opinions of men
to rule or even influence our actions. Whatsoever He saith
unto you, do it." Now I look at this and I wonder, why did
the Master specify that this was uncouth? What was it about
this work that makes it stand out from other things? Let me
give you a few things. It was a work done just She was absorbed within. She
loved him. It wasn't done for anybody else.
It was done just for him. I hope one of these days they let
it do something just for him. This was the work of pure love. This is exactly what Luke's narrative
tells us, if you want to read it in Luke, chapter 7. Our Lord,
as Luke gives the account, says, they that are forgiven much,
they love much. That explains why she did what
she did. She forgave much. This was a work requiring considerable
cost, self-denial, and sacrifices. Read the accounts carefully given,
you'll find that this woman's alabaster box of ointment was
worth 300 pence. That amounts to somewhere in
the neighborhood of a year's wages. Remember our Lord gives
in the parable how the master hired his servants for any a
day? Any a day. A working man's wages
for a year. I just surmise, I don't know,
I don't know. If I understand Luke's account,
and they all are speaking of the same event, this woman, Mary,
Lazarus' sister, was also Mary Magdalene, that woman of ill
repute, who was a sinner. Everybody knew her. Everybody
in town knew her indefinitely. It was just a little place. She had been saving up All her
life, from her disreputable wife, she'd been saving up for a day
when she could no longer sell herself. And the master came
along. He told her how that God, by
His sacrifice, be just and justify her guilt and sorrow. And she
comes down and brings what she had saved all her life. This great sacrifice was the
result of thoughtful, deliberate preparation. You see, that which
is genuinely, genuinely costly, Rex had never done in the spur
of the moment. Lindsay had the lessons this past Sunday out
of Genesis 22. God said, Abraham, give me your
son. Give me your son. Now, I can't imagine a man, I
can't imagine a man to whom God Almighty spoke from heaven on
the spur of the moment, sacrificing his son. I can imagine Lindsey
Campbell doing that with my son. I cannot imagine a man thinking
about it for three days. Abraham said, OK, here he is.
God said, no, you think about it for three days, and he didn't
come in. This woman's sacrifice was carefully
planned and prepared. And yet, it was a sacrifice and
a work that was done in utter, utter humility. She didn't call
any attention to herself. I can picture her, you know,
this woman, she had a big question mark on her. She wasn't welcome
in common company. She wasn't the lady in hand you
would invite to the tea party. She wasn't the one you'd have
around your husband or your children. This woman had a reputation.
And so she comes to Simon's house, and she kind of slips in as quiet
as she possibly can, cause no attention to herself, and does
what she came to do. She didn't say anything to anybody
about what she wanted to do. She didn't say anything to anybody
before I would if I could. She didn't say anything to anybody
about what she was planning to do or going to do. She didn't
say anything to anybody about what she was doing. And when
she got done, Ross didn't say anything to anybody about what
she had done. It was all for the Master. This was the response of a believing
heart to the sacrifice of Christ. Our Lord said she anointed my
body for the burial. Now, she apparently, this dear
lady apparently, is the only one of the Lord's disciples who
at that time understood how that he would accomplish redemption
by the sacrifice of himself. She's apparently the only one
who really understood that message. And she comes to anoint him.
She comes to anoint him out of gratitude for the sacrifice he
was about to take for her. What's this? I'm not my own,
I've been bought for price. I'm glorified by God in my body
and my spirit, which are his, not mine. And this was an act
of faith. Our Lord said she anointed me
for my burial, but the reason for anointing or embalming the
dead body of a man was faith in the resurrection. And this
woman comes not to anoint him so that he could go to the tomb,
but rather she comes to anoint him in anticipation of his resurrection
from the dead, for she believed what he said. She believed his
word. And I see in this incident a
blessed foretaste of the honor that shall be put upon God's
elect in the day of judgment. Our Lord says concerning this
woman, "'Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached in the whole
world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be
told for memorial of her.'" Don't know much about her, but
wherever God has seen His Word for two thousand Folks been talking
about Deed is what we did for 2,000 years. For 2,000 years,
just one thing she did. And in that great day, when all
the deeds that might have been have been forgotten, when the poetry and the literature
and the art that men had produced had been forgotten, when the
accolades of athletes have all turned to dust, when the speeches
of great orators and the works of great politicians have all
been long, long forgotten, when the triumphs and victories of
great warriors and great nations have long been forgotten, not
one work, even the offering of a cup of
cold water, in his name. He will remember and he will
hail the four wondering worlds. I just thought of a text. Let
me read it to you. This would be a good way to wrap this up. Therefore, my beloved Gregory, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abound in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that
your labor is not in vain,