I was thinking as we were singing
that last hymn, Jesus is very near. He's very near to us tonight. His promise is that where two
or three are gathered in his name, that he is in our midst. And we know that he is here tonight,
that God the Holy Spirit has promised to meet with us when
we are gathered in Christ's name. If you will, let's open our Bibles
this evening once again to John chapter 12. John chapter 12, verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead,
whom He raised from the dead. There they made him a supper,
and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the
table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Then saith 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. Then said Jesus, let her alone. Against the day of my burying
hath she kept this. For the poor always you have
with you, but me you have not always. Two weeks ago tonight
we looked at this narrative which speaks to us about a supper. a supper which was made for the
Lord Jesus Christ in Bethany. Verse 2 says, there they made
him a supper. Because it was the first Sunday
of the month, we were observing the Lord's Supper, so part of
the message, maybe you will remember, is that I made three observations
from what we read here and the Lord's Supper. Let me just remind
us of them. First, they made him a supper. He made us a supper. He did so
both literally and he commanded us to observe the Lord's Supper. He did so literally when he gave
his life. And remember he said, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
And it is by faith that we eat, appropriate the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ as our death, as our salvation. So literally,
He made us a supper. And then He also ordained a supper
that we observe to do in remembrance of Him. A second thing I mentioned
is that three of those who were named who are named who were
at this supper here in Bethany, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, they
may picture to us those who are invited to the Lord's Supper.
Lazarus, who had been dead. Those who have been spiritually
dead and made alive by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ are
invited to this supper. It is for those who know Him.
Those of us who know Him tonight, those of us who have been made
alive. We were dead. We were spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, but thank God He quickened us. He made us alive. And then secondly,
we saw that Martha, she was here, and she was serving as usual. And those who are made alive,
who are regenerated and invited to this supper, that we too are
serving the Lord. He has ordained that we walk
in those good works, or we are rather to walk in those good
works which He hath before ordained. And those good works are in serving
Him. And then, of course, Mary, she
was here, and she pictures to us, in my mind, sitting at the
feet of Jesus. And every time you find Mary
in the Gospels, she's always, always at the feet of Jesus to
worship and to learn of Him. And then, of course, Judas, he
was also named, and he was at this supper. But we know he had
no part. And that reminds us that there's
no saving efficacy either in baptism or the Lord's table. Salvation is not in an ordinance,
it is rather in Him, in Christ. It's knowing Him, being one with
Him by faith. He's in us by Spirit and we are
in union with Him by faith. And then a third thing that while
his bodily presence was with them, he told them in verse 8,
he said, the poor always you have with you, but me you have
not always. Now he was there at this supper
in Bethany that's recorded here bodily, but he's not with us
bodily in the Lord's Supper. In other words, The wine and
the bread is not turned into the actual flesh and blood of
Jesus Christ. He's at the Father's right hand.
We looked at five passages in Hebrews, I believe it is, where
we are told over and over and over again where He is tonight. He's at the Father's right hand. And thank God He's there making
intercession for us. We couldn't be saved without
his intercessory work. He's our advocate. If any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only, but for the whole world. There's only one propitiation
that propitiates a holy God, and that is his sacrifice. Now there was something else
that caught my attention when we read through this passage
and when I prepared that message. And that is something that is
found in verse 3. John 12 in verse 3, speaking
about this ointment. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair, And the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. This makes me think of two passages
of Scripture, there may be others, but these two came to my mind,
that speak to us of the Lord Jesus Christ and His fragrance. The first one, I'll ask you to
turn back with me to the Song of Songs. The Song of Solomon, I believe
it is in some Bibles, but it is the Song of Songs. Chapter 1. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Because, now
here it is, because of the savor of thy ointments, thy name is
as ointment poured forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. Draw me, and we will run after
thee. These are the first words, you
know, in this Song of Songs. And that's what the scripture
here says. The Song of Songs. Now think about that. We have
150 songs just before this in the Book of Psalms, but this
is the Song of Songs. And I believe it was God the
Holy Spirit that inspired those words, don't you? The Song of
Songs. Now, I know this is so. Hebrew poetry, when translated
into English, cannot possibly convey the same thoughts, or
the same thoughts, but the words are expressed differently, I
know, than we would use today. But the song of songs, and in
this song, you know, the bride is the church. It's you. It's me. Those of us who know
him. We are represented in this song
of songs as the bride. And of course, the bridegroom,
we all know, represents the Lord Jesus Christ. It's interesting,
as I looked at this, you know, it just opens up. The bride is
speaking, and she doesn't tell us of whom she's speaking. She
just starts talking, and she says, let him, let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth. And I thought, now, that's somewhat
strange, just to break into that, not even tell us of whom she's
speaking. But I thought, this has to be
the key. For her, there was only one. There was only one. We're talking
about the bride. We're talking about the church.
We're talking about those who've been saved by the grace of God.
And for us, there's only one. One. Let Him. She doesn't tell
us who He is, but she will get to that. And He will speak also
in this song. Later in the song, you know,
she was asked this question. The bride was asked this question.
What is so special about your bridegroom? What's so special about him?
Why couldn't you be satisfied with another? Oh, no. What's
so special about your bridegroom? And you know she describes him
as she does in that poetic way. And then she concludes with these
words, this, this is my beloved. And this is my friend, O daughters
of Jerusalem, this is my beloved. And the bridegroom is not only
the beloved of the bride, the church, but our God also spoke
out of heaven and he said, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. She begins this song telling
us of two things about the Beloved. The first thing she tells us
is that His love is better than wine. She makes a comparison,
doesn't she? A comparison between His love
and wine, and she says His love is better than wine. Several things come to mind. A, his love is better than wine
considering its age. Wine, and I'm certainly no expert
on wine, but evidently it improves with age. Good wine is old wine. I have seen news stories where
they've recovered bottles of wine from the ocean floor from
a ship that was sunk centuries ago. And they get that bottle
of wine, several bottles, put it up for auction, and it goes
for thousands of dollars. Somebody believes it's good.
Old wine is good wine. But she says his wine, or his
love rather, is better than wine. compared to the age. His love
is better than wine because His love is eternal. It's eternal. It had no beginning,
and it has no ending. His love is better than wine.
No matter how old wine is, His love is better because it's older. He's loved us. He's loved His
church from everlasting. He tells us that, doesn't he?
I believe it is in Jeremiah. He said, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. There's no way for me, and I
don't think any of us really, to comprehend what that means.
That His love is eternal. Because our minds just work from
a beginning, a now, a present, and an end. But his love had
no beginning. His love is better than wine. Before there was ever a star
shining in the sky, his love was set upon his people. How anyone can call himself a
preacher and believe that a person can be saved and then be lost.
I cannot comprehend that. His love is eternal. Are they saying that He can love
a person today and stop loving that person tomorrow? Are they saying that there's
something we could do to forfeit His love? If they are, I'm afraid
I would have forfeited it many, many times. I know I would have.
Oh no, His love, better than wine, it's eternal. And then B, His love is better
than wine considering its purity, its purity. In Isaiah chapter
25 and verse 6, The gospel there is spoken of as a feast of fat
things, a feast of wines on the lees, well refined. Wine on the lees is wine which
is well refined. In other words, all the impurities
have been taken off. You remember, now it's been about
13, 14 years when I felt compelled that we start
using wine in the Lord's Supper. And one of the big reasons for
that, first of all, the scripture says it was wine. That's the
first reason. But you take wine and you take
grape juice and you open them up and you see what happens to
the grape juice and to the wine. The impurities have been taken
off the wine. But his love is better than wine
for its purity, because the purest wine cannot be compared with
the purity of his love. His love for his bride was never
conditioned upon any merit, for his word is, I will love them
freely. There was nothing impure in his
love for his bride. Never was. It cost him dearly to love his
bride, but she is told, buy wine and milk without money and without
price. In Isaiah 55 and verse 1. And
see, his love is better than wine for the effect of it. Wine,
and in the scripture it is recommended to be given to revive those that
are downcast, to cheer those that have heavy hearts. But his
love is better than wine, for it gives life. It doesn't only
revive, it gives life to men who are spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. His love is better than wine,
for it comforts saints when nothing else will. I mean, when there's
nothing in the medicine cabinet, there's nothing that the doctors
can prescribe, there's nothing anywhere that will comfort the
troubled heart of a child of God, but His love will. His love will. His love is better than wine,
for wine carries a warning with it. It carries a warning about drinking
too much. Scripture's very clear about
drunkenness, the sin of drunkenness, isn't it? Drinking too much. But His love carries no warning
with it, but it invites us to drink tonight. Drink! Drink freely! Drink abundantly! Drink fully! You cannot drink
to excess. of His love. His love is better
than wine. The second thing the bride says
is, His name is as ointment poured out. Now the fragrance of Mary's
ointment, we are told there in the Gospel of John, that it filled
the house. I mean, it just filled the house.
When you walked in that house, it was just a beautiful fragrance
from that ointment. I've read that there are porcelain
vases from years ago, I mean centuries back, millenniums back,
that contained ointment. But the ointment has been poured
out, but even still those vases contain the fragrance of that
ointment. So beautiful. The fragrance of her ointment
filled the house. I like to go in these candle
shops. I very seldom ever do, but sometimes when we are in
Galveston down there on the Strand, go in one of those shops and,
oh, it just smells wonderful, doesn't it? You buy one candle,
or I do, and think my whole house is going to smell wonderful with
that one candle. It doesn't work that way. They've
got hundreds of candles in there burning. But they smell good,
don't they? When you walked in that house,
if you did that night when they had that supper, the whole house
just smelled beautiful. Beautiful fragrance filled the
house. But his fragrance doesn't fill
a house, it fills the world. It fills the world. And I mean
by that, that all around the world the fragrance of his name,
that is the gospel, is poured out. You know, in Mark's account,
Mark writing of the very same thing that John writes about
that we read in John chapter 12, that supper at Bethany, Mark
writes about that. But, as usual, they vary some
in what they record. And what Mark said is this. There
came a woman. He didn't name Mary. He said,
there came a woman. having an alabaster box of ointment
of spikenard, very precious, and she break the box. Now, John
doesn't tell us that, but Mark says, she break the box and poured
it upon his head. And I think we can see in that
by the breaking of the box to speak of his crucifixion. The breaking of the box. It was
there on the cross like in no other place where his name is
as ointment poured forth. For after all it is through his
broken body that all of these excellencies of the divine nature
are poured forth that come forth to you and I. Such is mercy. Mercy is such a wonderful attribute,
isn't it? It's such a wonderful attribute. And God is full of mercy, plenteous
in mercy, delighteth in mercy. Do you ever pray like that? Do you ever remind God when you're
in prayer, asking for mercy? Just remind Him of what He's
told us about His mercy. His mercy endureth forever. He
delights in mercy, His grace. How do we begin to even speak
about His grace, His love? The box was broken, the body
was broken at the cross, and all of these wonderful attributes
of God come streaming out to you and I. is as fragrance poured
out, the forgiveness of sinners. And you notice it says his name,
or she said rather, thy name is as ointment poured forth.
Which one of his names? He has many, doesn't he? Which
one? All of them. All of them. But
I've already said that she called him her friend. This is my beloved. This is my friend. Think of that
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The friend of sinners. They accused Him, didn't they?
The Pharisees did. The religious hypocrites did. They accused Him of eating and
drinking with sinners. They did not recognize He did
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We've
been watching a series on television, maybe some of you have watched
it, about the crown, I believe is the name of it. And evidently
it's about the present Queen of England. But it's somewhat
interesting. You know, she's been a queen
for a long time now. But one part was they had Billy
Graham. Billy Graham was holding a crusade
in London. And according to the story, the
Queen saw him on television and invited him to come to the palace,
Buckingham Palace, the chapel there, and to preach. And she
was interested in what he had to say. But the Prime Minister,
this is why I'm telling the story, The prime minister in a cabinet
meeting mentioned the fact that Billy Graham was there holding
a, he said, this is what he said. He calls it a crusade. He thinks
we're all heathen. Isn't that always the way lost
people react when you try to share the gospel with them? Well,
you think you're better than us. You think, no, by no means. No. We thank God that He came,
not to call the righteous, because if He had, He would not have
called us. He came to call sinners. And when I read that, I know
He came to call me. This is my friend. That name is as ointment poured
out, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends. The prophets called him the Messiah. And we know that this name includes
the fact that he is prophet, priest, and king. And that emits
a beautiful fragrance to us to think that he is our prophet
sent from God to teach us about God and to reveal God to us.
He's our priest to reconcile us to God, and he's our king
to reign over us. His name pours forth fragrance. And then the angel told Joseph,
what about this name? Name him Jesus. Why Jesus? Because he shall save his people
from their sins. What fragrance does that name
pour forth? Take any and take all of his
names and they all will be to the believer to a child of God
as a beautiful well-pleasing fragrance. Now the bride not
only spoke of his love and of his fragrance, but she made these
two requests. She said, first of all, let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. In other words, visit
me, not just once. John Gill commented that among
the Orientals, the people among the Jews that kissing was very
unusual. That it usually, kissing on the
lips that is, very unusual. They might kiss the floor, the
ground before a sovereign. They might kiss his hand. But
to kiss a person on the lips usually was a consummation of
a marriage union. And only once. But I thought
that can't be true. Not in this case. Because the
word is plural. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth. Not just once, not just once,
but let him visit me day after day, hour after hour. And let
him vouchsafe to me his love and his grace and his mercy.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And then secondly,
she said, let him draw me. Notice that in verse four. Draw
me. We will run after thee. She recognized
her need, didn't she? Her impotency. Let him draw me. The Lord said, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him. Draw me. Draw me. Alright, one other place
that I'm going to point us to tonight. As I said, there may
be other places, but I want you to look in Ephesians just a moment. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1
and 2. Be you therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor. You notice in this verse that
Christ gave Himself for us, that is, for His bride. Down in verse
25 we read, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church and gave Himself for it. When we read that He gave
Himself for us, we understand by that He gave
Himself in our place. You sing that song sometimes,
Desta, and I should have been crucified. That says it real
well. I should have been, I'm the one
who should have been hanging on that tree. I was the one who
had sinned against God. But He took my place. He took,
He gave Himself for us. He stood in our place and in
our stead. He gave Himself as a sacrifice.
He didn't give Himself as an example. Although He is to be
our example, but He gave Himself as a sacrifice, as a propitiation. God's angry because of sin, because
of the wickedness of mankind. And that sin, that wickedness,
God's anger, God's wrath had to be appeased, had to be propitiated. The only thing that will propitiate
holy God is a sacrifice equivalent to Him. Gave Himself for us as
a sacrifice. He gave Himself the just for
the unjust that He might bring us to God. Notice here, the sacrifice
was offered to God. gave Himself for us an offering
and a sacrifice to God. He didn't give Himself to the
devil. He wasn't paying a debt to the devil. And He didn't give
Himself to us. He gave Himself for us, but He
gave Himself to God. Before God could forgive us,
He had to do something for God. He had to satisfy God. And God found it to be an unblemished
sacrifice. He found it to be a sweet-smelling
savor. In other words, He found rest
in that sacrifice. He found appeasement. He found
propitiation. He found that one sacrifice to
be adequate to satisfy his offended justice. Satisfied fully, fully. And he found that he had by his
one sacrifice for us put away sin forever. Made an end of sin that he has
perfected forever them that are sanctified. So the fragrance,
the fragrance of Christ sweet fragrance to every believer. His name is as ointment poured
forth. And God the Father found His
sacrifice to be pleasing, well-pleasing. And because He's well-pleased
with His Son, He's well-pleased with you if you are in Christ. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to us here this evening.