From Mark in chapter 14. Mark 14, we'll read the first 11 verses together. Mark 14, we'll read verses 1-11. This is on page 849 in your pew Bibles. Mark is in the New Testament. It's the second book in the New Testament. So if you open to the start of the New Testament, you'll find Matthew, and then Mark is right after Matthew. So beginning with verse 1, and as we read this together, you're going to see a contrast. And it's the contrast between the ugliness of sin and the beauty of a Christian heart. And that contrast will be drawn very vividly in these 11 verses. And it was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him. For, they said, not during the feast lest there be an uproar from the people. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard and very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. And there were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her. But Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. And then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, They were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray Him. This is the last week of Jesus' life. Everything in Jesus' earthly life, and indeed everything in the Scriptures, revolve around what He would do at the cross. And what is happening here is the counsel of God is being deployed, and there will now be a plot hatched to betray and to arrest and to try Jesus and then to execute him. It won't go exactly the way the religious leaders plan. They're hoping they can do it privately and in the dark and it will wind up being very public. They're hoping they can have him and be rid of him in secret And so they're seeking how to arrest Him by stealth, it says in verse 1, and kill Him. And they don't want to make it public because they know that Jesus is popular. Jesus is popular with the crowds, He's popular with the people. They hang on every word that He says, and so they know if they make this public, they are afraid that there will be an uproar from the people. This is an evil, satanic, stealthy plot. And yet it is under the predetermined hand of a sovereign God. It is evil, what they are intending. It says in Luke's gospel that Satan entered into Judas' heart to do this. So it is satanic, and ever since the first week of creation, there has been a plot from hell to destroy the work of God. But what was promised there that first week of creation after man had committed the first sin? What was promised? What was promised was the serpent would be destroyed and that Satan's work would be overthrown. And there would be a single head, a single captain who would be born of a woman. And Paul tells us in Galatians he is born of woman and he's born under the law to redeem. Now, in order for Jesus to redeem, in order for that seed of the woman to destroy the works of the devil, His heel must be bruised. His human flesh must be put to death. His divine nature never dies, but in His human flesh, His human nature must be tortured and executed. And here's the start of it. Here there is a plot that is hatched. And so Judas, who is one of the twelve, known to Christ, he spent time with Christ, he knows Jesus. He was a trusted man. Judas was a trusted friend. He had gone to worship with Jesus. He had sung with Jesus. He had heard Jesus' words. He had prayed with Christ. How far can you go in an outward profession of faith and it not be genuine? Judas went pretty far. Judas was trusted. He was in charge of the finances. And that comes out in his critique, his complaint of the woman that we read about. He's in charge of the finances. He's trusted. And he goes to the chief priests and he sells his soul for 30 pieces of silver. And he seeks an opportunity to betray his friend. his supposed friend. Well, right in between those two descriptions, you have the description of the chief priests and the elders, then you have a description of Judas. Right between that, you have this beautiful scene, and Jesus is in the home of friends. Jesus was fully God and fully man, The human side of him needed friends. He goes to Bethany, to this home, and the woman comes with a flask of ointment. She comes with this very expensive bottle of ointment or perfume or oil, whatever you want to call it, and she pours of this ointment. She breaks the flask and she pours it on his head. And they're sitting at table and she comes up. What would this look like in practice? She comes up and she breaks this bottle. She pours it over his head. This expensive, costly ointment that you would normally only use for anointing a body for burial. You think she doesn't know something about this week? About what's going to happen. Jesus says it. She's done this to anoint my body for burial. She knows what is about to happen. He's in the house of friends. There are always fault finders. There are always critics. And they say, why is it wasted? Don't you know, Jesus, what we could have done with this? This is expensive, costly ointment. And this could have been sold. This could have been given to the poor. This is private. This is just in a house. We could have made a public display of mercy to the poor. There are always fault finders. This is recorded in all four Gospels. Other Gospel writers tell us that Judas was the ringleader of the critics. He's the man who held the finances. He knows what he could have done with that. He used to help himself to some of the proceeds. He knows what could have been done with this. And given to the poor. Do you know how easy it is? What's happening here? They're using an outward concern for the poor as a cloak for spiritual coldness. That's an amazing thing. How much concern can be shown for the poor? And they're just They're just pawns in our spiritual pride and spiritual coldness. How tragic. How devastating. They would use the poor as a category. How easy it is to show more outward concern for one class of society as a cloak for spiritual coldness. Happens all the time. And they scold her. And Jesus comes alongside, and I love, there's a statement in Psalm 109, that He takes the side of the poor. That God will come alongside those who are oppressed and misrepresented. What's happening here? She is being misrepresented. And she is being scolded. And Jesus comes alongside, leave her alone. How does Jesus view His persecuted people? You leave them alone. They belong to Me. She has done, some translations read, a good work. What is a good work? A good work is a beautiful thing. That's what this is. She has done a good work. She has done a beautiful thing. You always have the poor. The poor will never go away. Deuteronomy 15.11 says that, that you will always have the poor in the land. It's one condition of the fall, that things are not equal. You always have the poor. And so we, in our imaginations, in our political agendas, we try to flatten the playing field. And Scripture tells us you will always have the poor with you. That's a condition that will not go away. Whenever you want, you can do good for them, Jesus says. You will not always have me. And what has she done? She recognizes that she will not always have him in the flesh. She recognizes that he will be buried. And so she has anointed, out of respect for the physical body, out of respect for the physical body, she has anointed His body beforehand for burial. We treat, as Christians, we treat the body with dignity and respect, even after death. And here, it's almost like she's looking ahead to His death, and anointing His body in advance. And then, look at this, what we're doing tonight, we are fulfilling prophecy. He says, truly, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, where are we? We're on the other side of the world from where this happened. Wherever this gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in memory of her. This is in a private home, She's been criticized for not using this, for selling it, using the proceeds publicly. And Jesus is saying, what happened here privately in this home will be told and reported in all the world. Why will it be proclaimed? Well, because there are several reasons. One is She recognizes that He will be executed and buried. Do y'all know part of the gospel message is the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. All four gospel writers record the burial. Y'all, that is important, that Jesus was buried. He's put to death, He's buried, and they saw where He was buried. They noticed where He was, they went back to that very tomb on the first day of the week after His crucifixion. He was supposed to be lying there dead in the grave. He was buried. That's part of the gospel. And then that He did not stay buried in the tomb, He was raised. We believe in the death and burial and resurrection of Christ. But also, the reason why what she did is being told still, is that she has this beautiful heart of a believer. And it shows us what a beautiful Christian heart looks like. He says, she has done a beautiful thing, or she has done a good work to me. And she shows us what a Christian heart looks like, that a Christian heart is full of love, full of love for their Savior. A musician loves music, and they love to listen to music. They love to play music. An athlete loves their particular sport. And they love to think about it. They love to daydream about it. They love to do it. They love to practice it. A writer loves to write. Singers love to sing. And Christians love their Savior. They love their Jesus for who He is. They love Christ for His person, that He is fully God and fully man. They love their Savior for His character. They love their Jesus for His holiness, for His purity, for His meekness, for His zeal, for His strength, for His power. What makes you love Jesus tonight? If you are a Christian, what attracts you to Jesus? What stirs your affections when you consider Christ, God manifest in the flesh? What is it that makes you love this Jesus? He said in John chapter 12, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. He draws all types of people to faith in Him. What has drawn you? If you're a believer here tonight, what draws you? What affections have been awakened in you by the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit has given you new affections. He's given you a new mind, a new heart. What do you see with that new set of eyes, with that new heart? What do you see when you look at Jesus? And you see God and man, two natures in one person. You see Him as your prophet. And oh, you ache, you long to hear more of His words. You love to hear the words of Christ. That's why you search the Scriptures, because you love to hear His voice. You love Him as your priest. And you know that He is a tender, sympathetic priest who, when you are tossed, when you are persecuted by the world, the flesh and the devil, you know that He is your priest who comes alongside and says, let her alone. She belongs to me. You love this Jesus as your prophet, as your priest. You love Him as your King. You know that His laws are not random, they're not arbitrary. You have this overflowing affection for Jesus. That's the beauty of a Christian heart. The beauty of a Christian heart is its overflowing affection. for a crucified and buried, risen and ascended Savior. Your love for Jesus is costly. It is not cheap. It is most expensive. Not expensive in the sense of money spent. You know, around Christmas, next Sunday morning, children, kids, it's coming. Next Sunday morning, Christmas morning, some of your favorite gifts will be gifts that are very expensive, money-wise. Some of your gifts will also be quite inexpensive, money-wise. And what you might find is that your favorite gifts are those that were the least expensive. So, when we talk about the heart of a Christian and this love being costly, we're not so much talking about money spent. We're talking about a treasure of affection, a treasure of spiritual energy, That your love for Christ is most costly in the amount of emotional and spiritual energy spent. Your love for Jesus is costly. It's costly and most precious. If you were to put a dollar amount on your love for Christ, how much would it be? If you were to put a label, a price tag, on how precious it was to you. What would be on the tag? What would be on the sticker? It's priceless, isn't it? She has expended her love for Christ with a costly flask of ointment. Ointment that would normally be used only when a person had died. The beauty of a Christian heart is most costly. And there is no end to the emotional and spiritual energy that you're willing to spend in your pursuit of Christ. When the Holy Spirit made you a Christian, He gave you this new heart. He gave you these new affections. And there is nothing you are not willing to do. Just to be near Him. Just to be close to Him. Your love for Christ is costly. And something else we can say is that your love for Christ is not only costly, you're also unashamed. The heart of a Christian is unashamed. Paul would say it this way, I am unashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. And something else that you can add to that is you are not ashamed to show your love for that Gospel. You're not ashamed to show your love for the person and the work of Jesus. Look at what's happening here. She is being scorned and scolded for this outward display of affection. She's being told, this is a waste! This is a total waste of money. Love for Christ is most isolating. It isolates you from other people. And perhaps you have noticed that. If you're here tonight as a Christian, you perhaps could give a testimony of how your love for Jesus has isolated you from other people. You're crazy. You're crazy. You really believe this stuff? Every week you're spending time driving back up to church when you could be doing other things, you've got to be stark raving mad. And then if you're really crazy, you do it twice on Sunday, you are out of your mind. You always got fault finders. Critics are always around. And you are unashamed. You are unashamed despite what the world thinks of your convictions and your practices. You're unashamed. You still love your Jesus. Your love for Christ, it just oozes out. It bursts out. It's the very air that you breathe. You have this love for Jesus despite the scoldings of the world and the isolation that you have experienced. You love your Jesus. She has done a beautiful thing to me, and you enjoy, oh, you love pouring out your affections for Christ. Y'all, that's what this tonight is all about. This tonight is not so much about gathering more information, although it is that. You gather the information of the Scriptures. You gather the truth. You soak up the truth. You search the Scriptures. And you love every word, every syllable of the Bible. Why? Because this is where you hear Christ's voice. This is where you delight to spend time. These are the chambers. These are the chambers where you are enjoying personal union in communion with a risen and ascended Lord. Your love for Jesus is costly. Perhaps it has cost you not only your spiritual energy, but also your time. And here you also see that your love for Jesus is most unashamed. And if it is If it is politically incorrect or socially unacceptable to believe the Bible, then you embrace that scolding. And you don't feel the need to bend over backwards to satisfy the agenda of a secular world. We don't feel that pressure. We don't feel that obligation. No. Our conscience is bound not to the world around us, but to the Word and to our Christ. When you pray, you pray unashamed. You pray. You are willing to groan. You are willing to... Grown before your God, to pour out your soul before Him, just like Hannah. Thinking about Hannah from last week, that her lips were moving, but no voice, no word, no sound was coming out. You're unashamed. You're unashamed. We're unashamed when it comes to our sports affiliations. our political involvement. We're unashamed there. Why is it that we duck and hide when it comes to our faith? You be unashamed. The beauty of a Christian heart, it is most costly and it is unashamed. But Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them, but you will not always have me. She is anointing His body beforehand for burial. She is active She is actively pouring out this ointment on his head. And the third thing I want you to hear is that this Christian heart is most active. The beauty of a Christian heart, y'all, we're not passive. No, the fault finders were passive. The scolders were passive. Do you know how we could have used this money? Now those are the ones who are passive. What she's doing is most active. If you're ever been around or heard much about distance running, distance runners, when you're training, what you're doing is you are strengthening your heart, your physical heart. And you're training that physical heart to pump more blood. And you want that physical heart to pump more blood to the rest of your body. Because the more blood your heart pumps, the more oxygen is being carried to the rest of your body, and the faster you can run. And that's what we want to do, right? We want to run faster. And so you're training your heart to pump more blood. And that's why some of the best distance runners, they run tens, dozens, even over 100 miles per week. Well, why do they do that? They are training their physical heart to pump more and more oxygen so they can run longer and faster and get that medal. Children, why are you here tonight? You're here tonight because your parents are training your spiritual heart to pump more spiritual blood to the rest of your soul. The beauty of a Christian heart is it is most active. And you are actively pursuing your Lord Christ. No, y'all, we're not waltzing our way to heaven. No, we are pursuing, we are going hard after Christ. The apostle, whoever it was, he wrote the letter to the Hebrews. He describes the Christian life as a race. It is a distance race. And you are looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God. Now because of all that, what does he say? He says, run with endurance. Running is not an easy sport. It's hard. It takes an active devotion of mind and soul. It's difficult. You've got to go against the wind. You've got to go on hard terrain. You've got to get out on days when you don't feel like it. Y'all, the Christian life. You think the Christian life is something easy? You think it was easy for this lady to take this flask of ointment and break it and anoint Jesus' head with scolders and scorners mocking her? Oh, your love for Jesus, the beauty of a Christian heart. You are most active in pursuing your Christ. And where are you pursuing? What are the beautiful things that you do in pursuit of Jesus? Well, the beautiful things you do in pressing in, pushing into that Holy of Holies, pressing in from the outer court to the inner court, those beautiful things that you do, you're searching the Scriptures. You're reading the Bible. You're meditating on what you read. You're asking, Spirit of the living God, would You take this Word, and I know I don't understand every syllable of it, Lord, would You take this Word and would You shape and mold my mind, my heart, my conscience, and my will by this standard? And you are pursuing, you are actively pursuing Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit did with you when He made you a Christian. The Holy Spirit made you an active pursuer of Christ. That's why we're here. That's why you do what you do. That's why you're flooding and saturating your mind and your soul with the Scriptures. That's why you meditate long and hard on the cross. That's why ours is a cross-centered faith. That's why you love to learn how to pray. That's why you love the means of grace. That's why you love public worship. For the Christian heart, we are learning to say, we can't get enough. We can't get enough. We're learning to say that. And the Holy Spirit gives us that appetite. This is a beautiful heart of a Christian. A heart that's made new. knows that love for Jesus is costly. Do you have that heart? Do you have that affection tonight? Do you have that costly affection for Christ? Do you have this acceptance? Do you accept the isolation of excellence in your pursuit of Christ? Do you even embrace that isolation? Knowing that you have your friends and neighbors and family, and that not everyone thinks the same way about Jesus. You're still going to rub elbows with people who don't think the same way about Jesus, but do you accept that you're different? Beauty is rare. Beauty is rare in the church. Beauty is rare in society at large. Beauty is a rare thing. But what has the Lord done with each of you? If you're a believer in Christ tonight, what is a Christian? Someone who believes in Jesus. What has the Holy Spirit done with you? He's taken this rough, knobby, unpolished stone He's dug you out of the quarry. And He has knocked off one after another. He's knocked off the rough edges. He is polishing. He's shaping. He's molding. And He is making you a reflection of the beauty of heaven. She has done a beautiful thing to me. Well, where does true beauty come from? True beauty is a reflection. of God's beauty and God's work. What is a Christian? A Christian is a beautiful work of divine art. And your actions, your active expressions of love for your Savior, they're just the natural expressions of a heart of beauty made new. Leave her alone, Jesus said. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. Love for Christ is the definer. That's how you determine a Christian. How do you know if someone believes in Jesus? Well, they love Jesus. They love the Savior. Would you pray with me? Our gracious God, tonight we confess that naturally we have hearts of stone that are ugly and defiled. And so Lord, we plead with you tonight that if any here have those knobby hearts of stone, oh Lord, would you replace them with hearts of flesh. And oh Lord, Would You cut? And would You shape? And would You mold? Lord, do whatever is necessary to make us new creations that we might reflect the beauty of the image of God. Lord, give us to actively pursue You, pursuing You in the Scriptures, pursuing You in prayer, pursuing You in public worship, pursuing You in the means of grace. And oh Lord, would You make this congregation a beautiful work in Your sight. And would You go with us now and give us to close this day with great joy and with deep peace. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, the bulletin says Psalm 16, but we're going to sing Psalm 41 tonight as we close.