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This morning is from the Song
of Solomon, beginning in chapter 1, verse 1. Song of Solomon. And this corresponds
with the New Testament section that we're going to be looking
at today, which is the anointing of Jesus by the woman of Bethany,
Mary of Bethany, who anointed Jesus and poured out the precious
ointment upon Him as an expression of her love. So here now, as
I read to you from the holy and infallible Word of God. The Song
of Songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Because of
the fragrance of your good ointments, your name is ointment poured
forth. Therefore, the virgins love you.
Draw me away. We will run after you. The King
has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in
you. We will remember your love more
than wine. Rightly do they love you. I am
dark but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents
of Kadar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not look upon me
because I am dark, because the sun has tanned me. My mother's
sons were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Tell me, O you
whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest
at noon. For why should I be as one who
veils herself by the flocks of your companions? If you do not
know, oh, fairest among women, follow in the footsteps of the
flock and feed your little goats beside the shepherd's tents.
I have compared you, my love, to my filly among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with chains of gold. We will make you ornaments of
gold with studs of silver. While the king is at his table,
my spikenard sends forth its fragrance. A bundle of myrrh
is my beloved to him. that lies all night between my
breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster
of henna blooms in the vineyards in Getty. Behold, you are fair,
my love. Behold, you are fair. You have
dove's eyes. Behold, you are handsome, my
beloved. Yes, pleasant. Also, our bed
is green. The beams of our houses are cedar
and our rafters of fir. I am the rose of Sharon and the
lily of the valleys. Like a lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. Like an apple tree among the
trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat
down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet
to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with cakes
of raisins. Refresh me with apples, for I
am lovesick. His hand is under my head, and
His right hand embraces me. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do
not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases." And there we'll
end the Old Testament reading of God's Word. You see here the
delight in the two lovers. Now turn over to Matthew 26. And I'll read to you from verse
6 to verse 13. Matthew 26, beginning in verse
6. And this is the portion that I'll be preaching from today.
Hear now as I read to you from God's holy word. And when Jesus
was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came
to him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil. She poured it out on his head
as he sat at the table. But when his disciples saw it,
they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? For this fragrant
oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor. But
when Jesus was aware of it, he said to them, Why do you trouble
the woman? For she has done a good work
for me. For you have the poor with you always, but me you do
not have always. For in pouring this fragrant
oil on my body, she did it for my burial. Assuredly, I say to
you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world,
what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to
her. May God bless to us the reading
of His holy word. Last week we began this chapter
in Matthew's Gospel that leads us into the portion of Matthew's
Gospel that speaks about Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.
About the Gospel. Very heart of the Gospel. You'll
do well to give earnest attention to this portion of Matthew's
Gospel. Just now we are looking at the
way that various individual parties prepared for Jesus' death. Last week we looked at a contrast
between the way that God the Father prepared for Jesus' death
and the way that the Jewish leaders prepared for it. Both God and
the Sanhedrin had purposed the same thing. that Jesus would
be crucified. In this one sense, they had the
very same purpose as far as the matter of it. But the character
of their purposes was altogether different. God's purpose for
Jesus' death, as we saw last week, was gracious. The Sanhedrin's
purpose was selfish and cruel. God's purpose was wise. The Sanhedrin's
purpose was foolish. God's purpose was sure. The Sanhedrin's
purpose was unsure and contingent upon circumstances. From this,
we can learn that although wicked men carry out the very thing
that God had planned and purpose beforehand to be done, yet they
are worthy of punishment because they carry it out in a wicked
and rebellious manner. Many people stumble at the teaching
of the Bible that all things, including the deeds of the wicked,
conform to God's plan. Not His command, but His plan
that He has from eternity. The doctrine of the cross, though,
shows us how the very same act of wicked men can be precisely
the plan of God. What He had purposed and determined
before to be done concerning His Son is exactly what wicked
men carried out with their wicked hands. They do nothing but what
God has secretly planned. But for them, it is wickedness
and not obedience. Well, this week I want to look
at the preparation of another, this time an individual, the
godly woman that we find recorded in Matthew 26, verse 6 through
13. Now, her story is found in the
other Gospels, in Mark and John anyway. Luke has an anointing
that occurred earlier than this that seems to be by a different
woman. But we're going to focus in particular, of course, on
Matthew's account because we are studying the gospel of Matthew.
But there are some things here at introduction that I want to
mention that we learn from the other gospels that are not found
in Matthew's account and that are helpful as I introduce this
topic and this woman to you this morning. For example, John tells
us that the woman who anointed Jesus was Mary, the sister of
Martha and Lazarus that we read about much in John's Gospel.
They lived in Bethany. These siblings often provided
hospitality for Jesus and His disciples when they came to Jerusalem.
Perhaps they would be like the stands in Moncton. When you go
to Moncton, most of our congregation has stayed at one point or another
with the stands. Well, this family was there on
sort of not right in the city, but a little bit outside where
it was easy to commute, to walk back and forth. And whenever
Jesus came to town, he would come and stay in their home.
Well, Mary is the one that we read about in John's gospel who
is commended. for sitting at Jesus' feet when
her sister was all flustered with service. And Mary's brother
Lazarus is the one that we read about in John 11 that Jesus raised
from the dead after he had been in the grave for four days. So
they seemed to be a fairly wealthy family as they were able to take
care of Jesus and his disciples. So Jesus had quite a history
already with this family. Well, Matthew tells us that the
house where Mary anointed Jesus was that of Simon the leper. Now, we don't know much about
this Simon the leper, but he must have either been a neighbor
of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, or perhaps even their father
may have been in their own house. It may be that he was their father
who was no longer alive at this time, because it never says anything
about him calling this banquet or doing anything at it. It's
just that it was at his house. But whether he was living or
not, we can be sure that he was, as a friend of Jesus, that if
he was still alive, that he was no longer a leper. Because Jesus'
friends weren't lepers. He cleansed them all. when they
came to him and asked him. So whatever the case, whether
we know that he was not a leper at this time. John also informs
us in his gospel that Jesus had arrived at the house of Martha,
Mary and Lazarus six days prior to the Passover. It seems likely
that this was the time that he came into town. and began to
stay with them, began to lodge with them. And then a few days
later, as Matthew says, two days before the Passover, if he's
speaking sequentially here of the things that are done, you
notice back in verse 2 that Jesus had said that it was two days
of the Passover and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be
crucified. So then they had arrived six
days before the Passover, and then two days before the Passover
they had this banquet. where they wanted to honor Jesus
and to give thanks for him. None of the Gospels actually
state the time of the banquet. So it could be that Matthew is
reflecting back on what had occurred before Jesus said two days from
now, or it may be that that John is just telling when they first
came to the house. Whatever the case, though, they're
showing their love to Jesus by having a banquet for him. Now,
children, I wonder, What is it like at your house when you have
somebody coming to stay with you? And you're planning lots
of nice things to have for them. Well, last month, Junior had
a very bad attitude when people were coming to visit him. Junior
didn't like it when Aunt Contentious and Uncle Callus came to visit. In fact, he couldn't stand it
when they came. They were always getting into quarrels with each
other. And they couldn't be pleased with anything. Junior understood
the proverb that says that it's better to live in the corner
of a housetop than in a house with a contentious woman. He
often wished that he could go up and curl up in the attic somewhere
when they were when they were visiting. He didn't like the
idea of having to prepare his bedroom for them, having to clean
up his toys. He wasn't even excited about
helping his mother in the kitchen and preparing meals for them
before they came. In fact, he had to be chastened
a couple of times because of his bad attitude. But this week,
Junior had a very different attitude. This week, Uncle Generosity and
Aunt Grace were coming to visit. Junior was very excited about
getting his room ready for them. In fact, he asked his mother
if he could make a special welcome sign for them and if he could
take the chocolates that he received for his birthday and give them
to Uncle Generosity and Aunt Grace. Junior was thinking of
all sorts of things that he could do for them when they came. Now,
I have a question. Why did Junior find it so much
easier to give to Uncle Generosity and Aunt Grace than to Uncle
Callus and Aunt Contentious? Well, that's an easy question.
He loved Uncle Generosity and Aunt Grace because he loved them
so much that he wanted to do everything that he could think
of for their pleasure. That's the way it was for the
woman who anointed Jesus in Matthew 26. She greatly loved Jesus. And because she loved Him so
much, she thought she could never do enough for Him. She was always
looking for something that she could do for the Lord. In her
preparations for Jesus' death, Mary gives us a beautiful example
of what true love for Christ ought to look like. In verse
13, Jesus decrees that what this woman had done should be told
as a memorial of her in every generation. He says, assuredly,
I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world,
what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to
her. It is clear that Jesus is very
pleased with what she does for Him He wants this love of hers
to be remembered all over the world. He wants it to go along
as one of the stories that accompanies the Gospel wherever the Gospel
is preached. Because this is the kind of love
that every person who ever hears the Gospel and what Jesus did
for us ought to have for the Lord Jesus, unless our hearts
are very, very hard. And it's the kind of love that
every person will have when God's Spirit works in our hearts so
that we believe. Truly, what else can you do when
you really believe that the Son of God left the glories of heaven
and came here for the very purpose of saving miserable sinners like
us? That because of His great love
that He emptied Himself of His glory and came into this sinful
world that He Himself had made. And that He subjected Himself
to all kinds of suffering, to disrespect, to shame, to humiliation,
and even to torture. And that He even submitted Himself
to bear the full weight of God's curse that God had justly put
on human sin. He Himself became our shield
so that as the fiery darts of God's wrath came down upon the
human race, down upon the church as well, because the church is
full of sinners, that the Lord Jesus Christ is a shield to the
church who receives all of that wrath upon Himself, so that it
does not reach to us. As the poet said, what wondrous
love is this, O my soul, O my soul? What wondrous love is this,
O my soul? What wondrous love is this that
caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul,
for my soul? This is the message of the Gospel.
that Jesus speaks of that is to be preached in all the world.
The context of His expectation that this Gospel will be preached
in all the world is remarkable. Because in verse 2, that we looked
at last week, He had just said that He would be crucified in
two days. And now He says with absolute assurance that when
this Gospel is preached in all the world, then I want you to
tell what this woman has done as a memorial to Her. Here he
was with 12 unimportant men, as far as the world was concerned.
And here he was, a man from Nazareth that was lowly esteemed by the
leaders of this world, saying, my death is going to be published
as good news all over the world. How could he anticipate such
a thing? Indeed, he was right. Here we
are today. 2000 years later, in a strange
country, a country that was strange to the disciples, a country that
they didn't even know about, with a language that hadn't even
been born yet, preaching this very gospel that Jesus said would
be published all over the world. Here we are in a world so different.
world with computers and space shuttles, completely alien to
these men preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And indeed, it
is a gospel. You know, gospel means good news.
What wonderful news it is to all who believe. His suffering
death is the good news that your sins are fully forgiven. That
the wrath of God that would have sent you to the lake of fire
has forever been taken by Jesus Christ. That by trusting in Him,
that you have now become a recipient of His grace that transforms
you and that restores you to God. And that you have become
a recipient of God's everlasting mercy. And that in the future,
that you will receive the very inheritance that belongs to the
Son of God. for all eternity. The inheritance
of heaven where you will live in joyful communion with God
with no shortages, no sorrows, and such a fullness of happiness
and peace that you will forever be satisfied. What wondrous love
is this? Who, understanding such gospel
love, could reject it? Who could be so cold is not to
respond to it. Who, having received it, could
not but love the Son of God who gives it with an exuberant love
that can never abate? He has taken this wrath for you,
so that you don't have to bear an eternity of wrath that you
might delight in the inheritance. Jesus saw in this woman, as He
looked at her and He saw her action two days before His death,
perhaps, He saw the very love that would spring forth in the
earth after his death was preached as good news. He looks at this
love in dear Mary of Bethany with joyful anticipation as that
love that would be reproduced in every believer. As the love
that would adorn his church through the ages wherever true believers
were present in his church. And as the love that will adorn
heaven in all of its fullness forever and ever. He says, let
this be told as a memorial to her wherever the gospel is preached.
And so now, brothers and sisters, I want to do that. I want to
show you this great love that sprang up in Mary of Bethany.
That sprang up before the time. It was the fruit of the cross
of Jesus Christ. But here, Mary had it before
the cross. I want to show you this great
love in her that was a precursor to the love that would break
forth when we, the people of God, came to understand what
our Lord had done. I want to show it to you because
it is the loving response that you ought to have when you hear
the Gospel. and I urge you to have. If you
don't have it, I urge you to get it. And if you have it in
measure, as we all do, then I know that you want to have it in fuller
measure. So let's look. It's a delightful
thing to look at. First of all, I want you to see
that Mary's love was extravagant. Mary showed her love to Christ
by anointing Him with oil when He was reclining at the table.
There's nothing unusual about anointing one's guest with oil. It was a customary way of showing
hospitality to your guests in those days. It was a way of loving
them, of showing kindness to them. The oil would cause them
to shine, as it says in the acclamation about the oil in the Scriptures.
And it would provide a sweet fragrance that was very pleasant. If someone were to come and pour
oil on you today at a special dinner, you'd probably be offended
with them in our society. You wouldn't appreciate it very
much. But in Jesus' day, this was a normal expression of care
for your guests and the thing that was very much appreciated
by them. So while the action of Mary itself was not in that
society extraordinary, there was something that made it very
extraordinary. And that had to do with the oil
that Mary used. We are told that Mary took an
alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil and emptied its
contents on the Lord Jesus. Now, alabaster was used to make
containers for the most precious of oils because it was believed
that the oil would not change when it was preserved in such
a vessel. Often the alabaster container was one that had to
be opened by breaking the neck of the bottle. And we're told
in the other Gospels that Mary broke this bottle. Such a container
would not have been used unless the oil was very, very precious.
So as soon as this container came out, everyone knew that
this was special oil. Perhaps we could equate it today
to someone getting out a very expensive bottle of wine in honor
of a special guest. Well, in Matthew, we are told
that this oil was very costly. But just how costly was it? Well,
in Mark, the cost of the oil is estimated to be more than
300 denarii. Now a denarius, as we've seen
before, was a day's wages for a soldier or for a laboring man. So 300 days wages would be equivalent
to a full year's income. To put it in our context, it
would be 25 to $30,000 if we use what we would receive in
a year income that Mary emptied on Jesus. Right there in one single act. $30,000 gone. Just like that. You can see why I say that her
love was extravagant. Understand that it is the very
nature of love to be extravagant. Song of Solomon 8.7 says, Many
waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a
man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would
be utterly despised. And when he says that the wealth
would be utterly despised, he means that he would count it
nothing if he had to give up all of his wealth. Not that he
doesn't like houses and lands and all those things, but it's
as nothing if he gives it up as an expression of love. True
love is a busy, serving, generous thing. that doesn't count the
cost. It gives all it can for that
which it loves. True love wants to give. It is
constrained to give. It is delighted to give. It is
delighted to have something to give. It is very creative and
busy, always looking for some way to express itself. It can
never do enough for the one it loves. Isn't this so? We saw that with the story of
Junior. When Uncle Generosity and Aunt Grace came to visit,
he did all that he could. This is true even in everyday
life. If a person loves the movies, he'll give himself to it. He'll
spend his hard-earned money to pay the high prices at the theater.
And he'll give up many hours of his week when he might have
been doing something else. And what if a man comes to love
a woman? Well, he will forsake all other women for that woman.
He will give her his time and his energy and he will take her
into his home and provide for her and share his life with her
and everything that he possesses. He will rearrange his schedule
for her and be devoted to her. Like Jacob, he will work for
his Rachel for seven years and count it as a very short time
because of the great love that he has for her. And what if a
person comes to love money? Well, if he loves to spend it,
then he'll spend his own money and money that he doesn't have
as well. He'll go into debt. Spending, spending, spending.
If he loves to have it, then he'll store it up and hoard it
in a very miserly way and guard all of his investments with great
care. He'll work and sweat and give
long, long hours to the pursuit of it. He'll leave off his family. He'll leave off the worship of
God. He'll leave off everything in order to serve and devote
himself to the thing he loves. He will be extravagant in what
he does. Isn't it true that the greater
the love you have for something, the more freely you give what
you have to it? A man dying of thirst in the
desert will pay a very high price for a drink of water and be glad. A man dying of cancer will spend
all he has on the physicians if he indeed loves life. Now,
I want you to think about how the true love of a believer for
Christ is shown. Is it not shown the same way?
By extravagance. You will give things that are
very precious that will seem as nothing to you. Does Jesus
not say to us in Luke 14, if anyone comes to me and does not
hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,
yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus
is not suggesting that we are to hate them in a malicious or
unjust way. He's using the word hate in the
same way that Solomon used it when he said that the man would
despise the wealth that he gave up for love. He means that one's
family will be a small thing to give up if he must give it
up in following Jesus. He means that as soon as you
must choose between pleasing your mother or your father, or
pleasing the Lord Jesus, that you will choose to please the
Lord Jesus. He means that he will be more
important to you than even your own life. That's extravagance. It is the extravagance of love
that produces martyrs. A martyr is one who prefers to
give his life. rather than to deny Christ. He
prefers to be stripped of all of his goods and tortured rather
than to do anything that is contrary to his Lord. He will confess
his truth if it means that he must go to prison. It is the
extravagance of love that caused our friends Vince and Julie Ward
to leave all the comforts of Canada. And to go and live in
a bug infested hut with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees and exposures
to all sorts of sicknesses and diseases. They did it because
of the love for Jesus. Their act of love was extravagant.
But yet it's a very small thing to do for Jesus. Love will make
you extravagant in living the Christian life. It will make
you extravagant about prayer. So that you stay awake at night
praying that He would show you His glory. And that He would
show His glory in the world. And that He would bring His Kingdom
and establish it in this world. And that He would give you grace
to do His will. And that He would deliver you
from your sin. So that you will take time out
of your busy schedule to pray. That will be your schedule. Love will make you extravagant
about telling others of the glory of Christ. You won't be satisfied
until others come to know His glory and worship Him. Love will
make you creative to find ways to tell others about His Word.
Love will make you extravagant about commandment keeping. It
will cause you to look at the commandments not to see how little
you can do to say that you kept them, but to see how fully that
you can apply His truth to your life. As I said when we looked
at the commandments a few years ago, that you'll look to see
those commandments applied to every nook and cranny of your
life, rather than something you're trying to avoid, something that
you warmly embrace because of love. You will choose to lose
your job if keeping your job means you must cheat or lie or
break any of God's commandments. Love will make you extravagant
about the worship of God. You will worship Him in private.
You will worship Him daily in your family. You will worship
Him in the assembly on the Lord's Day. And people will say, well,
that's excessive. You'll sooner miss work or sleep than miss
worship. You will be extravagant because of love. Now, brothers
and sisters, we need more of this Christian love. We need
more extravagance for Jesus Christ. We're extravagant about many
things. But it is too uncommon that we are not extravagant about
Jesus Christ. There are not many who pour out
what is precious on Christ and consider it a very small thing
because of love. Brothers and sisters, we need
more of this. One reason that we don't have so much extravagant
love is because of the criticism of the world, not a legitimate
excuse. But you see, this is the second
characteristic of Mary's love. The first is that it was extravagant.
The second is that Mary's love is a criticized love. It was
criticized because of its extravagance. Verse 8 tells us that it was
none other than Jesus' disciples who criticized it. Matthew 26.8
When His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this
waste? For this fragrant oil might have
been sold for much and given to the poor. Look at that. These guys angry at this woman's
devotion. How could they be so cold? How
could they be so callous? Here's Mary showing honor to
her Lord and they have the audacity to call it waste. Who would ever
hear such a thing? Well, I speak with sarcasm. We
are the very same way. How very common this attitude
with Christians today. This woman poured out a $30,000
bottle of perfume on Jesus. $30,000. Gone. Just like that. Now, wouldn't
you have been disturbed if you'd been there? What is she doing?
Has she gone crazy? Would you not start to think
about all the things that could have been done with that stupid
bottle of perfume instead of pouring it out like that? Just
think of the things that you could buy with a whole extra
year's wages. All gone. in one foolish moment
and think how far it would have gone in a third world country.
How many people could have been fed by that? You'll notice that
when the disciples speak, they speak about giving it to the
poor. And I can almost guarantee you that they had thought about
how they might have used that money if it had been given to
them. But it sounds a lot better to
talk about how it might have been used for the poor. those
who are poor and envious like to think how they themselves
might have better used their rich neighbor's resources if
it had only been in their hands. Remember, the disciples themselves
were poor. They were financially supported
by Mary and others like her. She and her family, at this very
hour, were extending hospitality to them. They were staying here.
They were being provided food and housing. She was one of the
women mentioned in the Gospels that supported Jesus and his
disciples financially. You can be fairly certain that
as one of her benefactors, that they were thinking how nice it
would have been if she had bestowed that on them instead of pouring
it out like that. Now, I think I need to say something
about this problem of envy. Something more, because it's
a huge problem in our society. Bible makes it clear that a person
can be wealthy and still be righteous. And not only that, but a rich
man who is blessed of God can have a lot of nice things that
don't serve any particular purpose except to look nice or to provide
pleasure. John was a man like that. I'm
sorry, Job was a man like that. He cared for the poor and the
needy, but he also had lovely things. In Job 29.6, he remembers
the days when my steps were bathed with cream, he says, and the
rock poured out rivers of oil for me. Well, we have to remember
that our God is a God who makes precious things like diamonds,
gold, silver, and the precious oil that Mary poured out on Jesus'
head. He is not a God of mere efficiency, but a God of extravagance. He has billions of stars blowing
off all kinds of energy into space that could have been used
to heat our homes. Many of them can't even be seen.
He has sea creatures that haven't even been discovered yet. They're
swimming around in the depths of some ocean somewhere. He has
flowers in places that no human has ever set foot. He gives us
all sorts of foods with thousands of different tastes that have
no particular purpose except to give us pleasure. And he gives
us silly looking creatures like snails and rhinoceros. Too often,
Christians have thought that utility and efficiency are next
to godliness. You know, the saying, cleanliness
is next to godliness. Well, we think utility and efficiency
is next to godliness. They have supposed that the Lord
always sanctions thrift. Some of this has been because
we have such a problem with covetousness. And we do. The Bible warns us
about covetousness. It is a very destructive poison. You always have to watch out
for greed that can take hold of you and can swallow up your
whole life in selfishness. But the solution is not to decide
that all things that are not necessary are bad, are evil. That's the world's way of dealing
with a problem. That's Plato's way of dealing
with a problem. That's the error of the monks
and the hermits in the early church that went to extravagant
measures in order to avoid all things pleasant. You see, God
has given us many things for sheer enjoyment because that's
the kind of God He is. Rather than indulging every once
in a while with a guilty conscience, we ought to indulge with thanksgiving
as God gives us legitimate opportunity. When you indulge against your
conscience, when you have the idea in the back of your mind
that anything that's just pleasant is evil, if that's your manner
of thinking, then you're going to be breaking, going contrary
to your conscience all the time. And that is sinful. Even if it's
just a little bit. If you think it's sort of sinful
to have a stake, can you go ahead and have a stake? And that's
sin. Because anything you do against
your conscience, you're saying, it doesn't matter if God doesn't
approve this, I'm going to do it anyway. And that hardens your
heart. And when you have rules such
as the Greeks have that put up these boundaries about material
things and things of that nature or some of the hermit, then you
end up breaking, violating your conscience and it hardens your
heart. And soon you're just swallowed up with indifference to God and
secularism. I mean, that's one of the things
that leads to it. Understand that in Timothy, Paul commands
us to Or Paul says that those who command us to abstain from
marriage and certain foods are teaching the doctrine of demons.
A hermit in a cave who thinks things are evil is an ungodly
man, just the same as a man at a brothel is an ungodly man. These are not the only two options,
though, and neither should you think that as long as you stay
in the middle, Somewhere between the brothel and the hermit, then
that's fine. Because you know, many times
the one in the middle is the one who has the sins of the hermit
and the sins of the man at the brothel just mixed together.
In other words, he's doing both wrongs at the same time. These
sins don't cancel one another out. You see, it's where your
heart is in the matter. A man who gives to the poor and
who remembers his tithe does not sin if he eats good food
with thanksgiving. and panels his home with cedar
with Thanksgiving. He has honored God and given
glory to his name as the one from whom all blessings flow.
But neither has the man who lives all the comforts of this world
to go and preach the gospel in Sudan send either. He has served
God by sacrificing these precious things. And so, Christian brother
and sister, be careful that you don't fall into the sin of the
disciples. Mary had used $30,000 before to feed the hungry, and
she would use $30,000 again to feed the hungry. But on this
occasion, she used $30,000 to anoint her Lord with oil. And
that was her prerogative. Her heart was full of love for
Christ. And this is the way that she decided to express that love.
It was a way of showing Him how much He meant to her. She was
criticized for extravagance by those who were covetous. But now, let me draw out the
principle here. The principle is that you will
be criticized, either by other Christians, even by other Christians,
if you have extravagant love for Jesus Christ. Those who truly
know Christ and follow Him will be criticized for it. Just look
at our society today. If you oppose abortion, sexual
immorality, cheating the government a little, doing work under the
table, you'll be called an extremist. Especially if you oppose those
things admittedly and openly for Christ's sake. If you sanctify
the Lord's Day, instead of avoiding public worship to do something
with your family, you'll be asked if you don't love your family
anymore. And if you decide to move to
a foreign land to bring the gospel to it, you can be sure that you'll
be accused of wasting your life. Well, you could have done so
much. If someone finds out that you're tithing or supporting
missions, they will accuse you of not caring for your family.
I know that some of you who have chosen to school your children
at home have been accused of foolishness and even of not caring
for your children on that account. People who are more distant to
you are often more polite and they don't say anything about
it, but usually comes from those who are closer, who heap on the
criticism. You could be out working. You
could be making something of yourself. You're depriving your
children. You're not socializing and so on. Oh, what an awful
thing that you're going to teach them that God created the world
instead of the scientific view that everything just sort of
popped into being without a creator and that you're going to keep
teaching that sort of thing, then surely the authorities will
have to deal with you. You know, we can't have children
growing up in our land who think that they have obligations to
a creator. That's the way the world will
criticize you, and if you discipline them in a godly way, You'll be
accused of child abuse. Teaching them good manners is
stifling them. Teaching them to pray and seek
the Lord is brainwashing them. It's better to let Hollywood
do that. If you pray for two hours a day, people will say
that you wasted your time. But if you watch television for
two hours a day, well, of course, that's just a normal activity
that everyone does. Strange, isn't it? The criticism
that comes. Brothers and sisters, if you
serve Jesus Christ in this society, In a normal Christian way, you
will be called extravagant. It doesn't take a lot to draw
up the criticism. As soon as they know that you
believe the Bible to be God's Word and that you have made it
your only rule of faith and obedience, it's enough to draw criticism.
Even from those who call themselves Christians, you'll be called
an extremist and you'll be persecuted. So then we see first that Mary's
love was extravagant. And secondly, that because it
was extravagant, She was criticized for it. And now I want you to
see, lastly, that Mary's love was praised by the Lord Jesus. A very comforting thing. And
when all the world speaks against you, to know that Jesus said,
hey, I approve. In verse 10, He says to His complaining
disciples, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a
good work for Me. The word good in the original
is talus. Not like Uncle Kallus, it means
a fine deed, a beautiful thing. We might translate this way,
she has done a beautiful thing for me. That's what the Lord
Jesus is saying. Now, here you see that Jesus
does indeed commend beauty. As I said before, he's the Lord
of beauty. He Himself made beautiful things and things that have no
other purpose than to be pleasant and beautiful and make us glad.
He adorned flowers with their petals and butterflies with their
wings. He has made waterfalls and decked
oceans with blue waters and all manner of fishes. He delighted
in Mary's expression of love because it was beautiful. He
did not need it, but she expressed her devotion to Him by it. Her
heart was overflowing with gratitude. And she had to express it somehow.
Now, husbands, you will do well to give flowers to your wife
or jewels or to purchase beautiful things for them for the home.
And wives, you will do well to be a keeper of the home, to keep
it a lovely and attractive place. Where Christianity has gone,
beauty has always gone with it. I love Psalm 65 and the second
part of it where it speaks of the Lord passing through the
land. And where He goes, it's all barren
before Him and after Him. It's fruitful and full of good
things. That's the way in the lands where
the Gospel has gone, it has turned the wilderness into a beautiful
garden. That's the way Christianity affects
a place. It's instinctive to us. It is
anti-Christian to oppose beauty and beautiful works. Of course,
we are to oppose covetousness, the terrible problem of wanting
to live above our means. That's so common today. And you
see the beauty of these things, the beauty that covetousness
produces is a beauty that is spoiled by man. The same diamonds
and the same gold that are produced by the ungodly do not sparkle
because they're used in a wrong way. He is at a feast, but it
is, as Proverbs calls it, a feast of strife instead of a feast
of love. There's nothing worse than to
be at a table that's spread with all the finest and have strife
and contention at that table. You see, when there's covetousness,
then there's no beauty in these things. But when there's godliness,
then there is beauty. It's very disappointing to see
in our society today that beautiful deeds and loving deeds are very
quickly disappearing. They're going because we are
rejecting the gospel. We still have a lot of beauty
that's left over from the days when Christ was more honored
in our land. But more and more, it's being
spoiled by covetousness and not sanctified by true thanksgiving
to God as the one who gives it to us. Many people still feel
that they ought to love one another. And they learn that from Christ. from their ancestors who served
Christ. But even this is being swallowed
up. Some don't even say that we ought to love one another
anymore. If we are to make an impact in our society today,
brothers and sisters, it will be done in part by the exercise
of beautiful deeds. Husbands, you need to pray that
you will love your wives as Christ loved the church, and that you
will express that love with beautiful deeds. Wives, you need to pray
that you will respond to your husband with loving devotion
that does beautiful deeds to honor them. And children, you
need to pray that you will honor your parents with beautiful deeds,
that you will love your brothers and sisters with beautiful deeds. We need to pray that our church
will be full of beautiful deeds for Christ and that we will reach
out to the stranger and to the hurting one with beautiful deeds. We need to be extravagant in
our love. Jesus will not call you foolish.
He will say that you have done a beautiful thing for Him. Now,
we may be able to win a debate with unbelievers, because unbelief
is very foolish. But if we have no beauty, if
our Savior is not with us, if the Savior of Christ is not with
us, if we have lost our light and our love, then nobody will
care that we won the debate. They won't want anything to do
with us. But you might say, well, this is all good, but you shifted
on us. Jesus was pleased because Mary
poured the oil on His body to honor Him, and you're talking
now about loving each other. Well, no, it's not that much
of a shift. Don't you remember what Jesus
said in Matthew 25 that we just looked at? If you've done it
to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to Me. If you
do these beautiful deeds, children, if you do it to your little brother
or sister, you did it to Christ. Husband, if you do it to your
wife, do it to Christ if you do it for His sake. Jesus counts
it as done for Him when you do it for His people. We are to
show our extravagant love for Him by pouring out the fragrant
oil on one another. But where will you ever get a
heart to do these deeds? You say, I find that I'm cold
and indifferent. I don't have the love that I
need to pour out on others. Where does this love come from?
Well, this extravagant love comes from Christ, from faith in Christ. You can never have it until you
come to understand that He came into the world to die for sinners.
He poured out everything He had for us so that we might have
the forgiveness of sin. I spoke about that in the introduction.
He saw that God's wrath and curse was going to fall on us, and
He came to cover us and shelter us so that it would fall on Him
instead of on us. We committed the crime, and He
suffered the penalty. Talk about beautiful deeds of
extravagant love. There is no love like His love. And once you have come to accept
what He did for sinners, once you have come to trust Him and
have received the assurance that your sins are forgiven by the
pouring out of Christ's life for you, then you can't help
but pour yourself out for Him. If He has done such a beautiful
deed for you, you'll be compelled to do beautiful deeds for Him.
Especially when you know that the main reason that He poured
out Himself in this way is so that He might raise up a people
who do these beautiful deeds. A kingdom of righteousness that
would honor God. Faith that receives His beautiful
deed is faith that cannot but produce its own beautiful deed. That's why we're told in Scriptures
and in our confession that faith works by love. It always does. Now, this is exactly where Mary's
love came from. Jesus says that she anointed
His body for its burial. Look at verse 12. It says, "...for
in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she did it for my
burial." Mary seems to have been ahead of the others. When Jesus
told the others that he was going to be crucified at Jerusalem,
and when he told them that that was going to happen in two days,
it seems that for most of them it went in one ear and out the
other. They were too busy arguing about who was going to be the
greatest in his kingdom. But not with Mary. She was not
involved in the arguments about who would be the greatest. She
was the one who sat at Jesus' feet and listened carefully to
his words. She had seen him. She had seen
him say that her brother would live again and simply call to
the tomb and Lazarus come forth. And now he came after four days.
Now, when he said that he was going to be crucified in two
days, she believed it. She didn't doubt that. She believed
that he was going to do it for a purpose. Because he would be
crucified, dying the death of a criminal, Mary wanted to anoint
him for his burial. Now, some people think that Jesus
simply attributes her act of love to his burial, and that
she herself didn't make that connection. That's possible,
but it seems that it makes a lot more sense to take his words
literally when he says, she did it for my burial. To suppose
that this was, in fact, her very intention, to suppose that she
realized that her precious savior was going to pour out his life
for sinners and that the pouring out of her oil was an expression
of her love and gratitude to the one who is ready to pour
out his life for her. That's why her extravagant love
is a model For the love that would spring up in the world
after Jesus was crucified and raised again. Mary already understood
what the eleven disciples were soon to understand. The very
dying love of Christ that set their hearts on fire. to preach
the gospel of His death, burial, and resurrection with boldness
and courage, and that stirred them up to pour out their lives
for Him, had already set Mary's heart on fire and stirred her
up to pour out her life for Him. That's why she dumped the $30,000
bottle of oil on Him and thought it was a small thing. Brothers
and sisters, you all have precious oil. to pour out on Him too. And if you understand how He
poured Himself out for you, then you will find nothing better
to do with your oil than pour it out on Him. And none of you
will do it in the same way. You will be creative. You will
be yearning to pour out love, and you will find ways to do
it. And people will say that you have been extravagant. But
Jesus will say, Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful
thing for me." He will not forget what you have done. He will remember
it to delight in it forever. Please stand. Gracious Heavenly Father, how we thank You for the memorial
that our Lord Jesus decreed would be given of Mary of Bethany,
who poured out her love on our Lord Jesus. I pray, O Lord, that
you would help us to see what Mary did and to understand why
she did it and that we might come to have such love for Jesus
Christ. that we might take the things
that are most precious to us, that we might take our treasures,
pour them out on Christ, pour them out on one another, pour
them out on our families. Father, we are stingy people. We are people of very little
love. And we live in the midst of a
people of very little love. We pray, O Lord, that You would
have mercy on us. That You would make us live.
That You would make us live in the beauty of Christ. That because
He first loved us, that we would return love to Him. And Father,
that because He said that if you've done it to the least of
these, my brethren, you've done it to me, that we would begin
to pour that love out on one another. Father, may the aroma
of Christ fill our lives. May it sanctify this church.
May we be known as a people who are full of love. Father, we
pray that your word would be the backbone of that love. We know that in many ways That
there has been a resistance because of those who have claimed to
love without Christ. Who have come in on the heels
of what was brought about by Christ and thought that they
could continue that love without Christ. And we recoil at the
very idea. We know that we can do nothing
without Christ, that we can not only bear corrupt and putrid
fruit apart from him. So, Father, we pray that we would
have our roots deeply in our Savior and in his doctrine, and
that it would be out of that root that this love would grow.
For all other is but a dead work. Father, we look to you. We pray,
Lord, that you would keep us from giving way to the criticisms
of the world, that we would not be controlled by public opinion,
but we would be controlled by the opinion of Jesus Christ.
that we would not even be controlled by the opinion of the church
when the church is not in concert with Christ, but that we would
have our eyes fixed upon Him and upon His Word, and that we
would have the boldness and clarity of our convictions, that we might
be able to serve You in faith and in godliness. We pray, O
Lord, that You would give us wisdom, that we might know the
proper expression of our love that it might be seen in a way
that will bring glory and honor to you. Father, give us life
and may this life spread into our community for the honor,
for the glory of your great name, of our Lord Jesus Christ and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. You may be seated. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us
everlasting consolation and good hope, comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good word and work. Amen.
A Godly Woman Prepares for Jesus' Death
Series Matthew
| Sermon ID | 419202328563947 |
| Duration | 58:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 26:6-13 |
| Language | English |
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