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.