 The title of our sermon this morning is broken and poured out, broken and poured out, and we're in John chapter 12 looking at this text beginning in verse 1 and running down through verse 11. Jonathan Edwards said this, that religion which God requires and will accept does not consist in weak dull and lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. God, in his word, greatly insists upon it that we be good in earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged. I want you to consider with me Deuteronomy chapter 10 beginning in verse 12 and just listen to the text here. What does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God. How are we to do that? With all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandment to the Lord in his statutes, which I command you today for your good, indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them. He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is this day. Therefore, the Lord says, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. I think about the service that we owe as a debt to God. What does the Lord your God require of you? To fear, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, to keep his commandments. Jonathan Edwards continues, If we be not in good earnest in religion and our wills and inclinations be not strongly exercised, we are nothing. The things of religion are so great that there can be no suitableness in the exercises of our hearts to their nature and importance unless they be lively and powerful. In nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclination so required as in religion and in nothing is lukewarmness so odious. Let me ask you this morning, are you earnest about following the Lord Jesus Christ with the with the exercise of your heart in the things of God, the exercise of your heart toward the worship of God, toward the service of Christ, with the exercise of your heart toward the Lord Jesus Christ be described this morning as lively and powerful? Are you broken over your sin and poured out on the altar a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God? Or would you this morning come here today and confess that your state is an odious lukewarmness? So we look at John chapter 12 verses 1 through 11 today. Do you see your life for Christ represented in the devotion of Mary or in the duplicity and hypocrisy of Judas? Are you Mary or are you Judas? Just like among the disciples that followed Christ we here today in this room have both among us. We have Mary's in this room and we have Judas's in this room and we will have both among us as it says in Matthew 13 until the reapers come and gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and they will cast them into the furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Bible says only then that the righteous will then shine forth as the son and the kingdom of their father. Listen to Edwards once more. It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true not discerned and distinguished that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ. This advantage of Satan that Edwards is talking about here is largely gained by deception. People are unable to discern and to distinguish the counterfeit from the true. What's true? What's fake? What's genuine? What's real and what's counterfeit? Are you true? Do you have a true genuine lively vigorous faith or are you counterfeit? Are you fake? Are you faking it? With all the liars and all the counterfeits in professing Christianity today the broad road to destruction is jam-packed and the way of life is seemingly more and more narrow and more and more difficult all the time. You have got to be able to tell the difference. You've got to be able to discern between that which is true and that which is false. You have to be able to look at your life, look at the facts, and discern the difference between true devotion to Christ and hypocrisy. Your soul depends upon it. Your eternity hangs on it. There is true devotion to Christ that is wrought in the heart of a believer and sustained there in the heart of a believer by the Spirit of God. And then there's just religious activity, religious activity that people engage in to keep up appearances, keep up appearances to themselves and keep up appearances to others. They don't take an interest in the things of God truly from the heart. On the outside, both of those may look exactly the same, but you've got to be able to tell the difference. Satan, considering this advantage that Edward speaks of, Satan will take that fake hypocritical devotion and he'll pad it with your own excuses he'll make alliances with your own deceitful heart and he'll serve it up to God under the notion of acceptable service when in reality it is an abomination to him and damnable to you. That's Judas. That's Judas here in John chapter 12. What is true and what's fake? What's genuine? What's real? What's counterfeit? Edward says again, by this means Satan deceives great multitudes about the state of their souls, making them think they are something when they are nothing and so he eternally undues them. Not only so, but establishes many in a strong confidence of their eminent holiness who are in God's sight some of the vilest of hypocrites. Incidentally, as we're thinking about this, how do you discern truth from error? It's all right, the word of God to the law and to the testimony, right? You want to protect yourself from being deceived, then battle deception with the word of God, the sword of the spirit. You go back to the word of God. Here today in John chapter 12, we see a text that contrasts a display of someone who loves the Lord and someone who doesn't and from John chapter 12, another text like it, listen, we need to be constantly reminded of the difference. These things we must constantly inform ourselves of. Our understanding needs to be informed. Our hearts need to be informed. Souls are eternal. Your soul, you will live forever. You need to understand the differences here. We must be constantly reminded of our depravity and our proneness to wander. We need to be constantly reminded of the goodness and grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ in many ways. Your Christian life day by day is a test of your genuineness. It's a test of the reality of genuine saving faith. It's a test day by day of your love for the Lord. Is it true? Is it true or is it counterfeit? How are you doing your life day by day? Your interactions with the people at work, interactions with your kids, interaction with your spouse, your interactions with the people of God or your lack thereof. Day by day, your life is a walking in faith or it's a walking according to the flesh. It's a test. Are you broken and poured out like Mary or are you a hypocrite like Judas? What's true? What's false? What's fake? As we come to John chapter 12 this morning, we come to the final week in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ prior to his crucifixion versus one and two. Provide for us the setting. Look at verse one with me. Then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus who had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead, there they made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. Once you didn't see the time, the place and the occasion of this record here for us in John chapter 12 beginning in verse one. The time is six days before the Passover. So now in the context of all the speculation going on about him that we saw described for us in John chapter 11 verse 56, and despite the decision of the Sanhedrin that is called for his death that we see in John chapter 11 verse 57, Jesus again makes his way back toward Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. It's the third Passover mentioned by John and it's the last of the Lord's earthly ministry. Mentioning this certainly gives us the time that these events took place, but it also points us forward and reminds us of the purpose for which the Lord Jesus Christ has come. In just a short while now, the Lord who raised Lazarus from the dead, the one who is himself, the resurrection and the life will go to his own death as the Passover lamb, as a sacrifice for sins to deliver his people. His hour is very close at hand. The place now here given to us in verse one is Bethany. It's a little town as we know just two miles east of Jerusalem, just over the Mount of Olives, and it's the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. John reminds us in verse two that it's the same place where the Lord Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. We know from the record here of this event in Matthew and Mark that they're meeting in the home of Simon the leper. That name stuck with Simon, but his leprosy did not. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that healed him. No longer a leper, otherwise they wouldn't be able to eat in his house, but they're meeting in the house of Simon, formerly the leper, with Lazarus who has been raised from the dead. You can see the occasion here of the dinner. The occasion mentioned in verse two is a dinner that they've prepared for the Lord. Martha is here serving as we would expect Martha to be doing, and Mary is here adoring Jesus as we would expect Mary also to be doing. And after all that's happened, where would you expect to find Lazarus? Literally in the Greek, Lazarus is there, and he's one reclining with him. He's reclining at the table with the Lord Jesus Christ. So now picture the scene with me if you will. It's most likely Saturday evening. The Sabbath is drawing to a close and it's beginning to get dark outside. Multitudes of people all around Jerusalem are preparing to observe the Passover in remembrance of Almighty God's deliverance of his people out of the iron furnace in Egypt when the angel of death had passed over the houses of the Israelites marked with the blood of a sacrificial lamb. In Bethany at this same time, a dinner has been prepared for a very important and a very beloved guest. He's there with his disciples and many others who have come, and it's the night before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the eve of the last week of his life, and he's going to Jerusalem to die. What they're doing here in Bethany is very courageous. The council has decided that not only will the Lord Jesus Christ be seized and be put to death, but the Pharisees had also given a command in chapter 11 verse 57 that anyone knowing where he was should report it. But now despite the obvious danger, each one here is steaming the reproach of Christ greater than the riches of the approval of men, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of acceptance with the Jewish authorities. They're all here together in Bethany, publicly aligning themselves with the Lord. In the house, the lamps would have been lit. The room would have been filled with thanksgiving and worship and God-glorifying conversation. They were there to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly grateful to him for having raised the Lazarus from the dead, but I believe here too in the mind of Mary especially with an understanding of what he's about to do. There would have been a low table in the middle of the main room. The guests would have reclined on thin mats in a cushion around that table, usually leaning on their left arm, their feet out and away from the table, and here Lazarus reclined there at the table with Jesus. Martha was busy serving dinner, taking care of her guests, and in her own way Martha was honoring the Lord by serving the dinner. But then in the midst of this scene, Mary enters the room. What happens next in the narrative is striking. Mary honors the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an outpouring of love and devotion for Christ and it's pleasing to him. The Lord calls it in this, Matthew and in Mark, this account, he calls it a beautiful work. In fact, the Lord memorialized this act of worship and this act of faith that Mary performed and said it would never be forgotten. In Mark chapter 14 verse 9, the Lord says assuredly, I say to you that wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. In Matthew chapter 26 in verse 13, the Lord 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. There is much here that we can learn about truly honoring the Lord from the example of Mary. Let me ask you from the heart, if you're a genuine Christian, don't you want to honor the Lord as Mary did here? Don't you want to have that worship, that gratitude seen by the Lord as pleasing in a sight? These statements, by the way, the statement of Mark in chapter 14 and Matthew in chapter 26 have been proven today to be true. Here's the Lord, the week prior to his death and resurrection, talking about the global proclamation of the gospel by the church. The Lord looking forward to that time where he will die, he'll be raised from the dead, he'll ascend into heaven, and the church will proclaim this gospel to the ends of the earth. And he says wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what Mary has done will be told. And here we are today, 2,000 years later, talking about what Mary did. It's an act of faith. It's an act of devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an act of worship. But it's also an act, I want you to see, that has its roots in a growing and maturing faith in Mary. Now let's take a look at how Mary has come to this point. And I want to build a brief profile of her faith that we can follow, as the Lord would say. We're going to see her faith sustained in his word, her faith matured through his work, and her faith expressed in his worship. First let's take a look at her faith sustained in his word. And I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. In Luke chapter 10, we're first introduced to Mary. And it's likely the first time that Jesus himself is introduced to Martha and Mary. And we see this recorded for us beginning in verse 38. Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 38. I want you to see Mary's faith sustained in his word, sustained in his word. Verse 38 says this. Now what happened is they went, that he, the Lord Jesus Christ, entered a certain village. We know that that certain village is Bethany. And a certain woman named Martha welcomed him, who pod deck on my. It means he, they were happy to have him. They embraced him. They loved having him there. They welcomed him into her house. And then in verse 39, we're introduced to Mary. Verse 39. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus's feet and heard his word. Now this is how we're introduced to who Mary is. So here's our Mary, so to speak. And notice where she is at. She seated at his feet, hearing his word at his feet. It's as close as Mary can get. It's right alongside the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right up next to him, the closer to the better, as far as Mary would say. And her position here shows how serious she was about hearing what the Lord Jesus Christ had to say. This wouldn't be where a woman at that time would ordinarily be. In fact, it might have been scandalous for a woman to have been sitting there. But she sets herself up alongside the Lord Jesus Christ as close as she could get, so that she could hear what he had to say. Mary wanted to learn. Some rabbis at the time would have said that it was useless or worthless or waste of time to teach a woman. That's what they would have thought, some of them at that time. Mary doesn't care. Mary didn't care about that and neither did Jesus. She's nestled up against the Lord Jesus Christ, learning from him. Look at verse 40. But Martha was distracted with much service. How many Christians can come distracted from the Word of God? God's Word is being taught, and yet they're distracted with sleeping or fishing or relaxing somewhere else. Their priority is completely messed up. What is it that's more important to you than the Word of God? What priority do you have that supplants the Word of God? People wonder why they don't make progress in the faith, because they have things in their life that are more important to them than the Word of God. Mary here cast that to the wind. Nothing is going to come between her and what the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching, and so she sits at the feet of the Lord every opportunity that she gets to learn from him. If you sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to learn from him, you'll make progress in your faith. Martha approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me. Now listen to this amazing response from the Lord in verse 41. Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha. That's almost endearing, isn't it? Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things. But listen, one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. What's the good part here that Mary has chosen? She chose in faith to pursue his Word. She chose in faith to pursue him. Nothing was going to get in the way of that. Nothing is more important. Our lives, aren't they, are filled with competing priorities. What are you going to choose? Literally there in the Greek, it's Mary chose the best part, the excellent part, and we see the outcome of her faith here commended. Secondly, Mary had her faith matured through his work. We see Mary's faith sustained in his Word. That was Mary's priority. She sought after the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. She wanted to learn of him. Secondly, we see Mary and her faith matured through his work. The next time that we find Mary, she's facing the very difficult trial of having lost her brother Lazarus. In John chapter 11, which we looked at here recently, Lazarus dies and Mary is grief-stricken. Mary, like Martha, believes that Jesus is the Christ, that he's the promised Messiah, the Son of God, but also like Martha, she's not yet understood that he is himself the resurrection and the life. She'll come to understand that more fully when he, through his work, affirms that by raising Lazarus from the dead. In very difficult circumstances, Mary learns to trust Christ. Her faith is matured. Her faith is emboldened. Her faith gets a jolt of rocket fuel when the Lord raises Lazarus from the dead. Now, that same maturing of faith is intended for God's people when we face trials. We're to have our faith matured, our faith bolstered, our faith shot with rocket fuel at the promise keeping God that we serve every time that we face trials. I want you to see that from Scripture. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. Hebrews James Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1, and look there beginning at verse 3. Mary shows the Word of God as her priority, her faith sustained in his Word. Mary also had her faith matured through his work, through experiencing great difficulty, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ through it, and then having her faith affirmed by his work, raising Lazarus from the dead. In 1 Peter chapter 1, we see the fruit of this beginning in chapter 1, verse 3. Now Peter begins here by worshiping God in all of the salvation that God's provided for us in Christ. So he's going to hear, essentially encourage Christians to look past their difficult circumstances and rejoice in the inheritance that we have in Christ. Look at verse 3. Peter says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And I can tell you that after having witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ, raised Lazarus from the dead, after having heard all that the Lord Jesus Christ has taught and said, this would have been Mary's cry as well. Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his abundant mercy, he has begotten me again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, who is the resurrection in the life. He has begotten us to an inheritance, verse 4, incorruptible and undefiled. It does not fade away and it is reserved in heaven for you, for those of you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That's the hope of every genuine Christian. Amen? Look at verse 6. Considering this salvation, there is joy and a settled, determined, tested faith. And this is the faith that Mary brings into John chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. In this verse 6 says, you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while it need be, you have been grieved by losing your brother Lazarus. You've been grieved by various trials. Paul calls them momentary light afflictions, which are momentary and light when compared with the eternal weight of glory that they are holding before us. They pass quickly. They are momentary trials. Look at verse 7. They come for the purpose that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now this perspective on our trials produces joy, doesn't it? When you consider the inheritance that we have in Christ, can't you face trials and difficult adversity with joy? Count it joy. It produces worship. Now it produces joy, it produces worship, it produces gratitude in the heart of a Christian because the experience of trial proves and validates and purifies our faith. God tests our faith, not so that he can know if it's genuine or not, he knows. God tests our faith in order to reveal his genuineness to us, to have it bolstered, to have it matured. True faith, genuine faith is not a fragile faith, but it's sometimes a weak faith. It's not fragile. It's not going to die. You can't lose your salvation. It's not going away. If it's true, if it's genuine, if it's real, it's going to persevere. It's going to stick through. It's going to hang in there. It's going to be tough in times of trial and difficulty, but oftentimes isn't our faith weak. We need our faith bolstered by the Lord. We need to learn through experience how to trust him, how to entrust ourselves to him. We've got to learn that, and often that learning experience is very difficult. And that's for the purpose that through that difficulty, through that adversity, that a believer can gain confidence and boldness in their proven tested faith. Think about the lessons for a moment that Job, for example, learned. What do you think that Job learned from having his faith tested in the way that it was? There's nobody in this room that's gone through what Job has gone through. And all that Job did not blaspheme God. Think about the tested faith of Caleb and Joshua watching the multitudes of Israel, the men of Israel dying around them in the wilderness, and yet they go in and inherit the Promised Land. Think about the tested faith of Paul. Peter here uses the analogy of gold. And he uses the analogy of gold in verse seven, because it is the most valuable of all the metals. And just like the refiner's fire separates gold, pure gold, from that useless and worthless dross, God uses trial in the life of a believer to separate our true genuine faith, so to speak, from the from the dross of our fleshly unbelief. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, right? That gold perishes. But the tested and proven faith of the believer is more precious than gold, because it is enduring, much more precious. Now this results, this testing, this resulting faith, results in two expressions of worship, beginning in verse eight. Look at what those are with me. In verse eight, whom having not seen, you love. First expression of worship produced by trial and adversity, that proven tested faith in the life of a believer, is love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you see how coming into John chapter 12, Mary having been through all that she's been through, having seated herself at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to learn from him, then having experienced trial and difficulty and suffering, and had her faith bolstered by the Lord Jesus Christ as he proclaimed himself the resurrection in the life and then raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, she's bringing into John chapter 12, love for the Lord, right? A devotion for the Lord. She says in verse eight, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him yet believing, you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory. The other expression of worship is joy. Joy should be that the testing of our faith, going through difficult circumstances, should produce both love and joy. And verse nine, you receive at the end of that faith, the salvation of your souls. So back in John chapter 12, then, Mary then expresses this kind of tested, matured and confident faith in her worship of Christ, her faith that's been sustained in his word, her faith that's been matured through his work. Lastly, her faith is then expressed in this beautiful act of worship, her faith expressed in worship. This expression in verse, in chapter 12, verse three of Mary's devotion came as a result of sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. This worship is the expression of a tested and now confident and bold faith. I want you to see this, this active devotion on the part of Mary in verse three is not a mere passing thing. It's not a light thing. It's a cultivated thing. It's something that's been cultivated in her by the Spirit of God. It's something that's been cultivated by the Lord Jesus Christ. Her devotion, her worship is a product of her choices. It's a product of her thoughts. It's a product of her faith. It's a product of her trust. Mary chose to sit at the feet of the Lord, to seat at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and her faith is commended both in this act of worship that we see here in verse three and later commended by the Lord as a memorial that's to stand through the ages in the word of God. But do you see that it's a culmination, if you will. It's a fulfillment, if you will, of her developing and growing and maturing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not an isolated passing frivolous quick cavalier thing that she's doing here. Our lives need to be built on that same kind of progress in the Lord. Faithfulness to his word, faithfulness through trial, day in and day out, culminating in joy and worship and love and rejoicing in the salvation that's been brought to us in Christ. He's worthy of that kind of devotion, isn't he? He's worthy of that kind of worship. We see this worship that Mary brings in John chapter 12. Look at verse three. Mary, she took a pound of very costly oil of spike nard. She anointed the feet of Jesus and she wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Jesus is reclining on the floor. He's got his head toward the table, his feet extended away from the table. Mary takes a pound, it says, of very costly oil of spike nard. The word for pound there is the word litra. It's a Roman pound. It's about 11 ounces, a smaller amount that you would see in a typical bottle of water. This ointment, this nard is pure nard. It's from the head of the spike of a very rare and a very fragrant plant from eastern India. It was very valuable, imported with great difficulty over great distance, so it was very expensive. The smell was highly prized. It was unique and this was pure nard. It was unmixed, meaning it was of the highest quality. You want to know how much it was worth? Judas can tell you. He says in verse five, they could sell it for 300 denarii. One denarii was a full day's wage. So this vial, this alabaster flask we know from Matthew and Mark, was approaching the value of a full year's salary. We were to think of it in more modern terms. We might calculate it, think about minimum wage for 300 days of work, 12 hours, they didn't work like with the Westerners, 12 hours a day of work, a minimum wage, 300 days of work. It would be worth about $30,000 if you want to put it in modern terms, $30,000. If you remember Philip's suggestion in John chapter 6 with respect to the feeding of the 5,000, Philip said there, 5,000 men upwards of 20,000 people, when we looked at that passage, he said that 200 denarii wasn't quite sufficient. A 300 denarii would have done it. And I think about it, they could have fed 5,000 men upwards of 20,000 people with this. It was worth that much. But listen, Mary's understanding of the Lord's worth is what gave rise to Mary's worship. Her value, the value that she had for the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ gave rise to her affections for the Lord Jesus Christ. This was an informed, it was a devoted, deep understanding. And it resulted in worship. When you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, does it not result in worship? If it doesn't, there's a problem with your heart. You don't know him. But the more settled that your knowledge and understanding of the Lord becomes, the more that you ascribe to him worth, the more that you will ascribe to him worship. In Matthew and Mark, we find that this oil was contained in an alabaster flask, alabaster flask itself a very costly item. And there, John chapter 12 verse 3, she breaks the flask and she pours the ointment, the oil, the spike-nard on the Lord's head, we see in Mark and in Matthew. Here in John, he records that she anoints his feet. In other words, she anoints the body of the Lord Jesus Christ from head to toe. But then she does something else. And this itself is a picture, isn't it, of worship and devotion to the Lord. Mary lets down her hair. A respectable Jewish woman at this time wouldn't have thought to do that in public. They would have considered it indecent. Mary wasn't concerned with all that. She wasn't even thinking of the shame that she might incur as a result of that. And with her own hair, performing a task that was considered only suitable for the lowest of slaves, she wipes his feet with her hair. If you remember, the account in John chapter 12 of the Lord Jesus Christ, or Jesus later in John, with the 12 in the upper room, they wouldn't have washed one another's feet. But the Lord Jesus Christ takes it upon himself to wash their feet in an exemplary act of humility, lowliness. And it's an example that we're given to look to. So here, Mary in John chapter 12, fully focused on pouring out her love and her devotion and her worship for the Lord Jesus Christ anointed the head and feet of Jesus with this costly, this wonderfully smelling perfume, having ignored the shame, she wiped his feet with her hair. John, who would have been there in the house at the time, said that the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. The whole house was filled with the smell. I heard one commentator say that the church has been filled with the fragrant aroma of that worship since that time. We can make several observations regarding this act of worship. And then I want you to think about those observations and apply them to your worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. This act here in John chapter 12 is not prescriptive. In other words, you don't need to go out and spend a year's wages to buy oil that you're going to anoint. It may be done in charismatic circles, not prescriptive for how people have got it or worship God. This is descriptive. It's descriptive of a worshipful act. It's descriptive of love and devotion for the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to take from the principles that we see here and apply them to our own worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this that Mary does in John chapter 12 verse 3 is a response of faith to who Christ is and what Christ is here to do for sinners. First, I want you to see it was thoughtful. It was thoughtful. Again, not a flippant cavalier act. This was no emotional overreaction on the part of Mary. This was no sudden ill-advised or wasteful display. She didn't just get carried away in the moment and do something foolish. This was carefully thought out. It was carefully planned. No one carries this kind of ointment around. This kind of treasure, this kind of valuable was put away, and it was put away for that day, whatever day it was planned for. It was put away for the family, put away for herself. This wasn't just a flippant momentary lapse in Mary's judgment. This was planned. This was thoughtful. What she did was a measured decision. And frankly, it's a decision that radically altered her life from that point forward. $30,000 worth, if you will, a year's wage is something very valuable. Family heirloom, obviously. It radically altered her life and altered her plans. It was very thoughtful. Second, it was sacrificial. It was sacrificial. This oil was very costly. In Matthew and Mark, she breaks the flask, meaning that she intends to use every bit of it. She's not going to try to keep any of it. There's no thought of saving it. She gives it with abandon. It was sacrificial. She figuratively poured herself out when she poured out that alabaster flask of oil. There are two reasons that she would have had this perfumer that a family at this time would have had something like this. One would have been for a dowry to pay upon her marriage. The second was because they intended to use it for their own burial, the burial of that of their relatives. To be sure, it was highly prized, highly valuable, and yet Mary gives it up in worship of the Lord. Like David, right? She didn't offer the Lord something that cost her nothing. What she offered to the Lord cost her everything. This was very costly. This is an expression of her understanding of the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, it was both humble and humbling. She lets down her hair. In the Bible, Paul says that a woman's hair is what? Her glory. Her glory. So she lets down her hair and wipes his feet with her glory, so to speak. She incurs the scolding of Judas in verse five. Matthew and Mark both clarify that it wasn't only Judas who was scolding her, that others joined in, even others, the disciples joined in and scolding her. She herself, in thinking through this, had to know that what she was going to do would be perceived by some to be foolish. Did she care about that? Obviously not. She didn't care about the opinions of man. Turn with me to Mark 14. Let's take a look at that text in this account in Mark, Mark 14. She didn't care about the opinions of man. She wasn't concerned that somebody might think he was foolish. Her intention was to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark 14, look beginning at verse three. And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. Look at verse four. There were some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil, what's the word? Wasted. Wasted. What others see as foolish? What others see as waste? Mary sees as worship. They say in verse five, it might have been sold for more than 300 in their eye and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She's done a good, a beautiful work for me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do them good. But me, you do not have always. She has done what she could, the Lord says. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Surely 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. Turn back with me to Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26. Let's look at this account there. Matthew chapter 26 and look down beginning in verse six. We see the same account, right? Slightly different perspective. Jesus in verse six was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. Incidentally, this account, not the same account from Luke chapter 7 with a Pharisee named Simon in Galilee with a woman who wiped her his feet with her tears, with her hair. Different account. This here is, again, speaking of the same account, John chapter 12. Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. Verse 7, a woman came to him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil. She poured it on his head as he sat at the table. When his disciples saw it, here's the word again, they were indignant saying why this waste, this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor. And you see it's the disciples, it's Judas, it's others gathered there also. Mary is enduring the scolding of people in the house because they believe that what she's done is foolish. When Jesus was aware of it, verse 10, he said to them, why do you trouble the woman, for she has done a good, a beautiful, an excellent work for me. You have the poor with you always, but me, you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil in 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. So three, it was humble, it was a humble act, and it was a humbling act. Back in John chapter 12, 4, it was worship. It was worship. It was a thoughtful act, it was a sacrificial act. It was a humble act, a humbling act, and it was a worshipful act. It was worship. In doing this, in verse 3, Mary shows love and adoration for the Lord Jesus Christ. Her heart in this is fully invested. This is an act of praise, isn't it? It's an act, if you consider it, it's an act that honors the Lord Jesus Christ and values the Lord Jesus Christ above all, certainly above this very costly gift, this very costly oil. It's an expression of gratitude. It's an expression of honor, ascribing to him greatness, ascribing to him worth and value. Her treasure isn't laid up here on earth in that alabaster flask. It is laid up in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ, and this becomes a tangible, real, practical example of that. She doesn't care about this treasure on earth. Her treasure is in heaven with him. Fifth, it was consequential. It was consequential. Look at verse 7. Drop down to verse 7. Verse 7, Jesus said, Let her alone because she has kept this for the day of my burial. That's very interesting. Mark and Matthew, in reading those two accounts, seem to suggest that Mary intended to do this. In other words, again, it was planned, it was prepared, it was measured, it was calculated, it was determined beforehand. This wasn't a flippant cavalier act. Mary intended to do this. Now, when Jesus says she kept this for the day of my burial, there's two possible meanings to this word. One to keep means to hold on to it. Hold on to it. We know for a fact that's not what she does here. She breaks the alabaster flask, intending to pour it all out. She's not keeping it for his future burial. She's not holding on to it for any reason. But the other definition of that word in verse 7, for kept there, is the word to observe. Like you would keep the Sabbath. You would observe the Sabbath. You would keep here the Passover. They would observe the Passover. Here, I believe that that's exactly what is meant and intended by verse 7. She observed this anointing of Lord Jesus Christ in preparation for his burial. And did she do that here without understanding? Was this an event similar to the one that we saw at the end of chapter 11 with Caiaphas, where he prophesied and he didn't know what he was saying? I don't believe that's the case. I would agree with many commentators, including Spurgeon here, who believe that she understood fully what was about to happen. She might not have understood all the implications of what the death of Christ meant, but when others had missed it, when the disciples had largely missed it and largely misunderstood it, because there's Mary seated at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, listening to him teach, Mary caught something that the others missed. The Lord Jesus Christ is about to die. If you think about it, just prior to Mary's introduction in Luke chapter 10, what happens just one chapter over in Luke chapter 9? The Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples that he's about to die. He's going to be delivered in the hands of evil man in Jerusalem, he's going to die. And what do you find the disciples doing right after that? They're arguing amongst themselves about who's the greatest. We come just a few verses later to chapter 10 and there's Mary seated at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ learning from him. So even though she may not have understood all that Jesus meant by what Jesus said, she knew that he was going to die soon and it moves her to action. This truth, right, she's been listening to the Lord Jesus Christ preach and teach. He is the Messiah that has been revealed to her in power through his words and through his works. And now with that understanding, the thought that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to die soon moves her to action. It moves her to this worship. It moves her to this act of honor. It moves her. That same reality, shouldn't it move you, move me to worship, to action, to service, out of gratitude, out of joy, out of thankfulness for all that Christ has done for me, all that he's done for you? That reality that the Lord Jesus Christ went to Jerusalem to hang there on that tree, to die for sinners should move you to worship, to a life devotion, to a wholehearted, whole sold following of the Lord Jesus Christ. It moves Mary. Six that was commendable. It was a commendable act. The disciples, those people in the room, many of them saw it as a waste. The Lord saw it as worship. He commends her for this. They scold her for this. We've got to keep the right perspective. There are things that we can get so wrapped up about in this life that are seen in heaven as nothing but foolishness. They're foolish. What are you doing so tied up over that? It's foolish. But there are things that we do in this life that the people of this world, that this world would see as foolish, but that heaven sees as worship. That right perspective, understanding that only comes from sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we've got to inform our understanding of those things from his word. We have to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and learn from him. It's also commended to us. In Mark 14, verse 9, the Lord 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's commended to us. Her act was commendable, but that act is also commended to us. How do you view the Lord Jesus Christ? How precious is he to you? Do you see in him such value, such worth, such treasure that you would gladly forsake all to follow him? Do you see him that way? I can tell you that on the authority of God's word, if you don't, you're not even a Christian. You're not a Christian. That's the heart of a genuine Christian to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and to learn of him, to bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and to worship him. We think about these observations and we think about the principles that we can take from this text. This is a representative list. There are many more, right? Multitudes. Multitudes have heard the word of God preached. Multitudes have seemingly sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Multitudes throughout the ages, as the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been preached in the whole world, has heard this memorial, this account of Mary. It's being read in your hearing today. They hear on the one hand the depravity and the rebellion and the sinfulness of man, how their hearts are wicked and full of sin, how sin is corrupted. They're every part, how they are perpetual lawbreakers without remorse, repeatedly breaking the law of God, offending God with their very breath. They hear on the other hand, right? The grace and mercy and kindness and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for sinners to secure their salvation, to be their hope, to be their righteousness, to give them right standing with God, to forgive them of their sin, to give them an inheritance forever in heaven. But all that they hear of either one of those realities is as if it's falling on deaf ears. And like many, but unlike Mary, they are unmoved by these truths. They're unmoved by them. It makes no change in their heart. It makes no change in their conduct. This is to be preached. This is to be remembered in the whole world as long as the Gospel is being preached. It's on the pages of Scripture. We're reading it today. Be moved as Mary was. There are many that hear of the glorious perfections of Almighty God, his omnipotence, his omniscience, his infinite glory, his infinite majesty, his holiness, by which he is of pure eyes and to even behold evil. He cannot look on iniquity. They hear of his goodness and his mercy, the great works of God's wisdom, the great works of God's power and his goodness and his compassion and his grace. They hear of the unspeakable and infinite and immeasurable love of God in Christ. And the great things that God has done in Christ to secure a glorious salvation for his people. They hear of the glories and the bliss and the pleasures of heaven at his right hand forevermore. They hear of the eternal misery and torment and torture that those who bear the wrath of God and hell for all eternity, they hear the commands of God from his Word for our good that we may walk in his ways and inherit the promises. They hear of his gracious warnings, his goodness and his counsel to us. They hear the free offer of the Gospel and yet they hear it with no change in themselves, with no resulting worship, with no moving of the heart or the affections, no change wrought in their mind, in their heart or their conduct. What's the definition of that? The definition of that is hard-hearted, hard-hearted believer. When you come to the Word of God, you're to see this example. Next week, we're going to see the example of Judas. You're to see this example of Mary. You're to see the example of her devotion, of her worship, of her love, of her faith. You're to see that example, an example with which the Lord is well pleased and you're to be moved to worship the Lord in the way that Mary did to follow him and to worship him and to serve him in the way that Mary did. We're to be moved. But if you're unmoved by God's Word, if you can sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, weaken and weak out and stay unmoved in your sin, unmoved in your apathy, unmoved in your indifference, unmoved in your rebellion, then you have a hard, stony, immovable heart. The only one that can move that is God himself. You need to cry out to him for an affected heart. Cry out to him for a changed heart. Cry out to God to wretch you from your apathy and indifference. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ in his Word. Sit at his feet and be moved by what you hear there. This hard-heartedness is what we see in Judas. We'll look at him next week. Fear the Lord's commendation this morning from the example of Mary. Examine yourself in light of that example. I call you to examine yourself in the light of that example, the light of Mary's worship, the light of Mary's devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, her service to him for faith. Examine yourself. You must discern genuine from counterfeit, true from fake, truth from error. Examine yourself. But listen, it is not the self-examination alone that will assure your heart before him. Move on from self-examination and take action. Your self-examination is worthless apart from action. Mortify the flesh. Obey his word. Be lively, as Edward said, and vigorous in religion, in following the Lord Jesus Christ and your service to him. Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 beginning in verse 24. He says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it, and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we, you and I, brothers and sisters, we do it for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. You don't run with uncertainty. You work it out. You plan it. You decide it in your determination, in your resolve, in your will. You do it knowing that all of that is done in the power and enablement of a Holy Spirit of God. You pursue it. You fight, as Paul says. He says, Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. Lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. I want to be moved, don't you? My Mary's example. By that glorious testimony of the Lord's pleasing commendation of her worship, it's beautiful, isn't it? Let's follow that example. Amen. Father in heaven, Lord, we acknowledge in your word that all that you are, all that you've done, all that we've been offered and given in Christ Jesus, our Lord is worthy of total devotion. Anything less, Lord, just seems, it is just hypocrisy, worthy of worship, worthy of devotion, worthy of our lives poured out on the altar. This is our reasonable service. It's reasonable to serve you in that way. Lord, help us to see this and to discern in our own hearts, truth from error, genuine from fake and counterfeit, convict us over our sin. Lord, pull us back when we wander. It helps to worship you in a way that is worthy of you, that describes worth and value to Christ. He is our treasure, God, and we praise you and worship you for all that you've done for us in Christ. What we desire from the heart in remembering this story as you have laid it out here in your word, we desire to worship you in the way that Mary did, to devote ourselves in the way that Mary did, or build our faith, grow us and mature us, seat us at your feet and learn from you to follow you in all our heart, soul, mind, and strength for your glory. And we know that it's for our eternal good. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.