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Matthew Chapter 26. Matthew chapter 262526242526.
They're all kind of connected together and we're taking 1
little portion out of that. It's a unique portion.
Let me go ahead and read it and then I'll give you the title of
the message this morning and we'll make some other comments
about it as we introduce and get into it.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings,
he said unto his disciples, You know that after two days, as the
feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be
crucified. Then assemble together the chief
priests and the scribes and the elders of the people under the
palace of the high priest, who is called Caiaphas and
consulted, that they might take Jesus by subtility and kill him.
But they said not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar
among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany,
in the House of Simon the Leper, there came unto him a woman
having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it
upon his head, as he set it meat.
But when his disciples saw it, they had an indignation, saying,
To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for much, and given to the poor.
When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye
the woman? For she hath wrought a good work
upon me. For you have the poor, we're
always with you, but Me you have not always.
For in that she have poured this ointment upon my on my body, she
did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you,
wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world,
there shall also this that this woman hath done, be told for
memorial of her. In William Shakespeare's play
Julius Caesar, there's a comment that's made in it.
And here's the quote. The evil men do lives after
them. The good is often turd with
their bones. Quite a thought when you think
about it. The evil that men do continues
to live on and on and on, but the good is often forgot about.
And so as we take a look at this, we're reminded that here
is a what? What we might think is a strange
deed that lasts forever. But I would like us to focus
upon one particular thought, and it's found in verse #8 And when
his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, to what
purpose is this waste? So I want to ask you this
question this morning. Is it a waste?
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, as we open up your word this morning, I pray that the
Holy Spirit of God first move and work in my own heart.
I thank you for the blessing. This passage is to me.
And Father, I pray that we could see you and see the message that
you have for us today that our lives when we leave here this
morning would not be the same that we came in.
Father, I thank you that that you love us and I thank you,
Father, that your love is lavished upon us and we'll thank
you and praise you in Jesus precious name, Amen.
Is it a waste? Is it a waste?
Being close to Boston, you are probably aware of the Big Dig.
It started in 1990. It started in 1991.
The project was supposed to be $2.6 billion.
It was supposed to be finished in 1998.
It didn't get finished in two, 2007 and it was $228 billion.
There are a lot of people who think, man, there must be a lot
of waste in that one, a lot of waste in that one.
How about this one, If you've ever been to Montreal, they have
their Olympic complex. It, it was designed in the in
the very beginning to in 19801976 to be ready for the
Olympics and it was supposed to cost 1.5 billion.
It didn't come to completion in 1987 at three, I'm sorry, it
started at 300 million. It finished at 1.5 billion.
The Sydney Opera House 1959 was supposed to cost 7 million.
It didn't get finished until 1973 at the cost of 102 million.
We probably heard on the news that the high speed rail system
in California it, it was supposed to be a $33 billion
when it was all said and done. But here we are years and years
later, there's no track and we're that's estimated to be
over $230 billion if it ever gets finished.
You know, we talk about things being a waste or wastefulness.
Some of you probably have some ideas about that, perhaps even
at your own house. I don't know how strict you are
about wandering through the house and turning off all the
lights if nobody's there, right? I mean, if nobody's going to
stay in the room, turn the lights off.
You know how, how we do things like that because we, we, we
don't want to waste things. And from time to time the
government tells us this about all the things that we waste,
like plastic straws or single use, you know, plastic, plastic
Ware, even though it's sometimes it's pretty convenient, but we,
we have food cartoons that, that holds our food and we throw all
those kinds of things away. Matter of fact, Connecticut has
this and Hartford, I don't know if it's still open or not, but
we had a Museum of trash because they were keeping track of all
the strange things that people throw away.
Certainly, I think we'd all have to recognize that there is a
little bit of wastefulness in all of us.
And certainly a lot of we see a lot of waste in other people and
other things. Maybe not so much in our self,
but you know, I, I grow up and it was you're supposed to finish
everything that's on your plate. They're kids starving someplace.
If you don't eat that, you deprive them of their food.
Eat everything that's on your plate.
I should weigh 500 lbs. And today I, I try to be careful
about what I put on my plate, that it's, my eyes are not
bigger than my stomach, but you know how it is.
Sometimes you get hungry and you start putting stuff on there and
you get about halfway through it and you're thinking, oh, no, Oh
no. This is way more than I, I
anticipated. And I'll have to figure out
something to do. I'll either have to take it home
for leftovers, which I really don't want to eat, or I've got
to just toss it. Wastefulness, wastefulness,
there are a lot of things that that we think of when we think
of wastefulness. And it says when the disciples
saw it, they were, they had an indignation saying to what
purpose was this waste? So let's back up a little bit
and kind of get the picture here.
We are just days away from the crucifixion of the Lord.
It's interesting that there are three different accounts that
are given. Actually, I should of this
Matthew, Mark and John. And then there's an account in
Luke. Luke Chapter 7 gives the account
of a woman that came to Jesus and and poured out the ointment
upon him. But I I believe that if you
study and read the scriptures clearly, you'll discover that
what happened in Luke Chapter 7 was early in the ministry of the
Lord. But what happens in Matthew, in
Mark, and in John happens just days before the Lord is
crucified. And one of the things that
sometimes throws people off is that here in Matthew we find in
verse 26 that two days is the feast of the Passover.
One of the important things to learn about the Bible,
particularly through the Gospels, they're not always in
chronological order. Sometimes the events are grouped
together to tell us about a particular story.
Remember that that each of the four gospels are designed to
give different segments of society a a glimpse and a
picture of who Jesus is. All of them put together give us
a more complete picture. But Matthew was written
primarily to Jewish people. He presents Jesus as the King.
He, he gives his, his genealogy so that they can trace that back
and the genealogy with Abraham and with David and so forth.
When you go to Luke, Luke gives the genealogy that goes all the
way back to Adam because Luke was designed for the, for the
Greek readers, for the, for the the Gentiles to read.
Mark is a, a gospel that speaks about Jesus as a servant.
There's there's no mention of his, his genealogy, there's no
mention of his birth. It just begins with, with him.
And Mark covers a lot of the, the things that Jesus said and
Jesus did. And then you come to the Gospel
of John and John presents Jesus as the Son of God.
And what a what a glorious picture.
And everything throughout the book of John is geared toward
this one purpose that that we would recognize that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that we would
have faith in him. Now that's the that's the point
of all the gospel writers is that we would know who Jesus is
and believe on him in in the Gospel of John, John gives us
the same account in chapter 12 of the Gospel of John.
Now interestingly, John tells us that that the event took place
six days. There was a feast.
Now that Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany
where Lazarus was that have been dead, whom he raised from the
dead. And there they made him a
supper. And so we go back to Matthew and
Matthew says this and verse number one that he finished
these things. And verse 2 he says after two
days is the feast of the Passover.
And sometimes they see there's a contradiction.
John says that six days, Matthew says it's two days.
And so they look at the conflict and they say, see there there's
some errors, there are mistakes in the Bible.
But I want to point out to you that that I believe John gives a
more chronological order and that Matthew gives us an event
order. Matthew is tying the event to
what took place in the first 3 verses when it tells us in verse
#3 they assembled together the chief priest and scribes and
elders of the people under the palace of the high priest who
was called Caiaphas, and they consulted how they might take
him by subtility and kill him. When you read on through this,
you'll also find that John identifies how that Judas took
the went to the chief priest to betray the Lord.
And so so Matthew is kind of lumping the event together, not
necessarily a chronological order, but to put us into to
think about this here. Here is, is the chief priest and
the scribes and the elders of the people and they're thinking
in their mind, we somehow we have to get rid of Jesus of
Nazareth. We've got to get rid of him.
Along with that you have the betrayal of Judas and yet in
between is in his purse. This little story about how that
Mary comes along and anoints the Lord.
So Matthew's giving us a series of contrast in this while I
believe that John is giving us a little more of the chronological
order. And here's what's interesting.
John Chapter 11 John Chapter 11. Jesus hears that Nicodemus, not
Nicodemus. Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick
and probably needs some help, and he delays his going.
And you remember the story. Jesus waits until Lazarus has
died and he makes the journey to visit Mary and Martha.
Remember how that it's in John Chapter 11 that Martha says to
him, Lord, if you'd have been here, our brother had not died.
Isn't it strange how we limit God?
We think that he can, you know, give sight to the blind.
We think that he can do these things and he can do that and,
and, and, and many wonderful things that he could do.
But when it comes to somebody dead, well, there's not anything
God can do. And so Jesus raised up Lazarus
from the dead. What an awesome thing,
especially considering it's just a short time before Jesus is
going to be crucified and he's going to gloriously rise again
on the third day. Listen, that makes our hope all
worthwhile. That gives us, that gives us
everything that we need to endure and to stay with it.
And so while Matthew and Mark and John relate all these
things, they, Matthew and Mark related to the the plot of the
Jewish leaders and, and John relates it in particular to the
events that are taking place. So again, verse #3 I'm sorry,
verse number six of Matthew 26. Now when Jesus was in Bethany,
in the House of Simon the leper, there came into him a woman
having an alabaster box of precious ointment and poured it
on his head as he sat at meat. But when his disciples thought
they had an indignation, saying, to what purpose was this waste?
I get a picture of this because it tells us that it was a The
other scriptures tell us several things about it.
One, it tells us that it was spikenard.
So we know a little bit about where it came from.
Spikenard came from India. Most, most in the area of the
Himalayan mountains in Nepal. And that area is where this
plant grows. And when it's crushed, it gives
off such a, a, a, a distinct, A distinct aroma that tells us
this, that she had it in this alabaster box.
It's not just common pottery, but it's in a special thing.
And they said here that it's a might have been sold for much.
We learned that it was worth 300 pence.
So it's worth about a year's wages of the average common
laborer. So if the men that are here that
you're married and you have a wife, I want you to think about
what would your wife think if you bought a bottle of perfume
that cost you a year's salary? You you find her, sleep in bed
and you walk up to her and then pour out the whole bottle on
her. You're probably going to be
asked the question, why was this waste made right?
I mean, why do it all at once, right?
And people will look at this. Some of you are thinking I'm
worth it. OK.
I I don't know. I mean, you know, you guys got
to work that one out for yourself.
But my wife, if I did that, if I poured a bottle of perfume on
her that cost me a whole year's wages, she going to look at me
and think, what in the world are you do?
Have you lost your mind? So I kind of get it that the
disciples, the apostles, are a little disturbed about all of
this. Interestingly, it says this
about them. And Mark, Mark, it says some of
them here. It says that when his disciples
saw it, John tells us that it was Judas.
So I kind of get the picture here that that Judas saw what
was done, and because he carried the bag and all that, he started
saying something and then somebody else picked up on it
and somebody else picked up on it.
And so it began to spread among them.
And before long, they're all thinking, wait a minute, what
was this done? Why was this done?
You don't think how easy it is for people to get caught in a
snare like that. Somebody gets talking, and then
people begin to to listen to it just a little bit, say, hey,
yeah, that's right. And before long you have a whole
mob. Why was this waste made?
They had indignation. But you see it.
It was Mary who who we find sitting at the feet of Jesus.
It was Mary who found blessings at the feet of Jesus in the
culture of the time Jesus is at, at a meal, they didn't sit at a
table like we usually do. They had they kind of reclined
on a couch and faced in toward the table.
And they would lay on one side and they'd use one hand and
they'd reach in reach in and, and, and they would eat their
food, usually with bread and they would dip it and, and eat
it, eat it on that fashion. And and men and women for the
most part, didn't eat meals together.
Men and women did not particularly have interactions
with each other. Women lived in their part of the
house, and they had an interaction with the women and
of course, with their husband and with their children
privately. But in a public gathering, women
would not be there. And so here's Jesus with a group
of men, and it's here, they're having this meal and it's think
about this. Jesus is just as calm as he can
be, knowing that they're already plotting to destroy him.
He already knows that Judas is the betrayer and that he's going
already gone to them and given him up to betray him.
You see, Jesus was the one person that knew this.
He was born for the purpose of death, to die.
You know, all the rest of us are born to live, but Jesus was born
to die, or we'll all die. But we weren't born to die.
We were born to live and Jesus was born to die.
So here he is calmly having a meal with them, knowing that
it's just days out, knowing all these things have gone on and a
woman comes in behind. I want to say this about about
this Mary. Mary comes in and she begins as
it tells us here that that she took the alabaster box of
ointment and poured it upon his head as he said it.
Me. For Mary, it was a shameful
display far as culture was concerned.
Shameful, shameful. This is out of the norm.
This is this is way beyond and yet here she is in full display
of a room full of men, way out of culture, way out of it.
She's taking the most expensive gift that she has and she's
pouring it all at Once Upon the Lord, upon his head and upon his
feet. She is demonstrating her public
affection and her unashamed love for Him.
One of the things about it is everybody's going to know this,
that Mary had an inestimable love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a contrast when you think about here's the chief priest
and the scribes who were supposed to be experts in the
Jews religion. Who should have recognized that
Jesus was the complete fulfillment of everything
written in the Old Testament, and they should have been there
to worship at his feet? But they're plotting and we got
to get rid of this guy. We have to kill him.
What a contrast when you think, here's a group of men who
traveled with Jesus for three years plus and one of them is
already thinking I'm going to betray him to the chief priest
and to the scribes because something needs to be done.
I don't know what the motivation was of Judas, but Judas betrayed
the Lord. What a contrast.
Those that hate the Lord and those that love them, you know,
the only meant the perfume that was poured out is the kind of
present that was you would honor the king.
It's the kind of things that you would give to a king.
Remember when Jesus was born and the wise men came and they
opened their gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Why did they give that? Because they said we've come to
worship him as born king of the Jews.
What Mary has offered him. It's what, what the kind of
things that you would give to A to a king.
And it is the purest devotion of love.
It was misunderstood by everyone else around, but it was not
misunderstood by Jesus. I want to tell you something
this morning. As far as the world is
concerned, your love for the Lord Jesus Christ will be
misunderstood. I'd say I remember when my dad
got saved. My brother and I got saved in a
vacation Bible school and it was probably about a year later, I
guess, when my dad finally got saved and we started going to
church and everybody thought it was a great thing for my dad to
get saved. As a matter of fact, the some of
the comments that were made, well, if God can save Gene
Davis, he can save about anybody.
People were happy to see my dad got religion and they were
happy. And so when we started going to
church, the family thought, this is great.
You know, my dad's got some religion.
So we'd go on Sunday mornings and then after a while, my dad
listened to the messages and, and you know what, I think we
probably ought to start going back on Sunday night.
So we start coming back on Sunday night.
Our, our practice was that on weekends.
We, we, we didn't, we didn't go to church.
We did things as a family. We went to baseball games, we
went camping. We did, we did things together.
We did cookouts, we did all kinds of things.
We'd go to my grandparents, we'd hang out there all weekend.
We'd go to the lake, we'd do all these kind of things.
We didn't have time for church. Now we're going.
Now we show up at my grandparents Sunday afternoon
and then we leave early on Sunday afternoon so we can make
sure we get back to church on Sunday night.
That began to bother some of the family.
It didn't bother my grandma, that's that's for sure.
It didn't bother her. She was actually pretty proud of
it. But my dad, we go Sunday
mornings, we go Sunday nights. Before Long said, you know,
wait, actually he was bowling on Wednesday nights.
And one time as he was bowling, he threw the ball and went into
the gutter and he said, what am I doing here?
When the league was over, we never went back.
We started going to church on Wednesday night.
It wasn't long until my dad started right now to check every
week ties and offerings and putting them into the plate on
Sunday. Not only that, the church we did
what we call visitation, we did that on Thursday nights.
My folks started going to that. Now everybody thinks this.
My dad's joined a cult and he's gone crazy.
Nobody needs to go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night.
Why do you need to go three times a week?
And then on top of that, not only do you not need to go three
times a week, but you're given 10% who does that.
And then to make matters the the worst of everything, you're
bothering people one night every week.
See, culture doesn't understand when God does something in your
life, you learn to love him. And Mary love the Lord.
And she was unashamed in what she did.
She was unashamed. She didn't.
It didn't matter to her what the culture said.
It didn't matter to her what people around her said.
The disciples were indignant. The others did not understand.
But as far as Mary was concerned, Jesus was worthy.
Was it a waste? Was it a waste?
One of the things about love is this, that love never ask how
little you can give love. Ask the question, how much can I
give? How much can I give?
You see, you don't have to love to give.
People do that all the time, don't they?
We've all done that. We've given to something.
We don't love it, we give it to it.
You know, there's a need, whatever.
We just give to it. But I'm going to tell you this
when you're in love with someone, when you're in love
with something, you can't help but give to it.
It's interesting that here they are indignant about this, and
this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the
poor. When Jesus understood it, he
said to them, Why trouble ye the woman?
That word trouble is an interesting word.
The word trouble comes from this.
It has the idea to beat something or to smite it.
It's an unusual term. It's a term that that that that
Jesus used. It has the idea of something
with intensity. It's a striking phrase.
It was uncommon. Here it is her happiest moment
to do something for the Lord Jesus Christ, to honor him, to
be at his feet and worship him. And everybody else is
criticizing her. You know, there are a lot of
people who won't be able to stand up to the criticism and
they'll fall away. They'll get tighter.
The pressure that comes from family, from friends.
I mean, look at this. These were people who knew that
disciples were people who knew Mary.
They knew her. They knew her brother Lazarus,
they knew her sister Martha, they knew.
And yet here they are indignant that she's done this.
And Jesus said, why do you trouble her, indicating that
this was directed toward her? I'm going to tell you something.
You fall in love with the Lord and you begin to give your all
to him. Don't be surprised that people
are upset about it and don't be surprised that you get troubled
about it. There's something else that's
found in this same verse. He said, why trouble ye, the
woman? And then the next statement, for
she has brought a good work on me.
She has brought a good work on me.
Again, it's one of those interesting words because it's
one that there can be a couple of meanings to this, but the
particular word that's used here that for good has the idea of
something that is beautiful, something that is excellent,
something that is precious. It has the idea of something
that is valuable, that is virtuous.
You know what it was? Lavish love.
Lavish love, Was it a waste? Was it a waste?
It was extravagant. They didn't understand it, but
you know that love that motivates the worship of the
Lord Jesus Christ perfumes the life and environment of those
that are around it. The disciples were wrapped up in
notions their own self notions about the Kingdom and and they
they were not grasping the the cross and the resurrection.
But the Lord said this about her.
For she for in that she have poured this ointment on my body,
she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you,
whatsoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world,
there shall also this that this woman hath done be told from
memorial to her. Here's something that Jesus
approved of. What she did, the world did not.
The scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests did not.
The apostles, the disciples did not, but Jesus did.
Can I tell you, when it comes right down to it, it doesn't
matter what the world thinks. What matters is what the Lord
Jesus Christ thinks about it. And I'm going to tell you this,
you cannot lavish too much love on Jesus Christ.
Mary anticipated the death and the resurrection.
I find that so incredible that while I have this portion here
because I, I wanted that statement to what purpose is
this waste? But if you go to the Gospel of
John, Chapter 11 is about Lazarus dying and Jesus coming
and, and, and, and Martha said, Lord, if you've been here, a
brother had not died. And Mary said essentially the
same thing. And so they, he said, take me
where he is. They take him over there.
And Mary Martha's all, all kind of disraught.
He's already been dead for days. And Jesus simply said this
Lazarus come forth and out he came.
Turn him loose and let him go. I am the resurrection of the
life. 2000 years, we still read this passage and we still think
about Mary and we think about the lavishness of her love.
Have you ever given a sacrificial gift, maybe to a
husband, to a wife, to your children?
You ever given a sacrificial gift?
Lavish upon someone. Not just, not just.
I find myself doing this sometimes.
I respond to the need rather than responding in love.
In other words, I want to give whatever it takes to meet the
need. Love goes way beyond that.
Extravagant. There are a lot of people who
buy new things for their house. People will buy a new car, they
buy a new furniture, they buy a new clothes, and they think that
they're second hand stuff is good enough for God.
I mean, that's how we all operate, isn't it?
We take our second hand stuff and we offer that as a donation
to something. I wonder when's the last time
that we bought something new and gave that to God and we'd use
the used stuff. Lavish love, Lavish love.
It's not good enough for you, but it was good enough for God.
Do you ever consider how God lavishes us in love?
Just stop for a moment and think about this.
God has his own arithmetic. He doesn't add things up like we
do. He doesn't weigh, weigh and
measure things. We put them on scales.
We calculate it, we number it out.
But God measures like Mary with the alabaster box that's broken
and just lavishly poured out. You think about nature.
Just look around at nature. I mean, OK, do we need all the
stars of heaven? There's more than you can count.
Do we need all of them up there? Is that not extreme?
Is it not far more than what are necessary?
I mean, here we are on Earth, the planet Earth, and we have
human beings. Have they have the ability to
see the stars in heaven and yet we can't see all of them?
Does it not say to us that God is lavish and what he gives to
us? You know, you think about how
that the rain falls. It falls in the Sahara desert,
it falls on the granite stone. It, it falls on the new moon
meadows, it falls on us. Rain falls where people don't
live. Is that a waste or does it not
express the lavishness of God's love?
The sun shines in the Sahara, but it also shines on us.
Is it not lavish in nature? People think nature's just kind
of a dead law, that it's just the laws of nature.
But I want to tell you, when you begin to see it, does it not
speak of the lavishness of God's love toward us?
Human beings are the only ones that have an appreciation of
beauty. Animals don't.
There's no no other creature on earth that has the appreciation
for beauty besides human beings. The heavens declare the glory of
God, the firm, it shows his handiwork.
Just think about this. The sun rises and the sunsets
and the the beautiful sunrise and the beautiful sunset that
people have never seen. Does that diminish its beauty?
It does not. Is it a waste?
Is it a waste that a beautiful sunset is where nobody sees it?
Is it a waste where there's a an awesome sunrise?
I haven't seen too many of those.
I prefer sunsets to sunrises. But I'm telling you, some of the
sunrises just so amazing and so beauty.
We, we live on the East Coast. The sunrises are more
spectacular for us than the sunsets like they would on the
West Coast. But listen, is it a waste?
Is it a waste? Is it a waste that there is
beauty in places where men's eyes have never seen?
Is it a waste? Or does it not say the
lavishness of God's love toward us?
Is it a waste? The depths of the ocean?
They're creatures that we've never seen.
Some of them are pretty fascinating.
Every once in a while they make a new discovery and they haul
something up from the bottom of the ocean and we haven't seen
this before. Well, who does see them?
God sees them. Does it not express to us the
lavishness of God's love? Is it a waste?
Do we not see the love of God?
How about this in the Providence of God?
I believe in God's Providence. There are things that God does
at Jacob sat in his tent, he would have been glad to have
have his son Joseph come back even in tattered rags.
Years went by. When he finally does see Joseph,
he doesn't see somebody coming back in tattered rags.
What does he see? He sees a Prince in Egypt.
Was it a waste? No, his brother's meant it for
evil, but God meant it for good. And God made something wonderful
out of that. It's the Providence of God.
How about this, the prodigal son?
Father, give me what portion belongs to me.
And off he takes it. And he wasted and raised his
living. When he comes to himself.
We wanted to eat what pigs are eating.
He says I'll go back to my father's house.
I'll just be a servant. His father sees him a long way
off, and runs and greets him, and says, put a robe on him, and
a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet, and prepare the
fatted calf. Was that not lavish love that a
father gave to a wayward son when he returned?
You think about this. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I want to ask you something. Is the blood of Christ
sufficient to save anyone that will come?
Obviously it is for he said whosoever, Didn't he?
He said whosoever. Does that mean everybody's
coming? Unfortunately, no.
We live on a planet. We live at a time where I guess
they're telling us that we're 8 billion plus souls.
Is the blood of Jesus Christ sufficient to save 8 billion
plus souls? And the answer to that question
is absolutely, will 8 billion souls be saved?
And the answer to that is unfortunately, no.
So is it is the blood of Christ, is it wasted?
Is it a waste? Is it a waste that Jesus went to
the cross? I want to ask you this is is is
the grace of God that is bestowed upon us?
Is it a waste that God gives us more than we need?
Is it a waste multitudes will not bow?
He died for all, but all will not come?
Does it not express the lavishness of God's love?
Does it not express the lavishness of God's love and the
grace that he gives to men to be saved, but also the grace of God
that takes care of us? You know, it's not just the
grace that saves us, but Paul wrote to Titus and reminded him
that it the same grace that saved us is also the same grace
that keeps us and carries us along day by day.
Can we ever exhaust the grace of God?
And I'm going to say to you, no deeper than the oceans, broader
than the oceans, greater than the universe, because it works
like this. Love never asks the question,
how little can I give? Love asks the question, how
much? As we've taken a look at it, the
lavishness of Mary. Mary demonstrated her love for
Jesus Christ. She was pretty bold in that, not
caring what culture thought. She didn't care what the other
apostles thought. She didn't care what the all of
them thought. What she cared about was what
did Jesus think? And she was willing to embarrass
herself. She was willing to act in what
they considered a shameful manner in order to demonstrate
her great love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you heard this morning? And you're a Christian, you're
saved, you're baptized, you're a member of Liberty Baptist
Church. Let me ask you this question.
Is your love for the Lord lavish or is it just enough to get by?
Does it go to the extreme? Does it go to the extreme that
says I don't care what people think?
I'm willing to be a broken alabaster box and just pour my
life out on the Lord. I'm willing for it to be
excessive, so to speak, because I know what Jesus did for me.
There was a day when I was dead in trespasses and sins, and He
gave me everlasting life. There are times I don't know how
to walk through life and He carries me along.
I have this great hope that one day I have a home in heaven,
that phase not away reserved for me.
And I'm very confident of this. I will not suffer the wrath of
God that is to come. I'm delivered from all that.
If He could lavish that kind of love on me, how much love can I
lavish on Him? How much love can I lavish on
him? How much love can I lavish on
His church? Is it not Him?
It's His church. Is He not the head of it?
Revelation Chapter 2 and chapter 3 tells us this, that He holds
them in His hand, they're His, that they're precious to Him.
Are we not told in the scriptures how that He has
redeemed us with His very blood? That He that He we're bought
with the price? Can we not lavish our love on
Him who lavished His love on us? I've often been guilty of what
I've mentioned a moment ago, that I I tend to give based upon
what the need is rather than based on love.
My older days, younger days, my wife needed some money.
I would say, how much do you need?
And I would try to give her the smallest amount possible.
I need 20 bucks. Well, I got 15.
Will you take that? You know what, today I try to do
this, say, do you need some money?
Yeah, I could probably use 20. Here's 40.
I try to do that. I don't always get it done, but
I'm listen, I'm way down the road now from where I used to
be. Here's 15 when she needed 20.
Why? Because I love her.
She's been with me for close to 55 years now.
I think it's about time that I wised up on some things.
But you know, if I'm, if I, if I learned that about my wife, I've
also learned that about the Lord and learned that about his
church. But I I could never how, how can
you give enough? How can you give enough?
Is my love only measured by how little I can get by giving?
You know, for a lot of people it's a struggle to give 10%.
I understand that. And if that's where you're just
starting, you know, that's great.
But God convicted me a long time ago.
If I'm the ties that the scribes and the Pharisees did that, is
that how I want to measure my life by what they did?
Or do I want to measure my life by something else?
How much I love the Lord? I love His church.
I love His word. Let me ask you this.
Do you love lost souls? Do you love people?
Do you love them enough to go ahead and let you know?
Let the world, the culture think that you know what they want to
think about us. Let's get over the
embarrassment. Let's get over all that and tell
people about our Savior who loved us extravagantly, who
loved us lavishly. If you're here this morning and
you've never been born again, you've never been saved.
If you were to die today and you stood before God and God said,
why should I let you into my heaven, what would you tell Him?
And you're thinking, well, I don't know.
I've been a pretty good person, really.
I've done the best that I can. That may be acceptable for a lot
of things not acceptable to God. The only thing that's acceptable
to God is the righteousness that's found in Jesus Christ.
And the only way to get that is to bow before him and confess
him as Lord and Savior. And he takes our sins.
They're on the Lord Jesus Christ as he went to the cross of
Calvary. And God takes the righteousness
that's in Jesus Christ and he gives it to me.
If you see, when I stand before God, I'm not going to tell God I
was a preacher. I was a good person.
I did the best I can. I'm going to tell him this.
My sins have been washed away and I've been given the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. I don't stand before you on my
own merits. I stand before you on His.
I am accepted as the Beloved. If He lavish that much love on
me, can I not lavish some love on Him?
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.