Applications from Memorial to Mary #1

Introduction: Review of Mary's Anointing and Its Primary Lesson

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 12th, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 Now may I urge you to follow with me in your own Bibles as I read again this morning from Mark chapter 14, verses 3 through 9, and then we shall turn over to the Gospel according to John and read the first eight verses of chapter 12, Mark chapter 14 and verse 3. And while he was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster cruz of ointment of pure nard, very costly. And she said to him, And she broke the cruz and poured it over his head. But there were some that had indignation among themselves, saying, To what purpose has this waste of the ointment been made? For this ointment might have been sold for above three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

1:29 But Jesus said, Let her alone. Why do you try? Why do you try? Why do you try?

1:34 Why do you trouble her? She has wrought a good work on me. For you have the poor always with you, and whenever you will, you can do them good. But me you do not have always.

1:51 She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying. And verily I say unto you, Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached, preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman has done, shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. And now to John chapter 12 and verse 1.

2:23 Jesus therefore six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

2:59 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples that should betray him, said, Why was not this ointment sold? For three hundred denarii and given to the poor. Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the bag, took away what was put therein. Jesus therefore said, Permit her to keep it against the day of my burying.

3:31 For the poor you have always with you, but me, you do not have, always. Now what we have confessed in the singing of the hymn that we just concluded, let us now confess as we pray together, asking the Lord himself to scatter the native darkness of our hearts and minds by the light of his own Holy Spirit attending the preaching of the word. Let us pray.

4:05 Our Father, we have made a corporate, confession in the singing of this hymn, that all of our knowledge, all of our sense and sight, lie shrouded in deepest darkness, unless you by the Spirit penetrate that darkness, and say in our hearts, as you said in the work of the original creation, let there be light. O God, speak, light into our hearts this morning, light to know your truth, to know ourselves, to know your Son. We ask in his name. Amen. In bringing together the witness of John, and more particularly that of Mark in Mark chapter 14, we learn that it is but six days before Jesus will be taken, by the hand of Roman soldiers, brought before several different contexts of trial and of judgment. He will be scourged, mocked, condemned, and then taken outside the city walls of Jerusalem,

5:34 and impaled upon a cruel instrument of Roman execution called a cross. And on this occasion, six days before the Passover, at which time these other events would take place, we find our Lord in the home of Simon the leper, in the town of Bethany, just some two and a half miles down the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives. Jesus is the guest of honor, at a meal attended by that special inner circle of disciples, the twelve, by Mary and his sister, her sister Martha, and by their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus, a short while before, had raised from the dead. And in that setting and at that time, the incident recorded in Mark 14, verses 3 to 9, and John 12, verses 1 to 8, occurred. Last Lord's Day, I sought to order, I sought to order, I sought to open up the details of that incident as they are given to us in Mark's Gospel with several additional highlights imported from the account of John.

6:58 We considered the scene described, the place, and then the central activity, namely the anointing of Jesus by Mary. Then we looked at the reactions recorded, that of the disciples in general, they were angry, they were judgmental, they began to harass and get on the case of Mary for this apparent waste. And then we noted the reaction of Judas in particular, as it is given to us in John chapter 12. And then we focused our attention upon the reaction of Jesus.

7:38 He rebukes the disciples and says, leave her alone. He vindicates what she has done. He says, she has done a good work, she has done an appropriate work. And then he explains the significance of her deed.

7:54 She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. And then after the rebuke, the vindication and the explanation, he makes a prediction and says that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this very deed that they have rebuked and concerning which they harass her, that very deed shall be spoken of as a memorial of this woman. And in the primary lesson of the passage, we noted as we brought our exposition to a close, that what is memorialized in this woman is basically her faith in the object of her devotion. She has seen as none of the others have yet come to perceive that her Messiah, her Messiah must die. And she has taken seriously his manifold predictions that he will be crucified in Jerusalem. And sensing that these events would come to pass with such haste, that he would not be given a decent anointing after his death and before his burial, she believes that her Messiah is worthy of trust in Jesus Christ. Despite of his coming rejection and death,

9:19 she did not stumble over the offense of the cross. And wherever the gospel is preached, this is spoken of as a memorial because in every saving response to the gospel, every believer with Mary comes to glory in a crucified and an immolated Savior. And Christ crucified is no stumbling block. But the very gateway to heaven.

9:49 And then she is memorialized not only because of her faith in the object of her devotion, but for the abandonment of her heart in the measure of her devotion. She did not do half of what she could. She did what she could. She took what was most precious in her possession.

10:12 And with a holy recklessness, she spent it all upon the Savior. And so it is when the Holy Spirit gives a saving sight of Christ. In principle, at the point of any man or woman, boy or girl's conversion, the response of the heart that has been brought to faith in a crucified Savior is the response of undivided, whole-souled abandonment to Jesus. Jesus Christ.

Secondary Lessons: A Word of Correction, Instruction, and Consolation

10:48 Now, that is the essential content and the primary lesson of the passage. But the Scriptures tell us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And again, we are told in Psalm 119 and verse 96, Thy commandment is exceeding broad. It is the commandment of God.

11:16 It is the commandment of God. And there is in this incident not only its primary lesson clearly marked out by our Lord Himself by His magisterial introduction, verily I say unto you, but there are some very vital secondary lessons in this passage. And this morning, I would direct your attention to some of those lessons and I would do so under three headings. This passage, by way of the Word of God, by way of secondary lessons, contains, first of all, a word of correction, secondly, a word of instruction, and thirdly, a word of consolation.

Correction #1: The Sin of Hasty, Unfounded Judgment of Others

11:59 First of all, then, a word of correction concerning several common sins. I say this passage contains a very clear, a very powerful, a very searching word of correction concerning several common sins. Now, before we proceed any further, let me ask you a question.

12:27 What was the reaction of your mind and heart when you heard that heading?

12:34 When you heard that we were going to see in this passage a word of correction concerning several common sins, what was the reflexive response of your mind and of your heart?

12:50 That response may be one of the most accurate indications of where you are spiritually. If your first response was, oh no, not more sin pointed out.

13:07 If your response was, oh God, sin is to be pointed out, search me and try me and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. I remind you that according to our Lord in John 3, 19-21, the diversity of reaction to the pointing out of sin is one of the most certain indices of where you are spiritually. He that does evil will be reproved.

13:47 He that does the truth continually comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are true. He that does evil will be made manifest that they are true. That they are wrought in God. So you answer.

13:59 You had a reaction. You know it. God knows it. Be honest concerning what the Scripture says about it.

14:10 And I preach this morning in the confidence that the majority of you sit here as those who do come to the light, who do long to know anything in your life that is displeasing unto God. And in that, in that confidence then, I come to this word of correction concerning several common sins. The first one is this. The sin of hasty, unfounded judgment of the actions of another.

14:44 In this passage, we have one of the clearest examples in all of Scripture of the common sin of hasty, unfounded judgment of the actions of another. Now, please listen carefully to what I say. The Bible makes it clear that when the actions of another human being, saved or unsaved, clearly violate the law of God, we must make an inward judgment concerning that action. For example, Luke 17, 3.

15:25 If thy brother sinned against thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. What is Jesus saying? Your brother does an action that clearly violates the law of God, and it violates the law of God in such a way as to impinge upon you.

15:47 You are warranted to make a moral judgment that he has not only sinned, he has sinned against you, and you are to rebuke him for his sin. You see,

15:58 furthermore, in the word of God, we read in Ephesians 5, 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather, reprove them. Well, how can I reprove them if I can't identify them?

16:13 So the Bible has a very clear doctrine taught from Genesis to Revelation that it is perfectly proper for a man to assess the deeds and words of another in the light of the law of God and to make a moral judgment concerning that deed, that word. However, our problem is that altogether too often we do exactly what these disciples did. They made a moral judgment on the action of Mary that they had no business to make. Look at the text.

16:55 Their moral judgment comes out in these words, words of Mark 14 and verse 4. To what purpose has this waste of the ointment been made? They called her action a wasteful action. It was a poor stewardship of this commodity that God had entrusted to her.

17:26 And they were so upset about it that the scripture says that they murmured against her. And in the imperfect tense they were continually murmuring. They were continually getting on her case concerning this. Furthermore, there is an indirect judgment or an implied judgment that is indifference to the poor.

17:53 Now everywhere the Bible commands compassion upon the poor. And they said not only is this wasteful in and of itself a poor stewardship of the use of this precious commodity, but it is wasteful in the presence of great poverty that could have been relieved by using it another way. Now what did they do? Well, they put one and one together and got five.

18:25 They know that Jesus is frugal. They can remember. John 6 and verse 12 tells us why Jesus always commanded that the fragments be taken up after he performed the miracle of multiplying loaves and fishes. John 6, 12 tells us he did this that none be wasted.

18:45 They had seen their Lord frugal even with things that he made by his own creative power. He was not wasteful with them. Furthermore, they knew their Lord to be compassionate to the poor. They had been with him.

19:03 They had seen him in his acts of compassion and concern and ministry to the poor. Furthermore, they knew that the ointment was the real thing. It was pure nard. This was not watered down cheap stuff.

19:21 This was not an Omega watch in name only. This was the real thing. This wasn't a bogus thing with a phony name on it. This was the real thing.

19:35 So they take these things that they know. Jesus is frugal. Jesus is concerned for the poor. This ointment is the real thing worth a working man's wage for a whole year.

19:48 And now they put those facts together and say, therefore, if she's pouring it out on Jesus' head and Jesus' feet, this is a waste. This is indifference. This is indifference to the poor.

20:03 Now, not only did they indict her, but by implication, they indicted Jesus. Because he could have gently raised his hand and said, Mary, I appreciate the thought and I'll accept the willingness for the deed. Don't break off the neck of the bottle. Or when he first felt the few drops coming down on his head, he could have turned and said, Mary, I appreciate that expression and I know you're prepared to empty it all, but I'll take this firstfruits of your devotion and accept it as the whole.

20:38 Save the rest that's within the cruise, within the flask. Sell it. Give it to the poor. You see, they were guilty not only of making a moral judgment about Mary, but they were guilty of making a moral judgment about Jesus as well.

20:56 The one who knew all the facts and is the appointed judge of the world, had an entire of exactly the same actions. He was aware that Mary broke the cruise, poured out the ointment upon his head, upon his shoulders, upon his feet. They said, wastefulness, indifference to the poor. But what was Jesus' assessment of precisely the same action?

21:31 Jesus said, verse 6, it was a good, good work,

21:40 evil manifestation of indifference. Secondly, he says, she has wrought a good work on me. It was not only a work good in of itself, but it was done out of devotion to his person. And furthermore, he said, it grows out of perception of my identity and my mission.

22:03 She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. Therefore, leave her alone rather than judge her deed. I memorialize it to the end of the age. Now, do you see what their sin was?

22:24 Their sin was the sin of making a hasty unjudgment concerning the actions of Mary. And they made that judgment because they did not have all the facts. The action in and of itself was not a breach of God's moral law. But they took the place of judges as though they understood all the facts and they judged it to be contrary to the law of God and were prepared to condemn her and to harass her and even to implicate their Savior in her sin. Now, of course, we never do that with one another, do we? Oh, alas, too often we do. And this is why the Apostle had to write in his epistle to the Romans, and I simply read the words.

23:26 In chapter 14, he says, beginning in verse 7, For none of us lives to himself and none dies to himself. For whether we live, we live to the Lord. Whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

23:44 For to this end Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you set it not your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

24:03 For it is written, As I live, says the Lord to me, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself, to God. Let us not, therefore, judge one another any more. And there is a parallel passage that we'll not turn to in James 4, 11 and verse 12.

24:31 Now let me illustrate how we do this. Someone in our midst, one of our well-attested brothers or sisters, known to be frugal in terms of his life, in terms of his life, in terms of his life, in terms of the biblical doctrine of being a good steward of money and things. A person known for concern and compassion and large-handed beneficence and kindness to others shows up one Lord's Day with a sure enough real gold watch on his or her wrist. What happens?

25:09 Someone sees it and inwardly immediately makes a judgment. A horrible experience. An expression of worldliness. I happen to know that watches of that make and that kind cost seven to eight hundred dollars.

25:28 What in the world has happened to brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so? And then in conversation with someone else that judgment is passed on and said, you know, we must pray for so-and-so. I fear that success in business has gone to his head. He showed up or his wife showed up with a gold watch.

25:48 Did you see that? What has happened? No one can prove from the law of God that the appearance of a gold watch on the wrist of a brother or sister is sin.

26:04 But what has this person done? Take in one and this person is ordinarily frugal. This person is ordinarily careful in the use of money and things. This person has appeared with an expensive gold watch.

26:23 What? A waste.

26:27 And though you may not have the courage to harass the brother or sister to his or her face, you harass him or her behind his or her back to other brothers and sisters. What have you done? You've done exactly what they did. You have made a hasty and if only you were to have come to that brother and sister with a large heart and said, John, Mary, it's obvious the Lord's blessed you with a lot of money.

27:01 A lovely gold watch. And knowing something that those things don't grow on trees and those aren't the kind that you can pick up at service merchandise, I'd like to rejoice with you. How did the Lord provide this for you? And the person says, well, I would have been reluctant to tell you unless you asked, but I'm glad to share my joy with you.

27:27 I just was notified by a lawyer last week that someone was saying, someone that I had shown kindness two years ago in a time of need had written into their will that when the Lord took them home, my watch was to become their possession. And lo and behold, that expensive watch was the fulfillment of God's promise, give and it shall be given unto you good measure, pressed down and running over shall men return into your bosom, unto your ribs, and into your heart. And what was a monument of Christ, the response of lawfulness was judged as sin. He said, oh, we never did. My brothers and sisters, we do it all the time. And this passage shows what Jesus thinks about it.

28:34 He says, leave her alone. She wears that watch. He wears that watch as a constant reminder that God is with her. God is no man's debtor.

28:48 A constant memorial of that friendship established in the blood of Christ and by the Spirit of Christ. A constant reminder of the faithfulness of God to His promises. And we take what is noble in God's sight and we make it sin on the basis of unfounded judgment. This passage clearly explains and exposes that reality.

29:19 And something that I know has happened in this assembly. One of the couples that you know is struggling. They barely can find two pennies to rub together. Suddenly they show up with a brand new car.

29:33 And you say, I bet they've stopped piling. I bet they're gonna pull their kids out of Christian school. You make a judgment. You know they don't have two pennies to rub together.

29:45 All of a sudden they obviously had a lot of bucks to rub together and put in a pile and put down as a down payment. And put themselves in hock for the rest of the bank however they got it. And you come up with this conclusion. They could only have that of principles of righteousness and priorities of the kingdom.

30:06 How? What you don't. And you could only have found out if you'd asked and say, brother so and so, sister so and so. God's obviously blessed you with a lovely set of wheels.

30:26 Would you mind sharing with me how the Lord provided? And they say it'd be my joy. And then they tell you the story of how would the old clunker about to die on its feet. All the rods about to come loose from the crank shaft and the pistons about to blow out the heads.

30:45 And I mean, the thing was bad. He got so desperate one night. He spent a whole night before God in prayer and fasting saying, Oh God, I've gone over my budget. I don't see where I'm being in any way.

31:00 I'm responsible. I've tried to work diligently and keep my priorities. And he searched his heart and searched his Bible. And then God is enabling him to break through.

31:11 And he's laid host to the kingdom. And all the things will be added. My God shall supply all your need. And he's come out of his closet of prayer determined that he will not back on his giving.

31:27 In fact, he's going to increase it 2% as a matter of commitment. And lo and behold, two days later, he gets a call from one of the brothers and sisters in the church who says, Look, I've been praying and every time I've come in the directory to your name, I felt at the cue your pressure upon my spirit. I've seen that bucket of bolts of yours chugging into the parking lot, wondering on any given Lord's day when the thing was going to gas, stick its tongue out and just die before my very eyes. And God, has blessed me in such a way with an unexpected return from a certain investment.

32:09 Would you allow me the privilege of buying you a new car on this condition? You don't tell anyone who did it. You can just say the Lord provided through one of his ravens in the church. And then they tell you the facts and you rejoice together.

Correction #2: The Sin of Measuring Others by Ourselves

32:27 What you judged to be a waste was quite another thing. Oh, dear people, may God help us to learn from this passage and to dread and hate this wicked, wicked sin of passing unfounded judgments upon one another, especially in the matters that pertain to things and to money, because that's exactly what the issue was here. But then there is a second sin, a sin that in this passage is corrected. We have seen how the sin of unfounded judgment of the actions of another is exposed. But secondly, the sin of measuring others by ourselves. The sin of measuring others by ourselves. You see, we tend to measure others by ourselves in a whole wide range of issues.

33:38 When people ask me about a certain individual I may be speaking about, is he a young man, old man? I say, from whose perspective are you asking that? I do. I say, now, from whose perspective are you asking that?

33:52 The person talking to me may be 30. I'm in my mid-fifties. I say, now, are you asking it from your perspective or mine? He's just coming into his own.

34:02 He's 58. From your perspective, on the hill, on the way down, on the way out, just about had it. You see, we tend to do that with a whole range of things, and in many of those things that's perfectly innocent. There is no moral culpability.

34:23 But in this matter of the sin of measuring others by ourselves, I'm speaking of something that indeed is sin. Go back to the passage. At this point in time, the spiritual perception, and heart devotion to our Lord in the disciples, the true disciples, was less than that of Mary's. Mary, that the one who raised her brother from the dead, was indeed the resurrection and the life.

35:03 Her faith had been so strengthened by that mighty act of raising her own brother from the dead, and her faith had been so fed by her unique position of sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his word, that she had, as it were, been taken into the secret of the Lord deeper than even the disciples at this point. She saw that he was to die, and that there was no ending. The Lord, the Savior, who must die. And because she saw what she saw, her heart's devotion had been raised to a pitch that was commensurate with her additional spiritual sight. And it was her sight and the subsequent or consequent devotion that moved her hand to break the neck off that cruz, and to empty all events upon his head, his shoulders, and feet, and then to do something that was borderline questionable, to get so close to a man in a public situation as to wipe his feet with her hair, the tresses of which she had let down

36:30 in order to make of her flowing locks a towel for the feet of her Savior. But now the problem with the disciples was this. They did not see what she saw. They did not feel.

36:51 And therefore, by their present perception and their present level of devotion, they could come to only one conclusion. This is wasteful. This is a manifestation of indifference to the poor, and it could well be, though the text does not state it, they may have even judged it as being improprietous, a bit shameful. But since our Lord did not gently restrain her, as we have already noted, by word or action, but willingly received these expressions born of her spiritual perception, her faith and devotion, what should they have done? What they should have done is something like this. They should have said, Lord, we see that you have accepted her act. Of breaking the cruise and pouring out the ointment for the life of us, Lord.

37:57 We do not understand why you accepted what to us appears to be an act of wastefulness and indifference to the poor. But Lord, the acts of men, and you accepted what she has done. Lord, please explain to us why you have accepted it. You have obviously approved of it by your response to it.

38:24 Before the Lord ever opened his mouth and said, leave her alone. She has done a good work. She has done what she could. She has done a timely work, a memorialized work.

38:36 Before he ever opened his mouth, it should have been message enough. But what did they do? They were guilty of the sin of measuring her by themselves. And it is sort of an outgrowth of the first.

38:53 And I wrestled with whether to consider it as a second head, or as an expression of the sin of unfounded judgment. But I believe it is a different category. So what they did is, since we do not see that his death is around the corner, it must not be there, even though he has repeatedly told us it is. And since we do not see that he is only to be with us a short time, and she does, and he was only to be with them a short time, then he still must, we must expect that he is going to be around for a long time.

39:31 You see, they were guilty of the sin of measuring her by themselves, rather than measuring her by what our Lord assessed her actions and her state of heart to be. Now by application, let me show how we do this all the time in the natural realm, and alas, too often in the spiritual. Do you ever meet a real bona fide, sure enough, New York Knicks or New York Mets fan? I mean a real fan, not a part-time fan, not one like me, that just gets a paper once a week and sees what the standings are and that's it. I mean a real fan. Well, a real fan, he's the one that, when the Knicks or the Mets are playing on the West Coast, in any of his channels, either airwaves or TV waves, has a game from the West Coast, doesn't start till 11 at night, he can stay up from 11 till 1am, 1.30 and watch it.

40:38 So he goes to work the next morning on five hours sleep. He doesn't think that's a big price to pay. I'm a real Knicks fan. I got something to shout about for the first time in years.

40:47 We're in first place. He doesn't think that's strange. He thinks it's an affirmation of the validity of his claim, I am a real bona fide Knicks fan. If you go to bed when they're playing on the West Coast, if you let three hours of sleep keep you from watching the game, don't you call yourself a Knicks fan.

41:05 You call yourself a part-time semi-interested observer. We're real fans! You know? They're the ones that in playoffs, they think nothing of taking a sleeping bag, sleeping out all night outside the ticket offices to make sure they get their tickets for the playoffs.

41:24 They don't regard that as anything extreme. That is the badge of being a committed fan! The very guy who watches the late night games, sleeps all night in the sleeping bag, you do this maybe three, four, seven, ten, fifteen, twenty times a year, let his work companion come in some day and look a little red-eyed than he normally is, and a little bit drawn, dark shadows, and he asks him, he says, hey Henry, I notice you don't look quite chipper today, what's troubling you? Well, Henry not wanting to be a Pharisee and knowing that Jesus said, do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them, for verily you'll have your reward, he tries to skirt around it and say, well, I just didn't get as much sleep as usual. Well, what was the matter, Henry, your wife sick? No, no. Other concerns?

42:16 Well, the kid's sick. He keeps pressing him and pressing him until Henry, who's a Christian, is forced in the interest of truth and his testimony to tell him. He said, well, you've pressed me so much, George, you've left me no alternative. There are some concerns with regard to my children that were so pressed upon my heart that I couldn't sleep and I prayed till two or three o'clock this morning.

42:44 And he looks at him and says, you religious nut. You are the biggest religious weirdo I ever heard about. Listen, a half-night's sleep to pray? You can say your prayers in seconds, man.

43:00 What's wrong with you? You see what he's doing? He's judging this man's devotion to God by the total absence of that devotion in his own heart. Oh, his devotion to the Knicks or to the Mets, that's so real that when others come in bleary eyes that we're the real fans.

43:29 Nothing imbalanced about that. Nothing out of perspective. That's real fanhood. But let a man once a year come in with bleary eyes because he's had an open sore that has bled its way out in the presence of God into the wee hours of the morning.

43:47 He's a nut. What's he doing? Judging! And because his own heart is devoid of the knowledge for a man to spend our children and out of communion with God, he can only regard as the height of religious fanaticism for he measures the other man by himself.

44:15 Now in the realm of the spiritual, brethren, we too often do this with one another. Listen to Bishop Ryle who saw it in his day and commenting on this very sin in his application of this very passage writes, The spirit of these narrow-minded fault finders is unhappily only too common. Their followers and successors are to be found in every part of Christ's visible church. There is never lacking a generation of people who decry what they call extremes in religion and are incessantly recommending what they term, quote, moderation in the service of Christ. If a man devotes his time and money and affections to the pursuit of worldly things, they do not blame him. They simply call him dedicated to his career. If he gives up his life and devotes himself to the service of money, pleasure or politics, they find no fault.

45:22 But if the same man devotes himself in all he has to Christ, they can scarcely find words to express their sense of his folly. He is beside himself. He's out of his mind. He's a fanatic.

45:34 He's an enthusiast. He's righteous over much. He's an extremist. And if Ryle were living in our day, he would have written in his list, he's gone out of his tree.

45:44 They regard it in short, as a waste. Then Ryle goes on to say, let charges like these not disturb us if we hear them made against us because we strive to serve Christ. Let us bear them patiently and remember they are as old as Christianity itself. Let us pity those who make such charges against believers.

46:11 They show plainly that they have no sense of obligation to Christ. A cold heart makes us slow. If a man once understands the sinfulness of sin and the mercy of Christ in dying for Him, he will never think anything too good or too costly to give to Christ. He will rather feel what shall I render to the Lord for all of His benefits.

46:37 He will fear wasting time, talents, money, affections on the things of the world. He will not be afraid of wasting them on his Savior. He will fear going into extremes about business and money and politics of pleasure. But he will never be afraid of being too devoted to Christ or doing too much for Christ.

47:04 And you see, brethren, not only do we have to reckon with the fear of the world, the world epitomized in Judas, but even the fear of disciples who may not at any time at any given point see what we see and feel what we feel. Mary, seeing what she saw, he assumed that and I must now I must at the expense of the whole cruise appointment, seeing what she saw and feeling what she felt, she could do no other. But there were real disciples who, measuring her by themselves, said waste sensitive to the poor. And there was the world epitomized in Judas, who had that not as a matter of temporary blindness, but as the settled disposition of his own unregenerate heart. And, oh, dear people, as I look back upon my own Christian experience,

48:30 rarely have I had anyone put his hand on my shoulder and say to me, my brother, my brother Al, Albert, pastor, whatever term was appropriate, oh, pour out your heart more for the Savior. Be yet more passionate in prayer. Be more earnest in prayer. Be more devout and glowing in grace.

49:08 But I tell you, I felt the pressure of a hundred upon my shoulders that would say, now, brother, be careful. You go on preaching that way, you may kill yourself. You go on with that view of a pure church, and you'll just end up with a little handful of people who do this, hold back, hold back, don't pour it all out. Away with such counsel!

49:39 My remainder's that in my ears every waking moment. I need counsel. I need counsel to pour out more, to love Him more, to love His church more, to love the fellowship of His sufferings more, to be more earnest in prayer, more passionate in preaching, more devoted in shepherding the people of God. And isn't that exactly what the Scripture says that we are to do to one another?

50:24 Let us consider one another to provoke unto what? Unto less devotion? No, unto love and good works. Paul could say of the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9 to be, Your zeal has stirred up many.

50:43 The disciples should have said, Mary, what was your most precious possession? And to scoundrel upon Jesus, you mad, compelling reasons, Mary, that we may enter in and know why you did what you did, because the Savior obviously approved of it. My friend, listen. Though your flesh is rebuked, when you get in the presence of someone who loves the Savior more than you do, who evidently has a more single eye to the kingdom of God, is more passionately committed to biblical principles in his family life, he is determined to learn to love his wife as Christ loved the church. If it means he's got to unlearn a hundred thousand things he picked up by example. He's prepared in the name of Christ to hack and hew through all of the ingrained patterns and bent in direction that people may look upon him and say, the way that man loves his wife, I can only imagine how Christ loves his church. He's determined to take seriously the admonition, fathers, nurture your children.

52:10 He has a heart committed to the total nurture of his children. He's committed to the life of the church. He's prepared to marry, to miss his supper, to be present at prayer. He's prepared to lose a business deal in order to have family devotions at the appointed hour and the appointed place.

52:35 Dear people, when you get around someone like that and that person's life rebukes you, don't take the place of disciples and point the finger and say, what a waste. That's fanaticism. That's being righteous over much. No, no, face it for what it is.

52:51 It's an expose that he's living in a realm that you haven't yet entered. He's living with his eyes fixed on things that are clear to him that are still only dim and fuzzy to you. His heart is beating with an ardor that exceeds your own. Don't try to dampen his ardor.

53:12 Don't scold him. Draw near and say, what do you see that I don't see? And will you help me to see it? What do you feel that I don't feel?

Correction #3: The Sin of Calculated Religious Hypocrisy

53:25 Help me to feel it. I say this passage is an exposure not only of the sin of hasty, unfounded judgment, but the sin of measuring others by ourselves. And I can see we're only going to complete this first head. We'll consider thirdly and finally, it exposes the sin of calculated religious hypocrisy.

53:59 Turn to John chapter 12. And I've chosen my words very carefully. They've not been dashed off in a moment of mental passion. This passage exposes the sin of calculated religious hypocrisy.

54:21 John 12 verse 4. Judas sees the breaking of the flask, the pouring out of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, that should betray him, saith, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred shillings and given to the poor? Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the bag, took away what was put therein.

54:51 Now the Bible word, the word in the New Testament for hypocrisy comes from a Greek word that in its etymology, and you don't always prove meaning by etymology. Beware of someone who does that too often. But often in the etymology there's a wonderful picture and you see how the word began to be used, and it means to be a play actor. And if you acted in the old Greek stage, you would not come out with the face God gave you, maybe altered with a false mustache, or made to look old with some dusting on the hair, or altered in some cosmetic way, but you would come out with a precast mask which you would wear, held on by what to us would be a rubber band, or sometimes held by a little stick under the chin. But the mask, you see, of the person you were to play was clearly that, that which hid your own identity. So you came with a mask to hide your true identity, and secondly, you came with a script in order to perform a prearranged set of actions and to speak a prearranged set of words. So you had a mask and you had a script.

56:13 You hid your true identity and you deliberately played the role of another. Now I say this passage reveals the horrible, frightening sin of calculated religious hypocrisy. And while we'll have more to say about Judas when we come to verses 11 and 12 for now, this much, whatever Judas' attitude and disposition to Christ may have been when he became part of the first group of those who followed him in the masses, out of which he chose the twelve, and it could well be that he had feelings of genuine excitement for and interest in and attachment to this mighty miracle worker and this one who spoke with authority and not as the scribes, whatever there may have been in the initial enthusiasm of Judas' attachment to Christ, by now, by now, he has become one who in his heart is committed to betraying his Lord. You see, somewhere along the line, Judas came to the awareness that the claims of Jesus and my initial interest in Jesus

57:43 are on a head-on collision. And somewhere along the line, Judas knew, if I'm to truly enter in to the saving power and purpose and into the kingdom thrust, this Messiah, my Lord, and he made a decision at some point, I'm going to cling to my love of things, and I inwardly dissociate myself from my life being molded by the word and example of Jesus. From that point on, he had a mask. When you saw the twelve, you said, ah, one of the inner circles. In the case of Judas, it was a mask, knowingly, deliberately worn, at one point, perhaps ambiguity about his true state. He had no mask.

58:55 He was confused as to who Judas was. But once he knew who Judas was, a man committed to money, even to the willingness to betray the Son of God for thirty stinking pieces of silver. He had on the mask. Deliberately.

59:18 That's why I say, the sin of calculated religious hypocrisy. And then look how well he says his lines. If I'm really one of Jesus' disciples, I'll have compassion on the poor, because I've noticed wherever he goes, he shows compassion to the poor. So look at him say his lines.

59:39 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? Amen. Jesus, you were of your master, great champion of the poor, full of the grace, beneficent disciple. He was saying his lines, with his mask.

60:10 But the Holy Ghost says, not, not because it was an echo of Judas' heart, it was a parroting of his lines. This he said not, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and he was upset there'd be less for him to grab at. Because Mary showed her devotion to Jesus with stuff that could have been his. Make you sick?

60:46 I hope it does. For few things are more sickening than the sin of calculated religious hypocrisy. Calculating real identity, calculating me, saying his lines to deceive. You remember when Adam sinned and knew himself to be a sinner?

61:15 Swallowed up with the consciousness of guilt, he runs to hide. Do you remember what God said? Adam, where art thou? Adam, I know, I know I feel shame, but Adam in grace as well as in judgment I come.

61:39 Adam, where are you? And as I poured over this text I only could hear the words in this assembly this morning. Judas, where are you? Judas, where are you?

62:03 And what God didn't say, oh Lord Jesus, when I made my profession before the elders and was baptized and came into the church, I thought the reaction was real and sincere, but oh God you know it. Six months ago, a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, when through the regular preaching and association with God's people it became plain that to be a true Christian means that anything that stands in the way of my devotion to Christ must be treated as an idol. Be it husband, wife, son, daughter, that rise into Christ is an idol and must be smashed. And oh God when I saw that I said no the cost is too much. I don't want Jesus in those terms.

63:10 I've come to see under the preaching and watching God's people that to be a Christian is not to be carried on the crest of some momentary crowd. Enthusiasm is to be so attached to Christ that I'm prepared to obey Him in the secret chamber of my thought life, obey Him in my home, in the shop, in the car, and to obey Him out of love for what He did in dying for sinners. And I don't know anything of that. I've got so many areas I want to control I refuse to relinquish them.

63:45 Oh my friend, you've been wearing a mask ever since. You crossed a line in your heart when you said if that's Christianity I don't want it. But for some reason or another instead of letting that self-disclosure drive you to Christ it drove you to the actor's supply store and now you have a mask. And you've worn it so long you hardly know you've got it on.

64:15 And you've learned your script well. You can say your lines in your sleep and convince even the other disciples. Remember, Judas was not exposed yet. Remember, when he said this the other disciples were in resentment.

64:32 That's right, Judas. And were probably even carried along with his sentiments. He probably initiated this idea. And they chimed in and said, Yes, Judas.

64:43 Our treasury has been dispensed to the poor. Judas, you've got a point. We agree with you. You've learned your lines well.

64:56 You even influence other believers with them. But you're a Judas. And you know it. You know it.

65:07 And that's why no tender soul need be troubled this morning. No tender soul who is mortifying sin that only you and God knows about. Struggling with evil thoughts and passions known only to you and God. Grieved that you don't love the Savior more and devote more of yourself and your time and your possessions to Him.

65:27 You're no Judas. And if the devil comes as the accuser and tells you you are you'd tell him to take his wares elsewhere. But I'm talking to some. You know you're playing the game.

65:40 And God in His providence has brought us at this time to this passage to say Judas, where are you? Don't run from Him. See the ugliness of the sin of calculated religious hypocrisy because remember, remember it's this Jesus before whom you'll stand in the last day. And it says then the secrets of men's hearts will be unveiled.

66:11 Moment! In the day of judgment the real face will be seen. No spirit! In the day of judgment the real entity will be known.

66:25 And the real intention of your words and deeds exposed before the whole moral universe. Judas, there's mercy at the cross for calculating willful hypocrites. There's mercy in the Son of God for the Judases among us. I say this passage speaks to us in a very powerful way exposing these common sins.

Call to Repentance and Trust in Christ's Blood

67:07 The sin of unfounded judgment of others. The sin of measuring others by ourselves. And the sin of calculated religious hypocrisy. And you say, Pastor, what do we do?

67:22 We stand indicted. Oh, my friend, listen. True believer or Judas the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. If that were not true I could not stand and preach to you this morning.

67:44 If I too did not stand unto that fountain open for sin and uncleanness go to that Savior who cleanses from sin that we're prepared to own but who will damn us are determined to hide. There's no sin we've if we alone there is not the least sin that will not damn us if we're determined to cover it and keep it. So you take your choice. Go to Christ with the whole stinking mess and come away clean or cling to that sin and be crippled and grieve the Spirit as a child of God or ultimately be damned if you're a Judas. May God help you to do the former and to do it all your days until you see Him face to face. Let us pray.

Prayer for Forgiveness and Sanctification

68:57 Our Father we thank you for your holy for your infallible word. We thank you that it searches us to the depths of our being and oh how we pray that you'd forgive us for the many times we've indulged the sin of unfounded judgment of one another. We've usurped the place that you have purchased to yourself in your own redemptive work for to this end you died and rose again that you might be Lord and the ultimate judge of all. Cleanse us from that sin cleanse us from the sin of measuring others by ourselves and oh God keep us from ever discouraging white hot devotion to your Son in another simply because it rebukes our coldness. Keep us from fanaticism but oh Lord will you not give us the kind of zeal that must be restrained or it would become fanaticism. And then be merciful to the Judas's among us. Lord do a mask wrecking task this morning.

70:11 Oh God don't let anyone go from a pew in Trinity Church into hell itself. Don't let them go from membership in this assembly to join the chorus of the damned who wail and cry out forever and ever. Oh Father may this word not have been preached in vain but may it result in the sanctification of your people and the salvation of some Judas's among us. We ask in Jesus name.

70:46 Amen.