Shall we turn to the twelve chapters John's Gospel? John chapter twelve. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter's son, we should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? I understand this is the first thing recorded in the scripture that Judas Iscariot ever said. All the other disciples said a lot, but this is the first time that we know of. Is anything recorded? And later on he took that same money and threw it down, and the money he received and said it was the price of blood. Then says one of his disciples, Judas, is carried Simon's son which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? This, he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag. and bear what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone, against the day of my burying, as she kept it. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead. but the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. May God bless the reading of his precious word. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for this memorable occasion about which we have been reading. We've read it many, many times in our lives. We've heard many sermons on it. We've contemplated it. We've read about it. And yet, Lord, we feel we've never plumbed the depths of this wonderful act of this woman. And we've never yet plumbed the depths of all the meaning of this supper table and the events that took place there and the crisis decision made in Judas' mind at that time. Oh God, help us this morning. as we look into thy word, to see thine eternal plans being worked out for thy son. We thank thee every step of his was in thy will. He said, I do always those things which please the Father. And a way back in eternal ages, he said, Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will. But thy will led to a strange pathway, suffering, rejection, and finally an awful death of crucifixion. Help us, Lord, to see thy plan here. Speak to our hearts, we pray thee, and give us to get the sense and the urgency of John's Gospel as we talk about it once more this morning. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. That's always good to have a subject. I say our subject this morning is the supper at Bethany, and it's always good to have the context to know just where it fits in in the Scriptures. Do you remember last time we were speaking, if you were here, we were dealing particularly with the latter part of the eleventh chapter. In the eleventh chapter, the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead. And at the end of the chapter, verse forty-seven, the Pharisees held a council. The chief priests and Pharisees had a council. And at that council meeting, they made a vital decision. One had said, Caiaphas had said, ye know nothing at all, nor consider it's expedient for us that one should die for the nation, for the people, and that the whole nation perished not. And this say he, not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. How he, who didn't believe in Jesus, could prophesy, I don't know, but God overruled, as we said last time, even Baalim, the false prophet, he prophesied wonderfully true things about Israel. And this Caiaphas, who ultimately was the one who really... brought about the death of the Lord, this is the one who prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. How true that was. And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Very wonderful. You remember he said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, and we'll see in our... not the next thought probably, but the one after that, that there were certain Greeks who came to see Jesus, Gentiles outside, and Caiaphas is prophesying, not for this nation only, but that he might gather together in one the children of God scattered abroad. Then from that day forth, verse fifty-three of chapter eleven, from that day forth they took counsel together to put him to death. This is the dividing point once more. in John's Gospel. This is where that period of conflict comes to an end, and the period, recalling the period of crisis, started right there at that fifty-fourth verse. Jesus, therefore, walked no more openly among the Jews. But went then into a country near to the wilderness, until a city called Ephraim, and continued there with his disciples. And that's where the Lord stayed. I don't know how long. He stayed there until it was time for him to come up to Jerusalem for to offer himself as the Lamb of God. And he arrived at Jerusalem six days. No, he didn't. He arrived at Bethany six days before the Passover. And the next day he arrived at Jerusalem, you remember coming in, riding upon and asked, and so on, which will be our next subject in the will of the Lord, the triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem on what today they call Pound Sunday. Six days before the Passover, he came to Bethes. He left his hiding place, strange thing, that the Son of God should have to hide out from his creatures, to hide away from the men whom he made, whose breath was in his hand, Yet he had to hide away because they decided to take him and slay him and kill him. They couldn't do it until God's hour came. And he kept saying, mine hour is not yet come. Mine hour is not yet come. But you'll find in this very verse, this very chapter, chapter twelve, he's going to say, the hour is come. The hour is come. And so we enter today, in our studies, upon the last week, the last week of the Lord's earthly life here, the last week in his life, very, very serious crisis time in the life of the Lord Jesus. He came to Bethany. He loved Bethany. That was not a hiding place for him, but a rest, a home. He said, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, the Son of Man has not where to lay his head. Put it better than he had a place to lay his head. We've been reading in our Scripture Union portion this week about the woman, the Shunammite woman, who made a prophet's chamber for Elisha the prophet and built a chamber on the wall and put a bed and a table and a stool and a place where the prophet could come and lay his head. Martha Mary did this. They had a room. I think they call it the Lord's room, you know. Whenever he came, weary and tired, that's where he found a home. That's where he found a bed. That's where he found rest and comfort. Now, of course, we're living under rather different circumstances today, some of us, to what we have lived in former days of our life, but We made a rule when we got married. The very first, since we got married, the first home we got, we said, you're going to have a prophet's chamber. And we always had one. We always had a guest room. And we always kept it as a guest room, you know. With the drawers empty so that people can put their things. I owe a great debt to the Lord's people. Vera and I traveled for two and a half years all around this country. when we had no home of our own, the only home we had was the homes of the Lord's people, what wonderful people they were. We owe a debt. We have never, never been able to pay the kindness of God's people and a wonderful hospitality as we went around seeking to serve the Lord. But you know we went into some homes and they'd take you into the bedroom and they'd say it's all yours. and you'd unpack the suitcase, then you'd want to hang up a suit or something, but the closet was full and there wasn't even one spare coat hanger. And all the drawers were full up. And you'd go into another home, you know, and the lady would say, now the closet, we've pushed everything up and out, the closet's empty, all the coat hangers there are yours, and the two top drawers are empty. The two top drawers are empty. Prophet's chamber, you know. I learned by experience what this means. And I learned that a minister of the Word of God, a servant of God, needs two or three things. He needs a bed where he can rest. That's what the mission he really comes home from. Anferno needs a bed. And then he needs somewhere a closet where he can hang his suit. And he needs a drawer where he can put his shirts and these odd things. Now tell you what else he needs, and I found that few people know this. He needs a desk. You know that a missionary staying in your home needs a desk. He needs somewhere to write, because he's going to do a lot of writing. He's got a lot of letters to write, and a lot of study to do, and he needs a desk. And when I sometimes said, I need something to write on, do you know what they hear? A card table. You try and write on a card table. Boy, every time you write, the card table goes all over, and you can't write. And the letters you write, you know, you're ashamed of the writing because the table's all wobbling. And we made a rule that every room in the house would have a desk in. And in our house every room would have a desk. All of them got a desk. Well, there's one here, we can't put one in. The room's too small to get one in. But that's the one we sleep in, so it doesn't matter. But I'm saying a few practical things. I've learned as I went through life. And I believe that this is what Martha and Mary did. They had a place with a comfortable bed. I sometimes try and picture it with the clean linen sheets and the boards of floor scrub so clean, you know. And the lovely drapes of the window, the curtains they had there. I think of the covering on the bed and plus a little table there with a vase of beautiful flowers from that beautiful garden at Bethany. And the Lord found a home. He loved Bethany. And it's lovely to me, I love to think, that the last week of his life on earth, he spent every night at Bethany, except the last night he spent in Gethsemane and in a prison chamber. Because I believe the Lord went to prison that night. He said he was taken from prison and from judgment. And when I was in Jerusalem, they took me down and showed me Christ, what they called Christ prison. underneath the house of Caiaphas. There were prison dungeons, and it seems that they put him down there for a while. It wasn't recorded here. That was a long night, and he spent it somewhere. But all the other nights, if that's not last night, he spent them in a beautiful home at Bethany, where they loved him. So Jesus arranged that when he came up from his hiding place, he would go to Bethany. He arrived six days. days before the Passover, he came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper. Now the other scriptures, it's recorded in Matthew twenty-six, is it? And it's recorded in Mark fourteen that it was in the house of Simon a leper. Simon lived at Bethany. Now no leper could have a supper party in his house because the leper was not allowed to associate with people. So Simon must have been cleansed of his leprosy. He must have been cured to have a supper in his house. Maybe Simon was related to Martha and Mary Lazarus. I don't know. Evident they were a great friend of his. Maybe his house was bigger and he had a larger room where they could have a supper. Because, you know, there were about seventeen people at that supper that night. Jesus and his twelve disciples, and Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and Simon, I don't know how many else, but that made seventeen, you know. So he had to have a pretty big table. And they made a supper, and Lazarus was there. Some have said this is a wonderful picture of heaven, you know. When we get to heaven... We're going to sit down with the Lord. He said so. We'll sit down with him in the glory of heaven. And the Lord himself will be there. That's like this supper table. And Lazarus was there. Lazarus had been raised from the dead. He had a kind of a resurrection body, you know. He didn't have the resurrection body, but it was a resurrection body. And when we sit around with the Lord in the glory, we have resurrection body. And Simon the leper was there. Leprosy is a great type of sin. And Simon cleansed from leprosy. And we cleanse from sin in the glory of heaven. You're going to sit down with the Lord Jesus. And they ate with him. That's what he says you do. And Martha, it says, look at it. It says, Lazarus, it says, Martha served. Martha served. And Lazarus sat. And Mary anointed the three things they did. Martha served. And in Revelation twenty-two, verse four, write out in eternal ages it says, His servant shall serve him. So he has a picture of heaven. Martha served. And what did Mary do? She anointed him. And amid the glories of heaven, you and I are going to pour out our heart adoration and praise to the one who loved us and gave himself for us. What a wonderful, wonderful picture. of the coming glory that's going to be yours and mine. And it's going to be the glory of the Son of God in that eternal age that's to come. Here's this lovely picture. I'd like to see these little bits of prophecy in these Gospels. We'll see it later down in this chapter. Little prophetic things coming in. And here's a little prophetic picture of eternal glories in heaven. Notice Martha serves. Notice Lazar sat and notice Mary anointed. I can see another table here, you know, where the Lord sits with His people. We were at that table this morning. It's called the table of the Lord, the table of the Lord. When on the first day of the week we come together to remember Him. and to sit at his table. And like Lazarus, raised from the dead, for we were dead in trespasses and sins, every one of us. And he saved us, and quickened us. And we sit at his table. What a privilege. What a privilege to sit at his table. And then Martha served, and some serve at his table. We have to move the bread and the wine and the basket and all that, that serving. But Mary went beyond all of that. She anointed. And the anointing is a picture of worship and praise. And every one of the Lord's table can worship and praise Him. Oh, I wish sometimes that God would stir the hearts of the brethren, of the men. That they get up and praise Him. This is a wonderful meeting here. We have... I think a greater flow of praise than you find in most meetings of this character. We don't waste much time, but I can think of some men sitting here this morning and I look at your faces and I never hear your voices as the Lord said. Why? Wouldn't it be a simple thing to say, Lord Jesus, we've loved it, we've praised it, we've thanked it, we've sat down? You don't have to use a lot of words. At the Lord's table we come to worship Him. And it's the privilege of the brethren as priests in the Lord's house to put the incense upon the altar and to worship Him. And you don't have to have knowledge. You don't have to preach a sermon to the Lord. All you've got to do is say, Lord, we love you. That's enough. And sit down. But let's worship. Let's worship. Mary anointed him. Another point I'd like to make here, Judas had a lot to say. But the one who did the great act there, Mary, the whole house was filled with the order of the ointment. Not the room that they were in, but the whole house was filled with the order of the ointment. And what did Mary say? Tell me what she said, Mary. Did she stand up? No, it's the brother's place to stand up and worship. Mary didn't do that. She never opened her mouth. She never said one word. But what she did at that supper table filled the whole house with a wonderful, wonderful fragrance. And you sisters, as you sit at the Lord's table, We don't make the rules. The book makes it. God made the rules. God said the sister should be silent. We didn't make that rule. We can't help it. God says it. We practice it. But I tell you what you, sisters, as you sit at the Lord's table and worship him, and your heart overflows, and you break the box of ointment and pour on his feet, in silence as she was in silence, you can fill the whole house with odor and fragrance. And it goes up to the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful thing to sit in this table. We'll sit at this table in heaven, but we sit at this table on earth. And I value, above all things on earth, I value that one hour when we come together to remember the Lord Jesus on the first day of the week. I never miss it. Except when I'm lying in a hospital bed. That's I think the only time I ever miss. being at the Lord's place. I've gone there when my back aches and I couldn't stand up, but I'm there. Because I believe the Lord called me and he said, this to a remembrance of me and I do it because I believe it's his will. To me it's the greatest thing in all the week and that remembrance of the Lord on the first day of the week sets a pattern and sets a tone for you and me for our lives through all the rest of the week. And I wonder if the wisdom of the Lord, they came together on the first day of the week. If we did it every three months as they do in some churches, if we did it once a month as they do in some churches, we'll wander a long way from the Lord in a month. But if you come to the Lord's table on the first day of the every week, you're not going to wander far away because the fragrance of that meeting and the remembrance of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus at the place called Calvary are going to keep your heart fresh and your love fresh and your love tender to him all through the week. What a wonderful, wonderful provision. Oh, the Lord was wise, I think, when he made this provision and said, This do in remembrance of me. So this picture then tells me, I see, as I said, a picture of a table in heaven, but I see a picture of a table on earth when you and I can come together to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like to say something about the six days. Now, some people pick on this, you know, and say, ah, here's a discrepancy in the Bible. Because, let me read you. Then six days before the Passover came Jesus to Bethany, where Lazarus was, where he had been dead, whom he raised from the dead, and there they made him a supper. Now I believe chronologically that's where it happened, six days before. Now turn back to Mark fourteen. Mark fourteen. And read verse one. After two days was the feast of Pasuf. After two days was the feast of the Pasuf and of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and scribes thought, or they might, take him by craft and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leopard, as he said it, became a woman having an alabaster box of ointment very precious, and break it and so on. So people say one thing took place six days before the Passover, and the other took place two days before the Passover. So there must have been two anointings that week. No, there was not. This anointing took place and this supper took place six days before the Passover. Let's go to Matthew. verse two. You know that after two days is the feast of the Passover. And the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people under the place of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtly and kill him. 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, doesn't say he was there two days before the Passover. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, they made a supper in the house of Simon. Now what happened two days before the Passover was the council then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people under the palace of the high priest. It was called Caiaphas. and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. That's what happened two days before the Passover. That meeting in the parish of Caiaphas the high priest. Now then, at that meeting of Caiaphas the high priest, Judas was present. And that's where they made the bargain. That's where they said to Judas, you bring him to us, we give you forty pieces of silver. No, we give you twenty pieces of silver. No, Judas, he said, no, I want forty. And he said, ah, Jews, we are. We're not going to give. We give you twenty. And Judas says, I'm not coming for less than forty. And they bargained. It says that he bargained with them. And they settled for thirty pieces of silver. And that took place two nights before the Passover in the palace of the high priest. But when you bring Judas into the picture, you've got to go back to the supper that took place six nights before the Passover. Because it was at that supper that Judas said, I'm going to get that money anyhow. Let's go back to John twelve. In John twelve it says, Then says one of his disciples verse four, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and beer what was put there in. He wanted the value of that box of ointment. He said, it's waste to pour it on the Lord. Let's sell it. Let me put the money in the bag. And he was a thief and kept what was put in the bag. And he was so mad, I believe, and so angry that he didn't get that money. And to him it was wasted. They said, why was this waste made? He says in the other... Why was this waste made? And he was so angry. It's there. He said, I'll get the money somehow. And he went out. Four nights later, he went to the palace of the high priest, and there the bargaining was done. And that's why you get in Matthew and in Mark. The fact that two nights before the Passover, there was a meeting, a council in the palace of Caiaphas the high priest, and they took counsel of them, and they put him to death subtly for fear of the Jews. But to get the reference, as Judas had brought into the picture, to get the reference, You've got to go back four nights, six nights before the Passover, when Judas had entered into his mind. I'm going to get that money by hook or by crook. I'll get it. Why waste it on him? That's how he got it. And that's why the link up, there was not two feats. There were not two anointings. The Lord was not anointed on this two days before the Passover. John, I believe, is chronologically correct. six days before the Passover, this supper took place, and six days before the Passover, nearly anointed him, six days before the Passover, Judas made up his mind that he'd get it somewhere in the other, and two days before the Passover, he met with the high priest in the palace of the high priest and made the bargain that would sell the Son of God for thirty pieces of silk. So there's no contradictions. The book is perfect. There's no mistakes here at all. All we need to do is sit down and study it. There's no mistakes. It's perfect. Now she anointed his feet with this wonderful ointment. It says it was very costly, very costly. And the other scriptures tell us that she broke a box. It was in a box, some kind of container. It generally believed that this thing was so costly that it probably represented all that Mary had, you know. They had the home. Mary and Martha and Lazarus had this home. What kind of a home it was, I don't know, except I'm sure it was a clean, beautiful, maybe a cottage, I don't know, but it was a place where the Lord found rest. And a place that the Lord loved, and the Lord loves cleanliness. Most young women in the East have to save up for their dowry, you know. And their... fathers have to save up for a dowry. When I lived in Greece, you didn't congratulate a man very much when he had a son. When a son was born, that wasn't anything you congratulated him on. Pardon, pardon, pardon. You congratulated him if a son was born. Well, you didn't congratulate him very much when a daughter was born. It was going to cost him a lot of money. He had to find a dowry. If a daughter grew up and got married, he had to give a dowry to the young man that married her. And they argue and bargain. I'll marry her for so much. And the fellow says, I haven't got it. Well, then you know, I won't take it. And they argue until they decide how much the young man who marries her is going to get from the father. And the girl saves up for her dowry. And she had saved up, not mocked. And just like we would invest money in a savings and loan account. So she had her money invested in this wonderful box of wine. Now, Mary had a wonderful insight. None of the disciples knew that he was going to be crucified. He told them over and over again that he was going up to Jerusalem. They were going to spit upon him. They were going to scourge him. They were going to crucify him in the third day he arrived again. He told them over and over again. But they didn't understand him. He never entered into their head. And I think that On the way up from Jericho, he must have told them, and what it was. Look at Mark ten. Mark ten, verse thirty-two. I remember rightly. Mark ten, verse thirty-two. In Mark ten, you get this little term, the way, in the way, in the way, comes about three times. In Mark ten. But verse thirty-two, they were in the way going up to Jerusalem. and Jesus went before them. They were amazed as they followed him. They were afraid, and he took again the twelve and began to tell them what things would happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man should be delivered under the chief priest and under the scribes, and they should condemn him to death, and they should deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall discourage him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him, and the third day shall rise again. Now get the immediate reaction when he told what was going to happen. See what happened? And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him, saying, Master, we would that you should give us whatsoever we request. Now listen to what he's telling you. I'm going to die. And they came and said, Now you give us whatsoever we request. He said, What will you that I should give unto you? He said, Grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand in thy glory. Did they understand what he was talking about? He said, I'm going to die on a cross. I'm going to be scourged. I'm going to be spat upon. They're going to kill me. Never entered. They said, he's going to be a king. He's going to reign. They said, Master, when you get that kingdom and you're in your glory, we're creating people. These two, James and... John, we want to sit on the right hand and the left hand on the throne in Rome. He didn't understand. He never entered their heart. They couldn't understand it. But Mary understood. And Mary knew. You see, Mary had sat at his feet. And Mary had learned wonderful lessons at his feet. And she knew that he was the Lamb of God. She knew what he meant. And he said, I lay down my life for the sheep. She knew. They didn't, but she knew. And she knew he was going to be crucified. And she knew with the crucifixion, there would be a Roman soldiers all around that cross. And she knew she'd never get near him. And the one thing people did out there, you saw them coming on the first day of the week, you'll see them on the first day of the week, they came running. bringing their spices to put on his body in a burial. And Mary said, I won't get near that crown. I'm going to give it to him now. I'm going to give it to him now. And she took the very best thing she had. That wonderful box of alabaster items. And she broke it. And she poured it on his feet. Now Matthew and Mark say she poured it on his head. Well, that's all right. If they said she poured it on his head, she poured it on his head. And if John says she poured it on his feet, the Bible's right. She poured it on his feet. So she poured it on his head and his feet. That's clear enough. The Bible says so. As he took this costly thing and expended it upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what the Lord says. He explains it. He says, Let her alone, verse seven. against the day of my burying as she kept. She saved up that costly ointment so that when ultimately he died, she'd anoint him with that lovely ointment. But she knew he was going to die prematurely. She knew he was going to be murdered. She knew he was going to die. And I believe she knew he was going to die as the Lamb of God. She learned it because she's had this. Against the day of my burying as she kept this. for the poor and of course in Mark she says, she's come up forehand. So he says in Mark fourteen, she has come up forehand to anoint my body to the very end. What foresight she has, eh? She anointed his body with that wonderfulointment. Now we come on the first day of the week, not beforehand, long years after we come to pour out our grateful praise which is like a fragrance that goes up to him as we think about his death and his body being broken and scourged and bruised and wounded and crucified for us. He'd do it in retrospect, but she anticipated it. And so when the day did come and the Lord was crucified, there was no need for Mary to go and push through the crowd. and be jeered and buffeted by Roman soldiers. She'd already had it. She'd anticipated what God was going to do. And in that, so then, in that wonderful supper, we see God's purposes being anticipated. Here's a woman who anticipated and knew God's plan and knew that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God. and knew that he was going to lay down his life, she anticipated God's purposes in that awful week that lay ahead, those last six days, and six days beforehand, when she had the opportunity, she did this great act. But the other one there, Judas, he anticipated God's plans too. It says, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, he's raised up his heel against me. That's recorded in Psalms and Prophecy. That was Judas. Judas was in God's plan. Strange thing to say, but he was. God's plan was that his son should go to the place called Calvary and bear your sin. If there's somebody here unsaved this morning, bear your sin in his own body on the tree. That was God's plan. And God's plan entailed that one person, and his name was Judas, should betray him for thirty pieces of silver. Just like Joseph was sold for twenty pieces, the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver. And Judas anticipated that at that supper table. He had a lot to say. Mary had nothing to say. And the Lord said, this thing that she has done, he says in Mark fourteen and in Matthew, this should be a memorial for her. Wheresoever the gospel is preached in all the world, this should be had as a memorial for her. What does it mean? I believe it means this. The preaching of the gospel is a sacrifice. You can't go into all the world and preach the gospel without sacrifice. We have sitting in our midst this morning missionaries, missionaries who have given up home and given up their own land and have gone out in Central Africa and gone out into the far mission field at great cost. They had to give up all, they're going to serve. And the Lord says, where the gospel is preached, and it's preached with this spirit, this spirit of giving up. We've heard about Abraham already referred to this morning, who gave up everything. And our brother Nissen spoke to us this morning about what we would give up for the Lord Jesus, what we would give up. And he mentioned, enumerated many things that were given up in the Scripture. And the Lord says, if a man loves his home and his wife and his family more than me, he's not worthy of the kingdom. He says, my gospel is going to be preached, take great seconds. It means you'll give up. It means you'll sacrifice home and loved ones and land, and you'll go out with the gospel. And he said, Wheresoever, in all the world, the gospel is preached. This that she's done should give her more. That's to say, men and women will go out into all the world with this spirit of giving all they've got. That's what Mary did. Took all she had and laid it empty. He's saying, Will you take your life and lay it at my feet and go out with the gospel? This will be a memorial to all the world. What a wonderful supper that was. What a wonderful scene. What great lessons we learned in that supper. And that was the crucial point where Judas made up his mind so that four days later he went and sold the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver. He kept the bag. You know, he didn't buy that field, you know. You know, he had a field where they buried him. He didn't buy that field with the money he got for selling the Lord. He bought that field long before. You know that? He bought that money with a field he'd stolen out of the bank. It's called the price of iniquity, that field. He stole it out of the bag. He kept the bag. And kept, he was a thief, and kept what was there in it. Now just one final point. Many of the chief priests consulted how they might put Lazarus to death. Because, look at this, because by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Here's old John again. He says, I'm writing this gospel that you might believe. And all through the gospel you'll find in every chapter they believe. And because of Lazarus they believe. Wonderful ending to our talk. They believe. And every gospel meeting ends this way. Some believe and some believe not. Maybe there's someone this morning and go out from here not believing. If you believe you have eternal life. If you don't believe you'll not see life. but the wrath of God advises upon you. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for this study, may be rather a rambling study, but a study of thy wondrous precious word, a study of a beautiful scene, of a beautiful act, a study of the love of a woman who fell at thy feet in worship and adoration and gave thee all she had. Lord Jesus, some of us have known thee many years, Some of us have given me some of what we've got. Some of us have given me part of what we've got. And Lord, when we think Mary only had six days left, in fact, if she hadn't done it that night, she never would have had another chance. And some of us, Lord, we can't count how many days we've got left. We don't know. And we're getting near the end of the story. We can't tell. Help us, Lord, now, whilst there's still time. to give thee all we've got. Help us to lay ourselves at thy feet, Lord. To give thee our moments and our hours, to give thee our money, to give thee our possessions, to give thee all we have and lay it at thy feet, Lord Jesus, to be used for thy glory. We seek thy parting blessing in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.