GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #546

Pastor Don Fortner

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road

Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

WHAT MADE IT A GOOD WORK? Mark 14:3-9

Here are seven things which are obvious about this great thing Mary did for the Lord Jesus, seven things that make her work a good work..

1. Mary did what she did for the glory of Christ alone. All that perfume, all that sweet aroma, all that precious spikenard was meant for Christ alone!

2. This was an act of pure love. Love never counts the cost. Love never weighs the consequence. Love never considers a loss a loss when the loss is made for the one who is loved.

3. This was a work requiring considerable sacrifice and self-denial. We are told that this costly spikenard was valued at 300 pence - a year’s wages! (See Matt. 20:9-13.)

4. Though it was a spontaneous act of love, this sacrifice and anointing required thoughtful, deliberate preparation. Our Master tells us (John 12:7) that Mary had specifically kept this precious ointment for this occasion.

5. Mary did this thing without calling any attention to herself.

Spurgeon said, “Silent acts of love have musical voices in the ears of Jesus. Sound no trumpet before thee, or Jesus will take warning and be gone.”

6. This was the response f Mary’s heart to the sacrifice of her Savior, her Lord, her Redeemer. She believed what she heard the Lord speak (John 3:14-16) and understood that the price of her soul’s ransom was his life’s precious blood!

7. This sacrifice was a work of faith. Mary knew that the Lord Jesus was about to die as her Substitute; but she believed that he would rise from the dead. Therefore, she anointed him for his burial in anticipation f his resurrection (Isa. 53:10-12).

“Go, thou, and do likewise.” Child of God, follow Mary’s example. Do what you can for Christ, do it while you can, do it whenever, and wherever you can. And, "whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

If I am conscious that I am sincerely doing something as unto the Lord, for the glory of his name, the interests of his kingdom, and the furtherance of his gospel, the opinions of men, neither their approval nor their disapproval, are really of no consequence to me. As David said to his half-hearted brothers, I say do nothing critics, who always find fault with anything anyone else might do for Christ, “Is there not a cause?” We must not allow the opinions of men to be the rule of our actions.