In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'The Aroma of True Christianity,' the narrative from John 12 is used to explore the essence of true Christianity versus dead religion. The sermon begins with the account of Mary anointing Jesus' feet with costly oil, an act symbolizing her deep love and devotion. This act contrasts sharply with Judas Iscariot's criticism, revealing his self-interest and lack of genuine faith. The setting of the dinner at Simon the leper's house, where Jesus, Lazarus, and the disciples gather, serves as a backdrop for examining the different responses to Jesus' presence. The sermon emphasizes how Mary's devotion, characterized by humility and sacrificial love, is a model for true Christian faith. In contrast, Judas represents dead religion, marked by self-centeredness and outward appearances. Brown highlights the importance of reflecting on our own faith and devotion, asking how much Jesus moves us and what we are willing to give up for Him. The sermon challenges believers to emulate Mary's example, focusing on the transformative power of genuine love for Jesus.

Please be seated and open your Bibles to John chapter 12. John chapter 12 will begin in verse 1 and read through verse 11 and This is the holy word of God for the equipping of the saints and for the drawing of sinners into the kingdom of Jesus. So verse 1, then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, who had been dead, who'd been raised from the dead, there they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of those who sat at table with him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

Then one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, said, why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 dinari and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, But because he was a thief and had the money box, and he used to take what was put in it. But Jesus said, Let her alone, she's kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you have with you always, but me you do not have always." Now, a great many of the Jews knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.

Let's pray. Oh Lord we thank you for these words designed Perfectly for us for where we are at this very moment Or we pray that you would Help us to understand these marvelous things that you have put before us today They would do their work and move us The way you moved Mary Amen So John chapter 12 shows us what it means to be a Christian, a true Christian, and taking us to the heart of true Christianity. And it also exposes what dead religion looks like. So you have both of these things in this chapter. You know, the Lord brings different things to us at different times to help us in different ways, but you know all of the narratives in the Bible are really meant to meet us where we are and to take us somewhere else.

And and I've just been praying that God would take all of us together into the heart of what really made Mary do what she did. And I think the center of this text is the display of love of Mary toward her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. She saw Jesus raise her brother from the dead, And she had known of Jesus. Jesus was in her home. And I believe that she was saving ointment for his burial.

That she'd heard him say that he was going to die, and she was saving something up for his burial. And she's delighting in the life of Jesus, in the works of Jesus. She's happily at the feet of Jesus. That's where Mary always is, by the way, when you catch her. She's always at the feet of Jesus.

She had such a precious faith and, you know, I've thought all of us, As we're gathered here today looking at this passage of scripture, need more of what Mary has. I know I do. I've been crying out to God for that, for me and for everybody in my family and for all of us as a church that the preciousness of Jesus would come upon us today, maybe like it hasn't all week long or maybe even all year long, but here we are in front of this passage and it, you know, all week long I've been thinking of that song. It's a chorus, you know, Lord, you are more precious than silver. Lord, you are more costly than gold.

Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds and nothing my desire heart desires compares with you so that's what we have here And here's another interesting thing about this. Men, this woman is your role model, how about that? Her faith is held up to all of us today. You know there's something about the faith in the heart of a woman that men need to understand, and you see that here. And what, and of course the Word of God says that what this woman has done will be a memorial.

In other words, it's going to stand for all Christians to look at. You know, in many ways I've thought this passage is too high for any of us to try to explain, especially me. And it's a time, though, where all of us are brought to a place to consider the condition of our hearts, the condition of our love, our gratitude toward him, And to ask ourselves, how much is He worth to me? How much does He move me? Now the Context here, of course, I think you know the context in the previous chapter Lazarus was raised from the dead and then after that Jesus and his disciples departed to Ephraim.

We don't know even know how long they stayed there, but now they've come back They've returned to Bethany and they're eating dinner in a home. Bethany's two miles from Jerusalem, so they're right close to Jerusalem. This house will kind of be a base camp in the last week of Jesus' life. And in this scene, there are at least 17 people in the room. You have 12 disciples, and you have Jesus and Mary and Martha and Lazarus and Simon the leper.

Well, that's whose house they're all eating at. And they're having dinner. And in this scene, you have this outpouring of love in verses one through three, and then you have this undercurrent of criticism from Judas in verses four through five and then Jesus declares the truth about the whole matter in verses seven and eight and then there's this influx of the crowd in verse nine they they want to see Lazarus because they knew he was dead and he's having dinner at Simon the leper's house. And then this underworld of hatred comes to the surface again in verse 10 for the umpteenth time where there's a plot to kill Jesus. And then finally in verse 11 there's this upwelling of belief.

People believed. So you've got these people, you know, seventeen people in the room and sixteen of them love you know 17 people in the room and 16 of them Love Jesus and the other one is there because he loves himself That's really important to catch as we get to this section here. Now remember what's happening where we are in the Gospel of John. The first 11 chapters are about three years of Jesus' ministry, and verses 12 through 21 document the last week of Jesus' life. In other words, John devotes 10 chapters to the final week of Jesus' life, and ten and eleven chapters to the first three years.

Now the other gospel writers do a similar thing, But it should teach us how pivotal this moment in history is this is the center of history the cross of Jesus Christ is not only the center of history, but it's the center of every heart of every Christian and it's the thing we celebrate the most. It's actually why we gather. We gather to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And John devotes 10 full chapters to the last seven days. And then there are all these contrasts in this chapter.

There's this outpouring of love and gratitude and honor, and I think that really is the undercurrent of the whole chapter. The religious hatred shows up from time to time in this but What you find mainly in this chapter is? How much Jesus was honored and Loved and then hatred moments of hatred all throughout this chapter. What's so amazing to me is that how one man's life lived out in the open can affect people so differently. You know in in the first 11 verses, Mary is honoring him, and then the chief priests want to kill him.

In verses 12 through 19, we see this picture of the common people They come to honor him and then in verses 20 to 26 the Greeks come to honor him and You remember what they said they say? Sir, we would we would see Jesus. They want to see Jesus the Greeks do and then God the father honors his son from heaven in verses 27 to 36 and then in verses 37 to 41 there's this picture of the honor of the Old Testament prophets toward Jesus and Then some and finally there's honor toward Jesus among some of the chief priests and the rulers That's verses 42 to 43. So you have this overwhelming focus of the honor that Jesus is receiving but also the hatred and the bitterness that exists at the same time. One man's life, two different responses.

Now the characters in this story, you know, you have Martha who's serving, you have Mary who is outpouring, you have Lazarus, he's living, You have Simon the leper who's clean, and you have Judas who's condemning, and you have the crowd who's believing, and then finally at the end you have the leaders who are scoffing and planning to kill. So that's what you get in these first 11 verses. So I want to begin with the first thing that we see here in verses one through three where you have this overflowing gratitude at this supper in Bethany and we read, then six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus who was who had was also who had been dead whom he had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him.

So the time frame here is six days before Passover. What that means is that this is six days before the crown of thorns, six days before the slapping, six days before the mocking and the cross and the spear. And you know in these last seven days of Jesus ministry here, you know on Saturdays is this dinner at Simon the leper's house and then on Sunday the triumphal entry and then Monday Jesus visits Jerusalem and he curses the fig tree for not bearing fruit and Tuesday Jesus gives his last words to his disciples in the Olivet discourse a very long section a very beautiful section where Jesus speaks to his disciples. And then on Thursday, Jesus returns to Jerusalem for the Passover and he's arrested. And then on Friday, he's crucified.

And then on Sunday, he's resurrected. So that's where we are in the whole scheme of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now this takes place in the home of Simon the leper. You see a picture here of believers living pretty courageously because they know that Jesus is a marked man and if you're seen with them that's a real big problem. And these, but they host a meal and they're living their lives open.

And Also Lazarus is a marked man, they want to kill him too. You have two marked men in the room together, and they're eating together. That's a time of vulnerability. And Simon the leper lived right there in Bethany. But if you can just picture this moment, you have a man formerly known as a dead man, and you had another man formerly known as a leper.

A Dead man and a leper Eating dinner together. Can you imagine what that was like? Can you imagine I wouldn't you have loved to hear those conversations? You can probably picture them in your mind You know Simon the leper. He's saying my skin came back, my finger grew back, my nose grew back.

Well, because when you're a leper, that's what you lose though, you lose your extremities. Can you imagine that? And they're eating. Well, also, by the way, there would be no party in Simon the leper's house if he was still a leper. He's not a leper anymore.

Lepers don't have parties. Nobody comes. Well, they're actually unclean. They're not allowed to come by Jewish law. So here you've got Simon the leper who's sitting there in Lazarus.

We don't hear anything from Lazarus. We're probably not supposed to hear anything from Lazarus But you can expect Lazarus was talking It wouldn't surprise me if Lazarus said, Simon the leper, you ain't seen nothing. I was dead for four days. Okay. Do you know what I saw when I was dead?

Well, we don't know what he saw, but He probably saw Moses and Elijah. So, it's amazing. I mean, you just have to catch this moment that's taking place here. And it's an assembly of Broken people set free it's a it's a picture of a bunch of people gathered together who've been healed They've been saved they've been raised from the dead. They've been made clean.

That's what this is. It's a little bit like this about gathering right here now today Here we are. We've you know, we're like Lazarus, you know we came out of that grave all wrapped up stinky and Jesus has just been unwrapping those grave clothes and removing the stink. And he's still doing it. And here we are.

And somebody here, let's have some testimonies. What did Jesus do for you? A lot. And they're having this dinner. They're celebrating.

They were weeping when Lazarus was dead. Now they're celebrating. It just made me think about our own church. You know, we have at minimum we have 52 meals together every year 52 dinners, you know lunches together and if you count up the other times, it's probably 60 or 70 times we eat together when we gather if you count conferences and gatherings and family camps and picnics and stuff like that we we're doing this a lot and you know what it is we're a lot like this we're a bunch of people dragged off the street, and we have Jesus. And He's done so much for us.

Such were some of you. So The apostle Paul said, he said, you know, some of you are fornicators and idolaters and adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortionists. You are on your way to hell, And now you're on the way to heaven Such were some of you, but you were washed but you were sanctified But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of God Well, we're doing this very similar thing today so what you know what has he done in your life celebrate that today celebrate what he's done in your life. If you're a real Christian you're not satisfied with everything that you've opened the door for him to do in your life But you just want him to do more but celebrate what he's done He forgave you he made you his child He promised that he would never leave you or forsake you. He promised to feed you and help you and uphold you with the right hand of his righteousness.

He said don't fear anything. You know, what has he done? So, you know, all of this just bears witness to what we've read in John over and over again, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. And so this is a dinner where almost everybody in the room has everlasting life, almost. And that's also very important to recognize because what's happening in that dinner is also happening here you have those who really have been healed and saved but you always have some who are not, even though they look like they are, like Judas.

Well, then Mary anoints the feet of Jesus in verse 3, then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, Anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of oil. So there they are. You can imagine there's a kind of a short-legged table, like a coffee table, and everybody's sitting around the table with their legs, you know, out to the side and they're leaning and they're celebrating and the sisters got their brother back. That's what's happening in this room and Martha is serving Martha's doing what she always does don't hit Martha for serving She's awesome She is a servant. There are so many people like that in this church.

They love to serve They love to keep their hands busy to serve people. You know, I heard of a sign above a woman's kitchen posted there that read, divine service held here three times a day. You know moms have served, they serve a lot and we have a lot of servants here in this church but that's what that's what Martha was doing she was serving and I Mean Jesus himself said I am the one I'm among you as one who serves so let's don't denigrate her service But so Mary has this oil it's very expensive It's worth a year's wages 300 days wages. You do the calculation 40 60 that who knows It's a lot. It's a year's wages for somebody.

It's a lot for anybody and You know to get it Camels would have to carry it from India To bring it there. It's very costly. It was used for funerals to cover up bad odor It was used in homes to give a fragrance to the home. You know, every home has a certain fragrance. Hopefully it's the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, that oil.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus use this on the body of Jesus. In Matthew we learn something a little bit more than John tells us that it was contained in an alabaster jar or a box which is like a white translucent stone. If you can imagine that, a very beautiful box or container. It was a one pound. Now, I don't know.

Some people say it was 11 ounces, but a pound weighs about almost 16 ounces. You can picture how much that is, you know, a 16 ounce bottle of water. That's how much that was. It was a lot. And, you know, in the parable, I mean, in the parallel passages, like for example, Mark tells us that she anointed his head.

But Jesus says she anointed his body. But here it's his feet. Now, you know, John doesn't give all the details, but I think if you read the other passages, this went over his whole body. And there was enough to do that. And her actions are speaking of her heart, speaking of what he was worth to her, and she spares nothing.

Now, there's another account of Jesus' feet and a woman's hair. It's a different account. It's in Luke chapter 7. And there's a gathering in a Pharisee's home and a prostitute walks in to the gathering. And she's overcome with emotion and she falls at Jesus' feet and she's crying and tears are covering his feet, his dirty feet.

And she wipes off his feet with her hair. That's a different... Now Mary may have thought similarly. She might have been thinking about that, But we don't know. But Mary uses her hair.

Now, I doubt if anyone has ever seen this happen. The Bible says that the glory of a woman is her hair. It is glorious. It's beautiful. And you know, the way women keep their hair beautifully, it really is a lovely thing.

And it's a precious thing. It really is their glory in a in a godly sense. It's something that God gave them for for some kind of glory and a Woman protects her hair a woman makes her hair beautiful and anything that would mar her hair is anathema Okay Don't mess with the woman So there are two things you don't do. You don't go grab a hat off a man and you don't mess up a girl's hair. Those two things you don't do.

Got that young boys? You don't ever do that, okay? But Mary has real faith and her faith is moving her thoughts, her emotions, her hands, and even her hair in gratitude toward Jesus. It's very striking. And so you have a woman's hair and its beauty.

But then you have a man's feet And she's gonna put her hair on those feet those walk in dusty roads sandal covered feet and She's doing what is not done And so you see this woman with tremendous humility. It is interesting that Mary is always at the feet of Jesus in some way shape or form. That's where she wants to be. And she uses her glory, her hair, to magnify the glory of her Savior. So you see her joy, we find her in a state that the Apostle Peter talked about joy inexpressible and full of glory that was her and she really believed that her devotion was beautiful and sacrificial.

There was genuineness verified by Jesus. Jesus said, yes, this was real and this was good. It was genuine. This was not some show And it was love, you know, she loved his teaching Do you remember back when she met Jesus, when Lazarus died? When she cried, Jesus cried with her.

You know, Jesus knew he was going to bring him out of the grave in just a few minutes but yet he enters into her sorrow right where she is and cries with her you know she she's humble before her Savior and she's always at his feet. She listens to her Savior and he is her teacher. Mary appreciates her Savior. He raised her brother. Mary is cared for by her Savior because her Savior puts His arm around her when she's distraught.

And Mary is comforted by her Savior because he enters into her sorrows. And Mary loves her Savior. She wipes his feet with her hair. And she's humble before her Savior. She's clothed with humility and she's lavish toward her Savior and she's giving sacrificially and she meditates on her Savior.

Well she's carrying an alabaster jar of This expensive oil and she's saving it for his burial You know that there's so many hymns that have gone through my mind. Oh, sacred head, now wounded, what language can I offer to thank the dearest friend? You know, she gave what she had, and that's what all of us should think about today. We should ask, what do I have? What do I have?

What wisdom do I have? What knowledge? What business do I have? What platform do I have? What pulpit do I have to praise the name of Jesus?

What can I use To say how much I love him and so the aroma filled the house You know, is this the aroma in our homes is the aroma of our homes the aroma of love for Jesus Every home has a certain aroma Is it the aroma of the precious oil of Jesus? So here you know there's so much to say about Mary, but Mary had the abundant life that gave birth to an abundant heart. That's Mary. Well, the story goes on, then there's this undercurrent of criticism. Judas objects, this is in verses 4 through 6, this is an undercurrent of false religion.

Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, said, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? And then John comments, This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and he had the money box and he used to take what was put in it. So we have what Judas said and then we have what John knew about him. We don't know when John...John seemed to have learned this later. Remember, John is writing years later, and now everybody knows what was going on with Judas, but they didn't know then.

In fact, Matthew says all the disciples were indignant just like Judas. You know, a lot of times the first guy to speak sort of, you know, moves everybody in the same direction. The first slander kind of wins others and moves people's hearts. But that bad interpretation was shared by the other disciples. They didn't, I don't think they knew that Jesus was a thief at this time.

They didn't know. That happens all the time. You don't know. You don't know until sometimes a long time later. Well, it wouldn't be long here.

It would just be a very short time. They would know he was the betrayer. And he would kiss Jesus, just continuing his little fake lifestyle. But So there's these two Kinds of aroma in the room There's this aroma of the love of Mary toward Jesus and then you have the stench of the critique Judas and you know Matthew Henry says he summarizes Judas's deal here worldly wisdom censure upon pious zeal offense because someone is guilty of imprudence and mismanagement. Now you know Mary and Judas had a lot in common.

They were both Jews. They both spent a lot of time with Jesus. They both professed Christ. They both were serving Jesus. Judas was the treasurer of the money, but Mary was the treasurer of Jesus.

But you have an expression of living faith and you have an expression of dead religion right here in the same room Mary had an alabaster box Judas had a money box. So Judas expresses the unmoved heart of dead religion, of a dead man pretending to be alive. So these two different religions are here. Even the most theologically refined and adept preacher can be lost, just like Judas. Judas was a preacher.

Jesus sent him out to preach, two by two. Who got to preach with Judas? How about that? You're preaching with Judas. You get to go with Judas, but you don't know who Judas really is You know in Mary you see the the fruit of her regeneration and the Judas you see the manifestation of his degeneration but it all looked so good on the outside and Judas's bottom line is care for himself Everything is evaluated on how it affects him.

And Judas makes this statement, and it's what we call today virtue signaling. That's what Judas was doing. He was making himself the virtuous person in the room. You know, so brave, you know, to speak out. And, you know, this virtue signaling is an ancient practice.

It's when you do, you take a useless action that shows how wise you are and how much better you are than other people. And so, but Judas is just serving himself. He's looking out for number one because when Judas comes to church, He really pretty much only cares about himself. What is he going to get from this thing? He doesn't come to worship Jesus, he comes for some other social or material benefit.

And that makes the difference between a Christian and a non-christian the non-christian is just looking for something some add-on something to make the marriage better something to improve your social life something to get relationships with people you know if this doesn't happen in our church but in some churches you know if they're big enough people go to church because it's a great place to pass out your business card. And you can get a lot of business doing that. But there are people like Judas in every church and they're looking for something for themselves and they have an agenda and They may have different agendas that have grown up because of various matters of sin or idolatry They may be very needy relationally and they come and they're just looking for relationships but when they come looking for relationships, hopefully they find Jesus. They do need relationships, but they need Jesus more than relationships. So, everybody has to ask themselves, who am I?

Am I Mary or am I Judas? You know Judas was astute theologically a gifted and organized person, someone that everybody thought would be good to handle the money. But who was he really? Well he's revealed here and so you know when you when you come here you should ask am I am I serving myself or am I seeking Jesus that's the big issue here so it's just a question we have to ask it's brought to us here through this passage Mary was the kind of person who all she wanted was to be at the face of Jesus. By the way, The more people who come into a church and that's all they want That's when you have a really happy church When people really want Jesus they want to hang they want to sing they want to hang on the words They want to pray they want to read the Bible.

They soak it in they want to be at the feet of Jesus. But Judas, you know, Judas had a very high view of himself. He criticizes the humble people. Judas wants something for himself to get his needs met. He masks his covetousness.

He wanted money and he has a fake cloak of righteousness. And he didn't really think Jesus was worthy of that kind of outpouring Because his heart wasn't moved. It wasn't even movable. He was the son of perdition It's interesting, you know Jesus Jesus had 300 denarii worth of ointment poured out on him and Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 denarii Ten times less Then there Then Jesus comes and he declares the truth of the matter, verses 7 and 8. Jesus replies to Judas, But Jesus said, now he's talking to Judas, let her alone.

She's kept this for the day of my burial for the poor. You have always with you, but me, you do not always have. So He rebukes Judas. He's saying, let her alone. Everything you're saying is wrong.

The spreadsheet in your head is wrong. Your pragmatism, your values aren't of the kingdom of heaven you're just counting pennies and he tells Judas she has kept this for the day of my burial." Now in John 17 the same terminology is used diligently and it's translated diligently preserved. Now Mary was not impulsively Pouring out this perfume. I don't believe It doesn't I think this statement should lead us to at least consider that this was not an impulsive outpouring She thought about this for a long time She was carrying that alabaster container around and she was carried around because she thought Jesus was going to be was going to die but there there are several places where Jesus did tell his disciples and others that he was going to die So I'm just assuming she had heard some of this. She knew about his death.

You know, was she just focused on the cross? I think she was. I think She had a sense that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. Well, that's what Jesus said in Mark 8, 31-33. You remember how Mary, the mother of Jesus, treasured up all these things in her heart?

I think that's what this Mary was doing too. She was treasuring it up. But Judas is critical of the ways that other people serve the Lord. That's really important to note. False religion is constantly criticizing other people and their faith, their genuine faith.

If you're a true Christian, you tend to give all that you have, you know, all that you're able at that moment. And, you know, it can be so harmful in a church where people are critical of one another for what they have, what they're able to give. Now on the other hand, we should stimulate one another to love and good deeds and go far beyond anywhere we ever have been You know, we should stir up the gifts that are among us and we should serve higher and better and more beautifully all the time growing we should do that, but but here Judas is criticizing the genuine faith of a woman and then it's It's very wrong. Then there's the influx of the crowd all of this Happens. Oh, let me just make one more comment the poor you always have with you, but me you didn't always have this I think he's just stating a reality some people will always be richer and others will be poorer some in this world will be diligent some will be lazy some will end up in a country that gets devastated by a wicked leader and everybody's gonna be poor, there's gonna be famines, there's gonna be floods, there's gonna be all kinds of things that happen.

And the poor, there'll always be poor because of different things that are happening in the world. I think he's just stating a reality. You know, some people live in countries where there's so much corruption that everybody stays poor, except just a very, very few. That's just a reality of a corrupt world. Well, anyway, then there's this influx of the crowd in verse 9 many Jews arrived They want to see Lazarus who was dead.

They can't wait to see him And then this underworld of hatred comes to the surface in verse 10 But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also Kill the evidence that was what they wanted to do You know this just doesn't make sense to me. Kill the man who was raised from the dead? This sounds like a dumb criminal tactic to me. I don't know how well this would have worked. But then this belief, an upwelling belief in verse 11 many of the Jews believed in Jesus because of of what had happened.

So in this passage you have this overflowing love from a heart that so appreciates Jesus, His counting blessings. And then you have this undercurrent of false religion, the one who cares about himself in the church at the dinner. Now, I want to close by just reading some words to some of the songs that I think sum up what's here in this passage. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Take my moments and my days let them flow in ceaseless praise take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee take my voice and let me sing always only for my king take my silver and my gold not a mite would I withhold take my intellect and use every power as thou shall choose take my love my Lord I pour at thy feet its treasure store Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee." The second song Written by Ann Steele in the 1700s, Come all ye pining, hungry, poor.

Ann Steele was the daughter of a lay preacher. She lost her mother at age three. At age 19, she had a severe hip injury that made her a lifelong invalid and at age 21 her fiance drowned the day before their wedding And she became one of the most prolific beautiful hymn writers in the church. We sing a couple of her songs Lord we adore thy boundless grace. You know that song.

Well, here's another one This and that is that is from come all you pining hungry poor Lord we adore thy boundless grace the heights and depths unknown of pardon life and joy and peace in thy beloved Son. Here shall your numerous wants receive a free of full supply. He has unmeasured bliss to give and joys that never die." And then finally a third song. William Cooper wrote this song, Lovest Thou Me, And I pray this is the prayer of all of us today from looking at this. Hear the words, Lord it is my chief complaint that my love is weak and faint, yet I love thee and adore, oh for grace to love thee more." So may it be true of all of us as we look into this marvelous picture of a dinner and a woman and a man, true religion and fake, love outpoured.

And that that would be the mark of a church. We're really looking at what God desires His church to be—a people who have their eyes fixed on Jesus. Their greatest hope is the power of the cross and the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in their midst. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this remarkable passage.

We feel our weakness to understand every part of it and to find ourselves quite like Mary, but we want to be. And I pray that you