In his sermon titled 'Nothing Too Good For Jesus!', David Green explores Mark chapter 14, focusing on the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. He highlights the plot by the chief priests and scribes to kill Jesus, emphasizing God's sovereignty over these events. Green explains that although wicked men believe they control events, it is ultimately God who is in charge. The sermon centers on the story of a woman in Bethany who anoints Jesus with expensive ointment, demonstrating her reverence and love for Him. Despite criticism from some, Jesus defends her actions, stating that her act of service and sacrifice will be remembered wherever the gospel is preached. Green urges listeners to consider their own lives as an alabaster box, encouraging them to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, regardless of criticism, and to trust in God's sovereign plan. He draws parallels between the biblical account and modern life, reinforcing the idea that nothing is too costly or too good for Jesus.

Of course, as we get into Mark chapter 14, we begin a new chapter and we're moving very quickly to the end of the book. Of course, that ending being the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. So in Mark chapter 14 beginning verse 1 it says here, After two days was the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread. The chief priests and the scribes sought how 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.

Being in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she break the box and poured it on his head. There were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor and they murmured against her Jesus said let her alone. Why trouble ye her she hath wrought a good work on me You have the poor with you always, and when soever you will, you may do them good, but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could, she has come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.

Verily I say unto you, whatsoever this gospel, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. In Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve went unto the chief priests to betray him unto them. When they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money, and he saw how he might conveniently betray him. I only intended to read to verse 9, but verse 11 being where I ended up. Being where I ended up.

Jesus is going to die on the cross. If you are saved today, If you have read your Bibles, you know this is where he's going to end up. And we see right away that there is a plot to kill him. The chief priests, scribes, they're seeking to take him by craft or by trickery, by deception, some way they're going to get him. There is a conspiracy, if you will, out there to try to get him.

He will indeed die, however, not until the time appointed. And I wish to submit to you today right away in this sermon a truth, and that is The sovereign God of the universe is over all the affairs of men. But men are not robots. He does not force men to do something against their will. And when Jesus does eventually die, God did not have to force the Romans or the Jews to go against their wishes.

It's what they wanted all along. And indeed, here in this text in chapter 14, it wasn't God's timing for him to die. And all the things around were being orchestrated, set up, done in such a way that the wicked men of that day, much like the wicked men of our day, thought and think that they're in the captain's chairs. They believe that They are the ones who are planning, scheming, and doing things according to their wishes when the reality is that it's God who's in control of this world. You understand today that there are things happening all over this world, in my life, in your life, in the political world, in the business world, in the entertainment industry, and all of this, all of these things are going on, but everything is happening according to God's plan.

You say, wait a minute, preacher, are you saying that God is behind all of this? What I'm saying is that God is sovereign over it all. It's either his directive will or his permissive will. He's either permitting it to happen or he's directing it directly to happen, but either way nothing that happens in this world surprises him or catches him off guard. And so they're reasoning.

They said, oh we can't do it today because there's a feast going on. That was no accident. That was no coincidence that all this was taking place, this feast of the Passover. Because it was celebrated in Jerusalem, the city would have been overflowing with people. People had come from all over, including Galilee, where many of our Lord's followers were from and these guys didn't want to start a riot so they said we'll wait.

We'll wait. Well of course you'll wait Because it's not God's time. It's not God's time. Pile your head tonight on this fact that God is sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over your life, He's sovereign over my life.

He's sovereign over the life of President Trump. He's sovereign over the life of your loved ones. He's sovereign, beloved, over the events and the affairs of this world. The Iranians, the Chinese, the Russians. I mean, turn on the news.

They'll get you all worked up about everything, but turn it off. Read your Bibles and pray. Be assured that God is sovereign over everything. You and I, We don't know what's going to happen Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or next week or however long it takes the week after that Before they can ever get the ballots counted You know because this may get delayed brace yourself for it, but realize this that God is sovereign over that too. God is sovereign over all things.

He was sovereign over this, the events of Mark chapter 14, verses 1 and 2, and he's sovereign over our lives as well. He was sovereign over the events that took place then, he's sovereign over the events that take place today. And so it will be until time is no more. Guess what? God will still be sovereign over that as well.

Before this old world was, there's God. And after this old world is gone, there's God. And we thank God for that. We rest at night on this fact. I really wanna focus my attention today on verses 3 through 9.

I've entitled this message, The Costly perfume, nothing too good for Jesus, nothing too good for Jesus. We see the scene before us, verses 1 and 2 is kind of what was going on behind the scenes. But now, Mark kind of brings us in to this scene in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. Bethany was a small town on the Mount of Olives, a little less than two miles from Jerusalem. Often, our Lord lodged there.

It was the town of Lazarus, of Mary and Martha, and of this Simon the leper. He had friends there. You and I, We know this sort of scenario. Jesus did indeed humble himself to be as a man. He did what men do.

We go into a town. What do we do? We go where our friends are, we go and maybe to the outskirts of town where we know somebody and go to their house. I just mentioned how that we stopped to visit Chris and Mavia. You know, they're close to Winston-Salem there, but just outside in Lexington.

There's a lot of things going on in Winston-Salem, but we spent our time in Lexington. There were a lot of things, obviously, going on in Jerusalem, but Jesus was in Bethany. The house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, That's kind of an old way of saying that he sat at the table. He sat at the dinner table. He sat there among friends.

Simon the leper, Simon was his name, leper was descriptive of the disease that had been part of his life. He was probably well known, but not a leper at this time. Would have excluded him from society. He probably won that Jesus had healed. You remember Jesus had healed many, some of them being lepers.

This would have been perhaps part of his fame. Oh, there's that Simon. Simon the leper, you have the one that Jesus healed. Maybe that's why the name stuck. Might also be the reason why Jesus was so welcome at his house.

When Jesus has done a great work in your life, your relationship with him changes, doesn't it? Maybe before you were saved, you knew of Jesus, you saw his name on a printed page of the Bible, you knew, you read about him, you heard of him, but you didn't have the kind of relationship in which you would have welcomed him in, but now that you've been saved, now that Jesus has done some wonderful work in your life, now he sits at your table, now you dine with him, now you have great fellowship with him, Now there's a different kind of fellowship. He's not just a word printed on a paper. You really have fellowship with him. Jesus was at your house this morning.

Jesus is with you today. Jesus is no longer just a historical figure. If you've been saved, you know what I'm talking about. He did a great healing work on this leper and many others, no doubt. But all, and you say, well maybe that's some of that speculation on this particular leper, well maybe so, But I do know this, he did have some relationship with him, and I know this also, that I have a relationship with him as well.

And so does every child of God today. This Simon the leper was once unclean and now he's been clean. He's been he he once needed healing and now he's been healed and Though I was never sick with this disease of leprosy. I can tell you this I may not have ever been known as David the leper, but I do know this, I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. I do know this, I once was a sinner with no hope, dead in my trespasses and sins, but Jesus has made me alive.

Have you? Have you been made clean by Jesus? Have you been healed by him? Is he a welcome guest at your table? Verse 3 there, and that last part of the verse it says, There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious.

And she broke the box and poured it on his head. So in enters this woman. And she has this box, this alabaster box. Costly perfume. This was some sort of oil extracted from a plant.

Some say it was costly because it was hard to get and what she had there was precious. Martin doesn't tell us her name. She could have been any woman. John Gill and other commentators seem to think it was Mary, the sister of Lazarus. And it could be, because in John chapter 12, John chapter 12, Then Jesus, six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

There made him a supper, and Mary 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 the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. So some commentators say this is the same event. Others think it's different. It really doesn't matter too much. What matters is that this could have been any woman.

It could have been anybody, really. Martin doesn't see fit to name her. He writes under the inspiration of spirit. Our text says she had an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious. I remember when I was a teenager, I've told this story here before, but my grandmother, my mom's mom, she was intrigued by this story in the Gospels.

And a missionary to Greece, Brother John Henson. We've had him on the prayer list for a while. He's had quite a problem with his health lately. I keep praying for him. He's always been a good friend to me and able defender of the faith, but brother brother Henson Back in those days.

He was active in the ministry and he was doing missionary work in Greece. So he brought my grandmother an item made out of alabaster. I recall, of course my grandmother's been gone now for 10 years. She died 10 years ago. But I remember how happy she was to hold something like this, woman held, to be able to have it to compare.

Was pretty interesting to see that. That wasn't what was so special. The alabaster box wasn't so much there. She broke that, this woman here, March 14, she broke it or opened the box for what was inside is what she was after and she poured this precious ointment on Jesus. It was an act of love and reverence, only the best for the Savior.

And right there we see in our text that as she poured it on his head verse 4 says and there were some that had indignation within themselves and said why was this waste of the ointment made? Some were, as the Legacy Standard says, some were indignantly remarking to one another why has this perfume been wasted? They started the gossip, they started the slander, they said what is going on here? This woman is wasting this precious oil just to pour it on his head. Seems like a terrible waste to them anyway.

In fact, in verse 5 it said, for it might have been sold for more than 300 pence. Might have been sold for 300 pence. In The Greek that is 300 denarii. The denarius was approximately a laborer's daily wage. Wage.

So what she took and she poured out on Jesus was, could have been sold for 300 denarii, approximately equal to what it would have taken to work for almost a year, 300 days. The cost, that's the value of it. Could have sold that woman and given it to the poor. What are you thinking? Why is she going to waste this?

Is she crazy? They criticized, they slandered, They gossiped for what she was doing. Why was this waste of the ointment made? They murmured against her. But Jesus said, Hold up a minute.

You and I we don't have ointment to pour on Jesus. We don't have costly perfume in an alabaster box to physically take like this woman did. You and I will never have the opportunity to be where she was at that day. But let me tell you, we do have the opportunity to spend or be spent for the Lord. It's not all about money.

It's not all about finances. When we take and we look at this text, and we see a lot of things are going into this yes money but also time 300 denarii 300 days of work went into this and it's all getting poured out. You could have spent your time, your money, your resources somewhere else. What are you doing? And isn't that the way it happens sometimes?

They criticize. People will sometimes criticize you for the way that you serve the Lord. Why do you get up and go to church on Sunday morning? Don't you know it's a beautiful day? Why do you spend time in your day for reading your Bible or praying?

Why is it that that you'll spend your talents playing the piano in a small church. Why do you pastor or preach or spend time studying? Go to a Bible conference. On and on they go. Whatever it is in your life, whatever it is in my life, these acts of service and worship are things in your alabaster box.

Whatever you have there is precious. If it's spent or being spent for the Lord, you see. The criticizers will come and they'll say, oh don't you know that life, that money, that time, that energy, you could have done it this way or that way. What did Jesus say there? Verse six, Jesus said, let her alone.

Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will, ye may do them good, but me you have not always. She hath done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.

Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." This is the rebuke that Jesus gave to those who criticized her. It is quite the rebuke. The crowd had their opinions. The naysayers, the critics, the the slanderers, they had their rebuke. You and I, we must take our stand on God's Word in life.

I say, look, we only have a short time in this life. I've got to take my box. I've got to spend what I can for the cause of Christ. Over in Galatians chapter one, Or in Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 and...

Verse 10. Paul says to the churches of Galatia, he said, for do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. You think about this, we must do what we can to please the Lord even if there are others who criticize. They say, well, you know, that's not the best way to do things you should have done it this way look think of think of this within that crowd then maybe even excuse me reading it in the in the text it's kind of hard to say for sure, but one of the ones who was there and perhaps maybe even the instigator in all this was one Judas Iscariot.

As he was hypocritically being what he was, you understand something, we know who he was because we read the text. We know, as they say, hindsight is 20-20. You've got to understand something. Being where they were, they didn't see it. I mean, he won't talk, acted like any of the other apostles.

In fact, they trusted him with the money. And so maybe, maybe, You know, that could have given her some pressure. Oh, well, he's good with money, you know. Maybe I am doing this wrong. Whatever the case may be, we know how his story ended.

What I'm trying to encourage you is to stick with the scriptures, keep serving the Lord, even if people laugh at you, make fun of you, whatever it may be. And look at the reason why she was doing it. Verse 8, Jesus said, she hath done what she could, she has come a forehand to anoint my body to the burying. She's come before to anoint my body for burial. She was on that side of the cross.

And in faith, she was looking forward. She showed great faith that day, taking that costly perfume, that costly ointment, and anointing Jesus with it. When it could have been sold, She certainly couldn't just go and get more of it easily. Here we are. We read of her just as Jesus said would happen.

What she's done is spoke enough for a memorial of her. In faith she was doing service for the Lord as she looked forward to what was about to happen. You and I were on this side of the cross, We're on this side of the cross. We're on this side of the burial, this side of his resurrection. With faith, we look backwards.

Again, we don't have a physical alabaster box. At least most of us don't. My grandma did. We don't physically anoint our Lord with oil. There are some things we do that will cost us.

Even our daily service to Him. As we think about bringing this to a close, Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Beginner verse 1, he says, I beseech you, brethren, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies in living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove was that good and acceptable, perfect will of God. Lay it all on the altar.

Put it all in the in the alabaster box and Give it to the Lord. It's costly, but I guarantee he'll bless. There's nothing too good for Jesus. Are you willing to live for Him? Willing to die for Him.

Nothing, I say nothing, is too good or too costly for our Lord. And that's the lesson that we get from this woman and that precious oil in her alabaster box. Let's be dismissed in prayer and I'll ask... And I'll ask, oh.