Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the importance of being holy and devoted to God, using the story of a sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and expensive ointment as a powerful example of true worship and love. He contrasts her genuine devotion with the indifference of Simon the Pharisee, who failed to honor Jesus properly despite hosting him. Ravenhill urges believers to prioritize their relationship with God over mere religious activities, highlighting that true worship comes from a heart that recognizes its need for forgiveness and grace. The sermon calls for a deeper commitment to holiness and a life that reflects love for Christ through acts of worship and service.

We're going to look at the Gospel, as recorded by Luke, in the 7th chapter. I'm thinking while Brother Lindsey was speaking there about Saul and David, that we're better to be unarmed with God than armed without him. Because certainly Saul was armed and he seemed to have protection, but he didn't have the Lord. And David didn't have a shield and didn't have protection, but he won the battle. And he picked up five stones. Why did he pick up five stones? Right, because the giant had four brothers and he hoped he could wipe them all out at once. That didn't come off, but nevertheless, again, the protection of God is greater than any armour and any defence that man has. All right, the 7th chapter in the Gospel, as recorded by Luke, verse 36. One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointments and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointments. Now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he stayed within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed him five hundred pence, the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them would love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. The great expositor Dr. Campbell Morgan said on one occasion that he found it difficult to unravel all these mares. There are so many mares in the Bible. And it's difficult to put them each in the right location without overlapping or getting maybe a little confused about them. Let's take it right here, at least from my standpoint, that this story of this woman who washed the feet of Jesus is told by each of the evangelists. Well, this Mary, whenever she turns up she's always at the feet of Jesus. That's always a good place to be. As one smart man said, if you know Hebrew and Greek, don't put it over his head, lay it at his feet. You won't get too proud about it. She was always at his feet. In Luke 10, she sat at his feet to learn. And then in John 11, she was at his feet with her Greek. And then in John 12, she brought a gift, her best gift, to his feet. And maybe this same story is told again in the 26th chapter of the Gospels recorded by Matthew. Now let's try and visualize it. It's very difficult to do it, isn't it, in a mechanical age like this, in an age of rushing bush and pressing buttons and everything. So try and step back in your thinking to a day when there were no blacktop roads and restaurants or anything like this. And everything has just been asleep for 400 years until a strange little man comes by the name of John the Baptist. He upset the balance in their thinking for a while. And then the next most important person in history, as far as they were concerned that is. Trust me, he's the first in importance. But then suddenly Jesus appears. And the multitudes were really stirred. He was exactly what they wanted. He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. The eyes of the blind were opened, the ears of the deaf were unstopped, the lame were leaping as a harp, the tongue of the dumb singing. And everything that they thought Messiah would do, he did. But they did not accept him. And you may remember in the 7th chapter of John, when Jesus went into the temple, a woman, a little agitated, made him say, Why don't you take hold of him? He said, You'll kill him. Kill him! Before you kill him, let me ask you a question. When Messiah comes, will he do more miracle than this man has done? This is the point of identification to many of them. Now, here's the greatest man on earth. And he has agreed to go and have a meal in the house of a very unpopular kind of man, a Pharisee. Try and picture yourself in his shoes. Remember the old saying, who was it, was it Confucius, the wise man who said, I grumbled that I have no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet. Try and put yourself in the place of this man. Here he is, he's got the greatest personality in the world. Wherever Jesus goes, everybody's swarmed. Crowds come, for a lot of reasons. And he's appointed a day in which he's going to eat in the house of Simon. Here, not men, this is, just all the Pharisees. Now, what do you think his problems were? Well, first of all, of course, he had to find just enough space for everybody he wanted. And I think his first problem was the folk who were coming. I imagine he made a list and he rubbed out one name and put another name there. Maybe later rubbed out another name, put another name. Woke up in the night and said, Oh, I don't want so and so, he's not too important. But I must have the mayor and the millionaires and the merchants and the marvellous people, you know, the beautiful people, as they say. I must get all these, it must be very watertight, and exclude any of the riffraff. And when he got all the right folk there, of course, I think he would have to decide to get the right food. You have Mr. Nixon coming today, you'd hardly give him, maybe what you give your husband, a hamburger and fritos, huh? Yeah, oh no, you say, the President of the United States, I'm going to make a banquet for him. Well, don't you think he'd do the same for Jesus? Don't you think maybe he'd have to get a loan to buy enough stuff? And after he got the food and the folk, I think he might decide about the flowers, you know, get a nice aesthetic atmosphere and everything posed and poised. And the silver all polished and everything. Oh, they had some banquets. All you have to do is read about Belshazzar's Feast and some of the things that the Romans had. And I don't think we know much about making banquets. I kind of smile when, the first time I came to a banquet in America, somebody said, we've booked you, you've got a seat reserved for a banquet. Well, as I'm concerned, it was a meal. Nothing to it, just a plate with a meat on, one or two. The table wasn't even set up nicely. It's called a banquet, it has a kind of magnetic power. I'm not throwing stones at anybody, I'm telling you what I said before. But you see, a banquet in the old days, everything was luxurious and exotic. The scarcest fruit, the rarest food, the rarest people. The atmosphere was strained before they went in. You'd think you got it all in an aerosol can. They had that years before ever you thought of anything. They perfumed everything. They gobbled your filth. Every thread put in by handiness. As I said the other day, they never brought anything by the yard. They brought it by weight. You know the man, the rich ruler, and that ruler had what? He had a beautiful garment of Tyrian purple. It was all dyed by hand, it was all woven by hand. It was extremely expensive. And go to a banquet there, you'd wish you were taking a colour shot of it. Everybody wanted to exceed the other with their jewellery, with their show and everything. And now Simon has got everything ready, or we'll call him the Pharisee, shall we. And he goes to bed, this is the night before the banquet. He says, ma'am this is going to be a marvellous time. Oh, I've had people already offering me, you know, ten times as much to come in, or giving me anything I want if they could get in. And maybe split a little fellow in who's sick, or a leper. This is going to be my banquet. He went to bed saying something like this, you know, tomorrow is a day that I'll never, as long as ever I live, I'll never want to forget. And you know what? It became a day that he never wanted to remember. One of those perfect days when everything goes perfectly wrong from the moment you get out of bed and you've slipped on the rug, until the last moment you go to bed at night and you've done something wrong anyhow. Put your husband out instead of the cat or something. And everything has gone wrong from A to Z. Just as bad as bad could make it. I think he said tomorrow is going to be my day of exaltation. Everybody's going to say, you know, the only house he went to eat in was the house of that famous Pharisee. And instead of becoming the day of his exaltation, it was a day of his humiliation. Let's read the story. He gets up in the morning, everything's in order, everything's beautiful, the banquet's laid out. Hmm, oh, he gets all the servants, you know, to be in a good humor and reminds them they're going to meet dignitaries today. Very wonderful people they may never see again and be able to serve them, maybe get an autograph or something. And just as he gets nicely moving around the house, one of his servants says, oh master, Sancho's coming. And he's happy like, no, they didn't have them in case you don't know. They have beautiful chariots drawn by beautiful Arabian stallions or some other kind, maybe Belgians or something. And usually escorted by Nubian slaves who fanned them as they came down the street so they wouldn't faint. And oh, here he is excited, somebody looking through the ladder, oh, Sancho's coming. And he rushes to the door and Oriental custom gets hold of him, hugs him, gives him a kiss on each cheek and then turns in to another fellow who washes his feet because, you know, they had a little pollution problem. And the dust and the grit, they didn't wear holes of any kind and the stuff got between your toes and it was irritable and so it was a custom to kiss them and to wash their feet and to anoint their heads. Digressing for a moment, you know, for years there was a great disputation about the 23rd Psalm and saying that somewhere it was out of kilter because, speaking of sheep, thou anointest my head with oil. Now that is not, that isn't done. Well, maybe it isn't in America or England but it certainly is in the audience. For two reasons, that in the morning as the shepherd he is the door. Even on the hills of Scotland you get some sheepfolds that are almost a perfect circle and then they have a space a little wider than this and the shepherd would lay in his plaid. You wear a kilt. Some little girls had kilts on the other day and those kilts have a, but a plaid is that great big thing that he wears across his shoulder with beautiful design on and he would wrap up and he would become the door. Remember Jesus said, I am the door, by me if any man enter in and he was there to guard them from the sheep. But in the morning when the sheep came up he would be there with a horn of oil and he would stop each one and anoint it and rub that oil in its head. Why? For two reasons. One, so that it wouldn't get sunstroke from the heat of the day. Two, that if it went through a hedge and it tore its hair it tore its, what do you call it, skin immediately it tore its skin the oil would pour in and heal it. It was a healing bath. Now, let's go back now to the story. The woman comes, sadly the man comes and he's received with courtesy, all the dignity, ostentation. He's taken to his place. Did you ever get at the wrong place at a table? It's tragic. That was meant for someone else you know and you feel humiliated you go right to the end of the table or you get to the end and they promote you. That's not too bad but the other you know, it kills you. You know I mean in church you sing and pour contempt on all my tribe. Well there's no trouble when you pour contempt on it. It's when somebody else pours contempt on it it's rough. I mean you can sing it in church and feel like a saint but oh brother ten minutes after you can get rubbed up and feel you nearly like the devil unless you really are crucified with Christ. And so this man comes up. Oh there's great joy and then there's another dignitary comes and before long they're all coming in and this fella can hardly. He needs weights on his feet to keep on earth. He's excited. He's got all the society. This is the thing. Then they hit the headlines and he escorts someone in and then a servant says well hurry there's somebody coming. The millionaires are coming right now. Master did you invite her? No I didn't invite her and if you see her come within 20 feet of this house turn the dogs loose on her. But master she's in the house. Where? She's in the kitchen. Well that's a place for her anyhow. But she's with the man you know that you said was coming that miracle worker Jesus. What? He's in the servant's quarter? Well he always was wasn't he? A friend of mine went to a very dignified induction for a preacher in a very gothic gorgeous church. And the preacher had to be inducted of course in a three-quarter coat and his collar backwards way. And his grandma was there trembling and tearful and all the relatives were there. Their son and their grandson was going to be made a preacher. He had received his degrees and his diplomas and this was the great day of his coronation. And the dignitaries were there you know the big shots from the church and headquarters and he was a man of great promise. And my friend was asked to give the what do you call it oration or induction. And after they had performed this ceremony of inducting this young man my friend spoke right out of his heart. And he said your dear friend, your wonderful grandmother, your mother, your uncles, your relatives here think that this is the day you've been exalted. I got news for you. It's the day you've been humiliated. You've just been set aside to be a servant because your master did not come into this world to be ministered unto but to minister. And he went down the line on the ministry to the ministry of a minister. But you know he loses his rights and he does this and does that and the other. And you know before long the whole audience was in tears and without any asking some of the preachers began to come and kneel at the altar. And in that induction service without an altar call they had a lot of weeping preachers who had forgotten what the business of the ministry is about. And you think it takes us into a better class district. A better home. Gives you some distinction and honor and credits of some kind and diplomas and all the rest. But not so in the scriptural level. Jesus is in the back room. Well that's how he came in the world didn't he? He came in the world in the back room. He came in the world with a shadow of illegitimacy over him. I mean he could have been done better really couldn't he? Oh the woman is not only there but you should see what she's doing. She's weeping and wailing and washing his feet. And Jesus looks up and Simon frantic. Friendly. Jesus was never upset by anybody you know. He just turned around and said Simon I want to say something. He said well say it. He said Simon there was a man he had two debtors. One owed him five hundred cents the other fifty. And when they were all banked up and they had nothing to pay he forgave both of them right off. The man that owed him five cents he liquidated and the man that owed him five hundred thousand dollars he liquidated. Who do you think would love him? Well a man that has the biggest debt forgiven. He said exactly right. Exactly right. You see this woman had such an enormous debt and she's forgiven. All in your mind you're saying well he's no prophet. He's no what man. Oh I know what man or woman she is. I know everything about this woman. But you see this woman has come in and she's done something. Well look what I've done. I mean the table's drowning with food and I've had to borrow money and I've had to rent this and that. And did you know I'm going to be in debt for the next five years over this banquet. I mean I've done a lot for you. Did you ever try to get the Lord to see things your way? I did but somehow he won't. I've been married about forty years and he still won't do it. I've always got to come and look at things his way. Huh? What did Jesus want? What do you think he wanted? I mean after all the devil's no fool. You may think he is but if you get a bit older you'll be smart and discover he isn't. After all Satan is no fool. And what did he say to Jesus? Command that these what? Stones become? Do you think you would ask him to do what he couldn't do? No. Jesus was hungry so he comes right on that point. And he says look command these stones to become bread. You're hungry and then you can do it to the rest and you'll get the crowds. Do you think Jesus ever did turn stones into bread? I do. I think on that resurrection morning when he called his disciples and you know the old song we used to sing come and dine the master call us come and dine. And the verse there says they met their heart's desire bread and fish upon the fire. Do you think Jesus went shopping before he made breakfast? I don't. I don't. One man was in trouble and I guess you wish you could do this and he says we've got to pay tax and Jesus said just go to the sea there and just catch us there's a fish coming up and he's got your income tax in its mouth. Wouldn't that be a nice way to get out of it? I mean if you're going to do miracles do something practical for some of us. You ever see these notices in paper you send me three dollars and I'll send you a billfold that will never be empty. The only thing I wonder is why his is empty? Or again why you know if you send us we've got a packet here and this is some kind of a magic packet and you know if you send us five hundred dollars the Lord will pay you back twice as much or five times as much. And sometimes it works and so everybody falls for it. Now why don't most people at headquarters take ten thousand dollars which they have most of them and give it to another society and get five times as much back. I mean it would save a lot of office work wouldn't it? Hmm? Why don't they? Come on let's be logical. We're so stupid we fall for any gimmick any gadget eh? Or I think Jesus put some pebbles on the beach there and he said bread. And then he came bread and he said to the devil there you are I'll do it when I want but not when you want. Now that's victory. Hmm? You can never do the wrong thing at the right time but you can do the right thing at the wrong time sometimes. And it wasn't time for him to turn stones into bread. But now he says I'll show you who's the boss here. I couldn't just water into rhinestones if anything I couldn't do. When it's my father's will and when it's time for me to do it you see. Now when you start telling me when to do it I mean you get a burden to pray going down the highway and you say well Lord you'll take care of me. Let go of the wheel and pray and you'll see who takes care of you. Local ambulance society. The Lord isn't going to help you if you do something stupid and unnecessary. Now people want to go to a meeting and see a miracle every time they go ever thought how many times Jesus crossed the lake and only walked on it how many times? Why didn't he walk every time? Why did he borrow boats? A lot of things Jesus did. He could have exerted his power he didn't do it. He did the right thing at the right time. Now Simon I entered into your house. Oh this is a shocking run down isn't it? And he didn't even know Jesus had come. He was looking for the big shots and the other people and he thought that you know that you know you know what the thing to do if you want to be important I'll give you a secret. Now don't mention it to anybody. But I'll tell you what to do. If you're a speaker and you go when there are two other speakers whether it's a service or a banquet you go in late. Make yourself available so it won't see you come in if you go with a crowd. You come in when every other preacher is on the platform then you come in with a little offer and say like this you know I'm coming and all that sort of stuff. I know a man who does this every time he goes to preach either the banquet or the service. He's always the last people to say oh I want to preach oh he's coming and all that. But you see he has to come in and everybody see him right coming and take his place. Jesus never strutted. He never showed off. As the kids in England would say sneak in at the back door and this woman stood outside and you know I guess if you'd watched you'd have seen a dress going like this her heart was beating that much. Oh you see you see she didn't copy anybody else. We're awful copyists. Now I'm not being sarcastic I'm trying to warn some of you a few years ago a preacher every time he anointed somebody and he was going to anoint them for cancer a red spot came on his hand. Now about three months after another preacher when he prayed for somebody with cancer a white spot came on his hand. Now when that sensation passed off one man when he was going to pray for people oil came in the middle of his hand. And you know not long after other evangelists got oil coming in the middle of their hands. I was with some fellows out on the west coast and one of them said you know what I've got? I've got the gift of people falling backwards. Now that's a new one I never check the amplified to see if it's in there. But the gift of people falling backwards you ever hear it all like that? Well what do you mean? Well I went to so and so and every time they laid hands on people they fell backwards. And so I waited on the Lord and said Lord I want the gift of people falling backwards. And I got it. And at the end of the meeting if you like I'll lay hands on you and you'll get the gift. You see how stupid we get? No wonder people laugh at this. What in the world has that got to do? There are a number of reasons why people fall backwards. Sometimes they faint. And it's always convenient if it's at the right moment. Another thing is if you do this which some do and you press a nerve there you'll cut off the supply of blood and they'll have a blackout whether the devil's a saint. Won't make any of. And certainly that is the genuine child of God. But I don't read much of Jesus doing it or the apostle Paul. But you see we get a cultist idea. This is the thing that's taking right now. Now you're going to have to keep up with the Joneses this way that way the other. Oh forget it. You'll find out what the Lord wants you to do and do it. And ignore the rest. But this is an unprecedented thing. She's not sample to work out. And I think she stood outside of that door as I say with a beating heart saying well if I go in they'll throw me out on my neck. But oh I'd just like to go and touch him once and tell him how much I love him. And she goes in and she has no guilt edged card. So she doesn't go in the front door she comes in the back door. And there's Jesus standing and immediately she lunges forward. So what did she do? She kissed his feet. Oh. Well he was the only one there that got their feet kissed. And incidentally in case you've overlooked it she's the only person we know who went to the party. There's no guest list. You couldn't tell me another person that was there hardly could you except Jesus and Simon. We don't know the rest of the guests. They don't count in the story. As we would say she stole the show. She didn't intend it. That was the last thought in her mind. She never intended that. Ah she should have kissed his face and she kissed his feet. She should have washed his feet with water and she washed his feet with... She should have anointed his head with oil and she anointed it with... What? Ointment. Right. Precious. See she does the whole thing upside down and she should have knelt in front of him and did not she did? She knelt behind him. You see she says there's nothing good enough for Jesus. Wash his feet with water. Not on your life. I'm going to wash his feet. Wesley wrote to him. I'm going to ask him one day if this is where he got his inspiration. Wesley wrote to him. Oh let me kiss thy bleeding feet and bathe and wash them with my tears. The story of thy love repeat in every drooping sinner's ears that all mankind with me may prove thy sovereign everlasting love. Wash his feet with water? No no no. I'm sure when I get there the fountains in my house... I'll have a big enough supply to wash his feet with my tears. Tears are better than water. And she didn't go shopping and say do you happen to have a... I want a towel. It must be very exquisite. None of your dollar cannon stuff you know. None of these slightly you know irregular. I want a fifty dollar towel if you have it with a gold broider. No she didn't. What did you wash his feet with? Hair. Not water. Tears. Not a towel. The hair of a head. Some of you ladies have a job there. But with the hair of a head huh? And a woman's hair is what? Her what? Her glory. Hey you know there's nothing sloppy about her devotional life. There's no running in to say Lord you know I love you amen but I've got to go sing, I've got to go preach, I've got to go work for you amen. Lord you know everything's alright between us. No no. Take time to be busy. Huh? Take time to be beat up with thy Lord. Spend much time in preaching. Secret. Oh come on nobody sees you in secret. I mean who's going to know you're a saint if you do it all behind the door. You've got to spread your stuff haven't you and let people know that you have this gift or that or the other. I mean just worship him behind. Oh now come on. I want a bit of glory. I mean I don't want too much but Lord you can have ninety percent if you give me ten. Do you know what it is? He won't give you one percent. She washed his feet with tears. She wiped them with a hair of her head. And then instead of you see not water tears. Not a towel the hair of her head. Not oil. He should have anointed him with oil that was customary but the most extravagant and expensive way was to wash was to anoint with ointment. You know every detail in the scripture is essential. It says that she had a box of ointment and it was what somebody is saying here very precious and it contained how much? Come on now you've read it many times. How much did it contain? One pound. One pound. That doesn't matter much does it? Supposing this Mary is the sister of Lazarus and she I think she was. You know Lazarus died but she didn't love her brother enough to anoint his burial did she? You know what? She'd made up her mind to have a real first class funeral like some of you. Hmm? Boy apparently pride can live when you're dead. You're going to have the best funeral in the district when you die. Put on the badge as you say. Put on a show. One pound of ointment. Oh somebody says what's this extravagance? Why wasn't it sold and given to the poor? It's worth over three hundred pence. And it says in the scripture labor was cheap then but they worked for how much a day? A penny a day. A penny a day. Yeah about that less than that maybe. But a penny a day. It was worth three hundred pence. They didn't work three hundred days a year. She had to live out of what she earned. You know it maybe had taken this woman ten or twelve or twenty years to save this money for this ointment for her own funeral and she wasn't going to spend it there over her brother. So the box was precious. It weighed one pound and you know when she did it? One week before Jesus died. And after Jesus died the men were going up a hill trundling a wheelbarrow or carrying something a big big box on their shoulders. Do you remember what he had in? Hmm? They had the same stuffing. Nicodemus took a box with how much ointment? You don't read the Bibles carefully. A hundred pounds. Well one pound was worth a fortune and Nicodemus is going to put a hundred pounds of ointment on Jesus? Hey hold it Nicodemus you're too late he's dead. It doesn't mean a thing to him. They come up too late. A pound of ointment before he dies is worth a hundred pounds after he's dead. I've been terribly burdened this last two weeks for rich people. I don't want any of the money I'd use it for God. And as far as I'm concerned every society in America particularly tax-free I'd make them all publish balance sheets. Every one of them without exception. Because I know the crookedness inside a number of them I've been in them. If you don't want to publish it why not? If it's all stoned at six dogs which one howls? The one near the head. If they've nothing to hide they'd be happy to publish balance sheets. I wouldn't give one to a society that doesn't publish a balance sheet. That's my conviction. You know when Jesus died everybody was nervous and afraid and weeping weren't they around the cross? I think there was only one woman there that was happy. What did Jesus say? She's done this against my burial. She's got a revelation. And at the cross she was looking at him on the cross and everybody was weeping and mourning and I think she was the only one with a smile. She was saying hallelujah I'm glad I did it. You know I reached my neck I pushed through the door and I thought they might beat me up. But oh I'm glad I gave him my sacrifice while I was living. I'm glad I washed his feet. I'm glad I kissed him. Oh she not only washed his feet. Oh here's another thing. If she took a box of spikenut, it appeared three times in the life of Jesus didn't it? They presented them to him gifts of gold and and now what did Jesus want those for? He couldn't recognize them. Do you know what I think he wanted them for? Because his parents were so poor they didn't have any expenses to go into Egypt and they sold it on the way down to Egypt and back again because they hadn't enough. It's an awful long way. Would you like to walk it? You look on your map. Not now but when you go home. Look how far it is from Palestine right down to Egypt with a newborn baby on the back of a donkey. How many times did they have to stop? They'd have to buy food. They'd have to buy milk. They'd have to buy shelter somewhere at night. And they had no gifts and therefore they would trade in my judgment what they had in order to get there and get back. Now here's the other point which I think is very lovely. If you take a box of spikenut, oh it's not only it's very precious it's very pungent. What does it say? As soon as she broke the box it was? Fill the house! I got news for you. It not only filled the house it filled the world. It's filling the world this morning. And where did she put it? Come on answer now. Where did she put the spikenut? On his right. And then she dried his feet with oh so the fragrance she poured out on him came back on her eh? You want to be fragrant? Don't run to meetings every night. There was take time to behold it. Oh I think I'm a Christian today because I had a very wonderful mother. Very godly. I never heard her criticize anyone. Never once did she lose her temper. I left home when I was about 20, 21 to go to college and I'd never seen my mother bad tempered in my life. Never seen her angry. Never heard her critical. I could hear her in the other room sometimes in the bedroom singing because that's why I love the hymn maybe so much because she'd sing and sing and sing take time to behold it. And you know where she learned it? She learned it from her mother in the other room. My old old granny used to rock in the rocking chair singing take time to behold it. You know in the days of Jonathan Edwards when they had that fantastic revival in New England. Jonathan Edwards that great marvelous saint of God. You know he begat so many sons. You know how you make a family free don't you? A fellow took his chest out one day and he said you know I'm the main part of the family free. And a witty fellow was rather naughty he said the sap. But you've seen a family free haven't you? You know here's the main part here's one or two and they go down and down and down like this until you get the whole family free. Now there's a family free of Jonathan Edwards the great distinguished creature of New England the New England revival. And you come down like this and you know in about 150 years do you know what his offspring was like? Something like this. I can't give you the exact number. Out of his offspring in about a hundred and say two hundred years they had about twenty bishops, thirty preachers, four school teachers, ten lawyers. There wasn't one member of the family that hit jail or became corrupted. At the same time there's another man whose name was Luke. I have this all written out. Luke I think his name was. And he was the gallows. He had a number of sons and his pedigree goes like this. Fifteen of them ended up in the gallows. Twenty of them got life sentences. Thirty of the women became prostitutes. And the whole offspring is crime and wickedness and violence. Now it doesn't mean much to you when you blow up Steve Mays but you know you could leave a little mark on that little guy and it'll never heal. He'll remember that as long as he lives. Did you ever knit something? You ladies you knit something very nice. You spend weeks months doing the thing but unfortunately when you get it on you drop the stitch there and you try and make it show. Somebody comes and says oh you've got a lovely. Oh you dropped the stitch. They don't say you've got fifteen thousand stitches that are perfect. Oh no you dropped the stitch. Huh? Everybody's excited the World Series on today. Right. Supposing you're writing a tight spot and here's a fellow he's been up and each time he's been up he's knocked the home run and now the whole side if he can hit one this side you know they're going to score and boy they're going to get ten thousand dollars each on top of what they got and have a great time. And you know he misses it. And you know he'll go down in the history books not as the guy that did this and did that and did the other. He missed it right at this spot there. Isn't it a rotten world in which you live? You only remember the bad things somehow. You know it's exactly true in the lives of us as individuals. What did Paul say? The unsanct faith which is in thee that dwelt first in thy mother and in thy grandmother. Oh so there is some benefit in godliness huh? Huh? Are you quite sure you've got it all straight about original sin? I'm saying this now because I'm leaving Friday. But are you sure you've got it all straight? Look here's a young couple. Oh she's a darling. She's beautiful. I mean she's got everything. And this fella he's a genius. He's money. He's everything. And they're going to come together and they've decided to get married and they say you know wouldn't it be interesting to go and find out about our ancestors? And you go you know and as I say sometimes people say what's the greatest biggest belt in the world? Queen Mary? Queen Elizabeth? The forest belt? The biggest belt that was ever made including the arts. You know what it was? The Mayflower. Must have been because everybody's grandfather came over on it that I mean. It must have been about six city blocks long. Everybody's grandfather came over on it. Or a grandmother of somebody huh? Or they trace their pedigree. Yes your father came on it. Yeah you're of Dutch ancestry. Or you're of Scottish ancestry. Uh I want to show you something. You're going to marry? These two streams of life are coming together. Now I've got news for you. You see in your family there's a very lady I'm sorry to tell you this but there's a very strong streak of insanity. And it so happens that at this conflict of life if you marry you're in for real danger. You see these things go in cycles and and uh well I want to tell you something. Well before I tell you that let me tell you this sir. In your family the last generation the generation is very clean but prior to that there's a strong strong strong criminal tendency in your family. Now if that criminal stream comes in with this stream in your children it's impossible for you to have normal children. They're gonna be they're gonna they'll end up the women as prostitutes or the men will end up fierce and fighting and in jail and drunk and and you have no chance. You've got two impure streams coming together and you're going to produce. Now you'll be sensible either not to get married or get married and say we'll have no children but I guarantee every child you have will be a devil. Would you marry? Would you have children? That would take some thinking out wouldn't it? Well no. What would happen? You don't know. But you say that every child that comes into the world the Lord puts the devil in him and then sends him to hell for having the devil in him eh? That's hardly justice. I read a statement the other day where one man said remember now you're responsible for Adam's guilt. Is there anything more insane? Can any judge condemn me for what my father did? Sure he can. Now the greatest preacher America ever had in my judgment was Charles G. Finney. He did not believe in original sin. He believed that every child was born innocent and acquired depravity in the time when he decided to run his own life. Why did Adam get kicked out of the garden of Eden? Well he didn't commit adultery. He didn't get drunk. He didn't beat his wife up. He decided he would run his life and not let God run it. Why did Satan get kicked out of heaven? I'm going to sit on the circle of the earth. He didn't get drunk. He didn't steal a slab of gold off Main Street. He wasn't caught beating up an archangel. He decided to be the boss. We've got an awful lot of very lovely people in the world but they're very lost. They're too respectable and decent. They've too much common sense. They know history and logic. They're not going to go to the devil. They're not prodigals. They're rebels. I don't think the first claim that God makes against a man is he's a prodigal. God won't say you're a prodigal if you're not. When our prodigals were rebels, we will not have this man to rule over us. Hmm? Ah, when it comes down to the business of having letting in house complete lordship. And this means every day. I know you say, well, what about the Greek? Well, the Greek's alright, you know, when you want to play it your way. Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God that you present your body a living soul. Well, well, sure. In the Greek, that's in the aorist tense. It's something you do once and for all, right enough. But there's more to marriage than having a big splash on a wedding day, isn't there? I've heard people say, oh man, I went to, they're so happily married. Brother, sister, if you can't be happy that day, when are you going to be happy? You've got all the presents, all the show, you two are the stars in the whole outfit. And everybody photographs in it, but there's a lot more to marriage than a lot of pretty wedding dresses and a nice smart fellow and all the routine. The time to check it is not on the wedding day. The time to check it is maybe two years after. That's the same with a crusade. You say, marvellous crusade. This whole city was like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let it simmer down for six months, eight months, a year and see what you've got left. Hmm? You see, the more time you spend with the Lord, it's going to come back on you exactly like a woman. She pulled the ointment on his feet and she wiped his feet. And she didn't mean to take it back. She was thrilled to death she could make this tribute to him. But you see, that's what the Lord does. In the very act of worship. I remember getting on a bus in a rough area outside of Manchester, England. And when I got on I, whew! Right, this is marvellous. It was a dirty English day, raining and I was wet. And I thought, we have double-decker buses. I sat on the lower deck and, man, I thought, this is, oh, I guess some lady, you know, looking for a money in a purse pulled a perfume out and somebody spat on it. And I said, that place is filled with perfume, it's lovely. And then I suddenly realised, just a mile further up the road, there's a factory called Cousins. C-U-S-S-O-N-S. And they make some stuff you've seen very often, English leather, soaps and things for men. And almost all the people, I got the last seat on the bottom part of the bus. And 90% of that bus was made up of women. And you know what? There wasn't one of them. None of them put any perfume on. But you know what they did? They did the same as you when you go in the house. You're like, phew! The smell is always being smelted. Oh, well, I sat in a plane, you know, where somebody was burning his eyeball. And you were on the bus or somewhere else. And what happened? Your clothes got impregnated with it. They got stunk with it. You didn't have to smoke, unconsciously. You were taking in all that stuff and you smelt people like that. Phew! Boy! You know, only three things have anything to do with tobacco. Did you know that? One is the African rock goat and it stinks so much that there isn't another creature in the forest that will have to do with it. It has to live by itself. And the other thing that has anything to do with tobacco is the tobacco worm that eats the leaf. And birds won't even eat that worm. And the other miserable creature is called a man. Those are the only creatures that have anything But you know, you get in, again, there's a tobacco laden atmosphere. And what happens? It just goes in your clothes. You can't help it. By the same token, those ladies lived in an atmosphere of perfume all day long. And you know what? It was gradually getting into the clothes. And when they came into the birth. Do you want to transfer it to Acts 3? They took knowledge of them. But they'd been where? With Jesus. With Jesus. Oh, you can't pour anything out on him that you won't get back when he wants it. Not necessarily in this life, but maybe in the life to come. Your children know when you're in a bad mood or a good mood, don't they? Your children know when you've been in the presence of the Lord. And you know it too. Do you know why? Because things don't irritate and upset you and trouble you like they do when you haven't taken time to be holy. Why? Because our strength is the Lord. Not meeting. If I were to label this chapter, do you know what I'd label it? The disappointed Christ. I came into thy house. Thou gavest me no water. Thou gavest me no kiss. Huh? Thou hast not anointed my head with oil. No kiss. Jesus didn't. Do you know this woman wouldn't quit kissing him. She hasn't seen. She'd grab my feet and she'd kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss the thing all the time I've been here. Water? No kiss. Oil? No ointment. A towel? No, the hair of the head. Oh Simon, pardon me, Nicodemus, it's too late bringing your wheelbarrow now. A hundred pounds, that's a fortune. No normal man could have that. He must have been exceedingly wealthy. A hundred pounds of spite now to lay on Jesus and Jesus didn't even know. You ever heard people say you know when I die my unsaved relatives aren't going to get my money. I'm going to give it to this and that and the other. Fine. I think you're right but let me warn you if you leave ten million dollars to a missionary society in your will you won't get ten cents for it at the judgment table. Look here's a man in his casket and he's left five million dollars to ten different groups. Fifty million dollars. He's all dressed up you know and has his dressman up over here making him look so nice. He's lying in his casket there and the preacher says now I just want you to notice my dear friend before we put the casket the lid down and this is the man who has left fifty million dollars to mission. And then of course with my little twisted humor I would remember a scripture that says the Lord love us lot. Well have a look at him. Do you think he looks very cheerful? A cheerful giver. Hey and I've got news for you. He didn't even give it. You know why he did? Because death came and assassinated him. If he'd been living he'd still be holding on his money bag. He didn't give it. Death took it. So do you know what a smart American said? Oh only an American could say this. You know what he said? Do your giving while you're living then you're knowing where it's going. Isn't that as good as Shakespeare? Maybe it is him reincarnated. Anyhow. Do your giving while you're living then you're knowing where it's going. Next time you go to a banquet will you pass that on for me? Let's return to the subject. She gave all she had. And isn't it amazing this morning that we people 2,000 years behind this story are talking about her. We're not talking about the millionaires that came or the chariots they came in or what this fellow put on the table. Or that he had to work two more years to get out of debt because he'd involved himself so tremendously to put on a show. It's the woman that never thought she'd make it that made it and the other folk that thought they'd made it hopefully forgot. Hey just a minute here. Supposing this story is the same story that you have in the 26th chapter of Matthew. It inserts one little word. That little word is very illuminating as I said you don't take notice apparently that she brought one pound of ointment and this man brought three hundred pounds of ointment. Now supposing this is the same story in the 26th of Matthew. Can you remember a name that's pushed in? I mentioned it anyhow so I've given the game away. He came to the house of what? Simon the what? The what? Leper. What do you mean? A banquet in a leper's house. See that shows it's not true. Nobody ever went to a banquet in a leper's house did they? No not till this time. There was a day when Simon was washing his hands. Oh it's nothing much. Nothing much. It can't be much. Months after. Two spots there. I'm not going to say anything anyhow. My wife hasn't noticed and I don't want to scare her and the children. I'm not going to say a word about it. But a little while after that spot becomes really really white like a painting. pushed on his hand and he has to say to his wife I've got to tell you something. When he looked terrified what is it? I'm a leper. Simon. I'm a leper. I'm Simon. I hate to do it but you'll have to leave the house. And when after you leave the house you'll have to go to the temple and the priest will have to declare you're unclean. And then you'll have to go to the gate of the city. And you'll have to tell the judge at the gate of the city you're a leper. We've done with you. You're through. What will the children do? And one day he comes back to the gate of the city and the man says Simon keep away from here. And he says why? Why? Because you're a leper. A leper? I'm not a leper. Show me a hand. Ah you've got hands like a little baby. Yes. Who cured him? Jesus? Nobody else could cure leprosy? He goes back to the temple and the priest says Simon please don't defile the house. Don't come near me if you're a leper. He says I'm not a leper? Come and see my hands. Ah what happened? Oh that man that you're always raping against and telling the people not to hit. He touched me. This cool man got that popularized in the country didn't he? He touched me. Oh he touched me. He touched you? Yeah. And my flesh is whole. He goes to the house. Oh Simon. Simon why did you do it? What are you coming here for? The children will get... Darling the children won't get leprosy. Look at my hands. How did it happen? I met Jesus. And he made me whole. That's wonderful isn't it? That's great. Could you think that a man who had been healed like that could forget Jesus? But he did. And I gave him water. You gave us me no water. Thou gave us me no oil. Thou gave us me no kiss. It's amazing how much the Lord can do for us and we become ungrateful unconsciously very often. You know I believe I could go and have a crusade. I've had some big crusades with thousands there and seen folks come forward two hundred at the end of the time. Very often they were the most unhappy nights I had. I've preached in other places where not a person has come forward but I knew God's perfect will had been done in that meeting. So you know I believe I could go and line an altar night after night after night after night and publish a magazine and show pictures and everything. And you know every night even when I've seen a hundred or two hundred or three hundred people come to the Lord the Lord just say to me before I go to sleep thou gave us me no water thou gave us me no oil thou gave us me no care. You see the first thing God requires of you is not that you serve him but you love him. You keep your devotional life you see you can serve him without really loving him but you can't love him without serving him because somewhere he's going to whisper something to you. I say keep your devotional life keep it fence it off just let folk know you're not available and lift the phone off and don't let anybody get you. And pour your love and your adoration out not praising him merely praise is usually thanking him for something he's done and prayer is usually asking something you want to be done but here's something in the middle where for nothing you want but purely for who he is and what he is you worship him and worship him in spirit. The angels worship him they don't serve him in the sense we think of it but they worship him and if you keep this little patch as I say fence it off like this and say now there's going to be no intrusion in this area because in my judgment our devotion to God is the soil in which faith and courage grow. You keep all the weeds out of that area you'll make it but you can run around and make yourself tireless and breathless tired and breathless just running to meetings and doing this and not necessarily satisfied it may satisfy you but not satisfy him you see. So Simon forgot Simon who was brought from ringing a bell on the side of the road don't come near I'm unclean and he was brought back into the city and into the synagogue and into the house and on this occasion he forgot he was so excited with the folk around the house you ever go to a meeting like that or again a banquet like that and wonder how much I've heard people say going out of church someday you know I didn't get much out of that service and you know what I always wonder I wonder what the Lord said I wonder how much he got out of that service this morning you should never go to a service without taking something and you'd be better to go taking a heart full of gratitude and praise and devotion than take ten thousand dollars in the offering because he won't get that anyhow what do you bring to church when you go you know people never realize I'm very atmosphere conscious as far as I'm concerned when I start preaching I'd lock all the doors and let nobody in it's amazing how disturbed the meeting can get and very often on the last night of a crusade people they come in and you know they bring a foreign atmosphere they're not sympathetic they're critical and you can pollute an atmosphere why do people like to go to mass meetings because they can get lost in the crowd that's why nobody knows them you go to church someone says look at her you wouldn't even bother to come to church don't you look at him I mean you know what he is and right away you foul up the atmosphere like that before ever the preacher gets going I'm not saying you I mean anywhere any church anywhere anytime there's a great deal in coming with a heart full of purity and devotion and love to him it's an atmosphere in which God can work so the man who was a leper forgotten I say again let me quote in case you weren't here the other day there's one story more difficult than this in the bible to me and it's you know that famous couple who were trusted to take care of the son of God and they went to a great big wonderful conference seven or eight days had a marvellous time saw all the in-laws and out-laws and everybody and enjoyed everything oh it was marvellous again you have to think back that they weren't going down a blacktop road and they couldn't stop down the road and get an ice cream at Howard Johnson's or take a snack at White Castle or whatever you want to go to there were no such things and if they got a drink it was can you imagine a million people going out of a city on different roads and the first well you come to there's about five thousand people all getting trying to get a drink and people babies crying and all the rest of it that must have been quite something oh they loved loved loved to go they sang hymns what do you and I sing sometimes we're marching to Zion they didn't sing it they did it and you know what they did they sang the psalms 113 to 180 and you know how they did it well you remember a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho on Telemonte when they went down that area do you know what they did the women went first and the children if they wanted to go with the mother or the children went with the fathers and the men who were behind and if they went down the road the women would strike up a verse of a psalm and then they would stop and then the men would take up the chant and they keep going to they were marching to Zion the city of God and the women would sing and the men would sing and they would respond and then finally they would all sing together and they went there into that marvellous place singing the praise of God and they had a whole week of conference and oh brother did they enjoy it did they live it up it was marvellous and then they had to come home oh and then they didn't come home the same way the feast was over the time of blessing was over and everybody was in a hurry to get home and I say again there were no cafeterias on the road you could get a drink at a well if you could and you got some fruit if you could and it got to the end of the first day and at the end of the first day Mary says to Martha well I'm going to go home I'm very tired I hope I see you tomorrow and she comes and she says Joseph says hello oh what a hot day my feet are killing me and you know I didn't get a drink of water at lunch time there and he says no I didn't aren't these people restless even at conferences I've been to conferences a bad mannered some of them and no I didn't get anything either well I don't think I've ever had a more tiring day I don't think I have either well how did Jesus get up how did what oh come on you heard me I asked you how did Jesus get up well I don't know well he's been with you all day with me I've never seen him Joseph you don't mean that I certainly do mean it isn't it amazing they'd just been to the greatest conference they'd ever been to and the first day they lost Jesus coming away from him what do you think she did well she'd do the same as you if you lost a little boy 12 years old cried herself to sleep turned around and said we're not going with them we'll have to go back anybody seen Jesus no no no come on let's hurry back well you may lose him in the crowd but you've got to find him by yourself and the second day they searched and they didn't find him and the third day what do you think she did the second night same as she did the first night cried herself to sleep maybe somebody stole him you remember once the don't wish me like that you remember they searched oh they may have done it again the third day they searched for him oh how they searched where do you think he was well he might be down by the pool of Cylon he likes to watch the fishes there no he wasn't he may be in the bazaar because he liked to see those men that sold goodly pearls no he wasn't where did you see him last well Joseph where did you see him last I saw him in the temple well why don't we start there what did the man in the scripture do he found the axe head five miles down the river no he found it where he lost it where will you rediscover your anointing where you lost it that's where you will find it exactly the same spot and he wasn't there and they gave up nearly just a minute let's we can't look in that room it's a select room for the rabbis I mean he wouldn't be in there well I'm going to look anyhow and they peeped and they did Joseph there he there he come here he's there he was where up in the pulpit preaching on Daniel's image interpreting the middle toe on the left foot in prophecy oh no if ever there had been a boy preacher Jesus would have been the boy preacher I don't go for boy preachers because it's only theory there's no experience anyhow somebody stuffed them up and excited them no Jesus was doing what little boys always do at that age oh boy I'd never knew how ignorant I was till my boys got to about twelve and they come home with questions and questions boy the children can soon find how ignorant you are and the little fella was pushing you know on the law of averages that's pretty good they they lost him one day and they recovered him they rediscovered him in three days now not many people backslide like that they don't backslide and then get back in three days that's pretty swift for backsliding you wouldn't think that a couple entrusted with the most precious being the world has ever known would lose him where did they lose him they lost him in the temple you know there's a man in the bible that we wouldn't know very much about he's otherwise remembered in the bible because he got to church too late when he got to church they were laughing and praising the lord hallelujah it's wonderful marvellous what marvellous oh just before you came in Jesus appeared oh I heard a woman screaming about that up in the city you know one of the excited that woman Mary you'd never trust her anyhow I mean you know she's always having visions of something you can't trust her and I wouldn't place too much on that would you respond to well maybe you're dead but until I take my finger and put it there in the nail print and until I can lift his garment and put my hand in his side I won't believe have it your way Thomas now if he'd got to church early he wouldn't have gone on the record would he but he got there late and one day when he was just feeling all right Jesus appeared and he says Thomas no it's all right Thomas no master I mean I can I believe Thomas come on Thomas see my hand put your finger in it see my side oh I guess he felt the most humiliated unhappy man in the world what and and and and and and and and and and and and and Not in giving gifts, not in rescuing the best. That'll come. You can't worship him without serving him so much, that you can serve him without worshipping him. You know that we could get 50% of people from the mission field? Because I've been around mission fields and they say you know I'm doing nothing here. And do you know what I've lost most? On the mission field? My devotional life. And they wither, they dry up. You know why? Because they're like everybody else, they become activists. Doing, doing, going, going, giving, giving. Supposing we try and do this. I don't always remember, but very often I do it. At the end of the day, just before I sleep, I say Lord have I really kissed you today? Have I really worshipped you today? Oh I preach my head off. Oh I travel a long way, I've done this. But Lord did I really worship you? Did I satisfy the heart of the Lord? He shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied. Are we satisfying him? You can't make him rich if you give him a million a day. You can't make him wise, he's the source of all wisdom. You can't even make him strong. Just one thing. Worship him. Worship him. In spirit and in truth and in the very beauty of holiness. So remember again as we finish, she didn't wash his feet with water, with tears. She didn't anoint him with oil, but with ointment. She didn't anoint his head, but his feet. She didn't dry his feet with a towel. She dried it with the hair of her head. She gave him the best every time. Best. And that's what he requires of us. What's the little bitty saying? Only one life. What's the next? It'll soon be past and only what's done for God will last and nobody knows the other two lives. Only one life will soon be past. Only what's done for God will last and when I am dying how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. It can only be burned out as we love and worship. You can rust it out merely in service. We thank you father for this time of meditation. Bless this truth. May it not only be lodged in our minds, but in our hearts and worked out day by day. Dismiss us with thy blessing in Jesus name. Amen.