May God be with us now and help
us as we consider his word together tonight. We'll turn to the chapter
we read in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 10, and we'll
read together the final two verses, verses 41 and 42. Luke, chapter
10, verses 41 and 42. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and
troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary
hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from
her. Well, here we are told the well-known
account, no doubt well-known to each one of us, of when the
Lord Jesus, with his disciples, came into Mary and Martha's house
in the village of Bethany. It was clearly a busy house at
this time. The Lord was there. I believe
his disciples were there also. Mary and Martha were there. And
perhaps others also had gathered into the house to hear the words
of the Lord and to be with the family at that time. And therefore,
in one sense, it is understandable, isn't it, that Martha wanted
to get things right. She wanted the house to be ready,
she wanted the Lord himself to be well entertained, that is
well fed, well cared for by Mary and Martha and the family. She
wants to serve the Lord. She is very aware of who he is,
this wonderful man who they know themselves, of his work and of
his teaching and of his person. And they are greatly privileged
and greatly blessed to have the Lord Jesus, the Christ himself,
in their house. And therefore Martha wants to
serve. She wants to prepare the food.
She wants to lay it out rightly. She wants to have the house welcoming. And that, of course, in itself
isn't necessarily a bad thing. how we can be often like Martha. Perhaps in this circumstance
we very much would be like Martha. We would want all things looking
right. We would want the home to be
welcoming. We would want the food to be
prepared and nicely laid out. We would want to give a good
welcome If we were blessed to have the Lord himself with his
disciples in our house, we would want to serve. We would want
to bring what was right and good to the Lord. Well, as we know,
Mary did something quite different. It was her home as well, but
Mary, instead of being busy, getting the things ready and
the food prepared, Mary took the time to sit down. She sat down at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ and listened. Perhaps she asked, but she certainly
heard his word. She realized, like Martha did,
who he was, the blessing that he brought, the work and teaching
that he was bringing, and she wanted to hear. And she sat still,
and she listened to the Lord. Here we have an encouragement
for us to spend our time at the feet of the Lord Jesus, to spend
time hearing his word. We do not have physically the
Lord Jesus in our front rooms. We do not meet with him like
Mary and Martha did, yet we do have the word of God that she
heard. We have the scriptures. We have
the promise of his presence and his spirit. We have the preaching
of the gospel and the meetings of his people. And the encouragement
here in this account is to sit to hear the Word of the Lord. Not necessarily always busy with
things, things that we should be doing but could be done some
other time perhaps. Sit at the feet of the Lord,
because it is here that Mary was blessed. It is here that
she heard directly from the mouth of the Son of God. And it is
in that place, under his word, that we are blessed, that we
are fed, that we are encouraged, that we are drawn near to the
Lord. And what does the Lord say about
Mary's choice and about what Mary received? This shall not
be taken away from her. The blessing that she received
by sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus from hearing his word
would not be taken away. In a sense, the time that Martha
spent was gone. And all the things that she had
prepared by the end of the day were gone. And yet the blessing
that Mary received was not taken away. It remained with her. It was a true blessing of the
Lord. It was an eternal blessing. for
her soul, for her heart. It was good. And it's these blessings
from hearing the word of the Lord and sitting at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ where we receive the true word into
our hearts that remains with us, cannot be taken away. You see here, I believe we have
the encouragement to take time to quietly sit It is right to
be active. It is right to spend our days
and our time and our energy and enthusiasm in serving the Lord. The world serves itself. We are
called to serve the Lord. We are called to take our time
for him. We are called to preach and to
distribute and to encourage. We are called to give our time
to the Lord. And that is right. and it is
something we should be engaged in, something we should be active
in. But it is also vital that in
the busyness of serving, the Lord's people take time to spend
at his feet, time to hear his word, time to be refreshed in
the presence of the Lord, time to worship between our soul and
God and no one else, time to retreat, as the Lord says, into
our closet and to shut the door and to spend in the presence
of our God. It is vitally important for the
health of our soul and for the effectiveness of our service
that we are found to be well-fed and lively in our souls, and
we do that by joining Mary at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was the blessing that remained. One thing is needful. Mary has
chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. So here then is teaching and
encouragement for us in how we order our time, and our priorities
in our Christian lives. But this evening I really want
to focus our thoughts in a slightly different way, in using this
passage and these verses as a picture of salvation, a picture of that
truly good part which is found by the grace of God in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we found at the feet of Jesus
as a repentant sinner looking to him alone for salvation. Mary chose the good part. Mary chose to listen to Christ. And are we this evening found
looking, listening, receiving his word alone for the blessing,
indeed for the very life of our souls. Have we chosen the Lord? Or have we chosen the world?
Have we chosen to be busy and occupied and using all our time
in a sinful, dying world? Or have we chosen the Lord? Here we have a choice. Two paths. Two ways, the feet
of Christ or a sinful world. And what way have we chosen? An active and a willing choice. We have this choice laid out
for us in many ways throughout scripture. You can think of Joshua
way back when he speaks to the people at the end of the book
of Joshua, and he calls on them to make a choice. If it seems
evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will
serve, whether the gods which the fathers served that were
on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in
whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. He calls on the people to make
a choice. Choose you this day whom ye will
serve. Which way will you go? Which
gods will you worship and bow down to? Choose your way, a choice
for them to make. You can think of the occasion
when God came to Solomon and when he spoke to him and asked
him what he would give him, that blessing that he would ask for. He gave him a choice, we could
say. He asked him, And Solomon asks, we know, for that right
understanding to be able to discern between good and bad. The Lord says, Because thou hast
asked this thing, thou shalt and hast not asked for thyself
long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor asked
for the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thy self-understanding
to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according
to thy words. You see, we can look at this
and say, well, Solomon had a choice to make. He could have chosen
riches or the life of his enemies, or he could have chosen long
life. But he chose to ask for discernment, for understanding,
for wisdom. The Lord asked him, and he made
a choice. One other occasion, we can think
in the Old Testament of Ruth. Ruth was with, we know, her mother-in-law,
Naomi, and Naomi encouraged her to go back to her people, to
go back with her sister-in-law, Orpah, back to Moab. Naomi says, Behold, thy sister-in-law
is gone back unto her people and unto her gods. Return thou
after thy sister-in-law. And with that question, Ruth
has a choice to make. Will she go with her sister-in-law,
Orpah, back to Moab, or will she stay with Naomi and go to
Bethlehem, to the people of God? Entreat me not to leave thee,
she says, without a return from following after thee. Ruth chooses
the right way. Mary has chosen the good part. Which way have we chosen? Which
way are we going? Now, no doubt you are thinking,
don't we believe in total depravity? Don't we believe that man is
unable to make a choice? Don't we believe that we are
entirely and spiritually dead, and therefore unable to choose
anything of the Lord, to choose any right way, and therefore,
in a sense, there is no choice for us to make? How could we
ever choose a good part if we are totally depraved? Well, it's in this way. The Lord
works. And the Lord works to show us
our need. He draws us to make the right
choice and give us a desire to sit at the feet of Jesus. Yes, by nature we are spiritually
dead. By nature we have no desire for
the Lord. By nature we will not make any
right choice. But the Lord awakens the soul,
the Lord shows the need that we have, so that we do willingly,
because we have that need, desire to sit. at the feet of Christ. Desire to go with Naomi, with
the people of God. Desire to have wisdom and understanding
in the things of God. And desire to serve the Lord
with Joshua and his house. It's the Lord that gives us the
concern and the Lord that gives us the desire. But, that being
true, we still make a willing and active and conscious choice
to have this good part. We see the other way. We see
what it leads to. We see what we deserve. We see
how much we need this good part. And the Lord works that we desire
it. We pray for it. And with his
help, we choose it. desiring his blessing above all
else. The hymn writer puts it more
succinctly than I ever could. He says in hymn 940, less than
myself will not suffice my comfort to restore. More than thyself
I cannot crave, but thou canst give no more. Loved of my God,
for him again with love intense I'll burn. Chosen of thee, Ere
time began, I choose thee in return. The Lord has chosen his
people before all eternity, and he works to bring us to choose
him. Mary hath chosen the good part. Well then, she makes this choice. Again, which way are we going? Mary chose the good part, a good
part. And that good part was to sit
at the feet of Jesus. And there she received the blessing. If we're sitting at the feet
of someone, we can imagine the picture, can't we? If we're sitting
at the feet of someone, we're near to them, aren't we? We're
right in front of them, near to the person that we're listening
to. We are ready to listen to that person. It's an act, an
attitude of being ready to listen to the person. And there's also
here an element of humility, isn't there? She wasn't standing
as equals. She wasn't even sitting as equals.
She was sitting at his feet. I believe we have a picture of
him probably seated on a stall of some kind and she is seated
on the floor. She is sitting in a position
of humility, ready, close by, to listen to him. Mary isn't
full of her own opinions. Mary isn't full of difficult
and unhelpful questions. Mary isn't trying to catch him
out that she might accuse him. Mary isn't trying to teach him.
Mary is ready to listen. She's not full of her own opinions.
She doesn't say that she has all the answers herself, that
she knows everything, and that she can teach the people just
as well as the Lord can. She sits to listen. This is her attitude in listening. And what does she listen to?
Well, we don't know what the Lord spoke, but it must have
been wonderful words to hear the direct word of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And she was ready to hear them.
Well, do we join with her in choosing that good part to sit
at the feet of Jesus, to sit in a place of humility,
to sit in a place ready to listen, to sit in a place not arguing,
Not thinking that we know everything and that we understand it all
and that the Lord should listen to us, but that we are ready
to listen to him because we know nothing. Because we're empty
without him. Because there's no blessing without
him. And we want to hear his word. We're eager to hear his
word. We're coming longing to hear his word. We're longing
to receive something from him. In an act of humility, we sit
at his feet. and we're ready to hear. Have
we chosen, do we come with that right desire tonight to hear
the good part, to hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? And
what do we listen to? What do we hear when we sit at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we hear the glorious gospel. We hear the gospel of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And we hear in that gospel that
there is eternal life for those who look to him. We hear that
there is a way of hope for those who are dead. There is a way
of life for those who deserve his wrath. There is hope. In the glorious gospel of Jesus
Christ, we hear of grace. We hear that though we are far
off and undeserving, He looks upon the worst of sinners. We
hear from His Word that He came to seek and to save the lost. And there is grace. There is
unmerited favor of God. Those who never deserved it and
could never earn it, and yet He pours out that blessing and
that favor upon them. From his word we hear that there
is hope then for the worst of sinners. From his word we hear
of the love of God, that God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, and he gave him that he might go to
the cross. We hear from his word that he
has gone to Calvary, that he is born the price. We go to Calvary and we see him
there suffering and dying and breathing out those words of
love and mercy to his people, Father forgive them. It is finished. Oh the wonderful words of Christ
and the work of Christ on that cross and it shows us the depth
of his love And when we sit at the feet of Jesus and hear those
words of love, here is the gospel, here is grace, here is life. And do we sit at his feet then
and desire to hear those things for ourselves? Do we sit at his
word and long that we might know the gospel applied to our hearts? We sit at his feet and we hear
that there is life, there is heaven, There is eternal glory. When once we were on the road
to hell, when once we were in under his wrath, once we deserved
to be cast out, but now clothed in his righteousness and washed
in his blood, there is a way to glory. There is a way to heaven. There's a way into the very presence
of God himself. There's a way to a mansion prepared
for his people. We sit at his feet and we hear
this gospel of hope, this gospel of grace, this gospel of eternal
everlasting life. This is what we hear. We sit
at his feet and we hear the truths and we hear the doctrines and
we hear the gospel. And then we hear the invitations
come. Unto me, or ye that labour and
heavy laden, I will give you rest. You who are bowed down,
you who are under the burden of sin and of guilt, it's for
you, and I will give you rest. We sit at his feet and we hear
him speak these words, and these are the words, are they not,
that we long to hear. These are the words the sinner
needs to hear and pleads that he may hear. I've come to seek,
to save the lost. She chose the good part. She
chose to sit at his feet and hear these glorious words. Do we hear them? Do we desire
to hear them? Do we love to hear them time
and time again. Jeremiah said, didn't he, that
he took the scroll and he ate it and it was sweet to his taste. And when we come to hear the
gospel preached or when we read his word and we sit, as it were,
in the very presence of the Lord with him, we say these words
are sweet to my taste. I delight to receive them. It's
that good part, the good part. And when we know something of
the blessing of it, and we see the beauty of it, and we see
the suitability of it, and we see how much we need it, then
we choose the good part. We must. The Lord has shown us
what more can we need. These words of the Lord satisfy
the longing soul. They satisfy the needy soul. is life in the midst of a dead
world. One thing is needful, Mary has
chosen that good part. And then we have the wonderful
affirming truth of what she had chosen and what she had received,
that good part which shall not be taken away from her. shall
not be taken away. We may fear at times that everything
that the Lord has ever given to us has been taken away. It's been removed. It's not there. You see, everything in this world
ultimately is temporary. Everything will be taken away
at one point or another. Everything will pass away. We
brought nothing into this world and it is certain we shall take
nothing out. It's all temporary. Is this good
part? Is this blessing of the Lord
temporary? Passing away? It brings joy for
a time and then it's gone. It brings relief for our soul
for a period of time but it's gone. It's taken away, it's been
removed from us and we can never get it back. Is that what the
blessing of the Lord is? It sometimes feels like that,
doesn't it? The unbelief of our own nature
crowds in. We're crowded out by the world
and its noise and its temptations and its unbelief and its wrong
ideas and philosophies. And does the blessing of the
Lord seem distant, out of our grasp, out of our reach? There
was something there once, but it's gone. There was some joy
once, but it's been taken away, it's far off from us, it's disappeared
entirely. Maybe we think, was it real at
all? Was it just my own imagination?
Was it just my own wishful thinking? Was it any blessing? Was there
any good part at the feet of Jesus? I thought there was, but
it's gone. It feels so distant. We can join with the hymn, can't
we, when he says, where is the blessedness I knew when first
I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing
view of Jesus and his word? Where is that blessedness? Well, here's the Lord's answer.
Here's the Lord's word to you. Mary chose the good part. You
have sat and enjoyed the blessing of the Lord, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, as you've heard his word, and he says,
it shall not be taken away. What we receive from the Lord
cannot be removed, cannot be taken away. It is a steadfast
and an eternal blessing. If we have received something
from Him, if we have been blessed to hear His Word, then it cannot
be utterly removed. Now we may feel it is distant
at time, we may not feel the force and the power of it that
once we did, But it has not gone, it is written. It is written
eternally. by the Lord himself. The Lord
knows he gave that blessing. The Lord knows it was to you.
The Lord knows it was a blessing of salvation, and it will not
and it cannot be taken away. It remains in him. If we have
an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, then that interest is
centered and grounded in a faithful and eternal and steadfast Savior. That interest is grounded in
Him. It cannot, it shall not be taken
away. How is that so? How is that so? Well, the Lord
says, cannot be removed from the Lamb's Book of Life. It cannot
be removed from His Word. It cannot be removed from His
heart. How do we know that? I have graven thee on the palms
of my hands. Thy wars are eternally before
me, He says. Always before me. I have graven
thee. He hasn't just written the names
of His people on His hands. They're not written to be rubbed
out or blotted out. They are not there to be worn
off and over time to be forgotten. They are graven in, etched in,
never to be removed, never to be covered up. They are graven
in the palms of His hands. Our names cannot be removed from
His heart. The life that we have received
by His grace must remain. It must remain, it cannot be
taken away. How do we know that? Because
I live. Ye shall live also, says the
Lord. As much as He is risen again,
as much as He is eternally alive, never to die again, as I live,
He says, ye shall live also, as certain as His presence in
glory is today and forever. So certain is the presence of
his people as well. It shall not be taken away because
he lives. Ye shall live also. What if we fear that we are going
to perish? We are losing everything and
we're cold and we're dead and we're distant from the Lord.
Have we lost it? Has he left us? Is he no longer
there? Or does the Lord say, I am the
vine? Ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
can do nothing. You are in the vine. Oh, you
may feel at times to be dead, feel to be no fruits. And yet
if we are by his grace in the vine, then the sap, the life,
the spirit comes up, keeps us alive. His spirit is not removed. His life that he's given us is
still there. What if we feel that we have
sinned too much? Does that remove us from the
family of God? Does that remove us from His
grace? Does not our sin, since we first trusted Him, remove
us? No, he says. It is finished. It is finished. The work of salvation
from beginning to end is finished. All the sins that we commit from
birth to death is paid for. It is finished. And therefore,
glorious thought, the sins that we commit in the future are paid
for. It doesn't give us license to sin, but it gives us license
to rejoice and to praise our glorious God. It shall not be
taken away from you. You cannot sin away your salvation. The Lord's work is finished. Heaven itself cannot be taken
away. Because the Lord has said, I
go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for
you, I will come again to receive you unto myself. That where I
am, you shall be also. I go to prepare a mansion for
you. And if the Lord has gone to prepare
a mansion, a place for his own individual people, then they must go there. Then
they must be where He would have them to be. They must be with
Him, because He has said, Father, I will, that those that Thou
hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
glory. Do you see these glorious truths?
Yes, we have many doubts. We doubt. We fear our name can
be removed. We fear that there is no life
left in us. We fear that our sins have taken
us out of the secret. We fear that we could never reach
glory at last. And yet the Lord's Word responds. The Lord's Word says it's finished.
The Lord's Word says ye shall live. The Lord's Word says that
there is a mansion prepared. Now he chose the good part. It
shall not be taken away from her. What a glorious and wondrous
truth. What a glorious and a wondrous
gospel. This evening, do we sit with
Mary? Do we take our place next to
her at the feet of Jesus, near at hand, looking to Him, listening
to Him, taking our eyes off everything else, the busyness of the world
and of our lives. Tonight, perhaps even the busyness
of tomorrow and the week ahead of us, even the busyness of serving
the Lord as right and good as that is. And tonight, for a little
while, sit at His feet, and to know the blessing of hearing
His Word, the Gospel, and the assurance that it cannot be taken
away. Though we may know the power,
the roaring, the wrath even of the devil, it shall not be taken
away. It's the Lord's work, and the
Lord's work remains. Mary has chosen the good part. This evening, which way are we? Which path are we on? Where do
we sit? In the world or at his feet? Where is our home? In the world
or with him? Which way do we choose? Are we
following what we will always by nature follow, the wide, the
broad, the popular way to destruction? That is the way if left to ourselves
we will always choose. Or has the Lord showed us what
we are, what we need, and the beauty and glory of what the
Lord gives to his people? And we say, O Lord, by thy grace
and with thy help, I would choose thee. Didn't Moses say, I've
set before thee life and death and blessing and cursing and
so forth. Therefore, he says, choose life, choose life. May the Lord set before us life
and death, the blessing of the Lord and the certainty of destruction
outside of him. blessing and cursing, and therefore
bring us, with his help, by his grace alone, to choose that good
part which shall not be taken away. Well, may the Lord bless
his own word, may it prove to be so, to his glory and honour. Amen.