May I please God to bless us
this evening as we consider his word together. Let's turn to
the Gospel of Luke chapter 10 and read in the last verse, last
42. Verse 42, 10th chapter of the
Gospel of Luke. But one thing is needful, and
Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away
from her. We have in this little account
of Martha and Mary instruction which is good for us to realise
and to consider. We know that Jesus entered into
the village where they were and Martha had received him into
her house. And we find that Mary came and
sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. Martha was occupied
in the house getting things ready to eat and she saw her sister
sitting down at the feet of Jesus and she asked the Lord that he
might ask her and to come and help her, and why should she
continue serving alone? And Jesus responds in this way
and tells her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled
about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen
that good part which shall not be taken away from her. There are indeed in our lives
many, many things perhaps that we are careful and troubled about. And they can very easily come
and dominate our lives. So that although they may be
right and lawful things, yet they are not of any true benefit
to our spiritual state and our spiritual standing. Whereas we
see that here we have Mary, she came and she sat at Jesus' feet
to hear his word, the words of Jesus. What a vast difference
there really is. And yet we can understand that
both of these people were godly women. They were those that feared
the Lord. And yet we have the account here
to direct us to be careful in our lives that we do that which
is truly profitable for our souls and not to get too tied up and
too involved with all the things of the day. We can understand
Martha's concern. looking at it from a natural
viewpoint, trying to go and prepare a good spread for the Lord Jesus. We know of course he was worthy,
but the truth is that it wasn't necessary. A very simple fare
would have been perfectly adequate, which he could have produced
in a very short time. What we see therefore in our
lives, we need to be careful not to overdo things. not to concentrate on things
which may be lawful. And as the Apostle says, all
things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
And again, perhaps looking at the case of Martha, we can imagine
that she wanted perhaps to impress the Lord Jesus and to be congratulated
on the wonderful work that she'd done. Whereas, of course, the
more important aspect was to come and sit and to hear what
Jesus had to say. That means to do those necessary
things which she had to do as quickly and as easily as possible,
and not to spend a lot of time on them. And then, you see, we
can see her, then she was really Jealous then, she got involved
in this situation and was involved in it, and then she saw that
her sister wasn't helping and was sitting at Jesus' feet, and
she clearly thought that wasn't fair, and therefore she wanted
Jesus to come and tell her. She could have told herself,
but no doubt she thought that the word from Jesus would be
far more important and have much more weight, so she goes and
asks Jesus. She said, Lord, does thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. We can almost sense an anger
in Martha's demeanour and voice as she comes here, seeking that
why should her sister not be involved in the work that she
was involved in? Well, Jesus very kindly and very quickly
really reprimands her. and points her so clearly to
the importance of hearing the words that he was speaking. And so we have a good example
here for all of us in our natural lives. We have to live in this
world. We have to eat and drink. We
have to work for our living. But the important thing is to
not let these things so overtake us and so consume us that we
look and we see other people perhaps not working as hard and
able to come and be blessed and to worship. And perhaps we have,
as it were, a godly jealousy and we think they should be working
harder and helping as well. Let us realise the important
thing is to come and hear the words of the Lord Jesus. Because those things will be
eternally good. Again, how easy it is for us
to lose sight of the great difference between time things and eternal
things. Martha was concerned about time
things. We believe she wasn't totally,
but here she was so occupied in time things that she didn't
have the time to come and sit at Jesus' feet. Whereas Mary
was the opposite. She left all those things which
were not so needful and came and sat at Jesus' feet to hear
his words, those words which brought with them eternal blessings. So as we read an account like
this, which no doubt most of us have read many times, probably
familiar to us, but so seldom does the word of God really sink
into our hearts. How very seldom does the Word
of God have a gracious effect upon us, so that we go home with
a different perspective of things, and a different intention of
things. When it's good, you know, if when we hear and read the
Word of God, then it's directed to us, and it speaks to our heart
as the Word of God. You see, Jesus came into this
village, came to this village, account is recorded specifically
in these details. There were no doubt many other
things that could have been said about his journey into this village
and what he did. But we see the Holy Spirit directs
us very clearly to the needful thing. And the needful thing
is to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The needful thing. We can take
this, that Jesus was saying to Martha, well, I don't need all
these things, just one dish is adequate for my sustenance. And she was trying to do very
many things, as we read. But just one, one thing would
be adequate. Well, one thing would have been
adequate. Perhaps we need to think of that sometimes in our
own lives. We live in an affluent age, a materialistic age, and
we have to be very careful that we don't spend our time inadvisedly. Time is very precious, really,
and time is very valuable. And how necessary it is that
we spend our time profitably. In reality, how can we expect
the blessings Almighty God if we do not spend our time correctly,
diligently, in the things of God. We may spend our time on
many things which again, as I said, may appear to be lawful, but
do not really benefit our souls. And yet we expect God to come
with a great blessing nonetheless. Well, the Word of God is very
clear. We are to seek first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness. believing that all other necessary
things will be added unto us. Again, we need grace to do that,
to do it continually, to seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness. That means day by day. It doesn't
mean just when we come to the Lord's day, but every day to
be found seeking those things which are spiritually good. Indeed, it's spiritual food.
See, Martha was concerned about natural food. Mary was concerned
about spiritual food. And we can see the difference,
can't we? We can see the need we have of natural food, but
only so far as we need to keep our bodies alive and well, but
how we need much more the benefit of spiritual food to feed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ to feed upon his words. Now we're not
told, are we, what Jesus was speaking. But we do have in the
Word of God a wonderful record of many words that were recorded
that Jesus spoke. And are they not all profitable? Are they not all beneficial?
And so we can be sure that the words that Jesus was speaking
on this occasion, that Mary was listening to, were important,
instructive, to her. Clearly it wasn't just the odd
sentence because Martha was carried about doing all this serving
and Mary was still sitting at the feet of Jesus and it was
clearly after some time that Martha decided to approach the
Lord Jesus. So he'd been speaking for some
time to Martha and perhaps to others of the great truth of
the things of God. Mary was concerned to hear the
Word of God, His Word. We read, she sat at Jesus' feet
and heard His Word. Well, I wonder, are we concerned,
are we prayerfully concerned to hear His Word? It's a big question, isn't it?
For all of our lives, to be concerned to hear His Word, The words of
Lord Jesus. You know, we're not told this
was the Lord's day and it pretty clearly was not. But it was a
time when Jesus came and a time when Mary wanted to hear what
he said. And here was the opportunity.
Immediately she went and sat at his feet. She had her priorities
right, didn't she? She had her desires right. She
sought to hear The Word of Jesus. Well, do we seek to hear the
Word of Jesus? The Word of Jesus, that's when
an opportunity presents itself. You see, there are many opportunities
in our lives, aren't there? And we, as it were, pass them
by. We pass them by. And we find
we are, as it were, occupied in much serving. doing many other
things, but may we be found like Mary, choosing that good part. Now, we think of this and we
think of Martha preparing this food, well that would soon vanish
away, wouldn't it? It was gone, forgotten about. On the other hand, Mary was benefiting
from that spiritual food which would not be taken away from
her. That is eternal food. And that food must be centred
in the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? And we know how the Lord
Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples and directed them to the great
need there was to be a partaker of himself. That he is our spiritual
food as we may hear his word and read his word and meditate
upon his word, that our souls are encouraged, that our souls
are fed, that we rejoice in the great truth of the word of God.
It feeds us so that our souls are healthy. And you see the
more we are spiritually fed, then you see the more healthy
we will be. If we're not spiritually fed,
the same thing as if we're not fed naturally, we become lean. and we haven't much strength.
Whereas if we eat well, naturally, and we have a healthy constitution,
then we have good health and strength. But is it not the same
in a spiritual scene? If we do not receive the word
of the Lord, His word, do we not grow thin and weak? What a wonderful blessing it
is if the Spirit of God gives us that hunger and that thirst
after righteousness, after the things of God. So the things
of God become to us more necessary than our daily food, that we
love to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is a sweet name. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. Is it attractive to us? And when
we hear that name mentioned, are we attracted and do we, as
it were, draw aside? Or do we just carry on in the
things of this poor, vain world? Now we have to live in this world,
I know. We have to work in this world. And that's so, so true. The Word of God tells us that
we have to earn our living by the sweat of our brow. And that's
because of the fall of Adam and Eve and the sin which entered
in. That was the statement made because of sin that we have to
work and to earn our living by the sweat of our brow. But you
see, there is also the other side of putting first things
first and being diligent in the things of God. We ought to be
diligent, of course, in our daily work. But we are not to allow
our natural things in our natural life to usurp our position so
that we find there's no room for the things of God. And so
here we have this account of Martha and Mary. Well, are we
concerned to be like Mary? You know, the temptation is to
be like Martha. Temptation is to be like Martha.
Because one of the reasons is that doing what Martha did brings
natural praise. and acceptance. Doing the things
that Mary did does not bring natural praise and acceptance.
The tendency is for us to seek after praise of men and women
for those things which perhaps we do. We may not like to admit
it, but if God gives us that grace to look into our hearts
and examine ourselves, we'll see that our heart is so deceitful
that we find ourselves doing things really for our honour
and for our glory. It's good to be able to just
sit still and assess ourselves to see whether we are doing those
things which will be profitable for our souls and will be for
the honour and glory of our God. Well, here was Martha with all
this serving. It was occupied and we were coming
about with it, rushing about. She came and said to the Lord,
does thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help
me. Again, we might think that perhaps
the Lord would immediately turn around and say, well Mary, you
better get cracking and help your sister. But no, you see
the Lord reacted in a very different way. A very different way. We might think that Mary was
being lazy. Well, in actual fact, Mary wasn't
being lazy because she was sitting and hearing the Word of God. And she was desiring, therefore,
that that Word might have been a blessing to her. And what she
was doing, she was putting first things first. She clearly saw
that there was a wonderful attraction in the words of the Lord Jesus,
such that she wanted to go immediately and sit at his feet, to hear
his word. She was told and heard his word. It wasn't just to avoid doing
any work and escape and sit there. It was because she wanted to
go and to hear his word. so in our lives do we want to
go to hear the Word of God? Is that our great aim and our
great object in life, to hear the Word of the Lord? Because
we can be sure that if it's our real desire and concern to hear
the Word of the Lord, the Lord will not turn us away. And we shall receive that which
will be beneficial for us. There are many things in our
lives that we need in a spiritual sense. We need guidance. We need direction. We need correction. There are many things that we
need from the word of the Lord. And we need, therefore, a prepared
heart to receive that word. Now, we might say that here was
Mary. She was like that good ground.
ready and well prepared to receive the Word of God. And so it is
important for us in our lives today to be concerned that we
are amongst those who are the prepared ground to receive the
Word of God. And there may be those other
things in our lives which occupy us and therefore the Word of
God does not prove to be profitable to us. We may be perhaps very
simply sitting and listening in chapel, and in actual fact,
we're not listening at all. In actual fact, our minds are
roaming after all the things that we've got to do and the
things that we have done. Are we hearing the word of the Lord? We're not, are we? We're turned
aside. What are we? We're really coming
about with much serving. We're serving ourselves. Perhaps
we're planning what we might serve to others. But it's not
like Mary sat and hearing the Word of the Lord. And the Word
of the Lord being a blessing because we're told it shall not
be taken away from her. It wasn't something that was
going to just fly away or be choked with the weeds and the
tears and the thorns or be burnt up. No, it was something that
was going to remain with her. which shall not be taken away.
So that word which the Lord gives, the word which the Lord speaks,
will not be taken away. It won't just disappear. But
if we come and we are coming and serving, the word will disappear. In fact it will just brush over
us. We won't really appreciate what
it said, what it meant. It will go away empty. Go away empty. It's a very sad
truth, isn't it? To worship and to go away empty. And have to say, well, there
was nothing for my soul today. Well, perhaps it's because there
wasn't that hunger, and there wasn't that thirst, and there
wasn't that prayer. And the Word of God tells us
the Lord will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do
these things for them. We cannot expect to roll up to
a service and receive the blessing if there's been no preparation,
if there's been no prayer, if there's been no desire for spiritual
blessing. It's a wonderful favour if we
come then and, as it were, immediately sit down to hear the Word of
God. Mary came and sat at Jesus' feet
and heard his word. Well, I wonder in our lives,
we look back in it, perhaps we have many things to mourn over. I'm sure we do. Many things to be sorry for.
But there's a difference between just saying we're sorry and being
sorry and meaning it. And we are. concerned about perhaps
our lack of spiritual growth, our lack of spiritual life, perhaps
the hardness of our heart, perhaps the carnality of our mind, and
some people are satisfied with that kind of position, just having
a name to live and yet are dead. What a solemn thought that is,
a name to live, thought well of, and yet spiritually dead. The Word of God tells us, ye
shall know them by their fruits, and that's the evident work of
God in our hearts. Clearly here was a woman, Mary,
who was known by her fruit, because that fruit was to come and sit
at Jesus' feet and to hear his word. I do want to make that
very clear. She didn't just come and sat
at Jesus' feet and then mused her time away. She came and heard
his word. And that's the great difference,
isn't it? To come and hear the word of
the Lord. And as we hear the word of the
Lord, to benefit from it, so that it does us good, so that
we do grow spiritually. We grow spiritually, and we are
therefore fruitful. And Lord Jesus speaks, doesn't
he, about this feeding when he spoke on the earth, when we read
in the sixth chapter of John, that long chapter, about these
great and important things. And the Lord says, Jesus said,
verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Well,
we know that's not physically, of course, but that is in a spiritual
sense that we meditate and consider and hear the word of the Lord
Jesus. And with reference to the shedding
of his blood and his broken body, to think and meditate upon that
will indeed, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, produce life
in the soul so we may be spiritually alive. And the Lord goes on to
say, Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life. So here is the evidence that
we possess eternal life, because we desire to feed upon Christ
that Christ is precious to us. We love to hear about him being
spoken about. Again, that's quite a good test
for our spiritual life, if we love to hear the Lord Jesus Christ
being spoken about. And it's music in our ears. Who
so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. There's no doubt about it, because
this is a spiritual application. This is spiritual feeding. There's
nothing in this to feed the natural mind. Nothing at all. But if you and I are born again
of the Spirit of God, then you see, such a consideration will
be attractive. What is it? The Word of the Lord
that Mary wanted to hear. And I will raise him up at the
last day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed." How do we react to a statement like that tonight? The Jews couldn't understand
it. They didn't appreciate what Jesus was speaking. They thought
he was speaking about the natural manner, that their fathers had
eaten and were dead. or to that bread which the Lord
had multiplied when he fed the 5,000. But no, the Lord was speaking
about far greater and far more important things than this. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I
in him. That means surely communion with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
but how little is understood of his suffering so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. But it's a great blessing if
the Spirit of God leads us into all truth as it is in Jesus,
as we may be able to meditate upon the great and glorious truth
of feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this is that
which will strengthen us in our inner man. When you're strengthened
in your inner man, you'll know what a difference it is. It will
in fact affect your natural body as well, to be strengthened in
your inner man, and your Rejoice in the truth of God and rejoice
in what Christ has done and rejoice to know that you have an interest
in his death and in his shed blood and to rejoice to think
that you are united to Christ, the living vine. You've been
a partaker of him, part of that blessing of that spiritual sap. as a living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me." There's neither way, my friends, for you and
me to live apart from feeding upon Christ. The question is,
is it not, what think ye of Christ is the test to try both your
work and your scheme You cannot be right in the rest unless you
think rightly of him. Well, it's a great truth. It's a great consideration. We don't want to end up short,
do we? We don't want to find that we thought we were a partaker,
but in fact we were left outside. We thought the sea was coming
to good ground, but in actual fact it was not. It was in stony
ground. My friends, may the Spirit of
God give us that right understanding, that we appreciate what Mary
was concerned about. She came, sat at Jesus' feet,
and heard His Word. The words of Jesus are very real,
and they're very precious, and God suits His Word to each of
our lives. Each of our lives are individual.
And we cannot lay down any particular rule. We have the general situation.
The Lord does come to his people. The Lord does speak to his people. The Lord does direct his people. And so the Lord came and said,
this is that bread which came down from heaven. It comes down
from heaven. Not something you can, I can
pick up. It comes down from heaven. It's all of the Spirit of God
comes down from heaven. And because it comes down from
heaven, we have to thank and praise our God for that gift
of feeding our souls. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. See, this food is spiritual food. This food is eternal food. This is that which will bring
us safe through to glory. We won't find that we run out
of strength. No, because this will strengthen
us to run the race that is set before us. And as the Apostle
Paul says, how is that to be accomplished? Well, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Now, Mary was given
that faith. She didn't know what was going
to be said, did she? But she believed the Lord would speak
the words of life. My friends, what a blessed truth
it is. If you read through the Word
of God, the Lord Jesus didn't speak any words which were not
profitable. No, he didn't give accounts of
things which were not beneficial. All the words of the Lord were
a blessing. And Mary was to prove this great
truth and heard His word. But what had she done? She was
here, sat at Jesus' feet, and she'd chosen that good part.
Now, naturally, she'd chosen it. Spiritually, of course, the
Spirit of God had given her that strength to go and hear what
Jesus was going to speak to her. She was hungry. the things of
God. She was more hungry, wasn't she,
than her natural food. She let Martha, her sister, get
on with that. She wanted to hear the word of the Lord. She wanted
to hear the word of her Saviour. What a blessed thing it is if
you and I are found like that, wanting to hear the words of
Jesus. And it was, she was told, Martha
was told, it was that good part, good part, to be found sitting
at the feet of Jesus. You know, we remember that mad
Gadarene, wasn't it? You know, when he was cured,
and the people came to see what he was like, and where did they
find him? He was sat at Jesus' feet, clothed
and in his right mind. Oh, what a change there was.
What a change. What a blessing it is when the
Spirit of God works in our heart and produces that desire, that
spiritual desire, we might say that eternal desire, to come
and hear the Word of the Lord, to leave everything else beside. Just come and sit at Jesus' feet. I wonder in our lives if we've
known an experience like that where we've wanted to come and
just sit at Jesus' feet. We can leave everything else,
until we come and hear His word. Well, can we not say that there
was life in the soul, spiritual life, and not only life, but
liveliness, health. Oh, that we each may be blessed
with spiritual life and spiritual health, seeking after a greater
knowledge of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, surely our
aim, our hope is to be with the Lord Jesus forever in glory. Now if that is the true desires
of our heart, surely we want to know about him and hear about
him and commune with him while we're on this earth. God's people don't get to glory
who are strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ. They know in some measure what
he is to them, a bit like the Bride of Christ in the Song of
Solomon. He is altogether lovely and he is my friend. The Church of God should desire
to walk this way, to be able to declare what the Saviour means
to them. The Saviour meant so much to
Mary that she came immediately and sat at Jesus' feet. And it would be a blessing for
us tonight if we are so healthy in our souls that we want to
come and sit at Jesus' feet and hear his words. The words of
life. The words of life. They weren't
vain words. They were the words of life,
life to her soul. And my friends, are not the words
of Jesus life to our souls? I hope they are. I hope they're
what we want to hear. I hope that's why we've come
tonight, to hear the words of Jesus. And so we have this very beautiful
little testimony recorded in the Word of God of Jesus visit
to this house of Martha and Mary in this village. Now let us not
forget that Martha was a good woman, but she had to be taught,
she had to be told, she had to be shown what was the more important
things. And it's good if God is gracious
to us and deals with us in love to our souls and shows us What
are the more important things in our life? The spiritual things,
the things which will do us real good in our life here and will
be for our good throughout eternity. So we have this wonderful statement,
and 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. Amen.