May it please the Lord to bless
us together this morning as we consider his word. Let us come
and turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2 and we'll read verse
19. The Gospel of Luke chapter 2
and reading verse 19. But Mary kept all these things
and honoured them in her heart. It will be a wonderful favour
if in our lives we have those things which the Lord reveals
to us, perhaps in two ways, like he did to Mary and that those
things which are revealed to us, we keep in our heart. We keep these things. She kept
them. Kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And I'll say there were two things
like this. First of all, Mary had that wonderful
occasion when the angel came and spoke to her directly. And
then we have the occasion when the shepherds came and visited
Joseph and her with a child and they spoke of those things which
had been revealed to them. And both of these situations
we can believe that Mary They kept all these things and she
pondered them in her heart. She thought about them. They
were things necessary. They were things important. They
weren't things to be discarded. If we read then this morning a very
simple statement like this. That Mary kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. I just wonder whether all of
us here this morning can look back in our lives and recall
words, occasions, situations which we kept and we ponder them
in our heart. We may wonder what they mean. We may be perhaps relying upon
them. We may be waiting for the fulfilment
of them. Now on this occasion, or this
time, this period was a very amazing time in the life of Mary. And yet there was to be a long
period before these things were really revealed in the way that
was to prove that they were from the Lord. We know the Lord Jesus was 30
years of age when he was revealed and was baptised by John the
Baptist. And no doubt all those years
when, as we read, he was subjected to his parents He was clearly
an obedient child and he had to be instructed and taught by
his parents and we can believe that Mary therefore was watching
because of those things which had been revealed to her, waiting
for the fulfilment of them. She kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart. the blessing was that she had
things which the Lord had revealed and she had things to keep and
she had things to ponder we may say well of course Mary was a
very remarkable woman, well of course she was but nonetheless
we have these accounts in the Word of God of many people in
various ways to be encouraged that the Lord likewise spoke
to them and they were able to consider and keep these things
in their hearts and to ponder them. So it would be a good thing
this morning if you and I can look and find there within our
hearts some evidence of God's work, of God's being mindful
of us. He was indeed very mindful of
Mary and we're told that the angel Gabriel came to Mary and
he said, Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
Well, that was right and that was true, but wonderfully it
is true of every true believer. The Lord is with them and they
are blessed. And so here was this occasion. And we read, And when she saw
him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind
what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said,
Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And so,
in our lives, we may have those situations in which the Lord
comes and we may be puzzled and troubled by that which has been
spoken to us, that which we have observed, and it may be a concern
to us. Well, Mary was blessed with a
fear not. And so may we be blessed with
a fear not. And this was the encouragement
for thou hast found favour with God. It wasn't because of what
Mary had done. It was because of God's sovereignty
towards her. And so it will be in our lives.
It won't be for what we've done. It won't be for what we merit. It's because of God's favour.
For thou hast found favour with God. What a blessing that will
be and what a wonderful truth that will be. And how encouraging
it will be if God has given us a fear not. So that we can keep
it in our hearts. Don't throw it away. Mary didn't. Although they were difficult
things, Yet she kept these things in her heart and believed them. And of course the truth that
she was given here was that she should conceive and bring forth
a son and shall call his name Jesus. And then she was told
he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David. and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end." Well that was a tremendous truth that the angel had given
to Mary. And this truth was that which
was to come to pass, was to be performed. And so we know that
the Holy Spirit did overshadow her and that she did conceive. And the result was that then
she went and went to her sister or cousin rather, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was six months pregnant and when Mary came and said Behold,
the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to thy word.
And the angel departed from her, and Mary arose in those days,
and went into the hill country with haste unto the city of Judah,
and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, her babe, and as we
know was John the Baptist, leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Ghost. And she spoke out with a loud
voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me? For as soon as the
voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, that they leapt
in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed. And so, we have the clear evidence
that Mary believed. And in Mary's response, a wonderful
response, she said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the lowest
state of his handmaiden. Behold, for henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed." Now she recognised her lowest state.
I believe when the Lord comes and graciously blesses us, we
regard our lowest state. Amazed that the Lord should have
regarded our lowest state. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things and holy is his name. And we know of course
that in Mary's case there had been a great blessing of conceiving
the Son of God. But nonetheless, in His people's
lives, the Lord does great things. He that is mighty hath done to
me great things, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on
them that fear Him from generation to generation. He has showed
strength with His arm He hath scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from
their seats, and exalted them of low decree. He hath filled
the hungry with good things, and the richest and emptier way.
He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, to enter his seed forever. And then Mary, she abode with
Elizabeth for three months and just before she was to be delivered
of that baby John the Baptist, she left and she returned to
her own place. And then as we read, came to
pass that time when she and Joseph went down into Bethlehem to their
city to be taxed. It was there, the appointed time
and the appointed place that she should be delivered of the
baby, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what occurred to unlikely
people shepherds looking after their flock. And there at night
was this wonderful occasion when the angels came. The angel of
the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them. And they were so afraid. And the angel said unto
them, Fear not. Again there was a fear not. And
it must be therefore a right that we should need perhaps in
our lives. Fear not, said the angel, I bring
you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people for
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which
is Christ the Lord. Now the shepherds there in realised
they must go and find the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they came
and they found Mary and Joseph. And they worshipped. They worshipped
the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, and when they had
seen it, they made known abroad the same which was told them
concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them. by the shepherds. So these
things have been spoken to Mary. Mary heard the words that the
shepherds had heard from the angel. Mary had heard also the
words that the angel had spoken to her. And now we read that
Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And what were those things? They
were vital things. What were they? They were the
things speaking of the Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary was given that faith to
believe that Lord Jesus Christ was her Saviour. She needed a
Saviour, like we need a Saviour. The shepherds were told that
here was born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And it was this great truth that
Mary kept in her heart, kept all these things and pondered
them in her heart. It was the good news of the Gospel. It was with regard to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So as we consider this today,
to think in our own spiritual lives, whether we have something
there, wrought by the Spirit of God, to reveal to our hearts
the wonderful truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, that we
see in Him, we have seen in Him, our hope of salvation, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we are keeping these things We're not letting
them go. She laid hold upon them. She
has faith to lay hold upon them. And so what a blessing it is
if we have a blessed with that faith to believe and to lay hold
upon the hope that God has given to us with regard to our salvation
residing in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is really the great centre
of our religion. Mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart. So, may we be able to find in
our spiritual lives this truth, the revelation of God to our
hearts for regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is our
Saviour, my Saviour. This is the real great and important
thing, and how humble it will be, and how we shall be like
Mary, as we consider our lowest state, that the Lord should have
taken notice of us, and has revealed Himself to us, that He is our
hope, is our only hope. And we may be so relying upon
it. Hold it fast. Hold fast that
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Hold it fast. Keep it fast. Mary was keeping it. keeping
this which had been revealed to her by the angel, by the shepherds. She was keeping it in her heart. We're not told that she revealed
these things to everyone around her. It was, as it were, the
secret of the Lord which had been revealed to her. And we're told the secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him. And he will show them his
covenant. That means he will reveal to
them his promises. He will reveal to them the great
and glorious plan of salvation. To their souls. But the secret,
the truth of the simple fact The Lord Jesus Christ was her
Saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Saviour, is a wonderful secret that the Lord reveals. And what
a blessing it is if you and I today can find in our hearts that the
Spirit of God has revealed to us this secret that He revealed
to the shepherds and that he reveals to Mary. But Mary kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. You may have noticed that right
at the end of this chapter, when the Lord Jesus had been delayed
in Jerusalem, he'd been sat with the learned doctors and had been
declaring unto them the truth of God and when he'd been found
had returned with Mary and Joseph. Jesus said to them, He said,
How is it that ye sought me? Wished ye not that I must be
about my father's business? And understood not the saying
which he spake unto them? But, we read, but his mother
kept all these sayings in her heart. Things which she wasn't
understanding at the time. Again, it may be so in our lives. Things that the Lord may have
spoken to us, we may not understand. We may wonder how they're going
to be performed, how they're going to be worked out. Well,
don't be discouraged. Don't assume that the Lord's
passed you by because you don't understand. something which you
may have been spoken to from God. Remember the case of Mary. Remember what the Lord did for
her. Remember how she reacted. His
mother kept all these sayings in her heart. So may you and I keep things
perhaps the Lord may have spoken to us And we have in the previous
chapter that occasion when Zacharias was called and they asked him
what the name of his son should be. His son had been wonderfully
spoken of and born and Zacharias called for a slate and wrote
upon it and he said his name is John and they marvelled all
and then Zacharias he opened his mouth and his tongue was
loosed and he spake and praised God and fear came on all that
dwelt round about and all these sayings were noise that brought
throughout all the hill country of Judea and all they that heard
them. What did they do? They laid them
up in their hearts, saying, what manner of child shall this be?
And the hand of the Lord was with him. Again, we have a situation
where there was this revelation, but the people that heard the
words of Zacharias, they didn't understand what this meant. But they laid these words up
in their hearts. So it would be good for us to
remember these occasions. There are several occasions in
the Word of God where there were those strange and remarkable
things which occurred, which weren't revealed at the time. But they were revealed. They
did come to pass. And we should recognize that
the Lord is gracious and the Lord does bring things to come
to pass in his time and in his way. There was that case in the life
of Jacob. Remember that time when Joseph
was blessed with dreams and he relayed them to his brethren
and to his father. And well, the father initially,
well, he seemed to be a bit harsh and he told it to his father
and to his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him,
what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy
mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee on the earth, well naturally speaking it was virtually an
impossible thing. And we can understand, can't
we, Jacob responding in this way. But his brethren were told, envied
him. But his father observed the same. What did the father do? He kept
it. He hid it, as it were, in his
heart. Although it was a difficult thing
for him to acknowledge as going to come to pass, we're told this,
but his father observed the same. We know, of course, it came to
pass in a very remarkable way. And yet many years had to elapse. Many years had to elapse in the
life of Mary until there was the clear revelation that Jesus
was the Messiah, that one who was called to save his people
from their sins. So we should remember these things
in our lives when we have those things which we may not really
understand and we may think, well, how are these things going
to be performed? How is it going to occur? And
what is the purpose? The Lord's purposes, they ripen
fast in the Lord's time. But not before. Yes, we're told,
your time is always But my time is not yet. Your time is always. Sometimes we want things to occur
quickly and rapidly, but they don't always occur when we expect
them to occur. There was that time in David's
life, when he was David came to Nob
to then came David to Nob to Eliminate the priest and Eliminate
asked him why he was alone and David told him that he'd fled
really from the king and he needed bread and he was given that bread
although it was hallowed bread and he was given then the sword
of Goliath. And then we read, And the servants
of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land?
Do they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saw
the slain his thousands, and David his ten thousand? David
was being chased away at this time. He was on the run. And
what do we read? David laid up these words in
his heart and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. But David, you see, laid these
things in his heart. He'd been reminded of those things
which had been spoken, those things which the people had spoken. He was reminded of it. Didn't
seem very likely, did it? being chased away by and hunted
for by King Saul. It didn't seem very likely that
he was to be appointed the king. But yet, the truth was, he couldn't
give it up. He couldn't thrust it away. And
so he laid these things up in his heart. But we do read, and
he was so afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. He was a natural
man. He had natural fear. So we may
have natural fear sometimes. And yet, if it is of the Lord,
we shall lay it up in our heart. And we won't be able to let it
go. Because it's a promise. God had promised Mary. It had been encouraging by the
revelation to those shepherds. And therefore she kept those
things and she pondered them. She pondered them. I believe
David would have pondered those things. I believe Jacob would
have pondered them. He must have pondered them. You
think when he thought his son Joseph had been killed, what
were his thoughts then? What were his thoughts then?
Well, he must have dismissed them, as it were, and thought,
well, there's no hope. And we know that he then had
said later his son was dead. But he wasn't dead. No, the Lord
was with him. The Lord was watching over him.
The Lord was mindful of him. Well, we have the same Almighty
God today, who watches over us. And he's mindful of us and deals
with us in a similar way, in love to our souls. He doesn't leave us nor forsake
us. Daniel, another man of God. It's good to trace these things
out, to be encouraged. Daniel lives in a difficult age.
I know we are able to read of those wonderful things which
occurred. in Daniel's life. Nonetheless, he lived in a time
of captivity. He was a stranger in a strange
land. And he had much to try his faith. And there were those occasions
when the Lord came then, delivered him, and also the Lord gave him
visions. The Lord told him In visions,
what would occur? And were those visions clear
to him? Was he able to understand them? He was but a man. And we read
this in the 7th chapter of Daniel, in the last verse. Hitherto is
the end of the matter. And that's what the Lord spoke
to him. And as for me, Daniel, my cogitations
much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me, but I kept the
matter in my heart." So there may be those things,
those cogitations which we may have, which may be a concern
to us. We're not able to really analyse
them. When they come to a conclusion,
they may think, well, this is very trying, very strange. Well, they were cogitations which
troubled Daniel, but he kept these things in his heart. So,
as we may have things that we might indeed need to keep in
our hearts, Now just one last reference in the Proverbs. Proverbs
of Solomon. A gracious man and a gracious
man of God. And we're told this in the fourth
of Proverbs. Hear ye children the instruction
of a father, and attend to no understanding. For I give you
good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's
son, tender, and only beloved in the sight of my mother he
taught me also and said unto me let thine heart retain my
words keep my commandments and live let thine heart retain my
words here we have then Mary in the same way really but Mary kept all these things,
she retained them, and she pondered them in her heart. The truth
was, really in these situations, they were things that were directed
to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in our lives today,
let's ponder things perhaps. Believe in the Lord Will. In
the appointed time, revealed himself to us, perhaps in that
way which today we haven't really fully comprehended or understood. Ponder those things. Pray unto
God that our sight may be cleared, perhaps a misty sight. We may
have a clear sight. And I believe that if these things
are of the Spirit of God, they will very certainly direct us
to Christ. Real religion is centred on Christ. My friends, if we are relying
on things outside of this, then we may need to question whether
they are of God. But if they are those things
which speak to us of Christ, we are to ponder them, we are
to consider them, We are to keep them in our hearts because they
will be blessed and they will prove to us the Lord is with
us and we shall be led deeper into the ways of God which are
centred in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing
it will be in our spiritual life then if we find The Spirit of
God leading us, teaching us, instructing us, and revealing
to us all that Christ means. My friends, what does He mean
to us today? Are we on the stretch? Are we
pleading for that revelation? Pleading that He will reveal
Himself unto us as He does not unto the world. Show to us that
He is our Redeemer. He is that one who has graciously,
wondrously suffered upon Calvary's cross to take away our sin, so
that we are complete in Him. That we are a new creature. That all things are passed away
and all things become new. And that we are looking to His
finished work. There is our hope. It's not on
ourselves. It's in what Christ has done.
Now, Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And so may we be found today
remembering something the Lord has perhaps spoken to us, we
may have observed through others' conversation, we may not have
forgotten it, what somebody said regarding the Saviour, and it's
abode with us. Keep it. Keep it as an evidence
of the work of God. Keep it as that which will therefore
be revealed to us, as an encouragement to us. And ponder it. Ponder in your heart these great
and important things as they direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. For we know that these things
were fulfilled, merely to wait many years. but those things
were, did come to pass and it was very clearly revealed the
Lord Jesus Christ was the Saviour of sinners. He was the one who
had to die for her. He was the one who had to die
for you and me. He is the only one that gives
that great and glorious gift of eternal life. And may therefore
this morning Our confidence be not in ourselves, but may we
look forward with that confidence in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.