All right, let's turn back to
John 12. John 12, and let's read this
one more time. Three verses. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper,
and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the
table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. What a beautiful scene that is. You can just, it's all laid out
in your mind, isn't it? Three things stood out to me
about this scene. I read that and I was thinking
about that evening and three things stood out to me. The first
one is the grace that was inside that house. The grace that was
there. I want you to turn with me over
to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10 and look at verse
38. Now it came to pass as they went
that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named
Martha received him into her house and she had a sister called
Mary which also sat at Jesus's feet and heard his words. But
Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and
said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to
serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help
me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art full of care, 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." Our
Lord in grace taught Martha that there is one thing needful, just
one thing. Out of all this, I couldn't help
but think about when we have special meetings and conferences. The bottom line is there's one
thing needful. One thing needful. Now, clearly from our text in
John 12, she is still a busybody. All right? She is still a hard
worker. She is still actively serving
just like we all ought to be. We ought to be. Our Lord said
that a man who's called into the ministry, any part of the
ministry, which is every believer, every single believer, this is
our ministry together. It's not my ministry. It's God's
ministry that he's put in the hands of every believer here.
And every believer who is put into the ministry, into God's
ministry must be given to hospitality. That's what our Lord said, right?
Given to hospitality. And back over in our text in
John chapter 12. Verse two says there, they made
him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table with him. Now there was nothing wrong with
Lazarus. He was raised from the dead and
the Lord said, come forth. And he came and he said, you
lose him and let him go. All right. He wasn't crippled. And Lazarus Martha is serving
and Lazarus is sitting at the table with our Lord and verse
three says. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Mary was once again like she
always is at his precious feet. She just, where's Mary? Right
there. Now Martha's serving, Lazarus
is sitting, Mary's at his feet, And Martha doesn't seem to mind
a bit. It's different now. Grace has
come to this house. She wouldn't take Lazarus away
from that table for anything. He is sitting with God. I'm not
going to take him away. I will do all the serving. I'll
run around like a chicken with my head cut off so you can sit
and listen. Okay? She wouldn't take Mary away from
his feet for anything. She's sitting at the feet of
God. You stay there, I'll get it. That's grace. She's happy
and she's content doing what God has given her the ability
to do, and that's serve others. All right, now then there's Mary. Mary has taken probably the most
expensive thing that they have in their house. Probably the
thing that they had all of their money put into. Alright? She has taken it and poured it
all over the Lord Jesus Christ. And neither Martha nor Lazarus
are saying, what did you just do? You poured it all? Don't you think a drop would
have been enough? No, they said, amen. Amen. That's grace. That's grace. Great grace was
in this house. That's the first thing we see
here. Here's the second, the blessing that was on this house,
all three members of this house. Loved the Lord, their God with
all their heart, all their mind, all their soul, and all their
spirit, their whole house. Man, what a blessed house. Verse
two says there, they made him a supper. Can you imagine the
blessing? Can you imagine the blessing?
God was in that house. Picture dinner with the Lord
God. I mean, we think about him eating,
but picture your own dinner that you would have at your house.
Dinner with the Lord God. He was the most humble, kind,
gracious, thoughtful. guest that a sinner could ever
entertain. Is there any doubt that he would be the most gracious
guest a sinner could ever entertain? I am positive that he complimented
Martha on everything that she fixed and everything she served.
Martha, this is delicious. Thank you. This salad is delicious. I made cake for dessert, Lord.
That's too sweet. You're just too sweet. Isn't
that something? Too kind. You know how when you
have people over, dinner at your house, it's great. Dinner is
great. But usually the conversation that takes place after dinner
is over. Everybody's still sitting around
the table. Plates have been taken away, but maybe people are having
dessert, having some coffee. the sweet conversation that takes
place. All the smiling, it's a smiling
place. The laughing that takes place.
How blessed was the communion and the fellowship at that house. Love was there, true love. Now turn with me over to First
Chronicles 13. First Chronicles 13, this is
when David was bringing the ark back to Israel. But they weren't
bringing it back with fear and reverence. And Uzzah, he didn't
obey God and he touched the ark. God said, don't touch it. And
the ox stumbled and he reached up to steady the ark and he touched
it. And when he did, God killed him. It's a holy God that we
worship and serve. Verse 12, 1st Chronicles 13,
verse 12 says, And David was afraid of God that day, saying,
How shall I bring the ark of God home to me? So David brought
not the ark home to himself to the city of David, but carried
it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And the ark of God
remained with the family of Obed-Edom in his house three months. And the Lord blessed the house
of Obed-Edom and all that he had. The ark of God was inside
that house for three months and everything that was inside that
house was blessed. Every single thing. The Ark is
Christ. That's who the Ark is. The Ark
is Christ. The Ark of God came to Martha,
Mary, and Lazarus's house. And what a blessed house it was.
Did you know that that can happen for our house? Our house. Our Lord said this, this is what
our Lord said, where, and I'm telling you something, I believe
with my soul, every fiber of my being, I believe this with
all of my heart. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. You know what that means? There
is He in the midst of them. Let's bring the gospel into our
homes. It's Tony. It's just Tony. Let's bring the gospel into our
homes. Let's bring the gospel into our
homes. Let's bring believers into our homes. Believers who want to sit around
the table and just talk about Jesus Christ. I have such fond
memories growing up of precious believers sitting around my parents
table talking about Jesus Christ. Let's give our children the blessing
of hearing adults talk about who Christ is, what he did, and
where he is now. Go with me to Exodus 12. Exodus 12 verse 21 says, then
Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them,
draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and
kill the Passover. And you shall take a bunch of
hyssop and dip it in the blood that's in the basin. and strike
the lintel and the two-side post with the blood that's in the
basin, and none of you shall go out at the door of his house
until the morning. For the Lord will pass through
to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel
and on the two-side post, the Lord will pass over the door
and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to
smite you. And you shall observe this thing
for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. And it shall
come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will
give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep
this service. And it shall come to pass, when
your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that you shall say it is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and
delivered our houses and the people bowed the head and they
worshiped God. When your children ask, what
are y'all talking about? Now, what is it now? What did you say? Last Sunday night, I asked the
question, did Christ die for everybody? And one of our little
girls here in this room went, no. She's heard something. She knows something. It may not have. Born fruit yet. But a seed has been planted. How did that seed get planted?
She heard some adults talking about who Jesus Christ is, what
he has done, and where he is now. You tell them, because of our
bondage to sin, death came through the land.
But Christ was made a substitute for us. Christ died for our sins. He died instead of us. He was
a sacrifice for us so we could go free. Children, He's our Savior. That's who He is. He's our Lord. He's our King and all of your
parents bow to Him. We worship Him. We give glory
to Him. God blesses that. He blesses
that. Go with me to Acts 16. Acts 16 verse 14 says, And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized,
and her household. She besought us saying, if you
have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house
and abide there. And she constrained us. She said,
I want this gospel and I want believers of this gospel. to
literally come into my house. I'm not taking no for an answer.
That's what she said. Look at verse 25 right here.
This is after Paul and Silas were put in prison. At midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners
heard them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And
immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were
loosed, and the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep
and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for
we are all here. Then he called for a light. and
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and
Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spoke unto him the word
of the Lord, to all that were in his house. And he took them
the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was
baptized, he and all his." Straightway. And when he had brought them
into his house, he said, meet before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. He brought them into his house.
You're coming to my house. And God saved his whole house.
Turn over to Acts 11. Acts 11. Verse 11, this is where the Lord
sent a vision to Peter. Acts 11, verse 11. And behold,
immediately there were three men already come unto the house
where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. And the Spirit bade
me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover, these six brethren
accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house, And he
showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood
and said unto him, send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose
surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words. He's going to preach
the gospel to you. He's going to tell you words
whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. Are you saying
that if I invite a preacher over for dinner, God will save my
whole family? No, no. What I'm saying. And what this word says is there
is no possible way our household can be saved. without hearing
the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So let's bring
our house to the gospel and let's bring the gospel to our house. It's their only hope. It's all
of our only hope. God came to the house of Martha,
Mary, and Lazarus. Grace flowed through that house. The grace of God flowed through
that house. And God's blessing was on the
whole house. Now go back with me to John 12. I titled this message, A House
Where God Dwells. Grace was there. His blessing
was there. And here's the third thing that
we can see in this seen here. It's what takes place inside
each individual house where God dwells. This house that I live
in. Peter said, you also as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house. You are. Paul wrote in
2 Corinthians 6, you are the temple of the living God. As
God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will
be their God and they shall be my people. Right here we see
three characteristics of a house where God dwells. Look at verse
1, John 12 verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper
and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and
wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Martha served, Lazarus sat, Mary
poured. You know what we see right there?
Faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love. Faith
in Christ, hope in Christ, love to Christ. Faith, true faith,
sits down. That's what faith does. I wish
I could just get my faith going. I wish I could drum it up and
get it working. You know what faith does? See, this is what
I'm doing already. If I could get my faith going,
it would go. Faith sits down. Men and women spiritually go
to work. Living right, doing right, working
on a building for my Lord. Compassing land and sea. And they have no idea that every
bit of that is making them two-fold the child of hell. Faith sits
down. Sits down. Faith rests. Faith doesn't move. Martha is
killing herself. Lazarus is seated with the Lord.
Just seated with the Lord. That's faith. Mary poured all that she had
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what hope means. It means
expected anticipation. expected anticipation. Hope does not mean there's a
50-50 chance and I hope it works out. That's not hope. It means there is no doubt in
my mind. That's what hope means. There
is no doubt in my mind. Pour it all. All of it? All of it. Pour it all. By God's
grace, all of my eggs are in one basket. I've got one hope. That's it. My hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus blood and his righteousness. I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, do not tell me how good I am
and that that is going to get me to glory. I dare not trust
the sweetest frame, I wholly lean on his name. On Christ the
solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Mary
poured it all. And it says in verse two, Martha
served. That's love. That's love. We do not work for salvation,
but that doesn't mean we don't work. It doesn't mean that at
all. There is a real motive of love
inside a believer for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's real. And
that love has a desire to do. Do. Not to find favor, but because
it's already been given favor. I want to do man. He has done
so much for me. What can I do? That loving heart of service
that's inside every believer. It's a heart to serve God and
it's a heart to serve his people. A believer cannot do enough. Believer just cannot do enough.
The reason is because God has blessed his house. That's the
reason. God has blessed this house. He
wants to spend the rest of eternity saying, thank you, Lord, for
saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me that great salvation, so
rich and free. What could I give in return? He needs nothing from me. By
God's grace, that won't stop me. Faith, hope, and love. Man, what
a blessed house. I want the Lord to come to this
house, and this house, and this house, and our houses. May the
Lord dwell with us.