The Gospel of Luke chapter 10. This is a very familiar story,
but the thing about God's Word is it's the living Word. His voice, if He speaks to us,
it's always something new and fresh. And that's the Gospel
in good news. Five short verses, and I thought
these are like the five smooth stones in David's bag. Any one of which can slay the
giants of unbelief, ignorance, care, trouble, bitterness, self-pity,
pride. And one way that we know, one
of many ways we know this is God's Word is every line, every
phrase is significant. Verse 38 is where we begin. Now
it came to pass as they went. Now stop right there. Where are
they going? In Luke's Gospel chapter 18,
the Lord said, well, let me read to you. It says this, He took
the twelve with Him. He took unto Him the twelve and
said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. As they went, where are they
going? Where is Christ going? To Jerusalem. From the time He
was born, His whole life was headed toward Jerusalem, where
he would go outside of Jerusalem, on Golgotha's hill, and be lifted
up on Calvary's tree, and be made sin, a curse, crucified. For this cause, Christ said,
I came. And they went with him. They went with Him. He chose
them. First of all, remember when He took them up on the mountain
to show them His glory? And He kept telling them, we're
going to Jerusalem, where I'm going to be crucified, buried,
and I'm going to rise again. That's where we're going. You're
going with me. And I'm going to do this work
for you. We're not going to do it together. Christ did it alone,
didn't He? By Himself purged our sins. But
they went with Him. They were always with Him. You
see, just one little fray as they went. Where are they going? Where are we going? Where His
disciples are? We're chosen by Him. We've seen
something of His glory. We've heard His voice. We're
with Him. He's with us. They were always
with Him. He was always with them. Where are we going? Well,
He first takes us to Calvary, doesn't He? Well, He takes us up on the mountain,
Mount Zion, to see His glory. And then we're going to Calvary,
where we're going to be crucified with Him. Then we're going to
the grave. We're going to be buried with
Him. And you know where else we're going after that? All the
way to glory. All the way to glory. As they
went. And on the way to Jerusalem, He was finding His lost sheep
here and there and everywhere and saving them on the way. That's
right. As they went. What a sermon that
is. Three words. As they went. And
they went with him. So, they went toward Jerusalem.
Verse 38. He entered into a certain village.
Don't you love the word certain in the Scripture? A certain village
chosen by him. He had predetermined, predestined
to go into this village before the world began. Before this
village was a village. He purposed it. Put some people
there. He was going to hear his voice.
And he's going to go visit with them. He's going to go dwell
with them. Three people. Martha, Mary, and
their brother, Lazarus. And our Lord went there often. He loved to go there. And He
would stay with them and eat with them. How blessed was this
little town. Bethany was about the size of
Boone's Mill. The Lord passed by Jericho. Big city, 100,000 people there.
Passed by this place and that place. And he went to Bethany. Little old village, little old
nothing, no place. Oh, what a blessed village that
was. This little village of Rocky Mountain. How blessed. Look at verse 38. As he entered
into a certain village, a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. A certain woman.
Received Him into her house. Oh, how blessed are those who
are chosen, called, hear His voice, hear His Word, believe
on Him. John 1.12 says, as many as received
Him. As many as received Him. He gave
them the right, the privilege, the blessed privilege of being
a child of God, a son of God. Which were more? Not of the will
of the flesh, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not
of man, but of God. Born of God. These were His chosen
disciples. And Martha received Him into
her home. She literally received Him for
supper. She received Him for supper.
Now, before we go any further, where did Martha get this home?
From Him. So it really wasn't. Her home. It was His home. Just like ours
are. It's on loan. She's just borrowing
it. So what are we to do with this
loan from the Lord? Use it on His people. Our Lord
said, as much as you've done whatever under the least of My
brethren, you've done it to Me. You've done it to Me. Now, when
she received Him, She had to receive all of his spouses. When she asked him to come to
dinner, there were at least 12 men with him. And there's some
ladies' problems, and whoever. One time, he was in the house,
and there was not enough room in the house, and people were
outside the house, and some fellas on top of the roof, trying to
get in, tearing the roof off. Oh, but the Lord blessed that
house, didn't He? You reckon He gave them a new
roof? He gave them the house, gave them the roof over their
head. How blessed is the house. Remember the story of Obed-Edom
that David brought the ark, was bringing the ark back to Jerusalem. And remember the story of Uzzah
touched the ark. So a man named Obed, of Edom said, can I have the
ark? Could you bring it to my house? I'll keep it as long as
necessary. I'll take care of it. I'll watch
over it. And so they did. And it says, the Lord blessed
the house of Pobed Edom for about eight or ten months. Blessed
them greatly. His wife, his children, his relatives,
his neighbors, whoever came. Oh, how blessed is this house.
And our houses. where the Lord dwelt. Now, verse
38, a woman named Martha received Him into her house, and she had
a sister called Mary, which also sat at the Lord's feet, at Jesus'
feet, and heard His Word. Martha and Mary, and had a brother
named Lazarus. My, my. Martha and Mary were
believers, and we were certain that Lazarus was. The Lord raised
him from the dead. Two sisters and a brother. All
of them believers, in one hand. That's rare. Isn't it rare? It's rare, really, for a husband
and wife both to be believers. The Lord saves whom He will.
He chooses whom He will. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Neither are worthy. Neither deserve it. But God,
rich in mercy, chose whom He would. And it's great mercy to
that person. Bypass the other. That's his
will. And Esau didn't want anything
to do with the Lord, so he's getting what he deserved. But
for God to save a man and his wife, what a blessing. And his children? Oh my! A brother, a sister, two brothers. I have a brother. We have nothing,
Stephen. Everything in common with your
brother, don't you both know the Lord? Your sister. That there is Lazarus. What a blessing, isn't it? Oh,
such a blessing. Two sisters and a brother. Love
redeemed by Christ. It's the greatest blessing on
earth. He that blesses himself in the earth, blesses himself
in the Lord of truth, or the Lord who blesses him. Now, our
Lord was always preaching and teaching. Always. Never an idle word. Never an
idle moment. Never an idle step. He was always in the direction
of saving His lost sheep. And wherever He went, as He was
going, He was speaking and teaching. When He sat down, He was speaking
and teaching. When He was eating supper, Between
bites, he was preaching and teaching. He is the Word. He is the Word. If he wasn't
speaking, his actions were speaking very loudly. So, verse 39, Mary sat at his
feet and heard his Word. Now, she heard that the Lord
was coming. And Mary thought, can you imagine? The Lord Jesus Christ is coming.
Martha said, Mary, the Lord is coming in our home today to get
supper. Really? She thought, oh, I can't
wait. I can't wait till he gets here. Oh, when he gets here, I'm just
going to sit there. I'm going to cast everything
and everyone aside, and I'm just going to sit and wait. on the
Lord. Wait on a word from the Lord. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait.
I can't wait till He gets here. I need to hear from Him. I'm
hungry. I'm thirsty for His Word. I'm poor. I'm needy. I'm sinful. I need. Oh, I need to hear from
Him. I bet she's probably sitting
there in front of that chair He sat before He got there. Reckon? But Martha, verse 40, Martha
was cumbered. The word cumbered means to be
dragged down. It means to be distracted. Cumbered. That's something that would impede
you. Cumbered. With much serving. Verse 40. Cumbered with much
serving. Now, remember my pastor, oh,
he preached from this so many times, didn't he? He corrected all of us self-righteous
people who came down on Martha. Hold on a minute. Yes, she should
have been sitting there, but she was serving. And what did
the Lord say about serving? He was a servant. He came to
serve. He took upon Himself the form
of a servant. He said the greatest among you
is a servant. an encumbrance to her. She was
bogged down with it. She was dragged down with it.
She was serving. Thank the Lord for those who
serve. Those who feed, clean, serve. But, these things are
never to take the place of sitting at our Lord's feet, of worshiping
our Lord. Nothing. No one we're going to see should
take the place of coming to be with and hear our Lord. He deserves
Our worship and our praise. And we need to hear from Him.
We're going to see what happens to us if we don't sit and hear
His Word. We're going to see what a bad
state we can get into. Like Martha. But she was careful,
it says. He said, you're careful in trouble.
Her mind, her heart were full of care. About what? Food. Eating and drinking. about supper. Can we not miss
one meal? One time the Lord said in His
Sermon on the Mount, He said the Gentiles, all they think
about is eating and drinking. He talked about the Jews. He
said the Jews, that's what they did. They sat down to eat and
drink, rose up to play. He said that your life consists
more than Food and raiment and this and that and the other,
but it's righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Ghost. It's
not meat and drink. That's not what life's all about.
Life is Christ. To know God. To know Him and
how we know Him. Right here. That's what we're
doing. Her mind, her heart was full
of care about supper, about food, about the table, about the guests.
So much so, she was troubled. She was worried. She was troubled.
How am I going to do this? Now you ladies, if you've ever
entertained guests, and I have too, you know what it's like.
If you haven't several guests, I don't know if I can do this.
Have we got enough dishes? Have we got enough food? Oh,
I didn't buy. Mindy, don't eat too many potatoes. I don't have
any potatoes. Wait till I eat the potatoes
before you get the potatoes. And buddy, that's a sacrifice.
I love potatoes. But, you know, we've got enough
food, we've got enough potatoes. She's full of worry about potatoes. We don't need potatoes. We need
this bread of life, though. Now, this is understandable.
It's understandable. This is flesh. She's a servant. She's trying to serve everybody.
It's understandable. It's forgivable. It's forgivable. I don't know if I can do this,
if I've got enough. She was concerned about her death, which is forgivable.
But it's not excusable. It's inexcusable. Because our
Lord said there's one thing needful. Everything else can and must
wait. It must wait. We dishonor our Lord if we put
things before Him. If we give more care and concern
to things than our Lord, He calls that idolatry. It's dishonoring. If we think
more about things, oh, how dishonoring we are to our Lord. All of us,
because we're guilty. But now, the Lord is sitting
in Martha's living room speaking. The Lord who gave her this house,
who gave her the table she's about to serve on, gave her the
food, the means to buy it, saved her soul. He saved her soul. She should
have been sitting there with Mary, shouldn't she? Most definitely. There's no excuse. There's no
excuse. Our love of the Lord does not
give any excuse, does it? Nothing and no one can or should
take the place of this right here. We don't order worship
around our lives. We should order our lives around
worship. Christ is our life. We serve Him. We serve His glory. This is what we're doing right
now. We're coming here and offering the sacrifice of our lives. Praise
and thanksgiving. Our Lord well deserves the first
fruits, doesn't He? The best. Our undivided attention,
our whole heart's love, our mind, our thoughts, our gifts, doesn't
He? He deserves it. He gave it all
to us. Now, here's the first lesson.
There are legitimate concerns, there are legitimate cares and
legitimate needs in the home and so forth, but nothing, nothing,
nothing, nothing should take the place of worshiping
our Lord. He said the first fruit is we're
to drop everything to attend unto His Word. If not, we're
going to get in a bad way. We used to have pretty big Bible
conferences. 13th Street had big Bible conferences,
you all remember. 14, 15 preachers. As a boy, I
thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to die
in the service. But I didn't. And those were formative years
where churches, men, young men from churches were being started,
and Dad wanted all these fellows to come and preach, and people
get to know them, and people from all over. This is where
all the churches started and got together, and all that we
know now were a result of that. But it got so big, and there
was so much food to prepare. And so much service and so much
to perform and all that, and it got to be a circus. And what it was, was the women
were preparing food and some of them were back there preparing
food while the preaching was going on. And finally, Dad said,
stop. That's it. I'm not going to do
it anymore. Why? Because this house is what? A house of prayer. A house of
worship. Not a place to socialize. We're here to do one thing. Worship
the Lord. And nothing can take the place
of that. We've tried to cut the food and all that preparation
and all down in our little meetings so that no women will be cumbered
about all of that. Okay? The guests can go someplace else.
We're not here to eat bread, food. We're here to feast on
this bread. Alright, here's what happened
to Martha being cumbered about. Verse 40, Martha was cumbered
about much serving and came to the Lord and said, Lord, dost
thou not care? Don't you care about me? Would
you look? Look at what I'm on to. Lord, don't you care? Have you ever gotten a state
like that? Lord, don't you care? Self-pity. Alone. Lord, don't you care? And self-righteousness is what
that is. And she said, my sister, verse
40, Lord, does thou not care that my sister, look at her,
she's left me alone. To do this work. Look at her. You know, Satan's called the
accuser of the brethren. He accuses them in Revelation
7, day and night, all the time. All the time accusing the brethren,
accusing the brethren. If you accuse the brethren, if you find
fault with the brethren, look at her, look what you're doing.
Look at what I, look at her. You're doing His work. He's using
you. One time, The Lord, when the
Lord rose from the grave and was leaving, and he was talking
to his disciples, and he was talking about Peter. He told Peter, you're going to
be crucified. And Peter said, you know what
he probably thought? Oh man, I'm going to go through
that. He said, what about John? What
are you going to do with John? He said, what's that to you?
That's none of your business. He said, you follow me. You do
what I tell you to do. Don't worry about them. I'll
take care of them. I give the orders, not you. Look at her. No, look at yourself. If only Martha looked at herself. Look at you, Martha. You're careful
and cumbered. Martha, look at this. She said,
Lord, bid her. Lord, tell her to get up and
help me. Now she's giving the Lord orders. Now she's thinking,
this is what the Lord ought to do. Doesn't He care about me? Look at them. They don't like
me. This is what He ought to do. The Lord should have strongly
rebuked Martha and David. He's so tender and so kind and
knows our flesh and knows our frame that when He rebuked her,
I'm sure it was very gently and He didn't humiliate her. I believe
he did this, I believe he probably went in the kitchen and privately
said something to Martha. Don't you? He doesn't humiliate
us in front of one another. He's so kind. He's not like us. Alright, Martha, if you're not
under the word of the Lord, for whatever reason, Martha was careful. Mary doesn't have care in the
world. Look what's going on. Look what's
going on. Mary's sitting there. What's going on? Listen. Listen to His Word. Isn't that
wonderful? Yeah, but look out here. I don't care about that. Martha was troubled. Mary was
peaceful. Complete peace. Not a care in
the world. Martha was working. Working.
Working. Mary's resting. Resting. Resting. Martha's upset. She's upset. Mary's about as
settled as you can get. She's just relaxed, settled,
grounded. Martha's running around here
and there. Mary's sitting in her right mind. Martha's out of her mind. Mary's
in her right mind. Martha feels alone and unloved. Mary has never felt more loved. She's right at His feet. She's
not alone. You remember that story of Hubert
Davis, a preacher in Farmville, Virginia. My dad and I went.
I used to preach with him for years in a conference in Rocky
Mountain, North Carolina. Older man. He got Parkinson's
disease and got way down to where he was just bent over double
like that. He had a son who was invalid. 50, 45-year-old son that lived
in their home with him, and he realized that his wife could
not take care of both of them, and he committed himself to a
nursing home. He committed himself to a nursing
home. We went in to see. My dad and
I went to see. He loved my dad, he loved me, and we went to see
him. And he was all hunched down in a wheelchair by himself in
one of those nursing home rooms. And you know what those nursing
home rooms are like, I don't care where it is, it's still
the precedent. And he had his back to us and
he was all hunched over. I said, Brother Huber, are you
alone? And he said, no brother, the
Lord is with me. And we walked around in front
of him and he could barely look up, you know. Oh, a big grin
came to his face and he saw my dad and he was just happy as
a hog in mud. You know what a hog in mud? Martha felt all alone. Martha
felt unloved. Mary had never felt more loved.
She was not alone. She didn't need anybody or anything
in this world. She had all she needed. sitting
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, look at what our Lord said
in closing. And really, I believe He got up and went into the kitchen
and maybe put His arm around me. You reckon? And just to her,
privately, Martha, Martha. Oh, the Lord can say so much,
like a father to a child. I used to, Dan, when my dad would
call me Paul Edward, I was in trouble. Whenever he used two
names, Paul Edward, caught. I'd been caught. Paul, Paul. Disappointment. Just enough in that to make me
ashamed, I said. You know what I'm saying. Son.
Son. Martha. Martha. Thou art, he said unto her, careful
and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful. Now,
when I was newly married, fairly newly married, and you know my
wife, she was a good servant, a very good servant. She served
everybody in this church for many years. Served well. She's
both Martha and Mary. She really is. Nothing she wants
better than to sit right here. I told her I was dealing with
Martha and Mary. She said, oh, I wish I could be there. But
she's teaching your children. But I made the mistake as a young
married man, one time she was real busy, and I said, Mindy,
Mindy, you're careful. Don't do that, man. Don't do
it. You're not the Lord. It won't work. You understand me? It won't work.
We're not the Lord. And the reason we do something
like that is self-righteousness. You tell a woman, you need to
stop doing that. It's like the man who came home
one day and said, Behold, woman, I've overcome my pride. Maybe you didn't get that. But
don't do it. Woman submits. I remember doing
that. This is what it says right here.
It says, woman submits. Our Lord doesn't treat His wife
like that. He was tender, He was kind. He
meant it in love and care. We're not Him. We can't rebuke
like He can rebuke. So don't do that. I know that
from experience. Because we're all Martha's. But He said, One thing is needful. One thing is needful. Our Lord
said that. One thing is needful. You remember
David, Psalm 27 is some of our favorite Psalms. David said,
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.
You remember Psalm 63, Wednesday? Early will I seek that. That
I may dwell in the house of the Lord. I just want to dwell there.
All the days of my life. Behold, the beauty of the Lord
inquiring his temple. And he said, When you said, Seek
ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I
seek. Meaning, I'm going to drop everything and everyone and seek
him. Seek a word from him. Seek a
blessing from him. Seek to worship him. And our
Lord said this, One thing is needful. Nothing else is truly
needful. And Mary, look at this, Mary
hath chosen that good part. She's chosen that good part.
And it shall not be taken away from her. She hath chosen that
good part. Now Mary was chosen by the Lord,
redeemed by the Lord, called by the Lord, drawn by the Lord,
born again by the Lord. Mary was chosen by Him. Chosen,
called, and faithful in His worship and all that. And once a person
is chosen, once a person is born again, a new creature in Christ,
there are choices that we can make. Right? There are choices. God's people are made willing
and gave His power. Okay? And once made willing,
their will is changed. They have a new man. This is
what we want to do. That's like Joshua said, ask
for me in my house. We will serve the Lord, by the
grace of God, because He called me and chose me. This is what
we're going to do. And we make choices. And Mary chose to sit
at His feet. That's where I'm going to be.
Did she have responsibility? Did she have things that needed
to be done? Did she have chores? Did she not see Martha waiting? She lived in that house, I believe.
Did she not see that things needed to be done? Yes, she knew that.
Did she feel a little bit guilty? Maybe. But, one thing's different. She said,
I'm not going to let anybody or anything distract me. Now, here's my final point. There are preparations necessary
to worship the Lord. My dad wrote an article one time,
before, during, and after the sermon. There's preparation. We cannot just rush into God's
house And expect him to bless us. Whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Seek his faith. If you seek with
all your heart, he said, you'll find him. There's preparation
necessary. What do we do before we get here? What are we talking about on
the way? There's some preparation. Lord,
bless the preacher. Lord, bless me. Lord, if you
don't bless me, bless my brethren. Lord, use the radio. Lord, use
the mixer. Lord, use the bulletin. Lord,
use the... Lord, help us. Bless us. Meet
with us. Lord, would you meet with us?
Would you meet with me? Drop everything. Everything.
Our houses, our... whatever it may be that we care
for, drop it. Oh, but they can't... Yes, they
can wait. and must wait. And we must wait
on the Lord. If we're not waiting on the Lord,
we might not hear from Him. What will happen? We'll become
like Martha. We'll become like Martha. So, alright, look at this. It said,
She's chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from
her. She's getting what she wanted.
She's getting what she chose. by His grace. She's getting what
she desired. One thing have I desired, Lord.
Is that what you want? Yes, I want You, Lord. You get
me. How long? Forever. You know where
Mary is right now? You know where Mary is right
now? Who is this Mary? She's the one that washed His
feet with the tears of her eyes and bathed and dried it with
the hair of her head. Chief of sinners. And the Lord
said, her sins are gone. And boy, she loved to hear that
again. She wanted to hear it again. And you know where she is right
now? Sitting at His feet. And Lord, nothing and no one
is going to separate her from the love of God that's in Christ. That's where she is right now.
What do you say we join her? Thank you. Wait a minute, this is still
on. Thank you.