All right, back to Luke chapter
10. Luke 10. Let's read verses 38 and 39 again. Luke chapter 10. Verses 38 and
39. 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' feet and heard his word. You know
this story. I'm sure most everyone in here
has read this story, the story of two sisters. The Lord came
to visit Martha, Mary, and they had a brother named Lazarus,
you may remember. I don't know when they first
met, when the Lord first crossed their path, but they had a long
relationship while he was on this earth. This was the first
or one of many visits our Lord paid to this house. And I'll not have you turn, but
in John chapter 11, verse 5, it says, Now the Lord loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. I wish my name were written right
there. He expressly said, Now the Lord loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. The Lord of glory set his love
upon these three before the world began. And he determined to visit
them, not just to have tea. but to save them. He determined. That's why he came to this earth.
He said, I have come to seek and to save the lost, my own. And he loved them from the beginning,
and we're going to see he loved them to the end. He never quits
loving those that he sets his love on. That's the love of the
Lord. It's eternal and it's effectual. Those he loved, he set his love
on before the world began. He didn't start loving them when
they later on became his followers. No. And he never stops loving them.
He saves them too, everyone he loves. Well, Martha. Martha was
probably the oldest. I don't believe it says that
she is, but she was probably the oldest, judging from the
fact that she spoke up and she was. It was her house. Martha
owned a home. It says it was her house. Perhaps
she was married. It doesn't say. It does not say
whether she was married or widowed or divorced, whatever. But the
Lord came into town and verse 38 again, it says. Martha received
him into her house. Now, before we start condemning
Martha, she's to be commended. You notice there in John 11,
it says the Lord loved Martha and her sister. He didn't call Mary by name at that
time. He did expressly Martha. Before we condemn her, she's
to be commended. Yes, she is. In fact, the Lord
didn't condemn her at all here. No, the Lord gently admonished
her. But Martha received him into
her house. That's to be commended. Martha
opened her house to the Lord, and many times thereafter, every
time the Lord was near, she had him in her house. Because Martha was given to hospitality. That's what the scripture says
a believer should be given to hospitality. That's a virtue. And the scriptures tells us in
Hebrews 13, be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Well,
Martha wasn't forgetful to entertain, and she didn't entertain an angel.
She entertained the Lord himself. There are others like Lydia who
had Paul and the apostles and others in her house. Oh, didn't
the Lord bless Lydia? And her house, her whole house
was saved. How often has it been said here from this pulpit that our homes are not to be
used strictly upon ourselves and our families? And I want to say this with as
much compassion as I'm sure the Lord said it about Martha a little
later. Our homes are not our own. They're not to be used strictly
when I say it. What do we have, listen, what do we have that
we have not received? And our Lord plainly tells us,
freely you have received. freely give. All right, do we
have nice homes? All right, the Lord said, he
that has been given much is required much. If you live to yourself, you will die by yourself. If you live for yourself and
your family, if you keep to yourself, you will be left to yourself. And that's miserable company. The Lord will leave you to yourself
to waste away in misery and self-pity. but to the merciful, he says,
he'll show himself merciful. To the gracious, he'll show himself
gracious. I guarantee you, anyone you think
is a gracious and a godly and a Christlike and a person who's
filled with wisdom and knowledge and seems to have peace and comfort They're merciful, gracious, giving,
generous, open up their homes, do, serve, because the Lord returns
in time. If you're gracious, he gives
more grace. If you're hospitable, he visits your home. If you're
hospitable, he'll visit your home. And so, if you do not do anything
for others and live for yourselves, do not wonder, do not wonder
if you have no peace and are mostly miserable. The Lord's
not going to bless you. He's not going to bless you. Did I say that with compassion,
with kindness? Now, if Martha was an average
person, listen to me, if Martha was an average person living
back in these times, she was very poor. had a very small home. The Jews under Roman rule didn't
live like we do. She was very poor. She lived
very simply. A small home, but she opened it up anyway. And the Lord opened His house
to her, didn't He? She lived in a small home, opened
it to Him. He opened up His and said, Perhaps Martha was married. Like
I said, it doesn't say whether she was married or not. Perhaps
she was. Maybe she was married to an unbeliever. She opened her house to the Lord. Remember, the Lord said, now
it's not just the Lord, but the Lord said, what you do the least
of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. You remember when the Lord said,
when I was naked, you didn't clothe me. When I was hungry,
you didn't feed me. And they say, well, when did we see you? When one of my own, you were
around me all the time and never had me in your house. The Lord repays with interest. Yes, he does. Martha, he says,
is to be commended here, isn't she? Martha is to be commended,
and the Lord did by visiting her. All right, verse 39. She had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. Also, that
means evidently Martha was sitting there for a while, listening to Christ and And she got up to serve, and
says, Mary, her sister, sat and heard his word. Now, both of
these women loved Christ. They loved his gospel. They loved
him, and they loved to hear it. They loved Christ, and they loved
to hear him. That's a good description
of the believer, of the disciple. They loved Christ, and they loved
to hear him, and to hear of him. Now, I believe this is what happened,
all right? This is what happened here. The Lord came in to the
house. And after greetings and all,
and Martha, it was her home, and she just wanted to make him
comfortable, you know, just, oh, sit here. No, this is fine. No, no, I want you to sit in
this good chair here. Sit in my husband's chair or
whatever, you know. Sit here. Can I get you anything
to drink? Are you comfortable? Just on and on. How are you today? Just on and on it went. She sat
down, you know, on the city sofa for city folk, the city, and
was sitting in Christ. He wasn't in there. Thirty seconds
to grace poured from his mouth. And he began to speak. And they listen, Martha sat there
and listened to him speak, and Mary She she there weren't many
chairs, you know, maybe a few other advisors and a few other
people. Mary sat on the floor. Get up from there, Mary, sit
up. No, no, I'm fine, I'm comfortable, really, I'm fine right here.
Sitting at his feet. And as he began to talk, they
sat there a little while, and Martha, after a little while,
she thought, I better get up and fix something. He's bound
to be hungry, and everybody's thirsty, and I'll get, excuse
me, Lord, I'm going to go fix something. Okay. And she got
up and went in the kitchen there, and Mary was so engrossed in
what he was saying that she didn't even hear Martha leave. And she didn't bother to get
up. After a while, Martha's in there
cooking, and, you know, and, oh, there's lots to do, you know,
and much to do, isn't there, ladies? Much to do, food to cook,
there's a crowd in there, company to come, table to set, dishes
to wash, and Mary wasn't helping. That good-for-nothing sister
of mine, I'm in here, and what's she doing? And she was cumbered, look at
verse forty, it says, Martha was cumbered about much serving.
Yes, there's much to do if you serve. Nothing wrong with serving.
Everything right with serving. Our Lord commended serving, didn't
he? He said he's deserving to be the greatest, didn't he? He
said that's why he came. Not to minister, but to be ministered
to, but to minister, to serve. Martha was cumbered, though,
about much serving and came to him after a little while, after
a lot of cooking and table setting and this and that and the other.
She came to the Lord, verse 40, and complained to him and said,
Lord, don't you care that my sister I wanted to add her. If my sister
left me alone to serve alone, tell her to come help me. It's fine. It was fine if she
just kept serving. That's good. It's a good thing
to serve. Our Lord commends serving. And listen, under normal circumstances,
Mary should have been helping. Ladies, if you go to somebody's
house and the hostess of the house is in there slaving away,
don't you dare sit in that chair and not help her. You are ungrateful. You're not there to be served.
Don't you dare do that under normal circumstances. Listen
to me. Under normal circumstances, Mary should have been in the
kitchen. But this ain't normal circumstances. But under normal circumstances,
if I come over, you don't sit at my feet and listen to me. Go have a pint in the kitchen. Somebody said this about those
who are willing to do the work, to do all the work. Somebody
said there are those that are willing to do all the work and
then those who are willing to let them do all the work. It's really not funny. And no deadbeat can use this
as an excuse. Well, I'd just like to sit and
tell a story. Work now, fellowship later. There's
a man, let me illustrate this. There's a man in our home for
ten days one time. He never lifted a finger. But he was critical of my wife
the whole time. Who was busy. He thought she
was too busy. What was she busy doing? Waiting
on him. I want to busy him right out
the door, you know. He wasn't a lord, that's for
sure. He ended up being a devil. Under normal circumstances, a
woman should have been in the kitchen helping out here. But this is no ordinary visit,
and it is no ordinary visitor. And what this represents now,
this visit by the Lord represents worship, what we're doing right
now. Worship, this time of worship. the state, what we're doing right
now, what we came here to do is not to hear the choir. If
you came to hear the choir, boy, you missed out, didn't you? Wrong
Baptist pledge. You don't have one. If you came
to see the handsome song leader or preacher, you missed that
dude in the joke. If you came to be entertained
by the gospel quartet, sorry, we've got to you that can sing,
but, you know, it isn't real polished. God's people come to sit and
hear the Word. That's it. That's it. Let's hear what the Lord has
to say then. Open the Scripture. We don't care what the preacher
looks like. Open the book and preach to them. preach Christ,
we do care what he looks like. We don't care how he says, ass
and nice. We do care how he says gospel, what he says about the Lord.
Come to hear the word, be gospel, particularly the word. sit at
his feet. Christ, there were two or three
gathered. I'm there. What would we do? What can we
be busy doing in this thing? What? You see, this is the picture
here. This is what this represents.
Worship. Worship. But if anything, anything gets
in the way, you're cumbered about. And so the Lord was here in this
house. And Mary sat at his feet, hearing
him. Martha was cumbered about. Like I said, service is good,
it's needful, it's commendable, our Lord commends it. But there's
a time to hear the Word. And when it's time to hear the
Word, you lay everything aside. You eat toast, and then you go
hear the Word. You don't fret over your tie
or your makeup. You go to hear the Word. You don't fret about this and
that and the other in the world. You don't, oh, well, but I've
got to do, you ain't got to do nothing. Our Lord's going to
show us there's one thing you've got to do. Now listen to this. Martha's
absence, listen very carefully, Martha's absence from the Word began to be revealed in her attitude. The attitude that Martha finally
displayed proved that she'd been out of, she'd been out from under
the word. Don't you care? Talking to the
Lord. She went in and literally, John
literally, she rebukes the Lord. Don't you care? So how could a person be so,
get in such a shape? You get out from under the word
and then you'll get, you'll blame, you'll, you'll curse God. You'll find fault with everything
in God's providence. And then you'll start looking
at and finding fault with others. She, she, she said, don't you
care, Lord, that my sister You see, find the fault, bitter
at God's providence, and now critical of her sister. And that'll
happen. You get out from under the reading,
the reading now, you can't replace, you can't go twice a week and
stay healthy. You can't eat twice a week and
stay healthy. You sure can't eat once a week.
Have I had enough? Not enough. And I don't have
health. But if you leave off reading
and hearing the Word, you'll get in a bad state. You'll get
in a bad state. You'll become bitter at God.
Everything that goes on, you'll be bitter, you'll blame God,
you'll become critical and fault-finding of others. Listen very carefully
now. And if you leave off long enough,
if you leave off long enough reading and hearing and worshiping,
this will be your excuse for leaving altogether. So nobody cares about it. They're all a bunch of hypocrites
anyway. I'm so alone. They should have
been helping me. I ain't going to die. It happens. It happens. And back to what we said in the
beginning. Well. Martha, verse forty one,
our Lord answered. Now, he said this. In compassion. Verse forty one, our Lord. He was grace poured from his
lips. He could rebuke his own and it
not humiliate. He could say what he said that
would cut him, but it would also heal him at the same time. He
said this in compassion. This was a gentle reprimand from
the God-man. And unless you serve like him, or even like Martha, don't you
dare say this to anybody. I say that to myself. I'm not worthy to say this. Unless
I serve like the Lord, and am like him, or at least serve like
Martha, I have no right to say this, to rebuke those who do."
Well, he said, Martha, Martha. He said, Thou art, look at verse
forty-one, Thou art careful and troubled about many Careful,
full of care and trouble, full of trouble. Scripture says where
your treasure is, that's where your heart is. If you have much,
you worry about much. What your mind dwells on, that's
what occupies most of your time, that's what will fill you with
care and trouble. Listen to what Brother Joe Terrell
wrote, OK? Listen to this. I didn't see
this until after I'd prepared this message, but I want to include
it. I wish we could have put it in
the bulletin. I will, next week. He said, we must be careful that
our enemy, you know who that is. Our enemy
does not move us to add one little thing after another to our lives
so that eventually we no longer have time to worship, have no
energy to serve, no money to give, no opportunity to listen. Let's put first the kingdom of
God. Let all other things of our lives fit in to that. not vice versa. If we do, we'll have the one
thing needful, and it'll never be taken from us. Never. If we
put matters of this life first, no matter how good they may seem,
we'll some day suffer the loss of all things, all that we've
invested, and it'll prove nothing but a burden That's good. Our Lord answers
this way in verse 42, and he'll conclude right here. He says,
You're full of care and trouble about many things, but one thing
is needful. One thing is needful. You need one thing. Now, we're poor and needy creatures,
aren't we? Huh? We're poor and needy creatures. Listen, everything we have, God
has to give it to us. You think about animals. You
know, animals, just 30 minutes after they're born, they're up
hitting the ground and crying. Aren't they? Not human beings. You know, we're
the most helpless creature on earth. We're born naked. No other
animal is born naked. What's that a picture of? The righteousness we need covered
with? That we're helpless, without strength? If we're left to ourselves,
we'll die. If everything's not provided
for us, we'll die. We'll die. We're poor and needy
creatures. And He's the Creator. And every
good and perfect gift, every good and perfect gift comes from
above, comes to us. The Lord must give it to us.
We've got to be fed, watered, housed, clothed. There's not
one thing that we have we didn't receive. We need many things, don't we?
We do to maintain this life, don't we? We need food. Yeah, we do. Everyone of us in
here needs food. A lot less than we think we need,
but we do need food, don't we? Where does that come from? We see that. Farmers are seeing
that, aren't they? From above. Oh, we need spiritual
food. We need Christ the bread, bread
of life. We need raiment. We need clothing,
don't we? A lot less than we think we need,
but we need clothing. Where'd that come from? Cotton
grows and the wool on sheep's back? The leather on a cow's
back? It all comes from above. We need
a righteousness to cover us that only Christ has to give. It's
Christ's skin. It's the skin of a lamb we need
to cover. Lamb's wool. cover us. Christ's righteousness. We're
naked, all of us are naked and open before the Holy God. We
need shelter. We need shelter, don't we? Huh? Or we'll perish. Relationships. We need relationships. It's not
good for a man that lives alone. We need one another. We need
a man. Most men need a woman and most
women need a husband and children need parents and so on and so
forth. But you know, those relationships
that we think we need, that we can't live without. When I first met this beautiful,
lovely, charming, sweet, red-in-the-face girl here, I thought I can't
live without her. That's why we got married. And
I didn't live without her. Her father thought, don't you
live somewhere else? Don't you have a home somewhere?
That's what her father thought. I can't live without her. So
until I couldn't stand it anymore, I married her. But someday I
may have to live without her. She dies first. One of us is
going to go first if we don't go together. I'm going to be forced to live
without her. Do I need her? Well, I'm going to have to live without
her maybe, or vice versa. But there's one, you never have
to give up. and waiting on the pension, and it might go. See, our Lord says, you see,
those are persons, places, and things. All that's wrapped up
in one. You've got the person, you've
got the place, you've got the thing. And one thing takes the
place of all these other things. One thing is truly needful. We
can't live without. Paul said it in his Philippian
letter. He said, Oh, that I might know
him. Fall in love with, know him,
understand, know him, love him. To win Christ, Paul said, that
I might win Christ. He won the lottery. Well, good.
They did a study of people that won the lottery. of years later,
every one of them, are about the most miserable people on
earth. He won the lottery. Wonderful.
Life's going to be wonderful. Maybe not. You win Christ, life's
going to be wonderful. Finally got life. You win Christ,
Paul said, and in Him. Oh, all that that means. Be found
in him. Be found in him. If you're not
found in him, you won't be found in heaven. And all of this comes, listen,
you see man, Job said, man goeth to his long home from which he'll
never return. And this comes, is found in Christ,
and when Christ, and know Christ, comes by hearing the Word. It comes by hearing the Word.
You and I need clothing. Christ is our righteousness.
We need food. Christ is our spiritual bread. Water. Christ is the shelter. He's our hiding place. Friend. We need relationship. We need
one, really. who sticks closer than a brother,
a husband who will never leave us, never divorce us, never leave
us, and will be there to marry us someday and consummate us,
and never leave us. You and I need mercy. It's all
in Christ. It's all the mercy of God's in
Christ, outside of Christ's wrath. We need grace. It's all in Christ. We need forgiveness. In Him we
have forgiveness. have redemption, forgiveness
of sin. We need wisdom. I know all I need to know about
this world. People really, I'm never going
to look at another rolling oak tine as long as I live. I know
I say that. It used to be my ritual Sunday
to get the rolling oak tines and read it from just everywhere,
from cover to cover. But I tell you, it's absolutely
killing me to read that thing. is so decidedly biased toward
everything wrong, and there's nothing but bad news in it, I'm
never going to read it again. I know all I need to know, thank
you, to get by in this old world. If you can't learn something
in forty-some years, you ain't never going to learn nothing. Oh, but I'm so ignorant spiritually. I want to know Christ better.
I want to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. He's made
unto us wisdom. I want to see Him more clearly
in everything. Righteousness. Oh, man, I need
that. Sanctification. Oh, set me apart. Redemption. I need strength. The older I get, the weaker I
get, physically and spiritually. Peace, I need peace. You'd think
you'd have some peace over your gift. Well, you do, but you don't. Comfort. Help. Help. Christ is all of those
things in one. All and in all. Christ is all
and in all. He's the one thing. You just
need one thing. You get one pearl, and you quit
looking for pearls. Catch one fish, and everything
comes out of his mouth. Catch the big one, John. Don't
need the fish anymore. Redemption's in his mouth. One
thing needful, and he says, Mary hath chosen that good part, that
good part, that good part. Some of you come in here, and
I hear you say, yeah, I hear you say, boy, I'm out in the
world, and the things are so awful, and I feel so rotten and
tried and troubled, and I come in here, and it's just like an
oasis. Some of you say, oh, this is
just So glad this is that glad hour. This is that amiable tabernacle
like David said. This is. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God. You say that you can say that,
can't you? This is that good part. This is the good part. But you know what? It gets better
than this. It gets better than this. That's
why the Scripture says, I hadn't seen, you hadn't heard. Neither
had entered in the heart the things which God had prepared
for them that loved him. And it says, Mary had chosen
the good part. We see the Lord chose her. The only reason she
was sitting where she was sitting is why. Because the Lord chose
her. Is that right? Well, most certainly. I believe this is the Mariam
out of whom the Lord cast seven devils. I believe this was the harlot. She hadn't sat Christ's feet
too long, and she wouldn't be sitting here now unless the Lord
had chosen her. All right, now she's given a choice. Now she's
given a choice. She can go in there and fix baloney. Or, you can go skiing, you can
go fishing, you can go to Las Vegas, you can go, you can go,
you can go, you can go, you can do, you can do, you can do, you
can do, or you can sit at the feet of your Lord and Master
and hear Him speak. What will it be, Mary? That's
the good part. That's the good part. Well, that's
living. Yeah, that's what I'll take.
I'll sit right here, thank you. And look at what the Lord said.
It will not be taken from her. You want to know where Mary is
right now? You want to know what she's doing? She
ain't cumbered about, and for that matter, neither is Martha.
She's sitting at His feet and will be eternal. Sitting at His
feet. That's the good part. That's
the good part. One thing needful. One thing
needful. That man, that woman's going
to grow old, maybe die. Home, job, relationships, things
rust, malls corrupt, fees break through and steal. One thing
needful. One thing needful. That religion,
that feeling of religion you got, that profession you made
when you were young that you thought, I'll never lose this
feeling, you'll lose it. That assurance you had because
you accept it, you'll lose it. And the sooner the better that
you lose that religion. If you come to Christ, you'll never
lose it. Keep looking to Him, you'll never
lose your assurance. You'll never lose your assurance if you keep
looking to Christ. Never. There's one thing. And I hope
the Lord, the Holy Spirit, who takes the things of Christ, brings
to remembrance all things that he said. That's what Christ said
the Holy Spirit would do, whom he sent. I hope the Holy Spirit
will bring to our remembrance, everyone in here, myself included,
three words. Just three words. I hope we'll
learn three words the rest of our life. Just three words. One thing. For Christ is. All right, Lord, let's go. What is it? Two hundred and thirty
five. Number 235.