I invite you this morning to
turn back with me to Luke chapter 10. We'll be preaching from verses 38 through
42. Our text in these verses, 38
through 42, is a piece of history preserved
by the Holy Ghost And it's preserved for our learning
that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might
have hope. It's not just an idle tale, but
it's a particular story and it's put there. It's put there for
our learning. Our text is one of many occasions
where our Lord came and visited at the home of these beloved
saints, Mary, and Martha and Lazarus. John Gill, who was an
avid reader of the old Jewish historian, seemed to believe
that Martha was a widow of some means, that she had a husband. He wasn't rich, but he wasn't
poor. He was a man of means and had
left her well suited for the life of a widow well protected
and provided for. And therefore, she was able to
keep her sister Mary and to keep her brother Lazarus. On this
particular visit, our Lord took the occasion to teach his disciples. And realizing what a privilege
this was, Martha's younger sister Mary sat down at the feet of
our Lord and just drank it in as he taught. You see, God's
people have an unction from the Holy One. That's what John said. We have an unction from the Holy
One and we can discern when a man is sent from God and when he's
not. There's no way to, I can tell
you that and I can write it on a little business card or something,
give it to you and you can look at it, but you're still not going
to discern if that man is actually sent from God or not apart from
the unction of the Holy Spirit. There's no way to explain it,
but you know. You know. Now there's other things, you
listen to what this man has to say. You listen to what he's
teaching. You listen to a lot of things.
But that unction of the Holy Spirit will tell you that that
man is sin of God. John said in 1 John chapter 4
and verse 6, we are of God. Talking about himself and his
other disciples. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that knoweth not God, heareth
us not. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth, the spirit of error. Mary believed that Jesus was
the Christ. And she counted this occasion
of his visit as the most precious of gifts. and was determined
that she was going to take full advantage of the situation. She
didn't know if he'd be back, ever. She didn't know if she'd
ever hear from another preacher as long as she lived. She didn't
know. But she knew on this day that this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
was coming to her city, to this village, Bethany. And at that day, he was at her
house. And she determined to take full
advantage of it. Now Martha was a believer too,
but she viewed this occasion a little different than her sister.
She was the homeowner. She had no husband, so she was
basically the head of that household. And this was the Lord that was
coming to visit her and his esteemed disciples, and she wanted to
make a good impression. I do, too. We have somebody come
down here during our Bible conferences to speak. I don't want to go
back and say, boy, that's the worst place I ever seen. They
won't feed you. Nobody even asked me if I had
a place to stay. I want folks going back like
that. I want to make a good impression, don't you? So she was going about to the
best of her means to serve their every want, whatever they wanted.
If she had servants, and most of the writers believe that she
did, they no doubt were also engaged in serving her guests,
bringing them wine to drink. whatever they did in those days
for hors d'oeuvres, and they're waiting on them hand and foot,
you know, make sure everybody's feet got washed and welcomed
and all this stuff, and whatever those customs were, they were
going about to do it. You know, and Mary's a nervous
wreck. She's watching over this whole thing going on. My wife
used to get in tizzy sometimes over Bible conferences. She's
worried about the food and worried about, that's Martha, that's
what Martha would do. This was the Lord coming and
his esteemed disciples and Martha wanted to make a good impression. She did not want our Lord's visit
to her home to be an embarrassment. She wanted to do well. Now this
is the setting. This is the setting of our text,
as best as I can grasp it, and both the subject and my title
are the same. Something our Lord said to her,
one thing needful. One thing needful. There's five
things that I hope to show you in these verses this morning.
Five things which apply to us as well as unto Martha. May the
Lord himself be pleased to be our teacher this morning. The
first thing I want you to see is the gracious visit which they
were privileged to receive. This was the Lord. This was the
Lord. The Lord of Glory is coming.
What if you should receive news that the Lord of Glory is going
to come to your house? Huh? You'd be turned upside down,
wouldn't you? Oh, all these things I've been putting off doing.
I should be sweeping the floor and mopping the kitchen and remodeling
the house before we got there, basically. Do everything. Do
everything. The Lord's coming to her house. But He's not coming there to
see the house. He's coming there to preach his
gospel and manifest his glory in the hearts of his people. Our Lord begins this chapter
with the appointment of 70 more. He'd already appointed 70 in
the center of the map. This was the second 70. There's
140 of them now. Seventy more ambassadors to go
into such places as he himself determined to go. And this is
what those sent of God do. They go in the power of God's
Spirit, being led of the same to minister where the Lord has
already determined to go. Where's the Lord going? I don't
know. I don't know until His providence unfolds it to me.
I don't know. I didn't have any idea the Lord
was going to send me down here, and you didn't either, until
His providence unfolded it. And now it's as clear to me as
anything I've ever seen. This is where I'm supposed to
be. This is where I can say it without hesitation, the Lord
led me here in the power of His Spirit. Our Lord said to the 70, Luke
10, 16, He that heareth you, heareth me. You don't think that drops a
weight on the speaker? You that fill in for me when
I'm gone, you let that sink in. He that hears you hears me. That's
what he said. And then let that also fall on
the ears of you hearers. He that despises you despises
me. And he that despises me despises
him that sent me. And he said unto them, in such
and such a place where you're not received or cared for or
obeyed, you just shake the dust off your feet as a testimony
against them. It'll be provided for you. Don't
you go house to house begging. Don't do that. And don't take
a purse with you. I'll provide for you. I lay it
on the hearts of my people and they'll take care of you. Don't you take it. Don't you
do it. I'll do it." Then he speaks plainly of these
several cities where he'd already been and the awful judgment of
God which now had been determined by God himself on such places. because they didn't do what he's
talking to them about, people doing. He came, he preached,
he sent John the Baptist before him and they wouldn't hear him
either. Now he said, woe unto you, called Raisin. Woe unto you, Capernaum. If the
mighty works that were done in you were done in Sodom or Tyre
and Sidon, they would have repented a long time ago in sackcloth
and ash. But now, it's gonna be more tolerable
for those that were judged of God in Sodom and Gomorrah than
it's gonna be on you, because you wouldn't hear my gospel. Well, what's all that got to
do with our story about Mary and Martha? Everything. Everything. This tells us in no uncertain
terms how precious and gracious a gift it is from God when he
comes to visit with his gospel. Isn't that what he was doing
there that day? He came into that home. And he sat in their
living room or whatever room that was and the people gathered
around him and even her sister sat down at his feet and he preached
to them the gospel of God's sovereign grace in himself. Luke 10, 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. Now I want you to look at every
word of this verse. It ought to pluck a chord in
the hearts of those who are here this morning who believe. The
verse is this. It came to pass. Just roll that around for a little
bit in your mind. It came to pass. How come? Why did it come to pass at Martha's
house and not in Corazon? Why did it come to pass in her
house and not Bethsaida or Capernaum? Because the Lord of Glory caused
it to come to pass. That's why. He left Nazareth and come to
Capernaum to fulfill the prophet Isaiah's words that a people
which sat in darkness would see great light. He must needs, it
said, pass through Jericho. He must needs go through Samaria. And the needs were that what
God had determined to do would in fact come to pass. What would be the odds Why don't
you think about something with me? You know the story well,
the church in Antioch. What would be the odds that all
the Jews who had read the Bible from their youth up, who knew
the prophets and were relatives of them, what would be the odds
of all the Jews in that town of Antioch rejecting the gospel
And the Gentiles who had never known anything but idolatry,
worshipping frogs and worshipping fish and worshipping birds and
four-footed beasts. What would be the odds of every
Jew in that place turning their back on the gospel and the Gentiles
receiving it? Huh? How in the world did such
a thing come to pass? Well, it tells you right in those
verses in the book of Acts. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed, God brought it to pass. Why? Because that's what he determined
to do by his sovereign grace. Is this how you think on what
we're doing here today? When you got up this morning
and you went into the shower like you always do and you're
getting cleaned up and getting your clothes out and put on and
we're going to church today, is that how you think on what's
taking place here today? That God has determined this
day, this hour, This man, this people, this message, is that
how you think on it when you come up here? You need to if
you're not. Because that's exactly what it
is. God has arranged this meeting
and it's come to pass by his eternal decree. Paul said to
the Ephesians, we have also, we also have obtained an inheritance,
now listen, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Well, what come to pass that
day? It said it came to pass. What come to pass? That Christ
entered into a certain village. My soul, if you've ever looked
on the internet at the villages over there, they're everywhere.
They can go everywhere. He went here. He went to this
place, a certain village. Christ went to a certain village.
And a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. I can camp here the rest of the
morning, but let me just simply say that the good shepherd knows
his sheep. And he seeketh his sheep, and
he finds his sheep, and he knows his sheep, and he calls his sheep,
and he saves his sheep. He picks them up in his bosom,
and he carries them back to the sheepfold. Our Lord said in his
high priestly prayer, I pray for them, I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine. They're your people. Not faithful. Now if the Lord of Glory will
not intercede for you, then everything else is for naught, is it not?
If the Lord of Glory, if the Lord Himself refuses to pray
for me, then everything else is for naught. Oh, what are you
trying to say? I'm trying to say redemption
is particular. It's particular. The love of
God has a certain object. Jacob, he said, have I loved.
Esau, have I hated. When they say that, before they
was ever born, before they ever did any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. That's what he said. And to my knowledge, every earthly
relationship, which are all pictures of our relationship with God,
every earthly relationship that we have is particular. I have one father, one mother. I have sisters and brothers. Huh? Particular. particular relationship. And so is that relationship that
we have with him. It's particular. Husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church. Do you not love your
wife particular? Now can you even imagine coming
home from work one day and saying, honey, I love you just like I
love all the women in the world. And if she don't, she ought to.
It's particular. This was a certain village and
a certain woman that the Lord came to a certain house. He had
a certain message. All heavenly and eternal blessings
of God are given in Christ according as he has chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. And there was a certain village,
and a certain woman, and a certain work, and means, and all these
were coming to pass on this day. It came to pass. Came to pass. All right, here's the second
thing I want you to think about. A situation arose. It always
does. It always does. A situation arose. Situations are arranged by the
Lord to teach us something about his grace and glory and to shut
us up to his son. Lord, who sinned that this man
was born blind? Did his parents sin or did he
sin? No, neither one of them. That's not why he was born blind.
He was born blind for the glory of God. Situations, they're arranged
by God. I think about these situations
all the time. Pray for them. Pray for them
that they come to pass. I was talking to Brian about
a message Don Fortner preached years ago, and he was talking
from Romans about all things, working together for good, and
he said, if you ever get a chance to go to London, he said, take
that tour and sometimes they'll let you go up and look inside
Big Ben. Look inside. And he said, it's
just full of gears. There's gears and chains and
pulleys and things going up and down and weights hanging and
all this stuff. He said, this is what's going
on in Providence. And you look over here and this
wheel's going like this. Boy, it's just spinning. It's
just going and going and going and going. And you look over
here and you can't even see this one move. But this one affects
this one. How does it get there? It goes
to this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, all the way
through. All things work together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. All these things
moving in God's promise. Situations. God creates situations. He arranges
situations. Now from what others say, Martha
was a widow of means. She wasn't rich, but she was
well taken care of. Able to keep her sister Mary
and Lazarus. And Jesus, whom Martha believed
to be the Christ, was a man of reputation. Martha wanted to
put her best foot forward. And he didn't travel alone. People
followed him. People entered into that house,
at least his disciples. And Martha began to prepare not
just a meal. She set out to entertain all
his guests as well as the Lord Himself. And somewhere in the
middle of all this stuff, things went haywire. Things went overboard. I tried in my introduction to
impress upon you how precious this occasion was. You can't hear unless God sends
His priest. I'm telling you what the Scripture
says. How are you going to hear? This is what the Holy Ghost,
who inspired men to write this Bible, these are the very words
that He put in here. How are you going to call on
Him in whom you've not heard? How are you going to hear without
a preacher? Because there's none, that's
what Paul said in Romans 3, there's none that understandeth And there's none that seeketh
after God, and there's none good, and there's none righteous. And
they've all gone away. And there's no fear of God before
their eyes. How are you going to come to
any knowledge unless you hear, and how are you going to hear
without preaching? This was a precious occasion. This was the most highly privileged
thing God can do to you is make, cross your path with a preacher.
And give him the gospel to preach to you and give you a heart to
understand it and hear it and believe it. There's nothing more
important in this world than that. My house is going to fall apart.
Let it crumble. I'll lose my job. Give it up. Are you hearing what I'm telling
you? You have to hear. And that hearing
has to come from God. And if he's going to call you,
he's going to send you a preacher. That's just so. That's just so. And I tried in my introduction
to impress upon you how precious this occasion is. It's a precious
occasion when the Lord of light makes his light to shine in your
house. Now it's important to treat our
visitors with kindness and generosity. But don't let your hospitality
take preeminence over the gospel. The whole reason for our Lord's
coming to this house was to preach His gospel and manifest the glory
of God in the hearts of His elect. But the situation got out of
hand. The Lord was discoursing to His disciples and Martha's
younger sister Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord just
drinking in the words. Boy, don't you drink a mim when
the Lord blesses? Now we sit, we realize this is
the Lord speaking to me. Don't you just drink a mint? And here's the homeowner. She's
looking in there and here's everybody sitting in there and she's busy
and about and serving tables and she owns the house. She's serving tables. She's waiting
on the guests. She's waiting on her younger
sister that she allows to be in her house and take care of.
And I want our visitors to be cared
for here during the Bible conference and fed and make sure that they
have places to stay. But I don't want our kitchen
to take preeminence over this auditorium. And I'm not gonna
let it. I don't want our fleshly food
to take preeminence over the spiritual food. Martha would
have been a lot better off prepared some sandwiches and just served
the sandwiches and sat down by Mary and listened. She'd have
been a lot better off. A few people might have left
and said, boy, she ain't much of a host. She'd have been a lot better
off. than to ignore the preaching of the gospel to serve hors d'oeuvres. And then Martha, who thought
she would get some recognition, she didn't get it. She did what
no believer ought to do. She interrupted the work of the
Lord as he taught and preached the gospel. If you get sick, during the worship
service. Get up and go back to the kitchen
area or back to the bathrooms as quietly as possible. If you
have a child that's misbehaving, take him out of the auditorium
and correct him, but do it quietly and quickly as possible. There's no greater privilege
that God can bestow upon this place than the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and everything we do here ought to be to serve
that end. Everything that we do. But Martha
wasn't thinking about this at all. She was thinking about herself
and her work and her house and her sacrifice and her reputation.
So this is the situation. God arranged this situation.
Thirdly, crime was committed. A crime? Yeah. Yeah. Started out with self-promotion.
I love the ladies in this assembly. They've always been kind and
obedient and do what I ask them to do with no argument. And I love you for
it. They're all good cooks. But don't
ever look at our fellowship dinners and our conference meals as a
cooking competition. Don't do it. Pick something that
you like to eat and bring it. I guarantee you everybody else
will like it. Everybody else will like it. Just cook your
favorite dish and bring it, and thank God you've got an interest
to be here and not somewhere else, and a great privilege bestowed
on you for you to be here and for you to hear. Now, this situation,
it started out with self-promotion, and then it grew into disappointment.
It just didn't work out. You ever feel that way? Nothing
I do. Nobody likes me. Nobody likes
what I do. It grew into disappointment.
Nobody said anything to Martha. They were all enthralled with
the Lord and His teaching. And then disappointment evolved
into anger. She got mad. Martha got mad. Martha was embarrassed and angry,
and anger grew into action. And Martha, instead of realizing
the value of the situation, and the glorious privilege that was
being given to her. She saw nothing but herself and
her reputation and her good intentions and everything else in the world
except that privilege. And so she not only interrupts
the worship of God, but she comes in and casts an aspersion on
the Son of God. Can you imagine? I'm gonna tell you something,
you can't be thinking about him as he's revealed in the scripture and cast an aspersion on him. Lord, don't you care? Don't you care? Our Lord's preaching,
he's teaching. He got the word of God and he's
teaching. And she just, right into the
room, Lord, don't you care? Don't you care? I've invited
you here. I've provided for you. Don't
you care? Now, let me tell you something. Number one, it was not the Lord's
fault that Martha put herself in this situation. Martha put
herself in this situation. You're going to get in a situation,
but when you do, don't you start casting aspersions on Him. He
didn't put you there, you put yourself there. She did this all by herself.
Number two, no man, woman, boy, or girl ever has any right or
reason to question the love and the goodness and the kindness
of the Lord, especially when he had granted his presence at
your house. Don't you care? Oh, my soul. Care. God spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not also
with him freely give us all thanks? Don't you care? Well, you know
about care. I tell you, we don't know this
much about care. His very name is care. And we're
going to cast an aspersion on him. Now, you're not only casting
aspersion on him, but now you're casting aspersion on what he's
teaching. Because if he don't care, why
should we believe what he's got to say? Oh, listen to me. He didn't go
to the governor's house. He came to hers. He didn't go to the king's house,
he came to her house. And he didn't come there empty-handed,
he came there with the words of life. His disciples, he said,
will you go too? And they said, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And he brought
those words to her house, and she questioned whether or not
he cared. He didn't come there and sit
quietly over in the corner. He came there to make an intervention
in their life. Don't you care? Fourthly, there was a public,
because the crime was public, but a gracious reproof that ensued
this crime. Boy, aren't you glad that God
corrects his children and don't this? Martha, Martha. Let me tell you something. Back in the Old Testament, There was a woman who cast an
aspersion on Moses, his sister. And God smote her with leprosy.
God didn't smite Martha with leprosy. But what he did in kindness
and gentleness and grace is he said, Martha, Thou art careful and troubled
about many things. Can I tell you something I've
learned afresh in the last couple months? Everything that you're so careful
and anxious to have is not going to mean anything to you. and get a little comfort from
them, and then it's gone. Buy that new car, six months,
it's an old car. You're thinking about the next
new car. The size and quality of your
house and your car, they don't matter. All your possessions
will lose their glitter. The only thing that's going to
matter in that day is your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. The rest of it is just temporary. If that's intact, if that union
with Christ is intact, you're truly blessed with riches beyond
your comprehension. And then fifthly, our Lord brings
the lesson of his visit to Martha home to our hearts. He said,
Martha, you're busy. You're going about, you're careful,
and you're anxious, and you're troubled about everything under
the sun except your soul and except our union, this union
of faith. And our Lord brings this home
to him. He says here in verse 42, but
one thing is needful. You're worried about this and
that and something else, but these things are nice and they
have a place, but they're not needful. There's only one thing that is
needful, and that's your union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I
don't care what you accumulate in this world, and I don't care
what goes on around you, I'm telling you, When it comes down
to that place, the only thing that's going to make any difference
is do I know Him and does He know me? That's it. One thing is needful,
and that's our spiritual union with Him, that vital union of
faith which enables us by the work of His Spirit to believe
on and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. And that faith comes
by hearing. and hearing by the word of the
Lord. And that being so, and it is,
what could be more needful for you and I than to hear this gospel? So the next time something gets
under your skin, you think about this situation. Think about this
situation. And think about what a privilege
God bestowed on you to hear, to hear. While millions, I ain't
talking four or five, I'm talking about millions around you who
don't hear anything. John said, and we know the whole
world lies, we are God and the whole world lies in wickedness.
Then I ought to count that a great privilege, shouldn't I? That
I know him. Because to know him is eternal
life. That's eternal life.