Would you turn to John chapter
19? Now, while you're turning there, tonight I'm going to preach
on this subject, how to obtain God's blessing. That's quite a subject, isn't
it? How to obtain God's blessing. John chapter 19. Verse 25. Now, there stood by the cross
of Jesus. His mother. and his mother's sister, Mary,
the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. I've entitled this message, The
Three Marys. the three Marys. And in considering these three
special women, I have three points to this message. The grace of grace. The second point is the power
of grace. And the third point is the evidence
of grace. The three Marys. Now as the Lord hangs on the
cross, where was Peter? Where was Nathanael? Where was
James? Where was Thomas? When they came to arrest the
Lord before his crucifixion, we read in Matthew chapter 26
verse 56, then all the disciples forsook him and fled. All with the exception of John
were in hiding at this time. But the Holy Spirit is pleased
to record the fact that three very remarkable women stood with
the Lord at this time, throughout His sufferings. And all of these
women, their name was Mary. Mary means bitterness. Mary,
did you know that? Did you know that's what your
name means? Okay, it means bitterness. That's what we'll think of when
we think of Mary now. Mary, the Lord's mother. Mary Magdalene, the one out of
whom the Lord cast seven demons. And Mary, who evidently was the
sister-in-law of the Lord's mother. Mary, she has the dubious distinction
of being called in Matthew, the other Mary. Mary, Mary, and Mary. Now these women had followed
the Lord throughout His earthly ministry. Turn to Luke chapter
8. Luke chapter 8. It wasn't just
the 12 disciples that traveled with the Lord. Verse 1. And it came to pass afterward
that he went throughout every city and village preaching and
showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were
with him and certain women which had been healed of evil spirits
and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, out of
whom went seven devils, and Joanna, the wife of Cusa, Herod's steward,
and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of
their substance. Now, what a blessing the Lord
allowed these women to follow him around and to support him. What a blessing. And that's what
these women did. And what courage They show at
this time as they stand at the cross. Now, like I said, Mary
is the most common name in the New Testament. There's actually
seven Marys in the New Testament. And three of those Marys stood
here with our Lord at the cross. And you could say this is where
they took their stand. It's not simply that they're
standing in an upright position at the foot of the cross. They
take their stand at this time. While the disciples were in hiding,
here we have these brave, by the grace of God, and courageous
women standing with the Lord at His cross. As I said, these
three Marys teach us something about grace. Now, in the first
Mary, the mother of our Lord, I see the grace of grace. In Mary Magdalene, I see the
power of grace. And in the other Mary, I see
the evidence of grace. And I hope we'll understand this
by the time this message is over. Now, Mary, the mother of the
Lord, stood there watching as her son was crucified. Simeon's prophecy is coming true
at this time. A sword shall pierce through
thy own soul also. Can you imagine the anguish you
would feel at seeing your child nailed to a tree. What anguish she felt at this
time. Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter one. Let's begin reading in verse
26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the
house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. She had never known a man. And
the angel came in under her and said, Hail! Thou that art highly
favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. She didn't know what he was talking
about. And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou
has found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
He shall be great. He 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 should be no end. Then
said Mary unto the angel, how should this be seen? I know not
a man. And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee. Therefore, also that holy thing. It's almost like the angel couldn't
come up with a word. And he says that holy thing which
should be born of thee shall be called the son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth,
she also hath conceived a son in her old age, and this is the
sixth month with her which was called barren, for with God nothing
shall be impossible. And Mary said, behold the handmaid
of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed
from her. Now look back at verse 28 for
a moment. And the angel came in unto her
and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. My marginal reasoning
says thou art much graced. Much graced. Now, you ladies, how would you feel if the Lord
used you to bear his son. Now think about that. How would
you feel if the Lord used you to bear his son? To raise his
son? To have his son in your home? To be the mother of the Son of
God. How would you feel? Would you feel highly favored? Would you feel much graced? Would you feel that you've been
given a glorious privilege that you utterly do not deserve? That God would use you That's beyond imagination, isn't
it? Hail, the angel said to Mary,
thou art highly favored. Now remember, our Lord was born
of a virgin. Well, how could that be? With
God, nothing should be impossible. If He would have been born the
way you and I are, that would have meant He would have had
our sinful nature. But He is that holy thing. He
didn't have Adam's sinful nature. That's why He was born of a virgin.
He's that holy thing. But what grace! What favor! The Lord would show Mary, oh,
how highly favored she was. Now, this word, highly favored,
it's only found one other time in the New Testament. Guess where
it is? Ephesians 1.6, that passage of
scripture I just read. He hath made us accepted. That's the same word. He hath
made us highly favored in the beloved. Now, here's the first
point I want to make. Mary was highly favored, right? Mary was
highly favored. But do you know that if you're
a believer, she was no more highly favored than you are. You believe
that? It's so. He had made us highly
favored in the Beloved. Who's the us? Every believer
And I say to every believer, you are as highly favored and
as much grace as Mary was. Mary speaks of the grace of grace. Now, remember this about Mary.
Mary was a sinner, just like me and you. You know, the Bible
knows nothing of the worship of Mary. Mary was a sinful woman,
born of Adam. just as in need of the grace
and mercy of God as you are. She was a sinner, but how highly
favored she was. Go back to John chapter 19 for
a moment. She was highly favored and the
Lord treated her with much respect. She was His mother, but we don't
ever read of Him calling her mother. Remember when the water
was turned to wine She said, you know, she said, they're without
water. He said, woman, woman, what have
I to do with thee? And even while he's hanging on
the cross, this is one of the seven saints of our Lord. And
he's the one who truly honored his mother. There's no doubt
about that. But look, look in John chapter 19, verse 26. When
Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by
whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, woman, Behold thy
son. Then saith he to his disciple,
behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her unto his own home. Now, even on the cross, the Lord's
taking care of his mom, isn't he? And yet he says, woman. woman. He's letting her know
that this earthly relationship is about to end. He's her Lord. He's her Savior. He's her Master. He's her God. This relationship,
this earthly relationship is just about to end. I love it when he was preaching
one time and some people came up and they said, your mother
and your brother are standing outside to see you. And he said,
who is my mother? Who is my brother? those that
hear the word of God, behold my mother and my brethren. He
said that regarding all of his people. Now turn to Ephesians
chapter one for a moment. Ephesians chapter one. Remember,
Mary is highly favored. She's much grace. And if you're
a believer, you're just as highly favored as her. Verse 6 says,
To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted, He hath highly favored us in the Beloved. Now let's start in verse 3 and
see what led Paul to make this statement. He says in verse 3,
Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us, who hath blessed us, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now the first question
I want to ask is who's the us? That's very important. Who's
the us? If by us, he means all men without exception, it's meaningless. If he blessed somebody and they
end up in hell, what kind of blessing is that? That's not a blessing. The us he's referring to is everybody
he's blessed. Everybody he's blessed with the
salvation. Everybody he's blessed with his mercy. Everybody he
elected. Everybody he died for. Everybody
he calls. Everybody who believes. That's
the us. We're the ones who are blessed. He's blessed us. What
about them? I don't know about them, but
I know about us. I know about us. Everybody he has blessed. Now look what it says. Blessed
be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all, how many? All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. All the blessings God has to
give, every believer has. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And he goes
on to tell us what those are. Look in verse four. According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
And here's the first blessing. He chose you. Before time began. Brian, He chose you. He set His
heart on you before time began. Is that a blessing? To be chosen
of God? And this choice was made before
time began. Oh, I love election. Don't you? I love election. I love the God
who elects because I know for sure if He didn't choose me,
I would have never have chosen Him. I know that about myself.
I know if I've left it to myself, I'll leave it. Thank God for
election. He chose us. He chose us. in Him before time began. And
what did He choose us for? Look in verse 4. According as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. We should be
holy because we are holy, because we're in Christ. He chose us
to be holy. He chose us to be conformed to
the image of His Son. Is that a blessing? He chose
us to be without blame. That's justification. I stand
before God right now with no guilt, no sin. You were singing that song, Oh,
glorious day. He took my sin away. When he
took my sin away, my sin was taken away. I stand before God
without blame. Is that a blessing? Oh, go on
reading. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. What
blessing? First, in love. In love. The Lord loves me. Like I said
in Sunday school, Bible study, whatever you call it this morning,
that's the hardest thing to get hold of to me, of all things.
The fact that the Lord God actually loves me. He loves me. in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. He
loves me to this extent. He predestinated me. He determined
beforehand that I was going to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, is that a blessing? You've been predestinated, and
if God predestinates something, it's going to come to pass. He
never Predestinate something and it ends up not, you know,
my will wasn't, no, everything he predestinates comes to pass.
Predestination is being predestinated to be just like Christ. You know,
people argue with predestination. You're crazy if you argue with
it. It's glorious. It's glorious. As far as that
goes, what kind of God would it be that doesn't predestinate?
That's a worthless God. The God of heaven, the God of
glory, predestinates everything and He predestinates His people
to be just like Christ. Is that a blessing? Oh my, what
blessing that is. Predestinated to be children,
adopted children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
Now, what a place to be, in the Beloved. This is a reference
to union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm in Him. And in Him,
I'm accepted. And this acceptance that I have,
this high favor, this much grace, I know this. My acceptance, my
high favor, the favor that every believer possesses, doesn't have
anything to do with my works, good or bad. Is that good news
to you? Has absolutely nothing to do
with my works. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of Him that What blessing. Now Mary was highly favored. She was accepted in the Beloved. And Mary speaks of the grace
of grace. Now you put yourself in Mary's
place. You women, particularly. I can't imagine being with child.
I sure can't get a hold of that, but you women can. What if the
Lord used you for that? You'd know you're highly favored,
wouldn't you? Highly favored. Oh, the grace, the free, unmerited
favor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there was Mary Magdalene.
She was another Mary that was standing there, making her stand
at the cross while all the disciples had fled and were in hiding. Yet Mary Magdalene stands at
the cross. Now, all we know about this woman
is that the Lord cast seven demons out of her. What do you know
about demon possession? Nothing, except the Bible says
it was there. Is it going on today? I don't know. It may be.
I don't know. I don't know. It scares me. I
know that. It scares me. I mean, just don't even like
to think about it. Here's what I do know. Seven in the Bible
means completion. This woman was under the complete
dominion of demon possession. There wasn't anything she could
do to deliver herself. She was under the complete control
of evil. And you read a lot in the New
Testament about demon possession. And you know not one instance
do we ever find a demon possessed person even asking for mercy.
Now the Lord had mercy on him. He cast out devils and we read
where other people asked mercy for him, but never did they ask
for mercy. Not once. They'd come up and
say, what have I to do with thee? What would you want to have anything
to do with me? I'm evil. What connection is
there between me and you? Are you come to torment me? That's
what they'd say. Are you come to torment me before
the time? This woman was under the complete dominion of evil. And there's nothing, she couldn't
even ask for deliverance. She was completely controlled
by evil. Now if God has taught you anything
about yourself, you know the same thing is true of you. You
could not deliver yourself from this under the complete dominion
of evil. You know, there's an unbeliever
hears that and says, I'm not like that. I mean, I'm sure I'm
bad. I make mistakes. I do bad stuff
like this. But every believer that I'm talking
to knows that this is you. This is you. Now, Mary Magdalene
speaks of the power of divine grace. You know, when our Lord
was raised from the dead, who was the first person he appeared
to? Anybody know? Mary Magdalene. That's the first person he appeared
to. Mary Magdalene. And it says,
He appeared to Mary, out of whom He cast out seven demons. She was under the complete dominion
and control of evil, and the Lord cast those demons out. What Mary Magdalene speaks of
is the power, the power of divine grace. You know, there's been a lot
of speculation about Mary Magdalene, but none of it could be substantiated. You know, we don't know anything
about her except this. She had seven demons, and she
shows the power and authority of His grace. Now, when the Lord
cast out those demons, could they have said no? Could they have said, I'm not
leaving? No. When He cast them out, they're gone. I love to
think of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation, His
power and His authority. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. And you think of every aspect
of salvation, every aspect of God's salvation is a demonstration
of His power. You know, we were talking about
election, doesn't that show His power? He said, you've not chosen me, but
I've chosen you. That shows His authority. I think of His power
in imputation. How He's got the power to take
my sins away from me. He's got the authority to do
that and place them on Himself. And He's got the authority to
take His righteousness and place it upon me to where it really
is mine. What power and authority is seen
in that? That He can do that. Think of
His power in justification. He's actually able to make me
to where I don't have any That's mighty power, isn't it? He's
got the power to make my sins to where they're not. I don't
have any sin, thank God. I do not have any sin because
He put it away by His precious blood. What power! What power in calling me, I'm
dead in sins. He says, live, and I live. What
power He demonstrates there. What power in regeneration, the
same power that was used in raising Christ from the dead is given
to every believer when he gives them life. It's called life from
the dead. What power our Lord displays. What power in my preservation.
The fact that I've been preserved up to this point and I haven't
fallen away and departed, that's nothing less than the mighty
power of God. And if you're a believer, you know that's the case regarding
you too. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And when I stand glorified, perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ on Judgment Day, and I stand
there without guilt, holy, blameless, unreprovable in His sight. Oh,
that's going to be a testimony of the mighty power of His grace. You know, we don't need to despair
of anybody. With God, nothing shall be impossible. What power
there is in His grace. He's got the power to save you
without any help from you. Isn't that wonderful? The power
of His grace. And there's a third Mary. First there's Mary, the one who
shows the grace of His grace. And then there's Mary who shows
the power of His grace. And there's this other Mary,
and I think it's really neat the way the Scripture calls her
the other Mary. What a dubious distinction. The
other Mary. And what do we know about this
Mary? Nothing. About her. We know her husband's
name, her kids' names, but nothing is said about her. But we do
know this. We know she was there, standing at the cross. And we
also know that when our Lord was raised from the dead, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary were at His tomb waiting. What do we know about this woman?
The evidence of grace. She believed. She believed. Now, our Lord said
on numerous occasions to his disciples, I'm going to be delivered in
the hands of sinful men. I'm going to be crucified and slain.
And the third day I'm going to be raised from the dead. Let's
look at a couple of passages of scripture so you can see where
he actually told him this. Look in Matthew chapter 16. Verse 21, from that time forth
began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go
unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third
day. Look in Matthew chapter 20. Verse 17, And Jesus, going up
to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and
said unto them, This is shortly before he was to be crucified.
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and here's what's going to happen.
The Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto
the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver
him to the Gentiles, to mock him, and to scourge, and to crucify
him. And the third day he shall rise
again. Why weren't they all at the tomb
waiting for it to take place? Because they didn't believe.
That's the only answer you can give. They didn't believe. They heard what he said and they
didn't believe. But somebody did. Mary. She is at his tomb. Now perhaps she didn't have quite
the personality of the other Marys. She certainly didn't have
the same experience. She couldn't say, I'm the mother
of the Lord. She didn't have that powerful testimony of having
seven demons cast out of her. She didn't have all that, what
the other two Marys had, but she did have this. She had the
evidence of grace. She believed the gospel. What
is the evidence? that God has highly favored me. What is the evidence that the
mighty power of God has been at work in me? You wanna know
what the evidence is? Faith in Christ. This is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. I want to ask you a question.
I'm not asking you if you know you're saved. I'm not asking you if you know
that you're a Christian. I'm not even asking you if you
know God has given you grace or you know that God's power
is at work in you. I'm asking you this. Do you believe
that Jesus is the Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, and God's
King. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, the eternal God, the God-Man? Do you believe that He's God Do you believe that His precious
blood is enough to make you without sin before God? Do you believe
if He shed His blood for you, you must be saved? Now, do you
believe that? Do you believe if He died for
you, that you must be saved? Now, let me ask you something
else. Do you believe that He is who He says He is? That He
did what He said He came to do? Can you trust, can you rely upon
Him to save you? With nothing else. You rely on
Him to save you. Can you do that? You've got nowhere
else to look. You rely on Him to save you. Can you? Can you? Well, I'm not talking
about, can you rely on Him? Is His power sufficient to save
you? Is His precious blood, is His
righteousness, is that enough to make you righteous before
God? Now, if you rely on Him as your only salvation, I'm not
looking to anything but Him. When He said it is finished,
there's all my hopes right there. If you rely on Him, you have
been highly favored and the mighty power of God is at work in you. That's why you believe. The grace of grace, Mary, the
mother of our Lord, the power of grace, Mary Magdalene, the
one out of whom he cast seven demons, and the evidence of grace. What is it? Faith in Christ. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. You
know, as long as you have an old sinful nature, you're still
going to have your unbelief there. There's never a time when you're
without it, but you say this, Lord, I believe. Help thou. my non-belief. Let's pray together.