Let's turn together to Luke chapter
10, verses 38 through 42. If at your leisure you would
like to read the entire recorded history of this family at Bethany,
Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus, you can read virtually
everything written about them in this brief passage here. and then in John chapters 11
and 12. Let's read together Luke 10 verse
38. Now it came to pass as they went
that the Lord Jesus entered into a certain village, Bethany. 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. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha. Thou art careful and troubled
about many things, but one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen
that good part which shall not be taken away from her." In these
five short verses, we have recorded for us one of the most instructive
bits of history in all the scriptures. It describes for us an event
in the house of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in the little town
of Bethany, about two miles outside Jerusalem. When the Lord Jesus
and his disciples were passing through town, Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus, being themselves true believers and true disciples,
opened their home to the Master. They were given to hospitality,
as we all ought to be. They just threw open the door,
said, you come on in. And this was no insignificant
thing. This was not like receiving a man and his wife. They opened
their home to at least, at least a dozen men, plus whatever else
among the company was women and so forth. So altogether, there
was somewhere around 15, 16 people in this band, including Martha,
Mary, and Lazarus. And they just graciously, anxiously,
because they wanted to, said, come on and stay here. And they
started preparing the meal. Apparently, the Lord Jesus frequently
visited this home in Bethany. It was a beloved family. But
on this particular occasion, Luke gives us a bit of a insight
in the things that went on in the house, because the Holy Spirit
would have us to learn. the lessons that are here set
before us. The title of my message this evening is found in verse
48, 42. One thing is needful, that one
thing. I take the words of our master
for our subject and learn this, many things, many things in rightfully
demand our attention. We would be irresponsible if
they did not demand our care and our attention. But only one
thing is needful. Now hold your Bibles open here
and let me show you four or five things from this family in Bethany. First, understand this. Seems
like I've said this a lot lately here and in other places, but
it needs to be understood. the grace of God and faith in
Christ do not exempt us from trouble and difficulty. They
just do not. Believing families have their
troubles just like other families. Believing men have trouble just
like other men. Believing women just like other
women. I use the phrase believing families
having their troubles because it's such a rare thing to see
a family of believers. As I have pointed out to you
often, as the scriptures plainly declare, the grace of God does
not run in bloodlines. Seldom ever do we see numerous
believers in one family. Seldom ever do we see that. Occasionally
we see a few believers in one household. Rarely do we see all
who are named in a household. named as those whose names are
written in heaven. But that was the case here with
Mary and Martha and Lazarus. These three siblings, now grown
men and women, were all those who had been chosen of God, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world,
called by his Spirit, granted life and faith in him. These
three were followers of Christ. They were men and two women who
loved the Son of God and were beloved of the Son of God. And
yet, as you read all that's written about these three people in the
book of God, you see that their lives were checkered with trouble
continually. They had trouble with sin, just
like you and I do, because they were sinners living in a world
of sin. Martha said things that she wished
she hadn't said. She did things she wished she
hadn't done, just like we do. I don't mean in any way to make
excuse for our sin or hers. There's no excuse for it. There's
never an excuse for sin, never an excuse for ill temper, never
an excuse for bad behavior, never an excuse for ill will. But it's just part of life. It's
just part of life. A more painful part of life for
believers than for anyone else. But it's part of our life, Bobby.
Most difficult thing about living in this world, living with me.
Most difficult thing. They had trouble with sickness,
bereavement, and death. Because like us, they lived in
this sin-cursed world. where things like this are just
common. You've all heard about, I'm sure,
about books. It was touted some years ago,
a very popular book. I think it was on the best-selling
list. Larry King had an interview with the author. I watched all
of it. I could stomach about two or three minutes. It was
why bad things happen to good people. The problem is not any
good people. That's the premise of the book. It's just wrong. murmur against God's providence,
and we ask, why me? Why has this happened to me and
to mine? Why? We ought rather to ask immediately,
James, why not me? Why not me? No one more deserving
of difficulty and trouble than me. No one more rightfully should
have his share of woe in this world than me. And these three believers had
trouble with persecution just because they believed God. That
was all. Because they trusted Christ,
because they sought to follow Christ, because they sought his
glory, because they entertained him, they were subject to persecution. In John chapter 12, we see them
involved in another time of dinner and Mary, who took the ointment
and anointed our Savior's feet. Judas despised her. He despised
her. In a pretense of haughty self-righteousness,
pretending to care for the poor, he said, this is a waste. Why do this? A waste? The only time anybody ever did
anything in this book which the Son of God said, this thing will
be spoken of her for a memorial throughout the ages of time."
Wherever the gospel preached, everybody's going to know about
this woman, what she did. But Judas despised her. Lazarus,
just because he had been raised from the dead. I mean, all that
he had done was just live. He'd just been raised from the
dead. But because he was raised from the dead, many believed
on the Lord Jesus and the Jews sought to put him to death because
he'd been raised from the dead. Grace does not exempt us from
trouble. Faith does not prevent heartache. True godliness is not perfection. God has fixed it so that as long
as we live in this world, as long as we live in this world,
We are shut up to His goodness, shut up to trusting Him, shut
up to looking to Christ. God's fixed it so that our hearts
are forced to look out of ourselves for peace, for comfort, for hope,
for acceptance with God. Secondly, learn this. God's saints. How do I put this? God's saints
are individuals. That doesn't quite say it. God's
saints in this world are different. That's pretty good. We're all
individuals with different personalities, different traits, different characteristics. We're not folks stamped out of
a mold. And we need to learn this. Here
are three people, siblings with same mother and dad, raised in
the same circumstances, but how different they are. Particularly
Martha and Mary. Both were faithful disciples.
Both were born of God. Both were believers. Both were
justified. Both honored Christ. Both sought
to do that which was for the service and honor of Christ and
his people. And yet they were obviously of
different temperament and different personality. Martha was active,
impulsive, strong-willed, hardworking. Sometimes we look at those things
and think, well, those aren't very good traits. They can be. They can be. She felt things
strongly, and she spoke her mind, perhaps a little too freely,
but she spoke her mind openly. She was a woman truly devoted
to Christ. She was cumbered with much serving,
but she was serving. Mary, on the other hand, was
quiet, contemplative, easygoing. She was not less firm in her
convictions. She felt things just as deeply
as Martha, but she didn't say as much. She was quieter. She, too, genuinely was devoted
to Christ. Martha, when the Lord Jesus came
to her house, was delighted to see him. And immediately she
began to make preparations to entertain him in the most lavish
manner she possibly could within the realm of her ability with
means that God had given her. Mary also, the master's coming. He's coming one more time to
visit our house. One more time, his disciples
could be in our hope. Martha, she was excited. Mary
was excited. But Mary, her first thought was,
one more time I'm going to get to sit down and hear what he
has to say. Grace reigned in both through
righteousness. But each of these ladies showed
us that grace has a different effect in the ways it deals with
men. Grace deals with us as individuals
and grace deals with us with our individual personalities.
Pastor, why are you stressing this? Because we need to remember
it. I can't think of anything more
demonstrative of our foolish pride than for us to presume
that a person is not saved because they are different from us. because
they view things differently, or because they act differently,
or because they don't have the same personality we have. What
horrid self-righteousness and pride. God's sheep all have their
own peculiarities. I recall Brother Farrell Griswold
years ago, he told me his first trip to England, he was going
over to visit with Bill Clark, and he was staying at someone's
home, and the fellow greeted him at the door as they went
in, In typical British style, he sat down at the table first
evening. One of the first things out of his mouth, well, Brother
Griswold, what are your peculiarities? And Farrell, being Southern fellow,
you know, he was a little bit taken back by it. He said, what
do you mean, peculiarities? He said, well, I mean, how do
you like to do things? We want to adjust to your own peculiarities. Well, we do have our own peculiarities. All of the trees in the Lord's
garden are cedars, but they don't all look alike. All true believers
are alike in principle things, yes. All who are born of God
confess their sin. They acknowledge. All who are
born of God trust Christ, love him. All who are born of God
believe on the Son of God, and they pursue Christ. They seek
after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. That
is, they pursue Jesus Christ the Lord, our only holiness and
our only righteousness. But in many ways, we differ.
You see, the Church of God, the Kingdom of God, has a lot of
Marthas and a lot of Marys. And I'm, Shelby reminded me,
I told somebody the other day I was 50 years old. I'm 51 pushing
52. I've lived long enough. You know what? I thank God. Lots of Marthas and lots of Marys
in his church. We need both. Third man. And now I'm getting to the meat
of this thing. Carnal cares. Legitimate. lawful, ordinary, carnal cares. Cares that accompany life in
this world. Cares that are just part of our
day-by-day responsibility. Carnal cares have a way of choking
out the influence of the gospel. Be warned. Be warned. Oh, my soul, be warned. The cares of this world, those
cares that have a legitimate demand on our attention, may
become a snare to our souls if we allow it. Verse 40 tells us that Martha
was cumbered about much serving. Her anxiety, her great anxiety,
you ladies can identify with this better than any of to provide
the very best entertainment possible for the guests that she honored
above any in the world put her under tremendous pressure. Her
excessive zeal about these temporal things caused this woman for
a period of time, brief though it was for a period of time,
to forget things that were far more important. She got carried
away with herself. and got carried away with what
she was doing. And she began to have a struggle. She knew
things she was thinking were horrible and she hated them. No question about it. She knew
the thoughts going through her mind about her dear sister, whom
she loved. The thoughts going through her
mind about her dear sister, whom she loved. were horrible. They
were not the thoughts of her heart toward Mary. They were
not her true thoughts toward Mary. But she despised the fact
that she was just sweating bullets and Mary was sitting down listening. She just got carried away. And
the longer she mulled it over, the worse things got. Mary's
sitting at the master's feet. She's sitting down there at that
place we commonly would say that's the place for the men to sit.
Mary, right in the middle of them. She's sitting there listening.
She's sitting there listening. And Martha's cooking, cleaning
up the spills, picking up after everybody. And finally, her first
father broke out and Adam just blurts out, Lord, don't you care? What a word. What a word to ask
the Son of God. Don't you care? Carest thou not
that my sister has left me to serve alone? Oh, how sad. She forgot who she was. She forgot
to whom she was speaking. And she brought us upon herself
A solemn, public, embarrassing word of reproof. It must have
had a lasting impression. And all this happened because
Martha allowed that which in itself was good and proper. Caring for ordinary household
responsibilities, preparing dinner For the Son of God and His disciples,
she allowed it to get the best of her. And soon her anger degenerated,
not only the anger with her circumstances, but anger with her sister and
anger with her God. And that's what the anger really
is. We take it out on the person
closest to us, but it's anger with God. but it amounts to. Martha's fault ought to be a
warning to us. Oh, my soul ever beware of the
cares of this world. What she was doing needed to
be done. She was doing it for the Lord, but she was overdoing
and she became consumed by her doing. She became consumed with
her labor. She became consumed with herself. And she became consumed with
the fact that nobody was helping. It's not open sin, you see. It
is not a flagrant violation of God's law. It is not so much Those things that we look at
and come in to say, oh, what a horrible thing that is, that
gets us. Not often. Not often. I've seen
a few men, only a few, and a few women, only a few, who departed
from Christ in worship of God because of adultery, good things
as that. A few, but not many. A few. I've
seen a few depart from Christ and forsake the worship of God,
pursuing their lusts, a few. I want to tell you something. I have seen more than I care
to think about gradually becoming wrapped with the care of this
world until at last it choked all influence of the gospel out
of their lives and they're gone. Oh my soul be warned. We ought
to always hold everything in this world with a loose hand. With a loose hand. Never allowing
anything to have dominant place in our lives except Christ. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. Set your affection. Paul, by
inspiration, chooses the singular. Set your affection. Set your
heart singularly on things above where Christ sits on the right
hand of God. Not on things on this earth. O children of God, Don't set
your heart on anything here. Nothing. It ought to all be labeled
with skull and crossbones and marked with poison. Use it with
moderation and the things of this world will be of great blessing.
Excessive indulgence, cherishing them will be the destruction
of your soul. J.C. Ryle put things in such a way as few
men do. He said, a little earth on the
fire within will soon make the fire burn very low. And it will. And it will. That, my friends, which you purchase
at the expense of the worship of God, that with which you entertain
yourself at the expense of worshiping Christ. That which you buy at
the expense of the worship of our God, you buy at too high
a price. I don't care what it is. Doesn't matter what it is. You
paid too much for it. And yet, let me remind you, though
Martha erred greatly, she was a believer. Preachers need this more than
anybody else, I guess. So I'll preach to me a little
bit. We have such a quick tendency to jump at things. Well, if old
Bob Duff was a believer, he'd do things this way. Listen to me. God's sheep are
sheep. And I'll be honest with you.
I can't think of any animal in this world other than a skunk
that's less appealing for me to be around than sheep. They're
dirty. They stink. Get close to them
and you won't get away from them. That's just sheep. They're ignorant. They're weak. They're defenseless.
They have to be constantly cared for. Constantly. We're well named
sheep. But if they weren't sheep, they
wouldn't be shepherds. Martha was a true believer. I know that from at least two
or three things. First, she humbly accepted and quietly submitted
to and took patiently the public rebuke of the master. The son
of God spoke to her. in this crowd of people. Most
of us got pretty mad. Most of us wouldn't put up with
that. No, don't talk to me like that in front of these folks.
Martha said he's right. I was wrong. No more to be seen. Not only that, but this woman,
Martha, made two of the greatest confessions of faith recorded
in this book. Turn to John chapter 11, if you
will. Let me show you. John chapter 11. You know the
story, their brother Lazarus was dead. And Martha says in
verse 21, Martha, she and her sister Mary seemed to have understood
more of the things of God than anybody walking on the earth
during the days of our Lord's earthly ministry. Mary understood
that he was going to be buried and raised again. She came in
and anointed him for his burial. She understood what he taught
concerning redemption. Peter didn't. John didn't. They
had an inkling. They trusted him. They knew God
was going to redeem them. They knew somehow God was going
to satisfy their sin, but they just did not get it. That this
is how he would do it. Until after the master was raised
from the dead. Martha did. Mary did. Look here in John 11
verse 21. Then said Martha to Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died. I know you control everything,
but I know that even now whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will
give it thee. What a confession. Look at verse
27. She saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which is come
into the world. And thirdly, Martha went right
on serving the master after this, just like she had done before,
only with more patience. Get to John chapter 12, read
about this gathering of disciples again, and there's Martha serving
There's Mary with the ointment. There's Lazarus sitting at the
table. She went right on about her business, serving the master. And say this for this reason. Don't ever fear me, children
of God. This is going to help you now.
This is going to help you. Don't ever look at the isolated
acts of your brethren, your sisters, and judge them to be unbelievers
by what you observe in their isolated acts. Just don't do
it. Just don't do it. The tenor of
a man's life tells what he is, not his isolated acts. The tenor
of a woman's life tells what she is, not isolated acts. And I'll tell you something else. Don't ever judge yourself to
be an unbeliever because of isolated acts. Now that'll help you. Peter said, well, it's over now.
I'm going to fish. I've lost it all. I've lost it
all. But the master met him by the
seashore and squeezed from him thy gentle Irresistible grace. A confession that Peter, I can,
I expect he was just utterly determined, determined never
to dare presume to make such a statement. Until the master
just kept the finger of his grace stirring his heart, stirring
his heart, stirring his heart, stirring his heart. And he said,
Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. You
see, when we find our peace and assurance before God, based upon
what we do or don't do, we have built for ourselves a refuge
of lies and a false peace that will bring us misery in time
to come. Our only hope before God Our
only refuge, our only peace is not in our goodness, but in his
goodness and his faithfulness. Did you get that? Faith looks to Christ in the
teeth of sin. Not pretending I don't have it,
in the teeth of it. And trust Christ alone. Now look
at this. Our Savior teaches us that only one thing is needful. Oh, how many things in this world
clamor for our attention and for our care. But God teach me
only one thing is needful. Christ alone. Nothing else. Faith in Christ. Nothing else. The worship of Christ. Nothing
else. Nothing else. The only thing needful is God's
salvation and grace in Christ. That's all. That's all. My dear friend, Brother Harry
Graham, with the Lord now, I recall him telling me years ago, I was
just 19 year old boy, sitting on his hearth in his living room,
and something had happened. I forgot what it was. Somebody
made a statement, said, well, you just got to live in this
world. Harry said, I beg your pardon. Said, that's the one
thing I don't have to do. That's the one thing I don't
have to do. I have to leave this world. Nothing else is needful
but Christ. So come, my brothers and my sisters.
Let's take our place with Mary at the master's feet and stay
there. This is the place of mercy, grace,
and salvation. The Syropoenician woman came,
Lord, and she fell at his feet. And she said, have mercy on me.
My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. The Gadarene
came and fell at his feet and worshiped him. The leper came
and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And nobody
ever came and bowed at his feet yet who didn't go away with his
grace. Nobody, including me and including
you. This is the place of reverence,
adoration, and worship. Mary. Oh, Mary. I have lots of ideas about Mary.
Almost all the commentators differ with them. But I'm convinced
she's the same one we've seen many other times in scripture.
Described constantly, that woman of ill repute, whom the master
had saved by his almighty grace. And she came with her ointment.
And she anointed him. And she never got over it. She never got over it. She stayed
right there. Because she worshipped him. Like
John, when he saw the Son of God, she fell at his feet and
wasn't dead. She just swooned away. This is
the place of gratitude, thanksgiving, a great place of praise and worship. This is the place of faith, hope,
prayer. In John 11, when Mary came to
the Master, she fell at his feet because she needed his help.
Her brother Lazarus was dead. This is the place of instruction,
of teaching, learning, discipleship. These days churches, particularly
Baptist churches, have what they call discipleship classes. And
I know why they have them. They get folks to come to church,
Jordan Church, and say they're Christians, and baptize them,
get them in church, teach them that they're Christians, assure
them that they're Christians, and everybody knows they ain't, so they try
to get them to start acting like Christians, and deceive them
a little more. You don't know what it is to be his disciple.
Sit at his feet, and learn of him. Take your place at his feet,
and ask him to teach you, and guide you, direct you, and hold
you, and you will learn of him. Here alone at his feet will we
learn his word, his way, and his will. Tough place for us to take it, down at his feet. It's tough until you find out
who you are and who he is. Ruth came to the threshing floor
and she found Boaz, that rich kinsman. She was dirt poor. She didn't have any hope of anything.
I mean no hope of anything. And there's one fella, there's
one man in that whole crowd who might possibly be gracious to
her. His name Boaz. And the only thing
she had left, the only thing she had left was her name. That's all she had, Lindsay.
That's all she had. And she threw that away. She went, slipped under his skirt. And he woke up and said, who
are you? And she said, I'm Ruth, your handmaiden, take me. And
Boaz said, I will. Now you get out of here before
anybody sees you. She took her place at his feet
in humility, giving up the last thing she had to which she could
cling, even her name. Take your place there. And the
master will spread his skirt over you and give you life. This is the place of consecration,
devotion, and love. Luke 7, this woman comes with
a spider and she stood behind the master. She heard his word.
And she began to, with broken heart, remember his goodness
to her. And she knelt at his feet and bathed him with her
tears. Wiped them with the hairs of her head and anointed him
with her precious platinum for just one reason. She loved him. And she wanted to express her
love in whatever way she could. That's all. That's all. You see, true faith, true grace, true
love for Christ is not what Most people consider it to be. False
religion's got to keep you pumped up. Got to keep you primed. Got to keep you going. Got to
give you something. Give you another shot every now
and then. Not the gospel of God's grace. False religion's got to give
you some excitement. Give you something to make you feel good.
Keep you constantly wanting to have ecstatic experiences. The fact is, still waters are
waters that run very deep. And the believer, as he grows
in the grace and knowledge of Christ, doesn't need all the
fanfare and all the sparkle and all the glitter. He doesn't need
it. He's calm and resolved. Let's see if I can give you some
examples. When first God saved me by his
grace, I had all the exuberant feeling
of excitement that a man on death row, justly condemned, would
have when he had been given the keys to the prison and set free. But that faith, which is now
more settled and more mature, more resolute, more determined than ever. It doesn't need the excitement.
It doesn't need the thrills. It doesn't need the glitter.
It doesn't need the emotion. And I speak to you as a man that
is somewhat emotional. That's not where faith is. You
see, our master and I have been together for a long time. And he's seen me through some
tough ways. And like Peter of old, I bowed
his feet. And I said, Lord, you know everything.
You know that I love you. Thirty-five years ago, I took
this beautiful blonde-headed young lady out to Tanglewood
State Park, just outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We'd been dating
for a couple of weeks. And it wasn't long after God had saved
me, first time I'd ever dated anybody who had any interest
in the things of God. Frankly, I was scared to death to touch
her. I just opened the door and kind of stepped back and let
her get in, you know. We went out to Tanglewood State Park
down by Yankton River. I had a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda,
and we got out and sat on the hood of the car. The moonlight
was shining, and I slipped over, put my arm around her and kissed
that girl. And man, I saw skyrockets. I mean skyrockets. Sparkles went off inside my head. And about 6 o'clock this evening,
I slipped over that same beautiful blonde-headed girl. But Marma
ran away and kissed her. And there weren't any sparklers.
There weren't any skyrockets. But we've been through some things. And our hearts have been welded
together. And the sparklers and skyrockets
aren't necessary. Children of God, be content to
sit at His feet and hear His word and worship him. That's the only thing people
need. That's all. That's all. Amen.