Mary's choice. This very unique story is told
only in Luke's gospel. The Lord has come into the home
of a very special family. There were two sisters, Martha
and Mary, and their brother Lazarus. This was the same family that
we read of in John 11 when Lazarus was raised from the dead. And
this family was the object of the special love of the Lord
Jesus Christ. John chapter 11 verse five says,
now Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Don't you want to
be someone he loves? If universal love was true, those
words would be meaningless, wouldn't they? But thank God, those he
loves, he saves. Now, Jesus loved Martha and Mary
and Lazarus. And these women, Martha and Mary,
knew who Christ was. They knew he was the son of God.
I think of Martha's grand confession in John chapter 11, verse 27. Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art that Christ, the son of the living God. Do you know anybody
that believes that and knows him? If you really believe that, you
know him. He's made himself known to you. Isn't that amazing? And he made
himself known to these women. And there were other times when
our Lord went into people's homes who did not really know who he
was. You remember in Luke chapter
seven, when he went into the home of Simon, the Pharisee and
Simon, the Pharisee said, this man, if he were a prophet would
know who and what manner of woman this is that touches him. For
she is a sinner. He had no idea who the Lord really
was, but they knew who he was. And he was coming into the home
of Martha. I don't believe that Martha and
Mary and Lazarus all lived together. Perhaps they did, but it's pointed
out. It was Martha's home that he
was coming into. Now, I want you to put yourself
in their place, particularly Martha's place. What if the Lord
Jesus was coming into your home today? Physically, you are actually
going to entertain him in your home. Can you imagine what that
would mean to you? I try to think, I just thought
about this, about what Lynn would do. if the Lord was coming into
our home. And I know all you other ladies
are just like that, but I can't help but think of my wife. She
would be up all night cleaning. Actually, there's one good thing
about us having company. Things get done. And I generally
have to... This is a true story. I've probably
told it before, but one time before one of our Bible conferences
when we were getting things done and she gave me a list of things
to do. And I put up some shutters in the bathroom, and I did a
good job at it. I was very proud. I felt very
good about myself. You know, when I came in, I said, you know,
shutters, I've got everything done she'd asked to. And she
said, I put the shutters on them upside down. I didn't. They looked
fine to me, but she said they were upside down. She said, if
it takes any ability, don't even try it. She's right about that, I suppose.
At any rate, you can imagine what you would feel like if the
Lord was actually coming into your home. We read in verse 38. 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. She welcomed him. She was so
thankful and you can be sure that she wanted everything to
be perfect. Can you blame her? Verse 39,
and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet
and heard his words. And this is the same Mary who
broke the alabaster box of ointment upon the feet of the Lord and
wiped his feet with her hair. And in so doing, she anointed
the Lord's body for his burial. And I believe she knew exactly
what she was doing. You know, the Lord told his disciples
on at least three different occasions that he was going to be crucified.
And she knew at this time, that's what was taking place. And she
anointed the Lord's body for his burial. She was one of the
women that were there at his tomb. None of the disciples were,
none of the 12 were, but she was one of the women that were
there at his tomb waiting because he told them he's going to die. And the third day he's going
to be raised from the dead. Mary's a very special woman. And what is said of her? She
sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He's all God has to say to us. God hath in these last days spoken
to us by His Son. He said, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. He is the brightness of God's
glory. Somebody once called that the
sparkling of deity. He is the express image of his
person. He said to those who found his
sayings to be hard sayings in John chapter six, the words that
I speak to you that you find to be harsh, inhumane sayings,
they're words of spirit and they're words of life. That's how we
find his words, words of spirit and words of life. Mary found his words to be just
that. Now we don't know what all he
was saying during this time. We don't know how many people
were in the house, but we know many of the things that he said. He said things like, I am the
way. I love thinking about that, don't
you? He didn't say, I'll show you
the way. He said, I'm in it. He said, I am the truth. He didn't
say, I'll tell you the truth. He said, I myself am the truth. I love what he said next. He
said, I am the life. There's only one life that God
will accept. That's his. and everybody in him. And I love
thinking about this. His life is my life. If you want to read my history,
read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's the whole history. His life is my life before God. She would hear him say things
like, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and she believed. She heard him say, all that the
father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. And she believed. She heard him
say things like the son of man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost. And she believed what he said.
She sat at his feet and she heard his word. She heard him say things
like, blessed are the poor in spirit. That's a blessed place
to be. Don't you love the way the Beatitudes
start at the very bottom? The poor in spirit. A believer
is defined by what he's not, what he doesn't have. He doesn't
have anything. He's poor in spirit. Blessed
are they that mourn. They mourn over their sin. They
shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They'll be filled. She heard
the Lord speak. I couldn't help but think, as
she sat there and listened, I couldn't help but think of what Naomi
said to Ruth. In Ruth chapter 3, verse 4, when
Naomi's giving Ruth instructions. She says, and it shall be when
he lieth down that thou shalt mark the place where he shall
lie and thou shalt go in and uncover his feet and lay thee
down. Just lay there at his feet and
he'll tell thee what thou should do. Don't ask him anything. You
just lay there and wait to hear what he says. Now that's Mary. She sat at his feet, sitting. Now, if you're around the Lord,
would you want to be doing any kind of activity? If His hearings were, you wouldn't
sit there, would you? You want to sit there and hear what He had
to say, sitting, not running around, sitting, resting, the
place of rest, sitting at His feet, the place of willing submission. You're willing to sit at His
feet, aren't you? That's where you want to be, to sit at His
feet and hear His Word, the place of hearing and consequently the
place of faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God at His feet, the place of admiration, the
place of awe, the place of worship, sitting at His feet. What better place can there be
than to be sitting at His feet? I love that song. My joy is complete
when I sit at his feet. I had no doubt she felt unworthy
to be there, but she felt it a great privilege and a great
grace to be there sitting at his feet. I love to think about
this. The Lord preaching his gospel
And there Mary sits at his feet, hearing his word. Wouldn't it be a blessing if
you and I tonight, by his spirit, are sitting at his feet, hearing
his word. You know, what he has to say
to us is a whole lot more important than what we have to say to him.
sitting at his feet. Now look in verse 40. But Martha was cumbered. Now that word cumbered simply
means distracted. Distracted. She was distracted,
cumbered about much serving. I don't know how many people
she had in her home that night. Maybe she was having a bunch,
not just the Lord, but a bunch of other people. And she was
You know, trying to get ready, cumbered with much serving, trying
to prepare the meal for such a guest. And perhaps she'd spent
hours in the kitchen that day, maybe most of the night she was
getting ready. And there sits Mary. Well, I'm
doing all this work and expending all this energy and making all
this effort. And there sits Mary, listening,
doing nothing while I do all the work. Which of us have not thought
something like that? We might not verbalize it, but every one
of us have thought something just like that. And she became
angry with her sister. And I think that perhaps she
felt a twinge of guilt when she saw what her sister was doing,
and deep down she knew, that's where I ought to be, sitting
at his feet and hearing his word. And so she lashed out at the
Lord. She said, Lord, don't you care
that I'm doing all this work and my sister has left me alone? Bid her, command her, tell her
what to do. Tell her to help me. Now in being
cumbered about, And it's hard to be critical of her because,
you know, you'd be the same way. If the Lord was coming in your
home, you'd be the same way, wouldn't you? You know you would.
It's hard to be critical of her. But in becoming distracted, not
sitting at the Lord's feet and hearing his word, look what happened
to her. Number one, this dear woman lost
her reverence for her Lord. All of a sudden, she accuses
him. Don't you care? Don't you care
that I'm being treated like this? Don't you care that my sister's
left me alone to serve? And she actually told the Lord
of Glory what he needed to do. You bid her to help me. You command
her. You make sure she does what she's
supposed to do. She acted in a way that was not
reverent. And that's what this distraction
did to her. And she knew the Lord, you know she knew the Lord.
Scripture says, Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Yet she
acted in a way less than reverent toward the Lord when she became
distracted by so many other things. She lost her humility to speak
to the Lord like that. Where's the humility there? The
brokenness to speak to the Lord in such harsh terms. And look
at the hard thought she had of her sister all the time. Instead
of admiring her for what she did, she became critical of her. You know, Mary would be criticized
again. You remember when she broke the alabaster box of ordnance
and Judas spoke up, why was this waste made? This could have been
sold for 300 pence and given to the poor. And she did this
just for a smell. You know, a loss of humility. Humility is so important. May
God give us grace to be truly humble, lowly men and women.
You know, the Lord Jesus Christ said regarding himself, I'm meek
and I'm lowly in heart. And she lost all that, and she
criticized her sister, Mary, for not doing enough. And you
know, she did what people always do when they lose humility and
become critical. She went to the law. She said,
make her help me. That's what the law does, isn't
it? Make her help me. You tell her to do what's right. Make
her help me. And that's what every, no voluntary,
just make her help me. She went to the law. When people go to the law, they
always are more concerned about what other people are doing.
And she lost her communion with Christ. All through this attitude. Now, how many times have me and
you done the exact same thing? Millions. Millions. I'm not I'm not being hard on
Mary. I identify with her. I know what
she's like because I'm just like her. Verse 41, and Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha. Isn't that sweet? The way he repeated her name.
You see, he loved her. This is one of his children.
This is somebody for whom he died. Martha, Martha. You're careful, you're filled
with anxiety, and you're troubled. Now the Lord knew what was in
her heart. She might have said everything is great, but the
Lord knew better. No real peace, filled with fear, filled with
doubt. You're careful and troubled about many things. Things that
may, in fact, in and of themselves be legitimate. There are many
things we can get distracted by that can be alluring. that
can be entangling, that can be puzzling, that can be desirable,
careful and troubled about many things, but there is only one
thing that's needful. And we don't have to guess as
to what the Lord was talking about when he said there's one
thing needful. That one thing needful is sitting at his feet
and hearing his word. Now, it's more important to me
and for me to hear the gospel than anything else. That's the one thing needful.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. One thing
is needful. One thing is necessary. Now,
I thought of several different scenarios where one thing is
mentioned. Do you remember when the rich young ruler came to
the Lord and he said, good master, what good thing shall I do to
inherit eternal life? And the Lord gave him the commandments.
The thou shalt and the thou shalt not. He dealt with the second
table of the law. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not say all those
things. And he said, all these have I kept from my youth up. Wow. Can you imagine being able
to say something like that? Now he didn't, but he thought
he did. He thought he did. And the Lord
said, one thing you lack. And in lacking that one thing,
you lack everything. One thing you lack. And then
I thought of David. When David said in Psalm 27,
verse four, he said, one thing have I desired of the Lord. Now
you see what goes on in your heart when you hear this. One
thing have I desired of the Lord. Now there's, there's a lot of
things I've asked the Lord for. I mean, a lot of things, all
the time, I'm always asking the Lord to do things for me or to
do things for somebody else and to help them. And we ask for
so many, Lord, get me out of this mess I'm in. Lord, all these
things we ask. But David said, one thing have
I desired of the Lord. One thing have I longed for.
And what was it? He said that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Now when he's saying
I want to dwell in the house of the Lord, he's not talking
about wanting to dwell in that physical temple made of stones
and gold and everything else. Christ Jesus is God's temple.
He's the house of the Lord. I want to be found in Christ.
That's the one thing I desire. I love what Paul said in Philippians
chapter three, verse nine, eight and nine. He said, oh, that I
may win Christ and be found in him. That's all I want. I want to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ so that when God looks at me, all he sees is Jesus
Christ, his blessed son. One thing of it I desire to the
Lord, that I might be found in him, that I might behold his
beauty and inquire into his temple. And then the apostle Paul said
in Philippians chapter three, verse 14, this one thing I do. That's interesting. What do you do, Paul? This one
thing I do. He said, forgetting those things
that are behind. Now he meant a lot of things
by that. I'm not going to look for assurance
of my salvation by looking about something that happened to me
in the past. I'm not going to look for assurance by saying,
well, I remember when the Lord revealed this to me or when the
Lord revealed that to me. I'm just forgetting what's behind.
There's an old Scottish preacher by the name of David Dickinson
was dying. And somebody said, well, how
do you fare? And what do you, what do you
do? And no, no. And you're soon going to die. He said, well,
here's what I'm doing. I'm taking all my good works and I'm taking
all my bad works. And to be honest with you, I
can't tell the difference between the two. I'm taking them all and
I'm throwing them overboard. And I'm going to come into glory
on the plank of free grace. He forgot everything. And look
to Christ only. Forget, forget the whole wood
to God that I could just forget everything. Everything. Good stuff, bad stuff, bad experiences,
unpleasant, just forget them. Forget what's behind. And reach
forth to that which is before. What's that? Colossians 1.17
says Christ is before all things. What he's talking about is looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to him for getting everything
behind and looking to him, reaching forth unto those things that
are before. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, The Lord says to this dear
lady that he loves, one thing is needful. Now, I was thinking
of this thing of needful. And when he said, he's talking
in the context, he says it's to sit at my feet and hear my
word. You know, there I find out what
I really need. I need to be found in Christ.
I need to be found. I need God to choose me in His
Son. I need election. It's not just
a doctrine I've argued for. I need God to choose me because
if He doesn't choose me, it's over for me. I need Christ to
redeem me. I need Christ to put away my
sin. Effectually, definitely, particularly,
successfully, I need him to put away my sin. I need him to do
that. If I don't have that, it's over
for me. I need God, the Holy Spirit, to come to me invincibly
and irresistibly to where I can't resist and cause me to live,
cause me to believe, cause me to repent, cause me to love him. I need him. I need him to give me faith. I need him to give me repentance.
I need him to give me love. I need him to preserve me so
I'll persevere. I need him. Bottom line is I
need him to be my surety. I need for God to look holy to
him for everything he requires of me. Now, that's what I need.
I need that desperately. I need him to be made into me.
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
That's what I need. One thing is needful. Now, all
these things are that one thing. It can be summarized by this.
I need Christ Jesus the Lord to be my surety, my guarantee
to where he guarantees my salvation and everything God requires of
me, he looks to him for. That's the one thing needful. Turn to Genesis chapter 42. I don't know of a scripture that
moves me more than these scriptures about the surety ship of Judah.
But in chapter 42, we read where Reuben said that he would be responsible for Benjamin. You
remember what Jacob said about Reuben? He said, unstable as
water, thou shalt not excel. He knew Reuben. He knew him for
what he was. And Reuben spake unto his father,
saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee, and
deliver him into thy hand, and I'll bring him again to thee
again. I love what Jacob said to him. You know, just the fact
that he said, slave, my two boys, shows what he thought about his
dad. Do you think that would satisfy him? You know, if I don't bring him
back, kill my boys. What kind of person do you think Jacob
is? And he said to Ruman in verse 38, my son shall not go down
with you, for his brother is dead and he's left alone. And
if mischief befall him by the way in which you go, then shall
you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. And
the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass when they'd
eaten up the corn which they'd brought out of Egypt, their father
said unto them, go again, buy us a little food. And Judah,
you know who Judah is, Christ came out of Judah, the lion of
the tribe of Judah. And Judah spake unto him, saying,
thus the man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, you shall not
see my face except your brother be with you. If thou will send
our brother with us, we'll go down and buy thee food. But if
thou will not send him, we'll not go down. For the man said
unto us, you shall not see my face, except your brother be
with you. And Israel said, wherefore dealt you so ill with me as to
tell the man whether you had a brother? And they said, the
man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying,
is your father yet alive? Have you another brother? And
we told him, according to the tenor of these words, could we
certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down?
And Judah said unto Israel, his father, send the lad with me. And we will arise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him, And if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee,
then let me bear the blame forever. Now that is exactly what I need.
I need him to be surety for me. One thing is needful to set at
my feet and hear my word." And then he said, Mary hath chosen
that good part. And that was Mary's choice. I
mean, Martha, what she was doing was good, trying to get the house
ready for the Lord. You can, we will not criticize
her for that. What Martha did was good. What
Mary did was better. One thing she wanted to do was
to hear his word. And the Lord said she hath chose
that good part. And it's not going to be taken
from her. May the Lord enable you and I to always choose that
good part. You know something I do believe
happened? After the Lord said that to Martha, you know what
she did? I believe she sat down by Mary and just began to listen. Just like her sister did. May God enable me and you to
be just like Mary. Let's pray. Lord, we can so easily because
of the weakness of our flesh become distracted and cumbered
by so many things because we're so weak and we're so fleshly. Lord, we ask that you would deliver
us. from being cumbered and distracted by anything. And Lord, give us
grace to sit at the feet of your dear son, the son of your love,
and hear his word. And Lord, how we thank you for
his word, how we thank you for him who is the word of God. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray, amen. I would like for us to sing that
chorus. Sweep over my soul, sweep over
my soul. Sweet spirit, sweep over my soul. My joy is complete when I sit
at his feet. Sweet Spirit, sweep over my soul. Let's stand and sing that together.
Sweep over my soul, sweep over my soul.