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 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 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 26, verse
56, then all the disciples persecuted. and bled. 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 twelve 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 twelve
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 Mary's
in the New Testament. And three of those Mary's 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. Now, 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 1? 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 unto 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
hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive,
and thou womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt 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 shall be
no end.' Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be,
saying, 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 shall 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 grace. 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 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. You know, I think it's go back
to Luke chapter. I mean, John chapter 19 for a moment. You
know, she was highly favored and the Lord treated her with
much respect. But you know, we. She was his mother, but we don't
ever read of him calling her mother. Remember. The when the water was turned
to wine and She said, you know, she said that without water,
he said, woman, woman, what have I to do with that? And even while
he's hanging on the cross, this is one of the seven things 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
is taking care of his mom, isn't he? And yet he says, 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, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us, who hath blessed us. Who has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ? And 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 a
salvation. Everybody he's blessed with his mercy. Everybody 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. I
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 4. According as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now 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
chosen Him. I know that about myself. I know
if I'd left it to myself, I'd leave Him. 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. I got sent
to Sunday school for 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
loved 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 predestinates something and ends up not, you know, my
will wasn't there. 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
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 what a place to be
in the beloved. This is 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 calleth. 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 win it. Particularly, I can't imagine
him with child. You know, I just can't, 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 them. He cast out devils that we read
where other people ask mercy for them, but never did they
ask for mercy. Not once. They 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 say. Are you come to torment me before
the time? This woman was under the complete dominion of evil. And 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
who 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. 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? Because they 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 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
a legend and that shows 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. That's what His 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 should 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 or 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 this. Look at 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." Now, 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. 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 want to know
what the evidence is? Faith in Christ. This is the
work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has 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 mine
unbelief. Let's pray together.