O Lord Give Me Mary's Place

There was a little family down
in Bethany much loved by Christ. It is written in John 11 verse
5, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He loved them. It says in our
text in Luke 10 verse 37 that Jesus Christ our Lord visited
the home of this little family. Martha received him into her
house, and in her anxiety to serve the Master, she was busy
preparing a meal, taking care of the other chores. Martha came
to the Master and she complained about the fact that her sister
Mary wasn't helping her. She said to the Master in verse
40, Lord, don't you care that my sister hath left me to serve
alone? Bid her, therefore, that she
help me. You see, Mary was sitting at
the feet of the Lord. She was sitting there drawing
refreshment joy, pleasure, knowledge, looking into his face and listening
to his words. It seems like from the scriptures
that Mary was always sitting at the feet of the Master. For
example, if you look at verse 39 in the text, it says Martha
had a sister called Mary which sat at Jesus' feet. And then
if you'll turn to John 11, I want you to turn to three scriptures.
John 11, verse 1 and 2. Now a certain man was sick, named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
Listen to verse 2. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. This
was the same Mary. This was the sister of Martha.
This was the one who was sitting here at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. She bathed his feet with ointment
and wiped them with her hair. Now look at verse 32 of John
11. Verse 32. Then when Mary was
come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet,
saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had
not died. Martha loved Christ. I'm certain
of that But there was a different relationship It was a different
attitude You see Lazarus had died and our Lord had come to
the home and Martha ran out to meet him first Now here's the
way she met him back in verse 20 of John 11. Then Martha, as
soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
Mary was still in the house. And Martha said unto Jesus, Lord,
if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But I know that
even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
to thee. Here's Martha in her exactness, in her care, in her
precise philosophy and theology. She loved Christ. She knew the
word. She believed in him. But her brother died, and she
ran out to meet him when he came, and she began to talk to him
about he was able to do this and able to do that, and she
knew that. She realized that. She was very frank about it,
very understanding. But watch verse 32. When Mary
came where he was, she found her place. She fell at his feet. She fell at his feet. One other
scripture in John 12, verse 3. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. There was a prayer meeting being
held in the Metropolitan Tabernacle where Charles Spurgeon preached.
He told about it later. I particularly noted the prayer
of one old gentleman who cried from his heart, O Lord, give
me Mary's place at thy feet. The Master in our text called
it the one thing needful. Martha came to him, here was
Mary sitting at his feet, that's where she usually was, at the
feet of Christ, adoring, loving, listening, feasting, refreshing
herself on his presence, sitting at his feet, bathing his feet
in precious ointment, drying his feet with the hair of her
head, running and falling at his feet. Martha came in, Master,
don't you care that Mary's left me to do all the work? She was
busy serving the Master. She cared about the Lord. She
loved him. But the Master looked up at her and he said, Martha,
Martha, there's no rebuke here. Martha, thou art cumbered about
with much care and much serving, but Mary hath chosen a better
thing. Mary hath chosen a better thing,
something that cannot be taken away. All that you're doing shall
pass away. All that you're concerned about
will one day vanish, but what she hath chosen can never be
taken away. This is the one thing needful. There are some things that you
can get a better view of the higher you get. But the love
of Christ is best viewed from the lowest place. Friday I was driving from Appomattox,
Virginia over to Fairmont, West Virginia, and I crossed through
the George Washington National Park and the Mauna Kehilia National
Park The mountains there won 3,746 feet. I remember when I
passed the sign and saw the snow. But you could look down some
of the most beautiful scenery. Those valleys are breathtaking. It's worth the drive to go over
that crooked road just to look into those valleys. And the higher
you get, the more you can see. But that's not true of the love
of Christ. It's not learned the higher we climb, the higher we
get. It's learned where Mary was sitting. at his feet. And I'm going to
give you this morning five things that I've concluded from this
posture of Mary on this subject, O Lord, give me. I'm not preaching
to you, I'm preaching to myself. But if I get a blessing, I believe
you will. If I'm helped, I believe you'll be helped. There are five
things, and number five, Some of us are here, some are here,
some are here, some are here, and I don't know anybody that's
over here yet. I'd like to be. But we learn
the love of Christ, this love which Mary knew. Martha knew
the love of Christ, but not like Mary. Martha knew the Savior
and His tenderness and His love and His affection. She had a
proper relationship with Him and salvation, but not like Mary.
And that's the reason I entitled this message, Lord, give me Mary's
place. I want Mary's place. Now, we
learn the love of Christ, first of all, doctrinally. Doctrinally. That's where we have to start.
Have to start there. I know a lot of people say, well,
I just want you to preach Jesus, don't preach doctrine. Well,
now listen to me. You can't have the master if
you won't have his teachings. You can't have the Master if
you won't have his teachings. Our Lord Jesus Christ emphatically
taught his disciples to search the scriptures. Search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have life, but there they which testify
me. Paul told Timothy to preach the
word, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Preach the
word, be instant in season and out of season. Timothy, take
heed to thyself and to thy doctrine. This is not only useful, it's
necessary. If a man would know the love
of Christ, he's got to study the word of God. not alone, but
with dependence upon the Holy Spirit, that he might understand
right. It's necessary that we learn
the love of Christ from the Word of God, doctrinally. And as we
learn the love of Christ from the Word of God, we'll know that
the love of Christ is eternal. He said, I have drawn you with
an everlasting love. Our Lord loved us from the beginning. Before the day started knew its
place. or planets went their round.
The saints in bonds of sovereign grace were one in Jesus' family. Christ is the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. That's what the Scripture said.
For whom was he slain? Sinners. And he loved sinners
from the beginning. Christ's love is eternal. Christ
doesn't begin to love me when I receive him or when I trust
him or when I believe on him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave himself, his Son, to be
the propitiation for our sin. We love him because he first
loved us. When did he love us? From the
beginning. It is precious to know that his
love is eternal. It is precious to know that his
love is unchangeable. The gifts and calling of God
are without change. The Lord Jesus Christ, having
loved us, not because of anything found in us, but because he would. Having loved us, he loves us
with an unchangeable love. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. Lo, I'm with you always, even
to the end of the earth. His love will never end. Who
can separate me from the love of Christ? That's what the Scripture
says. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
the nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, and all these things were
more than conquerors through him that loved us. I am persuaded
neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature can separate me from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. He loved me before I was born. He loved me when He came into
this world to bear my sins, to take my place, to die for my
transgression. He loved me when He went to the
grave and when He arose again. He loved me when He ascended
to the Father. He loves me now. He intercedes for me. And this is all precious and
necessary. We must find out who Christ is
and what He did and why He did it. We've got to have a foundation,
we've got to have a place to put our feet. Someone says, how
do you know Christ died for you? Because the Word says so. How
do you know Christ is the surety of an eternal covenant? The Word
says so. How do you know Christ is the
only Savior? The Word says so. How do you
know that he was buried and rose again, that he is seated at the
right hand of the Father, interceding for us? The Word says so. How
do you know he's coming again? God says so in his word. Everything
must be based upon God's word because he said it. And when men begin to apologize
for this word, when they begin to cut parts out of this word,
intimating that it's not true, that it's a myth, that it's a
tale, or that it's a Jewish fable, They destroy the whole foundation
on which our confidence and our faith is built. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I am bold to declare
unto you that I believe the Word of God is infallible and the
only infallible thing we have on this earth. That the Word
of God is inerrant That the Word of God is verbally inspired,
that it's God-breathed, that holy men of God speak as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. Not what they thought they ought
to write, but what God told them to write. Supernaturally inspired. And heaven and earth shall pass
away, but not one jot or one tittle shall pass from this Word
till it's all fulfilled. Now that we learn Christ's love
doctrinally, we have to start there. We have to start with
the only immutable, inerrant, infallible foundation. That's
the word of God. I believe he loved me because
he said he did. I believe he died for me because
he said he did. I believe that he loves me now
because he said he did. He loved sinners, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." How do
you know that? His word tells me so. But let me say this. We learn
Christ in the Creed. But if we only understand and
know his love, as we have found it in the Creed, We're just at
the threshold. We're just at the open door.
We don't know anything yet about his love as we should know. But that's where we start. All
right. Secondly, we then learn his love personally. Now get
this. First of all, we learn his love
doctrinally. We believe it. We believe God
loves sinners. We believe Christ loves sinners.
We believe these things because his word says so. But now wait
a minute. That's just the door, that's just the threshold, that's
just the vestibule, that's not entering at all yet into the
fullness of knowing him personally and knowing his love personally,
me. A personal relationship. Now,
don't misunderstand me, but I want you to think a little bit now
and listen to me. I'm troubled, greatly troubled by preachers
who exhort sinners to come forward and to accept Christ as their
personal Savior. Now don't get mad and close your
ears. Listen. Let's don't get bound by tradition
and custom and depart from the Word of God. I hear preachers
exhort sinners. Here's a man stepped in off the
street, a rebel, knows nothing of God, nothing of His Word,
has never had any time for God, has never had any love for God.
He loves himself. His pursuit is to satisfy his
flesh, and do what he pleases, and make a lot of money, and
get a lot of fame, and go about his life as he pretty well pleases. And he steps in, and the preacher
exhorts that man to come forward. He tells him about heaven, tells
him about hell, tells him about the cross, and says, now sinner,
you accept Jesus as your personal savior, and believe he died personally
for you. Now wait a minute. I don't think
that's possible. I do not believe that that man
can be so presumptuous or that woman can be so presumptuous
and so proud as to think in his heart that Almighty God would
empty heaven of its cheap glory for him personally. It's difficult
for me to understand how that any rebel, any unbeliever, can,
just like this, decide that all of that suffering and agony and
heartache and misery and hell was for him personally. I believe
it was for somebody, but for me, personally, that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, came down here for me, for such a worm, for
such a wretch, for such a vile rebel, for such a traitor, for
one who's blasphemed his name, despised him, hated him, that
he did that personally for me, I don't think it's possible. Now here's what I think is possible,
and the disciples never said that one time. They commanded
men to believe on Christ, they commanded men to bow to the claims
of Christ, they commanded men to recognize the Lordship of
Christ, they commanded men to cast themselves on the mercy
of Christ, but they never commanded any individual before he was
saved that he had to bring himself to the place and to the conclusion
that all that was for him personally. Now this is possible. You can
take your place before God as a sinner. You can do that. You
can take your place before God as a sinner. You can cry for
mercy as a sinner, as the publican did. The publican in the temple
didn't say, I accept Jesus as my personal Savior. You know
what he said? He said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Huh? Isn't that what he said? That's
exactly what he said. He recognized God's authority. He recognized God's holiness. He recognized his sinnerhood. He recognized his guilt. And
he pleaded and cried for mercy. What about the thief on the cross?
He didn't accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He didn't
have the audacity and the presumption and the pride to look over there
at the Son of the Living God dying on a cross and saying,
He's dying for me. But he did do this. He recognized
his sin. He said, I'm getting what I deserve.
Read it. He recognized Christ's Lordship. He said, Lord, you're
not going to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
Would you remember me? Would you remember me? Is it asking too much, O Lord,
that you would remember this old good-for-nothing thief? Would
you do that? Different, isn't it? What about
the leper when Christ came down from the mountain and the leper
met him? Man covered with leprosy, white all over with leprosy.
Today they would have that leper walk up and say, I accept you
Jesus as my personal Savior. Now I'm going to let you cleanse
me. I'm going to let you make me whole. I'm going to honor
you by joining your church. What do you think about that,
Lord? I'm going to join your church. The scripture says he
came and fell on his face. And he worshiped the Lord down
at his feet. And he said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. If you will. Thou to the claims of Christ.
You can do that, sinner. You can do that. You can recognize His Lordship,
you can do that. That's all the Scripture commands
you to do as a sinner. That's right. If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, And believe in thine heart God
raised him from the dead. Not he's your personal Savior
or he died personally for you, but believe that he's Lord. Bow
to him. Believe that he was raised from
the dead and thou shalt be saved. You know what it says? Don't tell me, I know better,
that when you walked down that aisle and made your decision,
That if they'd have put a gun between your eyes at that moment
and said, you really believe Jesus Christ did all that personally
for you as if you were the only sinner in this side of heaven
or hell? No, I'm afraid I don't. But I do know this, he's Lord.
And I do know this, I'm a sinner. And I do know the scripture says
he died for sinners. I do know the scripture tells
me that if I trust him and believe on him and receive him, that
he'll have mercy on me. That's what I believe. And that's
where I'm coming in. I'm seeking the Lord. He doesn't
have to save me, but I'm gonna seek him. I'll go to Jesus, though
my sins, like mountains round me, raise. And I'll say to him,
I'm a rich undone without his sovereign grace. I can but perish
if I go. I am resolved to try, for if
I stay away, I know I'll forever die. Isn't that right? Mercy's
found in Christ. Go to him. Grace is found in
Christ, go to Him. And then, and then, in God's
good pleasure, you will find out He died for you personally.
In God's grace, in God's pleasure, the day will come by the Spirit
of God. There are some of you here this morning who believe
He died for you personally, but you didn't learn that the first
day you bowed, you learned it as God the Holy Spirit taught
you the Word. He died for me. What about the
Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus? God smote him down. And he said,
who are you? And Jesus Christ said, I'm Jesus
of Nazareth, whom thou persecuted. What'd he say? I accept you as
my personal Savior. No, he didn't. He said, Lord,
you're Lord, you're God. What do you want me to do? Here
I am. Here I am. What do you want me
to do? And then God was pleased to reveal
to him his grace and his mercy. Let me give you an illustration.
Folks who've been married and in love for 25, 20, 25 or 30
years, they don't have the glitter and the noise and the flame and
the smoke that newlyweds have, but there's a deep, firm, intense
personal love that's grown through the years. It's different. New converts, when they first
come to knowledge of the gospel, when they first come to see who
Christ is and what they are by nature, sinners, and they trust
him and believe on him and rest in him as the savior of sinners,
their first love is like wildfire. But as men grow older in grace
and knowledge of Christ, the fire doesn't diminish. Not at
all. It deepens. But what's gone is
the flash. When you first put your charcoal
in the fire there, or rather in the grill, and pour that stuff
on it, you know, and throw a match on it, whoo, there it is. It
has a flash, it has a flame, it has smoke, it has all these
things, but there's not a whole lot of fire there. There's a
whole lot of fire, but then there's not a lot of fire. Pretty easily
put out. But after you let it sit there
for 30 minutes, the flash is gone. The smoke's gone. All the glitter's gone. But I'll
tell you the fire's not gone. Those charcoals throughout, they
are engulfed in red coals. It's a quiet, burning, intense
heat, and that's the love of Christ. Now, you don't know it
all when you walk down and shake the preacher's hand. You're just
like a charcoal fire that's just had the match thrown on it. You've
got a lot of excitement and glitter and flash and flame and smoke
and all these things and noise. But I'll tell you, as the years
go by and you become acquainted with Him and with His Word, and
you personally are brought to a vital living union with the
Son of God, He becomes your life and your love and your brother
and your sister and your husband and your wife and your mother
and your father and your life. You know Him personally. My Jesus,
I love Thee. I know Thou art mine. But for
us to exhort people for the first time when they hear the gospel,
to have that intense fire of love for Christ, that deep personal
knowledge of him that cannot be shaken, not possible. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ. All right, thirdly, now stay
with me. I'm telling you the truth. We
learn His love doctrinally. You've got to start there. Don't
be discouraged. Seek the Lord. As the heart panteth
for the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God, for
the living God. Seek the Lord in His good pleasure. By His grace, He'll reveal Christ
to you, more precious with every passing day. But then you learn
to love Him, listen to me, practically. Now, you can't teach a man to
swim in this church auditorium. You can sit him down and show
him how that he moves his arms, how that he turns his head, how
that he moves his feet, and he can become an expert. You can
give him a test on it. Now, what's the position of the
head? What's the position of the arm? What's the position
of the feet? He may make an A+, 100% on the test, take him down
here to the river and throw him in and go all the way to the
bottom. You don't teach a man to swim in a church auditorium.
Great soldiers are not made at West Point. A lot of the top
students at West Point have been failures in the field. And some
of the failures have been great soldiers. You learn to be a great
soldier out there where the bomb is exploding and the smell of
smoke is in your nostrils and the sand and the grime is in
your ears. That's where you learn. You don't
teach a man to be a farmer in school. He learns it behind a
mule and a plow. And you don't learn the love
of Christ doctrinally. The love of Christ is not learned
from books. The love of Christ is not especially
in the heart of the man who can recite it more eloquently than
anyone else. You learn the love of Christ
as you draw on it, as you partake of it. O love of God, how rich,
how pure, how measureless, how strong! It shall forevermore
endure the saints' and angels' song. How do you know? Huh? Could we with ink the ocean fill,
were the skies of parchment made, and every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above
would drain that ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky. That's beautiful,
isn't it? How do you know? How do you know his love, Brother
Paul? We'll turn over there to Acts chapter 22 and listen to
him. Acts chapter 22, he's talking
about his conversion. In Acts 22, verse 19. Acts 22, 19. Brother Paul says
this, he says, Lord, Acts 22, 19. They know that I imprisoned
and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee. What a
rascal I was. And Lord, when the blood of thy
martyr Stephen was shed, I was standing right there, consenting
unto his death, and I kept the raiment, the clothes of them
that slew him." Oh Lord, what a vile, wretched, blasphemer,
persecutor I was. But in all of that, he loved
me. A man learns his love practically when he learns his own sin and
guilt practically. when sin becomes not a theory,
but a fact. When he no longer talks about
the sins of the world, but begins to say, my sins are ever before
me, against thee and thee only have I sinned. When we realize
the pit from which we were digged, when we realize the awful, awful
cesspool of sin wherein Christ found us, when we realize what
wretched, vile creatures we are in the sight of God, and yet
He loved us! Boy, I'll tell you, He to whom
much is forgiven, He loved much! Isn't that right? That woman
that bathed his feet with tears and kissed his feet and dried
them with the hair of her head down there at his feet, and the
old proud Pharisee said, well, if he knew what kind of woman
she was, he wouldn't let her touch him. Our Lord looked at
him and said, I want to ask you something, Simon. There was a
man that owed a fellow a whole lot of money and he forgave him.
Another fellow owed him just a little bit, but if he forgave
him, which one I'm going to love him most? Why, he said, the one
to whom he forgave the most. He said, you well said. And I
say unto you, this woman, sins were many and they're forgiven.
And to whom much is forgiven, they love much. Simon, you don't
love me very much because you don't see your sins. But I'll
tell you, you find the man or woman in this congregation that
feels the deepest agony and remorse and depression and mourning and
repentance over her or his personal sin, you'll find the lover of
Christ. That's where you'll find the
lover of Christ, the one who can say, Oh, he found me when
I didn't seek him. And he loved me when I hated
him. And he washed me when I was so filthy. And day by day he
keeps me by his grace, and I stumble and fall, and he picks me up.
What a great Savior! How do you know his love, Brother
Peter? When our Lord rose from the dead, he said to the angels,
and the angels passed the message on to the women at the grave.
They said, You go tell his disciples. Did you ever notice these two
words in Mark 16.7? and Peter that he's waiting on
you at a certain place. Peter denied him. Peter cursed
and swore that he didn't know him. But when our Lord rose from
the dead, the first message he delivered to those disciples,
go tell my disciples and be sure you tell Peter. Be sure you tell
him. Don't you know how much he loved
the Lord when he heard that message? Me, he said. You mean he sent
for me? You mean he didn't call anybody's
name but mine? Oh, how I denied him and what
a wretch I was. What a wretch. You don't learn
the love of Christ till you need, till you walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, till the doctor says you just
got a few months or years to live and then you know his love.
till you see the pride of your life taken away from you, then
you know His love. When you can say, when your whole
world is falling about you, praise God from whom all blessings flow. You dear women who've buried
your husbands and you're now alone, you found out you're not
alone, are you? Christ is with you. You learned
His love practically. I lost everything, but He met
my need. I've learned His love practically.
When I needed Him, just when I need Him, Jesus is near. Just
when I'm haunted, just when I fear, ready to help me, ready to cheer,
just when I need Him. Just when I need Him, He is my
all, answering when upon Him I call. Just when I need Him,
He's my friend. When my familiar friend that
ate bread with me lifted his heel against me, David wrote,
He never forsook me. Though my mother and father forsake
me, He'll take me up. That's where you learn the love
of Christ. Don't quote your doctrines. Don't
recite your creeds. Don't brag about your knowledge
of the Catechism. Have you been down there in the
deep, dark valley of loneliness and found it just as bright as
day because He was there? Huh? He was there. You don't
know whether your boat will float or not until you get it in the
water. deep water. And then fourthly, we learn his
love by contemplation. You know, when I read the apostles,
I don't find them talking very much about the theories of the
atonement. I find them rather preaching
the blood. They leave it to us to argue
the theories of the atonement. And they just went forth preaching
Christ crucified. When I read the apostles, I don't
find them arguing the doctrine of the resurrection as much as walking with the risen
Lord. When I read the apostles, I don't
even find these words premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial,
post-tribulation millennials, pre-tribulation millennials.
I don't find those words. I find them looking for his coming. You see the difference? They
leave it to us who don't know a whole lot about his love to
argue all these unnecessary things. The doctrines of the throne upon
which he sits, and the apostles didn't go around describing the
throne, they described him who sat on the throne. The doctrines are, but the garments
he wears. And you don't find the apostles
running around folding and refolding his garments. They preach Christ. They made love to Christ. They
walked with Christ. I preached over in Appomattox
Thursday night. A preacher walked up to me and
he said, well, he said, every time I've heard you preach, you
preach Christ. What am I supposed to preach? Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you but Christ. You know, contemplation on the
beauty of his person, the power, the glory of his person. You
know the doctrines? Do you know him? You know where he came from and
when he came and what he did? Do you know him? I can tell you
those things about George Washington, but I didn't know him. Abraham
Lincoln, whom I admire, I can tell you a whole lot about him,
but I didn't know him. I didn't know him. Oh Lord, give
me Mary's place to sit at his feet. Martha, bless her heart,
was neat for what she was doing. She was serving the Lord. She
let go and said, I know you're the resurrection, I know you're
the life, I know this, I know that. Do you know him? Boy, Mary
did. She couldn't take her eyes off
of him. She couldn't turn loose of his feet. She couldn't stay
away from him. I've about quit telling God what
I need. I really don't know what I need, but I know He does. My
prayers have changed through the years. I've about quit telling
God what I want. I don't know what I want. I think
I want what He wants. I hope I do. Now, I appreciate
public prayer, but that doesn't get it for me. If all the praying
you do is in public, you haven't learned Christ's love by contemplation.
I appreciate the blessing at the table, but that doesn't get
it for me. I've got to get along with him. If you don't have a
personal, private prayer life, you don't know anything about
the love of Christ like you ought to know it. If you haven't meditated upon
him in the night watches, if you haven't taken the time, you
ought to have a place to pray. I've got an advantage over you.
I have the building here, the study, these things that are
related to spiritual things, but I pray for you personally. Do you pray for me? Do you pray
for one another? We learn the love of Christ.
I tell you the world just fades away when you get in His presence. This is convicting, I know it.
It's convicting to me. But the longer I live, the older
I get, the more awesome is his presence. The more I need him,
the more I need to pray, the more I need to spend time alone
with him. If we don't have enough prayer
meetings, it's your own fault. It's your own fault. All you've
got to do to have a prayer meeting is get in your closet and call
on your Lord. And I'll tell you this, I think
the reason I'm realizing more and more my need to pray is because
I'm realizing more of my inability and insufficiency in how much
I need Him. What an awesome task this is. What an awesome responsibility
we have. What great trials are before
us. What enemies are about us. What wretched creatures we are. We need to learn His love. I
wet my pillow at night with my tears. I call upon thee in the
night watches. I get alone with my God and seek
his presence. Do you? I tell you that's the
secret of God's blessings. And I recommend it to you. I
can come in here on Sunday morning and preach with power because
I've been here Saturday night praying for it, crying for it. And God said you have not because
you ask not. All right, we learn His love,
and this is my last point. This is going to kill us. I hope
it does. We've got to start doctrinally. That's the only place we can.
And by His grace, we learn His love personally. I think many
of you have come there. I believe I've been there. We
learn His love practically. I've been there a few times too.
And I'm beginning to learn his love by contemplation, by walking
with a person, not with a doctrine. Doctrine's important. I'm not
minimizing the importance of doctrine. Hold your doctrine,
but hold to Christ. He is our doctrine. And then
we learn his love sympathetically. Very few of us have come to this
sweet Eden, but here's what I mean. Go with me up on a hill overlooking
a city called Jerusalem. The angel of God stands beside
you and says, you see that great city? I see it. It's going to
be destroyed. The blood is going to flow in
the streets. The temple, their beautiful temple
of religion is going to be destroyed. The Romans are coming in under
Titus and destroy that whole city and wipe it out. You and
I are filled with religious enthusiasm. We say, it serves them right!
They crucified the Lord of Glory, that bunch of religious Israelites,
it serves them right! But wait a minute, over here
sits a man and he's weeping. As he beheld the city, the scripture
says, he wept. And he cried, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that stonest the prophets and killest them that are sent
unto thee, how would I have gathered you unto myself, which you would
not. There's a difference, isn't there? There's a man hanging
on a cross. They've spat in his face and
put a crown of thorns on his head. They nailed his hands to
a cruel tree. They've lacerated his back with
a cat of nine tails. They've stripped him naked to
his shame before the gawking eyes of this multitude. We look at that crowd dancing
around his cross and making fun of him, mocking him, and we say,
God, why don't you open heaven and open the earth and send them
all to hell right now? Wait a minute, he speaks. Father,
forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. There's a difference, isn't there? There's a nation of Israel that
came out of Egypt led by a man, faithful, godly man called Moses,
and they hated him and turned against him and rebelled against
him and they made idols and they cursed and swore and wanted to
go back to Egypt and finally murmured against the Lord and
the Lord said, Stand back! I'm going to kill them all! And
you and I are standing over there and we say, Well, that's what
they ought to get. That's what they deserve. I don't blame you, Lord.
I'd kill them too. Hold it, Moses got something
to say. He stands between God and Israel,
and he says, Lord, don't do that. And he weeps, and he says, Lord,
if you kill my people, block me out of the book you've written. We don't know much about that.
The Apostle Paul was maligned and hated and persecuted. These
Pharisees did everything they could to hurt him. They imprisoned
him. They cried for his death. They
chased him from city to city. God Almighty says, Paul, I'll
kill them all. I'll send them to hell. And you
and I would have said, well, it serves them right. That fellow
rebelled against me. God ought to strip him of everything
he's got and kill his children and break up his home and that
fellow rebelled against the church and hated the gospel and did
this, that and the other and he's getting what he deserves.
I've heard preachers talk like that. This man or woman rebelled
against the gospel and God killed them or did this, that and the
other. Paul didn't say that. You know what he said? He said,
I've got great sorrow, heaviness of heart for my brethren, the
Jews. I could wish myself a curse from
Christ that my brethren might be saved. Lord, if in destroying
my soul you can save them, then that's what I could almost wish. I want to learn something about
that. Christ said you love them that love you. They ain't nothing
to you. You give to people from whom you hope to get something
in return. They ain't nothing to you. the heathen do that. There's nothing to you. I say
unto you, you want to be children of the Heavenly Father? You love
them that hate you, and bless them that curse you, and pray
for them that despitefully use you. And you shall be children
of your Heavenly Father, for he is merciful to the unthankful,
and he forgives the unlovely and the unforgiving." You're either your brother's
keeper or your brother's killer. You're one of the two. Most of
us are our brother's killer. We're not our brother's keeper.
We're not our brother's defense. We're not our brother's lover.
We're our brother's killer. With our tongues we destroy one
another, reputation, influence, comfort, peace, hope, and we
claim to know the love of Christ. We're so-called Christian cannibals
is what we are. We bite and devour one another
like a pack of dogs upon a bone, one bone, a pack of dogs. I hope I die before I die. I
hope God Almighty is able by His grace to slay me before He
kills me. We read scriptures like this,
I'm crucified with Christ. I know what that says. Do you
know what that says? I'm crucified with Christ. But
do we know what it means? I am crucified. Here's a man
dead and in his grave. Go over there and curse him.
He won't say a word to you. Brag on him. He won't say a word
to you. Flatter him. He won't say a word to you. He's
dead. I'm dead to this world. I want to be. Dead to the praises
of this world, dead to the luxuries of this world, dead to the flattery
of this world, dead to self, uh-uh, not on your bottom dollar. I haven't met anybody yet that
can say that. Paul could. That has learned the love of
Christ sympathetically. That can weep with those that
weep, and I mean weep. that can rejoice with those that
rejoice, and I mean rejoice, without a sliver of envy or a
sliver of jealousy or a sliver of ego. Oh, how good for us when God
lets us make a mistake. I was preaching along the other
night, and I'm going to tell you what I said, but I said something
I ought never have said, and I went home and cried about it.
I ought not have said that in the pulpit. God let me say it,
I know, so I wouldn't be such a smart aleck next time. I won't
say it anymore. by His grace. Those things are
good for us. God, give me Mary's place, dead
to self, crucified with Christ, by which the world is crucified
unto me. Let's pray together, Lord let
me die before I die. Don't let me live this whole
life for myself, for my ego, for my self-righteous, selfish,
personal goals. Sometime before I leave this
earth, let me die. Let me be able to say I'm crucified
with Christ. That I can do what I do for His
glory. That I can give what I give for
His glory. That I can say what I say for His glory. Whose glory? Whose glory? Whose glory do you
sing for my... Whose glory am I preaching for? Whose glory do you give your
offering for? Whose glory do you come here for? Whose glory are you living for? And when we learn to live for
his glory, we're going to know something about the love of Christ.
He could pray, not my will, but thy will be done. He's totally
submissive to the Father's will as if he had no will of his own. Take my life, let's sing that,
darling, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my silver
and my gold, naught of these would I withhold. Take my years,
my weeks, my days, let me live in constant prayer. God, do something
for me. This whole thing wants you to
do something for Jesus, wants you to accept Jesus, wants you
to make your stand for Jesus. I tell you, He doesn't need me,
I need Him. I need Him to do something for
me. something permanent and lasting internally, something like he
did for Paul when he made him a new creature in Christ Jesus. Lord, don't make me a Baptist,
make me a Christian. Don't make me a Calvinist, Lord,
make me a Christian. Make me a child of God. What
number is that?

O Lord Give Me Mary's Place

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O Lord Give Me Mary's Place

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