Open—A. Kinnaman, J. Hyland
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We're always.
It's true.
Vibrate.
In the Girl of Love.
Of thyroid who will never grow.
Our greatness shine.
Yeah.
Bringing heart winds, we're gliding.
Here.
No one can just sleep.
Now I know.
Well.
00:05:32
Back to First Thessalonians chapter one for one verse, then we'll go to the book of Acts for a verse.
Now the thought that one has before oneself has to go to do with.
Once a person hears the gospel, what happens after that?
There's several things that have to answer that. I'm talking about the responsibility of someone that has heard the gospel and and because it is a work of God, they respond there is a work of God that takes place. So a turn and read.
First Thessalonians, chapter one, verse 5.
Our Gospel.
Came not unto you in Word only, but also in the power.
And in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.
Paul also wrote and practiced these things. He also wrote the book of Romans. Let's go over there to chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 to two very well known verses.
Romans, chapter 10, verse 9.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation if someone accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
No one will know it unless they confess the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
In fact, this is the gospel, and this is the effects of the gospel in the heart of a recipient.
Of the gospel, they confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Open confession. If anyone has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, it's your responsibility to confess him as your Lord and Savior. You no longer live in darkness, but now you live in light. Your responsibility is to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. When you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, there isn't two ways of doing it.
One, you accept him as a Savior, and then later on you're going to accept him as your Lord the moment you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
He is your Lord and Savior then.
And so now we say, Jesus, Lord.
There's a thought in Christendom when you make the Lord the Lord of your life, when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, the moment you accept him as your Savior, he is then the Lord of your life and we accept his lordship over us. It's part of repentance saying Lord, I'm a Sinner, save my soul. It's the moment of repentance coming to the Lord Jesus because it's repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved. And the evidence of that repentance is to own the Lordship of Christ when we accept him as Lord. Young people, children, when you believe in the Lord Jesus as your Savior, he's now the Lord. And very reverently, I want to say, essentially he becomes our boss.
But he doesn't boss us, does he?
The voice of the Spirit of God is a still, quiet voice. We respond to this still, quiet voice of God through the Spirit. We respond to the Lord Jesus as Lord.
In learning of Him and knowing from His word what He would have us to do.
Let's look at a picture of something that takes place in Acts chapter 15. I noticed it when our brother read that portion to us and had referred to it.
Think of his Acts chapter 15.
I can't find it. It's when Lydia.
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Accepted. OK, it's chapter 16.
Verse 14.
Our brother had referred to us in the reading about this portion when the Apostle Paul was here.
And it was referred to when he went down to the river as well in the acts here in verse 14, in a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of cripple of city of the Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized in her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house.
And abide there. And she constrained us.
We see service to the Lord in this woman's life, immediately accepting the Lord Jesus as her Savior. We see service and it isn't a new service. It isn't something that she might never have done. She had maybe before had opened her house to someone. Maybe it was her social sphere that she had at that time, but now it's the social sphere changed to her. It was the Lord's people, so she opened her own.
In normal service.
For a sister in the sphere that she's had all her life.
From creation in a wife and in womanhood. Service in the home. But she'd done something else. She seems to be the spiritual leader here. Her name is mentioned and it says and she was baptized at her house.
Now amongst the brethren we agreed to disagree on baptism, but I will put out a no disclaimer to the fact that since I've been gathered I have held household baptism. So I want to talk about baptism.
And the responsibility of a person that's been saved to recognize and ensure that they have been baptized. That's the way I want to say it. I want them to recognize that they have been baptized and ensure or ensure that they have been baptized And talk a little bit about that responsibility of of now as a believer, if you were, if you were saved.
And never been baptized. You need to be saved. You mean you need to be baptized? You've been saved and never been baptized.
You need to be baptized. Let's read in Romans chapter 6.
And.
In verse three and four, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life. The power to walk in newness of life comes to the comes to us in the power of the Spirit of God by applying the death of Christ to our lives continually.
Daily throughout the day.
It is I am crucified with Christ, and nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me the life I live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's brother Shanks. One of his favorite verses is Galatians 220.
You might refer to that now if you didn't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior and you found yourself being bad, or you're a little boy or a little girl and you say no at times that you shouldn't.
You really didn't have the ability. You weren't you couldn't really be really good as mommy and daddy wanted you to.
Because you didn't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, little boys and girls.
Young people ourselves older adults.
There's no power in our lives until we recognize that we are dead. We are dead to sin when we accept Christ as our Savior. We have a new life. We're a new creation in Christ. There's where the power from that new life comes from to be able to resist sin and say no to sin and yes to what the Lord Jesus wants to do in our lives.
We see what baptism does. It recognizes the Lord's death as our death. It recognizes that we go down into the waters into death, and we come up in newness of life into resurrection. That's what a picture of baptism is, our place.
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When once we've been baptized, that's what we are now to walk in. Let me give you something else. If you have been baptized and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you are responsible to walk and act as a Christian because you've been baptized.
Roman Catholicism has been baptizing their babies for thousands of years. Everyone of those that grow up has been responsible to act in the truth of Christianity because they have been put on Christian ground. A brother once told me he says proper entrance into the Kingdom of heaven is baptism and it puts us in the Kingdom of heaven, It puts us in responsibility. And everyone now that has been baptized have a responsibility to act as one belongs to the Lord Jesus, even if they don't.
Now see here, you have a responsibility to act and live like a Christian, but without the Lord Jesus. You don't have the way to. You can't. He is the way, He is the truth and the life. You have to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
OK, now we've talked about when you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you confess him as Lord, you own him as Lord, and then you ensure that you belong in that realm of Christendom.
In responsibility of open confession of Christ as Savior. In baptism, confessing baptism, taking your place, identification with the Lord Jesus. Remember the Jews.
Weren't baptized, and for them to get baptized it was to renounce Judaism.
And for a gentile really, who was brought up into idolatry, it was to renounce idolatry.
I've never heard it spoken that way, but that's the truth of what it does. I want to talk.
About the Lord's Supper.
Let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 10.
Now I'm at the Lord's table with my brethren. I ask to be received at the Lord's table and they've received me. I have responsibility to to please them and to go on in the truth, and they have responsibility to help me and even responsibility to correct me. I have responsibility to take that correction and I have responsibility to to them.
There's responsibility at the Lord's table, yes, but in my responsibility to the Lord and my brethren at the Lord's table, there's one thing I can't do for you. I can't give you an invitation to be at the Lord's table. You see, it's the Lord's table.
Now I can tell you about the large table, and I know the Lord Jesus would like you to be at the Lord's table.
And if you recognize that he and you would like to remember him in his death, that's your responsibility. I want to read about it in First Corinthians chapter 10, the Lord's Supper.
Verse 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
This word communion can be used in a different, another way, in a conversation. I don't. I wouldn't want to say that it should be translated that way, but we could use it another way. It's fellowship.
It's the fellowship of the Lord's Supper, and I've heard that term.
It's fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
It's fellowship.
With the communion, the fellowship of his blood was shed for us, and that's mentioned first. It's fellowship with his body.
This morning when we remembered the Lord Jesus in his death.
I thought of six hours, a little bit after the first three hours, when the Lord Jesus was crucified at the sufferings at the hands of man.
And then those three hours of darkness at the hand of God.
And I thought more as we got into the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.
With all the hymns, those three hours of darkness.
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When you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you recognize that during those three hours of darkness that your sins.
When you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, we recognize. I can recognize as a believer that in those three hours of darkness my sins were really laid on the Lord Jesus.
All my sins.
And during those three hours of darkness?
The sin nature that I received from Adam has a race of mankind which we all have. It doesn't do that, that Adamic nature can only sin.
God can tell us to be good.
In some way we might be able to be a little bit good.
But that sin nature comes out, and we sin.
The Scriptures Speaking of our blessed Lord Jesus, said He was made sin for us. Him who knew no sin, that root nature, that root that can only do absolutely no good, was judged in the Lord Jesus. The sin nature was judged in Him. He was judged for all that sin could produce.
And so in Hebrews it says he takes to death for every man.
And in one John says he is a propitiation for sin.
And as a propitiation for sin, whosoever will may come.
You can only know.
Substitution.
As one that has experienced it, when Jesus is your Lord, you say he's my Savior. You recognize you can recognize those that know the Lord Jesus as their Savior recognized now that there was a substitute for them on the cross. I can truly say the Lord Jesus Christ was my substitute.
Let's continue reading here.
Verse 17, I'm going to read this the way it is in the new translation For we being many are one loaf and one body, for we are part all partakers of that one loaf. Now you can take a loaf of bread and you could speak of that loaf as a bread. This is a bread. This bread is his body that is proper. That's OK to say that it's proper, but the thought is we usually think in our English language with such a technical language. We thank Brad.
And then we think of a loaf. We sometimes think of it a little different, maybe more separated, but it's the idea is the thought of that one loaf and it's that loaf.
And if you.
Being here today, know that you know that 50% of the believers in Saint Louis and surrounding communities aren't here today. They were all represented in that loaf.
It's a picture of the church.
All believers in Christ.
Specifically in this age of the Church.
The cup has another picture of it. It is a cup of the wrath of God for sin.
It's a cup of wine.
And the wine is a reminder of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus that cleanseth us from all sin.
In Matthew 1824, where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
And now let's go to 1St Corinthians 11.
Now there's an interesting thought when we see that.
Paul and Acts, chapter 16.
That his name is mentioned and I think there's a connotation with his name related to the Lydia.
She followed Paul's doctrine.
I would just make that as a suggestion. Is something that's suggestive there?
Paul's doctrine.
Tells us how to function in the assembly.
It teaches us the order and it concludes the ground of gathering.
And it includes what to do in a day of a day of evil, the principle.
Of following God today is separation from evil both ecclesiastical.
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And the evil in the world, practical or separate from evil?
Paul's doctrine has the thoughts of a heavenly doctrine, and you know the Lord Jesus.
Met the Apostle Paul.
And the Lord Jesus was a glorified man.
Apostle Paul.
How could he do anything else but serve that man? He had the biggest revelation.
Of all time then?
He saw risen, glorified Lord as well as the sadness of what He was doing at the time.
But he tells us, and this is reflective of meeting that man, that glorified man in first Corinthians 11. Here verse 23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, he break it and said, Take He. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup when He had sent, saying, This cup is a New Testament in my blood. This Dewey, as OFT as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
I was touched by brothers prayer after the breaking of bread when he was asked to pray for the meal.
And it was mentioned in his prayer for those that see the cup and the loaf go past him, yet they don't partake of it. And that touched my heart for you.
The apostle Paul says, I have delivered this unto you. I have received it from the Lord, that man in the glory.
And the words of the Lord Jesus in verse 24.
This is my body which is broken for you, this too in remembrance of me.
And the cup, this cup is the New Testament, my blood this do ye as often as you drink it and remembrance of me. One time years ago, I was raised in Catholicism and I recognized at that time Catholicism at the in their practices. They didn't allow the cup. I don't know what they do today. I hear sometimes they do, but they didn't allow the cup and it wasn't a loaf.
Lost all the sense of what it was.
Especially an evil wicked doctrine attached to.
The cup and the wine to say that hits his body and his blood at that time and that he was suffering at that time, that's wrong. The cup and the cup is a remembrance of Him, the remembrance of His blood shed for sinners. I like the hymns, shed for sinners, shed for Revels, shed for me.
So this is the other point that a believer would do.
Someone that is just saved is now a believer. They're not an unbeliever. They're saved whenever we sang that little hymn in the morning, this morning.
SAVED.
Saved.
A saved person belongs to the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus is the Lord over a saved person, if you believe in the Lord Jesus.
He's your Lord, but he didn't say I command you to do this.
He said this do in remembrance of Maine. I'm going to borrow a story from another brother. I really don't remember the brother that told the story, but I remember him telling the story. I was there when he told the story. And he says if you went in to see your dear mother and she was dying and she was on her deathbed and she would take her picture, the picture of your dear mother, and she says I'm going to use a name. I'm just going to pick a name. She is John and Mary.
I'm dying. Will you Remember Me? Here's my picture.
I was a little boy, about five or six, and my mother called me into her room.
And she says I'm going to die. I'm dying.
And I'm going to heaven, I want you to know that.
That's the only assurance that I have. She was a Roman Catholic, that she's in glory. I hope it is. I hope she is. But if she isn't, it's because she didn't accept the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior.
But I remember those words she told me. I remember my mother's deathbed at six years old.
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And she says I'm going to die.
And I want you to know I'm going to heaven.
You know, I think she wanted me to go to heaven too, don't you?
Now let's say you're in my position. Maybe you're a little boy or a little girl.
And your mommy and your daddy are going to go to heaven. Don't you think they want you there too?
And now those that are old enough and responsible enough, you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Do those? What do those words mean?
This too in remembrance of me. So where does the Lord Jesus, He says, Remember Me?
Do you know what happens to us brothers and sisters that break bread and remember the Lord Jesus? It is death every Lord's day we remember were we were sinners and that we still we remember that there is a cleansing effect of the Lords Supper for me to judge myself as an unearthly one. He alone is a worthy 1.
Every Lord's Day, there's the effect of the Lord's Supper.
Of his foot washing. Because I'm brought to the cross. I'm brought to his death. I know what I am.
Just a believer.
Just a bleeder, not perfect, I still sin, but I can remember him in his death.
And by partaking of that cup and of that loaf, we do show the Lord's death on earth who sees it. Remember the lines of the one him that we sang God's wrath and Satan's power. It's God's testimony for the Son to have an assembly of gathered Saints gathered around the Lord Jesus in the midst and His supper being partake care of in the scene of our Lord's rejection.
It's a testimony from the father for the son, and we've been drawn into it.
I'd like to, for the few moments left, turn to three portions in the Gospels that we've often turned to before and enjoyed, but I trust they will encourage our hearts as we go home from these meetings we've enjoyed. I trust in a measure this blessed privilege of being gathered by the Spirit of God around the person of Christ for prayer for the ministry of the Word of God and the morning, that precious privilege of remembering Him.
In his death, turn with me first of all to Luke chapter 10.
Luke chapter 10 and verse 38.
Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her home, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his words. And then in John 11.
John Chapter 11 and verse 18. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off.
And many of the Jews came to America, Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house. Notice 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 hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in spirit and was troubled.
Verse 45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did.
Believed on him and then notice in the 12Th chapter. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was.
Which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. 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. Well, these scenes are very precious. You know, there were few homes in this world where the Lord Jesus was really welcome. Mr. Darby put it this way. He said, oh ever homeless stranger.
00:35:15
How dear art thou to me an outcast in a Manger, that thou mightst with us be. On one occasion we read of the Lord Jesus. It says every man went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. The Lord Jesus himself said the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. I say there were few homes in this world where the Lord Jesus was really welcome, but here was a home, a little family in Bethany, and the Lord Jesus often delighted to turn his steps toward Bethany.
In fact, I believe that Bethany held a special place in his heart when he was here as a man. And it's interesting that it was from that very spot. Later on, after he had risen from the dead, he led them out as far as Bethany, lifted up his hands and blessed them, and the cloud received him out of their sight. You know, there's many little towns in this in the United States and Canada that are dear to my heart, not because they have some political significance, not because they're noted particularly on a tourist brochure or something like that.
But because there are those there who love the Lord Jesus, many of my dear brethren and many I have enjoyed happy fellowship with as many places I go, little towns and communities that otherwise I would pass by. Well, perhaps it was this way with Bethany. The Lord Jesus often went there. Why? Well, I believe it was because there was this little home where He was welcoming His pathway as a man, and a home where He could sit down in the midst of those that loved Him, and the most in the midst of those that He loved.
And he could have his soul refreshed as a man in his pathway here. And we find that these three mentions of Mary, and this is what is particularly on my heart in connection with Mary of Bethany. She's mentioned on these three occasions specifically by name, and they're the only occasions where she is. She's alluded to other portions. But here she's mentioned specifically by name on these three occasions. And on every occasion she's at the feet of Jesus.
And brethren, that's a good place for us. We've enjoyed this privilege collectively this weekend. But we're going to go home now. If the Lord leaves us here, you're going to go back to the home situation. You're going to go back to work, You're going to go back to the little assembly from whence you have come. Oh, brethren, may we have hearts so attracted to Himself that we desire and we long to sit at His feet, to be in the company of the Lord Jesus. Wonderful to be with the people of God on an occasion like this.
And how we value the exercise and zeal of those who invite us together for these privileges from time to time. But brethren, the test is going to come. You're going to go home. Maybe the assembly small, Maybe there's difficulties and trials. Maybe there's things that you wish weren't the way they are. But oh, brethren, let's see. To walk in the company of the Lord Jesus. We find, first of all, where we read in Luke that Mary is at his feet here, and this time she's at his feet as a learner.
You know there's no substitute for sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His words.
Martha came and she complained and she said, Lord, there's so many things need to be done. In fact, as has often been pointed out, I believe when the Lord Jesus entered that home that both those sisters were probably busy preparing for the arrival of the Lord Jesus. But Mary realized there was something more important than all those tasks. She, as it were, said, I'm going to let those things go now. I'm going to sit down and hear what Jesus has to say. Brethren, we need to take time.
To sit at Jesus feet. This is a society today when life is on a roller coaster and things are getting faster and faster and Satan is interjecting every kind of thought and activity to take our hearts away from sitting at Jesus feet. You know, one of the characteristics of the last days is given to us in Daniel. It says they run to and fro throughout the whole earth. It's a restless generation, men and women going to and fro and I don't think they even know sometimes themselves.
Why they're on the go, but Satan is busy to keep the natural man busy so he's not thinking about his eternal destiny, but to keep the Christian busy too so that we don't have time to sit at Jesus feet. And if you're going to take time to sit at Jesus feet and hear his words, you're going to have to let something go. You're going to have to be like Mary. You're going to have to let that work go. Martha said we've got to do these things. And you know, the Lord spoke to Martha in a rather unusual way. He said Martha.
00:40:06
Martha, he really wanted to get her attention. You know, sometimes the Lord has to speak to us in that way.
I say it's an unusual way. I have traced and found at least six in the Scripture that the Lord spoke to by repeating their name twice. We will not recount them. We find that he spoke to Abraham that way in Genesis chapter 22 when he was about to slay his son. He said Abraham, Abraham, He spoke to Peter that way. He said Simon, Simon, Satan have desired to have thee that he might sift theist weight and there may be other occasions, but there are six at least and I believe if you trace those occasions.
They are occasions where the Lord was seeking to get someone's attention. They who have children understand this. When we try to get our children's attention and they're not paying attention, perhaps we repeat their name more than once. The Lord was seeking to teach Martha a lesson, a lesson that Mary learned that she needed to sit at Jesus feet and hear his word. And he said, Mary hath chosen that good part that shall not be taken away from her. And I just challenge those of us who are a little younger here this afternoon.
When you go home, take time each day to open the Word of God.
And listen to him speak. It must have been wonderful for Mary to sit at the feet of Jesus when the Lord was here and walked amongst men. But I believe we still have that privilege of sitting at Jesus feet. And as we open the word of God and that and prayerfully read it and have it applied in the power of the Spirit, we can listen to him speak to us. I say there's no substitute for sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing his words. And then what happened in the 11Th chapter of John?
The Lord comes to this home again under very different circumstances. A sorrow had come into this home.
You know, sorrows do come into our lives. They come into our lives as individuals and sometimes they come into our lives in the family. You know the name Mary means bitter. And I wonder if the Spirit of God isn't suggesting that Mary was one who didn't have an easy life. There were bitter experiences. There are those trials because it tells us in Corinthians, there hath no temptation taken you. But such is common to man. We feel the effects of sin. We come because we're in a in a world that's under the curse. We feel those things and we have trials and difficulties.
And we're also in the school of God, and He allows things in our lives to exercise us and to teach us and to chasten us. And a sorrow had come into this home. Maybe there's brethren here and your hearts are burdened as you think about leaving this place this afternoon and going home to the trials and difficulties in the home circle or perhaps even in the assembly. But you know, I think it's precious with Mary. Mary had sat at the feet of Jesus.
As a learner, and now when the sorrow came, she knew where to turn. She knew there was one that she could turn to. And I've been struck here, two things in connection with Mary. One is that she sat still in the house. You know, Martha seems to be one who always had to be busy, someone who was always doing something, perhaps, shall I even say, trying to help a situation. And when the Lord Jesus was finally approaching Bethany.
She runs to meet him, but all I have often enjoyed what it says about Mary.
And Mary sat still in the house. How could she do such a thing? What caused her to sit still amidst the difficulty? Did she? Was she indifferent to the trial? Oh no. She loved her brother Lazarus. She felt this sorrow very keenly. But I believe that she, more than Martha, entered in to the heart of the Lord Jesus. And she knew that He was coming in His own time and in His own way, and she knew that when He came.
He was well able for the situation. I often think of Naomi, she said to Ruth. Sit still, my daughter, until they'll see how the matter will fall, for the man will not be in rest until he accomplished the thing this day. Confidence that there was one in control of the situation could encourage another to sit still during the difficulty, rather than there's one who's on the throne tonight, this afternoon, and he's working everything after the council of his own will. I know sometimes it takes faith to count on that.
Because sometimes things do seem out of hand. You say, I don't know how that's going to be straightened out. But brethren, while things sometimes seem out of hand, they're never out of the Lord's hand. He's in full control. And as you go back to those problems and difficulties that are very real, and I don't want to underestimate those difficulties, they are real. We feel them, and we ought to, we need to be exercised by them. But brethren, let's remember that He's in control. He knows the end from the beginning.
00:45:15
But when they came to Mary and said, The Master calleth for thee, what did she do? Oh, there was immediate obedience. She immediately rises up, and where does she go? Oh, she knew where to turn. She'd been at His feet as a learner. She had entered into his heart in a little deeper and fuller way than the others, and she knew where to go in her sorrow. She went to the feet of Jesus. Oh, what a good place for us to go in our sorrow and our trials and our difficulty. And was the Lord able for the situation?
Of course He was. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Brethren, we have the same Lord that Mary had. He hasn't changed, and He may not act in the same way that He did here in the raising of Lazarus. But brethren, is His power any less? Has He changed over 2000 years? It says He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might. He increases strength. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
And they shall walk, and not faint. What a resource Mary found in her trial.
And her difficulty? The feet of Jesus. And what was the result? Well, I read this 45th verse because it has struck me.
That it is a contrast between in connection with the 19th verse, because it was the Jews that came to Martha and Mary, but who were the Jews that believed? It was the Jews that came to Mary? Not because of what she said, but I just suggest that because of Mary's quiet testimony that could cause her to sit still in the house amidst the difficulty. That quiet testimony was such that those who came to marry believed it wasn't Martha so much running around and trying to take care of the difficulties, but it was Mary who sat still.
And you know, I have observed my dear brethren who have gone through many trials and difficulties, sometimes things that I have never been called on to pass through in the path of faith. And as I have observed their quiet, Christlike testimony, and that rest and confidence exhibited in their lives through the difficulty, it has been a tremendous blessing to my own soul. That's the way it was with Mary. She could sit still in the house. She could find her solace at the feet of Jesus.
And what a testimony she was to those who came on that occasion. Well then, very quickly we find that the Lord Jesus comes to that home again just before He goes to the cross there with Calvary before him and all that it meant to His holy soul. As He anticipated that time when He would be made sin for us there His feet turned towards that little home in Bethany, where He knew he could sit down once again in the company of those that loved Him. He knew that very soon He would be in the midst of those that hated Him.
He knew what they were going to heap upon him, but all once again his heart is refreshed as he sits down. And here we find one who has come forth in resurrection, sits at the table in communion. We find that Martha serves. And as was mentioned the other day, there's no rebuke for her service here. I believe she learned the lesson that joy in service springs from sitting at Jesus feet. The service isn't cumbersome here, she simply serves.
In that quiet capacity in the home. And then we find that Mary comes.
And Mary's heart had been occupied with the person of Christ as he walked through this world.
And at the end of it all, it's overflowing in a response of praise and worship. Brethren, there's only one way to be a true worshipper, and that is to have a heart that is overflowing with an appreciation of the person and work of Christ. That was Mary's heart, and she doesn't count the cost. She brings that ointment. She had criticism. All the disciples spoke against her, but she brings that ointment. And what was the effect? Why, it had an effect on the whole house.
And you know, I've been struck that it was Mary that poured out her ointment, not Lazarus. Because if Lazarus poured out his ointment, you'd say, well, of course, when we come together in the assembly, the the brothers can take part. But isn't it interesting that it was Mary? It was, shall I say, a sister who poured out her ointment and I believe a sister who was here this morning with a heart full of praise and worship, with a heart overflowing with an appreciation of the person and work of Christ. I believe that sister was a tremendous blessing.
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To the assembly this morning, I believe that we felt the we felt the odor, we smelt the odor of that ointment that was poured forth from the sisters. And isn't it interesting, brethren, that as you read of these three on this occasion, Lazarus sitting at meat, Martha serving, and Mary pouring out her ointment in praise and worship, you don't read of anything these three individuals say. It was quiet communion at the table.
It was quiet service by Martha, and it was that heart overflowing in praise. Mary doesn't say anything here, but what an effect it had. And brethren, I just want to encourage our hearts as we go now. I want to encourage your heart. I want to encourage mine. Go back to the little assembly you came from. There's going to be trials, there's going to be tests, but go on quietly for the Lord. Who knows what a blessing and encouragement you can be if you're found at the feet of Jesus.
Listening to His words found at His feet in intercession and prayer. And as those trials come, you can turn to Him. And then to be at His feet as a worshipper, to have that ointment poured forth. Oh, brethren, there's a day coming and it's not far off when all the redeemed are going to be gathered around himself and will be beyond the trials and difficulties and the exhortations that we need now. But until that day, what delight it brings to His heart.
To his heart I trust to our heart, but to his heart, brethren, to find us at His feet in that way.
Shall we stand?
One, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear with us, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested into us, that which we have seen and heard.
Declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ to give thanks.