John

[0:00] As the Lord may enable, I would direct your minds again into the Gospel according to John, in the 20th chapter and verse 16.

[0:21] Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself and said unto him, Rabonah, which is beside Master.

[0:38] The 20th chapter of the Gospel according to John, verse 16. The boner.

[0:51] I fear we didn't get as far this morning as we had hoped, but I do feel I needed a trust of the direction of the Spirit of the Lord to lead your minds a little, a little path that led up to this unfolding.

[1:08] There are many things in the sacred word, friends, that are so vast and so blessed.

[1:20] Things that humble us down into the dust as we see the wonderful love and mercy and kindness and goodness of God.

[1:33] And when we are given to see a little of these treasures of heaven, friends, holy mercy God has given in his word. Does it kindle a little love in our hearts with his word?

[1:50] To be an empty place, friend, this world would without the Bible, or would it? To be an empty place, friend, this wonderful unfired holding of the mind of God, and who teacheth like him?

[2:06] For he teacheth to profit. But leaving those scenes now, Owen, to come to the word before us, text is short, but the theme is deep, down and high too.

[2:24] And here we have revealed the shortest conversation that ever took place. I know of course, yes, verse 17 goes on with further conversation, but that's another conversation.

[2:43] And that arises out of this first conversation. For here we have two words, two names, two expressions, two hearts.

[3:01] What a volume can be embraced in one word. He, the eternal Son of God, now risen in the fullness of glorious power, had only one word to utter to his soul.

[3:23] What a shattering transformation. This poor sinner has been sobbing throughout the days.

[3:35] She couldn't cease. She lost her all. And there was nothing that could replace her.

[3:48] And in my own musings, beloved, I wondered and questioned before my God that I began to get there.

[3:59] Do I know anything of the inner recesses of the soul of Mary at this time?

[4:10] It was no use going home. It was no good mingling with other people. It was no good doing anything. She could hardly think anything.

[4:21] Because there was only one, and there was only one person that could ever begin to answer her case, her problem. Just as he had always answered.

[4:37] For that was her case, beloved. There was a time, and I don't speak it as I feel persuaded, that she's a sinner, surely as we are sinners.

[4:52] There was surely a time when she despised this man. She was the possessor of seven devils.

[5:03] She didn't love this dear man then. Something has happened to transform the whole scene, the whole life, the whole outward.

[5:18] Something that made her to be separate from everything and everyone. And it's grace, my dear friend, that will bring you and I there.

[5:34] We've got to be brought there. I want to speak very freely as the Lord may enable. We love to meet with the people of God. Here below there's possibly nothing sweeter apart from fellowship with God himself, other than to have the fellowship and communion with the people of God.

[5:55] We sing with the hymn writer, I love to meet among them now. But beloved, they're not our soul of salvation. It's been very clear about us.

[6:11] And even the fact that we dwell with one another in the house of God, be it here now or at any other time, is no evidence, no evidence, that it's well.

[6:24] I spent 21 years, 22 nearly. I was never allowed to miss a service three times on the Lord's Day.

[6:41] It meant nothing. Nothing would happen. And now, my dear friend, this dear song here is teaching us through the medium of God's gracious and sovereign appointment, that we've got to come here alone with God.

[7:01] Let's keep this clear first, before we get the emanations on it. They say there was a time when you despised this man just as everybody else did.

[7:15] You may measure and I may measure the seven devils. As compared with others that you might say were possessed with one devil, it matters not whether there's one or seven or seven thousand.

[7:30] One of all tried to measure the sense of forgiveness and even asked the master the question, Shall I be doing rightly if I forgive my brother seven times?

[7:43] Will that be enough? The Lord says, you haven't got there. You haven't got there. Seventy times seven. Perfection multiplied by perfection. Go on. It never ceases.

[7:59] And so it is with evil. It isn't a question of how many devils you've got. Though God forbid that I should say one word or accumulate one thought to the underestimating of the gravity of the solemnity of devil possession.

[8:22] It isn't that, my dear friend, it is how strange the case my soul will be. All your godliness, my dear friend, and every one of you will never help my soul.

[8:39] You can walk with a John who loved to lean upon his breast. You can walk with all his disciples. You can walk with all the patriarchs of old and it won't bring you a whitbeth.

[8:52] You've got to stand alone with you. And this soul has been segregated from death. I want to get there, do you?

[9:04] Ah, yes, I know. I know the reactions. Well, you see, you see, you see, yes, I've seen them all, friend. I've seen them all. And I know all of the excuses.

[9:17] I say and I repeat it. I talk only to myself in the presence of my God. I've got to come there, alone with him.

[9:29] And I've got to be brought in a gracious experience to know Christ thus. Oh, I know I dwell a lot upon it.

[9:42] It's blessed to read on it. It's lovely to ponder it. But my dear friend, it's better to partake of it.

[9:53] And this soul will teach us it all. Walk and talk with Mary Magdalene. And listen as she tells you of the transformation.

[10:07] And asks you that penetrating unanswerable question. Do you wonder that I love him? Do you wonder that he, to me, is the one absorbing thought and the one supreme desire?

[10:25] I repeat, beloved, to you as to myself have we begun to treat the path that leads to it. Isolation with Christ.

[10:38] And this brings too this intimacy. For there is a holy intimacy here, if the Lord will enable me just to unfold it a little.

[10:53] Though I feel to be very much in need of grace. There is an intimacy here. Jesus said unto her, Mary.

[11:11] She had been called by that name from her youth. However old she is, I know not, nor is it any other. She had been known as Mary all her years.

[11:24] Many doubtless had called her by that name. Certainly her parents, whoever they were, must have gone. Never anybody spoke it like this man.

[11:39] My sheep here I was. I called them all I know.

[11:51] Yes, it's true. As the prophet declared concerning Jacob, I have redeemed me, I have called them all I know.

[12:05] I say never man spake like this man. And though myriads of people have called you by your name, your natural name, I don't mind that you might get to the meaning of the name the time permits.

[12:21] There is so much involved here. And I should probably confuse my thoughts. Never mind. The natural name or otherwise, my dear friend, as she spoke with you, as he called you by it.

[12:37] You see the transformation here, can I put it before you beloved, only as the Lord reveals can you grasp.

[12:48] Here is a soul that is crestfallen, broken in spirit, burdened in heart, enveloped in sobbing tears.

[12:59] And there were, there were neither tears. There had come a complete, complete emptiness. She neither desired to go anywhere or to talk to anyone.

[13:19] And now one word shatters on all things. And that's what you and I need, you see, you need to pray. One word from Jesus, that's all.

[13:35] It might be as he sovereignly is pleased, it might be to call you by your name, but one word will be enough. You see, she talked to the angels.

[13:49] The angels had talked to her. She talked to Peter, she talked to John. Nothing, nothing could be done to alleviate this great burden, this great sorrow.

[14:04] It wasn't until he'd spoken, and he only had to speak, I say, one word. Never man spake, I say, like this man.

[14:20] But has he spoken to you in such a way and manner as to lay it all bare, all bare?

[14:33] For this, my dear friend, not only shatters all her burden and all her grief, this illuminates the whole scene.

[14:44] As I want to get to in a moment or two, as we should try and get to the word or the name by which he called it. When he speaks, the whole thing is unfolding, and you can see it all so clearly.

[15:04] The past is brought to remembrance. The present becomes a sweet significance. The future becomes a blessed reality.

[15:17] She saw it all through this one word. I say it's the shortest conversation that ever took place. One word in either direction of my dear friend.

[15:30] You could go on and speak forever on both sides and you'd never advance. The unfoldings here. You see, this dear woman had been a grievous sinner, deeply died, probably scorned, derided, despised by other people, because of the very depths of her iniquities and sins that abound.

[16:01] But this man had dealt with her curse. She never forgot him. As I try to remind you this morning, it was that fact that even later to love his dead body, he had been so precious to her.

[16:27] And unto you, therefore, which believe he is the preciousness, says the Apostle. But I can't help repeating it of you and I taking one step on this path, does Christ begin to mean this to us?

[16:44] Or is our profession a holy mockery, friends?

[16:55] We have to come there as God searches, and searches indeed with candlesticks, into the recesses of our souls.

[17:06] Oh, you may quote the question, what think ye of Christ? It isn't that, my dear friend, it's the answer that matters. It's the answer that matters.

[17:18] And you can stand and sing as we have stood and sing so many times, many of us, I could from all things part it be.

[17:29] Allow me to know it's a hypocritical lie. Yes, I say it from my own soul, we've sung a lie before God.

[17:43] We couldn't from all things part it be. This dear soul has been separated from everything today for everyone. A woman, a hideous sinner of the deepest doubt.

[18:00] Oh, I bless God for the Gospel. I do live. And with God I have set it forth. The more as he desires and deserves it, it should be set forth.

[18:11] The preciousness of the Gospel. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And this dear woman could say it, whom I am the chief.

[18:23] Never mind about Paul, she said. Never mind about him. Look at me. I can exceed Paul a thousand times, she said. He said, I will be the only one who is a man.

[18:36] He said, I will be the only one who is a man. He said, I will be the only one who is a man. This dear man turned to him. Mary. Mary. Mary. No lips could speak that name. No fervency could be mingled with a name such as he spoke.

[18:50] No gracious fullness could envelop one word such as the way he spoke.

[19:01] Mary. Mary. Mary. She said, she turned herself. She turned herself. Where you been looking Mary? She said, I've been looking at the angels.

[19:19] I said, those two angels have been talking to me. They said, They said, those two angels had been talking to me.

[19:29] They said, woman, why are you sobbing? At whom? She said, they're taken away, my Lord. I know not where they've laid. She turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus.

[19:47] She thought he was the gardener. And so she talked to him, if you're born in tents, and she turns around to the angels. He's a mystery man. She hadn't grasped who he was.

[19:59] And she's talking and looking in the other direction. But when one word dropped in, she drowned in a flash. She turned herself and sat under heaven.

[20:15] Rebote, rebote. This word is a combination of three words, all of which unite it again and here, about to express that deep, inexpressible, warmness, feeling of this heart, in its great relief, and yet, in its great unfolding.

[20:50] There was no other word, even in the agree, that she could use, that would be equal to this.

[21:00] Are you lost for words, my dear friend? Blessed if you are, but you'll find a word when you come to talk to him.

[21:14] A suitable word. It might be only one word, I know not. But you'll find the words, my dear friend, when your heart is touched.

[21:28] You'll find a host of words when you're talking about him and to him even, in formality. You'll find a host of words, my dear friend, when you're only actuated by custom.

[21:45] But when you, when your heart is touched, friend, when the precious Jesus draws near, it won't be a time for a volume.

[22:03] The heart will speak better than the lips. But the lips have got to speak, they can't be closed here. She's bursting under this revelation.

[22:16] And she incorporates these three phases, these three Greek words. And she puts them together and three in its significance, which I was reading of good.

[22:29] But three is very significant. She gathers the three here as the response. But before I come to that, I want you to notice the unity here.

[22:43] Grace, my dear friends, will bring us into a unity. And that unity in its completeness.

[22:58] By that I mean here, here, dear friends, that you've got the great risen Christ in all his glory. You've got the high and the holy one that inhabiteth eternity.

[23:14] And you've got the vilest of sinners out of hell that will speak the same language. They speak the same language. Here's unity.

[23:26] I want to be in union with Christ through his atoning love. That's relationship. But I want a union, my dear friend, in conversation.

[23:44] I want to speak the same language. You see, I'm not detracting, but you see, my dear friend, it wasn't only that he uttered one word.

[23:57] It wasn't only that he called her by her name. but she responds with one word. I do love this.

[24:11] This brings us into this intimacy of fellowship, but it brings us into this sweetness of union as the sinner is brought into contact with, through the medium of grace, into contact with Christ in saving power.

[24:32] this is the operation of grace. Job began to get a little toward this as he was enveloped in another way.

[24:48] And I needn't go into the details of what he was enveloped by, for you know it already. But out of this he was enabled to rise and say he knoweth the way that I do.

[25:05] So that out of the midst of the gloom and the burden and the clouding scenes, he was unable to lay hold. Now in essence, not in the same measure, nor in the same avenues, but in essence, you have the same thing here, only this, I believe, is a little more intimate even than Job.

[25:29] Here are not only two people that have come together, but here are two hearts that are entwined. And talk to me about earthly love.

[25:40] We're right above the scenes of that. here are two various souls that are intertwined, that have become one.

[25:51] I don't know how to put it to you, friend. I've felt it more than I can put it to you. These two, but I repeat, look at them apart.

[26:06] Poles, universes apart. He's the great co-equal with the Father before all worlds. He has risen in triumph over sin, hell, death, and the grave, Satan, and all those.

[26:26] And here's a poor sinner and nothing to him, not a vestige, a vestige of that. And these two are brought together, not merely the one to stand there and the other to stand there, so close that they could almost, can I put it, almost feel one another's breath.

[26:49] No, closer than that. I quoted it in prayer as a semblance of it through the medium of the Apostle Paul.

[27:00] It's Christ in you, not Christ with you, that is true in grace. Christ for you, yes, that's great, but Christ in you, here it is.

[27:18] Physically, of course, these two people are separated spiritually, they're so close, that they're completely intertwined, and they talk in the most intimate of language.

[27:40] He to her, male, that's all. Her to her, Rebona, that's all. But while I say in each case that is all, what can you add to it?

[27:57] when you seek to consider what that one word means to her, and what that one word means to him, I'm not putting a Mary up on his level, I'm bringing him down to her, as Christ humbled himself and became of no reputation that he could meet with the sin.

[28:22] this is revealed. Jesus said unto her, Mary, she says unto him, Rebona.

[28:36] And I say only grace and the revelation of the Spirit of God can really teach us the profound depths that are enveloped in these two words.

[28:49] I hope I've been given to feel a little of them as I have mused in the night seasons, over this one word, over these two words, and I find it very difficult pouring out as I trust and believe he has poured a little in.

[29:12] Intimacy of fellowship. Can you regard it at all through my four words? This soul that has been shattered, this soul that humanly speaking has been bereft of all prospect and hope, the whole scene even more than the amass wrote, for this soul couldn't even say I hoped love.

[29:46] She'd done more than hope. She leaned upon him and now he'd gone. And there was nothing there. And now with one word, the clouds of God, the thunders of God that had rolled so grievously over her soul, and the sun begins to shine in the zenith of its glory.

[30:14] And she can feel its warmth as her heart is drawn out in response to the one word. This is grace. grace. But to the work.

[30:27] So I have said we have here a combination of three words. Three words that only can be understood in the significance in the Greek.

[30:39] I'm not a Greek scholar. Believe me, I wish I was. And dependent upon others who have learned Greek. But you have here three words.

[30:52] First of all you have a rabbi. And then you have the rabbi. And then you have the rabbonah. And each in the combination, each first of all in their own significance unveiling and unfolding a volume of divine truth as emanating from the heart of a sinner who has been brought into the joy of mourning after the night of mourning in the sorrow.

[31:29] First she said unto him rab, my friend, my friend.

[31:42] She hadn't a friend anywhere else. She hadn't a friend in the world. And now she responds, thou art my friend.

[31:58] But don't look at this from the human avenue. You have friends and I have friends. Don't bring it down into that category. This, remember, is a soul that as I have said it previously and can only repeat, this is a soul that has been despised.

[32:22] Remember, she's a woman and that adds to it. A blind Bartimaeus is despised. But a Mary Magdalene, can I put it, was twice despised by everybody.

[32:39] Hear, my friend. He's a friend that stick it closer than a brother. He's a friend indeed because he's a friend in time of need.

[32:54] He's all that a real friend is. A friend that can be relied upon, a friend that oh, it's so full, love it. I can't leave you with one third of it.

[33:06] I should have to save a few minutes for the others. But let's just look here, if you briefly think of what a heavenly friend. We used to sing in the Sunday school, I wish we could sing in the house of God, what a friend we're having, Jesus.

[33:26] All our sins and griefs to bear. It's what this poor soul needed, was a friend. True as Mark gives it to us.

[33:40] She was at the sepulchre and the mother of Jesus and Salome was there and many others. But don't make any mistakes, this little band of women weren't all friendly.

[33:54] No, no. Mary madly lady says I stood apart. I was such a grievous sinner. I've only one friend, but what a friend, what a friend.

[34:12] A friend ever at hand, a friend who has dealt, dealt with my sorrow, my grief, a friend that has spoken comfortably under, and cried unto me, your warfare is accomplished, your iniquitous pardon arms, my friends, my friend.

[34:40] And then following upon that you have the Rabbi, and the Rabbi, of course, as the Jews recognize it even today, a Rabbi is a teacher.

[34:52] Teacher. Ah, and he was all that to her. He taught her the grievous state of her condition.

[35:04] He taught her the solemnity of the need. He taught her what hell really means as the portion of sinners apart from divine wrath.

[35:21] Ah, she says, he taught me so much, taught me so much, of himself and of myself. He taught me in relation to the wonderful purposes of God.

[35:37] He taught me of the wonderful things of divine grace. Oh, she says, he taught me so much. He's my teacher. my teacher.

[35:48] So I reminded you this morning is my Lord. My. They've taken away my Lord. Well, it's all embraced here and incorporating so much more.

[36:03] Yes, my friend, my teacher. And who teaches like him? He teaches the prophet.

[36:15] He taught me, she would say, I want those wonderful declarations, and I think, you're getting to me. I know, you'll know degrees then, all right, friend.

[36:29] You won't attain to them, you'll receive them. Degrees among folding, here a little and there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line.

[36:40] He taught me, she would say, what those wonderful declarations were that he preached when he preached the Sermon on the Mount. He told me what those solemn truths were that he was unfolding to the people.

[36:56] And at the time, I had no concern and nor desire for them, but he's taught me sin. He taught me sin. sin. He taught me why he laid his side his glory and came and tabernacled him alone.

[37:14] My teacher, she said, my teacher. He taught me my need of dependence upon him and the need to lean upon him.

[37:28] You can go all through the years and the lifetime of experience, friend, to embrace this, my teacher, she said, and coupled with my friend.

[37:43] Ah, yes, he never had a scholar like I, she would say, and I never had a teacher like him. Oh, to sit at his dear feet and learn with him what I've learned since I have known him, what he's taught me, indelibly that I shall never forget or be able to erase, Lord, friend, as he began to torture you, teach you, in the school of divine grace, teaching those things that will abide, teaching you that there is provision even for the vilest of all.

[38:26] Ah, she said, come and hear, all the fear, God, ah, I'll tell you what he's done for my soul, he's my Rabonai, he's my friend, he's my teacher.

[38:41] But what more? The Rabonai, my dear master, I know it says here, which is the Messiah, master.

[38:56] The Greek word goes a believer out. My dear master, he had been the master of all her sin.

[39:11] That's God. And that's where you and I need to be brought, master of all her sin, and the consequences of it.

[39:23] My dear master, ah, she said, I've looked toward the earthly systems, when he began to teach me my poverty, and when he laid sin upon my conscience.

[39:37] Ah, but he's my dear master that taught me, that he came to deal with this awful mattery that he invented. He came to deal with the powerhouse from which it emanated, even Satan himself.

[39:55] Satan is what you need to know, my dear friend. He taught me that he was master of Satan, master of Satan.

[40:09] Sin shall not have dominion over you. Thy sins, which are many, Mary, very man, and all forgiven.

[40:25] His mastery. Never man spake like this man Jesus. There's a ring here with his precious words as he speaks.

[40:41] He poured out the aspect of union, Mary. she poured out to him all that he was to her.

[40:55] Not merely the relationship that existed and the indissolvable union that bound the one to the other, but his person, his person.

[41:08] And all that our heart conceived and all that our heart rested in was resting in a person. Of course, I know and you'll expect me so to say very briefly, you can't separate the person from the work.

[41:26] He was the person because of the work. Thou shall call his name Jesus because of the work. He bore not the name Jesus in glory when he was with his father.

[41:42] know his name is associated with his work but she didn't call him Jesus. She didn't call him a thousand things that I could enumerate.

[41:59] She called him this that embraced what was in her soul in her love toward him. my friend, my teacher, my master. She could come where we have sought to come a number of times in recent weeks.

[42:19] Master of her life. She had laid her life at his feet. He had bought her with a price she had been brought to realize it.

[42:31] He cleansed her in his atoning blood and thus made her fitted and prepared to be brought into this great union with him.

[42:43] And now all that she was and all that she hoped to be he was master of it all. Rabota she said.

[42:55] Rabota. It extends even as it goes down into the depths of all that a heart that is bursting with love can express.

[43:13] While I know it is said of him was ever loved like this, surely here's the revelation of what grace will do in the soul of a poor sinner.

[43:26] and Mary Magdalene at least could utter re-echo the words of the hymn even if some of us only try to begin to learn the do not I love thee O my Lord behold my heart to see and the very attitude he had to restrain oh he had to touch not just touch but she will she would have thrown her arms round him my friend this is no idle embrace this is no idle activity she would have thrown her arms round him even as she had expressed in word what she found he was her all and out of

[44:32] I repeat as I go back the whole scene had become not only be clouded but dark to the extreme and there wasn't a glimmer of light and if the remainder of her days were to be spent and they opened too an empty too she would spend them there for there was nowhere else to go but now he's here he's here my master my teacher my friend my all and in all and she didn't know how feeling her words to be almost insufficient as words will be when you come to this ecstasy of joy oh I know there are some that tell us we can only have it once in a lifetime then God hurry up and give it to me

[45:33] I long for it but when the whole very beating heart soul mind body and spirit goes out to him friends we send him to glory in Christ and him crucified why all this silence this dear soul she does us a mind whether angels are listening if they're still there in the tomb she does a mind if Peter and John and all the rest and all the crowd listen she's going to express she must express her very heart is bursting with the fullness of it and out in her hands of that I am convinced until he was strong otherwise he would never have restrained you and if they didn't go out he knew they were coming out as he read her heart touch me touch me not change not change but before

[46:44] I sit down with somebody here I feel I ought to just draw your attention to you Jesus said in verse 17 Jesus said unto her touch me not for I have not yet ascended to my Father salvation is not yet complete and it will not be complete until I have ascended a tone that was not complete to the offerer in the tabernacle of old when the sacrifice was consumed it was not until the priest had taken of the blood that he had caught in the basin and carried it forth and sprinkled it before God and before the mercy seat I am not yet ascended to my Father go to my brethren and say unto them say unto them

[47:51] I ascend unto my Father and your Father that is the message that she is to proclaim I ascend I haven't yet ascended to my Father but go and tell them this that I am ascended unto my Father and your fathers to my God for he's still the man the real man made light and his bread and to my God and your God and she's gone she's gone Mary Magdalene came and told and so is the order of the gospel my dear and if you turn to

[48:54] Mark 16 you've got the unfoldings of it I'm not going to unfold it now but you've got the steps of it there she went and told two on the Emmaus they went and told the eleven he appeared to them they went and told and then the commission came going into all the world and tell and it all arises out of the rabona or at least out of the risen Christ but the risen Christ becomes the rabona to hell deserving sinners and that's the wonder of it and all my dear heart let me say this dear don't dare don't dare before his sacred holy divine presence and glorious power don't lay your poor sins inside these are two great fish ask them everyone oh she says don't dare say he's rabona he's the master the master not the time the master of love my time is gone

[50:20] I should love to have entered into the fullness perhaps another time we shall have to get into that he's the master of my love he draws it out as he will he draws out my hopes he's the master of my heart my soul my life my all he's my dear master and it must be the person as he reveals to her personally it was Mary Mary and so in the record of Mark 16 again when he rose from the dead he appeared further to Mary Magdalene out of who he had cast seven days and he is still the unchanging and unchangeable Jesus the sign yesterday to die and forever and my dear friend this evening whoever you may be if you are enveloped with a perfection of devilism he can sign to the utterance stay the

[51:34] Lord brings somewhere along that path that brings us where Mary was when looking up she saw no man a son of Jesus and looking round if she did look around there was nothing that attracted one wint but her all was wrapped up in him and his hole was wrapped up in earth the Lord brings there amen