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[0:00] As the Lord helps me this morning hour, I would like to direct your attention to some thoughts found in Luke chapter 10 and verse 42.

[0:14] That's through the 10th chapter in the book of Luke and chapter verse 42. But one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good pie which shall not be taken away from her.

[0:32] But one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good pie which shall not be taken away from her.

[0:45] What a mercy, friend, if he would know what it is in some measure, yea, in a great measure, who entered into the truth of these if-tests. Knowing in your own heart and your own soul that there is but one thing is needful.

[1:03] That God also might bring you to that place more and more to choose that good pie, knowing that what he gives, friend, is that of it is for eternity.

[1:14] In these things which is needful, friends, is those blessings which make the soul rich and add no sorrow to it. These blessings, Lord, friends, will occupy your heart and your mind and crowd out the things of time and sense.

[1:31] But when the Lord comes into the soul and makes manifest something of himself, friends, everything of this kind and sense will then again exactly will find its proper place.

[1:47] Well, when we look upon it in narrative from which our text is taken, friends, we find that Jesus, on this occasion, came into a certain village and came to a certain woman's house.

[1:57] And I believe we've often talked about that word, certain. To me, it always makes manifest, Lord, that the Lord Jesus had a certain work and a certain accomplishment when he came upon the face of this earth.

[2:14] He never did anything in a haphazard way. And neither does he ever send his servants in a haphazard way. There is a definite purpose. When he himself, friends, was there in Jerusalem and wanted to go to Galilee, he said he must need go through Samaria.

[2:32] And the need be was proved in the finding out of that woman. Vile wretched, sinned as it was, but he brought salvation. And, friends, there's a lot of teaching there in the very first verse of our chapter which we've read.

[2:48] How that the Lord sent these appointed ones, which were seventy, and notice they were appointed of God or of Christ, and they were seventy in number. He sent them two by two before his face into every city and place.

[3:04] But what follows? Whether he himself would come. In other words, not haphazardly sending them here and there to see. I realize sometimes the apostles went here and there, but they went always under the direction of God the Holy Spirit.

[3:22] When they went here and there, we find it was also the truth that he himself would come, that he would follow with his own blessing. Oh, there is nothing so precious, friends, as being found in God's will.

[3:35] Whether it's coming to the means of grace, to the house of God, or in our daily life, or certainly in the means of the ministry. A certain city, a certain woman.

[3:49] Then we find that this particular woman had this house, and she had a sister called Mary. Mary also was at this place. Now it would be see a difference, friends.

[4:02] Not that Martha was not without grace. We have every evidence by Scripture to believe that she was in possession of grace, and in one respect could have been just as gracious, and as graciously taught as Mary herself.

[4:18] She might have been longer on the road than even Mary. We don't know. If it is that Mary, friends, of which we read elsewhere in Luke, we don't read of her person's name, but who she came as a weeping sinner, and weeping over the feet of Jesus, some believe it is the same matter.

[4:37] But at least, friends, we know that she was a sister of Martha, and her brother was named Lazarus. After they stayed upon the face of the earth, and that we have to leave.

[4:50] It's nothing of importance. But at least, friends, we see there were amongst these two who, while even possessing of grace, there was something different in their desires.

[5:02] Mary, she came there, and she immediately, when Jesus came to the house, she quickly went where he was and sat at his feet and wanted to hear him converse upon heavenly throne.

[5:17] Martha, friends, lost sight of the eternal other matters, she was much cumbered there with serving, and, perhaps, without a doubt, making it very comfortable for the master, right in his place.

[5:32] But she later was rebuked with much. In other words, it went beyond that. It was needful. And so we find that Martha, though it was a gracious soul, all we can say is, friends, much like we find ourselves today, cumbered with the things of time and sense, letting so many other things occupying our heart and our mind, and forgetting about that one thing which is needful for our soul.

[6:02] I realize in one respect we can say truthfully, Martha is a type and a figure of the world, but she was a gracious soul. And certainly, friends, this is the case of those who are of the world, aren't they?

[6:18] Oh, I suppose it would do us good if we would all seek to examine our own soul, even now. Which of these characters were evident in our life and in our conversation in this past year?

[6:35] We don't have to look at anybody else, friends. We ought to, well, look within our own soul. What a mercy if we knew what it was in prayers and supplications before our God, when we had the opportunities to pick up our Bibles or pick up the portions which are edifying to the soul and have found here and there some sweetness.

[6:58] What a mercy if we can look back upon our midweek service and say, well, I spat at his feet. Or maybe through the week I had spat at his feet. Maybe not only with, as it were, the word coming with might and power, but I spat at his feet with a confession of my sin.

[7:17] I sat at his feet, pouring out my soul before him with desires. I sat at his feet and longed that he might return in might and power to my soul like he did in times past.

[7:30] I sat at his feet and longed that I could be brought back to the joys of which I once felt in the early days when the Lord visited my soul. Oh, friend of Martha's and Mary's, they cover the face of the earth, don't they?

[7:47] They are evident in the house of God. They are evident in the family of God. They are evident in the church of God. And so, friends, what a mercy if we know what it is to be like men.

[8:02] But nevertheless, we find that Martha here when she's seen all this, she became much agitated. And I believe she came in one way as a disgust with the Lord himself and an indirection of hips and an unkind remark against her own sister in the flesh.

[8:23] Without a doubt, thinking that in some way the master would make an equitably apology to her and says, I didn't realize it, and Mary, you ought to be reproved. But always remember, friends, when we come to the Lord, even when we come wrongly, sometimes we're going to get the right answer.

[8:42] And the Lord will answer us. Oh, I wonder sometimes, and I can speak for myself, sometimes when I get out of place and the Lord sometimes speaks to me in a way of reproof, love not this world.

[8:56] Or is that the Spirit of Christ? Is that what Christ did when he turned his feet to the right and to the left and left of him smite on both sides?

[9:08] Sometimes such bitter spirit, such wickedness, comes in my heart, friends, I'm ashamed of myself. In that time, seeking as it were a confession of my sins before my Lord, but I can't find it.

[9:22] Oh, friends, but the Lord always gives good answers. When this man said, Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He gives him an answer. When the man came to the Lord and said, speak to my brother that he divided the inheritance, the Lord gave him a right answer.

[9:41] He let him know that the things of time and sense were not essential, but it was the things of eternity. When the scribe thought that it was worth a catch, and he gave a right answer.

[9:53] And often giving the right answer, he turned himself and left them to themselves. Oh, what a mercy when we know what it is in our ignorance sometimes contrary to the flesh.

[10:08] But oh, what a mercy we find here in the case of Martha when the Lord spoke to her in a way of reproof, yet he gave a remedy.

[10:21] Ah, friend, I realize, and I want to say this, this is solemn thought. I have the mercy, I can say to you there is a remedy for sinners. There is a remedy for all of your departings and for all of your backslidings and for all of your carelessness.

[10:38] There is a remedy for all of your sins. But yet the day is coming when there is going to be reproof from the Lord himself, when there is not going to be a remedy given to you.

[10:48] And that is in the final day when he says, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. Oh, I realize this chapter is solemn.

[11:00] And I, Marna, confess, friends, it takes much grace for me to bow unto some of the statements which are here when it speaks about woe to they of Bethsaida and Chorazin.

[11:10] And how it is more tolerable for that terrible cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than for those who have sat under the gospel and have, as it were, turned their back upon it and did not give heed to the remedy which is there set before them.

[11:30] So we find that then the Lord did give at Marathon an answer. And friends, what a mercy when the Lord gives us an answer when we can know what it is to receive it by faith.

[11:45] I do not know what the future was there in the case of the church at Ephesus there in the book of Revelation when the Lord speaks well of them, how they hated the heirs and they contended earnestly for the truth.

[11:59] And there were things which without a doubt were much commendable. And then the Lord says, But nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee. And this is, ye have departed from your first love.

[12:12] Oh, when I think of that, friends, the Lord speaks to me again and again over such a matter as that. Oh, that we could return again to those days of our former love, to the days of the first love when the Lord so sweetly shined in our soul.

[12:27] And when everything of time and since found its place and the things of eternity were utmost in our soul. When the blessings of the Lord were upon the singing of these hymns, the reading of the scriptures and the means of grace, when he was all in all to our soul, when we were so jealous for the truth, when we were so jealous for his name that even amongst our loved ones, friends, we couldn't be silent.

[12:54] We begged the Lord that our mouth could be open so that we might be able to relate some of the things of which the Lord had granted unto our soul. And even the ungodly took marvel at what we had said.

[13:07] They had to say it was something of the Lord. It was something they didn't know about. Ah, friends, we need rebukes. But oh, it takes grace, at least I find it, to receive the rebukes of God and of his word, to receive it by faith.

[13:25] To receive it and say, Yea, Lord. But you have to know what it is that like Peter says, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. So when the Lord says, Martha, Martha, thou art cumbered and careful and troubled about many things, but one thing, do you understand what I mean?

[13:51] In the rebuke, the Lord also made a way of remedy. And that remedy was to follow the example of Mary.

[14:02] your own sister. As much as to say, when I came into the house, thou didst greet me. Thou wast pleased to see me.

[14:13] But oh, thou wast so taken up with all the cumberings of servings and seen that everything was to perfection and that I might be honored as it were at mealtime. But when I came into thine house, there was this woman, Mary, who knew something of her sins and not that Martha didn't at one time.

[14:35] But immediately when I entered into the house, the heart and soul went out unto me that she might hear something of what I thought to say. Oh, it is a mercy when we come to the house and God with a hungering and a thirsting and a desire that I might hear the Lord speak in and through his word.

[14:55] That the Lord might speak into my soul. Now, we find that actually in our words of our text, it divides itself into three thoughts. First of all, we see that the Lord brings that one thing which is needful.

[15:12] Nextly, she brings out that Mary hath chosen that good part which sets forth the inclination of the heart. And then lastly, we see something of the durability of these blessings.

[15:26] not to be taken away. They are eternal. Ah, then it would be well, friends, if we take heed to what we find in the words of our text.

[15:37] But, oh, those blessed words of but in the scriptures, they make a division, don't they? And many times we see it as grace which makes the difference.

[15:50] But Noah found grace. but when it pleased God to call me by his, to separate me from my mother's womb and to call me by his grace.

[16:02] But you have he quickened. And so it is that need of grace. But one thing is needful. Now, what is this one thing which is needful?

[16:14] Well, friends, it is so vast and so broad, yet it is brought to one thing. And I would dare say we could say many verses, we could make many things, we would all be exhaustless.

[16:28] But would I put it in this here? That one thing is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That sums it all, doesn't it?

[16:40] It is Jesus. That's why the disciples in the book of Acts, when they went here and there and they preached unto them Jesus, and with one accord they gave heed to the speakings of the ministry of the word, that is, when the Spirit blessed it.

[16:58] That one thing. Ah, what a mercy, friends, when the Lord narrows us up by the overturnings of all of our self-righteousness, all of our self-knowledge of religion, and of all of our doctrinal, resting upon the doctrines of grace, when the Lord turns us upside down and overturns and overturns and empties us from vessel and vessel, we are brought to realize that all of my righteousness and all the gains of this world is nothing as to compare to the weight of my never-dying soul.

[17:33] Oh, the Lord spoke solemnly, didn't he? On one occasion, he says, what shall we give in exchange for the soul? He never gave an answer to that question, friends, because there's no answer.

[17:48] Though we gain the whole world, what shall it profit us and lose our soul? So we see, then, that this one thing is, then, our salvation.

[18:00] And salvation is summed up into one person, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. When you remember when Nicodemus came to Christ, he had some good remarks.

[18:14] He says, Thou art a man from God. No man can do us these things except God to be with him. The Lord Jesus came to this one thing, Nicodemus.

[18:27] Except he be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom of God. Except he be born again, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Except.

[18:38] When the disciples came and others began to speak about some of the sins of the certain individuals, the Lord says, Except ye all repent, ye shall all like race perish.

[18:52] One thing of that which is needful, and that is the new birth. Quickened into divine life. One thing is needful.

[19:06] There is salvation in no other person than in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. One thing is needful. As I stand bare and naked before the eyes of deity, and I see my corruption and my filthy, and all my self-righteousness nothing but as filthy rags now falling off from me.

[19:29] I see my fig-leaf righteousness withering in mine eyes. I find that I have not a righteousness to cover myself. One thing is needful.

[19:41] It is that glorious robe of righteousness to cover me from all my shame. And it all points to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has woven out a glorious robe.

[19:56] So glorious, friend, it is without spotter, it is without wrinkle. One thing, oh, to God, that you could say it in your soul, that is what I need, that is what I desire.

[20:09] One thing, oh, my sins, they are many as the sands of the sea. My sins have made a sad separation between me and my God.

[20:21] My sins testify against me in my own conscience. My own sins are a burden to me, and they shall sink me into the pit of hell, and they shall, friend, if they remain upon your person.

[20:34] One thing is needful, the pardon, the forgiveness, the blotting out of all my sin, the remissions of them, to be cast behind the back of God, so that I may know that it is boldly to stand before him in that great day, pleading the worth and the merit of him who came into this world to make an atonement for sin, to die for sinners, to pay the penalty.

[21:07] One thing. Ah, when we look upon to the preciousness of that precious blood, that sweet atoning sacrifice, which flowed there forth upon Calvary, which is described in the book of Zechariah as a fountain open for sin and uncleanness, then we can think of that one thing, the precious blood, which makes an atonement, which covers, which washes away all my sins, both my original and the actual sins.

[21:45] One thing. To be pointed to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. One thing. Like Mary to sit at his feet and say, Lord, speak, lest my soul be like unto those that go down into the pit.

[22:02] Speak and my soul shall live. One thing is that I desired a word of the Lord, that he might speak unto me and that I might know that he is my salvation.

[22:14] One thing. Ah, it all is centered up in Christ, isn't it? To you who were with us on Wednesday evening, and it's an exhaustive subject, and I did it feebly, I confess it.

[22:29] But who is sufficient for these things? But when we try to speak about that, ye are complete in him. Complete. Nothing to be added.

[22:41] Nothing to be taken away. One thing. Ah, friend, can you put your head in shame, and says, oh, Lord. There's many, many things in my mind and my heart that have divided my interest.

[22:56] There's my unbelief, my doubts, and my fears, the worldly cares, and all of its pleasures. But oh, that we could come like David of old who says, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.

[23:11] That I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, to inquire of his temple. Well, there's the language of living faith, isn't it?

[23:25] I realize they didn't all live there, and those saints of old, they had their ups and downs. But I think of that again there in the case there of David there in Psalm 73.

[23:45] Well, he says, whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Now, I'm really getting into my second point, but we soon come to the second point.

[23:59] What are some of the evidences of these breathings of this one desire? Well, actually, we find it in the words of our text, Mary hath chosen that good part.

[24:12] And what is the evidences of it? We find here that David said, my flesh and my heart faileth. My God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

[24:27] In other words, my flesh and my heart faileth me. But one thing do I desire. And notice then our second thought, and Mary hath chosen the good part.

[24:40] what came about this? How did this come to pass? Never do I want to, as it were, exclude man's accountability before his God.

[24:53] Never do I want to, as it were, put the blame upon God that we are without faith. No. The fault lies at our own door. And if you are truthfully honest with your soul, you and your unconverted state, in you and your careless state, do you not have to take the words of Jesus when he says, Ye would not that I should reign over you?

[25:18] Friend of the fault lies at our own door. But yet Mary hath chosen. Ah, my mind goes to that man called Moses.

[25:30] As a little infant and as a little boy, he was taken out of a godly home and put into all the pleasures and cares of this life. And I don't say this, I know this is a language of our day and not of his day, but there was probably all the rock and roll and all the folly and the foolishness of this life.

[25:48] With all the skits, with all the plays, and with all the foolishness, with all the dainties of life, everything was at his fingertips. But here's what we read by faith.

[26:02] Oh, then actually, friends, we can come right back to the beginning of our text. And he says, but one thing, that is faith. That's needed. Because when the Lord gives us that living faith, the precious gift of God in the soul, it directs our eyes away from the things of time and sense and directs them onto the object of faith, which is Christ.

[26:23] But we read of Moses, by faith, when he came to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose rather.

[26:35] Now that choosing friend was by living faith. He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

[26:51] Rather. David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. I know sometimes we see these on plates and on the stickers on cars and it really goes through me.

[27:07] I would rather be here or I'd rather be there for some kind of a foolishness. I'd rather be bold. I don't know what it all is. But I often think of that which David said. I'd rather be a doorkeeper.

[27:19] In other words, lay there as a humbly suppliant there at the door of mercy than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Oh, blessedness of faith. The blessedness of faith which was found in Moses.

[27:33] He laid everything in the balance. He looked upon to the people of God with all their afflictions, with all their sorrows, with all their poverty conditions. He looked upon the world with all of its gaiety and with all of its pleasures.

[27:48] And there he was surrounded with them. Every opportunity to follow the course of the world was given to him. And without a doubt persuaded to follow it. He was brought up in all the wisdom of Egypt, was mighty in word and in deed.

[28:04] But he looked upon to the poor, stammering tongue of a child of God, who knew what it was to smite upon their breast, and know what it was to be under the bondage of sin and of Satan, and longed for their deliverance.

[28:19] For he, by the eye of living faith, saw him who was invisible, but now made known by the eye of faith. He's seen something of the want, the beauty, and the glories of Christ.

[28:35] So we see in Mary have chosen, all by grace, by living faith, to make a good choice. naturally, friends, we make some poor choices in this world.

[28:49] We all have. We might have made some poor investments. We might have made a poor investment in a car. I'm coming down to simple things. We might have made a poor choice in buying a clothing or a pair of shoes and buying a house.

[29:03] Those are only things of time and sense. Some have made a poor choice in their partners, a poor choice in their employment, a poor choice where they were going to school.

[29:14] It proved to be their downfall. Oh, what a mercy to say, Lord, may I make a good choice in the material things of life, that I might be found, and I will, and oh, friends, there's nothing so sweet when we have made a choice in the material things of this life and felt the direction of God in the banner.

[29:33] And what a rest of faith, even in the midst of trials and troubles, to say, well, I know here that I'm in the right place. Lord, may I be tried and tempted, I know that the Lord has bid me to do so.

[29:45] And it would have been far worse if I had not made this wise choice by God's grace. Oh, what a wise choice Solomon made. When the Lord appeared on him and Solomon says, ask, ask what thou wilt and I will give it.

[30:01] What a broad invitation. And yet there Solomon was narrowed up. He thought of the great accountability that was there as he is the king of Israel.

[30:13] He looked upon his infancy as a young boy and he said, Lord, I'm but a young boy and I'm ignorant and I know not. And he asked the Lord that he might be given a wise heart because he was to govern the children of Israel, God's people.

[30:32] And the Lord was pleased with his choice. Ah, when we think of that blessed person, Ruth, she made a good choice. Oh, she says, entreat me not to leave thee nor forsake for following after thee, for thy God shall be my God.

[30:50] Thy people shall be my people. Can you see the beauty of it? A good choice. A wise choice. A choice. Which was there indicted by the teachings of God the Holy Spirit.

[31:06] Ah, friend, what a mercy thief when it comes to any matters in your life. You say, Lord, guide me. I'm nothing but a fool. And I'm going to take the wrong pathway.

[31:17] But Lord, guide my feet. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity. Take away from the temptations of this world because I'm so weak. May not even the temptation be there.

[31:31] I told you some of those things in which I was first in the army. I felt I was so weak. And I was so afraid I could come under the temptations round about. I asked the Lord to let not the temptations come before me because otherwise I would fall.

[31:46] And I trust the Lord heard it. Ah, he hears those prayers of a true sincere soul. In spite of all our false friend. But we find that Mary hath chosen that good part.

[32:01] that good part is that she might sit at the feet of Jesus and hear his word. Oh, I think of David once again in the Psalms.

[32:14] And he says unto the Lord, remember in his prayer, I think it's Psalm 105, 106, where he says, Remember me, O Lord, with a favor that thou bearest unto thy people.

[32:27] Oh, visit me with thy salvation. And then I think it goes on something like this, that I may see the good of thy chosen. When Moses delighted to see the glory of God, the Lord says, I will cause all my goodness to pass before thee.

[32:44] What is that good part? Well, friends, as far as I can see, there's that one thing which is needful, which is Christ. It is making that blessed choice.

[32:54] that of which faith reveals to us. Knowing that that is the only righteousness, that is the only blood. Oh, it was a good part when those children of Israel were behind the door with the blood upon the lentils.

[33:11] But friends, where there was no blood, and where there was those out into the street, they met the death angel. It was a good part then to be found under the precious blood of that lamb, wasn't it?

[33:26] It was a good part to be brought out there into the wilderness. It was a good part also to know what it is by God's grace to desire those things which are heavenly.

[33:38] She chose the good part, eternal things. Then finally, we come to our last clause, which shall not be taken away from her.

[33:50] What the Lord gives to his own people, friends, is of an eternal nature. Oh, when I think upon the eighth chapter in the book of Romans, and it seems like I always want to go there, don't we?

[34:03] But friends, it's a good place to go, isn't it? For we read, it shall not be taken away from her. Oh, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

[34:15] Now let us see what, how do we know that these things are not taken away from us? How do we bring brought into it? It is the Lord by bringing trials and temptations into our pathway so that we might see and to realize that what the Lord gives is of an eternal nature.

[34:34] In fact, it is by the way of trial and by the way of temptation, friends, more and more were brought to realize that what God gives is of an eternal nature.

[34:46] He will never despise the work of his hands. But oh, when we think of that, Abraham, he seen that one thing is needful. Abraham, by grace, chose the good part.

[35:00] And then more and more and through the trial of faith, he was brought to see how that all blessings and every favor and all of which the Lord gives is upon the ground of redeeming grace.

[35:11] It is of an eternal nature. It is something which will never depart. Oh, truly, we may say that in the case of Jacob, didn't he? You remember how he was tempted and tried and how his mind went back to the precious promises of which the Lord had given them in his early pilgrimage and how that he pled to them before the Lord and how that the Lord honored it.

[35:34] God, remember, friends, he honors his word above all of his names. That will never be taken away. I realize sometimes in our departings the world can so cover that our unbelief and our wretchedness, it can become so far off that we begin to wonder, was it the Lord's work or not?

[35:52] But the Lord will always test and try it. He'll bring you into a place again where you'll be stopped. And here you'll be turning back up unto the Lord again. Maybe some trials, some temptations, and maybe sometimes by a sharp rebuke from him from heaven.

[36:08] And you'll find out that that which you had once sought, those things which were so needful in the beginnings of your soul's experience, was not taken away. The Lord will further that of which he hath put his hand to.

[36:22] It is that of which the soul will cling to. It is that of which will be supportive in the hour of trial. I think our second hymn certainly brought out many of those precious truths, wasn't it? For he says, Needful art thou to make me live.

[36:37] Needful to guide me lest I stray. Needful is thy correcting rod. Needful is thy precious blood. Needful is thy care.

[36:48] Needful is thy spirit of grace and supplication. the giving of prayer. Ah, friend, he is needful in all of our life, isn't he? And certainly, friends, when we come to the article of death, and the time is when we got to lay our head on our pillow, and the sentence of death comes into our own heart and to our own conscience, will our riches, if we have any, will all of our loved ones round about us be of any great comfort?

[37:16] Oh, I realize to this day and age we see such very, very few sweet and solemn and blessed deathbeds. Much of them are as we're taken up with everything else.

[37:28] But yet what a mercy to come to our end and says that one thing is needful, and I have found him. Oh, what a mercy that the Lord by his infinite love hath made me to choose that of which is of a heavenly nature, and that I might die in his love.

[37:45] And not even as it were to be completely unmindful of the pains, the sorrows, and even of our loved ones that gather round our bed, but to know there is one thing which we desire, that is to be with him forever, to see his face without a veil between.

[38:04] Well, should we just quickly review some of that of which we have tried to cover this morning hour? First of all, friends, we notice that wherever Christ went, there was a divine purpose.

[38:17] He never went haphazardly anywhere. He must needs go through Samaria, and he went through Jericho, and he went here, and he went there, and there was a purpose.

[38:30] I realize some of them was only to testify against some of their own sin. But yet in the midst of it all, there was a little ramming of which were called by grace. The blessed things which were revealed to these individuals, who seemed to them as the things of God.

[38:47] They were hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes. They were those who had blessed eyes who seen, and blessed ears who heard. And so we realize here, in this case, he went to this certain house.

[39:00] Martha was a good woman. She was a gracious soul. But she had departed from her first love, we would say. I know when we look in the book of John, we see her in a marvelous place.

[39:13] Never do I want to be little Martha. I might wish we had her grace at all times, but it certainly is a description even of a child of God. I know it certainly is a description of the world.

[39:24] When the Master came into her own house, oh, just think, the Son of Glory, the eternal Son of God in his blessed and glorious humanity, came into her house.

[39:35] She was cumbered with much serving. But Mary sat at his feet. She sought to rebuke the Master.

[39:47] She sought in a way to rebuke her own sister. But the love of Christ came with a rebuke upon her, a rebuke with a remedy, and said, Martha, Martha, thou art cumbered and careful when troubled with many things.

[40:01] But there is one thing which is needful. What was the final result of all of this? I don't know. I would hope that Martha finally went into her kitchen with tears and laid everything aside and said, can I sit also at thy feet?

[40:17] May I receive the pardon and the forgiveness of my sin? Oh, friend, what a mercy when we can receive the rebukes of God's word and the rebukes of the Savior by living faith.

[40:28] But oh, this blessed character. But one thing is needful, and that is Christ in you the hope of glory, his righteousness, his blood, and all that he did on the behalf of sinners.

[40:41] And then to know what it is, I've chosen that by living faith, that good part, have laid everything in the balance and said, what is all this without my Savior? This is what I stand in, Ada.

[40:53] For these things are of an eternal nature. They are those things which make my soul rich and add no sorrow to it. Oh, may the Lord bring us each in this one place where we might make a wise choice, that we might say, give me Christ or else I die.

[41:12] If such a desire, friend, you shall find him. You shall receive him. You shall see him. And you shall be with him someday in glory. May the Lord bless these fury marks.

[41:24]  For it is dear name, Saint. Amen.