Mary, the mother of Jesus, is presented as a model of a godly woman chosen by God despite her ordinary background in Nazareth. The sermon highlights her humility and willingness to be God's handmaiden, as described in Luke's Gospel, emphasizing that God chooses the weak and despised to confound the wise. Like Mary, believers are called to be vessels for Christ to dwell within, allowing His light to shine through them, even amidst trials and societal disapproval. The message concludes by urging listeners to follow Mary's example of faith and obedience, trusting God's plan and magnifying Him in their lives.
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I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to First Corinthians for a moment. First Corinthians chapter one, starting with verse twenty six. Last night I told you it was getting hard to button my jacket. This jacket used to be too big for me. It fits well now. Thank you. But after making those comments last night, we were invited out as we are most evenings. And I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I thought it was the marriage supper of the lamb. Such dainties.
But you can only keep eating those dainties so long. My dear wife said to me, she said, I don't think we could make it through a whole conference season. She said, we would expand and burst. First Corinthians chapter one, verse twenty six, foresee your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.
and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Precious truth, isn't it?
We see it all around us. We've been considering biblical heroes. We started off on Sunday night with the greatest hero of all, the Lord Jesus. He's the master. He's the pattern. He's the great example. He's the one who came and said, if you have seen me, you've seen the Father. You want to see God look at me. Then we looked back into the Old Testament. We looked at some of my favorites, Daniel and his band. We sang, do you remember the other night, Dare to be a Daniel?
Dare to stand alone. dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Last night we looked at Nehemiah. What a man. The king's cupbearer. Just a cupbearer. Something that would be despised by the world. Yet he's a man who knew God. He's a man who knew the Word of God. He knew how to storm The throne of the God of heaven, and he did, and the God of heaven did mighty things because he did.
Well, it's about time we started to recognize that there are some ladies in the Scripture. Don't you think? You know, some of the brethren that I know think that women were simply an afterthought by God. Kind of like I observed in Myrtle Beach just two Sundays ago as I was up on the fifth floor of the Hilton. Somebody else paid for the room on the ocean front. And I watched a man walk across the parking lot and about twenty paces behind him walked his wife.
and he could have cared less if she were alongside him or in front of him, he was on his merry way and she could come whether she liked it or not. My. I looked at it and I said, you poor man, you poor lady. And I think sometimes in our attempt to be biblical, we forget that God created them male and female. And God loves the sisters as well as he loves the brethren, and many of the sisters he loves more than the brethren. I'm convinced of that. It's not just a trite saying that behind every good man there's a good woman.
But usually it's true that where there's a good man there's been a lot of good women who have been on their knees praying for those good men. I think of some of the giants among the women in the Scripture. And there are many of them. Miriam. Think of Ruth and Naomi. Think of that dear sister who taught Barnabas, who taught Apollos. Do you remember the dear brother and sister who sat Apollos down and began to teach him more thoroughly the Word of God? Think of some of the godly women in my life.
who prayed for me and who in the right time and the right moment spoke words of truth to me. When Judy and I were first married and had just moved back home to the mountains of Virginia, there was an older couple in Roanoke, Virginia, Ben and Aurelia Tanner. Oh, what a dear couple. And just when we were having the most difficult time in our lives, up to that point. And we were just about ready to strangle each other. We would hear this little automobile coming down our driveway, and it got to the point where we would start to laugh.
Because just as we would be at each other's throat, we would hear the crunching of gravel in our half-mile driveway, and we knew who was coming. Even though they lived an hour away, it would be the tenor. and they would sit down and my they invested their lives in us I'm so thankful for godly sisters and I want to deal tonight with a godly woman from the scriptures and you know who she is but before I tell you I want you to go back to Isaiah for a moment just for one verse Isaiah chapter seven and verse fourteen now You probably know who I'm talking about.
Isaiah seven and verse fourteen, Isaiah prophesies, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Now you know who we're going to talk about tonight. the mother of the Lord Jesus. As I was walking up the, I don't know if it's a pathway or a roadway, you know, that comes from the lodge over here. I've seen cars go up it, and I've seen little golf carts go up it, and I've seen people go up to it, and I guess it's a multi-purpose way.
Of course, I'm still trying to figure out why they call I won't go into that. That's another situation. But as I was walking up that little way, I was thinking of Mary and I was thinking of how the Roman Catholics have made Mary more than Mary feels comfortable with. They've taken and deified her rather than simply honored her. And I was thinking, It's probably because of that that we don't talk much about Mary. Just because the charismatics get real excited and maybe overly so in some of their actions, sometimes we go to the other extreme and we're awfully dull at times.
We're a people of extremes, aren't we? Let's take a nice, clear, biblical look at Mary tonight. What do we know about her? What do we know about Mary? Turn with me to Luke's gospel. I think Luke gives us the clearest picture of Mary that's in all the Bible. Matthew gives an account, but I think Luke gives a little fuller account. And so tonight we'll just look at Luke's account of of at least the most significant event in the life of Mary. Starting with verse twenty-six of chapter one.
I still hear the leaves turning. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Now let's stop there for a moment. you remember the scripture we used to open tonight from first corinthians consider your calling brethren not many mighty not many wise god has chosen the weak things and the things that are despised nazareth nazareth won the place you will look for a hero do you remember after jesus was born and began his ministry and they found out he was from Nazareth.
The question was, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? But here's Gabriel, not simply one of those little angels. Gabriel is a pretty important angel, wouldn't you say? And he's sent by God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
It's a pretty name. I've always liked the name Mary. Wonderful name. Still don't know a whole lot about her, do we? Well, she's a virgin. She's a young woman. She's unmarried. She's not been married, she's never been with a man, and she lives in Nazareth, and she's engaged to a man named Joseph, and she's of the house of David. Well, Gabriel comes to her, verse twenty-eight, and says to her, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women. I don't know about you. I don't know that I've ever met an angel other than my wife, but she's not that kind of an angel. I think I've seen an angel. And now you might think I'm off theologically, but I think I've seen an angel. Our oldest son was in a terrible automobile accident. No way he could have lived if God had not specially intervened. But there was a woman dressed in white who during the two hours it took to try to get him out of the wreckage of the automobile was on her knees off to the side praying.
All kinds of people were there outside that wreck because it was right outside the school that I was principal of. And it was a community where everybody knew everybody, but nobody to this day knows who that woman was. But for two hours, she prayed for my son. I think she might have been an angel. I might be wrong. But I think if I knew that I was speaking to an angel, and an angel were to come to me, and if I were a woman, now it's hard for you to picture me as a woman, I hope, and an angel were to come to me and say, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.
I think I would have been just like Mary. You see, because the text says when she saw him, She was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. That's what it says in the text. What is this man talking about? Why has he come to me? So we see, we learn something else about Mary, don't we? She's very ordinary. She's a human being. who when she hears such a salutation from Gabriel, she's troubled in her mind in trying to figure out what in the world he's talking about. If you come later on after she finds out what he's talking about, she describes herself in verse forty-eight as God's handmaiden.
She admits to being a servant of God, a handmaiden. And she acknowledges that she fears God. She says in verse fifty, his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. And so we begin to get a little bit more adding to the picture of who Mary is. She's not just a virgin living in Nazareth engaged to a man named Joseph. who happens to be very ordinary, but she's a woman who fears God and is very content to be God's handmaiden, God's servant.
You know, we wouldn't have to go any further than that to say this woman qualifies to be a heroine, a biblical heroine. I love the book of Proverbs Years ago, my dear friend Clayton Davis down in the Maggie Valley, up in the Maggie Valley, forget where I'm at, up in the Maggie Valley, got me into reading a proverb every day, pointed out you can read one chapter every day and read through the entire book of Proverbs every month and then read through the book of Proverbs that way twelve times in a year.
And the book of Proverbs is a wonderful book of wisdom. In fact, we're going to use the book of Proverbs at Aletheia Springs Christian Education Center this summer, and we're going to be teaching young people what it means to be a wise man, what it means to be foolish in God's sight, what is discretion, and how do you respond to this, and how do you deal with it, how do you discipline, and what is discipline, and all that stuff is covered in the book of Proverbs. But I don't think there's any more wonderful passage in all the book of Proverbs than the description of the virtuous woman, the woman who fears God, the woman who walks with God, the woman who lives her ordinary life in a way that honors God, a woman whose husband doesn't have to worry that she's going to go out and cheat on him, and so on.
That's the kind of young woman Mary appears to be. So why does God come to this ordinary woman? Why does he send Gabriel, I should say, to this ordinary woman and make this tremendous statement, Hail thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. After the angel discerns that Mary's troubled and a little bit afraid, understandably afraid.
He says, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. What is favor with God? It's a good question, isn't it? Oh, you can read the next verse and you can see specifically what the angel was talking about specifically with Mary. But what does it mean to have favor with God? I want to suggest that favor with God is the privilege of being given the opportunity to be a vessel in whom deity will dwell and by whom deity will be presented to the world. That's what God's grace is in my life.
You see, when God saved me, Jesus Christ came to dwell in me. In the book of Colossians, it says this. The hope of glory is the fact that Christ dwelleth in you. That's to God. That's the most amazing thing on earth today, is that there is humanity who encapsulates and is a vessel for deity to dwell. and through whom deity can work. Deity can reach out. God can reach out to fallen man through the instrumentality of men who have received Jesus Christ into their life.
So that when they speak, they speak as of the oracles of God. As they act, their actions are God working through them. That's why it says, for by grace are you saved. Grace is unmerited favor. favor. It's to be honored by God. I think of that wonderful hymn that has these words, Why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room, while thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly forced us in, else we had still refused.
and perished in our sin. My, I hear those words, and you know what I want to do? I want to get on my knees and worship. Why was I made to hear thy voice? Why was I favored by God to be chosen in eternity path to be a recipient of deity coming to dwell within my humanity, to be adopted into the family of God. And what I want to communicate this evening to you is that what this angel Gabriel is saying to Mary is going to happen to her, can happen to you and indeed has happened to you who have already received Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior.
Tremendous thought, isn't it? Listen, Mary. Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. the power of the highest shall overshadow thee that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God this ordinary girl this young lady of the house of David living in Nazareth engaged to Joseph this young lady who feared God and was grateful to be his handmaiden, has been chosen of God to have Christ born within her.
And she was going to have the glorious privilege of bringing him forth into a dark world, a world darkened with sin. Him who is the light of the world. And when Christ is born in us, not as a baby, comes in by His Spirit. He comes in as the light of the world, making us the light of the world. That's the good news. That's throughout our New Testament. It's the great hope of glory that God would have a people on earth in whom deity dwells.
I love that. Turn with me, if you will, to Second Corinthians. Chapter four. This is a passage for years and years I chewed on and chewed on and chewed on. And it seemed, you know, for a while, every time I would go somewhere to preach, I would end up in this particular passage. And there's so much to just chew on. in this part of second Corinthians at the end of chapter three he says we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord therefore seeing we have this ministry what ministry to show forth Christ to the world we don't preach ourselves we preach Christ And we live Christ.
And we allow Christ to shine out from us. Look down with me at verse six of chapter four. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He talks in verse three of the gospel being hid. And if it's hid, it's hid to those who are lost. He talks about the God of this world, whom we've been talking about in the morning sessions from Ephesians chapter two, who works in the sons of disobedience. The God of this world blinds the minds of those who believe not.
He doesn't want the light of the glorious Christ to shine into this dark world. but he shined in our hearts. You and I, like Mary of old, are highly favored. We're blessed above all people on earth. We have received Jesus into our lives, the light of the world. And he's in us who are earthen vessels, just as Mary was. Just an ordinary girl.
Nothing spectacular, despised by the world, a Nazarethite. I have a hard time saying that. It's like trying to say what people from Michigan are. I know he said Michiganders, is that what they say? I think they're Michiginians. But you can pick whatever you want to call them. Look at verse seven. We have this treasure in earth and vessels. Why? That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. That's in keeping with our opening scripture. No flesh will glory in His presence.
The purpose isn't to make us out to be something. To validate our humanity. It's to inhabit. To be vessels where deity dwells. And when you come down to verses eight, nine, and ten, and eleven, you begin to understand something about trials that come. You see, God often allows the vessel to be broken. Why? So the light can shine more brightly out from the individual.
You see, if the vessel were all intact, the light would be hid. The purpose of the light dwelling within is to be seen. And just as Jesus said, you see me, you see the Father, you and I in whom Jesus Christ dwell ought to be able to reflect Christ so clearly to those around us that we could in effect say, you see me, you've seen Christ. Isn't it interesting that early in the church's history, when Christ began indwelling His people by the Spirit and was so free to act through them that people began to call Christians Christians because they reminded them of Christ.
They recognized Christ in them. And I think it's also important I hear some of you talking about dear departed saints who influenced your life. I heard someone just the other day talking about T. Ernest Wilson and how Christ-like he was. It's because he was able, Christ was able to shine forth through his life. And so when I look at Mary, my, I think, wow, isn't this wonderful? to be a common, ordinary girl in a despised town, being a vessel in whom deity can dwell.
And it leads me to understand how blessed and favored I am, because Christ lives within me. It's not always easy. to be a vessel in whom Christ dwells. In fact, when you start living a godly life, Peter says, other folks will think it's strange that you don't do the things that you used to do. They'll think it kind of unusual. You're kind of different and they'll begin to despise you just as they despised him.
I was pondering that thought, and I was thinking of a passage in First Peter, chapter four, and I'd like to share that with you. I know you all had, you exhausted First Peter last week, but maybe there's a thought that did not get expressed. In chapter four, verse four, it says, Let's read three and four. The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banqueting, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. Mary anticipated that, or at least I think if I were Mary, I would have anticipated...
Wait a minute. What's going to happen to me, Gabriel? I've never known a man. How can I ring forth a son, even if he is Emmanuel? The Holy Spirit's going to come upon you, Mary. That which is born of you is going to be born in you as a result of the Holy Spirit coming upon you. Understand what this would mean for Mary. How is she going to explain this to everyone out there? It's going to be embarrassing, isn't it? I think if I were Mary, I might have said, wait a minute, can you use Joseph instead of the Holy Spirit?
No. If we use Joseph, Mary, then the child that would be born as a product of the union of you and Joseph would be born as everyone else in sin and with a sin nature. No, this child has to come through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. But what is so striking at what makes me love this young woman is that she doesn't question what's going to happen. She doesn't say, oh, are you going to provide some way out for me?
She simply says, behold, verse thirty-eight, Luke chapter one, behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. What a gal. What a gal. Now you begin to see why she was chosen. She had no aspirations to be anything other than a handmade of the Lord. And she knew what she was going to face. Simeon later tells her, he says that a sword will pierce your heart later.
Mary, that's part of the package. You know what Jesus says to you and me in the world? you will have tribulation but be of good cheer I've overcome the world Jesus never told us it was going to be easy being vessels in whom he will dwell and through whom he will live but hearing it all understanding it all Mary in verse forty six I don't know why it's called the Magnificent That's what it says in the heading. I can't even pronounce it, so I don't know what it means. But it's a wonderful song, isn't it?
Probably has something to do with the song. My wife will tell me afterwards, I know. Mary says, My soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. I used to read that, and I think I read it wrong. When Mary contemplated that, she wasn't saying, well, I'm going to really make my mark in history. That's what a careless reading of that would lead you to believe. She's talking to God, and she's Saying, O God, of all the women in all the ages, in times past to times future, no one could be more blessed than I.
And she lifts up and worships God. She says, He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name. I don't care if they think I was a bad girl and got pregnant. I don't care what anyone thinks. I know what is happening to me. God is going to dwell in me. I'm the chosen one who Isaiah had talked about in Isaiah chapter seven.
I'm going to be the vessel to whom Christ is going to be presented to the world, and you and I should have the same excitement. Christ dwelleth in me, and He's in me to shine forth to a dark world. And even if the vessel gets broke, praise God, the light shines brighter. His mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with his arm. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath hope in his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever. It's as if Mary is saying, just think of this. The same God who worked in Abraham's day, who worked in Israel's day, who worked in Jacob's day, talked with them, has come to me with a great purpose. What a privilege I have. You go from this wonderful scene And there's not much more that's said about Mary.
There's a few scenes. When Jesus was twelve years of age, you remember the scene, and Mary kind of forgot who he was and who she was, and she says, you know, why have you done this to your father and I, and Jesus looks at her, and he didn't say it arrogantly. He says, Mother, don't you know? I must be about my father's business. Mary very wisely gets quiet. I love the scene at Cana of Galilee. You know the marriage supper there? And all of a sudden, everybody recognizes there's a problem.
And Mary understands who her son is. And she says these tremendous words. Whatever he says to you, do it. Isn't that great? I know a man who was on an airplane. I don't know the man. I heard a tape of a man who was on an airplane going down to South America. He was going to try and witness to Roman Catholics. And he was sitting next to the man who was going to give the keynote address. Didn't realize it. And the man turns to him and says, if you were going to speak to about three hundred thousand Roman Catholics tomorrow, what would you say? He said, I'd give them the message of the Virgin Mary. He looks at him and says, what's that? Whatever this man says unto you, do it.
He got to where he was going, turned on, couldn't get in, turned on the TV, and there's this man who was on the plane next to him, standing up and saying, my message to you is the message of the Virgin Mary. And three hundred thousand Roman Catholics started cheering. And he says, her message is, whatever this man says unto you, do it. And that's the message, isn't it, that you and I have to proclaim. And then there's Mary. Our time is up. I just looked at the clock. No, that clock's way off. This one says, I have two more minutes. Thank you, whoever turned the clock back. No, this one's right, that one's wrong.
Mary at the cross. She understood what Simeon talked about. A sword would pierce your soul, and she looked at it. It wasn't an easy path. She was called to walk all her life. There were those who accused her of having been a bad woman, and Jesus was a child born out of wedlock to them, and she had to live with the stigma of that. But she knew. And they can ridicule us, they can mock us. But we can follow the example of our heroine tonight.
We know, don't we? We know. We know him whom to know is life itself. We know that he's the answer to the problems of the world. He's the one who floods our souls with joy. He's the one that ere long, every eye will see him. And ere long we'll be with him, with him for all eternity. But now we're here. He dwells in our hearts. And he dwells in those hearts to shine out into a dark world.
May it be so for his honor and for his glory. Amen. Father, we thank you and praise you for this wonderful truth. that Christ dwelleth in us. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. Father, take your word now. Apply it to our hearts. Encourage us. Motivate us. Stimulate us.