Purity and Humility

Let’s look at Luke 1:26. We find these words: “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.” What do you think would be over there? The Lord knew who was there, didn’t He? And He sent His angel, Gabriel, on a mission.

We may think that our lives are not very important and pretty obscure, and maybe you don’t feel that a lot of people are watching you. There might be more than you think. But I want to assure you that God knows everyone of us. He sees you everyday and He sees me, too. We’re over here today, in the little town of Marion, and it’s doubtful that Marion ever has or ever will make national news, to say nothing of international news. But God knows about it. He knows every life that’s being lived out in this whole valley. His eyes, it says, “run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”* (2 Chronicles 16:9) Never is there a single person that resolves in their soul that they want to do right whom God doesn’t notice. If you set your heart to live like that, and you want to live a worthwhile life and do it right, God sees you. It doesn’t escape His notice. There was such a person in Nazareth.

The Bible doesn’t say a whole lot about how she looked on the outside, but it says considerable about how she looked on the inside. Now I reckon that if you met Mary, down in this little place of Nazareth, over there in Galilee—a kind of backward area, it was so regarded—I’m sure you would have found her dress, her hair, her mannerisms, her way of speech, were all consistent with the condition of her heart. Don’t you think so? God saw all that. And He sent His angel, Gabriel:

“Gabriel, it’s time.”

“Yes, Lord.”

And this humble, unassuming woman got a visit. It was quite a shock! I expect it would be to anybody. Let’s read a little more in the Bible: “Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin.”* (Luke 1:26-27)

Mary was pure. There was something precious and upright about her. And she had the hopes and dreams that are typical of young women. She had found a young man, and he had found her, and they had plans for the future. The Bible says here that she was “espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.”* (Luke 1:27) Here were two young people, fixing to set out on the long pathway that so many have followed. I wonder how long she had been looking forward to this time and the starting of her adult life. This was the time at which Gabriel came. Was Mary wanting something like this that Gabriel came to bring? Do you think she prayed that the Lord would make her special and that she would “stick out” above other folks? I don’t get any idea like that out of this. She just seemed to be a common girl, except for one thing: she was clean, she was pure, she was a virgin. Her affections had been kept like they ought to.

“And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”* (Luke 1:28)

Do you think God could say this to many women? Can you imagine someone that’s filled up with pride in their heart, who thinks they’re kind of special, maybe been petted along by their parents, and an angel coming along and saying this? They’d kind of straighten up and say, “I knew it; I knew it all the time!” That just wouldn’t work, would it? God’s not going to send His angels to say things like that to people like that.

You may say, “How do you know that, Brother Mark?” Well, the Bible says that “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”* (1 Peter 5:5) Do you see? If Mary had had that kind of pride in her heart, God would have been resisting her, not sending an angel to tell her those things. That’s pretty plain, isn’t it? I believe that God would like to do a lot of things with a lot of people in their lives, if they would just humble themselves and get into a position where He could speak to them. I wish I could say and think in my mind that there was a long list of potential candidates for this job, but I get the feeling that it was kind of short. Why? Well, lots of people don’t live like this. They don’t. But this sister did. She was living in such a way, that God could talk to her, that He could call her to do something for Him that was going to cost a whole lot. And it did.