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.

Responsibility

In verse twenty-nine, it reads: “And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.”* (Luke 1:29)

Now I understand something else. This was a person, that, in her heart and mind, had the habit of reflecting and meditating. She was the kind of person that didn’t think just on the surface. Mary was the kind of person that was used to talking with the Lord and dealing with Him and inquiring in the things that were spiritual. I have a feeling that Mary had been delving into many of life’s mysteries and profound things that pertain to marriage and good solid companionship and relationships. She wasn’t a shallow girl, was she? She wanted to know and understand, and she hadn’t just begun to want to know. She prayed, and asked the Lord to open her understanding. And now something so unusual, so out of the ordinary, had happened. An angelic being had visited her. She began to cast about in her mind, “What does this mean? What’s involved? What does this come to?”

I’m kind of leery of emotional experiences that get people all fired up and move them off into things. After a while the emotions die down and they began to think, “I didn’t realize all that was involved.” I remember one young sister who got saved, and she hadn’t started out well in life.

Her mother had started out by marrying someone who wasn’t saved. That was not a smart thing to do. Her mother paid for that. One of the ways she paid for it was her oldest daughter. When the daughter grew up, she was her daddy’s darling. She exhibited a skill at playing the piano, which was greatly encouraged. She was praised a great deal for it; frankly, she was kind of spoiled.

This girl came along and got up to years, and she decided to get married. She married a boy whose father was a drunkard all his life, though his mother had been a saint. And so these young people started out in life together.

There are a lot of battles that take place where nobody sees you. There’s a lot of adjustments to take place when there’s no audience to watch you. One day this girl got up in the congregation, and she was in dead earnest—something had stirred her in her heart. She’d been married for some years, and she said, “Somebody ought to tell them; somebody ought to tell young girls that if they spill something on the floor, it stays there until they take care of it!” She was so earnest about it, she didn’t even notice the reaction to what she had just said. She didn’t realize something; it was dawning on her what she had gotten into and what it all meant. She was thinking about that. I thought, “They had been telling them all along; this one just didn’t listen.” It was true, too. She had begun to realize some things late, hadn’t she? It didn’t have a happy ending, I am sorry to say. Her marriage ended up falling apart.

This sister that we’re reading about in the Bible today—I get the feeling that this was a girl that was used to giving serious, sober, reflections to things. Counting the cost. Consecrating. When do you think you’re going to learn to consecrate? When you turn 21? When you get married? When your first child comes? Oh, that’s way, way late!

This girl had been getting ready for this—I don’t know how long. I suspect a long while. And her immediate reaction of her thinking proves, doesn’t it? Look at it again: “When she saw him, she was troubled at his saying.” There was something to this. “Lord, what does it mean; what does it involve?” “What is being asked of me; what should I do?” Life goes beyond our dreams, beyond our air castles, beyond the best that we can project.

“She was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.”* (Luke 1:29)

Somebody says, “I don’t want to be troubled about anything; I just want to have fun. I just want to enjoy myself—you’re only young once. I want to get through down here without all these heavy problems—that’s for the old folks.”

“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”* (Lamentations 3:27) It’s good to measure up to responsibilities; to come to terms with the everyday tasks that need to be done. To began to understand the nature of how Mama and Daddy’s marriage work. “Why are they able to respect each other?” “How are they able to adjust to each other?” “Lord, help me now in the place I am in, to adjust to the whole family; to get along.” In other words, there are some things we should be troubled about. There are some things that you and I ought to be considering: “This is one of the hard parts of this; this is one of the knotty things; this is one of the things we need to be sure we get just right.”

Accepting the Trial

“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”* (Luke 1:29-33)

Now, this is like a bomb going off. Do you see? Can you consider what it meant for this young woman to nod her head to this? She did. And she suffered for it the rest of her life! A reproach hung over her that was undeserved—the rest of her life. It nearly wrecked her relationship with her future husband. It was an awful trial for this young woman to have to face this.

When God chooses His trials to give to each of us, He knows what He’s doing. I used to think that: Oh, here’s a trial, can I make it? Will I fail? That’s before I realized how carefully God measures them out. Every trial He measures to you and me—we can’t handle it by ourselves. If we go at it that way, we’ll fail all right; we’ll come short in some way. He measures them out with the provision that you and I get ahold of His grace through that trial. But He weighs it out so each trial is one that the Lord knows we can only go through with His grace.

In other words, a trial is one way of God’s votes of confidence in you and me. The Lord knew that Mary, by His grace and help, could go through this. A lot of people couldn’t. He designed this for her. He sent His angel with this trial to her. And it was a sore trial. Do you remember the proverbist who said that “a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches”* (Proverbs 22:1)? For this to happen to Mary in this way, outside of human experience, was going to completely take away her good name. And it did. How can you explain such a thing? Who would believe you? The man that she was planning to marry; he loved her and she loved him; he thought that the obvious had happened, too. In his mind he was deeply disappointed in her. He was a kind man, the Bible says, “not willing to make her a public example,” (which he could of done), so he was minded “to put her away privily,”* (Matthew 1:19) that is, secretly. And he would’ve done it, too, except for one thing. The One who gave Mary this trial stepped into the picture. He appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him the truth. Joseph picked up his side of this trial.

All in all, by human reasoning, it doesn’t look like an auspicious way for the Son of God to come into the world, does it? With such a reproach hanging over it; a reproach that was thrown at Him all His life. In the midst of one of the spiritual discussions in which He was telling others the truth and they were resisting it, they threw back this taunt in His face, “We be not one born of fornication.”* (John 8:41) This was a trial. This ranks up there in the major ones.

Let’s look at how this sister reacted to this: “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”* (Luke 1:34) I am pure; I am a virgin.

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”* (Luke 1:35) Here we see the wonderful love and mercy of the Lord: “And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.”* (Luke 1:36) Isn’t it wonderful how the Lord knows exactly how much we can bear and just what we need to help us and support us at every step. This may have proved too much for Mary’s strength, her trust in God, her long suffering—and the Lord had put with it another miraculous thing to stand by it. And that was that her cousin Elisabeth had conceived and was six months with child. At that time, pretty soon, what do we find? Mary visiting Elisabeth and Elisabeth testifying to this.

See, amid all, what we don’t have mentioned in the Bible: the rejection, the shame, the ridicule, the envy of others that was finally brought about: “Mary’s always been such a good girl, but see now….” All of those things that go with human life. She went over here and found her cousin, and it was just like the Lord had told her. And her cousin received her and believed the story she had to tell, and, indeed, she said the babe in her womb leaped for joy when she first heard her voice. All of these were what sustained this sister and helped her in this trial.

But there was more: “For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”* (Luke 1:37-38)

Oh, there’s depths in this! She didn’t just say, “Lord, you sent this angel and I guess I don’t have anything to say about it, I am just stuck.” She didn’t just go on and doubt in her heart and say, “Well I guess we’ll see if this will come true.” No, she accepted what the Lord had given her. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”

Now a handmaid’s position in life is a very humble position. Handmaids are those people—they’re not the cleaning lady; they’re not the cook—they’re the folks that are around to do whatever the mistress says to do. The handmaid gets pretty intimately involved. It’s not that she does great, big tasks all the time; it’s the little things—I’m here; I’m ready for service; I’m at hand. The handmaid of the Lord. This speaks volumes about how this young woman walked with God. “Lord, I’m yours; I belong to you, my job is to just stay around you and do whatever you ask me to do at any given time.”

What a calling to be a handmaiden! Little things, little errands, relatively unimportant things that the mistress could easily do for herself if she desired to. “Lord, I’m your handmaid. You don’t have to have me.” But God has handmaids, and Mary was one of them.

“Mary, I am calling on you to do this.”

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”

Oh, it’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? Are you ready for service? Can God just tap you on the shoulder and tell you, “I want you to do this today”? Are you the Lord’s handmaid? Mary was.

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”* (Luke 1:38)

“Lord, I accept the trial. I accept the reproach of the trial. I accept the consequences of doing what You want me to do. I am Yours; I belong to You, Lord. Be it unto me according to Thy will.”

Let’s look a little farther, to the second chapter of Luke: “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. ”* (Luke 2:25-35)

It was so, wasn’t it? Do you see this same young woman, now getting older steadily? She was a mother many times over—Jesus had brothers and sisters. She had a many-pierced heart. Long before it ever came to His public ministry, the prophecy of Simeon came true. This was a trial that went on and on and on and on. It was her part to be blessed among woman and it was her part to be tried among woman. Great blessings—great trials. Do you want the blessing? The trials have to be there, too.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.

God has something that He wants you and me to come to in our hearts—to where we’re willing to say, “Lord, I accept the trials that You have for me. Behold the handmaid of the Lord! I want what You’ve got for me!”

In Love with the Lord

Let’s turn over to Revelation 3: “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.”* (Revelation 3:14-15)

When the Lord began to open up His will to Mary and show her what He had for her—what her life was going to be like—there was a hotness in her soul for the will of God.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord!

“Lord, though it costs me suffering and pain, I want what You have for me!” Oh, that’s a love, isn’t it? There’s heat in that love! There’s a warmth in it. Then there are those who could care less what God wants. There’s a coldness there.

And then we’ve got some other folks, don’t we? We have people whose love for God is not hot. They cringe at the cross. They draw back from the trials. They shrink, and yet, it’s not that they don’t love the Lord at all—they’re afraid. They can’t bring themselves to say, “Lord, I want to serve You even if it costs me a great deal.” They’re lukewarm. Not cold, not hot, but lukewarm. Staying enough true to God to keep from entirely dying in the soul, but not living with that “amen” in their heart and the “yes” to God that is so vital for Him to bless us and work through us like He wants to do.

The Lord knew that Mary would react to this thing the way that she did. When He sent Gabriel down there to talk to her, He knew the temperature of her love for Him in her heart. She wanted to serve the Lord; she wanted to please Him. She wanted her life to count for God. And when He opened up His will to her, she staggered for a moment; she didn’t know what to think; she was troubled; but when she began to realize that this was what God was calling her to do, there was in her a ready answer. She said from the very depths of her heart, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

Here is heat. Here is hotness. Here is what’s necessary for you and me to please God and be used of Him. Do you love the Lord? Do you love Him hotly today—or have you cooled off in your experience to where you’re lukewarm? Do you want God’s blessing or do you want to do what you want to do? How much are you stirred by the Lord’s love for you?

Many say, “Lord, I am willing to serve You as long as it’s comfortable.” “Lord, I am willing to do it just as long as I get to have lots of things to enjoy.”

What if God has other plans for you? How hot is your love for the Lord? Are you interested? Does it mean something to you, what God has for you? Do you hunger to know what the Lord has for you?

Behold the handmaid of the Lord. “I’ve placed myself at God’s disposal. I am not setting out to design or do anything in life on my own. I am setting out to do just what the Lord wants me to do.” God’s handmaid, God’s servant; that’s what I want.

This makes all the difference in the world. And when the Lord looks at us and weighs our affections for Him (and He knows who really loves Him and who doesn’t)—when He does that, it’s according to what He said to these folks here: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.”* (Revelation 3:15)

Do you get the message? God would that we’re hot, but if we won’t be hot, He’d rather have us cold, than to be in between. Many people don’t think this. They have the idea that the Lord ought to be thankful for what He gets; but, no, God is interested in us being either hot or cold. He wants us to go all the way or none at all. Lukewarmness brings a terrible reproach. God can’t count on you. God can count on the folks that are hot in their love for Him, whatever He tells them to do, they’ll do it. And, strangely enough, God can count on the people that are cold: He can count on them not to do it. But what is the Lord going to do with people that are lukewarm? He can’t count on them to be saints. He can’t count on them to be examples. He can’t count on them to even take some ridicule for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He can’t count on them to be devoted to Him because they’re of a mixed mind. They’re looking out for their own interest sometimes, and for God’s interests sometimes too. It’s in and out, all the time. He can never be sure that they’re with Him.

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”* (Revelation 3:15-16) Now this is a solemn scripture to think about, isn’t it? When I get down in my experience to where my love begins to cool off toward the Lord, and I get into this state where sometimes I love Him, to a degree, and other times I don’t. When I get to that state in my mind and my heart, then the Lord begins to become very displeased with me. He seeks to stir us.

We have a story of a barren tree with which the gardener was working, and the master came and began to look at it and said, “Why should we let this tree stand? Why cumbereth it the ground? It’s here inside the the vineyard, but it’s not bearing any fruit.” Then the gardener said, “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it.”* (Luke 13:8) Let’s see if we can stir the life in this tree, till somehow it begins to bear fruit. Let’s see if you will live for God, or if you will not. Now if you won’t, then after awhile the Lord will take care of this. He’ll get rid of you in your lukewarmness. How does He do that? He’ll allow something to come on you that will take you away. He’ll spue you out. You’ll be carried off by something. It’s dangerous to be lukewarm. It’s dangerous to be anything less than deeply in love with the Lord.

Mary was hot in her soul. She wanted what God wanted for her. I think it would be fair to say that Joseph was hot. When the Lord began to show him in his heart, what was involved in this matter, and he saw the truth of it, he, too, embraced the will of God. No lukewarmness in these folks, was there? There was something there that glorified God.

Is your life glorifying the Lord? Are you sending out a picture that shows Jesus to people? It’s quite possible to sit right in the same congregation with others that are hot in their experience, and to cool off on your own and grow lukewarm.

In Second Chronicles 25, and starting in verse 1, it says, “Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.”* (2 Chronicles 25:1-2) He went through the motions pretty well. “The Lord says we’re not supposed to have any idols around here, and we’ve been careful not to have any idols.” But the things that lead to idolatry and the certain loves and the lack of diligence and love for God and His ways—well, those remained around, but he was real careful not to have any idols. His heart was not perfect.

When you’ve been raised the way that you young people have been raised, it’s easy to become gospel-hardened—there’s devotions every morning, you’re encouraged in every way to live right and do right. To pick up the habit of acting like a holy person is not difficult at all—you’ve been well trained. But there’s one thing that no training can put in one’s heart, and that is love for God, and the temperature of that love. Whether you’re going to be hot and fervent in your soul is a determination you make between you and God. You’ll be a child of God because you serve Him with all your heart and He accepts your service. There’s no other way.

Can you say with Mary, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”?