How it happened as they went that he entered a certain village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house And she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word But Martha was distracted with much serving and She approached him and said Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me And Jesus answered and said to her Martha, Martha You are worried and troubled about many things But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part Which will not be taken away from her The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Christ Let us pray together Father, we ask you that you would come by the power of the Holy Spirit and Minister to us We have read this your word But it is true that if you by your spirit do not come and And cause our hearts to receive this word and be glad in receiving this word And our time around your word is fruitless by your spirit You are able to cause this word and its application to our lives to burn in our souls And we pray that our hearts would burn within us as we consider the word of the Lord Jesus Christ
come Enable us to see and to receive and believe the truth of your word We ask in Jesus name Amen Maybe seated over the last few weeks we've been looking at what the scriptures have to say about the heart and about how to keep the heart and What we've seen is that the heart is the principle concern of the scriptures It's our hearts that are at the center of God's concern It's our hearts that are at the center of God's redeeming work. It is our hearts that God wants Then just want our minds And he certainly doesn't just want our minds to be filled and stuffed with information And he doesn't just want our wills and he certainly doesn't want for our obedience our willing To be an external outward conformity To his law he wants our hearts and the heart is at the center of the concern of scripture Proverbs 421 out Keep the heart with all diligence for out of the heart of the issues of life That's the the text that we're coming back to again and again, but that's not the only place That you find the heart Addressed and God's concern for the heart expressed We looked a couple of weeks ago at Deuteronomy chapter 6 this great and familiar passage here, oh Israel the Lord is our God The Lord is one and you shall love The Lord your God with all of your heart With all of your soul with all of your strength Covenant religion is The religion of the heart And again, God is not just concerned with our heads being stuffed with right propositions And he's not just concerned with an outward External formal obedience listen to what God says as he rebukes Israel in Deuteronomy 28 Verse 47 Because you did not serve the Lord with joy and gladness of heart For the abundance of everything therefore you shall serve your enemies And the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst in nakedness and in need of everything He will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until he has destroyed you That's a great passage. I mean there can be an outward obedience There can be a conformity to the lot There can be doing all of the right things and it can be empty and void because it lacks affection It lacks love of God and for God cares about our hearts And it's interesting isn't it that there can be an obedience that is characterized by joy and gladness
Ruminate meditate Think about that obedience is hard, but not burdensome obedience can be difficult but joyful and that's what God takes delight in so it's a possibility God is concerned with our hearts again Joel the second chapter verses 12 and 13 God tells Israel not to render garments Not to be engaged in an external repentance and a mere dumb show But rend your hearts He says So the heart is at the center of this and we said last week that if the hearts are to be kept There are two things that are necessary the heart is like a garden And it's designed by the gardener. It's designed by the planter to bear fruit And if the garden is to bear fruit two things are necessary the word and the spirit And it is the spirit's work to take the word and use the word like a hoe Like a sharp blade to turn over the soil and to cut out and root out up root the weeds and it is the spirit's work to prune and Clip and snip at the branches so that they might become more fruitful and that is hard But that is the spirit's work and the spirit does that work by the means which Christ has appointed And Christ has appointed these means that our hearts might be dealt with tended and Made fruitful the spirit of Christ Christ by his spirit Tens the gardens of our hearts of our souls by his word that they might be fruitful And we looked last week at this passage from the gospel which we've read again this morning and it occurred to me that we really ought to take a look at this again Because there is here a study in contrasts between Mary and Martha And I'd like for you to shift the metaphor. I'd like for you to change the metaphor from the metaphor of a garden filled with plants The garden which needs to be weeded. I'd like you to shift or change the metaphor from that of a garden To that of an instrument a violin or a piano with strings that have to be tuned And the heart Is like a string on a violin or a string on a piano. It needs Tuning and it gets out of tune easily, but when it is in tune When the string is finally pitched rather than dissonance There is harmony Between the pitch fork and the string if you take a pitch fork a tuning fork not a pitch fork but a pitch fork a tuning fork and if you strike a tuning fork hard And you hold it next to the string that is supposed to be tuned to that pitch That string will respond to that pitch. It will vibrate If you make a loud enough noise with a particular pitch the string will begin to vibrate in response to that pitch If you pluck the string and you pluck the string loudly enough Then it will cause the tuning fork the pitch of that fork to begin to vibrate You see there's a relationship between the pure pitch of the tuning fork and the string And if the two are out of pitch then you will have dissonance and not harmony And you all know what that kind of dissonance sounds like our family a couple of years ago I decided our family didn't decide I decided that we were going to start singing hymns in the evening after dinner It lasted one night Because we had five people singing in five different keys and it's painful when people are out of pitch Now look at this story and I don't believe that I'm taking liberties with the text if you look at this passage Luke 10 38 to 42 here's what you have if you employ that metaphor you have one person whose heart is in tune with perfect pitch
Mary's heart is in tune with the perfect pitch of the incarnate word of God and when the incarnate word of God walks into that house and Begins to speak and teach and pour forth truth her heart is full She responds to the sound and her heart is made glad, but Martha Is distracted by good things? hospitality Receiving her guest she is distracted by these good things which become the enemies of the best her heart is out of tune the string The string needs to be sharped or flattered But it's out of tune and there is what you could call a cardiac dissonance A dissonance of the heart from Martha, but there is a Harmony a Consonance between the heart of Mary and the truth which she hears if we're going to keep our hearts If there is going to be a Harmony rather than a dissonance there needs to be this exposure To the perfect pitch That Jesus Christ is one of our problems in fact our great problem is that our hearts are out of tune hearts are out of tune and There are two things that flow out of that two things that flow out of our hearts being out of tune God is dishonored and We are dissatisfied God is dishonored and we are dissatisfied to put it positively Why do we want to pay attention to our hearts? Why do we want to be concerned with knowing what the pitch is and having the strings of our hearts Pitched to that perfect pitch because it brings glory to God for our hearts To be pitched according to perfect pitch and it brings satisfaction to our souls We remind you these great words that John Piper has spoken God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him God receives the greatest glory When God himself is the greatest delight and joy of his people and our hearts have to be tuned to the perfect pitch of The truth of God In order that God might be glorified and we might be satisfied think think for a moment consider these things consider How differently the pitch of scripture can be I'm not Suggesting that at every one of these points. I'm not suggesting that your hearts are out of tune But just think about these things and think about how easily our hearts Become untuned in her out of pitch think about market volatility Think about the fact that just a few weeks ago the Dow Jones industrial average was 9600 and And at the close of business Friday it was 8400 That represents 12% If you have investments in blue chip stocks You have 12% less today than you had a week ago in all probability What does this market volatility do to you? Does it create anxiety does it create worry I come back to this not because you need to hear it but because I Need to hear Does it create anxiety does it create worry? Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that we shouldn't be responsible. We have to pay attention to things That result in our families being provided for and all of that But what if there should be some great economic calamity? What if this Y2K thing is not just Smoke in the breeze Does that unsettle you? Does it cause you like Martha to fret and fuss or can you affirm? That God who has his eye upon the birds of the air and the flowers of the field the God who knows The very number of the hairs upon your head Knows everything that there is to know about you and because he not only knows but is good and because he is good orders all things Well for you and for all of his people Do you know as a result that you have nothing to be afraid of? There is no reason for anxiety. How is your heart tuned? See that's that's how we know Think about the nature of the world in which we live We had a conversation Friday night barben. I did with some folks from our church some folks who themselves have had some deep deep personal struggles In the conversation turned to the question why do bad things happen to people? How is it that people can be so traumatized? Why does God allow those things to happen? How do we respond to that? Here was my answer. I said you know there are three or four things that I think should be said but the first of them is this We have to disabuse ourselves of this notion That this is the best of all possible worlds and we have to disabuse ourselves of the Expectations we have to read ourselves of the expectations That because this is the best of all possible worlds I am going to know a Pain-free Difficulty-free Existence the first thing that you have to say when people ask the question why is it that these things happen to people the first thing you have to do the first thing you have to say is take them back to the fall and The first chapters of Genesis and you have to remind them that this world is wrecked and damaged It is broken and then the second thing you have to do is remind people that these generations of people Yours and mine who live in this particular country Have been insulated shielded Protected from the harsh realities of life to a very large extent. We don't know what low infant mortality rates are like We don't know what it's like to live in a world where the expected lifespan of the average male is 37 or 38 years of age We don't know what it's like to die Because people contract simple infections and there are not antibiotics penicillins in the rest to combat those we don't know what that's like We've been shielded It is a broken world, but you see our hearts become tuned to the strings of our hearts become tuned To the comforts to the blessings to the good gifts Which God has given to these generations and we lose sight of what the scriptures say The scriptures say basically That this world is the Titanic and the Titanic has struck the iceberg And the boat is going down And the question at this point is not why did the boat run into the iceberg the question is how do I get off? Our hearts tuned are the strings of our hearts tuned to the truth my Berean Readings last week I'm behind in some places and ahead in some other places There were lamentations this last week Let me read the first chapter of lamentations Listen to the grief listen to the anguish listen to the pain of the prophet As he writes Listen to one whose heart is tuned to things that are truly tragic how lonely sits the city that was full of people how like a widow is she She who was great among the nations the princess among the provinces has become a slave She weeks bitterly in the night her tears around her cheeks among all her lovers She has none to comfort her all her friends have dealt treacherously with her they have become her enemies Judah has gone into captivity under affliction and hard servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest all her Persecutors overtake her in her dire straits and then verse four The roads to Zion mourn Because no one comes to the set feasts all her gates are desolate her priests sigh her virgins are afflicted and she is in bitterness the roads to Zion mourn You read through that and you think what what is this what is going on?
John Calvin has a wonderful comment on this passage the Passage deals with the destruction the devastation that has come to Jerusalem the passage is a reflection upon the exile of the people of God The people of God being removed from the place where God was pleased for his presence to dwell and why why were they removed They were removed because of idolatry they were removed because of disobedience They were taken away from that place where God's presence dwells and where the people of God are assembled to enjoy and delight in that presence and would characterize The removal of the people from Jerusalem's death and destruction and starvation and rape and pillage and the murder of children Listen to what John Calvin says Now this passage reminds us that when God afflicts his church however grievous It may be to see innocent men slain Blood shed promiscuously the sexes both men and women killed indiscriminately and though it be a sad Spectacle to see houses robbed and plundered Thee deals laid waste and all things in confusion acknowledges that that is tragic
Yet there is one thing more tragic When all these things Calvin says are compared with the abolition of God's worship This passage reminds us That all these other things ought to appear Light to us folks What is more tragic to us Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky or the fact that this room is virtually empty
What causes us greater consternation And sorrow our hearts tune To the higher things the most lofty things
Death how do we view death our hearts tuned To how the scriptures view death you read Ezekiel Chapter 33 Verse 11 put names In this text Therefore you owe son of man say to the house of Israel thus you say if our transgressions and our sins lie upon us and we pine away in them How can we then live say to them as I live says the Lord God I have no Pleasure in the death of the wicked I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked But that the wicked may turn from his way and live And we look at the wicked And you can insert the name Reflect for a moment in your own experience whom you perceive to be wicked who is the most foul the most wicked person In your mind and put that name in the text and what is it that you wish for the wicked you wish that the wicked would perish And God takes no pleasure no delight That one created by him fashioned after his own image should experience the eternal judgment of God and then in contrasting Ezekiel There is Psalm 116 verse 15 precious In the sight of the Lord Is the death of the saints
We wish death to the wicked and life to the saints God takes no delight in the death of the wicked but takes great delight in the death Of his saints Because his saints are out of trouble How how are our hearts tuned How Our hearts tuned The list could go on and on and on think about the passage in Matthew The passage in which Jesus in the ninth chapter says if your eye causes you to stumble pluck it out of your head If your hand causes you to stumble cut it off if your foot causes you to stumble cut it off Because it is better for you to be named and enter into life in that condition than to be whole And pass from life into death remember a story that Brian Chapel told Brian is the president of covenant seminary and he was a pastor for a number of years in Illinois And there was this young high school student who was an outstanding football player and an outstanding student and who was tall and good looking and possessed all That a person could want to possess The envy of every guy in the high school and the desire of every girl And he had grown up in the church But he trifled with it he trifled with it And Brian got a call late one night that this boy had been in a serious automobile accident. He was paralyzed from the shoulders down And he could not be rehabilitated And over the course of the next weeks The boy repented Of his sin and waywardness and embraced Christ And so determined was he to be at every service of worship in the life of that church That they had to cut out a portion of one of the backpues so they could put his wheelchair in there
How are our hearts tuned? What is the greater tragedy? Is it a tragedy that that boy was in the accident? Yes, but it's better to lose your eyes lose your hands lose your feet To avoid the greater tragedy which is eternal Eternal punishment. How are our hearts tuned?
Jesus walked into that house We're Mary and Martha lived and began to speak The words caused one heart to sing and the prolonged teaching preaching of Jesus became a great frustration to Martha because her heart was out of tune folks Why does the scripture point so much of its attention to the heart because it is the heart That makes a man good or bad It is the heart That will make a marriage good or bad it is the heart which will make a church good or bad It is the heart which will make a society good or bad and our hearts beloved have to be tuned To the right sounds The sounds of the teaching of scripture and whenever or wherever we find that our hearts are out of tune There is only one thing for us to do And that is repent That is face that truth and say God at this point my heart is out of tune tune it whatever it takes tune my
By your spirit Through your word that you might be glorified That I might be satisfied folks for our good for your good as individuals for your good as families for our good as a church The God gives grace to pay attention to our hearts and repent Whether out of tune Christ By his word By his spirit To tune our hearts For his glory and for our gladness Let us pray together Oh lord We don't see things right We don't see them well Everything is topsy turvy Turned around Confused Everything is chaos in our souls But you Are always merciful Toward those who bear your name So oh lord in mercy would you come And show us where the strings are not tuned
And would you get us in tune and then oh lord as we slip out of tune would you restore us
The strings of our hearts might respond To the perfect pitch which you are So that there might be a beautiful symphony of sound So that we might go into the world to do Your bidding And do it well And with joy Come holy spirit do this work in our lives we pray For the sake of Jesus and for our good Amen