Luke 11:27-28

Luke chapter 11 and verses 27 and 28 for our text and study this morning. And it came to pass as he, Jesus, spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bear thee in the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. God blessed to us is sacred and holy word this morning. In 1974, Pope Paul VI issued an apostolic exhortation on what he called the cult of Mary. He was not breaking any new ground, but he wanted to enhance devotion to the so-called Blessed Virgin Mary. The Roman Catholics have been building on the honor given to Mary since Pius the 9th declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. Ever since then, there has been a growing devotion to what is known as the Mary cult. Greater emphasis has been given to the Mary cult by Pope John Paul II in his prayer entitled completely yours. Prayer that’s not dedicated to the Lord God, nor our Lord Jesus Christ, but to Mary. And it seems that Mary dominated his devotional life. In this prayer, he proclaimed, I am completely yours, Mary, a attitude of total abandonment to Mary. This is certainly far different from what we read in Scripture, where when Paul talks about an attitude of total abandonment to Christ, he says, for me to live as Christ, and it dies gain. So while Scripture teaches a complete abandonment to Jesus Christ, it seems that the Roman Catholic Church is teaching a complete abandonment to Mary. And there’s a vast difference between those two. And so while Scripture teaches an abandonment to Christ. It is with this in mind that I want to look at this passage of Scripture this morning, because I think it certainly reflects on this situation. Jesus has just triumphantly answered the Pharisees who accuse Christ of casting out demons by the power of the Pharisees who accuse Christ of casting out demons chief of the demons, Bielseva. His reply against this blasphemous charge so completely silenced his enemies that they didn’t have anything else to say. But a new situation arises. Because after he answers them, a woman who is listening in the audience, she speaks up. After hearing his teaching, and after hearing his rebuke, and she talks about, Blessed be the woman who was given birth to you and taking care of you, nursed you, and so forth. We’re not told the identity of this woman, but Christ teaches a great lesson. Based upon the words here, blessed is the womb that bear thee. You find here an exclamation of blessedness in verse 27. It came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company, lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bear thee in the paps, which thou hast sucked. Now, this blessing came from an admiration of the Lord in what he had just said. Never man spake like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so while this exclamation spoke directly of Christ’s mother, it actually reflects upon Christ, and what he had actually said. The idea of being here that Christ’s blessedness reflected on his mother. It’s true that parents often shape the character of their children. We see that with Hannah and Samuel in particular. But God is the one who produces a godly man or woman, not the parents. He does so by his grace. And in Christ’s case, Mary knew that the human nature of Christ, that holy thing within him, was a product of the Holy Spirit, and not of her efforts. Certainly this woman isn’t condemned by Christ, but she is pouring out heartfelt praise. It’s slightly misdirected, we’ll say that much. Sadly, it is that so many heard Christ speak, she’s the only one that spoke up. She was the only one that it touched her what Jesus Christ had said. Few there be. today who bursts forth with praise like this when the Word of God is proclaimed, it’s hard even to get a hearty amen sometimes. The heartfelt praise of heaven should be more commonly heard on earth. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing as we read in Revelation chapter 5. So this blessing came from an admiration of the Lord, his answer, moved this woman. Now Mary, the mother of Jesus, was blessed among women. We don’t deny that she wasn’t blessed. The happiness of the parent is very much connected with the success of their children. I mean, we read in scripture a wise son make of the glad father, so forth. How great must have been the happiness of Mary to have a son, like the Lord Jesus Christ. Never was a woman so highly honored as Mary was, where she was elected among the millions of her own sect, sex, to be the mother of the greatest and the best being that the world ever beheld. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, he said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee, blessed, art thou among women? When Elizabeth saluted Mary, we read this, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Mary herself recognized how blessed she was, as she spoke in her prayer. My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For beholdeth, behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. So Mary, the mother of Jesus was blessed among women, and we don’t deny that. But Jesus here, I think, provides us with a word of caution regarding Mary. While Jesus doesn’t deny that, he, with wisdom and forewere, he, with wisdom and forewere, sight sees a coming danger with reference to Mary. You know, Jesus Christ is omniscient, and he knew how the Roman Catholic Church was going to deify Mary. And so well in advance, he alerts you to the coming danger. And we’ll take that up in verse 28. Scripture is much richer and deeper than most people. realize. But the Bible says, moreover, by them, the scriptures, is thy servant warned. You know, a precept of scripture is like a lighthouse on the coastline where the rocks are jutting out, and you can have a shipwreck, and they put the lighthouse up there, and the lights are going from the lighthouse out onto the waterway, the ocean, in order to warn the ships that are coming, watch out, stay away from this area. It’s dangerous. And so God has provided lights for us in His Word. Here’s a dangerous area. Be careful. Don’t shipwreck your soul on this. So God is warning. By them as thy servant warned is one of the important aspects of God giving. us his word. He warns us in his word. Now Jesus didn’t wish Mary exalted above her station in life. She is not to be deified. She is not to be worshipped by others. Or given titles like our lady or Madonna, the mother of God, the queen of heaven, co-redeemer, co-mediator between human beings and God. Worship is due to God alone. And if rendered even to the most blessed among women, it is idolatrous, and is it a great evil. I had a woman who was a dialysis, one of the nurses, said that, you know, praying, you know, we don’t worship Mary. We pray to her, we don’t worship her. We don’t worship her. I had to explain to her if you pray to her, that’s worship. You know, you can’t deny it. So pay careful attention here that Christ’s words in 28, because they’re very important. When he says, yeah, you rather. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. So here’s an exclamation of blessedness. But here’s a preferable blessing. You know what’s even better is the blessing I’m going to tell you about. You should realize Mary’s blessedness truly consistent in her being a believer in Jesus Christ. That’s where her true blessing rested. Yield your ready consent here to what Jesus says. Let’s not shovel any type of dirt on top of this and try to cover it up. This is very clear, it’s very plain, it’s very much a contrast to verse 27. Remember that hearing the word of God in keeping it is the basis of Mary’s blessing. What do we read? She was more blessed as a believer than as the mother of Jesus. Elizabeth said to her, Blessed is she that what? Believeth. For there shall be a performance of those things told her by the Lord. you believed. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost when she said this. Mary believed what God said. Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. She believed what the angel Gabriel said to her. Listen to Mary’s own praise to God in providing the Savior. Remember, Jesus’ name means Savior. Thou shall call his name Jesus. for he shall save his people from their sins. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in what? In me giving birth to the Messiah? No. In God, my Savior. In Jesus Christ. So Mary’s blessedness lay mainly in the fact that she believed and she submitted to the Lord’s will. As she nursed in her arms and nourished on her breast, the Messiah, she rejoiced because he was her Savior. She rejoiced that God had fulfilled his word to his people, a word that she heard, she believed, and she was relying upon. She was blessed with all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ, and there’s no greater blessing than Jesus. that. So you should realize Mary’s blessedness can truly consist in her being a believer in Christ. Now, you as a believer are more blessed than simply being physically related to Jesus Christ. It’s more blessed to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ than it would have been to be one of his family, physically. In which he was born after the flesh. I remind you what we’ve already studied. Look at chapter 8 of the book of Luke. Versus 19 to 21. Remember what Jesus said here. Then came to him his mother and his brother and could not come at him for the press and was told him by certain which said, thy mother and my brethren stand without desiring to see thee. and he answered and said unto them, my mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it. Isn’t he saying that what’s more important is my spiritual family than my physical family? It’s not the physical aspect that’s important. Truths like these are slow to be received. For some reason we have trouble understanding this. We’re apt to think if we were just close related to Jesus Christ, it would have some kind of powerful effect upon us. People prize the physical relationship, it seems, over the spiritual one. But my friends, no one is highly related in the kingdom of God because they’re related to Jesus Christ, whether it be James or Jude, or Mary. Who’s the mother? In Christ’s spiritual kingdom, the relationship is not of blood. It’s not of race. These are all external extinctions that are abolished when it comes to the kingdom of God. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. That’s what Galatians 326 tells us. I remind you that for a long time Christ’s brothers didn’t believe on him. The scripture tells us in John 7th, for neither did his brother believe in him. They had a physical relationship with him. They grew up with him, but they didn’t believe in him. Not for quite a while. Here’s what the scripture says about who is blessed. Blessed are those or they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That is being blessed. That’s what you need. Romans 4, 7 and 8. You as a believer are more blessed than simply being physically related to Christ. Now you find this preferable blessedness comes in a very simple manner. You see what he says here? Blessed are they that one, hear the word of God, and two, keep it. The way of blessedness is stripped of all ambiguity, all mystery here. There is nothing too hard to understand. Hear the Word of God and obey it. By the grace of God, the most spiritually ignorant, the most sinful, the most despairing, may still hear the word of God and keep it. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing, by the Word of God. And by faith, salvation comes to you. Notice how Christ puts this blessedness within reach of everyone who hears the Word of God. To hear the Word of God proclaim is a great privilege which most people don’t appreciate. If you desire this blessedness, you must hear God’s voice in His Word, receive it not as the words of men, Luke, or Paul, or Peter, or whatever the case may be. Boy, I can’t bless you in that capacity. You have to accept it as God’s word speaking to you. Hear it reverently. Don’t dismiss it. Don’t question it. Don’t yield to it. He that hath in the ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Be receptive. Endeavor to know what it means. Endeavor to seek a benefit from the word. Don’t let it come in one ear and out the other and be soon forgotten by you. Israel stood trembling at the Mount of the foot of Mount Sinai when God spoke to them from the Mount. And they were scared to death. They reverend scared. They reverend scared. God when they heard him speak. But they were afraid. Told Moses, we would rather he’d talk to you and you come down and tell us what he told you. We’re not ready for him to speak directly to us. We said we should hear the Word of God with the same reverence. God speaking, but not with the same fear. There are two ways of hearing the Word of God. Similar how you might treat seed. You know, the botanist splits the seed apart discourses on its various components. The farmer sows the seed with a purpose of eating what it produces. A critic of the Word of God, what he does, he dissects it. He raises a mountain to debate about its contents, questions, its inspiration, its authenticity, its truthfulness. He seeks to find no contradiction. discrepancies, errors in it, and so forth. But he never takes it to the heart. He treats it as if it’s a dead letter. It’s like any other literature or anything else. We have to be more like the farmer. That we’re counting on the sea to produce bread so that we have something to eat. It feeds our soul. And we have something for later. We can store away. But we hide. the word in our heart that we might not sin against the Lord. Secondly, must keep the Word of God. Yield yourself to it with the purpose of obeying it. Be determined to follow God’s will when the gospel command is heard to repent and believe. To keep that means to you repent and believe. When you hear it, do as you were commanded. Put God’s word in to practice as a rule of your life. Keep God’s commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. And this is His commandment that they should believe on the name of the Son of on his name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave them commandment. 1 John 3.23. We’re to believe on it. Whosover looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein being not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed in his deed, James 125. An officer of the British engineers once stood before Wellington, the general, and told him about the impossibility of executing the directions he had just been given. The Duke of Wellington responded, sir, I didn’t ask for your opinion. I gave you my orders and I expect them to be obeyed. That should be the way we handle the commands that come from our Lord. He expects them to be obeyed. The words of Christ are your command. We’re not to debate or argue about them. We’re to obey them. Keep them. So this is a preferable blessing we see here. Let me close with two quick thoughts. Two important lessons. And the first is this. You need to have right views of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It’s true that Mary was blessed to be chosen to be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah. This is a high privilege. We don’t deny it. But the elaborate doctrine of Mary that’s been devised by the Roman Catholic Church is based on mere tradition. There is not an ounce of scripture. not a shred of scripture to support. It is an elaborate doctrine. This doctrine has evolved over hundreds of years. It didn’t come out full blown. It just slowly got built as they went along. It’s in constant flux. New layers are constantly being added. Who knows what will be in the future. Mary was only a woman. She only possessed human power. She never performed any miracles or claimed that any special honors should be paid to her by the church. Search the scriptures. Mary was fallen in Adam. She was a sinner. She was in need of a savior just like you and I. And we find that contrary to the doctrine of the immaculate conception, Mary was not born sinless. No, she was the daughter of Adam and therefore corrupt and depraved in nature. She prayed, my spirit, hath rejoiced in God, my Savior, because she needed to be saved. How then can she merit any store of grace or channel any grace to you? How can she be a co-redeemer and a co-mediate or on a par with the sinless son of God? That’s a blasphemous thought. Let us pity those who are caught up in the Roman Catholic superstition because they’re ignorant. They’re ignorant of the truth. But it’s a soul-damning doctrine. Mary, if she could speak today, would tell you trust not in her, but in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. She would tell you not to pray to her, but pray to the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. For there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. Our text then points you in the right direction. Don’t ignore it. Put it with verse 27, with verse 28. And don’t miss that. The second thing is this. Make it your purpose to secure the greater blessing that is found by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no need to regret that you’re born a Gentile. There’s no need to regret that you’re not physically related to Jesus Christ, or did Jesus Christ never walk on our land here in the United States. That’s not essential. Seek to be partaker of the greater blessings of what Christ speaks here. It lies right before you. You are a hearer. Be a true hearer. Be not a hearer only, but a doer of the Word. Then you will be blessed. The blessing, the blessedness of hearing and keeping the word of God is priceless. Don’t scorn it. Don’t ignore it. Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear! And your soul shall live. Here’s what the scripture says. If thou shall confess with thy mouth of the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. Can you hear that word? Can you do that? Can you believe? God promises surely blessing, I will bless you. Hebrews 614. Let us have the greater blessing of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and all the benefits and all the graces and gifts that come through me. Let’s close. word of prayer.