“ONE GOD ... AND ONE LORD”
M. Pavlik
1 Corinthians 8: 5, 6; Mark 5: 25–34; Luke 10: 38–42
The connection of these three passages is not perhaps to be seen at first sight, but I have in mind that in the first passage we have many gods and many lords, in the second, “many physicians”, and in the third, “many things”—all brought into contrast with One who is unique, our Lord. Well, we may have had many gods and many lords, as in the first passage read, and thus, dear brethren and friends, we have realized the truth of this word. All of us have known some of those many gods and many lords of this world. The Lord Jesus spoke about the prince of this world, and Paul speaks about the god of this world. As the Lord went about on this earth He met many persons who were oppressed by many, many lords. Let us think of that poor man who had a legion. What is your name? asked the Lord, and he said,
“Legion ... we are many”. Well, that was true, and man naturally is subject to those many gods and many lords. It is the prince of this world, the devil, Satan, and he exercises power over the heart and soul of man, and he has many helpers.
I think that the first point to grasp is this
truth that there is one God, and one Lord, who has a righteous claim on everybody. He is the Creator, and He is the Redeemer. That is a foundational truth of the gospel, that there is one God, and one Lord, who have the claim to be God and Lord of all. The lords and gods of this world are for a time only, but the power and the dominion of God and His Christ are eternal.
So the first point of the glad tidings is that there is the great God, the Creator of all, and there is His blessed Son our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has made both Lord and Christ and Heir of all things. God has a righteous claim to be your God, and Christ to be your Lord. Now, have we yielded to it? The natural man does not acknowledge that, and he thinks he is free.
The Jews, whom the Lord was speaking with in John 8, said, “We are Abraham’s seed, and have never been under bondage to anyone” (John 8: 33), but the Lord says, “Every one that practises sin is the bondman of sin”. That is one of those many gods and many lords. Sin exercises power over the heart and soul of man. That is not the rightful Lord; the only rightful One is God the Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He claims His rights over all.
Well, have we surrendered to Him?
The result of Satan’s power is what we see in this poor woman in Mark 5, that is, uncleanness and defilement. That was the very sad position of the poor woman, and she had been suffering under her sickness for twelve years. During that time she was not allowed to touch anybody, not allowed to touch anything, for anything and anybody she touched was defiled according to the law of Moses (see Leviticus 15). What a sad position, and how she must have felt it! That is the position of the man who comes to the consciousness of his being subdued under the power of those many gods and many
lords. She comes to the consciousness that she is a poor being, defiled, unclean. She had sought the help of many physicians and, as we have read, she “found no advantage from it, but had rather got worse”. Perhaps we too have sought the help of many physicians. Man has sought many physicians, many helps, to deal with his sinful, sad, helpless state. And what has been the result? It all has become ever and ever worse.
We have three accounts of the story of this poor woman in the gospels, but I specially like the account of Mark. It presents some special points which are worthy of our attention. It shows the thoughts of that poor woman; she said, “If I shall but touch his clothes I shall be healed”.
Well, that is worthy of attention. As I have said, she was never allowed to touch anybody, for everybody she touched would be defiled. But here we see her faith, for she was sure in her heart that this wonderful Man could not be defiled. So then she dared to touch Him. She did it with much trembling and much fear, but still, she did it, for she was sure that touching, maybe just the hem of His garment, could not defile Him, but on the contrary .would bring cleansing, help and blessing to her. That is wonderful faith! Have we such faith in this wonderful Person? There had been many physicians, but all were ineffective, but this One brought wonderful help—only One, only Jesus.
Beloved friends, this is the only Saviour; the only Helper in your dire, helpless state. Only He, nobody else, can help you; only this wonderful Jesus. He is the true God and He is a true Man. He is the Son of God, and it is the same Person who has a claim over you, your soul and heart. That same One is entitled to rule over you; He only is entitled to reign, and is able to help. Come to Him!
Well, she came, trembling and fearing; her hand was trembling, but it was wonderful faith, because here was her wonderful Saviour. We can preach nobody else; nothing else; only this wonderful Name, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, and only in Him, is the mighty power to heal and to help. He is holy, absolutely holy, and that was the faith of this woman. He could touch the leprous; everybody else that touched the leprous was defiled, but not He; on the contrary, out of Him came power for healing. Well, I like especially Mark’s account; the Lord was now looking around to see her; she was an object of His interest. The wonderful faith in her heart was the subject of the deep interest of the Lord Himself. Such who believe on Him, such who put their faith and hope in Him, are very dear to Him. He loves to see them. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ He will be desirous to see you, you are dear to His heart; every believer is dear to His heart. Because of that He is looking around to see her, and He saw her. What a view for Him! She was trembling, she was conscious of having done something which would surely be condemned by every Pharisee who might see her. She was not allowed to touch anybody, and everybody would condemn her but not He. The Lord knew her. He saw into her heart. It is wonderful to think about that. I recently read about the queen of Sheba coming to Solomon, and she could speak with him about all that was in her heart. The Lord sees into your heart, as Solomon did in type, and you can be free with Him.
He knows every thought of your soul, and He understands you. So He did this poor woman.
What comforting words were His, “Daughter, thy faith has healed thee; go in peace, and be well of thy scourge”.
Well, beloved friends, that is the only help. Jesus is the only successful Physician for your
helpless state, as He was for this poor woman; we cannot recommend anybody else or anything else, just Him, Himself.
Now in the third passage we have “many things”. The Lord came into a hospitable house; there were two sisters and they were quite different, but both loved the Lord. We read about Martha, she had received Him into her house; probably she was the elder one and the house was hers. She received Him. How beautiful it is to receive the Lord! But still, there was something with her needing to be adjusted. She was very careful; it was right in a way, but although she was occupied with right things there was some adjustment needed. So the Lord said, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things”. I think, and I address it especially to our young brethren, it is a special danger of our time to be troubled and occupied with many things. There are many things claiming our attention, many things claiming our interest, and if we go after them then we lose that unique, wonderful part which was Mary’s, the part Mary had chosen, to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus and to hear His word. I love the thought that on this occasion Mary was gathering the precious spikenard into her vessel, the precious spikenard with which she, at the end of the pathway of our Lord here below, anointed His head and anointed His feet. How acceptable that was to the Lord, how precious in His sight! Beloved young brother, beloved young sister, let us not be occupied with “many things”. Let us be occupied with One, that One Person, our Lord Jesus. The one thing that is necessary is to be with Him, to hear His word, to cultivate communion with Him, to be at His feet and to gather the riches of His own wisdom, then we shall be able to pour it out on His head and feet, for His own pleasure and delight. For we are His; He is our only Lord. He has
claims on us, for He has helped us; He has redeemed us; He has healed us from our defilement; He is the only Physician able to do that.
So let us be committed to Him, and let us abandon and leave those many things which would claim our interest and our attention. He is the only worthy Object of our hearts, of our attention, of our interest. Let us be such as Mary was, sitting at His feet and hearing His word, and gathering the precious riches which were the source of her response of love, so desirable, so precious to His heart. May the Lord bless the word, for His own glory.
Preaching at Maidstone
8 April 1990