When Jesus Christ Is Truly Lord | Bethany & the Headship of Christ (Part 2)

Now that is a very sad hour. When death comes to a group of the Lord’s people, and it is a sad hour, and it is a heartbreaking hour, and it is a heart-rending hour, and it’s a lonely hour when the church experiences death. Am I right? I believe some of you brothers and sisters are beginning to learn a little about the Lord’s dealings in death. The first thing that happens when it comes is you start looking at everybody under creation to blame except the Lord. “Why do this to me? This isn’t fair. You’re the cause of that. You started that.” We cannot see the Lord. Or maybe we see the Lord’s hand in it; maybe our eyes are open, and all we can see is death.

Oh, how will we ever get out of this? Praise God for the death. The hour will come when men shall see that when the church goes through death, it is the church’s greatest hour. Throughout the centuries, the churches have been beaten and battered and stomped and thrust down, and it has always fallen out for the glory of the Lord, for out of it has sprung something far better. They looked at the Lord Jesus Christ, and they said, “Oh, he’s dead. You mean he’s dead.” And Jesus said, “Never mind. This death is for the Lord’s glory.”

Brothers and sisters, I speak to you frankly. I have not seen, with the possible exception of a group of brothers and sisters almost identical to you, in another nation, meeting almost under the same circumstances as you, who have so known and have so been a receiving place for the Lord for his Headship, Lordship, and Kingship. Praise God for that. I stand with Brother Paul: I say that to you for your encouragement. Nonetheless, I would say that the church must go through death. It must go into death.

I think you were more or less ready for this. Well, don’t sit there like that. I think you have seen the problems that come from receiving the Lord fully and not knowing what to do. It has all been so proper and so correct, and I believe so under the hand of God. I would say to you now, “Let us fully taste the death.” I would even go so far as to say, “I believe the Lord is going to give us resurrection.” In this, I would say to you now. In the first part of this chapter, Paul said, ‘I stand with you; You have received the precepts. In the latter part of the chapter, he says, “There are some things I cannot abide.” And I know that when that letter was finished, Corinth was dead.

Well, you read it. You try to figure out what they could have done. Well, they couldn’t have the Lord’s Supper anymore, not the way they had been. Why? Have you not read that far? Some brother got drunk and passed out. Well, could they keep on speaking in tongues the way they did? That was all gone. Let everything the Lord has done among you up to this day go into death. Otherwise, you won’t be able to bear the next few days anyway if you don’t. Let it all die. It has had its place, and it has had great lessons, and I want to say right now that there are some things that will be resurrected, that God has already given you that are just so precious. But other things will stay in that grave forever.

Out of death, much death, much suffering, much sorrow, comes much resurrection. You will see, not only now but for the rest of your life, that the darkest hour of death you cannot abide is the Lord’s precious work of bringing you into a whole new experience.

Chapter 12. Two more pictures. In chapter 12 is perhaps the same story recorded in Luke, but much fuller, or it’s a different story. I frankly don’t know, and truly it doesn’t matter. But here now is Mary breaking the jar, and the attention is given to the jar. This time it is the jar that is being broken, that is moaned. “Oh, that you would take such a lovely jar and break it and pour it on the Lord’s feet and wipe His feet with your hair. Oh, that could have been kept in that beautiful jar, taken out, and sold to the poor.”

Have you ever wished to save a sister or a brother from suffering? Oh, do not misunderstand; I do not mean we go around trying to get a brother into a position where he suffers. Oh, brother, I’m going to tell you off; you need a little of the cross. No, I mean when God circumstantially brings someone to the cross, do you try to save the alabaster dish? You take it, brothers, from the Lord’s hand. I don’t mean you shouldn’t comfort. To stand, to pray, to love; that’s one thing. But oh, to try to go and save the brother or sister from it, or to guide them in it.

We can get so busy going around, “Oh, you’ve been going through the cross; I’ve come over. I realize you’ve been having troubles lately. Could we have some scripture together? Let’s talk.” Or “Here I am, and I’m the one to come see when you’ve got problems.” You’ll be busy going around helping brothers and sisters, saving them from the alabaster dish. The broken dish. Your body will just be going here and there. “Oh, did you hear that Mary is having a problem? Let’s go see Mary. Comfort Mary. Oh, Mary, if you’ll do such and such, you won’t even have to bear this cross. Your body will just be shooting here and there. You’ll be so busy until, finally, brothers and sisters, you’ll be a busybody.

Would you save the alabaster dish? Why save the alabaster dish? Let it be broken. Let it crush. Let it break. It will look like that moment when it crushes: all that precious ointment that should have been preserved and kept, and the clay that mingles with the oil, and it looks so improper for a moment, and all of that just crushed out. Wasted. A dish that could have been preserved. Brothers and sisters, wait just a little while, and you will smell an aroma that will fill the house of God. You will see an ointment on the Lord Jesus Christ that will enrich His church. That’s what he said. That which Mary did – the breaking of the precious dish, the oil was poured out on the Lord, the room was filled – and for two thousand years the breaking and the crushing have been a testimony and a blessing to the assemblies of God, wherever the Lord’s gospel has been preached.

Well, go, brothers and sisters, stand before that empty cross. You know what happens when the Lord puts the cross up in front of you. The first thing you do is you don’t look up to see it. You never give any consideration that maybe that is the way. You immediately put it into high gear. You have not yet seen it. You assume it is there, but you haven’t seen it yet. The first thing you do is you get out your road map. “Let’s see now, where is a good place to go from here? Don’t let anybody tell me I was headed that direction. Oh, yes, there’s a good road. I’ll take that one.” Without looking up, we try this way or that way. Suddenly, the way we go won’t work too well. So we come back this way, and that doesn’t work either. The Lord keeps forcing us back.

You remember the story of Balaam’s donkey? The donkey finally said, “I’ve never been hard to get along with before. Obviously, you’re headed in the wrong direction.” You won’t look up. You won’t see the obvious cross. So you begin reasoning, logicing. With no place to turn, you constantly realize you have to come back, or you realize that when you top a hill and go down the valley, if you don’t look up, God moved the cross right in the middle of your new road. So you have to back up and start down another road.