We will continue this morning our study in Luke 11. We're going to focus on Luke 11 verses 27 and 28 as our text. But as we come to Luke 11, 27 and 28, I want us to have context. So I want us to back up and read verses 14 through 28. Uh, this is what we covered last week in the message last week. So it should be familiar to us, but I want us to have the context with Jesus here with this crowd, Luke 11, 14, and he was casting out a demon and it was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed, but some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. Others, to test him, were demanding of him a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul, and if I, by Beelzebul, cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? so they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. He who is not with me is against me. And he who does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and not finding any, it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Verse 27, while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. But he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. Father, we ask that you would bless the reading and the preaching of your word. We pray this morning that we would be hearers of your word, that we would hear, that we would listen, that we would heed, and that we would be keepers of your word. We know that is only by your grace through the work of your Holy Spirit in us through the blood of Jesus Christ that we are enabled. To hear to heed and to keep your word. So God, we ask you for your help in this. We pray. That you would draw those who have not professed faith in Christ, repenting of their sins. Believing in him savingly that you would draw them to you. We pray this in the name of Christ, amen. In verses 27 and 28 before us today, we find a woman, a woman who we don't know her name. We don't know any of her history. We know almost nothing about this woman, but she had been in the crowd listening to what Jesus was saying. She had heard his teaching on prayer. She had heard that she could approach God and pray our Father who art in heaven. This woman in this crowd had been there and observed as Jesus healed this man who was mute by casting out a demon. What a miraculous event, what a display of his power over not only the physical realm but over the spiritual realm and over the powers of darkness. This woman was here and we find our Lord grabbing on to a statement that she makes and using this statement as an opportunity for teaching, for teaching those who were there listening and through his written word for teaching us. It is just like our Lord to take the normal day-to-day minutia of life and turn it into a teaching moment. And that's what we have before us. We note in verse 14 that Jesus is in the presence of a crowd. He was often with a crowd. And then we see in verse 29 that the crowd was increasing in size. So this is not only a crowd, but it is a growing crowd that Jesus is here among. And this woman is standing in the midst of this crowd and she was moved by Christ's words and his works. She was moved to lift her voice, to open her mouth and to speak. It seems by the wording of the verse that this was almost an interruption. While Jesus was saying these things, she lifted her voice. While Jesus was saying these things, she spoke and she spoke out loud. Sometimes people spoke under their breath, Sometimes people speak to themselves and we have seen that Jesus sometimes knew the thoughts and would address the unspoken comments and the unspoken ideas. But here, this woman, she was moved to raise her voice, to speak out loud. She spoke so that everyone could hear. This was very loud, much louder than I can get this morning. Jesus had cast out a demon from this man who was mute. But now the man spoke, and the text preceding tells us that the crowds were amazed. This was an undeniable miracle. And Jesus' actions, along with his words, were this woman's motivation in what she said. We should consider that Jesus' words and Jesus' actions always motivate men to react in some way. No one is neutral when it comes to Christ. And we just saw that in the text of last week's message. He was not for me, is against me. Who gathers not with me, scattereth abroad. Everyone reacts to Christ in some way in what he says, and then in the deeds that he does to back up, to reinforce, to give authority to what he says. Some men react in rebellion and in hatred to Christ. We've seen this on multiple occasions when the crowds would pick up stones to stone him because of what he said. This man makes himself out to be equal with God and they would pick up stones to stone him and that was certainly a reaction to his teaching. They reacted with violence because of Christ Jesus teaching. Others react with avoidance. If you'll remember when Jesus cast a legion of demons out of a man and granted that those demons would go into the swine that were on the hillside, The swine ran down and drowned in the water. And the people of the village, the people of that area came to Jesus and reacted to what he said and did by asking him to leave immediately. Some react to Christ with violence, with rebellion, and some react to Christ with avoidance. So many men when they come to Jesus react in these negative ways, not only 2000 years ago, but today, with violence, with rebellion, or with avoidance. But this woman found in these two verses, this woman did not react negatively at all. This woman had no negative reaction. She responded to the words and the work of Jesus with what many of us would consider a breath of fresh air. Isn't it nice? When so many were asking, well, he's casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. So many were testing him, which testing him would be trying to trip him up, trying to trick him. Now this woman comes and we might say, what a breath of fresh air. because she does not react to Christ in any negative way. She speaks in support of Jesus. She speaks positively about Jesus. And we have every reason to believe that this woman is speaking sincerely with pure motives. There's nothing here to indicate that this was not a sincere expression that comes from her lips. She is trying to express support for Jesus, even worshiping him, worshiping him in her own way. The question that we have to ask as we come to this woman's statements, this woman's comments is, is this enough? Is it enough that she comes with sincerity? Is sincerity enough? Is it enough to support Jesus in a way that we see fit? Is it enough that we come with our ideas, with our thoughts to support Christ? Or is there more to true worship? Is there something more than sincerity required to be a true worshiper of God? That's the question that we asked this morning. I wanna refer to chapter 22 of our confession. If you have a copy of your confession, I would ask you to turn there. You can find the confession in the hymnal on page 682. in the hymnal way in the back, tiny writing, 682. If you have a black copy, it's page 47. Chapter 22 of our confession is titled Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day. And we're going to see the lessons from this text with what we call a regulative principle of worship. We're gonna see this regulative principle of worship defined in chapter 22, paragraph one. As we understand how God is to be worshiped, we can worship him rightly as he has prescribed in his word. We'll read paragraph one of chapter 22 again in your hymnal on 682 or in the black copy on page 47. Paragraph one says this. And as we read, at least the first part of this paragraph is a good description of the woman that we have here in verses 27 and 28 of Luke 11. Paragraph 1, the light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is just, good and does good to all and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in and served with all the heart and all the soul and with all the might. So we find this woman of our text here in this first part, she recognizes by the light of nature and that's just another way of saying it's by her naturally enlightened senses. It's the what we might call a common sense, common senses. She recognizes that Jesus is good and that he's doing good. She sees that he is to be loved and praised and worshiped sincerely. We see this woman in this, but this is not the end. If this woman stops here, she stops short. And this morning, if we stop here, just recognizing that Christ is to be worshipped, we stop short. How sad it is to know that there are many who come this far and come no further. What a terrible state it is to recognize the one who is to be worshipped, but to never come to know Him and worship Him in the way that He requires, in the way that He demands. The paragraph here in our confession continues, but the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will. We find how to worship God rightly in his word. as he has defined, as he has prescribed. It continues, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. God's work around us His work in creation and providence is clear enough to know that God exists. But that's only enough for condemnation. Knowing that there is a God is only enough to condemn men. And this is why God has given His Word so that we can know through His Word and the work of His Spirit who the God of heaven is. His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His wrath, His love, so that we can know from the scripture who fallen man is as a creature, so that we can know what God has done in order to redeem for Himself His people, to save His people. The word of God informs us And by the work of the triune God, we can be worshipers of God. So let us consider in our text what these verses teach us about the worshipers of God. We come here, this woman declares a blessedness. So we have to ask, what is it to be blessed? What is it to be blessed? Who are the ones who are blessed? Meaning, who are the ones who enjoy happiness and pleasure and contentment in life? Who are the blessed ones? We all have an idea in our own minds of what it is to be happy, what it is to be blessed, what it is to be content. And I've noticed lately how many times people have said to me or to someone else out in the world, in a public place, have a blessed day. Have a blessed day. This is not a Christian saying anymore. It's just a saying. And I wonder what is meant by that? Have a blessed day. What is it to be blessed? Most often when we say blessed or blessed, we mean a life of ease. We mean life without pain, life where our needs, and if we're being honest, a great many of our desires are met and provided. But different people have different ideas, different perceptions of what blessedness is. This woman had a perception of blessedness. And this woman's perception of blessedness probably would be a big part of many of our perceptions of blessedness. This woman's perception of blessedness had a lot to do with family. Your mother is blessed. What would it be to have such a son? To have the privilege of carrying a son like this for nine months in her womb to raise him up, to care for him as he grew into a boy and then into a man. What a blessedness this is. Her idea of blessedness is wrapped up in blood relations, in kin, in family. In that day, having a son would be a blessing. But she thought To have such a son as this, to have such a son as Jesus was the greatest blessing. This woman's thoughts turned to Mary, the mother of Jesus. And as our thoughts turned to Mary, the mother of Jesus, we should point out here the error that is rampant, the error that is found As we think about Mary, the error I'm speaking of is the error of the Roman Catholic Church when it comes to Mary. There are other errors of the Roman Catholic Church. But specifically this morning, we'll talk about the error of the Roman Catholic Church when it comes to Mary. Now, I want to say, I don't believe this woman had in mind the error of the Roman Catholic Church or at least the extent of that error when she spoke these words. But we have this in our minds when we come to see this in Mary and we need to consider the error of Romanism. We need to know that the Roman Catholic Church has long ago left the scripture as their source for truth. And they've turned to the imaginations of men and the suggestions of Satan as our confession plainly states. Some of the errors, and the reason I say errors and imaginations of men and suggestions of Satan is because you don't find even a hint of these things in the Holy Scriptures. Not one hint. But these things are dreamed up by men who wear funny hats. And they are voted in as truth equal to scripture. Some of their errors pertaining to Mary are the immaculate conception of Mary. Now that is to say that Mary was born without. Original sin that Mary was born without the sin of Adam being passed to her. Now there was one born without original sin. One and that is Christ. Adam was created without sin. Eve was created without sin, but they were created in a in a way that they may fall from this state. And they fell. Christ was born without original sin and he did not fall. And he cannot fall. So this is an error when it pertains, when we think about Mary, we must not imagine in our minds that she was born without original sin. She was a daughter of Adam, a descendant of Adam, just like every one of us. Another error of Romanism when it comes to Mary is the idea of her perpetual virginity. Her perpetual virginity. Mary was a virgin when she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born. And the Roman Catholic Church teaches that she was a virgin perpetually throughout her life. If Mary was a virgin throughout her life, we would have to say that Mary was an evil person. To be married to Joseph, and to withhold from him the rights of marriage would be sinful, would be wrong, it would be evil. Not only that, we know that Mary had other children. This is an error. The imagination of men and the suggestion of Satan. The reason I keep bringing up the suggestion of Satan is because each of these things, perpetual virginity, the immaculate conception of Mary, and then the deification or the praying to Mary as a deity, these things take away from Christ. These things rob Christ of His due glory. The last thing, and I mentioned it, prayer to Mary, and the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is that Mary participates in some way in the salvation of Christians, that Mary has a participation in some way. These are suggestions of Satan. imagination of man and found nowhere in scripture. And I don't believe at all that this woman in Luke 11, 27 and 28 had those things in her mind. As a matter of fact, I would say those people standing in that crowd, even though they hated Jesus, would have found those things to be laughable. They would have found those things to be ridiculous. But this woman comments on the blessedness of Mary. Your mother is blessed. So was this woman wrong? Am I saying that the Roman Catholic Church goes so far to say that that Mary is so blessed she's even seen as a deity but are we saying that she is not blessed? We dare not. We dare not because we remember Luke chapter 1 when the angel came and there we read In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph, to the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. I would submit a good word there would be blessed. Thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. The angel Gabriel declared that Mary was blessed. So we say, yes, Mary was blessed. Then later in that same chapter, when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, while she is carrying John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, the child leaps within her womb, and Elizabeth spoke in a loud voice in verse 42 and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. So we agree, Mary is blessed, but we dare not take this into error. as some have done. We don't mean that Mary was some super human, super woman. She's just blessed. She's just blessed. This woman speaks of Mary, the mother of Jesus. And let me just point out here, A term that the Roman Catholic Church uses for Mary is Mary, the mother of God. And that is, that's a terrible title. There's so much wrong with that. But we can rightly say that Mary was the mother of Jesus, the only mother that he knew. In his humanity, she bore him. And other than that, he was not born. He is eternal. So Mary is the mother of Jesus. This woman addresses Jesus to say that His mother is blessed. But she is prioritizing here familial relations on this earth. She is prioritizing physical relationships. She's prioritizing temporal relationships. And Jesus has prioritized spiritual relationships. And that is exactly what Jesus is doing here when He minimizes or almost dismisses the idea. He's not saying Mary is not blessed. Of course, she's blessed. The angel Gabriel announced it. Elizabeth said it. It's recorded in Scripture. But as He just kind of wipes that away, He's prioritizing and focusing on spiritual relations. In Matthew 12, we read this, someone said to him, said to Jesus, Behold, your mother, Mary, and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you. But Jesus answered to the one who was telling him, Who is my mother and who are my brothers? Now Jesus didn't forget. It wasn't as though he couldn't remember, but he's making an emphasis here. He's creating a priority in their minds and in ours when he says, who is my mother and who is my brothers? And stretching out His hand toward the disciples, those who were His followers, those who heard His words and obeyed them, He said, Behold, My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother. Jesus is saying the priority relationship here is not blood. Well, it's not blood like we think of. It's His blood. The priority relationship is the spiritual relationship that we have in Christ. That's why, brothers and sisters, we should be able to look around in this congregation and we should be able to say, you, brothers and sisters in Christ, are my closest, are my dearest relations. You are the ones You are the ones who are joined together by Christ. Jesus prioritizes spiritual relationship over physical relationships. This woman's perception of blessedness had to do with family, kin, temporal relationships. But many of us have perceptions of blessedness. And our perceptions of blessedness lead us to worship. They lead us to praise. They bring us to a place. And if we have a wrong idea, a wrong view of what it is to be blessed, then we'll come to a wrong place of worship. Some, with a wrong idea of what it is to be blessed, come to God just seeking to receive. I just want to get something. Give me. So they come with an attitude of flattery. Now you know what that is. An attitude of flattery. I didn't write this in my notes, but I'm reminded of, I was riding in the car with a man and we went to Sonic. to get a drink at happy hour, of course. And as we ordered our drinks, this young man says to the person who brings us our drinks, you're a scholar and a gentleman, and you are greatly to be honored. I just got a Dr. Pepper. I commented after we left, what was that? I know this man. What was that but flattery? Saying words in hopes that someone will feel good and maybe return a favor or return a compliment. Saying words that ultimately mean nothing. That's flattery. And people do this when it comes to worshiping God. Coming to God and thinking because of flowery words, they'll be heard. Coming to God and thinking because of many words, the multitude of words, they'll be heard. Coming within the church and seeking the approval and to win the favor of others in the congregation, speaking words of flattery. And it's nothing but emptiness. It's worship from emptiness. Isaiah speaks of false worshipers saying this, this people honors me, says the Lord, with their lips. but their heart is far from me." See, this is vain and empty worship, and it's like flattering words. It means nothing. It's just empty. Some worship from ignorance. And if I'm being honest, I think this may be hidden closer to where this woman, I don't think she was coming to Christ with just words of flattery. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here, but I don't think she was. But I do believe that she was speaking, having had this interaction with Christ and His words and His works, I do believe that she was speaking from ignorance. And we see this where people come to God worshiping in ignorance. We find this in Acts when Paul and Barnabas had healed a crippled man and the man rose up and walked. And all those who saw it believed that their false gods had come down and were walking among them. They believed that Paul and Barnabas were false gods and they began to address them with the names of their false gods and offer sacrifices and worshiping them. This was sincere. This was sincere. But it was from ignorance. It was not from knowledge. Paul and Barnabas said to these men, men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. They continue, but they're informing them about the true and living God that they would no longer offer sincere worship in ignorance. The other time, and that was lost men, false god worshipers. But the other time we see this sort of thing is when John was on the Isle of Patmos receiving the things that are recorded in the book of Revelation. And he said in Revelation 22, I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he, the angel, said to me, do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God. Now, honestly, would we think that a Christian man could have this sort of error? Could offer worship like this in this moment in ignorance? Before you condemn John, he was wrong, but before you condemn him hypocritically, how would you do? Having seen what he saw, would you not have failed in that same way? But the angel corrects him and says, no, I'm just a fellow servant of God. Worship God. Worship that is offered in emptiness has no value. Worship that is offered in ignorance has no profit. There is nothing here in this type of worship. We see here a believer momentarily worshiping from ignorance. And this should be a warning to every one of us. Child of God, this should be a warning to you to guard your heart that you would not worship in emptiness. That you would not worship in ignorance. This is a warning. This woman, I believe, offers worship in ignorance, focusing on Mary. And she should be focusing on Christ. Christ gives this pronouncement and the corrective. He doesn't deny that Mary is blessed, but rather. The ones who are blessed are those who are hearers and keepers of the word. Those who are hearers and keepers. I have a friend who has a daughter. I think she's about 13, 14 years old. The other day he told me she was becoming hard of hearing. What he said was she's been hard of listening, but now she's becoming hard of hearing. And we use those terms, hearing and listening, to mean sometimes different things. And they could be interchangeable depending on the emphasis that you put on them, but you get it, you understand. There's hearing, and then there's heeding, listening, focused attention. Many 13-year-olds are hard of listening. but Christians, we may become hard of listening as well. We're reminded here about hearers of the parable of the soils. Those who did not listen and those who were good listeners. We need to pray for God's help to be hearers and listeners. to hear and heed and give attention and importance to the Word of God. But he says hearers and keepers. Now that's more than just hearing and listening and having a cognitive awareness. That's more than just head knowledge. That's more than just, yes, I know what words were said and I can give you a definition of all the words. It's more than that. to be a keeper of the Word of God, gives the idea of guarding, of honoring, of obeying to keep the Word of God. And this morning, we need to understand the first area of being a hearer and a keeper. The first area of blessedness in hearing and in keeping the word is pertaining to the gospel. Everyone would say, I want to be blessed. I want to be blessed. Recognize this morning that your idea of blessedness, that your idea of contentment and happiness and having what you need, your idea of being blessed, that's going to be full of error. But Christ defines blessedness. Christ defines the ones who are blessed as the ones who hear and keep the word. And in the first place, hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and obey the gospel. Hear the gospel and obey the gospel. Having overlooked the time of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. God is commanding repentance and faith. That is the gospel. Having the idea in our minds, well, I think I just need to be a little better. I think I need to have a few more good works to weigh out my bad works. You're not hearing the Word of God and you're not obeying the Word of God. You're not keeping it. Hear the gospel. Salvation is only in Christ Jesus in his finished work. Hear the gospel. Hear the word of God. Listen, heed, pay attention and keep the word of God. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would make us hearers and keepers.