Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Now if you could have
one thing right now, just one thing right now, you could have
it. What would it be? Now you think about what was
the first thought that came into your heart when you heard that
statement. One thing you can have right
now. What would it be? What came into your heart? Here's
what David said in answer to that question. David said in
Psalm 27, verse 4, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord. To behold the delight of the
Lord. To know Christ and to be found
in Christ. This is what he's talking about.
Look, and to inquire in His temple. Christ is the temple. It's to
learn from Christ more about Christ. That's what he's talking
about. To have communion with Christ,
to know Christ, to be found in Christ, and to learn from Christ
more and more and more about Christ. The one thing needful,
the one thing he desired and sought after was Christ. Christ. The one thing. Christ. Now, almost
every faithful pastor I know have preached from this verse. And they've all done about the
same thing, gone through the Scriptures and showed us what
this one thing is. And I don't intend to do anything
any different. I want to do the same exact thing.
And what you're going to find out when you look at this, throughout
the Scripture, this is what we find. Every sinner that God saves,
He makes them to have a desire for this one thing. And He makes
them seek this one thing. And it makes them to continue
all their life desiring and seeking this one thing. And this one thing is salvation. Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ
the Lord. Now first let's begin in Mark
10. Turn to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. Now when God
begins a work of grace in our hearts, one of the first things
Christ teaches us is that we lack this one thing, that we
do not have this one thing. Look at Mark 10, 17. When Christ
was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled
to Him. This man was zealous. He was
zealous. He came running and kneeled down
to Christ. And he asked Him, Good Master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Now what would
you start with? Where would you start if a man
asked you that question? I probably would start with the
emphasis on him saying, what shall I do? That's not where
Christ started. Christ glorified the Father.
He went straight to the glory of God and the heart problem
of the sinner. Look at this. Jesus said unto
him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that's God. See, Christ knew this man didn't
believe Him to be God. He believed Him to be a master,
a teacher. And He called him good because
He thought Himself to be good. And there's none good. And this
is what we have to learn first. There is none good. We're all
sinners, deserving nothing from God but condemnation. That's
true of everyone. Of course, we broke the law in
Adam. We became guilty in Adam. Unrighteous
in Adam. And God cannot have communion
with the unrighteous. There's none good. There is none
good. Oh, he is such a good boy. Maybe
to mama, but not to God. There is none good. There is
none good but God. Verse 19. But now, if a man wants
to come on his merit, by his works, Christ meets him right
there. Now, He is going to deal with
this fact of this man saying, what shall I do? So He says to
him, thou knowest the commandments. You want to come to God in your
works? Christ says you must keep the
law and perfect righteousness in thought, word and deed. There
will be no sin even in thought. Do not commit adultery. That
means don't even think about it. Don't even look upon a woman
with adultery in your heart. Do not kill. Don't become unjustly
angry with somebody. Do not steal, don't even think
about it. Do not bear false witness, defraud
not, honor thy father and thy mother, never ever having even
thought an ill thought against their command. And he answered
and said unto him, now listen to this answer, Master, he left
off the good that time, Master, all these have I observed from
my youth up. This man was proud. He was proud. We saw the other day what had
happened to this man though. Sin has deceived him into thinking
he can keep the law. That's what Paul said in Romans
7. Sin deceived me into thinking I could keep the law of God.
That's what happened to this man. Then Jesus beholding him
loved him. That's the only way we're going
to be saved. We didn't love him. He loved his people. Jesus beholding
him loved him and said unto him, One thing thou lackest. You're missing one thing. And
the one thing he lacked was having Christ, his only righteousness. That's the one thing he was lacking.
To have Christ who is the righteousness of God, the one righteousness
God will receive, the righteousness which every sinner God saves
must have. Christ Jesus. That's what he
liked. And so to prove it to him, he
said this, Go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come
and take up the cross and follow me. Christ is going to show him
he's not good. Christ is going to show him that
there's only one good, and that's God and His Christ whom He sent
to fulfill the law. He said, just go and sell everything
you got. You want to inherit eternal life?
You want to be with God forever? Sell everything you've got then.
Give it to the poor. They need it more than you do.
And come and follow me and you'll have me for your treasure then. Verse 22, And he was sad at that
saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.
Every true believer here was just like this rich young ruler. We had great possessions and
most of all, more than even coveting our material possessions, we
coveted the glory that belongs to Christ for being the one law
keeper, for being the one righteousness God accepts. We coveted that
glory for ourselves. We want to come to God boasting
in our works, in our law keeping, in our good deeds, rather than
Christ having all that glory. That's what this man coveted
most. That's why he couldn't give up what he had. And Christ
told us, one thing in life. Sell everything you've got and
come and follow me and I'll be your treasure." That's what Christ
had to speak affectionately and teach us affectionately in our
heart to bring us to cast our care on Him. He made us see we
were covetous. Now does anybody here think that
you are good as God? What do I mean by that? I mean
does anybody here think you've ever kept God's law? They equal
the same. To keep God's law, as God calls
keeping His law, is to be as good as God. It's to be the righteousness
of God. Anybody here think they've ever
done that? Do you think that your law keeping
is necessary to make you righteous and accepted and saved by God? Do you think your law keeping
is necessary for it? If so, one thing thou likest. You like one thing. You like
Christ. And if you want to see that you
like Christ, if you want to see that you've never kept one law
of God, go right now and try to sell everything you possess
and give it all away and be that devoted to Christ. Just see if
you can do it. You'll find out you've never
kept the law. You break one, just that one,
just be covered, just break that one, we broke the whole thing.
God's people right now who have been made the righteousness of
God in Christ will tell you, that covetousness is still with
us. We can't ever make our boast that we fulfilled the law. Christ
is the one thing. The one righteousness we're looking
to. The one righteousness. Go to
Him, lay hold to Him, be like that publican that smote upon
his breast and couldn't lift up his eyes to heaven and said,
Lord have mercy upon me, the sinner. That's confessing I'm
not good. I need you to be my righteousness.
Christ said that man went down to his house justified. So He's the one thing we need.
We need Him to be our righteousness. Mark 5. Go back just a few pages
to Mark 5. When God makes us behold that
we lack this one thing, then God makes us desire in our heart
to seek this one thing. And this one thing, He's needful
to make us have this desire and to make us seek Him because He's
also the holiness of the heart. He's the one who makes the heart
pure. Christ did. Look here now, Mark 5.25, A certain
woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered
many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had,
and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. Now this is
a problem you and I have. You and I know by nature, being
conceived of Adam's corrupt seed, we have an issue of blood. Willie James, you got an issue
of blood. You got it from me, I got it
from my daddy, and all the way back to Adam. We are unholy. We have an unpure heart. It's
an issue of blood, a sin in nature, and we can't pay to have it cured,
nobody else can cure it for us, and we can't cure it. Verse 27,
and when she had heard of Jesus, that's where the cure comes.
This cure for this heart matter, this blood issue comes through
the ear. The spiritual ear. She heard
of Jesus. And she came in the press behind
Him. That means there was just a ton
of people all crowded around Him as He walked along. And she
worked her way up through that crowd, through that press of
people, trying to get up there and trying to overcome everybody
that got in her way and every obstacle she could. And she was
doing everything she could to get to Him. And it says, and
she touched His garment. For she said, if I may touch
but His clothes, I shall be whole. You see what she desired? She
desired one thing. If I can just have Him, if I
can just touch Him, He will make me whole. He will dry up this
issue of blood. He'll solve this problem I've
got if I just get to Him. She desired this one thing, and
you know what she did? She sought it. David didn't just
say, I desire this one thing. He said, this one thing I'll
seek after. There was a press of people that
would have kept her from Him had she not truly desired to
have this one thing, Christ. Verse 29, And straightway, as
soon as she touched him, straightway the fountain of her blood was
dried up. And she felt in her body that
she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him. You see, how are
we going to have a new nature? How are we going to have a new
man created in us? It's going to be by the virtue
of Christ in you. Making us one. with Him in that
new man. Oh, that old sin nature is still
going to be there. This is how it's going to be.
It's not going to be a plague to us like it was before insomuch
that He's going to make us see Him and desire Him and go after
Him and want to touch Him. Watch this. And He looked around
and He said, He turned Him about in the press and He said, Who
touched my clothes? He knew. He knew exactly who
touched Him. He's the one that made her heart
pure, spiritually pure to want to even come and touch Him about
this physical issue of blood. He's got to make our heart pure
to make us come to Him about this spiritual issue of blood.
When you come to Him, He's already healed your issue of blood by
giving you a new man. putting His virtue in you, making
you want to come to Him. And look, and His disciples said
unto Him, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and seest Thou
who touched me? Now let's learn from these disciples. They didn't know who touched
Him. And you and I don't know who Christ has given a new heart,
who He has given faith to believe. We don't know that. And let's
dare not give anybody a false hope, thinking they have when
they have it. They have Christ when they lack
this one thing. Verse 32, ìAnd he looked around
about to see her that had done this thing.î He knew and he looked
right at her. Why did he ask then? Hereís why
he asked. Hereís why he looked at her.
What was he drawing out of her? ìBut the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her.î She came and fell down before
Him and told Him all the truth. Right there in front of everybody.
You know what she did? She came there and fell down
at His feet and said, Lord, I had an issue of blood and I couldn't
cure it. I spent money, nobody else could
cure it. I got an issue of blood, nobody
could cure! And you're the only cure. You're
the one thing that could cure my disease, the great physician.
the great physician. See, Christ, when He's made the
heart pure, He's going to draw the confession out of that heart
too. To confess publicly, I'm a sinner and Christ is my righteousness
and my holiness. He's my righteousness and my
holiness. And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made
thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy
plague. Now, is there anybody here that
knows that you have this incurable issue of blood, this sin nature?
Well, there's one thing you need, and that's Christ. Has He looked
upon you? Has He made you come to Him over
every obstacle and cast all your care on Him just with the faith
so mighty that He's given you that you say, if I could just
touch Him, He'll make me whole? He doesn't even have to do anything,
but just be there and I'll be whole. Well, then He's going
to draw this confession out of you, publicly. He said everybody
that believes on Him, they won't be ashamed of Him. And they'll
confess Him. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. And when He's given you a new
heart, you're going to speak. You're going to say, I'm nothing
and He's everything. He's all. He's everything. And
you'll do it publicly. Now turn to John chapter 9. So
he's the one thing we need for righteousness. He's the one thing
we need for holiness. Turn to John 9. Well preacher, how much do I
have to know? I mean, don't I need to know
a certain amount of doctrine? Don't I need to know some church
creed and some church history? Don't I need to know some of
these things? There's but one thing you need. There's just
one thing, and that's Christ. Look here, after Christ gave
sight to this blind man, this blind man had been blind from
his birth, and Christ came to him and gave him sight. Now watch
this, verse 18, But the Jews did not believe concerning him
that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called
the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked them,
saying, Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then
doth he now see? His parents answered them and
said, ìWe know that He is our Son.î and that he was born blind. But by what means he now seeth,
we know not. Or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not. He is of age, ask him, he shall
speak for himself." Now why did they answer that way? Listen
to this. These words spake his parents because they feared the
Jews. For the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, then he shall
be put out of the synagogue. They feared man rather than Christ. They thought man could harm them
and Christ couldn't keep them from doing it. They didn't believe
Him. They didn't know Him. They didn't believe Him. They
thought these fellows would harm them and Christ would do nothing
about it, rather than fearing the harm that could come to them
for not trusting Christ, rather than the harm that they'd receive
from these men. Watch this now. And it says, "...therefore said
his parents, he's of age, ask him." Verse 24, "...then again
called they the man that was blind and said unto him, give
God the praise." We know that this man is a sinner. They're
talking about Christ. They say, give God the praise.
They don't believe Christ is God. He is God. They don't believe
it. And they don't believe that he's
the Holy One. They believe he's a sinner. So
they tell this man, give God praise. We know that this man's
a sinner. He answered and said, whether
he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know. Here's the one thing I know,
he said. This is the one thing I know, right here. Whereas I
was blind, now I see. He knew that Christ alone had
made him to see. He knew this man had done something
for him that nobody else could ever have done. This one man,
right? He knew this man. By what he'd
done for him, he knew him. He knew him. He knew who did
this to him. That's all this man knew. But
watch this. Watch what happens. Because he
knew Christ... Now listen to this man begin
to speak. Then said they to him again,
What did he to thee? What did he to thee? How opened
he thine eyes? And he answered them, I have
told you already, and you did not hear. Wherefore would you
hear it again? Will you also be his disciples? He really didn't know how Christ
made him see. He couldn't splice and dice the
doctrine and tell you exactly what all took place. One thing
I know, Christ did it. That's all I know, Christ did
it. Then they reviled him and they said, they aren't his disciple,
we're Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses. You know who the God was that
spake to Moses? That one standing right there,
that come right there in their midst, Christ. He's the mediator
between God and men and that law was given in the hands of
a mediator. Christ gave the law to Moses. Anytime God deals with
a man, He's dealing with a mediator. And they said, we know God spoke
to Moses, as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
Now these fellows knew a whole lot. They knew a lot. They could
have told you all about the Jewish tradition and the Jewish commandments
and creeds and they could have told you all about the law and
all about the history of David and the history of Elijah and
Daniel and all the prophets. They could have told you anything
you want to know about the doctrine. of God and the doctrine of the
coming Messiah. And they could have told you
all you want to know about a system of doctrine. But they didn't
know Christ. They didn't know Christ. This
one thing, they didn't know Christ. Look here, the man answered and
he said unto them. Now watch, when you know Christ,
you'll start knowing more. You'll start knowing the doctrine
and you'll start seeing Christ in the doctrine. Watch this.
The man answered and said unto them, Why, herein is a marvelous
thing. But you know not from whence he is, and yet he has
opened my eyes. He begins to look at Christ and
behold what Christ did for him and what He didn't do for this
people and now he knows something about distinguishing particular
grace that did something marvelous for him and passed these other
fellows by. And he knew who did it. That's
the important thing. He knew Christ did that. He did
it for him and passed him by. Christ did. Look at this. He says this, Now we know that
God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of
God and doeth his will, him he heareth. He knew Christ was not
a sinner because God heard him when he prayed. God gave him
sight. And he knew Christ was a worshipper of God and did God's
will because he knew God heard him. God gave him sight through
Christ's intercession. You see, when you know Christ,
you start knowing more about the doctrine. You start seeing
the doctrine. You start seeing Christ in the doctrine. But you've
got to know Christ. You've got to know Christ. Look,
and since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened
the eyes of one that was born blind? If this man were not of
God, he could do nothing. He knew because he knew Christ
alone had opened his eyes. You see, he knew Christ was of
God. He knew the Son of God had come in human flesh because he
knew Christ. He knew what Christ did for him.
Verse 34, They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether
born in sins, and dost thou teach us? You are going to teach us. We know everything there is to
know. You were born in sin and don't know a thing. You're going
to teach us. And they cast him out. And Jesus heard that they
had cast him out. And when He had found him, He
said unto him, Does thou believe on the Son of God? Now I want
you to see the difference between this man's answer and the Pharisee's
answer. This man didn't boast in his
knowledge. His heart's been broken. He's seen Christ. He knows Christ
now. And you know what he answered?
And Christ knew he knew him, and Christ gave him the faith
to know him. But look how he answered. He answered and said,
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? God's people
aren't going to go around boasting in our knowledge. We're not going
around boasting what we know. We come to Christ saying, Lord,
teach me who you are. Teach me who you are. This don't
ever end. This is the one thing I need
to know. Tell me who you are that I might
believe. Verse 36, ìHe answered and said,
ìWho is it, Lord, that I might believe on Him?î And Jesus said
unto him, ìThou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh
with thee.î This man was made to see and hear one thing, Christ. And he said, ìLord, I believe.î
And he worshipped Him. Thatís what will happen when
you know Christ. You believe on Him. and you'll bow down and
worship Him. That's exactly what... But now
here's a warning to those who think that we arrive at Christ
through our learning and our education and our knowledge and
you've got to get a certain degree of knowledge before you can come
to Christ. This is a warning right here.
Jesus said, for judgment I'm coming to this world. For judgment. For judgment. So that they which see not might
see. and that they would see might
be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words. Now listen to their answer. Listen
to their answer. That man who knew Christ, whose
heart was broke now, said, Lord, who is he that I might believe
on him? Listen to their answer. They said, Are we blind also? Are you saying we are blind?
We know so much, you think we are really blind? Now listen
to Christ. He said unto them, if you were
blind, you should have no sin. If you were blind, I would have
given you sight to know Me, and then your sin would be gone forever. But now you say we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. You see, Christ came to save
the ignorant. He came to save those that can't
get a knowledge and have no knowledge. And to give us a knowledge of
Him who is the Savior. And He came also to blind proud
know-it-alls. Proud religious know-it-alls.
He came to blind them. That's what He came for. Now,
does anybody here think you need to know more than Christ? If you put anything between you
and Christ, it will damn you. I guarantee you. To put a certain
level of knowledge between a sinner and Christ is no different than
to put a work between the sinner and Christ. Christ has to give
you a knowledge of Him. And when He does, you'll understand
what I'm talking about. Until the end, you won't ever
get it. You'll argue with me just like they argued with Christ.
I'm telling you that's so. But when Christ gives you a knowledge
of Him, Then you'll know Him. Then you'll understand what I'm
saying. Then you'll start seeing Him in all the doctrine. Then you'll see the doctrine
get all its light from Him and redound back to His glory instead
of it just being a system that you think you're saved by because
you've memorized it like you did the Ten Commandments. You
see, that's the problem. A whole lot of people haven't
switched an inch from their dead flesh. They once memorized the
Ten Commandments and thought they'd kept them and been saved
by them, and now they've just switched to the five points of
Calvinism and learned that and think they're saved because they
know that. And don't know Christ. The one thing needful. The one
thing needful. What about our service, though?
Well, let's go to Luke 10. Don't we have to serve the Lord?
Don't we need to serve Him? One thing is needful, before
we serve Christ, while we're serving Christ, and after we've
served Christ, one thing is needful. Christ. Christ. Or we can't serve Him. Watch
this now, Luke 10, 38. Now this is a believer, this
is a regenerated believer right here. She'd been brought to believe
on Christ. He gave her faith. He gave her
His righteousness, His holiness. He's made her completely whole
in Him by what He's done. Not anything she did. But watch
what happened. She still got that flesh with
her. Verse 38, Now it came to pass as they went that He entered
into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him
into her house. And she had a sister called Mary
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. And but Martha
was cumbered about much serving and came to Him and said, Lord,
dost Thou not care? Dost Thou not care that my sister
hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help
me." Have you ever been where Martha was? I've been there. I've been there. You feel like you're the only
one serving and nobody's helping. What happens when that happens?
The problem is not serving. That's not the problem. Here's
the problem. Verse 41, Jesus answered and
said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled
about many things. Your mind and your heart and
your thoughts and everything you're doing, it's all set on
many, many things. But one thing is needful. Just one thing is needful. Your heart needs to just be on
one thing. Look, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall
not be taken away from her. Now listen, every believer should
have the spirit that Martha had in that she received the Lord
and was willing to receive her brethren into her house and entertain
them. We ought to have that heart.
We ought to be more willing to receive our brethren than our
worldly so-called friends. That's right. Every believer
should do that. That's a good thing. The Scripture said, Be
not forgetful to entertain strangers. That's visitors. For thereby
some have entertained angels unawares. The Lord didn't rebuke
Martha for desiring to serve Him. We should serve Him and
believers do serve Him. We do serve Him. We serve Him
by making sure our doctrine is according to the Scriptures and
that every word we preach is true. We don't dilly-dally around
to the last minute to have a message. We work at it and practice and
study what we're going to preach to make sure it's according to
this Word. Put some time into it. Because it means something
to us. And we serve Him by coming here
to hear the Gospel every time we can. Every time the door is
open, we come here to hear the Gospel preached. That's serving
the Lord. Come and hear His Word. Hear what He has to say. and
by serving one another. Now putting our brethren on a
pedestal and making sure they've got everything they need and
whatever we can do to help them, we're going to help them. And
we serve by keeping up a nice building and by inviting all
we can to come and fill the pews so they can hear the gospel preached.
And we serve by hosting a conference and having preachers and visitors
come in and trying to entertain them and give them food and shelter
and whatever they need while they are here so they have the
very best accommodations possible. And we serve by sending the gospel
out from here and around the world to into this place right
here and all around the world. And in a lot of other ways we
serve the Lord. But as we serve the Lord, every
true believer is easily prone to become cumbered about and
to be careful and troubled about many things. Just like Martha. We can't blame Martha. That's
us, brethren. Martha's a picture of us. Christ
went there to that certain village, that certain house to teach you
and me something certain about us. That's us. We can become so careful about
our doctrine that we forget the one thing needful. We get, as
some of the old times used to say, we'd be straight as an arrow,
like a shotgun barrel. Straight as a shotgun barrel,
twice as empty. in our adoption. We come here
every time the doors open, get more cared about, more thinking,
more about the actual service itself, the mechanics of worship,
rather than the one thing needful. In any of these other ways, we
can get carried away with that. When we forget the one thing
needful, you know what we do? We blame others and we exalt
ourselves. That's what happens. Lord! Do
you not care? You mean we'll blame the Lord? Yep. We might only say, my sister's
left me to serve alone. That might be all that comes
out. But what we mean is, Lord, do you not care that I'm left
here to serve alone? And when we forget the one thing
needful, we become proud and presumptuous and bossy. Lord,
bid her therefore that she help me. We get bossy. While we worship or we serve
or whatever we do, the important thing to remember is what our
Lord says right here. One thing is needful. One thing is needful. Christ. Mary's chosen that good part. That one thing needful is the
good part. That one thing needful shall
not be taken away from us. What was it? She sat at Jesus'
feet and she heard His Word. Whatever you're doing, whatever
we're doing, Whatever we're doing to serve the Lord, we ought to
be in our hearts, seated at Christ's feet and hearing Christ's Word
while we're doing it. If we do that, we'll have the
one thing needful. We won't be looking to many things
and have our mind on many things and be covered about many things.
We'll have the one thing needful. Listen to the Scripture. Whether
therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to
the glory of God. How do I do that? Whatsoever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. How do I do that? Whatsoever you do, do it heartily
as to the Lord and not unto men. He narrows it right down, don't
He? To the one thing needful. Whatever you do, do it heartily
to the Lord. Have your focus on Him. He's
the one thing needful. We don't serve for servant's
sake. We don't serve for servant's sake. One day all these things
will be taken from us. We're not going to do this forever.
All these things that we think are important and think are so
necessary and our worldly friend, all that's going to pass away.
But if we have Christ, we'll have the one thing needful. And
I'll never be taken from us. So whatever you do, do it heartily
to the Lord. Don't you think, after Christ
spoke so tenderly to Martha, You know, there she is. When
he spoke to her, when he said, Martha, Martha, I bet her heart
started melting. And she heard what he was saying.
And it melted. It broke her heart. And in the
face of her sin, he forgave her. And I guarantee you the rest
of the time that she was going around, she had a house full
of folks. She didn't stop doing what she was doing. I guarantee
you her heart was on one thing, on her Redeemer. You know what
it is that makes us serve Christ, for Christ, and constrained by
Christ? Christ. When He forgives us in
the face of our sin, sinners like us who He purchased with
His own blood, and He forgives you and corrects you and turns
you back to Him, that's how you keep the one thing needful in
your heart and go about whatever He's given you to do. Otherwise,
we just see what we do. We'll be cumbered and thinking
about many things. When He's done that and shown
you, He still forgives you. Keeps you. Look into Him. Oh,
that just makes you have your heart on the one thing needful.
He does. When our heart's seated at His
feet, hearing His Word while we're serving, that's when we're
serving Him aright. So above all else, brother, Christ
is the one thing needful which shall not be taken from us. You know, I once was the last
face that a very, very, very rich man looked into before he
died. I went to this man. This man
had a car wreck and I knew him well. I worked for him one time.
And this man was... There's no telling how rich this
man was. This man started building cell phone towers in the 80s
before anybody ever knew anything about cell phone towers. Before
anybody knew it was going to be the money maker it is today,
this man was already in it. And I went up to his car and
he laid over there in the Lincoln Continental. He ran head on into
a gravel truck, big 18-wheeler gravel truck. And I put my hand
under his head and he looked me in the eye and he gave one
breath. And with that one breath, everything
that he had amassed was taken from him. All of it. It would be mighty shameful for
us to go through this life seeking many, many, many, many, many,
many, many things and then take that one breath and we are always
one breath away from all that being taken from us. Wouldn't it be a shame to go
amass all this wealth and have your mind and your heart set
on all these many things and then in one breath it all be
taken away and you never You never did get the one thing.
Out of everything we got, we didn't get the one thing. Wouldn't
that be a shame? Wouldn't that be a shame? Christ
is that one thing. Well, let's go now to Philippians
3. We're going to end with this.
What about our growth in grace? You know, people say, well now,
we've got to go back to the law. And if we're going to get more
and more holy, More and more holy and all. We've got to go
back to the law and we've got to do something. We don't get
more holy. We don't get more holy. When
Christ makes you holy, you're holy. You're either fit to be
a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light or you're
not. But He does grow us in that state of holiness. But He doesn't
do that by sending us back to Mount Sinai. We just need one
thing. We need Christ. Look here, Philippians
3.8, Paul said, ìYea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.î Heís
the one thing I want to know. ìFor whom Iíve suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but dung, that I might win the
one thing, Christ.î and be found in the one thing, Christ. Not
having mine own righteousness which is the law, but that which
is through the faith of this one thing, through the faith
of Christ, through His doing and His dying. The righteousness
which is of God, freely provided for me by faith. that I may know
the one thing, I want to know Him. And the power of the resurrection
of this one, of His resurrection. And I want the fellowship of
one, I want the fellowship of His sufferings. And I want to
be made conformable unto one, I want to be made conformable
unto His death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after. What? Christ the forerunner. That's who I'm following after.
I'm following after the one that's gone before me. I'm following
after Him to receive from Him understanding and growth and
to grow up into Him. That's where I'm going. Why did
Christ give preachers? That speaking the truth in love,
we might grow up into Christ. That's why. Not grow up into
Moses. Grow up into Christ. It's called
growing in the grace of Christ, His grace making you grow, plus
that grace in which He grows you, and growing in the knowledge
of Christ. It's by His skill and His knowledge
that He grows us, and it's by Him growing us to know more of
Him. So why would we look anywhere else? I'm following after Christ. Look here, that if I may apprehend
that for which I'm also apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I
count not myself to apprehend it, but this one thing. See that? One thing. Just one thing I seek. One thing I desire. One thing
I seek. Forgetting those things which are behind, I reach forth
unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the
prize. of the high calling. Is He just
wanting the high calling? Is that what He is? Is the mark
heaven? Is that what it is? Is the mark
the high calling? No, the one thing He is pressing
for is God in Christ Jesus. I'm running this race looking
to the author and finisher of my faith. I'm running this race
looking to Christ because one day Christ is going to raise
me up and I'm going to meet God my Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is everything. This
is what I'm trying to say to you. He's the mark. He's the
thoughts and purpose and counsel of God. He's everything God has
to say and He makes Christ everything to His people. He is the everlasting
covenant, Christ is. And He is the mediator and surety
and messenger of the covenant as well. And all the blessings
and promises of the covenant come from Christ to His people. He is the truth of the Scripture.
He is the Gospel. He is the one we're learning
about and hearing and rejoicing in. It's Him. It's Christ. And
all the graces of the Spirit, everything that He gives you
is to turn you to Christ from whom all those graces came. Through
the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. So we run this
race looking to Christ. Here's what I'm saying to you.
Christ is the one thing needful. One thing I've desired and one
thing I'll seek after. David said, that's Christ. That's
what all his people say. That's what we're being taught
more and more. We're being taught from these many other things.
When you get done, let me ask you, when you stand in that day,
who's the one thing that's going to be standing in front of you?
Christ. Do you really need anything else?
Not if you have Christ. Christ is all. And when you have
Christ, you have all. And if you don't have Christ,
you have nothing. And I pray He make us truly desire
Him and seek Him and Him only. We need Christ. That's who we
need. Amen. Alright, Brother Eric.