You're looking at verse 38 through
40. But you'll see my text as soon
as you come to verse 42. 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. But Martha was cumbered about
with much serving and came to Him and said, Lord, dost thou
not care that my sister hath let me alone to serve? Bid her
therefore that she come and help me. And Jesus answered and said
unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful, anxious," that word's
anxious, "...thou art anxious and troubled about many things,"
here it is, "...but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from her." That's the title
of my message. One thing needful. One thing
needful. Here God, by the Holy Spirit,
opens up a very intimate scene. Our Lord Jesus Christ coming
into the town of Bethany. He comes to the house of Martha
and Mary. And if you remember, Martha and
Mary are the sisters of Lazarus. These three siblings. He comes
to this house to abide with them. What a blessing. Our Lord directs
His way to this house. He seeks to abide with these
people. And we know this, that the Lord
loved Martha. He loved Mary and He loved Lazarus. John tells us this in John chapter
11 verse 5. It says, Now Jesus loved Martha
and Mary and Lazarus. He loved them. The Lord loved
this little family. And He entered into their home
and they graciously received and loved Him. All of them. We know that both of these women
were mentioned in this text. They're saved. These were believers. These were Christians. These
were servants of Christ, loved of Christ, and they believed
on Him. And you could read that account there in Matthew, in
John chapter 11, and you see their faith. You see how they
loved Him and believed on Him. They both surely loved Him and
worshipped Him, and they wanted to serve. This is very clear
in both of their actions. As the Lord comes in, Martha
begins to be working. She's preparing to serve the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Mary loves the Lord dearly,
and she sits down at His feet and worships Him. Now listen, I don't want you
to take away from Martha's love. Martha will be rebuked here in
a moment. But her love was great. She was
doing a good work. Can anybody deny that? She was
doing a good work. Preparing a meal for the Son
of God. Could you imagine that? Could
you even think that the Lord would come to your home? And
what would you not do for Him? Would you not do the best? Would
you not prepare the best that you possibly could for Him? That's
exactly what she did. Listen, I've been to people's
houses just preaching the gospel. And I'm telling you what, every
time I go to someone's house, they've got a spread for me. They work hard. It is a hard
work. It is a good work. It is a needful
work. that must be performed. They
had need of eating. Is that not right? They had need
of it. But here in her labor of love
and good work toward the Son of God, she made a great error. Martha made a great error. She
sent her service of the Lord in her work above hearing His
Word. She set her service of preparing
the meal above sitting at His feet. And this brought her much anxiety
and trouble. Now listen, if we're hard at
work, and everybody else is sitting around, what do you think? Your brother, your sister sitting
around, or somebody in your family sitting around, and you're out
there doing it, all by yourself, serving not just one man, but
he had twelve. There were at least fourteen
people she had to serve. Probably more. And she was all
alone. She was cumbered about, the Scripture
says, with much serving. She was cooking, she was cleaning,
she was serving the meal, she was picking up the spilled drink.
She was doing it all by herself. And Mary, what is she doing? Listen, it appears she's doing
nothing. She is sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ,
hearing His Word, listening to Him teach. It appears she is idle, and this
strikes an evil chord inside of the flesh of Martha, and she
says, Lord, don't you know? He's the Lord, of course he knows. She was so anxious with her service
that she even forgot who she was and who she was talking to. He said, Lord, don't you know
she needs to get up and help? But our Lord here rebukes Martha
and says to her, Martha, Martha. You imagine He says, verily,
verily, you know something important's about to come. When He says something
twice, He says, Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled
about many things. But here's a lesson, here's the
lesson that we all need to learn. One thing, one thing is needful. There are many things
that can be done, Martha. There are many things that you
are doing. There are many things you are serving. There are many
things that, yes, on their physical side are needful, but only one
thing is truly needful. Everything else is just fluff. There's one thing that's needful.
What is that? You listen, what Mary chose,
what was she doing? She was sitting at the feet of
Jesus and hearing His Word. There's one thing that is needful. This is a very important message
for all of God's saints. I want you to know this. Both
of those women were saved and they loved God. Both of them
desired to serve Christ. But the thing Martha had chosen
to perform, the good work that she had chosen to perform, she
had set too much value in her service. She was too busy serving
to sit and hear the Word of Christ. And that's my message. One thing
needful. One thing needful. I know that
we all have needs. Food is a need. We need food, we need clothes,
we need a home. We need people to love and care
for us. We need work to make a living
for our families. We need these things. You know
what the Lord said? That your Father knoweth what
you have... Listen, need of these things. There's no doubt you
have need of them. But I believe we often confuse
what we need with what we want. I need food. I want a steak. I need a shelter, but I want
a nice house. See the difference? There's a
need, and then there's a desire. I need transportation, but I
want a Bentley. You see? There's one thing that
you need and one thing that you want. And our wants are not always
our needs. You say, I need a good education,
and surely if you want a job that requires that education,
you're going to have to go to school to get it. You're going
to have to do it. But listen, it is not needful. It's something you want, but
it's not needful. You say, I need health. Health
is good. You should work hard. You should
try to be as healthy as you can. But what good is health without
Christ? What good are all your wants and even your needs without
Christ? They're meaningless and empty. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. That whole book is without Christ. Without Christ, vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. He goes through everything in
that book. Everything. He says, if you have riches,
I said, I had riches, what is it without Christ? Vanity of
vanities. Education, what is it without Christ? Vanity of
vanities. It's empty. Husbands, wives,
boyfriends, what is all that? Empty without Christ. It's empty. They have no value at all. And
I tell you, there's nothing wrong with any of those things in themselves,
are there? God gives to people, if God gives
you to be rich, okay, what is that? Really it's nothing. I
think it just causes more hurt, more heartache, not less. Nothing wrong with obtaining
these things that we need and want, but if they become the
object of our affection, If they are set above our worship
of Christ, they will only breed disappointment and anxiety and
trouble. Nothing else. Nothing else. The labor and service of this
flesh and the things of this world can never bring you the
joy they promise. They will only be disappointment
and fail to bring the joy that you think that they'll provide.
And this is even considering you who are believers in our
service to Christ. Churches are all about being
busy today. As soon as you get into a church
nowadays, they give you a job. Give you something to do. Keep
you busy. All the while, none of them are
worshiping Christ. What good is all their religious
service without Christ? It's empty. It's empty. And so it is with Martha. Here's
Martha serving the meal to the Lord Jesus Christ. But what did
it do? Did it bring her joy? Did it
bring her peace? No. She neglected the one thing
needful. And that was to sit and hear
His Word. She neglected Christ. I like
this in Haggai. You remember the Lord sent His
people back from Babylon to build His temple. And what did they
do? They began building their own
houses. They built their own houses. They got their own vineyards.
And yet there the Lord's temple lay, barren. Nothing. Wasn't nothing done. And God
said this. He said, You have sown much,
but you bring in little. You eat. But you don't have enough. You drink, and you're not filled
with drink. You clothe you, but you're not
warm. You earn wages to be put into a bag with holes.
Now that's service without Christ. That's service without Christ. Martha's labor was good and beneficial
to Jesus and his disciples, but it was lacking in that she chose
the lesser service. She failed to see the one thing
needful, which was to hear Christ. And it brought her nothing but
sorrow and trouble. Our Lord said this, seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then what? All these things
will be added unto you. If she would have sat and listened
to His word, her service would have been sweet and not anxious. Her good work would have been
beneficial and not yielded hostility toward her sister. May God teach us now this one
thing needful. Now I've got five things concerning
that are needful here. One thing is needful. What is
this one thing? And why is this one thing of
needful, which is sitting at the feet and hearing Jesus' words,
why is this needful? Why is this the most important
thing? What we are doing here is the most important thing that
could be done in the worship of Christ. sitting at His feet and hearing His word. This is
all you need. If you have this, all of the
rest becomes sweet. Even our sorrows are turned to
sweetness, sitting at His feet. Now then, I want to see five
things. First of all, Christ alone is needful because one
thing happens to us all. One thing happens to us all.
What is this one thing that happens to us all? Death. Death. No matter who you are, no matter
what you've done, if you are a king or a peasant, famous or
infamous, it does not matter if you're rich or poor, male
or female, young or old, this will happen to us all. We will
all die and stand before God. Ecclesiastes 3 in verse 19 says
this, "...For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts,
even one thing befalleth them. As one dieth, so dieth the other,
yea, they are all one breath. So that a man hath no preeminence
above a beast, for all is vanity, as all go into one place, All
are of the dust and all turn to dust again. Let us be very aware of this
truth. You would be wise to consider this. That we are closer to death today
than we were yesterday. We are. When our father Adam sinned,
death entered into the world. Death because of sin. Sorrow
because of sin. Sickness because of sin. Disease,
poverty, hatred, war, famine, all human suffering entered into
God's perfect world because of one man's sin. And at the moment Adam sinned,
he began to die. He began to die. Job says this, "...seeing his
days are determined, the number of his months are with thee,
as thou hast appointed his bounds, that he cannot pass." Don't you
see that? That there is a day God has set
for every one of us, a day of our death. And that is set. You
will not pass it. You will not go before, but you
will not pass it. You realize the arrogance of
man to boast that men, that we have prolonged men's lives. You
ever heard that? That science has prolonged man's life. No,
God did. God has set the bounds of our
habitation so that we cannot pass. I think it's good to exercise. I've tried to lose some weight.
I really tried. I've gained, lost, gained, lost,
gained, lost. I think it feels good to be healthy and you should
try to be as healthy as you can. You know, I read an article the
other day. This long distance runner, very healthy man, dropped
dead. You know why? God had set the
bounds of his habitation and all his exercise did nothing
to change that. God giveth life, and God takes
life. And none of us are able to escape
this. Consider then the frailty of
life, that it is but a vapor, that we are as grass, all flesh
is grass, and the goodliness, the beauty. Isn't that right? The beauty. How fast does beauty
fade? Fades quickly. It doesn't last. The flower, it fadeth away. The efforts of the flesh, the
success of business, the earthly joys and family relations, as
the flower of the field, it withereth and fadeth away. What endures
forever? What lasts forever? The Word
of God endureth forever. So what then is needful? Seeing
that all flesh shall die, what is needful? The Word of God.
Who is that? Christ. The Word of God endureth
forever. The best thing you can do, the
only thing needful for dying men is this, Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Why? Because in Him is life.
In Him is life. All men are dead or dying physically,
but the most important thing is that we died spiritually when
Adam died. What we need is spiritual life. Because the spirit is what continues. The flesh will die and decay,
but it is the spirit of man that continues on after death. And
only God can give spiritual life, and it's only through Jesus Christ
that God gives life. One thing is needful. Christ
is needful for life. You cannot have life without
Him. Jesus said, I know my sheep and
have known of mine, and I give unto them eternal life. Eternal
life! And they shall never perish,
He said of them. And yet men do not come to Christ.
They still desire the things of the world above Christ. It's
because they're dead. I don't like Christ. I don't
care for Christ. You know why? You're dead. You
have no life. And the sad condition you're
in is that you are dying physically. And soon you will face God. Soon
you will be judged of God. It is appointed unto men once
to die. And after this, what? The judgment. The judgment If you're without Christ, if you're without Christ, I hope
that God would impress upon you the urgency of sitting at His
feet and hearing His Word. That you would believe His Word. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the
only thing needful, because all those who will die in Him shall
be saved." Do you realize this? That you who are believers in
Christ, who know that He alone is needful. When you die physically,
you don't die at all. Jesus said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Do you believe
this? As a matter of fact, that's what
he said, I believe, was to Mary. Or to Martha, I'm sorry. Look now and see that God has
promised this, that death is coming, hell is moving, And all
who are outside of Christ shall be punished forever. Now you
pay attention to that. If you don't hear me now, you
will sure hear me in hell. I hope that God will give you
grace to hear me now. One thing is needful. Why? Because
one thing happens to all men. Death. And the only hope for
you is Christ. Secondly, Jesus is the one thing
needful because we are all lacking one thing. All men are going to die. One
thing happens to us all. Death. And one thing is lacking
in all of us. What is this one thing we are
lacking? Perfect righteousness. That's what you're missing. That's
what you don't have by nature. Perfect righteousness. God does
not accept the works of the flesh even because all we do is sinful. I don't think we can get this
across except the Spirit of God testify of it to your heart.
The plowing of the wicked is sinful. Is there anything wrong with
plowing? Plowing is good. You can't have any harvest in
that day except you plow. You have to plow. In order to
provide what you need physically, you've got to plow. There's nothing
wrong with plowing. It's good. But when the wicked
do it, it's sinful. Today, you're sitting and hearing
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But I tell you this, sin is mixed
with all we do here. So that even our worship, the
service of Martha for the Lord Jesus Christ was mixed with sin. It's mixed with sin. So we are
lacking this by nature. Go over to Luke chapter 18. A
few pages over to Luke chapter 18. This young ruler, he came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was lacking something. He
was missing something. He couldn't quite put his finger
on it. He knew that he needed it, but he just didn't know how
to get it. He was missing something. Verse 18. Luke 18, verse 18. And a certain ruler asked him,
saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said, why callest thou me good? None is good save one,
that's God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, honor thy father and thy mother. And he said, all these things
have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said, yet lackest thou what? One thing. Sell all that you have, contribute
to the poor, and thou shalt treasure in heaven. Come and follow me."
What was he lacking? He was lacking righteousness.
Jesus Christ knew the heart of this man. He had been religious
all of his life. And yet he knew he didn't have
eternal life. His conscience would not allow
it. His conscience condemned him that he was still without
eternal life. And he said, what am I missing,
good master? And he said, look, you're missing
me, first of all. You don't know who I am. You
don't know that I'm God. You call me good master, but
you should have known I was good because I'm God. I'm God manifest
in the flesh. You miss that. And if you miss
that, you've missed what you're lacking. And so then he began
to show him what he was lacking. He said, do the commandments.
And this man, in arrogance, he stood before the God of the universe
and said, I have done all these things. And Christ said, oh yeah? Let me show you. Sell all you
have and follow me. And what did he do? No. Couldn't do that. And when he heard these things,
verse 23, he was very sorrowful for he was very rich. See, covetousness. The Lord showed him his covetousness. What was he missing? He was missing
everything. To miss this one thing is to
miss everything. Righteousness. We have no righteousness. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. And by no work of the law or
obedience to the law can we ever obtain it. Work as hard as you want to.
Be as religious as you can. You will end up in the same condition
this rich young ruler came to. You will be sorrowful and you'll
go away from the only thing that can give you righteousness. What
was he missing? He was missing Christ. Christ
is the righteousness of God. The Son of God came down for
one purpose, to obtain righteousness by His faith for all of the elect. And he actually accomplished
this by his obedience to God. He obtained what you're missing.
Listen to me. One thing is needful. Righteousness. And the only place that righteousness
is found is in Jesus Christ. There is no other place where
righteousness is found. It will not find it in you. You
will not find it in me. You will not find it in your
family. You will not find it in your the religious experiences. Righteousness is in a person.
It's in Christ. So then what is needful? What
is needful? The one thing is needful is for
you to come to the feet of Christ and hear His Word. What is His Word? Forsake all
of that and follow Me. That was His Word to this man.
That's His Word to you. Leave it all. Why? It's not needful. Jesus said,
I'm the only thing needful. You need me because you lack
righteousness. And He has righteousness. So
then when that one thing that happens to all men, death comes,
we who have found Christ, we who have been found of Christ,
who know that He is the only thing we need. We have His perfect
righteousness. Listen to the hymn writer. Come
ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love, and power. Come, you weary, heavy-laden,
lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Feel Him prostrate in the garden. On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him, sinner. Will this not suffice? Is it not enough? Do you still think you have something
to contribute? Lo, the Incarnate God ascended,
pleads the merit of His blood. Venture on and venture wholly,
let no other trust intrude. because you lack everything and
He supplies everything come and worship Him one thing is needful and that
is to come to Christ that's the middle that's the
third thing is that one thing is needful if you know that all
things happen one thing happens to all man death judgment and
you know that righteousness you know that righteousness in only
come from christ and forgiveness of sin can only come from christ i want you understand this the
only The thing that's needful for you is to sit at His feet
and hear His Word. Hear His Word. Hear Him. I remember Brother J.D. came
in to me, and I believe the Lord began to move on him the very
night he came. He asked me this question, what
do I got to do? I've never heard this before
and I know I need this. What do I need to do? And he
recalled, the only reason I mention this is because he keeps reminding
me of it every time I talk to him. He said, I remember what
you said to me, pastor. Sit down and shut up and hear
the word. Listen. If you know these things,
you should be here every time the door is opened. Why? Because
this is where Christ is. Where two or three are gathered
together in My name, there I am in the midst of them. What do
you need? You need to be at His feet. You need to be hearing
His Word. You need to hear Him. One thing
is needful. If you are lost, one thing is
needful. You need to sit at His feet.
Don't sit at my feet. When you come here, you don't
sit at my feet. People sat at the... Paul said, I sat at the
feet of Gamaliel. What did that? Nothing. Don't
sit at my feet. Don't come hear me. You better
come to hear Him. You should come with a heart
to hear Him. Sit at His feet. You know what
you got to do to sit at someone's feet? you gotta bow down you know when you read of Mary
you know you always read of her at his feet she was one came
with that alabaster box of ointment and she knelt down at his feet
and you can't you can't wipe someone's feet with your hair
if you ain't down low and so to be at the feet of Christ you
must bow down you must bow down You must believe what He says. And so now that you have come,
you that have come, what are you to do? What are you to do? Everyone that has come to Christ
still comes to Christ. Is there any time that you don't
need to be at His feet? Is there any other place you
want to be? No. For the believer who understands,
he is the only thing needful. Listen, this is the one thing
every believer desires. This is the one thing that every
believer desires. Go to Psalm 27. Go to Psalm 27.
Psalm 27 and look at verse 4. It's what David said. Here, he
said this. Verse 4. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after. What is this thing, David? What
is this one that you have desired? That I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the beauty of
the Lord, and inquire in His temple, For in the time of trouble
he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about
me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of
joy. I will sing, yeah, I will sing
praises unto the Lord. If Christ is the one thing needful
for life and righteousness and for all our salvation, then how
should we ever neglect to worship Him? Let us understand then the importance
of public worship. To worship Christ is one of the
greatest desires of belief. Where did David say? He said,
the thing I want to be is in his tabernacle. I want to be
where he is. And when He hides me, where does
He hide me? He hides me in the secret place. In that place where
no man went but the high priest. In the presence of God, He is...
Is there any safer place to be than in there? No, not if you have the high
priest that removed the veil. There's no safer place to be
for us than to abide in His presence. David said one. And I like this,
the word thing there is really in italics, isn't it? It's not
even there. One have I desired. Not one thing. One person. And
that's the one I'll seek after. That's the one who will help
me. That's the one who will hide me. That is my rock. that I've
been set upon. He is the head that is lifted
up above mine enemies. You realize that my head is far
above my enemies? That no one could touch my head,
Jesus Christ? Therefore, no one could touch
me. I'm in Him. No one could touch me. One thing
have I desired? I desire Christ. Can you imagine that one day
we will actually be at His feet? This is not metaphorically. One
day we will literally be at his feet. There are many times I
can't seem to... I know this, John leaned on his
breast. Me, I just would settle for his
feet. with all your soul. When you're
at His feet, hang on with all your life. Adore them. Cherish those feet that were
pierced for you. Desire them. Long for them. Embrace them. One thing is needful. And that
one thing we desire above everything else. Is that the desire of your
heart? To be at His feet. And the last
thing is this. One thing for us to do. One thing
for us who understand this is the needful thing. There's one
thing for us to do. Go to Philippians chapter 3.
Paul tells us this one thing. If we know the need that Christ
is all we need, and we find all we need in Christ, and we desire
to be only and always at His feet, then there's one thing
for us to do. Look at this in Philippians chapter
3. Look at verse 13. Brethren, he said, I count not myself to
have apprehended What is he talking about? That righteousness that
he has. He said, I've counted all things
but lost, that I might be found in the righteousness of Christ,
not having mine own righteousness, which is the law, but the righteousness
of Christ. He said, yet I know this, I've
not yet attained to that righteousness. I've not yet full experienced
it. But, this one thing I do. What is that? forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things
which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many
as be mature, perfect, be thus minded, And if anything be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this to you." As we sit now at
the feet of the Christ and hear His Word, we're not idle. Alright,
who's been struggling? Who's been struggling? As you've
been here, you've been struggling. As you sit at the feet of Christ,
your flesh is tearing at you. Your mind is constantly wondering. You're struggling. So what must
we do? Set those things behind you. And we reach for those things
that are to come. You think of a runner as he's
trying to cross the finish line. You know how they stretch themselves
out. They reach! They press! They run! For what? The one thing that is needful. Christ. Christ. We press toward the mark of the
high calling of God in Jesus Christ. We must forget any goodness or
righteousness in ourselves. You can't sit at His feet if
you got any of that. We must count all our religious
services and works to be done only to be found in Christ. Let
me be clothed in His righteousness so that I may forget my rags.
Let me be sitting at His feet, so I may forget all my sins,
because He has removed them from me." Is that not the blessing
of sitting at His feet? That all of our sins are removed. We experience this. We feel this
within us that God has put away our sins. Where? At His feet.
That's the only place you're going to know that. That's the
only place you'll experience that, is at His feet. Let us
press toward this. Let us look forward to the things
that Christ has promised, waiting patiently by faith, pressing
toward that mark. And so then, seeing we all have
one thing that happens to us all, what is that? Death. Judgment. So the only hope for dying sinners
is who? Jesus Christ. The one thing needful
for dying sinners is Jesus Christ. Seeing that we all lack righteousness,
what's needful? Christ and His righteousness.
saying that jesus christ and alone as needful to atone for
our sins in robust in his righteousness we believe on him and yet like
martha we often fail the one thing me to sit at his feet and here's
word therefore we who know let this be our only desire Let us do one thing. Press toward
the mark of the high calling of God to sit at His feet. Isn't that what you're going
to be doing in heaven? Why should you not be seeking to do that
now? We should be doing that now. Listen, only then will your
service to Christ be sweet. Only then will your work for
Christ be sweet. If you sit at His feet and hear
His words. Is there anything else more needful
than that? No. My Master said one thing
is needful. And those who have chosen that
one thing, it shall not be taken from you. You got that? It shall
not be taken from you. I'm so glad that He promised
that. It shall not be taken from me to sit at His feet. Who shall
stand against me to sit at His feet? Who shall resist me to
sit at His feet? who shall condemn me that I cannot
sit at his feet? No one. May God help us to sit at his
feet, daily at his feet. It's needful. I'm so glad it's
one thing needful and not ten. You can't count very much, you
can count one, can't you? One thing is needful, Christ.
Everything else, put it away. it away. I pray God will help
us do that. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.