The message in Luke 10 verse
38. 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. She had a sister called
Mary which also, now watch this, sat at Jesus' feet and heard
his word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and she came to him and said, Lord, dost thou
not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her,
therefore, that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, Thou art careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing is needful. Someone asked me a question several
weeks ago that went something like this. Why don't we see more
people really converted to Christ today? Why don't we see more
people really converted to Christ? Now it's true that we have in
this day a large number of church members. I think about 50% of
the American people belong to or attend occasionally somebody's
church. We have a lot of religious people. We have a lot of religion. But
it doesn't take a wise man to arrive at the conclusion that
we don't have a lot of Christians. We don't have a lot of people
who are really converted to Christ. There are not many people in
whom you can truly see constantly the grace of God manifested. There is very little real godliness. I'm not talking about religion.
I'm talking about godliness. There is very little real godliness
in this day. Why don't we see more people
really converted? Why don't we see more people
really brought to Jesus Christ in a life-changing, heart-changing,
regenerating power? Well, first of all, it's not
because people of our day do not need to be regenerated and
born again. They certainly do. The need is
still the same. People are still in rebellion
against God. Sin is still sin, and the need
is still the same. The songwriter wrote, Change
and decay all around me I see. And that's true. Everything is
changing. Somebody said time changes everything. But here's one thing. Time has
not changed. It has not changed the need of
men and women. They're still lost. They're still
sinners. They still need Christ. They
still need the new birth. They still need a work of grace
in their hearts. So the reason people aren't saved
today is not because they don't need to be saved. They certainly
do. And then it's not because there's any unwillingness on
the part of God to save sinners. God is plenteous in mercy. God
delights to show mercy in 1973 just as much as he delighted
to show mercy in 1858 when there was reported a great revival
in this country. I was reading a sermon by Charles
Spurgeon several days ago in which he was talking about the
great revival that was sweeping America, and the sermon was preached
in 1858. He was rejoicing over the great
revival sweeping America. Well, God is still able to save
today, as he was in 1858. God is plenteous in mercy. David
once exclaimed, No man cares for my soul. God does. I'm sure
of that. I'm sure that God delights to
show mercy, and that He's able to save to the uttermost all
who come to Christ, all who come to Him by Christ. And why aren't
more people really converted today? It's not because of any
lack in the power of the atonement of Christ to save all who call
on the Lord. The blood of Christ is able to
save one, or it's able to save one billion. is able to save
one trillion. His blood is able to save to
the uttermost, and somebody said to the guttermost, them that
come to God by Him. Christ died for sinners. It doesn't
say He died for ten sinners. It doesn't say He died for a
million sinners. It says He died for sinners. And he's able to
save sinners, he's able to save the most wretched. He said, though
your sins be as scarlet, I'll make them as white as snow. Not
those Jewish sins, or Gentile sins, or American sins, though
your sins, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old you are,
though your sins be as scarlet, he's able to make them white
as the snow. So there's no lack in the atonement,
there's no lack of power in the blood of Christ. He died on the
cross for all who will look to Him, all who will call upon Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved, effectually, sufficiently, eternally. And then, why are not more people
really converted today? I'm not talking about walking
the aisle, there's enough walking the aisle now. Why aren't people
really being brought to a saving knowledge of Christ? It's not
because the gospel's not available. I heard somebody say one time
in answer to that question, the reason we're not seeing more
people converted today is because Christians are not witnessing
as they should. Well, maybe. What is witnessing? Witnessing, somebody said, is
just one beggar telling another beggar where he got his bread.
That's about all it amounts to. Now you might go out and find
somebody that's a Republican and argue with him long enough
and he'll change and register a Democrat. You might have that
kind of persuasive powers. You might go out and find someone
who lives in West Virginia and argue about the facilities of
Kentucky and persuade him to move over here. You might have
that kind of power. But you don't have the power
that brings people to Christ. That's the Holy Spirit's Word. You don't have the power to change
a registered sinner to a registered child of God. That's the Holy
Spirit's Word. You don't have the power to take
a citizen of the dunghill and make him a citizen of heaven.
That's the Holy Spirit's Word. You can tell him where you got
your bread. And you can tell him who supplied your need, and
you can tell him who saved your soul, but you can't save him. That's God's business. Salvation
is of the Lord. David said the salvation of the
righteous is of the Lord. Why don't we see more people
really converted? Don't blame it on the preachers.
Don't blame it on the Christians because they're not witnessing
the Gospels available. The Gospel's available, the Bible's
available, it's printed in every language on the globe, just about.
You know, in Jeremiah chapter 8, I hear preachers preaching
sermons on this text found in Jeremiah chapter 8, where it
says, the summer, the harvest is past and the summer has ended
and we're not saved. But you know, if you read the
preceding verses, Jeremiah tells you Tells these people why they're
not saved. He says in verse 6, he says,
no man repented. The reason they're not saved,
he said, is nobody repented. You can't have faith without
repentance, you can't have salvation without repentance, you can't
have Christ without repentance, except you repent, you'll perish.
And then in verse 7, in the last line, He says, the people know
not the judgments of the Lord. They don't discern the judgments
of the Lord. They don't discern God's hand
in things. They don't see God's hand in
everything. Our common expressions today
is, well, as luck would have it. Or something like this, well,
we sure did have good luck. It just so happened that it didn't
happen to us, it happened to somebody else. Just so happened.
We don't see the hand of God in things. We're not God conscious.
We're not aware that everything that lives and moves and has
a being lives and moves and has its being in Him. He's the first
cause of all things. He said they don't know the judgments
of God. Don't discern them. And then
verse 8, he says, I'll tell you why you harvest this pasture.
The summer's ended and you're not saved. Verse 8, all of you
saying, we are wise and the Lord is with us. We're smart. We are theologically sound. We're
orthodox. I pass churches all the time,
and out front it says they're fundamental. You know what they
mean by that? They mean they've got all the answers. All the
answers, they're fundamental, orthodox, theologians, they've
got all the answers, we're wise, and God's law is with us, and
God's with us. And then verse 9, he said, you've
rejected the word of the Lord. You've adopted your creeds, you've
adopted your catechisms, you've adopted your dogmas, but you
rejected the plain, bare Word of God Almighty. That's what
you've turned your back on. And then verse 11, another reason
why you're not converted, he said, why the harvest is already
past and the summer is ended, when kings go to war and rescue
people, overturn governments, is you're sitting around saying,
Peace! Peace! And there is no peace.
It's a false peace. You're hiding in a false refuge. You've got a refuge of lies,
and you're saying peace, and there is no peace. And the other
reason is, verse 12, were you ashamed when you committed abominations? No. He said you were not at all
ashamed. Well, that's the answer Jeremiah
gives. Why aren't more people converted,
the harvest is past, the summer is ended, we're not saved? That's
Jeremiah's answer. He said you didn't repent. He
said you weren't discerning the judgments of God, the hand of
God. You're sitting around talking
about how smart you were, and how fundamental you were, and
how orthodox you were, and how that God was with you and God
wasn't anywhere near you. And you rejected God's word and
you cried peace when there is no peace and you were not humbled
and ashamed because of your sin. Brother Roth Barnard preached
a sermon a few years ago entitled, Where is the Salvation of the
Lord? Where is the Salvation of the
Lord? He talked about in his early
days back in 1930 and the late 20s how that he saw God move
in power. And the last 25 years he had
not seen that. He'd not seen God move in power. He'd not seen people broken under
the preaching of the Word. He'd not seen men smitten and
convicted and tears streaming and hearts broken and people
crying out, what must we do to be saved? But to just sit and
look at you and get up and walk out. And he gave four answers
to the question, where is the salvation of the Lord? The first
answer was this. There's no more mercy for America.
America has sinned away her day of grace. America has sinned
against more light than any other nation. I'm not saying that's
true. I'm saying there's a possibility.
America has sinned against more light than any other nation on
the face of God's earth. You know what the Lord said to
Noah? My spirit shall not always strive
with them. Man's days shall be a hundred
and twenty years. And after that, no mercy, no
grace, no salvation, just judgment." And that may be the answer. And
the second answer he gave was this, no burden. He said, in
this day of prosperity, in this day of plenty, in this day of
good health, He said, I go from city to city and I can't find
anybody that needs the Lord. Or when they have an automobile
wreck and wind up in the hospital, they need the Lord and they ask
you to pray for them. Or when somebody gets sick, faces
death, they call the preachers and say, pray for me. Or when somebody faces some kind
of crisis, somebody dies, you know, and they call up and say,
pray for us. But unless somebody's sick, unless somebody gets hurt,
unless somebody dies, the preacher's phone never rings. Nobody ever
says, pray for me. There's no need. If our physical
needs are met, if our material needs are met, If our passions
are satisfied, we don't need God. Who needs God? How long has it been since anybody's
asked you to pray for them, unless they're sick? How long has it
been since you've prayed for yourself? How long? And then the fourth answer he
gave is this. He said, there's nobody seeking
the Lord. No seeking the Lord. Where are
the people who are crying out to God? The Scripture says, seek
ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.
Ye shall find me when ye seek me and search for me with all
your heart. Who's really seeking the Lord? You know anybody that's seeking
the Lord. And then the fourth reason, he
said, where is the salvation of the Lord in this day? There's
no vision. He said, without a vision, the
people perish. Now we use that for missionary
sermons. When we want somebody to give,
to send a missionary to the foreign shores, we say, without a vision,
the people perish. Well, that's not what the prophet's
talking about there. This vision has to do with an
understanding, an understanding of sin, an understanding of death,
an understanding of judgment, an understanding of what happened
on the cross, an understanding of the unspeakable gift of God's
love. There is no sight, there's no
awareness, there's no understanding, there's no vision. We see no
further than right here. We see no further than our pains. We see no further than our inconveniences. We see no further than our jobs. We see no further than our houses.
We see no further than our clothes. We see no further out yonder
than our own immediate family circle. That's as far as our
vision goes. And without a vision, a vision
of judgment, A vision of meeting God someday. A vision of what
happened back there on Calvary. A vision of God's purpose and
plan from eternity to eternity. What's God doing? In what direction
is the Redeemer moving in my day? I need a vision. I need
to lift up my eyes and look, and strain my ears to hear. and
apply my heart to understand that there's more going on in
God's universe than is going on in my body, and in my home,
and even in this congregation, and in my town. There's something
else going on. There's a God to glorify. There's
a redemption to honor. There's a Savior that's going
to be exalted. There's a King to worship. And
it's a whole lot more important than me, or you, or ten million
like us. I need a vision. I need to look
beyond myself, and that's one of my biggest problems. Now,
why aren't people converted in our day? Well, I believe the
best answer to that, and I've looked over all these other answers,
and I think this is the answer right here in my text. which
I've read to you tonight. I think it's found right here
in this story. There were two sisters, Martha
and Mary, and the Lord Jesus Christ came to their town, to
their village, and this woman Martha invited him to come to
her home for a meal. And evidently, I'm paraphrasing
a little bit, but evidently the Lord came to the house and he
went in the parlor, or in the front room, and he sat down and
he, as he always did, began to exhort. He began to teach. He began to have those heavenly
words of mercy and grace to flow from his lips. Those words of
God's love and God's mercy and God's grace just fell, grace
fell from his lips. And the disciples evidently were
with him because he wasn't talking to the wall. But they were sitting
around, and at his feet on the floor was a young lady, Martha's
sister named Mary. And she was, the Lord was in
her house. It was the house of Martha and
Mary, and here she was sitting at his feet, listening. Not saying a word, just listening.
Listening. Just soaking up the grace of
God. just absorbing the mercy of Christ,
just sitting there at His feet, taking in everything that He
said. And the door into the parlor
opened, and in came Martha. And I just imagine she had her
hands on her hips in an attitude of utter disgust. And she said
to the Lord Jesus Christ, she said, Don't you care? It sounds like the disciples, when
the Lord was asleep in the back of the vessel, you know, and
they were so worried, afraid he was going to sink, and they
came back in and said, Lord, don't you care if we perish?
Don't you care if we die? Don't you care if we drown? And
she came in there, and she was rebuking the Master. That's exactly
what she was doing. Don't you care that my sister
has left me to cook the food? set the table, prepare the meal,
and serve you people by myself? Tell her to get up off the floor
and come in here in the kitchen and help me out." And the Lord
Jesus Christ said, Martha, Martha. And the fact that he said her
name twice was a rebuke, it was a tender rebuke, It was also
a feeling of unhappiness with her, with her attitude. And also
revealed his unhappiness with her inability to see what is
most important. Her adolescence, her spiritual
adolescence. He says, Martha, Martha, you're
careful and troubled about many things. She was too. She's troubled
about the dishes, and troubled about the food, and troubled
about the tablecloth, and troubled about whether she's going to
have enough to serve everybody, and troubled about what they
were going to drink, and troubled about this, and troubled about
that. She was troubled and careful about many things. But he goes
on, and he said, but one thing is needful. Now we have no difficulty at
all, if you'll stay with the story, you have no difficulty
deciding what that one needful thing is. It's very obvious what
it is. The one thing needful is what
Mary had chosen and what Martha had ignored. That's the one thing
needful. Christ went on, he said, but
one thing is needful and Mary had chosen that one thing. She's chosen that, and it'll
never be taken away from her. What was it? The one thing needful
which Mary had chosen was to sit at the feet of Christ and
hear His Word. That's exactly what it is. John
Gill said this, The one thing needful to which our Lord referred
in Luke 10.42, is that in which Mary was engaged at that time. To sit at the feet of Christ's
blessed feet and to hear his glorious gospel is the one thing
needful. This is necessary to a knowledge
of myself, this is necessary to a knowledge of Christ, this
is necessary to salvation, this is necessary to eternal life.
Now Christ didn't say this is the only thing needful. We need
the work of the Holy Spirit, we need the gift and grace of
the Father, we need the Spirit to teach us that we might grow
in grace, the knowledge of Christ, we need to worship, we need to
witness, we need to pray, we need to give, we need all these
things. Christ doesn't say it's the only
thing needful. His meaning is plain. Mary sitting
at his feet, hearing his word, was the one necessary thing in
opposition to what Martha was doing, taking care of the unnecessary
things. Now, sitting at the feet of Christ
implies several things. First of all, it implies submission. The sinner has laid down his
pride. The sinner has laid aside his
human strength. The sinner has divorced his own
wisdom and his own works, and he humbly acknowledges his emptiness,
and he sits at the feet of his Lord, empty, asking to be filled. That's the place of submission. Now, as I give these things that
this posture implies, maybe one of us can tell why we're not
there. Are we too proud to sit at his feet? Are we too proud
to say, Lord, I don't know anything? I don't have the answers. Lord, I'm just a child, teach
me. Mary was submissive. She curled
up at his feet. and sat there like a humble child. She was a full-grown woman, and
yet she sat at the feet of Christ in submission and listened to
Him teach. Secondly, it implies faith. Maverick
believed what he said. Maverick was willing to sit at
his feet and be taught. We have so few people today who
are willing to be taught. They already know everything.
And really, Paul says they don't know anything. Christ said, you
need to know the scriptures nor the power of God. You don't know
anything. Before we can learn, we've got
to unlearn. Before we can be filled, we've
got to empty out all of this rubbish that's already been put
there. The hardest thing in the world for us to do is to part
with our traditions. The hardest thing in the world
is get people to forget what they always thought. Well, I've
always thought this, and I've always believed this, and I've
always believed that. Mary had to unlearn, and she
was willing to unlearn. She was brought up, I'm sure,
an Orthodox Jew. She was brought up in the synagogue.
She was brought up in all of these traditions, and she had
to unlearn them. And her faith brought her to
his feet in a willingness to unlearn. and to be tall. And this posture implies love. I guarantee you, like the woman
who bathed his feet with tears, Mary would never have sat at
the feet of this man if she did not love him. I guarantee you
that. Her pride would not have let
her sit at his feet. But she loved Christ. And her
love for him brought her to his feet as a willing pupil. And those who love Christ and
those who have confidence in Christ are willing to sit at
the feet of Christ. And they're willing to listen
to him. One thing is needful. Now I want
to look at four words in closing. Four words. The first word is
but. B-U-T. Our Lord said in the previous
verse, He said, Martha, and I wish I could say it like He did. I'd
rebuke myself. I wish I could say it like He
did. I wish I could say it like Christ. Martha, Martha. My, my. You're so troubled about
so many things. Martha was a worker. Martha was
anxious about the house. Martha was a good woman. Martha
was a good worker. Martha was aware of the time.
She was aware of the table. She was aware of the food. She
was aware of the entertainment. She was aware of the heat. She
was aware of all things. She was really aware of those
things, and she cared, and she did all her she could. She did
her utmost to make it right. for the Lord and His disciples.
She was entertaining the Lord. She was serving the Lord. And Christ said, Martha, you
are troubled about so many things, but, but, you're too busy to
take care of the one thing that's really necessary. Do you reckon
that's true of me and you? You men here, you're hardworking
men, you're earning bread for your household. You're a good
bread earner. You're a good man. I'm talking about as people of
this world go. You're a good hard worker. But,
there's better bread to be eaten. There's better bread. You're
an anxious mother. You women are good mothers. You
take care of your children. You provide food and you provide
clothing for your household. But our Lord said, Consider the
lilies of the field. They don't thaw, neither do they
spin. And yet Solomon in all his glory
was never dressed up like one of those lilies. And consider
the birds of the air. Not one of them falls to the
ground without your heavenly Father. But they don't store
in barns, and yet your Father provides for them. Don't you
think he'll provide for you? Oh, ill little thing. You're a builder of programs
and organizations, and when you leave this earth, you're just
liable to have your name on a monument somewhere. But heaven and earth are going
to pass away, and so will that monument. And not one stone is
going to be left standing on top of the other. That's the
reason Christ said, Martha, she came to that door. And she said,
don't you care that I've got all this to do by myself? You
tell my sister to get up off the floor and come in here and
help me. He said, Martha, you're careful about many things. Not
a one of them are going to live, not a one of them are going to
stand, not a one of them are going to exist after you die.
One thing is needful. And that's what Mary's doing
right here. You make people happy, but death's
not funny. You make people happy, but judgment
is serious business. You're a great entertainer of
people, but eternal hell's not funny. And it'd be better to
go to heaven with patches on my britches and a sad countenance
than to laugh my way to hell. You're a religious worker. You
labor to build morality and build charity and build organizations
and all these things. But all these things are nothing
but vaguely covering without the righteousness of Christ.
Martha, you're too busy serving the Lord to sit at his feet. And I really believe, my friends,
and I wish I could talk to the whole world tonight, I believe
religion is too busy serving the Lord to listen to Him. I think religion today is too
busy serving the Lord to sit at His feet and do the one thing
He said was necessary and needful above all things, and that's
to hear His Word. To hear His Word. The second
word, quickly, he said, but one thing is needful. That's the
word of concentration. I'm glad the Lord said one thing.
A man can't do two things well. A man can't serve two masters.
Many men have lost an entire lifetime trying many things and
doing nothing well. Now, I can't master doctrine.
I've tried. I can't do it. I can't remember
dates. I can't remember these Hebrew
names. I can't remember which king was
head of which tribe, and I can't remember those things. I can't
write books. I can't sway multitudes. I can't
make a great name for myself. I can't feed the world. I can't
feed the world, but I can sit at Jesus' feet. And I've made
up my mind that that's where I'm going to sit. I'm going to
be a Mary who sits at his feet and hears his word. And all of
the other things are not so important anymore. They get less important
every day. The most important thing, he
says, Martha, one thing, just one thing is needful. Heaven and earth shall pass away.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass
away. One thing is needful. And Mary's
chosen that. And then the next word I see
quickly is the word needful. One thing is needful. This one thing overrides all
other considerations. Now like you, I have about me
a crowd of things vying for my attention. A pastor is human
just like you are, and these things vie for my attention,
demand my attention. Politics, it's easy to get involved
in these things. I've had preacher brethren to
get involved in these things. I'm going to be perfectly frank.
This message is going over the radio, but I'm going to be perfectly
frank. I had a minister say to me a few days ago, a young minister,
29 years old, he says, have certain conservative leanings. He said,
I'm not a liberal, I'm a conservative, and he said, it's gotten out
that I'm a conservative type person and the John Birch Society
has contacted me and they want to meet in my home, they want
to have a meeting in my church. And I looked at him and I said,
if you want to write Ichabod over your ministry, if you want
to write Ichabod, that's the glory has departed over your
church, you have one John Birch meeting in your church or in
your home. And that's the end of your ministry. That's the truth. We preach Christ
and Him crucified. We're not preaching politics,
conservatism, liberalism, or anything else. That's right.
And if you want to kill your ministry, you do that. I hope
I helped him. I hope I don't offend you. But
if I do, that's all right too. I've seen it kill men's ministry.
You have the business world. You have sports. You have education. You have philosophy. You have
friends. You have family. You have these things tugging
at you and pulling at you. You have them vying for your
attention. And Christ said one thing is
needful. These things are inviting, these
things are desirable, these things are entangling. But of which of them can it be
said? Think with me now. Don't get
mad, just think. Of which of these things can
it be said? Education, philosophy, politics,
entertainment, Of which of one of them can it be said, this
one thing is needful? Huh? Not of one of them. But
brother, it can be said of this, this one thing is needful, to
sit at his feet and to hear his word. And I invite you there. I can say that sitting at the
feet of Christ and hearing his gospel is needful because it's
the difference in life and death. It's a difference in freedom
and slavery. It's a difference in heaven and
hell. You want to make good citizens, preach to people, bring them
to Christ. If you want to make honest businessmen, preach the
gospel to them, bring them to Christ. If you want to make good
husbands, good wives, preach the gospel to them, bring them
to Christ. That'll make them good husbands and good wives
and good children and good citizens, good businessmen. Make them courageous
and strong. Christ will. And then the last
word, one thing, is needful. Not tomorrow. It is needful. It is not written, one thing
shall be needful. It is not written, one thing
ought to be needful, or one thing was needful. It is needful. I'm 47 years old, but I can still
think. pretty keenly. I can still reason. I can still give my attention
to some things. I can still organize my thoughts. I'm not to the point yet that
I lose interest in things. And so I better focus my attention
on that which is needful while I still can. The day is coming
when I won't have these faculties. That's the truth. Age robs you
of those things. The day will come when I won't
have that keen sense of discernment, because age will rob you of that. And also, procrastination will
harden you. And if you keep reaching for
other things, God's going to let you get a hold of them after
a while. That's right, I've seen that happen. You keep reaching
for those things, and God lets you get them. And when you've
got them, you don't have anything. And so while I still have youth,
and while I still have an alertness, and while I still have my faculties,
and while I still can devote some reasoning and some understanding,
I'm going to give it to that which is needful. Like this young
woman who left the kitchen and left the serving and left the
table and came in here and sat down at the feet of her Lord
and turned her face up into His and said, Teach me. Teach me. And the Lord Jesus said, This
is it. This is the good part. All that's going to be taken
away from you, Martha. You're not going to have a table to put food on
someday. You're not going to have dishes to spread. You're
not going to have these things. Mary's going to have what she's
got right here. She'll have it throughout eternity. And that's
the reason people aren't converted to Christ. Well, they don't know
Him. They're not sitting there. How can you call on somebody
in whom you hadn't believed? How are you going to believe
in somebody you hadn't heard? And how are you going to hear unless
you sit at His feet and listen to His Word? Our Father in Heaven
make disciples of us, make learners of us, turn our affections off
the world. We're not going to straighten
out a godless world. We're not going to change the
direction of an ungodly generation. It takes our power to do that. But our hearts can be broken.
We can be brought to be filled with that which is needful. Our
lives can be dedicated and our hearts consecrated and our attention
focused completely on that one thing that's needful, sitting
at his feet, sitting at the feet of Jesus, to hear his word. In his name we pray, amen.