“ONE THING”
Colin Seeley
Mark 10: 17-22; John 9: 24-38; Luke 10: 38-42; 2 Peter 3: 8, 9
I wish to speak simply tonight – all the portions I have referred to make reference to a little expression, “one thing”. I think the time of the gospel is a time when God would point us to specifics, not generalities, not even what we would refer to as what we enjoy together, but the gospel is a time for individuals and a time for specifics. It might just be one thing that is hindering, and how sad that would be, because there is no need for anything to be in the way of you, or me, getting a blessing. God wants you, God has done everything in order to have you for Himself. God has provided His very best. Mr. Coates said, true glad tidings is that God needs you and God wants to have you for Himself.
The Lord looks on this man that we read about in Mark 10 and loved him, but He says to him, “One thing lackest thou”. Dear friends, how sad it would be if one thing got in the way of the blessing. I am glad to be able to tell you tonight about a Saviour who held nothing back. It says, “having found one pearl of great value, he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it”, Matt 13: 46. The Saviour whom we present to you tonight held nothing back. This man here, unfortunately, held something back, but Jesus held nothing back. From the moment He stooped from glory’s heights into this very world – not just any world, but the world that He had made with His own hands – He held nothing back. Jesus spent everything. His life here was a life of perfection, life where every step gave fresh delight to His heavenly Father – as I said, a life where He gave everything. He could not have given any more, nothing held back. Does that affect your heart tonight, that we present One to you who held nothing back? His whole life was just an outflow of love and grace from heaven. What a Person! From the moment He stooped from glory’s heights, every step, every action glorifying God, He healed the sick, everything He did was good, but He exposed what man really was. He exposed the sin in man and the judgment of the world was, “Away with Him, we will not have this man to reign over us” Luke 19: 14. This One who lived a life here that was apart from sin, One who lived a life here of complete perfection was rejected by men and was crucified – He held nothing back. What a Person! He went to the cross, suffered unspeakable things at the hands of men, sufferings that you and I would not have been able to cope with, but He went that way and at each stage He was forgiving, until he was on the cross and He could say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23: 24. Is He your Saviour? Not only sufferings at the hands of man, but sufferings at the hands of a righteous God in those three hours of darkness when the face of the earth was covered, that holy transaction between God and Jesus when He was made sin. Does that affect your heart that One so perfect, One who knew no sin became the sin offering that you and I might go free? He held nothing back.
After that momentous transaction, after that awful judgment, God’s wrath against sin had been exhausted. The Lord Jesus said, “It is finished; and having bowed his head, he delivered up his spirit”, John 19: 30. What a Person! Then it says, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear”. Think of that – love’s answer was the precious blood and water flowing from the side of a dead Christ. What an answer! The blood really is for God, but you need to shelter under it. The precious blood of Jesus was shed in order for atonement to be made. It says, “without blood-shedding there is no remission”, Heb. 9: 22. Are we all absolutely sure and secure in the knowledge that we are sheltering under the shed blood of Jesus? He held nothing back.
Then He went into the grave, this One who knew no sin went into the very area of the strong man, into death itself, into the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, setting out that the man who had offended God so much was removed for ever. What a Person! What a complete work! What a wondrous work! Dear friends, God would not have His loved One see corruption and He was raised from the grave by the glory of the Father. The glory of the Father raising His Son, what delight He had in Him and then He appeared to those who loved Him in those days after He was raised. Then He was taken up into glory. The One we present to you tonight as a Saviour is available and desires to fill your heart. My impression is that He was the One who held nothing back. He gave His all. God has given His all, God has given of His very best and the point of the glad tidings is, What is your reaction?
The Lord Jesus is a great test. There are a lot of men, women and children who say they believe in God, but the Lord Jesus is the test, “But, ye, who do ye say that I am?”, Mark 8: 29. Do we all have our trust and faith in Him who has finished the work, who shed His blood, who has been taken up in glory, who is on high? I trust that we all do. It is the most important thing that you have to see to in your whole life, to know that you have had to do with Jesus. If we have not we are like this man here and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; they will be no use to us when our life ends. We need to have a living link with Jesus, we need to be sheltering under the precious shed blood. It would appear that this man missed the blessing. Just “one thing”; the Lord would get at the one thing that may be keeping you. I do not know what it is for you. I might know what it is for me, but for this man here it was his riches, “One thing lackest thou: go, sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven”. What an invitation from the Lord! Anything that you give up as you commit yourself to Jesus tonight will be repaid ten fold. It has often been said, the Lord is no man’s debtor. God has provided everything for your blessing, but what is required in the glad tidings is for each of us to accept what God has provided.
I do not wish to be negative and that is why I wanted to read about the man in John 9: it is such a positive scripture. It has been well used in the preaching many times, but it is another “one thing” and this man held on to it. In the face of a relentless cross-examination he held on to this, “One thing I know, that, being blind before, now I see”. Dear friends, he was a believer. Are we all believers here? Think of what it means to God to have believers, those who know that Jesus has done something great for them and will not let go of it, irrespective of the questioning, irrespective of how tough it gets, “One thing I know”. How wonderful to be like that, to be a person who will not let go. He goes within the space of one chapter from being a man who does not know very much, apart from the fact that he had had his blindness cured, to being a worshipper. “Jesus said to him, Thou has both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he. And he said, I believe, Lord: and he did him homage”. What a result! What a result that would be in the gospel tonight, if, not only we became believers, but also we became worshippers. That is the result that God has in mind in the gospel, that we become worshippers. There are many wonderful examples in scripture of people who have become believers after having had a touch from Jesus. Think of the woman in John 4. What a believer she became, what an evangelist, but the impression and the burden of my heart tonight was that it is individual – “One thing I know”. Is that something that we can all say? The men of the city in John 4 said, “It is no longer on account of thy saying that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world” (v.42). Dear friends, have a personal transaction with Jesus tonight. Then you can say, “One thing I know” and it will be something you can look back on that will be a stepping-stone to the greatest blessings. But, you need to have a start, “One thing I know”. There are others as well and the Lord is able for any problems that we might have, the Lord is able for any exigency. Think of Thomas – often spoken of as ‘doubting Thomas’ – the Lord showed him His hands and His side. If we are concerned about our beliefs, the Lord would assure us tonight, He would call your attention to His hands and His side, and then He would say, “blessed they who have not seen and have believed”, John 20: 29. Be a believer, be able to say, “One thing I know”.
In Luke there is another “one thing” and, without wishing to be critical of Martha who came into great things, the Lord was not going to deny the good part and He says to Martha, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but there is need of one, and Mary has chosen the good part”. Dear friends, once we have put our trust and faith in Jesus, once we are sure of our beliefs, is there going to be a return flow? Think of what it means to Jesus to have those who sit at His feet. There is nothing wrong with service in its own place, but just to have time with Jesus! Mary was having time with Jesus and what that one thing meant to Him, sitting at His feet and listening to His word. I think now it would include remembering Him in the breaking of bread, an answer to His request. Think of what that means to God to have those who are answering to the Lord’s request in a world where He has been rejected, to sit at His feet, to worship, and to be involved in the whole flow of the worship of God. That would be another great end in the glad tidings that we come to have our active and vital part in that vital occasion, the breaking of bread and the worship of God.
Finally, there is another ‘one thing’ that Peter refers to in this solemn chapter, “But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some account of delay, but is long-suffering towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. The mockers mock and they say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3: 4), but just hold on to that one thing. You might say it is two thousand years that this dispensation has been going on, but with God that is as two days. The Lord is coming again, I can assure you of that. Mr. Coates wrote about a lost hope; let it not be a lost hope, but let it be a glorious living hope with us, and if it is a living hope with us, it will regulate our lives in every way. We cannot live lives here that are pleasurable to God in our own strength, we need to have the blessed Holy Spirit indwelling our hearts. That is another gift available, another blessing available in the glad tidings. There are so many blessings available in the glad tidings, forgiveness of sins, justification, reconciliation and the gift of the Spirit. Make sure we ask, and if we do ask the Father for the gift of the Spirit, He will be freely given to us and we can live the rest of our lives here waiting for this blessed event to happen, in a way that will be pleasurable to God. If it is a living hope with us it will be regulate our lives, “Let not this one thing be hidden from you”. The Lord’s return is near; let us be looking for it, let us be living our lives in a way that shows that we expect it each day.
I trust that what I have said is intelligible and that each of us may be assured, like the man in John 9, that we can say tonight, One thing I know. Let us at least have that tonight. One anchor for the soul, “one thing I know”. I trust we all do know that Jesus has done something wonderful for us. If He has, that is wonderful, and we can go on to the greatest blessings, and be looking for His return, a glorious living hope, not a lost hope.
May the Lord bless the word.
GLASGOW
27 July 2003