A THREEFOLD MOTTO

NO. 3536

PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND, 1916.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“One thing is needful.” — Luke 10:42.

“One thing I know.” — John 9:25.

“One thing I do.” — Philippians 3:13.

I Have “one thing” in view — ”one thing” on which I want to rivet your attention. Forbear with me if I detain you a few minutes before announcing a text. It has been said that a man of one book is terrible in the force of his convictions. He has studied it so well, digested it so thoroughly, and understands it so profoundly, that it is perilous to encounter him in controversy. No man becomes eminent in any pursuit unless he gives himself up to it with all the powers and passions of his nature — body and soul. Michaelangelo had never been so great a painter, if his love of art had not become so enthusiastic that he frequently did not take off his garments to sleep by the week together; nor had Handel ever been such a great musician, if his ardor for sounds celestial had not led him to use the keys of his harpsichord till, by constant fingering, they became the shape of spoons. A man must have one pursuit, and consecrate all his powers to one purpose, if he would excel or rise to eminence among his fellows.

When streams of water divide themselves into innumerable rills, they usually create a morass, which proves dangerous to the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Could all those streams be dammed up into one channel, and made to flow in one direction, they might resolve themselves into a navigable river, bearing commerce to the ocean, and enriching the people who dwelt upon its banks. To obtain one thing, one comprehensive boon from heaven, has been the object of many a saintly prayer, like that of David, “Unite my heart to fear thy name” The advice of Paul was, “Set not your affection upon things on earth,” not “your affections,” as it is often misquoted. The Apostle would have all the affections tied up into one affection, and that one concentrated affection not set upon earthly things, but upon things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. The concurrence of all our powers and capacities with one single impulse, to obtain one object, and to produce one result, is one great aim of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The “one thing” concerning which I am now about to talk very seriously to you will require three texts to elucidate it. There are three pithy passages of Holy Scripture which I shall endeavor to press home on your heart and conscience.

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I. One Thing Needed.

Our first text is to be found in the Gospel according to St. Luke 10:42, “One thing is needful.” This one thing, according to this passage, is faith in Christ Jesus, the sitting down at the Master’s feet, the drinking in his Word. If I may expand for a minute the “one thing,” without seeming to make twenty things of that which is but one, I will refer it to the possession of a new life. This life is given to us when, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we are created anew in Christ Jesus, and it develops itself in a simple confidence in Jesus, in a hearty obedience to Jesus, in a desire to be like Jesus, and in a constant yearning to be near to Jesus. “One thing is needful”; that one thing is salvation, wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, through faith which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The new heart, the right spirit, a filial fear of God, love to Jesus — this is the “one thing needful.” How I trust you all know how to distinguish things essential from things convenient, and that you are more concerned about needful things than about things merely attractive, or, at most, but accessory to your welfare. The little child may admire the field which is covered with red and blue flowers; the husbandman cares nothing for these flowerets; he delights in the wheat that is ripening for the sickle. So our childish minds are often fascinated with the flaunting flowers of fortune and fashion; craving after wealth, and fame, and worldly distinction; but our better reason, if it be allowed to speak, will prefer the necessary things, the things which we must have, or else must perish. We may do without earthly goods, for thousands have been happy in life and triumphant in death without any of the luxury which riches can purchase. The heart’s love of his fellow-creatures has been fairly won by many a humble man wee never courted popular applause. The patience of the poor has often counted for fine gold, while the pride of the affluent has passed for nothing but foul dross. Even lack of health, heaven’s priceless boon to mortals here below, has not hindered some precious sufferers from serving their generation, glorifying God in a martyrdom of pain, and bequeathing treasures of piety to a grateful posterity. Ten thousand things are convenient; thousands of things are desirable; hundreds of things are to be sought for; but there is one thing, one only thing, the one thing we have described to you, of which our Savior speaks as the “one thing needful.”

And, oh! how needful it is! Needful for your children — they are growing up about you; and much joy they give you; for you can see in them many budding excellences. To your partial eyes they give promise of goodness, if not of greatness. They will be the comfort of your declining years. You have carefully watched their education. Not a whit of their moral habits have you failed to overlook. To give them a fair start in the world has been your fond desire till their portion is the fruit of your providence. From perils you would protect them. Lest they should have to rough it, perhaps, as much as their father before them, you would pilot them through the straits. Good! but, dear parents, do recollect that “one thing is needful.” For your children, that they may commence life, continue in life, and close life honourably, it is well that they should be educated; it is well that morality should be instilled into them, but this is not enough. Alas! we have seen many leave the purest parental influences to plunge into the foulest sins; their education has become but a tool for iniquity, and the money with which they might have helped themselves to competence has been squandered away in vice. “One thing is needful” for that bright-eyed boy. Oh! if you can take him to the Savior, and if the blessing of the Good Shepherd shall alight upon him and renew him while yet a child, the best will have been done for him — yea, his one chief need supplied. And if that dear girl, before she comes to womanhood, shall have been led to that blessed Savior who rejecteth none that come to him, she will have received all she shall want for time and for eternity. Quicken your prayers, then, dear parents. Think of your children, to seek their welfare more intelligently. Be more importunate in intercession on their behalf. Truly, this is the one thing needful for them. One thing, too, is needful for that young man just leaving home to go out as an apprentice and learn his trade. That is a trying time for an untried hand. The heart may well flutter as one, young and inexperienced, reflects that he is now about to sail, not on a coasting voyage, but to put fairly out to sea. Ere long. it will be seen whether those fair professions had truth as a foundation. He will get to London — many of you have passed through this ordeal — the Metropolis, what a maze it seemed to you at first, and with what amazement you surveyed it! What with propensities within your breast, and profuse attractions without, temptation held you spell-bound. What could not be done in the village, what you dared not think of in the little market-town, seems easy to be done unobserved in the great city. Hundreds of fingers point you to the haunts of pleasure, the home of vice, the path to hell. Ah! mother and father, you present the Bible as your parting gift; you write the youth’s name on the fly-leaf. You offer your prayers, and you shed your tears for him. Steals there not over you the conviction that the one thing he needs you cannot pack in his trunk, nor can you send it up to him by a post office order. The one thing needful is that Christ should be formed in his heart the hope of glory. With that he would begin life well. A sword of the true Jerusalem metal, that will not break in the heat of the conflict, will be serviceable all his journey through. Do I address some young man who has not forgotten his mother’s kind remarks when he left home? Let me just echo them, and say to him, One thing thou lackest; oh! seek it, seek it now! Before going out of this house, seek till, through grace, you obtain this one thing needful which shall bear thee safely to the skies.

But “one thing is needful,” not merely for those youngsters at home, or for those about to go abroad in the world. One thing is needful for the business man. “Ah!” smith he, “I want a great many things.” But what, I ask, is the one thing? You speak of “the needful.” You call ready cash “the indispensable.”, “Give me this,” says the man of the world, “and I don’t care about anything else. Recommend your religion to whom you please, but let me have solid gold and silver, and I will be well content.” Ah! sirs, ye delude yourselves with phantoms. You fondly dream that wealth in your hands would count for more than it has ever done for your fellows. You must have seen some men make large fortunes whom you knew to be very miserable. They have retired from business to get a little rest, and yet they could find no rest in their retirement. You must have known others who the more they have got the more they have wanted, for they have swallowed a horse-leech, and it has cried, “Give, give!” Of course, you never suspected that the money did the mischief, or that the precious metal poisoned the heart. But are you in quest of happiness? It lies not in investments, whether in Consols or mortgages, stocks or debentures, gold or silver. These properties are profitable. They can be used to promote happiness. As accessories to our welfare, they may often prove to be blessings, but if accredited with intrinsic worth they will eat as doth a canker. Money circulated is a medium of public benefit, while money hoarded is a means of private discomfort. A man is but a muck-raker who is for ever seeking, to scrape everything to himself. A miser is bound to be miserable. Before high heaven, he is an object to make the angels weep. One thing is needful for you merchants, brokers, and warehousemen, to keep you from sinking under your anxieties and losses, or to preserve you from becoming sordid and selfish through your successes, and lest your greed should increase with your gains. One thing is needful that your life may be a true life, or else, when it comes to its end, all that can be said of you will amount to this, “He died worth so much.” Must that be your only memorial! When you depart from this world, the poor and needy will not miss you; widow and orphan will not grieve for you; the Church militant will not mourn; the bright spirits above will not be waiting to greet you. The grand climax of your career, a will! a testament sworn under a very large sum! What shall it profit any man what fortune soever he may have amassed, if he lose his soul! Think ye that riches possessed in this world will procure any respect in the nether regions? I have heard that in the old Fleet Prison the swell that was put into gaol for ten thousand pounds thought himself a gentleman in comparison with those common fellows who were put, in for some paltry debt of twenty or five-and-twenty pounds. There are no such distinctions in hell. You who can boast your talents of gold and talents of silver, if cast away, shall be as complete wrecks as those who never had doit or sliver, but lived and died in privation and poverty. You want one thing, and if you get this one thing your wealth shall prove a blessing; otherwise it will be a curse. With this one thing your sufficiency for the day guaranteed to you by promise shall make you as one of heaven’s favourites, fed by the hand of God; ever needy, but never neglected. Ye aged sires — there are some such here — shall I have to remind any of you that one thing is needful — ay, most needful to you? Death has already put his bony palm upon your head, and frozen your hair to the whiteness of that winter in which all your strength must fail, and all your beauty fade. Oh! if you have no Savior! You will soon have to quit these transitory scenes. The young may die, but the old must. To die without a Savior will be dreary and dreadful. Then, after death, the judgment. Brave old man, how will your courage stand that outlook, if so be you have none to plead your cause? Oh! aged woman, you will soon be in the scales; very soon must your character be weighed. If it be said of you, “Tekel: she is weighed in the balances and found wanting,” there will be no opportunity to get right or adjust your relations to God or to your fellow-creatures. Your lamp will have gone out. There will be no chance of rekindling it. If lost, for ever lost; for ever in the dark; for ever cast away! Little enough will it avail you then that you have nourished and brought up children. It will not suffice you then that you paid your debts honestly. Vain the plea that you attended a place of worship, and were always respected in the neighborhood. One thing is needful; lacking that, thou wilt turn out to have been a fool. Notwithstanding many opportunities and repeated invitations, have rejected the one thing — the one only thing — what an irreparable mistake! Oh! how thou wilt weep as one disappointed! How thou wilt gnash thy teeth As do who upbraid themselves! Thou wilt mourn for ever, and thy self-reproach shall know no end.

I wish I could move you, as I desire, to feel as I feel myself, that this one thing is needful to every unconverted person here present. Some of you have already got this one choice thing that is so needful. Hold it fast; never let it go. Grace gave it to you; grace will keep it for you; grace will hold you true to it. Never be ashamed of it. Prize it beyond all cost. But as for you who have it not — I think I hear your funeral knell pealing in my ears, and as you Speed away, your spirits made to fly for very fear, tight into the arms of justice, methinks I hear your bitter cry, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!” I would fain pluck you by the skirts, if I could, and say to you, “Why not seek the one thing needful without more ado? Get it now. It will not in any way hurt you. It will make you happy here and blessed hereafter.” It is as needful for this life as for the next, as needful for the exchange as for the sick chamber, as needful for the street and for the shop as for the dying-bed and for the day of judgment. One thing — one thing is needful. And now suffer me to halt before taking you a stage further. Allow me, as it were, to change horses. I must take another text: —

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II. One Thing Known.

It is in the Gospel according to John, the ninth chapter, and the twenty-fifth verse, and these are the words, “One thing I know.”

The man who was born blind, whose eyes were opened at the pool of Siloam, said, “One thing I know.” This simple statement I want to turn into a pointed question. Among the many things, dear friends, that you are acquainted with, do you know the one thing that this poor man knew, “Whereas I was blind, now I see”? Here is a wealth of self-knowledge in this single avowal. Little enough, I daresay, he knew about other people, but he knew a great deal about himself. He was well aware that he once was blind, and he was quite positive that he now could see. Oh! can you say it with sincerity, “I know that I was once blind; I could see no beauty in Christ, though I thought I saw great beauties in the world. Then I could not love God. I did not hate sin; I had no repentance, nor had I any faith; I was blind; but now — oh! blessed change — now I see my sin, and weep over it; now I see a Savior, and I trust him; now I see his beauties, and I admire him: now I see his service, and I delight to spend my strength in it. One thing I know.” What a marvellous experience of a marvellous change this implies! Nor can its importance be over-rated. There is no going to heaven unless you undergo a change which shall make you entirely new, and make all things entirely new to you. A young convert once said, “I do not know how it is; either the world is changed, or else I am, for nothing seems to me to be the same as once it was.” Ah! this old Bible, what a dry book it used to be; but, oh! how it abounds in marrow and fatness now! Prayer — what a tedious duty once, but what a delightful exercise now! The going up to God’s house on the Sabbath — used it not to be a weariness of the flesh? How much better to be in the fields! Yet now, how delightful we feel it to assemble with the Lord’s saints! With what pleasure we hail the festal morn! All things are altered. Behold, all things are become new. What we once hated we love, and what we loved we hate. Is it so, dear hearer — is it so with you? Do not, I pray thee, be content with mere reformation. Were you aforetime a drunkard, and are you now a teetotaller! Good — very good; yet, good as it is, it will not save your soul. Dishonest and knavish you once were, but truthful and trustworthy you may now be; yet rely not upon it for salvation. In former days unchaste, by stern resolve you may have given up the favourite lust, but even that will not save you. Those who never fell into your foul sloughs need the change. “Ye must be born again.” You must have an entire renewal — a radical change. It is not cutting off the limbs of a tree, nor shifting it to another place, that will convert a bramble into a vine. The sap must be changed. The heart must be renewed. The inner man must be made completely new. Is it so with you? Why, I think if some of us were to meet our old selves walking down the street, we should hardly know ourselves. ’Tis true old self has taken good care to knock at our door pretty often since. Of all the knocks we hear, not even excepting, that of the devil, there is none we dread so much. The knock of the old man when he says, “Let me in with my corruptions and lusts, and let me reign and have my own way.” pay, old man, you were once ourselves, but go your way, for we have put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man; we cannot know you, for one thing we know now that we knew not before — whereas we were blind, now we see.

Need I linger any longer upon this point? Let it suffice if I leave it as a kind of awakening question upon the heart and conscience. There are not twenty things, but there is one thing you have to enquire about. Do you know of a surety this one thing that you are not now what you used to be? Do you know that Jesus has made the difference; that Jesus has opened the eye that was once without sight; that you now see Jesus, and seeing, you love him? Our third subject is: —

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III. One Thing Done.

The text is in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians, at the thirteenth verse. There the Apostle Paul says, “One thing I do”. Pray observe that I did not introduce “doing” first. That would not answer. We do not begin with doing. The one thing needful is not doing. Coming to Christ, and trusting to him, must take the lead. Not until after you have got the one thing needful, and know that you have got it, and are conscious that, whereas you were blind, now you see, can you be fit to take the next step — ”one thing I do.” And what is that one thing? “Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” It seems, then, that the Apostle gave his whole mind up to the glorifying of God by his spiritual life. He was never content with what he was. If he had a little faith, he sought for more. If he had a little hope, he aimed to obtain more. If he had some degree of virtue, he coveted more. Oh! Christians, never be satisfied with being merely saved. Up with you! Away! off! Go onward to the high mountains, to the clearer light, to the brighter joy! If saved, and brought, like the shipwrecked mariner, to shore, is that enough? Yes, for the moment it is enough to warrant the purest satisfaction and the warmest congratulations. But the mariner must seek a livelihood as long as he lives. He must put forth his energies. Whatever avocations open up before him, he must vigorously seek such favors of fortune as may possibly be within his reach. Just so let it tie with you. Saved from the deep which threatened to swallow you up, rejoice that you are preserved from death, but resolve that the life vouchsafed to you shall be active, earnest, vigorous, fruitful in every good and work. Be diligent as your traders are. See how they wake their servants up in the morning, how they scold them if they are not up betimes. This man must be hurried to one place, and that man to another. How sharp they speak! How quickly they move about! They will do their business; and they spare no pains to increase it. Oh! that we were half as diligent in the service of God. Here we are drivelling away our time. We do not put out all our talents, augment our faith, and enlarge our coast. Why are we so indolent in going to that great giver of every good and perfect gift, for fresh supplies? Why do we not wait upon him to be enriched? Would to God that we were as diligent in spiritual as we are in temporal things! Oh! that we were avaricious with a holy covetousness for the best gifts God can bestow, and the choicest blessings saints can receive!

Paul was anxious to do more good, to get more good, to be more good. He sought to win souls. He wanted to make Christ’s name known. An ardent passion inflamed him; a high enthusiasm inspired him. Tent-making, it is true, was his trade, but tent-making did not monopolise quite all his heart, and soul, and strength. Does your secular vocation absorb all your thoughts? Though Paul was proud of his industry, and could say conscientiously, “My own hands have ministered to my necessities,” yet preaching the was the one thing he pursued as his life-work. He was a, workman; just as many of you are; but where were his tools? They were ready to hand when he wanted them. And did they, think you, ever creep up into his heart? I believe never. “For us to live,” said he, “is Christ.” That was as true, I will warrant you, when he was tent-making, or picking up sticks on the island of Malta, as when he was talking heavenly wisdom to the worldly-wise, addressing the Athenians on Mars’ Hill or when he discoursed touching the resurrection of the dead to the Jews, or when he expounded the way of justification to the Gentiles. He was a man of one idea, and that one idea had entirely possessed him. In the old pictures they put a halo round the head of the saints. But, in fact, that halo encircles their hearts, and penetrates every member of their bodies. The halo of disinterested consecration to Christ should not be about their brows alone, to adorn their portraits, for it encompassed their entire being, their spirit, soul, and body. It environed them, their whole being. “This one thing I do,” was the motto of early saints. Let it be your motto. Beloved, I address you as the, saints of this generation. My earnest desire is that you should not come behind in grace or in gifts. When the believers of all ages muster, and are marshalled, may you be found amongst the faithful and true. If ot amongst the first or second class of worthies in the army of the Son of David, yet good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Our God is a loving Father. He likes to praise his people. To this end do be clear about the one thing you need, the one thing you know, and the one thing you do; so will you stand well in that day. Amen.