ONE
Garth McKay
1 Tim 2: 5-6 (to “all”)
Luke 15: 3-7
John 10: 10-16
Acts 4: 10-12
I want to say a word about ‘one’. I want you to think about ‘one’, to think how special it is, the number one. I think it is true mathematically; it is a special number; but we know, do we not, that if there are things in this world where there are only a few of them, they become very special? Imagine if you had something - maybe you do have something, where there is only one. I want you to think about that and we will see what the scripture says. That one thing, there was only one: how special. I am interested in cars, and I can think of an example where there are only eight of them; how special they are, how rare. Think if there were only one. Only a poor example but think about that one. How rare, how precious, how valuable, how sought after one thing is.
I want to refer briefly to these scriptures and talk to you about ‘one’. In my first scripture, it says, “God is one”. There is one God. We will begin there: one supreme, all-seeing, all-knowing God. Do you know that? The deceiver in the beginning says, “ye will be as God”, note b says, ‘as gods’, Gen 3: 5. It was a wicked thing to say, to suggest that there might be gods. There is one God; one only, one who is all supreme over everything. How rare, how special, how precious the God that we know, and the One that we declare in the gospel. It is not a God who is declaring Himself to us in judgment, but in love. He is a loving God. There is one God; how precious that is, and how special He is. Think of the God who brought everything into being, the creator God. One who brought things into being by His own power, and by His own word, “Let there be light”, Gen 1: 3. What power there is in the things that God has done. I was looking at the beginning of Genesis, and to take just one example, it says He took a rib out of the man and built it into a woman, Gen 2: 22. What a Person God is. What power, and majesty and greatness He has, the One God. One God: how precious; how sought after.
I hope you are seeking after God. He is seeking after you; what a wonderful thing that is. I would desire to encourage you to seek after Him: find out about God. Paul preached that, did he not? He saw that altar “To the unknown God” and said, “him I announce to you”, Acts 17: 23. He is the God who is speaking in the gospel tonight; the one supreme God. Paul speaks about Him, “one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”, Eph 4: 6. He is everywhere; God is everywhere, even if you do not know it, even if some do not accept it; He is “over all, and through all, and in us all” – one God. He is the One who James speaks of: “with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning”, Jas 1: 17. He is the God we have to do with; we may have to do with Him, thank God, in His love, but the God we have to do with is the One “with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning”.
God is absolute and His standards, His righteousness, His holiness, are an absolute thing. I will say one thing now: in the picture of the gospel that we have in the passover, it says they were to take the lamb without blemish and put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, and God says, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod 12: 13. It is a wonderful picture of the available, beloved Christ, who is there to guarantee safety from God’s judgment for those who put their faith and their trust in the blood of Jesus. On that night when the destroyer came; if the blood was on the doorpost and the lintel, you could be absolutely sure that judgment would not fall on that house. I just say one other thing, that if the blood was not there, you could be absolutely sure that judgment would fall upon that house. It is the truth. The one God is the One “with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning”. There are no shadows with God; He is absolute and His ways are absolute. His righteousness is absolute and one thing is absolutely sure, He will judge sin. He hates it; He cannot have it in His presence.
But He has a remedy for it, in the Mediator that we read about it 1 Timothy. Not only is there one God, but it says, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”. There is one Man who stands between men and God, stands there on your behalf, stands there on my behalf, between God and men; between the sin-hating God with whom there is no “shadow of turning”. God declares Himself in love because there is a Man who has given Himself a ransom for all. The Lord Jesus has given Himself as a ransom for all. That avails for all who trust in Him, and I trust you are one of them. All who put their faith and their trust in one Man, that one Mediator, know their sins forgiven. God looks on the sacrifice of Christ and accepts it fully. That precious shed blood is there, standing before God in all its power and efficacy to guarantee your freedom and liberty for ever and ever, because the Lord Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all. It says here in the note k, ‘a ransom in place of’. That is a very helpful note, is it not? - He gave Himself a ransom in the place of. Do you know that that was your place? Look at the cross of Jesus, where He died there, where He suffered. The judgment of sin fell upon Him: that was your place. That was the place that you deserve, that I deserve, but He gave Himself a ransom, in the place of all. He took your place there; in His love for you, He died.
And so, He is the “mediator of God and men one”. How precious, how precious He is. There is only one Mediator, only One who can stand between you and God. There is only one life that can effect your salvation and that is the life of Jesus, and He laid it down for you. One Mediator; how precious. How rare, how special He is; the Saviour for mankind. I looked up the dictionary definition of ‘mediator’ and it says, ‘one who attempts to make an agreement between two parties in conflict’. The Lord Jesus does not fit that definition. He has not attempted to make an agreement; through the Lord Jesus, God has “made peace by the blood of his cross”, Col 1: 20. It was the only way it could be done, and He was the only One who could do it. He is presented to you tonight as the one Mediator, the One who has made peace by the blood of His cross. Having done it, having laid down His life, having paid the price Himself - that price that was yours and mine - having taken our place, “having made”, as Hebrews says, “by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high, taking a place by so much better than the angels, as he inherits a name more excellent than they”, chap 1: 3-4. More excellent than angels! Who is It? It is the Man Christ Jesus, and He is a Saviour for you tonight, the one Mediator, only One; how precious. There is no one more precious that I could present to you today; there is nothing more precious that I could speak about than the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.
In Luke 15 there is one again: one sheep. And that sheep is lost, and this is you, and me. What happens to the lost sheep is that the shepherd goes after it, and that is the Lord Jesus presented to us in John 10 as “the good shepherd”. One sheep that has gone astray; the gospel comes to us like that; the Lord Jesus serves us in this way. It is very personal. The Lord Jesus has gone after you, as the one lost sinner. If you were the only one, He would have gone after you like this. If there was only one, this “one” is you; He is speaking about you. The way to get the good of this scripture is to think about this as you. You can put your name here, lost to sin, as we all are. The Lord Jesus in His love has gone after you, and He is going after you tonight, to seek you. He says, “the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”, Luke 19: 10. There is one sheep here, and it is very beautiful to think that He goes after that which is lost, “until he find it”; “and having found it, he lays it upon his own shoulders, rejoicing”. The Lord Jesus is thinking about you as the one sheep, and how precious we are to Him, how precious, how sought after. Think of the seeking of Jesus, what it cost Him, the lengths to which He was prepared to go so that He might find you and put you on His shoulders and bring you home. That is His desire in the gospel, that one lost sheep. Do you know that you are precious to Him, and He is seeking after you tonight? He is seeking you because you are precious to Him. That is a wonderful truth is it not? His love is like that because you are precious to Him. His desire is that you might be found tonight and brought home on His shoulders.
John 10 gives us more details about “the good shepherd”, and my thought here was there were lots of things said here about the bad shepherds and what they are like, having no concern for the sheep here, there is not a lot said about good shepherds, but about “the good shepherd”. There is One who has your well-being at heart, there is One who is seeking you; there is One who is able to save you. There is only One. How precious the good Shepherd is, the One who has care for the sheep so deeply that He lays down His life for them. “I am the good shepherd”. Have you found the good Shepherd? Have you found the one who is able to save you, as in Luke 15, to bring you home on His shoulders? Have you answered to His voice? The sheep here know His voice, “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep”.
It says, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold: those also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd”. That is the desire of the Lord Jesus. His work is done; His work is finished; His precious blood has been shed. Everything is settled between man and God and His desire is to bring you into this “one flock”. The great Christian company is being formed now and the Lord Jesus is going to be the Centre of it, the Leader of it, the Object of it. His desire is that you might be gathered into it tonight, to find there is “one flock, one shepherd”.
We had a sense in the service of praise this morning, I think, of being caught up into something very wonderful, something very precious; and I had a sense of a united response of the Christian company to God, and to Christ. In amongst that united response the Spirit is working to bring everything together; and we had a sense of being there, being in heaven itself, and being in the presence of the Father. These precious things are hard to describe in words. I was struck by one of the hymns in that great throng of response, that was all united; the hymn had a reference to every voice and every heart.
God sees them; He sees them all together and the great concerted answer to God that there is in it, but it is made up of every one. And every one has been brought like that lost sheep home on the shoulders of the Lord Jesus, every single one of them. I think it is very beautiful that God does not see the company and forget the ‘ones’; He knows each ‘one’; He knows about you. He knows the cost that was expended that you might be brought in. How precious every one of those lost sheep, precious to God.
I just finish with Acts 4 and Peter’s preaching, and he is speaking about the Lord Jesus as “the stone … which is become the cornerstone”. Jesus is not here any longer; He is risen above, and He has become the Cornerstone. He is the building block for God on which an eternity will be built. Peter says here, “neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”. I will finish on that, the one Name. There is one way of salvation, one way only. Only one Name and it is a Name which is given among men. How precious, how privileged we are that we can come to a gospel preaching and the name of Jesus is being given among men. It is being given out; it is being declared again tonight, maybe weakly, maybe not as strongly as it could be, but there is no lack of strength in that Name. It is the Name “by which we must be saved”. I finish with that: one Name, one only.
Have you found Jesus for yourself? Have you found Him and trusted in Him as your Saviour? He will lead you to the one God, and He will make Himself known to you as “the good shepherd”, and lead you in to the “one flock”; so you might be able to say this for yourself, as that man who says, “One thing I know”, John 9: 25. Do we know? I know there is “one flock, one shepherd”. I know who He is; He is the One who gave Himself for me, the One who gave Himself a ransom, the One who laid down His life for the sheep.
There is one other thing about ‘one’. There is one opportunity to believe and to know your sins forgiven and to come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, and to know God as a loving God and not a God of judgment. There is one opportunity and that is now. Now is the day of salvation; that is today. You might say there could be tomorrow; there could be, and there could be next week, but these things are not guaranteed. So I say again, one opportunity. How precious, how special, how sought after. What an opportunity you have! If you have not already, put your faith and your trust in Jesus. What an opportunity you have. And that opportunity is now, and I can only offer you one, and that is today is “the day of salvation”, 2 Cor 6: 2.
May He bless the word.
Sunbury
18th December 2022
Edited and Published by David Brown and Andrew Burr
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