I am delighted to be back with
you, and I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Luke. We're
going to Luke chapter number 10. Luke chapter 10. This morning, a very familiar
story. Luke chapter 10. I want to talk to you about a
certain Samaritan A story generally referred to as the Good Samaritan. I've just entitled it, as the
scripture says, a Certain Samaritan. I'm going to read this story,
Luke chapter 10. I'm going to read the words of
our Lord Jesus beginning in verse 30. Our Lord telling this story, Jesus answering said, a certain
man, a certain man went down from Jerusalem
to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, Luke chapter 10 and verse 30,
stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving
him half dead. And by chance, there came down
a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by
on the other side. And likewise, a Levite when he
was at the place, came and he looked on him, and he also passed
by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, he came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion
on him, and he went to him. bound up his wounds, pouring
in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought
him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when
he had departed, he took out two pints, and he gave them to
the host, and he said to him, take care of him, and whatever thou spendest more
when I come again, I'll repay thee." That's a story that's
very, very well known. Let me give you the setting. Our Lord Jesus has now finished
what we might call His Galilean ministry. You know, our Lord's
three-year ministry. Our Lord lived in this world
about 33 years. His first 30 years were lived
in relative obscurity. We don't know much about the
first 30 years. We know very little about the
first 30 years of our Lord's those 30 years of his life. The first, about the first year
of his life, of his public ministry, he spent in Judea. And Luke doesn't
go into that at all. If you want to read study of
our Lord's Judean ministry at first year of his public ministry,
you'll learn of that in the Gospel of John. In Luke, Luke beginning
in chapter 4 and verse 14, you'll read that our Lord, after he
had finished that Judean ministry, spent one year in Judea, and
that's covered in the Gospel of John. Luke begins his public
ministry, though, with his Galilean ministry in Luke chapter 4 and
verse 14 when our Lord goes to Nazareth. And you'll remember
that, I'm sure, which is where he was raised. And our Lord's
Galilean ministry then lasted from Luke chapter 4 and verse
14 there up until chapter 9 and verse 51. In fact, if you want
to go back to chapter 9 and verse 51, this pretty much finishes
up his Galilean ministry, which lasted a year and a half. And I'm rounding there in terms
for the purposes of maybe you can remember this, in case you're
taking notes, if you want to remember for the sake of kind
of jotting something down. The first year of his public
ministry lasted about a year, and this is in the southern kingdom
of Judah, lasted a year, 12 months roughly, And then he went into
the northern kingdom. The reason he left the southern
kingdom, by the way, is because things got so heated there, they
were ready to kill him. They were ready to arrest him.
But it wasn't his time to die. He said, his hour has not yet
come. You see, our Lord will die by divine appointment. He's
not going to die when men choose for Him to die. He will die as
God's Passover lamb according to God's eternal purpose. He
will die when He chooses to lay down His life. He says, he says,
no man has power over me. I have the power to lay down
my life and I have the power to take it again. So when things
got kind of heated in his Judean ministry, after about a year,
he then leaves Judea and he goes and begins his Galilean ministry,
which lasted roughly a year and a half, lasted about 18 months.
And Luke only deals with that. Luke doesn't deal with his Judean
ministry at all. The first year of his ministry
goes from Luke chapter 4 and verse 14 to chapter 9 and verse,
if you look in chapter 9 and verse 51, and it came to pass,
When the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. That is, his Galilean ministry
is now finished. He's finished this roughly 18
months of his Galilean ministry, and he begins now his final six
months, and again I'm kind of rounding now, His final six months
of public ministry, which will be in the southern kingdom of
Judea, which ultimately will take him to Jerusalem. He steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. As it says in the book of Isaiah,
he set his face like a flint. to go to Jerusalem because now
the day is quickly approaching when he will lay down his life,
when he will be offered as the sacrifice for sin, when he will,
by God's appointment, be that one sacrifice that will once
and for all set the record straight and establish righteousness for
his people. And of course we know that happens
at Calvary by divine decree. And nobody will stop him. So
as we, that finishes up pretty much, that finishes up his Galilean
ministry there. In chapter 9 verse 50, verse
51 begins his Judean ministry. As you get into chapter 10 then,
He is fully into his final phase of his public ministry in Judea. He chooses 70 more disciples. Of course, he already has his
12 apostles, and now he has 70 disciples, and he chooses these
men who will go out and preach the gospel of the kingdom. If
you'll notice in chapter 10 and verse 1, chapter 10 and verse
1, after these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also,
and sent them two by two before his face into every city and
in every place, whether he himself would also come." In other words,
before our Lord would come there, he sends preachers of the gospel.
And this is very encouraging and is a good reminder to us
that our Lord, before he goes somewhere, his word will first
go there. The gospel always precedes the
Savior. Before He comes in power to save,
His gospel will be there first. That is, there will be no salvation
of the sinner There will be no salvation by the grace of God
until the gospel has gone there first. It's upon the heels of
the gospel that Christ Jesus comes. That's always God's method. It's the Word of God that goes
first, and then the Lord comes upon the heels of the truth that
is proclaimed. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them from belief. As Christ Jesus is set
forth by these 70 who, according to verse 9, In chapter 10, they
went preaching, the kingdom of God is coming to you. As they
went forth preaching the kingdom of God, then Christ Jesus said,
as you go forth preaching, then I assure you that I will come
right behind you. You see, in this sense, they
are like John the Baptist. John the Baptist, what was his
message? I come announcing the Savior
has come. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And our message today is the
same. We announce the Lord Jesus Christ
has come. We announce who He is. We announce
that He's God and He's man and we announce what He has already
accomplished. And upon the basis of the announcement
of the gospel of grace and the accomplishment of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the putting away of the sins of His people and the
establishment of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ comes by
the power of the Spirit and saves His people from their sins. That's
always His method of grace. It was then, and it still is. He always works this way, through
His Word that is declared. So He sends forth these 70 preachers,
and they go forth preaching the gospel. And He gave these men unusual
gifts. And they come back to Him in
verse 17. In verse 17, the 70 return to
Him. Chapter 10, verse 17, and they
came back with joy. They're rejoicing, they're celebrating. They said, Lord, even the devils
are subject to us in Thy name. And He said in verse 18, while
I beheld Satan as lightning fall from the heaven, He said, I saw
this from eternity. I saw the results. Behold, I
give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over the power
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding,
in this rejoice not. Don't rejoice in the results.
Don't rejoice in the powers that you apparently have, because
really these are powers that I have given to you. But rather
rejoice in this. Because your names are written
in heaven. Rejoice in God's purpose of grace. Rejoice that your names were
written in the Lamb's book of life before the world was made. Rejoice in God's covenant of
grace. Rejoice that you were chosen
unto salvation. Rejoice in me, your eternal surety. Rejoice that I represented you
in the covenant of grace. And then in verse 21, then our
Lord rejoiced in spirit. He said, I thank the old father. Lord of heaven and earth, that
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father,
and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will
reveal Him. And then He turned unto the disciples,
these seventy disciples, and He pulled them aside privately,
You get the scene? He pulls them aside privately.
These 70 disciples, he said to them privately, blessed, that
means to be envied, happy, well off, be joyful, blessed are the
eyes which see the things that you see. Do you see how God can
be just and justify the ungodly? Do you see that? Do you see how
God can be holy and righteous and yet forgive you of all your
sins through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus? Do you
see how God justifies you? Do you see how God can declare you
to be righteous in Christ Jesus? Do you see that? Blessed are
your eyes. Blessed are your eyes. And he says, for I tell you, many prophets and kings have
desired to see these things as clearly as you see them. Oh, they saw these things, but
they saw them not nearly as clearly as we do. Because we have the
whole of the scriptures. They have not seen them, and
to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them. As he's speaking to these men
privately, in this intimate conversation with these men who loved him,
and he loved them, and they're heeding what he's saying. And Luke the inspired writer
says, and behold, lo, see, this is something unusual. In this
intimate setting, in this moment of joy and instruction, these
men are rejoicing in the Savior and they're listening to Him
speak when He's talking about how blessed they are and how
good the Lord has been to them, and how wonderful it is that
they see and understand and perceive the grace of God to them. Lo, see how unusual, how daring! Behold, a certain lawyer stood
up. He dared to infiltrate the group. And tempted them. Tempted the
master. Saying, Master, can you get the
picture in your mind? Here's the Lord Jesus with these
70 men. And he's instructing them. He's
already been prayerful. Father, I thank you. You've hid
these things from the wise and the prudent. Like this lawyer. Men like this lawyer. I'll tell
you who he is here in a minute. You've revealed them to babes. Why has God done that? Because
it pleased Him. This is His sovereign pleasure.
Now He's had this instructive, these instructive moments with
His disciples. And this man is so daring. So
bold to inject himself right into the situation, you see.
And that's why Luke uses a behold. Anytime there's a behold in the
scriptures, it means see, look, behold, lo, how daring, how brave,
how cocky, how arrogant this certain lawyer. infiltrates the
group and he dares to make his presence known. Now we need to
take a look at this man and see who he is. Because if we don't know who
he is, we might misunderstand the meaning of our Lord's story
that he told. The story that I read to you.
He's a certain lawyer. He's not an attorney at law.
He's a teacher of the law of Moses. He's a religious lawyer,
that is, he's a man devoted to religion, to the law, to the
Old Testament law, to religious works, to religious activities. He's one of those men who believed
he could make himself acceptable to God by his obedience to the
law of Moses, to the moral law, and to the Levitical law by his
life works. He was a promoter of that religion. He not only believed that way,
but he was a promoter of his religious beliefs. In other words,
he sought acceptance with God by his own righteousness. Our Lord, of course, and his
disciples proclaimed salvation by grace with no contribution
on the part of the sinner. This man didn't believe that,
not at all. He believed there was some contribution
necessary on the part of the sinner. You see, the gospel that
we proclaim, the gospel of our Lord is all of grace and all
in Christ Jesus. Thus we sing, nothing in my hands
I bring. Did you hear? Nothing in my hands
I bring. We bring nothing. But this man
is bringing a lot. He believes you make some contribution. Or as the scripture says, all
of the doing and all of the dying and the full contribution is
the Lord Jesus Christ's. But the natural man, and indeed
this lawyer, he believes that there's some contribution man
must make, some condition that man must meet in order for salvation
to be complete. Now notice what the man says,
and notice his attitude, and Luke tells us this, Behold, a
certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. Now what is he tempting
the Lord for? He's trying to catch him in his
words. He's trying to make our Lord say something that will
be in violation of or inconsistent with the law of Moses. And so
he says, Master, what shall I do? And that is certainly a key word
in this entire story. What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? I want to inherit eternal life. And now most, if this were in
our day, in so-called evangelical circles
today, once soul winners had heard him say,
I'm interested in eternal life, they would have said, well, you
don't want to go to hell, do you? No, you want to go to heaven,
don't you? Yeah, well, just believe on Jesus
and get baptized and start tithing and start attending church and
join the choir and you'll be alright. Well, okay, and sign
him up. It would make a great church member somebody who's
interested in eternal life. But our Lord knew better. Our
Lord knew his motive. Because this man is interested
in doing something himself for eternal life. Our Lord knew his
motive. He has no interest in grace. He has no interest in salvation
by the doing and the dying and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. If you'll look down in verse
29, this man wants to justify himself. That's what he wants. And in
his mind, he thinks he can justify himself. So, if you go back up to verse
26, Our Lord said to him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor
as thyself.' And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right
this," and again, here's the key word, do. Remember, he said, he came to
our Lord on this ground in verse 25, Master, what shall I do? to inherit eternal life. So now
our Lord responds to him after this man has given a summation
of the law in verse 28, and he said unto him, Thou hast answered
right. This do, and thou shalt live. Now, let's go back to Deuteronomy
chapter 6. Let's go back to the scripture
that this man had He quoted a section of it. Go back to Deuteronomy
chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Let me begin at verse 3. These
are the commandments that the Lord gave. Deuteronomy chapter
6. Follow along as I read verse
3. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse
3. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and
observe to do. This is a key word now, to do. Notice the word it is italicized,
inserted by the translators. that it may be well with thee,
and that ye may increase mightily as the Lord God of thy fathers
hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shall love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy might. And these words which I command
thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt
bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets
between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts
of thy house, and on thy gates, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy
might. That's what the law says. This do. It doesn't say try to
do it. It doesn't say this must be your
desire. It says do it. And it says when
you sit down with your children, this is what you talk about. And it says, when you go out
walking, this is what you talk about, loving God with all your
heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. And it says,
when you write it on your hand to remind you, love God with
all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And you write it in
between your eyes so that your neighbor, when he sees you, he
is reminded, this is what I am supposed to do. Love God with
all my mind, soul, heart, and strength. And you put it on the
doorposts of the city. So you're reminded, this is not
supposed to be your desire. It's not supposed to be, this
is not for you to have this as your desire. This is what you're
to do. God said, this is the command. Not make an effort at it. Do
it. And live. Do it and live. This is strict. This is strict. It's God's command. It's fair. It's just. And it's right. Isn't it right? Doesn't God deserve to be honored
and loved with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength? And He will be. He will be honored
and loved by somebody with all their heart, mind, soul, and
strength. Or somebody is going to perish. His law is going to
be honored and upheld. Or there will be death. Because the soul that sinneth
shall die. That's what the law says. The
wages of sin is death. That's the law. Go back to the text. I want you
to go back to the text. Now this is very important. And
I want you to get this. And you'll understand what the
master said. And I could go to another passage
in Leviticus that talks about loving your neighbor as yourself.
But this is very important. What I'm going to say next is
very, very important. You'll understand now why the
Master said what he said, why he answered the way he answered.
And you'll get this. You'll understand the necessity
of why the Lord answered as he answered and the necessity of
him answering this way. This man drew near to the Savior. He approached him on a legal
basis. What must I do? And our Lord answered him on
a legal basis. Now, if you are interested in
salvation by law works, then this is what is involved.
Keep all the love. That's what's involved. Perfection. Perfection. And the thing of
it is, you can't just start right now. It had to start when you
was born. In other words, salvation by
law keeping is an impossibility. It just can't be done. But if
you want to make some contribution to your salvation, now listen,
if you want to make some contribution to salvation, you've got to make
the whole contribution. You understand? It's not just
you've got to make a little of the contribution, you've got
to make the whole thing. You see, it's either all of grace,
or it's none of grace. It's either all the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, or it's all your righteousness. This man
drew near to Christ Jesus on a legal basis, and our Lord met
him on that basis. He met him on the level upon
which the man came. You want to do something? Well,
then do something. Keep the law. Well, that's an
impossibility. It's an impossibility. The man wants to justify himself. All right, now watch this. You see, the law requires what
we can't produce. Now, there's nothing wrong with
the law. The law is good and just and fair. No problem with the law. The
problem is with us. Our inability to meet the law. Our Lord tells this story. Now
remember, He spoke in parables. This man, he doesn't understand
parable. And he won't understand it when
our Lord's finished with it. He spoke in parables so this
man won't understand. But you know who will understand?
The Lord's people will understand. That's why he spoke this way.
And here's the story. He said, a certain man went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho. Who's this certain man? Well,
that certain man, remember, our Lord is answering a self-righteous
religionist who's trying to justify himself. Our Savior is not giving
out a lesson on brotherly love. That's not what this is all about. To do so would be like saying
to this self-righteous religionist, you're on the right course. Just
keep up the good work, you're doing fine. This man's on the
broad road that leads to destruction. He's a self-righteous religionist
who's trying to save himself. He's anti-grace and he's anti-Christ. Our Lord meets him as he found
him. He meets him as a legalist. Our Lord leaves him as a legalist.
He's a self-righteous legalist. This man addresses our Lord on
a legal basis, our Lord responds to him on a legal basis, and
He leaves him on a legal basis. And if you want to try to approach
the Lord on a legal basis, that's how He'll deal with you too.
And you'll die on a legal basis, and He'll deal with you at the
judgment on a legal basis. In fact, He's going to deal with
everybody on a legal basis. Do you know that? That's exactly
right. And he's already dealt with his
people on a legal basis in Christ Jesus the Lord. Because way yonder before the
world began, we stood in our eternal surety Christ Jesus the
Lord, who represented us. Chosen in him before the world
began. God put us in Him. There's that
eternal union. And God's always dealt with us
in Him. The cross. The wrath of God dealt with Him.
Justice of God dealt with Him. A fatal blow. Condemnation fell on him. Wrath
of God fell on him. He died. The just for the unjust
to bring us to God. We're not going to perish. Impossible. We saved. The law satisfied. Law doesn't have anything to
do with a righteous man. We're righteous in Christ Jesus,
are we? Absolutely. Our sin is imputed
to Christ Jesus. His righteousness is imputed
to us. Yeah, law's always honored. Yes, sir. Law's always honored. If you choose, you choose in
your heart, you say, well, I tell you, I think there's something
I gotta do. God'll meet you on that ground.
He'll meet you on that ground. Okay. That's where you wanna
meet me? Be you perfect then. You gotta
be perfect. You can't do it now. Oh, may
God bring you to Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus the Lord. Be found
in Him. Not having your own righteousness.
That's filthy rags. You better be done with that.
You better be done with that. God help you. This certain man,
look at it. I'll go quickly here. Certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. That's Adam who represented
us. He fell among thieves. That's
sin and Satan. Oh, they beat up on us in Adam.
Oh, my goodness. Stripped him of his raiment.
Wounded him. Oh, what sin and Satan have done
to us in Adam. Left him half dead. You say,
what do you make of that preacher? Well, left us spiritually dead
and physically we're still alive, but we're dying there. But we're
spiritually dead. Watch this. By chance there came
down a certain priest. That's the law of Moses. That's
the moral law. And when he saw him, he passed
by on the other side. You see the moral law? It can't help us. The law of
God can't help us. Here is this priest. This priest
went over and looked at this man lying in the ditch, bruised
and battered and bleeding. This priest went over and looked
at him. He represents the law of God. The priest said, I can't
help you. The law of God can't help you.
The law of God is not going to shed any tears over you. The
law of God is not going to feel sorry for you. You say to the law of God, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry I've sinned. You think the law of God is going
to pay attention to your cries? But you just don't understand
the shape I'm in. The law of God is not affected
by your cries, or your bleeding, your wounds. Show me mercy, law! You think
the law of God is going to cut you any slack? Ha! Can't do it. The law of God is
strict, unbending, yielding, like this priest. The law of
God will go to the other side of the road. Go to the other
side of the road. Romans chapter 8 verse 3. What
the law could not do. The law can't help you. You go
run into it. You know what? It'd just kill
you. You're like a moth flying around a flame. It'd just kill
you. It's administration of death.
That's what the law is, isn't it? It's administration of death. It'd kill you. You go run into
law works for salvation. It'll slay you. There's no hope
for you in the law. Here is this priest. Certain priest passed that way.
Can't help him. Look at verse 32. Likewise a
Levite. That's a ceremonial law. When he was at the place, he
came and looked on him. He passed on the other side.
You read Hebrews chapter 10. The blood of bulls and goats
could never put away sin. The Levitical law? The ceremonial
law? They didn't put away sin either.
That can't help. That can't help anybody. They
didn't put away any sin. What had to happen? A certain
Samaritan had to come by. So our Lord wasn't a Samaritan.
No, He wasn't. But the Jews accused Him of being
one. They hated Him, didn't they?
They hated Him. They even called Him a Samaritan.
As He journeyed. Our Lord took a journey. He came
down here where we are. He came where we are. That is
what had to happen. If the law is going to be honored,
if the law is going to be satisfied, if sinners are going to be saved,
the Lord of glory, the Son of God has got to come down here
where we are. He has got to be made flesh and
dwell among us. He who is the very glory of God
has got to come down here. rubbed shoulders with sinners. And the law of God will examine
him thoroughly, inwardly and outwardly. And so Pilate answered, for the
law of God is I find no fault in this man. He's been inspected
thoroughly. He's qualified to be the sacrifice. God's sacrifice for sin. Oh, he died bearing the sins
of his own people in his body on the tree. And by that one
sacrifice for sins forever, he put away the sins of his people.
buried him in the depths of the deepest sea. And they're gone. And I know they're gone because
he rose again. He rose again because of our
justification. And he went back to glory. Watch
this. He went to him. He saw him. He had compassion. He had compassion
on us from before the foundation of the world. He had compassion
when He came down here 2,000 years ago. He had compassion
on us in the time of grace when He sent His Spirit to us. He
sent the Gospel to us. Watch His pouring in oil and
wine. The wine of the Gospel. The oil
of His Spirit and the wine of the Gospel that makes the heart
merry. You know this Gospel of sacrifice,
this Gospel of substitution. This gospel of redeeming love
and redeeming grace, this gospel of righteousness established,
of imputed righteousness, it makes the heart merry, doesn't
it? It makes the heart rejoice. To tell a sinner, it's done,
it's finished, it's over. Victory's been accomplished by
Christ Jesus. Boy, it makes the heart merry.
My cup runneth over, David said with joy. When the Spirit of God brings
the Gospel home to your heart, you just rejoice in heart. Watch
this, and set him on his own beast. What is this beast? It's
the white horse of the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus always rides upon
the white horse of the Gospel. He's been riding upon the white
horse of the Gospel throughout this Gospel age, and He'll ride
on this white horse of the Gospel right on up to the end, in victory
and in triumph, because the Gospel's always triumphant. And he brought
him to an inn, he brings him to a local assembly and says,
take care of him. You take care of this redeemed
sinner. You hug him and embrace him and
welcome him and love him. Verse 35, and on the morrow when
he departed and took out two pence and gave it to the host
says, you take care of him and whatever you spend more when
I come back, I'll repay you. Now he goes back to this self-righteous
religionist. He says, now, which of these
three thinkest thou was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves? Well, he said, he that showed
mercy on him. Our Lord showed mercy on us.
Mercy. Not merit. Mercy. Force this man to acknowledge
mercy. This man who's interested in
merit, our Lord forced him to say mercy. To use that word mercy. That's what I want. That's what
you want. I want mercy. Mercy, Lord. Mercy. Watch it. Remember how this all
started out? He started out by saying, what
shall I do? Then Jesus, then said Jesus unto
him, go and do. All right. We started this conversation
on a legal basis. We gonna end it on a legal basis.
You go do. You want to do something? You
go keep the law. You old hard-hearted rebel, this
is what you want. You go keep the law, the law
that kills. I'll tell you what I'm interested
in. I'm not interested in do. I'm interested in done. Is that
what you want to hear? That's the gospel I want to hear
about. Done. I want to hear what the
Lord Jesus has already accomplished for me. Bless his name. Tell him in my heart, Lord Jesus,
thank you for saving my soul. Thank you for making me whole.
Thank you for giving to me thy great salvation. So rich, so
full, and so free.