Let's take up our place here
in Luke, the 10th chapter, and I want you to look in verse 25,
and let's read our study for this morning. This concerns what
we're going to call the parable of the Good Samaritan. Verse
25 of Luke 10, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him,
saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus
said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? Any answering said, quoting from
Leviticus 19, 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 do, and thou shalt live.
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my
neighbor? Jesus answering said, The third
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed,
leaving him half or nearly dead. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by
on the other side." Likewise, a Levite, when he was at peace,
came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain
Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw
him he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up
his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own
beast, and brought him to an end, and took care of him. And
on the morrow, the next day, when he departed, he took out
two pence, two days' labor, and he gave them to the host, and
he said unto him, Take care of him. And whatsoever thou spendest
more when I come, again I will repay thee. Which now of these
three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the
thieves? And he said that shew he that shewed mercy on him.
Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Now this
may have been an actual event that is described by our Lord,
or it may have been a parable. We're going to consider it in
our study because of the value of the parable. Men read this
account, this parable, and they conclude that it is answering
a philosophical question, who is my neighbor? But no. The question
is not who is my neighbor, but there is a central truth here. And what is that central truth?
It is the necessity of a Savior, a true, absolute Savior. Christ is responding to two questions. Verse 25, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? And the second question in verse
26, which he answered or asked himself, what is written in the
law? How do you read it? How do you
understand the law? And then we learn that this man
who is called a lawyer, he's not a lawyer like Robert. He was a religious lawyer. He was a scribe, most likely.
A scribe was someone who took the law and they translated the
law. And they kept the law and took
care of the law. And they were called lawyers
because of their relationship to the law. He's that kind of
lawyer. And notice in verse 29 that this
man wanted to justify himself. This is the point. of this conversation
with Christ, he's trying to justify himself. So let's consider the
questions and what is said here. First of all, this question,
what must I do to inherit eternal life? I have three observations. First of all, it's a thoughtful
question. It's worthy for a man to consider.
Any person who is a thinking person will consider this matter
of eternal life. People that just want to bury
their heads, either in intellectual pursuits or in ignorance or in
some vice, and they don't want to think about it, they're not
a thoughtful person. A thoughtful person, a reasonable
person, will ask a question, what is it about this matter
of eternal life? How is it that I can be a participant
in the life after this life. That's what he's asking. But
it's also a trapping question. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? This is a question that's designed
to trap the Lord. And he's really wanting to know
what else can I do? What else must I do to have everlasting
life? Because you know what I am. I'm
a lawyer. I'm a scribe. I am ordained of
God. You know what I am. So what must
I do? What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? It's a thoughtful question. It's
a trapping question. But primarily this is a confusing
question. It's a confusing question. Because
you don't do to inherit. You inherit because someone has
determined in a legal matter, in a legal way, to put your name
upon a document. And in the death of that person,
you become recipient of whatever they have determined for you
to have. You don't do anything. But it's
a confusing question. But this confusing question,
this confusion, is at the heart Of all of the confusion of religion,
what must I do to inherit eternal life? Job asked the correct question. Job asked, how can a man, how can a man be just with God? A man who is powerless, a man
who is hopeless, a man who has no ability in himself. He cannot
come. He cannot believe. He cannot
take that which God has and make it his own. He cannot. He cannot
remove his legal charges He cannot. He cannot remove his moral darkness
or his spiritual darkness. He cannot. And yet the question
is, what must I do? And Job asked the correct question,
how can a man, seeing what a man is, be just with God? Now that's the question you better
ponder. How can a man be just with God? But this man, you see,
is not even asking the right questions. So if you're not asking
the right questions, you're not going to come to the right conclusion,
are you? Never. You have to know what
the questions are. I've spent all of my life trying
to figure out what the right questions are. This man does not know the right
questions. But Jesus answered him with a
question on the basis of what this man is asking. And he says,
what is written in the law? How do you read the law? You're
a lawyer. You're a scribe. How do you read?
How do you understand it? And then he quotes from Leviticus.
The love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your soul,
all your mind, all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.
The heart represents the affections. So it's to love the Lord with
all your affections. And your neighbor with all your
affections. It's the soul. The soul, the thoughts. With
the will. With the mind. Your thoughts.
And your strength is your body. When you take the heart, and
you take the soul, and you take the strength, that's all we have.
That's all we are. We don't have anything else.
But it's to love God and love your neighbor with everything
you are. To love God like this is to hold
Him in highest adoration. It is to value Him above all
else. Love like this is fervent, devoted,
and it is subordinate. Love to God is intelligent. It's
full of light. It's not self-serving. Love to
God isn't temporary or wavering. It is without sin. It is without
a trespass. It is without any hint of reserve. And it is infinitely more than
ourselves. To love God with all our heart,
with all our soul, with all our strength, is more than we really
have words to describe. What is it to love our neighbor?
To love our neighbor as ourselves is to love as God loves. It is
to love also without reserve and without hesitation. It is
self-sacrificing. It is without prejudice. It is
without judgment. It is in blindness to all others. It is patient and it is kind. It's enduring. It's hopeful.
It's positive. It never fails. It never withers.
It never diminishes. It's inclusive of all and exclusive
of none on the ground of any external consideration. So I
ask, has any man ever loved God like that? Has any man ever loved
his neighbor like that? Well, no, he hasn't. No, he hasn't. We're not able to do that. We
love with expectations. Loving without expectations,
now that's hard to do. It's not only hard to do, it's
actually impossible to do on the human level. We come close
to it sometimes. But to love always, without expectations,
without conditions, always is an impossible thing to do. You
love your children. But do you love them without
expectations from them? No, because you're also balancing
your parenting role of loving and disciplining. So you can't
do it. Just that little thing tells
you you cannot do it. But then you come to the real
heart of the matter. Verse 28. Thou hast answered
right. This is what the scripture says.
This do, and thou shalt live. That seems simple, doesn't it?
This do and live. And most every place in Albany,
in Georgia, even Atlanta, they're telling them, you can do this. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and
you'll live. And then you have people who
do good things for other people, and people will conclude, well,
that man must be a believer, because he's doing good things. You better be careful. This man,
willing to justify himself, see it in verse 29, this man willing
to justify himself. Now, this man did not question
the character of God. Love God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and strength. God is supreme. He didn't question
the character of God. He didn't question the character
of God's law. God said, love with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength. He believed that to be true.
He would have been one of those that says, the Bible says it,
and that settles it. He would have said that. He did
not question the character of God's Word. And furthermore,
he didn't question his own character. But there was something he did
question. Love your neighbor as yourself. He came to this
philosophical question, well, who is my neighbor? Because you
see, he had sat around from the time he was a young boy in places
of study and thought and he had been taught and trained and they
had heard their teachers and in groups of discussion they
had discussed all matter of things and when he was sitting in his
doctoral studies with his fellow doctoral students they asked
well who is my neighbor And they concluded, well, our neighbor,
our brother, are those who are the descendants of Abraham. That
would not include a Jew, or rather a Gentile. And furthermore, they
would ask, does it include someone who has mixed blood, rather than
just being of pure blood? And they discussed it around,
and they talked about it, and he's one of those who decided,
no. It's those who are of pure blood from Abraham. He's willing
to justify himself. Who is my neighbor? Now, he already
knew the answer to the question, he thought. But Jesus then poses
this real story or a parable, whichever it is. So I call the
parable such a reason I say that. This may have actually happened.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And you
know the story. Fell among thieves. Stripped. Beaten. and left nearly dead. There came by a priest and there
came by a Levite. And then in verse 33, there came
by a Samaritan. Now this man, this lawyer, was
honest and he was sincere. He thought himself justified
before the law. He thought the question of who
the neighbor was would verify his assertion that he loved God
and his neighbor as himself. He was an educated man. And he
had means by this point to give back to his community, and he
supported the temple's outreach program to those that they decided
to extend outreach to. And he reached for an opportunity
to tell others about how God had blessed him and what his
works were. And I'm sure himself being a
Jew, he thought his responsibility began and ended with his fellow
Jews. Jericho was a city that was about
20 miles. south of Jerusalem. And there
was a passage or a trail that went down through to Jericho,
and it passed down through a ravine. And in that ravine, of course,
then a narrow passage was an excellent place for thieves to
jump on, certainly an individual traveler, and do what thieves
do. So it says in verse 31, In other words, this was a common
occurrence by chance. There came down a certain priest,
and this priest then passed by on the other side. This priest,
no doubt, was on his duties either going to or from Jerusalem. We don't know which, but he was
either going to or from Jericho to Jerusalem, and he had his
schedule. And his schedule was set, and
he was going to go. There was anything going to stop
him. He was a disciplined man. He had learned to be disciplined
from the time he was a boy. And he had grown up with this
disciplined life, and he believed that God had set his schedule,
and there was no need of any poor Samaritan, any poor certain
man, that it says here. that no doubt was not one that
he wanted to have anything to do with that he was going to
take his time from so he went on his way likewise there was
a Levite notice that he separates between the priest and the Levite
Levite was like a lower level priest and Jesus said that he
looked on the man and he passed by on the other side this is
a greater slap at the law because the law required that when they
saw an ox or a man with a need. They stopped and helped even
that ox or a man. But not the priest and not the
Levite in their religiosity. They were too interested in their
program and they went on their way. But then here's the key
to the account. A certain Samaritan. Now what
was a Samaritan? Well a Samaritan of course lived
up in Samaria. Samaria was an area was an area
north of Jerusalem. And a Samaritan was a half-breed. He was partly of Abraham's blood. But during the time of the dispersion,
when the Jews were carried away by the Assyrians and then the
Babylonians more than 500 years before this period of time, many
of them had intermarried with the Assyrians and the Babylonians. And when they came home, they
formed their own group of people and they were called Samaritans.
And the strong prejudice for this 500 years still remained
in the hearts and the minds of these highly religious men and
they looked down their long pointed noses at these Samaritans and
they accused Christ in John chapter 8, of being both a Samaritan
and having a devil. But when the Samaritan came by,
he had compassion. This word compassion is the Greek
word spleimizoma. I always like to say the word
because the way it sounds, it kind of tells us about the word. The root word is spleima, and
it speaks of the stomach. Have you ever been upset, cried,
nervous? Upset for any reason and your
stomach shake? You ever had that? About to give
a speech and your stomach shaking? Well, if you were in that part
of the world, they would have said it's spleen edema. That means that you are moved
in your inner man. And when he looked upon this
person that had been so badly treated. It wasn't just that
there's another one. Thieves got another one. He wasn't
a statistic to him. He was moved in his stomach toward. It's what the word splain nitsumite
means. And the next day he, or that
day, well the next day, no that day, sorry, he put on the, took
care of his wounds and the oil and the wine and put him upon
his beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And verse 35, he took out two
pence, which was two days labor, and he said, when I come back
I'll take care of the rest of it. And then in verse 36, he
answered the man's question with a question, Which of you do you
suppose was a neighbor? Now this man's on the horns of
a dilemma. He cannot say the priest or the Levite, because
the priest or the Levite didn't consider the man to be a neighbor,
and they didn't act like a neighbor, so he couldn't treat him and
say that he was a brother, so he had to say. What else could
he say? He had to say, well, the man
that did something for him, the Samaritan. And then Jesus just
gave him the command, go and do thou likewise. If you want
to have eternal life, go and do thou likewise. Love God with
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and every man in that
same way. But now we know that this man,
this lawyer, is a failure. Because this lawyer didn't love
God like that and he didn't love all men like that because he
had prejudice against Gentiles and he had prejudice against
Samaritans and you can't just like turning on a light and turning
off a light take care of your prejudice and get it from your
heart. You just can't do it. This man has a problem. This
man has something inside of him that he cannot remove and he
cannot take care of to be able to answer this question that
he wants to inherit eternal life. I want you to consider the parable
with me. The principal characters are
the certain man represents all mankind. He elects, he represents
both the elect and he represents the reprobate, a certain man
Went down to Jerusalem. Went down to Jericho, rather,
from Jerusalem. And notice that he fell. Represents the original
fall. This man is a victim, if you
please. I sort of despise much of what's
going on in our country with everybody wanting to act like
they're victims. They're not victims. Most of
us. Most of us are not victims. We have a wonderful and great
opportunity and we live in the land of opportunity if we just
knew it. Much greater than most of the
world has ever seen or ever known. We have the ability to work and
make something of ourselves. And yet people act like victims.
But yet all mankind is a victim. We are victims of the sin of
our federal head. The first man. Our first original
father, Adam. We're a victim of sin of all
of its ravages in our heart. And this man was a victim of
that. Thieves. The thieves represent
sin. They represent the deceptiveness
and the power of the devil himself. They stripped this man of his
raiment. The loss of all innocence. That's what we lost in the garden.
We lost all of our innocence. All of it's gone, and so then
there's a defilement of the conscience, and there's the need for a covering
to be over us. But this man's stripped of everything
that covered him. He's in need of a righteousness
to cover him. He's wounded and left for dead.
There's man in his legal condemnation, his moral corruption, his spiritual
inability. You'll hear me say those three
things again and again, and it's not because I like to be I'd
like to repeat myself repetitive, but that's the three things. You need to understand the importance
of those three things. Just to talk about depravity
is not enough. It's legal condemnation. It's inner moral corruption.
And it's spiritual inability to do anything about it. The
priest and the Levite, what do they represent? They represent
both moral and ceremonial law, therefore the whole law of Moses. The lawyers who ask the question,
they represent men who think keeping the law is the way to
salvation. What must I do? What must I do? When people come and they hear
this message of grace, if they don't sit and listen long enough,
they want to know, what must I do? Why don't you tell me something
to do? I want to know something so I can do it. If you'll just
tell me something, I'll do it. They passed by on the other side.
Now, why did the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side? It's because truly they had nothing
to offer. They had no righteousness to
offer. to preach about, talk about. They had no solution to
the ravaging conscience within a man. They had no relief for
the man before the law whatsoever. Listen to what Scripture says.
I'll just read to you from Ezekiel 34. The word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy unto the shepherds,
the preachers. The pastors of Israel prophesy
and say unto them, Thus saith God unto the shepherds, Woe,
that's a word of judgment, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? What were these men doing, these
Levites and these priests doing? They were feeding themselves.
You eat the fat and you clothe yourselves with wool, and you
kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. The diseased
have you not strengthened, neither have you healed up that which
is sick, neither have you bound up that which is broken, neither
have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have
you sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty
you have ruled them." That's the priest and the Levite. And
they pass by on the other side. So you have the priest, and you
have the Levite, and you have the lawyer, but there's another
person here. And that's the Samaritan. I've saved the Samaritan for
the last because this Samaritan is the key person. Who does this
Samaritan represent? He represents Christ. He represents
Christ. Christ was not a Samaritan by
blood, but he was from Nazareth. You remember them asking what
good could come out of Nazareth? He was out of the loop of Jerusalem.
He wasn't among the priests and the Levites. He could instruct
the priest and the Levites. He could talk with the lawyers
and instruct them, ask them questions that they had never thought about.
Even though they had centuries to think about these things,
they had never thought about, who is my neighbor in this way? But he was out of the loop. He
journeyed. He left heaven and he came down
to be among men. Notice that it says here, In
verse 33, the Samaritan, he journeyed, he came to where he was. He came to where he was. God
didn't save us from heaven. He had come down where we are.
He was God and he became a man. He had to become a man because
he had to be obedient to the law. He had to be born under
the law, had to be born a woman, had to be born under the law,
and had to be responsible to the law. And he had to fulfill
the law from the heart. He came to where he was. And when he saw him, this word
saw means that he looked upon him with intent. Contrast that
with those who looked at him and then passed by on the other
side. No. He looked upon him, he saw him, and he had compassion
toward him. God saw his elect from eternity. He saw them helpless, hopeless,
condemned sinners. He saw them that way Christ did
when he died for them. He sees them in darkness and
he awakens them. He saw them. He had compassion. He washed the man's wounds. He
poured in the oil and the wine. He washed him externally, but
truly he washes his elect internally. He entered into a covenant with
the Father that we might have the benefits of that covenant. And that's what this salvation
is all about, the covenant between God the Son and God the Father. And God the Son worked out a
perfect obedience that God accepted as righteousness. And that covenant relationship
then opened up terms that God reckoned to the accounts of his
people. It is that covenant that provided
the benefits that saved us. Verse 34, it says that he, on
the morrow when he departed, took out two pence and gave to
the host and said, take care of him. Take care of him. He bound him up with oil and
wine on the day before, put him upon his beast, and he said,
Then take care of him. He washed with his own blood,
and he washed with his own word. Listen to what it says in the
book of Isaiah, chapter 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, the speaker of Christ, because the Lord has anointed
me to preach the good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." This
is our Lord. This Good Samaritan is our Lord. He poured in the oil and the
wine, and He set Him on His beast. He delivered Him all the way
out of death. He delivered His elect all the
way to life, and He brought Him all the way to safety. And he
treated him not as a slave, but he treated him as a son. He treated
him as a prince. He said, I'll pay for all of
it. He took full responsibility without consultation with the
fallen. You don't see anything here about
him asking the man about pouring in the oil and the wine or putting
him on the beast or paying his expenses for him. He did it all
the way. And that's what Christ did. He
did it in a legal way so that we could be forgiven. justified,
reconciled, sanctified, adopted, brought under grace, accepted
in a legal way. Christ was our surety from heaven,
but he had to do it in flesh and in time. He was that holy
thing in the womb of Mary, but he had to bear our sin and he
had to fulfill the penalties in order for those penalties
to be removed. He was separate from sinners.
but he had to become the substitute for sinners. He was sinless and
yet he took the responsibility of their legal needs upon himself.
He was sovereign and yet all the saving benefits had to be
worked out in a just manner by that complete obedience. He clothed this man as he clothes
his people with righteousness. He fed this man as he feeds as
a good shepherd. He took him to the inn. He takes
his people to eternal life. He delivers all the way. And
he answered this unjust lawyer who was trying to justify himself.
Telling him this, you cannot justify yourself by the law. There has to be a savior. This
man who was beaten Stripped of all they had, had to have a savior. What could the law say to him?
Stand up, get up, do better. No. The man had to have a savior. You can't do it by keeping the
law. You have to have a savior. That's what this is all about.
What was Jesus telling this man? What must I do to inherit eternal
life? What was he telling him? You
can't do anything. You have to have a Savior. What
do we need to know in the year 2007? What do we need to know? You have to have a Savior. Not a potential Savior, not a
Savior that just makes it an opportunity, but a Savior. These two methods, by the law
and by the substitute, are mutually exclusive. Most people want to
have some way in which they combine them together, but they are mutually
exclusive. One who is truly justified, when
he has awakened, shows his election and shows his justification and
then repents of all else that he's ever tried or ever done and he has nothing but rest in
Christ alone and what he accomplished on the cross. May God grant us
an understanding and a compassion that says We can do nothing. Just let me see and rest in the
Savior. Let's pray together. Father, our hearts are poor,
beggarly, needy. We can do nothing in and of ourselves. May we see from the account of
our Lord's words, we need a Savior. Thank you that you provided that
Savior in your dear and blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in
whose name and by whose merit we pray. Amen.