All right, if you would open
your Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Luke and the tenth chapter. Luke chapter 10. I want to read a portion of Scripture
this morning that is found here in Luke chapter 10. beginning
with verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? He said unto 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 do and thou shalt live. But he, willing to
justify himself, said unto Jesus, Who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain
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 dead. And by chance there came down
a priest from 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 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, when he departed,
he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and 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 neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves. And he
said, He that showed mercy on him, then said Jesus unto him,
Go, and do thou likewise. Now, I call this message this
morning, The Certain Samaritan. I'm sure you know that these
verses that we've just read, they're used many times to teach
a Bible story that people often called the Good Samaritan. And it is used to teach a moral
lesson. And that is basically what most
of the preaching of our day is about. It is a morality preaching. But this text of Scripture is
far, far more than that. And it is, as all the Scriptures,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, as we've just read,
it takes place as the Lord Jesus was teaching some people. And it says that this scribe,
or this lawyer, this law expert, he stood up for the purpose of
seeking to trap or trick the Lord Jesus with a question. And that happens many, many times,
and has happened over the ages, when anybody stands to teach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, they seek to show what
they know, or rather what they think they know, under the guise
of asking a question. I don't know how many times men
and women have come to me and asked me a question which turned
out only to be that they were supposedly seeking instruction
that they might set me right on something or teach me something. And I surely can be taught, but
when I am taught I want it to be as Christ says in the Gospel
of John, I want to be taught of God and being able to learn
of Him. But most likely this was Dr. So-and-so or some religious somebody
dressed in the garment of religion with his, maybe his phylacteries
as they wore these rolled up portions of scripture tied to
their garments, but he was an authority supposedly on the Mosaic
law and all the oral traditions of the Jews. What he taught And
what he believed was what was generally believed and taught
by all his contemporaries. And so the Lord Jesus, if you
notice in verse 26, He responded, or He answered as He often did
by asking a question. Verse 26. What is written in
the law, how readest thou? And then, of course, in verse
27, we have his response, which he says, 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." In other words, he responded in what might be called
the letter of the law. But while he was responding with
the letter of the law, it was obvious that he was ignorant
of the spirit of the law. And so what we find in Scripture
in another place is this, that the letter killeth. The law can
only kill us. The law can only condemn us. And that is exactly what it did
when he pronounced it back to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
in that it says, with all." Did you notice that? In other words,
this is what the law always requires of anyone who would seek to gain
acceptance before God on the basis of something that they
do. Look at it again. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, not only that, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." In other words, Christ is confronting
him with this reality. It is not enough to like the
law. It is not enough to seek to speak
the law. It is not simply enough to desire
to be obedient to the law. But it is rather that we are,
if we seek to come before God on that basis, to love God with
all our being and our neighbor as our self. And the amazing thing here is
in the blindness of a sinner such as this man, and not only
him but every one of us by nature, in his blindness he believed
that he did just that. He thought that he not only knew
the law, not only knew what God required, he thought also that
he did it, and most likely that he had been doing it all his
life, and probably that he did it better than most of the people
around him. You see, it is not enough to
recite the law. or wear it in little papers rolled
up on your garment as they did, or believe what it says in the
Bible concerning it. He says, this do, this do, and
thou shalt live. But you see, when Paul writes
here in the New Testament, He says in one place, the law is
holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. But he says there's a two-fold
problem here and it all lies with us, not with the law. He says first of all, he says
the law is not of faith. What does the Bible say? It says
that salvation is by grace through faith, which is the gift of God. He says the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. And then Paul gives us the other
problem. And that is when he writes in
Romans 7, and he says, For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. The problem is not with the law. The law of God is unchanging. It is immutable. But the problem
is with us as sinners Because we are not capable of, nor have
we ever been capable of, obeying and keeping the law as a basis
upon which God might receive us and save us. No, he says,
the law is not of faith. And you see, the blindness and
the ignorance and mostly the pride of this lawyer is demonstrated
in that he questioned Christ as an equal. And not only that,
he did not know evidently what eternal life is, And he thought
in himself that he was able to do something to earn or merit
eternal life, which God says is a gift. And he did not ask
for mercy. He did not fall down before the
Lord Jesus Christ as that publican did and smite himself on the
breast and say, God have mercy on me. And he, the Bible says
here, willing. You look down at verse 29. It says, but he willing to justify
himself. You want to know what so-called
free will is all about? Free will is nothing more or
less than sinners who by nature are willing only to do one thing
when it comes to God, and that is that we are by nature willing
to justify ourselves. He was willing to justify himself,
but he was not willing to be justified through the precious
blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's why
our Lord spoke to men and women in His days. who were the very
pride of religion, who were very moral folks, who were just exactly
like this man was. And he said unto them, you are
they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
hearts. He says, for that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. It is an abomination
in the sight of God. And we would do well if we would
pay attention and watch here in this Scripture and listen
to the Word of God as He says that. That which is highly esteemed,
valued, recognized, bragged on, patted on the back for, that
which is highly esteemed of men is an abomination in the sight
of God. And it says in another place
concerning another parable that Christ spoke that parable, it
says, unto certain these Pharisees which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. They are like that Pharisee
in the temple who looked down at that publican and prayed that
foolish prayer. and stood before God and said,
God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are, that I tithe
and I do this and I don't do that, and I'm not like they are
even as this publican. He said they trusted in themselves
and they despised others. And I'll tell you, anybody who's
not been brought by the grace and power of God to see themselves
for what they are, that sinner which has not been revealed to
them by the Spirit of God, how wretched and miserable that they
are, they can stand like this Pharisee, like this lawyer, and
trust in themselves that they're righteous. and despise others."
Now, rather than seeking mercy from Christ, rather than acknowledging
that He had never done that which He said was required of God in
all who seek to stand before Him by His law, no, He comes
back with another question. He said, my neighbor." And you
know, I just imagine that this kind of process, this kind of
debate, is something that he had all his days practiced, and
there in his religion, that was the custom, that was the way
that men showed off their knowledge, their brilliance. Well, you answered
one question, but let me ask you another one. And I see you're
right on that one, but in light of that, what about this other
one?" And so he asked him another question, and this is just like
every foolish question a sinner asks, he said, who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Now, you've told me that it's
to love my neighbor as myself. And therefore, who is then my
neighbor? And the purpose of Christ answering
that question was not in order to give him an example or a moral
lesson, but it was a pattern to show him something. You see,
he answered that question, who is my neighbor, with this parable. that we read. And in it, he speaks
in order to show this man and to show you and I that there
is in us a total absence of the kind of love that he has spoken
of. Did you believe that? He said
that God's law says that we are to love God with all our heart,
with all our mind, with all our soul, with all our whole being. Have you ever done that? I'm
going to tell you this without a doubt. There is not a person
living on this earth at this moment, nor ever has there been,
with the exception of Christ Himself, who has ever at any
time loved God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. Not one. Not one person before
the Lord saved them, if they be saved by His grace, and not
one person after He saved them. There is not in us, we who love
ourselves more than anything, more than God or our neighbor,
there is not this kind of love, nor has there ever been in any
man except Jesus Christ. Somebody said, well, I'll tell
you, I live by the golden rule. No, you'll die by that rule. That we're to love others and
do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. That's the
most ridiculous thing. We are so full of self-love,
which is at the root of our sin, that there's not one of us, me
included, nor anybody else who has ever loved God with all our being. And you know
how we know that's true? You know what the grand evidence
of that is true? The fact that we don't love our
neighbor as ourself. You stop and think about what
you do for yourself or for yours, as we might say, and could you
dare even imagine that you've even come close to that in doing
the same thing and even more for your neighbor? You see, there's more than an
example here. There's more than a moral lesson
here. And our neighbor, as he shows
us here, is more than simply that person who lives in our
neighborhood. And not only that, but that love
is to be no less than love with all our being for God, and love
that is to be no less than that which we love ourselves. And not only this lawyer, not
only has he never done this in his life, neither have you and
I, and neither will God accept it, which is nothing but sin
in His sight as a ground for His acceptance of us. As a matter
of fact, he says this as plainly through the apostles as it can
be said. He says, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. By any kind of human works, he
says, salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast. And
then he crowns off all of mankind, saying this, there is none that
doeth good, no, not one. That's the way it is. And so,
since none can do this and live, We need to be saved by this same
illustration that we find here in this parable that Christ answers
this man with. Because, first of all, there
is a picture and a type or an illustration of every sinner
that God saves. There is a representation here
in this parable which men describe as an earthly story that God
uses to speak of a heavenly truth. And so every sinner that He saves
is pictured here in this parable. Look down in verse 30. And Jesus answering. He's going to answer the question. And Jesus answering said, a certain
man. Here is a man. We don't know
what his name was. And we don't need to know what
his name was. And his name is left blank to
us in order that Christ might show him as a picture of not
only what we are in ourselves, but of what we are in Adam. You see, one man represents us. And here is a picture of everyone
of God's elect, everyone that He will save by His grace, here
is a picture of what they are by nature and what they are by
grace. And here is a picture of what
they are in Adam and what he has made them to be in Christ,
a certain man. What does it say of this certain
man? Well, it says that this certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, I read quite
a number of different so-called scholars and authority to try
to find out the distance and also the depth that is involved
when one travels from Jerusalem to Jericho. Seems like it's something between
roughly 20 miles. But in that 20 miles, if it be
that, maybe a little more, it descends a great distance. It's really down. And this man,
that Christ is using to picture those sinners in what they are
by nature. He does so in representing that
they left Jerusalem. He left Jerusalem, which is described
in Scripture as peace, as worship, as communion, and he went down. That's what
happened to us in Adam. When you look into that book
of Genesis there in that garden, here is not only this man Adam,
but the Bible says that we all were in Adam, and in Adam all
die. By one man sin entered into this
world, and in him everyone sinned. And he went down. That's what
we call the fall. We all fell in Adam. We all came down in Adam. In him all died. And we went down where? Jericho. What is characteristic about
Jericho? Well, the Lord said, Cursed is
the man that builds again Jericho. There is no salvation in Jericho. There is no deliverance from
Jericho in anything that we do. We fell before God, and in this
world it is now, as it is said in Scripture, cursed of God. Our whole race took a trip far,
far longer and far, far deeper than that trip this man made
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and in it we fell to the depths,
to the irretrievable depths of fallen sin and judgment before
God, and we could never of ourselves bring ourselves out. Most everybody I know in what
professes to be Christianity believes in some kind of a fall
that took place in that garden. But the Bible says that that
fall is far greater than what they would like it to be because
it leaves us helpless and hopeless and without any strength, just
like we'll find this man to be. And what did happen to him? It
says he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among
thieves. In other words, he fell among
robbers. These were not just petty thieves. The word there in the Greek literally
means malicious, vicious, harmful robbers. That's what happened to us. We
fell among the most vicious of robbers. We fell because Satan
and sin and all that he represents robbed us of all the honor and
all the glory and all the image of God and left us in a desperate
state. So we have nothing. We don't have anything. What
are you going to offer up to God? Nothing. We don't have anything
that's not touched and polluted and corrupted by our own sinful
nature. They're saying to us, well, why
don't you do this for God? Or why don't you give this to
God? We don't have anything He'd have.
We're like this man who says that they stripped him of his
raiment. Whatever clothes that he had
on, whatever he was covered with, the Bible says that they so thoroughly
robbed him that they stripped him even of his clothes. And he is left naked. He's just
like Adam and Eve were when they in that garden sinned against
God and disobeyed God and took of that tree in the midst of
the garden. And when they did that, they
were naked and they sought to cover themselves with fig leaves. You say, that's ridiculous. It's
no more ridiculous than sinners like you and me who have fallen
the depth we have in Adam and are in the state that we're in,
stripped of all that we are and have. And here in our naked sinnerhood,
we stand before God and we're trying to cover up that which
is the most offensive before God, which is what we are. By a few fig leaves. Well, I'll
give a little money, or I'll do a little this, or I'll do
a little that. I'll go to church once in a while
maybe, or I'll read a verse out of the Bible or something like
that, or I'll whisper some little prayer. We're like this, man. We've been
stripped. We've lost everything. We've
been stripped of any covering. We have not anything. And the
Scripture says that we are exposed in our naked sinfulness to the
justice and the wrath of God. And it says here of this man
that they wounded him. They beat him mercilessly. And they left him with what would
be a mortal wound. That's just the picture that
God gives of you and I. He says, from the sole of the
foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. He's not talking about this man
here. He's talking about us. every son and daughter in Adam
who fell and was robbed and stripped and wounded with this terrible
wound. You remember that words from
that little hymn from many years ago that says, Come ye sinners,
poor and needy, weak and wounded, from the fall, if you tarry,
till you are better. You'll never come at all. That's
what most sinners do. They're seeking to get good enough
for God. Then it says that they departed,
leaving Him half-dead. I can't say for sure all that
these things represent, but it seems to me that this is a picture
This leaving him half-dead is a picture of what we are by nature. We are alive physically maybe,
but we're dead spiritually. How do we know we're dead spiritually?
Because none of the things of the gospel interest us. None
of the things of God's grace We don't find any real need for
them. We can get by. We can live our
life as we think we are and we have no notion at all what we
really are and the danger we're in. Left him alive, half dead, alive
physically, dead spiritually. And this death is evidenced by
the fact, as Christ told those people in his day, you will not
come to me that you might have life. And the very, very area that
religion makes men to have power, which is the will, the desire,
he can will to come to God, is the very area that God says you're
dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. And then the Bible shows us this.
Look in verse 31. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way. A priest came by. You see, I think that Jericho
was the home of the priests, and under the law in the book
of Numbers it says, And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with
a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man,
or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. You see, there was a sense in
which the law forbid this priest to go near this man. Likewise, the law that he represents
cannot help us, can only condemn us as unclean and show us to
be the helpless sinners that we are, because there's only
one priest that can save us. And then it says in the next
verse, it says that when this man saw him, he passed by on
the other side. And likewise, a Levite, when
he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on
the other side. The Levites, they were the ones
who arranged and did the labor that was involved in all the
ceremonies under the law. They were the ones that slew
the sacrifices and washed the vessels, and they did all those
things. But here Christ is showing us
that there is not any salvation in these externals of religion,
and all the ceremonies and the rituals, even the things that
pictured Christ, they'll never save us. Not all the blood of bulls and
goats, not all the works of all those Old Testament priests,
not all the ceremonies arranged and conducted even by these Levites. could save any sinner and can
deliver us from our lost state. They have to pass us by. They
have to walk on the other side. They're like when a leper in
the camp of Israel was noted to be such. He had to cry out,
unclean, unclean, and no priest could touch him. No priest could
come in contact with him, nor with anything that was dead or
a bone, as it says here, or a grave. You see, spiritual life cannot
be communicated by the externals of religion. We can have water
sprinkled on us or us put in water, and it won't wash away
one sin. We can have wine which has been
prayed over and handed out at the hand of a religious person,
and it is worth no more than a bottle of Ripple. before God. We can walk down anybody's aisle,
and we can shake any preacher's hand, and we can pray any rehearsed,
artificial, so-called sinner's prayer, and not one of them will
save us. Won't put away one sin. And so here is this man. He has
fallen to this depth. He's been robbed and stripped
and beaten from head to toe and left in such a condition that
the priest comes by and he walks on the other side and the Levite
comes by. He has to leave him in his state
and he is without help. He can't help himself and nobody
else can help him. That's where we are. We can't
help ourselves. We can't save ourselves. We can't
will anything. We can't decide for anything,
most especially God Himself. The natural mind is enmity against
God. But look at verse 33. You see that first word in verse
33? But. But. You see, God doesn't show us
what we are. He doesn't reveal to us the depths
to which we fell. He doesn't show His people how
awful they are as sinners in order to leave them like that. As a matter of fact, every person
who perishes for eternity in hell, they will have gone the
whole way without any genuine awakening or understanding of
what they are. That's right. Christ said, they'll
stand there before me in that day and they'll say, well, Lord,
We've done many wonderful works in your name. We've preached
in your name. We've cast out devils in your
name. You can read that in Matthew
7. And Christ said, this is what I'll say to them in that hour.
Depart from me, I never knew you. Ye that work iniquity. They're preaching, they're believing,
their works, all these things that they did, which they did
in order for God to accept them and bless them. He says, it's
iniquity. It's not equal to what I require. But here he says of this man,
but. And somebody said this is one
of those great buts of grace found in this book. Ephesians
2, he describes us, those Ephesian believers that had been saved
by the grace of God, he describes them as dead in trespasses, in
sin, by nature, just like everybody else. He says, but God, who is
rich in mercy. He saved you. Well, here it is. Verse 33. But a certain Samaritan. That's the one I'm preaching.
The certain Samaritan. And somebody would say, well,
this can't be a picture of Christ, because He was not a Samaritan. Oh, he was not so, but a Samaritan
was considered a stranger and cursed by the Jews. This is what they said of him. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast
a devil? They called him a Samaritan. Well, here is a certain Samaritan. Here is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ who is cursed of men. despised of men. You say, well, I love Jesus. You
love the one in your mind. You love that little One that
Paul calls another Jesus, from your traditional religion, from
your own mind, from this generic religious world, just like on
Tuesday when the inauguration takes place and the President-elect
will put his hand on the Abraham Lincoln Bible and take the oath. And everybody
will have a funny, warm, religious feeling. And yet they'll live
and they'll talk about and they'll despise the true gospel of Jesus
Christ. If a man, by some strange twist
of providence, was in that hour being able to stand after everything
that's been done and everything has been applauded and everybody's
so happy and joyous, if he were to be enabled to stand immediately
after that, before that throng of people, and preach the free
and sovereign grace of God, he would never make it out of there
alive. Now, you mark me down, he would
not. If he were to stand and tell
that people the truth about God, if he were to stand and say what
God says about what we are as sinners, and the only way that
any are saved, he'd never make it out of there alive. Here's this Samaritan. Isaiah
said, he's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. He's talking about Christ. He's
talking about this certain Samaritan here whose picture. John said, he came unto his own,
and his own received him not. At his birth, that was the case. In his life, it was the case.
In his death, it was the case. And in his gospel, it's still
the case. They're still not receiving it. But here's the curse one. Paul
says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree. All right, here he is. A certain
Samaritan as he journeyed. He was on a journey. He wasn't
home. But he was on a journey. And in that he pictures the Lord
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who was the one who took
on Himself human flesh and was made flesh and dwelt among us. This God who is everywhere is
come and He is manifested in the flesh and confined to space. He journeyed. He left the Father's
house. He came into this world, the
Bible says. He journeyed. The Bible says that as he journeyed
this certain Samaritan, he came where this man was. Men never come to Christ of themselves. He always has to come to them. If it were left for you to decide
for Christ or to come to Christ or something like that of your
own, you never would. Why? Because of your condition.
This man is in such a situation. He's half dead. He's beaten up,
probably broken up, everything else. He's been left for dead. But you know what? religion meets
man where he is in his fallen depravity and gives him just
what he wants, the notion that he can do something. Well, that's why you see all
these signs, you know, these churches are free will or free
this or something like that. We like to be told that we can
do something whenever we're ready to do it, or if we decide to
do it, that God has done everything He can and we can now hold Him
at bay. I don't believe I want a God
that I can hold at bay. I don't want a God that's left
everything up to me, a dead, doomed, damned, blind sinner. I don't want a God who is so
weak that He can't do anything against my will. But the Bible says, He journeyed
and came where He was. Where are we at? We are here
in this world. Christ came down from heaven.
He came down to where His people were. He came down to the very
bar of God's justice, which was the cross. He came down as the
representative of His people. He came down as their substitute
to die in their place. He came down as their surety
who had agreed to stand in their room instead and pay their debt
long before the world was. He came bearing their sins. He came legally to the very cell
of our condemnation. You mean to tell me this man,
after the Levites and the priests have passed by this fellow, this
man's going to come where he's at? What's he going to get out
of it? The man's just been robbed, and even if he had a garment
of some kind, that's been taken also. He doesn't have anything
to give. He can't offer him any help.
or help. But he comes where he is. What
a merciful Christ! God having imputed the sins of
his people to him, God having wrought him as the head and angel
of that everlasting covenant, God who has put him in union
with a people that he gave to him before the world began, and
he's here. He's walking on this earth. He's
walking in human flesh, perfect, sinless human flesh, in order
that he might save them. If he hadn't come where they
were, And not only as he came in this world in human flesh,
but if he doesn't come where we are in our deadness and sins,
we'll perish. But he did. And it said, and
when he saw him, he looked upon him. What does that mean? He came
where he was and he looked upon him. He started seeing Him at
some point a long way off, don't you think? And the Lord Jesus,
the Bible says that He saw us, He saw His people, if we be such,
before the world began. He saw us as we are, like He
did Peter, like He did Nathanael. He knows what we are. Why don't
we quit pretending before God and men that we're something
we're not. That's what the word Pharisee
means. It means play actor. What are we? Are we that priest
walking by? No. Are we that Levite? No. We're that wounded, dirty, Can
you imagine what a sight he was? He'd been beaten bloody, clothes
taken off of him. In that dry, awful road, he's
been rolled in the dust and beaten and bruised. He's a sight. And that's every sinner that
God saves. He saw us as His seed, Isaiah
says, and was satisfied. Ezekiel says He passed by and
saw us and it was a time of love. He knows what we are. God knows
what we are. Every person He saved, God knows
exactly what we are. And He blesses us yet because
He never purposed to bless us in ourselves or because of anything
we did. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Jesus Christ wherein He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. And it says He had compassion
on Him. When he was here in this world,
it says, he saw the multitudes and he was moved with compassion
on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as
sheep having no shepherd. Well, here they are. They're
not even worthy of compassion. This man, he's not worth anything. But it says he had compassion
on him. Why? Because he's representing
Christ. And because he has compassion
on his people, not because of anything in them, but because
he would have compassion. That's what Paul records that
God said to Moses in Romans 9. He says, And he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. There's nothing in me to merit
God having compassion on me. There's nothing in you. But he retreats into his sovereignty. He will have compassion on whom
He will have compassion. He will be gracious to whom He'll
be. He'll be merciful to whom He'll
be merciful. Somebody said, well, if He's
not going to be merciful to everybody, I don't want Him to be merciful
to me. What total ignorance. Here's ten people in a house.
Ten apartments in a house, a person living in every room. Their fire breaks out and it's
a terrible fire. It's going to consume the building.
And a man, total stranger off the street, he runs in and he's
able to save three of those people. Well, you suppose those three
people said, well, since you didn't save all ten, I'm going
back in that fire and burn up with them. How foolish. No, He had compassion
on them. He did before time. He did as
God. He did as the man, and He does
now. He has compassion. And it says
He went to Him. Man couldn't go to Him. That's
why all this accept Jesus stuff and make your decision stuff
and all this, it's ridiculous. He has to come to us. And the
man couldn't go to Him, and neither us to God. And the Bible says
no man can come to Him. There's none that seeketh after
God. But He came to them. That's what
Christ was doing on this earth. And He comes by His Spirit in
time to His people, and He comes to His gospel. They imagine in
their blindness that they're doing this, and they've got their
plans made here, and they're doing this, and they're doing
just about everything. But God, if they're His child,
comes to them in that place and time of His appointing and with
that gospel which gives Him all the glory. You remember that man Saul of
Tarsus? He's just another Pharisee. He's
so zealous against God, he's on his way to Damascus to take
the people of God, the true people of God, and beat them or cast
them into prison. He's just like that dead man.
Just like that man, he thinks he's something, but he's nothing.
He thinks he's strong, but he's helpless. But the Lord Jesus
confronted him on that road to Damascus. He came where he was. And he stopped him in his race
into eternity. He stopped him as he ran headlong
into the wrath and judgment and hell of God. And he saved him. He comes where they are. He says he bound up his wounds. He probably did so with his own
garment. The man didn't have anything.
He bound up his wounds. That's what Christ does to us.
God imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. Those white garments on those
saints that John is unable to see in the Revelation. What is
that he says? That's the righteousness of the
saints. That's what happened there in
Ezekiel. When he passes by, he put on that babe laying in a
field, clothed there. He poured in oil and wine, oil
being representative of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of grace. Wine being typical of the very
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by which His people are redeemed
and justified. And He applies to the conscience
of a wounded sinner the oil and the wine which cleanses from
all sin, heals all the wounds and diseases of sin, cheers and
revives the fainting spirit, and gives ease and peace and
joy." God is not angry at His people.
Why? Because the blood of Jesus Christ
is their propitiation. They're declared righteous through
His blood. They've been redeemed and forgiven
by His blood, made nigh by His blood, received peace through
His blood, the remission of sins through His blood, every covenant
blessing. And then it says He poured it
in. He's the one that made the application. Somebody said, well, here it
is. Here's the blood of Christ. If you would just sprinkle that
on yourself. If you would just accept Jesus,
He's right. No. This certain Samaritan, He poured
it in. And He bound him up. And He set
him on His own beast. He carried him. He brought him. And then it says that he brought
him to an end, which I think in my mind represents this place
of rest and food and shelter, which is his true church, his
true people. He's brought him where he can
be fed, like Christ brings us to where we can be fed with the
gospel. And He didn't just drop him off,
He kept him perpetually. It says He took care of him,
and on the morrow he departed. That's what Christ did. He said,
it's expedient for you that I go away. And so we live by, we live and
we walk by faith in this world, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says he took out two pence. Now, I don't want to get on a tangent of symbolism here
or speculation, but it seems like to me that God has left
his people with two pence. The Old Testament and the New
Testament. That's what we have. That's what
we have been left through which He'll care for us all our days. And what a two-pence it is. It's a wealth. It's a treasure. It says He gave them to the host.
Maybe that's the gospel preacher. And He said, take care of him. That's what Christ said to Peter.
He said, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. He didn't say
entertain my sheep. He didn't say amuse my sheep. Sometimes I've heard of preachers
that people like them because they're so funny. They make me
laugh. He said, feed my sheep. What's
that? With the green pastures of God's
Word. Take care of them. And he said,
and whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay
you. No, there's just one certain
Samaritan. There's just one Savior, and
He just saves one way. And He just saves one people
who are in this condition and who are brought to confess themselves
as such. And that's why everyone he saves,
they give him all the glory. Can I tell you about my experience? Very briefly, I fell in Adam. I was born in
sin, shaped in iniquity, came forth from my mother's womb speaking
lies, and followed that course all my day, demonstrating that
I was a dead, lost sinner. Even when I first stood in the
pulpit to preach to others, I was like this man. Wounded,
robbed, stripped, left for dead, helpless, and would have continued
so. But the certain Samaritan came
to me where I was, showed me my awful state, and did for me,
spiritually, what is pictured here. What have I got to boast of? It can't begin with what I did. No, He came where I was. And He rescued me. As a matter
of fact, He keeps saving me. I'm so helpless. He has to keep saving me. Saving
me from myself as well as from my sin and from this world. But that's what He does. He looked upon me, saw nothing
in me from old eternity, but set His love on me, chose me
in Christ, blessed me with all spiritual blessings in Him, And
then Christ came into this world and died on that cross to fully
pay my sin debt and that God might be known as just as well
as the justifier and show that he was right to save me and bless
me because of Christ. And then when I came in time, He sent his servant with the
gospel. I wasn't looking for it. I liked
Saul of Tarsus. I thought I knew the gospel.
But he intercepted me and with his servant showed me
the truth and gave me faith to believe it. He said, this is
what I've done for you. And therefore, he gets all the
glory forever and ever. Father, we thank you this day
for your glorious salvation. You are truly God our Savior
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just God and the Savior. And we thank you. Bring us, we pray, come to where
we are and ever rescue us by your power
and grace. Help us, we do pray, to rightly
give you glory, for we pray in the name of Christ. Amen.