Luke's Gospel chapter 10 and
verse 25. And I'm probably going to surprise
you a little bit by only reading a couple of verses from the beginning
of this passage when one might think they would all be read
together. And indeed, I approached it in
my preparation to do it all together, but I won't be able to do it
justice if I do so. So we're going to break this
passage from 25 to the end of the chapter, or at least down
to Verse 37, we're going to break
it into two. We're not going to deal with the whole of the
Good Samaritan narrative today, just a few verses from the beginning
of the incident in which the Lord spoke to one of these scribes. So, reading from verse 25, And
behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And 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, with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,
and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast
answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. I'm going to take just these
few verses today. so as to try to do justice to
the first part of the Saviour's dialogue with this lawyer, or
scribe. He's called a scribe here. The
term scribe and lawyer seem to be synonymous. They seem to be
the same. In some gospel accounts, the
men that speak to the Lord are called scribes. In others, where
it's the same incident, the same men speaking, They're called
lawyers. So that term appears to be the
same. But here, we want to think about
what the Lord is saying to this man before we enter more fully
into the narrative of the Good Samaritan. And we will do that
on another occasion, God willing. This scribe seems to have heard
the Lord Jesus preach. And he rises, I don't know whether
it's in a synagogue or whether it's out in the open or in what
circumstances it is, but he rises to ask the Lord a question. And
the question is, how to obtain eternal life? And it seems to
be a very significant and profound question. There are a lot of
people interested in getting eternal life. And actually, I
don't know whether anyone else has, but I've heard a president
talking about that several times recently, but we'll let that
pass. Here's a man asking about eternal
life. And it's interesting that the
Lord did not simply tell him about grace and mercy and faith
and forgiveness. And that indicates to us that
there is more to being saved from our sins than believing
a few Bible facts. And this is the point that we're
going to be thinking about today. Let me explain what I mean. and
I want to note a few things about the Lord's dialogue with this
man. The first thing is this, the
question that the man asked was insincere. It wasn't a genuine,
sincere question. We're told that the scribe asked
this question to tempt the Lord Jesus. Now I just want to note
that point because I suspect that a lot of people who are
interested in asking this question, interested in going to heaven,
interested in gaining the benefits of a spiritual experience, possibly
do so for the wrong reason. And Perhaps this man was testing
the Lord in some way. Perhaps that was his reason for
doing what he did. Perhaps he was asking if the
Lord knew his scriptures. Maybe he was trying to trip him
up in some matter of the law or catch him out or try to embarrass
him in front of the crowd. Maybe he wanted to show his own
legal skills, his own Bible knowledge. while being for a moment the
centre of attention. It's true that there were some
at this time, some sects amongst the Jews who did not believe
in eternal life, did not believe in life after death. And it might
be that here this man was trying to lay a trap for the Lord by
asking his question as he did. Whatever his reason, it was Impudent,
it was brazen to challenge the Lord publicly like this. But instead of rebuking the man,
or worse, ignoring him, the Lord Jesus used this man's disrespect
to teach him, the scribe, and I think the church, a very useful
lesson. And let us note what the Lord
did. The Lord sent this man to the law. Did you notice that
the Lord didn't preach the gospel to this man? At least not at
this stage, at least not at first. The Lord accepted the question,
but instead of telling him about Christ's own upcoming death,
or explaining to him about the cross, or telling him about a
substitutionary sacrifice for sin, instead of speaking to him
about grace and forgiveness, The Lord referred this self-righteous
man to the law and he made it a personal matter. He said to
him, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And so he made
this about the man. I suspect the Lord looked this
man in the face. I suspect that the man was looking
at the Lord's face. I expect that if we had been
present that day, there would have been an emphasis on that
word thou. How does this affect you? And here I humbly suggest to
you, the Lord is showing great wisdom in this matter. The trouble
with this man, like, if I could just make an analogy here, like
the rich young ruler as well, who asked a very similar question
and received a very similar answer from the Lord. I say again, the
trouble with this man was that he did not realise he was a sinner.
He thought that he was fit for heaven. He thought that what
he had done already, what he had earned by his own labours,
made him eligible for eternal life by the works and the deeds
that he had done. He wasn't looking for a sincere
answer. He wasn't coming to the Lord
sincerely. He wasn't even coming out of
curiosity. He was looking for approval and
affirmation of his own worthiness, of his own dedication and of
his own good works and I suspect that there are many today who
come to the Lord, who come to the Christian faith not out of
sincerity looking for forgiveness of sin, but looking for approval
and affirmation of their own worthiness, their own dedication,
their own belief system, and indeed their own good works.
Here's another thing that we learn from this man. Having replied
to the lawyer, as he did, the Lord asked him, what is written
in the law? How readest thou? The scribe
was obliged to answer, and he quoted very properly a section
from Deuteronomy 6. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength,
and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself. This was
from a passage in the Old Testament from the book of Deuteronomy
and it had been codified into a way in which the Jews, the
religious Jews, would fit the text of Deuteronomy onto a little
scroll and fix it in a phylactery on their forehead or place it
beside their door or have it as a poster on their wall so
that they could refer to it, so that they could repeat it,
so that they could read it And the Lord acknowledged that it
was a good response. In fact, he acknowledged that
it was the right response. And yet this man did not truly
enter into its meaning or understand what he was saying. And that,
again, also shows us that people can learn the facts of the truth
of the Bible and profess them without ever feeling their force
and without ever knowing their truth, nor in their own soul,
nor in their own heart. The Lord said to this man, thou
hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live. And this is what the law indeed
says. It says, now do it. Do it and
you shall live. It isn't enough to know the law. It isn't enough to quote the
law. You have to do it. Do it and
you shall have eternal life. It was as if the Lord was saying
to this man, If you know what you must do, then why haven't
you done it yet? If you can quote to me what God
requires of you, then why haven't you exercised that head knowledge
by real heart experience. He was bringing the man under
the law to teach him, to convict him, to expose him to his failure,
his inability to comply with what he confessed with his mouth
was required of him. Eternal life cannot be had without
a full and perfect holiness. That is what the Lord was teaching
this man. Without obedience to the law
of God, including a love to God and love for one's neighbour,
the Lord highlights this to show this man the impossibility of
gaining life by his own strength and by the law. and in order
to convict him personally by the law. Perfection before God
cannot be accomplished by man as anyone honest is bound to
acknowledge. And this short interaction, this
dialogue between the Lord Jesus and this lawyer, this scribe,
teaches us that fallen creatures can never satisfy the demands
of a holy God by their own self-righteous works. Not only does the law
reveal the height of the bar, that is perfection, it also imposes
continuous adherence. and as members of Adam's race
and as fallen creatures, we fail three times over when it comes
to God's law. We fail because we can't live
perfect lives. We can't honour God in word,
in thought, in deed. We can't love him or our neighbours
as ourselves. We can't keep the law, the whole
standard of God's holy demands in every part, perfect. We can't
love God with heart, soul, strength and mind. Of course we can't. It's man's sinful blindness that
makes him think he's good enough, or better than others, or makes
him willing to take his chance in the judgment. The Word of
God is clear. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. the wickedness of the wicked
shall be upon him. That's the first reason that
we cannot please God, because we cannot live perfect lives.
A second reason is this, we fail because even if we could momentarily,
for an instant, resist evil and desist from doing evil, yet it
would be required of us to have done so all of our lives. all our past, all our future. God is holy and his law demands
holiness absolutely and everlastingly. It will not take half measures.
It will not deal in fractions. It demands perfection in all
things at all times. If the law examines a man and
finds any sin anywhere at any time, it declares him guilty
and condemns him to death. And then, even if we were able
to keep the law perfectly, so as to be outwardly practically
sinless, even if we always had been sinless, which is of course
impossible, nevertheless, we are sinful in soul, we are corrupt
in nature, we are spoiled with the legacy of Adam's disobedience
in our flesh. Paul says, by the offence of
one judgement came upon all men to condemnation, and by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners. There is no life under the law. All have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. That was what the Lord was teaching
this scribe. We cannot love the Lord our God
with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength,
with all our mind, and we cannot love our neighbour as ourselves. It is impossible for us to do
so because we are sinful creatures. And as by one man sin entered
the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. And the law cannot make a man
righteous. It cannot declare a man righteous
in himself when he is not. Its role in the life of every
sinner is to declare us guilty. before God and show us our need
of mercy and grace. And that was the lesson that
the Lord was teaching to this man. But there's another lesson here
as well, I think, and this is bringing it more up to date and,
well, let me just say what I'm going to say. What the Lord is
showing the church is that men and women must be brought to
see and know their need of salvation and their need of a saviour before
the light of the gospel will truly shine into their heart
and soul and its benefits and blessings be known. The Lord
sent this man to the law for conviction. And when the law
is used lawfully, when the law is used properly, when the law
is used appropriately, as it is designed and intended in God's
economy of grace, and we may say as Christ uses it here, the
Holy Spirit makes it a schoolmaster to show a sinner his need of
Christ. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, says Paul. So Jesus sent this lawyer to
the law, not for self-approbation, but for self-condemnation. And I fear that too many churches
and too many preachers have got this the wrong way around. They
go about offering God's forgiveness and grace to everyone, implying
that forgiveness and grace is for everyone, and thereby corrupting
the scriptures, confounding the gospel, and confusing the hearers. They offer the gospel where there
is no conviction work in the heart of the sinner, and no awareness
of need. And then, afterwards, when these
so-called converts don't display the fruits of a Christian life
as might be expected from one in whom Christ and the Spirit
of God dwells, if it truly did, these same preachers, having
once confused their hearers, then apply the law. and impose
a set of rules on men and women who believe themselves to be
saved, but who are in reality merely covering their sin under
a layer of self-righteousness, under a layer of works and outward
moral conduct. We mentioned to the young people
on Sunday, salvation does not flow from reformation of life,
but from regeneration unto life. The Holy Spirit first brings
conviction of sin, awareness of need, and then satisfies that
felt need with views of Christ's suitability as a saviour to provide
what we never could supply by ourselves. What a terrible thing
for men and women to be deceived into thinking that they have
peace with God which I fear many in churches today are, when they
have never known the true condition of their heart or the depths
of their enmity and rebellion against God. Now I acknowledge
that this doctrine is not popular today. when everyone is rushed
into church membership and supplied with assurances of eternal life
as soon as they make any inquiry or show any interest in church
life. In some places, people are made
church officers before they're even truly understanding what
the gospel is about. All I'm saying is this, that
when this man stood up and asked the Lord, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life? The Lord made sure that he knew
something about sin before he offered him everlasting life.
And I think preachers would be wise to follow the Lord's example
in this matter. Amen. Amen.