So we've looked at the context,
something of this, isn't it, that the opposition to the Lord
Jesus came from this lawyer as a result of the Lord Jesus Christ
revealing who he is and how he reveals and he hides. And if
we're going to see something of this parable and see something
of the meaning of this parable, then the Lord has to be our teacher
and the Lord has to do the revealing. Otherwise, we will treat this
as the world does. A story about how to be good. a story about how to do good,
and a story that causes people to feel guilty because you haven't
done enough good. I don't know which one of those
categories you fall into, but we're all there somewhere. So let's begin. As the Lord begins
here in verse 25, and behold, a lawyer stood, a certain lawyer
stood up, and tempted him. A certain lawyer stood up and
tempted him. Notice the physical stance of
the lawyer. He's standing in the very presence
of God Almighty. He's not bowing, but he's standing
there. He's standing and he stood up
and he's testing him. So the lawyers, not as we see
lawyers, the lawyers were experts in the law of Moses. They knew
how the law was and they knew how to read it and they knew
how to apply it and that was their task. But this man stands
in front of the Lord Jesus Christ You've got to remember the Lord
Jesus Christ looks straight through every one of us and sees the
very depths of our heart, and He sees them all the time, and
so I beg of you just to lay your life out before Him. Don't hide
anything from Him. He set out to prove, to test,
His character as Satan did in the wilderness. He wanted to stand in front of God, wanting
to test him. And listen to what he says. Master, he even speaks highly
of him. In his heart, he's tempting him,
and with his mouth, he's speaking highly of him. What a shocking
thing. What a shocking thing. Honour
me with their lips and their hearts are far from me, says the Lord
Jesus Christ. Listen to what he says. Master, What shall I
do to inherit eternal life? What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? Now, at the very outset, this
incredibly wise and brilliant man and knowledgeable man doesn't
seem to have an idea of what an inheritance is. How do you
get an inheritance? Simon's just got an inheritance
from his father. How do you get an inheritance?
Because you're his son, you get an inheritance. You don't inherit
because you do, you inherit because of who you are. And of course,
only someone. who trusts in their own works
would ask the question for a start, wouldn't they? So he starts very
badly, doesn't he? His attitude is one of standing
in front of the Lord Jesus Christ, not bowing before him. And then
he's in his heart, he's tempting him. And then he's saying, what
must I do? What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And the implication, of course,
is that he's already done it. That's why he's asking the question.
He's not asking the question to find out, he's asking the
question so he'll get some reward. That's why he's standing in his
own righteousness before the Lord Jesus Christ. What must
I do to inherit eternal life? The scriptures are, from one
end to the other, a picture of salvation by grace as opposed This is chapter 4. Abel brings
the fruit of his own hands, and Agamemnon brings the fruit of
his own doings, and he's offended at God's acceptance of Abel. And Abel brings the Lord Jesus
Christ. He brings a representation of the Lord Jesus Christ to God.
Religion is full of a mixture, isn't it, of works and grace,
of law and grace. So this man's a legalist. And
legalism, as with all false religion, is not the religion of grace.
They are particularly exclusive one or the other. You either
meet God on the basis of pure and sovereign grace, or you meet
him, as this man did, on the basis of your works. And if you
had any works, any works whatsoever works at the beginning of your
salvation. I exercised my free will, I walked
the aisle, I prayed the sinner's prayer, I invited Jesus into
my heart, I gave my heart to Jesus. All of these things is
what religion does. If your beginning in religion
is with something you do, then your journey in religion will
be. I've kept the law, I've done
my best, I've served, I've read my Bible, I'll be looking to
the things that I do all the way through. And at the end,
of course, the reward of those who do all of these things is
I get more jewels in my crown than you. And I get a seat closer
to the throne. Thank you very much. And you'll
be able to esteem me in heaven as you should esteem me here. It's salvation by works. It's
salvation by works, and it's the broad road, and it's salvation
by works that leads people to hell. And he said unto him, verse 26,
and he said unto him, what is written in the law? You come
to the Lord Jesus Christ on the basis of the law, and he will
take you back to the law. How do you read the law? And
verse 27, he's 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 love thy neighbor as thyself. This is what the Jews had written.
They had written all over the place. They carried them on their
phylacteries and wore them as a proud boast. And the Lord Jesus
Christ answers him. And he said unto him, verse 28,
Thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live. So there you are. That's how
you have eternal life. You love the Lord your God with
all of your heart. This man's heart was a long way
from loving God, wasn't it? He had a neighbour in front of
him he didn't love. You love God with all of your mind and the tense of the verb
is to keep on doing this. You have to have done it all
of your life. Every tiny last moment. That's
how you get into eternal life. That's how you have eternal life.
Perfect obedience in heart and soul and strength and mind without
any sin whatsoever. Nearly all the people that I've
met that have been like this lawyer will say, well, I don't
quite do it, but I'm doing my best. Or I'm doing it a little
bit better than someone else down the road. Your best is not
good enough. It says all, all, all, all. Doing, as the hymn writer said,
cast your deadly And there is a great lesson,
isn't it? God will meet you on the ground, upon which you come
to him. You come to the Lord Jesus Christ
on that day, on the basis of your obedience and your works,
and he will reveal to you what's required to enter into heaven. Now, the stories in the scripture
are appalling, aren't they? those people turn up there in
Matthew 7.21 and they have all of their works and they've cast
out demons and they've preached and they've done all these mighty
things and they've done it in his name and they say Lord Lord
on that day when they meet him and he casts them into hell Lord
Jesus Christ and he says I never knew you I never had any loving
relationship with you you come to him that way and that's how
he And it's happening as we speak,
brothers and sisters. It's happening right at this
very moment. There are people leaving this
earth, holding on to what the scriptures call a lie in their
right hand. God meets you on the ground upon
which you come to Him. See, the Lawyer came with doing. And at the very end of the parable,
he's told to go away and do more. He's unmoved in this parable
by the Lord. He's like the rich young ruler
who came to the Lord, and he's given a list of some of the commandments,
and he says, well, I've done them from my youth up. Anyone who thinks that they have
obeyed God at any one point, at any one time, in any one way, the kindest thing you have ever
done. Nothing, we sang it earlier,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Everything of us has to be washed
in his blood and robed in his righteousness or on that must
cast it out for him to be holy and just. So here is this man
standing, this lawyer, standing in front of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he's trying, he's already kept the first part, hasn't he?
He has loved God with all of his heart, all of his soul, all
of his mind, and all of his strength. God is standing, take this parable,
and contemplate the Lord Jesus' answer to a legalist. This is
what the parable is about, isn't it? It's the answer to a legalist. Verse 30. He answered him. This
is how the Lord will answer you if you come to him on the basis
of works. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho
and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment,
and wounded him, and departed, and leaving him half dead. There is. There is a road that's
pictured here. It's the road from Jerusalem
to Jericho. It's a picture of the fall of
man. that said that every one of Adam's children is on a journey
down this particular road. Jerusalem, of course, is the
place where God meets with people, as he did in the garden. It's,
of course, the Shalom part of that word is peace, isn't it? It's a vision of peace. It's
the city of David. It is, but a picture, of course,
of the church and of heaven from God. Jericho was captured by
Joshua and the Israelites when they crossed over the Jordan
into the promised land. And Jericho was a city that was
cursed. by Joshua in Joshua chapter 6.
And so here is the picture of this journey. You're in this
story, brothers and sisters. You're in this story. We're in
all the Bible stories. That's why they're so poignant,
because they're speaking about us. Every single one of Adam's
children is on a journey from that place of peace and habitation
with God to a place of cursing. Everyone is travelling down that
particular road, and it's a road, as we'll see, that has two sides
on it. It has a side where the priest
and the Levite can travel, and it has another side where this
man ended up, this certain man. There is a certain man that travelled
down this road. Verse 13, he went down from Jerusalem
to Jericho and he fell among thieves which stripped him of
his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. What an extraordinary poignant
picture of the fall of our father Adam and our fall in him. We
fell among thieves. Satan is a thief. of his glory and he robs people
of seeing their need of him. We were stripped in the garden
of our aim and we were stripped of that righteousness that we
had in the garden. We are wounded by sin and we
are wounded by the fall. When fall among robbers, we are
left half dead, half dead. Man physically lives. He said,
when Adam ate, you'll die. But Adam lived. In what sense
did Adam die when he ate? He was spiritually dead. That's
what it is, to be half dead, isn't it? It's to be spiritually
dead. You're alive in your body, but you're spiritually dead.
This is a road, isn't it? It's a road that's going down.
It's going down from the place of God's presence and revelation
and blessing to a place of cursing. And everyone travels down this
road. The religious travel down this road. The profane travel
down this road. And almost all of humanity travels
down this road unhindered. And their journey is one where
they seem to be getting better and better. If you read Psalm
73, you will find that David was envious of the wicked. He
was envious of their prosperity and said, there are no bans in
their death. They even go through this life,
down to the place of death. without a concern. Everyone travels
down this road. There are two sides to this road,
as I said. There's the side of grace and
the side of works. There is the side of blessing
and the side of cursing. But this is a glorious picture.
This man was going down and he fell among these robbers. He
was surrounded by these robbers. He was in complete encompassed
by the, this was a notorious road, it was called the Red and
Bloody Way, and the Romans put a fort there, and there were
thieves, and there was this man beaten, beaten with strokes and
blows, left half dead. And then in verse 31, by chance,
there came down a certain priest that way, And when he saw him,
he passed by on the other side. By chance, by way of coincidence,
is God accommodating our feeble minds. There's nothing that ever
happens by chance in God's kingdom. But he accommodates our weaknesses
so that he can communicate with us. He was going down and this
one came alongside and then he stepped to the other side of
the road to avoid ceremonial contamination with a stranger
and possibly a dead man. Likewise, verse 32, likewise
a Levite, when he was at the place, he came and he looked
on him and he passed by on the other side. Levite did exactly
as the priest, but in some ways he was worse. He actually looked
on him. This is a picture. These two men picture, of course,
as the lawyer well knew, they picture the law, the moral law
and the ceremonial law. They picture the helplessness
of the law. and condemn you, and the law
can give you no aid whatsoever. The children of God, just to
be clear, the children of God love God's law in every possible
way, don't we? We delight in the law after the
inward man. It reflects the holiness of God.
It reflects his justice, his character. It pictures his salvation
in a substitute, the true high priest. It pictures his people
being brought into the presence of God, carried by that high
priest with their names inscribed on his breasts and on his shoulders.
But what can the law do to help anyone? Well, see what the law
did to this Pharisee, this lawyer, didn't it? All it did was make
him self-righteous and stand proudly in the presence of God.
See, the law, according to Romans 7.12, the law is holy and the
commandment is holy, just, and good. The law is holy, but it
never made anyone holy. The law is just, but it never
justified anyone. The law is good, but it never
made anyone good. All the law ever does is say
guilty, guilty, guilty. It holds a mirror up to what
we are and says guilty. It condemns, that's all it does. It says sin. on the other side of the road. The law says you deserve what
you've got. There you are. In this picture,
aren't you? You're in this story somewhere,
and most people want to see themselves as the good Samaritan in this
story. But in reality, if you're a child of God, you're the one
that's bleeding and dead on the side of the road. that the law
has looked over and can stand and walk by on the other side.
A certain Samaritan, a certain Samaritan, there was a certain
man and a certain Samaritan. And of course the Lord Jesus
Christ is the Samaritan. The Jews said to him, say we
not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil? And to go back
to our story in John chapter 4, his time, those two days he
spent with that Samaritan, in that Samaritan village with that
woman, and the others say people in a village is probably the
reason they called him that. He owns it as a title. Certain Samaritan, as he journeyed,
came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on
him. He came, the Lord Jesus Christ
came on a journey, didn't he? He came on a journey from heaven
on a mission to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. He came on a journey to save
his bride and throughout the gospel accounts we have this
remarkable picture of how he saves the ones that can't help
themselves in any way at all. He saves the outcasts. And what
a glorious picture of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
journeyed and he came where he was. We've just been watching
him at that well in Samaria. He came to where he was. What a gospel we have to proclaim.
He comes to where you are. And it's the only hope of salvation
that the Lord Jesus Christ comes to where you are. Not you picking
yourself up and making yourself better like this lawyer. helpless, no ability to save
yourself from death, no ability even to begin the process. This
man was there dying in his blood. The Lord Jesus comes to where
He is. It's a cruel gospel this world
has created under Satan's robbery of God's glory, isn't it? It
says to you, if you do, and you can fill in the million blanks
that they've created, if you do this, God will save you. If
you take the first step, then God will take the rest. If you
can take any steps, It's a cruel gospel. It says,
and it mocks the sinner, it mocks the dead sinner in trespasses
and sins and says, you've got to do something to be saved.
See, Christ comes to a chosen sinner where he is. and where
there are no conditions that this man can meet. Just like
he said to Lazarus in the tomb, and there he was rotting and
dead, and he says, Lazarus, come out. It's a picture of how he
saves people. And what does he, and then what
is, he comes. He comes to where he was, and
when he saw him, what a look the Lord Jesus Christ brings
to his chosen bride. He sees everything. the eyes of omnipotence. He sees
the bride, wholly spotless, unblameable, unapprovable. He sees her as
the Father's gift to him. He sees them already in heaven. God sees us. He sees us as we
are. He sees us as we are. Dead, in
trespasses and sins, ruin, having ruined ourselves and living in
a ruined world. He sees us. He sees everything. What does
he see? He sees in his bride an opportunity
to display his glory in her salvation. Display all the beauties of his
character. That's what this story is about.
This is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Good
Samaritan. He came on his journey. He came
to where he was. He saw him and he had compassion
on him. He had compassion on him. to his people and the reason
for his love is not in you and in your goodness and in your
ability to do things. The reason for his love is in
himself. He says he loves you because
he loves you. He doesn't have to find a reason in you, in your
goodness or what you promise to do and to please him in all
your activities. He comes to where you are and
he has compassion. He has compassion. This is a glorious picture of
how the Lord Jesus Christ saved sinners. You'll see this picture
repeated throughout all the Gospel accounts and you'll see this
picture repeated throughout his history. That's exactly what
he's done. If you were saved, brothers and sisters, that's
what he's done and come to you. It's the Saviour's personal work. and intimate work. So God-like
are the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ, aren't they? In all of
his acts, he's so God-like. Listen to what he does in verse
34. And he went to him. They walked past on the other
side of this road. Now here's the side of this road,
which is all of grace and mercy and love. And he went to him
and he 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. He went to him. The Lord Jesus
Christ doesn't leave us to come to him. He comes to us. What a Saviour! He sees us dead
in our trespasses and sins, unable to help ourselves, and not even
aware that we need, that we have a great need, not even aware
of the danger that lies ahead. And in this particular case,
not even able to ask for mercy, He comes to where we are. we've wounded ourselves grievously,
we've fallen among thieves and robbers, and lest you come, we
are lost. He comes, he comes, he looks
with compassion, and he bound up his wounds, pouring on them
oil and wine. What's the oil and the wine in
the scriptures represent? with you. And I love what it
says. He says he's pouring on them
oil and wine. He doesn't leave you to do the
pouring himself. He actually applies it. Salvation is not
just something that's out there, isn't it? It's something that
the Lord Jesus Christ applies to his people. We are wounded
by the fall, we are stripped of any righteousness and we have
destroyed ourselves. We are our own worst problem,
an incurable sinner and the good Samaritan comes with the living
waters in him which are a well of water springing up. to eternal
life. With precious blood he comes
to put away sins and with the blessed Holy Spirit he brings
life, he brings a revelation of himself, he gives a new heart,
he gives the grace to believe, the grace to repent, he gives
the grace to love the Lord, to love his word, to love his people,
to love his glory. and he set him on his own beast.
Just picture it. There is this man near dead and
the Lord Jesus Christ has bound him up and he pours in the oils
of his grace and he sets him on his own beast and he walks
alongside him as he's carried to the inn. The inn, of course,
is off the road. It's not in Jericho by the stories. It's the inn. It's a picture
of the church. It's the place to nurture them and he took care
of him. He took care of him. He stayed
the night with him, this man, with him in the darkness as his
wounds healed and his strength returned. What a picture of our
Lord's work right here now. I don't know the wounds that
you've suffered in this world in the past week and I don't
know what the wounds are that you'll have in the weeks to come
and I'm helpless to meet your He's able and he comes to his
own. He's able to succor, says Hebrews
2.8. That means he's able to run to
the cry for help. Is that how you see the Lord
Jesus Christ? 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, take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest
more, when I come again, I will repay thee. So he stayed the
night with him and he leaves in the morning. And what he does
is he leaves the two pence, the two pence is a half shekel, it's
the picture of His salvation by blood
atonement of all His people. And that atonement money was
to be paid by all the Israelites, and every single Israelite, whether
you were a really good one in your own eyes or whether you
were a really wicked one in your own eyes, there's only one cost
of atonement, one price of atonement, and it's half a shekel. It's
the same for all Israel. It doesn't matter how much money
you have. It doesn't matter how much sin you've done. The atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. is one size fits all, isn't it? He took out the two pence as
a down payment, as a pledge, and he takes care of him. And
he says, I will repay. It's an emphatic promise, isn't
it? I'll pay everything for my people
in this world as they're taken off that road to cursing and
brought into I take care of everything. Who
owns the church? The Lord Jesus Christ owns the
church and he's bought it with his own blood. Do you think having
done that with his own blood he won't care for us as we walk
through the rest of this journey in this world? He'll take care
and he has a promised return when I come back. I will pay. All the care is at his expense,
he says, put everything on my account. I'll take full responsibility
for his care, I'll take full responsibility for his restoration
to life and health. Every blessing we get, children
of God, is a blood-bought blessing through the atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the cross is all we
speak of, isn't it? It's all in salvation, it's all
in redemption, it's all in care for you in this world. again and again and again in
the end we proclaim him in his glory we proclaim him and he's
coming to us where we are and rescuing us the good Samaritan
is the Lord Jesus Christ the good Samaritan is the Lord Jesus
Christ and he brings his people into that in now he comes back to his lawyer
he's given us the to the lawyer, which of these,
now of these three, thinkest thou was a neighbour unto him
that fell among these? You came to test Jesus said unto him, Go and do
likewise. The lawyer came on the basis
of works, and he is sent away by the Lord Jesus Christ to continue
in his works. I pray that that never happens
to you, brothers and sisters, that you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ on the basis of grace, you come as a mercy beggar, And
you don't have him tell you to go away and keep your doing. You have him say to you that
it's all been done long, long ago. It's all been done. It's
all been paid for. The other thing I want us to
note about the lawyer is that the lawyer had a neighbor standing
before him. The neighbor happened to be a
man, but the neighbor also happened to be God Almighty. The neighbor
was there, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. and he had no love for
this neighbour. He came with hatred tempting
him. He came with the desire to trap
the Lord Jesus Christ in sin and expose him as a fraud. He
has no love for his neighbour. See, sending the lawyer away
who comes to him on the basis of works, you go away and be
perfect. You love your neighbor perfectly.
You love your enemies perfectly. You pay all their debt to God. You lift them up from the dead.
You deliver them from the curse and you bring them to glory. Go and do likewise. I want us to be reminded that
the children of God And so we need to be thankful
and this story is not a story that's diminishing that at all. But the world is full of people
who have supposedly done lots and lots of good things. I don't want you to come to God
on that day with any works in your hands whatsoever. We just
bring one thing to God, the Father, don't we? Jesus Christ, and nothing else
is going to ever be acceptable. Salvation is God's mercy to the
guilty, whose sin is all. Therefore, blessed are the merciful,
for they will obtain mercy. Mercy to one who had no way of
repaying. This man has lost everything.
He's naked and stripped bare. He's lost everything, almost
his own life. It's mercy from God flowing from
a merciful heart, not looking for a ward. A Jew received saving mercy from
a Samaritan, who he saw as his enemy. And they saw the Lord
Jesus Christ as their enemy, these people. Here, grace and
law are seen in stark contrast. What was the lawyer's problem?
What's the problem with religion today? Is that the people in
it have never been made mercy beggars. See, the road to mercy
begins without It begins with our inability,
just like the woman at the well in Samaria. That's the qualification. Our inability is the qualification
for mercy and God's love for us. So you go out and do likewise. You take the wine and oil of
the gospel. It's the only cure for every
malady. It's a cure that fits all diseases. Gods, you go and do likewise. You children of God, you've obeyed
the Lord perfectly. You have loved in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you have loved God with all of your heart, all of your
soul, all of your mind, all of your strength. And you've loved
your neighbour as yourself. And we rejoice in who he is. His works are our works. That's all I dare to bring to
God. Because it's all that God can
accept. He, to go back to John chapter
three, he that doeth the truth, he comes to the light, that his
deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. These scriptures are pictures
of salvation, salvation by a Samaritan. He was bruised for our iniquities.
Graham read it in Isaiah chapter 53. The good Samaritan comes
to where we are wounded. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon him. We are healed. We all, like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's our Saviour. That's what
this picture's about, brothers and sisters. The world wants
to use it as a means for men doing good work so they can be
esteemed by It's a gospel picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ saving his people. It's a gospel picture,
but in the midst of the gospel picture, there's a very, very
stark warning to anyone who thinks that they can come to God on
the basis of anything they've ever done, like this man. They'll
stand before God, and they'll be told to go and do. and they'll
never finish their doing. God's children rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The thieves and the robbers are
all those who peddle another Jesus and another gospel that
says you must do, you must do, and you must keep on doing. The
glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, he said, it is finished. And that means that all of the
debt of all of God's people is completely and utterly paid forever. And God sees his people now as
holy and righteous in him, healed. healed of all those wounds, healed
from all those robbers that robbed us on that journey from Jerusalem
to Jericho. Let's pray.