May almighty God bless the reading of his holy words to our soul's prophet this evening. We'll read the account of the Good Samaritan, that's what we refer to. And it's in the Gospel of Luke, the 10th chapter of Luke. And it runs from verse 25 to verse 37. So the Gospel of Luke, reading from the 10th chapter, reading from verse 25 to verse 37.

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 the 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 neighbour 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 neighbour? 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 certain priest that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 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 he went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And on the morrow, when he 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 thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do thou likewise.

Well, it's a very familiar account and it's a very simple account, but there's a lot of instruction in these few verses for us in our lives today. And we know that it was a lawyer who tempted him and asked the question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And the answer he 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 neighbour as thyself. Well, that in itself is a very challenging statement, isn't it? To realise that such a truth is here contained. 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 neighbour?

You see how a natural man wants to warrant himself and be able to adequately answer any question or any difficulty that arises and come up with a right answer. And the Lord said, but he willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, a certain man, we're not told his name. We don't know who he was. It's not relevant. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And we, it's obvious that here was a man going away from Jerusalem. It would have been much better if he'd been going towards Jerusalem, because that's the place where, of course, the temple was and the place of worship. And Jericho was the very opposite. It was a wicked city. And this man was going from what we might term a good place to a bad place. And on his journey, we're told he fell among thieves. which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Well, we can see that as a natural picture. There he was on this journey, and the thieves came and stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. But we can also apply this as a spiritual situation. And perhaps we're going the wrong direction. We're not going the right way, we're going the wrong way. And when we're going the wrong way, we find that there are thieves come and strip us, perhaps, of those great blessings which we may have enjoyed in the past in a spiritual way. and left us therefore divided them as it were and left us as it were half dead so there we are in a miserable state we've gone the wrong direction and we've suffered for it and thieves have come and robbed us and there we are then left in this sad condition half-dead.

Well it's a very sad position to be in. And then the Lord gives us what happened then. Here was this man realising he was half-dead and we can see him there. We're told that by chance they came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. He could easily have stopped couldn't he? Could have easily asked what the problem was, why he was there, what had happened, and what could he do to help? No, he didn't want to get involved. He didn't want to get involved. And it's very easy in our lives today. We don't want to get involved in a situation. It's just too difficult. Might have been costly. Might have delayed him on the journey he was going to. And so, sadly, we're told here was a priest, a religious man, and he passed by on the other side. That's very sad when that happens. And likewise, a Levite, when he was at that place, came and looked on him, and he passed by on the other side. Exactly the same. You see, he could have been involved, He could have helped, but no, he didn't want to. No, he passed by on the other side.

And then we read and come to the last person that we would have expected. to help at all a certain Samaritan the Jews didn't have any dealings with a Samaritan and we could have thought well of course here was this Samaritan as he journeyed he would pass by on the other side but we're told he came where he was and we can look at that again in a spiritual sense that perhaps there are those ministers who come and preach and no help at all. And then perhaps someone who is despised and not thought much of, he comes, he sees the problem, and he stops. Stops on his journey. And he came where he was. And he did all that he could. It's amazing when we see what he actually did.

he came and saw him and the great blessing was we're told he had compassion on him it's a wonderful word compassion it really means an understanding it means empathy and so here was this unexpected relief coming from this person the great blessing was he had compassion It's a great blessing when perhaps we're in a difficult situation and perhaps we've lost a lot. We may have lost a lot of our religion. This man had lost his clothes and putting that in a spiritual context, we may have lost a lot of our religion. And yet here was this man who was probably despised as Samaritan, came where he was and had compassion on him. And it wasn't just a look, it wasn't just a word, he got involved in a physical way.

And you went to him you bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. And again we can think of that of the glorious gospel, how glorious that must be if someone has been robbed of the blessings perhaps they enjoyed in the past, and they wandered away and they've been robbed and no one else seems to take any notice of them. But along came a despised preacher we may say and he stopped and he had compassion and he then came to him and bound up wounds pouring in oil and wine and what does that represent? Well of course it represents the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Very humbling really isn't it to think the Lord gave this special example to testify of the compassion that God can give and of course we know that not only to people but also our great and glorious Saviour because we sometimes fall and we sometimes disobey God and we wander away and we've been robbed and we need someone to come where we are where the Lord knows He knows exactly where we are. And he also knows exactly what we need. And the Saviour knows exactly how to deal with us. He had compassion on him. And he went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. And he didn't stop there, didn't stop there. You see, he wasn't half-hearted. He was wholehearted. He picked him up, set him on his own beast, meant that he had to walk, put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. A stranger, a stranger who was a Jew. And this Samaritan came where he was, did all that he needed for him, and didn't leave him to get on with it by himself. He came and he said, 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

There was no half-heartedness, was there? This was a genuine concern, a genuine compassion. And what a wonderful blessing and what a wonderful mercy. If we read an account like this and we recognise the relevance it has to you and me today.

Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbour unto him that fell among thieves? Remember this was parable in relation to the question the lawyer saying who is my neighbor and it was very clearly spelled out wasn't it which now these three think is there was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves and he said he that showed mercy on him then said Jesus unto him go and do thou likewise and so it's a very good testimony for you and me today to realize the relevance of it and we have a text in the Hebrews which is very suitable really it follows this pattern so well in the fifth chapter and the second verse who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity

how glorious it is to think that we have a great and glorious Saviour, who doesn't deal with us as we deserve. We may have been going in the wrong direction, we may have had a wrong attitude, but God has compassion. The Saviour has compassion. He comes where we are. He comes where we are. And He deals with us in love. He pays all that's necessary. He did pay all that was necessary to redeem our souls. Did it so willingly, didn't he? This Samaritan did it willingly, didn't he? There was no pressure. He did it willingly. And what a glorious Saviour we have, who did it so willingly. to redeem our souls. We've gone the wrong way. We've been rebellious. And yet, you see, God has had compassion on us. And we should be so, so thankful for that.

Well, it's a lovely account, isn't it? And it's worth pondering on. It's worth going through it. There's many avenues that you and I can work out as we go through these verses and to realise how relevant it is. not only as it's written here, but also for you and me in the day and age in which we live. But we'll leave those few comments there. Amen.