Let's turn to Luke chapter 10. Today I want to look with you
at the parable of the Good Samaritan which our Lord spake and it's
given to illustrate to us to show us the gospel. It's to show
us our need of salvation, our need of the Savior. There's two Two lessons being
taught to us here. One is that we're never going
to show the love of God by the works of the law. That's one
thing that we see. We're not going to be able to
do that. And the second thing that the Lord is showing his
child here is that I'm the one. We're the one in the ditch that
are stripped of our righteousness, stripped of our raiment, that
we've been beaten and left for dead And we need this salvation. We need this Savior. So that's
what we see here in a nutshell that we'll see here looking at
this. Now our Lord is addressing a
man who's very confident in himself in the law. He's a lawyer. And
not like the lawyers we know today, but one who studied the
law and counted himself justified by God for his works in the law. But the Lord shows this man he's
not perfect by the law. And so he seeks to sidestep that
blow and to justify himself by questioning the Lord further.
And this parable is what the Lord gives to this man to show
this man that, no, you have broken the law. You are in need of salvation
by the Savior whom God has sent. So let's look at this. Beginning
with this man, and this is a picture of us by nature. As this man
despised Christ, so we by nature despise Christ. We despise the
true living God, except God be gracious to us and deliver us
from that death. That carnal death, this carnal
nature which thinks very highly of ourselves but needs the grace
of God continually. Alright, so let's begin here
in verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do? to inherit eternal life. Now it needs to be noted that
this man is not seeking to learn anything from Christ. He's not
looking to learn from Christ. He's actually seeking Christ's
harm. He's seeking Christ's harm. We're told that he tempted him. He was tempting Christ. Now,
let me ask you, is it loving your neighbor to tempt them to
entrap them to sin? Is that loving your neighbor?
to entrap them in that way, to tempt your neighbor to sin. No, that's not loving your neighbor. And so this man wasn't loving
Christ in asking this question. He was tempting him. He was trying
to draw him into a trap. to do him damage, to do him harm. And Christ said unto him in verse
26, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And so here
we see that the Lord turned this man to the law. This is what
this man needed, because this man was trusting in his own righteousness. He was trusting in the law, and
yet he was breaking the very law that he trusted in. in tempting
Christ. And the man 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 Christ said unto him, Thou
hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. Do this,
and you shall live. This man now understood what
Christ had just done, what Christ did, in showing him that if Christ
is his neighbor, then he wasn't loving Christ. He just broke
that very command that he claimed and boasted in that he was keeping. He was guilty of breaking the
law. And so what the Lord is doing
here, he's teaching us, he's showing us that the law was given
to show men their sin. to show them that are self-righteous,
to show them that think that we're something when we're nothing,
to show us that we're not, that we need salvation. We need this
grace and salvation of God to show us our guilt. Remember what
it says in Romans 3, verse 19 and 20. Now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped. If we're looking
at the law and coming away with a boast, we've not heard the
law. Because the law is given to close
our mouth, to shut our mouth of our boasting, and all the
world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so Christ turned this
man back to the law to show this man his guilt before the law,
to show him that he's guilty, to make this man to know his
sin. And if any man, if man or woman,
if we would come to God believing ourselves to be justified by
the law as our righteousness, if he's Christ's, he'll be corrected
from that. The Lord is going to turn us
from that vain confidence and show us that Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. We're brought low. We're killed by the law. We're
slain by the law that we might behold, that we might see the
righteousness of God in Christ and cry out to him for grace
and mercy. That's what the Lord is showing
us here. Galatians 3.24 says, wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
And if you've got a good translation, you'll notice in the King James
there, when it says to bring us, those were inserted by the
translators. It doesn't say to bring us unto
Christ. It says, the law is our schoolmaster
unto Christ, or until Christ. That's the end of the law. It
ends in Christ, by faith, looking to Christ. He's our life. He's
our light, our life, our all, Christ Jesus. And so the law
serves as a ministration of condemnation to the one who's trusting in
that law for righteousness. It's to expose our folly. It's to expose our shame. It's
to stop our boasting that we might find our boast in Christ. And so this law is no refuge
for sinners. It's not a hiding place for sinners.
We preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. and turn men to Him, that we
would flee from our self-righteousness and fly to Christ, whom the Father
sent to save His people from their sins. And so, now in Christ,
if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship,
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. All sin, even unbelief and looking to ourselves for
our salvation. He cleanses us from all sin. We don't keep looking to the
law, we look to Christ. We look to Christ, trusting His
faith and blood to save us. If we confess our sins, John
said, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So to you that believe Christ,
to you that live upon Him, trusting His grace and faith, we're dead
to the law. The law doesn't give life. The
law doesn't make us righteous. Christ gives life and Christ
makes us righteous. He is the Savior. He's the salvation
of God. Paul said, for I through the
law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And how does one
live unto God without the law? By faith, the faith of Christ. Believe him, hear him, trust
him by the faith of Christ. That's how I live. That's how
I love God, why I love God, how I'm turned from trusting myself
by his power, his grace, his sovereign hand working in me
by the grace of God in Christ. by him. Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." And so
this man, this lawyer, he didn't know the gospel. He thought the
law was his righteousness and he didn't know the one of whom
the father loved and whom the father sent for the salvation
of his people. And so it says in verse 29, but
he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus and who is my
neighbor. Because he's thinking there,
well, if Christ isn't my neighbor, if you're just an heretic and
an enemy, then I'm just, right? Because the Jews thought that
love your neighbor, love your family, love your friends, love
those that agree with you, and hate your enemy, and that that
was okay. And so he thought, well, if you're
not my neighbor, then I haven't broken the law and everything's
okay with me. And so Christ shows him. He's
gonna teach the gospel here. And I don't know whether this
man ever heard or believed. It doesn't say who this man is. We could speculate or wonder
about it. But this parable is given to
serve to show us that we're not gonna be saved by our works under
the law and that we're that man who's beat up and stripped and
need salvation. Stop hiding behind the law because
it's not your righteousness. You're not going to be justified
before God in the law by your works. And so this man's despising
Christ and it's good for us because by nature we despise Christ until
God turns the heart, until God comes down mightily and turns
this wicked heart from vain confidences in self to find our all in Christ. All right, so let's look here
at this, what our Lord teaches on verse 30, Luke 10 30. 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." So, let's
just go through this here. So Jerusalem, picture is that
heavenly Jerusalem which is above. And Jericho is that city which
is below and is under a curse. It's under a curse there now.
In Joshua 6 26, Jericho was the first city that Israel came to
when they crossed over the Jordan into the promised land. Jericho
was the city. And they marched around it for
seven days and shouted on the seventh day and the walls fell. in upon them and the people went
in and destroyed the inhabitants of the city, minus Rahab and
her family in the house. And what we're told in Joshua
6, 26, Joshua adjourned them at that time saying, curse it. Be the man before the Lord that
riseth up and buildeth this city, Jericho. He shall lay the foundation
thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he
set up the gates of it. And then we're told a little
while later in 1 Kings chapter 16, verse 34, in his days did
Hael, the Bethelite, build Jericho. He laid the foundation thereof
in Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his
youngest son, Seagub, according to the word of the Lord, which
he spake by Joshua, the son of Nun. And so going down to this
city is showing us one who has come under the curse. They've
gone down. They've fallen. And they're under
the curse. And that's a good picture of
us because all our fruit in the flesh, from the first born to
the last born, all our fruit is dead. It's not pleasing to
the Lord. It's corrupt. It's under the
curse. It's dead fruit that cannot save. It does not produce anything
good. That's why the Lord says even
the plowing of the wicked is sin. That man who plows his field
to provide food for his family and to provide a living, even
that's sin by nature. All we do by nature in this flesh
is sin. And that's what the Lord's showing
us here. Galatians 3, 11 and 12 says, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith, not by works, but by faith. And the law is
not of faith. But the man that doeth them,
he shall live in them. In other words, if you think
you're going to please the Lord by the works of the law, you
better be perfect without one failure, without one misstep. It better be exact to the uttermost,
because otherwise, you'll die. You're under the curse. You're
under the curse there. And so, that certain man which
is spoken of here is Adam. And it's us in Adam. Adam came
under the curse. Adam is our federal head. We
were represented in Adam. And Adam is our seminal head,
meaning from his seed we are born. And when he sinned, he
died and became corrupt and defiled. And so his seed in him, we in
him, comes forth defiled and corrupt. He died spiritually
that very day that very moment and so we come forth spiritually
dead in Adam being born of him where his sons and daughters
were under that curse that's how we're born in Adam. Adam fell among thieves brethren
among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded
him and departed leaving him half dead. When Adam rebelled
against God in the garden, sin entered into the world, and death
by sin. And he was stripped of all righteousness. Anything good in him was stripped
from him, taken from him. His raiment was removed. It was
stripped away. God made him upright. And now
he's a sinner under the curse, under that curse. And it says
that he was left half dead. What does that mean, half dead?
How does that describe us, that he's half dead? Spiritually,
he's dead. Dead in trespasses and sins,
fully dead. And yet here we are physically.
We're here physically, we're half dead. Spiritually, we're
dead completely. Physically, we're alive right
here, but we're fast approaching that grave, each and every one
of us. And so we're half dead, that's what it means there. And
we don't have any cure in our hand by our strength and our
might and our wisdom to heal us of our wounds, to put back
on that raiment of righteousness and to make ourselves acceptable
to God. But look at what the law does for the sinner, because
people turn to the law for righteousness. We turn to the law for righteousness
in Luke 10 31 and by chance, not everybody, but some people
do, they turn to the law of Moses for righteousness. And by chance,
there came down a certain priest that way. And when he saw him,
he passed by on the other side. Brethren, by the time the law
comes to us, by the time we pick that law up, we're already dead. We're already wounded. We're
already stripped of our righteousness. It's over. And the law just comes
and looks at us and just passes right by on the other side. Because
the law is no friend for the sinner. The law is no friend
of the sinner. The law is no hiding place for
a sinner. The law cannot make a sick man
healthy. It can't do it. It can't make
you healthy. cannot make you righteous. You
are either righteous before the law or you're unrighteous. And
in Adam born of his corrupt seed, we are unrighteous. We all sinned
and rebelled against God in the garden, in the garden. So by
the time the law comes up, He just passes on the other side
because he has nothing to do with us. And by nature, we see
that. And then we see also with the
Levite in verse 32, the sacrifices of the law and that practice
of the law. The Levite, when he was at the
place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. And so the law isn't going to
fix you. It isn't going to fix you and
make you righteous before God. It's not going to make you perfect
before God. And so in our nature... They have no hope, no confidence
in the law. And we see it in ourselves. Because I suspect all of us at
one point, at least at some point, have looked at the law to make
ourselves righteous and to fix ourselves. And yet we can all
reflect back on it and how cruel we were to others, and how despising
we are to others in the law. and how we justify ourselves
and protect ourselves and cry, get back! I'm holier than thou. Don't touch me lest you corrupt
me and pollute me. Because that's what we do. It
just provokes that enmity in the nature to make us obnoxious,
proud, arrogant, boastful, and cruel to those in need. And it can really bring out the
worst in us by that law. Rather than bringing out the
best in us, typically brings out the worst in us when our
confidence is in that law. Rather than bring out compassion
and mercy and grace for others, because we see ourselves there
and know what we are, it usually brings out nastiness, or I told
you that was gonna happen to you. We can say some really cruel
things to one another in the law. It just brings that out. the law you're not gonna hear
that what it says in Ephesians 4 32 and be ye kind one to another
tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you the law doesn't bring that out a law
brings out other things that are ugly and just pass on the
other side leaving that person no better off than when you found
them Now this brings us to Christ the Savior. Look at verse 33. But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion
on him. Now Christ Jesus is that certain
Samaritan spoken of here who journeyed a long way and came
to where we are and looked upon us and had compassion on us. He's that Samaritan. Now, I know
that the Jews accused him of being a Samaritan, saying that
he was not a Jew. And that's not what it's saying
here. Christ is not a Samaritan according to the flesh. He's
a Jew according to the flesh. But by nature, he's despised
the way that the Jews despised the Samaritans. The Samaritan
is a stranger, an enemy, one to be despised by the Jews. That's
why when Christ came to that woman at the well in John 4,
she was taken aback and surprised. How is it that you, being a Jew,
ask us of me, a Samaritan? Because the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans, it says. In that sense, by nature, we
look at Christ as a Samaritan, as a stranger, as an enemy, as
one to be despised and treated with shame and hatred. And so
that's why he's called a Samaritan, one that's despised. The carnal
mind, Paul says, is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. But God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And so Christ our Lord and Savior
came in the flesh, journeyed a long way to where we are and
took mercy, took pity upon us, had compassion upon us by coming
as our substitute, to take our place, to deliver us from the
wrath of God by bearing it in our place, to put away our sin,
to put that robe of righteousness on us, not our righteousness,
His righteousness, and we in Him, by Him. And it says, verse
34, and he 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 inn
and took care of him. And so that picture is what our
Lord did for us, what he did in bearing our stripes and taking
our beatings and taking the wrath of God in the place of his people
on the cross. Now by His grace He pours in
the oil of His Spirit. He washes us in the wine of His
blood to cleanse us of our wounds, to heal us of our wounds, to
deliver us from that death. And the beast that He sets us
on is His labor, what He did. He's the one who bore the labor
for His people. He's the one that bore that work
that we could not bear. He's the one who obtained that
salvation that we could not obtain for ourselves. And so he bears
us up, brethren, and he brings us to that inn of peace and comfort
and the love and fellowship of God. And here we know it as the
church which he set up here on the earth to gather his people
in together, that we might hear these things and be fed by the
Lord Jesus Christ and to to feed upon him and fellowship with
one another in the Lord Jesus Christ, being comforted at the
end in these things, which he's done for us. And he ministers
that gospel to us and reveals these blessings to us over and
over again to keep us. Now we read in verse 35, and
on the morrow when he departed, and I was thinking about that,
that means he laid down and slept. What a picture of what our Savior
did who came and gave his life on the cross as a sacrifice to
the Father to make satisfaction unto the justice of God for us
and he died on that cross and was laid in the grave. He slept
there in the grave for us, brethren, for us and he rose again and
we're told 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. And the first thing
that that says to us is that Christ is our surety in full. Whatever it costs for your salvation,
for your life, the whole of the cost is put on Christ. He's paid the whole thing, the
whole thing. There's nothing left over for
you to figure out and you to bring. Christ has paid it all. He paid it all, brethren. Now
that 2 pence is speaking of 2 denarii. In the original, that would have
been denarii as opposed to 2 pence there. And I looked it up, and
2 denarii is equal to a half shekel. Two denarii. Four denarii is a full shekel
and two denarii is a half shekel. Now, do you know that the half
shekel is what was the required amount to make an atonement for
the men that were over 20 that were numbered by Moses? They had to pay a half shekel
for their ransom. Turn over to Exodus 30 and we
can see this. Exodus 30 and the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the
children of Israel after their number, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. When thou numberest
them, that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest
them. Because even that simple act
of numbering the men Is a source of pride in us look at all these
men look at all these strapping young men here ready to go to
war for us We've got a good army here, and there's pride gets
gets provoked in that and so the Lord says You're gonna pay
a ransom lest I break out against you with with the plague there
This they shall give verse 13 everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary
A shekel is twenty giras, and half-shekel shall be the offering
of the Lord. Everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered from twenty years old and above shall give
an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more,
and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
souls. And that sense there of the rich
and the poor giving the same is because there is nothing in
the flesh that separates us from any other man. We are all sinners. We all need the same redemption
price, the blood of Christ You haven't worked off any more than
I have, and I haven't worked off any more than you have. None
of my works are accounting for anything here. We need the same
redemption, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise,
we have no covering. covering for our sin. And thou
shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and
shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation,
that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before
the Lord to make an atonement for your souls. Brethren, we
see here that Christ paid our ransom price. He paid that half
shekel, that two denarii there. He gave it, the half shekel,
for our redemption and to reconcile us to holy God so that we are
now in Christ made partakers of his grace, brought into the
inn of his peace, brought into the family and fellowship of
God with his people. hearing and receiving these things,
blessed to our hearts by His Spirit, by His grace and power
for us in Christ. Now, in verse 36 and 37, our
Lord asks, Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor
unto him that fell among the thieves? And the man said, He
that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go
and do thou likewise. Now, I've mentioned it before,
there's two layers of truths that are being taught here in
this parable. First, we see that we're never
going to love our neighbor as ourselves in and by the law. It is no friend of ours. It does not bring out that mercy
and forgiveness, that kindness and grace and peace in this flesh. It provokes enmity. It provokes
that enmity. We'll despise the sinner like
we see the priest and the Levite do. We'll come upon them and
it'll come at such a time when we think we're something and
we'll despise them and won't love them the way Christ loves
us. The way he said, now go and love
your brethren as I have loved you. All right, we won't do that. And the second thing is we're
the ones that are robbed. We're the ones that were beaten
and stripped and laying in that ditch. We need the savior. We need the salvation of the
Lord Jesus Christ for us. Otherwise, we won't even hear
him or believe him or know him or or ever come close to this
love, because we need this grace. And when your heart's filled
with grace, And God shows you that love and forgiveness, and
you know what you are in yourselves. When I see what I am in myself,
a sinner who has no right to boast of anything I've done before
God, and yet he had mercy on me and forgave me, freely paying
my ransom price. When you see what you are, that's
where the Lord blesses you to be gracious and merciful to your
brethren. to forgive them, to clothe them,
to cover their sin with grace, to be patient, to be long-suffering,
to bear the offense in yourselves, and to show them the love of
Christ which was shown to you. to show him that love. For all,
Paul says, and it's as if he's writing for this very thing in
Romans 3, 23, when he says, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. to declare
his righteousness for the remission, the forgiveness of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. the law of faith. He keeps talking
about faith and turning us to believe in Christ. to trust in
Christ, to trust Him. 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15 says,
for the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that
if one died for all, then for all, we're all dead. We're all
sinners. We're all beat up and laid in
the ditch. We all need this same redemption Christ. And that he
died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again. And so, brethren, seeing what
Christ has done for you that believe Him, go and love your
brethren as Christ loved you. And trust Him. I pray the Lord
bless that word to your hearts. Amen.