Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
goodness of God, leads us to repentance. The goodness of God
binds us to the altar. The gospel of God. The goodness
of God. Mercy of God to such undeserving
sinners as we are. That's what will bind us. Keep up. Luke chapter 10. Luke
chapter 10. As I said a moment ago, everything
is connected. If we could see it. I began to
read this. I read what came before it. And it all connected. The Lord
had just sent out 70 disciples in the first part of this chapter.
Those He chose, those He called, those He taught, those He sent. They didn't know Him. They didn't
know the gospel. They were lost. And the Lord called them and
found them and taught them and bought them and sent them and
gave them gifts. Gave them gifts. Well, verse
20, says they came back, well, before this, verse 17, they came
back rejoicing with joy, saying, the devil's a subject unto them. And the Lord gently rebuked them,
saying, don't rejoice in that, verse 20, in this power I've
given you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in
heaven. That you're included in the kingdom. Let that be the
greatest source of rejoicing. Never get over that. Never get
over that. That your name is in heaven. They came back rejoicing and
say, we had such liberty. Preachers. They were preachers.
Preachers do that. We had such liberty. We had such
power. Oh, don't be taken up to that.
Be taken up with. Be amazed. Never get over the
fact that you're just in the kingdom. I can use anybody to preach it.
So they were all taken up with the power of the Lord giving
them to preach. That's for me. All of us. Knowledge we know. What we know.
Verse 21. The Lord in that same hour rejoiced in spirit. I believe
He laughed out loud and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
so it seemed good in thy sight." He rejoiced that the Lord had
revealed these things to babies. These men didn't know or understand
anything. The Lord revealed it to them. Everything they had, they received
it. How could they possibly ever get proud of what they received? Well, they did. And we do too. I learned a lot from this message.
I hope you will too. I learned a lot. But he rejoiced. And when did he reveal these
things to them? When they were babies. Didn't
He say in another place, except you receive the Word as a little
child? You can never get above that.
We won't hear anything. We won't have anything revealed
to us. We won't learn one thing new if we don't receive it like
a little child. We won't hear one thing new,
nothing revealed to us. Lord, keep us childlike, would
You please? Keep his child alive. He turned
to the disciples, and verse 22, he said, That all things are
delivered to me of my Father, but no man knoweth who the Son
is but the Father, and the Father is but the Son, and he to whom
the Son will reveal him. It's a revelation. Revelation. He turned to his disciples and
said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that
you see. It's so blessed. He's so blessed. He's so blessed. I tell you, prophets and kings
have desired to see what you see, and have not seen them,
to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.
So blessed. So blessed. Who were these men? Fishermen. Fishermen. Nobodies. The Lord came to them, chose
them, and now they know Him, and their names are written in
heaven. And if we ever cease to be amazed
that our names are in heaven, that God hath revealed unto us
His Son, His Gospel, and that we hear the Gospel, if it ever
ceases to be amazing to us, then maybe our names aren't in
heaven. Verse 25, Behold, a certain lawyer
stood up, tempted him. This was a man who knew the law.
This was a man who argued the law. He knew some things. He
knew the letter of the law. But he didn't have the spirit
of it in him because he wanted to argue. Tempting the Lord. Trying the Lord. Putting the
Lord to the test. It's a dangerous thing. Scribes,
Pharisees, and hypocrites, the Lord called them, were always
present. tempting Him, testing Him. You remember back in Matthew
19, where we've been studying, it says multitudes followed Him. Many followed Him but had need
of healing. It says He healed them, and the
next line says the Pharisees came tempting Him. I want to be one who has always
need of healing when it comes to hearing the Word of Christ,
because it says He will heal them. He heals those who have
need of healing every time. And if we don't know it, we need
it. We should do it. Now, I don't
want to tempt him. I don't want to put him to the test. Yet the
Lord is so merciful. He dealt with this man. Verse
25, He didn't send him away. He spoke to him. This lawyer
stood up, tempting him and said, Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? Does that sound familiar? That's
exactly what the rich young ruler said it was. Because this is
the common question of Pharisees, of religious people, of most
people think that they need to do something to have eternal
life, to work their way to heaven. Most people, all people by nature
think that, that good people go to heaven. And bad people
go to hell, really bad people. So he said, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? Now, his own mouth condemned
him, because when it says inherit, if I inherit anything, I didn't
do anything either. If you inherit, Eternal life. That means somebody else earned
everything. Someone else made that, built
that, whatever. Your father, whoever, obtained
all that and just gave it to you at their death. Right? You didn't earn it. You inherited
it. That's salvation isn't it? There's
an inheritance in heaven waiting for God's people. Why? Because Christ prepared the way.
Because Christ is the way. Because He earned it. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's His. He earned it by His
merits, by His works. He's the one who earned salvation. And bless His holy name. Have we heard this too much?
He just simply, freely, unspeakably, amazingly gives imputes it, everything
he worked hard for, to these worthless rebels, disobedient
children of wrath, enemies of his, imputes it, to these foolish
sons. Isn't that amazing? Such is the
amazing grace of our God, the imputation of righteousness. And then, takes their blame,
takes their sin, takes their punishment, takes the wrath that
they deserve from God, hangs on a tree for them. He who knew
no sin was made sin for them. These worthless sons. And God
poured out His wrath upon His sons. that should have been for
us. Spared not his own son, but delivered him up for whom? What mercy. What mercy. Well, I've got to go on. But
that's the gospel isn't it? He's the gospel. Good news. Inherit eternal life. And buddy,
whatever Christ does for you is forever eternal. I give unto
them eternal life. And he said unto this man, What
is written in the law? You want to do something? What
is written in the law? How readest thou? And the man
answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all
thy mind, thy neighbor as thyself. And the Lord said unto him, Thou
hast answered right. This do, and thou shalt live. You'll go to heaven. You do this,
you'll go to heaven. If you can do that, do it. And God to heaven. Who shall
ascend in the holy hill of the Lord? Psalm 25. He that hath
clean hands, he that hath a pure heart, he that never lifted up
his heart unto vanity or sworn to sin. Perfect, pure, holy,
righteous in thought, word, and deed. If you can, the gates of
heaven will open up. And God will say, come on in,
you righteous person. And no, God looked down from
heaven to see if there were any that did understand. Understand
what? The holiness of God. Any that did understand what?
The exceeding sinfulness of sin. How far ashore we've come. Any
that did understand, you can't get there by the law. Any. No. He has to teach us then. He said
there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that do a good,
no not one. They all together become guilty,
filthy, stinking, can't get there, obnoxious to God. Paul went to great lengths about
the law to tell us why the law was written as not written so
that you can see what you can do to get to heaven. It's written
to show you what you must do and you can't do, and you fail
on every point. And you will not get there. And
to offend at one point can be guilty of it all. And let alone
that, we're guilty on all points. This man. Apparently, he thought
he had the first part covered. Didn't he? Loved the Lord with
all his heart. That convicted us all, didn't it? Remember the rich young ruler,
he dealt with him first. He said, you know the law, thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not
steal, and so on. The second part of the law, he
said, he dealt with him on lesser charges. Keep that. He didn't even deal with him
on the first part. Love God with all your heart. But this man, apparently, he
thought he did. My, my, how blind can a man be? Well, the Lord said, This do
and live. That's what it said. This do
and live. But he, willing to justify himself, verse 29, said
unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? The Lord
said, this do and live, and I just quoted to you some scriptures
that tell us about how the law says do, but gospel says done. The gospel is not what we must
do, but what Christ has done for. The righteousness which
is of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Unto all, imputed
unto, and upon all that believe, there is no difference if all
the sin comes short of the glory of God, but we are justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God sent forth to be in propitiation. Oh my, and
that is why he went on to say, thanks be unto God for this unspeakable
gift. Alright, you and I know these
things, don't we? We know these things. Why do we know these
things? Not many people do. This man did. Because God has
revealed them unto us. What a blessing. This man didn't
know these things. This man was ignorant. This man
was self-righteous. This lawyer. And I was struck with this. The Lord
didn't call him a self-righteous Pharisee,
a lawyer, and dismiss him. He didn't dismiss him. He went
on to tell him this wonderful story. He's talking to this man. Disciples are hearing it. We're
hearing it. The Lord was telling this to
a self-righteous lawyer. He didn't have to, but he did.
I don't know if the Lord saved this man. I kind of believe He
did. Like Nicodemus. Not many wise men are called,
not many self-righteous, but some. Like Saul of Tarsus. Like
Nicodemus, a Pharisee. Like maybe this Logan. The Lord
is so merciful, so gracious. That's one lesson I learned.
And another lesson I learned is I want to be like our Lord
in this, and I don't want to just, well, he's a Pharisee. I'm telling the gospel. Oh, I learned so much here. I
hope I have. At least I learned it in my head. But let me ask
you this question. Let me ask you. When he said,
Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and
all thy strength, thy neighbor as yourself, has God put that
law away? We talk about the law. Has that law been annulled? You know how the whole book of
1 John is about this. He said, all the law is fulfilled
in one word, love. Love God with all your heart,
love your neighbor as yourself. That doesn't have any bearing
on us whatsoever. Is that right? Oh my. When we say we're not under the
law, and we're not, as a means for justification or sanctification. That's true or not. We don't
gain heaven. We don't earn our way to heaven
by keeping it. We can't do it. If it was up
to us to keep the law, we can't do it. We can't get there or
make ourselves better by it. We can't do it. But, you know,
the Lord puts this in the heart of all his people. They love
God, not as they should, but they do love God. He puts this
love of God in their heart. What's the love of God? Love
for His people. Love for His enemies. Oh, it's not perfect, but it's
there. But do I do this? Do I do this? No. Not perfectly. What's my hope then? What's my
hope of eternal life? Christ. All right? And so the
Lord's going to show us that the only way we're going to get
to heaven is by somebody coming to get you and do everything
for you. And now after he's done all this
for you, you go do the same. This is the lesson he teaches.
Since you don't deserve anything, like
the penny, the man with the penny, since after he's done this great
work for you, this is the lesson. that I want to learn, you do
the same. You do the same. All right? Look
at it. So here's the lesson. Verse 29. This man justified himself. Who
is my neighbor? Have you ever justified yourself? Do we ever not justify ourselves?
About the only time we don't is when the gospel is being prayed.
When the gospel that condemns us And we justify God, like the
sinners, in condemning ourselves. But so much of the time, I admit
to my shame, I justify myself in everything that I do. And
I blame others. Adam started that way, and so
do we. I justify everything I do. Do I justify myself and say,
I'm not going to talk to that man, he's a self-righteous person? I'm covering my cowardice. I'm
covering many things. Do I ever think that I trust
Christ so that I don't have to do anything? Who is my brother? Who do I have
to love? That's what this man said. Who
do I have to love? I've done this many times. Who is my neighbor? Who is my brother? Who do I have
to be nice to? Anybody besides me guilty of
that? Who do I have to love? Well, look at here. The Gospel
is such an amazing story of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan,
sent by God to wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked sinners. But
more than that, that we were rebels, unthankful, unholy, enemies
of God, children of wrath, filled with unrighteousness. Paul said,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, without understanding, implacable,
unmerciful. Every one of them. Every one
of us. Look at verse 30, Christ answered, A certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And I want you to see how this
is both a picture of Christ and us. This man who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho is Christ, who came down. Jericho is a cursed
place. God said, Cursed is the man that
built this place. Jericho was a a place forsaken
by God. Christ, when He came through
Jericho, He saved the man coming in, Barnabas, and He saved the
man going out, Zacchaeus. And He bypassed everybody in
that place. There was nobody worth saving.
That's just cursed earth. Christ came down from the city
of God into this Jericho and fell among thieves. Thieves and robbers. Those that
would rob God of His glory. Rob God of His due, thanks, praise
and all that. Take praise to Himself. And stripped
Him of His raiment. Isn't that exactly what... Have
you ever thought about this as a picture of Christ Himself?
Stripped Him of His raiment. He stripped Himself. Made Himself
naked. And wounded Him. And departed, leaving Him half
dead. Yes, Christ died, but God can't
die. The God man. A man died, but
God didn't. Half dead. Isn't that amazing?
What a picture that is of our Lord Jesus Christ. My, my. But here's the story, the Gospel
story. A certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho. Christ is this man who came to
this man. We all have fallen among thieves. Satan is a great robber. Come to steal, kill. Men are
his robbers. Religion are his robbers. Thieves, murderers. Religion. Nowhere are people more wounded than in religion. Stripped of raiment, covering.
Oh my, and wounded, bruised, departed, the wolves depart,
leaving him half dead, stripped, wounded, half dead. Isn't this
all of us? Isn't this all men and women
among thieves, no covering? Didn't the Lord say, dying you
shall die, half dead, dead and dying? And the priest came by,
verse 31, by chance. There came down a certain priest
that way. This was a Jew. A Jew came by
and saw him. A Jew who had the law, who had
all these things. He couldn't do anything for him. He passed by on the other side.
He can't do anything for him. The law can't do anything for
him. Turned his head and avoided looking at him. The law can't
help him. A Jew, a priest. He's supposed
to be a priest. I thought about this, am I a
priest? He's made us kings and priests. Do I pass by and look the other
way? Rather than avoid it. Here's
something I learned here. I never applied that to me. He
said, you do likewise. Don't pass him by. Likewise, a Levite. Who's a Levite? Son of Jacob. He's a son of Jacob. Levite. The house of Levite.
Son of Jacob. Chosen vessel. Servant of our
Lord. Looked on him. He stopped and
looked. He gazed a little bit. But what he did? He passed by. He went on to the other side. My, my. My, my. The disciples are hearing that.
The disciples are hearing that. He's talking to this man. The
disciples are hearing that. I hope I am. Verse 32, Levite
came and passed by a certain Samaritan. A certain Samaritan
as he journeyed. Samaritan was a half-breed. A Samaritan back then was not
completely a Jew and not completely a Samaria. They were half-Britain. Jew and Samaritan. Samaria. They were hated by the
Jews. What a picture that is of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Son of God, Son of Man. Son of God, Son of Man. And he's
a priest, all right, but not a Levite. He's a priest after
the order of Melchizedek. He's a merciful and faithful
high priest. Son of Jacob, yeah, he is of
the seed of David. He was born. But he's not like
us sinners. Thank God. Thank God. Oh, how far he came. Sojourned
among us, came from a far country. It says in verse 33, he came
where this man was. Where is that? Where was this
man? He's been beaten. He's been robbed. He's bleeding. He's wounded. He's bruised. He's thrown in a ditch is where
he is, to the wayside. He's down in a ditch. Nice, this
wonderful man, this sweet, gentle, compassionate, kind, good man,
this good man, came where he was, got down in the ditch where
this fellow was, in the field, in the muck, in the mire. And it says, he saw him. When he saw him, it wasn't like
these other fellows who just looked on him, The priest went
by. Maybe the priest said, well, bless you, my son. I'll pray
for you. He got down and he did something. He went down into that place
where he was, looked on him, gazed on him like, oh, I'd love
that. Didn't you love that where it
says the Lord beheld his disciple? He looked at him with pity and
compassion and love understanding, kindness, knowing where they
are, knowing their frame, knowing our frame. Like a father who
pities his children, sinful and rebellious as we be, disobedient
as we be, sorry children that we are, yet he still beholds
us and looks on us with compassion. Oh, blessed be his name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul. He hath not dealt with us after
our sin, but deals with us like this Samaritan. Looks on him
with compassion. Looks on him with compassion.
Felt pity. He felt pity for this man. Feelings. We have not a high priest that
cannot be touched with the feeling of our affirmative, though it
is at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. We have not a high priest that
cannot be touched, that cannot be approached. In fact, He's
so approachable, He came to us. He came where we are. Down in
this filth and muck and mire and with a dung heap where this
wretch was on the dung heap. And look what He did for this
fellow. This fellow is wounded, bruised, mangled. And He went to him, verse 34,
and bound up his wound. What a paradox this is. You know
how the Lord binds up our wounds? By His own wounds. By His strikes, we are healed. Oh my! Isn't that amazing? He was wounded. Unlike this parable,
much greater than this parable, He got down in the ditch. And
he became the one who was wounded and forsaken and left for dead. He gave this man his life. Remember that story of the leper,
the missionary to India who heard him walking along in the jungle
and heard this horrible cry, someone help me. True story. I think it was Judson of Burma,
wasn't it? True story, he said they heard this horrible cry,
someone help me. So they walked through the jungle
and finally got to this place where they saw a man sitting
there in the last stage of leprosy. He says all his hands were gone. His eyes, there was nothing there.
Gone. His flesh was melting away. That's
what leprosy does. It makes you nothing but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. No soundness in your flesh from
the top of your head to the sole of your feet. That's what leprosy
does. In your flesh is no good thing. And so he was holding
up these stubs, crying, somebody help me. And that missionary, Judson,
said, I thought. He was helpless. He couldn't
do anything for him. He said, I thought, I wish that I could
take my life, my health, my strength, and take this man and press him
up, his face to my face, his body to my body, take his stubs
in my hands and impart my life into him and take his death into
me. But I can't. But I'll tell you
who did. By his wounds. by his stripes
were healed. Would you do that? I wouldn't. But I want to be
willing, don't you? That's what he did. That's what
he did. What about the oil and wine?
It says he bound up his wounds and poured in oil and wine. The
wound of sin, the only thing that will bind it up is Christ
crucified, looking to him, a sin payment. Guilt removed only by
looking to Christ. And he poured in oil and wine.
What's that? That's the gospel. The Holy Spirit
takes the wine of Christ's blood, the oil of gladness that flows
down from the head of our great high priest Aaron, head to the
beard, even to the garments, to the skirts. It flows down.
Oh, how good and pleasant. The oil of gladness, the gospel
of our salvation, the wine of Christ's blood, precious ointments. Look at this, verse 34, it says,
"...set him on his own beasts while he walked." Put him on
his own beasts. What's that? Who's that? That's
the Holy Spirit of God. To any man hath not the Spirit
of Christ, he's not of Him. As many as are led by the Spirit
of Christ, they are the sons of God. puts us on His beasts,
on His shoulders, and He carries us to an end. What's the end? An end is a place for wayfarers. An end is a place for sojourners.
An end is a place for weary travelers. A place where you can find rest.
A place where you can find refuge. A place where you can find food.
A place where you can find wine. A place where you can find other
weary travelers. and sit and snuggle up by the
fire and drink wine and say, isn't this a good place? And
he put this wounded and bruised and mangled fella on his beast
and sent him to this nice place, this wonderful place where I
guess everybody else there had been wounded and bruised too.
And I believe this Samaritan found them all and put them in
that inn. Are you in Christ? In his church? In the body? A
place of rest. And what he said was, here's
what this gracious Samaritan said, who is Christ. He said
to that keeper, the host, not the owner, the host, not the
Lord, the host, the caretaker, he said, take care of him. You
take care of him. Don't beat him. He's already
been beaten. Take care of him. Well, how?
Well, those wounds are going to take a while to heal up. Keep binding them. Keep putting
fresh binding on them. Keep using fresh. Is there a
balm in Gilead? There's only one. Keep using
that balm. Keep pouring in oil and keep
pouring in wine until those wounds are completely healed. Look at verse 35. On the morrow
he departed. He took out two pence. Now that's
not, again, that's not a beggarly sum. That's a princely sum. That's
a huge sum of money back then. More than enough to fill his
cup to running over. To purchase all that he needs
from that day forward. More than enough. And he gave
it to the hosts. the keeper of the inn, the caretaker,
and gave it to the host and said, you take it again. He said, take
care of it, feed him. And whatever you spend, whatever
you need, as long as this inn is open, as long as this is a
place for wounded and bruised travelers, I'll provide. I'll provide. And when I come again, I'll pay
you back. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? And then verse 36, he said now
to this man, Which of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto
him that fell among thieves? And the man said, and I hope
he said it with humility, I hope he said it with a broken heart,
I hope he said it with his head hanging low, I hope he said it
with a sense of great gratitude and understanding This is exactly
what this Lord had done for him. I hope he said it with a heart
so full of thanksgiving and praise and a feeling of undeserving worthlessness that the Lord would
do such a thing for me. And how could I possibly justify
myself ever for all of my sinful unloving, uncaring actions and
attitude when the Lord did such a thing for me. I'll tell you who's his neighbor. The one that loved him and showed his love. That's who
it was. I hope the man said that, and
I hope I do. I'd like to learn this." And then the Lord said unto him,
look at it. He said unto them, go and do
thou likewise. You do the same. And now he's not talking about
earning heaven, is he? A man asked him, ignorant as
he was, asked him at the first. What can I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord dealt with him with
that. But then he told him his blessed
gospel story. And if it broke his heart, now
he's telling him, you can't get to glory. You know you can't
get to heaven by doing the works of righteousness which you have
done. It's going to be according to God's mercy that He save you.
It's going to be because a good Samaritan came to save you. And
if He did that for you, If He really did that for you, you'll
know He did it for you. So do the same. Do the same. Don't ever forget where He found
you. And now you do it out of love
for Him. Doesn't the Scripture say, He that hath been forgiven
much will love much? Love who much?
God? for doing this for him, Christ
for doing this for them, and your neighbor? Answer said, I'm
so ashamed of myself, as I ought to be, that I don't love men like Christ
loved me. I'm so ashamed. Well, hopefully,
I'm not too old to learn. And hopefully, he's taken this
old cumbersome fig tree and done it. And so now, do it. Do it like that. Just do it. Just do it. He that loveth man. He that loves his brother. John
went to great detail about that, didn't he? How can you love God
and not love your brother? Who is my brother? Oh, he didn't say brother, he said
neighbor. The enemy. The enemy. That was me. You know
what? His enemy. He didn't die for
a righteous man. He didn't die for a good man.
He died for an enemy. So he says, you go do the same. Go do the same. Alright, John,
you got a hymn picked out? 222. 222. A stand as we sing. That's good. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's vein Sinners plunge beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty shame all their guilty stain, lose
all their guilty stain. And sinner's blood beneath that
blood, lose all their Dying thief rejoiced to see that
fountain in his day, and there the young nobile as he was my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins Sing the fourth as the last, the fourth
will be the last.