This passage of Scripture here
in chapter 34 tells us of the second trip that Moses has gone
up on the mount to receive the law of God. The first time he
received the law, he broke it. And the second time when he received
the law of God, he came down and God is going to give him
instructions to put this law in a safe place in the Ark of
the Covenant. And the Ark of the Covenant is
our Lord Jesus. It was made of wood. and overlaid
with gold, there is His deity, and there is His perfect humanity. The wood was incorruptible, just
like our Lord's humanity. It could not be corrupted by
sin. It could not be worn out. Our Lord is the only perfect
man who's ever lived in His entirety, all of His life in conformity
to the will of God. And the gold speaks of His deity. He is God over all, blessed forever. That Ark of the Covenant became
the repository of the Gospel or the
code that God gave to Israel, that is, the Old Covenant. He
said, but what about the law that had been broken? Well, what
about that? Because they broke the law of
God, as indicated by Moses throwing the law down and breaking those
two tables of stone. Oh, that was taken care of by
the lid on the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, because it was
covered with blood. A substitute had died in the
stead of Israel. which typified or pictured the
death of the Lord Jesus on the behalf of his guilty, guilty
people. Now, God is making a covenant
with Israel and with Moses. He is kind of reaffirming this
covenant because he even says here in verse 27, the Lord said
to Moses, write thou these words. For after the tenor of these
words, I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. The covenant was the covenant
of works. The gist of which was, obey me,
be blessed and live. Disobey me, be cursed and die. It's interesting on both of these
occasions when Moses went up on the mount to receive the law
of God, it is said in the scriptures that he fasted 40 days and 40
nights. He had no food and he had no
water. Here in the next verse, verse
28, It says that he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40
nights. He did neither eat bread nor
drink water. That's the second trip up. Of
the first trip, in Deuteronomy 34 and verse 7, or in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter nine, excuse me, it talks about him going up into the mount
that very first time and that he fasted for 40 days and 40
nights. He did not eat and he did not
drink water. So there's 80 years or 80 months,
excuse me, 80 months or 80 days that Moses fasted in the presence
of God. Forty days he did not eat and
he did not drink. Now, he was 80. I don't know if we have anybody
here 80 tonight or not, but there's some not too far from 80. If
you didn't eat and you didn't drink for 40 days and then took
a two-day break or so, And then we went 40 more days and you
didn't eat and you didn't drink. I wouldn't think you'd be physically
doing too good. I think your skin would be dark. You would be very weak and very
frail. Not so with Moses. In fact, at
the end of his life, after he lived 120 years. The scripture says, Deuteronomy
34, 7, this is the verse I was thinking about just a couple
of minutes ago, and Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated or lessened. That is, he still had lots of
energy. Do you have lots of energy? Well, he did. He did. Notwithstanding the fact that
for 80 days he did not eat, he did not drink. But here's the
way it was. The fellowship with God, the
communion with God, and we need to understand this. It was something
I was talking to Nancy about after the service this morning.
Moses was in the presence of the Son of God. Because every
appearance of God to any human being in the Old Testament was
always in Christ. in Christ in His pre-incarnate
form. In fact, any time God reveals
Himself to a sinner, it has to be in His Son. God is, after
all, invisible. God is Spirit. He is not a material
being. And if God is to be seen, if
God is to be looked upon, If men are to stand or bow in His
presence, that presence of God is really the Son of God. So
Moses, he appeared before the Son of God. He dwelt in His presence
for 80 days. 80 days. And yet, not eating and not drinking. He was no weaker. He fasted. And when He came down the mountain,
He didn't say to all the people, now I want you to know I've been
fasting. Our Lord Jesus spoke to that
issue. Go over in Matthew, if you would,
Matthew chapter 6. He spoke about doing things to
be seen of men. Look in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew
chapter six. And he's speaking about doing
your good deeds, charitable deeds, praying, and then fasting, doing
it and then making mention of it so that people will know that
you've been doing these things. Here's what he says, chapter
six of Matthew verse 16. Moreover, when you fast, be not
as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces
that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint your head, wash your face, that thou appear not unto men
to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret. And thy father
which seeth in secret, he shall reward thee openly." We're in the season of the year
that lots of religious people call Lent. Lent comes from a Latin word
which means 40th. And typically people fast for
these 40 days or they perhaps their fast consists of giving
up chocolate or maybe giving up television, giving up candy
for Lent. It began Wednesday, March the
2nd and it will end Saturday the Saturday before Easter. And generally, people don't mind
telling you what they're giving up. I remember when Nancy, she's
been a fourth or fifth grade teacher for 40 years, and she
would come home and tell me about kids in her class. They'd tell
her what they'd given up for Lent. Well, she's a big believer
in rewarding good behavior, correct behavior, and always kind of
emphasizing a positive reinforcement. And man alive, it's no telling
how much money we spent on candy over the years. And she'd give
away a piece of candy for this, for that, something else. And
then during Lent, some of them would say, Ms. Berg, I gave up
candy for Lent. Could you save mine till Lent
is over? But they didn't mind telling
you that to that degree, they fasted. Well, our Lord Jesus
says, if you fast, if you're so occupied with the Lord, with
the Gospel, there's certainly nothing wrong with fasting, but
don't tell me about it. Don't tell anybody about it.
Because the moment you do that, you're seeking some kind of self-glory,
and you've ruined the whole thing. You may as well have eaten the
chocolate. You may as well have the candy. You may as well go
ahead and pig out rather than fasting. Because the Lord Jesus
says they had their reward. Moses didn't come down from the
mountain with a frown and all sad. I'm just so given out. I've been in communion with God
all of these days. That wasn't Moses. That wasn't
Moses. He still had his energy about
him, even though he fasted. And as far as Lent and things
of that nature, we observe no religious special days or holidays. That's very important. Look with
me in the book of Colossians chapter 2. Look in Colossians chapter 2. We don't observe Lent. Nobody
around here talks about Lent. Not in this building. Not from
this pulpit. We talk about Christ Jesus. that He's the fulfillment of
all the holy days and all the special days. The only one who's
special is Him, because of who He is and what He's done for
us. Look here in Colossians 2, verse 12. Buried with Him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith
of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. and you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, He took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross, and having disarmed or spoiled all principalities and
powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them
in it. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of a new moon,
or of the Sabbath days. For all of these things are a
shadow." That's what you need to take away from all these special
days in the Old Testament. And that's Sabbaths. That'd be
Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Pentecost, the
Feast of Tabernacles, all of the Saturdays, that is all of
the Sabbaths. Remember, all of those things
were just shadows. They had no real substance to
them. But notice, the body, the substance,
the reality is of Christ. So we're not caught up in all
these special days and holy days. Oh, we may give away Christmas
presents at Christmas and that sort of thing, but it's not a
religious holy day to us. And at Easter, We're thankful
for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, but we celebrate His resurrection
every first day of the week throughout the year. We're not observing
holy days and special days. And we do not observe the Sabbath. We rest in Him who is our Sabbath. He has entered into His rest,
having finished His work of redemption. Now we enter into His rest. We don't labor for salvation. We don't labor to maintain our
salvation. We rest in Him who did all of
the labor, who did all of the work, who is all of our salvation,
and who is all of our righteousness. Now, Moses, when he came down
from fasting another 40 days and 40 nights, having received
from God the law written with the finger of God, He didn't
realize it, but the effect of being in the presence of the
Lord those 40 days and 40 nights was that His face was aglow. He didn't even know it. Like I said this morning, He
had nothing to do with that. This wasn't an act on His part. This is just the effect of being
in the presence of the Lord. To be in the presence of the
Son of God and the Gospel of His grace will have a profound
effect upon you if the Spirit of God takes the Word of the
Gospel and puts it in your heart. And really, for all of us, it
is absolutely the truth that every time we hear the Gospel,
we're never the same. We're never the same. You cannot
hear this great glorious message of good news, of the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the message, the greatest message
in all the world. You cannot hear that message
and remain the same. You're either further hardened,
gospel hardened we call it, or you love the Savior a little
bit more, you're more thankful for the grace of God that's given
to you in the Son of God. But you're not the same. You're
not the same. God gave to Moses again His law. Why did God give the law? That's
a really good question. Why did God give the law? He
didn't give the law that we might put them, like, out in front
of a courthouse, hang them on a wall in a school room. That's not why God gave the law. Why did God give His law? Of what use is the law? the Ten
Commandments. Go back to Romans chapter 3. And I had an interesting discussion
years ago with a man who argued with me and he said, you know,
we only have the Ten Commandments. What we need to do is we need
to go to every courthouse that we can get to and we need to
like on two fake looking tables of stone to signs and put the
Ten Commandments on every courthouse lawn in America. Maybe then people would live
right. That's the thinking of the natural
man in his natural religion. But that's not why God gave the
law. He didn't give it as a code of conduct. that we should live
by in our country or any other country for that matter. Well,
why did He give the law? Why did He enter into this covenant
with Israel? Hear the Word of God. Romans
chapter 3, verses 19 and 20. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
under means under the dominion of, under the authority of the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. God gave His law to pronounce
you guilty. That's why He gave the law. It's
not a code of conduct for the world. It's God's demand of you. Be ye perfect, for I'm perfect. Be ye holy, for I'm holy. And here's the conclusion, therefore,
in verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. for or because by the law is
the knowledge of sin. That's why the law was given
to identify sin. It wasn't given as a way of salvation. It wasn't given for you to obey
or to make an effort at obeying it and thereby have your sins
washed away. The law of God, do you hear what
the law says? It demands perfect, absolute
conformity. And anything less than that means
death. Death. It wasn't given as a means
of salvation. It wasn't given as a means of
justification. And it wasn't given as a means
of sanctification for the children of God. You see, God's law cannot show
any mercy. It has no good news for you. It was given to shut our mouths
and convince us of sin. The law speaks only of judgment
and death. but it doesn't give us the least
little bit of mercy or grace or salvation or forgiveness. The law exposes our guilt, but
gives no good news as to how that guilt can be taken care
of. The law demands exact obedience,
but it gives no ability to meet its demands. The law terrifies, but it can't give you any comfort
and it can't give you any consolation. The law was not given to either
save you or sanctify you. Look with me, look the next book
over, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And it's amazing to me how many people
profess to be saved by grace. I've been saved at Mount Calvary
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then they go running
back to Mount Sinai to learn how to live. The law of God wasn't given to
teach you how to live. It was given to you to expose
your sin. That's the only reason it was
given. Look here in 1 Corinthians 1. Look at verse 30. But of him
who is that God, But of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord." Question. Does a person have
to be made wise unto salvation? Or are you naturally wise? under God's way of salvation.
Oh, you have to be made wise. Christ is our wisdom. And He's
the one who teaches us. He gives us wisdom. Question, does a man or woman
or boy or girl have to be righteous to appear acceptably before the
Lord? Certainly. Well, is that righteousness something
you muster up? See, if wisdom is not something
you come up with on your own, neither is righteousness. If
you can be wise unto salvation apart from the working of the
Spirit of God, then salvation is not of the Lord. And if you can be righteous by
efforts of your own, then salvation is not of the Lord. Scripture says the Lord Jesus
is our righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness.
He put us in right standing with God by His death. He made our
peace with God. by the blood of His cross. Question. Does a person have to be sanctified
to go to heaven? Have you got to be sanctified
to be saved? Well, the answer is yes. Well, do you make a contribution
on that? If you don't contribute the wisdom,
and you don't contribute the righteousness, then neither do
you contribute the sanctification. What is sanctification? Holiness. Holiness. And somebody says, we're saved
by grace, but you gotta live it. Now wait a minute. He lived it. Christ did. He is our holiness. Well, preacher,
don't you think we should live to honor the Lord and walk in
paths of righteousness? Why, sure we should. And we seek
to do that. But that doesn't sanctify us.
That doesn't make us holy. We are holy. This is what most
people don't understand. There are no degrees of holiness. Listen, you are either holy or
you're not holy. You're not growing in holiness.
This is why the idea of progressive sanctification is wrong. We're not making progress in
sanctification. The same One who gives us wisdom,
the same One who gives us righteousness, is the same One who gives us
sanctification. He is our holiness. Our holiness
is at the right hand of God right now. Christ. But preacher, don't you think
the law of God in some way has to do with us being sanctified? No, I do not, because the Scriptures
don't teach that. That's man-made teaching. You see, I quoted this passage
a week or two ago. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation, it teaches us. It teaches us. The grace of God
teaches us not to go back to the law to learn how to live. No, the same grace that saves
teaches us to do what? Deny ungodliness, worldly lusts,
live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world, looking
for Him to come again. That's what the book of Titus
says. Christ is our sanctification.
We don't make ourselves pure. We don't make ourselves unblameable. We don't make ourselves holy
in the sight of God. You either are unblameable right
now or you're full of blame. That's one way or the other. That's the only way it can be. And He's our redemption. Does
a person have to be redeemed? Well, sure. Got to be redeemed
from the curse of God's law. Christ is our redemption. He
is our Redeemer. He's the ransom God found, who
therefore declared, release them from going down to the pit. God
said, I found a ransom. Who is the ransom? Christ is. No wonder then that the apostle
says, therefore according as it is written, quoting one of
the Old Testament writers, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. You will get no, absolutely no
credit for your wisdom or your righteousness or your sanctification
or your redemption. You're not going to get any of
it. And if you seek to get a little bit of credit while I am progressively
sanctifying myself, I fear for you. Some of the old
Puritans, I don't know about them, because
they talked about progressive sanctification to you get like
ripe fruit. You're like ripened fruit. And
the Lord says, you've done so good, it's time for me to pick
you and take you on down. You're right now. That's wrong. I don't care who
says it. I don't care who wrote it. Maybe
a very esteemed theologian of years gone by. He's wrong. The same One who is our wisdom,
is our righteousness, He's our sanctification, our holiness,
and He's our redemption. Well, Jim, but what does this
veil over the face of Moses, what does that have to do with?
So glad you asked. Go back to that passage that
Bill read to us in 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. That veil over
Moses' face, what did it do? Well, it hid
his face. And the hiding of his face was
very symbolic. The veil indicated Get this. The veil indicated their lack
of understanding, the lack of understanding the people of Israel
had regarding God's law. And the answer to that mystery
over there in Exodus chapter 34 is to be found here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. Because here the apostle Paul
is speaking of two covenants. the covenant of works, God's
law, and the covenant of grace. And he goes into great detail
about the inferiority of the one, law, and the superiority,
the excellence of the other, grace. And he tells us this,
the law of God kills. That's what he does. Only the gospel makes a life. The law of God demands. The gospel
delivers the good news of Christ, the all-sufficient Savior. The
law threatens. That's all it can do. It threatens. The soul that sinneth shall die. That's what the law says. But the gospel, it promises salvation
based upon the merits and the work of the Son of God. And here in 2 Corinthians 3,
the Holy Spirit compares the old covenant with the new covenant.
The covenant of works with the covenant of grace. Law and gospel. Notice what it says in verse
six, and this is Paul speaking, who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament. What's that? That's the covenant
of grace. We're able ministers of the covenant
of grace, for we speak of Christ, who is the surety of the covenant.
He's the mediator of the covenant. His blood is the blood of the
covenant. And he says, we're not able ministers
of the letter, that's law, but of the spirit. And the word
spirit there is wind or breath. We're able ministers of the necessity
of the breath of God in you, not of you obeying the law. For the letter, watch it, God's
law killeth. And I'm telling you, you cozy
up to the law of God, you're like a moth near an open flame. It'll get you. It'll get you. But the Spirit, the Spirit, that
breath of life in the gospel, It gives you life. And he goes on to speak about
this law, and he describes it this way in verse 7, it's the
ministration of death. And it was written and engraven
in stones. Now, if that was glorious, and
it was, when God gave His law, it was glorious. Go all the way
back to Exodus 19 and 20. Moses went up on the mountain.
The mountain was shaking. Thunder, lightning, earthquakes. It was glorious! Majestic! In fact, when God gave the law
the second time to Moses, Such was the majesty of it that the
face of Moses could not be beheld by the people. Look at verse 8. Now if there
was a glory about that covenant, about that law, about that ministration
of death, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious
or much more glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory..." That's what he calls the law. It's the ministration
of death. It kills. It's the ministration
of condemnation. It condemns the sinner. It holds
out no hope for you whatsoever. You who would desire to be under
the law, do you hear what the law says? He that seeks to obey
the law of God, you've got to continue in all things that are
written in the law to do them. You can't pick and choose. It's administration of condemnation. For if the ministration of the
servitude, think of that word ministration as being servitude
or the service. For if the ministration of the
law, the service of the law, if it's condemnation, if that's
glorious, and it was, Much more that the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. You see, the message we have
to proclaim is not obey God's law because there is no good
news in that. The message we have to proclaim
is the servitude of righteousness. Our Lord Jesus is our righteousness. He established righteousness
for all of His people by His obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He says in verse 10, for even
that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect
by reason of the glory that excelleth. In other words, it's like the
apostle is setting forth, okay, here's law and here's grace. And the giving of the law was
really glorious, but when you see the wonder and the majesty
of the gospel, the glory of the law just fades away. It has no
glory. That's what he's saying. It had no glory, verse 10, in
this respect, by reason of the glory that vastly excels it. For you see, the gospel doesn't
ask anything of you. The gospel makes no requirements
of you living right, doing right, so forth and so on. The gospel
is the declaration that the work God demanded is fully done to
His satisfaction by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
the good news. There is no good news in the
Gospel. Why in the world would you want
to run to the Gospel? It's a ministration. It's the
servitude of death, of judgment, of condemnation. And the moment
you seek acceptance with God or to be pleasing to God upon
the basis of your works, you're in trouble. You're in trouble, because law
and grace won't mix. It won't mix. It's either of
law or grace. Romans 11, it's works or grace,
but it can't be both ways. It's not a mixture of the two. So he says in verse 12, seeing
then we have such hope, we have such a confidence based upon
the unerring word of the Lord. We use great plainness of speech. And not as Moses, who put a veil
over his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished. You notice in this portion of
Scripture, the number of times the expression, done away, is
used. That's the law with regard to
the people of God. It's done away. Look back up
in verse 7. For if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away."
The two words done away means abolished, obliterated. Verse 11. For if that which is
done away with glorious, if it was glorious, abolished, obliterated,
much more that which remaineth is glorious. Notice in verse 14. But their
minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil
untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil
is done away in Christ. And notice what he says in verse
13, And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of
that which is... What's that word? Abolished. And you want to live under the
law? When the inspired Word of God says it's abolished. God
says it's done away with. Because it has served its purpose
when the Spirit of God teaches us that the law was given to
shut our mouths. Pronounce us guilty. It's done
its job on me. It's done its job on you. It
shut my mouth. I'm not talking about any merits
of my own. I don't have any. I'm not talking
about any righteousness of my own. I don't have any. I'm not
talking about any goodness of my own. I don't have any. That
One who is my wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
He sits at the right hand of the throne of God. And he says this, he said, why
couldn't they see the meaning, the purpose of the law? Verse
14, their minds were blinded. Same reason people can't see
today. Let's put those Ten Commandments out in front of the courthouses. Maybe we can even get them inside
and nail them up on the wall. Why would people say such things?
Their minds are blinded. And they think, and here's always
the way that the natural man thinks, if I can do something
for God to get His attention, then He'll do good things for
me. If I do for God, God will do for me. That's the natural
man's thinking. and the natural man's thinking
is always wrong. And he says this in verse 15,
he said, and even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil
is upon their heart. They can't see the glory of Christ
even in the Old Testament. They can't see His glory. I'm pretty sure I've told you
this, but I was preaching at a preacher's meeting several
years, a long time ago. And they had a question and answer
session afterwards and asked me to get behind the pulpit and
answer a few questions. And one of the men stood up and
he said, you say we're supposed to preach Christ from all the
scriptures? I said, absolutely, absolutely. He said, I'm preaching through
the history of Israel. I don't know how I can preach
Christ from the history of Israel. I expect my mouth flew open like,
duh. Anybody who has any understanding
of the Old Testament Scriptures sees Christ in the Old Testament.
Now, it is very true that we continue to see Him. And we don't
see Him as fully as we will someday. But we see Him there. If I didn't
have Matthew through Revelation, you mean I couldn't preach the
Gospel anymore? Oh, I'd say just sit back, put
your seatbelt on, because I'll just preach from the Old Testament
all the time. If you can't see Christ in the Old Testament,
it's only because there's a veil over your face. You're blind. You're blind. He says, the veil is upon their
heart. There's a key word, the heart.
Nevertheless, when it, that is the heart, when it shall turn
to the Lord, turn by the Spirit of God, the veil is taken away
and you see, Our Lord Jesus is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You
see, the Jews, and this is something Paul wrote about in Romans chapter
10, they went about to establish a righteousness of their own
by their obedience to the law. You're talking about men who
thought they were law keepers, Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees. They just thought they were keeping
the law. And that by doing that, they
were establishing a righteousness. That's impossible. And he goes
on to say, Christ is the end of the law. He's the goal of
the law. for righteousness to everyone
that believeth." I'm not afraid of the law of God. I love the
law of God. Don't misunderstand me. I love
the law of God, but I'm not afraid of it. It has nothing to do with
me. My Lord fulfilled it. He answered
its every demand in his life, and he was cursed by that law
in my stead, because he took my sins upon himself. The law
of God can't condemn me. It's already condemned my substitute
in my stead. And I'm liberated in him. And this is what he goes on to
say here. Now look at verse 17. Now, the Lord is that Spirit.
And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. Listen, law means bondage. Grace means liberty. Is that
simple enough? It's about as simple as I can
put it. And you want to live under law? Bondage. Oh, what
a miserable life. And you talk to or you listen
to some Pharisees and they're trying to keep the Sabbath and
do this and that, they're miserable people. And you get around them,
they'll make you miserable too with their do's and do nots. But in the gospel of Christ,
there's liberty. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. And over and over again in the
New Testament it says things like, you're not under law, but
under grace. Well, do we understand everything
as we ought to? No. We're still growing in grace. Verse 18. But we all with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory. even as by the Spirit
of the Lord." We don't see all things clearly, but we do see. Let me give you a passage of
Scripture I want you to look at. Go back to Luke 10. I'll give you this and I'll quit.
Luke 10. Our Lord gave this story. Men usually call it the parable
of the Good Samaritan. You're familiar with it, and
I'm just going to make mention of it. Luke 10, verse 30. Luke 10, verse 30. And Jesus
answering a man who was trying to justify himself, He said a
certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, went down. He fell
among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded
him, and departed, leaving him half dead. That's what sin has
done to us in Adam. Like a thief. Robbed us. robbed, stripped us of that righteousness
in which we were created in Adam. It wounded us, and it departed,
leaving him half dead. We're physically alive, but spiritually
dead. That's half dead. Okay? Now verse 31, And by chance there
came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, He
just passed over to the other side of the road. And likewise,
a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him,
and he passed on the other side. Why couldn't the priest and the
Levite help him? Because they represent the law. The law couldn't help this person.
The law can't help you. The law looks at you and goes
the other side of the street. It can't condone what you are.
And it certainly can render no assistance to you. It can offer
no help to you. The priest and the Levite picture
the strict law of God. But a certain Samaritan, there's the Savior, as He journeyed,
He came where He was. What did our Lord Jesus do? He
came down here where we live. And He saw us. And bless His
name, He had compassion on us. Law shows no compassion. And in that sense, you could
say the law of God has no heart. It has no heart of compassion.
It has no heart of love. It has no heart of graciousness. But the Savior does. You see, that law of God, it's
written on stone. It's tough. It's stern. Not going to be changed. And this certain Samaritan went
to him, bound up his wounds. He was wounded for our transgressions. By his stripes we're healed. And he poured in oil and wine. That's the gospel. And he set
him on his own beast. And he brought him to an end.
He took care of him. He's going to make sure his people
are taken care of. The law of God is not going to
take care of you. It can't. It can't. You're a guilty sinner. It looks on you and your degradation
and the law of God says, I can't help you. But I curse you. I condemn you. because I'm the ministration
of death. The Savior, on the other hand,
He's the helper of the helpless. He's the Savior of the sinner.
Verse 35, And on the morrow when He departed, He took out two
pence and gave them to the host, and said unto them, Take care
of Him. Whatever thou spendest more,
when I come again, I will repay." And I take this to be it's like
the Lord brings them into the assembly of the saints to take
care of Him. Don't beat Him down. Don't put
Him under a bunch of rules and regulations. Don't make him miserable
with your commandments. Don't even make him miserable
with the ten commandments of God. He will delight in the law
of God, but the law of God is now written on his heart. That's what Scripture says. We don't fear the law of God,
but we love the law of God. And we love Him who fulfilled
it. Take care of him. And you know,
we need to kind of take care of each other, don't we? Encourage
one another. People who are under grace, not
under law. And if you want to be under law,
bless your heart and just have at it. But you're going to be
in for a rude awakening one day. It can render no assistance to
you. Oh, but grace. Oh, to grace how
great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like
a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Not law, but grace. Let's sing a closing song. I
think the number is 221. We'll just sing one stanza. Thank You, Lord, for saving my
soul. He's the one who saved us. He
gave us wisdom. He gave us righteousness. He
gave us sanctification. And He's the one who redeemed
us. According as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Not love, but grace. Let's stand and we'll sing one
stanza and then we'll go home.