This morning, be found in Luke
chapter 10 and verses 25 through 37. Now
pay attention to these, if you're not following me in your Bibles,
pay attention to this whole story. Luke chapter 10, verse 25. And behold, when the Lord says behold, he
wants you to see something. It's something that you need
to see. And he said, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and
tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And he said unto him, what's
written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou hast
answered right. This do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself,
because he didn't love God with all of his heart and his neighbors
himself, he willing to justify himself
said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Who is it that I am to love? And Jesus answering said, a certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among
thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, 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. And likewise, a Levite, when
he was at the place, he 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 and bound
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. And he set him on his
own beast and brought him to an end 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 it. And whatsoever thou spendest
more when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these
thinkest thou 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 likewise. Now the purpose of this parable
is to show us the utter impossibility of salvation by the works of
the law. and to show us the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
That's why this parable's given to us. Some call this the parable
of the good Samaritan. Our Lord never called him a good
Samaritan. He's just a Samaritan. And the
story of this good Samaritan was given to a man who came to
Christ with an evil intent. He came to tempt Christ. This
was not a sincere question concerning salvation. He didn't come to him to find
out how to be saved. He thought he was already saved.
He thought because he was a member of the Levitical priesthood,
that's what a Levite is, and this man that came to him, he
was a lawyer. not a lawyer as we think about
an advocate before local magistrates, but a man whose whole life was
wrapped up in the law of God as a means of salvation. He was
an expert on the law. Anything you wanted to know about
the law, he could tell you. And in his pride and in his mistaken
wisdom, he thought he could tempt the Lord. He thought he could
trap the Lord. He thought that God would see
his good intentions and accept him on the basis of his doing
the best he could do. This is what people who try to
be saved by keeping the law, this is what they're doing. I
don't care what it is, if you think you're gonna be saved by
your good works, this is what you're trying to do. This is
what you're trying to do. You think God's gonna see your
good intentions and accept you. You think you're gonna gain favor
with God because you quit certain things and started certain things.
You think you're gonna be, that God's gonna show you favor because
now he looks at you and now you're praying. Now you pray. That's what this man thought. This man actually looked down
on and despised the Lord Jesus Christ because the salvation
that he preached was contrary to works religion. Actually, if you're saved by
works, if that were possible, Paul said Christ is dead in vain. He died in vain. That's what
he died was to save his people from their sins. If they can
be saved on the basis of their works, there was no need for
Christ to come. He despised him because what
he preached was contrary to works religion, which he believed in
his whole intent was to tempt the Lord and set him up in a
doctrinal snare and expose him as an imposter. He wasn't making
a serious inquiry about how to be saved. And since he chose
to approach the Lord on the basis of law, the Lord met him on that
basis. He'd met him on the basis of
the Lord. He'd met him where he chose to
stand. Luke 10, 26, he said unto him,
what's written in the law? You're a lawyer, you're an expert
on the law. You're asking me how to be saved,
what does the law say? And the man told him what his
hope was. What is it in the law that you
think you've found to give you hope before God? And the lawyer
quotes to him the first two of the Ten Commandments. If I can love God with all my
heart, soul, mind, and strength and my neighbors and myself,
God will accept me. That's what our Lord told him.
This do, not attempt to do, not try to do, not do the best you
can, this do, and thou shalt live. On these two commandments hang
the whole law, all 635 statutes. Problem is you don't love God
at all. That's the problem. We don't
love. The carnal mind, now listen to
me, this is what the scripture says, the carnal mind, that natural
man, that mind that you have that you were born with, the
carnal mind is enmity against God. It doesn't love God, it's
hostile toward God. Not the God of your imagination,
but the God of Holy Scripture. Our Lord said to the Jews, he
said, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. And they are they that testify
of me. But you won't come to me that
you might have life. They said, we love God, we have
God to our father. He said, if God was your father,
you'd love me. But you don't love me. If you
don't love him, you don't love God. Because he is God. Is that right? We don't love
God at all. He tells them in John 5.42, I
know you that you have not the love of God in you. That's pretty
clear, ain't it? Herein is love, he said, not
that you love God, but that he loved you and gave himself. for the propitiation of your
sins. If God were truly your father,
you'd love Christ. He said, because I came forth
from God. How do you read the law? Is it
there only to inspire or threaten? No, sir. Then why? It's to shut our proud mouths
and leave us guilty before God. That's what the law's all about.
The law's not made for a righteous man. Christ is my righteousness. In him, I'm righteous. The law's
not made for me. It's made for the sinner, made
for the ungodly. He tells us that in the scriptures. Listen to this, Romans 3, 19.
And he goes down and he shows you. He said, I before proved
this to you, but I'm gonna tell you again. We're all under sin. What's that mean? It means there's
none righteous. It means there's none that understandeth.
It means there's none that seeketh after God. None good, no, not
one. Together become unprofitable
and on and on he goes. No fear of God before your eye.
The poison of serpents is under your lips. He said, your heart
is like an open grave. Nothing but corruption. And then
he gets down to verse 19 and he said, now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law, why? So he can be saved? No, no, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
three. Galatians chapter three. In Galatians chapter three in
verse 21, Paul said, is the law then against the promises of
God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given light, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. Is he saying that everything
in the law is under sin? No, he's saying that we are under sin. The scripture hath concluded
all under sin. We're all under sin. We can't
do anything. But we're under sin that the
promises by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shed up under the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. And listen to this, Romans 3.21,
but now, The righteousness of God without the law is manifested
half in Christ. Now watch this, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. This was witnessed to under that
law. Every time a sacrifice was slain
and put on the altar, it witnessed to the coming redeemer. All of these things under the
law, we've been all the way through the book of, And he set that
tabernacle up, and I showed you that. These are all types and
figures, every one of them, and all of these things were witnesses that Christ is our righteousness.
And our Lord's gonna shut this man up to Christ, and having
shut him up to the first two commandments, and him determined
to justify himself, the lawyer said to Christ, who is my neighbor? So the story of the Good Samaritan
is an answer to this, who is my neighbor? Whom am I to love as myself? You'll miss the blessing of this
parable if you try to apply it to yourselves as some kind of
moral fable to teach you how to treat folks. certainly were
to treat folks graciously and so on, but that's not the purpose
of this. The story is the gospel of Christ. The Good Samaritan is the gospel
of Christ. A certain man appeared in a heathen
country. What man? What man? What's our Lord telling him here
in this story? He's talking about Adam. He talking about Adam. Satan
was already here, cast out of heaven. And the man fell among
thieves, Satan and sin. And what'd it do to him? It stripped
him. Isn't that what it did? And left him half dead. Naked, wounded, and half dead. Alive in body, but dead in sin. When is a man half dead? When
he's fatally wounded, yet still conscious. He's half dead. He's
dying, there's nothing you can do about it. But yet he's alive. Scripture said, by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And what's he showing? He's showing
him man in his depravity, offering his works on earth, altar only
one generation from Adam. Here he is bringing a basket
full of carrots and beets and cabbage and laying them on the
altar before God. See him in less than a handful
of time revealing in his, he's just reveling in his wickedness.
Every imagination of the thought to his heart only evil continually. See him lying there in his depravity,
wounded and half dead, and this is the reality of man. He's dead,
and you hath equipped him who were dead. Not physically, spiritually
dead. But you're still alive. You're
still here, you still see. You still get up and move around
in this world, but spiritually you're dead. And if God doesn't
do something for you, you gonna experience the second death.
And there's no escape from that. This is the reality of man. He's
in a heathen land, half dead, being robbed, stripped, wounded. And then the Lord inserts two
men into this story, a priest and a Levite. Both were Levites, the priest
was the highest ranking of the two. And he had no interest in
this dying man. And then along comes a servant
of the priest, and he too, he looks on him. It doesn't say
so, but I know how it is because I've experienced it. They look
on you with disgust. With disgust, just the way that,
here was this precious woman. And she lying there at the feet
of Jesus and she takes this ointment and she pours it out on him.
She's anointing him for his death. True faith. Using her tears to
wipe his feet and her hair to dry. And this old Pharisee looks
on her with absolute disgust. If he knew what man or woman
this was, he wouldn't let her do that. He knew what man and
woman she was. Both the priest and the servant
of the priest passes by on the other side. They both look at
him and discuss, cross the road, don't even want to get near him. So what's these two men got to
do with anything? Well, these two men represent
the law of God, don't they? Isn't that what the priest was? Sure it was. These two men represent
the whole law of God, both sacrificial and ceremonial. And their place
in the parable is to show us that the law of God has no mercy. It has no compassion. It has
no consideration toward the sinner. He might as well have been road
killed. They didn't care for his appearance
or his odor. And they gave him a wide berth.
These men represent the law and the whole of works religion.
The law is unbending. It cannot, will not come down
to your level. The law will not and cannot compromise
its demands or standards. It must be perfect, the scripture
said, to be accepted. And the law makes no allowance
for inability or weakness or age or circumstance. It makes
no allowance for education or lack of it, for knowing the law
or being totally ignorant of it. The law makes no provision
for your sincerity. Well, he was sincere. Well, I don't care if he's sincere
or he wasn't sincere. It doesn't make any difference.
Makes no provision for sincerity. The law is death to the cries
of sorrow and repentance. Esau sought repentance carefully
with tears, but he never found it. It offers no hope. It offers no relief and no cure
for anyone. But oh, listen to this. A certain
Samaritan. Oh, wait a minute, preacher.
Christ is no Samaritan. You better read John 8.48. That's
what they called him. Thou art altogether a Samaritan,
and possessed by the devil. This man looked on him with an
evil intent. He looked on him as one totally
ignorant of the things of God. And Christ took that character
to himself. You know, scripture said he was
made a curse for us. Wouldn't he? How's he made a
curse? He'd become one with us. God
not punishing his son who did no sin on that cross, he's punishing
us who were made one with him. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. This man approached him as though
he were a heathen, so Christ took that character as his own.
Christ perfectly fulfilled the law, satisfied the law, and thereby
made the law honorable. Who did he love? Who was his
neighbor? Listen to Romans 5a. God commended
his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Who did he love? Did he love
that next door neighbor to his that was friends and was always
mindful about his dogs and his cattle and always took, no, no,
no, it was his enemies. Those who were breathing out
disgust, just like the Apostle Paul stoning the preachers of
God, persecuting the church. Listen to this, Romans 3, 10,
or 5, 10. When we were enemies, We were
reconciled to God by the death of his son. Christ came into
this world to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I am chief. And the Samaritan,
he came where we were. He came into the world, made
in the likeness of sinful flesh, made a curse for us, made sin
for us. And he poured wine and oil into
the wounds, cleansed us. What is the wine? It's the blood
of Christ, isn't it? You remember what he said about
our communion? You take that wine, this is my
blood, which I've shed for you. This is the blood of the new
covenant. And what's the oil? That's the
spirit of the living God revealing truth in you. And he poured wine
and oil into the wound. And his spirit applies the blood.
And then it says he put us on his own beast. I read as many
people as I could find on this subject because I was lost in
thinking about his beast. What in the world has this got
to do with anything? His own beast. And some said it was his
humanity, and others said it was his deity. But this is kind
of after the fact, and I don't think he's talking about either
one of those things. I think he's talking about his providence.
His providence. He put him on his own beast.
He arranged for us to be brought to an end. What's that? That's
the local church. Huh? He brought us to an end. to a local church, a place where
healing salve could be had. And he cared for us there. His
presence was there. Where's his presence? Where two
or three are met together in his name. And he gave to the innkeeper,
who's that? That's the pastor of that local
church. He gave to the innkeeper two pence. You know what that
is? That's equal to a half a shekel.
You know what that is? That's the price of redemption. He gave to that innkeeper the
price of redemption. What redemption is, what it means,
who's it from, who's it for? He gave it to him. He revealed Christ in me that
I might preach him among the heathen. And God said, I'll give
you pastors according to my own heart, which shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. And as the Lord departed, he
promised us full provision. He said, if you spend more than
I gave you, but you can't. Can you spend more than the blood
of Christ bought? You can't exhaust it, you can't
spend it all. But he said, if you do, I'll
settle up with you when I come back. I'll make up the difference. And so he looks at this man who
met him on the law, which Christ met him in return, right where
he was talking about. If you're gonna justify yourself,
here's all you gotta do. Love your enemies, by all sinners,
corrupt men, plague men like yourself, and give yourself over. But with man, it's impossible. Our Lord's not telling this man
to be a good Samaritan. He's telling him what the good
Samaritan is and why he came and what he did. Salvation is
by the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ, and it's not
of works. And here's the reason why, because
man would brag on it for all eternity. Not of works. Lest
any man should boast. Oh, my soul. Have you ever seen
that in a good... I never have. I never have. I was studying that, and there
it is. There it is, right before me, just falls in place. All
right, thank you.