I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Luke 10, the text we have just heard in
our hearing, Luke 10. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as we
saw last week, was engaged in something that was so joyful
to His soul that He broke out in jubilation and prayer to His
Father for what he recognized was a great work that his father
had done in the life of 72 men, previously having done it in
the life of his disciples, and that is to grant them grace to
enter into his labor of calling men and women to the reality
that the kingdom of God had come. And we remarked as we looked
at Luke 10 and the latter part how our Lord Jesus Christ was
just absolutely filled with joy. And as the disciples had returned,
the 70 had returned, and they were talking about how so powerful
a work of grace manifested itself in the subduing of demons, in
the preaching of the Gospel, in our Master speaking to the
disciples, encouraged them to make sure that they anchored
their faith, not so much in what they were doing, but the grounds
upon which they found themselves successful, and that is because
their names were written in heaven. The Lord Jesus tells us as believers
to find our ultimate joy, the foundation of our joy, the core
of our joy, not in our work, but in His work. Not in what
we do so much. Yes, there will be a natural
consequence of joy when we are walking in the obedience of faith.
We learned that last week, did we not? It's impossible to not
experience the overflow of joy when you walk in gospel obedience,
the net effect. grace in your life to do what
God has called you to do is joy. It's one of the evidences of
the sensible presence of God in your life. I want you to so
fully understand that joy, I'm talking about spiritual joy,
is not indigenous to your nature. You can't cut this thing on when
you want to. It only shows up when we have
inadvertently or intentionally done the will of God. It's one
of those signal blessings that he gives us that we are in the
right way. The kingdom of God is righteousness,
peace, and what? joy in the Holy Ghost. And this
is what the master was alluding to when he told his disciples,
yes, rejoice, but anchor your joy not in what you're doing,
but what I have done. And he used the phraseology for
your names are written in heaven. for your names are written in
heaven." He gave them the assurance of their eternal destiny while
they were in the middle of their labors. He let them know that
they are already secure in their eternal destiny because their
names are written on the ledger in heaven. What a word of security
to the people of God. Wouldn't you want God to come
tell you, As far as I'm concerned, you're already there. Citizenship
in heaven means that you have already obtained the inheritance.
This is called inheritance language. It's the terminology used all
through the scriptures. It's where God tutored the people
of God in the days of Abraham. He promised Abraham the inheritance
of the land of Palestine, right? And he promised the children
of Israel that they would possess the land. So the idea of inheritance
and citizenship in the kingdom of God was not new to the people
of God. They knew that language. They
understood this was something that was privileged to them by
God. They also understood it came
two ways, by the firstborn and by blood. They understood that
they didn't get into Palestine because of who they were, but
because of who Abraham was. And you and I don't get into
glory because of who we are, but because of who Christ is.
And we don't get into God's heavenly kingdom except through the firstborn,
which is Jesus Christ. They also learned that they didn't
get into glory by their good works, but by the blood of Jesus
Christ. Israel learned that they didn't
come out of Egypt except through blood. When I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And I will not bring upon you
the plagues that I'll bring on the other nations. So it's through
the firstborn and it's by the blood that you and I enter into
and in eternal inheritance. Now the inheritance language
again is a profundity because God speaks to us very frequently
as if we are already there. This is New Testament language
and it's designed to encourage the believer on this grounds.
And I want you to get this now, you and I who enter into the
work of the Lord are entering into a finished work. When we labor for God in the
kingdom of God, you heard our elder and I'm so thankful that
he got it intimate in his prayers that you and I might be granted
to respond to the glory of God the same way Isaiah did. Lord,
send me. I've seen your glory. And what
other response might there be when God reveals his glory to
us? But I want to tell somebody. I want to tell somebody. And
so 70 men collectively enjoyed the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit in granting them grace to go to people who did
not know the kingdom of God was at hand. They come back and they
and the master are rejoicing. Are they not rejoicing? But the
way the gospel works is this. If you don't know Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John can be rightly defined this way. Are you ready?
Christ versus religion. Christ versus religion. If you don't understand the antagonism
in the Gospels, it's this. Jesus Christ versus religion. Which means wherever Christ went,
there were adversaries always waiting to catch him. So in this
crowd of thousands of people and in the midst of this jubilation
of what Christ realizes is a precursor to the pouring out of the Holy
Ghost at Pentecost and the permeation of the gospel through the world
are individuals who don't like Him or His message. So there
is a lawyer in the midst who stands up. Isn't that what our
text says? Notice what it says. And it speaks
to us in the first verse of our text, verse 25. And behold, a
certain lawyer stood up. Now, ladies and gentlemen, when
you are in a crowd of people and you stand up, you are calling
attention to yourself. When this lawyer stood up, he
understood exactly what he was doing. He realized that he was
challenging the master. to stand up when someone else
has the audience, particularly the one who has actually initiated
the whole event, and you now speak to him, you are making
yourself equal to him. What's going on in this lawyer's
head? I'll tell you exactly what's going on. He was saying while
Jesus was talking to the disciples, who is this unqualified leader? What audacity does he have to
give men and women security of eternal life? On what grounds
does he have the right to tell people that they are already
in glory? Who is he to tell men and women
your names are already written there? He didn't go to the school
of Shema. That is your most conservative
Hebrew school. And he certainly didn't go to
the school of Hillel, your more liberal school. In fact, he wasn't
lettered at all. He has no degrees, no PhD, no
doctorate. I don't know him and I'm a lawyer.
I've got my papers. And here's my conclusion, therefore,
I believe that he's giving people a false sense of security. He's telling people that they
have something that they could not possibly have. After all,
these people don't know the law of their curse. These are common
people, people who couldn't possibly have attained to the status that
I have. He's telling them that they are
secure for glory. My goodness, I don't even have
that security. Point number one in our outline. I want what they have That really
is the issue here Can I talk to you for a few minutes? I want
what they have He should have just said master. I want what
they have But he didn't because he was proud see what we've got
going on here Just in case you don't know the narrative of the
scriptures is we've got law watch this now versus grace We've got
words versus faith. We've got legalism versus the
gospel. We've got religion versus Christ. We've got your Ishmael versus
your Isaac. The child of promise versus the
child of the flesh. And you know these two are mutually
exclusive. When you are bound by works religion
and you think you can get right with God by what you do, the
gospel is always offensive to you. It's always offensive to
you. You cannot stand the idea that
God has shut you up to mercy rather than merit. And when he
listens to Jesus giving everybody wholesale security for their
having already obtained the inheritance, it just blows fuses in his mind.
He goes demonic. And the text tells us that. Notice
what it says. The author lets us know what
his motive is. Behold a certain lawyer stood
up and he did what tempted him. Do you see the phrase tempted
him now? That's a that's not a common New Testament term,
even though the word is common through the scriptures here It's
a Greek word. That means to test or to try
or to provoke or to expose fully His job was to expose Christ
fully at Pirius. It's a word that means to fully
Expose, you know, what are you saying? I'm getting ready to
expose this cat right now I'm getting ready to show him to
be the con that he really is. I don't like what he said. I
don't believe him. I know he doesn't uphold the
law of God. See, these are people who are
ignorant of the gospel, are they not? He can't reconcile how that
a sinner can be secured for eternity. the mouth of God Almighty by
faith alone apart from works he can't reconcile it but when
you know the gospel you know the answer don't you and yet
he's struggling so he comes to the master and he comes to all
the people with the one question that that all of Israel has been
preoccupied since the days of Moses and that is this what does
it mean to keep God's commandments how do we actually obtain eternal
life because you just told these people Jesus that they have eternal
life now I know what the law says to have eternal life you
got to do everything in the book so how on earth are these people
possessing what they have not yet here's the word are you ready
earned Are you with me so far? This is the struggle that he's
battling within his own heart and his ignorance. And so that's
religious people all the time. I never forget. I don't need
to get on the sidetrack. I need to keep talking to you,
but I'll never forget years ago when I was an elder in the reformed
church and we would deal with people coming into the church
and many of them would be Catholics. And some of them more reformed
because there's a real similarity between Catholicism and reformed
churches. Often reformed churches are nothing
but Stepchildren to the catholic church, which means even though
they might have a right doctrine of salvation They still inherently
believe that the only way they can get right with god is by
what they do And the idea of telling someone that they are
secure for eternity On the basis of what somebody else did it
just doesn't work And we used to get people who want to become
members of the church saying I just can't I can't leave myself
to say I know i'm saved Well, you can't become part of the
church because you're struggling with not so much as your own
constitution, but what God has plainly said in his word. Your
issue is a struggle of faith. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So you can pretend it's piety all you want. What it is
is unbelief. God has made it plain that salvation
is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart
from our works. You guys got that? And so unless
you come through that front door, you will never have security
for heaven. Thus it is with the lawyer. He has worked his way
meticulously through all the Old Testament scriptures. He
thinks he has a handle on the word of God and he's ready to
expose the master. Show everybody that the master
does not uphold God's law doesn't care about the scriptures And
so he tests him and what's rooted in his heart is covetousness
He's being covetous. And so he raises the question
in verse 26. Are you there? I'm sorry verse
25 He tempted him saying master. What shall I do see it? To inherit eternal life and I
want to mark as we begin to work through the text ladies and gentlemen
don't ever have any sympathy for this man yet. Because the Greek, I want you
to hear me now, because piety will deceive you. The most demonically
controlled people are pious men and women who pretend that they
are serious about God and deny the plain truth that's in front
of their face. Our Lord would take up the challenge, and I
want us to actually see what's going on in the text. You can
be sorry for him later, okay? Right now, you need to hear carefully,
because he represents lots of preachers today. What might I do to obtain eternal
life? Sounds like a very noble question.
Yes, it is, if it wasn't rooted in your wanting to tempt Christ,
assuming that you already really know the answer. And Jesus said
unto him in verse 26, what is written in the law? Do you see
that? What's written in the law? How do you read it? You know
what our master is doing? What Proverbs chapter 26 verse
four says, answer a fool according to his folly. So he won't be
wise in his own deceit. He's chosen that line in proverbs
26 4 now, sometimes you leave a fool in his folly so you won't
be like him But on this occasion where our lord is willing to
now use this fool to bless his people They get to sit and watch
this battle unfold and you do too So as this man volleys the
ball over into christ's court, he volleys it back How do you
read the scriptures? See, this is the battle The battle
is not so much do we all have bibles. The battle is how do
you read your bible? Are you hearing me? And so our
master says I have to do this for the disciples because they're
all sitting around actually thinking this cat is real. Let me help
them understand something here. And so he says, how do you read
it now? Verse 27 gives us the volley back on the part of this
lawyer who was a Pharisee. He answered and said, you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your
neighbor as yourself. See verse 27. And that's point
number two in our outline. We'll hear fully develop it.
The law of love written, the law of love written. when our master said unto him
what is written in the law how do you read it and the man immediately
responds in verse 27 you shall what love the whole of god's
law is predicated on love you need to know that if you don't
know that by now God deals with the human race on the premise
of love. When he reveals his revelation
of himself to us, it's predicated on love. You cannot have a relationship
with God unless it's built on love. And the whole of God's
law book is based on love. Vertically, love for God. Horizontally,
love for one another. And so this man who does know
the book, he rightly quotes what we call the Shema in Deuteronomy
chapter 6. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, and Him only shall you worship. You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind,
with all your strength. He quotes it. He quotes it. He gets it right. He understands
that this is the foundation upon which we build a right relationship
with God and one another. You can't serve the true and
the living God unless you love Him. You can't serve the true
and the living God unless you love. And this is why he told
Peter and the 12 after they had fallen, he recovered them in
John 20. Peter, all I need to know is one thing. Do you love
me? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Do you love me? And so this is the grand test.
It's called the law of love. And this lawyer answers him correctly. He answers him quite correctly,
but he doesn't answer him sufficiently. It's one thing to answer correctly.
It's another thing to answer sufficiently. It's like giving
him enough of it to actually say, see, I know what the book
says. But when you talk to God, you better talk to God in spirit
and in truth. You better not try to pull the
wool over God's eyes. See, when I said earlier, he
uses a very peculiar Greek word for tempting. It's puros, from
which we get the term to purify something. Are you with me? You
take it and you put it in the crucible and you purify, you
test it to see its authenticity and the level of its purity.
Your objective is to expose it for being a fraud or having some
substance. To purify means to test it or
purify it fully. In other words, his job was to
put Jesus in the crucible and disintegrate him, prove him to
have no basis whatsoever. These words, these four terms,
tempted, are used in the gospel, along with this is the fifth
one, of the devil himself, when in the wilderness it says, and
he was tempted of the devil forty days. It's not your common provocation
like we do with one another. You know we provoke one another,
right? All the time husbands and wives will talk about it
all the time children provoke you you provoke your children
It's not the same way here. This here is with a motive a
full motive a full exposure. It's demonic in nature I want
you to get this. It's demonic in nature. And so
as he is seeking to expose Christ Christ Raises the question. What does the book say? he gives
him the right answer and then he says over in verse 28 that
He said unto him, you have answered right. Do you guys see that?
Yes, he did. If you were to work through the
law in the Old Testament and the law through the New Testament,
you would understand that the whole of the law is summed up
in this. Love your neighbor as yourself,
having already loved God. He said, you got that right.
You got that right. And in fact, you know, what's
interesting about the way Christ is engaging with this guy this
year is also these here are laws are are models of how you might
engage your adversary, because when it comes to witnessing,
you're going to be witnessing the people who already assume
they know the truth. And, you know, you have to be
patient with them. Those of you who think you have skill sets
to engage in dialogue and discourse and, you know, arguments and
debates and deconstructing flawed assumptions. Those of you who
have the gift of that, you understand that if you're going to actually
expose this brother, what you're going to have to do is be patient
and follow through with the back and forth. Right. That's what
he's doing right here. So what does Jesus say? He said,
you answered that right now. Watch this. What is Christ doing?
He's affirming the law. not only did he first establish
the premise upon which the law could be exposed as the primary
objective by which we get into glory he's affirming that he
says you have said the right thing now saints watch this if
you ask me a question and then i say uh Well, how do you understand
the question that you're asking me? And you say, well, I understand
it this way. And I say, OK, well, that's the
right way to understand it. You have your answer now. That
should be the end of the conversation, right? See, essentially, Christ
now has shut this man up to expose him that it really wasn't about
getting the Shema right. For had he really wanted to simply
affirm that Jesus was on the right track, the story would
have ended right there. They would have went their way.
Why do I say that? In Mark's gospel, chapter 12, you don't
have to go there. This question actually comes
up several times by different lawyers to Jesus. And another
lawyer in Mark 12 also asked Jesus the question, Master, What
is the greatest commandment in the scripture because you see
the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians and the high
priest the aristocrats and the leaders of the church were all
saying that Jesus violated the law of moses that he didn't know
the word of god and so here he is being tested publicly by another
lawyer and jesus said what we heard here you know what the
law says is to love the lord your god with all your heart
with all your soul with all your strength with all your might and your
neighbor as yourself and what the lawyer in matthews uh marks
chapter 12 says master you are totally right the law says to
love god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and
love your neighbor as yourself. Master, this is all the law and
the commandment. You know what Jesus says? Man,
you are not far from the kingdom of God. Do you understand a totally
different tenor of that dialogue? You see how the master affirms
this man and tells him, you're right up against the door? He
only had one more thing to do. And that is believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he would have been sad. That's a totally different
context in which we are in now. Totally different. So I'm trying
to help you understand that our master had to deal with this
issue of allegations that he did not uphold the law frequently.
And our master's attitude toward that man in Mark 12 was this
man had a right motive. Motive is everything with God. Since God pays no attention to
our words, but he judges our hearts. for out of the heart
that the mouth speak and he looks at what you are saying by virtue
of your motive what you are ultimately meaning and so here our Lord
Jesus Christ tests him he doesn't know he's being tested he says
you have answered right now watch this ladies and gentlemen do
this and you shall live see that this is where he got it this
is where he put the rope on this little cow and tripped him up
Here's what he said. He said, now you got the doctrine
right. Now it's time for you to practice
it. You got the doctrines in what we call the present indicative
verb form. Anybody that knows the language understands it.
This is what Jesus is saying. Keep on doing this perfectly
without failure for the rest of your life, and you'll enter
into glory. That's where he was provoked. And then he was inclined
because that is truly the right answer in Leviticus. It says,
if you do all these commandments, you shall live. And now what
the book says, you shall live. The book is right. There's two
ways to glory. You can do it by your own good works if you
can, or you can do it by his good works, which you should.
But he left that with the lawyer and the lawyer says in his head,
oh, this ain't going too well. Let me put another question out
there. And here's what he says. But he willing to justify himself,
said unto Jesus, who is my neighbor? Do you see that? So this is where
we're going to work. Point number three, the law of
love questioned. The law of love questioned. And
so let me just say some things to you that's so very important.
Theological questions. For the purpose of debate, which
you see going on among religious folks in the church all the time.
Theological questions for the purpose of debate are very often
nothing but fig leaves that people use to cover themselves up because
they are not justified in God's sight. Theological questions
for the purpose of debate. I got a question for you simply
is a facade or covering exposing them of their lack of being grounded
and rooted in Christ themselves. They don't actually have any
security. This man was totally unjustified in God's eye and
the implications of his exposure was here because there was an
aspect of this law that he knew right along with all of his Jewish
colleagues. all of his pharisaical colleagues,
all of his legalistic colleagues, all of his self-righteous religious
colleagues, they were not keeping. Anybody can talk about loving
God. Oh, how I love Jesus. But the real test is, does that
vertical love translate into horizontal love? Are you hearing me? Because the
horizontal love is the evidence of the vertical love. At least
that's what John, who was listening to Jesus on that day, said when
he wrote his epistle. Don't tell me you love God like
religious folk do in church all the time and don't love your
neighbor. How are you going to love God you don't see? And he
don't need anything from you, by the way. He don't need your
tithes. He don't need your offerings.
He don't need your worship. God doesn't need anything from
you. You need God. You need God. Am I telling the truth? But your
neighbor, on the other hand, he might just need something.
This is what we're getting ready to get into. Now, remember now,
this is our master talking. Just in case you still have a
little bit of the spirit of the Pharisee in you, you can get
mad at me all you want. This is our master talking. Our
master is talking, this is very important, the law of love question. As I said, we often can hide
behind theological jargon, theological terminology, theological doctrines
to leave things undone that God fully intends for us to fulfill. Am I making some sense? So this
lawyer has fallen in my mind to the category of those who
just talk and not do. See, here's what happens. We
know that according to the history of Judaism, that they took on
an air of superiority. That because they were Jews,
everybody else was inferior to them. That happens in religion
today. You will be part of a church
that somehow thinks that it is the best thing since life's bread,
that it sits at the elbow of God and God smiles on them just
because they're who they are. Virtually every denomination
falls into this trap. Let me use the little adjective
again. Every denomination over time builds this insulation around
itself and takes on the attitude that they are better than others.
This is the delusion of the group dynamic when you are not exposed
to the full realm of conflict necessary to show your weaknesses
and your flaws. You get together with two others
or four others or ten others and you guys agree for about
five minutes, now you're better than the rest. About five minutes,
I just said about five minutes. Because give it a little while,
you'll stop disagreeing among yourself and then all of a sudden
you'll be cutting the hair of kicks off in your group. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? It's the attitude of religion.
And the attitude of religion has a tendency to creep in among
us. And here's what I'm going to
get you to understand. If you substitute grace for religion,
you will be paralyzed when it comes to the obedience of faith. If you substitute grace for religion,
put grace to the side and make it a creed, instead of a lifestyle
you will be paralyzing your obedience to the gospel and if you substitute
grace for religion you will chop scripture up and choose and pick
what scriptures that you like and the rest of them you'll throw
away instead of becoming subject to the whole book from genesis
to revelation lots of people do this stuff all the time in
the best of your religions And so the Jews did this. Let me
help you understand something about the law of God. I remember,
I remember I did this when we first started grace many, many
years ago. You know, some people talk about reading the Bible,
but most people never read the Bible all the way through in
their life. That's a sham too. And then you'll get the guys
who will act like they know doctrine and they'll talk about Calvinism
and Arminianism and this and that. And they never read Calvin
nor Arminius. They couldn't find them if they
wanted to, but they're ready to argue doctrine. trying to
help you about how easy it is to become hypocrites by using
words. The talk of the lips only leads
to poverty, the proverb says. But you see a man diligent in
his ways, he will stand before kings. See, God calls us to substance. In order to be substantive, you
got to drink deep of God's word and beg God for his presence.
And you got to know what you're talking about. You got to know
what you're talking about. You got to know what you're talking
about. Our master demonstrated it. He demanded it of his apostles
and the apostles demanded it of the church. Study to show
yourself approved under God. Labor to be a workman that's
not going to be brought to shame. And so this is critical in the
cause of the gospel, particularly when this is about eternity bound
soul. Do you know if you just do a cursory reading of the law,
here's what it says. The law says, love your neighbor,
love your Jewish brethren, When they have needs, meet those needs.
Oh, but by the way, I want you to love the stranger too. This
is Leviticus chapter 19, Deuteronomy chapter 30. Watch this. Because
when I called you out of darkness, you are a stranger in Egypt also.
Don't you forget where you came from. Don't you forget what alienation
is like. Don't you forget that you were
on the backside of somebody's wrath. Don't you forget that
you were a minority amongst the majority. Now that you are the
majority, you are daring to forget that you were a slave in Egypt
and God Almighty delivered you. And now you're going to have
the audacity to look down your nose at Gentiles and call them
dogs. Let me help you understand something.
The only kind of people God saves are dogs. This is so very critical. Your attitude got to be right.
Your attitude got to be right. This lawyer was operating on
an extremely flawed and demonic premise of which our master had
to expose. See, the gospel has to demolish
religion. It has to. because you will never
experience the grace and power of God until it's demolished.
Religion allows you to hide behind words. That's what he's doing,
hiding behind words. You know what the text said,
and he willing to what? Justify himself. Now, do you
know you in a bad way when you got to justify yourself? You
know he knows nothing about the gospel of free grace or justification
through the merits of Christ. Am I making some sense? Now,
see, he's got to save himself because he's in trouble. And
the only real place that he's in trouble is in his own conscience,
because nobody in the audience knew that he was a bigot, that
he was self-righteous, that he was a racist, that he discriminated
against people, that he looked at other ethnic groups and narrowly
said, I'm so glad I'm not black. Nobody else knew that. But the
man he was trying to tempt, who was God. See God with God the
darkness and the light are just the same with him. There's no
place where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves. You can't
pull the wool over God's eyes. God is light and there is no
darkness in him at all. You either got to come right
or you're not coming with God. And so our master exposes this
man for having this deep-seated, not only antagonism toward people,
but hatred towards people. And this is why I say you can't
do the gospel because the gospel demolishes ethnic distinction.
It demolishes socioeconomic distinctions. It demolishes these fictitious
walls and distinctions that we put up. The gospel demolishes
it. It demands that you see everybody as an eternity-bound soul without
color. It demands that. And the only
way you can do that is to see God in the truth and see yourself
in the truth. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
I'm getting ready to get into the parable because when this
man responds by saying, who is my neighbor willing to justify
himself? Verse 30 says, and Jesus answering,
do you see that word answering? It's a very unusual term that's
not used anywhere else. These little click phrases, the
translators could have done a better job. But what it simply says
is Jesus took up the challenge. He fully received the challenge
of who is my neighbor. He now is ready to explain what
he hoped, what the Pharisee, the legalist, the lawyer hopes
will expose Jesus for not having the mindset of a Jew. Now watch
this, I want you to get this now. This is so very important.
When you are deluded and thinking you know the truth, and you've
got 10 people who believe like you do, And yet the rest of them
don't. You're going to make a distinction
between your 10 people and the rest. And you're going to assume
or take the position that the rest are dumb and stupid. Here
in their mind, in this lawyer's mind, Jesus is like the rest
of the dumb, stupid people that he's been doing ministry to.
Because he's saving tax collectors, publicans, harlots, prostitutes
and dope fiends, Gentile dolls. You understand the resume here
ain't that cool. You understand that, right? This is the motley
crew that he's saving. Then he's taking them and sending
them out to go tell people the kingdom of God is at hand. And
they have no personal qualifications of which to speak. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? All of this adds fuel to the
fire of the self-righteous, self-authorized individual who loves to boast
in his degrees. creates a barrier so he's under
the assumption that if Jesus answers this question the way
he's been operating we'll show him that he doesn't love the
Jew ah did you hear what I just said we'll show these people
that he doesn't have a love for the Jewish people and so our
masters let me take this up let me run with this let me let me
run with this isn't point number four the law of love what illustrated
That's what the parable is about. And Jesus, responding to this
man, said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And this man fell among thieves,
which when they got a hold of him, they stripped him of his
raiment, and they wounded him and departed, leaving him half
dead. Do you see that? And by chance,
coincidentally, This is a satirical device that Christ is using.
You know, there's no such thing with omniscient God and sovereign
God of chance. You do know that, right? This
is the talk we use when we don't know God, right? It just happened
by chance. Nothing happens by chance. All
things work together after the counsel of his own will. Do you
know that? Everything. But by chance, When he was taken
advantage and accosted and beaten almost to death by these thieves,
we'll expand that, there came a certain priest that same way. In other words, what Christ is
setting up is a picture of a Jew. Because he knows that this lawyer
highly prizes his Judaism. So let me go ahead on, Jesus
says, and use a Jew in the illustration. He could have used anybody, but
he decides to use a Jew because remember Proverbs 26, 4, we are
answering the fool according to his what? Folly. So a Jew
is coming down from all places, Jerusalem. Now here is the ostensive
understanding. When you are a Jew, you're good
to go. When you are a Jew, God smiles
on you. You are the apple of his eye.
When you are a Jew, you have the protection of God. You have
the anointing of God. You have the covering of God.
You know how they talk. Can I keep talking? This is religious
folk. You have the covering of God.
Nothing can happen. No weapon formed against you
can prosper. You hear it? You hear it? I'm trying to show you how self
Righteousness permeates the church and puts up a facade. And you
go away from church with all that laughter and joy, and you
know you broke. You know you're about to lose
your car, your house. You know your children are in
trouble like everybody else's children. You know your relationship
with your wife is just as jacked up as everybody else's. And you're
pretending you're covered by God. So the Jew in this scenario has
found himself in a rather bad predicament. Because he's coming
from Jerusalem. He just worshiped God. You know
his pocket should be full of blessings. He's headed all the
way back down to Jericho. Jericho is a 17-mile descent
from Jerusalem, which is 3,000 feet above sea level. Jericho
is 700 feet below sea level. It's a long walk all the way
back down that hill. In that particular area were
nothing but notable bandits. I'm talking about, these were
called organized thugs, like your mafia, organized thugs.
Organized thugs. Anybody walking that road better
have a posse. But in his assumption, because
God was with him, he was cool to walk that way. You know what
we call that? Tempting the Lord. Did you hear
what I just said? Tempting the Lord. And so the
scenario says that when this man is beat to a pummel, literally
in the Greek, this man was beat down. They beat him so bad that
they were sure he was dead after having stripped him of everything,
took everything he had, left him naked on the ground. You
know what he looks like right now? Roadkill. Stay with me a
few more minutes. And here come the priest whom
this lawyer has gray constituency with. Because they and the priest
and the Levite, they get together after service and have a good
time coveting people and ripping off old folks and setting up
doctrines by which they can rip off the widows and the orphans
and the ignorant people in the church. Here comes this Levite
buddy passing by his way. I mean, that looked like rabbi
That look like Rabbi Joseph. Is that Rabbi Joseph? Man, he
looks jacked up. Let me go the other way. That's right. Your Levite buddy
that you sat in conference with, devising doctrines to rip off
the people, bring them into greater bondage so you can get rich off
of them because everybody knew the Pharisees, the scribes, the
lawyers were all covetous. They love money. And this cat
sees him in trouble, his brethren, and goes the other way. See, this lawyer shouldn't have
stood up, should he? He shouldn't have stood up at
all. He got in trouble on this day, didn't he? And so our master
paints the scenario of this Jew who is in this bad predicament
and his buddy comes and he leaves. That's what the text says. He
went on the other side of the road and pretended he didn't
even see him. You know what he was hoping? He was dead. Verse
31, and by chance there came down a certain priest that way.
And when he saw him, he passed on the other side too. Now, you
know, you look bad when a Levite won't help you and a priest won't
help you. And the job of the priesthood is help the infirmity
of the people. Now here's the problem. Our Lord
knew that the scribes and the Pharisees and the Levites and
the priests had erected man-made doctrines that made it convenient
for them to play church and only get involved with people that
could benefit them numerically and, I mean, money-wise and in
terms of them profiting from them. That they had erected a
body of teaching that cut them off from really dealing with
the troubled people, the struggling people, the people who would
be considered unclean. And yet the law made it very
plain. You can't touch an unclean person. You can't deal with an
unclean person. You can deal with anybody's problem
in the world when they are really and truly in need. Need trumps
their status or their position or their sanctification or their
uncleanness. Need trumps that. Are you guys
hearing me? This is called mercy. And God's
word is full of mercy. The Levites were supposed to
be merciful. The priests were supposed to
be merciful. The Pharisees were supposed to be merciful. Our
master already jumped on him several times about this. Which
one of you haven't an ox? That's your car or your truck
or your business that falls into a pit. And you won't go dig that
ox out even on the Sabbath day. Yes, you will. You know why?
Because you're covetous. You don't want to stop any cause
you don't want any cause to stop you from making money And when
you see your neighbor's ox in the pit Your job according to
law is help pull his ox out so he can keep working because the
ox is his life You know what? You're telling me if you see
my car in the pit and you drive by me Hey pastor, and you don't
help me throw my car out. Watch this. You don't love me.
I I just want you to listen to me. You don't love me. You might
like the way I preach, probably not, but you definitely don't
love me. You don't love me. Don't listen.
Don't. Don't. You just religious. And
because we believe in the law of reciprocity, what goes around
comes around. You better hope that a true believer
comes by when your car is in the pit. instead of one of your
religious colleague brethren. And so, our Lord is painting
the picture to help this lawyer understand that his whole doctrinal
system is built upon a flawed premise. He has no hope in his
religion. His religion is a dog-eat-dog
religion. And I make the application because
it's essential. People look good when they got
everything going for them. It's when they get in trouble,
we find out where their foundation is. And here's what our master
is saying. You want to talk about a neighbor?
You want to raise the question, who is my neighbor? I'm going
to help you understand right now who is your neighbor. Are you ready? Anyone that's
in need. Anyone that's in need. So I want
to talk to you now as I close here on two points. The neighbor
in need and the neighbor indeed. That's a good way to put it.
Isn't it like that? The neighbor in need and the neighbor indeed. This will stick with you. Who
is my neighbor? The neighbor in need. Who was
neighbor to him? The neighbor indeed. Not the
one that just runs off at the mouth. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? So in our outline, we move from
the law of love question to the law of love illustrated to this
kind of love. You see that in your outline?
This kind of love. Now, I want to talk about love
in the context of our analogy in our parable because it's critical
for you to know. I want you to understand that
love, when it is properly expressed, does not start with you nor terminate
with you. I talked to our men about this
last night. Fellas, get the men's meeting because you need to get
this. This is about how you love your wife and your family. You need to get
this. When a person actually operates out of love, They are
actually functioning in an anti-intuitive, a counterintuitive principle.
When a person is actually functioning in biblical love, you are functioning
in a counterintuitive principle. And what I mean is when you are
loving someone, you are not naturally thinking about yourself first. If self, is at the helm of what
you do, you will never do anything for anybody. When you actually
love people in the biblical sense of love, you must necessarily
first stop thinking about yourself. You cannot regard yourself. You
cannot say, what am I going to get out of this? How is this
going to make me look? What is this going to do for
me in terms of my colleagues if they should see me talking
to this man or talking to this woman or engaging with these
people? Can you see how Jesus was the epitome of love? If this
definition is valid because everywhere he went he was operating out
of a counterintuitive principle. And what that means is love means
to give. When you are actually operating
out of love you are giving. When you are operating out of
selfishness, you are taking. When you are functioning out
of manipulation, you are taking. Now watch this. When you are
a manipulator, a con, a cheat, when you are selfish, covetous,
you will give, anticipating to get. And I said this last night, I
want you to get this now. People who are actually looking
for love, I'm talking about real love. We got to clean up this,
this, the perversion in our minds got to be cleaned up, but I am
talking about real love. We got a lot of work to do to get people
back on a clean slate where they think right because our generation
has been jacked up by a humanistic interpretation of love that is
rooted in self-gratification. That's why relationships are
all messed up and we got this dysfunctional society that we
are in because of a flawed definition of love. But if we get our definition
of love correctly, where we are operating out of a counterintuitive
principle where we're giving to people, watch this now, without
expecting anything in return. Whoa! If we are giving to people
without expecting anything to return. When you meet someone
that really needs love and they have been manipulated and controlled
and taken advantage of by people who have said they love them,
Do you know the one thing they're looking for when you say, I will
love you, is whether or not you're going to rip them off. Do you
know that? This is why fellows, you know,
with women, with the sisters, when you talk about, I love you,
the sisters got this radar going on, picking up on the manipulation. Cause they know what you want.
Right? Am I telling the truth? Can I
be real today? So the honest person is not going to hell.
And so this is why they can laugh, because I love you. See, love
does not demand or require reciprocity. I'm hearing the brethren going,
amen, over there. I hope y'all not getting in trouble over there. And so when we talk about the
law of the kind of love that is being demonstrated and illustrated
in our account, it's counterintuitive. Now watch this, it's anti-ego.
I'm saying the same thing. Fallen man, I want you to get
this, fallen man, you and I, by nature, this is what our elder
was saying about the necessity of the glory of God being manifested
to your heart and the high exaltation of the supremacy of Jesus Christ
on His throne in glory. And then God, in that revelation
of the sovereign Christ, purging your sin by the sin atoning sacrifice
of Jesus Christ, making you now ready to tell somebody, is essential
for you to love. You cannot love until your sins
are forgiven. Are you hearing me? Your love
will be flawed. until God pours the love of God
in your heart, having washed you by His blood and purged you
by His Spirit and planted the truth in you so that you are
simply being a vehicle by which He loves other people? You and
me, us, we, listen to me, we cannot love people of ourselves. Are you hearing me? That's why
even the doctrine of the love of God when properly understood,
should run you to the cross of Jesus Christ. Love God. Oh, I better get the Calvary.
Love my neighbor. Lord, I need you. Because I can't
love you and I can't love him without your grace. Are you hearing
it? See, even the law of love is
designed to shut you up to Jesus. This is where our master is going.
Give me a few minutes of your time. This kind of love is counterintuitive. It's anti-ego because fallen
man is what I have come to discover, homoerotic. You know, we're tripping
off these days about homosexuality, all that stuff, right? And we
got to work through that because homosexuality, as one of my brothers
has said, is an inversion. It's another step from perversion.
It's an inversion. It's a real problem. And prophetically,
it is an expression of not loving the true and the living God as
he has manifested himself. When we get caught up in the
homosexuality, it's called self-love. Did you hear me? When you are
homosexual, you are loving yourself. You have not actually understood
the concept of heteros, loving others. You have failed to see
that the true and the living God made us as a heterosexual
being, male and female, in order to love each other in a reciprocal
way that is complimentary so that we can proliferate and have
a world of people that are made over in God's image. If I love
myself, I cannot reproduce. And if I am not reproducing,
the primary object of my love is for self-pleasure. It terminates
on me, not on the glory of God. And therefore the gospel cannot
spread because in order for sinners to be saved, somebody else has
to love them. It's contrary to the gospel of
God's glory, but we'll talk about that. We got six or eight weeks
and we're going to have an in-depth class on that. This kind of love,
as you're looking at in your text, cannot be It cannot be
rooted in personal motivation. It cannot be self-driven This
is why john 3 16 is a great text first john 3 16 get it right
Don't don't mess it up for god. So loved the world in this manner. God loved the world that he gave
Did you get that? This is why i'm saying biblical
love is rooted in god. You can't produce it of yourself
You got to go to god to get it and the the glory of god to the
human race is that he has demonstrated his love to humanity and that
he did what we can't do. He was counterintuitive. He was
anti-self. He gave his son that sinners
like you and I on the wayside like roadkill like this brother
might experience the grace of God. Am I making some sense?
We got the greatest gospel in the world. We've got the greatest
gospel in the, we've got the most glorious message in the
universe. If we would ever get a hold of
the implications of what love is, are you hearing me? We've
got the greatest, there is no God like the God of glory. No
God like the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. No God in the universe
like the God of scripture. No God. No God like this. Look at him, he's in our text.
Our Lord Jesus Christ says, OK, let me let me ratchet up this
analogy so I can get everybody to understand that true biblical
love is other oriented and it doesn't play favorites. So he
tightened up the analogy and the offense of the parable in
verse 33, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, you guys see
that came where he was. And when he saw him. He had compassion
on him. Do you see that? See, I love
our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know why? Because he intentionally
is politically incorrect. He was a brave prophet. He didn't
have a problem demolishing norms in the church. Flawed notions
among the rulers. In another account, the disciples
came to Jesus and said, Lord, don't you know you just offended
the Pharisees? You know what our master said?
So what? He said, so what? Will you also
be offended if I tell you the truth? See, the gospel offends
because it's destroying everything that is rooted in self pride. And then here's the thing that
the gospel does, you got to get a handle on the gospel, exalts
the poor. The gospel exalts the lowly.
And at a basis, the proud. That's the other thing that just
demolishes us. Because the Samaritans were cursed people. They were
dogs. They were less than dogs. So
they actually pretended to be half Jews. The Jews hated the
Samaritans. Are you hearing me? As far as
they're concerned, the Samaritans were totally depraved. They could
never do one good thing. It's not possible. This just
fascinates me because nothing is new today. As I work through
theology and deal with history and I deal with church history
and I deal with different ethnic groups, how God has used them,
I still find this thread of racism running through all of their
theology. I go, this is remarkable that people would still think
these delusive thoughts when God has proven that he uses men
and women of every ethnic group in all kinds of ways to demolish
these false distinctions. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Just absolutely phenomenal. And so here we go. He says, But
a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he
saw him, he had compassion on him. That's the whole point. The Samaritan here is the one
that is a friend, what? Indeed. Indeed. Now we're getting ready to explain
the compassion, but I want you to understand what our Lord is
saying is that it didn't matter whether you were a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter whether you're
rich or you're poor. To be a friend indeed is to see
a person in need and help that person. Are you with me so far? Are you with me so far? This
carries with it a strong redemptive connotation. So if you want to,
if you're a liberal in here, you want to take this. Yeah,
I agree with Pastor Jesse. So we need to be doing all kinds
of social programs. I'm not saying that at all. I
just want to help you folks who are ready to go out there and
feed the poor. Go feed the poor. And that's absolutely right where
the need is. Don't you fool yourself. But
what we are really talking about is the true need. The true need. The true need
of men. And if your doctrine of salvation
is flawed, you will never ever grasp that. Listen carefully
to me. Our Lord Jesus Christ has keenly
shut up all self-righteousness, all proud, legalistic, pharisaical
notions under the assumption that if you are a Jew, you are
good to go. He's destroyed that. He's also
destroyed this underlying racist, discriminatory attitude that
people preserve somehow in their madness that God has been pleased
to reveal the gospel to you because of your ethnic superiority. This
is why I despise an ethnocentric hermeneutic. I despise it. I
utterly despise it because it has nothing to do with Christ
or nothing to do with the New Testament theology in total.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? But I do want you to
see the glory of God in our tax. This is beautiful. The man coming
down from Jerusalem, being taken by bandits, beaten and stripped
and left dead represents you and me. Outside of Christ, you
are dead, sinner. Spiritually dead. Spiritually
dead. You can't help yourself. You
can't come to God if you wanted to. You are roadkill waiting
for the judgment of God on the last day. I'm sorry to tell you. You and I are dead in trespasses
and sins. We are under the wrath of God.
We are outside of Christ while as yet the Samaritan has not
showed up. Are you hearing me? That's the
condition of your friends and that's the condition of your
relatives. That's the condition of many folks in the church who
don't know the grounds upon which salvation stands. Now watch this
now. You can feed a person all day long with bread and water,
but if they're dead spiritually, you have not done them any good.
You have not loved them. You have not loved them. If you
haven't told them, they need Christ. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing me? So, the Lord
Jesus Christ has taken this earthly analogy to help us understand
that the true need of men is life. We need life from the dead. We need to be raised from the
dead. We are spiritually dead and if
we're left this way, we're going to be eternally damned. It is
given unto men once to die, and after this, to what? Judgment.
And between now and judgment day, the job of the church is
to be a good Samaritan and bring to the dead sinner the message
of the gospel. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? That's the real concern. Give
them bread if you want to. But if you don't preach Christ,
you haven't given them the bread from heaven. You haven't given
them the bread that if they eat, they will never hunger again.
In fact, you have diluted them by telling them they're all right
now because you got them a job. They're all right now because
you got them into an apartment. They're all right now because
you got them into a halfway home or some other institution of
physical health. You dilute them. Your problem
is you need Christ. Am I making some sense? And so
the Samaritan here Addresses the real need now what I love
about this and let me go ahead on it Just drop this point number
six the exaltation of the curse when you guys see that The exaltation
of the curse one get this into your theology If you don't if
you if you don't think right you better start learning how
to think biblically God takes the foolish things
of the world to confound the mighty This idea of him being
cursed, and them being cursed, and they being cursed, I ought
to preach a message on this. Do you hear me? Everybody's cursed. You're cursed. I'm cursed. We're
all cursed. The wages of sin is death. You're a sinner. You're
cursed. You're under the wrath of God.
Our bodies are still cursed. I don't care how holy you are.
You know when you get up in the morning, you go, oh. Oh. Watch it. Oh, thank you, Lord
Jesus. Oh. You know what you're doing? You're
saying, I can't wait for the resurrection. Oh, thank you,
Lord Jesus. Because you're still cursed.
Can I share with you a glorious truth? The exaltation of the
cursed one. The Samaritan, the demoniac.
The person, the Jews, the rulers publicly said, is he not a Samaritan
and filled with the devil? He took that title on himself
gladly because Christ was made accursed for us. Isn't that what
the scripture says? He who knew no sin became sin
for us. The law says if you don't obey
it, you're cursed. And God has redeemed us from
the curse of the law, having made him to be a curse for us. Look at what our Lord is doing.
He's identifying himself with cursed people. Can I tell you
why? Are you ready? Because cursed people can have
compassion on folks. See, if you don't feel your pain,
you ain't going to feel nobody else's pain. and to be sympathetic. The Greek term literally is to
join someone else in their passion. To join someone else in their
passion means to say, I know what he's going through. I know
exactly what he's feeling. I know where they are. And by
the way, can I keep talking to you? That good Jew that came
down from Jerusalem, that got beat up by those bandits, that's
Christ too. That's the only Jew in the world
who is the righteous man, who's the one of whom the scripture
says, 10 men shall take hold of this one Jew saying, we know
that God is with you, we gonna follow you. But this Jew had
to come down from Jerusalem and be beat down and stripped and
maligned and cursed and killed by the bandage of religion. The
bandits of religion got a hold of the Son of God. The bandits
of religion, the robbers and thieves in the church, took this
Jew and maligned this Jew and ridiculed this Jew and beat this
Jew. And am I making some sense to
you? Beat him down. Can Jesus make a story where
he's both the victim and the Savior at the same time? Yes,
he can. We call it the gospel. See, the Samaritan here can enter
into the plight of the Jew because the Samaritan and the Jew are
one. The Samaritan here can enter into the plight of the Jew because
the saving Samaritan is first the cursed Jew. In all their
afflictions, he was afflicted. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
In all their sufferings, he suffered. When Christ sees a sinner, he
sees himself. When he sees the afflicted sinner,
he sees himself. When he looks at them, he can
feel their pain more than they can feel their pain. This is
the kind of person that can come to the needy sinner because he's
been where that sinner was. Can I say one more thing about
it? This exalted cursed person has all the gifts necessary to
meet his needs. If I was the Levite and if I
was the priest coming by the person that's laying there dead
and I didn't have anything wherewith I could help him, I would go
around too, wouldn't you? Because what good is it to come
to a person that's dead and you can't help him? Pastor, what
are you talking about? Only Christ can help you. Only
Christ can meet your needs. Only Christ can heal your wounds.
Only Christ can raise you up. Only Christ can heal you. Only
Christ can save you. Am I making some sense? Our last
point then. Look at it. Look at your last
point. His love for us and what? His love for us and what? Listen to it. A certain Samaritan
journey came there. When he saw Him, he had compassion
on Him. He went to Him. He bound up his wounds, pouring
in oil and wine. He set him on his own beast.
He brought him to an end and took care of him. All this was
the work of the Samaritan. Are you hearing me? The Samaritan
came to him. Do you know what that means?
The sinner doesn't come to Christ. Christ comes to the sinner. The
Samaritan looked upon him. Christ cares for the needs of
sinners. The Samaritan actually had compassion
on him. That's what Christ did when he
went to Calvary Street. The Samaritan then poured in
the oil and the wine. Both of them were used in that
day for healing purposes. Can I tell you something? The
gospel heals. Does the gospel heal? He binds
up the brokenhearted. He heals the afflicted. All of
our diseases, all of our iniquities and transgressions, He hath healed
by His stripes. Am I making some sense? He poured
in the oil. The oil is a symbol of the Holy
Ghost. If a man or woman is going to be healed of their sins, they
need the Spirit of God. He poured in the wine. It's a symbol of
the atoning work of Jesus Christ. If God's going to save you, you
must experience the power of the blood of Christ. God must
bring the gospel to the lost soul in the power of the gospel,
showing him his need of justification, showing him his need of sanctification,
showing him his need of eternal life, and actually giving him
eternal life. In a word, let me help you. When
you are saved, you have received eternal life. You have received
eternal life. And that came by Christ himself
through the gospel. Are you hearing me? For the gospel
is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes to
the Jew first and also to the Gentile. That's why I'm not ashamed
of preaching the gospel, because I know the Holy Ghost works through
the gospel to get the desperate sinner. The only one he won't
say is the person that doesn't need saving. One more thing, he not only works
for us, He works through us. This is the intention of the
message. Look at the last line, verse 35. And on the morrow when he had
departed, I'm sorry, verse 34 and 35, after that he had bound
him up, pouring in oil and wine, he set him on his own beast.
He brought him to an end, took care of him. And on the morrow
when he departed, he took out two pets. Do you guys see that?
That's several days wages. And he gave them to the host.
And he said to him, take care of him. Do you see that? He just told the host of the
inn to do the same thing for the man that he was doing. Because
he took care of him, didn't he? He got him from the roadside
half-dead, put him on his heart, poured in oil and wine. This
is the work of grace in the justification of the sinner. This is the work
of grace in giving him new life. This is the work of grace in
starting that process of what we call sanctification. And he
brings him now to the end. You know what the end is? The
church. It's the church. You know who
the host is? The preachers of the gospel.
What is he doing? He's telling the church through
the ministry of the word to continue what I have started in this man.
What are you talking about? Men and women must be built up
in the faith. They must be rooted and grounded
in Christ. They must experience the continual
process of healing that God started when he saved them by the gospel. And whether you know it or not,
you and I are still in the process of being healed. The Gospel heals. The Gospel heals. Am I telling
the truth? The Gospel heals. And only the
Gospel heals. This is why we love the Word
of God, don't we? We love the truth of the Gospel,
don't we? We love our gracious Savior.
And we love His Spirit. Because, listen, God's working
on you. You know that? He's healing stuff,
isn't He? He's fixing stuff. And He does
it through the body. What a great dignity. for you
and I to be part of the salvation of sinners. To be able to not
only be used by God to bring the message that saves them,
but to be used by God to build them up in the faith and give
them an inheritance among those that are sanctified. Isn't that
a great privilege? Are you guys hearing me? Isn't
that a great privilege? Therefore, loving God and others
is an evidence that your citizenship is in heaven. Amen.