Whenever I seek to prepare a
message from a passage of scripture, first thing I do is read the
text carefully and ask myself and ask God to show me what appears
to be the obvious meaning of the passage. And then I compare
scripture with scripture to find out if the obvious is indeed
the meaning of the passage. And I will usually in the study
of a passage, jot down some notes, some thoughts, a brief sketch
of an outline, and then I'll pull down some books and I'll
start to read. I gave up a long time ago reading
what I knew was contrary to the scripture. I only read what I
expect to be pretty good. I don't read garbage. There's
a saying with computers, garbage in, garbage out. And I think
that works that way with our minds a lot as well. But I only
read what I expect to be good, truthful comments from faithful
men, men of proven faithfulness. And I've said that because I
can't tell you how utterly disappointing it was for me to read the things
I read in preparing this message. I read literally dozens of expositions
of Luke chapter 10, verses 25 through 37. Dozens of them. Dozens of them. And only one
or two were worth reading. Almost all of the men expanding
this passage of scripture went to great lengths to declare plainly
that the passage does not teach the gospel of God's grace, but
rather teaches a moral principle of brotherly love. They went
to great lengths, apparently with some dreadful fear, that
somehow we might possibly make this passage to set forth the
gospel of God's grace and glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's disappointing. That's disappointing. This passage
that we're going to look at this evening is without question the
most commonly referred to, the most commonly known of all our
Lord's parables. And yet, obviously, from what
I've already told you, it is the least understood. It is the
most misunderstood of all the parables. I want to talk to you
this evening about the parable of the Good Samaritan. I call
it a parable. And really, we don't know whether
it was a parable or whether our Lord Jesus gives a narrative
of some factual events that happened to a man and happened to him
in just the way that's given here. But this we know. The story
is related by the Lord Jesus in response to a question raised
by a religious man who attempted to justify himself. Our master's
purpose in giving this story was to show us the utter impossibility
of salvation by our own efforts. Now that's the purpose of the
story. Our Lord gives this story to convince us of the utter impossibility
of salvation by our own efforts, by the works of the law, and
rather to teach us the necessity of his own glorious, sweet, blessedness,
and efficacy as our substitute and our savior. Now this is clearly
the intent of our Lord in this story. It is clearly his intent
if you just read verses 25 and 26 and 27 which set the background
of it. Look with me at verse 25. Behold
a certain lawyer. The word lawyer is not used here
like we commonly use the word lawyer. It's not talking about
one of those fellows you see on television and those ads called
me and let sue lawyers. It's not talking about the shysters
that practice law for the purpose of enriching themselves and abusing
men. It's not talking about the kind
of lawyer you'd see in a courthouse or the kind of lawyer you'd see
in a senate. This is talking about a lawyer that is one who
was a scribe of the law, a religious man who was a teacher of the
law, and that's the lawyer of the worst kind. This man was
well aware of the letter of the law. He knew it well. He just
didn't understand what the letters meant. how well that describes
this religious age in which we live. I don't often listen to
religious programming on television or radio. Once in a while, I'll
flip through the channels and hear somebody saying something.
And there are fellows who can recite scripture. They can quote
scripture line upon line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.
I know someone who can quote it book by book who don't understand
one word they quote. This fellow was well instructed
in the law, in the letter of it, but he didn't know its meaning.
It is not beneficial to a man's soul to know the letter of God's
word if he doesn't understand the meaning of God's word. That's
the problem this man had. A certain lawyer stood up and
tempted him. The word is tried or tested him.
He wanted to catch the master in a slip up. He wanted to show
publicly that this man didn't understand the word of God, that
this man, the Lord of glory, didn't understand the things
he had written in his law. And he wanted to discredit both
Christ Jesus and the gospel of God's free grace in him. So he
tempted him. And he said, master. Isn't that
wonderful? Master. I recall years ago. When I had more zeal than knowledge,
perhaps, that may still be the case. I don't know. I was working. A shoe store fellow I worked
for was a great promoter of works religion, and he was constantly,
constantly barbing. You know, he'd stick a barb in,
and he talked about the lowly way of the master. The lowly
way of the master. A heretical sect he was in. And
finally one day I said to him, he was my boss. I worked for
him. I said, Max, I sure wish you'd
shut up about the way you talk about the master. When you say
the master, I can hear the hiss of the devil in it. That's this
fellow right here. Same fellow. Master. Master. He speaks in pretentious piety
and pretentious reverence. Don't ever be guilty of making
a pretense to make a point. It's hypocritical. It's deceitful.
It's wrong. Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? You remember it's the very same
question asked by the rich young ruler, because they were both
cut from the same bolt of cloth. They both presumed. that they
could, by their efforts, do something by which to commend themselves
to God Almighty and put themselves in good stead with God. Indeed,
that's the curse of every man's natural heart. Every man really
thinks in the core of his being that somehow he can make God
his debtor if he just puts his mind to it. What shall I do to
inherit eternal life? And the Lord Jesus said to him,
what's written in the law? How readest thou? You're a teacher
of the law. You know what the law says. What
does it say? How do you read it? The Lord
Jesus turns him back to the law with good reason. This young,
this man asked this pious sounding question and the master answers
him with a question. You see, those who seek righteousness
by the law simply don't understand what it says. The Lord said,
what? Now, you know what the law says, don't you? How do you
read it? And this man 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. When the
Lord Jesus asked him what the law required, This fine specimen
of religion answered without the least hesitation. I mean,
he didn't bat an eye. He didn't stop to think about
it. I got this damn pat. I know what I'm talking about.
He had a bad case of versitis. The passage that he quotes from
the law was one of those verses that the Jews, the Pharisees
particularly, carried around in their phylacteries, their
little lucky charms. They carried them around, sewed
them in the hems of their garments. It's one of those verses they
recited every morning and every evening because of their great
piety. It's one of those verses they
recited like a patrist rubs his rosary beads for good luck. He
knew it. He knew it well. This was one
of those scriptures they reveled in, and he could recite it quickly. He had a verse for everything,
and he sure had a verse for this. But this poor, deluded soul,
this empty-hearted, empty-headed religionist, like the Jews at
Mount Sinai, was perfectly confident he had done and could do what
he just said. What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? What does the law say? Love God with all your heart
and your neighbor as yourself. That's a piece of cake. I can't
handle that. What do you think I've been doing
all my life? Now watch the master's answer in verse 28. And he said
to him, thou hast answered right. Now look at it. This do and thou
shalt live. Oh. The Lord Jesus He turns to
this man and he said, now I've come to put away sin by the sacrifice
of myself. I've come to establish righteousness
for men who cannot establish righteousness for themselves,
but I recognize that you can. No, he's not talking anything
like that. Our Lord is not giving a lesson in morality. He gives
plenty of lessons about moral behavior, but not here. He's
not giving a lesson about brotherly love. He tells His disciples
to love one another and teaches us by example and word how to
do so, but that's not what He's talking about here. If He had
said to this scribe, this lawyer, if He had said to him, Now, if
you will really do what you said, you give it your best and you
love your neighbor like you ought to, you're all right. You're going to make it. You'll
be just fine. Everything will be all right. But that wasn't
what our Lord was saying. What He declares here is that
you must love God perfectly. And you must love your neighbor,
not just the fellow who lives next door to you. Not just the
fellow who's close kin to you, your most implacable worst enemy,
just like you love yourself. What he's saying is, what you
need to understand, my friend, is eternal life is not obtainable
by your works. Eternal life cannot be had by
what you do. It is impossible for eternal
life to be gained by obedience to the law of God for one very
obvious reason. You cannot obey God's law. Now did you hear me? Hear me
and hear me well. We do not preach law righteousness. We do not preach law sanctification. We do not preach law holiness. We do not tell men they can make
themselves righteous with God, maintain their righteousness
before God, or improve their righteousness with God by something
they do because you flat cannot do what God requires in His law.
Oh, but preachers, shouldn't we tell men to obey the law?
No. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. Tell them to
look to Christ. Tell them to believe on Christ.
Tell them they cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot possibly obey
God's law. That's the reason the law was
given. God sets the standard of perfect righteousness, and
by setting the standard plainly, and by all the sacrifices connected
with it, declares, sinner, you've got to have somebody to do for
you what you cannot do for yourself. The Master's Declaration. It's
very plain. But look at verse 29. This fellow
was a little embarrassed. And so he's got to cover. He's
got to make himself look good, if not for the sake of the folks
who are listening, for the sake of his own conscience. You see,
every man will justify himself if he can. Every man will. Every man will. If God leaves
you to yourself, you'll go to hell justifying yourself. Now
listen to what this man said. But he, willing, determined,
desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, well, who's
my neighbor? Who's my neighbor? If only he
could make the law say and require less than it does, he might be
able to find some comfort in it, or at least a pretense of
comfort, or at least make people think he has some comfort in
it. Now, notice what he ignored. He ignores what he had just recited
about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He just ignores that, almost
as if it's a given. And he asked the question, who's
my neighbor? And this seems to be his indication.
The law says love my neighbor. Well, I've done that. I love
my wife. I love my children. I love my
family. I love my mom and dad. I love
my relatives. I love my kinsmen. I love my
nation. That's easy. That's easy. They're yours. They're
yours. That's a piece of cake. But our
neighbor, those God requires us to love, and love as ourselves,
are not family and friends, but our worst enemies. The law requires
that we do what no man can do, but requires us to do what Christ
the God-man has done for his people, precisely what the law
requires he has done. The Lord Jesus Christ came down
here. Fulfilled all righteousness for
us as a man loving God Perfectly and loving his worst enemies
as himself Hold your hand here and turn to Romans 5. Let me
show you Romans chapter 5 Our Lord Jesus came down here to
fulfill the law for us and doing everything that's revealed in
this story of the good Samaritan. Look at verse 6. When we were
yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely, scarcely for a
righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. I'll turn back to Luke chapter
10 and hold your Bibles open with your hands in your lap.
There are three things here. First, there's a certain man.
And then there's a priest and Levi. And finally, a certain
Samaritan. Look at verse 30. Jesus answering
said, a certain man, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and
fell among thieves, fell among thieves which stripped him of
his raiment and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half
dead. Now, remember, our Lord's purpose
here is to answer this religious legalist who desired to justify
himself. His purpose is to expose this
man's sin, to show him the utter necessity of believing on another,
the utter folly of hope in himself, the utter folly of the hope of
everlasting life by what he does. This certain man who went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, I have no question at all, is our father
Adam. The Lord refers here to two certain men, this certain
man and the certain Samaritan, because God deals with only two
men in this matter of righteousness. He deals with only two men, only
two men. He deals with two representative
men, two covenant heads. That's what Romans chapter 5
is all about. The first certain man is our father Adam. The last
man is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord from heaven. Our father
Adam is that man in whom we fell, in whom we were brought into
condemnation, misery, and woe. He is a substitute man, a representative
man. God Almighty said to Adam, you
do this and live. Do this and you die. And Adam
broke God's law. And when Adam sinned against
God, we sinned in him. Folks, so will I. I don't like
that. I don't like the idea of that.
Why not? Why not? Would you rather stand
and fall than yourself? Look at the angels that fell.
They fell one by one without a representative, and they're
bound in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the last day.
They're bound without hope. But we fell in a substitute.
We fell in a representative man. And that means there's hope we
might live by another man, another substitute, another representative,
Jesus Christ the Lord. This describes the sin and fall
of our race in that certain representative man, Adam. as this man went down
from Jerusalem, which stood on a high hill, down to Jericho,
about 20 miles or so, a place which was a very low valley.
So we and our father Adam, all the human race, went down. Oh, how far down we went. When we sinned against God in
the garden, this race was plunged into such
utter ruin that we cannot begin to comprehend what it must have
been like before the fall. Oh, how far down we've come.
I know the religious folks, and politicians,
and everybody else, they want to flatter you. Oh, look how
good you are. Look how far we've risen. They want to start man down as
an amoeba, crawl him up to the size of an ape, and finally make
him a caveman who looks more like an ape than a man. And after
a while, he finally stretches out and makes himself almost
like a god. No. We were made in the image
and likeness of God Almighty. God made man upright, and he
sought out many inventions. And with every invention, he
comes down. Adam walked with God in the garden. Walked with God. And he's come down. So horrid is the depravity of
our nature that even after we're born of God's spirit, we have
to struggle to walk with God with any experience of it. came
down. He came down from a state of
uprightness into a state of groveling like a beast. He came down from
a state of happiness to a state of misery, from a place of peace,
which is Jerusalem, to a place of cursedness, which is Jericho.
He came down from blessedness to misery. He came down from
a place of union with God to a place of separation from God.
We came down from a state of worship. Adam He worshipped God. With every breath he drew, Rex,
he worshipped God. In everything he did, he worshipped
God. He named the beast for the glory of God. He walked in the
garden for the glory of God. He held his wife for the glory
of God. He worshipped God with everything
he did. And suddenly, Adam, And all who
come forth from his loins live continually in the sensuality
of their beastly natures. This man in his journey from
Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves. So did we. These thieves, sin and Satan,
beat us and robbed us. robbed us of honor. I couldn't help, as I was reading
this passage, to think about Naomi. You remember when she
came back to Bethlehem, Judah? She said, don't call me any more
Naomi. Call me Myra. Folks came out,
and they looked at her, and they recognized, well, man, this is
a Himelech's wife. This is Naomi. And they were just shocked. This
young, beautiful, well-groomed woman whose face glowed with
youth and life. She bore some resemblance, but
here she is now, poor, dirty, destitute, worn, wrinkled, stooped. Pale as death. And they said, is this Naomi?
I'm looking at you and I say, is this Adam? Is this what God
described back in Genesis? Is this the man made in the image
and likeness of God? I look in the mirror and I say,
is this Adam? Image of God. So effaced in man
that we bear more resemblance to a beast than we do to God.
nobility taken. That man who was created for
the glory of God and lived for the glory of God lives now for
the satisfaction of his own belly, for his own lust. Sin and Satan have left us in
a state of utter depravity, deprivation, spiritual deprivation. Stripped
us of righteousness, leaving us naked with no righteousness
before God. No ability to perform righteousness. We keep trying to stitch together
fig leaves and we keep reminding ourselves by the very things
we do that we're just naked before God. And sin and Satan have stripped
us and robbed us. They've wounded us and left the
entire human race half dead. Now this is not in any way a
suggestion of a denial of the total depravity of our race.
Preacher, I thought you said we're plumb dead. We are spiritually.
We're dead spiritually. But this piece of wood here is
plumb dead. That means this piece of wood
doesn't have any responsibility. Don't expect anything from this
piece of wood. Can't require anything of this piece of wood.
It's plumb dead. Don't ever imagine that a man is dead like that
wood. Oh, no. We're dead spiritually,
but very much alive physically. Dead spiritually, but very much
alive with enmity against God. We're under the sentence of eternal
death, but it's not yet been executed upon us. And so we live
in this world as sinners condemned at law and without life before
God, but sinners yet responsible to Him. Like the nation described
in Isaiah chapter 1, We are a people wounded with an incurable wound.
Incurable except for the balm that is in Gilead which comes
from God's free and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus the Lord.
We're covered from the crown of our head to the soles of our
feet with wounds and bruises and putrefying sores and there's
nothing we can do to change that. We have a plague that's the plague
of our hearts and none can heal it but God Almighty by His free
grace. Now look at verse 31. Our Lord speaks about a priest
and a Levite. And by chance, chance the way it appears, looked like he was just lucky.
But it wasn't chance as far as God's concerned. 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, came and looked on him and passed by on
the other side. These two men, this priest and
this Levite, are called such to make us understand plainly.
They are representatives of the whole of God's law. The moral
law and the ceremonial law. Preachers like to divide it that
way. God never does. But to satisfy the needs of the
hour, the Lord Jesus speaks plainly to man's misunderstanding. And
this priest and Levite declare plainly by their deeds, by the
way they're presented in this story, that by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Let
me show you what it says. This priest. when he saw this poor, naked,
wretched man laying over here in the gutter, wallowing in his
blood. I can't come near him. If I get
too close to him, some of that might rub off on me. And he crossed
over on the other side and went his way. Went his way. Didn't say boo, just went his
way. That's a pretty good picture
of self-righteous, legalistic religion. Pretty good picture. I want to tell you something.
Nothing makes men harder than religion without Christ. Nothing
makes them more contemptible, more unbearing, more uncompassionate. Oh, it's a pretext of compassion,
a show of compassion, a show of love. They want everybody
to think they're so lovely. They smile like a possum eating
briars. And everybody says, oh, how sweet he is. But here's a
chance. Do somebody some good. And religious
men look at it and say, I don't dare get too close to him. Nothing makes men more useless.
Likewise, a Levite, when he was at that place, just walking along
in his way, he came and looked on him. And he passed by on the other
side. When I read things like this,
I try to kind of picture the scene in my mind. Here's this
fine Levite, well groomed. spit-shined and polished. Religious
as all get out. And he walked by and he sees
that fellow over there in the gutter. And he looks at him. Too bad about you. And off he
goes. I can almost hear him. I can
almost hear him as he walks away. And he says in humble, pious
sounding, teary voice, well there but for the grace of God go I.
And he walks off and leaves him. But that man still lay in there
just like he was. He hasn't been one whit helped
by the priest of the Levite. Not one whit. When I read that,
God the Holy Spirit shot an arrow straight to my heart. And I'm crying out to God, oh
my God, don't allow me, oh God, don't allow me to come into contact
with anybody and them be no better off because they came in contact
with me. But again, that's not the purpose
of the parable. The thing our Lord is showing us here is the
utter inability of the law. to help fallen man. You see,
it was never the intent. It was never the purpose of God's
law to save sinners. The law was not given to make
men righteous. The law cannot do anything to
change your position, your standing, or your character. The law can't
do it. All the law can do is expose your nakedness. All the
law can do is declare your sin. All the law can do is hold a
mirror in front of you and say, Bud, this is what you are. And
that's why our Lord says, as he brings this parable before
this man, he holds up the mirror of the law and he says, now love
your neighbor. You say you do? Here he is. Here
he is. The Samaritan. The Samaritan
is the most despicable, most despised, most contemptible,
most hated of all peoples to the Jews. And then our Lord comes
Himself and describes Himself as a certain
Samaritan. This other man. The only other
man with whom God deals with men. The only other man with
whom God Almighty deals with men in a law covenant relationship. He says in verse 33, a certain
Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw
Him, He had compassion on him, and went to him, bound up his
woes, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast,
and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the
morrow when he departed, he took out two pits, two pennies, and
gave them to the host, and said unto him, take care of him. Whatsoever
thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay." This good
Samaritan is the Son of God. But he wasn't a Samaritan, was
he? No. If you read John 8.48, the Jew said he was. And he takes
the title. He's that one who was most contemptible,
most despised. He was that one of whom we saw
no form of comeliness that we should desire him. We hid, as
it were, our faces from him. We saw him and we esteemed him
not. We considered him justly smitten
of God, stricken and afflicted. He's the Samaritan. This good
Samaritan is that one who came here loving God with all his
heart, soul, mind, and being. and his neighbor as himself,
and this is what he's done for us. I don't want to be overly stating anything, but
as I studied this parable, I thought what an utter, utter statement
of folly it is. Look at a man who does some good
charitable work. So he's he's been good Samaritan
thought I'd be a good Samaritan today That's kind of like saying
I thought I'd be your Savior today That's what this story
is not talking about what me make it say it's talking about
free grace And this is what the good Samaritan has done for me He took a journey He stepped down into this world
of time and woe in human flesh and came to where we were. He
came down here in this world of sin and curse and wretchedness
and trouble and woe and heartache and misery. Not only did He come
down here into this world, He came down here, Bobby, and took
on Himself our sin. He came right where we were. He came before the bar of God's
holy justice, and stood in our room instead,
and satisfied every demand of God's justice. So that now, when
we leave this world, Merle will be just like you read, holy and
holy still, righteous and righteous still, just and just still, because
he made us so. But not only did he come here
and die in our room, instead, when he saw us, he had compassion on us. He said, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. Oh, the deep, deep. love of Jesus. From eternity he saw us and had
compassion and he never changed his mind. He saw us ruined in
Adam's fall and had compassion. He saw us go astray from the
womb speaking lies and had compassion. He saw us all the days of our
rebellion and had compassion. He saw us in our unbelief, in
our utter contempt of his throne. And he had compassion, had compassion
on us. And he came to where we were. Like that infant Ezekiel described,
like this man who's fallen among thieves, we were in the gutter,
spiritually dead. naked, filthy, our own blood
causing a stench to rise up from where we were. We could not and
would not arise and come to Him. So He comes down to where we
are in free and sovereign grace in the time of His love. And
when He comes down, He comes down and binds up our wounds. He took the oil of His Spirit,
the oil of His grace, and the red wine of His precious blood,
a mixture commonly used in that day for healing. And He didn't
say, now, now here's my grace, and here's my atonement, here's
my Spirit, here's my grace. If you'll just reach out here
and reach out and take it, it's there for you, I'm offering it
to you. Oh, no. No, no. He reaches down. in our corruption
and picks us up to his bosom and pours in the oil and the
wine. And as soon as it touches your
lips, he causes you to thirst after it and drink eagerly. He
pours it in. And then he set us on his own
beast. I got some help from Dr. Gill
on this. He said, I don't know which one it is, but it's one
or two, maybe both. He set us on the red horse of
his humanity, Zechariah chapter 1, verse 8. Or perhaps on the
white horse of the gospel, with which and upon which he rides
through the world triumphantly. But he sets us on his own beast.
And he brought us into his end. Here we are. This is his inn. This is the house of God, the
church of the living God. And it is the care and responsibility
of this inn to care for those poor, needy souls healed by his
grace. Particularly, it is the care
and responsibility of that one who's the host of the inn, this
pastor, to care for your souls, to feed you with knowledge and
understanding, to comfort you with the sweet words of His grace,
to encourage you in the faith of the gospel, to apply to you
that blessed medicine that's found only in the gospel of His
grace, feeding you with knowledge and with understanding. He so charges His servants, and
then He gives the host of the inn
two pennies. What on earth is that? Two cents. Two pence. What's he talking
about? That's exactly one half shekel,
which is exactly the price of redemption for an Israelite in
the Old Testament. His blood and his righteousness. And he says to his servant, now,
you take care of him. And whatever more it costs you
to take care of him. And if a man's faithful in preaching
the gospel, he labors at it. Brother Merle mentioned something
about Todd television broadcasts and his preaching. I said he's
a faithful man. You always find him in his study.
That's where pastors ought to be. Labors in the word. Labors
in the word. And they pay much. Don't make
any complaints, but reputation, scandal, vilification. But they don't pay much attention
to it. Because the master said, when I come again, I'll repay
you. And Paul described it this way.
He said, you are my crown, and my joy, and my rejoicing in the
Lord. And that's what the good Samaritan
has done for us. Now, look at verses 36 and 37. Here our Lord just flat shuts
us up to Himself. He shuts us up to free grace.
He shuts us up to His work. He shuts us up to substitution. He says to this smart aleck, which now of these Thinkest thou that was neighbor
unto him that fell among thieves? Now I've described a priest and
a Levite. Then I've described this Samaritan
that you despise. Which one do you think was neighbor
to him? And he said he that showed mercy
on him. He didn't have much choice. He
may or may not have liked it, but he would shut up. He would
just shut up. Then Jesus said to him, OK, go
thou and do likewise. What? What? Oh, what the master is saying
here is you go and love your neighbor as best you can. And
you go and you be sincere now. You be sincere. And you go find
some derelict that you naturally in your self-righteous haughtiness
think that you're better than he is and you go put your arms
around him and you put your clothes on him and bring him into your
house and feed him and clothe him and take care of him and
everything will be alright! Oh no, buddy, that's not what he's
saying. That's not what he's saying. That's not what he's
saying. Now, hear me well. Don't ignore the poor and the
needy. Love one another and love your enemies. Do good to those
that despitefully use you. Pray for them. Pray for them.
Do everything you can for the good of men. But that's not what
our Lord's saying here. He said, you go do what I've
done, and then you can enter heaven by your merit. You go
meet every demand of God's holy law. You go honor God, loving
Him with all your heart. You go to the most abominable,
wretched, and despised, not one or two, but every one of them,
and love them to the point that you give your life for them,
lay down your life for them. Fulfill all righteousness, satisfy
all justice, and life is yours. That's all it takes for you to
be saved. That's all it takes for you to have eternal life.
Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.
All God demands is perfection. That's all He demands. Inside
and out, complete, unchanging, absolute perfection from your
first breath to your last breath. Perfection. And one other thing,
satisfaction. It's either perfection or death.
That's all. A picture? That means there's
no hope. No hope in you. That's the whole
message. But in Him.