All right, Luke 10. They call this, most people do,
the parable of the good Samaritan. It may be a parable, or it may
be an account of something that actually happened to a certain
man. Maybe. But I do know one thing,
when our Lord gives an illustration or an example like this, you
have to go back a few verses and find out to whom he's speaking,
the occasion. What brought this up? What was
the occasion? And then I found another thing
about these experiences in the life of our
master. He generally always answers the
person's questions. based on the ground that that
person's standing on, or direction from which he's coming. He does
answer their question. And then he'll give them, he'll
give them a clear declaration of his own person and work in
redemption. And then he'll shut them up to
faith and obedience. And you'll see that here. Now
let's go back and see How this started, back in verse 25, how
this came about, this discussion between this lawyer and our Lord
that brought on this story about the Samaritan. Verse 25, and
behold a certain lawyer, now he's called a lawyer, but not
in the sense in which you and I understand today's lawyers. This man, this man in the Jewish
church was a scribe. He was an interpreter of scripture. In the Jewish nation, he was
a teacher of the law. You read about lawyers throughout
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's who the man is. He's a
teacher of the Jewish law. And it says he stood up. Now this is interesting. He stood up in front of the crowd.
There was a crowd of people there. He didn't come to our Lord like
the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler was a young
man that was, to a certain extent, humble. And the scripture said
when the rich young ruler came to Christ, he kneeled before
him and he said, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? This man's different. This man stood up in front of
the crowd. This man directed his question
to the Lord for the benefit of his audience. I know that from
the next word. It says a certain lawyer stood
up and tempted him, put him to the test. That's what it's saying. He tempted, he tested Christ
before the crowd to see if the Lord Jesus would deny the law
of Moses or else speak against it in some way. That's what he's
doing. He's a student of the law, he's a teacher of the law,
he's a disciple of the law, and he wants to see if this prophet
Jesus of Nazareth will say something about Moses' law. So he did it,
tempting him. And this is what he said, Master,
what shall I do, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now
his question is perfectly consistent with what he believes. This man
was seeking salvation by works, by the ceremonies, by the law,
and by the traditions of the Jewish religion. That's where
he's standing. That's the ground on which he
stands. He's a disciple of the law. He's
hoping to find acceptance with God by his fasting and praying
and giving alms and keeping the law of Moses, same as the Pharisees. So that's where our Lord met
him. And the Lord Jesus said in verse 26, well, what's written
in the law? How read it? Style. You see,
our Lord knows the thoughts of every man. He knows the thoughts
and the motives of all men. And he dealt with them on that
basis, the ground on which they approached him. Let's take some
examples. When he came down from the mountain,
A leper ran to meet him, fell down at his feet, worshipped
him, and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Our Lord
met him right there. He said, I will be thy clean.
You need mercy, you need grace, you can't do anything for yourself,
I'll do something for you. What about the thief on the cross? The thief on the cross said to
the other thief, we're getting what we deserve. We deserve to
die. This man's done nothing amiss.
Lord, you're coming in their kingdom. Would you remember me
when you come in their kingdom? Christ met him right there. He
said, I'll do more than remember you. I'll take you with me. What about the centurion? This
is a good one. It's over in Luke 4, 5, or 6.
The centurion came to our Lord, and he had a serpent. This centurion
was a very, very high-ranking officer in the army, and he had
a servant that was very sick. And he came to the Lord and said,
my servant's at the point of death, and I pray you to heal
him. The Lord said to him, he said,
well, show me where you live and I'll go with you. No, he
said, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. I'm not
worthy for you to come under my roof, and you don't have to
go to my house. I'm a man of authority, and I
say to my servant, go, and he goes, and come, and he comes.
You're a man of authority. You don't have to go to my house.
Just say the word, and my servant will be here." Our Lord said,
You go home. He said, Well, I'll try. Our Lord said, Ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come to the water. It's the ground you choose to
stand on. is standing before the Lord of
glory, boasting of his righteousness, and asking what he could do to
find acceptance with God. And the Lord Jesus said, what
does the law say? Well, he quoted the law. Look
at the next verse. And he answered and said. And what he answered
and said is what the Jews, this is what one of their daily recitations
It comes from Deuteronomy 6, 5 and from Leviticus 19, 18.
He quoted the law. This is the recitation of the
Jewish, they read it every day, they recited it daily. From Deuteronomy
6, 5 and Leviticus 19, 18. And here's what he said. And
he answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all
thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." And that's it. Now Paul, Saul of Tarsus, understood
that. He quoted that too. He lived
by that law. But he understood the letter
of it, not the spirit of it, or the purpose of it, to bring
us to Christ. In fact, one of the Pharisees
asked our Lord one day, what's the greatest law? Let me show
you that in Matthew 22. What this man said, is exactly
what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees. Turn to Matthew 22
a moment. Matthew 22, verse 34. This was a lawyer, another one
of those lawyers. Verse 34 says, But when the Pharisees
had heard that he put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered
together, and then one of them One of the Pharisees, who was
a scribe, a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and
saying, Master, what's the great commandment of the law? What
did our Lord say? Listen. Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment,
and the second is likened to it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the fact. So this man, when our Lord said,
he said, what shall I do? What shall I perform? What shall
I produce? To inherit eternal life, to earn eternal life, to
marry eternal life. The Lord said, what does the
law say? He quoted it, just exactly what
the Lord quoted. And then our Lord said in verse
28, listen, and the Lord said to him, you've answered right.
This do and thou shalt live. That's right. Exactly right.
Eternal life and eternal glory can be obtained by perfect obedience
to the law of God. Anybody here got that? Of course. Eternal life. God said to Adam,
do this and live. Obey me and live. And if a person,
if he can keep the law of God perfectly and wholly, That's
the way to obtain eternal life. And that's the way I obtained
it. I didn't keep it, Christ did. The Lord Jesus Christ, and
you too, the Lord Jesus Christ became a man, came to this earth
in the fullness of time. He was made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. The
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world perfectly obeyed the law
as a man, as my representative, and I have eternal life by his
righteousness. It's my righteousness and it's
yours. But a man did it perfectly. Christ did it. Turn to Romans
5 verse 19. Romans 5 verse 19. It says here in Romans 5 verse 19, As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. That's how we became sinners,
by one man's disobedience, by our own disobedience. So, by
the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. What did that
one obey? He obeyed the law of God. He
loved God with all his mind, heart, soul, and strength, and
he labeled it as himself. So this man asked the Lord, what
shall I do that I might marry and inherit eternal life? He
said, you'll have to keep the law perfectly. If you keep it perfectly, you'll
live from cradle to grave. Well, if you kept it perfectly,
you wouldn't die. You wouldn't have any sin, be
born without sin. So that's what the Lord said.
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. This is how we obtain eternal
life, by our Lord obeying the law and then dying for our sins.
Listen to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, here it is, reconciliation.
What is reconciliation? It's to bring into harmony and
perfect fellowship that which is estranged. God was in Christ
reconciling, bringing into harmony, into fellowship those which were
estranged, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and had
committed to us the ministry, the word of reconciliation. That's
how God reconciled us, by Christ's obedience. All right, when our
Lord said that to this man, verse 28, well, do this and live. He
says in verse 29, but he, willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, who is my neighbor? You know, strangest thing here,
strangest thing here, he totally skipped over this loving God
with all your soul, heart, mind, strength, he just completely
skipped over that. and jumped over to this part
about the neighbor. He said, but who is my neighbor?
Who is my neighbor? You know, and he did that to
justify himself. It's that old way that man uses
to justify himself. Our Lord said in Luke 16 about
these lawyers and Pharisees, he said, you fellows, you are
they which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your
heart. And that which is highly esteemed
before men is an abomination to God. Job said, if I justify
myself, my own mouth would condemn me. My own mouth would prove
me perverse. But this man just skipped over
the first commandment and started talking about, well, tell me
who my neighbor is. If I can find out who my neighbor is,
maybe I can love him like I love myself. Well, here's the Jewish
concept of a neighbor. I looked this up. The old-time
Jews, this was what they considered their neighbor. Thou shalt love
thy neighbor in the law of Moses. They did not believe that they
were required to love a Gentile. In fact, the woman at the well
said to Christ, Are you a Jew asking me, a Samaritan,
for water? Don't you know the Jews have
nothing to do with the Samaritan? The Jews were not required to
love or befriend a Gentile. One of their writers said, if
a Gentile falls into the sea, you're under no obligation to
pull him out. That's why you wonder, who's
my neighbor? Tell me who my neighbor is. Like
a friend of mine said one time when he was preaching, he said,
y'all may not believe it, but I can jump over a barn. And everybody looked at him,
he said, that's right, I can jump over a barn, if you'll let
me build the barn. And I'll build it just high enough
for me to get a... This is what he's doing here.
The Lord Jesus answered his question. He said, what shall a man do
to inherit eternal life? Christ said, what does the law
say? The law says love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and
strengthen your neighbor as yourself. Well, I can't do that first one,
but who's my neighbor? Maybe I can handle that, you
know, and get in some way. Well, all right, here comes the
answer. Who's my neighbor? And if you
listen to this, as in all scripture, our Lord Jesus Christ, what's
this now? Our Lord Jesus Christ illustrates
love. He said, love my neighbor. Love
God, love my neighbor. He illustrates love by his love
for us. He said, you love one another
as I loved you. That's perfect love. Perfect
love for God, perfect love for one another. You love one another
like I love you. He illustrates forgiveness by
his own forgiveness. He says, be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God, for Christ's
sake, forgave you. He illustrates mercy. by his
own mercy. And he said, you be merciful
as God is merciful. So when this man, standing on
the foundation of human works, shoots at our Lord the question,
who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor? Our Lord gives
him this glorious illustration. I want you to watch it. And the
Lord Jesus answering said, A certain man, you know who that is? And you'll see that as we go
through this. That's Adam, the first man, the man God made out
of the dust, the representative of all men. A certain man went
down. He was created high and he went
down. He was created in the image of God. After a while he was
stripped, broken, sinful, in darkness. He went down, how? From Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerusalem
is the city of God. Jerusalem is the capital of the
worshipers. Jericho is a city of evil, cursed
by Joshua. This man was going from Jerusalem,
where God dwelt, where the temple was, going down to Jericho. That's the way Adam did. He left
the heights for the bottom. And he fell among thieves. This
man fell among thieves, Satan, evil spirits, demons, who would
rob him of his glory. He created an image of God. These thieves were going to take
away his glory, take away his beauty, and deny God his glory. These evil, evil demons and creatures
of Satan fell among thieves, robbed him of his glory. What
did they do? They stripped him of the beauty
of holiness and left him naked. They stripped him of the covering
which he had by creation so that he could stand before God and
walk with God and talk with God. They literally stripped him of
his holiness, of his glory. And then they wounded him. They
pierced him with many sorrows. They left him full of wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores and disease and death. They left
him. They left him half dead. That's
not a very good description there, half dead, of Adam. Yes, it is,
too. Adam wasn't dead physically.
Adam was dead spiritually. I know he was dead of the worst
death, spiritual death. But Adam was alive physically.
They left this man, these thieves left this man in the ditch, half
dead. That meant he was helpless to
help himself. He was helpless to do anything.
He was all but dead, but he was so pitiful, he was so helpless. That's why Adam left us. By one
man's sin, enter this well, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. And there he lay. There he lay. In verse 31, the Lord Jesus said, By chance, a certain priest,
there came a certain priest that way. What's a priest? Well, a
priest is a fellow that deals in sacrifices. A priest is a
fellow that deals in sin offerings. He's a fellow that deals in baptisms
and washings and the burning of incense. And this priest came
by and he had his uniform on and he had his censer with him
He had his staff and all these things, but he says here he came
and he saw him, the condition this man's in. But he couldn't
do anything for him. The incense won't heal the wounds
and won't wipe away the pitiful state he's in. He didn't have
anything with which to help the man at all. He won't help the
man, so when he saw him lying there, he just crossed to the
other side. and left him there. And that's all that the priest
can do, is lead you where he found you. Human religion, deeds
and duties. Well, and likewise a Levite came
to that place, and he saw him. Now who's a Levite? Well, a Levite
is a teacher of the law. And all he had was Sabbath observances,
he kept the Sabbath there, he advocated that, but that wouldn't
help that man. Well, he was a collector of the
tithes to bring the tithes into the storehouse so that he could
feed the people, but that wouldn't help him. And he couldn't do
any good by circumcising him. And nothing he could do to help
that poor man in his terrible condition, so what did he do?
Well, he saw him and he passed on the other side. But our Lord Jesus said now,
verse 33, but a certain Samaritan, a Samaritan. And the irate Jews
hated the Samaritan so badly, and they hated our blessed Lord
so badly when he came to this earth. Did you know they called
him a Samaritan? They called him a gluttonous
man, a wine-dibbler, and a friend of sinners, and publicans and
harlots. But one of the things they charged
him with, this man's a Samaritan. Turn to John 8, verse 47. Our
Lord, in John 8, says in verse 47, He that is of God will hear
God's word. You, therefore, hear them not,
because you are not of God. Then answered the Jews and said
to him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and you
have a devil? Yes, Samaritan. Jesus answered
and said, I have not a devil, but I honor my Father, and you
do dishonor me. And I seek not mine own glory,
as one that seeketh and judges. Yes, Samaritan. Well, it doesn't
matter to me what they call him. I call him Lord. I call him like
Thomas said, my Lord and my God. But for a while he became a man,
identified with all of us, nations, tongues, tribes, and people.
So he says he's a certain Samaritan as he journeyed. And I understand
that this man in the ditch was a Jew. because he's coming from
Jerusalem, going to Jericho. And this Samaritan is not his friend. Our Lord died for us when we
were not his friend, too. We were enemies. He died for
us when we were his enemies. So this Samaritan came, and as
he journeyed, as he journeyed, he came where he was. I love
that statement there, he came where he was. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. He was in the world, the world
was made by him, the world knew him not. He came unto his own,
his own was suited not, but some did know who he was, because
he came where they were. And they beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. He came right there where that man was, right there
in the ditch, right there in the ditch, among the mud and
the mire. And he says he saw him. He saw
him. That means a whole lot right
there. He saw him. Hagar. You remember Hagar out
there in the desert with her child. Boy was dying of thirst
and she moved away. So she couldn't see him die.
And God spoke to her. She called the name of that place,
Now God Seeth Me. Now God Seeth Me. son of the bondwoman, and yet
God sees me, thou God seest me. And he saw this man. He saw me
ruined in the fall, notwithstanding he loved me in spite of all. He saw me. He saw him where did he see you? He saw you where you were. And
he had compassion on us. He came where he was and he saw
him and had compassion. I like to read, connected with
that over here in Ezekiel, about when the Lord saw the poor deserted
infant, been born and either washed with water or suppled
or kept at all. He said in verse 6 of Ezekiel
16, you're familiar with this. You know it before I read. When
I passed by you, I saw you. I saw you polluted in your own
blood. And I said to you, when thou wast in thy blood, live.
Yeah, I said to you, when you were in your blood, live. That's
that Samaritan who came by and saw him and had compassion. And
he said in verse 8, And when I passed by you and looked on
you, behold, it was a time of love. He had compassion on us. And then look back at my text,
Luke chapter 10, he said he came where he was, he saw him, he
loved him, he had compassion on him, and he went to him. He
went to him and bound up his wounds. Oh my, he was wounded
for our transgressions, by his stripes we are healed. And he
poured in oil and wine, to soothe and comfort and ease. Don't you
notice that man lying there in that ditch with those open sores
and wounds and hurting, and that oil was so comforting, so comforting. And then he poured in wine to
kill the infection. The oil is the Holy Spirit who
sanctifies and cleanses and soothes and comforts and gives peace,
and the wine is the blood. That's what we take at the Lord's
table. This is my body. My blood shed for you. It cleanses
all of our sins. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
our sins. He poured in oil to comfort.
He poured in wine to kill the germs and the infection. And
then you know what he did? He lifted him up. He didn't give him the name and
address of the inn or the hospital. He lifted him up and put him
on his beast. like our Lord did the sheep that
was out in the wilderness. Came to him, found him, got him
out of the mess he was in, put him on his shoulders, and he
put this man on his beast, and he brought him to the inn. And you know what that inn is?
I know what that inn is. And he did it personally. Our
Lord Jesus Christ brought him to the inn himself. He brought
him there personally. He brought him to the inn. The
inn is a church. That's right. And there's plenty of room. This
is not one of those inns where they have no room for God's people.
This is one of those inns where God's people are welcome. He
brought him to the inn. And the inn was a place where
a good meal of living bread served three times a day. Living bread. The inn is a place where you
rest and get well. The inn's a place where you're
surrounded with hospitality and fellowship, where other people
have been lost and found. They welcome you, exhort one
another, encourage one another, help one another. And the Lord
Jesus brought him to the inn. There he'd have a refuge from
the storm. Out of the ditch, into the inn.
But the Lord took care of him himself. He settled him down. Went out
there and he found him. Came where he was and loved him.
Poured in oil and wine. Tended to his wounds. Put him
on his beast and brought him to the inn. Stayed there all
night and took care of him. He didn't turn him over to anybody
right away. He took care of him. Established him. Then on the
morrow, when Samaritan was leaving, on the morrow before he departed,
he took out two pence. He took out two pence. What are
those two pence? Those two pence are the Old and
New Testament. That's what Brother Dale just
read from Isaiah, Gospel of the Old Testament. And we just feasted,
rejoiced in it, loved it. And here I am reading from the
New Testament. Oh, the New Testament's about
like one writer said, the breast of a mother. Nourishment and
comfort, health and peace. A baby's never happier or healthier
if it's not on one of those breasts of the mother. Psalm 107 said,
he sent his word and healed us. He said his word and healed us
and delivered us out of our distresses. Yes, sir. He gave the host. Who was the host? He gave it
to the host. He took out two pence and gave
it to the host and said to him, you take care of it. And it's
all you're going to need. That's all he's going to need
and that's all you're going to need. You don't need anything else.
You don't need any puppets up there running around. You don't
need anybody carrying on with any bunch of foolishness. 8 or
10 quartets and trios. You just need these two pints
right here. That'll be all you'll need. That'll be all you'll need. He tells us that over here in
Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. When he
went away, When the good Samaritan went away, the great Samaritan,
the chief Samaritan, it says here in verse 8 of Ephesians
4, he ascended up on high, he had captivity captive, he gave
gifts to men. Now he that ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lowest parts of
the earth, he came where we are. And he that descended is the
same also that ascended up among All heavens that he might fulfill,
all things. Now that's all in parenthesis,
see? Verse 8, verse 9 and 10, both
in parenthesis. So let's go back and read verse
8 and skip verse 9 and 10 because that's a parenthetical statement.
Listen to verse 8. Wherefore when he ascended on
high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men, verse
11, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
some pastors and teachings by the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, that we all come in the unity of the faith, the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man as the measure, the fullness,
the stature of Christ, that we be henceforth no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men, cunning craftiness wherein they lie in
wait to deceive. But speaking the truth, the truth,
Old Testament, New Testament, in love may grow up Into him,
in all things, in the head, will be even Christ. This is all you
need, now he said to the preacher, to the host. Here it is. Here's
his food, here's his drink. Here's his medicine, here's his
comfort. Here's his faith, here's everything
he'll ever need. Here's his hope, here it is.
It's the Word. It's the written Word that reveals the incarnate Word. Look at my text, verse 35, And
when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the
host, and said, Now take care of him. That's what Paul said
to those elders. He said, I labored among you,
and kept back nothing profitable to you. I have not shunned or
declared unto you all the counsel of God, the word of God. And
he said in verse 35, And whatsoever you spend more, When I come back,
I'll take care of you." What does this mean? I looked at that
a long time. I wasn't happy with all the things
I read. But I think it's a word... I
know who he's talking to. He's talking to the preacher.
He's talking to the host. He's talking to the pastor. He's
talking to the elders. He's talking to those that are taking care
of God's children with the Word, ministering the Word. This will
do. Now, whatever else... transpires,
whatever else comes your way, whatever else you have to pay
or suffer or endure, whatever the ministry of the Word and
taking care of this man, wherever it takes you, whatever it brings
to you, and whatever difficulty you encounter, when I come back,
I'll take care of it. I'll make it all alright. You
don't have to worry. He's a good master. He's a good
master. Now then, our Lord put the question.
Now you, here's what he's saying. Our Lord gives this man wonder
about who's my neighbor, loves. Christ showed him real love,
real compassion. Christ showed him his perfect. work for sinners. And then the
Lord asked the man, said, now I ask you, which now of these
three thinkest thou was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?
And he said, he that showed mercy on him. He said, you go and do
likewise. You forgive others as God, for
Christ's sake, forgave you. You love them as God, for Christ's
sake, loved you. You show mercy as God, for Christ's
sake, showed mercy to you. We lay hold of his office and
work and sacrifice for our own redemption, justification, righteousness,
and sanctification. But we lay hold on it not just
as a doctrine, not just as a faith that gets us through trials
and takes us to heaven. It's life. That's the way we
live. All right, I hope that's a blessing to you as it was to
me.