All right, Luke chapter 10, pick
up where we left off this morning, and that is with verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, tested him, saying, Teacher, that's
what the word master is, teacher, what shall I do? What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? This lawyer was more than just
what we call a lawyer today. This man was a scribe who in
the Jewish religion was both a student of the scriptures and
a teacher of the law of God. And he had heard our Lord preach
in the synagogue. If you'll note carefully, it
says he stood up. He stood up before all the people. And it says he tempted him. He was testing him. His question
was not sincere. It was to see whether Christ
would deny the law or try to teach contrary to the law, because
he was a student of the law and a teacher of the law. And his
question was, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And his question was consistent
with his purpose. He was seeking salvation by works
and salvation by the law, and that's what he's asking. Now,
according to the law, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Well, our Lord knows the hearts of all men. He knows their thoughts
and hearts and motives. And he said, look at verse 26,
the Lord Jesus said to him, what's written in the law? How do you
read the law? Our Lord knows men's hearts and
he'll meet people where they are. He meets folks where they
are. He said, Adam, where are you?
I want to hear it from you. Cain, where's your brother? I
want to hear it from you." Our Lord meets men where they are
on the ground. He meets them on the ground that
they have chosen. This man has chosen the ground
of the law. That's where he was. He was in
the law, on the law, teacher of the law, a promoter of the
law. This person is a law person,
a legalist, a worksman. So our Lord asks him, says, what
does the law say? Now, he never said that to the
centurion. He said to the centurion, if
you can believe, all things are possible to him that believe.
The Lord never said that to the Samaritan woman. He never mentioned
the law to the Samaritan woman. He talked to her about living
water. If you knew who was talking to you, you'd ask, I'll give
you living water. He never talked to her about the law. When the
thief on the cross has to be remembered, he never mentioned
the law. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul the apostle,
what must I do to be saved, neither Paul nor Silas mentioned the
law, ever mentioned it. They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But here's a man that
wants to do something to inherit life. He wants to enter the kingdom
of God on his merit, on his works, so the Lord Jesus Christ gave
him something to do. Those who want to earn life are
free to try. They're free to keep the law
and live. So Christ asked him in verse
26 what's written in the law. How do you read? Well, this man
knew the law, and so he answered, verse 27, and he answered quoting
Deuteronomy chapter 6, 4 through 6, the Old Testament. He answered
quoting Leviticus 19, verse 18. This is what he said. This is
what the law said. And this is a summary, Christ
said, of the whole law. In Matthew 22, one of the religious
fellows asked him, which is the greatest law? He said, the greatest
law is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
And the second is likened to it in your neighbor as yourself.
On these two hangs all the law of the prophet. So when Christ
said, what's the law say? This man answered truthfully.
Listen, verse 27. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God," this is from Deuteronomy, "...with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself." That's Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19.
Yes, eternal life can be acquired by a sinless, perfect life. Eternal life can be acquired. by the law. In perfect life, in word, thought,
or deed, you'll live. Do this and live. Christ said that, verse 28, look.
And he said to him, you answered right. This do perfectly and
you'll live. You say that eternal life, pastor,
can be acquired by perfectly keeping the law? That's how Christ
acquired it for me. That's exactly how he acquired
eternal life for me. He was made of a woman, made
under the law, obeyed it in every jot and tittle perfectly, and
imputed it to me, and I have eternal life by keeping the law. And then he died on the cross
to put away my sins that satisfied justice. for the sentence against
me. So by his obedience, I'm sanctified. By his blood, I'm justified.
But he earned it. He earned eternal life for me. That's exactly right. That's
what the scripture says. That's what it says. By the disobedience
of one, we were made sinners. By the obedience of one, made
righteous. So when he said The law says
I shall love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your strength, with all your mind, your neighbor as yourself.
Christ said that's right. Now you do this, you'll live.
Now here's an interesting verse. This just, if you look at it
carefully, let's read it carefully and see if you pick up what I
see here. But he, willing to justify himself,
said unto Jesus, who's my neighbor? This is what's interesting to
me. He ignored the first commandment. He totally ignored it. He condemned himself out of his
own mouth. He said, this is what the law
said, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's the first one. And that's
Deuteronomy. Now he tripped over to Leviticus
and got the other one, and your neighbor is yourself. But he
knew he was shot down on that first one, so he ignored it.
He just ignored it. He just acted like he never even
said it. And he said, well, who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor?
He's trying to find a loophole. He's trying to find a loophole
in God's love. And he says, who's my neighbor?
My friends, before we consider who's my neighbor, before we
even consider that, before we even consider loving our neighbors
as ourselves, We've got to consider our relationship with God. I've
got a whole lot greater problem and charge against me than dealing
with my neighbors. I've sinned against God Almighty.
That's the first thing that's got to be straightened out, is
my relationship with God. Turn to John 16. John chapter 16, verse 7. This
is the work of the Holy Spirit. John 16, verse 8. Listen to this. John 16, verse 8. He says, And when the Holy Spirit
is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me. Old George
Whitefield one time was preaching in a place, and after the service,
a young man came to him and said, Mr. Whitfield, he said, I'm really
concerned about my soul. I want to be saved. He says,
I'm a great sinner. He said, I've been a thief. I've stolen from people, robbed
people, and I've just been a thief. And Whitfield says, is that all?
Well, no, he said, that's not all. He said, I've had a filthy
mouth. Every other word I say is a word
of blasphemy and just a filthy mouth. Terrible language. Whitfield says, is that all?
Well, he said, no. He said, there's more. He said,
I hate people. He said, I've just hated people
all my life. I've been self-centered and selfish all my life. I've
hated people. Whitfield says, is that all?
He said, Mr. Whitfield, I've told you all
these awful things that I've done to people. And you keep
saying, is that all? What else is there? He said,
son, the greatest sin of all, you hadn't believed on God. and
his son. And the charge against you is
not just stealing from people, it's robbing God of his glory.
And until you see that your problem is not with the people around
you, but with the God above you, you're not even close to salvation. Isn't that right? He convinces
men of sin. What's the chief sin? Unbelief. Why couldn't Israel go in the
promised land? Was it because they built a cave? No, sir. It was because of unbelief. They
did not enter in because of unbelief. And listen, and he'll convince
the world of righteousness because I go to my Father. He's our righteousness. He's our acceptance with the
Father. He's our mercy, see? Christ is. And he's gone to the
Father to prepare for us a place of judgment because the Prince
of this world is judged. Satan is judged by whom? By Christ,
in Christ. So this man here, he skipped over
the vital things. He's talking about his relationship
with people. And the great question, Job asked
the great question. Turn to Job 25. Here's the great
question. Here's the great question in
Job 25. Job 25, verse 4. It says, Then how then can man
be justified with God? That's the problem. How can he
be clean as born of a woman? Even to the moon it shineth not,
the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less in his sight. How much less man that's a worm,
the son of man which is a worm, and the son of man which is a
worm. All right, back to our text. So this man, like too many
today, wants to skip the issue about my relationship with God
and talk about who's my neighbor. Why do you ask this, who's my
neighbor? Well, the Jewish concept of neighbor was an Israelite
of the same nation and religion. It's all right to hate Gentiles.
That's what the Samaritan woman said to the Lord. He said, give
me a drink. She said, you're a Jew. I'm a Samaritan. Don't you know the Jews have
nothing to do with the Samaritans? So the Samaritan's not a neighbor.
And what this man is asking here, he's asking the Lord, now you
define who my neighbor is, and I'll see if I can keep it. I can see if I can keep it. I
can love my Jewish brethren, I can love my family, I can love
these, you know, but not a Gentile, who is my neighbor. I'm amazed at the legalists today,
whittling it down the law. One time a friend of mine was
preaching, and he said, I can keep the law if you let me interpret
it. I can keep the law if you let
me interpret it. I can jump over a barn if you let me build a
barn. I'll build it about this high, you know, and I'll leap
right over it. And this is what this fellow
is doing. And the legalists today, the folks that have got these
legalistic things for people to do, if you ever notice, they
go through the Old Testament and they pick things they can
do in order to assign their people. They can keep a Sabbath. In other
words, they can shut their business down on Sunday. They call that
the Christian Sabbath. They cannot take a Sunday paper.
They can just go so far on a Sabbath. They can do that. The flesh picks
out something they can do. Or tithing. That's a big thing
with people in religion. You gain God's favor by keeping
the law by tithing. That I can do. I can do that
without any change of heart. without any inward compunction.
I can die and pay ten percent. I won't like it, but I can do
it. And I can wear a beanie hat when I pray. I can put one of
these little things on my head, you know, that's no problem.
It doesn't have anything to do with this. It's just something
on top of my head. And I can pray towards the temple
three times a day. And I can keep Lent. I can pick
out a time and give up my coke. I'm a Pepsi, I'm a pizza. That's
no trouble, that's no strain at all. I can keep holy days,
I can do those things. But why don't these legalists
pick some heart? Like loving God with all your
heart and your neighbors yourself. There's the problem, you see.
And that's what this fellow's doing. He's trying to get the
law in such a shape that he can do, he can appear religious. Those that glow in appearance.
Well, he asked the Lord, who's my neighbor? So the Lord's going
to tell him. So let's read this carefully, and I'll stay with
you. And Jesus answered, verse 30, and he said, a certain man
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, They stripped
him as arraignment and wounded him and departed, leaving him
half dead in the ditch, unconscious. By chance there came down a certain
priest that way. This is the priest who do the
sacrifice and the ceremonies of sacrifice and blood shedding
and all these things. And he saw this man in the ditch. But he passed by on the other
side. He didn't want to stain his hands helping this fellow. So he passed by on the other
side. And likewise a Levite. Now a Levite is a person that
is of the tribe of Levi. The whole tribe of Levi was involved
in the ceremonies of the temple and the tabernacle. The Levites
took the tabernacle down and put it up. The Levites provided
all of the things concerning the law, they enforced the law,
they did all these things. So Levi came that way at the
place and he saw him, he looked on him and he passed on the other
side. But a certain Samaritan, now this is a Samaritan with
which the Jews have no dealings. This man in the ditch is a Jew.
These Jews, these priests and Levites have passed him by. But
this Samaritan comes by, a man that he wouldn't consider his
neighbor. As he journeyed, he came where
he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and
he went to him. And he bound up his wounds, and
he poured in oil and wine, and he set him on his own beast,
and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the
next day, when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them
to the innkeeper. And he said, Now you take care
of him. And whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I'll
repay you." Now the Lord said to this scribe, which now of
these three thinkest thou was neighbor to this man that fell
among the thieves? And the scribe answered, he that
showed mercy on him. And then the Lord Jesus said,
you go do likewise, that's your neighbor. Any man is your neighbor,
even a man you may consider an enemy of another nationality. A man's not a Jew. A man's a
Gentile. That's your neighbor. The law
says love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. It's
talking about loving God. And love your neighbor as yourself.
Love all men, all men as yourself. Our Lord, hanging on the cross,
looked down upon those who crucified Him. He said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what to do. Now you go do this. But you know,
our Lord in the scriptures, in all scripture, he teaches us,
somebody said the scriptures are bifocal. And I know what
the Lord is doing here as far as he's concerned. He's showing
him who his neighbor is. That ever man's your neighbor.
That the law requires universal love. Perfect love. For all men. But there's another story here.
There's a story of His love for me here. My Lord's redeeming
love for you and me. That's right. He's showing how
that He's been neighbor to us in perfect love. Watch this now.
Go back to the story. Go back to Jesus answering in
verse 30. See if we can work on this. He said a certain man
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. You know who this is? This is
Adam. He's a certain man. He was the only man. He's a man
God created. He created all men in Him. And
Adam went down. He went down from Jerusalem,
city of God, heavenly Jerusalem, to the pits of hell. He went
down. He went down. He fell, and we
fell in Him. Jericho, he said, Jerusalem is the holy city. Jericho
is the most wicked, wicked city. God Almighty destroyed the the
walls of Jericho and gave it over to Joshua and his people.
It was a wicked city. But this man went down, and what
he did, he fell among thieves. He fell among thieves. These
thieves are those who would rob him of his prized possession,
and they did. They robbed him of his glory. They robbed him of his relationship
with God. They robbed him of his life.
They robbed him of his fellowship with God, took it away from him,
Satan and his cohorts. And they stripped him of his
raiment. Old Adam, old Adam wasn't clothed with clothes, but he
was clothed with holiness. He didn't even know he was naked.
That's right. He was clothed with the beauty
of God. He was clothed with the beauty of holiness. And when
these fellows left him, when Satan left him and these demons
left him, they left him crying, I'm naked. robbed him of his
glory, the beauty of God, and wounded him. Boy, did they wound
him. They pierced him through with
many sorrows. We're paying for it, too. Many
sorrows. This old body. Many tears. Many
diseases. Pierced him through. And death
spiritually. Death spiritually and soon death
physically. They wounded him. And they departed. And these thieves do finally,
but they leave you in a mess. All the things of this world
that we accumulate, they soon depart and leave us with nothing. And they departed and they left
him half dead. Dead spiritually and dying physically. That's right. Dead to God. dead spiritually and soon to
be dead physically. And by chance, verse 31, there
came there a certain priest. Now, who did I say that priest
is? He's the priest who offered the sin offerings, the blood
of the the burnt offerings, the trespass offerings, the offering
of the firstfruits, all these offerings. That priest, he offered
all the offerings. He offered the atonement once
a year and all these things. But you know something? He saw
that fellow there and nothing he can do for him. Not a thing
he can do for Adam. You see over here in Hebrews
10, it says, in Hebrews chapter 10, it says, in verse 1, for
the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very
image of those things, can never with these sacrifices, never
with these sacrifices make him well, make him perfect. It's
not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sin, so the priest comes by with all of his sacrifices under the
law and sin offerings and he passes by. And then comes the
Levite. He's the one in charge of enforcing
the Sabbath day. A Levite's any member of the
tribe of Levi who's a helper to the priest, who takes over
and directs the order of the whole Levitical system, keeps
everybody in line on the whole system, the works and deeds and
fastings, and you can't sit a certain place and eat a certain food.
Those Levites just scattered around everywhere, making sure
people didn't do these things. But he saw him. The shape he's
in, he couldn't help him. He went on. Verse 33, our Lord
said, a certain Samaritan. You know who that is? That's
our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, he wasn't a Samaritan,
he was a Jew. Well, he's treated like a Samaritan.
The Jews wouldn't have him. He came and did his own. They
received him not. He was treated like a Samaritan
by the Israelites in the world. It says he is despised, he's
rejected of men, he's a man of sorrows, he's acquainted with
grief. We hear this where our faith is from him. He's despised,
we esteem him not. They say he's got a devil, he's
a gluttonous man, he's a wine-dipper. That's our Lord. And it says
a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, And as he journeyed, his goings
forth have been from everlasting. As he journeyed, as he journeyed,
his goings forth have been from everlasting. And as he journeyed,
he came where this man was. By design, by purpose, sent to
the father, he came where this poor, wounded, dying, helpless,
hopeless creature, whom the sacrifices couldn't help, and whom the law
couldn't help, and whom nobody could help, and everybody passed
him by. Our Lord came where he was, came
into the world made of a woman, made under the law, who being
in the form of God, whose goings forth have been from everlasting,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself
of no reputation. took upon him the form of a servant,
made in the likeness of me, and being found as passionate as
a man, humbled himself, humbled himself, and came where he was,
right down to the ditch. And he saw him. He saw him. And he loved him. He had compassion
on him. He saw him. He saw me ruined in the fall,
yet he loved me, notwithstanding all. Nathanael, he said, I saw
you before Philip ever called you Nathanael, I saw you. I saw
you. Jeremiah, before I formed you
in the belly, I saw you. I knew you. I ordained you. I sanctified you. I loved you
with an everlasting love. I saw you. He saw him. And he
had compassion. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, went
to him. No, he didn't get up and come
to Christ. I beg you pardon. Samaritan didn't say, I've done
all I do. You just have to meet me halfway, son. If you can just
get up out of the ditch, I think I can help you make it. If you
take the first step, I'll meet you. No sir. He came right where
he was. Like the shepherd came where
the sheep was. He came right where he was. He came where He
was. You know, we seek Him, but not
before He seeks us. Our gospel came to you. You didn't
come to the gospel. Our gospel came to you. Oh, you passed by here and decided
to come in, but He fetched you. You think your feet turned this
way just because you were looking for something? No. Someone was
looking for you. Yeah, He came where He was. of his own will he begat us.
He went to him. He bound up his wounds. He healed
the brokenhearted. He set the captive free. He gave
sight to the blind. He restored his soul. He came
where he was and bound up his wounds. He poured in oil, that's
the Holy Spirit. He sanctified him. He poured
in oil, the blessed Spirit of God. He poured in wine, that's
the blood of Christ. This wine is my blood shed for
you." He sanctified him, he justified him. He set him on his own beast,
like the shepherd picked up that lamb and put him on his shoulders.
He put him on his beast. Man didn't do nothing to merit his mercy. He came where
he was, he went to him, he bound up his wounds, he poured in all
the spirit and wined the blood, set him on his own beast. Brought
him to the inn. What's that inn? That's the church.
That's the Lord's church. That's the Lord's home. My house
is a house of prayer. My home. Brought him to the inn. He brought him. I'll build my
church. I'll add the Lord added to the church daily such as should
be said. He brought him in. He adds them.
Go out and get some members for our church. Don't do it. Please
don't do it. He'll bring them in. He'll bring
them in. He's going to take care of them,
because they're His. They're His. He feels special
about them. And He ministered to Him in His
early days, in His need. It's Him and the Lord. It's Him
and the Lord ministering to Him. And on the next day, the Lord
departed, back to glory. He took out two pimps. Somebody said that's the Old
Testament and the New Testament. Two pence. Gave them to the innkeeper,
that's the pastor. Gave him the Word of God. He
said this man's going to need to be nourished and fed and cared
for and comforted and he's healed, healed his wound and he's going
to need these two things here. He's going to need the Old Testament
and the New Testament. You take care of him. That's
my orders. You take care of him. He said take care of him. Don't
abuse him and misuse him and hurt him and use him for your
good. I'll furnish what he needs. And
if you spend more than that, I'll repay you. I'll repay you. You're not going to spend more
than I can provide, he says. This fella giving orders, well,
he owns the inn. That's right, it is. And the
innkeeper's working for him, too. He's his servant. He said,
you take care of him. And I'm coming again. I'm coming
back for him. And I'm coming back for a report
out of you. You're gonna be held responsible. That's right. Don't be afraid
of providing too much now, because I'll repay you. I'll repay you. That's what that story is about
there. It's for that Levi, that scribe, to shut his mouth, and
it's for us to instruct our hearts. Our good neighbor. Our good neighbor. I've passed over here at Pollard
Baptist Church. Don Fitzer reminded me of this
today. Back in about 1953, 1952 or 1953,
I got a letter from a chaplain over in Germany. He told me about
a young man from Iceland, from Pollard community. His name was
Charles Eaton, sergeant in the Army, regular Army. He said,
this young man's had a heart attack. a serious heart attack,
he's going to be discharged from the surface because of his condition. But he said, I've told him about
the Lord, and he's made a profession of faith, and I'm going to baptize
him, and I want you to take him into your church over there as
a member. Well, I knew what had happened. He'd come in, talked
him into a profession, a man sick, about to die, afraid he's
going to die. But I wrote back and told him,
Glad to, just very glad to. But Charlie came home from the
circus. He's discharged and moved right down the street from me.
And we became good friends. And he came to church for a little
while. He came for a little while. He
came as long as his profession would let him, you know, that
little religious profession the man talked him into. And he got
tired of it. I watched him, he kept moving there to the back
and finally he quit prayer meeting and he quit Sunday night and
then he quit Sunday morning and I didn't see him anymore. But
we remained friends because we had at least a service in common. I was a service person and he
was too and we were friends. I preached out on the radio every
morning, Mondays through Friday on WTCI, country radio, 8.30
every morning. But Charlie wasn't able to work.
He was recuperating from serious heart trouble. His wife, Edith,
worked over at the school in the cafeteria. So he was by himself
every morning listening to me on the radio, because we were
friends. But he'd listen to that radio
program every morning. And one morning I got through preaching,
and the announcer said, there's a phone call for you. I went
and picked up the phone. It was Charlie. He was crying
like a baby. He said, Pastor, could you stop
at the house on your way home from the station? I said, yes,
why? He said, I'm lost. I said, I knew it all the time.
I'm glad you know it now. That's exactly what I said to
him. So I went by and he was sitting on the sofa. I can see
it now, it's nearly 50 years ago. He was sitting there and
he had cried a river. The tears had dripped down, they
didn't have a rug, they had wood floors, and the water was down
between his feet there on the floor. He cried and cried and
cried and cried. And we sat down and talked, and
read the Word, and had prayer, and he came back to church, and
the Lord saved him. And he was there of a service,
sitting right down front, second row, of a service. And he played
the piano, he played by ear. around the corner here at that
church, and I'd go over early and be getting the service ready,
and he'd come early and sit outside and play the piano by ear. He
couldn't read music, but he recorded and played by ear, and I'd hear
him play before the Wednesday evening service and Sunday evening
service. And one Wednesday evening, he hollered, Preacher! And I
came around the door, and I said, what is it? He said, I found
my song. I found my song. Come in, hum it, and I'll try
to play it." So I went over there, and it was, Only a sinner saved
by grace, Nought have I gotten but what I receive, Grace hath
bestowed it since I have believed, Boasting excluded, pride I base,
I'm just a sinner saved by grace. He said, that's my song. And
I hummed it, and he started playing it. The next six months, I guess. Only a sinner saved by grace. That's all he played. Every time
he came over there, he played that song. Maybe not six months,
but a long time. He played that, loved that song.
We had a meeting in April or May 1954. Had a visiting preacher. And the preacher was preaching
that Sunday morning. on Do You Know Christ? That was
a part of his message, Do You Know Christ? And he preached
and then he walked down out of the pulpit and was standing down
front here talking to the congregation about knowing Christ. And my
friends, this is a fact, and there's people here not to win
that service. He looked at Charlie Eaton and he said, Son, do you
know Christ? Charlie said, I didn't used to,
but I do now. So the service was over, and
I went home with Paul to eat dinner. Paul, do you remember
this? Went to your house to eat dinner. And Don Fitzer, some
mom was holding services in Avondale, down here, a little mission.
Don was over and went by Charlie's house to pick up his son. And
Charlie had a heart attack. And they hollered for Don to
come in. And Don told them, call me. I was old Paul Williams.
And they called me. And I got there for the ambulance. Remember,
you got him up out of the floor and put him on the bed. He was
blue. And we put him in the ambulance, and I rode in the ambulance,
and Don followed in the car. And we got down here to King's
daughter's, and they rolled him in. And Don was standing there,
and I was standing there, and the doctor came and just covered
him up. gone. He left in the ambulance. I said, Don, you remember the
last word you heard this man speak? Now he said, I don't remember. I said, I do. I remember the
last words I heard him speak. I preach to this boy and ask
him if he knew Christ. He said, I didn't used to, but
I do now. I do now. I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. That was his song. I didn't used
to, but I do now. I know it. He came where I was,
bound up my wounds, poured in oil and wine, took me home with
him. And I've been here ever since.
I'm glad to be here. Let's sing that song. It's 474.
I'm only a sinner. I'm only a sinner. But I'm saved by grace, number
474. We'll stand together while we
sing it.