The Good Samaritan

Dismissed for children's church at this time. Children. We have some back there. Y'all can go to children's church if you want. Miss Doris is gonna teach you.

Alright? So we'll give you a chance. Trust me, you'd much much rather be with miss Doris than me. Alright? And plus, I think there's some gift back there for you as well.

I think that's where they are today. So if you want your gift, you gotta go to children's church. Alright. Little bit of extra motivation there. Alright.

Bribery. Yes. We don't use that word here, Jules. Bribery. Alright.

Okay. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10 this morning. Luke chapter 10. And we will take a few minutes this morning to look at a story that may be somewhat familiar.

There are several stories in the scripture that are familiar to even people that are not necessarily faithful churchgoers. One of those might be David and Goliath. You may have heard of David and Goliath, the boy that slew the giant with a sling and a stone. You might have heard of many different stories in scripture, of course, about Jesus. Maybe some parables.

This is a parable. Okay? This is a story told by Jesus to make a point. It is a story that Jesus is telling to teach a principle. This one we call the Good Samaritan.

So you may have heard of the story of the Good Samaritan and that's what we're going to read this morning and put it into context as to why it is here and and how that affects us. What does the story about the good Samaritan mean to us? The title of my message this morning is how can I attain eternal life? Do any of you wanna die and stay dead? Do any of you want to die and spend eternity in a place called hell?

The answer to that is probably no. By the way, there is no die and stay dead. The Bible tells us that is appointed on demand once to die but after this the what? The judgment. Hebrews nine twenty seven.

So there is life after death whether we believe it or not believe it, God has said there is. And so the die and stay dead really isn't a choice. Okay? But there is a place called hell or the Lake Of Fire and there is a place called heaven. And that is the place of eternal life, eternal life that God has to give.

The other is a place of eternal death or suffering and we don't wanna go there. So how can I attain eternal life is the question this morning? Hopefully, that is something that you desire to know the answer to and this man is going to ask Jesus that question this morning. How can I attain eternal life? What must I do?

So we'll begin reading in verse 25. And behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. The word tempted can also be translated tested him, that is Jesus. Saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He, that is Jesus, said unto him, what is written in the law?

How readest thou? And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word. Thank for the message that Jesus has for us today. And I pray Lord that we would all take it to heart, that we would consider this very important question as to how we might have eternal life. And, Lord, that we would make the right decision before our God and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ his son, who is the only way to eternal life.

We thank you Lord for your word. We thank you Lord for the opportunity to proclaim it today. And I pray that your spirit may use it mightily in our hearts and lives in Jesus name. Amen. So the lawyer comes to Jesus and he says, testing Jesus, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

It's important to notice the word, the little two letter word there, do. Okay? The lawyer says to Jesus, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? The answer to that is this. In short, there is nothing you can do to inherit eternal life.

Nothing you can do. There is something someone else can do, but nothing you can do to inherit eternal life. Paul tells us in Ephesians two eight nine, for by grace, there's a little word we sang about a moment ago, Speaking of God's mercy, for God's for by grace ye are saved, that is saved from death and hell. For by grace are you saved through what? Faith.

And that not of yourselves, not of yourselves, not something that you can do or earn. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Again, not something you earn, but something that is freely given. It is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. So there's no way for me to earn or work my way to heaven.

That's what the scriptures clearly teach. This man did not understand that. He wanted to know what he could do to earn his spot in heaven. That's what he wanted to know. What can I do?

The answer that he gave after Jesus threw and Jesus often does this. He taught people by asking them questions. So clearly the lawyer here, it says testing Jesus, he had an all ulterior motive. He wanted to have something possibly to use against Jesus, something divisive that he could share with others and well, I asked him that question and he said this, can you believe he said this? I can't believe he said this.

Alright? He wasn't entirely honest with his question. He was testing Jesus. So what did Jesus do knowing that? Well, he just threw the question right back at the man.

Rather than answering it right out, he said, what do you think? What do you think? And the man said, learned man in the scriptures, he quoted scripture. He went, did go to the scriptures. He said in verse 27, 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 neighbor as thyself.

Where did he get that? Well, he got that from the Old Testament law. Deuteronomy six four and five says this, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. That is God's command. In another scripture passage, when Jesus was asked what the greatest to the greatest command in scripture was, this is the one that Jesus shows.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart. And then the second, here from Leviticus nineteen eighteen, thou shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. Thou shall love thy neighbor, what? As thyself. I am the Lord.

That's the answer the lawyer gave. That's the answer Jesus gave in Matthew to the two greatest commandments. Quick question. Do you love God with all your heart, all the time, every minute, in the past, in the present, in the future? Do you love your neighbor always as much as you love yourself?

I doubt you could answer that with the affirmative. That's a problem. And that's a problem Jesus is trying to point out to this man knowing the answer that he would give. Jesus already has a parable ready to share with him. The man I think chose these two commandments because he thought they were just a little bit ambiguous.

How can you measure? I mean, you can measure thou shalt not kill, you know. But how do you measure love your God with all your heart or your neighbor as yourself? It's a little bit hard to pin down. How do I know if I am completing this or not?

The man sort of thought and had Jesus in a bit of a pickle, maybe. This man was most likely like some that Paul described in second Timothy three five, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. He knew a lot of the scripture, but it wasn't in his what? In his heart. And that's what Jesus is going to try to use these verses to point out and to draw to his attention.

He, like many others in his profession, loved the debate. Do lawyers like debate? Yeah. I think so. And the intellectual back and forth, but he had no real longing to get right with God.

Therefore, he turned to a passage which he thought could not condemn him. How was he going to see in my heart? Well, he might have gotten away with that with some, but not with who? But not with Jesus. So Jesus begins his explanation in verse 30.

So let's read beginning in verse 30. Jesus answering said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. These are cities in Israel just a few miles from one another. He fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, wounded him, and departed leaving him half dead. And by chance, there came down a certain priest that way.

When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise, a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked upon him and passed by on the other side. So you have these two men. One's a priest. He is the the highest of religious leaders in the nation of Israel.

A Levite was a lesser religious leader in Israel. Nonetheless, these leaders, when they saw the man, they simply stepped aside and kept on what? Kept on walking. However, verse 33, there was a certain Samaritan. Now that is the very opposite.

The priest and the Levite were the most pious and religious of people. The Samaritan, he was thought to be outside of any hope to most of the Israelites. He was, by their definition, not religious. But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was, where the man was, and when he saw him, he had what? Compassion on him.

He saw him laying over there and it bothered him and he had compassion. And so what did he do? Verse 34, he went to him and he bound up his wounds pouring oil and wine and setting him on his beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out 2p and gave them to the host and said unto him, take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?

And he, that is the lawyer, said, he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. It didn't quite turn out the way the lawyer thought. It wasn't Jesus that ended up in the hot seat, it was who? It was him.

Of course, he didn't recognize that he was talking to the son of God. And if you want to debate the son of God, you're the one who's going to end up in the hot seat and not the other way around. So we have this man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho on a stretch of road which likely provided cover for robbers. These mugged the man and left him for dead. So he was laying over there, left for dead, probably dying helpless, unable to do anything for himself.

He couldn't even get up off the ground to go find help. But thankfully, somebody just happened along, the priest and then the Levite. Highly respected religious leaders traveling by, they saw the man. It wasn't that they didn't see him. They knew he was there.

They did nothing to help him. Why? Well, it doesn't exactly say in the passage, but I think possibly out of fear for their own safety. Somebody had done that to that man and they didn't want them to be next. So they weren't stopping.

Maybe because they were just busy and they had other stuff to do and they just didn't have time to stop and help that man who was laying there dying by the street. Sadly, that happens a lot more in our society today than it used to. And that says a little bit about our society, does it not? They just kept on going. They wouldn't be inconvenienced by a man laying there dying on the side of the road.

They were tasked as priests and Levite with helping people. They were tasked with being examples of godliness. If anybody would you would thought would have stopped to help this man, it would have been the priest or the Levite, but they didn't. What great examples they were. Far too often this is the example set by our leadership, whether it be in government or even sometimes in church.

Do as I say and not as I do. Do as I say and not as I do. Hypocrites care little for others while caring for others is what true leaders are supposed to do. Why do we elect people to go to Washington to watch out for whose interest? Our interest.

A true leader is supposed to be there to watch out for the interest of those that they represent. Sadly, often is not the case. Sadly, it's not often the case in religious settings either. James one twenty seven says this, pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows and their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. There's two sides to this true religion And that is helping those who are what?

In need, caring for others, and then honoring the God we serve by keeping ourselves unspotted from the sin in the world in which we live, by doing those things in our lives morally that please him. Both are expected of truly religious people at heart. As a result of the hypocrisy that many people see, they've been turned off by organized religion. But not so Christ. And true religion isn't about the priest and the Levite.

True religion is about who? It's about Christ. Human beings fail. Human beings can be hypocritical. If you're looking for a perfect church and you find it, don't go there because it will no longer be perfect.

Okay? Because we are not perfect, but we serve a perfect savior. And this is not about us, it is about him. He is the one who is never hypocritical. He is the one who gave his life for us.

He is the one who is love personified. He is what true religion is about and being more like him. The priests and Levi, boy, they failed. They failed utterly. However, not the Samaritan.

The Samaritan who was hated by the Jews. The Samaritan who was considered an outsider to the promises of God. Their ancestors, Jews had intermarried with non Jews, Gentiles. They they erected other temples to worship in. They no longer came to Jerusalem and the Jews considered them religious outcasts and had nothing to do with them.

And they didn't think God would have anything to do with them either. But which one of which one of these treated the man on the side of the road as their neighbor? Not the priest and the Levi, but the what? The Samaritan. Because see religion is not about this building and it's not about the organization of the service or the programs.

It's about your heart and my heart and his. That's true religion. The Samaritan saw a man in need who could not help himself and despite despite any cultural or religious bigotry, he had compassion on him and did what he could. Likely, if roles were reversed, the man laying over there wouldn't have helped the Samaritan. But that didn't stop the Samaritan from helping him.

He gave of his time. He placed his life in jeopardy. He gave of his money and his possessions. In doing so, he saved this man's life. For otherwise, he likely would have laid there until he just expired.

But he saved him. He unlike the priest and the Levite noticed the man's need and did something about it. The Samaritan was not a religious person by their definition, but he expressed a godly response in stopping to take care of his neighbor. The Samaritan was a slap in the face to the self righteous lawyer or certainly would not have done what the Samaritan did or certainly wouldn't have done it for the Samaritan, that's for sure. You see, Jesus turned it around.

It's not about who is your neighbor, but who are you going to be a neighbor to. It is about who you choose to love. Jesus forced him to admit that the one he considered inferior to him was actually more righteous than him, Causing him to think a little bit about his preconceived notions that somehow he was okay, he would make it to heaven, he could earn his place because he was a pretty good person. Well, Jesus just smashed that into pieces. In his heart he knew now, he didn't measure up.

The lawyer was all talk. The Samaritan in the story, he was all action. Your neighbor is anyone in need and the test is not knowing, but what? The doing. Doing.

James one twenty two says, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass or mirror. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue with therein, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. How do we know that the Samaritan's heart was more right with God than the lawyer and the priest and the Levite?

We know that because of his what? Because of his actions. His actions express love. The issue expressed in actions was actually what kind of issue? A heart issue.

A heart issue. The problem was not just with the lawyer's actions, the problem was with his what? Was with his heart. The self righteous lawyer was not righteous at all in the eyes of who? In the eyes of God.

He was in as much need of salvation as was the Samaritan that he looked down on. Much like the Levite and the priest in our story, he had very little love in his heart for others. He had a heart problem that only Jesus could what? Sure. He had a problem, a disease, a sickness that all humanity shares.

We're sinners. Our heart has been defiled by sin. Be honest. Who do you love most? Who does what what is our human nature?

Human nature is to love me most and God and others just have to come second. That is human nature. That is the result of sin. That is a sickness that will take our lives and our eternity. And the only one who can cure that is Jesus.

Ephesians two eight and nine again, for by grace are you saved through faith and not not of yourselves, it is the what? Gift of God lest any man should boast. You can't earn it. You're just incapable. That's not my words.

That's that's God's word. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. The Bible says our righteousness are as filthy rags. Take that filthy rag that you just got oil or something all over and you see that that mirror that window over there and you go, oh, I need to clean that window. It's dirty.

Take that oily nasty rag and try cleaning that window. Oh, you can work hard at it, but unless you clean the rag, you're just gonna make a bigger what? Bigger mess. In the eyes of God, we are defiled by sin and we can't earn heaven. We just make a bigger mess.

Look at the world around you. They're making a bigger mess alright. They just continue to do so. You'd think they'd learn. You'd think we'd learn, but we don't.

We have an incurable disease except for one and that's Jesus. Not only is Jesus revealing to this man that he just doesn't measure up, if he if it's something he is going to do to earn eternal life, he isn't going to what? He isn't going to make it because the problem is with his heart. That's where the problem is. There is no love.

There is no love. Not only that, but Jesus here gives a beautiful illustration of what he would do for the lawyer. For Jesus is the good Samaritan and the lawyer is the man laying on the side of the road. The lawyer is the sinner incapable of saving himself whose life was wracked by sin. Christ who was maligned and rejected by his own people, beaten, and crucified on the cross.

He is the Samaritan who gave himself so that the man in the ditch might live. He is the one who went out of his way, who humbled himself, who came to earth, the God who became a man and suffered as a man for the sins of mankind so that we might have eternal life, so that we might have this gift, so that we might have this cure can only be found in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, the life and no man comes to the Father by but by him. He became sin for us who knew no sin, dying the innocent for the guilty. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickened or made alive again in the spirit.

It is Jesus who measures up. It is Jesus who did no sin. And it is Jesus who laid down his life for us who then offers us eternal life. It is the risen savior that can give it because he is alive. He died for our sins that we might be made declared righteous in him.

He rose from the dead, he ascended back into heaven where he is our advocate, the advocate of every lost sinner. And if we will come to him in faith, accept his gift, and allow him to be our advocate, then we shall be saved and justified and forgiven. But you can't get there through Buddha or Muhammad or any other religious leader. There is only one who rose from the dead. There is only one perfect human being that died on a cross and that's Jesus and he is the only way.

I want you to notice, I thought it interesting here. Verse 35, and on the morrow when he departed, he took 2p and gave them to the host and said unto him, take care of him. Not only did he did he carry him on the back of his beast and not only did he pour medicine on his wounds, not only did he take him to the inn that he might have a place to recoup, he then gave the innkeeper money and said, here, I will give you whatever to take care of him. And when I come back this way, whatever charges he has incurred, when I come back, I will pay those too. Herein is the grace of God.

Not only wiping off the record the sins of the past, but also of the what? Of the future. For Jesus Christ died for all our sins. And when we come to him, he forgives them all. He paid the price for my sins two thousand years ago When I accepted his offer, my sins were washed away and my name is written in a book called the book of life.

And I have eternal life not because I measure up, but because my savior does. And he is that good Samaritan. And I am that one that was dying on the side of the road. And he saved my life, and he wants to save yours. He wants to change your heart.

He wants to give you his love and he wants to love others through you. He wants to give you eternal life. He wants to forgive your sins if you will trust in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Do you have everlasting life?

Let me ask you, do you love God with all your heart all the time? Do you love your neighbor always as yourself or do you fail? If being perfect is the criteria, which it is, then none of us will ever make it. But Jesus was perfect and he offers to forgive us imperfect people. He offers to wash away our sins And he offers to give us eternal life in spite of ourselves.

But you must come through him. He is the only way. Are you like the lawyer trying to get to heaven because I went to church this week? Or I got dunked in the water, or I gave an offering, or I'm good to my neighbor, I cut his grass last week. So is is that your effort?

Is that the way you think you're going to make it? It says in Galatians two sixteen, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. You won't make it that way, But you can if you humble yourself before the Lord and accept Jesus Christ as your savior today. That's what this lawyer needed. That's what you need.

That's what I needed. And Christian, you have the love of God inside your heart. You are a child of God. Are you acting more like the priest and the Levite or the Samaritan? I'm afraid to say sometimes we look a whole lot more like the priest and the Levite than we do the Samaritan.

Let God's love flow through you. Take your eyes off yourself and let God use you. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day, for your word. Lord, forgive us of our sin.

Lord, may Jesus Christ be seen in us. Lord, others are looking for you. They may never pick up a Bible, they may never come to a service, but they can see us. Are we demonstrating the love of Christ? Do they see Jesus in our actions and our love?

Lord, I pray if not, that you forgive us and help us to love you more and love others. Lord, I pray if there's one here today or two or three that have yet to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life, I pray as we give this hymn of invitation this morning that they would consider their eternity. They would come to understanding that they cannot earn their way there and that they might choose by faith to trust in you to do for them what they cannot do for themselves. Change their life and their eternal destiny. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.