Directly addresses the question of how to inherit eternal life, using Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the true meaning of neighborly love and the inadequacy of self-justification through law-keeping. The passage begins by highlighting the lawyer's flawed question and Jesus' masterful redirection, emphasizing that eternal life is not earned by doing but is a gift received through faith. The parable reveals that true love for God and neighbor is not merely adherence to rules but active compassion, exemplified by the Samaritan who went to great lengths to help the injured traveler. The core lesson is that no one can perfectly keep the law, and self-righteousness leads to condemnation, whereas Christ's sacrifice offers redemption from the curse of the law. The message concludes with an urgent call to trust in Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior and Shepherd, as this is the only thing that truly matters in life and in the face of death.
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This is the last night of the conference. We have for the two assemblies. I'm sure that we do appreciate the visitors that came and those that cooperated with the work of the conference. And we do thank you for all the effort that was put forth to make things go so well. Now, tomorrow morning, we do need to gather here at eight-thirty to put the building back in place. Firstly, we will appreciate the help that we will give doing that. That's tomorrow morning at eight-thirty. Now, Brother Pat McGee plans to be at Lyman Wednesday evening, eight o'clock.
We're meeting at Lyman at Wednesday at eight p.m. And here at Atlantic, our regular prayer and Bible study meeting. Wednesday evening at eight also. I think Brother Don will be with us, right? Are there any other announcements that should be made at this time in the middle of the day? Well, I'll just say, it may be just a touch out of thought, but let me announce that as far as I know, we'll continue on with our regular home Bible classes, tomorrow evening being the adult class, and then Tuesday evening the young adult class.
So I wanted to be sure to get that word in. All right, our speakers tonight, Brother Milo Vanderkall, and Brother Don Welby. Brother Maro. Well, I don't always feel that calm preaching, but I sure feel the more at home preaching than I do playing that guitar. I guess that's quite obvious to everybody. If my kids ever build up a reputation for musicians, I'm sure to spoil it.
Well, shall we turn in our Bibles to the tenth chapter of the Luke's Gospel tonight? Luke's Gospel chapter ten. Luke's Gospel Chapter Ten. It is not the speakers turned up loud enough. Did you turn them up a little bit, Merlin, if you can get any more volume without backseat? Someone indicates they can't hear in the back. Luke Chapter Ten, and we're going to read at verse twenty-five. And I won't even make an apology for speaking from a very familiar portion of the Word of God this evening, because I don't think we should ever apologize for any portion of the Word of God.
Sometimes we may think that certain portions are reserved for the children, you know, the kids' stories, but sometimes I find out by reading some of the stories that have been sort of relegated to the children's story realm that there's a great deal of blessing for us adults in that. Take, for instance, the story of David and Goliath. My, what a lot of food for soul there is for teaching for Christians. And so often we just sort of think, well, that's the story for the kiddies at Mother's Knee. You know, there's real instruction and real blessing in reading the story of David and Goliath. So we began reading at verse twenty-five from Luke chapter ten. Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
He 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. Get that? He willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
By chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. Likewise the Levite, when he was come at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. When he saw him, he had some passion on him. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, 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 tents and gave them to the host. said unto them take care of him whatsoever thou sendest more when I come again I will repay thee which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the feet and he said he that showed mercy on him then said Jesus unto him go and do thou likewise Anytime that we look at a passage of the Scriptures, it is always good and advisable that we try to look at it in the light of its context.
This is especially true of the parables that the Lord Jesus spoke. A parable was a story that the Lord Jesus told to illustrate a point or sometimes points, but usually with a great deal of emphasis upon one or sometimes two very important points. Sometimes people go astray in trying to make all the points of a parable fit any given case, but nevertheless, the Lord usually did have one or two points, well, he always had at least one point in mind in the giving of the story. So a story is simply a parable that the Lord Jesus told to illustrate certain divine truth that he wanted to impart unto our knowledge.
What we have then this evening is a parable that the Lord Jesus spoke. lovely little story that the Lord Jesus told for the particular case, such as is suggested by the context in that we read from verse twenty-five and on. First of all, we notice that the Lord Jesus was in conversation here with a certain lawyer, and we mustn't think of this lawyer as being one who sat at the bar of justice, not in the sense that we think of a lawyer today. but we must think of him as one who represented and knew well the Old Testament Law of Moses. So he was familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures, and he was familiar, very familiar, with the Law of Moses, and that we will see with emphasis in just a little bit.
This lawyer came to the Lord Jesus, and he stood up, and he tempted him. Now, as you look at this lawyer and learn what you can about him... If you're anything like myself, your appreciation for this man just sort of drops as you read along about him. First of all, I cannot really say that I have too much appreciation for someone who will dare to stand up in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and criticize him and tempt him, as this lawyer is trying to do. For the Scripture says that he stood up and tempted him, and then he came with his question. I suppose that all of us recognize the fact that oftentimes questions are asked not because people want to know, but because they want to tell you something.
This lawyer didn't ask a question because he was really too anxious to learn something from the lips of the Lord Jesus. The motivation behind this question was that he wanted to tempt the Lord Jesus and undoubtedly catch him in his words, as was so often the case. So he stood up and tempted the Lord Jesus. Then something else I'm a little bit amazed at the ignorance that seems to appear in this man's question. For he asked the Lord Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life. I don't think it takes a very smart person to know that you don't do anything to inherit something. At least not in my book.
I've always been taught and led to understand that if you're going to inherit something it's because... Somebody has named you an heir. Somebody has passed away or left you their inheritance. But you don't necessarily have to do something in order to get an inheritance. Secondly, his ignorance is exposed in the fact that he's asking how he can inherit eternal life. And I think probably most of us here are aware tonight that you don't inherit eternal life. But the thing that really amazes me about this conversation is the way the Lord Jesus handled this man. You know, I tried to project myself into the place that the Lord Jesus Christ had here and ask myself, Milo, how would you have handled this man?
What would you have said to him if he had come to you with this question? And I'm a hundred percent convinced that I would have lost this man at first base. I don't believe I would have been able to have kept this man in conversation and drew him to the point that the Lord Jesus Christ drew him to because I'm sure I wouldn't have handled him with the uniqueness that the Lord Jesus handled him. Now, that wouldn't be expected, of course, because I don't know what the Lord Jesus knows. But if you want to really get a lesson in how to handle people, if you like a little bit of Bible psychology, just look at the master psychologist. Hope you don't mind me just saying that the Lord Jesus Christ is a master psychologist, because I want to hasten to tell you that he is much more than a psychologist.
But he certainly could be thought of as a psychologist, couldn't he? After all, you know, he is a physician. The Bible calls him that. But he is much more than a physical physician. I suppose that I couldn't say that he is anything more than my Savior tonight. And I'm glad that I can stand here behind this microphone and tell you tonight, that's what he is to me. What is he to you? He's my Savior. He's my Shepherd. He's my Lord, and I can say in the language of one of those my Lord and my God. It's a wonderful thing, you know, when you're preaching about the Lord Jesus to look at the various characteristics of his person, the various aspects of his being in which the Scripture sets him forth so beautifully.
And perhaps there is no way in which the Lord Jesus is set forth more simply and beautifully. than in thinking of him in his shepherd character. When we think about the Lord Jesus Christ being the shepherd, we can turn to scriptures, such as this one. John chapter ten, he says, I am the good shepherd. And in that connection, he tells us about his death upon the cross of Calvary. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Then we turn to another passage. Let's see, it would be Hebrews chapter thirteen, where we read about him being the great shepherd. And in that connection he tells us that he is the great shepherd alive from the dead.
Isn't that wonderful? Resurrection. Good shepherd. He died. Great shepherd. He rose again. Then we return to the book of Peter, First Peter chapter five. We read about him being the chief shepherd. And as the chief shepherd he's coming again. Ha! There's a sermon in itself. The great shepherd... the good shepherd who died, the great shepherd who arose, and the chief shepherd who is coming again. If you don't remember anything else I say in my little part of the message tonight, perhaps you can remember that little outline, because I want to tell you, I have a wonderful shepherd tonight. He's a shepherd who died for me, but he's a shepherd who rose for me, and a shepherd who is coming again for me.
There's one thing in advance of that, so far as I'm concerned. See, there is what's that? I want to tell you tonight that He is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Oh, yes, it's wonderful to tell you that He is the good shepherd, the great shepherd, the chief shepherd, but it's best when I can stand here unashamedly and tell you He is my shepherd. Do you know Him as your shepherd? I'm going to tell you a little story in this connection before I take them on through our passage tonight. It's a story that perhaps will sound like it should be told to the children, and I usually do tell it to the children, but after all, you're just a bunch of children, aren't you?
One day there was a Sunday school teacher, so the story goes something like this, and she had a class of we little tots, and being so small, she wanted to teach them at least the first part of the first verse of Psalm twenty-three. The Lord is my shepherd. So to impress this upon the mind of her little one, She said, now this is the way you will learn it. You will have one word for each one of your fingers. The Lord is my shepherd. Well, that's quite simple, isn't it? And her little class of children learned it just the way she taught it to them. The Lord is my shepherd. After she had finished with that, she proceeded one more step and said, now, I want to show you how to do it a good way.
You can do it like this. The Lord is my shepherd. And by grasping the forefinger, the emphasis was upon my. And of course, she proceeded to tell the class of little tops the importance of making the Lord Jesus Christ one's own personal shepherd, savior, and friend. One day she got a call, and one of the little tops out of her class had suddenly passed away. When she called at the home or in the hospital, I forget which, the nurse that was in attendance at the time of a little child's death told the Sunday school teacher this, that when she died, she was holding her fourth finger.
Which finger would you hold? Could you really say that the Lord Jesus Christ is your shepherd? I tell you, that's the only thing that amounts to anything in the time of death. You won't mind me making a personal reference to our own family experience One week ago tomorrow, we laid our dear father away. One week ago tomorrow. And when you really come close to death like that, and I'm not an isolated case, you've all had experience with death. If you haven't, hang on, you will, because it's just part of living and a part of having to leave this world, and death comes very close. This is the closest experience that I've ever had with it.
And that's rather strange, isn't it? A person forty-three years old and has never really had a close experience with death until we laid my father away a week ago tomorrow morning. But this little thought has been impressed upon me a great deal through this ordeal. He died suddenly without a moment's notice. The only thing that really counts now. The only thing that really counts is to know that Dad is in heaven. That's the only thing that really amounts to anything. Listen, dear friend, tonight, if you're out there in that audience, and I really don't care too much whether I get to the story of the Good Samaritan or not, if I can just reach your heart tonight and tell you this, that it doesn't make one iota of difference what you may have in this world.
It doesn't make any difference what you may try to amount to in this world, and at best you won't amount to much. Nothing makes any difference. Really, when it comes to the time of departure out of this world, accept this. Do you have a Savior? Do you have a Shepherd? Can you say he's mine? Nothing else does. Don't care how much bank accounts you've got. Doesn't make any difference how much you may leave to your area. Doesn't make any difference how many bonds and notes you may have accumulated. Doesn't make any difference how high on the ladder of success you have climbed. It doesn't make any difference what kind of a social figure you may be. None of that amounts to a thing.
Why five minutes after you're dead? It won't even make any difference. Who won the ball game Friday night? Yes, you know, people can get so excited about a little thing like a ball being thrown around over the field. And you know, when you holler your head off because somebody has given the football a good kick or carried it over, I guess through the goal post or whatever it is, I don't know nothing about it. But when somebody gets excited about that and starts yelling their head off, they're fans. But when somebody gets excited up here on the platform and begins to tell you that you need to be saved and begins to tell you about our wonderful Savior, we become fanatics. Isn't that strange?
I'd rather be a fanatic for the Lord Jesus Christ than I would a fan for a football. And I don't mind if you think I'm a little bit fanatical tonight as I try to reach your heart for the Lord Jesus, because I want to tell you, it isn't going to make a bit of difference after you're gone out of this world. Who won all the games? Young people remember that. It won't make a bit of difference. It isn't going to make a bit of difference what you have accomplished in this life. If you die without Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ said, you will die in your sins, and where I am you will not come, and you will be in hell. And I don't know of anything that's more difficult, at least in my experience as a preacher, to stand by the casket of one who has left this life with no assurance behind them that they're in heaven.
Not too long ago I preached the funeral of such a person. His dear wife had been a Christian for years and years and years. This man had the sanctified blessing and opportunity in his life of living with a woman who was not only a Christian, but she was a godly Christian. She was a Bible reading Christian. She was a praying Christian. That man I have set myself, other servants of the Lord, and other Christians have set and fled with that man to become a Christian, but he hardened his heart against the gospel. Oh no, he wouldn't kick you out of the room. Oh no, he wouldn't give you a dismissal from his home. He would listen to what you had to say, but with no response.
One day, only a few months ago, he stepped out of his house, into the backyard, and that's it. He's gone with a heart attack. I preach this funeral, and I stood by that casket when that widow come by, and I want to tell you, if there is anything that's a difficult task to do, it's to stand there helplessly and watch a Christian woman say to an unsaved husband, her last goodbye. And that's what they ought to do. Goodbye. It wasn't goodbye to Dad a week ago. No. If there was anything said it was good night.
Meaning that we'll see you in the morning. Oh yes, we're going to see you again. Makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? How you leave this world. I want to tell you tonight, dear friends, if you're not a Christian, I'm not up here to preach sermons to you. I'm not here to plead with you. I'm not here to invite you. I'm up here to urge you. I'm up here to warn you. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Tomorrow may be good. Though, if you were to be gone out of this life and into eternity without Christ, all hope would be cut off. Never an opportunity to be saved.
Now let us take a little closer look at this story. This man asked the Lord Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life. And the Lord Jesus said to him, What is written in the law? The law of Moses. I'll read this out. Now I say again, if I had been dealing with this man, I'd have probably cut off both ears at the same time. I'd have probably said to him, well, now don't you know better than this? Aren't you somewhat of an intelligent being? Don't you know you don't do anything to inherit eternal life, and you don't inherit eternal life? And he'd have probably walked away in disgust and said, hard, hard of men. But the Lord Jesus Christ led him on into a deeper conversation. The Lord turned the question back on him. What do you read in the law?
And he introduced the law to the man. Because this was familiar ground to him. When the Lord Jesus spoke about the law, here was a fellow who could talk intelligently. Maybe you can't talk very intelligently about the law. I have an idea that a good many of us here tonight couldn't do what this young... I say young. I don't know if he was young. But what this lawyer did. Very unique what he did. In verse twenty seven he did something kind of outstanding. At least in my mind. He compressed the whole law of Ten Commandments into one verse. You can't do that, can you? But he did. And here's what he 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.
That's the first half of the Ten Commandments. And thy neighbor is thyself. That's the last half of them. He compressed the whole law of Ten Commandments into one verse, and it isn't even a very long one, and told the Lord what the law says. He wasn't wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ said he wasn't wrong. Jesus said to him, Thou hast answered right. Here again I know that I would have blundered when this man would have taken his ground as the lawkeeper and said, Now here's what the law demands. Here's the way. And he would have began to quote the law. I'd have said, Now I know for sure you'll never get to heaven. Friend, you'll never get to heaven by keeping the law. That's what I'd have said to him. In fact, that's what I'm going to say to you tonight.
It's still true. You won't get to heaven by keeping the law. Never. You can't. Why? Because that's what the Lord Jesus Christ was going to point out to this man. But he went about it in a roundabout way in order to keep his interests and to keep the communication lines open. And I probably would have cut him off. I'd have said, well, you see, you're all wrong. You'll never get to heaven by keeping the law because you can't do it. And what I would have said would have been true. But it might not have been the proper thing to have said. At least I'm sure of this, the Lord Jesus Christ used utmost wisdom and discretion in what he said. He led him on. That's right. Now, this used to really throw me.
When I read this, I thought, now, why did the Lord Jesus Christ say to this man, that's right, this new and thou shalt live? It just seems that the Lord Jesus is agreeing with him. It just seems that the Lord Jesus Christ is catching his ego, making him feel that if he can do what he wants to do, he'll ultimately get to God's heaven and have his eternal life. Well, what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing was just leading him off into a dead-end street. The Lord Jesus, so to speak, was sort of backing him off slowly into the corner so that he could see himself in front of a mirror and see just how he looked in God's sight. I noticed there's a little catch in this, though. It's a little catch that I used one day when I was down in Texas.
No, it was Kansas. Pardon me. In the Flint Hills of Kansas, one day I was having meetings, and a friend of mine said, I'd like for you to come and visit with me on a Saturday night with a friend who lived about fifty or seventy miles away, so I said, sure, be glad to go. So we went to this man's house, found him at home, was brought into his living room, sat down, and I wasn't there very long until I discovered and detected that we were in the house of a self-righteous pharaoh. He was a person who was very self-righteous in his own eyes, quite a bit like this man, seeking to justify himself, you see. Well, to make the long story short, this man soon took the position in answer to a few questions that we gave him as to how he was going to get to heaven.
And he said, well, I think I'm going to get there by keeping the law. I said, oh, are you really keeping the law? Well, of course, he immediately began to hedge a little bit. He says, well, at least I'm doing the best I can. So I invited him to turn to Galatians chapter three. And I had him read the passage, Galatians chapter three and ten. And here's what he read. He didn't read it very well, though. He began to read ahead. He wanted to see what he was getting into, and he didn't like what he saw. Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do then. And I could understand his embarrassment all right.
In fact, I even felt sorry for the man because he was walking right into his own death trap. Going to heaven by trying to do the best he could at keeping the law. And the first word, Lady Mount Platte, cursed. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all that is written. What did he just say? He had just confessed that he couldn't do it all, but he was doing the best he can. That's not what it says at all. It says, Cursed is he that continueth not in all that is written. And then the next word, Lady Mount II, the little word, D-O, to do them. Didn't say a thing about trying to do them. It says, Cursed is those who do not continue in all of these things to do them.
Well, before he got so distressed and disturbed that he was going to send us home, I thought I'd better let him have a little bit of good news. I let this sink in for a little while. And first then I said, but I want to read you another verse. Or I want you to read another verse. And we turned on down to the thirteenth verse of that same chapter. This is what it says. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And at that point we began to try to tell him how that the Lord Jesus Christ died to deliver him from the very curse that he placed himself under by taking the ground. of the law. You notice that little catch in what the Lord Jesus said here? The Lord Jesus said, that's right.
This do, and thou shalt live. And he said nothing about trying to do or doing the best you can. This do. I used something like, I think I used this twenty-seventh verse this afternoon with the kids. I used it with you too. Don't mind doing it. I suggested to the children this afternoon that if there was any one of them that could really measure up to what the law says in this verse that I was going to turn them loose and let them go. I wasn't going to make them come back to their parents. I wasn't going to make them come back to this place. I was just going to let them go because I wouldn't have a worry about them anyway. I could turn them loose anywhere and be perfectly satisfied they would be in safekeeping if they could qualify for this.
Because I wouldn't have anything to say to them. There's no need to worry about them. by anybody that would love the Lord our God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as their sound, I want to tell you, I'm going to invite you right now to get up out of your seat and just politely leave this meeting, because I haven't let him say to you. Is your sure that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself? But I think you'll probably say, because I'm going to tell you that you don't. You don't love your neighbor as yourself any more than the fellow who said he did. And then when the fire engine went by, he wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked down the street and said, Phew, I'm glad he went home to the neighbor's house.
I thought he was going to stop at mine. Yeah, you love your neighbor as yourself, but you'd rather have somebody else's kids taking the hospital tonight than with your own, wouldn't you? Yeah, you'd love your neighbor better than yourself, but you'd sure rather have somebody else dying of cancer tonight than you. Just be honest about it, aren't you? We don't love our neighbor as ourselves. You don't love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Nobody does. Neither did this young man. What was the problem? The problem with this fellow was that he was seeking to justify himself. It doesn't look like I'm going to get to my little story about the good Samaritan tonight, but so what? No, I'm not going to teach on it.
We're going to have a message from God in just a moment, but listen to this. Willing to justify himself. The Bible tells me that it is God who does the justification. It even tells us about us justifying God. But this business of justifying yourself is deadly. It's fatal. That's what this poor fellow was erroneously doing, seeking to justify himself. At this point the Lord Jesus began to tell him the story. The sequel of the story was that the Lord Jesus is pointing out to this man, who his neighbor is. But in doing so, he left one of the most beautiful gospel stories I can find anywhere in the Bible.
A beautiful gospel story because it presents certain facets of the gospel message that I love to preach. Now, no one story presents all the different aspects of a gospel message. You can be sure of that. And I'm thanking God for that because this gospel story and this salvation that God has is so wonderful that no one story could possibly comprehend it all. So God gives us various little nuggets of things here and nuggets of gold there, little stories here and stories there, illustrations here and illustrations there. And in all of this we see the various aspects of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shining forth. What do we have here?
First of all, I see a picture of you in this story tonight. I see a picture of me in the story tonight, at least in past history. You find that there was a certain man, and I'm just going to give you a very few little notes, and then hasten on to the close. A certain man who was traveling. I want you to know tonight that you're a traveling person. You're traveling through time, and you're traveling into eternity. Every one of us, you don't know how close to the end of the way you may be. We're all traveling people, traveling as fast as the wheels of time can carry us, aren't we? I notice also that this man was traveling... down.
I don't know if the Spirit of God intended to convey this to us, but I think he did in order to tell us that this man is an illustration of every person without Christ tonight. Every person in this building tonight who is without Christ is not only traveling, but you're traveling down. And I haven't got time to mince words or talk in tales. I'm here to tell you in no uncertain terms, but just as kindly as I can. that you're traveling a downward road that's going to lead to hell. That's right. Young fellow came to an old preacher one time. He thought, you know, he was kind of a smart aleck young fellow, had been to college and thought he knew it all.
Not all college people are that way, but he was. He was a real smart aleck, and he thought he would, you know, hook the old preacher, and so he said, Hey, old fellow, old preacher, tell me this, where's hell? He thought the old preacher was going to go into a long theological discourse and tell him where hell was by geographical terminology. But the old preacher knew better. He pointed his finger at the young man and he said, Young man, hell is at the end of a Christless life. You don't have to worry about where hell is as far as the heart of the earth is concerned tonight. You just remember this, dear friend, and I say it in love and pity for your soul, hell is at the end of your Christless life.
And you don't know when the end of your life may be. No matter what age you are, you don't know. If you were to be cut off from this life and out of the land of the living, you would drop into the taverns of an eternal hell to suffer the flames of a torment for all eternity. Where there is no clocks, no calendars, no millenniums, no nothing in relation to time. For eternity. No wonder I'm up here pleading with you. No wonder I'm up here as though I mean business because I do. I can't bear the thought of a person having the opportunity that you've got tonight to hear the gospel and be saved and to think of you're going out of this meeting without the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're going on a downward road tonight if you're not saved. You notice this man was robbed? Well, you're being robbed too. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but I'll tell you who's robbing you if you don't know. It's the devil. He's been in this business for a long time, and he knows exactly how to go about it. And he's too much of a match for you. This man was rock. Then it says he was not only stripped, but he was left half dead. You know, I could be looking into the face of half dead people tonight. Not just because some of you look tired. That isn't why it said that. I didn't say that because some of you have got your eyelids drooping just a little bit.
Because you haven't gotten too much sleep the last night or two. That's not why you look half dead to me. None of you really look half-dead to me. You all look about the same so far as physical life is concerned. But I'll tell you this. If you're not a Christian tonight, I see you as a half-dead person. You know why? Because you might have physical life. Perhaps you could go from this place and dance your way across a dance hall like nobody's business. But you could be dead while you're in your sinful pleasures. The Bible talks about a lady like that. In the book of Timothy we read about the widow woman there. Not because she's a widow either. But he says she's dead while she lives. Is that a picture of you tonight? Physically alive, spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins, the man was left half dead.
Something else I noticed here. He was left helpless. Oh, I can see this man laying by the side of the road. He's messed up. He's bloody. He's lying in his own filth. He's a mess. I can see it. And then... I see a couple of fellows come down the pathway. We read where they came from. I won't say very much about them except just to remember that they came from the city of Jerusalem. They came from the temple. They were professed ministers of God. I want to tell you they were heartless ministers of God. No. Let me rechange. Let me rephrase that. They were heartless ministers. They weren't ministers of God at all.
There isn't such a thing as a heartless minister of God anymore. But they were heartless. All these fellows come by, and one after the other, they can pass by in cold callousness on the other side. I wish I had time to talk about them. I know a lot of people like them, and if I had a whole congregation of some modernistic ministers here, I'd probably stop right here and just spend the rest of the night talking about it, because there's a lot of them around. A lot of them that are just professed servants of God who are out for nothing other than filthy Lucre's sake. No heart for the saints of God and for the people of God and no love for sinners. I'm glad I'm not being paid for what I'm doing here tonight.
I'm up here to tell you this because I love you and because I love my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I love God's Word. One little thing in passing over these fellows, did you notice how they cross by chance? Some couple of years ago, I was headed for Kansas City, Kansas on a Sunday afternoon, and I was appointed for a meeting that night, at seven, thirty or eight o'clock. Circumstances arranged themselves in such a way that I was able to eat my Sunday meal with my family, calculated the hours it would take me to drive, make it in plenty of time. So I did that. Pardon me, it was the first Sunday of the spring.
a lovely April afternoon. When things were beautiful, sun was out, it was warm, and everybody went out for their afternoon Sunday joyride. I was a traveler. I had places to go and things to do and people to see, you know. I had to be in a certain place at a given time, and I wasn't out for a Sunday afternoon ride. I was out and trying to make miles over the highway and get where I had to be in the shortest time possible to take a message that night. Some people were by-chance travelers that day. And I tell you, these by-chance travelers were in my road all the time. Just steering their old automobiles along, looking at the green grass and looking at the cattle in the hillsides, and they didn't care where they went or what time they arrived.
They were just out for a casual ride and couldn't care less. And they were all in my way. Do you think I could get around them? There were too many of them. And it was a frustrating experience. The difference was they were by-chance travelers. and I was a man on the journey. That's the difference between the priest and the Levite and the Good Samaritan. You notice what it says about the Good Samaritan? As he journeyed, ah, if the poor fallen man by the side of the road represents the sinner tonight, if the poor callous priest and Levite represents the modernist tonight who doesn't care for men's souls, who could the Good Samaritan speak to us of?
Who could he represent but the Lord Jesus Christ himself? Why? Because I think of my lovely Lord Jesus Christ coming on a journey. He came from heaven's glory down into this world. And he was equipped for what he came to do. So was this man. He had the oil and the wine. I noticed that when he came to this man, it says he came right to where he was. There was a man who was fallen on the roadside, and he got down to where he was, who wasn't long until his hand was under his head, and he was lifting him up out of his filth and out of his mire, and he was pouring in the oil and the wine. The man had a ministry, and he knew what he was about.
And so did the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came into this world, he came looking for people who were fallen by the roadside. He came looking for people who were ruined by the fall. And when the Lord Jesus Christ came, do you know where he came to? That's right. He came to where I was. Where was I? Right down in my sin. That's where the Lord Jesus Christ finds us. And that's where he comes. Or that's where he came. He said, what do you mean that's where he came? That's where he came to at the cross of Calvary. Listen to his own language. When on the cross he says, I'm a worm and no man. Can you get lower than that? I'm a worm. No man, the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven's highest glory down into the very depths of sin and sin.
And he came right down to where I was because he came to reach people like me. And I'm glad to tell you the night he came to reach people like you too. This dear man is soon found seated on this beast. When the Good Samaritan found this man and ministered to him, it says he set him on his own beast. That's what the Lord Jesus did with me. The Lord Jesus Christ gave me a place of equality with himself in the Father's eye. Sometimes we sing, and I love the old song, as near and dear as he, I cannot nearer be. Yes, I'm glad to tell you, and I'm going to say this to you so that you'll sort of, you know, if you're not a Christian, get jealous of people who are, because to the heart of God, I'm as near and dear as the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
That's what God thinks of me. That's what God thinks of every Christians. Were accepted in the beloved. This man found himself sitting in the very place where the Samaritan had sat only a little while before. Another thing he did, he said he took him to the inn and he took care of him. I'm glad to tell you tonight that for thirty-four years the Lord Jesus Christ has been taking care of me. When he saved me thirty-four years ago, he didn't turn me loose and tell me to go join the church of my choice either. I've got no time for that kind of thing to be right honest and frank about it. I used to farm a little bit, and I know that when I farmed, I never went into town and bought a load of sheep or calves.
I used to buy some small calves, you know, in the fall of the year. I can imagine what kind of a farmer I'd have been or how fast I'd have gone down the drain if I'd have opened the end gate of the semi-truck and said, now, little calves, I've bought you, I've purchased you, now you've got the whole state of Iowa. Go and help yourself. Every one of them would have died. There is no such a thing as being true and honest to the Word of God in saying to people, Now be sure that you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and then, now, after you've done that, now go find the Church of Your choice. That's not God's principles of dealing. Not at all. When we get saved, we're God's sheep.
And he's the chief shepherd, and he's going to take care of us. He's been a good shepherd to me for thirty-four years now, and he's taken better care of me than I could ever have taken care of myself. Ha! Thank God for a wonderful shepherd tonight. Is he your shepherd? Knowing? I wish I could go on, but I'm not going to, because I'm going to leave twenty minutes here for Brother Don to close this message and this meeting off tonight. Oh, I know he's going to tell you more about this wonderful Savior, wonderful shepherd. And I wish there would be somebody tonight at the close of this meeting who could come up grip our hand and say, Mr. Van de Kroll or Mr. Wildborn or anyone else in this room is a Christian and say, tonight I have found this shepherd and the shepherd has found me. I'm saved and on the way to heaven.