The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates the call to love God and neighbor, challenging listeners to move beyond mere religious observance to active compassion. The sermon contrasts the inaction of the priest and Levite, who passed by a man beaten and left for dead, with the selfless mercy of the Samaritan, who tended to the wounded man's needs and made provision for his ongoing care. The core lesson is that true neighborliness involves tangible acts of kindness and sacrifice, reflecting Christ's own compassionate mission. The message concludes by urging listeners to emulate the Samaritan's actions, emphasizing that Christ himself will return for those who show such mercy.
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I want this evening to read with you one of the most lost and well-known parables in the Bible. Luke chapter ten, please. Luke chapter ten. The parable, of course, is the parable that we mostly call the parable of the good Samaritan. we will commence reading a little way down in the chapter. I would like us to read in verse twenty-five. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and kept it in vain.
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? You know I never read down this week without being a little name. It wasn't an ordinary person that asked the question. It was a lawyer. A man who I presume, if they were like modern lawyers, every day were occupied with dealing with people's possessions. And a lawyer says, what must I do to inherit? I would have thought that the very simplest truth was that you don't do anything to inherit apart from getting to the family.
We don't have very much that we might leave our children, but if we do have something, they'll have it because they're our children. They're in the family. You don't do something to inherit. You make sure that you're entitled to the inheritance by being in the family. The only boy I didn't seem to know that. What must I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How is it that? And the offspring said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and my neighbor as thyself.
And he said unto him, No one could write this to you, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering, then, A present man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell on the king, which stripped him of his remnant, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance they came down with such a street that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
And likewise a Levite, when he was of the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain scenario, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his plumes, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own feet, and put him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the house, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, When I come again, I will repay thee.
Which now, or these three, think of thou as his neighbor, or the neighbor unto him that fell among the beast. And he said, He that showed mercy on him, Then said to thee unto him, Go. And to thou like one. Please, could I repeat that last expression? Because this is why the parable was told. Go and do thou like one. If there is one thing that has amazed, I'm sure, every one of us during the past evening, the tremendous number of scriptures that deal with the coming again of Jesus Christ We have traced through the word of God, indefinite prophecies, the fact that Christ did say, If I go, I will come again.
We have seen that speaking of him, he is to sit upon the throne of his father David and reign over the house of Jacob. And so we have seen not only something of the truth of the rapture, we've seen something of the truth of the coming again in power and glory of the Christ of God. But tonight I'm going to take a step further away from definite prophecies. Tonight I don't want to talk of definite prophecies as to the return of the Lord, definite prophecies as to where and where and how. he will come back again.
But tonight I want us to see that in the parables that Jesus told, parables that outwardly have nothing whatsoever to say about the coming again of Christ, yet in those parables the Lord Himself speaks of the fact that He's coming back again. And what better ones would I choose than the simple parables of the good Samaritan. When I come again, I will repay it. Please, I do not want for one moment to take away the perfect significance of this parable.
I want us to understand that the parable is a moral parable. The Lord is looking at you and me. and reminding us of our social responsibility to men and women who have not been blessed as much as we have been blessed. And she will say, Go there and do likewise. But will you please remember this? That while the Lord did not apply the parable to himself, but applied it to those that were listening to him. The Lord never asked anyone to do what he does not do himself.
All preachers do. Preachers have a habit of standing up and saying, do this and do that. And you look at them and sort of say to yourself, I wonder whether he does it. But when it came to the Lord, he never asked anyone to do what he did not do himself. And I suggest to you that as we look at this parable, we can see one of the most wonderful portraits of Jesus Christ that's found in the Bible. Well, if we see one of the wonderful portraits of Christ, we see also a tremendous portrait of male women, and I go further, of nations as well.
Is it remarkable how it starts? a certain man. He does not say a certain rich man. He does not say a certain poor man. He does not say a certain learned man. He does not say a certain ignorant man. He says a certain man. A certain man. Oh please, there is little doubt as we read the story that he wanted you. But Jesus never said that. Jesus wants us to see our portrait. He wants us to see the portrait of the world in the picture. A certain man went down.
Oh, my friend, how true that is of every one of us. How true it is that as we journey on life, we find ourselves not climbing up, but going down. We may have a long desire to climb up. We make King and Sing Luxury, the lovely Alexander hymn, all plant my feet on Irogram. But if experience tells us anything, it tells us this, but until we come in contact with the groups of Americans, our pathway is a downward pathway. He went down from Jerusalem, down from the place where God has placed his name.
Down from the city that was God's city. Down from the place that is now and will now, that's the kind of glory in all its wonder. He went down to a city that was the baby, a city of Corinth. A city where God again and again and again on three definite occasions, and on other occasions, but three definite occasions had placed his part. because of the wickedness of the people that dwell within the city of Jericho. Here was a man who went down from the presence of God, from the blessing of God, from the glory of God.
He went down to the city of Jericho. There's no need for me to remind you, because you all know the story, and I'm certain you Sunday school teachers have shared it with your class in a legion of time. You know that the journey was not a long journey. The journey at the most was about about fifteen miles. The journey that any decent man could walk in the course of a day. But while it was a downward journey, never forget this, that it was a dangerous journey. Never you forget that traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho, it led that man to one of the ruggedest paths that were known in the mission, a path where many who had turned away from that Roman conquest had gone and taken up the profession, if I may call it such, of highly robbery.
And that pathway was downward and dangerous. and all my fellow family are to eternity. I don't think I need to say very much about it. I believe that everyone in this place knows that every step we take that takes us away from God is a step that takes us away to God's mercy. Takes us toward the judgment of the Almighty. And we were thinking the other evening that there is a heaven to gain, that there's a hell to shine. And we know that as we travel on life's journey, that downward path is again the path.
Oddly, if I could say this on individuals, can I not say it also of nations? If we have learned anything in the past evening by just reading the word of God, we have learned this, that nations that turn their back on God are nations that are doomed. My Bible still says, righteousness is brought to the nation, and certainly it will approach unto angels. Never ever forget this, my man. Never let us forget that a nation that turns its back on God is a nation that's heading towards the judgment of God. And as we have seen, it will not be long before he whose right it is to come will come.
And the port of the earth will be removed. And this old scene will be opened to all that obnoxious and mild and powerful. Christ catches his heart to be with it. And there is left behind for such a judgment. Those who have said no to Jesus Christ. Those who have continued on the downward path. If there is one thing I must say about this story, it is this. It is the story of a tragic condition. A tragic condition. Why is it the story of a man whose terror and peace?
It is the story of a man who was left half dead by the rover. Please, if he was left half dead, then is it not true he was only half alive? Is it not true that he was a man left by the find of the road stripped to his clothes native, grown, with no chance of life, he will have death. And he will have a lot. And as he lay there by the side of the road, one that had it conditioned.
For there is something else I want to emphasize to you. I want to emphasize that that gang would pass, was a gang would pass. I want to remind you it was a dangerous path, but it was a downward path and it was a dangerous path because it was the devil's path. It was the road that led to the place where the curse of God was. And my fellow traveller for eternity, you may say, oh, that the downward path is an easy path. You may say, oh, it's a place where it is and break into a trance. It's a place indeed where things are easy. Remember, life's journey may appear even, but there's nothing easy about falling into the hands of those that will strip you and leave you naked before God.
And I see this man stripped, wounded, left, now dead. But I want you to remind me, it's not only the story of a tragic condition, It is the story of a terrible conduct. And may I repeat that? I think it's most important for us to remind ourselves of. It is the story of a terrible conduct. May I share what I feel about it? The man lay by the side of the road half dead, stripped with no hope whatsoever.
But suddenly, coming down the road, there was a priest. And the priest despised him, saw him, and passed by on the other side. I never gave this story without reminding my heart of this, that a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, that a certain priest went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. For as we turn the page of Holy Witt, this is that which we read, and by chance there came down a certain priest.
Seventh chapter of Matthew is one of the most awful chapters in the Bible. It may be the close of what we call the Sermon on the Mass, but it is one of the most terrible chapters in the Bible. And the seventh chapter of Matthew tells of the Son, who will look into the face of the Lord Jesus and say, But Lord, I prophesy in my name, and in my name I've done many wonderful things. And Jesus will look at them and say, Depart only, I never knew you, you squatters of Israel. Haven't we found out that it's not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, who will end this kingdom?
Here was a man whose profession demanded that he should speak of God, yet he was going away from God's city. He was a man whose profession demanded that he should stand by the sight of God, an utter word of cursing upon that which was opposed to God. He's making his way to that, then. And I want very simply to say this to you, Father. I want to say this very simply to you, Madam, that you may have your name upon a church register. You may, when I speak to you, tell me that you're a Christian. But the thing of chance is where you are bound.
The thing of chance is not the robes you wear, not the profession you make. The thing of chance is whether you have been born again, whether you have trusted Jesus Christ and turned your back upon the city of destruction. Turn your face towards the city of Leviticus. was going down what terrible conduct. It takes likewise a Levite. Now you are aware that a Levite is a Jewish lawyer. He was a man who knew all the more that it was demanded of the Jews.
It's an interesting fact that the Jews had three hundred and sixty-five laws. Now you'll never forget that, but that's the same number for our days and a year. They have three hundred and sixty-five laws, and on top of that they have two hundred and eighty-nine prohibitions. I get amazed how many times in the Sundays, for I say to the boys and girls, Now I want you to repeat with me the words of the Ten Command. And off we start. And I say to our upper stage, I am amazed how infrequently boys and girls can quote even the Ten Commandments.
There was a time in my country I know nothing about yours. There was a time in my country when every child had went to day school, the day started by the quoting of the Ten Commandments. No wonder we slipped away until we slipped away from there. And if people had a job to remember ten commandments, I don't know what they would do with three hundred and sixty-five laws and two hundred and eighty-nine prohibitions. No wonder they needed a lawyer, a religious lawyer, to keep them on Mars. And that was a Levite. And he came down. He did more than the priests.
He actually crossed the road. He actually leaned over the man. He actually looked at the man. and then he passed off. Oh, what terrible conduct. But please, please, I am not trying to excuse us. Maybe what I am doing is this. Maybe what I am doing is I'm saying to my own life, well, find an excuse for some of the things you did. You see, when I read the story, I often wonder, I read that the man was left half dead, so he was half alive.
In other words, he had only just been way late. It had not happened years before, or months before, or days before. It had happened that day, and there he walked by the roadside. Those that robbed him couldn't have been very far off. I wonder whether that priest looked at them and said, oh, it's dangerous to be here. I can't hang them out here. They might jump out on me. I'm going back. I wonder whether that linguist, when he passed, said, I ought to help him, but I'm in danger. And he hasn't very much longer than ever. I'm not a medic. I can't do very much.
I'm going back. Oh, I know you wouldn't do that. You'd stand and say, I'll face the robbers, doesn't matter what they do to me. But maybe they were a bit too coward, I don't know. I only know this, that their conduct was terrible. Believe, I don't mean to translate this into the realms of nations. I don't mean to translate this into the realms of men and women. When I translated into the realms of nations, I realized that we are living in a day where there are many nations that have been beaten, and left by the wrong side, half dead.
I never caught the water and go to Africa, but I remember it. The tremendous captains in the past few years around that lovely country that we call Rhodesia. I never cross the water and go to Africa without remembering our means and all the bloodshed and burn and heartache that came to one of the prettiest, loveliest countries in the world. And I look around and I see nations, nations that have so much. So infrequently are we able to have it. So infrequently do we start on our journey?
and I will pick you up. If there is one thing that can be said from this land of yours, it seems that nations imagine that you have a bottomless body, always looking to you for help, and so infrequently not being helped. But there are the nations that could help, and all they do is stir and strike. These that arose by nations, If that be true of nations, how true is it of individuals? We find ourselves left by the roadside, just upon thy robbers.
Obese, it's your imagination, and you might not see it as I see it. If it don't, God bless you. And that's all I can say. But I've often thought of this man. I've often thought of the robbers that jumped out on him, beat him, wicked his garment from up in and left him by the roadside half day. You see, I can understand a little bit of what he went through, because once that happened to me, oh please, I'm not talking about physical. I got a strong feeling I had to put my head down and land out. But I know this, as I was sharing with you the other day, there was a time in my life when I fell among the thieves.
Those were the thieves that I've already referred to, although I didn't call them thieves then, but I fell among ten commandments. And suddenly I found that all the good that I thought I had was stripped of me. I suddenly heard the word of God's grace and have had no other God before me. And I found I had other God. I got to a pair of oxen gloves and a red ribbon. And I have that garment of righteousness ripped off me as I was shown to stand before the almighty one who is in need of a garment to cover up my sin.
I'm not going to go down the ten commandments because they leave me naked. I only know that anything I might have had that self-righteousness is ripped off when I consider those commandments and consider my own life. This man was left there as we have been left. Tonight, by a roadside, going down from God's blessing, down to God's mercy. Left with no one else. What a tragic condition. Isaiah, what a terrible conduct.
Isaiah, what tender compassion. But we read a certain Samaritan as he journeyed. Not as he went down. As he journeyed. As he journeyed. Oh, my fellow traveler who had heard me. Let me tell you this, I have a Savior whose journey. down from his glory, ever-living story. My Lord of Saviour came, and Jesus was his name.
For all the wonder of the Lord, he came where we were. He came where we were. The prophet long ago was speaking of the Lord, Jesus said, He bore in our griefs and carried our thorns. Oh, how true. Where men worked, Christ worked. Where men suffered, Christ suffered. Where men was misunderstood, Christ was misunderstood. Women passed through times of trial. Christ passed through times of trial. Where they died, Christ died. He's born our Greeks. He's carried our sorrows.
He knows all about you. He knows about it when man and woman is buried tonight. He's thrown out of it. He came out of it. For he came where we were, hallelujah. Oh, what a danger. I love the little Welsh forest that says, Be a wonder. Be a wonder where it ends, I love him, son. When I think of all he's done and for me the guilty one, he'll wonder where it is my loving son. Oh, he came where we were.
And hallelujah, if he came where he were, he'd come in one day where we are. He came right where we were. If there was a woman that was a sinner, there was a savior who would say, neither do I do never. If there was a man that was a letter, there was a savior who would pray, I will translate. If there was one that had been placed in a tomb, there was a Christ who would cry, love your comfort. If there was a woman whose blood was flowing from her daily and a light going out of her, there was a Christ who sang by her eye so she could touch the heaven of God.
He came where we were. Come, Adam. Jesus Christ is not so far away that we can't touch him. He's as near as we breathe. He's as near as the proper and nearer next to you. He came where we were. Ah, but something more. He banged up his wound. He foiled in oil and water. Oh, isn't it wonderful? He not only came where he was, but so did the Levite. The Levite came where he was. He crossed the road and struck by a side.
He came where we were that he might help. Is that one? Oh, if there's a young person here tonight in your painting, light without Jesus Christ. Why? Why? There is someone who's willing to come by thy side to help me. Not just to wash thy sin away. Not just to pray. And why? Oh, to ease the pain. Give me joy. And this is just what the Lord does. I know of no one else that does that.
he pours in the oil and wine, blessed be his name. And he gives me joy and gives me peace. And let me turn him on his own feet. I like that. I say I like that. He didn't say to him, when he poured in the oil and wine and found up his wounds, now you get on the best you can. But he made provision for it. I thank God I have a Savior tonight who will make provision for us I let God tonight if you'll trust Jesus Christ you may find in front of you that the pathway is still right the pathway is still all this truth well hallelujah if I may use the expression of the beast who knows his way around the scope Let this great day be made.
He'll carry me home with his right. What tender and happy. But I think that there was a tragic condition. I think that there was a terrible conduct. I think there was a tender compassion. But oh please. There is still a tremendous concern. He took me to the end. He took me to the end. He turned. Take care of him. He told. The wages. The price. The bill. He paid it. He gave it to him. Then he made that great cry.
He was thrilled in my heart. Is it costly anymore when I come again? Are you able to repay me? I often say to the children when I tell the story to the boys and girls, I often ask them the question, you know, why was it that he only gave the man two penned? And I get all sorts of answers. Some youngsters will say that's all he had. You know, these mathematical and geniuses they'll say, oh, two penned was worth a lot of money then.
Look how it was. But oh, please, there's only one answer to it. You give an empty for two pints to look after a man who said, If you respect my dear doctor friend here tonight, wouldn't it be much good giving a doctor an old customer two pints after you look after your hospital? I have a strong feeling the answer is very simple. It's just that he didn't intend to stay away very long. I'll give you two pence.
It won't last you long, but I won't be away long. I'm coming back. I'm coming back. My friend, I have a savior coming back. But who is he coming back to? Who's he coming back for? He's coming back for the man that he found by the roadside. Is it? Moody? Half dead? Should I have a Savior who's coming back for those that he meets on life's journey with all their sin and all their wickedness? He's coming back again for those that he himself had redeemed and made his own.
baby's dead. Oh, please, I don't do it. I almost say with some shame, I don't do it. But I ought to do it. Every night when I draw the curtains, I ought to say, perhaps tonight. Every morning when I pull them back, I ought to say, perhaps the morning, perhaps the day, because he's coming and he's coming at heaven, and he's coming ashore, and he's coming at home. when I come again. My friends, my friends, I do not want to take away from the significance of the story, Go and do thy likewise.
Please, the Lord Jesus is slain in every sentence, in every verse, I want to ask you tonight, when he comes again, will you be banned in the age? Will you be banned in the church? I'm speaking of the church, the body of Christ, please. I am not talking of some church that has four walls of brick and shrouds of a church building. I'm asking you, you're in the body of Christ. Do you have it?
Why not, sir? Why not, sir? He's waiting. He's ready. Meet your Lord. I want to wake up now, too, by asking you the thing that he is quoting. One hundred and fifty. One hundred and fifty. It's a tremendous strength. Sinner, our lives. Heart is troubled. God is coming very near. Do not hide my deep emotion. Do not check that wall in here. All be played. All be played. His greatest strength.
One hundred and ten. Revised. is the world of my heart is from blue, all in glory, merry dear. Do not cry, I meet him alone, do not pray, but I Come in him, he pray with me.
Oh, this day he died for him. Oh, this day he died for me. Jesus, now is ready for thee. Jesus, Lord, is here and foiled, to the praiseful Zion, to save thee. Oh, where will thou go? are now waiting till or how may it never be of life come at once the test is heard he is waking up I wonder if this moment might move right now
I find the decision is yours I cannot imagine if I'll see any imagination of mine that that man lying by the roadside would have said when the America leaned over him. Don't touch me. Go away. The Lord will not believe you're true, for instance. How willingly he is, that is. And the health and blessings of that man, like Jesus Christ, is saying to you, may I come into your life, will you let me to do, with your things it's called, what that man is to the one by the will, all in the hearts of God.
As we sing the law of heaven, God give us the grace to give our minds to Jesus the law of heaven. is the glory of the Saviour of the Lord. For the love we know, is there in the Lord, for the treasure, pure and sweet.
his way, his way, for him. Oh, his way, his way. Oh, his way, his way. Oh, God, and Father, who's left me together, and we bow our hands in the heart of the Lord. For the wonderful things that Jesus Christ came to meet Nancy, one day will come again for those who need me again. Grant we pray, all grant we pray, that each one of us may be assured that we come from this place.
God grant that we will not be left behind as the parathy of evil. Grant that when he comes, we shall be. Speak then, Father. Don't let anyone leave this place in the marketplace.