I'd like to thank each one of you
for coming out today.
You brought yourself into a place where the
Word of God will be opened.
I trust that the Spirit of God will
take the Word and in power minister it
to your heart's need.
I'd like for us this morning to look
in Luke's gospel, chapter 10, and we'll be
reading from verse 23.
Just a comment regarding the homegoing of our
dear sister, Molly Love.
What do you think about a comment like
this?
I wished it had been me instead of
Molly.
I'll tell you, you can't say that unless
you have some assurance that you know where
you're going and you went or would go
where Molly is.
Molly Love was a believer in our Lord
Jesus Christ.
She accepted him as her Lord and Savior.
And you know, the Word of God doesn't
leave us wondering what we will be doing
when we leave here, this world, this place.
The Word of God tells us for believers
to be absent from this body, to be
present with the Lord.
That's a wonderful promise, and you wouldn't want
what happened to Molly to happen to you
unless you know where you're going.
Do you know?
K-N-O-W.
You have that perfect assurance in your soul
that you have taken your place in the
plans and purposes of God, that you're one
of those people that John 3.16 means
so much to you.
You recognize God's great love and the gift
of his Son, and you've accepted the value
of what he did for you upon the
cross.
And all your sins are forgiven, and you
are a possessor of eternal life.
Think about that.
Would you rather it had been you than
Molly?
I'll tell you this, she wouldn't change places
with any of us.
She's with her Lord.
A comment was made about some of the
places that we used to go to carry
the gospel.
Maybe we have refined this business of telling
forth the gospel to a way that is
more convenient for us.
We've even become more selective as to who
we will tell the story to.
We're very discriminating.
We've become so conscious of people, the class
of people, the kind of people.
So many things seem to be entering into
the picture as to who we will tell
this wonderful love story, the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
This passage we're going to read this morning
is the story of the good Samaritans.
Someone reminded me one time, there were bad
Samaritans, too.
This was a good one.
He did some good things, and our Lord
recognized it.
I trust this morning, as we think about
this, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ,
that we have a desire in our heart
to make him known to the world in
which we live.
If I was to say to you, what
do you think is the main point to
remember in this passage of scripture, you might
come up with a variety of answers, but
I believe the main point is to go.
We've refined that to the point that we
invite people to come, and I thank you
for coming, but I don't think it takes
away our responsibility to go.
We're to go out that door.
The world is out there.
The world is filled with people that have
not yet received the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
The world is filled with people that may
not have even heard of the person of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
So I believe it is our responsibility to
reach out to whosoever God sends our way.
If a divine contact is made, be ready,
be prepared to address that problem.
I know you must have heard, and perhaps
it's happened to you, that you had an
opportunity to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you weren't prepared.
Your heart wasn't right with the Lord.
That's sad.
But when God sends someone our way, when
he arranges one of these divine appointments, remember
those whosoever wills that accept the invitation become
one of the elect of God, choice ones.
Now they are sanctified unto God.
They are separated in a special way that
judgment and wrath will never, never, never touch
that individual.
Blessing.
So it's wonderful to be a member of
the family of God and enjoy fellowship one
with another, but there are still a lot
of people that have never experienced the joy
of God's salvation like you have.
Our Lord Jesus is going to say something
about that.
Let's read from verse 23.
Our Lord has sent forth the Seventy out
into the world to spread the good news.
They had authority and power to act on
his behalf.
They were able to do things that were
miraculous, that got the attention of the people
that they ministered to.
And all of these things had an impact.
Things did happen.
Souls were spoken to.
And in the 23rd verse, our Lord turned
unto his disciples and said privately, Blessed are
the eyes which see the things that you
see.
For I tell you that many prophets and
kings have desired to see those things which
you see, and they have not seen them,
and to hear those things which you hear,
and they have not heard them.
Let me stop there.
Gospel times are happy times.
I already had some reference to a day
and time when tents were put up, and
there were arrangements made for special meetings.
People were excited when you said, Come go
to the gospel service with me.
If you were around in Durham 50 years
or so ago, the Spirit of God used
the preaching of the gospel mightily.
There might be a lot of souls in
this room that were saved during that period
of time.
It was wonderful.
There was rejoicing.
A wonderful, happy spirit prevailed because of the
preaching of the gospel.
I think we need to be aware that
it's a good witness for the Lord to
still get excited about hearing the gospel.
The Apostle Paul said, The gospel of Jesus
Christ is the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believes it.
You know, it hasn't changed.
There is no other way to heaven other
than through the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
I am the way, the truth, and the
life.
No man comes unto the Father but by
me.
It has not changed, and thank God it
will never change.
There is only one way.
I am so thankful when we speak about
this wonderful message of God's love, we can
be very definitive about it and say, This
is the message.
It's the only message that God would have
us to deliver to this world.
We should get excited about it, and we
should rejoice over it.
I am permitted to live during a period
of time upon the face of the earth
where the grace of God is being demonstrated,
in that God extends an invitation to whosoever
will.
It's God's will that any should perish.
We're living in that period of time.
You're here this morning.
You have no fear of authorities coming in
and restricting you, inflicting hurt upon you, because
you dare to identify with the person of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
That doesn't mean that if you go out
into the world tomorrow and into the marketplace
that you won't hear people ridicule and speak
disparagingly of your faith and the person of
Jesus Christ.
That happens.
There are a lot of scorners.
There are a lot of people that still
don't believe.
But as a rule, we are afforded wonderful
privileges that we should be thankful for.
I'm thankful that we're living in this day
and age when salvation is being fully received
at this very moment by some soul in
the world.
A boy or a girl or a man
or woman somewhere at this very moment has
opened his heart to the person of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and he's received God's offer
of salvation.
Isn't that wonderful?
A soul is being saved.
He will not experience separation from God forever.
He will not feel the pain, the suffering
and the judgment that comes to those that
refuse to accept our Lord Jesus Christ.
He has accepted the full value of all
that God's love and grace have provided.
That's wonderful.
It could happen in this room this morning.
Someone may make a decision to receive the
Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
That's wonderful.
It's being plainly preached.
You know, there are some that have been
involved in preaching the gospel down through the
years.
One of them was a man by the
name of Stan Ford.
Many of you may have heard Stan.
He was here on one occasion, and we
had special meetings.
In talking with Stan, he liked to see
crowds, and he liked to see people respond
to the gospel.
And he was preaching that same message.
There weren't too many people here.
We weren't attracting too many people to hear
the gospel.
And later on in discussing this, he said,
I do believe that people have become gospel
-hardened.
It's become commonplace.
You hear that expression all the time.
They preach the gospel.
It may not mean the same thing that
you're thinking about in the preaching of the
gospel.
Gospel just means good news.
Best news you ever heard was that God
loved you and Christ died for you.
But it could be true.
Sometimes we discover hearing something, no matter how
good the news may be, your heart, your
soul, you're no longer sensitive to the value
of that message.
And I think that's what our brother meant.
People have become gospel-hardened.
They can hear the message.
It doesn't bother them anymore.
They don't look upon it as a wonderful
invitation from God to have all of your
sins forgiven.
They don't look at it that way anymore.
It just becomes a series of words that
are put together.
It's something religious.
It's so deadly.
So deadly.
I think if there's one thing that our
arch-enemy, the devil, likes to do is
to substitute religion for salvation.
And I know you must have heard this
so many times, but you could join every
church in Durham, be baptized in every fellowship
there is in Durham, take every communion that
was offered to you from every fellowship in
Durham, and do a lot of other things,
and it wouldn't save your soul.
Not but one way.
And sometimes I think it stumbles people to
think that the way is so narrow.
Some people resent the fact that you tell
them there's only one way to heaven.
We rejoice in that because it eliminates all
of those other ways that seem right unto
a man, but they end in death.
There's a broad road that leads to destruction.
There's a narrow way that leads into eternal
life.
You rejoice in that because you've been able
to eliminate all of these other ways that
are false.
Well, our Lord made this comment to his
disciples, and he told them that you are
blessed indeed of God to have lived in
a day and time when you have witnessed
the coming of a Savior into the world.
Prophets and kings had looked for the coming
of a Messiah, for a Savior to come
into the world.
It didn't happen in their lifetime.
It's happened in your lifetime.
What excuse would you have?
God sent his Son into the world.
Two thousand years ago, he died upon a
cross outside the place over there in Palestine,
Jerusalem.
He died upon that cross for our sin,
not his.
The Word of God plainly tells us that.
He that knew no sin was made sin
for us.
We have lived in this day and time
when this has been fulfilled, and we should
just say, thank you, Lord, that it happened
in my lifetime.
I'm not one of those prophets and kings
that came before and never did see it
realized in my lifetime.
Our Lord reminds his disciples, you are indeed
blessed.
You have seen and heard things that others
looked for all their life and they never
did see it.
It's happened to you.
You've seen, you've heard things that others look
for for a long time.
And if you are basking in all of
the joy that accompanies salvation this morning, you've
got something to be thankful for.
Verse 25 introduces us to, it might be
kind of parenthetical, but it says, Behold, a
certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying,
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life?
Evidently he's heard something about eternal life and
he's interested.
Our Lord said to him, What is written
in the law?
Now, this man, a lawyer, a scribe, a
person schooled and skilled in the handling of
the Word of God, Moses' law, and all
of these things, has raised the question.
Our Lord responded, Well, what's written in the
law?
You know the law.
How do you read it?
He comes back with the right answer.
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.
He said unto him, You have answered right.
This do, and thou shalt live.
He got his answer, didn't he?
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto
the Lord Jesus, Who is my neighbor?
You see, this fellow is just full of
questions and comments that are intended to cause
the Lord Jesus Christ to respond in a
way that is not accurate and out of
the will of God.
What he is really saying here, I want
to know how to inherit eternal life.
I want to know all about this, but
I want to be able to obtain what
you say you are offering by my own
doings and my own merit.
I don't want you to give me anything.
I'm not looking for a handout.
I think that I'm capable of making a
decision.
I'm an intelligent person.
I know about God's laws and God's ways.
I'm not asking God for anything.
What do I have to do to obtain
this blessing?
What do I have to do to please
God regarding this matter of becoming an inheritor
of eternal life?
The Lord Jesus gives him an answer that
I don't think he likes, because when he
had asked him that question, What is written
in the law?
How do you read this?
He read it all wrong.
He got an entirely false concept of what
this was all about.
You see, he should have known that if
he had truly done what he put forth
as the means and the ways of inheriting
eternal life, and our Lord said, If you
do this, you will really live.
You will become a possessor of life like
you never knew before.
If you only obeyed and did and fulfilled
all that you were told to do in
that statement.
For the man who doeth these things shall
live in them.
Oh, that raises another question.
Now, this wise guy is going to have
a question put to him.
Do you do that?
Is that what you do?
Do you love the Lord God with all
your heart, your mind, your soul, and all
of your being?
Do you love your neighbor as yourself?
Of course he didn't.
And he knew he didn't.
And our Lord has spoken to him and
made him aware of that.
You've come up short, fella.
For you to just say words and to
know all about this divine commandment and what
God looks upon and expects from those that
he has offered this gift of eternal life,
you don't measure up.
In fact, who has ever loved the Lord
his God with all of his mind, his
heart, and his soul?
Who's ever done that?
Not some human being like you or me,
because we're too full of self and we
have a nature within us.
We have divided devotions.
There are a whole lot of things in
this world that we might love more than
we love God and his ways and your
neighbor.
You'll love him if it's convenient.
That's kind of the way we're going to
discover that this business of the Good Samaritan
works.
But our Lord says to him, Who among
the fallen sons of men have ever so
honored God?
Name one.
Abraham, Moses.
Name anybody you want to in Scripture that
loved the Lord, the God that created all
things with all of their heart and their
mind.
No divided devotion.
He's first.
You won't find one, because we are sinners,
dead in trespasses and sin.
Our Lord had laid before this poor man
the impossibility of salvation by works.
You cannot earn by your own effort God's
salvation.
He didn't design it that way.
It's a gift.
And you know that verse of Scripture as
well as I do.
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift from God, not of
works, lest any should boast.
So would to God that you, I, had
been there and whispered in that fellow's ear,
Look, this is God's way.
It's a work of grace.
You can't work your way to heaven.
All that you know about the law, and
how easy it was for you to quote
it and quote it accurately, but you haven't
done it.
You haven't fulfilled it.
James says, I'll tell you this, if any
man, any man, if he stumbles over one
point in that law, he's broken all of
it.
You haven't got a chance.
God shuts the door before you ever get
there, if you think you're going to work
your way to heaven, or by your own
self-effort.
You're going to come God's way, and he
doesn't have but one way.
It's a narrow way.
Thank God for it.
Salvation by works is an impossibility.
No matter how many efforts that you make,
how strong your efforts, how many your efforts,
but our God is willing to justify and
make righteous anyone that will receive his Son,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He will justify you.
He will reckon what happened at Calvary, when
he paid the penalty for our sin.
He will have it reckoned, written down, to
be remembered forever, that you have valued what
Jesus Christ did upon the cross so much
that's the only thing you're resting upon for
the salvation of your soul.
I don't want any other way.
I'm a poor sinner, saved by the grace
of God.
I didn't have anything to offer to God.
Man ought to be ashamed.
It's an embarrassment to think of some of
the things that people have tried to do
to earn their way to heaven.
Dear little lady, all those years, 50, I
think, according to the story, and she had
been teaching Sunday school, and she'd been doing
all these wonderful things, and when she was
faced with a verse of scripture, "'All have
sinned and come short of the glory of
God.' Well, you know, she had to tell
that preacher.
Not me.
Well, he said, let's look at it again.
And as he read that passage there in
Romans 3.23, "'All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.' He said,
let's write your name right here, except you.
Oh, don't do that.
Don't do that.
Don't meddle with the word of God.
That's what you're saying.
You say it doesn't apply to you.
Are you saying that?
Have you said that?
Not me.
And you have some false concept in your
mind that you're going to escape the judgment
of God and not acknowledge that you are
a poor, lost sinner, destitute, lost, hopelessly lost.
You're not going to get to heaven.
You're away.
You're going to come God's way, or you're
not going to come at all.
Now, make up your mind.
How do you want to go to heaven?
I want to go God's way.
I want to go on that royal highway
prepared for all of those that have trusted
the Savior.
I want to have my eyes opened up
one day and see him, the Lord of
glory, the one that loved me and died
for me upon that cross.
The word of God says when I see
him, I'll be like him.
If that doesn't excite you, you probably don't
know him.
But I want to see him."
The Lord Jesus Christ gives this man the
parable of the Good Samaritan.
I want to run through it with you
because I think there's a message here so
important for you and me today as believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you been one of those people that
you've become very selective as to who you
speak to and who you minister to and
who you do things for?
And if you have, and a lot of
times we're all guilty of it, just some
people we would rather speak to and some
people we would rather do things for than
other people.
But the Lord Jesus says that's not the
way it should be.
We go out and we are given a
mission to accomplish, and we accept whoever God
puts on our doorsteps and whoever we are
brought in contact with in the course of
life.
We accept that as an invitation by God,
speak to that person, minister to that person,
do good unto that person.
Well, our Lord gives him this parable.
He says, 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.
He was in bad way.
And just by chance there came down a
certain priest that way, and when he saw
him, he passed by on the other side.
What's wrong with this guy?
He's a religious man.
He is to minister to the needs of
people.
He's to reach out to people.
He looked over there.
I don't want to be bothered with that.
It's not in my line.
I'm a religious man.
I've got to keep my cloak clean.
I'm going down to the temple.
I'm going to worship God.
Him?
Uh-uh.
You ever done that?
I don't want to be bothered with that
person.
He's a bum.
He's been hurt.
It will cost me something if I mess
around with him.
If I seek to minister to him, it's
going to cost me something.
Brother, sister, we need to reach out to
people like that.
Thank God for the Durham Rescue Mission.
Thank God for Ernie Mills.
He touches lives.
He touches real people that have real problems.
He doesn't run away from it, either.
You know, we ought to be the same
way.
We get the reputation of being religious people,
spiritual people, people that worship God.
The Lord Jesus Christ has an answer for
that.
And likewise, a Levite.
Here's another man, a servant of God, a
man that knows the scriptures.
He was at the place.
He came and looked on him and passed
by on the other side.
Sounds kind of like he was coming down
and would have made contact with him, but
when he sized up the situation, he veered
away.
But then he says, a certain Samaritan.
A certain Samaritan.
You know, Jews despised Samaritans.
They hated them.
They were half-breeds.
You know, our Lord went out of his
way to minister to a Samaritan woman at
the well.
You remember that story?
Well, this certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, he
came and when he was there, he saw
him and he had compassion on him.
The most unlikely person that you can think
of.
And he looked, he sized up the situation
and his heart went out to the man,
this person that was hurt.
He went and bound up his wound, pouring
in oil and wine, set him on his
own beast and brought him to the inn
and took care of him.
And on the morrow when he departed, he
went and took out two pence and gave
them to the host and said unto him,
Take care of him.
Whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again,
I will repay thee."
Now our Lord has a question.
A question.
Which now of these three thinkest thou was
neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?
That's so easy to answer, isn't it?
Such an easy.
He said, he that showed mercy on him.
And the Lord Jesus said unto him, Go
and do likewise.
That's all I've got to say to you.
You just go do the same thing that
that Samaritan did.
Change your lifestyle Break out of that mold
that you're in of living in a bubble.
You've heard about bubble Christianity, haven't you?
You get in your little bubble and you
won't let people get too close to you.
They touch your bubble but they won't touch
you.
We see a situation where we could be
involved in and help somebody and bless somebody,
it'll cost me something.
Love is costly.
You love somebody, it'll cost you something.
If you love the Lord, if you really
love God with all your heart and your
mind and your soul, you're willing to be
used in God's service.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he loved for sinners.
Do we have that kind of love in
our heart and soul?
Are we willing to be used?
Are we good Christians?
Are we those that just dress up and
act like Christians and talk like Christians but
we don't really put up and honor God
in the way that we behave in dealing?
You know, if we want to be like
God, we need to imitate God.
So we should become great imitators of what
our God has done for us.
It doesn't make any difference what someone's religion
might be or what color he might be
or what class he might be in.
He has a need.
I'll tell you one thing, the whole world
needs, and we've gone over this and the
time is gone, but they need Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior.
When you bind up somebody's wounds, when you
minister to somebody that's hungry, just like they
do at the mission, you're always doing it
with a view that you're going to give
them the gospel.
It's a wonderful opportunity to share Christ with
others because that's what he would do.
He wouldn't pass that man by.
Are we passing anybody by?
Are we passing people by?
God, forgive us if we are.
And this morning, if in some way the
Spirit of God arouses in our souls an
awareness of what a deadly thing that is,
to pass up an opportunity to minister to
someone and give Christ to them because you
bound up their wounds and you helped them
along the way.
Let me read this.
Oh, how beauteous are their feet who stand
on Zion's hill, who bring salvation on their
tongues, and words of peace reveal.
How happy are our ears that hear this
joyful sound, which kings and prophets waited for.
They sought, but they never found.
Brother and sister, you've heard the gospel.
You're saved by the grace of God.
God's love and grace has touched you as
an individual.
What's it done for you?
How has it changed you?
New creatures in Christ Jesus.
How blessed are our eyes that see this
heavenly light.
Oh, we've been blessed of God.
Prophets and kings desired it long, but died
without that light.
Our lifetime has been lived in a day
and time when light has come into the
world.
That light has shone into our souls.
We're no longer in darkness.
We're in the light, brother and sister.
Let that light shine bright.
This little light of mine, I'm going to
let it shine.
And if I see somebody laying by the
roadside, I see somebody weary and they need
help, I'm going to give it to them.
And I'm going to minister Christ to them
because that's an opportunity to show just how
He behaved in situations like that through life.
Oh, may God stir us and wake us
up a little bit and let us know
it's more to this business of being saved
than just waiting to go to heaven.
Just waiting around to go to heaven.
Got anything to do?
Not really.
You've missed it.
You've missed the gold and opportunity to live
for the glory of God.
You're going to pass it up?
I don't have to tell you about the
great judgment.
You say, I'm not going to be there.
What about the Bema, the judgment seat of
Christ?
We'll be there.
And we may be ashamed.
We may be embarrassed.
We may see all these good flowery things
that we've done go up in smoke.
Let's get it right.
Let's go out and in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, minister Christ to the
world that we live in today.
Our Father in heaven, we do bow in
Thy presence and thank Thee for gathering us
together in this room this morning.
We do pray that what has been read
from the Word of God and whatever we
have been able to glean from it, that
it would change us, those of us that
need to be changed.
Oh, grant, we pray Thee, that we will
reach out and we will minister to others
in the blessed and holy name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray.
Amen.
Our brother has a verse of a hymn.
Number 326.
326.
I'm so glad that when I was wounded
in need of help, the Lord Jesus came
and tenderly sought me.
And today, if you have never received Christ
as your Savior and you recognize that you're
wounded by sin, there's a Good Shepherd that's
seeking you and He wants to save you
this morning.
And He does it in a very tender
way.
Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.
He's calling you this morning if you have
never received Him as your Savior.
We would invite you to come to Him
if it would help you to come and
sit and talk with Robert or me or
one of the elders here.
We would be happy to take you and
point you to this Good Shepherd.
And by faith, He can be your Savior
today.
If you'd like to come and know that
you're saved and on your way to heaven,
please let us help you.
We want to sing the first and last
verse of the 326.
Will you stand as we sing?
If you'd like to come and talk with
Robert while we sing, you feel free to
do so.