10, looking at a familiar story of the Good Samaritan. Luke chapter 10, it begins in, we're going to start in verse 25. I have a story about a Good Samaritan. There was a lawyer, very rich lawyer, driving down the road in his fancy sports car, and he saw on the side of the road a homeless man picking just grass that was growing between the cracks in the sidewalk and eating it. And the lawyer thought to himself, yeah, I'm going to be a good Samaritan, pull over, help this guy. So he pulls over and says, man, what are you doing? And the homeless man says, well, I have no money for food. I'm picking the weeds and grass out of the cracks in the sidewalk and eating it. The lawyer says, hop in the car. I'm going to take you to my house and feed you. So he gets in this beautiful sports car, and they drive to the nice part of town and pull up in front of this beautiful mansion of a house. They hop out of the car, and the lawyer says, well, have at it. I haven't mowed in about a month, so the grass is a foot high. I hope there's no lawyers here this morning. Now on Luke chapter 10 we have the story of the Good Samaritan and a lawyer who tests Jesus. This parable is very common, very popular. Even the phrase, a good Samaritan, has been popularized in our society. This parable is actually so familiar to many of us that I think it's easy for us to overlook maybe the meaning. We've grown up hearing it and believing we know the meaning and perhaps we've overlooked it. So I'd like to take a closer look at it this morning and see if we can't see if maybe we've misinterpreted it. The common interpretations of the Good Samaritan, you know, is the moral of the story is to be kind, be good, help your neighbor, help even those who aren't necessarily your neighbor. the unlikelihood of the good Samaritan being the one who helped, all of that. And not necessarily are any of those wrong, but maybe they're not the main idea here. The phrase, the Good Samaritan, the media throws it around all the time. I did a quick Google search this morning, actually, and there were 2.7 million hits on Google News for the phrase Good Samaritan. Good Samaritan saves a person from a burning car. Good Samaritan pulls dog out of the frozen river. You know, on and on. Good Samaritan, Good Samaritan. It's used, the phrase is used to describe someone who shows uncommon kindness or a heroic act of bravery, usually in the context of some sort of a catastrophe or emergency. Someone steps up and helps out. We have good Samaritan laws that protect people. If you try to help someone who's hurt and you end up You know, hurting them more. I've heard of cases where somebody's given CPR and they end up breaking somebody's rib and get sued. So we have to have good Samaritan laws that if you try to help, you're not in trouble if the person gets hurt anyway or whatever. The idea of the Good Samaritan is common in politics. It's cited and referenced all the time by politicians, and just the idea of this charity in general, that we should be more like this, we should be more like the Good Samaritan. Unfortunately, it seems like it's often used to promote social programs, welfare, higher taxes, Socialists use it. The one time they will cite the Bible is when they want to cite the story of the Good Samaritan to say, see, this is why we need to pay more taxes so the government can be doing more things to help people in need. But you know, showing love in the Bible is always individual and voluntary. Coercing people through taxes and social programs, welfare programs, robs people of the joy of helping. the discretion to choose when and how to help and even your reward in heaven for doing so. Not to mention these programs lead to massive fraud and waste and abuse. So we shouldn't misapply these stories and these principles to promote socialism, I don't think. But regardless of how people interpret this parable, regardless of how we've always interpreted it, heard from our Sunday school class from the time we were little, what really matters is Why did Jesus tell the story? What was the purpose that Jesus had in mind when he told the story? What was the meaning that he wanted people to take from this story? Let's look at the situation. If you will look in your Bible, Luke chapter 10, we're going to start at verse 25 and we're going to look at this situation. Why did Jesus even tell this parable? Verse 25 begins, and behold, a lawyer stood up. to put him to the test, saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live. But desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? We'll stop there. If you look back to verse 25, this lawyer is the guy who stands up. We start the story off with a lawyer is putting Jesus to the test. And the idea I think here is clear from the text. I don't think it's a genuine question. He was hoping to hear what Jesus would say, to have some way to trip him up, or something to argue with him on. I don't think this lawyer was honestly looking to understand what he needed to do to have eternal life. I'm thinking of a few more lawyer jokes right now. Lawyers of today get a bad reputation because they're involved in some bad situations. But the lawyers of this time, they weren't criminal lawyers like we're thinking of. A lawyer in this context was somebody who was an expert in the law. And of course in Judaism, the law wasn't just your religious responsibilities, but it was in a sense to govern the society as well. So these lawyers, these experts in the Old Testament law, they would study, they would go to school, they would become these experts so people could ask them questions, well, how to interpret the Old Testament law? We're familiar with the Ten Commandments, but that's just kind of a That's a tiny little part of the Old Testament law. I think there were 639 other commandments. So, figuring out how those all were to be hashed out was something that apparently required professional lawyers. In verse 25, he says, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? So he calls Jesus a teacher. I don't know if he's just being nice, but Jesus didn't have any official title that way, so we're not sure. But this question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life, that was, I guess, a common question. I don't know, one of those questions maybe that you throw out there to find where somebody's at. And we see this question a lot in the New Testament. The young ruler comes to Jesus, asks the exact same question. The jailer asked Paul the exact same question. Nicodemus, when he talks to Jesus, we don't have recorded this exact question in the Bible, but it's the same idea. You're getting right to the heart of the matter. When y'all boil it down, what's What must I do to inherit eternal life? But Jesus, if you look in verse 26, he says to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? So Jesus answers a question with a question. And why did Jesus answer a question with a question? Why not answer a question with a question? It's what Jesus does. It's a wise way to kind of get the person to reflect on their own way. So the lawyer, he answers with a very common quoted quotation here from the Old Testament. Lee read for us this morning. It's actually a combination of two verses that Lee read. Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18 says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. and love your neighbor as yourself. Those two verses that Lee read for us. So the Old Testament law, you can boil it down, some people boil it down to the Ten Commandments, but you can boil it down even further, and that's what these lawyers had done, and it had become a common phrase that people would repeat as a summation of the entire Old Testament law. Love God and love people. All of the laws in the Old Testament deal with one of those two categories. It's your relationship with God, how to love Him, and your relationship with people, how to love people. And we have those two verses. Like I said, this is quoted all over in the New Testament. Galatians 5, 14, James 2, 8, Romans 13, Mark 12. If you look at Matthew 22, Jesus quotes it. So let's turn there and look at that real fast. Matthew 22, 36. Matthew 22, 36. Someone comes up to Jesus and he says, Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In verse 40, he gives us Kind of a summation there, he says, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So here Jesus asks the lawyer, how do you read it? What do you see? And the lawyer answers, love God, love your neighbor as yourself. That's the very same answer Jesus gave when somebody asked him this question. So this was the exact right answer. And that's what Jesus tells him. Verse 28, and he says to him, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. Do what? It's almost like the lawyer answered the correct answer without even realizing how to live out the correct answer. Jesus says, yeah, you're right. That's the answer. Just do this and you'll live. And immediately I'm thinking, do what? And you start thinking about, well, what did he just say? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. You start thinking about that. It's like, well, man, that's, I don't know if I've done that. I don't know if I'm doing that. Maybe no one can do that. But the lawyer, He doesn't seem to react that way. He doesn't say, oh, that's an awfully high bar. I don't know if I've done that, so I'm not going to get eternal life because I have not loved God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Verse 29 says, but the lawyer, but he desiring to justify himself. He says to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? So it's interesting, he skips right over the love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. He's probably thinking, no one can know if I do that or not, so I can just say I do or pretend I do. We'll just all assume I do. You can't challenge how much I love God. But God, this love your neighbor one, that's different because people can see how well you love your neighbor. He's probably thinking, you know, how do I, have I really done this perfectly? So seeking to justify himself, he says, well, who is my neighbor? He thinks maybe he's found a way out. Maybe if the word neighbor is qualified to mean only the people I love already, then I'm good. So we'll test Jesus. What is neighbor? Maybe Jesus will have a different interpretation of the word neighbor. Maybe he'll, you know, maybe that's his out. And he's seeking to justify himself. He still wants to say, look, I'm, I'm good enough. I'm, I'm doing well. He's under the law. And so he's, if you're under the law and you're justifying yourself, there's only one way to do that. And that is to compare yourself, not to the law, but to other people who are also under the law. I do it better than they do. So you can justify yourself. So this is the setting for the for the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is what just occurred. This is the conversation. And this is where this guy's at. He's seeking to justify himself and kind of beat around the bush. And he doesn't immediately crack and say, yeah, I haven't done that. He tries to justify himself and weasel his way out by redefining neighbor. It depends on what your definition of is is. He's trying to find a a way that he can still be justified. He's probably looking embarrassed because his own answer was perfectly right on. And Jesus says, all you got to do is do what you just said. And he's kind of backpedaling realizing, oh my goodness. So this parable we start to see is evangelistic. It's not just to get people to behave well, it's to get to this guy's heart and to get to this guy's sin. I watch these videos on YouTube of Ray Comfort, you guys have probably seen him too, where he goes around and interviews people and he asks them, are you a good person? And they all say, yes. You think you'll go to heaven? You think you're right with God? And most people say, yeah, for the most part. And they're comparing themselves to other people. I'm a pretty good person. And he asks them, he usually sticks with the Ten Commandments, and he asks them, have you ever lied? You know, in the Ten Commandments it says, thou shalt not lie. And pretty much everyone agrees, yes, I have lied. Have you ever stolen anything? Yeah, I mean, yeah, okay. And he goes through a few of the commandments. Have you ever looked on a woman to lust? Jesus says that's the same as adultery in your heart. And he gets them to admit to all these bad things they've done, and he ends up saying, so by your own admission, you're a liar, a cheater, a thief, an adulterer at heart, and you think you're gonna go to heaven? And it gets people to see their sinfulness, gets them to see their real condition. And that's a little bit what Jesus is doing here. Or perhaps it's exactly what Jesus is doing here. You can't share the good news with somebody if they don't know there's bad news. Sometimes with our friends and family, family's especially hard, if you're witnessing to someone who thinks they're okay, that's one of the hardest people there is to reach with the gospel. It's easy when the tax collector bursts in the door of the church and beats his breasts and says, forgive me, God, I'm a sinner. That's pretty easy. It's like, man, forgiveness is free, here's how you get it. But when somebody is trying to justify themselves and says, I'm a lawyer, I know the law, I have the right answer. For us, it's Jesus, Jesus is always the right answer. Back then it was this, This often quoted two verses. It's like, you got to get somebody lost before they can get found. So Jesus starts the story, verse 30. So Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers. stripped him and beat him and departed leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So also a Levite when he came to the place and saw him he passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan as he journeyed came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion. He went to him and bound his wounds pouring on oil and wine and he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said take care of him and whatever more you spend I will repay when I come back. Let's stop there. So that's the parable. The parable of the Good Samaritan. We'll jump back up to verse 30 pick it apart here. A certain man's going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. This guy doesn't have a name, so we believe the story is fictitious. It's just a made-up story. Sometimes Jesus names people, and that's usually an indicator that it's not a parable. It's an actual story, but here there's no name. It's just a made-up story to prove this point, which is kind of what we asked at the very beginning. What is Jesus' point in telling this story? This man's going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed leaving him half dead. Now apparently when I was reading stuff this road to Jericho from Jerusalem is a dangerous road and it had even a a pass, a mountain pass that was called the Pass of Blood, because so many people got beat and killed there. So I went on the internet, I looked it up, Jerusalem sits at about 2,500 feet of elevation, and Jericho is below sea level, 800 and, I forget where I wrote it now, 840 feet below sea level. So from 20, almost 2,600 down to 840. So you're going downhill over 2,500 feet and the road's 17 miles long, 18 miles long, according to Google Maps. So if you're going from Jerusalem down to Jericho, it's about like going from the mountain above Buffalo down to Tensleep. It's a switchback canyon. You're dropping a lot of elevation, almost pushing 4,000 feet in only 17 miles. So there's switchbacks, there's canyons. There's people pulled over on the side of the road climbing the rock face. So you can imagine that type of a road, rocky, mountainous, canyon, switchbacky, windy, easy place for robbers to ambush people. That's always how it goes in the old Westerns. When the guys ride their horses into the canyon, they start looking at the rim rock. They know it's coming, right? So that's how this road was. It's a scary road. And everyone knew it. It had this nickname, you know, oh, the Pass of Blood. It was a scary road, which maybe is why Jesus picked it for his story. And these guys, just as you could have predicted if you were watching an old Western, yep, sure enough, they ambush him, they beat him, strip him. They depart, leaving him essentially naked and half dead. And he says, by chance, a priest was going down that road. But when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So at first, it seems like Jesus, I don't know, he's just picking people at random? Probably not. It seems like he's purposefully picking out the priest because you would expect a priest to help, right? The priest would have known Leviticus 19.18. In fact, priests recited that Deuteronomy verse, I think they had to recite it twice a day. That passage actually starts with Deuteronomy 6, 4. It's called the Shema, the hero Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. And it goes straight into then you shall love the Lord your God. You know, they had to recite that every day. So surely the priest knew what God expected of people. And if you love God with all your heart, you're going to love people, your neighbor as yourself, you're going to help them. But the priest passes by on the other side. And then a Levite happens by. Same thing. I think Jesus is kind of point now. Here's people you would expect to help. The Levite passes by. Now, the Levites, they were the tribe of Levi. They were the temple workers. So the priests, they had to come from Aaron. So all priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. If I said that right. But the Levites were temple workers. So you know they were around all this religious stuff they knew it would be like next in line for surely might be the equivalent of saying a pastor was walking down the road and then a deacon was walking down the road surely this guy knows but again he passes by on the other side it's funny I remember clear back in school talking about this. Why did the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side? Well, there's an Old Testament code that the priest can't touch a dead body. I was looking in some commentaries, the Bible background commentary and the world biblical commentary. There's all this discussion, pages about why the priest might have had to avoid a dead body. He might have had his temple duty because of their rotation and he couldn't defile himself. The guy might have been dead. And if a priest touches an unclean, a dead body, he's ceremonial unclean for a week. And it was just all this discussion about why might he have Maybe he was afraid the robbers were still hiding in the rocks there, and he wanted to make sure. He wasn't thinking any of that stuff, because he wasn't real. It's just a made-up story. You don't gotta analyze it too much. Remember, we're trying to figure out why Jesus told this story, not what were these people doing, what led them, what caused, what were they thinking? That's not the point. The point is Jesus' point. So it doesn't matter. He wasn't thinking anything. He wasn't real. That's not what happened. Jesus just said it happened like this. So it did, for the point of the story. Then verse 33, but a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he introduces, you know, we have the priest, we have the Levite, people that should have known better, people that should have helped. These are religious, these are good people. And then we have a Samaritan. And I'm sure many of you here know the Jews hated the Samaritans. Maybe a year ago, I preached on the woman at the well, the Samaritan, and we talked about how the Jews wouldn't even go through Samaria. They would go around it, even though it took longer. because they hated them. The Samaritans, when the Northern Kingdom was taken captive, they intermarried and kind of created this half-breed, both genetically and religiously. They intermarried, so they weren't full-blooded Jews, and then they also intermingled their religions, so they had their own temple. They didn't worship in Jerusalem. Remember, that was the woman at the wells, big thing. You know, we worship on the Mount Gerizim, where they had their own temple. Jesus sets her straight. But this was what was going on. They had their own offshoot, if you will, of Judaism. And the Jews hated them. They didn't get along. Samaritan was a bad word. Samaritan was a bad name. It's what you called somebody. to insult them. They did it to Jesus in John 8, 48. It says, haven't we rightly said that you're a Samaritan and that you're demon-possessed? You know, that was their, the biggest insult they could muster up was, you're a Samaritan. Reminds me of that movie, The Sandlot, when they're insulting each other back and forth and, oh yeah, well, you're mama this and And the catcher finally shouts out, you play ball like a girl. And everyone gasps, because that's the worst insult. It's like, you can say whatever you want as long as you don't say, you play ball like a girl. Well, that's how they did it to Jesus. You're a Samaritan. So Jesus tells the story, and here's a Samaritan. So saying that would have had that type of reaction. but he shows compassion. Let's look at what he does. Verse 34, he went to him. The other guys pass by on the other side. He goes to him, he binds his wounds, pours on oil and wine. If he was on a journey, as it said, he would have had oil for cooking, wine for drinking. You know, wine doesn't go bad in your wine skins. And they used that stuff as medicine back then too. The oil soothed and protected an open cut or wound and the wine was kind of an antiseptic. And that was kind of what they had for medicine. So he pours it on. He doesn't dab it on a cotton ball and dab it. He pours it on. Then he sets him on his own animal. Brings him to an inn, took care of him. Apparently he stays with him all night because it says then the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and says, take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. That's incredible. A denarii was, I looked it up, found all kinds of different values for it, but it was apparently enough money to take care of this guy for quite a while. Some people said it would have paid for a room at the inn for as long as two months. The word denarii actually comes from some word which meant ten, because when it was minted originally it was enough to purchase ten donkeys, a single denarii. sounds like a lot to me but then other places i look said it was a day's wage so if you can buy ten donkeys a day you're doing well so i'm not sure the value but apparently it was enough and he leaves it open-ended he says whatever else you spend all cover when i get back who does that who acts that way Leviticus verses says, love your neighbor as yourself. You think about that and it's like, oh, it's almost a weird way to think about it. Cause I don't know how you love yourself. I've never met myself beaten on a road. So I don't know how. And a lot of times people say, well, what would you want somebody to do for you if you were beaten on the side of the road? And even that's a little tough to place yourself in that situation, because a lot of us would say, well, I wouldn't want them to do too much. Yeah, I would hope they help me, but would any of us ask for this kind of treatment? So I was thinking about it. What if you're walking down the road and it's your wife laying there beaten? Then how do you treat her? Do you save some of your oil? You pour it on. You bandage her wounds. You put her on the donkey. You walk it to the hotel. You take care of her all night. You pay for everything. And if for whatever reason you had to leave, you say, yeah, here's enough money. This should cover it. But if not, spare no expense. Do whatever she needs. Take care of her. That's love. And we see it plain as day in that context. However you might beat around the bush of loving your neighbor and, oh, as long as you, I gave a homeless guy 20 bucks the other day. That's not loving your neighbor as yourself. That's another reason I think Jesus just made up this story, that it wasn't really true, because no one would do this. Just leave it open-ended, whatever you spend. Can you imagine telling an innkeeper that, yeah, whatever bill you rack up, I'll pay when I get back. They'd probably find a way to spend more, wouldn't they? That's love. That's the love, how you love your neighbor as yourself. And that's how you love God with all your heart, In all your mind, you love God so much that you will keep his commandment to love people. With all your heart, with all your mind, you'll figure out ways, you'll use your mind to figure out a way to do even more, all that you can, just like if it was your child laying on the road. You don't do the minimum, you don't do enough, you don't do more than other people. You do all you can think of. all you can devise, all you can afford, and then some. You'd go into debt. You'd pay more than you even have to love like you love yourself, like you love your own. So let's look at verse 36. Which of these three do you think, this is Jesus speaking back to the lawyer, which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers? So here Jesus flips it. The man asked Jesus, who's my neighbor? Right? He's hoping for a way out, some wiggle room, and well, maybe these people aren't my neighbor, maybe these people aren't my neighbor. Maybe neighbor just means, you know, the people who live next door, and they're doing fine, so I don't have to give any money to them, so I'm good. His question was, who is my neighbor? And Jesus flips it, and he says, which one acted like a neighbor? He's saying, you're not supposed to be concerned with who qualifies as your neighbor. You're supposed to be concerned with, are you acting like a neighbor? Are you a neighbor? How do you act, not who qualifies. And then if they make the short list, then I'll, I guess those are the people I have to help. It's how do you behave? so he flips it around and the lawyer says the one who showed mercy he can't even say the word samaritan I guess the one who showed some mercy reminds me of last week we had those attacks in Sri Lanka Some of our politicians are on TV and Twitter. I can't even utter the word Christian. There were Easter worshippers who were attacked. It's kind of nitpicky, I know, but it's, I think it reveals a lot about the heart. That's how this guy was, he can't even say the word. We had three people in the story, three titles, you know, a priest, a Levite, a Samaritan. Pick one. The one who showed mercy. And Jesus says, go and do likewise. You go and do likewise, actually. The words there, go and do, are in the present imperative. It's a command. You have to. He's commanding him to go and do the same. That's what the imperative means. The present means it's a continuous action. You gotta always do this. Every time, always, with every person, continually, habitually, always, go and live like this. And we think no one could do that. I couldn't. I've helped people before, but I've never helped anyone like the Samaritan helped this man. And I certainly don't help everyone always the way the Samaritan helped this man. But the lawyer put himself under the law. He says, Here's how you inherit eternal life. Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says, yeah, that would work. If you could do it like this, always, all the time. You go ahead. That's one way, I guess. Remember, he's trying to justify himself. Yeah, if you wanna justify yourself, here's how. Jesus says this is a way. Perfect love always towards God and towards people. That's God's standard. What should this guy have done right here at this moment? He should have said, but no one can do that. You know, he should have broken down, beat his chest like the tax collector. Lord have mercy on me, forgive me, I'm a sinner. Apparently he doesn't. We don't get the story. It just ends. If you read on in the chapter, it says, now as they went on their way. They just left. It's over. We don't know what the guy, you know, if it ever got through. I don't know. But now we see Jesus' point, I hope, The story's not meant to make us feel guilty to help other people and to be more kind and to prompt us to be more generous. It's meant to make us feel conviction for breaking God's law and drive us to a savior because we realize you couldn't do this. That's the purpose of the law. Remember, uh, I think just last time I preached, we were talking about that. The law is a mirror. It shows you your dirty face. It wasn't meant to clean your face. The law was a schoolmaster. It's to show you how to do it. It wasn't to do it for you. I think we can let Paul conclude for us. If you'll turn with me to Romans 3. We'll begin in verse 19. Romans 3, 19 and following. Here's what Paul says about this. Now we know that whatever the law says, It speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. That's what should have happened with this lawyer. His mouth should have been stopped. He should have realized. Let's continue in verse 20. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And that's the whole point. That's the point of the parable. That's the point of the law. It's the point of the Bible. You can't do it by trying to be good. And if you think you're good, if you think you're good enough, it's because your eyes are on other people, not on the law, not on the mirror of the law. Because when you focus on the law, you have to love like this Samaritan all the time. perfect love of God and perfect love of humanity. And if you can't do that, then you're a sinner. Paul says no one has been justified by the law. All the law ever did was show them they've messed up. And this is why Jesus came. This was the point of the parable. You can't do it. And here, standing before the lawyer is the one who can forgive his sin. and apparently he misses it. We don't have recorded him saying, forgive me, I can't live up to this. If you're listening this morning and you think you're better than some, better than most, if you're living in this world of the scale, the balance idea that good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell, And as long as you outweigh the bad people, then you're a good people. And it doesn't work that way. You are held to the standard of God's law. Perfect love for God. Perfect love for people. Paul tells us, all fall short. No one has done it. And that's the whole point, to turn us to Jesus. And here stands Jesus, telling this story. Think of Ray Comfort on the sidewalk talking to people and pointing out, man, look, by your own admission, you're the one that quoted these verses. Look, you're a sinner even by your own admission. Ray Comfort sharing the gospel with people, Jesus died for your sin. And here this lawyer has Jesus standing there before him. I just hope we can see that picture that you can't do it by works of the law. This story is not to prompt us to be better people. It's to show people who think they're good, you're not even close. You need Jesus, and that's what we need this morning. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you. Thank you for this parable. We thank you for Jesus' ability to tell stories and prove points and make points clear to us. We thank you for the redemption that's only available, the justification. It's not in ourselves, not in our works, not in our ability to keep the law, but it's only in Jesus and what he did on the cross for us. And we just thank and praise you for that. Amen.