As we are continuing through our journey in Luke's gospel, and have been for over a year now, we come to Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37, one of the probably the most famous portions of all of Scripture, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and that term Good Samaritan is known even outside of Christian service as an idiom for those people who have a tender care and concern for others, and that indeed is something that is taught in the passage today, but it's actually something of a second thought because the parable of the Good Samaritan comes as a story to answer the question of How do we have eternal life? So let's go to the Lord in prayer and pray that He would unpack all the theological truth and practical application of this great parable of the faith. Father, we do turn to You now, Lord, recognizing our great need for You. You have given us Your Holy Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit through the prophets, through the apostles, and we're grateful for that. But we often come into these Sunday services a bit dull, perhaps fatigued from the weekend, rather tired, perhaps distracted by the things of this past week and the things of this coming week. So we pray, Holy Spirit, to fill us, to apply these truths to our lives. Lord, I pray, God, that you would convict the proud and that you would build up the humble. And Lord, there's something amazingly mystical about the preaching of the word of God and these Sunday services. We as believers kind of want to be convicted. We want our sin to be exposed and we want to be reminded of the great blessings of following our Lord and Savior as we walk out today. I pray, God, that we would have a sense of your presence and that you would give us truth. and truth and wonderful nuggets of truth to be able to apply to our life, to comfort us and bless us on our passage to the next life. Bless us now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Again, I would encourage you to turn with me to Luke chapter 10 and verses 25 through 37. I will read that text in its entirety. God says, Luke writes and behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he 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 of your heart, with all of your soul, with all your strength, with all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going along the road, and when he saw him, passed by the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And when he sent him on his own animal, he sent 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 him to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I'll repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? And he said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. You'll find your home group helps insert of assistance to you. You've got here three different components of this particular text here. We see the probe and inquiry of the lawyer in verse 25, the precise response of Jesus the Christ in verses 26 through 28, and the parable of the Good Samaritan verses 29 through 37. Y'all know that I love alliteration. And yes, it was a little bit of a stretch this time to get all those Ps in there. But I hope that I'm forgiven and that it helps you remember what it is that you learned today. So first of all, we look at the probing inquiry of the lawyer here. Notice how Luke starts off. And behold, he's intended to get your attention here. Jesus has just been rejoicing over the fact, which we go back to last week's sermon, it'll help fill in the blanks on your understanding of this, but of the fact that God has with withheld knowledge from certain people, primarily those who think that they were wise and understanding. And God chose to actually reveal his truth to those who were childlike. and they recognize they need a Savior. And Jesus has just been praising God for this, and as if to kind of prove the point here, this lawyer stands up. They're all sitting around. Jesus is sitting. They're all sitting. They're all listening. This lawyer stands up in the midst of the crowd, and he says, Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life? As if to prove Jesus's point, here's a guy who's a lawyer. And what did it mean to be a lawyer? It meant he was an expert in the Old Testament. But remember, Israel was a theocracy. The Old Testament was also the rule of the civil government as well. So he was an expert both in Old Testament. He's sort of like a seminary professor and a lawyer, like we think of as a lawyer, kind of combined into one. So he's an expert on the law. He is one of these people who is wise. who would be up there with the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the philosophers of the day who think they have all the answers. Part of that party of people who tended to attack Jesus and to go after him. So he is this expert on the law and he decides to get up. And you wonder, what's the guy's motivation? Why is he doing this? I mean, it's kind of bold to stand up in the middle and confront Jesus with a question here. But we get an idea about what his motivation was and how sincere he was when Luke says to put him to the test. Now it is possible that that was a legitimate, that he is inquiring to Jesus to see if Jesus has an answer for this. But it's likely because he and his buddies, the types of people like this lawyer, were most often opposed to Christ. He's probably trying to tarnish the credibility of Jesus Christ. And he may have been offended by Jesus's statement that God withholds his revelation from those who think they have all the answers, because he's the guy who thinks he has all the answers. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Y'all, that is the most important question anyone could ever ask. That is the question you need to see the people around you, your roommates and the people in your neighborhood and the people you come across. Do you know the answer to this? What must we do to inherit eternal rights life? So it's a good question and it's helpful. It's actually going to help Jesus to sort of explain things. But Jesus, so often when he gets this question, And we see this when the rich young ruler comes up to him later on in Luke. He answers in the same kind of way. He puts it back on the individual here. So this person should have been familiar with the Old Testament law. The Old Testament law tells us that there is an eternity out there. That we're not just advanced animals that when we die, we die. Ecclesiastes chapter 311 says this. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he's put eternity into man's heart. Isn't that true? Isn't that one reason why you came to Christ? You knew that this world wasn't it? You had a sense that there was an eternity beyond this and everlasting life. Daniel chapter seven, verse 18, and the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and ever. Psalm 16, 11, you made known to me the path of life in your presence. There is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Now this is interesting because in Jesus' day, during the early church, and really up until a couple hundred years ago, most people believe this. Most people realize human beings are spiritual animals, that we have a spirit in addition to a body, and that spirit is going to live forever. That was just sort of the assumed practice. But in our days of the emphasis on evolution, secular humanism, post-modernism, in many ways people no longer assume that. They may not even ask this question about eternal life. They may just want to know what is the meaning of life and that kind of thing. But Paul says they do that because they are subduing the truth that they actually intuitively do know, but they are afraid to actually mine the depths of that truth. In Romans chapter one, Paul says this, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived. Even though they're invisible, they're clearly perceived. How so? Ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. Every sunset that a human being witnesses shouts without excuse, without excuse. There is a creator. There is a creator and his name is God and you need to recognize him. And then according to Paul in Romans chapter one, people end up subduing that truth and they end up rejecting this truth that they intuitively know. And they end up doing two things. They don't show gratitude and they don't worship God correctly. And in their ignorance, they want to prop up their position by embracing materialism, secular humanism, postmodernism, and all these other philosophies of life, these false worldviews. Well, Jesus is sort of exposing that. But this lawyer, he should have gotten this. He knew that there was eternal life. So he's at least at that point in time here. And then Jesus tells him that this is what he needs to do. So what should I do to inherit eternal life? And then he gives this precise response. He says, what is written in the law? What do you read? Notice he's a good teacher. He puts it back on his students. Now, my students seem to be very reluctant to answer my questions. Perhaps there have been. I've abused them before. I don't know. But but but this guy was able to respond. He put it back on his students and makes them think it through before they they give a response here. What does the law say? So Jesus turns the question back on him. But notice that Jesus does affirm the law of Moses. And he says, how do you read it? That actually can be interpreted, how do you recite it? And Jesus is thinking about the Shema. The answer to this question is in Deuteronomy chapter 6. And Orthodox Jews to this day will recite the Shema, Hero Israel, three times a day here. So how do you recite it? And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength and with all your mind. That is the Shema here. Our lives should be devoted to worshiping, reverencing and loving the God of all creator, the God of those sunsets. That is how we're to order our life. And then he gives the second summary, which is a statement that says, well, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That comes from Leviticus chapter 9, verses 18. So these two responses basically give the two, the summary, the two tablets of the law. That sort of works is something like our Apostles Creed works. It's a summary statement of what's written in Holy Scripture, the story of the gospel. So you got the first four commandments that relate to the love of God. This next six relate to our fellow man. And he said to him, Jesus gave him an affirmation. You have answered correctly. which is interesting because Jesus gives the same answer when he is asked that same question. You know, what do you see is written in the law? How do you summarize it in Mark chapter 12? So the command calls for total commitment of selfless love, agapeo love, that highest kind of love found in scripture where it is a self-sacrificing kind of love that puts the other person's interests first, and it includes not just the mind, but the very emotions, the very life itself. This kind of love is how we ought to show both God and our neighbor. And then he looks to the lawyer and says, do this and you'll live. Where's the problem? We can't do it. We're terrible at it. We are so selfish. This kind of love, this expected is beyond us in so many ways. Do this and you will live. But to do so is impossible because we're such sinful, selfish people. The best of us don't love with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and don't love our neighbor as ourself. Why is that? Well, the Apostle Paul helps us, Romans 3 20, because by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in the sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So it's impossible because you can't earn your salvation through love. Galatians chapter three, for as many as the works of the law are under a curse for it is written curses everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3, 10, so that there is none righteous, not even one. So what is Jesus doing? Again, he does the same thing with the rich young ruler. He asked them, he asked them, what is the law say? Now go do it. And he's expecting a certain response. It will help for us to know what's the law for. And this is kind of a doctrine of our church, Calvin's threefold use of the law. So why do we have law? Why did God give us law? What's its use in the New Testament? while we're under grace in the New Covenant. First of all, well the third, I'll start from backwards to get the point. The third person of the law is to reveal what is pleasing to God, right? We want to know what makes God happy. So the law does that. It shows us what are things that he sees as being appropriate behavior. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. OK, that's a way keeping his commandments is a way we express love. John chapter 14. The second person in the law is the law is to restrain evil. It helps it helps keep evil down. We see this in our own country, right? Well, our country has good laws. But when those good laws are ignored, as they often have been, even by government authorities, evil is multiplied. And law is intended to restrain evil. But the first purpose of the law, I think, is the purpose that Jesus is getting for here. The first purpose of the law is it is a mirror. On the one hand, the law of God, the law of God reflects and mirrors the perfect righteousness of God. But what else does it show us? How we have compromised. how we have failed, how we are so utterly, utterly sinful, how we are in such need of a savior because we can't save ourselves. Augustine wrote, the law orders that we, after attempting to do what is ordered, is so feeling of our weakness under the law that may learn us to learn us to implore the help of grace. So this helps us know why Jesus presses the lawyer to keep the law, to love God, and to love your neighbor, and also to give us this parable of the good Samaritan that follows. So Jesus' response is challenging the lawyer to practice these commandments, and it appears to have hit a nerve, as Jesus intended. So the lawyer, at this point in time, he should have said, but I've tried to keep the law, I've tried to love, and I just can't. What do I do? That would have been the right response. Eventually, all of y'all, those of you who became Christians later in life, got to that point in time, realized, I can't keep this law. It convicts me. I need a savior. That's what he should have done. But here's the here's the point. He missed it. It says here in verse twenty nine, but he desiring to justify himself. Justify himself. This is where he missed the point. This is the key to understanding this parable in so many ways. He's trying to justify himself. As Philip Riken says, at this point, the lawyer should have prayed for grace. He should have fallen to his knees and said something like this. Help me, Lord. I am a sinful man. I cannot love God the way he demands to be loved. I have never loved anyone nearly as much as I love myself. Tell me a sinner. How can I be saved? But by wishing to justify himself, he failed to deny himself. He failed to recognize he can't save himself. He failed to confess the reality of his own sinful heart and appeal for the mercy and the grace that Jesus offered. He refused all the evidence that would show he has violated this principle, the one he's given himself here. and he seeks to justify himself. In some ways, he kind of illustrates all of Israel. Most of the Jews at the time had been praying for Messiah for centuries, but most of them rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Most of them would have affirmed his execution there on the cross. Paul says in Romans chapter 10, Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is their knowledge. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. See, if you think you can save yourself, i.e., well, I've never robbed a bank or killed anybody. I'm a good guy. I pay my taxes. I take out my garbage. I feed my children. Gluten free bread. I don't know if you feel I've done all these great things, you know, you know, of course, I'm going to get into hell. I'm better than most people. I'm better, certainly better from all those people that live on the other side of town. You're doomed, you're doomed because the best of human righteousness is utterly sinful and covered with decay before the pure holiness of God. So in seeking to justify himself, he says, who is my neighbor? He's he's a lawyer. He's looking for a loophole. OK, so who's my neighbor? OK. Now, again, he's coming from a background, a rabbinical teaching and that sort of thing. And and to the rabbis, the neighbors were only the Jews, only covenant people of God. Everybody else was sort of the unclean Gentiles. So so he Jesus replies and he gives this story of the Good Samaritan. Right. A man's coming down from Jerusalem, Jericho, Jerusalem's up in the hills. Jericho is actually 900 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea is the lowest part of Earth, on planet Earth. So you go all the way up from down there, and that is a very barren terrain. It's full of rocks and wadis and crags, and easily you could hide a brigand who would ambush unsuspecting travelers. And indeed, in fact, because that was so common, they used to call this back in the day, the bloody way. the bloody way or the bloody road from Jerusalem down to Jericho. He fell among robbers. He stripped him and beat him, leaving him half-deaf. They took everything. Barely his life was spared. And now he gives these three different people who come up to him. He says, first of all, a priest came up to him. So basically this priest, he's in charge of what? Temple worship, right? He's probably a Sadducee. He's probably of the upper classes. This priest is going along the side, and if that man had been sort of conscious, if he had still, he's kind of sitting there, and he's all bloodied and beaten and stripped, and he's looking there, and he sees a kind of this blur, and then he gets close, and he realized, this is a priest. This is a priest. He probably would have gone, oh, thank you, God, for sending the priest. Surely I'm okay now, right? But what's the rest of the story? Preach didn't stop. Matter of fact, he would be very, very wrong, because it says the priest passed on the other side. Literally, the emphasis there is the priest saw him, saw exactly what's going on here, and just kind of walked around him, avoided him. Not going to get eye contact with God, not going to get mixed up in this situation. And you wonder why? Wouldn't basic human sympathy say that I ought to do something to stop and help this guy, at least give him a drink of water or something like that? Shouldn't I stop there? Well, I mean, commentators have been split. Why did this guy not stop? Here's some options for you. First of all, he was afraid. He was afraid this guy could be bait and the brigands are still there. Obviously, there's crime in the area. This is a bad neighborhood. If he had had doors and locks, he would have locked his doors and driven by. But he saw that there was a problem, so he's afraid. He's afraid he's going to get a similar fate that's going to happen to him. He's in a hurry. He just doesn't have time to mess with this guy. He's got something else to do. Let somebody else deal with it. He was afraid to get involved. He didn't want to get all tangled up with this guy's mess. He obviously needs a lot of help, and I'm just not going to mess with it. Or perhaps he was so pious he didn't want to become ceremonially unclean. If this guy's dead, I don't want to touch him because then I can't perform my rites, so I got to put my religious stuff first. I don't know the reason, but they all fall short, don't they? because this guy was desperate for help. So he passes by and then a Levite comes by, passes the same way. So then we're thinking, OK, now the Levite will do the right thing, right? I mean, he's a Levite. You know, Levites, they were like priests, but they weren't didn't do the priestly services. They did perform the other services in the temple. So all priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. You get that? But this guy was still, you know, some assisted with the service, the the cultist operation of the of the Jewish temple and that kind of thing. A thoroughly religious man. And yet, same thing. He goes by and he just keeps going by and he passes by. And the Levite didn't stop, didn't try to help him, didn't demonstrate love for God or love for his neighbor. So here's this poor guy. He's already been passed out by the two best opportunities to help him. Right. These are religious people who know the law of God. They know the greatest commandments and all this kind of stuff. And he's sitting there. And then there's a third person. And he sees that this third person is kind of unexpected. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and saw him had compassion. Now, if the guy was, again, a little bit conscious, he would have seen a Samaritan and he would have thought, oh, no, what the robbers didn't finish, this worthless Samaritan certainly going to these people are evil. And he would have assumed that this guy would have taken whatever else he had left or. Finish the job or whatever, but this man had compassion. Now again, if we were in this environment, sitting there around Jesus with this lawyer standing up some 2,000 years ago, and Jesus said a Samaritan, we would have leaned forward. What's the Samaritan going to do? And Jesus says he had compassion. We would have been shocked because Samaritans are such wicked, half-breed, heretical thugs They are the filth of the world. They couldn't have compassion. What's Jesus getting to? This can't happen. We hate Samaritans. They hate us. There's a history of animosity and hatred towards one another. And Jesus goes into some detail. He binds his wounds with pouring oil and wine. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that. That's first century per se, but it was effective. You think about the wine killing the the infection and the oil was softening the wounds to keep them from hardening up and that kind of thing. And then he would set him on his own animal so he walks, the Samaritan walks, the injured Jew is on his own animal and he took care of him. They got to this inn, a safe place for him to be able to sleep, and the Samaritan continues to care for him there at the inn. I mean, it's not like he could hit the, you know, room service and, can you send a medic up here and to dinners? We need to help this. No, he's taking care of the guy at the end. Then he has to leave. He's got, he's on business, right? So he's got to go. He gives two denarii. Some commentators say that's two months worth of staying at the end. Here's two to nine. It's a lot of money. Here's two to nine. You take care of him. If there's not enough money, he's trusting the landkeeper. When I come back, I'll take care of him. I'm coming back. I want to check on this guy to make sure. I mean, the thoroughness of his compassion is pretty convicting, isn't it? I'm not sure we would be so inconvenienced. I'm not sure we would be willing to give our resources to this point in time. So then he goes and Jesus makes this startling parable here and talks about this. And it's just everybody's just on the edge of their seats on the edge of the rock. And he asked the question, which of these things, which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor of the man who fell among them? So he's again, he's a brilliant teacher. He's putting the question back to him. This makes him have conviction in his answer. And he said the one who showed him mercy, the Samaritan. I mean, the lawyer couldn't even bring himself to say the Samaritan. The Samaritans, the good guy, all that he could say was the one who showed him mercy. And then he just does what he did before. He looked at him and he says and he says, you go and do likewise. You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live. You're right. You're right. That's the standard of perfection. That's what we're supposed to do. Luther summarized this idea of what does it mean to be our neighbor? He says it means you have to be Christ to your neighbor. Let's be Christ to our neighbor. Now, the point is this, is that the lawyer should have said, I can't. I wouldn't have stopped. I can't do it. I've got to be honest with you, I fail here. And then Jesus could have said, ah, you need grace. That's why I've come. That's why I've come. So the overarching theme of this parable is how do you get eternal life? And he basically sets it up for you to realize you need God. It's only because of God's grace. But then you have this other theme here of the love of God that we're supposed to show and the love of neighbor that we're supposed to show. So I've got to take a little bit of a parentheses. You know, when you when you prepare a sermon, you try to have one big point. This one has three. So let me let me take a give you a little bit of parentheses and let me help you out, because you're probably like me when you're reading that parable, you're convicted. that you have failed to be the neighbor that you should have been to be involved with people's lives, I think. But one of the first things, if you're honest, comes to mind is I need to give more money to homeless people. Isn't that kind of what? Because in our culture, the kind of poverty that they knew, it basically doesn't exist. If it does exist, it's normally because people have sinned themselves into poverty. There are so many things in place to keep someone from being at this kind of point where you are absolutely no food, no clothing, no place to keep your head. So what do we do? There's plenty of things we can do. There are some things we don't do. And let me just encourage you in this thing. Just remember this principle. The enemy of good charity is bad charity. And we've got a considerable amount, mostly government run, of bad charity in our country that kind of spoils our ability sometimes as Christians and as a church to be able to help people. And Anderson seems to have an increasing population, or wherever you are, of homeless people, vagrants. And they're obviously people who need help. I would submit to you that giving them money would not help them. We have supported, for instance, the Haven of Rest gospel ministry since our church began 17 years ago. And we get together with the Haven of Rest people. They come and worship with us about once a quarter. You know, a van pulls up and all these men get out and they're like, what's going on here? And they worship with us. And those are men who are being helped. But one of the things the Haven of Rest does is they basically, if you're going to stay with them and you're going to be part of the program, you got to go to some Bible studies. You can't drink, you can't smoke, you can't do drugs if you want to stay with us. They put some expectations to help get away with this just giving a money thing. And they will tell you, don't give them money. Why? Because they got free food, they got a free place to stay. What are they going to use their money for? Drugs and alcohol or something else. And it's just going to make the situation worse. What you can do is give them information. Hope Gospel Ministries makes this amazing brochure. It is thorough. If you want to help somebody, there's not a question they could ask if they're sincerely interested in help this night on here. You've got categories for free housing, for pregnancy care, for foster care, for mental health care, for medical assistance, elder support, for youth. And they list down here, I think it's about 15 places where you can get free food. In Anderson, We've got about a hundred of these out there. When a vagrant comes by the church and they want money, we say, we don't give money. We support ministries that can help you. We're not qualified to assess whether you really need help or not. Here's some information. Usually they take it. Usually they know. They know the system. But that helps prevent us from getting these 25 minutes of manipulative stories just to try to wear you down to where you finally go ahead and give them a buck to get rid of them. You have liberty to handle that however you want to, but I would discourage you from giving money. That's not being a Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan is to direct them to places that can help them with services and give them the mental help they need to get off of their addiction and that kind of thing. That's a little parentheses, but I think we needed that because we all go down that, what about the homeless people route when we look at this Good Samaritan principle here. So basically, the point of the back to this to this lawyer who missed the point, Jesus is the solution. The parable, like the law itself, is meant to drive us to that solution. In a sense, what he was doing in the in the in the lawyer's own words, he's showing them a mirror and he's saying, look how sinful you are. Look how much how good God is and how much he expects and expected him to be able to fall on his knees and cry out for a savior. Paul says. and 2 Corinthians 5, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. But the skepticism of this lawyer kept him from being saved. As one commentator said, in a tragic example of missing opportunity that rivals Judas, the scribe, despite being asked the right question and the right person and receiving the right answer, he turned away to face eternal death. This lawyer probably never got saved. I mean, it doesn't get better than getting the truth straight from Jesus himself. And he sought to justify himself to harden his heart to the truth rather than to receive it. Folks, don't let that be you. Don't let that be you. You need a savior. You need a savior to be saved. You need a savior to be sanctified, to grow in grace as we continue through life. Of course, as you look at different applications of this, of the good Samaritan principle, probably the worse the circumstances, the more the Samaritan shines in those circumstances. I just want to close with a great example from Ernest Gordon, who was a an officer in the British Army, and he was in the notorious Japanese prison camp on the River Kwai. If you are a student of history like I am, you know that internment in a Japanese prison camp, the mortality rates was 27%. A quarter of all the allies starved to death, died of disease or abuse or whatever in the Japanese camp. It was seven times of that, if you were interned in a German or Italian prison camp, they were hellish experiences. And often, especially for the British captor in Singapore, for instance, they would have lasted for four or five years that way. Every day was a nightmare because of the abuse. The Japanese thought that surrender was dishonorable, so they treated their captives with terrible dishonor. But he was on the bridge of that River Kwai area here, and going through all the misery. After the Japanese were defeated, the prisoners were released, and they were going through a jungle. And they came across a train filled with wounded Japanese soldiers that had been left there to be neglected. And Gordon and some of his friends went in and ministered to the wounded Japanese, helping them with their bandages, giving them water. And there was another officer there who was outraged, who had suffered five years of abuse at the hands of the Japanese. And he said, what bloody fools you are, don't you know that these people are the enemy? And Gordon recited the parable of the Good Samaritan, that we are to love God and we are to love our neighbor as his self. And of course, the officer protested, that's different. That's in the Bible. These are the squine who starved us to beat us and they've murdered our comrades. These are our enemy. And Gordon looks to him, said, who is my enemy, but also my neighbor? If someone like that who had been tortured and abused can show that kind of love towards his abusers, we can learn to show that kind of love towards so many others. And in doing so, we're pointing people to the Savior, Christ, who will save you because you can't justify yourself. Father, I pray that you take us, help us with all these applications in this text. and help us to practice them ourselves, but also point out the futility of pursuing self-salvation. No one can meet that standard of the law. That's the point, and yet we so often miss the point. Pray, Lord God, that you would help us, even those who are saved, help us not to... We're obviously not going to justify ourselves. We recognize that we need a Savior. But, Lord, so often we fool ourselves into thinking we are having a more dynamic Christian life than we actually are having, that we are actually expressing love when we're actually not. Lord, this is a convicting passage. It convicts me. Help us to be people who are identified by love and let us see people come to know you because of it. In Christ's name. Amen.