Good morning, everyone. Welcome here to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trahearne. Also, welcome to those always in tune with us via internet all over the world. Please open your hand now to number 423. 423. We have a story to tell. Number 423. We must all read to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the right A story of fruit and mercy A story of peace and light A story of peace and light For the darkness shall turn to dawning And the dawning to night kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and life, with a song to be sung to the nations that shall lift their heart to the Lord. And some that shall conquer evil, And shatter the spear and sword, And shatter the spear and sword. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, And that dawning to noonday bright, that Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and light. We have a message to give to the nations, that the Lord who reigneth above And send us His hand to save us And show us that God is love And show us that God is love For the darkness shall turn to dawning And the dawning to know shall come to earth the kingdom of love and life. We must save you to show to the nations who have path of sorrow have tried, that all of the world's great might come to the truth of love, might come to the truth of love. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to knowing. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have this message that is worth giving to the world, a message of hope. message of peace and as we look at our world we see that there's trouble all over even in our own little community here there's trouble and in Canada there's lots of trouble and across the world and we're thankful that we can know the truth and that we can be ambassadors for truth in this dark and dying world. We do pray for our country of Canada, pray for our politicians and doctors and nurses and police officers and firefighters that many of them would get saved and see the importance of truth in their lives. We continue to pray for the Waldner family that they would desire thy peace and blessing in their lives and for the At Adam's funeral home, we're thankful that we could have that ministry to them and pray that they would hunger for truth in their lives as well, as they deal with a lot of dead people and a lot of families, and we pray that they might desire to know the truth themselves. We continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for the situation they're facing there right now. Pray for Mr. Netanyahu, that he would see his need to repent and be saved, for the soldiers as they fight, And we just pray that many would get saved in Israel, as well as Jews across the world, and many Muslims would get saved as well. Guide and direct us here. May we allow Thee to prepare our hearts even as we sing the hymns that we would be prepared for the preaching of Thy word later, that Thy will be accomplished here, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 454. 454. What a wonderful sergeant. Number 454. you Christ has forsaken atonement. What a wonderful Savior! We are with Him, the price is paid. What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior! Jesus my Jesus, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. I praise Him for the cleansing blood, what a wonderful Savior, that reconciled my soul to God. What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. He cleansed my heart from all its sin. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. Savior, and now He reigns and rules therein. What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my lord he gives me overcoming power what a wonderful Savior and triumph in its trying hour what a wonderful Savior what a wonderful Savior What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. To Him I've given all my heart. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. savior the world shall never hear apart what a wonderful savior what a wonderful savior is jesus mighty son what a And over to number 500. 5-0-0. When the roll is called up yonder. Number 500. When the trumpet of the Lord sounds out, and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair, when the saviour first shall gather over all the earth's shore, and the roll its gold up, I'll be there When the roll is called up yonder When the roll is called up yonder When the roll is called up yonder When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there On that bright and glossy morning when the dead in Christ shall rise And the glory of His resurrection shall share When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the sky And the rolling skull of yonder shall be there When the rolling skull of yonder When the rolling's called up yonder, When the rolling's called up yonder, I'll be there. Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun, Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care, Then when all of life is over and our working road is done And the road is called up yonder, I will be there When the road is called up yonder When the road is called up yonder When the road is called up yonder ♪ When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there ♪ Let's go up there. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke's gospel account of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 10, we're looking at verses 25 to 27. New chapter 10, 25 to 27, we'll stand please for reading of God's word. Starting there at verse 25, it says, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself. We're gonna read to the bottom of 37, not 27. And he said unto him, thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him, of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning again that we have Thy Word, thankful again that we can know how we can have eternal life. It's not by works, not by what we do, but it's what Thou has provided for us through Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful that we can look at this passage and look into our own hearts and allow Thee to show us through Thy Word where we are at, what is our attitude towards Thee. Do we have eternal life? Are we merciful to others? I pray that thy will be accomplished in our lives as we look into these verses that we would allow thee to teach us and to, for anyone that's lost, that they would see the need to repent and be saved while there's still opportunity. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is Knowing Jesus Changes the Heart. Knowing Jesus Changes the Heart. Again, as we mentioned in Sunday School and we've mentioned often here, it's very interesting what is happening in the Middle East right now. I believe it was on Friday that Israel attacked Iran. Iran, of course, has been supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen, and all of those groups have been fighting against Israel. And Israel is also concerned because Iran is working on developing a nuclear bomb, and they have been working on that and they have been close to having a bomb for quite some time actually for several years but there's always been a little bit of delay. God has not allowed them to fully develop the bomb at this time and Israel in these last couple of days has attacked some of the nuclear sites and also some of the refineries and also the places where they make their drones and their rockets. So Iran has been hit hard The Israeli government, they used deception in the run-up to this thing. The United States helped them with that. The United States said that there was another negotiation set for today, and so the United States had publicly stated they did not want Israel to attack because they were hoping to have further negotiations today. Israel also had made some statements that caused Iran to think that there was no attack coming right away. So some of the Iranian officials, they had been gathering together because they're working on their nuclear weapons. And so Israel struck and there were scientists that were gathered together, there were commanders that were gathered together, and so it wasn't hard for Israel to take them out. Israel has a secret service called Mossad, and they infiltrate countries, and they've been able to do that with great success. And they have their Mossad operating inside Iran, and Iran so far hasn't found them. So what the Mossad has been doing is they have been smuggling drones into Iran. They bring them in in suitcases, so obviously they're small enough, they go into a suitcase, they're disassembled, they put them together, and so they didn't just have to fly, which is quite a distance, to fly from Israel to Iran, it's quite a distance, but they had drones right in Iran. And so they use those as well to attack these sites. And many of those drones are called suicide drones. So they've got bombs on them and they crash into whatever they're going to and explode. And they're pretty powerful. So Israel has done a lot of damage in Iran in the last two days. Iran, of course, not to be undone, said we're going to attack back. And they did, and they have managed with some of their, they don't have much left anymore, but with their rockets that they had, they have sent them into Israel, and some of them have made it through the Iron Dome. And they have damaged some of the buildings in Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv being not the capital, but the place where the airport is. And Israel, to protect themselves prior to attacking Iran, moved all of their commercial jets out of Israel. So no flights are coming into Ben Gurion Airport in Israel right now. There's no jets there. We don't know where those jets are, who's got them, maybe they're in the States, maybe who knows where they are, but they're not in Israel right now. And Israel did that to protect themselves so that their jets would not be destroyed by enemy fire. But it's a very interesting situation that's taking place in the Middle East. And there are people, of course, if you listen to the CBC, they're very concerned about escalation of this thing. Mr. Carney has come out and said that Israel and Iran need to de-escalate. Mr. Carney is a fool. He doesn't know the Lord and he is more in favor of Islam than he is of Christianity and of Jews. And so, of course, he's going to want to try and stop this thing because he doesn't want Iran to be destroyed. Now we know that Iran will not be destroyed even though Israel is crippling them right now. The Bible tells us that Iran will be able to have a massive force that will come against Israel yet in the future. So it's good to pay attention to what's going on in the world, but always look at the Bible. What does the Bible say with regard to what's going on? Because much of the reporting that you're going to hear, if you listen to CBC or CTV or CNN or ABC News in the States or any of those outlets, I think it's called, what is it, ABC or whatever it is anyway. Any of those sites, you're not going to get the facts because most of those, the reporters are left-leaning individuals who hate Jews and hate Christianity. So they're going to be reporting a lopsided news report. So it's important to be careful what you believe, but always everything that you're listening to on the news, what does God say? And when we follow what God says, it helps us to see and understand what's going on in a proper way. So that's just some background to keep us informed of what's going on right now in the Middle East. That's what's important. And we need to continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that souls will be saved in that country. Looking at our text here, Lord Jesus Christ again is addressing in this case a lawyer and the thing that we want to the title of the message is Knowing Jesus Changes the Heart. Knowing Jesus Changes the Heart. There's a lot of people today We had a funeral here on Friday, and again, it was stated that the person that had died accepted Jesus as a young person, and yet the life of that person that had died did not indicate that they had trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation. It's more than just naming the name of Jesus that is required in order to be saved. And in our text, the first point we have is an important question And this lawyer, it says, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What shall I do? That's the question that most people are trying to answer. What shall I do? Not simply How can I have eternal life? There's a difference between that question and what shall I do? The Philippian jailer ran into the prison after God sent the earthquake and he asked a similar question. What must I do to be saved? And here this lawyer tells us here in this passage, he's not really interested in having an answer. It says that he stood up and tempted him. His desire was not to know the truth. His desire was to trap Jesus. And there are many people today that that is their desire is to, they're not interested in the truth. They just want to try to discredit anybody that is telling the truth. And that's something we need to be aware of. So this man, he came to Jesus and you notice here in verse 25 that he addressed Jesus as master. And the word master there means teacher. And that's what Jesus is. He is a teacher, but he's more than just a teacher. And so here the question this man has, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So he wants to know what he needs to do, but the word inherit has the implication of a gift. When your parents die, If they have anything, you inherit it. They generally, in the will, they write out the will, and if there's three children, then they will divide things amongst the three children. If the will is set up and the father dies first, usually the wife gets everything, and then if the wife dies, then it's dispersed to the children. Something along, depending on how wealthy the family is. But that inheritance is not something that you earn, but it's something that you're given. Now, many times children assume that there's going to be an inheritance. They believe it's their right to have an inheritance. Well, it's not your right. Your parents don't have to leave you anything when they die. They could squander it all themselves. They could give it to somebody else. It's not your right just because you're their child. And a lot of times, children are greedy. And so when the parents die and the will is opened and one child doesn't get what they think they should have gotten, then they hire a lawyer to fight the thing. And then guess who wins? The lawyer wins. not you. You end up giving away what you could have had because you're greedy. So it's important for us to understand that when this lawyer is coming to Jesus, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He understands, this lawyer understands that there is an eternity and he wants to know how he can get in on it, but again, he's not really interested because he's tempting Jesus. Verse 26, it says, and he said unto him, what is written in the law, how readest thou? So Jesus here, he doesn't just quickly jump and give this man an answer. He challenges this man, he knows this man, he knows this man is not interested in truth, so he asks the man. Instead of telling him, well, this is what you need to do, he asked the man, what is written in the law, how readest thou? So Jesus causes this man to stop and consider what's written in the law, God's law. And so Jesus is challenging this man. Do you know the law? Have you read the law? This man is a lawyer. Lawyers are supposed to be educated men. And so this man here, now he has to stop and think what is written in the law. And in verse 27, he answers back, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself. So as this lawyer is answering Jesus, it should have stopped him from saying anything more. Keep in mind, this lawyer is coming to Jesus, tempting him. So he's telling Jesus, the law says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and so on. This lawyer didn't love God. Because if he loved God, he wouldn't be tempting Jesus. You notice here that he calls him, he says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, the Lord, master and God. So he's acknowledging with his mouth that he's supposed to love God as his master, as his commander, as the one who has authority over him, and yet he is coming before Jesus and tempting him. This lawyer is demonstrating he doesn't know God. He is standing before the Son of God, whom he does not accept as God, and tempting him. But the Bible tells us that we need to love the Lord with all the heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. We need to be preoccupied with loving God. We talked about that in the funeral message as well, that we need to be given over to knowing the Lord and serving him. There's no such a thing as a part-time Christian. A Christian is someone whose life has been changed by God from the heart out. That's why it says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. That's not possible for an unsaved person. That's not something that we as Christians always do either, but that's God's command to us. That's what is required of us. That's why 1 John 1, 9 is necessary for the Christian life. We need to confess our sin when we sin and be restored back to a right fellowship. And we need to do that often because we often fail as Christians, those of us that are saved. But the challenge here this man needs to address in his own heart is his relationship with God. In verse 28, Jesus answered this man, thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live. So the lost person will look at verse 27 and 28 and say, well, see here, Jesus is teaching work salvation. But the fact of the matter is, nobody on their own loves God the way that they should. So what the lawyer is answering in verse 27 is something that is impossible for the natural man to do. So this lawyer is setting himself up for failure. He knows the law, he knows what's required in the law, He can't do it because he's lost and he's trying to find a way to justify himself. So verse 29, the second point we have is trying to avoid responsibility. Verse 29, it says, but he willing to justify himself. He's not content with what Jesus has answered him. So he wants to try to prove himself to be a good person. So now he's asking the question. Again, is he sincere? No. But his question is, and who is my neighbor? He's trying to get off the hook. Because in the commandment, verse 27, the last part of it, and thy neighbor as thyself. So this man is suggesting he loves God the way that he should. And so he's focusing on the last part of the command, who is my neighbor? Well, Jesus is not going to be stumped. And again, those of us that are saved, we need to learn how to answer people and give people an answer of the hope that is in us with meekness and with fear, with fear and with meekness. So we need to have that respect for God in our answer, and we need to have that right attitude towards others that we want to help them. And so Jesus, in the next few verses here, he lays out an illustration. to help this proud lawyer to see who he really is. So in verse 30, in Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. So we're not given the given much detail about this man, except that he's from Jerusalem. So he's a Jew, most likely, well, not most likely, he is a Jew. He's going from Jerusalem to Jericho, but we're not told if he's, what tribe he's from or anything like that. But we're told that as he's traveling, he fell among thieves. So the conditions that Jesus is presenting here are really not that much different than the time we're living in today. We talked about that in Sunday school a bit, that used to be you didn't have to lock your house, you didn't have to take the keys out of your car, you don't have to worry about people stealing things from you. But we're living in a time today where you have to lock everything up if you wanna keep it. And that's the sad reality of an unjust society. But that unjust society was around in Jesus' time here as well. He's giving this illustration, and this lawyer can relate to this. So there were thieves, as this man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, there were thieves out there, and this man was obviously by himself, and the thieves saw that, and they attacked him. And they stripped him of his raiment. They took his garment off of him, and probably if he had any money, it would have been in the pocket of his raiment. And they wounded him, and they left him half dead. So this man, he can't walk now. He can't get up. He's injured, and he's laying there. But the thieves, they don't care. They're not interested in what's going on with the other person. They just want their things. So this man is laying there now and then it says there, Jesus used an interesting word there, verse 31, and by chance. Is there anything that happens by chance? No. It's all designed. Not everything that happens is good, but it's all designed. There's a purpose in everything that happens. And so it says, by chance there came down a certain priest that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So Jesus began here with the self-righteous priesthood. And again, this lawyer that is before Jesus, he's probably not alone in standing there, but there probably were some others there as well that were listening to Jesus and this lawyer, because usually these lawyers and the Pharisees and that, they pre-planned their attacks against Jesus. And so here in verse 31, this priest goes along this same trail, same road, and he sees this wounded man laying there, and he just walks by on the other side. He's not gonna get his hands dirty. Maybe the man is bloody. He's not gonna help him. He doesn't care about his soul. The priest was supposed to be a man of God. Obviously, this man is not a man of God. He doesn't care about the soul of this individual, doesn't care about his body either. He's willing to let him lay there and die. Then the second one in verse 32, and likewise a Levite. Now the Levites were also, the priests came from the tribe of Levi. So the Levite is a lesser, has a lesser office, but the Levites were also involved in the teaching of the law and helping out in the temple and so on. And here the Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. So it seems that this man takes the time to at least stop and look at the man, but he again assesses the situation and says, I'm not going to get involved here. This is not something I want to be bothered with. And again, there's a lot of people like that today. They don't want to bother to help other people. They're not interested in getting their hands dirty, not interested in giving of their time or of their resources to help others. And so the man is left laying there, dying, and these two individuals just go on their merry way, and they're only interested in looking good. But the third one. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. Now, the Samaritans, they were outcasts. The Jews did not like the Samaritans. The Samaritans, we've already said this before, the Samaritans were a mixed people. Back when the northern tribes were captured by the Assyrians, The Assyrian government took Jews out of the north and they put their Assyrian people in the north. And they did that so that the Jews would intermarry with the Assyrians. So now you have a mixed breed of people. You have half-breeds. You have Jews that have married Assyrians. that was against the Jewish law, God's law, but that's what the Assyrians did and the Jews, because they were not living for God anyway, they intermarried. So now you've got these Samaritans. You've got these people that are not pure Jews. And so this Samaritan, he's journeying And he comes to the same place, he sees this man laying there, and it tells us that he had compassion on him. So this Samaritan, even though he's being treated as an outcast, he has a better heart than the priest and the Levite. He is a man who understands what it means to be shunned. He knows what it's like to be hated. And he looks on this man that's laying there and he has compassion on him. And you see, sometimes that's the way it is. The people who are in need, the people who are oppressed are the ones who care about others because they understand what's going on a little better. It doesn't need to be that way. If the love of God is in our hearts, it doesn't matter whether we're oppressed or whether we're riding high on the society level, we would have compassion for others. But the fact is as well that if you are going to live for the Lord, you are going to be shunned by different people. Your coworkers might not like you. Your boss might not really like you. He may appreciate your work, but doesn't like what you stand for. Your neighbors might not appreciate you. You're not in the upper echelons of society if you're truly walking with the Lord as you ought to. And that's one of the reasons why we can know that in our country today, that our politicians are ungodly individuals. I mean, we know they are. But it's not likely that a lot of people are going to vote for you if you're going to live for the Lord. That's one of the failures of democracy. Democracy is being prided as the only true and good government to have, while Israel also prides itself in being a democracy. But Israel has a very corrupt governmental system, and that's because it's not honoring God. So here this Samaritan, an outcast amongst the Jews, realizes this man is in need. He's willing to take the time to stop and deal with this man. Verse 34, and he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. So this man, whatever resources he has, tells us there in verse 34, he's willing to give of them. Now, we don't know how far he is from a town, but he's willing to take from the oil that he has along and the wine that he has along. He's willing to wrap up this man's wounds with whatever he had. I don't know if he tore his robe maybe to be able to do that, but he wraps up his wounds to stop the bleeding, to stop the dust and that from getting into the open wounds. And then he takes this man and puts him on his own beast and brings him to an end. So whether he put this man on the beast, his own beast, and rode with that man on the beast, or whether he walked beside the beast and let the man ride on the beast, we're not told that. But either way, this man is willing to sacrifice of what he has to help this man that he doesn't even know. Doesn't say this was a friend of his, he simply saw this man that was a victim of a crime and he stopped to help him. And then it tells us in verse 35, and on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him, take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. So this man is taking of what he has, he's likely not a wealthy man, but he's taking of what he has, his resources, and he gives them to the innkeeper, and then he promises on top of that that when this man departs, if there's anything owing, this Samaritan would cover that debt. So this victim here, he has nothing that he has to concern himself as far as paying for this care that he's getting. He's off the hook. The Samaritan says, I'll cover it. So this man doesn't have to concern himself with getting out of that inn as quickly as possible when he's not ready to leave. He can stay there and he can recover before he goes home. So this Samaritan has put this victim at ease. And he's also put the innkeeper at ease and saying, I'll cover the bill. You don't have to worry about it. You're not going to be out anything. I want you to look after this man properly. That's a picture of God's salvation. In God's salvation, the sinner comes to God with nothing. This victim had nothing. Everything was stolen from him. When we come to God, we come to God with nothing. There's nothing that you have that God wants. There's nothing that you have that God needs. He is complete without you, without me. When we come to God, we come with nothing of value to Him. And he promises salvation through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and promises eternal life to us, promises to meet all of our needs according to his riches in glory. It's all at God's expense. So the third thing that we see here is the need for discernment. Having given this illustration to this lawyer whose intent is to tempt Jesus, now Jesus turns back to this lawyer and he says to him in verse 36, which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? So again, Jesus is not allowing this lawyer to just walk away from this thing. This lawyer has to think. He has to think and he has to give an answer. And so the lawyer, at this point, at least he has got a little bit of humility in his heart by this time. So in verse 37, the answer And he said, he that showed mercy on him. So the lawyer understands that these three individuals Jesus used in the illustration are not equal. Two of them are too proud to do anything for this victim. The third one, a Samaritan nonetheless, which probably was despised by this lawyer, but he's the one And the lawyer doesn't mention him by name, but he says, he that showed mercy on him. So he doesn't say the Samaritan, but he says, he that showed mercy on him. So by implication, he has to recognize that the Samaritan is doing a better job here than the priest and the Levite. And the Samaritan showed mercy. Here's what mercy looks like. Mercy is not expecting something in return, but it's simply doing for others what they can't do for themselves. And that's again what God does for us in salvation. He provides what we need, but there's no way that we can provide it for ourselves. Nobody can save themselves. Nobody is good enough to enter heaven on their own. Nobody. Nobody has enough money. Nobody's smart enough. Nobody is good enough. And so we are left to the mercy of God. And again, as we look at this victim that's laying there by the side of the road, we're not told that he's crying out. He may be unconscious, we don't know that. Doesn't say he's crying out for help, but these travelers, they all noticed him there. But it was the Samaritan who stopped to address this man's need. And he did it with compassion. So it wasn't that he was manhandling this guy. He wasn't rough to him. He was merciful and did everything that he could to help this man to be able to recover. And so Jesus' response to this man in verse 37, go and do thou likewise. Go and do thou likewise. and do thou likewise. That was the challenge that this lawyer was left with. He couldn't do that on his own. The only way that he could possibly meet this standard is if he would turn to God and accept God's mercy in his own heart, in his own life. because he was not a merciful man. But we see in this passage that Jesus shows us that when a person has eternal life, when a person is saved, they're different. So this is a great exposure of the false teaching that is so common in our world today that as long as you believe in Jesus, you're good. There has to be a change in your heart if you believe in Jesus. It's not enough to just say, I believe in Jesus and then carry on with your wicked lifestyle. Those who are truly saved are changed by the love of God, the mercy of God, the blood of Jesus Christ, they're changed. We are no longer that same hard-hearted person like the priest and the Levite. We're not like this lawyer in our text. We're like the Samaritan who understands and sees the struggles that people are facing and sees the need to know the truth and helps others to know the truth. And so the person, the true repentant individual is the one who turns to God and is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. But when they are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are changed. They now love the Lord. They now want to serve him. They want to follow him. And they want to be a help to others. So this lawyer here who tried to tempt Jesus, tried to trick Jesus, was given another opportunity here to turn to God and to be forgiven and saved. Go and do thou likewise. He was given that opportunity. We're not told that he accepted that opportunity, but he was given that opportunity. And God today is offering individuals forgiveness of sin, the opportunity to know his peace, to know his forgiveness in their hearts. But it's important for individuals to understand that if you're going to come to God seeking his salvation, you need to understand that you are surrendering your will to him. You're not making a bargain with God. You're not coming to him and saying, I'll give you this, but I want to keep some of my old life. I want to keep some of my sin. You're coming to God with nothing, just like this victim had nothing to offer this Samaritan. There was nothing he could do to pay that Samaritan back. And the Samaritan, when he left that inn, he said, I'll cover any other costs besides what I've given you already. I'll cover it all. This victim had nothing he needed to concern him. He needed to get back to work afterwards, yes. But during his time of recovery, his needs were met by the Samaritan. And in reality, those of us that are saved, our needs are met by God. You see, our greatest need is not money. It's not power. Our greatest need is to know the peace of God. You can't buy that. You can't earn that. It's a gift from God. And it comes when we surrender to God. There are many professing Christians today who do not know the peace of God in their hearts, because they're not surrendered to God. They're still fighting against God. They're, at best, carnal Christians, 1 Corinthians. And that has to change. For those who are truly saved, that has to change. We have to come away from that carnality. We have to come to the place where we recognize the importance of surrendering to God and then living for him. And those that are saved, as we read 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, those who are saved will change. And so again, it's important for us to understand this whole philosophy of easy believism is not a biblical teaching. It's something that comes from the devil. It's something that is designed to rob people of the peace of God. So don't buy into that. If you've been taught that in the past, Take your Bible and read what the Bible says. Understand that that idea of easy believism, just trust in Jesus and everything else will work out. If you're going to get saved, if you're going to turn to God for his salvation, you're going to be a changed individual because that's what God does and you'll love it. And as you grow in the Lord, you will love it more and more. You'll become more Christ-like because that's what God's salvation does. It works from the heart out, changes us from the heart out. It's what we need. It's what's only provided through God's mercy and grace towards us. And it's a blessing to have that in our hearts. So if you're listening today and you're not saved, That's the place to start. You need to turn to God. You need to understand you have nothing to offer him, but he's there to provide salvation for you. With that salvation, he provides his peace, his love, and you will be blessed in knowing him. And the things that really matter are the things that you can only receive as a gift from God. And the things that you do, that you can do, are there as a Christian. They're there to serve God with and to honor him because of what he has done for you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word, thankful that we can know the truth. We can be forgiven. We can be saved. We can have the blessing of this victim and having all our needs supplied. by Thee, the true and loving God, the one who does not force anyone to be saved and doesn't leave us with a bill to pay. We're thankful that we can be forgiven. We can have Thy peace in our hearts. We can be a blessing to others if we know Thy forgiveness through the blood of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May thy will be accomplished in each person's life as listening, that we might know thy peace and blessing, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.