The One Who Showed Mercy

This morning we're going to be studying the significance of mercy as it relates to our salvation. And so I want to begin, I want to get your wheels turning. And so the question to you this morning to begin is, what is mercy? What does it mean to be merciful? It means to have pity. It means to have compassion. Or forgiveness. Or grace. It means relenting when you have the upper hand. When it's within your power. To judge or punish or condemn, it means to relent. So would you describe yourself as merciful? Would those around you understand you to be merciful? Mercy is never meant to be a cover for laziness. When I say that mercy is relenting, when you have the upper hand, when you're in the right to judge, that does not mean that mercy, that you can call laziness or disobedience, with regard to your own responsibilities, mercy. You know, a parent can't say to their child, while I was being merciful, that's why I didn't discipline you. But really, they were just too lazy to do what their duty was. That's not mercy. Mercy is not forsaking your duty to discipline. Let me ask you another question. Do you like receiving mercy? When you need help, are you willing to take it as it comes? Or are you too independent? Do you refuse it when it's offered to you?

Are there terms upon which you'll accept mercy and other terms on which you'll refuse it? What about the mercy that you give? What about when you think, I'm being merciful? Do you give it freely or does it come with strings, with expectations? The reason I ask these questions is that the scripture teaches us that not only do Christians try to exhibit mercy, everyone has written into their hearts this idea that they ought to be merciful. that they ought to relent, that these truths of mercy and compassion and forgiveness and grace are things that all of creation try in their own way to give. Proverbs 12.10 says, A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, but even the compassion or the mercy, in another version it says, the tender mercies. It says, but even the tender mercies of the wicked is cruel. So even those who are cruel, They have in their mind that they're merciful. The wicked think they're merciful, but their mercy is cruel. And so we have need to learn what it means to be merciful as God is merciful. What is mercy? It doesn't mean going, yeah, whatever. Yeah, you can do what you want. I'll ignore it. But by ignore it, we don't mean forgive. We mean, I'm just going to put that in my back pocket for later. That's not mercy.

Mercy is very important. This morning we'll learn that from our text. Mercy is the embodiment, the demonstration of our obedience to loving our neighbor. This is what Jesus teaches us this morning. Our text this morning is Luke chapter 10, verses 25 through 37. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word? This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. And a lawyer stood up. And put him to the test, him being Jesus, saying, And he said to him, And he said to him, Jesus replied and said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And by chance, a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey,

came upon him and when he saw him he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged his wounds pouring oil and wine on them and put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him on 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 when i return i will repay you which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands And he said, the one who showed mercy toward him. Then Jesus said to him, go and do the same. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So Jesus is on his way up to Jerusalem. He's right in the midst of the throes of his public ministry. And as he's teaching and going around, this lawyer stands up and questions him, asks him a question. Now, I want to say something about lawyers now so that I don't have it rolling around in my head the whole time.

You can learn a lot about lawyers from this text, about what they're like. They're proud. They're arrogant. They think they're smart. These are the things that attend this man. Does that mean that they can't be godly? No. But you ought to know the temptations of lawyers. If you know lawyers, you ought to know them the way Scripture describes them. It's not to no effect that this man who's doing this, who's questioning Jesus, is a lawyer. So Jesus is teaching. He's talking. He's ministering. And this lawyer stands up and he asks Jesus a very important question. But before we come to this question, I want you to know how the question was asked by this lawyer. It says that a lawyer stood up and put him to the test. He put Jesus on trial, essentially. He's examining him. He's trying to find fault. And so from the very beginning, we can see that this lawyer's question is not sincere. He has an agenda. This man is a mocker. He's seeking to outwit Jesus.

And you would expect, I would expect when I see this, because Jesus knows all things. There's other places where we're told he knows what goes on in people's hearts and he addresses what's going on in their heart. They don't even have to say it and he knows what's going on. And he addresses these things. And so then you get this example of a lawyer who actually is coming out with it, testing him. What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? Trying to catch Jesus in his words. And what I would expect is for Jesus, to rebuke him. Why do you talk to me that way? Don't you know who I am? Or to ask him a question. You remember when they asked Jesus, by what authority do you teach? And he says, I have a question for you. You answer my question and I'll answer yours. But Jesus doesn't respond that way. He doesn't directly rebuke this man, this lawyer. And the reason is because of the significance of the question. You have to understand that Jesus is out. There's crowds. Everyone's listening.

And it requires, from the very beginning we see that Christian ministry requires wisdom on our behalf. We have to be aware of what's going on. Who's around? Who's listening? And sometimes you answer for the sake of the people listening, not for the sake of the one who asked. And that's what's going on here with Jesus. There's people around, listening, wanting to know. what the answer to this good question is. It is a good question. Lawyers are good at asking questions. And so he asks a good question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Would that more people would ask that question. And so he asks it. And Jesus answers it. But he does answer it with a question. Now I want to ask you the question. What must one do to inherit eternal life? Now you know what the text says.

But I want to know what your heart says. What must one do to inherit eternal life? What do you have to do to be saved? Daniel says, repent. AJ, speak up. Okay, so you have to obey. Do any of you think the answer should be nothing? Jim thinks it should be nothing. And I think that that's a con. I don't think we think it because we have it drilled into us so much that we can't save ourselves. We can't save ourselves. You can't save yourself. What do you mean saying yourself? The answer is nothing. You can't do it. And we want to spend all of our time saying, it's not about you, it's about Jesus. You need to trust Jesus, love Jesus, serve Jesus, hug and kiss Jesus, and you'll be saved. But you don't have to, you can do that if you choose to. But if you choose not to, you can still be saved. You don't have to do anything. What do you have to do to inherit eternal life? Nothing. Jesus will do it all for you. You don't have to do anything. But what we mean by you don't have to do anything is you don't have to change. And that's not true.

Jesus doesn't answer this question by saying nothing. Don't worry. I will take care of it. All you have to do is trust me. All you have to do is believe in me. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. I got it. Are those things true? Yes, those things are true. But it's imperative that you realize that Jesus did not answer this question. What do you have to do to inherit eternal life? By saying, I will take care of it. Don't worry about it. What he does is he asks this man a question, and his question is this. How does the law read to you? In effect, he answers the man, what do you understand your obligations with regard to salvation? What do you think you have to do? And the man says, well, I've got to love God with everything that's in me, and I've got to love my neighbor too. The greatest commandment and the second greatest commandment. And what's Jesus say? No, no, no, no, no. That won't work, because you're a sinner.

And you don't need to worry about that and obedience and all of the law. What you need to do is just trust me. Jesus says, no, you've answered correctly. You've done well. Jesus connects salvation to law obedience. No one will inherit eternal life for nothing. You say, but justification by grace, by faith alone, by grace alone. And I say, Jesus didn't answer the question that way. And we need to be biblical in the way that we answer the question. Those things have a place. Those things are true. I'm not saying you can save yourself. You can't. But you already know that. And so we're not going to focus on that. Because in our day, what that whole discussion causes is, what it produces is no obedience. It produces no fruit. It produces licentiousness.

It produces, do whatever you want because Jesus will take care of it. It does not produce love to God. It should. And in the hearts of God's people, it does. But we have to be cautioned in our culture that says, you don't have to do anything. And I say to you, no, you have obligation to God because he made you. And you're unable to fulfill those obligations. That's why Jesus was sent to this earth. Because his father loved us and sent his son to do what we were unable to do. But salvation in a place in heaven was not the end. That was not the whole purpose of God. His purpose in sending his son to save us so that we would inherit eternal life is so that we would be faithful here and now. So that we would obey the law. That we would follow our Lord Jesus in his obedience.

And so when Jesus answers the question, what must you do to inherit eternal life? He says, what do you think? The guy says, obey the law. And Jesus says, that's right. You must obey the law of God. You must obey the law of God to have hope of salvation. It's not what will save you. But there is no hope of salvation apart from obedience. Both Jesus' obedience and the fruit of that, his obedience, being your obedience. Your growth in obedience. Your growth and holiness. When Peter preached at Pentecost and he condemns the Jews for killing Jesus Christ, you crucified him. That's what he said to them. You crucified him. They were cut to the quick and what they said to him is, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter says to them, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I say, if repentance has any outworking in our life,

It must be obedience. What does repentance look like? It looks like turning away from disobedience and turning towards obedience to the law of God. That is what repentance is. And he says you are to repent and you're to be baptized. You're to be marked with the sign that all of God's people bear. And then you're to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable you, to empower you, to strengthen you to what? To obey. And so obedience is an integral part of inheriting eternal life. The lawyer answers with this. You're to obey God. He doesn't quibble with Jesus and say, well, but we can't obey. I mean, we've got this whole history of Israel and they were all so disobedient and they couldn't save themselves and you're here anyway and there was supposed to be one who was sent to save us from our sins because we can't save ourselves and all of that. Isn't this your work? Aren't you the one who's going to save us? This isn't the lawyer who's smart.

This isn't his tack with Jesus. Jesus says to him, you've answered correctly. That is what's required of you. That is what's necessary. Do this and you'll live. And then that's it. Jesus doesn't say any more. And you realize the lawyer's left feeling the heat of it. Wouldn't you feel the heat of it if you were the lawyer? Jesus, what are we supposed to do to be saved? What can I do to be saved? And he says, what do you think? And you say, I think I'm supposed to obey the law of God. And he says, that's right. Don't you feel like you're in the hot seat? You're going, well, there's a problem. I have a problem because I don't obey the law. And so what do we do when we feel like we're in the hot seat? When you feel like you're condemned, when you feel like you've done something wrong and somebody's got your number, they know about it. You make excuse. The lawyer, what's it say? Go to the next slide. Thank you. And wishing to justify himself. Isn't that the story of our life?

and wishing to justify himself, to somehow reduce the pressure to give himself some relief, wishing to justify himself, he asks Jesus a follow-up question. Who is my neighbor? Could you give some boundaries? Because see that loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then our neighbor as ourselves, in every way that we love ourselves, we're to love others. There's no, I don't see the boundaries to that. I can't. I can't make out the horizon in that picture. It's too big. It's too vast. I think I might miss something. So could you provide some structure, some boundary, some shape to what I have to do? Who's my neighbor? Essentially, what he's asking Jesus is, well, what exactly does that mean? You know how kids do this? Little children do this. You tell them they do something wrong, and you say, They're to be disciplined. And you discipline them. You say, why am I disciplining you? Because they give this very specific little particular true thing that they've done. You're disciplining me because you told me to pick up the Legos and I threw them instead. Is that true? Yeah, it's true. And so what do I say as a parent? What do I say to my children? Do I say, you make sure you don't throw Legos.

I don't say that to my kids regularly. And the reason I don't say that to my kids regularly is because I can't make a rule for every temptation that they will face. What I say to them is, you need to love your brother. You need to protect them. And you need to honor your mother and father. That's what you need to do. Well, where's the shape in that? What does honoring your father and mother mean? It means doing everything that your mother and father tell you to do unless they're telling you to sin. What else does it mean? It means proactively as a child considering ways you can honor your parents. It doesn't mean just not disobey. It means seek to honor them. Seek to bless them. Think of this. Some of you guys have older parents. Maybe they've been married 50 years. Maybe it's their 75th birthday. And the siblings all get together and they want to have a party.

We want to show video. We want to have a reunion sort of thing. We want to have a get-together surrounding this milestone. Mom and dad have been married for 50 years. What are those children doing? They're honoring their parents. Did their parents require that of them? No. Their parents didn't require that of them. Honoring their parents was something that they defined, something that they said, here's a thing I can do to honor my parents. The same is true with loving your neighbor. What's it mean to love your neighbor? Who's my neighbor? This lawyer is trying to shrink down his responsibility. Who's my neighbor? When am I done? How far do I have to go? As long as I don't throw Legos anymore, I won't get in trouble anymore, right? Well, yeah, you might not get in trouble for that. But that particular thing is not the... Joseph, stop. That particular...

thing is not the embodiment of obedience, of honor. This is hard work. If you've got children or if you've raised children and they're grown, you understand how difficult it is to teach a child this principle of honor, this principle of love, of compassion, of mercy, that they would think with their own minds, led by the Holy Spirit, what would honor my parents? What would honor Jesus Christ? What would be loving to my neighbor in this situation? That's hard work. You don't get to say, well, it's 10 o'clock. I'm off the clock now. I don't have to love and honor anymore because it's past my bedtime. You don't get those kind of boundaries. So these sorts of questions that we have, that this lawyer has, these questions that seek to truncate down, to reduce, to minimize our responsibility should never be asked. They should never be asked.

And the reason is not because questions are bad. The reason is because these sorts of questions have the wrong goal in mind. The goal is, what is the minimal, least amount of responsibility I can have? What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? This is a good thing. It's a great thing. It's glorious. I want it. What is the minimum that I have to do to get it? What's purity? Here's another example. What's purity? Oh, purity's not... body parts going together until you're married. Really? That's what purity is? Is that the extent of purity? What if you're single? What if you don't have a boyfriend? Did you just assume that you're pure? Should we just assume that people who aren't involved in a relationship are pure? They're not putting body parts where they don't belong? Is that purity? Well, in the most basic sense of it, yes. I suppose that you can call that purity, but that is not the extent of it.

Is there nothing to say to a single young man or young woman about them being pure, about them being chaste? And if they responded to you and say, well, I'm not doing that, you say, you don't understand purity. And what you're doing is preparing the ground for as soon as you have the opportunity to do that, you're going to do that. Because you have this minimalist idea of what is the least I have to do? I don't really want to do anything. What's the least I have to do? Those kind of questions are sinful. It's wrong of this lawyer to ask this question. It's not a good question. It's meant to cut and trim away our responsibility. The lawyer thought very highly of himself. He knew what the law said. So he says, you're supposed to love God and you're supposed to love your neighbor. And you realize when he comes to questioning Jesus, what does it mean to, you know, when he comes up with his follow-up question, it doesn't have to do with loving God.

Because loving God is something that's imperative. It's actually the greatest command, but it's also very hard to quantify. It's very hard to determine, do they love God or not? It's often an internal sort of thing. It works itself out actually through the second greatest commandment. Our call to confession this morning says, if you say that you love God but you hate your brother, you're a liar. Because you aren't loving God if you aren't loving your brother. But he chooses the neighbor. He says, okay, this is actual, physical, particular things that I have to do. How far do I have to go? How much do I have to do? Loving others was too much for him. It didn't have the boundaries that he would have preferred. And so Jesus responds to this question, who's my neighbor? He tells a story. He tells a parable of the Good Samaritan. He gives an example of three men, two of whom the lawyer would have understand to be loved by God.

He would have understood that the Levite and the priest would have loved God because they were Jews. And then the Samaritan. So both of these men, to begin with, the Levite and the priest, are traveling along the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. And if you know about the priest's service and the Levite's service, many of them lived in Jericho. It was a very common place for them to live. And they had rotations of when they would have to go up and actually fulfill their duties in terms of sacrificing and temple service. And so this would have been a road that was traveled often by them. They're going from home to work. This is their commute. Now, it's not daily, but this is their commute. They're up and back all the time down this road, both going to serve God. This is their work. And so as they're traveling down this road, they see a man, just a man, who's also traveling, who fell among robbers, and he was stripped, beaten, and left for dead. So he's in a very bad way. Blood, pain.

nakedness, filth, laying there, perhaps crying out because of the pain and the agony and the shame. And we're told that both when the Levi and when the priest, when they saw him, they went over to the other side of the road and they passed by him. They avoided him. They ignored him. They had important things to do. They had to get to the temple. They had to get home. They couldn't be bothered. So they went on their way. They were above it. They were too important for it. They were too busy to be merciful, to show compassion. Now, when you think of the parable of the Good Samaritan, what's the common application that we think of? When you think of, okay, I need to be like the Good Samaritan, that means I need to do what, particularly? What's that look like? It looks like helping people along the side of the road. That's what it looks like.

You have this little twinge of guilt every time you see the person with the sign. Homeless, veteran, sick, lost family. And there's this thing that happens like that in you. And you're like, but the good Samaritan, he helped someone like you. But then immediately you think, okay, but most people who do that make more money than I do for a living and they just don't have any shame about them. And most of them are not sincere and genuine. Is that right, Ralph? or they're drug addicts. Some of them will be honest and hold signs. Can I have some money for a drink? Some of them are honest. Does that mean that no one is ever begging and sincere? No. But we immediately feel this tension. The Good Samaritan helped the guy along the side of the road, and there's somebody along the side of the road that needs help, but I don't think they're sincere, so what do we do? And we go, I'll know it when I see it. I'll know when there's someone who really needs help. What I want to say to you is that when you think of the Good Samaritan,

You only think of helping people along the side of the road. You don't understand what's being communicated. You're asking the same question. Who's my neighbor? The guy on the side of the road is my neighbor. He's the only neighbor. He's the only person I will even consider showing mercy to. But when it comes to all the rest of the people that I run across in my life, do we think of being a good Samaritan? Does it come into our minds? They need mercy. They need help. They're struggling. They're hurt. They're bleeding. They're poor. They're without covering. They're naked. They're whatever. Do we think, I need to be a good Samaritan? No, we think, well, that applies to the roadside. Does it apply to the roadside? Yes. It also applies to every other area of your life because you cannot, like the lawyer, say, who's my neighbor? My neighbor is this particular person in this particular circumstance when I have this amount of time and money and energy to care for.

We're surrounded by our neighbors. Our neighbors live in our home. Our neighbors sleep in our bed. The problem is that we, like the priest, we avoid them. We avoid showing mercy to them. We pass by their needs. We excuse ourselves. You didn't mean here and now. I've had a long week. I'm tired. I've got plans. We talked about that last night. I told you that already. You should know better. This is what we do. This is what would have happened. If you just take what the priests did, the things that were motivating them inside their heart, the priest and the Levite, and you take it and you apply it to normal life, this is the sort of stuff going on inside of them. There's a reason I don't need to show mercy in this situation. Then a third man goes by, a Samaritan. Now, it's significant to note that while these other men were most likely traveling on their home turf, commuting between work and home, that means...

The Samaritan is not on that kind of trip. He's on a journey. That's what the text tells us. He is away from home. He's on vacation. I mean, he's not on vacation, most likely, but he's away from his normal life. And he sees this man stripped, beaten, robbed. And when he came upon him and when he saw him, he felt compassion. His eyes saw. But not only did his eyes see, his heart was engaged with what he saw. So often we see things, we know things, we're aware of needs, but it never gets to our heart. We never feel anything about it. We just think about it. Well, I see that there's a need. I see that there's a struggle. I see that there's weakness. I see that there's pain. I see that there's dirt and filth and sin and all kinds of other stuff. I see it. The Levites and the priests, they saw it. But do we feel compassion when we see it or do we judge?

You shouldn't have been traveling on this road. Don't you know it's a dangerous road? You should be traveling with a buddy. Stupid man. You got yourself into this situation. I bet you'll learn the lesson if I just withhold any care or love, and you'll get yourself out of it. That'll be what's good for you, and away I go. But the Samaritan saw him, and he felt compassion, and he came to this man, and he bandaged up his wounds, and he poured oil and wine on him. This is medical treatment in those days. oil to soften the skin, wine to take away the infection. The Samaritan's mercy affected his time. He was on a journey and all of a sudden, his time was displaced at least by 24 hours. He finds the guy one day, spends the whole day caring for him at the inn, which he paid for. And then it says the next day he left, he went up and on his way. And then he says, innkeeper, here's some money. Take care of this man. Make sure that he has what he needs. And when I come back,

If there's a bill, I'll pay it. I'll settle it with you. It cost him money. He didn't say, this much and no more. He says, you take care of him, make sure he has what he needs, and I'll pay you for it. It took his time. This injured man most likely is a Jew as well. He's traveling in Judea between Jerusalem and Jericho. He's most likely a Jew. And then you have a half-breed, a Samaritan. And you remember just earlier, it was either at the end of chapter 9 or here in verse 10, when Jesus is traveling through Samaria, you remember the Samaritans won't have Jesus in their city. There's hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. And yet the Jews in this parable, the Jews would not care for their own. But the unbeliever, he would. And he did. Under normal circumstances, this injured man probably would have had nothing to do with the Samaritan, would have distanced himself.

And yet this Samaritan has mercy. He shows compassion. Jesus uses this parable, speaking to this lawyer in Judea, about the callousness, the hardness of their heart, their lack of mercy. He shames the Jews. He could have just said there were two men that went by and they didn't show mercy, but this third guy, he did show mercy. But no, he says a priest and a Levite, these are like, they're supposed to be the embodiment of what they believe. But they pass by on the other side. But then this half-breed, this unbeliever, He had mercy. And then he asks the lawyer this question. Who proved to be this man's neighbor? Who was his neighbor? Who cared for him? And the lawyer's answer is a lawyer's answer. What's the answer? Any one of us would say the Samaritan. That's what we would say. We'd say the Samaritan was the one. But the lawyer says the one who showed mercy. He doesn't name him. He's unwilling to join with Jesus in saying that unbeliever was the one who actually did what should have been done.

And in your story, he put my people to shame. He won't name him. Jesus named the priest and the Levite and the Samaritan, but the lawyer wouldn't. Still trying to justify himself, even in his answer. He won't name them. The Samaritan did. The one that you'd never expect to show mercy and to love God and to serve him from a pure heart. He's the one who did it. And those whom you would expect to love God and serve him and have compassion and mercy, they didn't. The lawyer wouldn't say that. The one who showed mercy. That's who did it. But we need to see who did it. So then the final question comes to us. Jesus says to who proved to be a neighbor? And the lawyer says, the one who showed mercy. And he says, go and do the same. And he says, you're right. That's your place. That's your obligation. You're to do like he did. You're to go out of your way in less than ideal circumstances at your own personal expense of time and money and comfort.

You're to care for your neighbor. You're to do that. That's you. That's what you have to do to inherit eternal life. So the question to you and to me is, who are you? Who are you? Are you the Jew who walks by? Are you the lawyer who's got questions for Jesus? Who despises his lordship and says, you can't tell me what to do? I don't want you to tell me what to do. Not any more than, and I don't want to listen any more than I have to, to get into heaven, your heaven. Are you the Samaritan? You say, well, I want to be the Samaritan. And I say, good, good. Are you the Samaritan? Are you the Samaritan? Not what do you want. What are you? What do you do? You know, he starts off with the law and relates it to salvation and says, you have to obey. The guy says, you have to obey the law. You have to love God and your neighbor. And Jesus says, that's right. And then he tells a story that demonstrates that love.

And so the question is, who are you? Are you one who shows your faith, who demonstrates your love, who actually has mercy and extends it to those in need? I don't want you to be deceived into thinking, well, I would, Pastor. As soon as I find somebody who needs it, I'm going to do it. I say, open your eyes, and you'll find people in need of mercy. They're all around you. They're all around you. You don't have to leave your house to find them, unless you live by yourself, and then you just have to open your door and find someone. So kinds of people who need mercy, who need to know the love of God, who need to not clean themselves up before they'll be helped. Don't you think that that man who was robbed and beaten and stripped, don't you think he wished he could have cleaned himself up? Don't you think he absolutely hated his humiliation? And then to have someone come and to see it.

But in the end, wasn't he thankful for having his nakedness covered? You remember at the beginning I asked, do you like to receive mercy? And some of you said, yeah, I do. And I say, if we dig in, the answer is most likely, no, you don't like to receive mercy. Not if it has to look like that man. Not if you have to be stripped and beaten and naked and a mess and filthy and completely laid bare. Not if you have to receive mercy under those conditions, then no, actually I don't want mercy, not like that. And I say, if you don't want mercy like that, then you don't want Jesus Christ's mercy. Because that's the condition of the people that he saves, that he shows his mercy to. There are two people you ought to identify with in this parable. You ought to identify with the man who's fallen among robbers, who's been stripped and laid bare, and who's a filthy, rotten mess.

And unable to clean themselves up or to cover themselves. You ought to identify with that man. Because that's who we are because of our sin before God. And Jesus is, in that regard, Jesus is the Good Samaritan. And his blood is our covering. Our bandage and our oil and our wine. And we ride his donkey to his inn. And we're healed on his dime. You ought also to identify with the Good Samaritan. Having been stripped and naked and bare and exposed. and healed from it. You ought then to be vessels of mercy to those who are still in that condition. When you find in your heart the heart of the Levite, the heart of the priest, the heart of the lawyer, woe is me for I am undone. Repent. Repent of your hardness, your callousness, your blindness, your pride and your selfishness. Repent of it. That's your filth. That's your nakedness. You've just seen it.

Bring it to the cross of Jesus Christ. Confess it to him. Be healed by his blood. And then go forth and give that love to others. Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful. Don't be afraid of messy people, broken lives, ugliness, who say bad words, who wear immodest clothing, who do drugs, who fornicate. who commit adultery, who've divorced their spouse. Don't despise them. Those are the ones Jesus came to save. Jesus didn't come to save the healthy. The healthy don't need a physician. The sick do. And so when you see sickness in other people, you have to recognize it as sickness. And then you have to be merciful to them. Merciful to them. You have to get in there with them. You have to get their blood on you. You have to bring their stink into your house.

Sometimes you have to reach in your own back pocket. And if you do that, you've done nothing more for them than Jesus has done for you. What a privilege it is to serve other people the way Jesus has served us, to love them with the love that we've been loved with. You'll find no greater joy than in mercy. If you're dour, if you're grump, if you're sullen, extend the mercy of Jesus Christ to someone else and you won't be those things. You'll find life. You'll find joy. You'll be convinced that you're useful to God. You'll become more aware of your sin. And your love and your faith will grow. Be like the Good Samaritan. Be like Jesus. Love those unlovable people. Get right down in the muck, just as far as they're down in the muck with them. Not to wallow with them, but to bring them up out of it. You've got to get their mess on you. It's not love for God for you to say, I'm a Christian and I can't get dirty because if I get dirty, that dirt is sinful.

I say, you're no help to your neighbor then. You don't love them. You have to get in the mess with them. If they're a drunkard, I'm not telling you go to the bar and get drunk with them. That's not what I'm telling you. I'm not saying go sin with them. But I am saying you're going to have to be around them when they're drunk. I'll talk to you when you're sober. I'll talk to you when you're all cleaned up. I'll talk to you when you're in your right mind. I'll talk to you once you're out of jail. I'll talk to you once you get your license back and come to a nice meeting. No.

That's not loving your neighbor. Loving your neighbor is caring for that man such that when he's drunk and when he gets arrested and when he's got one phone call, he calls you and said, I've made a mess of it. And you say, I'm on my way. And then when you get there, you clean up their wounds and their nakedness and their filth. And as a part of that, you're calling them to repentance and to faith. And you're saying, we have a perfect object lesson. Look right here. You see these bars? This is what sin gets you. And this is just a picture of what's to come. Flee from the wrath of God. That's loving your neighbor. They might puke in your car on the way home. And that would be your privilege. It really would. And in that mess, God's glorified. In that yucky, awful mess, God's glorified. And his kingdom is built. And that's our work. So join with me in doing it. Call me to do it. I'm not saying anything to you.

or imputing any struggles to you that aren't my own. We need to love those whom God loves and extend mercy to those whom God extends mercy to. People like us. People like that half-naked, stripped, beaten man. That's you and that's me. And that's others. And we need to love them the way Jesus loved us. Let's pray. Father, what a tender kindness. What a good and loving Father you are. being merciful to us, showing compassion, bearing with us in our weakness, even after you've saved us. Even when we return as sheep, we wander away. Even as we return to our former ways, you remain merciful, you remain kind. You continue to call us out of darkness and into the light of your Son. You give us your Spirit to guide us and to lead us, to bear us on our way. And you deliver us safely.

into your glory, into your presence with great hope and joy. None of this do we deserve. And yet you've picked us up out of the pit, out of a miry dungeon, a hell. And you've set our feet up on the rock of Jesus Christ. You've given us a standing and an inheritance. You've called us sons. We love you, Father, and praise you for that. This is great mercy. We ask now that you would increase our love for you. Help us to serve you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And help us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Remove every scale from our eyes. Help us to see as you see. Help us to see men made in your image, ravaged and destroyed by sin, and help us to enter into that mess by faith and with love. And help us, Father, to be fruitful. We'll only be fruitful if you bless our...

our words and our actions. And so we ask that you would do that, that you would bless them, that you'd help us to be as the good Samaritan was in your son's story. Father, bless us with messes to help clean up and people to love whom the world does not love. Help us to rescue them, to protect them, to care for them, to be merciful to them when no one else will, so that you would receive glory, Father, from our lives, from our actions. Through the work of your Holy Spirit in us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.