Gospel—C. Kohler
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Shall we turn to the 10th chapter of Luke's Gospel?
And beginning with the 17th verse.
And the 70 it refers to 70 disciples the Lord had sent to go in the villages round about and notify them that the Kingdom of God was at hand, and he gave them a certain amount of power to deal with the evil spirit, and to heal the sick and the afflicted, and raise the dead.
And now it tells us of their report. Under 70 returned again with joy, saying Lord.
Even the devils of something unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
God is going to deal with that great enemy and in a manner that he won't like when he will be by sheer force and power cast out of God's presence. And so the Lord looking forward.
And seeing this, would say, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you.
Power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Notwithstanding in this, is it possible something more could be added? Yes.
And this is of utmost importance. So pay attention to this verse. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
Written in heaven.
Who could write your name? Who could write?
My name in heaven. How could my name be written there?
Only God himself could write your name or my name in his book.
And if your name is there in his book, what can ever eradicate it? Nothing, nothing. No power in the universe.
Could ever make null and void?
God's record.
Of you, of me, of everyone who believes we have reason to rejoice if our names are written in heaven. And we've reason to realize, too, that if our names are written in heaven, we didn't do it.
Nor can it be because we have.
Accomplish things that God could approve on has nothing to do with us.
But it does have something to do with God's own purpose in grace and those who belong to the Lord Jesus. Their names inscribed in the book The Lambs, a book of life. There is another book of life.
But it isn't the Lamb's Book of life.
It's a book of profession. There are many and many places who profess.
To seek God and to walk in His ways and to serve Him.
If they're not in the Lamb's Book of life, and why are they not in the Lamb's Book of Life?
Because the Lamb's Book of Life tells every single one who has put his trust in the precious blood of Christ.
And because of this.
His guilt has been removed, he's been saved, he's been delivered from the consequences of his weak, foolish, sinful life. Here below the Lamb's book of Life, then, is something that we want to be, to have our names in. In the 20th of Revelation, you'll see the importance of that, because there we find there's a judgment day coming.
And those who stand before that great White Throne are going to be each one given the book of his life.
His complete record is there. As he opens that book, he's going to remember what he did, when he did it, why he did it, everything. The record is complete.
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And he must own himself a Sinner.
And now is there no hope for him? Or is there not another book? Yes, there's the Lambs Book of Life. He may look. Does he see his name there? He does not. His name is not in the Lamb's Book of Life.
What then?
We're told that they are cast into the lake of fire. That's a dreadful end for a man or a woman.
Created by God with capabilities such as you and I have of understanding.
Of obedience, of love. Our poor hearts, you'll realize how much we owe to God. He might have made you and me like the beast of the field. They can't reason things out, yet they do have a certain intelligence.
Perhaps it's rather instinct with them, that intelligence, but the beasts of the field have no conscience, nor do they realize that they have ever sinned, for they haven't sinned through their included in the fall brought in by Manson.
But you and I were not turned away from the Garden of Eden without God having given us a conscience.
And that conscience indicates what is wrong and when we are wrong.
And how important it is for us to realize the difference between that which is right and that which is wrong. Well, we've all disregarded all the red signal. We've all gone ahead and.
And gone ahead at the risk of our eternal loss.
But dear so, God isn't willing that any should perish, and therefore.
We find the lamb has been brought in.
Honest The Lamb's Book of life.
That is before us here. And is your name? Is your name written in heaven?
I know my name is there. I didn't write it there. The same hand that was nailed on the cross for me has written my name. And those who are not Christians know nothing at all about it, and they go on in their way to end up.
Miserably.
Yes, miserably, but let us go on with our little portion here.
Rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank the old Father, Lord of heaven, and I Thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them out of babes.
Even so far the facade seemed good in life's sight. Now what does he mean by that? Well, when he says thou hast revealed the Mount of babes, he means that he has made the thing so simple that the simplest of men and women are can reach and take hold of them and get the blessing. He doesn't require university course.
It doesn't require an ordination of the hands of some men who say you have completed successfully your studies.
Not a bit.
Very much like the girl that was asked which of her aunts she liked the best. She says, oh, I like Aunt Emmy bears, but why do you like Aunt Emmy Fest? Because whenever Aunt Emmy baked cookies and nice cakes, she put some on the bottom shelf where I can reach them. And you know, that's what God has done. And God has put on the bottom shelf where the simplest of men and women can reach them.
Is brought the gospel in a separate way. I knew a dear man who had often heard the gospel of God's grace and it didn't seem to take hold of him. Somehow he couldn't quite understand it, and one night he heard a preacher who turned to a scripture in Matthew that except you become as little children.
You shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven, always said. That's the way I've got to take it, just like a little child.
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And so he took it at once without any further question, And when he told me what joy we had in rejoicing together. For as my own father. And I was so glad to know that in this simple way took hold of it, whereas the doctrine itself didn't lay hold of him properly. But God has made the thing so simple by picture and by word.
That every soul.
In this world is able to take hold of it. Even though one were an imbecile, one could still grasp enough to lay a hold of Jesus. He might not understand much of our doctrine. He might not be able to explain much. He may be just like that. Poor Yeti, that little paper, young lovely man. You probably many of you have read it and enjoyed it.
I know I did many a time and boy yet he was a nitwit, 1/2 wit or whatever you want to call him Ander he could only understand certain things.
But he could understand that he was just a poor Sinner.
He could understand that Jesus was a Savior.
And he learned to love the Lord Jesus with all his heart, though he couldn't tell you much about doctrine.
But he put his faith on Jesus. And you know, the Scripture tells us more than perhaps 100 times in the New Testament something about believing.
And it's pretty generally believing on the Lord Jesus or believing on him that sent him.
And only I think twice out of the 100 times does it speak of believing on anything other than Jesus or upon God. God puts Christ before us as the object for our faith and we may be ever so simple and it makes no difference how simple we are.
If we are resting upon Him, or we can say as we sometimes sing on Christ the solid rod, I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand. It's not by our intellect we make ourselves fit for heaven. It's not by the quantity of our prayers, nor even by our attending church meetings of any kind. These things are all right in their place, but they do not save the soul.
The only way a soul can be saved is true, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the sin of the world.
The Lamb of God who was nailed to the cross and whose precious blood was shed to cleanse and make us fit for God's presence. Outside of that, there's no salvation that can be offered. Because the blessed Lord on the cross satisfied all the claims of God. He took upon Him the penalty of my guilt.
And through his breaking the power of Satan, he's delivered me from the power.
Of darkness and the sun is going to deliver me altogether from the very presence of sin. Oh, it's a blessed thing to know Jesus as your Savior and what peace it brings to the heart. We remember that scripture which says he made peace through the plot of his cross. And there alone do you find peace.
If there's an unsafe one here tonight, we just urge upon you.
To receive the blessed Lamb of God and make him your hope, the ground of your faith, your salvation before God.
And then we read in the second chapter of first John and the 12Th verse, I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you.
For his name sake, that's important.
Because of Christ, because of what Christ has done, because of His finished work which has glorified God and maintained His Holiness, His righteousness, and met your need and my need as poor sinners. And now God appeals to your heart.
Fall with our heart. Man believeth unto righteousness with a mouth. Confession is made out of salvation.
So God appeals to your heart and we just want to have that side of the thing before us tonight.
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In the reading of this portion.
Well, it's a wonderful thing to have our names written in the Lamb's Book of life. It's a wonderful thing that is written in heaven.
Are no person, no power.
Less than God himself can do anything with that record God has written, and I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.
The psalmist said. And it's a blessed fact, a blessed thing. God has written your name in heaven. It's there for eternity. Oh, how blessed. Well, now we'll go on a little further here.
In that hour, the 21St verse, we've already read, but we'll read it again in that hour. Jesus rejoiced in spirit.
And said, I thank the old Father, Lord of heaven and earth.
That thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them out of babes. Even so farther, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Now in first Corinthians we find, are that not many?
Great men, Not many wise men, not many noble men.
Are saved no.
There are great many that missed the point completely. We just read that scripture in the first chapter of First Corinthians and we can thank God that it doesn't say not any.
That happened, dear men and women, noblemen and noble women.
That have been saved.
But.
He tells us here 20th verse of the first chapter.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching To save them that believe. I suppose that should read the foolishness of the preaching, that is the gospel.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But under them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. That is, there's no foolishness with God and there's no weakness there. That isn't the point.
The point is, they call the preaching of the gospel foolishness. Well, he says that foolishness that you are Speaking of is wiser than men, and that weakness that you speak of Christ crucified through weakness is stronger than men. So God uses the things which are not to bring to, not the things that are. We see that down here too.
Before you see your calling. 26 verse brethren.
How that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, And God has chosen the weak things of the world, and confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world, and things which are despised.
Hath God chosen? Yeah, and things which are not.
To bring to north the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, whom God is made unto us, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.
Then, according as it is written, he the glorious, let him glory in the Lord. So the Christian has the one in whom is all wisdom, the one in whom is all power.
And as though he feels ever so weak, and ever so unable to go on by himself, he is sustained by that gracious, powerful one of the 89th Psalm says that God has made help on one that was mighty. And who was that mighty one?
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The 89 Psalm tells us the same Psalm that he's got gracious 10. I think that's lovely. It's the gracious one for Lord Jesus who came here in wondrous grace to seek and to save that which was lost, God says.
Though he passed among men has been just a week.
Man. A man who could feel everything we felt apart from sin and its consequences. A man who could weep with those who wept. A man who could groan in his spirit. A man who could sit by sight as well. Weary, thirsty, hungry.
Indeed.
Yes, this is the kind of a man that God said that he might come to us so that we could understand and we could see. And what was he? Who was he? The wonderful fact is he was God come down a heavenly stranger. God manifest in the flesh. This is the one who came. This is the one that John pointed out. He said, behold the Lamb of God.
Which takes away the sin of the world. It was God himself came down to take up this question and to save your soul, and to save my soul. And happy the man who has received Christ as his Savior. That 32nd Psalm tells you how blessed or how happy that man is. Yes, dear friend, as long as he kept himself away from God and tried to hide and cover up his sins.
He was miserable by day and by night, but when he came out in the open and made confession, then it was at God's blessing rested upon him, and he could say, Blessed is a man.
Whose sin is forgiven? Whose transgression is covered? Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity.
Oh, a happy man that walks the streets.
Of this poor simple world, knowing his sins are gone and knowing he has peace with God.
Able to look up into the heavens and behold, as it were, in the face of Jesus, the glory of God shining.
Oh wonderful happy soul, soul brought into relationship with God, sends God unforgiven, nothing imputed again against him. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Judgment, nothing of fear. We go on, knowing that the future only holds the richest of blessing for it. And so we find here the Lord Jesus saying that there were those who would like to have heard the things you hear today so freely spoken. Well, we read it, it says.
Come down to the 23rd verse. We turn.
Him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.
Or do we prize enough?
The glad tidings of God.
The good news of salvation? Do we appreciate what God has?
Gone to do to what length he's gone. Do we appreciate what Christ has done for us?
That he should give his life a ransom for your sins and mind. Well, it's truly wonderful. But now let us look at the verses which follow in this 10th chapter. Luke.
It tells us here.
In the 25th race, behold a certain lawyer.
This is not a lawyer as we know lawyers. This was a teacher of the law of Moses.
He was called a lawyer.
A certain lawyer, he should have known the Old Testament scriptures, shouldn't he? Yes, surely he should, and we'll see what follows him. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
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He said unto him, What is written in the law.
How readest thou?
On he answering said, 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 neighbors, thyself, and all these true. This one verse gives you the two tables of commandment that God gave to Moses. The five commandments on the one table were God word, and the other five were man word.
And that's why.
When this man quotes what he does, that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. Remember, it is God who put you in the world. It's God who is fed and clothed you. It's God who has given you everything that you needed for this life. And if God were for one moment to forget about you and say I'm tired, I'm just going off on a little vacation, you know what would happen?
All flesh would perish, the Scripture tells us. Every soul would perish if God for one moment ceased his care of you, Of me. Can we say I can get along without God? You can't, No. There was a farmer who had an abundant crop coming up. It was the envy of all his fellow farmers who came to him and complimented him upon.
Lovely crappie was going to have from this seed which had been sown and which had grown up so nicely in this field. Yes, said this farmer, if God will leave me alone.
That's a terrible thing. And yet there are a lot of people that are saying that in effect, if God will just let me alone, I'll just have it, or I'll make things wonderful. You make a wonderful mess. Yes, you will be a terrible mess. Should make on it.
So when it came time to harvest the crops, to the dismay of this man that God left alone at his own request, he had the poorest crop that he ever had. And all the other farms round about had abundant crops. God didn't let them alone. God still blessed them. But this man who was such a fool?
As to want God to let him alone had practically nothing out of his field.
Or if God were to leave us alone, we'd all of us perish.
The poor, miserable creatures entirely dependent on God for the very breath we breathe.
And here's his lawyer. And he says I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, with all my mind, with all my mind. Do you believe it? I don't believe it for one moment. I believe the man was just as blind as he could be. He didn't realize that he was a Sinner.
I didn't know anything at all about loving God.
What does the scripture tell us in the epistles of John? It says we love because he first loved us. Until he loved us and made that love of his known. We didn't know what true love was. Not a bit natural affection we had, yes. Friendly feelings taught people, yes, but love no.
Wasn't until God revealed his love to us through Christ.
That we learned what real love is. Dear friends, study the cross a little while.
And see what you make of it. You'll discover. Or that there is love that you've never suspected.
There was a little pamphlet written which I've enjoyed and others have enjoyed too, and you probably know about it. I don't know, but.
It's called the story of an Artist studio.
And there was a famous painter in Europe and a Bishop came to him and said I'd like you to paint a nice life sized picture of Christ on the cross for the church, because when he added to the church he expect to get a good big discount.
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Well, Stenberg went ahead and he painted this picture and without doubt it was a lovely picture and quite true.
The Bishop accepted it and put it up in the church.
But before the Bishop accepted it.
Stenberg thought I'd like to paint.
A dancing girl. A gypsy.
Under he went around the streets looking for just such a type. One day saw a Spanish girl and dancing with tambourine and he was dressed like a gypsy. Said she's just the idea. I'll get her and I'll paint her. I think she couldn't help but see this picture of the cross.
And she said.
Who does that mean?
Also, the artists left Christ.
Only went on with his painting of her.
She said how sad, according to Painter's version of the cross.
But before the Bishop accepted it.
Stenberg thought I'd like to paint.
A dancing girl. A gypsy.
And he went around the streets looking for just such a type. One day saw his Spanish girl dancing with tambourine.
I just dressed like a gypsy, said she's just the idea, I'll get her and I'll paint her. So he went over to her and made an offer, and he would be glad enough to pay her so much as she'd come to his studio and pose for him. And while she was there posing for him, she couldn't help but see this picture of the cross.
And she said.
Who does that mean?
Also the artist left Christ.
Only went on with his painting of her.
She said how sad he looked there. Yes, he looked sorrowful, looked sad, according to Painter's version of the cross.
And then the girl couldn't keep Christ as you must love him.
If he died for you, for the painter had said, he died, you know, for us on the cross.
Or she said, you must love him then if he died for you.
Well, he just brushed that off. He didn't want to answer the question because he was an unsafe person himself under but the words of his gypsy girl haunted him and when the gypsy dancing girl was completed, he had no difficulty in selling it. It was what we in our present day vernacular would say ahead.
And it took rapidly and sold at once. But he couldn't get rid of the words of this girl. You must love him if he did all this for you.
And Stenberg got in a very bad state of mind.
And.
As days went on.
He finally contemplated committing suicide.
And he started to carry this out when he happened to pass.
A mission with an open door. And he heard the singing, and he stepped in to listen. There he heard about the blessed Savior on the cross, and the wondrous love of God connected with his death upon the cross. He got saved.
Leaving there, he went back to his studio and wondered what he could do.
Who will make others to know this? He couldn't preach. He wasn't a man of words.
Oh, he thought, I can paint. I'll paint a picture of the cross, but I'll paint the Christ in a different way now than I painted him before. I won't just paint him full of misery and sorrow.
I'll put all the love in his face I can think of. And he did. He made a wonderful job of it.
So that it hung in the galleries of Europe, especially in Vienna.
Under there it was, it counts in and off stood and gazed upon that picture, and the hours went by, and he stood gazing and gazing and creaking in the love of Christ from that picture, until Zins and Dorf devoted himself completely.
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I told the services of the Moravian Church, of which he seemed to have been a founder. He was saved through the look of that crucified one in this painting. But Oh dear friends, God has painted a picture of that blessed man.
Far excelling anything that Stenberg or any other great artist of his day or any other day could ever depict.
Who can understand what the love of God is?
Who could understand the intensity of that love? Who could understand that when?
God had to deal with man who was a Sinner and turn him out of paradise.
Who could understand God's feelings to find that the man he made and the woman he made had fallen away from him and lost their confidence in him? Well, God wasn't going to be turned away from there. And in various ways he sought to exercise the conscience of man from that point on.
No doubt the bulk of the Old Testament is intended.
Just to show up what man really is and to exercise our conscience about it. And we look back on those pictures and we say that's a true picture of myself as a poor Sinner.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray, said Isaiah. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Under so we read in the third of Romans.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, No, not even one, none at all, no, not one. There was only one man in this world.
All that by any means might make this world a sacred place suffers Christ.
As the poor said, but he's gone. Yes, he's gone. He's left. This world is gone. Back to the glory.
With a tale of man's inhumanity and bitterness against God.
But at the same time, He is sent out His Holy Spirit to continue to tell us the tale of the wonderful love that passes all understanding and all dear friends. If you could only get you to see this. If you could only get you to understand it. But let's see the picture which comes here and which helps to illustrate it.
It says.
2020 First, we've already read Master, What shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And now when he says, I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, with all thy strength, with all thy mind and thy neighbors, thyself, the Lord Jesus, as you go ahead and do it. It's easy to talk about things, but go ahead and do it.
You who know the law so well?
You who know your responsibility to God, do it.
Yes, the Lord says to him, do it and I shall live. He doesn't say you'll get eternal life, which was the man, what the man asked for, but he says you'll live. Do it and you'll live.
Now, this man isn't going to take it this way. He wants to pin things down a little bit.
More to his own liking and he says.
29th verse And who is my neighbor?
He didn't say how can I love God?
No, the main thing he lets leaves untouched. He doesn't touch it. Who is my neighbor?
And this brings before us the story of one who came down here to be a neighbor to us.
Oh, what a neighbor.
Unable that we needed in our time of need. And here he is. Let's read about him.
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And the Lord says.
A certain man, 30th verses went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
And Fellowmont thieves.
Which stripped him of his raiment.
And wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Oh, you say, what inhumanity. Yet that's what man has for man. That's what woman has for woman.
In humanity.
Here he fell among the thieves.
What was he doing on his way down to Jericho? You know the Old Testament story of Jericho, or if you don't know it, you just referred to it briefly in saying that it was a city that was first overthrown by the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan and God pronounced a curse on it. Any man that should ever rebuild Jericho.
And here Jericho was overthrown, only one that was saved out of it with a poor harlot, or that sheltered herself behind the scarlet thread that she left in her window and her family whom she had with her in the hall, The only ones of the whole city that saved me destroyed.
And God pronounced a curse on whoever should build it again.
Well, we find that that case was executed, but there was a man that rebuilt it, and in his first born and in his youngest, he paid the penalty. Both of them perished.
God's judgment is sure. When God pronounces, the judgment carries it out.
And so a curse was pronounced upon the man should rebuild that city. Under that purse was executed.
Man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, for Jerusalem was the place where God had put his name. Jerusalem was a place where God's altar and God's priest and God's offerings were, and where God's blessing rested. And he should have stayed there in Jerusalem. No, His heart was going to wander away. And it's always in a downward course.
And he went down to Jericho.
And what do you expect to find there? Find loving companions.
No, indeed, what he found there were thieves that fell upon him. They feed him, they almost killed him, they stole everything he had, and they left him lying there naked.
Dying while I'm in his own blood.
And no heart of pity for him, No.
Nobody to do anything for him.
You know, there he lay, and a certain priest came down that way, it tells us, and why this must be a outcome. Now this priest, what was he going to do? 31St verse.
The certain priest came down that way, and when he saw him.
Alas.
He passed by on the other side.
He might have said, Poole thought, I'm sorry for you, but you haven't got anything I can give to God, and so I've just got to leave you right there.
And now it tells us in the next verse. Likewise on Levite. He's a teacher of the law. When he was at the place came and looked on him.
Passed by on the other side.
Though he was telling a man in that condition what to do in order to please God, he was helpless.
And his helplessness made him hopeless. There he lay, a poor, hopeless, wretched creature. And the priest that passed by might have helped him, but couldn't. And the Levite might have helped him, but couldn't.
Now notice that there's a certain Samaritan.
Not every Samaritan.
No, they were just as hard hearted as the Jews.
But there was a certain one.
And they had called the Lord Jesus American. They said, say we not. No honest American has the devil. The Lord is turning his back on them.
As certain Samaritan, in spite of the fact that they said.
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Of Jesus, he was a Samaritan. Oh, he said, the Satanist American that mocks him off it's Jesus.
And what did you say of him? He says as he journeyed, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he didn't pass by on the other side. He had compassion on him. Compassion is a mingling of pity and love.
On here, this American had his heart go out to this poor stranger.
Under he saw his desperate state of this American couldn't go any further.
He came right to where the man was. That's what the Lord Jesus did with us on the cross. He came right to where we were. Poor sinful creatures we were. God laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
Yes, the little girl had it right.
When her father asked his children had they laid their sins on Jesus, one after the other said, yes, Father, I have. Oh, I'm so glad he'd say to Jamie and to Mary. Now he comes to the little one. He says of you, my little pet, have you laid your sins on Jesus? He said, no, Father, God did it.
That little girl had more common sense than the brothers and the sisters.
It was God that laid our sins on Jesus. It were not myself.
If I had to lay my sins upon the blessed Lord, I'm sure I'd have forgotten many of them. God didn't forget one, not one.
Sometimes people say, I'm sure that my sins have been forgiven me until the time I received Christ as my savior. Oh, I say, well, what about the sins that you've committed? Sins. Well, they're a little bit uncertain about that. They don't know just what happened to them.
Well, when Christ died on the cross, how many sins had you committed? How many sins had I committed? None of us have committed any sins.
Well, how could God lay my sins upon Jesus? God knows everything. The future is just as present with him as today.
That's why he gives himself the name I Am. That is the same. He is constantly aware of everything.
From eternity to eternity and he who knew all the sins I would ever commit.
He took every single one of them and laid them upon the head of his old dear Son. That's what we read in Isaiah 53 and six. All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
The Lord hath laid on him. We've turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Every believer in the Lord Jesus can say my sins are gone, Gone. How are they gone? Well, on the cross.
Christ of all those sins, He's not on the cross anymore. He was buried. He's not in the tomb anymore. Where is he? He's risen from the dead. He's up there at God's right hand. I'm sure that not one sin can ever come into the presence of God. What then has become of my sin? They're gone.
Buried in his grave, yes.
Atone for on the cross and buried in his grave. And God says I will never, never, never remember them again. Never.
Oh what peace this gives to the soul, how blessed it is, how full of blessing. So then.
I'm saved because Christ died to put away my guilt. And here we find that this American, as he journeyed, came where the poor man was, just where he was.
That's what the Lord did when He went to the cross.
For my guilt, just where I was, I should have been on that cross, had I received the due reward of my deeds of Christ, came there, and took that place upon Himself. He who knew no sin was made sin, that we who knew.
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Knew no righteousness at all. We had no righteousness, nothing to present ourselves before God in that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
How very blessed this is. So then this American came to where this poor fellow was. Notice in the next verse he went to him.
And he bound up his wounds.
Oh, how tender the hands of the Samaritan as he found up the wounds of this poor fellow that had been so sadly wounded.
Found up his wounds.
Reported oil, the oil of God's grace.
Are that soothed and comforted and healed and blessed?
Yes, the believer has the Spirit of God. He receives it as he believes in Christ. His sins are put away, his wounds are bound up. He receives the Holy Spirit.
And now comes the oil of some the joy of salvation.
The wine which is poured in, the new energy, the new vigor or that is given to this poor fellow that lay there. So help us a few moments before and now wounds bound up, oil poured in and the wine added. But that isn't enough.
That isn't enough.
It's a wonderful thing to heal our souls.
Would he leave us here?
No, that's not part of his gospel at all. Part of his gospel is to heal our wounds and to bring us to God.
But he's to bring us to God. And so we find here that is, He took this man up in his arms in this 34th. Birds lifted him up where he lay there. Never mind.
That his own garments might become soiled, He lifts this man up and.
Right straight to his own bosom, and he carries the man over to where?
His beast.
Was and he sets him up there on the beast and make sure that he won't fall off.
And he walks beside the beast with his arm around the man, no doubt to steady him all the way.
And then it tells us. And he brought him to an inn and took care of him. Now the end is a picture of the church. An end is the company of God's people.
To home, a new saved soul is brought for further instruction and help. You know, it's a it's very important thing. This is more important than people think. God doesn't just want to save people and then send them out in the world ignorant. I remember a man standing up and preaching a wonderful gospel. It got saved in a mission.
And I said to myself, that man is going to be a great preacher someday.
Well, about six months later on when I checked up on him, I found him married a Catholic woman and he was no more preaching the Gospel.
He just settled down the things here.
And now the love that first moved him to get out there and preach the gospel was forgotten.
Oh, God wants our hearts, and he wants us to be kept in the place where we're better instructed in the ways of God.
I had an experience like that a good many years ago.
It was my first vacation away from home. I was going to spend a couple of weeks up in Greene County among those beautiful mountains, the Catskill Mountains, and I said to myself.
I'm going to take the Bible and I'm going to go out and search for a nice woodsy spot.
Whether babbling brook, I'm just going to sit down and oh, how I'm going to revel in the word of God, how I'm going to rejoice.
Well, I found just such a place not very far away from the hotel where I was staying, and I sat down and took out my Bible.
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And I read. You know what? I got nothing.
Is that strange?
I can't get a thing out of it today. What's the matter? Is it something about me?
Just what is it that I can't get a thing out of the book?
I put the book in my pocket. I'll come again tomorrow.
Probably this is one of those off days, you know, people would talk like that.
And that's the way it looked to me. Tomorrow I came. I sat down again in the same spot.
And I got just nothing. Just nothing. I couldn't get a thing out of the word of God.
I could read the word, of course I could read the words, but somehow they didn't mean much to me.
And before the 1St week was up, I was just longing and saying, oh, if I could only get back to my brethren. And that's what I needed. I needed to be with the president. I didn't realize.
Or that the strength and support I was getting from being with them enabled me to rejoice in the Lord and went away from them. I missed that.
The Lord taught me the importance of being with my brethren. Oh, I think it's so important for young Christians to be with their older brass men and sisters and to learn from them and to listen to them, to go on with them.
You know, if we grow, we either grow together or we grow apart.
If we don't come to the meetings, we go away from the brass room, and if we do come to the meetings, we grow with them the good things that God ministers to them, He ministers to us, and they help us to see and to enjoy them and to enter into the blessing. But if we miss this.
We find that we have no means within ourselves.
To sustain us.
Oh, I soon learned that I learned to stay close to my present, and it did me a world of good. I commend it to you.
Keep close to your brethren.
Learn the things that they have learned and which they can help you. Well, this Samaritan brought this poor fellow that he rescued and with whom he was so kind. He brought him to the inn on the inn, as I said before.
Beautiful figure of the Church of the Assembly, and God would have his people together and so they help one another. Well, it tells us here.
That he took care of him and the 35th verse on the Morrow when he departed, he took out 2 Pence. That may seem very small to us, but in those days a pence which is about equivalent to, I think, 18 cents of our money.
Before inflation, I don't know what it is worth today, but about 18 cents of our money was equal to a pence and it was a regular daily wage of a labourer. So it meant that all the labor of two days were spent on this man for his upkeep for the two days.
So he had plenty, Honey said.
The Samaritan said to the innkeeper, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee. Oh, here's another truth. The one who took me up and made me his says I'll come again.
And when I come again, what's he going to do?
We're going to take this poor fellow that he picked up by the roadside, and he's going to take him along with him. Yes, he says to the innkeeper, when I come again, I will repay thee. Well, I suppose the innkeeper hears the Spirit of God, and those who help the Spirit of God, no doubt are those who will be repaid.
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What they hear he says, I will come again, and I will repay thee now, said Jesus to this lawyer. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor to? Unto him that fell among the thieves.
But he had no difficulty discovering that.
Oh dear friend of your unsaved tonight, have you discovered yet that this blessed man.
It all away from heaven to be a neighbor to you, to give his life for you to die that you might live. That's the blessed truth of the gospel. The gospel is not in you doing something, but in telling you what Jesus has done. It's a gospel of.
All letters not 2 letters do has no place in it done.
It is written all over it. The work is done.
The cross is accomplished and God has been satisfied.
And now the only thing remains is for you if you're unsaved and have Christ now.