[0:00] Luke chapter 10. We have been talking about people in the Bible who played a significant role in one way or another in the things that God was trying to do but we have no idea who they are.
[0:27] The Bible doesn't tell us but it doesn't mean any less of what they accomplished and what they did. We've talked about the boy with the five loaves and the two fishes.
[0:38] Don't know his name but he played a major role that day in feeding the 5,000. We've talked about the girl who was a captive and a slave in Naaman's household and the role she played in seeing that Naaman was able to be healed of his leprosy.
[0:53] We've talked about the four men who took the man on a stretcher who was paralyzed and let him down through the roof. We don't know the name of any of these people. The Bible doesn't tell us.
[1:05] But they all played a major role in somebody's life in seeing that they came to God. Today, notice the title back there is A Neighbor with No Name.
[1:17] You're going to think we know the name. Kind of. We give him a name but we don't actually know his name. Look with me at chapter 10 of Luke beginning at verse 30. Luke 10 verse 30.
[1:29] 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.
[1:40] 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.
[1:58] But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And he 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.
[2:16] 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.
[2:29] Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showeth mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
[2:43] Morning. Morning, John. Morning.
[3:16] Lord, I pray that you would help us to realize we don't have to have a title. We don't have to have a name recognition. We don't have to have anything that people know a lot about us in order to serve you.
[3:31] We just need to be willing. And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to be willing to serve, willing to do. And, Lord, that we might see your gospel message go forward. Lord, just bless our time here talking this morning.
[3:42] In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, this parable that we have here, Jesus tells us some things. He's teaching us some things. And he's basically summarizing three views of life in this little parable.
[3:59] There's three views of life here. Some people spend their time beating people up. That's what happened to that man. He got beat up, left wounded, left for dead.
[4:11] A lot of times people do that. They just, I don't know why, but people just seem to thrive on taking other people down. Facebook today is a great example.
[4:25] Something most of you here are like me, your Facebook signing thing is your name. So, if you have your name attached to it, you're probably not going to say a lot. But a lot of people use other things other than their name.
[4:38] And then they go on and they just thrash people verbally. Oh, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And that's, you know, dumb. And they just go after people.
[4:49] Just beating up on people. Why? If you don't like it, just don't comment. Don't say anything. Why? But there's a lot of people who go around beating people up.
[4:59] Then there's people like the priest and the Levite who just go passing people up. Passing people up. Oh, yeah, look over there.
[5:11] I think I'll go this way. Oh, look at him. I think I'll go this way. You know, we have people in our lives. And there are people who come into our lives. And instead of being there for them, we just kind of like, okay, yep, that's good.
[5:26] Somebody will take care of them, not me. We do that a lot, don't we? And then there are those who go around helping people up. That's what the good Samaritan did.
[5:39] He came along and he was helping him up. Helping him get back on his feet. Helping him get well. Helping him to make sure that he was okay and on his way. See, we have these three philosophies of life that people seem to have.
[5:53] Now, a lot of people who don't know the Lord, they won't have necessarily a problem going after somebody. People who know the Lord, who should know better, will do that sometimes too.
[6:07] But at least a lot of the times they will see, but they'll just kind of leave the situation alone. They'll be like the Levite and the priest. They'll just kind of, oh, yeah, look over there.
[6:18] Okay, yep, hmm. And go on and just leave them alone. But if we have the Lord Jesus Christ living in our hearts, if we're following him, if we're doing what he's instructed us to do, we should be like that good Samaritan, going along, helping people up, getting them back on their feet.
[6:34] Kelly? Yeah. When you brought that up, that question comes to my mind. Yeah. She has such a path to help him and giving him what he can and doing things to people.
[6:46] It goes out of her way a long time to give them a lot of hands. So even he took a simple little thing. Yeah. And I've always noticed that about what she's doing.
[6:57] She is. She is. She's very good, very good about doing that. Fred? I remember, right, back in that day, the Jews knew nothing to do with Samaritan.
[7:10] Exactly. It doesn't necessarily mean because he was a Samaritan, there was really anything majorly wrong with this person, that he couldn't have compassion on somebody who didn't even know whether he was Jew or Gentile.
[7:25] He knew somebody needed help. Yep. And he was willing to do it without any reward of his own. Mm-hmm. He knew it had to be done. Yep.
[7:36] Yep. As opposed to the priest who just kind of like, nope, he's a Samaritan. No. No, he's a wounded man. I just can't do anything with him. So good point.
[7:47] You know, it doesn't matter, as I said in my prayer, it doesn't matter if you have a position or a title or anything like that. You know, God can use us to influence and affect people's lives.
[8:00] It doesn't have to be because I have this name I can do things. It's just quite a way to help people. So, as we look at this situation, one of the first things we see is we talked about the fact that, you know, they're pulling up or pulling down or whatever we're doing with them.
[8:19] It shows us something about the gravity of sin. What does gravity do? Gravity pulls us down, right? It keeps us anchored to this world. You know, the apple falls out and the apple loosens from the tree.
[8:34] It doesn't just float around in the air and say, no, anybody like to eat me? Here I am. Straight down. It's gravity. The gravity of sin. Sin is always pulling us down.
[8:44] That's the direction we go with sin. And I want you to notice in this story, verse 30, how does it start out? Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
[9:00] He went down. Whenever you see the word down, usually we think down towards sin. We're going down towards something that's not as good.
[9:10] We're going down towards something that's going to probably cause us problems. And when you read this story here of going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, you know, why was he going there?
[9:23] What was his intentions? Were they good intentions? Were they bad intentions? What was his intentions of doing that? Why was he going down? Because, like I said, whenever we hear going down, it usually makes us think of we're heading in the wrong direction.
[9:35] One of the great deceptions of Satan is to make sin look attractive. Make it look enticing. Like, oh, this is the most wonderful thing we could possibly do.
[9:48] And we try to follow his temptation. And his temptation is always wrong. Remember way back at the beginning. Back in Genesis chapter 3.
[9:58] You don't have to turn there. You know the story. But in Genesis chapter 3, Satan comes to Eve. And in verse 4 of chapter 3, it says this. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.
[10:12] God had told him. If you did the tree, you're going to die. You're not going to die. Verse 5. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
[10:26] You're not going to die. You're going to become like God. Wow. Think about that. God created you. God made you. God gave you all this stuff. You're going to become like him. Like, who wouldn't want that, right?
[10:38] Then he goes on in verse 6 of Genesis 3 and says, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
[10:57] So, Satan made it look enticing. So, Satan made it look enticing. He made it look good. You're going to get to be like God. Whoa. And so she took. I'm glad in a way that they don't tell us why he was going there.
[11:12] Because he may have been going to find a lost child who would run away or something else. Yeah. He may have been doing something good. Yeah. Not necessarily evil or bad intentions.
[11:24] Right. Not necessarily. So, we don't know. See, Satan tempts us, though. And every time Satan tempts us, it's always usually to go downward.
[11:36] It's to go away from God and what he wants. God had said, don't eat. Satan's contradicting him. Saying, I don't listen to him. This is what's going to happen if you don't. See, there's a.
[11:47] Do you think we shouldn't go down each? Probably not. I've heard. There's a lot of treason. Washington. Washington County. I know some of those people from Washington County in here. So. Satan says, look.
[12:04] Don't worry about it. The problem with sin. I think I have it up there next. Nope. I thought I put it up. Nope. Never mind. Let me give this to you.
[12:16] Sin will always take you further than you want to go. Keep you longer than you want to stay. And cost you more than you want to pay.
[12:29] Now, many of you have heard that saying before. Sin will always take you further than you want to go. Eve wanted a good tasting fruit. It looked good to the eyes.
[12:40] It looked good. You know, and it's supposed to taste good and everything. She just wanted something. But it took her further than she wanted to go. She didn't want to go into sin like that. She didn't want to have the consequences that went with that.
[12:52] Keep you longer than you want to stay. You ever notice that sin always seems to have a hold on us? Once we do it, then we keep doing it and doing it and doing it and do it.
[13:02] And we know it's wrong. But we keep doing it. It keeps you longer than you want to stay and costs you more than you want to pay. Sin always has a price to it.
[13:16] Oh, go ahead and do this. No problem. There's always strings attached. There's always a problem that goes along with it. So be careful. Sin will always take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.
[13:30] Now back to the sign thing up here, the direction of sin, the direction. So a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
[13:41] Now, it seems natural to assume, okay, he's going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Which way is he going? Would you say south, right?
[13:55] Yeah. Usually when we think of people going down, we're going south. Except if you live in Maine, you know going down east is not going south. But most people think of going down and you're going south.
[14:10] Problem is, here's Jerusalem. Here's Jericho. Jerusalem's here.
[14:21] Jericho's up there. So why did they say he's going down to Jericho? Jericho. Well, anybody know where Jerusalem's located? It's on the top of a hill.
[14:32] It's on the top of a hill, on top of a mountain. So Jerusalem's up here. Jericho, even though it's up there, is down from Jerusalem.
[14:44] Jerusalem, I'll give you a statistic here, is approximately 2,500 feet above sea level. So it's up here on top. Jericho is approximately 850 to 1,200 feet below sea level.
[15:02] So you're talking from here down to there about 3,350, 3,700 feet downward.
[15:12] Over half a mile downward. So Jesus talks about going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Also, think about the significance of Jerusalem.
[15:27] Jerusalem is a holy city. I mean, all three major religions call Jerusalem home. But for us as Christians, for the Jews, for the Muslims, Jerusalem is a holy city.
[15:39] Anywhere from there is down. Jerusalem, because that's the holy city. That's the city we hold in high regard. For those of us who are Christians, we think that's the city where Jesus was crucified.
[15:52] That's the city where Jesus rose from the dead. That's the city that everything we believe centers around Jerusalem. So everything is down from there spiritually.
[16:04] Okay? Jeremiah, chapter 3, verse 17. Jeremiah 3, 17 says this. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem.
[16:21] Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. It says everybody's going to be drawn to Jerusalem. Think about what you read in Revelation about the end of time. Where is it all centered?
[16:33] Jerusalem. Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is this place that everything is downward from there. That's the place we need to be. And like I said, since following a sin is a picture of going down, you know, it's a picture of if I'm going down from Jerusalem, I'm being led away from God.
[16:57] God, remember, the temple, everything was there? We're going down away from God and his protection and his power and everything about him.
[17:10] So often the word down, it relates to that. Genesis 12, 10. There was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land.
[17:25] There was a famine in the land. He had to find food. He had to go somewhere. But going down to Egypt, and how does Egypt play into the history of Israel? It went down. Judges chapter 14, verse 1.
[17:38] And Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman of Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Where did Samson first start getting in trouble?
[17:50] When he went down to Timnah. Why did he go down to Timnah? He was chasing a girl. And who was this girl? She was a daughter of the Philistines.
[18:02] Samson should have had nothing to do with this girl. Should have had nothing to do with her family. Because she was a Philistine. But yet he went down because he found her attractive.
[18:14] Jonah. Jonah chapter 1, verses 3 and 5. 3 and 5. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish.
[18:28] So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa. He went down to Tarshish.
[18:39] Go ahead. Jonah 1 and 5. I'll get to in just a second. 1 and 5. No. Jonah 1, verse 3 and 5.
[18:51] Yep. He says he's going down to Joppa. He went down into the ship. And what was he doing? To go from the presence of the Lord. He was trying to get away from what God wanted him to do.
[19:04] God said, go to Nineveh. Preach the gospel there to them. Teach them about who I am. Uh-uh. I'm not doing that. Those people have killed our people. Those people are rotten. Those people are mean.
[19:15] Those people are terrible. Why would I go there and teach them? Because I know what you're going to do. You're going to say, I'm going to preach to them. And they're going to hear about you. And they're going to repent.
[19:25] And they're going to follow you. And you're not going to take care of them. You're not going to wipe them out. You need to wipe those people out. So he went down. He went away from what God wanted him to do.
[19:37] Verse 5 there of Jonah chapter 1. It says this. Then the mariners were afraid. And cried every man unto his God. And cast forth wares that were in the ship under the sea. To lighten it of them.
[19:48] But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship. And he lay and was fast asleep. He's running from God. These men are facing a terrible storm.
[19:59] Jonah's asleep. He didn't care. See, that happens when we let ourselves get into sin. We go down. And we don't care about sin in our lives anymore.
[20:12] We don't care about sin that's around us. Later on in verse 17. Jonah's going down into the belly of a fish. You know.
[20:25] We should always be moving in a direction that takes us closer to God. But so often we go to places where it takes us away from God and away from his presence.
[20:35] And when we do that, when we move. Here's Jerusalem. Here's where God was. We're moving away. Going the opposite direction of where God is. What happens?
[20:48] Letter B. She's already got up there. The depletion of sin. Sin starts depleting us. We don't have the walk with God we used to have.
[20:58] We don't have the relationship with him. We don't have the things that we had with him in the past. When we go down spiritually. It never leads to where promises.
[21:12] Remember when. Again. Eve and the serpent. Oh you're going to be like this. You're going to be like that. You're going to be like. Is that what they got? Nope. They did not get those things.
[21:23] Again. Verse 30 there in Luke chapter 10. Certain men went down. From Jerusalem to Jericho. And fell amongst thieves. Which stripped him of his raiment. Wounded him and departed.
[21:34] Leaving him half dead. It did not work out the way he was planning. He was heading to Jericho. To do whatever. I'm sure he did not envision.
[21:44] Any of these things happening to him along the way. Now they had a reputation on that road. For being a place where people would get robbed. But you know. He didn't just get robbed. Says he was wounded and left for dead.
[21:58] See the devil promises good things. He says it's real good. No this is going to be so good for you. You're going to love this. It's going to feel so good. It's going to make your life better. It's going to do all these things. And no.
[22:10] Satan always lies. John chapter 8 verse 44. I've learned this verse once. Memorized it. And I've never forgotten it. It says. You are of your father the devil.
[22:22] And the less of your father you will do. He is a murderer from the beginning. And abode not in the truth. Because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie.
[22:33] He speaketh of his own. For he is a liar. And the father of it. Satan is always going to lie to you. You know.
[22:44] We think of lies today. Well. I told a little lie. Okay. I told a little lie about this. I told a little lie about that. We don't think much of it.
[22:56] But can I tell you. You're never more like the devil. Than when you lie. John 8 44. John 8 44. He is a liar.
[23:07] And the father of it. See. Again. We just take lying. And it's like. It's one of those little sins. You know. You tell the little white lie. You know. Once in a while.
[23:19] You're never more like the devil. Than when you do that. He's always going to give you the opposite. Of what he promises you. He promises you freedom. What does he do?
[23:30] Instead. He's got you in bondage. To him now. He promises you. That he's going to give you. Joy. And peace. And all these things. And what do you get? Sorrow. You know.
[23:44] God says. Follow me. I'll give you a blessing. Then the third thing. For this morning. When we follow that. Direction.
[23:55] Of going down. And sin. Depletes us. From our relationship. With God. There's a deadening. That takes place. In our lives. A deadening. Satan. Ultimate goal.
[24:07] For us. Is what? To be with him. For all eternity. God wants us to be with him. For all eternity. Satan wants us to be with him. For all eternity. Only problem is. Satan's. Eternal.
[24:19] Abode. Is not. Where we want to be. Hell is not the place. We want to go. And Satan's. Ultimate goal. For us. Is death. He wants us to be. With him. In James.
[24:30] Chapter 1. Verses 14 and 15. It says this. But every man is tempted. When he is drawn away. Of his own lust. And enticed.
[24:41] Then when lust hath conceived. It bringeth forth sin. And sin. When it is finished. Bringeth forth death. He says. Look. He's going to keep throwing things out there.
[24:51] That will entice you. He's going to keep throwing things out there. That you want. Say. Oh. If I had that. Oh. If I had that. Oh. If I could do this. Oh. It would just be so much fun.
[25:02] It would be so much good times. It would be so. But he says. When that lust is conceived. It bringeth forth sin. And sin. Bringeth forth death. We're going to follow sin.
[25:15] Follow Satan. He says. It's not going to turn out well. John. Chapter 10. Verse 10. John 10. 10. The thief cometh not. But to steal.
[25:25] For to steal. And to kill. And to destroy. Satan is a thief. He wants to take the joy. And the peace. And the. Everything we have. Of God.
[25:35] Take it away from us. He says. He comes to steal. To kill. And destroy. I am calm. That they might have life. And that they might have it more abundantly. You know.
[25:46] A lot of you here. Got saved in an older age. You know what it was like. Before. You know what it's like now. Did Jesus make a difference? Yeah.
[25:58] A whole lot of difference. In your life. First Peter. Five. Eight. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary. The devil. As a roaring lion.
[26:09] Walketh about. Seeking whom he may devour. Devil's walking around. Not looking to help you. The Bible says. He's looking. Walking around. Looking who he may devour. Who he can take with him.
[26:22] When he goes. So. The man on the road. From Jerusalem. Going down to Jericho. Came frighteningly close. To death that day. Says he left him.
[26:33] Half dead. Left him for dead. Those. That day. That man went from.
[26:44] Living. To almost dead. Jesus Christ. Comes into our life. We go from almost dead. To living. Totally different.
[26:55] Direction. Of life. Ephesians 2. 1. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. You hath he quickened. Who were dead. In trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2. 1. You hath he quickened.
[27:07] Who were dead. In trespasses and sins. Jesus comes into your life. He gives you life. Jesus went to the grave. For our sins. Jesus died.
[27:17] For our sins. But Jesus rose. From the dead. Had life come back in. So we could have forgiveness. Of sin. Have a home in heaven. Have a way to bypass. All the effects of sin.
[27:30] And here he is. He says. We've been. Taken away from all that. We've been quickened. We've been made alive. Even after we're saved.
[27:43] We still have choices to make. Even after we're saved. We still have decisions to make. And as we do that. We can make decisions. Whether. Am I going to head toward God.
[27:55] Am I going to go up. Or am I going to go down. Am I going to head toward. What Satan wants. Or what God wants. You know. We can make decisions. In our spiritual hearts.
[28:05] Our conscience. Our mind. You know. Are we going to allow ourselves. To go. The devil's direction. Where we're half dead. Or are we going to go. God's direction.
[28:16] Where we're made alive. First Timothy 5.6. Says this. But she. That liveth in pleasure. Is dead. While she liveth. You live for pleasure.
[28:31] Since you're missing the point. Yes. It's fine to have pleasure. Yes. It's fine to be happy. Yes. It's fine to do all these things. But am I living for that only. He says.
[28:41] No. Don't do it for that only. Because when you do that. The sin that comes in. Is naturally going to pull it. Push us down. Push us toward the things of Satan.
[28:54] Job. 11.14. He says. If iniquity be in thine hand. Put it far away. And let not wickedness dwell. In thy tabernacles.
[29:04] In thy tabernacles. Now think about this verse for a second. What does that verse mean? I mean. Kind of on the surface. We get it and stuff. But as I thought about this verse.
[29:15] Okay. Iniquity is in my hand. I have a choice to make. What am I going to do with this? Satan's tempting me. He's giving me an enticement. I've got it. What am I going to do with it?
[29:26] Am I going to take it in? Or am I going to throw it away? He says. If iniquity is be in thine hand. Put it far away. Throw it away.
[29:37] Get rid of it. Put it away from you. Why? Let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. Tabernacle. What's that? The dwelling place of God.
[29:49] Right? Before they built the temple. They had the tabernacle. The dwelling place of God. What does the Bible say about us now. As Christians. Where the tabernacle.
[30:01] So. You've got this enticement. You've got this. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to take it into the tabernacle? Or are you going to throw it away? Just get rid of it. You know.
[30:13] He says. Get rid of it. God says. Look. I'm faithful. I'm just. You're going to mess up. Yes. I understand that. You're going to fall for it sometimes.
[30:24] What do you do? 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Get rid of it. Confess it. Let it go.
[30:37] And follow God. Go up. Go up. To Jerusalem. Don't go down. To Jericho. And we'll talk some more about this. Good Samaritan.
[30:47] Some more next week. Okay. Do you have me Father? Thank you. Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me? Do you have me?
[30:58] Do you have me? Do you have me?