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Legal-Tender-and-Loving-Care-Msg-33-44 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Never underestimate the value of music. Never. In our evangelical
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Speaker 1: circles we have made pre eminent the spoken word, But
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Speaker 1: tragically we have diminished the value of the sung truth.
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Speaker 1: It's being devalued in our schools. The arts are being
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Speaker 1: passed away for some other budgetary reasons, and the church
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Speaker 1: is one of the places where great music must continue
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Speaker 1: to be. You must continue to be good students of
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Speaker 1: great theology sung from the hymnal. So rather than taking
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Speaker 1: a hymnal from the church today, buy one and let
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Speaker 1: the music of your life comfort you when nights are
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Speaker 1: long and days are dark, when the message from the
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Speaker 1: physician is heartbreaking, when information regarding life is tough to hear,
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Speaker 1: Let your soul sing my sin, Oh, the bliss of
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Speaker 1: this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole,
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Speaker 1: is what nail to the cross. I bear it no more.
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Speaker 1: Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Martin Luther believed that
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Speaker 1: the Reformation really was not complete unless there were two
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Speaker 1: books held in our hands, the Bible and the Eight
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Speaker 1: Songs of the Faith, and let us never forget the
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Speaker 1: value of both. Well, we have just three verses today
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Speaker 1: from Romans chapter thirteen. Don't think that means a short sermon.
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Speaker 1: It just means I have a friend here in Texas.
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Speaker 1: He said, when I spent a little while on just
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Speaker 1: a few verses, you sort of super irrigated that today
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Speaker 1: these verses appear in a context that is of invaluable
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Speaker 1: significance on the whole matter of love. And Paul does
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Speaker 1: not end the thoughts without driving them home in verses
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Speaker 1: eight nine and ten of chapter thirteen. So, out of
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Speaker 1: respect for the word of God, may we stand together
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Speaker 1: for the reading of these verses of Scripture Romans, Chapter thirteen,
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Speaker 1: Verses eight nine and ten owe nothing to anyone except
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Speaker 1: to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor
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Speaker 1: has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery,
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Speaker 1: you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall
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Speaker 1: not cove it. And if there is any other commandment,
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Speaker 1: it is summed up in the saying, you shall love
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Speaker 1: your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
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Speaker 1: Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. You may
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Speaker 1: be seated these days. It goes without saying that this
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Speaker 1: church has never placed great emphasis on structures. But we
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Speaker 1: are on occasion, very grateful, very grateful for a place
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Speaker 1: to meet. This building is being built out of the
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Speaker 1: faithfulness of God's people, and that would be the people
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Speaker 1: who are sitting in this room. It is not the
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Speaker 1: responsibility of our guests to feel any sense of obligation
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Speaker 1: to participate in the offering. If you are our guest
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Speaker 1: today and you've never met the Lord Jesus as your savior,
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Speaker 1: take this as an opportunity to receive the gift that
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Speaker 1: most of us in this room have received. And that
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Speaker 1: gift has transformed our thinking, our lives and has turned
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Speaker 1: us from being hateful hopefully to being loving people, and
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Speaker 1: from being selfish to being generous people. We come today
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Speaker 1: to worship our God and pray you who do not
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Speaker 1: know him will be drawn to him. So our Father,
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Speaker 1: for many were able to sing it is well, It
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Speaker 1: is well with our souls. That's because of your grace.
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Speaker 1: We've made a mess of our lives, but you're the
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Speaker 1: master at cleaning up those messages. We have spent more
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Speaker 1: days selfish than we have spent unselfish. We have been
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Speaker 1: more often argumentative than we have been cooperative. We are
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Speaker 1: far more often concerned about what we are going to
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Speaker 1: get out of something rather than what other people may
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Speaker 1: benefit from it. Forgive us and maybe learn today again
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Speaker 1: the simple four letter word and its significance as it
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Speaker 1: works its way out in how we think, how we respond,
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Speaker 1: how we live, and how we give. In the name
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, we pray and we give. Everybody said, amen.
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Speaker 1: Nothing is more attractive than love, and nothing is more
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Speaker 1: unattractive and repulsive than the absence of it. Yesterday we
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Speaker 1: had an opportunity to see both placed in juxtaposition. The
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Speaker 1: room today we find filled with worshippers. Yesterday it was
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Speaker 1: filled with mourners as we bury a fallen hero, a
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Speaker 1: second lieutenant in the United States Army who had died
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Speaker 1: a hero's death after less than two months in battle
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Speaker 1: in he War, leaving a family of mom and dad
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Speaker 1: and brothers and sisters, and a heartbroken fiancee. Large picture
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Speaker 1: of this fine man stood on an easel right here
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Speaker 1: on this platform, and people gathered from all over. Being
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Speaker 1: a local football player, it is growing up years. There
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Speaker 1: were former teammates and coaches who had come to mourn,
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Speaker 1: and what a marvelous occasion to reflect on his years
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Speaker 1: at Texas A and M and finally, a commission and
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Speaker 1: the army and cut down by an insurgent's assault. And
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Speaker 1: we heard from one of his coaches who brought a
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Speaker 1: eulogy of for this man and his love for others,
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Speaker 1: describing him as a as a fine athlete who played
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Speaker 1: defensive end in fact, covered the fumble of the opposing
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Speaker 1: team as they a winning team, were able to make
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Speaker 1: it in for the final winning touchdown and they won
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Speaker 1: the championship. He said it was so like him, said
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Speaker 1: the coach, doing something that would help others succeed. At
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Speaker 1: the same time, out on the corner, there were protesters
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Speaker 1: carrying ugly signs that said God hates America, God loves
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Speaker 1: nine to eleven, and other signs to Repulsey for me
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Speaker 1: to repeat right out there, I deliberately drove right in
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Speaker 1: front of them to be sure I could look into
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Speaker 1: their faces and read their signs. Thankfully, the family was
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Speaker 1: protected from that awful scene by being re routed into
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Speaker 1: the church and surrounded by freedom writers with their big
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Speaker 1: flags and all of them veterans riding their harleys, encircling
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Speaker 1: the family with their love as opposed to the hate
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Speaker 1: filled rhetoric on the corner. I thought, as I drove
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Speaker 1: home ironic in this cold rain this afternoon. The very
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Speaker 1: freedom the man died to protect allows them the freedom
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Speaker 1: to protest. But how drawn I was to this family
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Speaker 1: in their mourning and love for this fallen hero, who
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Speaker 1: are into purple Heart and Iraqi metal as well as
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Speaker 1: a bronze star having died a hero's death. You know, friends,
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Speaker 1: whatever else I have to say, love never goes out
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Speaker 1: of style. Love is never inappropriate. The absence of love
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Speaker 1: always is. I'm not surprised then, that the Apostle, in
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Speaker 1: writing this grand letter filled with doctrine, would keep unpacking
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Speaker 1: the same message again and again so that we could
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Speaker 1: see all facets of it, as you would look at
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Speaker 1: various facets of an enormous diamond sitting on black velvet.
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Speaker 1: Because he, being a realist, knows that ours is a
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Speaker 1: world filled with sin. You cannot escape it for whatever
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Speaker 1: it's worth. We took our trip to Australia, and there's
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Speaker 1: sin there. I mean even in the land down Honda.
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Speaker 1: The news sounds just like news in the States, except
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Speaker 1: with an accent. I mean, there's murder, and there's violence
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Speaker 1: and there and there are kidnaps, and there is abuse,
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Speaker 1: and there is terror, and there is robbery, and there
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Speaker 1: is dishonesty, and there is personal misery, and there's political
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Speaker 1: mud slinging. It's all over down there. It's all over.
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Speaker 1: You can't get away from it. I tried to escape
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Speaker 1: one night and I clicked onto a sports channel, cricket, cricket.
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Speaker 1: It's like baseball on Vicodin. The longer you watch it,
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Speaker 1: the less you understand it. It's like watching paint dry cricket,
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Speaker 1: and they play it for days. They're sent everywhere. Friends,
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Speaker 1: I can't wait to get mailed back from Australia in
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Speaker 1: this message. You move to Wyoming, live on a ranch,
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Speaker 1: you'll get a sinful neighbor who'll make your life miserable.
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Speaker 1: You go to Hawaii, you'll have a sinful person in
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Speaker 1: the hotel room next door who'll make your nights miserable. Furthermore,
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Speaker 1: you carry a sinful person into the room when you
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Speaker 1: walk in. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. As one theologian put it,
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Speaker 1: if depravity were blue, it'd be blue all over. So
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Speaker 1: Paul writes to blue people, and he says to us
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Speaker 1: in this context, this is how to live the Christian life.
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Speaker 1: That's the general context of this passage of Scripture. Here's
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Speaker 1: how to live the Christian life. The specific concept context
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Speaker 1: is this is how to be a good citizen. So
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Speaker 1: the general context is in verses nine through twenty one
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Speaker 1: of chapter two. The specific context is in chapter thirteen,
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Speaker 1: verses one through seven. I should have said Chapter twelve twelve,
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Speaker 1: nine to twenty one is the general context how to
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Speaker 1: live the Christian life, and then thirteen one to seven
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Speaker 1: is how to be a good citizen. While on that subject,
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Speaker 1: he doesn't leave the matter of love. He begins in
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Speaker 1: a way that would surprise you. And some have been
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Speaker 1: surprised and even led astray by taking only the first
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Speaker 1: four words and teaching that there should never be debt. Oh,
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Speaker 1: no one anything. But the verse is filled with many
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Speaker 1: other words. It begins, oh nothing to anyone. And you
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Speaker 1: could think, well, that means we should never borrow money.
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Speaker 1: It would be wonderful if we never had to. It
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Speaker 1: would be magnificent if we could live debt free. And
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Speaker 1: some do, and everyone applauds that. People ask, is the
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Speaker 1: church in debt? Yes, it's a debt we can manage.
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Speaker 1: But yes, well why are we in debt? Well, we
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Speaker 1: preferred not to meet in the rain. It was just
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Speaker 1: helpful to have a roof over our head. And I
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Speaker 1: think you'd agree. We didn't splurge, and we're here with
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Speaker 1: a debt. Will there be dead in the new building?
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Speaker 1: There will be dead. But I thought the scripture says, oh,
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Speaker 1: no man, anything. But do you know what the rest
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Speaker 1: of the verse says? Say, Well, before I look at
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Speaker 1: the rest of the verse, I want to know what
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Speaker 1: that means. And I don't blame you. First of all,
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Speaker 1: the verb is in the present tense, meaning keep on owing.
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Speaker 1: So the idea is, don't keep on owing on the
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Speaker 1: same debt, pay it off, Let no debt remain outstanding.
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Speaker 1: You borrow money to buy a car, pay the debt off,
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Speaker 1: don't get another debt on top of that debt on
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Speaker 1: top of another debt. If you have a credit card,
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Speaker 1: pay the credit card off, don't keep snacking credit on
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Speaker 1: top of credit. Pay off the loan. You buying a home,
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Speaker 1: pay it off at chunks over time, over the years,
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Speaker 1: you finally get it paid off. And so he says, oh,
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Speaker 1: no one anything, meaning don't let your debt remain outstanding.
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Speaker 1: No one has been more conservative in his writings than
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Speaker 1: Martin Lloyd Jones. So he certainly wouldn't take liberty with
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Speaker 1: what we just read. In his work on Romans, he writes,
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Speaker 1: there's no need to waste any time over this. This
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Speaker 1: verse cannot mean that because we are instructed elsewhere. Cannot
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Speaker 1: mean that because we are instructed elsewhere in scripture to
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Speaker 1: give loans. In the Old Testament as well as in
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Speaker 1: the New, the question of usury is taken up, also
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Speaker 1: the question of paying interest on borrow money, and they
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Speaker 1: are not prohibited. A legal loan, correctly arranged, is all
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Speaker 1: right as long as you observe the terms of the agreement.
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Speaker 1: It is wrong not to repay as soon as possible
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Speaker 1: anything you have borrowed. That's the point of the first
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Speaker 1: four words. But now that you have listened to that
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Speaker 1: explanation on loans, understand what he's really teaching. Keep reading.
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Speaker 1: When you do serious study of the scriptures. Guard against
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Speaker 1: partial verses and forming convictions out of a few words. Oh, No,
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Speaker 1: one owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.
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Speaker 1: That's the debt. You stay permanently involved in pain all. Oh,
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Speaker 1: no one anything except to love one another. Keep reading,
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Speaker 1: For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
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Speaker 1: This is the debt you never stop pain. Let me
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Speaker 1: have a parallel here to give you an example. Hold
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Speaker 1: your place and look at Romans chapter one. You'll remember
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Speaker 1: when we were there several months ago, or was it
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Speaker 1: years ago? When Romans one, verse fourteen, Notice what he
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Speaker 1: says about being in debt. He says, I'm in debt.
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Speaker 1: In fact, the same Greek word rendered oh nothing verse
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Speaker 1: eight of chapter thirteen is the identical Greek word as
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Speaker 1: translated under obligation in verse fourteen of chapter one, same term,
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Speaker 1: So it's the same meaning I am in debt both
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Speaker 1: to the Greeks and the Barbarians, to the wise and
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Speaker 1: to the foolish, meaning what I am in debt to
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Speaker 1: give them the good news. That's why he says in
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Speaker 1: the next verse, sou for my part, I am eager
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Speaker 1: to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
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Speaker 1: For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It's the
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Speaker 1: power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To
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Speaker 1: the jew first and also to the Greek. Look at
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Speaker 1: his I ams I am in debt Verse fourteen, I
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Speaker 1: am eager to preach the gospel. Verse fifteen, I am
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Speaker 1: not ashamed or sixty there's your devotional for next week
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Speaker 1: when you have to bring your talk there it is
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Speaker 1: you can act like you found it on your own.
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Speaker 1: I ams of Paul right there. But the one that
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Speaker 1: interests us today is I am under obligation. Let's see
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Speaker 1: if I can illustrate it. Let's imagine that you, though
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Speaker 1: young in life, suffer from a terrible dread disease that
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Speaker 1: is affecting your joints, your muscles. It's a lot like arthritis,
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Speaker 1: perhaps it's even worse than that. It keeps you awake
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Speaker 1: at night. Before long, they are no longer supple. You
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Speaker 1: can't move them without pain. You find you can't move
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Speaker 1: around as you once could playing tennis or playing catch,
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Speaker 1: or playing a little pickup gave a basketball. You can't
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Speaker 1: move about, and the pain is horrendous. You try the
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Speaker 1: massage therapy, and you try spas, and you go to
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Speaker 1: one physician after another, and in the process you find
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Speaker 1: out there's no cure for this ailment. Then you have
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Speaker 1: someone tell you, almost by chance, there is this physician
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Speaker 1: who lives in another country, who practices good medicine and
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Speaker 1: has come up with a formula that he can prescribe
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Speaker 1: that if you take it, you'll be free of pain.
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Speaker 1: You don't ignore that. As soon as you're able to
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Speaker 1: afford it, you take that trip and you go to
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Speaker 1: that physician and he listens to you and you describe
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Speaker 1: your situation, and you realize he realizes that you've got
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Speaker 1: exactly what he's able to help, and he writes that prescription.
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Speaker 1: You take that prescription, and you haven't filled. You begin
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Speaker 1: to take that medicine. Three or four mornings later, you're
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Speaker 1: noticing an absence, so pain less and less pain. And
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Speaker 1: another week passes and you're sleeping through the night, and
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Speaker 1: in less than two weeks you're free of pain. Let's
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Speaker 1: say in the next month, you've come across someone you've
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Speaker 1: never met who is obviously in pain, and you could
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Speaker 1: tell about looking they're going through the very same thing
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Speaker 1: that you were going through. And you have the name
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Speaker 1: of the physician right here near your heart. You are
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Speaker 1: under obligation to give that name to this suffering friend.
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Speaker 1: Right You're in debt to everyone you meet who is
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Speaker 1: in this kind of pain. You can't, you dare not
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Speaker 1: keep this to yourself. This is hope. Now you know
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Speaker 1: where I'm going. Many of you lived many years without Christ,
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Speaker 1: and you knew what it was to go through sleepless
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Speaker 1: nights and anxious moments, and the misery of guilt and
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Speaker 1: doing wrong and not being able to quote straighten up
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Speaker 1: your life. And there was a sense of hopelessness and despair,
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Speaker 1: and education didn't help, and travel didn't remove it, and
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Speaker 1: you couldn't escape it till someone cared enough about you
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Speaker 1: to pay their debt. And they told you the savior,
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Speaker 1: the name of the one who could change your life.
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Speaker 1: And now you carry that name right in your heart.
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Speaker 1: In that sense, verse eight is saying in chapter thirteen, oh,
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Speaker 1: nothing to anyone, except there is a debt you do, oh,
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Speaker 1: and you will owe it the rest of your life,
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Speaker 1: and that is to love one another. He who loves
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Speaker 1: his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Interesting change in terms.
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Speaker 1: I have to take the time to say this, even
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Speaker 1: though it may sound a little pedantic. See the word
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Speaker 1: another in verse verse eight, love one another, and see
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Speaker 1: the word neighbor a little later on. It doesn't really
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Speaker 1: read in the original neighbor. It reads another, except it's
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Speaker 1: another of a different kind. The first is another like you,
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Speaker 1: and the other is someone very different from you. Different
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Speaker 1: in beliefs, in theology, different in personality, different in politics,
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Speaker 1: different in mannerisms, different in taste and color and values
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Speaker 1: and past history. All of that different makes no difference.
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Speaker 1: The love is to be shown. You're still in debt.
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Speaker 1: Don't let any of the barriers that would normally hold
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Speaker 1: you back from extending a life of love to that
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Speaker 1: other individual holds you back from doing it. You're in
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Speaker 1: debt to them, and it's a perpetual debt that goes
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Speaker 1: on and on. As a matter of fact, I love
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Speaker 1: the way it continues. When you do that, you actually
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Speaker 1: fulfill the law. What's the purpose of the law to
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Speaker 1: make us like God? But it has no power to
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Speaker 1: do it. Well, Christ comes into the life. And as
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Speaker 1: Christ comes into the life, and we live out the
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Speaker 1: life of Christ, which is a life of love, it
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Speaker 1: is amazing. It is amazing the difference it makes. And
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Speaker 1: as I said at the beginning, nothing is more attractive
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Speaker 1: than being around someone who loves us unconditionally and yet
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Speaker 1: discerning enough to express that love in a way. At
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Speaker 1: times it's tough, honest. As a matter of fact, it
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Speaker 1: goes on to say, as you fulfill the law, you
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Speaker 1: shall not commit adultery. May I make the statement delicate
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Speaker 1: though it is. Don't let anyone who is attempting to
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Speaker 1: lure you into adultery convince you that it's love. Love
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Speaker 1: doesn't prompt adultery. Love Verse ten does no wrong. Adultery
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Speaker 1: is obviously wrong, But when you love, you don't commit it.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't love that David had for Bathsheba. He didn't
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Speaker 1: love Uriah, her husband, when he lured Bathsheba into his home,
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Speaker 1: into his palace. It wasn't love, though I'm sure he
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Speaker 1: used words that were very affectionate in the process of lust.
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Speaker 1: And you shall not murder. Never convince yourself that you
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Speaker 1: take someone's life out of love. It's impossible or stealing,
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Speaker 1: taking something that isn't yours. You never do it because
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Speaker 1: you love them, or coveting what they have, or who
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Speaker 1: they are, or some title they possess, or or whatever
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Speaker 1: may be. That point of covetousness doesn't come from love.
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Speaker 1: Love seeks the highest good of the other person. You
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Speaker 1: know what it does, well, I'll tell you what it
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Speaker 1: doesn't do. Verse ten. It does no wrong to a neighbor.
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Speaker 1: Let's face it, folks, we live in a cold, heartless,
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Speaker 1: uncare world. It is a world that is going its
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Speaker 1: own way and won't stop to help you as you
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Speaker 1: struggled in your way. I thought of it when I
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Speaker 1: read this article from the Chicago Tribune titled he started cutting,
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Speaker 1: Nobody stopped the story of Mary Hannigan. Mary was assaulted
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Speaker 1: on Chicago's Kennedy Expressway when a man purposely rammed her
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Speaker 1: then attacked her with a knife in her own car
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Speaker 1: when she stopped to check the damage as the struggle
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Speaker 1: for her life. As she struggled for her life, no
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Speaker 1: one stopped to help when she managed to move her
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Speaker 1: car forward so it blocked an exit ramp. One car
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Speaker 1: even drove around her without stopping while she was being
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Speaker 1: brutally attacked. Fortunately, her assailant fell from the car when
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Speaker 1: she was able to push the accelerator again, and she
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Speaker 1: escaped in the hospital after a plastic surgeon had worked
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Speaker 1: six hours on her face, leaving one hundred stitches. Her
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Speaker 1: husband said, that's what I can't believe. It's as if
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Speaker 1: people went out of the way not to help her.
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Speaker 1: Sergeant James Marble commented the only ones who would have
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Speaker 1: helped her would have been police officers driving by. People
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Speaker 1: just don't help other people. Unfortunately, now I make a
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Speaker 1: study of your faces, and I can see all kinds
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Speaker 1: of things going on in your mind. Some of you
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Speaker 1: were thinking, well, I mean, my wife could be in danger.
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Speaker 1: Others if you were saying, it's really a risk to
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Speaker 1: get I understand every time I drive by someone in need,
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Speaker 1: that's my thinking. So like you, I too do that,
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Speaker 1: not always thankfully, but more often than I'm proud to admit.
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Speaker 1: I would like to urge all of us to stop
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Speaker 1: and think about the last time we helped someone we
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Speaker 1: didn't know who was in need, just a random act
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Speaker 1: of kindness. Some of you can't remember. I will tell
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Speaker 1: you this now that you and I are both struggling
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Speaker 1: with the guilt of that statement. We will never have
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Speaker 1: trouble talking them with them about Jesus. After the fact,
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Speaker 1: you helped Mary Hannigan in her car and get her
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Speaker 1: to a hospital and rescue her from the assailant. And
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Speaker 1: I will tell you Mary Hannigan wants to know everything
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Speaker 1: she can about you and your life, and she can't
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Speaker 1: say thank you enough. You don't have to fight for
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Speaker 1: an opportunity to witness. She will beg to know how
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Speaker 1: come you stop? What is it that made you different
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Speaker 1: from all the other drivers. Why didn't you just pass
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Speaker 1: by like everybody else? I said earlier. The problem is universal,
29:30
Speaker 1: so it's it's everywhere. And by the way, it's timeless.
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Speaker 1: It happens in every generation. Let me show you an example.
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Speaker 1: In the Bible. Turn to Luke ten. Please just turn
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Speaker 1: back Luke, chapter ten. Love this story. I must have
29:53
Speaker 1: told it dozens of times in my ministry, And every
29:56
Speaker 1: time I do, something new sort of pops up that
29:59
Speaker 1: happened time as well. Verse twenty five down through verse
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Speaker 1: thirty seven contains the story of the good Samaritan. Don't
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Speaker 1: you love the story of the good Samaritan? Just great?
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Speaker 1: But you don't understand is Samaritans were hated people, hated people.
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Speaker 1: There was no prejudice like the prejudice that Jew had
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Speaker 1: for a Samaritan. Samaritan, Samaria's right here in the middle.
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Speaker 1: Judea is down here, Galilee is up here. In order
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Speaker 1: for a Galileean to come to Judea, he would go
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Speaker 1: around Samaria so as not even to get the dust
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Speaker 1: of Samaritan soil on his sandals. That's not going from
30:43
Speaker 1: Kansas to Texas, around Oklahoma. I gave the illustration one
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Speaker 1: time and I had a couple of three big Oklahoma
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Speaker 1: Sooner former football players walk up, and one of them
30:57
Speaker 1: spoke for the group, saying, hey, chuk, we just want
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Speaker 1: you to know there ain't no Samaritans in Oklahoma. Please
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Speaker 1: bear with me. But the story really really doesn't begin
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Speaker 1: with the Samaritan. It begins with an attorney who is
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Speaker 1: in a crowd getting Jesus attention. Verse twenty five. There's
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Speaker 1: a lawyer who stands up, apparently most were sitting down,
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Speaker 1: and he put Jesus to the test, saying, Teacher, what
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Speaker 1: shall I do to inherit eternal life? I read about
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Speaker 1: the Law, I hear about righteousness. I've listened to your message.
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Speaker 1: What do I have to do to prove that I'm
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Speaker 1: a part of the family of God? What's involved in that?
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Speaker 1: Jesus says, what is written in the law, how does
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Speaker 1: it read to you? What you may not remember is
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Speaker 1: that lawyers wore flactories on their wrists, little leather pouches
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Speaker 1: that were strapped to their wrists and often on their forehead,
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Speaker 1: And in these little pouches were handwritten in Hebrew. Of course,
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Speaker 1: the Law of God. Various verses from the Law of God.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps while his hand is in the air. Jesus sees
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Speaker 1: the Phylactorian says, what's written in the law. So the
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Speaker 1: attorney answers from memory, he knows what's in there. You
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Speaker 1: shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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Speaker 1: with all your soul, with all your strength, and with
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Speaker 1: all your mind. And your neighbor is yourself. That's what
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Speaker 1: it says. Jesus. Answer, you have answered correctly. Do this.
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Speaker 1: You will live here in Texas. We would say, you
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Speaker 1: got it, now get at it. The problem is the
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Speaker 1: ball is now served back into the lawyer's court. Lawyers
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Speaker 1: don't like ball served into their court. They like serving them.
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Speaker 1: And so he turns it into another question, but this
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Speaker 1: time to put Jesus well, actually to justify himself. This
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Speaker 1: is what we do when we don't want to face
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Speaker 1: our own guilt. We rationalize. It's called here wishing to
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Speaker 1: justify himself Verse twenty nine. He said to Jesus, and like,
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Speaker 1: who's my neighbor? Is that like a lawyer or what
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Speaker 1: I mean? We got a big picture issue and he's
33:31
Speaker 1: now picking a terms like I mean next door, what
33:35
Speaker 1: if he's three doors down, or what if he lives
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Speaker 1: in Starwood? Or you know, Plano. Is that my neighbor?
33:47
Speaker 1: Or what if he's way downtown Dallas, is he still
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Speaker 1: my neighbor. I'm always amazed at Jesus' patience. I think
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Speaker 1: he was never tempted, so if I had been there,
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Speaker 1: which is the tragic thought, my being a Jesus player,
34:09
Speaker 1: first thought was dumb. But he doesn't. He gives them
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Speaker 1: a story. Now we're back to the Samaritan. Remember the
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Speaker 1: question who is my neighbor, which, by the way, he
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Speaker 1: never answers. A man was going down from Jerusalem to
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Speaker 1: Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and
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Speaker 1: beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. By chance,
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Speaker 1: a priest was going down on that road, and when
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Speaker 1: he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise,
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Speaker 1: a levite also when he came to the place and
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Speaker 1: saw him pass by on the other side. Nothing wrong
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Speaker 1: with their eyes. They both saw the same thing. Neither stopped.
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Speaker 1: But a Samaritan the s word ears perk up. The
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Speaker 1: attorney is now all ears. A Samaritan who was on
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Speaker 1: a journey didn't even live there, he couldn't. It was
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Speaker 1: between Jerusalem and Jericho. A Samaritan who was on a
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Speaker 1: journey came upon him, so they're strangers. And when he
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Speaker 1: saw him, he felt compassion. He saw the same thing
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Speaker 1: the priests and Levite had seen, but he felt something different.
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Speaker 1: It's called love. He felt compassion. And he came to
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Speaker 1: him and bandaged up his wounds, and he poured in
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Speaker 1: wine and oil, and he put him on his own beast,
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Speaker 1: and he brought him to an inn, and he took
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Speaker 1: care of him. And on the next day he took
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Speaker 1: out two denari eye, which is a pretty good amount
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Speaker 1: of dough, and gave them to the innkeeper and said,
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Speaker 1: take care of him or whatever more you spend, not if,
35:55
Speaker 1: but when I return, I will repay you. It's a
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Speaker 1: magnificent story. When I come back, I'm going to come
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Speaker 1: back and check. When I do. If there's more I
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Speaker 1: owe on the hotel bill, let me know and I'll
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Speaker 1: pay that to end of story, but not end of lesson.
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Speaker 1: If you carry a red letter Bible, you notice the
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Speaker 1: red runs onto the next verse. Jesus still speaking to
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Speaker 1: the lawyer, which of the three do you think proved
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Speaker 1: to be a neighbor to the man who fell into
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Speaker 1: the robber's hands? Genius, isn't it? He didn't answer, who
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Speaker 1: is my neighbor? He answered, who is my neighbor's neighbor?
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Speaker 1: Got it? Which one proved to be a neighbor? And
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Speaker 1: the attorney, perhaps with a sigh, answers the one who
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Speaker 1: owed mercy toward him. Jesus said, you got it, Now
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Speaker 1: get at it. I want to tell you something. Even
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Speaker 1: though he may have been a Jew who had been attacked, assaulted,
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Speaker 1: and left to die, when he woke up in that
37:25
Speaker 1: hotel room with his wounds bandaged, with medication on them,
37:34
Speaker 1: with a bed to stay in and a roof over
37:36
Speaker 1: his head, perhaps not even remembering how he got there,
37:42
Speaker 1: his first question would be who did this? And when
37:49
Speaker 1: the Samaritan shows up again, I can assure you, perhaps
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Speaker 1: the first time in his entire life, that Jew is
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Speaker 1: willing to listen to that Samaritan because he loved him
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Speaker 1: in his hurt. Do you know what this is teaching?
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Speaker 1: Listen very carefully. I'll put it in a few words.
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Speaker 1: What you are determines what you see, and what you
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Speaker 1: see determines what you do. Are you a Christian? If
38:43
Speaker 1: that's what you are, you will see a number of
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Speaker 1: occasions in life, none of which will occur at a
38:55
Speaker 1: convenient time or in a very secure setting. There will
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Speaker 1: be risk. There will be threat, there will be uncertainty,
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Speaker 1: there will be chance, there will be the unknown. But
39:17
Speaker 1: what you are will determine what you see, and what
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Speaker 1: you see will determine what you do. The only continuing
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Speaker 1: debt that honors the Lord is loving others, which means
39:43
Speaker 1: finding ways to show it. I say one more time.
39:53
Speaker 1: When you do, they will know you belong to someone
40:01
Speaker 1: else that they've never met. The greyhound bus had slowed
40:10
Speaker 1: and then stopped. It was just a wayside stop with
40:14
Speaker 1: a garage and a small store. A young Native American
40:19
Speaker 1: stepped aboard, and after he had paid his fare, he
40:23
Speaker 1: sat down behind me. It was February. We were traveling
40:28
Speaker 1: from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The night was
40:34
Speaker 1: cold in the warm bus, The tired youth was soon sleep,
40:41
Speaker 1: but after a while he got up and walked to
40:44
Speaker 1: the front of the bus to ask if we were
40:46
Speaker 1: near his destination. We passed there a long time ago.
40:51
Speaker 1: The bus driver snapped acknowledging he had known the boy
40:56
Speaker 1: was riding beyond his stop. He asked, angrily, why when
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Speaker 1: you get off? The quiet passengers shoulders drooped. He turned,
41:08
Speaker 1: came back to his seat and barely had sat down
41:11
Speaker 1: when he rose up again and went back to the driver.
41:14
Speaker 1: Would you stop and let me off, he asked, I'll
41:17
Speaker 1: walk back. No, No, it's far. It's too far and
41:23
Speaker 1: too cold. You freezed the death. You have to go
41:27
Speaker 1: to Albuquerque with the rest of us and then take
41:29
Speaker 1: a bus back. Disappointed, he walked back to his seat.
41:38
Speaker 1: Were you asleep, I asked him, Yeah, and my sister's
41:44
Speaker 1: waiting for me back there. I was returning to Wisconsin
41:50
Speaker 1: after serving a quarter term as a volunteer teacher in
41:53
Speaker 1: an Indian mission school. This experience had taught me the
41:57
Speaker 1: hard living conditions of Native America in the area, the
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Speaker 1: small adobe houses with earth floors, the lack of privacy
42:06
Speaker 1: in those little one in two room places. The role
42:09
Speaker 1: played by teenagers was especially hard there. There was no
42:14
Speaker 1: room for them at home, yet they were not really
42:16
Speaker 1: ready to go out on their own. All the while,
42:21
Speaker 1: we're nearing Albuquerque, a large, strange city. I thought he
42:27
Speaker 1: must be wondering what he would do after he got there,
42:30
Speaker 1: and I turned and asked him, are you afraid? And
42:37
Speaker 1: I hate to admit it sort of way he shrugged. Yeah,
42:43
Speaker 1: stay with me. I said, I'll help you get back
42:48
Speaker 1: on the right bus, but they'll make me pay again
42:52
Speaker 1: when I come back on another bus and I don't.
42:56
Speaker 1: I'll talk to the driver, I said to him later,
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Speaker 1: will you, Will you please check with the return driver
43:07
Speaker 1: so he need not pay the return fare. Reluctantly he agreed, okay.
43:14
Speaker 1: I came back and said everything will be all right.
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Speaker 1: You need not worry about anything. Just stay with me.
43:23
Speaker 1: His eyes said thank you. We wrote on possibly ten
43:30
Speaker 1: more minutes in silence, and then a finger tapped me
43:37
Speaker 1: on my shoulder. I turned to see my young friend
43:42
Speaker 1: leaning toward me. In a quiet and reverent voice, he asked,
43:50
Speaker 1: are you a Christian? What you are determines what you see.
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Speaker 1: What you see determines what you do. Are you a Christian?
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Speaker 1: Now with me? Please? I understand, I really do. I
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Speaker 1: live in the same world you live in. I read
44:35
Speaker 1: the same papers, I'm aware of the same risks. I
44:40
Speaker 1: know the same horrendous stories of heartache and heartbreak and
44:49
Speaker 1: even others being hurt while trying to help someone. But
44:56
Speaker 1: does that block every act of kindness? Is there someone
45:07
Speaker 1: you know right now, right now who could benefit from
45:15
Speaker 1: your helping them out. Why on earth wouldn't you do that?
45:30
Speaker 1: Why on earth if you find yourself one of those
45:41
Speaker 1: along the side of the road, beaten up and forgotten,
45:45
Speaker 1: sort of thrown aside, you made a mess of your life.
45:51
Speaker 1: You hear these things and you think I would love
45:55
Speaker 1: I would love to know more about this. But you
46:01
Speaker 1: have to admit there's never really been a time in
46:03
Speaker 1: your life when Jesus and you have met. What on
46:10
Speaker 1: earth are you waiting for? We have a quiet room
46:15
Speaker 1: called a prayer room where you can slip in following
46:18
Speaker 1: our meeting, and right down front here to your right,
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Speaker 1: you'll meet people who understand they've been there. You'll never
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Speaker 1: be taken advantage of. You'll be helped, just like the
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Speaker 1: Samaritan helped the broken man. But if you choose not
46:39
Speaker 1: to do that right where you're sitting, right now, just
46:43
Speaker 1: by simple invitation God, I acknowledge I'm a sinner. You
46:52
Speaker 1: and I are distant from each other, but I know
46:56
Speaker 1: Jesus has bridged that distance by his death and resurrection.
47:04
Speaker 1: I take him now. Do that, You'll never regret it.
47:24
Speaker 1: Thank you, Father, for another occasion to search our souls
47:31
Speaker 1: and to allow the spirit of God to do surgery
47:35
Speaker 1: down where no surgeons scalpel could ever reach. We're reproved.
47:44
Speaker 1: We're in reality, pretty stunned with a realization of how
47:50
Speaker 1: we have lived our own lives, pretty isolated, protected. So
48:00
Speaker 1: it'll take courage to pull us off. And we ask
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Speaker 1: for that. We asked the scales to be removed so
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Speaker 1: that we really do see and we really do feel,
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Speaker 1: and we're willing to risk for those who've never trusted
48:21
Speaker 1: you come to know your son. I pray that you
48:28
Speaker 1: would bring them to yourself. Everybody said amen.
48:36
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Legal Tender and Loving Care was copyrighted
48:41
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven, twenty ten, and twenty twenty five,
48:44
Speaker 2: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty five
48:47
Speaker 2: by Charles Rswindahl Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication
48:53
Speaker 2: of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited. In
48:58
Speaker 2: the preceding message, Charles R. T. Swindall Incorporated is grateful
49:02
Speaker 2: to Eternity Magazine and the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals for
49:06
Speaker 2: permission to quote the article are You a Christian? Copyrighted