For the evening service, I was thinking, why don't I take up a message that he would have delivered to believers, to those who have come to faith in Christ. Thankfully, there wasn't much need for me to do any form of guessing because in the month of September, he had the opportunity, the only opportunity that he had to preach from this pulpit. And he preached on the subject of love. And so it just made sense that I get there. Not simply because that's what he did, but also primarily because that's how he lived. And anybody who knew him would know that he was spending and was being spent to be a blessing to others. But my coming then to Luke chapter 10 is primarily because in his own soul, it was often the statement that love is what distinguishes true Christians from false ones. True believers will be identified by love for others. And therefore, as we come to the parable of the good Samaritan, that's really what I want us to know, that this is not so much a message saying, live up to this standard, which is important, but it's primarily a message, are you sure you are truly converted? Are you sure? What's the fruit that is coming out of your life as true evidence? So I will read from Luke 10, verse 25, all the way to verse 37. Luke 10, verse 25. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers? He said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do like wise. Our savior was a master preacher. He had a way of answering the defense mechanisms in individual minds and hearts by coming up with what looked like a very innocent story. And yet, in doing so, He went past the defense mechanisms, and individuals found themselves face-to-face with the truth, face-to-face with reality about themselves, and face-to-face with God. That's what we have here. Now some of you who are with powerful memories will know that I actually preached from this same passage right here at Kaboda Baptist Church 14 years ago in the month of December. So that might be revision for some of you. But for most of you in here, I can guess this must be pretty new. And so all I ask is that we listen. Because what this passage is saying is quite simple. It is the fact that those social happenings that take place in our lives, social happenings, meeting individuals as you are within the context of the auditorium here, meeting one another in the various shops in town, bus stops, homes, and so forth. The way we are acting and reacting has eternal consequences. That's what this is saying here. It has eternal consequences. It is betraying the kind of heart that we have before God. And therefore, on the judgment day, that's what simply needs to be replayed, and it shows what kind of hearts we have. And God will deal with us accordingly. The Lord here is meeting a lawyer, and that's got nothing to do with the fact that all lawyers will go to some part we don't want. This is not to do with that. Rather, it was a person who was orthodox in doctrine. In other words, in his brain, you could not fault him. He had the right theology. He had the right doctrine. He wasn't a lawyer in the normal sense of the word that, you know, if you're in trouble in court, you pay somebody and he gets you out of the fix. He was a lawyer in terms of an expert in the law, an expert in the law of God. That's what he was. He studied the Torah. all the way from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Those five books had occupied his thinking, and consequently he was set apart from so many other people because of his knowledge of the law. But also, there's no doubt that as we study him, We give him credence in another area, and it is this. He was concerned about the question of time and eternity, the question of death and judgment, the question of heaven and hell. Let's read that part again. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? That's the question that he put before the Lord. So let's at least give him some credence for that. It may have been to test the Lord, but remember, it was nonetheless a question about issues that truly matter. And then thirdly and lastly, when the Lord turned the question back to him, notice that his answer was 100% correct. Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? Now, I'm almost certain that a typical 21st century Christian, if you were to ask him that question, he would have no clue whatsoever where to start from. But this individual, by his study of the law, had summarized the whole law into two commandments. as Jesus himself had done. Just to summarize the entire first five books of the Bible. The first is this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. It's a vertical command. The law, half the law, is about my love for God. The other half of the law is horizontal. It's about my love for neighbor. And therefore he answers, and your neighbor as yourself. Now if you have ever read the Old Testament and found these particular commandments, you will be shocked to find that they actually are not in any prominent place. They are simply hidden among so many other laws. But clearly, here was a student, and our Savior obviously acknowledges it, and himself uses these two commandments, who in studying had seen the connectivity of all the laws to these two places. The man was right. If there was anything he was lacking, it was not knowledge. Knowledge-wise, he was right. And brethren, that's one truth we can say about any among us who hung around Reformed Baptist churches long enough. You read the right books, You listen to the right sermons. You sit in the right Bible studies. And consequently, it's very difficult for you to be dismissed offhand on the basis of head knowledge. On the basis of head knowledge. Because you are so exposed to the truth You can literally recite it. You can get yourself out of any naughty situation. K-N-O-T-T-Y. Because orthodoxy, right doctrine, is something that belongs to all of us. However, this gentleman had an unregenerate heart. And that's where I want us to quickly go to, an unregenerate heart. How do we see this? Two things. First of all, his concern was not primarily about learning, but about testing. We see that in the very first verse. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test. And how easy is it, or it is, for an individual within our own context to lose that teachable heart that when a question is being asked, whether it's in Bible study or a members meeting or whatever other opportunities, camp or conference, and the question is being asked, it's not really to learn. It is to put somebody to the test. I've never forgotten a few years ago, I was preaching in another country, invited by a denomination, Presbyterians, and they actually ordained women. And so I was there, and it was a conference for pastors, and I was preaching to everybody. And in the context of the conference, we came to Q&A. And a fellow Reformed Baptist asked me the question, is it right to have female preachers? Now, I immediately said, you know the answer. It's not that you want to learn. You know the answer. All you are doing is putting me to the test. And I said to him, therefore, I'm not answering you. Too simple. Next. Because it's obvious. If Presbyterians invite me to go and preach at their conference, you won't start asking me about baby baptism. That's wrong. I'm in their home. with respect to everything you already know. And that's what this testing bit was all about, is to try and catch Jesus on the wrong side, because if he answers this way, this half will be against him. If he answers this way, this half will be against him. That's not healthy. That's not for your well-being. That's not a teachable spirit. You don't want to learn. But the second is that when he is brought face to face with the law, he seeks to circumvent it. Look at verse 28. And it said to him, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. Verse 29. but desiring to justify himself. He said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Desiring to justify himself, to find a way in which my lackluster Christianity, if we can speak in terms of today, can still be okay. I'm going to ask a question that is tricky, so that in the end, my life is still okay. And friends, if that's your attitude towards the things of God, always trying to find some loophole to get away with things, in the end, you will find yourself in hell with an orthodox mind. The brain in its understanding is okay, but in actual fact, at heart, you are still lost in sin. So how does Jesus then answer this person? He applies a simple test, and it is a neighbor test. It's a test of how you deal with the very people that God brings your way. Do they matter to you? Do they? or you quickly pass them by and you are with your friends as usual. Do you care about others? That's real love. So Jesus paints a picture in which someone is in desperate need. It's a life or death situation. He's been beaten up by robbers. And Jesus deliberately begins with the most likely helpers, the most likely, and keeps going down the grade one after the other. So he begins, for instance, with individuals who are Jews, individuals who are knowledgeable, individuals who are office bearers, in order for them now to carry out this work of charity. We've seen that already. The first person who passes by in verse 31 is a priest. The second person is a Levite. It's like if we were to speak in today's language, the first one was a church elder, the second one was a deacon. Basically, that's what Jesus did. He's getting two people who are office bearers in the church, and they are coming. You would think that the answer would be, of course, such an individual will help. but indeed they don't. Now, let's face it, brethren, before we throw stones at them, that often the excuses we give would be equivalent to the excuses these guys would have given. Let me throw out at least two or three or four at the most. First of all, it's the issue of time. The issue of time. If they were going from Jerusalem to Jericho, it's most probable they had just knocked off. If they were going from Jericho to Jerusalem, most likely they were rushing for work, to report on time at the temple in Jerusalem. Time. They just didn't have time. So someone else who has time will come and deal with it. We are busy. Life is busy at the moment. After all, I don't even know the chap. The second possible excuse would have been the danger, the danger. It is dangerous. People use tricks. I've never forgotten driving to Samphia, and somewhere in between two towns, there was a human being lying on the road. And I was with somebody else in the car. And after I sort of diverted around the person, I stopped. And the person who was with me said, don't tell me that you're going to go there. Because that could be a robber. So I said to him, simple. Take over the driving seat. And if anything happens, just go. So I got out. I went there. The guy was drunk with cachazo, smelling cachazo. I pulled him off the road, put him into a bush by the side. I came back. I said, OK, you can get back into your seat. Let's go. And this person has been talking about it ever since. But let's face it. It is a good excuse, isn't it? It's dangerous. I mean, that time must have been like between 02 and 03 at night. It's dangerous. You could lose your life. It was the same here. Robbers, somebody would have been there, pretending with tomato sauce on his body, as if it's blood. Then as soon as you get there, other guys come on you. Here's a third. It's inconveniencing. It's inconveniencing. Because once you get there to help, before long you discover you do need to change direction. You need to take this guy to an inn. You need to go and spend quite some time there and so forth. That was not in your schedule. And often that's an excuse for us, that it's so inconveniencing. We've had our plans already made out. We can't go into this. And then the last one is simply that it's useless trying. It's useless trying. That's often the case when it's an individual that, in this particular case, might be left half alive, half dead. For all I know, he's as good as dead. Let's get on with other areas. Brethren, the point is this. that where love is missing, we will have an excuse. I want to assure you of that. Because what love does is it overcomes those same hurdles. They are there, but love overcomes them, rides over them, sacrifices for the sake of others, gets inconvenience, gets dirty, risks. because of that aspect called love. So what was missing here was actually love. Notice the way the Samaritan is described, and we must hurry on. Verse 33, but a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, here's the word, he had compassion. Or as some other versions put it, he took pity on him. Brethren, that's a heart issue. It's a heart issue. You can be among people who are extremely needy, and in one way or the other, I'll come to that in a moment, and your heart is as hard as stone. You don't notice them. You don't see their needs. As far as you're concerned, you are happy-clappy with your friends. Life goes on, and you are completely missing a world. that is so desperately in need. While at exactly the same time, you are sitting next to friends whose hearts God has regenerated, turned into hearts of love, who are taking compassion on others, meeting their needs, And in the end, you arrive on the judgment day, you are saying to God, God, there was no time, it was inconveniencing and all the rest of it, and then God shows you somebody else in exactly the same church who was spending and being spent to do others good. The difference lies in the heart. A heart that is unregenerate is a heart that is self-centered. Self-centered. And that heart would take you to hell. It is this love in the heart of the Samaritan that moved him. to go to the man, he went to him, to bind up his wounds, do a bit of first aid by pouring oil and wine in those wounds that made him set him on his own animal and take him to an inn and basically personalize help to him and take care of him. And when he needed to move on, it was the same love that made him pull out even more money and pay the innkeeper and say to him, while I'm gone, continue looking after this man. And when I come back, if I find you paid more, I will reimburse you. It's love. The Samaritans to the Jews were like the Palestinians and the Jews. This story was a shock to the system, to the lawyer, because the priest and the Levite, that's what they should have done because they were fellow Jews, but they didn't. A Samaritan who should have said, good, I'll finish you off now, is the one who goes the extra mile to help him. And Jesus finally asks the question, which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers? Thankfully, this lawyer at least had the genuineness of giving the right answer. A few Pharisees would have said, I don't know. That's exactly what they used to do. And Jesus would say to them, therefore, I won't tell you. Case closed. But this man said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. Friends, we all know the right answer. The question is, are we willing to go and do likewise? Are we? And that's absolutely dependent on the kind of heart that you currently have as you are going from 2023 into 2024. It is. And this is not questioning your orthodoxy. It's not questioning what you know the Bible to be teaching. The question is, are you an individual who will go and do like once? Let me put it this way to you, brethren. Christianity can be reduced to two things, truth and love, full stop. and it's not either one or the other, it's both. When our Lord came into the world, that's what you saw in his life. He was teaching the truth, living by the truth, and he was also living a life of love and love and love. He was set apart Everybody knew he was somebody who truly loved. The very summary of the whole law of God. Can you imagine? The whole law of God. When Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment? He didn't hesitate. He said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And then he said, but the second is like unto it. He didn't end there. He said the second is like it. And it is this. Love your neighbors, you love yourself. What I want you to notice is both of those are about love. Love. That's what they're about. Love. When God saves you, to borrow the picture that I often use, He changes you from a hole into a shovel. Let me say that again. When God saves you from sin, He changes you from a hole into a shovel. A hole, when you dig it into the ground, which way does it go? towards me. Anything I get, it's me. A shovel, when it goes into the same ground, where does it go? It's away from me. It's going to others. You can be sure of that. If the Lord has not saved you, I know exactly what your life is about. It's me, myself, and I, full stop. Even in joining the church, the question is, what will I get out of this? What will I get out of it? It's hardly ever, what will others get out of me? It's hardly ever. So that's why this issue of love is not so much about do and do, do and do, so that somehow you can achieve eternal life, but rather it is the evidence that there is eternal life. And therefore, the church is simply a vehicle in which you have opportunity to love others in a very tangible way. They are here. You are with them. All you need to do is open your eyes and talk to them. And it will shock you. that here are opportunities for you to love. Your home is a grand opportunity to be a blessing to others. You can bring them in, feast them with food, put a shelter over their head, spend time listening to them, listening to them, and putting in a word that is helpful. Many of the children and the youths and the young adults who are here belong to Christian homes, but themselves are not Christians. They desperately need those uncles and aunties who will come into their lives and individually minister to them beyond the car park here. loving them into the kingdom. They desperately need that. But it's easy for you to be part of this and have nothing to do with that part of the congregation that makes the majority of this church. Because all you are doing is me, myself, and I. Did I enjoy myself today or didn't I? 2023 has come to an end. We may have missed the boat. Thank God we were not in the coffin that day, still alive. God may be giving us yet another year. Let's ask ourselves this question. Is my heart transformed, to become like God's heart. Is there genuine love in my heart for others, for their spiritual needs and their material needs? Is my heart there? Is my heart there? And if it isn't, Don't just go into next year saying, I'll try, I'll try. You'll fail. Instead, go to Christ today and say to him, Lord, fix my heart. Fix my heart. Lord, fix it, that it might be a heart that truly loves. that when my time comes and I'm in a coffin and I'm going to be buried, the testimony from people will be, he loved us. He loved us. He spent and was spent that we might be a better people. We will miss him.