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[0:00] Good morning. It is a joy to be here with you all to open up the scripture together and glean from its words. While Nathan and Clay have been on sabbatical, we've been taking a break from our study of Romans to teach through some parables.

[0:13] I went through our website recently to say to see when the last time was that we preached through the Gospels. It was 2018. And before that, it was 2015.

[0:23] So I know that many of you read the Gospels and therefore the parables more frequently than that. So I trust that this little series has been beneficial to you. I know it has been for me regarding interpretation and application of the parables.

[0:39] And so flying over the text sometimes at 30,000 feet can lead to premature applications. There tends to be so much more built in, so much more instruction once you dive into the actual contours of the passage.

[0:52] So as Cody and TJ and Ernie have helped us to draw out the true meaning of the passages they taught on, I hope to do the same. Today we're going to be going through the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.

[1:09] The Good Samaritan is a familiar parable. It is a colloquial term in our culture. Most people who grew up in America understand what is meant by using the phrase Good Samaritan.

[1:20] Even if they don't know what the biblical origin is. So we even have a category of laws called the Good Samaritan laws. So this is a familiar text. People have used it and seen it only as a prescription to help the needy whenever you happen upon them.

[1:38] At other times it has been unrightly taking the spotlight of the big picture and mission of the church as if the only predominant purpose is to fulfill physical needs.

[1:50] I believe as it is faithfully read, it teaches us to humbly approach the scriptures, exalting God and not man. Yeah, it gives clarity to the commandment to love your neighbor, but it goes further to address the why or how to apply the law in light of eternity for God's glory.

[2:09] With that in mind, would you turn with me to Luke 10? Luke chapter 10. We're going to start in verses 25 and read through 37.

[2:31] Luke 10, 25. It reads, And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test. That's Jesus saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

[2:42] 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, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

[2:55] 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.

[3:11] 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, saw him and 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.

[3:27] 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.

[3:40] And whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. So which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said, the one who showed him mercy.

[3:51] And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We pray that by the power of your spirit, you would reveal your truth to our hearts, that we would cling to its promises.

[4:10] We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So to really understand this interaction, it's important. It's really important to understand who the main characters are and the social political climate they were in.

[4:22] There's a lot of context to consider in this text. I just want to give the bare minimum background for us to really absorb the impact of how Jesus poses his answers.

[4:36] But the bare minimum is a lot, so hang with me. So the context of this passage is in Israel. After the Israelites have returned from captivity, they have rebuilt the temple that was destroyed, and they are living in the promised land once again.

[4:50] During the exile, a remnant of the Jews actually stayed in Israel instead of going to the captive's land. And those who stayed back, a few of them went and married Gentiles from the northern region, Samaria.

[5:04] And the product of that interracial marriage were then the Samaritans. So they were sort of a half-breed, but the exilic Jews, the ones who went to the captive's land, would see them as impure.

[5:16] And that caused dissension and animosity between the pure Jews and the Samaritans because the pure Jews saw that they were meant to be set apart and not to be unequally yoked with Gentiles, so it kind of felt like betrayal.

[5:29] So therefore, the Samaritans and the Jews were at odds. They didn't worship together. They did not speak to one another. They did not live together. So Samaritans would be considered the worst kind of Gentile. Calling someone a Samaritan would be a condescending term.

[5:43] And so the lawyer is one of the exilic Jews, the one that went to the captive's land, and he studies the scriptures by occupation. He's not a civil attorney like we may think of in our day.

[5:55] He dealt in the law of scripture. He would be occupied with interpreting the Old Testament and how it ought to be applied in their day. He was a religious leader along with like the scribes, the priests, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees.

[6:08] He is a pure Jew and would separate himself from the Samaritans. He too would look down his nose at them. The first two pedestrians, the Levite and the priests, are also part of this religious class of Jews.

[6:22] The Levites were given the office of priesthood in the Old Covenant. Not all Levites were priests, per se, but all priests were from the tribe of Levi. And so these are also pure Jews.

[6:36] And given those contextual realities, the animosity of exilic Jews and Samaritans, and the disposition of the lawyer, the parable of the Good Samaritan is a very subjective response to the lawyer's inquiry.

[6:50] The lawyer would never have contributed anything to come from a Samaritan. And so this parable hits him in a very particular way. Remember, this is just an allegory too.

[7:02] This is not historical fiction. Jesus is not trying to vindicate the Samaritan or condemn the Levite or the priest. But it is to just show how the Lord tactfully uses the context to address the lawyer.

[7:15] And that's important to keep in mind. So that lays the context of who we are dealing with and what predispositions are present. And with that in mind, we're going to work through this text in two portions that both start with a question and end with an exhortation.

[7:31] The first question being, what shall I do to inherit internal life? And that's in verses 25 through 28. And it concludes, do this and you will live.

[7:42] And then the second question is, who's my neighbor? Found in verses 29 through 37. And that conclusion is, you go and do likewise. So we're going to look into that first section.

[7:52] What shall I do to inherit eternal life? The text doesn't give us explicit detail on if the lawyer was present when Jesus was addressing his disciples just before our text.

[8:05] But even if it had, our understanding and application of this text wouldn't change much. So either way, the lawyer approaches Jesus on the topic of eternal life. The purpose of the lawyer's inquiry, it says in verse 25, is to put Jesus to the test.

[8:21] He's wrong right off the bat. By attempting to test Jesus, he's placing himself either above or at best equal with Christ.

[8:31] And either of those would be a highly irreverent and arrogant position to take when approaching the Messiah. It is the master that teaches and tests the students.

[8:42] So the lawyer is positioning himself as an authority to test Christ. Even though the lawyer calls Jesus teacher, I think that's a little tongue-in-cheek. So the spiritual blindness that the lawyer has as he approaches Christ leads him to phrase this question with a faulty heart attitude.

[9:01] He says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? As if he can achieve eternal life in and of himself. The topic of the question, however, it is the most important topic to consider.

[9:14] Our time here on earth is very limited. And we can be so consumed with the smaller details of our daily lives that we neglect the bigger, more existential questions.

[9:25] We often ask things like, where should I live? When should I find another job? What kind of investments should I consider for retirement? What kind of car should we buy?

[9:37] These are not inherently wrong questions to ask. These are actually good questions to ask. But an even better question would be, can I know God and have an intimate relationship with him? What does he expect of me?

[9:48] And how can I please him? Where do I go after this life? And how do I get there? These are the questions that we would do well to consider regularly because they are of utmost importance. The lawyer, however, doesn't really want to hear Jesus out on this matter.

[10:01] He's making a public spectacle of the situation and wants to actually boast his own ego. He wants Christ to answer outside of the accepted scriptures so that he can shoot him down.

[10:13] He wants to draw out a new means of salvation from Jesus so that he could be charged with blasphemy. The lawyer was a part of that high class of religious elites that would often gather and use the scriptures to puff themselves up.

[10:27] They had a system of works-based salvation in place and they did not want Christ interrupting that. So therefore, he was just setting a trap for him. If you would, turn to John chapter 5 with me really quickly.

[10:41] Jesus in this text is addressing this very matter, these very people on this topic about using the scriptures to puff themselves up. John chapter 5.

[10:55] Look at verse 39 with me and following. This is Jesus speaking to this group of religious elites. He says, You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

[11:09] And it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

[11:21] I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from only God?

[11:34] Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me.

[11:46] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? In verse 43, we see that they accept one another's teaching that credits their own names.

[11:58] Whoever has that interpretation that is most agreeable with their self-exalting ideology is to be received. They don't want to magnify God in the scripture. They want to justify themselves.

[12:10] Jesus is saying that all these scriptures witness about him, though, God. And yet they do not come to this conclusion in the scriptures. This is because, by default, humans are affected by sin in such a way that it causes spiritual blindness.

[12:24] In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

[12:35] And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. You can't interpret the things of the Spirit if your mind is set on the things of the flesh.

[12:46] God must reveal himself by the power of his Spirit in order for us to see with our hearts. It is an attempt to steal glory from God by lying about where spiritual discernment comes from.

[12:58] They say it comes from within so that they can have something to boast about. But the scripture says it comes from outside of ourselves. The lawyer boasting himself has no regard or reverence for his Creator, who is the only one who can provide eternal life.

[13:12] So as Jesus said in verse 39, it is the scriptures that bear witness about him. The scriptures that Moses authored are filled with shadows of the one to come. And they're all pointing to trusting in God alone for salvation.

[13:24] The ark in Noah's story, the torch and the smoking pot in the Abrahamic covenant, the walls of Jericho just falling down at the sound of trumpets, the ram caught in the bush as a substitute for Isaac, the Passover lamb, the water from the rock, these are all pointing to a spiritual salvation outside themselves that is provided by God himself.

[13:48] Christ is the sacrificial lamb. He is the manna from heaven. He is the snake crusher, the seed of Abraham. He is the substance that is shadowed in the Old Testament. And he is the only one that can offer eternal life.

[14:02] So the response in verse 26 back in our text that Jesus gives, what is written in the law and how do you read it, is very clever. Christ responds with a question that appeals to the scriptures.

[14:16] He then is stripping away the authority and the ability for the lawyer to boast in himself. He is now putting the lawyer to the test by asking him a question. And now he's causing the conversation to bear on the word of God, not on the lawyer's interpretation or his understanding of those things.

[14:35] So although the lawyer uses scripture selfishly, Christ doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Eternal life can only be provided by the creator of life, and he has revealed this truth to us through his word.

[14:47] So today we have his word recorded for us in the 66 canonized books of the Bible. These words are breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

[15:04] The nature of the word of God is a glorious doctrine. His words have physical and spiritual authority, and that as the Lord speaks, his very breath has precise, effectual power in what he intends to do.

[15:20] Isaiah 55.10 says, For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bare and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will be my word which goes forth from my mouth.

[15:35] It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Okay, and we see that in a few different physical life-giving realities.

[15:46] It is his word that spoke creation into existence. It is his breath that breathed life into man in Genesis 2. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed life into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

[16:04] And then beyond creating life, it is the word of his power that sustains life. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. Note that it is not the power of his words as in the physical words give life.

[16:19] But the power behind the words, the word of his power. But not only does his word give physical life, he exclusively uses his word to bring about spiritual life. In Romans 1, the gospel message is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

[16:34] John 5, 24, Lord, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. Ephesians 1, 13, In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

[16:51] And there's many more. But God uses specifically and only the gospel message with the power of the Spirit to cause salvation. There is no other means to gain eternal life except through what is prescribed in his word.

[17:05] Beyond salvation, the Lord uniquely uses his word to sanctify. In Jesus' high priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus prays to the Father, Sanctify them in your truth.

[17:18] And what is your truth? It says, Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. The very work of the Holy Spirit is to bring about remembrance of all that Christ has said.

[17:29] Looking at a broad sweep of scripture, we see how God uses his word to bring about life and accomplish all of his purposes. And at the end of that passage in John 5, Christ equates belief in his words to belief in the writings of Moses.

[17:43] So he's claiming his words are authoritative and divine. Scripture at this time in our text would be the Old Testament. There was debate within the religious leaders of the time of which books were to be included or not.

[17:58] There was no debate, however, whether the Torah was authoritative. And that is what this man quotes from, the lawyer quotes from. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible and was often referred to as the law.

[18:10] And so he quotes Deuteronomy 6, the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

[18:22] And also from Leviticus 19, he quotes, You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[18:32] I am the Lord. So the lawyer answers correctly to the what of Jesus' question or to the what of the question. But Jesus affirms that so simply in verse 28 by saying, you've answered correctly.

[18:45] It's almost as if he's just saying like, yep, glad we agree. You've answered right. But then he adds, do this and you will live. You will live. So this would cause the lawyer to stop and consider why Jesus thinks he's not currently fulfilling the law.

[19:00] I believe Jesus was letting the law have its intended effect. John Calvin in his institutes teaches three primary uses of the law. First, it acts as a mirror, as in Romans 3.20, For by works of the law, no human will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

[19:21] Second, it restrains further evil from happening. The moral boundaries drawn within the human conscience can serve to limit the full expression of our sin out of fear of consequences.

[19:34] But also third, it provides God's children good instructions to glorify their father. So Christ was letting the law act as that mirror to expose the lawyer's sin.

[19:45] In this way, it guides his mind into seeing maybe two different means for salvation. He can live in complete faithfulness and submission to God, which would be a works-based salvation.

[19:58] Or he will have to find justification somewhere else. That is, through Christ, who did live in complete faithfulness and submission to God, which would be a faith-based salvation. If we are honest with ourselves and with God, we all sin.

[20:12] We have all broken the requirement of complete faithfulness. So we conclude that the one and only way for a human to be accepted and restored to God is to pursue the latter option, the faith-based salvation.

[20:23] And Galatians teaches that plainly. It says, That's why Jesus says back in John 5 that Moses accused that pretentious group of religious elites.

[20:47] They have all broken the law of Moses that was recorded in the Torah. And that law should then act to reveal their blemished hearts and their minds and turn in faith to Christ.

[21:00] So within the lawyer's question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He is assuming he can accomplish the righteousness on his own, this works-based salvation, and receive the reward of eternal life.

[21:11] This leads him to improperly interpret but also apply the scriptures. When you look into those texts that he quoted with confidence and the rest of the giving of the law, if you approach it with a confidence in the flesh and a selfish ambition, it's understandable that the lawyer has this mentality.

[21:30] In Deuteronomy and throughout the giving of the law, you see the exhortations to keep the commandments so that it will go well with you, which is true. Through faith and God's promises, the patriarchs found salvation and many other blessings by upholding the law.

[21:46] The lawyer misses the fact, though, that it was by faith that led them to that obedience. In James 2, you see, it says, You see that faith was active along with his works.

[21:57] He's speaking of Abraham here. You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works, and the scriptures was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

[22:08] For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. The lawyer's body is apart from the spirit, so his works do not produce life.

[22:19] We all, by nature, fail to obey the foremost law, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But because we can't uphold that foundational and most important law in and of ourselves, we are bound to transgress the other laws as well.

[22:35] If, by God's intervention, we are given the spirit to cause us to love the Lord our God, that we will start to see the spirit working through us to fulfill the other components of the law.

[22:45] And so what's so condemning about the lawyer's next words is that he doesn't even address the component of the love of God. He assumes that he has nailed that one already.

[22:56] This leads him to think that the misunderstanding must be within the dealing with the love of neighbor. But we know that true love of neighbor has to flow downstream from the love of God and not love of self.

[23:10] If you're worshiping yourself, you aren't considering others, and nor are you loving your neighbor. So that leads us into our next section of the passage, who is my neighbor, in verses 29 through 37.

[23:24] It starts very similarly to the first with a question, but the lawyer has the same prideful approach. In verse 29, we see the lawyer desiring to justify himself.

[23:38] There again, pride is always the wrong approach to scripture. He is trying to find a loophole in Christ's response so that he would be proven right. By the lawyer's response, we see that he assumes that he has obeyed the command to love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

[23:54] But in reality, he has loved himself with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Leviticus text he quotes regarding the love of neighbor has some verbiage in there that I think he's wanting to use for his own agenda.

[24:07] The text reads, You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So the Lord equates the sons of your people to neighbor.

[24:19] He wants to limit neighbor to his own kin because it's very easy to love those within your own circle. He wants it to read, you shall not take vengeance against the sons of your people, but you may bear a grudge against your neighbor.

[24:33] But that is not what the text says. So he suggests there must be a misunderstanding how Jesus defines neighbor. And with what we have seen of his character and his line of thinking, we're not surprised that he wants to use this text to his own advantage.

[24:47] He studies the law day in and day out. And Leviticus 1934 gives a helpful definition that apparently the lawyer has overlooked. It says, You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.

[25:05] So Jesus, the author of the Torah, defines neighbor this way. Christ goes on to clarify neighbor through this parable so that the lawyer can see his shortcoming, repent of his sin, and then obey the law rightly.

[25:20] So let's look at how the parable achieves that. Because the priests were to be clean and consecrated when performing their priestly tasks in the temple, There's a requirement of not touching anything said to be unclean, and that would involve blood, sickness, certain animals, injured people, dead people.

[25:40] And if they did, they had to be made clean and consecrated before entering the temple, which is completely feasible, maybe not efficient, but the means of cleansing yourself before entering the temple are there for a reason.

[25:52] I imagine the excuse ran through his mind that they were selected for the sacred work of the temple, and therefore had a higher calling than to stop and help an unclean man. Maybe someone else who doesn't have such a high calling has time to stop and help, not me.

[26:08] So in contrast, when the Samaritan comes upon the man, he stops and does the compassionate act of lavishly helping this man. He stops the bleeding wounds.

[26:19] He sacrifices his cooking materials to soothe and sanitize those wounds. He gives up his seat on his animal. He walks in. He walks. Like, he gave his seat up, and he walks him all the way to an inn.

[26:31] And then he pays for approximately two months of stay. And then he vows to pay for any additional accommodations that the wounded man may acquire over that time. And this is an incredible act of kindness and benevolence toward an apparent stranger and someone who is culturally at odds with him.

[26:50] And so the ethnic divide went out the window, and the Samaritans showed compassion. The priests who are called to intercede and bring about the Lord's mercy through their temple services find themselves selfishly and maybe arrogantly unwilling to extend that compassion in all practical ways.

[27:07] Jesus is showing him that true love for neighbor includes loving anyone we find ourselves interacting with, whether Jew or Gentile. He is using the Samaritan as the one who is actually loving his neighbor and not the priest or the Levite.

[27:21] This would be inflammatory to the lawyer. But Jesus goes on to have the lawyer confess this truth. When you look at his response, the lawyer answers correctly that the member is teeth.

[27:33] So nonetheless, Jesus left him with his answer to who his neighbor is. And this teaches us what it practically means to love our neighbor. But it also showed the lawyer that he has fallen short of obedience to the very commandments and the law that he deals with day in and day out.

[27:50] He has not loved the Samaritan, his neighbor, as himself. He's not necessarily... It's not necessarily how the lawyer has failed to maybe help some wounded man beaten up down on his luck.

[28:03] Though it doesn't exclude that, but it's the Samaritans. The lawyer has looked down upon them and tried to remove dignity from image bearers. And this proves that he can't even win at his own game, the works-based righteousness.

[28:18] So now what? Jesus leaves him with the marching orders. You go and do likewise. This hopefully led the lawyer to realize his double standard. This would require him to look outside of himself to find a right standing with God.

[28:34] And this is a very powerful use of the law. It causes us to turn to Christ. If you are only seeking the gift of eternal life from obedience to the law, then God, the gift giver, is irrelevant.

[28:49] And you are worshiping yourself. This leads to misapplications of the law. The Lord instituted these laws so that we would enjoy fruitful relationship with him.

[29:00] He is the reward. If he is not our main focus in our obedience, then the benefits of obedience will actually not be beneficial to us. Because on judgment day, the Lord will say, depart from me.

[29:12] I never knew you. Deuteronomy 8 says, take care lest you forget the Lord your God. By not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and you live in them.

[29:28] And when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God.

[29:39] They were not to obey the commandments within the covenant to pragmatically get physical blessing. The laws were there to continually point them to God who alone can provide spiritual blessing.

[29:55] The lawyer is looking too much into the what of the law and not at the who. The law helps us to see and know the mercy and the grace of God. Recall in Romans 5 verse 20, the law came to increase the trespass.

[30:09] But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. The law exposes our sin and our fallen nature. But this tees up the glory of God in accomplishing the work for us and enduring the wrath that we deserved for our transgressions.

[30:25] And he did that in Christ. Jesus lived the perfectly obedient and righteous life that is required of us. The law did not increase his transgressions, but proved to show his perfection.

[30:37] This made him the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. He was the one who deserved punishment the least. And yet he paid the most in order that we would be given the most fathomable gift.

[30:50] Eternal life. So that eternal life starts here on earth with salvation. The law causes us to turn away from ourselves in repentance and to place our faith in Christ.

[31:01] We are no longer viewed as rebels and criminals through faith in Christ. We are clothed with a new identity. We are viewed as righteous in Christ. No longer can Moses accuse us because Christ fulfilled the law.

[31:15] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This free gift of grace when received spiritually then causes the believer to turn in gratitude to obey the law.

[31:26] We want to honor and display the glory of God in all that we do. In word or deed, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we do the glory of God. It is our Christian duty to do these things.

[31:37] The laws, however, are not burdensome because of the love of God dwelling within us. We forgive others because Christ forgave us, and that's a joy. We show mercy because we were shown mercy.

[31:49] We love our neighbor because Christ loved us. These laws are for our good, arbitrary standard. We require them to eat their vegetables because they are good for their bodies.

[31:59] So similarly, the Lord calls us to obedience, not for some domineering insecurity he has, or that it would be salvific for us, but because it's what's best for us to spiritually flourish.

[32:14] So in closing, I want to make three points of application. What does the word say, and how do you read it? We should all deploy this rule every time we find ourselves seeking answers to life's questions.

[32:28] Should I buy this house? Is it okay that my closest friends are pagans? Do I really have to go to church? Are there multiple ways to heaven? Should I spank my children? Should I attend a homosexual wedding ceremony?

[32:42] The scriptures may not speak explicitly to your direct situation, but if you don't start there, you're not even in the right ballpark to play the game. Scripture does give you all the principles and the theology needed by the guidance and the power of the Spirit to apply Scripture with prudence.

[33:01] And furthermore, it is not enough just to know what the words say. You must know how to read it. Read it carefully, and read it like your life depends on it, because it does. There are many resources at our disposal today, podcasts and sermons and books, articles.

[33:16] You need to filter them all through the lens of Scripture, and be careful not to follow anyone who doesn't faithfully handle the Word of God with reverence, humility, and reason. Most of your guidance, and this should come from within the local church, it is wise to consult your pastors on who or who not to follow.

[33:33] Better yet, seek direct counsel from your pastors on interpreting and applying the Scriptures. The Lord has gifted the church with overseers for this very work. Our second point is, Jesus is our ultimate reward.

[33:46] The comprehensive purpose of the Bible is to glorify God through the gospel message. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is pointing us to bow knee to Christ. Are you seeking a works-based salvation for the sake of a thing instead of a person?

[34:03] If the Lord was not in heaven, would you still want to go? If not, take time to pray through why that is. And then turn to Jesus in faith and repentance of your idolatry.

[34:15] And then being born again into God's royal family, the gifts of God will be rightly administered to you like a true child receives their inheritance, not like a thief's.

[34:27] And your soul will be truly satisfied in Christ. Then you will be bound for eternal life. Lastly, love your neighbor as yourself. If you are Christ's and Christ is within you, it is your joyful response to do the works of Christ revealed in his law.

[34:44] For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[35:02] Therefore, help the wounded, care for the widows and the orphans, sacrifice yourself to serve others despite differences like ethnicity or culture. And even if that neighbor is your enemy, scripture calls you to feed them if they're hungry.

[35:16]  There's no way around it. Love your neighbor. Let's pray.