Christ's Object Lessons - Chapter 27: "Who Is My Neighbor?"

Pastor David Asscherick discusses Chapter 27 of Ellen White's Christ's Object Lessons, which examines the parable of the Good Samaritan. David explores Ellen White's commentary on this well-known parable from Luke 10, emphasizing that "neighbor" is not merely a noun but a verb—a way of behaving toward people in need. The chapter challenges readers to do more than simply profess faith, highlighting how Christ Himself is the ultimate Good Samaritan who came to save humanity. David reflects on how Ellen White, writing in 1900, was ahead of her time in affirming that every human being—regardless of race, color, or class—is God's property and deserving of love and care. The discussion includes Ellen White's profound teaching on how God works even among those who have never heard the gospel, implanting His grace in hearts everywhere through the Holy Spirit's impulses of love and compassion.

Scripture References: Luke 10:25-37
Covers: Chapter 27: Who Is My Neighbor?
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QwY-okMYFQ
Light Bearers

Transcript

Greeting and Announcements

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Greetings everyone and welcome to With DA. Welcome to those of you that are signing on already. So quickly, now on Instagram. There you are. And welcome to those of you that are tuning in via YouTube. Hope everybody's had an amazing day. Hello, Tara. Hello, Marco. Hello, Andrea and Cindy and Vegangale and PacR828 and eight others. Hello, Monique, Jekyll and Clark. Whoa, they went by so fast. Missed a bunch. Hello, Ken. Hello, Laura Mapes. Hello, Ralph, Margaret McClure. Did I get that? Ralph and Margaret McClure. Hello, Frank. Hello, Reuben. Hello, Matt. He says, nice shirt. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, this is my Rise Australia shirt. Gonna be there in just about a week. Is that right? We leave on March 4, so yeah, about a week. Hello, Reiner. Hello, Alice. Hello, Ella L R F Cassandra, great to see you, sister. Hello, Deborah, Michelle, Rhonda, Deb, Rich, Lyndon, Tennessee Quiltbug, Lynn Ruffner, Victoria, Vicky Cook. Hello, Mark740. White Dove Wellness New Zealand. Oh, that's cool. Hello, Gerald says good evening, Pastor David. Hello, Sapria. Hello, Colin. Hello, Todd. Coral RN says, good evening. Hello, oh, that's a hard one. Ginnamy Danitch, maybe? Hello, baby cakes? Did I get that right? Baby cakes? Wow, they'll let my wife hear that. Tennessee Quellbug asks, Did you eat pizza today? Yes, I did. I had pizza for breakfast, cold pizza, and then I had pizza for lunch, also cold pizza. So my last three meals in a row have been pizza. Pizza last night, pizza for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and I haven't had any dinner. And I don't think I will have dinner. Let's see. I love how you call the names, Nick says. Oh man, I just love seeing it on seeing everybody on here. Hello, oh, Laney Accorda? Sassy Cassie says, You look so healthy. Wow, thank you. I feel really healthy. Hello, Flori Len. Hello, Maria. Hello. Zach. Wannabe Tomato Farmer says pizza looked good. Meyerwire says hello. Genie6870 says that's a lot of pizza. Yeah, it is a lot of pizza. And we have been making pizza so many times since Christmas because of the new pizza oven. But Violeta told me yesterday, no more pizza until we get back from Australia. So we're gonna have to put the pizza oven away, and I'm gonna be in the SADs. Though we do have a friend, a dear friend in Australia who has a pizza oven. So that'll be good. Hello, Jarek. Hello. I didn't get that one. Went by too fast. Hello, Flory Lynn. Hello, Wayne Gayton 3 says, greetings all. How will you ever make pizza while in Australia without your pizza oven? We have a friend that has a pizza oven in Australia. By the way, somebody said, Oh, you look healthy. That's very kind of you. Thank you for saying that. I want to say that I spent time today working on my mid-winter Colorado tan. Uh, I spent some time, again, out in the sun today reading over an hour, sitting in the warm Colorado sun. It was like 65 degrees today and sunny. I don't know what to say. I've been saying it. We're not going to get a winter this year, or if we are, I'm going to miss it. That uh that winter is going to happen in March. You know, we leave in like a week to go to Australia for the better part of a month to teach it a rise. Ty has already been there. Angelo is there now, Angelo Grasso. Um, what else can I tell you? It's a little quiet around the Asherik House here. We have had, for those of you that are followers of with DA, we have had an almost uh unending sequence of guests here. Guest after guest after guest. I mean, we've hardly had more than just a day or two, it feels like, in the last month, where we haven't had somebody in our home. And we love it, by the way. We absolutely love it. At one point, we had three guests overlapping. So we love it. Our home has always been an open home. Violeta is an amazing and hospitable host. I love people. I love chatting to people. I love hanging out with people, and I'm not gonna lie, I was a little in the SADS today when I dropped Nathan off at the airport. Um, Nathan is my one of my closest friends, one of the friends I've known the longest since both of us were teenagers. I gave him a big hug. I'm just so proud of him. The man that he is, the father that he is, the husband that he is, his comeback from a very serious injury. Um yeah, and as you know, some of you, I've had a couple friends over the years, 2016 and 17, that have died. I recently had another friend that just died uh about 18 months ago. And uh so it's very important that we hold our friends, we love our friends, we tell our friends that we love them. And as I've been saying lately, and I couldn't remember this early on, I don't know why I couldn't remember this. I've been saying this like crazy. And I was trying to say it in one of the sessions, and I just couldn't remember it. But I've been saying this a lot over the last couple of years. There is no greater joy in life than seeing people you love love, people you love. No greater joy in life than seeing people you love, love, people you love. And it was just so delightful to have so many wonderful guests here. Now, in fact, Violet, I was just in the office here a moment ago. She's on the phone right now with the boys. I told the boys I had to go. Uh, and I said, babe, it's so quiet. She's like, I know, I'm scrambling around. I'm I'm wondering, I have to get the sheets washed, I have to get the bathroom cleaned upstairs in the guest rooms. And then she's like, No, nobody's coming. And I was like, wow, what are we gonna do? Well, it's just so quiet. So, welcome everybody, super glad that you are here. Great parable tonight. Speaking of hospitality and loving people, tonight's parable in Luke chapter 10 on the Good Samaritan is that it's an outstanding parable, probably one of Jesus' best known parables, right? The Good Samaritan. Even a lot of people that aren't Bible believers or Jesus followers, they've heard about the Good Samaritan. And they've probably heard of ministries like uh Samaritan's Purse, Franklin Graham, uh Billy Graham's son, has this really uh big service-oriented ministry called Samaritan's Purse. And uh so we're gonna be talking tonight about the parable of the Good Samaritan. We're back in the Gospel of Luke. We've been in Luke 16 just last night, right? Luke 16. Now we're going back to Luke 10. And somebody asked on one occasion, what is the reasoning behind the ordering of the parables? And to be honest, I don't know. I probably could have spent a little time trying to parse through. I mean, the parables open largely in Matthew chapter 13, which makes sense. That's the first time that the word parable is used in the Gospel of Matthew, and we have those seven, actually eight, depending on how you count parables, uh, right in Matthew chapter 13. So we spent the first third of our time there in Matthew 13. But since then, and I think you'll agree with me on this, we've been kind of bouncing around a little bit. And I imagine that there is a method to Ellen White's madness, but I've kind of enjoyed it. I've kind of enjoyed being here and then over here and then here and here. And uh, if you have come up with some uh great reason as to what you see in the order or what you think she's doing, by all means let us know. But we're jumping back from Luke 16, where we were last night, to Luke 10. And we've only got three parables left, ladies and gentlemen. Today is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and we're done. Now, we might do a Sunday evening meeting as a kind of recap. Uh, we'll just see how it goes. We'll see how my timetable is. If we add a Sunday meeting, it'll be 31 sessions. And I'm not gonna lie, I kind of like 30 sessions. It just appeals to my mind. I think Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing was 20 sessions. So we'll see. We'll see. Maybe we'll take a vote and see if we want to kind of do a review. But we only have three parables left: chapters 27, 28, 29. Tonight we're in chapter 27, which is titled, Who is My Neighbor? We're looking at the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10, and we are going to start as we do with prayer. Welcome everyone, welcome everyone on YouTube, Instagram. So glad you're here. Let's get started with prayer.

Prayer

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Father in heaven, we place our lives into your hands. Lord, we want to thank you for the true Good Samaritan, Jesus Himself, who saw us, who saw me, who saw those that are tuning in, the whole of humanity on the side of the road, in trouble, wounded, weltering in our own blood. And you didn't just walk by. You didn't pass on the other side. You came close to us. You ministered to us with the oil and the wine. You put us on your own beast of burden, you bandaged up our wounds, and you brought us to the inn. You paid for all of it. And Father, we want to live in the light of that kind of love, that vulnerable, sacrificial love. We want ourselves to be good Samaritans. And Lord, this must have sounded absolutely crazy to first century ears. But Father, may it sound really beautiful and inviting to our 21st century ears. Uh be with us now as we spend time in your word. Uh, Lord, teach us what it means to be in this modern day good Samaritans in our heart, in our words, in our deeds, in our communities

Discussion

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and neighborhoods. And this is our prayer. Bless us now, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, join me everybody in Luke chapter 10, if you would. Luke chapter 10. We're going to read it through first in the NIV, Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 25. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? That sounds a lot like what the rich young ruler said in Matthew chapter 19. Right? There are, this was a question that was on the minds of people, and this person, like the rich young ruler, is kind of canvassing Jesus to get his perspective as a rabbi, as a teacher, as a person of influence. Hey, what do you think? Teacher, he says, uh, what must I do to inherit eternal life? In other words, what's your perspective? What's your opinion? Jesus puts the question back on him. What is written in the law, in Torah? He replied, How do you read it? I like this. Jesus puts the onus of responsibility back on the young men. Verse 27, he answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself, quoting here from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5, and then putting it together with Leviticus 19, 18. Right? This this is the man's answer. And Jesus affirms the accuracy of the answer. This is a great summary of Torah. Verse 28. You have answered correctly. I mean, Jesus just affirms it. This is great. He's like, correct. You nailed it. That is exactly right. You have answered correctly, but then this, Jesus replied, do this. Do this, and you will live. So not just giving the right answer in some intellectual sense, like you pass the test, you got the right answer, but do this. These are not just abstractions or ideas or concepts. This is a way to live. This is a lifestyle. Do this, and everything will be okay. You will live. Verse 29, but the but he, the man, wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? He's trying to dodge here. And Ellen White brings this out, and we'll see that momentarily. He's trying to dodge the responsibility and the pointedness of the answer of Jesus. Hey, you got it right. Do that and you'll be fine. But he wasn't looking for more responsibilities and more religious obligations and more opportunities to serve. He just wanted Jesus' kind of rabbinical perspective and opinion. And when Jesus foists it back on him, do this, he's like, uh, he's trying to dodge. He's trying to jab, stick and jab, you know, uh, who's my neighbor? And then Jesus tells this parable. Jesus said, Well, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. When he was attacked by robbers, they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him, bandaged his wound, poured oil and wine, pouring oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two dinare and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said. When I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. So good, and there's a lot going on here, and we're gonna get into it, but we're gonna read it quickly here from Wright's translation. A lawyer got up and put Jesus on the spot. Teacher, he said, What should I do to inherit the life of the coming age? Well, replied Jesus, what is written in the law? What's your interpretation of it? You shall love the Lord your God, he replied, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your understanding, and your neighbor as yourself. Well said, Jesus replied, Do that, and you will live. Ah, said the lawyer, wanting to win the point. But who is my neighbor? Jesus rose to the challenge. Once upon a time, he said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was set upon by brigands. They stripped him, beat him, and ran off, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, and when he saw him, he went past on the opposite side. So too, a Levite came by the place, he saw him too, and went past on the opposite side. But a travelling Samaritan came to where he was. When he saw him, he was filled with pity. He came over to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, then he put him on his own beast, took him to an inn, and looked after him. The next morning, as he was going on his way, he gave the innkeeper two dinnars. Take care of him, he said, and on my way back I'll pay you whatever else you need to spend on him. Which of these three do you think turned out to be the neighbor of the man who was set upon by brigands? The one who showed mercy on him, came the reply. Well, Jesus said to him, you go and do the same. All right, once again, the brilliance and pointedness and uh the provocative nature of Jesus' parable here. This is another parable that at one level is very easy. Last night we had a tough parable, right? I actually was just looking on the YouTube comments, and somebody said, Thank you so much for doing this session on the unjust steward, because this is a wonky parable, they said. A wonky parable. I mean, I probably would be a little reluctant to say that anything that Jesus said was wonky, but I get the point. It's not easy. It's hard. I mean, it's a little tricky, and we spent time on it last night. This parable is tough, or not tough. Unlike last night's parable, this parable's easy. It is so obvious right on the surface. We're not gonna have, I don't think, any trouble getting to the heart of what this parable means. But a little bit like the questioner in the parable, it will be comparatively easy to get the right answer and harder to do the right answer, right? So we're gonna be like, I got it, I got it, this makes sense, low-hanging fruit, not difficult to understand. And then we can hear through the ancient parable, Jesus saying to us, go and do likewise. And then we're gonna be like, oh, okay, uh, so this isn't just a quiz. We got to do this too? We have to do it, or do we just have to know that it's found in Luke chapter 10? Right? No, you gotta do it, and we're gonna talk about it. And I think, again, as per usual, Ellen White does a marvelous, even masterful job of capturing the essence of this parable. I I think she nails it. I think she absolutely nails it, and nobody that has been tuning into with DA is gonna be surprised that I think she did a great job. Let's go to page 458, uh, 376 of the original, and let's go through this line by line. Uh, it's a long-ish, I didn't count the pages. Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen pages. We're not gonna read all of it, obviously. And we don't have to read all of it because it's fairly straightforward, right? I see somebody there just commented, who was it? Uh, Minka Wiseman says, this is so straightforward. Exactly. We're not gonna have any trouble understanding what the point of the parable is. It's obvious, right? But we are gonna spend some time sort of absorbing some of the details, thinking about points of application, and that's again what Ellen White does in this chapter. She does it so well. She spends roughly the first half to a third, just by memory, explaining the parable, and then the second half or a little more giving points of application for us. And there is some gems in here. Absolute gems. I know you know that. Let's get through it. Paragraph one. Among the Jews, the question, who is my neighbor, caused endless dispute. They had no doubt as to the heathen and the Samaritans. No question there. Easy. These were strangers and enemies, but where should the distinction or the line be made among the people of their own nation and among the different classes of society? Whom should the priest, the rabbi, the elder regard as neighbor, the holy people? Who are the neighbors to the holy people? They spent their lives in a round of ceremonies to make themselves pure. Contact with the ignorant and careless multitude, they thought would cause defilement or contamination. That would require wearisome effort to remove, were they to regard the unclean as neighbors? Now we've made this point many, many times, both in the desire of ages and in steps to Christ and in thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, and here again in Christ's object lessons, that, and we've seen it over and over again in the text of Scripture, that Jesus gave no indication whatsoever that he paid any attention to these kind of notions of social or ritual contamination. Right? Jesus was very happy to mingle easily and freely uh up the social strata and down the social strata. So Jesus is invited in Luke chapter 14 to the house of a Pharisee, he happily goes. Jesus is invited to uh Levi Matthew's house, the tax collector that Jesus called to be a disciple, and he happily goes. Jesus touches a leper, he sits with a Samaritan woman, he affirms a Roman centurion. Again and again and again, we see that Jesus is not walking around in a state of continual anxiety about whether or not he has become socially or ritually contaminated. Jesus is hanging out with people, all the right people and all the wrong people, right? But the religious leaders in Jesus' day were not so similarly liberal in their associations. And this is what she's highlighting here, that there was a nervousness about spending too much time with people that might contaminate you, unclean people, dirty people, people that were lower in the kind of caste system of first century Judaism. Jesus paid no mind to it. So the question, like, who is my neighbor? Or we might even say it this way, who is it safe to spend a significant amount of time around, to eat with, to touch, to socialize with? Uh, this was a question she says that was on the minds of many first century Jews, and she says there were endless disputes about it. Okay, Jesus cuts right through all of it, cuts through the rabbinical traditions, cuts through the maxims and ideas of men, and just spends time with anyone who wants him to be with them. The Roman centurion says, I have a in Matthew. Chapter 8. Hey, I have a servant who's unwell, grievously unwell. Jesus is like, let's go. I'll go. He would have had no problem. Now the Roman centurion, you know, says, no, no, just speak the word, but he would have had no problem going into the house of the centurion. No problem sitting at the well of Sychar with the Samaritan woman. No problem touching a leper. No problem going to the house of a Pharisee or to the house of a tax collector. Very important. And she's going to make the point in the next paragraph. This question, Christ answered in the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is to say, who is my neighbor? That's the question that's on offer here. He showed that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Now, this is fairly uncontroversial in 2026, but Ellen White wrote this in 1900. And she was way ahead of the curve on many of these what we would call civil rights issues. She has said, and she will say in this very paragraph, she's already said it repeatedly, every human being, every man, whether high or low, rich or poor, of every nation, kindred, tribe, tongue, and people, every man is the property of God equally and wonderfully. So she's unambiguous about this. And that was well ahead of its time. I mean, in the United States of America, for example, the Civil Rights Act, which basically ensured uh uh, well, sought to ensure the equality before the law, independent of race, didn't pass until 1964. So she's writing this in 1900, and she believed this for many years before the publication of this book. And this is hardly surprising, since this is the teaching of Scripture. Every man and woman bear the image of God, whether Samaritan, Gentile, Heathen, Jew, Hellenistic Jew, Hebrew. Everybody bears the image of God. Everybody is the property of God. And so she says, um, it has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help. I know you underlined that. I know you underlined that. Our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. Uh, that's everybody. And then this one, our neighbor is everyone who is the property of God. Now you might want to write this down. Uh, she has already made this point. You can just look it up. Property, property. She's if you have the types and symbols, she's made this exact same point on page, you can write this down, 221, 393, and she's gonna make it again in this very chapter on page 470. Let me just quickly quote it for you here. Quoting on page 470, she says, um, they may be ragged, uncouth, and seemingly in every way unattractive. She's talking about orphans. And she says, yet they are God's property. So this is a point she's going to make over and over again. God's property, God's property, God's property, God's property. Now I see some people in the comments saying, well, you know, it doesn't, just because there's a law passed or just because something's said on paper doesn't make it true. Nobody's saying that. Of course, the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 doesn't guarantee anything. But we're not talking about the government here. We're talking about the church. We're not talking about what is, we're talking about what ought to be. We are all aware, I mean, many of you know that I have a sister that is black. And she has been adopted. Uh, she was effectively an orphan, speaking of orphans, adopted into our family when I was 10 and she was seven. Actually, when I was uh twelve and she was seven, I just had the privilege of performing her wedding this last summer. Incredible. She's she's amazing. She's one of my heroes in the world, Elizabeth Asherick. I love her so much. And it was an honor to marry her. So I'm well aware that that just because something has been declared or stated uh by law does not mean that it's automatically the case. I mean, you still have people in the world that are gonna hate on a variety of for a variety of reasons. People are gonna hate you because of your class, they're gonna hate you because of your ethnicity, they're gonna hate you because of your race, they're gonna hate you because of your nationality, they're gonna hate you because of your political opinion. You're not gonna get rid of hate or any kind of hate. I mean, hate's not going away, but in the church, we're not talking about the United States, we're talking about the church. Uh, in the church, there is zero room, no room at all, none, for any of these prejudices or distinctions that would create a hierarchy of different kinds of people along any of these lines: race, color, class, education, nationality, ethnicity, yeah, geography, no and no, and no. We're not talking about what is, we're talking about what ought to be. When John saw the redeemed in the new heaven and the new earth, uh, he said there were people from every nation, every kindred, every tongue, every tribe, and every people. I have a sermon that I've preached on this. You can find it on YouTube. It's called The Gospel Tribe, and it has lots and lots of views. Look it up. Type in Asherick, Gospel Tribe, and it'll come up. I've preached it on a few occasions, and so just get the one that has the most views. Okay, so she's not saying what is, she's saying what ought to be. I mean, if she's writing in 1900, she was living in a very different world in terms of racial segregation and just general, you know, racism and and ethnocentrism, then we are living, I mean, we've made huge progress in 2026 relative to 1900. So if she can say it then, it's equally true today. Okay. Every human being is the property of God. So this is the answer to the question: Who is my neighbor? Well, everybody. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help. Every neighbor, our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. Our neighbor is everyone who is the property of God, and that is every person on earth. She continues, the parable of the Good Samaritan was called forth by a question put to Christ by a doctor of the law, as the Savior was teaching. And then she goes on to tell the parable, which we've already read twice. She says, The Pharisee had suggested this question to the lawyer in the hope that they might entrap Christ in his words. And this is very important. Not every query that was made of Jesus, particularly by the religious leaders, was a sincere query, right? They were often trying to trap Jesus. We'll see this in Matthew chapter 22, for example, where they ask questions like, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? What about this woman who had seven husbands? What's the great commandment in the law? All of these are not really sincere inquiries. You don't get the sense as you read it. They're trying to catch Jesus. And Jesus is of course aware of this. He knows that he uh is subversive to the religious establishment. And so he very wisely and yet still biblically accurately and provocatively meets these contests head on. In fact, I love the way that N.T. Wright translates this when the person says, Who is my neighbor? Verse 30, Jesus rose to the challenge. Jesus rose to the challenge. How does the NIV say it? Uh in reply, Jesus said, No, it's even stronger than that. Jesus rose to the challenge. He knew that he was up against his self-styled adversaries. Uh it says here, the Jews were still accusing Jesus of lightly regarding the law. Uh, then she quotes the answer here, which is a combination, as we've said, of Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19, 18. Uh Jesus is like, hey, that's the right answer. Do this and you will live. Uh turning the page, page 459, I'm on page 460 now. Um, jump down to the paragraph that begins, Do this and you shall live. Do this and you shall live, Christ said. In his teaching, he ever presented the law as a divine unity, showing that it is impossible to keep one precept and break another. For the same principle runs through all, man's destiny will be determined by his obedience to the whole law. So the word here is holistic. And the principle, of course, that runs through the law is the principle of love. Paul says this expressly in Romans chapter 13. All the law is fulfilled in one word: love, supreme love for God, and authentic and sincere love for our fellow human being, our neighbor. So it could all be reducible down to love. And the illustration that I've used before, I think I've used it on with the, I'll use it here quickly, is you have the trunk, imagine a tree. So imagine that my chest here represents the trunk, my torso. This is the trunk. Then you have two arms that grow out of that tree, right? The two arms. One is supreme love for God. That's one of the major branches, right? The branch, and then the other branch is authentic love for human beings. Then on the end of those branches, you have ten fingers, and these are the ten commandments. And then on the ends of those ten commandments, you have all the leaves, which is the uh further like 612 or 613, the rabbis counted of specific itemized commands. So you have the 600, you have the 10, you have the two, and you have the one. But the one is love. Love, love for God, love for man, first tablet of the law, second tablet of the law, and then all of the sort of itemized commands in the Old Testament. But it all comes down to this, to the core, to the trunk, which is love, and that's Paul's argument in Romans chapter 13. So for that reason, you can't pick in salad bar-like fashion or a la carte-like fashion. Well, I'll take that. I'm gonna have a little bit of this not committing adultery thing and the not killing thing, but I'm gonna keep some covetousness and I'm gonna keep a little stealing. I'm gonna keep a little bit of those. No, that's not how it works. The law is a unibody construction. It's all one chassis, and that chassis is love. And that's the point she's making here. So you can't go bifurcate or fragment God's law. This is the argument that Seventh-day Adventist Christians have been making for a long, long time, which is why we include quite naturally, and I think logically, the Sabbath in the whole law. And this makes a lot of sense, of course, to us, because the Sabbath is a pre-sin, pre-rebellion institution grounded in, well, I don't know, creation. So for us, it's a tough sell to be like, yeah, the whole Sabbath thing, we're gonna get rid of that. But if you take this kind of piecemeal, fragmented view of the law, well, then you can sort of scoot some parts out and scoot other parts in. She's like, yeah, no. The law is a unity, and that unity, that holistic unity is love. Next paragraph, page 460, Christ knew. Christ knew that no one could obey the law in his own strength. Amen. Right? I know that in that in me, that is in my flesh, Paul says, dwells no good thing. He desired to lead the lawyer to a clear and more critical research that he might find the truth. Only by accepting the virtue and grace of Christ can we truly keep the law. And then this is a really important sentence, the next sentence. Belief in the propitiation for sin, propitiation is a word that basically means sacrifice, sacrifice of atonement. Belief in the propitiation for sin enables fallen men to love God, there it is, love, with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself. And I'm gonna show you something very interesting here. In that sentence, you have the phrase in the propitiation for sin, which is basically a prepositional phrase. And what I'm gonna show you is something very interesting. If we just move that prepositional phrase out of the sentence for just a moment, because a prepositional phrase is a modifying phrase, it's a clarifying phrase. So if I say, please grab me my Bible on the table, right? I'm letting it know where my Bible is. On the table is the prepositional phrase. Grab my Bible, please, on the table. Okay, so we're just gonna remove ever so briefly that prepositional phrase in the propitiation for sin, we're gonna see something very interesting. So now watch this. Belief enables fallen man to love God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself. Belief. Sometimes you'll hear people say, Well, you know, you just talk too much about belief. You make it too easy, you make it too flat. You say, just believe. Yeah, exactly right. Because belief is the thing that enables us to, you know, keep the law, love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and our neighbor as ourself. Belief is where the gospel starts. Repenting and believing, believing and repenting. So if you just remove that prepositional phrase, you see the power, the profundity, and the centrality of belief. Belief is not just an intellectual ascent, it is a robust, whole, full-orbed persuasion resulting in action. Believe. For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes, not mere intellectual ascent, but enters into the reality and the profundity and the life-transforming nature of that belief. Belief. Okay, so belief enables obedience. Next paragraph. The lawyer knew that he had kept neither the first four nor the last six commandments. He was convicted under Christ's searching words, but instead of confessing his sin, he tried to excuse it. This is where he dodges and weaves. Who's my neighbor? Rather than acknowledge the truth, he endeavored to show how difficult a fulfillment the commandment is. Thus he hoped to parry conviction, right? To parry, to block, right? To sidestep conviction. Because Jesus got him. Hey, what's that what's the command? What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? Well, what do you think? He gives a great summary. Deuteronomy 6.5, Leviticus 19, 8, 18. And Jesus is like, man, that's the right answer. You nailed it. Do that and you'll be fine. Do that. And then the guy's like, uh, this is not going the way I'd hoped. Who is my neighbor? Thinking he's going to trap Jesus. But good luck trapping the Son of God. Good luck trapping the incarnate Son of God. I mean, one of my favorite things about Matthew chapter 22. We mentioned this a little bit ago where Jesus is asked three questions in succession, all of them insincere, disingenuous, designed to trap Jesus. Lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? Question one, what about the woman who had seven husbands? Question two, what's the Great Commandment in the law? Question three. And Jesus just deftly handles each one of these queries. And then it says at the end of Matthew chapter 22, Jesus said, Let me ask you a question. And his question is basically this How is it that Messiah can be the son of David and the Lord of David? And he quotes the Psalms to this effect. And it says that they didn't ask him any more questions after that. Then they're like, uh, yeah, he got the best of us. We're done asking this guy questions. So here again, this is earlier in Jesus' ministry, Luke chapter 10, and Jesus rises to the challenge and is happy to put the onus of not just knowing the right answer, but doing the right answer back on the interrogator, the one that's asking Jesus the question. And so he tries to pair it. He's like, Who is my neighbor? And this he thus he hoped to parry conviction and to vindicate himself in the eyes of the people. The savior's words had shown that his question was needless since he was able to answer it himself. Yet he put another question saying, Who is my neighbor? Here's the dodge. Again, Christ refused to be drawn into controversy. She's already said that on page 459 as well. The Savior entered into no controversy. We've made this point before. That as the Christian, we should learn, and it's not always easy, how to advertise what we're for far more than what we're against.

unknown 38:40

Right?

SPEAKER_00 38:41

And it's not always easy, especially in this polarized climate where everybody wants you to based on what you say or what you don't say, people are going to pigeonhole you or compartmentalize you into some political camp, some ideological camp, into some religious, ah, you're a religious liberal, liberal, you're a religious progressive, you're a religious conservative. And that's the that's the human mind. We want to be able to identify people so that we can quickly compartmentalize them and we don't have to think about what they're actually saying. We just say, oh, Republican, oh, Democrat, oh, ideologue, oh, progressive, oh, whatever. It's all very simple and unfortunate. And Christians should be above this, way above it. And we should not be drawn into this partisanship that is so characteristic of the spirit of the age. We need to learn how to not enter into the controversy, but how to speak truth. Beautiful, life-changing, positive truth, so that we are known far more by what we're for than what we're against. What we're against will be obvious in the fact that we're stating so in enthusiastically and so vigorously what we're for. So Jesus doesn't get drawn into the rabbinical controversies that were so popular in his day. Remember, she said in the opening line there, there were endless disputes about the question who is my neighbor. And Jesus is just deftly navigating this first century landmine. Okay, or uh uh minefield. Again, Christ refused to enter into controversy. I'm still on page 461, 379. He answered the question by relating an incident, the memory of which was fresh in the minds of his hearers. A certain man, he said, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, there is, if you've ever been to Jerusalem, um, by the way, I'm going this year. You're welcome to join. I think we still have some spots open. Uh, you can, let's see, I don't even know what number to give you. We've we've already advertised this, but I'm going to Jerusalem. If you put a comment on one of my videos or one of the one of the things here, I'll give you the information. But September of this year, we're going to Jerusalem again. And for those of you that have been there, Jerusalem down at Jericho is a long ways down, like over 3,000 feet, like 1,400 meters. A long, long way down. I mean, if you've done much hiking or backpacking, uh, a vertical gain or vertical loss of over 3,000 feet is no joke. I mean, that's serious. So it's a long, long way down. In fact, let me just read you this here. I got this today in a uh commentary, the Pillar New Testament commentary that I've quoted from a few times over our journey. Um the author writes, the elevation of Jerusalem is 2,600 feet above sea level. And Jericho, 18 miles to northeast, lies 825 feet below sea level. Whoa. Despite its arid and desolate surroundings, Jericho was a green, fertile, productive oasis of date palms. The serpentine road from Jerusalem to Jericho descended 3,400 feet, uh, 1,040 meters. I said earlier 1,300 meters, that didn't sound right, about a thousand meters. Through steep and rugged hill country, pupmarked with caves, especially near the ascent to Jerusalem, and this offered refuge for brigands. So it's a long road, either up or down, depending on if you're going from Jerusalem to Jericho down or Jericho to Jerusalem up. It's a long road. Circuitous, windy serpentine, as they say in the commentary. Um, and then she does, I think, a really nice job of retelling the parable. And I'm gonna read it here, 461. In journeying from Jerusalem, let's read that. In journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, the traveler had to pass through a portion of the wilderness of Judea. The road led down a wild, rocky ravine which was infested with robbers and was often the scene of violence. It was here that the traveler was attacked, stripped of all that was valuable, and left half dead by the wayside. And he lay thus. As he lay thus, a priest came that way. Now, as Jesus tells the story, when Jesus is telling the story and you hear the words a priest happened to be going down the same road, immediately the hearts of the hearers would have felt a sense of relief. Like, oh, phew, what a relief. This guy's gonna be okay. I mean, Jesus is purposefully, again provocatively, playing to the prejudices, both positive and negative, of his first century hearers. So when he says, Oh, by chance, as it turned out, a priest was walking by that way, and everybody goes, Whoo, the guy's gonna be okay. It's gonna be alright. Verse 31 a priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, and then this, he passed by on the other side. And everybody would have collectively gone, What? And especially the man that had interrogated. What? A priest. There were a number of Jews that lived in Jericho, and the priest may well have been doing his time at the temple, and then now he's returning back home. He's a man of God. He's a follower of Yahweh. He's a holy man. He knows Torah. So of course he's gonna stop by. I mean, of course, but of course. But Jesus says, no, no, the the priest just walked right by. And if you're thinking to yourself, wow, this is kind of pointed, to use Nathan's word, this is kind of toothy. Uh yeah. Very pointed. Very toothy. Right? Um, she continues. He saw the man, as he lay thus, a priest came that way. He saw the man lying wounded and bruised, weltering in his own blood. The word welter means to lay in liquid. To just lay down in liquid, often blood. He's just there, sort of lifelessly groaning, uh, just sort of weltering, marinating in his own blood. The priest has one look and is like, I'm gonna put that in the too hard basket. That is not my problem. That is not anybody I know, and I I've got to get to my religious meeting. Or I've got to get home, or whatever it might be. Like, remember Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man stepping over Lazarus, as I've said, to go to his religious meetings. He's like, nah, I'm gonna put that in the too hard basket. Okay. Uh, but he left him without rendering any assistance. He passed by on the other side. Then a Levite appeared. Oh, okay, here again. Whoo! People are gonna go, all right, so that was not a particularly good priest, right? Even some police officers aren't great police officers, right? My brother was a police officer for most of his career, my older brother. And uh he was a good cop, great cop, I think. And uh, but not every cop is. Not every priest is, not every person in authority or power is. We know this. Not every judge is a good judge. We've already talked in these parables about a judge that didn't fear God or regard man. So, but now it's like, whoa, okay, the priest was a bad egg. But here comes the Levite to save the day. Everybody has a sense of relief. Then a Levite appeared. Curious to know what happened, he stopped and looked at the sufferer. Surely he's gonna stop. She writes, he was convicted of what he ought to do, but it was not an agreeable duty. He wished that he had not come that way, so that he would not have seen the wounded man. He persuaded himself that the case was no concern of his, and he too passed by on the other side. And now the audience that's hearing this parable is like, What? The priest walked by, the Levite walked by, and if you're like, wow, Jesus is Jesus has the gloves off. He's really telling a story here about the profession of religion, the the costume of religion, the veneer of religion, but not the actions of religion. And this sound, if if you think this is provocative, then when he introduces the Samaritan, everybody just would have been almost, especially the Jewish listeners, which would have been most of his audience, the vast majority of his audio, the vast majority of his audience, exasperated. And that's the next paragraph, page 462. But a Samaritan. But a Samaritan. What? But a Samaritan traveling the same road saw the sufferer, and he did the work that the others had refused to do. With gentleness and kindness, he ministered to the wounded man. When he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him, bandaged, bandaged his wounds. And in fact, in the Greek, it's even stronger, is that he went to the man. In the Greek, it's he went to the man.

unknown 48:08

Right?

SPEAKER_00 48:08

Let me read it here in the NIV. It says, uh, but a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He came to where the man was. How does Wright say this? A traveling Samaritan came to where he was. When he saw him, he was filled with pity. It came to the man, not just curiously looking, not giving the man a wide birth, he came to the man, which is what Jesus does for us. He comes to us, to the man, to the woman, to the wounded, to the hurting, to the beaten, to the person weltering in their own blood left for dead on the side of the road. Thank you, Jesus. So then he takes good care of him, puts him on his donkey, takes him to the inn, pays the innkeeper. She says here, the priest and the Levite both professed piety, but the Samaritan showed that he was truly converted. It was no more agreeable for the Samaritan to do the work than for the priest and the Levite, but in spirit and works he proved himself to be in harmony with God. Then she starts talking at the bottom of page 462, 380 about principles. Principles. So Jesus here, this is a major gotcha. It's a first century gotcha. It's scandalous. I mean, it is absolutely scandalous. Let me just talk a little bit here. I know I've done this before, but just a little bit about the Samaritans. The Samaritans were loathed by the Jews. You'll remember in John chapter 4 when Jesus asks the woman at the well, who was also a Samaritan, for a drink, she incredulously says, What? How is it? How is it possible? What are you doing? How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me as Samaritan? The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. There was tremendous hostility between both of them, but particularly from the Jew toward the Samaritan. And let me just read you what the commentary here says about this. The demography of Samaria had been radically altered by two population exchanges. The first following the fall of Samaria in 721 BC, 700 years before the time of Jesus, when the Assyrians resettled Babylonians and other Mesopotamian stock in Samaria. And the second, when Alexander the Great resettled Macedonians in Samaria, some three centuries later, so still four centuries before the time of Jesus. Centuries of intermarriage had rendered Samaria overwhelmingly Gentile and thus, and this is important, ethnically contaminated in Jewish eyes. Remember, that's how this chapter opened. Contamination, defilement. The commentary continues. This combined with their renegade sanctuary on Mount Gerizim made Jews, including Jesus' own disciples, deeply antagonistic toward the Samaritans. To Jews, Samaritans were not simply outcasts, they were enemies. The inclusion of a Samaritan in the parable would seem to seal the wounded man's fate, for if a priest and a Levite offered no help, how much less a Samaritan? Ironically, Jesus makes a Samaritan whose theology he judged in John chapter 4, not favorably. He makes him the moral of the moral hero in the story. And that's why it's so provocative. The Samaritans were loathed as kind of half-breeds, as the worst possible scenario, because they were not just thoroughly Gentile, they were Gentile that had some early ancestry with the ten tribes of Israel that had been scattered by the Assyrians. So they were as low as you could go on the totem pole. In fact, in John chapter 8, verse 48, Ellen White talks about this here. When the religious leaders are really trying to take a dig at Jesus, John chapter 8, verse 48, they say, You are a Samaritan and you have a devil. I mean, that is just a maximal insult in first century, in the first century context. You are a Samaritan and you have a devil. John 8, 48. Little did they know, just 10 verses later, in that same dialogue, Jesus will say to them, Not only am I not a Samaritan, and not only do I not have a devil, before Abraham was, I am. I am. Now that's in John chapter 8. I'm actually preaching this Sabbath at a local church on John 6, which I'm very much looking forward to. I had hoped to write that sermon today. I've got an idea of what I'm gonna say. I kind of got it started, but tomorrow I'm gonna write that sermon, and I can't wait. It's gonna be great. Okay, so the Samaritans, Jesus knows what he's doing here. He is playing to the prejudices of his audience. And he is, like with the rich man and Lazarus, doing a total reversal of fortune. Right? Remember with the rich man and Lazarus? Lazarus goes into Abraham's bosom, the rich man goes into torments. Here, the priest, the Levite walk by, and lo and behold, against all odds, the Samaritan stops and helps the man. Now Jesus then says, which of the three do you suppose was a neighbor to the man that fell among the robbers? And notice that the man can't even bring himself to say the Samaritan. It's like his lips would have been defiled if he would have said the word Samaritan. So all he can bring himself to say is he who showed mercy on him. You can kind of get between the lines here the disdain and the disgust that the religious Jew had for a Samaritan. He can't even say the word. He just is like, it's it's like the remember the older brother when the father comes out in the parable of the prodigal son, and the older brother can't even, all he says is, this son of yours, he can't say my brother or his name. This son of yours distancing himself, that's what the man does in the in the story. Right? The one that had asked Jesus the question about who is my neighbor. He's like, uh. And notice he even says, doesn't he say, um the one who had mercy on him? Let me read it in Wright's translation here. The one who showed mercy on him. Yeah, he can't bring himself to say the Samaritan. And I love this next line there, 463. 463, top of that page. Uh, then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise, show the same tender kindness to those in need, thus you will give evidence that you keep the whole law. And um then she has a section where she talks about the Samaritans. We'll skip over that. Turning the page to 464. 464-382, it looks like. Paragraph begins: the Samaritan had fulfilled the command. Now, Ellen White does something here that actually has a long tradition in church history, and that is she mildly allegorizes the parable. And in general, um allegorization or allegorizing of parables is not a great idea, in my opinion, because there's really no limiting principle. People can just kind of decide that things mean things. I've heard many pastors over the years, both in my denomination and out of my denomination, take parables and just start making everything we talked about this last night with Nathan, making every detail of the parable analogous or in some allegorical sense directly traceable to some specific event or context. And so, in general, we should be cautious in our use of allegory, unless it's warranted within the text itself. Like, for example, Jesus in the parable of the wheat and the tares, he says, you know, the field is the world, the reapers are the angels, the harvest is the end of the age, the tares are the sons of the wicked one, the wheat are the sons of the kingdom. Like he's telling you, uh, this means this, and this means this, and this means this. But Ellen White does do, I think, a good job here of at least broadly touching on the idea, which is amazing and beautiful, that Christ is the good Samaritan. And I like, I like the way she handles it because she doesn't, she doesn't go too deep into the allegory. She just makes the main point, which is this is the heart of God. This is the love of God. The Samaritan shows the love of God, and it's not hard to imagine that Jesus himself is telling the story, knowing that, of course, the Samaritan is acting out the principle of the law, the principle of love. Jesus came to earth to save, to rescue men and women from weltering in their own blood. So it's a, I would say, a safe allegory. Um, and she does that here. So let's read that paragraph. The Samaritan had fulfilled the command, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, thus showing that he was more righteous than those by whom he was denounced. Risking his own life, he treated the wounded man as his brother. And then she just says, The Samaritan represents Christ. Okay, I I think it's true. I mean, I like the idea that clearly the Samaritan is embodying the principle of Torah. But we just, I just want to urge caution in getting too enthusiastic in allegorizing the parables of Jesus, because you're going to find yourself just creating stuff out of thin air. Ours, and and worse than that, you might sometimes miss the actual point of the parable. That's the greater concern. The Samaritan represents Christ, our Savior manifested for us a love that the love of man can never equal. Agreed. Spot on. When we were bruised and dying, he had pity upon us. True. He did not pass us by on the other side. True. He did not leave us, true. Hopeless and helpless to perish? True. He did not remain in his holy, happy home. True. Where he was beloved by all the heavenly hosts. He beheld our sore need. True. He undertook our case. True. He identified his interests with those of humanity. True. He died to save his enemies. True. Hallelujah. He prayed for his murderers. True. Pointing to his own example, he says to his followers, These things I command you that you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love one another. So what she's doing is she is rather than making a point by point. The wine represents this, the oil represents this. The donkey represents this. That's not what she's doing. She's saying, look, what moved the Samaritan was love, the keeping of Torah, whether or not he was even aware of Torah. She's actually going to make that point here in a moment about the heathen, a point she has already made in The Desire of Ages and in Prophets and Kings. We'll get to that in a second. But that the in his innermost soul, he was actuated by the essence of Torah. Whether or not the Samaritan himself was familiar religiously with Torah, he was familiar experientially with Torah. And in this application, the uh representation of Christ as the Samaritan is totally warranted. Because she opens this paragraph with love, love, love. She closes it with love, love, love. So I'm all about it. I am all about it. I think it's great. Uh then she has a kind of a cool section where she basically says, and I'm going to skip over some of this, she says, look, here's the danger. Some people will pass by small tasks because they're waiting to do big tasks. Right? She talks about the great work, right? People want to do great things. And then she's like, but there's another class that let me just read it here. This is the paragraph that begins, Many today are making a similar mistake. Many today are making a similar mistake. They separate their duties into two distinct classes. The one class is made up of great things to be regulated by the law of God. The other class is made up of so-called little things, in which the command, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, is ignored. This fear of work is left to caprice, subject to inclination or impulse. Thus the character is marred and the religion of Christ is represented. And she talks about people that will pass by the seemingly small and insignificant tasks because they're prepping to do a great work. Well, we've already talked about this. In fact, in the parable of the talents, where she talks at length about the man that had one talent, she has a lengthy section where she's like, the small things, the small things, the small things, the small things, the small things. I talked with, I think it was yesterday, the other day before, with Nathan, you know, just the idea that it was kind of a proverb in Jewish thinking traditionally, that the reason that Moses and David were entrusted with shepherding God's people is that they had faithfully shepherded sheep. Because they'd been faithful in that which was small, they could be faithful in that which was great. So the idea here is that there are no small things. Right? There's but we shouldn't. What's the old hymn? Why stand idly waiting for some life work grand when the field of Jesus waits your reaping hand? Like people waiting around for the big thing and not bothering with the small things. Life is made up mostly of small things. Most of our opportunities for faithfulness will be in small things. I'll give you a tiny little example today. This is a trivial example. It's a little embarrassing, but I like it. So today, uh, when I was taking Nathan to the airport, I got out and I noticed that my windshield was a little um dirty. So while the gas was pumping, I got the windshield wiper cleaner right at the gas station there, and I washed my windshield, and I could reach my arm over most of the way, like 75% of the way, to the other side. And I was kind of in a hurry to get Nathan, and we weren't running behind schedule, but I was like, you know, scrubbed it and then squeegied it, and I was like, that's fine. That's fine, it's fine, it's good enough. But then a little voice said to me, do it well. Just walk around the car and scrub the other 25%. You can't reach it, your arms aren't long enough. Do it well. And it was a small thing, but I'm so glad that I was faithful in that small thing, because when you're faithful in small things, then it's easier to be faithful in slightly larger things and then larger things still and larger still until eventually God entrusts us with the largest of things. We talked when Nathan was here about how the disciples in the parable of the unjust steward were being prepared for the ascension of Jesus. It's like, yeah, right now I'm here, I'm present, but I'm gonna be gone. So right now you've been entrusted with small things, but don't be like this unjust steward, this unscrupulous manager. You're gonna be charged under the supervision of the Holy Spirit to launch the New Testament church and change the world. So I want to, you know, I'm trying to be faithful in the small things. And it was very small, trivial, inconsequential, but the a little whisper from the spirit said to me, just a little whisper from the spirit said, Don't be satisfied with that. Go around to the other side. Wash the other side of the window too. And I did. And I immediately felt better. I was like, that's right. I do things well. That's a part of my identity. By the grace of God, I do things well. I love my wife well, I make pizzas well, I wash my window well, I try to do with DA well. I want to be somebody that does things well. Not for my glory, but because I am a follower of Jesus. Nothing too small to do well. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. Um, okay, so then I'm gonna turn the page. Um at the top of page 466, 388. This is a really cool little section here. This is in the paragraph that begins, many will allow a brother or a neighbor to struggle. I just love this line here. She says, This is down halfway through that. A large revenue, she writes, of praise and thanksgiving from human hearts and human lips is prevented from flowing back to God. If we're not faithful in winning souls and working in cooperation with God's love, a large revenue of praise will be lost. Well, we don't want that. We don't want to be complicit in the loss of a revenue of praise to our God. So let's be faithful. Let's cooperate, let's come alongside Yahweh and his providence and his invitations, whether small or large things. Then she talks about not robbing God of the glory that is due his holy name. This is a theme that's come up many, many times in this volume, Christ's object lessons. We should not rob God, right? Robbery toward God. We were talking about tithe, for example, just the other day. Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. You have robbed God. You say, wherein have we robbed God? In tithes and offerings came back the response. Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. We don't want to be stealing, least of all, from God. Then the next paragraph, she goes into a long section here about profession, right? Let me just read this whole paragraph. It's it's there's two paragraphs here. All about profession versus action. Right? The saying of a thing versus the actual doing of a thing. Divine truth exerts little influence upon the world when it should exert much influence through our practice. Practice versus profession. The mere profession of religion abounds. That's actually what I'm going to preach on in my sermon the Sabbath in John 6, right? That Jesus in John chapter 6 purposefully calls the number of people that are following him. He preaches down the size of the crowds by saying really, really unsavory and provocative things like, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And lots of people were like, yeah, peace out. I mean, for Jews who wouldn't even eat animal blood, the notion of eating human blood was a bridge too far. And they're like, yeah, peace out. Jesus did this on purpose to scale back the crowds. Because it's one thing to follow Jesus because he made you a sandwich the day before with the loaves and fishes. And another thing to be really understanding, as Peter will announce in John 6, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I'm going to preach on that this Sabbath. Lots of people today, on the right and on the left, all around, are taking the name of Jesus, the name of Christianity, the name of church and of religion. Okay, fine. But not just the profession, but the practicing. That's what she's saying here. The mere profession of religion abounds. But it has little weight. We may claim to be followers of Christ. We may claim to believe every truth in the Word of God, but this will do our neighbor no good unless our belief is carried out into our daily life. Our profession may be as high as heaven, but it will save neither ourselves nor our fellow men unless we are Christians. A right example will do more to benefit the world than all of our profession. She's really setting profession over and against doing and practice. Next paragraph. This has been a major theme in Christ's object lessons: the care for the poor, the attention to the needy, the disenfranchised, the marginalized. In the hearts of the professed, there it is again, followers, there is need of tender sympathy of Christ, the tender sympathy of Christ, a deeper love for those whom he has so valued as to give his own life for their salvation. These souls are precious, infinitely more precious than any other offering we can bring to God. In other words, winning souls is far greater than anything else we can do in terms of offerings that we could bring to God, even greater than our tithe and our offering. Those are important. But winning souls, dedicating our life to the service of those that are the property of God, whew, come on. To bend every energy towards some apparently great work while the neglect while we neglect the needy or turn the stranger from his right is not a service that will meet his approval. I'm going to read the next paragraph. The sanctification of the soul by the working of the Holy Spirit is the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity. Gospel religion is Christ in the life, a living, active principle. She here talks about Christ's nature coming into us. Nathan, when he was here, talked about the emulation of Christ. We imitate Christ. We seek to live the life of Christ. She's quoted a couple times in this volume, and she alludes to it here, I think, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. That's what we want. We want to be born again. We want a new nature. And that new nature will, like the Good Samaritan, be attentive to the needy around us. And the needy around us are not always lying on the ground weltering in their own blood. The needy around us, as she says in the chapter, might just need a sympathizing word, or some encouragement, or a hug, or just to ask them if they want to go hang out. I felt impressed today just to reach out to a friend that I hadn't reached out to in a long time. While I was reading this chapter, the spirit just brought to my mind a person, and speaking of small things, the spirit brought to my mind a person that I love dearly, but I have not been in contact with very recently. And when the person came to my mind while I was reading this chapter, I was like, oh, I'm gonna have to reach out to them soon. And then the spirit said to me, do it now. I was like, okay. And often when I'm reading, I try to put my phone on airplane mode, turn it upside down, or just leave it in the other room so it doesn't bother me. So my phone was on airplane mode. And I just felt the unction of the spirit, yeah, you have a good intention right now to reach out to this person. And maybe this person needs a word right now. And so I felt the unction of the spirit. Do it now. So I picked up my phone, took it off airplane mode, sent just a simple text. Hey, sister, thinking so much about you. I know you've been going through a bit of a tough time. The Lord just brought you to my mind. I want you to know that I love you so much, miss you. Can't wait till I see you next. Violetta and I will give you a big hug. Is there anything in particular we can be praying about? You just came across my mind, and I wanted you to know you're loved. Jesus wants me to tell you that you're loved by him and by us. Love you, sister. Immediately she hearted the text and responded. So it was just, it was just, you know, it's important that when we feel the unction of the Spirit, and it's easy to do, remember, don't say to people, I'll pray. I'll pray for you. Say, let's pray. Let's pray right now. And when you get those little unctions, follow up on them. I think it's important that we follow up on them. So so living the life of emulating Christ, I identifying with Christ, imitating Christ is not just finding the robbed person on the side of the road. It's not less than that, but it is more than that. And we can do this every day. We can be good Samaritans every day. I already told you yesterday about the really great conversation that we had with those lovely ladies at the climbing gym yesterday. I can't wait till I see them next. I just feel that that was an absolutely divine appointment. Totally providential. Um, she says in that same paragraph there, 467, the principles of the gospel cannot be disconnected from any department of practical life. Correct. We don't tack Christianity onto an otherwise well-constructed life. We don't tack following Jesus on to another part of our life. I wrote a letter today to another friend of mine, uh, wrote a big email actually. Um, can't go into the details about this one too much, but I told these people that I was very proud of them. They are making some very um admirable and beautiful financial decisions. And I told them, I'm just so proud of them. I told them actually, I said, look, I've been reading through this book, Price Object Lessons, and I myself have just been so convicted about money and influence and time and talents and just really pouring ourselves fully into the gospel work. And I said, that's what you guys are doing, and I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud, God is proud of you. Thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you for this decision you're making and the prioritization of your considerable influence for something of eternal consequence. And it was directly under the influence of this book that I just felt impressed. Tell them you're proud of them and tell them why, and tell them what you've learned in this book. That's why I wrote a whole paragraph about it. Um okay, I could say a lot more here, but I think you get the point. I do want to read a couple more quick things here. Bottom of page 467, it is not possible. This is too good to skip. Bottom of page 467, 384, paragraph begins, it is not possible. It is not possible for the heart in which Christ abides to be destitute of love. Square circle. Not possible. If we love God because He first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. Samaritans, heathen, people that you would not normally be inclined. Remember, Nathan said yesterday that one of the joys and the real surprises of his Christian experience was how easy it became to like different kinds of people prior to that. He was kind of narrow in the people that he liked and he connected with and that he socialized with. But as soon as he became a Christian, all of a sudden, his desire and his capacity to like and and indeed to love other kinds of people, God just grew it. And I have found that to be the case, man. People are cool, people are interesting, people are fun, people are the property of God, and we should be lovers of people. Amen. It's just that simple. We cannot come in touch with divinity without coming in touch with humanity. That's one of the great lines in the whole chapter. We cannot come in touch with divinity without coming in touch with humanity. We want to say that we're lovers of God. Jesus says to us, Show me that you love me. Show me that you love me by the way you treat my children. Those that are in the faith and those that are out of the faith. And then you turn the page and she has this great section, surprise, surprise, on the heathen. Now, this will come as no shock to those of you that have been a part of the with DA Challenges, because in the Desire of Ages, we had a whole chapter about this called The Least of These. In Prophets and Cains, we had a whole chapter, an amazing chapter, called Hope for the Heathen. Ellen White is immovable on this point. And her point is her position is so rational, it's so beautiful, it's so consistent with the biblical record. I love it. It's one of the things that was responsible for me becoming a follower of Jesus when somebody gave me a good answer about my friend Josh. He gave me a good answer. He instantly made God credible to me when he number one answered my question about eternal hell, eternal conscious torment, or ECT as it's sometimes called. He's like, Yeah, no, the Bible doesn't teach that. Took me through a bunch of Bible texts. I was like, what? 23-year-old, and in a moment God becomes more credible. But then I'm about, I then I was like, but what about what about the heathen? What about the heathen? And he's like, good question. Takes me to a bunch of passages, and I was like, wait a minute. So God evaluates every person on the basis, not of some inaccessible and arbitrary decree, but on the basis of what they have access to, the knowledge that they have access to, how they respond. Yep. And she says it here, and every time I come across something like this in the writings of Ellen White in one of these with DA challenges, I will read it. It's just too good. And if you haven't done so recently, or if you haven't done so ever, go buy the book, Prophets and Kings from Types and Symbols, and read the chapter, Hope for the Heathen, and buy the book, The Desire of Ages, from Types and Symbols, if you don't already have it, and read the chapter, the least of these. And let's read this paragraph here, which is a summary. Wherever there is an impulse, that she's talking about love. Loving. Loving others, loving God, showing that we love God by loving others, like the good Samaritan did. The priest loved God, but he didn't love the man weltering in his own blood. The Levite loved God, but he didn't love the man weltering in his own blood. The Samaritan might not have known the truth about Torah, but he loved the man weltering in his own blood, and thus he loved God. And then she makes this incredible point. And it's so well placed here and so well written. Wherever there is an impulse of love and sympathy, wherever the heart reaches out to bless and uplift others, there is revealed the working of God's Holy Spirit. Amen, Sister White. In the depths of heathenism, men who have had no knowledge of the written law of God, who have never heard the name of Christ, have been kind to his servants, protecting them at the risk of their own lives. Their acts show the working of a divine power. The Holy Spirit has implanted the grace of Christ in the heart of the savage, quote unquote. Now it's not politically correct today to talk about savages, but it wasn't her day, and we would just say the savage or the primitive person. Let me read it again. The Holy Spirit has implanted the grace of Christ in the heart of the savage, quote unquote, quickening his sympathies. What? Contrary to his nature, his fallen nature, contrary to his education, the light which gives light to every man coming into the world, John 1.9. That's exactly how John means that text to be understood. Every man, not just the elect, not just the church, not just the believer, every man is lighted and lightened by Christ, is shining in the soul, and this light, if heeded, will guide his feet to the kingdom of God. The glory of heaven is in lifting up the fallen, comforting the distressed, and wherever Christ abides in human hearts, he will be revealed in the same way. Wherever it acts, the religion of Christ will bless, wherever it works, there is brightness. And then again, next paragraph. No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste is recognized by God. That's how the chapter started. She started exactly in that space. He is the maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition. Ephesians 2. She's in her bag now. I mean, she is rolling. Whoa, come on now, Sister White. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple, that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan's circle the poor souls who have been deluded by his deceptions. Remember the spell, the phantoms that we talked about yesterday? It places them within the reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. All are brought near by his precious blood. She goes on to say, I'm just quoting now, reading random lines here. Loving ministry will break down prejudice. Woo! Come on. Next page, page 470. They are God's property. She says, people will come to Christ through acts of disinterested kindness, and more could be said. More could be said. You can read this on your own. She talks about the angels. And then I want to read the last paragraph. It's just so good. Let's read the very last paragraph. If you will keep my command, the Lord declares, I will give you places to walk among those who stand here, even among the angels that surround his throne. Zechariah 3 again. This woman loves Zechariah chapter 3. Joshua and the high priest, right? Resisting the accusations. God resisting the accusations of the accuser. She loves Zechariah 3, man. And look at this. By cooperating with heavenly beings in their work on earth, we are preparing for their companionship in heaven. She's made this point just uh chapter or two before. Ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation, Hebrews 1.14. Angels in heaven will welcome those who on earth have not who have lived not to be served but to serve, Matthew 20, 28. In this blessed companionship we shall learn to our eternal joy. All that is wrapped up in the question, Who is my neighbor? Wow, that's great writing. Our eternal joy. We're gonna learn that our eternal joy was wrapped up in the answer to this question. Who, pretel, is my neighbor? Wow. It's great. It's such a great, great chapter, and it's a great chapter because it's a great parable, and it's a great parable because Jesus is a great teacher, and Jesus is a great teacher because he's not a mere teacher or a rabbi, he's the savior of the world, he is the Son of God, he is the Lord Most High incarnate. That's why the chapter is so good, because the teaching was so good, because Jesus is so good, because God is so good, and he came to earth in the incarnation to save his property. People like you, people like me, and people not like you, and not like me, every human being, God's property, independent of race, independent of creed, independent of nationality, independent of ethnicity, geography, political orientation, everybody God's property. And God is trying to save every savable person. And our joy, my joy, and your joy, our eternal joy, is wrapped up with the answer to this question. Who is my neighbor?

Rubric

SPEAKER_00 1:24:40

Woo! All right, let's do our rubric. The point, the person, the prayer, the practice, and the promise. What a great chapter. What a great savior. Thank you, Jesus. Um all right, this is really good here. Here we go. The point. Everyone is our neighbor, everyone is God's property. Neighbor in Jesus' language and vernacular is a verb more than a mere noun. Let me read that from the Pillar New Testament commentary on the Gospel of Luke. For the lawyer, neighbor is a noun, neighbor is an object to whom one owes duties, burdensome duties that the lawyer desires to avoid. For Jesus, however, neighbor is a verb, a way of behaving toward people in need that gives life to both giver and receiver. The Greek word gegonini, gagonai, the Greek word gagononai is crucial to Jesus' question in verse 36. Who of the three became a neighbor or showed neighborliness? Notice how it's used like a verb. For Jesus, one does not have a neighbor, one is a neighbor. Neighbor is a verb. Neighborliness is a verb. Gegenoni. Geganoni. Gagononi. There it is. Gagononi. It's a verb. Love it. Neighbor is a verb. It's not something we have, it's something we do. So good. Alright, the person. Um Christ is the good Samaritan. He is maybe not the savior that we and the world wanted. Certainly not the savior that the first century Jews wanted, but Jesus is definitely the savior the world needed. In the story, the Samaritan was not the hero that the listeners wanted. But he was the hero that the man weltering in his blood needed. Jesus is the savior of the world. Not the one that the world wants, maybe, but the one that he needs. The one that they need. The prayer. Simple. Father, make me a Samaritan. And if you want to insert the word good there, that's fine. Make me a good Samaritan. A true follower of Jesus. I think it's just actually kind of um provocative to just have the prayer, Father, make me a Samaritan. Father, make me a Samaritan. Um practice. Uh this was an easy one. Do, don't just say. Do, don't just say, or do it, don't just say it. The promise. I have two promises here. Two promises for me. Number one, um, I love this promise of 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 4, whereby are giving unto us, whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. My life can be merged with Christ's so that doing his will can happen naturally and spontaneously and enthusiastically. She talks about that in the chapter. We didn't highlight it. But when my will is merged with Christ's will, I naturally, natively, spontaneously, and enthusiastically and joyfully just do the will of God. That's what I want. I don't want my Christian experience to be a hard uphill climb where I'm just continually having to resist my fallen nature. There's going to be some of that, of course, but when the nature that Christ has put in me, his nature begins to eclipse my far fallen nature and begins to transform my own human nature. I just want impulsively to do the right thing and to find great joy in it. As Augustine fairly as Augustine famously said, love God and do as you please. By which he means when your heart is truly converted and subsumed in the love of God, we will love God and do what we please, because what we will please will be the will of God. Love God and do as you please. Okay, that's my first promise. My second promise is the section on the heathen, page 468 that we read. That chapter or two chapters there's or paragraphs, excuse me, just so good. And I just cling to that promise that God has his people everywhere. God has his people everywhere. And clearly that's the point of the parable. I mean, I don't know what our dear, some of our dear Christian brothers and sisters are doing when they try to prescribe, proscribe the grace of God only to those who have heard verbally, audibly the teaching of Scripture. God speaks by his spirit to hearts, through nature, through the conscience, through the tender affections of human bonds. God has his people. And clearly, what else could Jesus be saying here except to overturn the expectations of who God's people are? I mean, Jesus makes the Samaritan the hero of the story. Clearly, Ellen White's inclusion here of yeah, God has his eye on the heathen too, and those that respond consistently to the impulses of the spirit will find themselves partakers of eternal life. Of course, they're saved by Jesus. They don't know that Jesus is Jesus, but they'll meet him in heaven. I just think it's so beautiful, and it's so consistent with God's character and so beautiful. And I want to know, ladies and gentlemen, what is your word? What is your word for this chapter? All right, apologies there. I dropped you momentarily. Okay, here we go. Ryan Ronell is saying neutral. Sherry says, My word is charged to go and do. Merged. Very good. Merged, charged, love, do, love. Everyone says Debbie, good risk. Don't just play it safe. Well, like it. I do like that. Humanity, do, says Minka Wiseman. Wherever, says Kendra, companionship, compassion, neighbor, all. Cassandra says, uplift. The Good Samaritan literally and physically uplifted the man. I saw that too, Cassandra, and I love it. You know, to lift up. Sister, I need to come out to New York and visit you and Victor Mills and eat some New York pizza and see how it compares with my own pizza. Okay, let's see. Tanya says, every SD country girl says neighborly love it. Uh neighbor, help, practice, Christian, minister, all touch, discernment, love, help, all, impulse, connect, crossing, real love, crosses boundaries and walls. Beautiful. Uh neighbor, my mind is blown to now think of that as a verb, says Randall Family 4, right? Neighbor is a verb. Let's go be, let's go neighbor the world. Let's go neighbor the world. Um, purposeful proximity. Uh anticipate. Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah, I remember where that's from in the chapter. Very good. We should anticipate other people's needs. Um, soul, bless Chuck Seven says everyone. Clasp. I got three today, says 303 Syzygy. Tender, love it. Property, love it. Action, love it. Reiner andor Alice says possession. Rebecca says kindness. Jocelina says every. It was all over this chapter. Everyone is our neighbor. God's people are everywhere. Every energy is to be bent, every wall is to be demolished. Boom. I love it. Uh Deb Snyder says, be a Mr. Rogers. Yes, go neighbor the world. Uh Cassandra says, yes, come visit New York City. I'm an urban planner who loves dragging everybody around New York City. Man, sister, I can imagine keeping up with you would not be easy. Um, friendly, principle, principle, cooperation, little. Ooh, I like that. Love, lifestyle, Meyerwire. That's hot. Responsibility. Okay, my word was do. Do. I like the word because it occurs a lot in the chapter, and it also occurs twice in the parable itself, right? Where Jesus says, do. Uh do this, and you will live. And then he says, go and do likewise. And she makes a big uh point about distinguishing between practice and profession, doing and saying. And I really like it. By the way, some of the other words were outstanding. I love uplift to lift up Jesus. The Samaritan lifted the man off the ground onto his beast. We're called to lift people up around us. I could get excited about that. I could get really excited about that. All right, everybody, two nights left. Can you believe it? Just two nights left. We'll be back tomorrow. Same time, same place, seven o'clock p.m. Tomorrow, in fact, let me think about that for just a second. I'm gonna do six tomorrow night. I will also put this up online. I'm gonna do six tomorrow because I've got to get to bed earlier. Because after I get done with this, I don't get to bed for almost another two hours sometimes because I have to edit the video, render the video, clip the video, upload the video. And it takes a long time. And if I get done, I'm gonna, we're gonna we're gonna do it at six tomorrow night, my time. Um, so I'll make sure that I mention that as well. Six tomorrow, my time. So it will be one hour earlier. That way I can get to bed one hour earlier because I got to preach the next day and get ready for the second to the last chapter, chapter 28 and 29. That's all we've got left. I love you all so much. Let's have prayer. God in heaven, make us Samaritans by your grace, fill us with your spirit. May we be partakers of the divine nature, and this is my prayer, and may we be uplifting those around us, and this is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.