In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not turning away from God. They warn that a nation that rejects God will face judgment. The speaker also highlights the story of the Good Samaritan, emphasizing the dangerous and downward journey the injured man took from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stress the need to love God and our neighbors as ourselves, and challenge listeners to consider who their neighbor truly is. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the tragic condition of those who reject Jesus Christ and continue on a downward path.

I want this evening to read with you one of the most loved and well-known parables in the Bible. Luke, Chapter 10, please. Luke, Chapter 10. The parable, of course, is the parable that we mostly call the parable of the Book of Samaritans. We will commence reading a little way down in the chapter. I would like us to read in verse 21. And, behold, a certain warrior stood up and tested him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? You know, I never read that without being a little vain. It wasn't an ordinary person that asked the question, it was a lawyer. A man who I presume, if they were like modern lawyers, every day were occupied with dealing with people's possessions. And a lawyer said, what must I do to inherit? I would have thought that the very simplest truth was that you don't do anything to inherit apart from get into the family. We don't have very much that we might leave our children, but if we do have something, they'll have it because they're our children. They're in the family. You don't do something to inherit, you make sure that you're entitled to the inheritance by being in the family. And yet the lawyer didn't seem to know that. What must I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, what is written in the law? How readeth thou? And he answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou shalt put right this due, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A present man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and paralyzed him, which stripped him of his remnant, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain freak that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his brooms, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own feet, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two tents, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou was his neighbor, or was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. Please, could I repeat that last expression, because this is why the parable was told. Go, and do thou likewise. If there is one thing that has amazed, I'm sure, every one of us during the past evening, the tremendous number of Scriptures that deal with the coming again of Jesus Christ. We have traced, through the word of God, in definite prophecies, the fact that Christ did say, If I go, I will come again. We have seen that speaking of him, he is to sit upon the throne of his father David, and reign over the house of Jacob. And so we have seen not only something of the truth of the rapture, but we've seen something of the truth of the coming again in power and glory of the Christ of God. But tonight, I'm going to take a step further away from definite prophecies. Tonight, I don't want to talk of definite prophecies as to the return of the Lord, definite prophecies as to when and where and how he will come back again. But tonight, I want us to see that in the parables that Jesus told, parables that outwardly have nothing whatsoever to say about the coming again of Christ. Yet, in those parables, the Lord himself speaks of the fact that he's coming back again. And what better one could I choose than the simple parable of the group Samaritan? When I come again, I will repay you. Please, I do not want for one moment to take away the perfect significance of this parable. I want us to understand that the parable is a moral parable. The Lord is looking at you and me, and reminding us of our social responsibility to men and women who have not been blessed as much as we have been blessed. And he has said, But will you please remember this, that while the Lord did not apply the parable to himself, but appointed it to those that were listening there, the Lord never asked anyone to do what he does not do himself. All preachers do. Preachers have a habit of standing up and saying, Do this, and do that, and you look at them and sort of say to yourself, I wonder where he does it. But when it came to the Lord, he never asked anyone to do what he did not do himself. And I suggest to you that as we look at this parable, we can see one of the most wonderful portraits of Jesus Christ that's found in the Bible. But if we see one of the wonderful portraits of Christ, we see also a tremendous portrait of men and women, and I go further, of nations as well. Isn't it remarkable how it's done? A certain man. He does not say a certain rich man. He does not say a certain poor man. He does not say a certain learned man. He does not say a certain ignorant man. He says a certain man. A certain man. Oh please, there is little doubt, as we read the story, that he wanted you. But Jesus never says that. Jesus wants us to see our portrait. He wants us to see the portrait of the world in the picture. A certain man went down. Oh my friends, how true that is of every one of us. How true it is that as we journey on life, we find ourselves not climbing up, but going back. We may have a long desire to climb up. We may sing and sing lovely, the lovely Alexander hymn, or plant my feet on iron grass. But if experience tells us anything, it tells us this, that until we come in contact with the good Samaritans, our pathway is a damned good pathway. He went down from Jerusalem. Down from the place where God hath placed his name. Down from the city that was God's city. Down from the place that is known and will know such a kind of glory in all its wonder. He went down to a city that was to be a city of power. A city where God again and again and again, on three definite occasions, and on other occasions as well, but three definite occasions, hath placed his power because of the wickedness of the people that dwelt within the city of Jericho. Here was a man who went down from the presence of God, from the blessing of God, from the glory of God. He went down to the city of Jericho. There's no need for me to remind you, because you all know the story, and I'm certain you, family, school teacher, have shared it with your class in a legion of times. You know that the journey was not a long journey. The journey at the most was but about 15 miles. The journey that any beast of man could walk in the course of a day. But while it was a downward journey, never forget this, that it was a dangerous journey. Never do forget that traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho, it led that man to one of the ruggedest parts that were known in the district, a path where many who had turned away from that Roman conquest had gone and taken up the profession, as I may call it, of highly robber. And that pathway was downward and dangerous. And all my fellow travelers to eternity, I don't think I need to say very much about it. I believe that everyone in this place knows that every step we take that takes us away from God is a step that takes us away to God's perfect, takes us towards the judgment of the Almighty. And we were thinking the other evening that there is a heaven again, that there's a hell for sure. And we know that as we travel on life's journey, that downward path is again the path of being. If I could say this of individuals, can I not say it also of nations? If we have learned anything in the past evening by just reading the Word of God, we have learned that nations that turn their backs on God are nations that are doomed. My Bible still says, Righteousness is the fault of the nation, and sin is the result unto anger. Never let us forget this, my friends. Never let us forget that a nation that turns its back on God is a nation that's heading towards the judgment of God. And as we have seen, it will not be long before he whose right it is to come will come. And the fault of the earth will be removed. And this whole scene will be open to all that are obnoxious and vile and foul. Christ catches his threat to be with it. And there is left behind for certain judgment those that have said no to Jesus Christ, those that have continued on the downward path. If there is one thing I must say about this story, it is this. It is the story of a tragic condition. A tragic condition. For it is the story of a man who fell on his feet. It is the story of a man who was left half-dead by the roadside. Please, if he was left half-dead, then is it not true he was only half-alive? Is it not true that he was a man left by the side of the road, stripped of his clothes, naked, bruised? With no chance of life, he was half-dead, and he was half-alive. And as he lay there by the side of the road, one had tragic conditions. For there is something else I want to emphasize to you. I want to emphasize that that downward path was a downward path. I want to remind you it was a dangerous path. But it was a downward path, and it was a dangerous path because it was the devil's path. It was the road that led to the place where the curse of God was. And my fellow travellers for eternity, you may say, oh, that the downward path is an easy path. You may say, oh, it's the place where you can break into a trance. It's the place, indeed, where things are easy. Remember, life journeys may appear easy, but there's nothing easier than falling into the hands of those that will strip you and leave you naked before God. And I see this now. Stripped. Wounded. Left half-dead. But I want to remind you it's not only the story of a tragic condition. It is the story of a terrible conduct. And may I repeat that? I think it's most important perhaps to remind ourselves of it. It is the story of a terrible conduct. Now, may I share what I feel about it? The man lay by the side of the road, half-dead. Stripped. With no hope whatsoever. But suddenly, coming down from the road, there was a priest. And the priest saw him. Saw him. And passed by on the other side. I never read the story without reminding my heart of this. That a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. That a certain priest went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. For as we turn the page of Holy Writ, this is that which we read. And by chance there came down a certain priest. The seventh chapter of Matthew is one of the most awful chapters in the Bible. It may be the close of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. But it is one of the most horrible chapters in the Bible. The seventh chapter of Matthew tells of the son who will look into the face of the Lord Jesus and say, But Lord, I prophesied in thy name, and in thy name I've done many wonderful things. And Jesus will look at them and say, Depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of Israel. Haven't we found out that it's not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, who will enter into? Here was a man whose profession demanded that he should speak of God, yet he was going away from God's city. Here was a man whose profession demanded that he should stand by the side of God and utter words of cursing upon that which was opposed to God. He's making his way for that, isn't he? And I want very simply to say this to you, sir. I want to say this very simply to you, madam, that you may have your name upon a church register. You may, when I speak to you, tell me that you're a Christian. But the thing that counts is where you're buried. The thing that counts is not the robes you wear, not the profession you make. The thing that counts is whether you have been born again, whether you have trusted Jesus Christ and turned your back upon the city of destruction, turned your face towards the city of blessing. This priest was going down what? Terrible thunder. It went likewise. A Levite. Now, you are aware that a Levite is a Jewish lawyer. Here was a man who knew all the law that was demanded of the Jews. It's an interesting fact that the Jews had 365 laws. Now, you'll never forget that, for that's the same number for our days in a year. They had 365 laws, and on top of that, they had 289 prohibitions. I get amazed how many times in the centuries before I say to the boys and girls, now I want you to repeat with me the words of the Ten Commandments. And off we go. And I say to our upper sex that I am amazed how infrequently boys and girls can quote even the Ten Commandments. There was a time in my country I know nothing about yours. There was a time in my country when every child that went to day school, the day started by the quoting of the Ten Commandments. No wonder we've slipped away, for we've slipped away from that. If people have a job to remember Ten Commandments, I don't know what they would do with 365 laws and 289 prohibitions. No wonder they needed a lawyer, a religious lawyer, to keep them on that. And that was a Levite. And he came down, he did more than the priests. He actually crossed the road, he actually leaned over the man, he actually knocked at the man. And then he passed off. Oh, what terrible conduct, but please, please, I am not trying to excuse them. Maybe what I am doing is this. Maybe what I am doing is I'm saying to my own life, Well, find an excuse for some of the things you did. You see, when I read the story, I often wonder. I read that the man was left half-dead, so he was half-alive. In other words, he had only just been waylaid. It had not happened years before, or months before, or days before. It had happened that day, and they're involved by their own side. Those that robbed him couldn't have been very far off. I wonder whether that priest looked at him and said, Oh, it's dangerous to be here, I can't hang about here, they might jump out on me, I'm going back. I wonder whether that Levite, when he passed, said, I ought to help him, but I'm in danger, and he hasn't very much longer to live, I'm not a medic, I can't do very much, I'm going back. Oh, I know you wouldn't do that. You'd stand and say, I'll take their offer, doesn't matter what they do to me. But maybe they were a bit too coward, I don't know. I only know this, that their conduct was terrible. See, I don't mean to translate this into the realms of nature. I don't mean to translate this into the realms of men and women. When I translate it into the realms of nations, I realise that we are living in a day where there are many nations that have been beaten, and left by the wrong side half-dead. I never cross the water and go to Africa without remembering the tremendous happenings in the past few years around that lovely country we call Rhodesia. I never cross the water and go to Africa without remembering armies and all the bloodshed and murder and heartache that came to one of the prettiest, loveliest countries in the world. And I look around and I see nations, nations that have so much. So infrequently are we able to have it. So infrequently do we start on our journey. And I welcome you on. If there is one thing that can be said for this land of yours, it seems that nations imagine that you have a bottomless pocket. Always looking to you for help, and so infrequently not being helped. But there are nations that could help, and all they do is swear it's right. Leased by the Rhodes Foundation. If that be true of nations, how true is it of individuals? We find ourselves left by the wrong side, judged upon by robbers. Of these it's your imagination, and you might not see it as I see it. It's that don't God bless you, and that's all I can say. But I've often thought of this man. I've often thought of the robbers that jumped out on him, beat him, whipped his gun upon him, and left him by the roadside half dead. You see I can understand a little bit of what he went through, because once that happened to me, oh please I'm not talking about physical, I've got a strong feeling I'm going to put my head down and land out. But I know this as I was sharing with you the other day, there was a time in my life when I fell among the thieves. Those were the thieves that I've already referred to, although I didn't call them thieves then, but I fell among ten commandments. And for me I pined, I pined and all the good that I thought I had was stripped off me. I certainly had the word of God, but I don't have had the word of God before me. And I pined, I had other gods. A god for a pair of boxing gloves and a rugby ball. And I had that garment of righteousness ripped off me as I was shown to stand before the Almighty as one who was in need of a garment to cover up my sins. I'm not going to go down the ten commandments because they leave me naked. I don't know that anything I might have had that self-righteousness is stripped off when I consider those commandments and consider my own life. This man was left there as we have been left, the night by a roadside, going down for God's blessing, down to God's mercy. Left with no one to help him. What a tragic condition. I pined. What a terrible conduct. I pined. What tender compassion. But we read, a certain Samaritan as he journeyed. Not as he went down. As he journeyed. As he journeyed. Oh, my fellow travellers who have heard. Let me say this. I have a Saviour who journeyed. Down from His glory, ever-living glory, my Lord and Saviour came, and Jesus was His name. All the wonder of it all. He came where we were. He came where we were. The prophet long ago was speaking of the Lord. Jesus said, He bore our grief and carried our sorrows. Oh, how true. Where men worked, Christ worked. Where men suffered, Christ suffered. Where men were misunderstood, Christ was misunderstood. Where men passed through times of trial, Christ passed through times of trial. Where men died, Christ died. He bore our grief. He carried our sorrows. He knows all about you. He knows about every man and woman in this church tonight. He bore our grief. He carried our sorrows. For He came where we were. Hallelujah. Oh, what a Saviour. I love the little Welsh chorus that says, Do you wonder? Do you wonder where it is? I love it, sir. When I think of all He's done, and for me the guilty one. Do you wonder where it is? I love it, sir. Oh, He came where we were. And hallelujah. If He came where we were, He's coming one day where we are. He came right where we were. If there was a woman that was a sinner, if there was a Saviour who would say, Neither do I, never. If there was a man that was a leper, if there was a Saviour who would say, I don't fancy. If there was one that had been placed in a tomb, if there was a Christ who would cry, Why do I come forth? If there was a woman whose blood was flowing from her daily and her life going out of her, if there was a Christ who turned by her side so she could touch the hand of God, He came where we were. Sir, madam, Jesus Christ is not so far away that we can't touch Him. He's as near as we are. He's as near as the prosperer nearer next to Him. He came where we were. Ah, but something more. He bathed us in wool. He boiled in oil and water. Ah, isn't it wonderful? He not only came where He was, but so did the Levite. The Levite came where He was. He crossed the road and stretched by His side. He came where we were that He might help us. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, if there's a young person here tonight and you're hating life without Jesus Christ, why, why? There is someone who's willing to come by thy side to help me. Not just to wash my sin away. Not just to pray for someone. Oh, to ease the pain. Give me joy. And this is just what the Lord does. I know of no one else that does that. But He pours in the oil and wine. Oh, that's it for His name. And He gives me joy. And gives me peace. And let me count Him on His own feet. I like that. I say I like that. He didn't say to Him, when He poured in the oil and wine and found up His wounds, now you get on the best you can. But He made provision for Him. I thank God I have a Saviour tonight who will make provision for us. I beg God tonight if you'll touch Jesus Christ, you may find in front of you that the pathway is still right. The pathway is still holding us through. Hallelujah. If I may use the expression of the beast, who goes His way around the scope and blesses His name, He'll carry me home with His grace. Oh, tender earth. When I said that there was a tragic condition, I said that there was a terrible conduct, I said there was a tender compassion, but oh please, there is still a tremendous concern. He took Him to the age. He took Him in, He took care of Him. He told the wages, the price, the bill. He paid it. He gave Him two pence. Then He made that great cross that thrills our hearts. If it cost me any more when I come again, I would have obtained it immediately. I often say to the children when I tell the story to the boys and girls, I often ask them the question, you know, why was it that He only gave the man two pence? And I get all sorts of answers. Some youngsters will say that's all he had. You know, these mathematical and geniuses, they'll think, oh, two pence would worth a lot of money then. What? What for it was. But oh please, there's only one answer to it. You give an empty for two pence to look after a man who's sick. Would you respect my dear doctor friend here tonight? Wouldn't it be much good giving a doctor friend or customer two pence to look after you in hospital? I've got a strong feeling the answer is very simple. It's just that He didn't intend to stay away very long. I'll give you two pence. It won't last you long, but it won't be away long. I'm coming back. I'm coming back. My friend, I have a Saviour coming back. But whom's He coming back for? Whom's He coming back for? He's coming back for the man that He's handed by the roadside. Deadly. Wounded. Half-dead. But I have a Saviour who's coming back for those that He meets on life's journey with all their sin and all their wickedness. He's coming back again for those that He Himself ever deems and made Him whole. Maybe dead. Oh please, I don't do it. I always say with some shame, I don't do it. But I ought to do it. Every night when I draw the curtain, I ought to say, perhaps tonight. Every morning when I call them back, I ought to say, perhaps this morning, perhaps today. Because He's coming, and He's coming at night, and He's coming ashore, and He's coming soon. When I come again, my friend, my friend, I do not want to take away from the significance of the story. No, and do thou likewise. Please. The Lord Jesus is seen in every sentence, in every verse. And I want to ask you tonight. When He comes again, will you be found in the aid? Will you be found in the church? I'm speaking of the church, the body of Christ, ladies. I am not talking of some church that has four walls of brick and stone. I'm a church building. I'm asking you in the body of Christ. Do you trust in Jesus Christ? Do you have Him? Why not? Why not? He's waiting for you. He's ready. He's yours. I'm going to break it down for you by asking you to sing with me, quoting 150. One hundred and fifty. I say, it's a tremendous strength. Sinner, owl-eyed, hearty trouble. God is coming very near. Do not hide thy deep emotion. Do not stretch that falling fear. All we say, all we say, is praise His name. One hundred and fifty. We rise and sing. Sinner, owl-eyed, hearty trouble. God is coming very near. He's coming very near. Now mayest never fear, blood. Come at once, attack. He is waiting. I wonder if this will hold tonight. We'll start tomorrow. I stand the decision is yours. I cannot imagine. It passes any imagination of mine. That that man lying by the roadside would have said when the American leaned over him, don't touch me, go away. But all of a sudden he could do for himself. How willingly he accepted the help and blessing of that man. And I, Jesus Christ, is saying to you, may I come into your life, will you let me to do with your sins at all what that man did to the one by the roadside. All is right. As we sing the last verse, God give us the grace to give our lives to Jesus. The last verse. Hear the voice of Christ the Lord. Hear the voice of Jesus. O God, I thank you for the wonderful things that Jesus Christ has given the weak men to do. One day will come again for those whose needs we have met. Grant, we pray thee. O grant, we pray thee. That each one of us may be assured that we have come to this day. O grant that we will not be left behind with the parody of evil. Grant that when he comes, we shall be saved. Speak then, Father. Don't let anyone leave this place tonight without the danger of death.