What Is Man’s Greatest Issue? – B | Jack Hibbs Special

Luke 10:25-37

We all know the phrase that actions speak louder than words. The same is true for the Christ follower. Christianity is not a collection of sayings. What we believe will only become believable to others when they see what we do, and not just hear what we have to say.

If Jesus would have said great answer at that moment, hypothetically, the man is about ready to pat himself on the back again.
Then Jesus said something that you would hope would pierce him through to the hearts.
Jesus tells the man do this and you will live and there.
Now you can almost hear the train disconnecting from the caboose.
You know what you mean? Do it. Yes.
What you know, do it O E V.
Excuse my French, I was born Irish. All this stuff comes out.
What are you talking about?
See, church God is not interested in how much, you know, it’s what you’re doing with what you do know and God is so good that we can even do something that we don’t know.
And he winds up getting the glory. That’s probably the best.
It’s best for us not to know when we’re doing the right thing for God because we might just wind up being tempted to pat ourselves on the back.
Ambition is not going to do it. We will not be judged by our creed.
We’re going to be judged by our deeds, said one ancient writer.
But this man says at the end of verse 29 who is my neighbor?
And you say, well, what’s that all about?
Well, look in verse 29 he says, wanting to justify himself, you had to mark that word justified.
This is tragic. This guy is not getting it. You know what he’s doing.
The word here to justify himself means to self promote or to put himself forward.
It means to declare his own righteousness.
This guy is talking to Jesus Christ in the sandals and he says to justify himself based upon what Jesus just said, what did Jesus just say now that you know it or, or it’s obviously you do know it, go and live it inside emotions.
I don’t like that challenge seeking to justify himself to put forth his own self, righteousness.
He counters trying to stumble Jesus. He counters and says, who’s my neighbor? He’s challenging Jesus?
Well, who is my neighbor? Dr H A Ironside says to this, the answer for the Christian to the question, who is your neighbor?
Answer? Everyone who is in need becomes our neighbor. Do you not love that? I love that.
If they’re in need, they’re our neighbor. What does that mean? That means today? Listen, watch out.
You don’t want to leave the seminary, leave the building, drive somewhere, drive around someone who’s in an accident or injured and be on your way home from church rather get involved.
Why should I, why Jack? What’s the thing? Because God engineered that person’s need before you pulled up.
You’re the Christian. I’m the Christian, aren’t we? Yes, that situation was engineered by God. Very important.
Ambition is not going to do it.
Even though he tries to put himself forward and challenges Jesus by saying, who is my neighbor?
Point number two verses 30 to 35. What’s a man’s greatest issue?
Well, it’s not who he is, it’s not who he is, it’s not what he knows and it’s not who he is.
It’s not who he is this way. Being religious doesn’t help.
See, what do you mean being religious doesn’t help you?
Jesus answered and said to the man and now he’s going to tell what some of your footnotes in your bible says a parable.
I don’t think it’s a parable at all.
I think it’s an actual event that Jesus perhaps others were aware of for. He states it as a fact.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Jesus says, and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Wow, who’s this priest? What is this priest? This is a high ranking religious official in Jerusalem.
This is a priest. This is the top of the top when it comes to being a minister for God’s behalf to God’s people.
This is a priest. Jesus is telling us that this is what’s going on. Not this church in your mind.
The priest has been in Jerusalem. That means he was working, serving, he’s going back home to Jericho.
That means he’s leaving. He’s going to descend 4000 ft from Jerusalem to Jericho. That’s near the Jordan River.
It’s about a 15 mile walk on a very dangerous road that Jericho road is still there today. Very narrow.
It’s dirt. People don’t travel it anymore unless by foot.
We drove it one year about five years ago in a bus and people were screaming, crying because it was so in fact, we don’t use that bus company anymore.
It’s absolutely terrifying, but that road is really tight switchbacks and it’s been notorious for thousands of years where robbers would be there to pillage people and to murder people.
In fact, it had a nickname even in the time of Jesus Christ, it was known as the red road because of the amount of blood spilled there.
Why is this important? Why is the story powerful because the priest is leaving Jerusalem going to Jericho during the time of Christ.
Historians tell us that there were some 12,000 priests that lived in Jericho that would make their ascent monthly to, to work at the temple in Jerusalem.
Not only that but remember this, there’s an order or course of priests 24 per month at a time, 24 per month at a time.
So they would be making this road this, this pass.
But his religion was found in the Bible. Of course, he’s a Jewish guy.
Deuteronomy chapter six verse four says Hero Israel, the Lord, our God is one and you shall love the Lord with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength.
The Moses went on to say in verse six And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your Children and you shall talk to them.
But when you sit down in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up, this is the word of God and you’re to live this and this man knew that was he religious.
Not only was he religious, he worked at the temple and this man saw this poor one in Need.
James chapter one, verse 25 tells us, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful here.
This is important, is not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work.
This one will be blessed in all that he does. What is he saying? What is James warning us about?
What is Jesus warning us about? Don’t be religious and leave those things undone that matter to human life.
James will also go on to another place to say if you can be so religious, uh you know, internally that way and know everything but let people suffer around you.
He says your religion is in vain.
We should visit the orphans and take care and comfort the widows and those that are in need says James and that’s so very true.
Being religious, not gonna fix anything.
This guy was more religious than any of us in this room, but he was in deep spiritual trouble with the Lord.
Also, it’s not who he is by being faithful. Being faithful doesn’t help you.
See, Jack, are you kidding me? Being faithful? I thought that would help. No. Listen, verse 32.
Likewise, the levites another high ranking religious leader when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side, went around the guy to be a levi.
You had to be proven to be faithful.
You, you were, you were proven to be a man that, that was dedicated and devoted.
But being devoted to some things that do not translate into your life doesn’t matter.
We need to be careful about this because here is the priest and then here’s a Levite.
Neither one of them are pleas in the Lord. And we could be here today as a Christian.
Now, I’m just talking to the Christians right now said, Lord, you know, we love you, we praise you.
And in a moment we’re gonna be leaving our Jerusalem here and we’re gonna be going out and we want to be very, very careful about the fact that we do not pass by those things that need to be done.
And church, listen, I don’t mean to offend anybody when I say this, but it is important, I believe if, um, we all do things religiously.
Uh, do, are you a golfer? Do you golf?
You can, it can be said that you do that religiously. Are you a baker? Are you a reader?
Are you whatever? Do you play tennis? What do you do when you swim?
If you do that very, very often and you have a routine that is a religious practice.
I do that religiously. You see now watch this when it translates into knowing God, it can be a very, very detrimental and offensive, the opposite thing.
What do I mean, it would be wrong before God and it is displeasing to God for us to say, we know God, we know Him.
We’re Christians. But when we pray to him, we cannot express to Him our feelings, we cannot talk to Him.
We don’t know how to do that. We don’t do that. What do we do?
We, we open, we get a book on prayer and we read the prayers, we read them to the God.
Our dog gets sick, we turn to that page and it’s the, the sick dog prayer.
And then, and then you know, we’re scared. So we go to I’m scared prayer.
Listen, think, think, who are you talking to? Well, God, really?
Then the same prayer over and over again. Didn’t Jesus say in the Bible?
Do not ever pray in repetition as the heathens do thinking that if they do that, God will hear them.
He wants us to come down and pour out our heart.
Look, can you imagine, can you imagine talking to a human being and you just repeat yourself over and over again to them?
You know, pull the cord.
My mom, I have to confess.
The only time I force Lisa to do that is when I’m not listening.
Don’t let it look like it happens in your home too.
You’re just not aware of it yet. Will you take out the trash? Please?
I’m not listening. I’m doing something else. Will you take out the trash? Please, Jack.
Take out the trash. Please, Jack the trash. Please. Jack. Please go get in the trash.
What? Huh? What this is what we have to do when people are not listening.
God is listening and we insult him when we just repeat and repeat and repeat as though He’s deaf or something.
Listen. If we do something over and over again and we lose the meaning of it.
We are on the brink of falling into that dead liturgical religious practice and that’s not what God wants.
Listen. It’s also this verses 33 to 35 being concerned, doesn’t help the man.
Either being concerned is not going to help someone who is outside of personally knowing the Lord and doing what the Lord has us to do.
But a certain Samaritan, oh boy, here we go. The Samaritans and the Jews they don’t get along.
Now, this man’s hearing the story, this this lawyer is hearing this a certain Samaritan Jesus said as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw the man, he had compassion on him.
So he went to him and bandaged his wounds and poured oil and wine on him and set him on his own animal and brought him into an in and took care of him.
And on the next day when he departed, he told or he took out to Dane, that’s by the way, 24 days worth of room and board and gave it to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of him and whatever more you spend.
When I come, I will repay you.
The Bible says in Exodus chapter 23 for example, that if you come to your enemy’s donkey, this is great.
Look at this when you come to your enemy’s donkey and you see the donkey that’s lost or in need, take the donkey back to your enemy.
If you see his ox, take your enemy’s ox back to his house.
Now this is what Israel was commanded to do.
This story, Jesus is speaking about the priest.
He’s speaking about the Levite and he’s talking to a religious Jewish leader.
This lawyer, Jesus introduces another Samaritan situation that we’ve been looking at the last few weeks.
And then he teaches, he says something that they should. It’s just common life that you should do this.
Even if your enemy’s donkey falls in a hole or something like that, you go help it.
The animal here, you’re talking about a man. Should you not help this man?
Have you, have you seen in our world in America where people can be injured?
People can be raped in cities and people watch instead of help. This is godlessness.
This is unbelievable.
In fact, the Bible said it would come but it said that when the love of many would grow cold, it would come about due to the lack of or to the presence of lawlessness.
People don’t care this man in the story, even if he was concerned, it’s not translating into helping his situation.
But he’s very religious man. Point number three this morning, it is this look at point number three, it’s found in verse 36.
What is man’s greatest issue? It’s not what he says.
The Christians in this world need to declare the truth and stop goofing around.
We’re not here to win a popularity contest.
We’re to speak the truth and people you know, oh, here comes the Christian and first of all, so many Christians talk Christian that the world can’t even understand what they’re talking about.
And you gotta, you gotta be in church for a while to understand Christian its own language.
The world doesn’t understand that the world needs and wants someone to state truth.
They may not agree with it, but down deep inside, they know that what was just said is true.
They might rise up against you because you said it truth burns, truth stings.
But this man’s issue is not what he says. He can say anything he wants.
He gave the right answers. Church, did he not give the right answer? Could we not give the right answer?
We could, we can regurgitate Bible Bible.
But the world needs something more than what can come out of our mouths.
They don’t really care anymore.
How so look at this verse 36 what he said he believed in didn’t work.
The man said something which was true from the Bible, love God, love your neighbor.
But what he said to believe in it didn’t work, it didn’t translate into real life.
We can say anything we want about ourselves but is what we say by words equal to what we do by our deeds.
Galatians 2 16 says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. That’s amazing.
How are you gonna get to heaven by trusting what Jesus did?
It doesn’t matter if you can quote the 10 commandments, the 10 commandments cannot, they were never given.
It’s impossible for the 10 commandments to get you to heaven. Did you know that said, why aren’t they holy?
Oh, they’re holy. All right, isn’t it? God’s word? Absolutely. Their 10 commandments are holy and they’re God’s word.
Here’s the problem. I am unholy and I can’t do it.
Now, if you say this morning, I feel sorry for you.
Pastor, you can’t keep the 10 commandments. I’m so sorry, I’ll teach you. You’re just like this guy.
You’re not getting it. Yeah, we are imperfect. We need Christ. We meet Jesus.
And so what this man said he believed in. Let’s give it to him.
Let’s say he believed in it. It didn’t translate into his life.
You know, honestly, if you’re laying on the road bleeding, do you want a theologian or do you want a doctor?
I mean, give me a doctor.
I don’t want the guy to, I don’t want the guy to talk to me.
Brother looks like val bleeding.
Thy blood is red and goeth forth from the as thy faith turn pale.
Who wants that? I want the doctor to say nothing but fix the wound.
The Christian should be the one we should not have to say anything we should do it and what we do, let people say it, but we should not go about answering these big wonderful things because we wind up indicting ourselves.
I know Jesus what to do. Here’s the answer.
And Jesus says, well, then go live like that. Isn’t that a great way? Then go do it.
And the guy was like, what?
He’s on his heels right now, even though he’s wearing sandals, he’s on his heels thinking about this.
It’s a serious thing. Secondly, verse 36 what he said was of no value.
Which of these do you think was more of a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?
In first John 29, it says he who says he walks in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even till now.
Wow. And by the way, first John’s written to Christians Stings. Huh? No.
Which one is my neighbor? You can talk about it all you want.
It’s the love fourth and final point found in verse 37. What is a man’s greatest issue?
It’s not what he does, meaning this.
It’s gotta be the motive, the motives gotta be right.
Jesus said to this man or this man I should say said to Jesus.
The answer is to this story, Jesus is that the man who showed him mercy.
That’s, that’s the one who, who did the neighborly thing? The guy answers poor guy.
He’s smart but not getting it. He gets the answer correct again.
He would have been better off if you got it wrong.
He knows to do good and he’s not doing it.
Well, it’s the one who showed the man mercy.
Jesus said, look, he didn’t say that’s right. It’s a good answer. Boy, you’re on a roll here, buddy.
Why don’t you just wait for double jeopardy and answer the big one and you get the no.
He said, go, same thing. Go, go, do it, go and do likewise.
Wow, what’s the point of this message? It doesn’t matter what you know in our culture.
Oh, look, oh, there, there’s this person, they may have all the plaques on the wall that simply means they graduated.
But are they doing it? This is critical. The motive go and do it.
Jesus says, listen to this for a motive.
This is our target as Christians, which by the way is truly mission impossible unless God does this in our lives.
And that’s exactly what Jesus is doing, getting this man to see. It’s impossible to be a believer church.
Have we gotten this part yet? Have we gotten this down yet? Do we know that?
It’s actually impossible to be the kind of Christian that the world needs to see? We can’t do it.
It’s only God doing it through us.
He said, well, how does that happen by us surrendering to letting God live through us?
How do you do that? Stop having to win.
Stop arguing with God, give up Lord, do it, trust him, trust them today, trust him tomorrow.
And here it is the motive.
First Corinthians 13, first Corinthians 13 says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I have become a sounding brass and a clanging symbol.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, I have not love.
I am nothing for though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor.
And though I give my body to be burned but have not love. It profits me nothing.
Pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called, what is Man’s greatest issue?
Thanks for being with us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
A series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack.
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