"DO THOU LIKEWISE"
R.H.Brown
This is a great episode of grace in the gospel of grace. We might say it is grace at its basic level. It is not to be despised for that. I think that it is a poor day for us spiritually if we ever begin to despise the grace that met us, met us in such great need. But it is divine grace exemplified in the person of this Samaritan. It has often been preached from. I wonder how many preachings we have heard from this episode of grace. It has been used powerfully in the preaching to bring home to us the way that Jesus Himself has moved in love for our souls. It is a very vivid picture of the way in which Jesus has loved us so much and come after our souls, but then I think the point of the parable is lost if we leave it at that. If we see it only as a picture of divine grace towards us, I believe we miss the whole point of the parable which comes in the last word to this man who was seeking to justify himself; the Lord says to him "Go and do thou likewise".
As we have been under the sound of this ministry as to grace, the Lord's own directive would come home to us individually; "Go and do thou likewise". If in any sense you have tasted of divine grace and been the object of it, the directive from the One who has so exhibited it Himself is "Go and do thou likewise". How affecting it is, as we measure ourselves alongside the One who has done so much! What is our measure in grace compared to His? The Samaritan came journeying with resource to meet the need that was there. Others passed by and saw a need and left it. How much need there is in us individually! and there are needs known to us in our localities. We may know them, we may be expert at diagnosing the need, but have we, as this Samaritan had, the resource to meet the need and the condition that was there? He was journeying, and what he ministered to the one that was in such a state was what he had with him, what he was journeying with. You might say that he ministered what he was enjoying himself to one that had been robbed of so much – robbed of his communion, robbed of the joy of his salvation, robbed of all the joy of the testimony and the privileges that belong to it. He had been robbed of all that, but not only robbed, he had wounds inflicted upon him. You think of the state of this poor man, and yet there was resource to meet his condition.
But then he is brought to the inn. Our brother has raised with us the question as to what qualities we look for in our local companies. I found that a very appealing question, as I thought about it. What are the qualities that Jesus looks for in His assembly? What are they? I believe that one of them is that there should be care of the personnel, care of the personnel of the assembly. How grievously that has been overlooked in recent times. You might say that love of the truth is greater than love of the brethren and that would be right, but I believe there is very little difference. I believe that love of the brethren is important. John would tell us it is most important and he would tell us that we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, I look for that feature in the local company, care of the personnel, and as I take account of the Lord's directive in this chapter, I am compelled to contribute to it. It is my part to care for the local company, to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace so that the enemy should not ravage again, as he has so frequently in the past. How important it is! I believe the Lord looks for that. As we sit under the sound of the ministry we would sense the Lord's own appeal in it, that there should be conditions of grace and conditions of care in our local assemblies, so that the enemy may not ravage among the flock.
This poor man was brought along, supported, unable to walk himself. He was brought to the inn – you notice that – and it says first of all that the Samaritan took care of him. He "brought him to the inn", it says, ''and took care of him". Wonderful thing that! As we think of what the assembly is as a sphere of salvation, a sphere where we can be under the personal touch and administration of Jesus. But then the Samaritan left, and did he leave that man to his own devices? Did he leave him to get on as best as he could? He entrusted him to the innkeeper. That has often been used in the gospel preaching as a type of the Holy Spirit and how right that is; but then I see in the Lord's directive that He would have me to be an innkeeper, and to care for the assembly in this way that it is presented as an inn. He would have each one of us, dear brethren, to be innkeepers in this sense. He entrusted to this man, the innkeeper, this poor soul, and he said, "Take care of him". What a directive, dear brethren, to us individually, to take care of our local brethren! Yes, and to take care of any whom the Lord in His infinite grace might bring amongst us. We might know little of their condition of soul; we may discover it to be similar to the condition of soul of this man in Luke 10 who was so devastated. We might find persons fleeing from a system of bondage and darkness and idolatry, who have been robbed, robbed of the truth, starved of it. And we may find as they come amongst us that there have been grievous wounds inflicted, and the Lord's directive to us would be to take care of such, not only raise moral issues with them; that was not the directive that was left with the innkeeper. There might have been moral issues to raise with him eventually, as to why it was that he was drifting on that downward road from Jerusalem to Jericho, but the first thing laid upon that innkeeper was that he was to be taken care of.
I would covet a greater love for souls. The king of Sodom valued them; he said "Give me the souls, and take the property for thyself", Gen 14 :21. The enemy knows the value of souls. Do I? Do I appreciate the value to God of souls? So the directive is "Take care of him". He does not leave the innkeeper without resource; he gives him what is sufficient; you might say he gives him what is sufficient until the rapture. He says, here are two denarii, "and whatsoever thou shalt expend more, I will render to thee on my coming back". I believe that His coming again is very near, imminent, the return of this Samaritan. And when the Lord comes back He will see how we have been getting on, how we have been taking care of one and another in the meantime. But He has left sufficient in these two denarii. How affecting to think of them! He took out two denarii; but then he says "whatsoever thou shalt expend more". What an appeal that is! You might say there was sufficient, but then there was just a hint, as he left, that there might be the opportunity to expend more. I believe there is ample opportunity, beloved brethren, in our local assemblies to expend ourselves more. He says "whatsoever thou shalt expend more, I will render to thee". He was not going to be put in his debt. At the end of Revelation the Lord says "I come quickly, and my reward with me, to render to every one as his work shall be", chap 22: 12. So He is coming again, and if we have expended ourselves more in the care of His saints it will surely not pass unnoticed. He will come and His reward with Him, to render to each one as his work shall be. But in the meantime, in the time when the enemy is seeking by every available opportunity to make inroads among the flock, He would raise with us, I believe, the question that has already been raised, as to what it is that we look for in our local meetings, so that we can contribute to it ourselves. And He would raise with us two questions: one would be "take care of him", and the other what He said to this man who sought to "justify himself". What a poverty-stricken line that is to be on! How innate it is in each one of us to justify ourselves! And yet the apostle says "love...does not seek what is its own", 1 Cor 13: 5. It is not that it does not seek what is not its own, but it does not even seek what is its own. He leaves with such a one, this lawyer, the challenge: "Go and do thou likewise". I believe it would be laid by the Lord upon us, dear brethren, as we have in our measure tasted of His grace to us individually, such grace against such need, that we should ourselves be displaying it, be exponents of it, in the places where we are, until He come, for His Name's sake.
BUCKHURST HILL
27 December 1974