Please stand, if you're able for the reading of God's word.
We're in The Sermon on the Mount and we'll be wrapping this study
op which began about a year ago. I'm going to read to you one
verse, which is the most universally, esteemed statement
that Jesus ever made. Whether you're a believer in
Christ or not, people love the statement.
Throughout history. It has had parallels.
Lots of other religions bring statements like this.
But there's a difference all of them bring it in the form of a -
don't do to others. What you don't want, done to
you. But Christ changed it.
He put it in the positive and in doing so created a standard.
That is much higher. The standard that could only be
met and him. But a standard that he is
calling us to it's important to say.
Before I read this verse That there's a danger in only reading
one verse. And that is, you would take this
verse out of its context, which we can't do.
It was part of his larger sermon and where he placed it is
important, and it's exactly where he wanted it to be.
I'll explain as we go forward here.
Now, the word of the Lord, Jesus preach these words, so, whatever
you wish that others would do to you do, also to them for this is
the law and the prophets. This Is the word of the Lord.
Thanks. Be to God.
Please be seated. and looking at this verse, Jesus is extremely
simple. And he's very clear, he could
not be more clear. We know what he is calling us to
do, but we also know if we're honest that we can't live this
out, we can't even live this out today, not even for a whole day,
we can't. And he knows that, but he calls
us to it anyway. Three years ago, the world
really changed. Churches schools.
All sorts of Industry were faced with decisions that we had never
encountered. We weren't sure what to do.
When I began to preach during that season of the pandemic and
then all that followed it with the racially-charged Dynamics in
our own country. I began almost every sermon for
several weeks asking you a question.
Who are you listening to? It's a very important question.
Who are you listening to? Francis Schaeffer.
I quoted him. Three years ago said that when
the world goes through a crisis, like the one we were going
through, it is the golden opportunity for the church, the
golden opportunity for the church to shine because the
world is watching How are we going to respond?
Where we going to respond standing up for truth, which we
can never compromise, but are we going to do it in a way?
That brings God glory. Even remembering a verse like
this. This golden opportunity, it
really always exist. And the reason is because this
side of heaven, we are always going to be in relational strife
and the relational Strife that exists is directly.
A result of the Fall going all the way back to the Book of
Genesis. We feel it too.
Christ knows it. That's why he came and he gives
us these instructions. I think it, maybe I'm wrong but
I think most of us know this verse probably by heart might
even say it often but I would imagine that you have never
spent a lot of time unpacking it which is what we're going to do
today, one verse and we're going to unpack a few important lines
here and I'm going to ask you to do something, whether you're a
note taker or not. I want you to do this whether
you do it now while you're listening or later today, it
doesn't matter to me. That I really want you to do it
because I think it's important. In fact, if you won't do it I
don't think you take this verse seriously.
I think you think of it as many do is just a cliche or
something, that will be nice. If it's aspirational it's not it
is something that Christ is calling his people to and we are
called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
So I'm going to ask you to make a few list and I'm going to ask
you to draw something and children.
I want you to pay attention because I You to draw it too.
And later on, I want you to talk about it with your parents.
So let's look at this verse Matthew 7:12, so whatever you
wish that others would do to, you do also to them, I want you
to make a list. Here's the first list, what do
you wish others would do to you? Have you ever asked that
question? Have you ever spent time
thinking about? What do I want others to do to
me? How do I want others to relate
to me? I think it's important that you
ask because it makes no sense. Your life, if you just read it
and move on without knowing, really the way in which you
would like to be treated. Now, as you make your list, you
have to make sure it is according to scripture, you
can't add things in there that aren't from God's word.
But I want you to hear my list. What do you wish others would do
for you? Mark?
I wish they would love me. I wish they would listen to me.
I wish they would respect me. I wish that they would treat me
with dignity, Justice truth. I wish that they would correct
me when I'm wrong and I'm wrong every day.
But gently I wish they wouldn't do what Jesus said, not judge
me. I wish they would not gossip and
slander me. Have you ever gossiped about me?
That's funny. The same thing happened at 9:30.
Just this little nervous laughter went through the
congregation. Well, the truth is most of you
probably have And I probably have in my own mind about you,
it's our nature. But I wish you wouldn't.
You wish I wouldn't. Ooh.
I wish people would give me the benefit of the doubt.
And I wish people would forgive me. when I've wronged them, what
do you wish others would do to you?
I want you to make that list. You can use mine and build on
it, but I think it's important that you do it.
Here's why second list who are the others.
Jesus said, so whatever you wish that others would do to you.
Who are the others? Well, the others are your family
members. Your friends.
Your classmates. Your coworkers.
Your teammates. Your leaders.
Fellow citizens Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
Members of other nations, including leaders of other
nations. We would like to say at least
enemies aren't on the list. But if you remember what Jesus
said, maybe about a minute and a half before he got to this.
He said these very words. You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to
you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so
that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.
Remember Jesus wants to make much of the father and our
sonship So, who are others? It's everyone.
Make that list and then get specific with that list, right?
Your family members down your teammates down your classmates,
your coaches. Make that list.
And then ask this question of the list that I made of how I
wish others would treat me. Am I treating that list of
others the same way? Am I thinking about them?
The way I want people to think about me.
Am I speaking about them to others the way I want people to
speak about me? And then make another list.
Who are the ones. I have not done that with Who
are the ones I'm currently not doing that with.
I really want you to make that list.
If fact, if you don't make that list I think you're in danger of
doing the very thing Jesus is going to close his sermon with.
Where he says you listen but you didn't hear.
You heard what was said but you didn't obey it.
So this is called application. Now, children all of us.
I want you to do some art. The art is going to be very
simple on some white page. You can use your bulletin if you
want or later when you get home, I want you to take some writing
utensil and starting at the top of the page.
I just want you to draw a straight line.
I want you to draw a straight line.
Not using any straight edge. Just freehand.
It just a straight line that's it.
We can all do it. Now, where am I going with this
dr. James Montgomery, boys, who was
the longtime preacher of Tenth Presbyterian Church.
A PC, a church in Philadelphia. An incredible man, studying the
word writing multiple volumes of commentaries.
He shares this illustration in his commentary on Matthew 7:12.
He says, imagine a teacher going into a classroom in her
classroom and she's instructs, her elementary students to draw
a straight line. That's all.
Well, they're doing that she steps out of the room because
somebody's called her into the Hall.
She goes into the Hall. The kids have done their work.
It didn't take very long, so while she's out of the room,
what do they do? They begin to compare one
another straight lines. Some were meticulous going very,
very slow. Some were quick to get through
it but as they look at one another as what they're doing is
seeing Whose Line is the straightest One child says to
another mine straighter than yours too.
Boy, see another hers, a straighter than ours.
One of them says together. Well that's because she has the
better writing utensil. The teacher, then walks back in,
they get quiet. All the lines have been written
down or driven drawn and then she takes one by one a straight
edge. A ruler.
And she takes her writing utensil and then to go straight
down. Here's the point.
The Golden Rule. Is a standard and it could be
called the Golden straight edge. I want you to see.
That however, gifted you are drawing a straight line.
When you put the golden standard to it, the Golden Rule and you
go straight, you're going to see how it veers off.
It's not as straight as you think.
You're not as good as you think and if it's really close, here's
what I want you to do. I want you to keep drawing a
straight line connected to that page every day the rest of your
life. Friends, we miss the mark this
passage is called the Golden Rule and there is a golden
standard that Christ has set. And in this golden standard he
is teaching us the way we are to respond to all people were in
relationship with and he speaks in such a way that he calls us.
To be who he's called us to be even to people who don't deserve
it. Now, I know some of you are in
relationships where they could be dangerous.
There could have been things that have happened.
There's a context for that. You need to know that.
I understand that, but that's not the majority of Our Lives or
times. This is important for us to see
that. Jesus is trying to set apart his
followers and how they relate to others.
So how can we live this out? Here's the first thing I think
we need to know Jesus is going to make this point for different
ways over the next four sections of The Sermon on the Mount.
First, we need to realize that Jesus wasn't preaching.
This sermon in order that we could simply praise the sermon,
he wasn't giving us this summary of the law and the prophets in
order for it to be praised, he gave it so that it would be
practiced Martyn, lloyd-jones has it this way, our Lord did
not preach The Sermon on the Mount in order that you and I
might comment upon it, but in order that we might carry it
out. Out.
And in our tradition we love to make comments.
We love to spend our time. Talking about what did you think
of the sermon? What did you think of the
podcast? What did you think of the book?
That's a fair question, but that's not the end.
The end isn't to say. I had a wiser comment than you
or I commented about somebody that's older and dead so I'm
deeper. No, the whole point is that this
is to be carried out. That really the people of God
are to love. Others, as they love themselves.
So how do we do it? First, we have to understand
that this whole thing is a theological problem.
And when there is a theological problem, we have to start with
the theological answer, which means we've got to go to the
right place first. And where do we go?
We go to God himself. How does God described himself
and his word when we begin to see the way in which he
described himself as holy other than set apart sacred.
Righteous perfect all-powerful all-knowing all-wise.
We begin to To see who he is. We recognized in humility.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. His first words, we recognize in
humility that we are not him and that we're very, very small.
Secondly, it was, we look at it theological.
We have to understand, not only who he is.
But who does he say? We are, I want you to go to
Ephesians grab the blue Pew. Bible in front of you, turn to
the right, several several pages.
And you'll find the book of Ephesians written to the people
of Ephesus. You turn to Ephesians 2 and I
want you to see the way in which Paul describes us.
Verse 1 of chapter 2 of Ephesians Paul wrote these
words, they're very significant and you were dead and the
trespasses and sins. And one in which you once walked
following the course of this world, following the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons
of Disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind,
and we're by Nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind.
Kind. Okay.
Now let me stop these four babies, that were baptized, the
parents holding them to siblings that were with them.
That's true of them just as true of all mankind.
Now, some of you might be grandparents like, well, hold
on. Now, our granddaughter or
grandson have a grandpa now, too.
And my little granddaughter. Who's six months old?
Seems perfect. I've yet to see your sin.
I haven't. But she's a sinner.
She belongs. To what Paul says here.
Children at some age are going to reveal that sin.
I remember Matt Chandler talking about one of his children,
taking the remote, going to the other child and hitting them on
the head. Where did they learn that?
He had not done that to his wife.
She had not done that to him. They've done it to know the
other children. They didn't have to learn it.
It's Ennis. And what Paul is saying here
with great eloquence and great power is that we all are like
this. Not some of us we are by Nature
children of Wrath like the rest of mankind and at the center of
all of it is the real problem and that self the verse that
Jesus gives us in. Matthew 7:12 is not hard to
understand. It's very clear, but it's so
hard to live out. It's so hard to live out that
many of us have just simply said I can't, so I won't.
And that's not what Christ is after.
It's not what he's after. He's calling us to his standard
and he's enabling us because of who we are in him to live out.
What is impossible. We've got to see God first and
then we've got to see ourselves. This is a relationship problem.
I want you to think about the last time you saw the news,
maybe it was this morning, maybe it was last night, sometime
yesterday. Think about what you heard and
just a few minutes. Everything you heard is going to
be connected to the fall of Man. Relationships that are broken
murders that are committed Wars, that take place.
This theological problem is a relational problem and it goes
all the way back to the beginning, where Adam and Eve a
real man. And a real woman were created
without sin without sin. They had no wrong thoughts, no
wrong feelings, they didn't say a wrong thing to one another.
They didn't treat one another wrongly, nothing was wrong.
Until they fell. And when they fell, they were
told that their eyes were opened in their, as their eyes were
opened, and they realized they were naked.
And how you see this in Genesis 3, is that the relationship
between this man, and this woman between Adam and Eve is suddenly
broken. They hide from one another,
their nakedness is exposed in their, a shame, they feel guilt.
So, as they seek to cover themselves, they also realized
their relationship with God was broken.
God gives us his first question in the Bible.
Where are you? It's not because he He's all
knowing but he's indicating even now I'm coming for you.
Eve's soon gives birth to two boys as the boys grow up their
sin is revealed never greater than when one kills the other.
And man, to man, kind we've been killing one another ever since.
Not always physically. But with our words, Jesus
Christ. Delivers this sermon from his
very own mouth and as he does, so he gives us a strong call.
How do you wish to be treated by others?
Treat them the same way? But what about when they don't
deserve it? And your list of others.
I know you experienced that category.
How are we as Believers to act? The solution.
Is to lift our eyes towards God hear this.
God, the Father demonstrated his own love for us in this while we
were still sinners Christ died for us.
Not once we clean ourselves up. Not once we came to a place of
deserving it more than we did before while we were still
sinners Christ died for us. We didn't deserve it.
We never did, we never will, that's why it's called Grace
back to Ephesians 2. It says, but God being rich in
Mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.
Even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive
together. With Christ by Grace.
You have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with
him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So let's go back to your list. How do you wish people to treat
you? Make that list.
Who are the others in your life? Are you treating all of them the
same way? As you want to be treated.
The answer is no, not every one of them there are people in your
life. And again, you may be in a
situation where there's danger that has to be understood but
for most of us that's not the case.
Most of us. It's somebody that's just
bothered us a relationship and business that went wrong.
A conflict that we're just seeing it from two different
sides. So what is Christ calling you to
do? He is calling you who has
received from him, what you didn't deserve to offer the very
same thing to a person that doesn't deserve it and you and I
can not do it. Apart from Christ.
So why did he place this verse here?
Last Sunday I said that if you ever wonder what the application
is to any sermon, it's Matthew, 7:7 211, ask seek, knock ask
continually, it's a present imperative, ask continually seek
continually not continually And God will answer that prayer.
He will give you whatever is necessary for you to be the
person. He's calling you to be.
Three years ago, I asked you who are you listening to?
In that time and since that time I watched the church not just pc
pc the church in many cases behave.
So embarrassed the landlady bad, we missed the golden
opportunity. We were quick to stand up for
truth and thing we have convictions about and we should
always do that. But the way in which we engage
with others often times was horrific that was true outside
the church and inside the church.
So often we looked more like a set of anchor people and a new
set debating. So I ask you who do you listen
to? If the way you're treating other
people looks more like somebody on the TV channel or your
favorite podcast. That is spewing things in a way
that is not relevant to the way Christ calls us to act.
Stop listening. If you're in a small group that
begins or ends or even in the middle continues to talk poorly
about other people, created in the image of God, get out of
that group. But don't leave before saying
gently and lovingly were not acting the way Christ has called
us to act. Right now, some of you are
thinking you're encouraging us to compromise the truth.
No, remember what? I said on my list, I want you to
listen to me. Never compromise the truth.
We can't We can't, but Christ also didn't doesn't give us the
freedom to behave in a way that's not like him ever.
You and I can't do it. So why does he put it here?
First thing he says, is he moves into the section Paul Global
preach this. So beautifully, a few weeks ago,
do not judge others. Then he moves into the prayer
part. Ask seek knock ask seek.
Knock ask seek knock. And you remember how ins that
section? Let me remind you.
He says this. Which of you if his son ask him
for bread, will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish.
Will give him a serpent if you then who are evil know how to
give good gifts to your children.
How much more will your father who is in heaven?
Give good things to those who deserve it.
Is that what it says? No, you should judge me.
I'm added to scripture, it doesn't say to those who deserve
it. He says, how much more will your
father? Who is in heaven?
Give good things to those who ask him, we will never ever
deserve it. That's what the gospel has to do
with the golden. Straightedge the golden rule, we
never deserve it. So what Christ is saying is look
up, remember what my father has given you.
Luke will tell us, it's the Holy Spirit.
In the power of who I am and What I've Done In Christ Alone.
Now treat others. As you wish to be treated.
And friends, it's going to be messy.
It's going to be frightening at times.
But it's the call that Christ has given.
Because it takes us to the end of ourselves.
Some have translated this passage as inspirational.
Like Jesus was calling us to be good.
This is not a passage that is recommending goodness.
It's actually showing the danger of that kind of thinking.
We can't do it. But in Christ, in Christ, in
Christ, we can stand and love. And tell the truth with
gentleness and conviction and treat others the way we wish to
be treated. Father in heaven.
You did. What is beyond comprehension?
And sending us your son. Christ Jesus, you obeyed.
What none of us could obey. And you died, the death that we
all deserve to die. what we deserved, we didn't receive what
we deserved, we didn't receive You took it?
Lord, would you enable us to see the beauty of the passion of
Jesus and all of its Gore? So that we could be reminded
that who we are in you it's secure and from that place of
absolute security we can in your power, be that light, the golden
opportunity still exists that we can love.
And A way that the world doesn't understand but is drawn to and
it would be because we look like the one who came for us, who
saved us. Who has Us in his grip?
Father, give courage to our to us, give Grace to us and do not
leave us alone. Press this deep into us.
Even to the point where we would have conversations with those.
We know we need to speak to, we pray this Lord and your glorious
name. Amen, we stay.