In Matthew chapter 7, our focus tonight is on the golden rule. Verse 12, I thought it was a fitting capstone to our studies in the Ten Commandments. I do want to read the chapter and then our focus will be on Matthew chapter 7 at verse 12. But beginning in verse 1, Judge not that you be not judged.
For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye?
Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being 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 ask Him? Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.
And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, thank You for this passage of Holy Scripture.
Thank You for this rule, this golden rule. God, we confess at the outset we don't live like this, and we need the power of Your Holy Spirit to guide us, to direct us, and to help us. For God, this is the Law and the Prophets, and I pray that You would give us a willing heart, an obedient heart, a heart desirous to treat one another with the respect, the dignity, and the love that You call us unto. And to that end, Father, please provide now Your Holy Spirit, that He may take these things, that He may apply them in our hearts, that You may cause us to hide Your Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against You.
We thank you for the power of the gospel. We thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Again, Father, just bless this time as we look at this particular passage, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Well,
Introduction
I just wanna give a brief overview of the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. If you go back to chapter five, Jesus begins with the Beatitudes. This is a description of kingdom citizens. And then in Matthew chapter five, verses 17 to 20, Christ highlights his relationship to the law and the prophets.
He says, do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. In other words, Christ regards the Old Testament. Christ regards the Law and the Prophets.
Christ came to fulfill them, to confirm them, to strengthen them, to show our obligation to them. He then goes on to a series of antitheses between what they had heard and what was the original intent by God. He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And then he says, but I say to you, the antithesis is not him and Moses, rather it is Moses and his bad interpreters.
So Jesus is clarifying, Jesus is showing and distinguishing the goodness and the glory of the law. And he does that through the rest of chapter five. In chapter six, he deals with religious observances on the part of his people. He deals with almsgiving, he deals with prayer, he deals with fasting.
He then cautions his people against a carnal anxiety. That's where the latter half of chapter six is. And then in chapter seven, he cautions us against a judgmental attitude and mindset. And then in chapter seven, verses seven to 11, he gives a strategy, he gives a means, he gives a help to promote God's assistance in this present world.
It's a gracious remedy for the anxiety that he has talked about, the judgmentalism that he has talked about, and the discernment. And then when he comes to verse 12, therefore, whatever you want men to do, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. That doesn't just speak specifically to what immediately proceeds. It's the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is a pronouncement of law. It is Christ as law giver, as legislator, prescribing how people ought to conduct themselves. And here in verse 12, we have this encapsulated principle called the golden rule. Now, what remains in the Sermon on the Mount is simply a call to decision.
In other words, he wants his hearers to take active response in terms of their compliance with his word in the sermon. So verse 12 is a fitting summary for all of the law teaching that Christ has given in the previous portion of the Sermon on the Mount. Now, the common description of this saying as the Golden Rule is traditionally traced to the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus. He lived in AD 222 to 235, who, though not a Christian, was reputedly so impressed by the comprehensiveness of this maxim of Jesus as a guide to good living that he had it inscribed in gold on the wall of his chamber.
So he so liked it, even though he wasn't a believer, he nevertheless had it inscribed in gold on this wall. Well,
Explanation of the Golden Rule
I want to look first at the explanation of the rule tonight, and then secondly, at the application of the rule. And with reference to the explanation of the rule, notice in verse 12, we have it in a positive statement. He says, therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Now, this golden rule is not unique to Jesus.
In fact, in 20 BC, 20 years prior to the birth of our Lord Jesus, there were two rabbis, Hillel and Shammai, and a Gentile asked them which was the most important law, or rather, he asked to be taught the whole Torah while he was standing on one leg. So the Gentile comes up to these rabbis, he stands on one leg, and he says, teach me the entirety of the law. And Rabbi Hillel replied, what is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else. This is the whole law, all the rest is commentary.
So that's a negative version of it. An early Christian teaching manual called the Didache, which is dated around AD 100, maybe 120 at the latest, so it's very close to the New Testament documents, gives the golden rule in a negative framework as well. It says, but whatever you do not wish to happen to you, do not do to another. So, the negative form is good insofar as it goes.
If we don't want people to mess with us, then we shouldn't mess with that, right? Pretty easy rule. Live and let live is kind of another way to address this particular maxim. So, if we don't want to be messed with, then we shouldn't mess with others either.
So, that's the negative form, but the positive form calls on us to engage in a particular course of action. Therefore, Jesus says, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Now, with reference to the positive form of the rule,
Comprehensiveness of the Rule
the first thing we ought to appreciate is the comprehensiveness of the rule. The comprehensiveness of the rule. It is a summary statement of the law and the prophets. It is a summary statement of the way that we should treat other people.
It's the way that we want them to treat us. So we don't have to have a detailed law code for every possible encounter that we will ever have. We don't need the federal government writing new laws for us each and every day when we have this golden rule. The Lord God has given this principle, this maxim, so that in our day-to-day life, we don't need, you know, as I said, reams of paper telling us how to interact with one another.
J.C. Ryle says it settles a hundred difficult points. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases. So the therefore points back to what he said in terms of the law, and the whatever shows, again, the comprehensiveness of this particular law.
Whatever you want men to do, do to them also. Now, secondly,
The Rule Is Perpetual
it is a perpetual law or a perpetual rule. The tenses of the verbs used indicate that this is an ongoing principle. It's not something that we just try to do once in a while. It's not like on Sunday or Monday when we sort of plan our week, okay, on Thursday do something that nods at the golden rule.
Do something that sort of shows that you're a team player in the way that it is on Thursday. No, this is supposed to be part of our fabric. This is supposed to be how we operate. Again, not a detailed long list of rules for every possible or potential encounter, but a general rule on how best to deal with people that we have contact with. whether it's family, whether it's church, whether it's society at large.
This rule affects us in totality.
The Rule Demands Action
Thirdly, the action involved in the rule. Notice what Jesus says, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. The rule demands action on the part of God's people. The negative part doesn't.
If I don't want people to mess with me, then I won't mess with them. That's the negative expression of the rule. The positive expression calls upon you and I to engage in a particular course of action. He says, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them.
In other words, you need to be an active agent with reference to promoting this rule as you live in the here and the now. And then notice something that the rule mandates. Look at what the rule says. Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them.
I think there's sort of a strange, perverse, alternate rule that we put into practice at times. Well, those people treat me like garbage, so I'm going to treat them like garbage as well. Notice what Jesus does not say. Treat them in a particular way insofar as they treat you in a particular way.
This is one of those passages where it's tough as a preacher because this is a pill that's tough to swallow. You have to obey God, you have to be consistent before God, you have to be compliant with the golden rule, even if everybody around you is not. It's intriguing that when Paul comes to deal with husbands and wives in Ephesians chapter 5, he does not say, husbands, love your wives insofar as they have made themselves lovely for you. That's not what he says.
He says, husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. He never says to women, wives, be submissive to your own husbands as to the Lord in so far as they are worthy of your submission. The point is, is that we have to obey God irrespective of other person's neglect of obedience to God. The rule is calculated not as a quid pro quo, but rather we are to do to men what we want them to do to us. not what they do do to us, but what we want them to do to us.
Now you're all looking a bit puzzled, but you need to embrace this, you need to feel the reality of it, and you need to identify that this isn't always easy. It is always easy to say, well, that person doesn't say hi to me, so I'm not gonna say hi to them. That person doesn't call me, so I'm not gonna call them. That person couldn't care one bit about me, so I'm not gonna care one bit about them.
I hope it's not quite so severe epic like that, but you get the point. We cannot let our lives live in a passive way and insofar as persons do good things to us, then we will reciprocate and do good things to them. No, you treat people the way that you want them to treat you. That's the specification by our Lord Jesus.
That is the mandate relative to the golden rule. Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. The ethics of the kingdom are revolutionary. We are to obey Jesus Christ even when everybody else doesn't.
We are to obey Jesus Christ and not turn these rules around to fit into our own perverse way. But rather we are to take them as they are given, pray to God for the grace and the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit so that we may comply. And when we don't comply, when we do sin against God, we need to remember, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I always step into the pulpit when preaching on the law with a certain degree of fear and trepidation, because preachers of the law might be interpreted as men who really are good at keeping the law.
Brethren, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. But nevertheless, we have to deal with these laws and we have to see how they apply in our lives. Do not treat people the way they treat you if it is bad, but rather treat people the way you would like for them to treat you. And you don't have to dance on their grave if that's the case.
You don't have to say, well, I'm always good to you and you're never good to me. No, just do what Jesus calls you to do and be faithful in the application of the golden rule. Now,
The Rule and the Love Command
fourthly, the relation of the rule to the love command. Leviticus 19, 18 tells us, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is repeated in Matthew 5, 43. It's repeated in Matthew 22, 39.
When that man asked, which is the great commandment? Jesus says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. So the golden rule and this love command go hand in hand.
They go together like hand in glove. The golden rule is simply the application of the love command. Whatever you want men to do to you, love you, then you do also to them, love them. This is how Paul quantifies love in Romans chapter 13.
We are supposed to obey God's law with reference to one another. And so this golden rule goes hand in hand with the love command. And then
The Rule as Summary of Law
notice fifthly, what Jesus says, the function of the rule as a summary statement of the law. He says, for this is the law and the prophets. In other words, this is a summary of the gist This is a summary of the orientation. This is a summary of the focus of the Law and the Prophets.
The Law and the Prophets seek to regulate the conduct of God's people so that they function in a manner that is consistent with that love command of Leviticus 19. They don't function based on a quid pro quo, you treat me like garbage, I'm going to treat you like garbage. No, I'm going to seek by grace to treat you with love, to treat you with respect, to treat you with dignity, to treat you with kindness, to treat you with all the things that I would like for you to treat me with. You see, it's not that quid pro quo.
And it doesn't mean that my standard is the standard for righteousness. But it's based on the reality that we know good from wrong. We know what is right conduct and what is wicked conduct. And we want to treat people in a manner that is consistent with their bearing the image of God, which is consistent with them either being in family with us, being in church with us, being in society with us.
We treat them with the dignity that is owing to them based on this particular rule. This is a summary statement of the law and the prophets. And I think by rigorous necessity, If an antinomian, if an antinomian is such, he ought to reject wholesale the golden rule. I don't know that antinomians do that, but the law summarizes, or this rule rather, summarizes the law and the prophets.
A summary statement is only as good and binding as that which it summarizes. So to dispense with the Golden Rule means to dispense with the Law and the Prophets. Or to dispense with the Law and the Prophets means, again, by rigorous logical necessity, that we dispense with the Golden Rule. But nobody has degenerated to that particular framework.
This is a good order for our conduct, and it's something we need by grace to regulate our lives with. I mentioned Romans chapter 13. Paul says there in verses 8 to 10, Oh, no one anything except to love one another. Now, I think this is one of the most ingenious passages in the New Testament in terms of love.
I mean, people love 1 Corinthians chapter 13 because Paul, the poet, writes about how glorious love is. I mean, that is one of those, you know, for the plaques and for your wall and whatever, love is, you know, all the things that Paul describes there in 1 Corinthians 13. But this, what Paul does in Romans 13, 8 to 10, is he quantifies, he objectifies for us what love looks like. In other words, love isn't necessarily just being in the presence of one another.
Love isn't just necessarily dwelling in the same house together, but love is active obedience to God's law with reference to other people. This is Paul's point when he summarizes the Law and the Prophets in Romans 13. He says, Oh no man anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. I think in a generation that's got love defined for them more by Hollywood than they do Bible, this is a great and objective way to look at love. It is an act of love that we demonstrate one to another when we don't steal from each other, when we don't commit adultery with each other's spouses, when we don't murder one another, whether it be physically stopping somebody's heart from beating or by way of reputation. This is concrete.
This is love. This is moving from the abstract to the actual and putting it into practice. This is what the Golden Rule does. Treat people the way you want them to treat you.
Galatians 5.14, If all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." James 2.8. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. Again, these two things are closely conjoined, the golden rule and that love commandment. And then we see that the golden rule is the very summary statement concerning law and prophets.
It doesn't exhaust the law and the prophets. There are things that the law and the prophets address that aren't sort of encapsulated by that rule, but you get Jesus' point. If you want to know how to deal on a daily basis with your fellows, Treat them in the way that you want them to treat you. It's very easy.
It's very quick to memorize. It is very concrete in terms of our relationships with one another. If you know that something irritates somebody, don't do it. You know that something bothers somebody, don't do it.
This is real practical in the family situation. I read recently where there was going to be some challenges to domestic tranquility when persons found themselves isolating together. Persons that aren't used to spending 24-7 together are now asked to spend 24-7 together. And if you are not walking in terms of the golden rule, there's going to be a lot of animosity, perhaps some enmity, and some things that are very unsavory.
We are to treat others as we want them to treat us. So that is an explanation of the rule.
Application of the Golden Rule
Let's look secondly at the application of the rule.
The Decalogue as Standard
I would suggest first the standard with reference to the golden rule is the Decalogue. If this is the law and the prophets, And if, as we've seen, it's connected intimately with the love command in Leviticus chapter 19, well that second table of the law directs us, in terms of our relationships, one with another. So with reference to the fifth commandment, if you are a subordinate, function as a subordinate the way you would want subordinates over you to function. In other words, don't be a hard-nosed, don't be ungodly, don't be unrighteous, don't be unkind, don't exasperate your inferiors.
If you're an inferior, treat others the way you want to be treated as an inferior. That fifth commandment is an expression of our love for one another. The sixth commandment, we ought to protect the lives and the reputations of others because we want them to protect the life and the reputation of us. Remember, we're not treating people the way that they treat us, but rather we are treating people the way that we want them to treat us.
Brethren, if somebody maligns you, if somebody speaks ill against you, if somebody slanders or gossips about you, the right response is not to do likewise. Now, I'm not suggesting we can never defend ourselves. I'm not suggesting we don't try to clarify. I'm not suggesting we don't try to clear our good name.
But we never are called to fight fire with fire. If somebody gossips against us and we gossip against them, we are violating the Golden Rule. We need to treat others, their lives and their reputation in the way that we want them to treat us, with reference to the Seventh Commandment. Brethren, we want people to respect our boundaries.
We ought to respect their boundaries. We want people to respect our marriage. We ought to respect other people's marriages. We are not to intrude ourselves into the marriage of another person.
We are to flee sexual immorality. We are to resist that temptation. We are not to engage in a breach of the seventh commandment. We are to treat others the way that we want them to treat us.
The eighth commandment. We don't harm or damage or destroy other people's property. Why? Because we want them not to harm or damage or destroy our property.
The Golden Rule is a most blessed guide in terms of an application of the Decalogue with reference to the Ninth Commandment. Do you like it when people speak lies about you? Do you like it when people speak, you know, slander or gossip about you? No, you don't.
Of course you don't. So treat people in the manner that you wish to be treated. If somebody lies about you, the way to retaliate is not by lying about them. Again, you can try and clear your good name.
You can furnish the information that perhaps is missing or absent, but you are never given authorization by God to go out and to destroy somebody else with falsity or with falsehoods. And then the 10th commandment, we ought to treat others in our hearts the way that we want them to treat us in their hearts. In other words, we not only show external love and kindness and compassion, but inwardly we're not hoping for their demise. Inwardly we're not hoping that bad things come upon them.
Inwardly, we're for them. Inwardly, we want to see them promoted. Inwardly, we want to see good things obtained for them in their lives. So the Decalogue, the second table of the law, is a great standard with reference to the Golden Rule.
Secondly,
Virtues That Accompany the Rule
there are virtues that are consistent with the Golden Rule, and you can turn to the book of Colossians for just a moment. Colossians chapter 3. There's a number of passages we could go to in Paul's letters, but Colossians 3 is a good one to sort of sample a few things here. So the Decalogue is the overarching standard relative to this golden rule.
Treat others the way we want them to treat us. And that standard of God's law is a great rubric or a great metric to apply to that situation. I don't want people to kill me, so I shouldn't kill others. I don't want people to destroy me with their wicked tongues, so I'm not going to destroy others with my wicked tongues.
I don't want people to violate my marriage covenant, so I'm not going to violate other people's marriage covenants. It's a great rule. But there are certain virtues attached that we ought to seek by grace to inculcate. Notice the necessity to put on.
Verse 12 in Colossians 3. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. Those are the sorts of things that the Golden Rule enjoins upon the people of God. We want to be treated by persons in this way.
If you were to ask, or you were asked, how do you want to be treated by people? Well, I'd like for people to put on tender mercies when they deal with me. I'd like for them to deal in kindness, humility, meekness, and long-suffering toward me. I would really appreciate if persons treated me in that way.
Guess what the Golden Rule says? You need to treat people that way. You need to treat them in the manner that you want them to treat you, and these are some most excellent virtues to inculcate in the life of faith in the way that you deal with one another, whether it be in family, church, or society. Notice what he goes on to say in verse 13.
Bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Brethren, if you want people to forgive you when you transgress against them, and you've asked them to forgive you, then forgive others. This idea that we somehow cherish the harms that persons have inflicted upon us, and we internalize that, and then we treat them like garbage because they ever dared to sin against such a holy one like me, that's wicked. That's terrible.
We are to forgive one another even as God in Christ forgave us. This idea that obtains among some Christians where they say, I will never forgive, I will never relinquish, I will never let go. That does not come from a place of grace. That does not come from a place of redemptive benefit in Jesus Christ.
That is old man ethic. That is bad stuff and you need to root it out. Brethren, if God in Christ has forgiven us the multitude of sins that we have committed, that we do commit, and that we will continue to commit against Him, then we ought to be able to forgive the various infractions that come our way in this lower world. Brethren, that is the reality, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, even if anyone has a complaint against one another.
And then notice thirdly in verse 14, but above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. So the love command, Leviticus 19.18, summarizing the law and the prophets, That command enshrouded in the golden rule, those things so inextricably conjoined is summarized here by Paul. I'm sorry, verse 14, but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And I've already mentioned where the relationships are that we have to deal with in the family.
I mean, brethren, amongst married couples, we need to be about the golden rule. We are not to be exacting a pound of flesh for every infraction that comes our way. I love the way the New International Version in the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, it says that love keeps no record of wrongs. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Is that true of you? Do you have a special folder in your phone? Oh, he or she did this. Or you have a particular list that you're keeping, if not written, mental.
That's not supposed to be the way you function or live. Brethren, you know that's not cool if somebody does that to you. Oh, you're doing that again? The 15th time this month?
What do you mean, you're counting? Well, yes, I count every infraction that you ever do. That would just mow you over, wouldn't it? And yet, when it comes to us, we sometimes treat people in that manner.
Husband and wife relationship, please enact. If you have not, please put into practice the golden rule. That little rule can facilitate happiness, joy, and the bliss of a good marriage in a way that other rules can't. If we treat our spouses the way that we want our spouses to treat us, I suggest that is going to be a blessed marriage.
Again, it isn't the case that, oh, she or he did this to me, so I'm going to bring it back upon them. That should never be, brethren. We love the person we say, I do too. We are devoted to that person.
We want the best for that person. And the best is encapsulated by Jesus in this summary statement concerning the law and the prophets.
The Rule in Church Life
Of course, in church life, look at Ephesians chapter four for just a moment. Ephesians chapter four, Paul has a mission. He wants the people of God to have unity. But the way that he describes the achievement of that, or that pursuit of unity, is very appropriate.
Notice what he says in Ephesians chapter 4 at verse 1. Now notice the ingredients to this worthy walk. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Paul wants the church of Christ to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
In other words, Paul wants churches to be singing off the same page. Paul wants churches to be in agreement with one another. Paul wants churches to be a united whole. He doesn't want click here, click there, click over there.
He doesn't want five churches in one. He wants one blessed unity among the people of God. Well, that endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace doesn't just happen. We are told here to endeavor to keep it.
Right? That is our mission, that is our task, that is our job as church men and women. But the way to do that is with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Brethren, this is indeed an application of the Golden Rule.
We treat men with those particular ingredients in our own wok the way that we want them to treat us. So we have the family, we have the church, and we have society. And
The Rule in Society
brethren, right now there is a unique calling upon us to engage in the golden rule. We ought to comply insofar as we are able with the governing authorities. We may not agree with every jot and tittle of their crisis management, but we are told to be a compliant people in terms of Romans 13, one to four. We ought to avoid people, not like the plague, but so that we don't inflict them with the plague.
I mindlessly the other day was walking out of Costco and this lady was having a bit of trouble pulling her heavy box out of her cart. I offered to pick it up and she basically said, no, no, COVID, COVID to me and repelled me. I hadn't even thought about it. I wasn't thinking I was a carrier and I was going to pollute.
I just thought, hey, I'll pick that thing up for her. Hey, I respect that. If persons don't want to come into contact, we should respect that. We should treat people the way we want them to treat us.
We don't want people to violate those things that we hold to that are near and dear to our hearts, so we shouldn't violate those principles either. We should treat persons with respect. We should treat persons with dignity. We should treat persons with love.
We should realize that there is a great amount of disparity within the church concerning the very convening that we're engaged in now. There are persons who are adamantly opposed to the idea of Christians continuing to meet in the Church of Christ. Brethren, I think if we go down that road, we're giving up something that the Church never has given up before. We are essential.
We are absolutely crucial. We are one of the most absolutely crucial and essential agencies on the face of the earth. And if we relinquish that, then that is not a good thing in my mind. But I do understand there are people that disagree, and I certainly don't want to get into a shouting match with them, I certainly don't want to fight with them, and I certainly don't want to go to the mat with them.
But what I do ask is that people treat one another the way that they want to be treated. That's the golden rule. This is the law and the prophets, and this is what Christ the Lord calls us to in the family, in the church, and in society as a whole. We wouldn't have asked for this particular crisis, but it's upon us, and we have to conduct ourselves as God-fearing men and women.
We have to listen not only to special revelation, but to general revelation. God communicates in the world as well, via natural theology or general revelation of the light of nature. We ought to be in tune with that and we ought to be able to go forward in a manner that does not compromise our commitment first and foremost to Jesus Christ, but as well does not compromise our witness and testimony to others. Nobody's commanded to come.
If there's any hesitation whatsoever, please do not come. I don't have a list in my office, so-and-so didn't show up last time. Oh, you're gonna be, no, there's none of that. There is no overarching sort of scheme to keep an eye on.
No, if you're wanting to be here, as long as we maintain the social distancing, we apply the golden rule as we are called to by Jesus, then God willing, we should be able to continue. But if for various reasons that is something that you choose not to do, there will be no ill reflection whatsoever.
Summary and Gospel Application
In summary, we need to listen to the exhortation of our Lord. Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. This may take us, at a moment's time, thinking, if I do this, is that something I would appreciate having been done to me? If the answer is no, then don't do it.
Would I like it if my wife treated me this way? No. Then I'm not going to treat her that way. Would I like it if my wife treated me this way?
I'm not picking on my wife. I'm just using an analogy. She treats me very well. She's a golden rule adherent and I'm thankful for that.
It's got to be difficult living with me, but nevertheless, if there is something that would cause some sort of discomfort or hurt or hardship to another, let's not do it. Let's imbibe those activities that we want men to do to us. So we need to be exhorted. The emphasis is on the way you treat people, not on the way they treat you.
Secondly, we need to examine our hearts. We need to ask the question, do I really live in this manner? Is my default setting to get defensive? Is my default setting to strike back?
When somebody treats me poorly or treats me like garbage, is my first response to try and cut them down back? If that's the case, as you examine your heart, repentance is a wonderful thing. Confessing sin is a wonderful thing. Trusting in the free mercy of God to forgive and to cleanse us from this sin.
And then I would suggest thirdly, by way of encouragement, there is a gospel and we ought to be thankful. I think at times people mistreat the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount. failing to recognize it as law, they preach it as gospel, and it will ultimately destroy people. If you tell them, this is what it means to be a Christian, go out and comply. Brethren, we know that we don't comply with the law.
This law, this golden rule, this Matthew 7.12 should point us back to the cross. Two men who I think did get the Sermon on the Mount right said this. Machen said, the Sermon on the Mount rightly interpreted then makes a man a seeker after some divine means of salvation by which entrance into the kingdom can be obtained. In other words, when you hear the declaration concerning the law by our Lord Jesus in Matthew 5-7, if you are a normal red-blooded human being, you should not pat yourself on the shoulder for your excellent performance.
If you get through Matthew 5-7 and you are not humbled and you are not convicted, then you have not read Matthew 5-7 in the way that you're supposed to. In fact, Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Does anybody congratulate themselves after reading Matthew 5.48? Yes, I've achieved perfection.
No, for most of us, we hear the Sermon on the Mount. It is law. It reminds us of our gross rebellion against a holy God and our need for the Redeemer. And that's precisely what Machen says.
He says the Sermon on the Mount, like all the rest of the New Testament, really leads a man straight to the foot of the cross. So by all means, be exhorted with reference to the Golden Rule. By all means, examine your heart with reference to the Golden Rule. But be encouraged that there is a Savior who died for even the sin of our abuse of the Golden Rule.
Lloyd-Jones says, there is nothing that so utterly condemns us as the Sermon on the Mount. Now maybe you don't know this in the history of the of Christianity, but the early part of the 20th century, you had a sort of a movement that came from Germany called neo-orthodoxy or liberalism. And one of the things that they emphasized was just love. Just take the Sermon on the Mount and love like Jesus.
I mean, that sounds good in principle, doesn't it? But it neglects some very fundamental teaching of Scripture. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it?
So if you just take the Sermon on the Mount and tell a bunch of sinners, you just go out and love. Just go do what Jesus says. Well, that's what liberals and neo-orthodox theologians were doing. They were emphasizing the love command.
They were stripping away the supernatural from the gospel and basically teaching that person, so long as they imitated Jesus, they would be okay. It's in that context that Machen wrote Christianity and liberalism. And he concluded that liberalism isn't a subset of Christianity, it is an altogether different species. It is nothing akin to Christianity.
This mindset that we just imitate Jesus, no, that's not the mindset. certainly in the life of sanctification, empowered by the Holy Spirit, given the grace of God, all that stuff obtaining we follow Christ. But telling sinners to go out and live the way the Sermon on the Mount calls you to is to preach the destructive law to them in terms of their lives. And this is Lloyd-Jones. Again, he says, there is nothing that so utterly condemns us as the Sermon on the Mount.
There is nothing so utterly impossible, so terrifying and so full of doctrine. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that were it not that I knew of the doctrine of justification by faith only, I would never look at the Sermon on the Mount, because it is a sermon before which we all stand completely naked and altogether without hope. Brethren, that is a primary function of the Sermon on the Mount. It is a pedagogue to show us our need for the Savior, to drive us to the cross, and there find grace, there find help, there find forgiveness, and there find empowerment by our Lord, giving us the Spirit, sending us back to this rule and calling us to comply.
But when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous. Does it surprise any of us with reference to this Machen quote? The last words that man uttered before he died was, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Jesus Christ. There is no hope without it.
I would suggest a hearty amen in response to that dear brother. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for this rule. We thank you for the conciseness of it. We thank you for the reality that it summarizes, the law and the prophets. And God, I pray that you'd help each of us to reflect upon this, help each of us in our homes, help us in our church, help us in society to function in a manner that is consistent with this rule.
I thank you again for the people of God in this local church. My heart's desire and earnest plea to you is that you'd keep us all safe. Keep us safe physically. Keep us safe spiritually.
Cause us all to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.