Okay, Matthew chapter 7 verse
12, if you'll turn there with me. The golden rule, this is the
golden rule. Therefore, all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Now, the word therefore tells
us that what has been stated up to this point, this is the
conclusion of the matter. Therefore, because all these
other things have been said, therefore. Now, as believers,
we would have men to do to us what is right. That's what we
would have men to do to us, what is right. And therefore all things
that are right are what we are to do to them. Now throughout
the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord has clearly, plainly set
forth to us that which is right. Now, these are the things, the
very things that we desire others to do to us. Back in Matthew
5, he said, agree with your adversary quickly. We reconcile to him
quickly. That's something we would have
others do to us. When someone has wronged us,
truly wronged us, it's my desire and yours, if we're honest, that
they would be quick to be reconciled with us and to come to us and
be reconciled. Even so, we ought to do the same
to others. He said in Matthew 5 to turn away from that fleshly,
lustful eye or hand that would have you to gender towards that
which is causes division and putting away. We would have others
to do that to us, to turn from that fleshly way, that lustful
way of the flesh and do that to us. So we do that to others. We would have men to be true
to their word. He said don't forswear yourself. We would have men to be honest
with us so that when they said yes, we knew they meant yes.
When they said no, we knew they meant no and they didn't have
to go around swearing and having to be held to everything, they
said, we would desire that from others. Even so, let us do that
to others, to them. He said, don't demand an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We would have others to turn
the other cheek toward us rather than dealing with us in justice,
in what we deserve, an eye for an eye. We would have others
turn the other cheek. We would have them to go beyond
what we asked them to do. As he said, if somebody asks
for a cloak or sues you for your cloak, give them something else.
We would have others to do that to us. So let's do that to others. We would have those who consider
us an enemy to deal with us in love. And so, he says, do as
to others as you would have them do to you. He said, speaking
of almsgiving and prayer and seasons of mourning and fasting
from our sin and our flesh and this world, he said, don't do
those things to be seen of men. We would have others not to flaunt
these things for us, to do these things for us to see them, to
draw attention to themselves. Let's don't do it to them. He
says, set your affection on things
above, not on things on this earth, so that you can cheerfully,
willingly provide for your brethren in need. We would have others
to do that for us if we're found to be the one in need. We would
have others to cheerfully, willingly provide for us, because they
know their treasure is in heaven. They know God will provide for
them. And they seek His kingdom, His righteousness, His brethren,
the welfare of the church. And so we would have others to
deal with us that way, so we deal with others that way. So
you see, throughout the whole sermon, He's taught us that which
is right. And he tells us plainly. Now,
in chapter 7, he started here and he gives us two things that
is most vital. And I think it's the key to doing
unto others as you'd have them do unto you. It's the key to
the law and the prophets. He says, judge not. Put off that
old man, that self-righteous, condemning, harsh, judging man. And put on the new man that you
might know how to restore your brethren, how to speak peaceably
to them that are without, or to them that are cast down. And he says, and to ask God,
your heavenly Father, Ask Him for wisdom for how we should
do this to others. Ask Him for wisdom to be gracious
to us, to help us to speak truth and correct a brother with the
gospel and with the truth of Christ. And also to ask God to
raise him up, to raise him. We would have others do that
to us, wouldn't we? And I say that these things strike
me as the key because And all of these things that we've heard
our Lord say is right. If you're like me, you've gone
through this series with me, and every time we begin to look
at these things, the first thought in my mind is how far I've come
short of doing these things. And so, in all these things,
my chief desire My chief desire for others to do to me is to
not deal with me harshly, to not deal with me in strict judgment,
to not deal with me in that condemning spirit, but to deal with me mercifully,
with a forgiving spirit, with a loving spirit, with a long-suffering
spirit, in grace and mercy, and to ask God how to deal with me,
to ask God for wisdom to instruct me, to help me, to teach me,
to ask God to raise me up from my fallen state. That's what
I really would have others to do to me. And so he says to us, Therefore,
all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them. For this is the law in the prophets.
Is this not the law in the prophets? To deal in forgiveness and mercy
and grace and love and to depend solely upon God the Father to
raise up and to restore and to give knowledge and understanding. Is that not the fulfillment of
the law and the prophets? In our text here, Matthew puts
this word of judge not together with ask God. And if you read
the commentaries, some of them are going to say, now these things
don't go together. These are just bits and pieces
put in here from various sermons and what have you. If you go
back and carefully read Luke 6, Luke takes some of the things
that Matthew records early on in this Sermon on the Mount and
puts them all together right here with this very word of judge
not and asking God and dealing with men as our Master has dealt
with us. Of the heart speaking that which
comes from a heart of grace and not from that condemning heart.
He puts these all together. I want to show you a few scriptures
in the Old Testament where the Lord puts these things together,
this oppression and asking God. Let me show you this. Isaiah
115. Isaiah 115. This was the problem in Isaiah's
day. This is the problem with all
sinners by nature. We don't have this heart by nature. And this is the problem. We've
got a religious heart, but we don't have this heart. Watch.
Isaiah 115. He said, And when you spread
forth your hands, they were praying to Him, going through the motions
of praying to Him. He says, I will hide mine eyes
from you. Yea, when you make many prayers,
I will not hear. Why not? because your hands are
full of blood. They weren't necessarily literally
murderers, but they were murdering men in their hearts. He says,
wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes, and cease to do evil. He's talking about
religious dealings with men, as well as their dealings with
men outside of the temple. Learn to do well, seek judgment,
true judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Relieve
the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. That is,
plead the fatherless case. Plead for the widow. You're going
to see this theme of fatherless and widow over and over through
scripture. And our Lord refers to those.
This is the most utterly helpless individuals there are. It's an
orphan and a widow. A true widow, according to the
law, was somebody that had nobody to provide for them. They didn't
have sons or daughters, cousins, uncles, aunts, anybody. They
had nobody. And a true orphan was somebody
that had nobody. That's who a sinner is without
Christ. And that's what our Lord is teaching
us throughout is this is how the whole message, brethren,
is about how Sinners are saved by God's grace, how they're brought
to see Christ and trust Him and behold Him, and to have the Heavenly
Father, to be brought into the bride of Christ, to the church,
to be one with Christ and His people. Look over at Isaiah 58
verse 6. See this thing of prayer and
this thing of... this thing of... of casting ourselves on God for
wisdom, for strength, for understanding, for grace, to hold forth Christ,
the Word of Life, to declare the truth to brethren, to sinners,
and depending on God to affect the results. This is what we're
dealing with. This is what we've been dealing
with throughout. This is the law and the prophets. Don't you
try to fulfill the law. Don't you try to affect obedience. Cast yourself on God in prayer
to do it and hold forth him who has fulfilled it. You see, the
Pharisees, in the beginning, He said, any man that doesn't
do the least of these commandments and teaches other men to break
them, he won't enter into the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees,
who appeared to be doing all these things, forced others to
do these things. And in forcing others to do these
things, they themselves broke the spirit of the law. And they
taught others to break it too. Because how the others were constrained
to obey is how they would teach others to obey. By constraint,
by yoke, by oppression. That's breaking the law. The
law is spirit. That is, it's love and long-suffering
and gentleness and kindness. It's fulfilled in a believer
through the Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. It's the fruit of
the Spirit. And it's the Spirit, the Law
Spirit. That is, you can go to the letter
of the Law and do everything completely to the letter that
the Law states. But if you don't have this love
of God in your heart, that only God can give, and that deals
in longsuffering and gentleness, that is made one with God, a
reflection of the image of God and His character, we've broken
the whole law. We've not fulfilled it. Watch
now, Isaiah 58, 6. Is not this the fast that I've
chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke? Look down at verse 9. Then shalt
thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and He
shall say, Here I am, if thou take away from the midst of thee
the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. Now look at one last scripture,
Zechariah 7, 9. I just want to drive this home
to you that this is not a new problem in the Lord's day. It's
not a new problem in Paul's day or in our day. This has been
the problem all along. Zechariah 7 verse 9. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions
every man to his brother, and oppress not the widow, nor the
fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you
imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused
to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears
that they should not hear. Look down at verse 13. Therefore
it has come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear,
so they cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts."
You see, without this spirit, without this constraining love
of God in our hearts, there's no fellowship with God, there's
no union with God. There may be a form of godliness.
But the power of God is missing. It's never been experienced and
it's never depended upon, therefore, to work in a fellow brother. Instead, it's yoking, putting
forth of the finger, oppression. And you don't want others to
do that to you because you've experienced grace. You know something
about grace. You want others to deal with
you graciously. And those who have been dealt towards graciously
by God want to deal with others the same way God's dealt with
us. Now, our text back there says that this is the Law and
the Prophets. That's what the Lord said. You
remember at the very beginning of this Sermon on the Mount.
He said, I came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. He said,
there will not be one jot or tittle passed before all is fulfilled. I came to fulfill the Law and
the Prophets. He tells us to be reconciled
to our adversary quickly lest he deliver us to the judge and
we have to pay the uttermost farthing. Christ Jesus wittingly
took the offense that we are before God and delivered himself
wittingly to the judge and he in his own body paid the uttermost
farthing for us. That's our constraint. That's
what causes us to want to be reconciled because we see what
Christ has done for us. He tells us it's better that
one offender be cut off than that the whole body perish. And
he's that one who was willingly cut off out of the land of the
living to save the body of his elect. He tells us to let our
yes be yes and our no, no. He's the covenant God gave to
His people. He is the covenant. You listen
to scholars all about the covenant. Christ is the covenant. He's
the testator. He's the testament. He's the
mediator of the covenant. And He Himself is the covenant.
He is the yea and amen. He is the sure word. Where He
is is where His people shall be because of what He accomplished.
He says, rather than an eye for an eye, deal as your heavenly
Father has dealt with you. How did He deal with you? We
deserved an eye for an eye, we deserved a tooth for a tooth,
but He came to where we are and He gave His back to the smiters.
He gave His face to them that plucked off the hairs of His
beard. And He did this, brethren, reconciling us to God that He
might deal with us in free grace. He says, deal with your enemies
as God dealt with you. We were enemies in our minds.
We hated God. We couldn't stand God. We didn't
want to have anything to do with God. And when as yet we were
enemies, He laid down His life for us. He tells us to make ourselves
of no reputation in doing what is right, right deeds, righteousness,
in providing alms, in making intercession for brethren, in
fasting from this world and this flesh and mourning our sin. He
said, don't make a big show of it. This one who was equal with
God, came to this earth and did only that which is right and
made no show of it, made himself of no reputation. If the Pharisees
did what the Pharisees did, standing to be seen of men when they were
nothing, Christ had every right to make himself of reputation.
He is righteousness and yet he made himself of no reputation.
His treasure was his father, and so he became poor that he
might make us rich. He sought the kingdom of God.
He sought God's righteousness. He's the manifestation, the declaration
of the righteousness of God, how God can be just and justify
hell-deserving sinners. And even now, in all our failings,
in all our shortcomings, when we get puffed up in self-righteousness,
when we don't turn to Him in prayer as we ought, He still
faithfully deals with us tenderly and graciously and turns us to
Him. and brings us to his feet to
ask him for mercy. He still deals with us that way.
And so when he tells us not to condemn, but to ask God, it's
the very heart of the golden rule. It's the very heart. He
says this is the law in the prophets. This is what I've been teaching
you. This is the sum of everything I've been teaching you. Lay down
your life Lay down your wisdom, lay down your means, lay down
your worldly constraints and those things that you think will
affect obedience, lay all that down. And deny yourself in declaring
who Christ is rather than trying to soft pedal Christ to people
and not declare who Christ is. That's not denying ourselves
when we won't declare who Christ is boldly in the face of the
enemy. Declare boldly who Christ is.
Declare to every sinner who Christ is, what He's done, where He
is now, what He's doing now, what He soon shall do. Declare
Him. He's the only cure for care.
He's the only one that's fulfilled this law. He's the only one that's
going to present men spotless and holy and without blame before
God and love. He's the only one who can come
into the heart of a sinner and create this obedience effectively
in the heart. He's the only one that can do
it. And the whole of the Law and the Prophets is by turning
to Him and asking Him to do this for sinners and doing the one
thing He's given us to do, hold forth the Word of Life. We are
doing unto others as we would have others do unto us. Isn't
that what you... I love my pastors who have taught
me and who have showed me Christ, who are the very instruments
God has used for the reason I'm standing right here where I am.
And you know why I love them? You know what Paul said? Highly
esteem them for the gospel's sake. For the gospel they preach. That's why. Talk bad about one
of them, you might as well be slapping my son, my own child.
They're my flesh and blood. They're my brothers and sisters. But that's why you love them.
That's because of what they did for you, what they'd have you
do for them. That's what grace does. That's
the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. It's not exalting
ourselves, condemning, guilting folks. It's being gracious, dealing
with men graciously. Now I want to show you one more
thing in Galatians. One more thing in Galatians.
Galatians 5. Now go home today, as soon as
you can, and read Luke 6. Read Luke 6, and I'll tell you
what scriptures specifically. Let me turn over here and see
it. While you're turning to Galatians
5. Read Luke 6. Luke 6, 27 through the end of
the chapter. Luke 6, 27 through the end of
the chapter. You see how Luke puts all the
things our Lord's been saying in His Sermon on the Mount? They're
all right together. Alright, Galatians 5. Now our
Lord had said, this is the law and the prophets. He said, don't
judge, don't condemn, don't try to force folks to do this. Cast
yourself on God. Put off that old man, that old
fleshly desire, and I'm telling you brethren, I'm more and more
convinced that that saying of the, don't give the holy things
to dogs, don't cast your pearls before swine, he's talking, that's
a proverbial saying. I come from the south in the
country, you got sayings like, chickens always come home to
roost. If I tell you, you ran wild all your life and you showed
your kid by example how to do it, now your son's grown up and
he's doing it. Chickens always come home to roost. You know
what I'm talking about, don't you? It hits it home for you.
It's a proverbial saying. He said, judge not. Don't be
lifted up in self-righteous pride. There's a worse offense in you
when you do that. And he says, now let me drive
this home for you. Don't give the holy things to that dog and
that swine or that old car of flesh. Don't do it. Put the old
man off. Seek God. Ask God. Put on the
new man. Now watch this. It almost seems
like Paul is preaching from the exact text. Listen. Galatians 5.13. For brethren,
you've been called unto liberty. only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another." They were trying
to, being told that you got to be circumcised, and they were
being forced to do it, and they were trying to force others to
do it. And he said, all the law is fulfilled in one word, even
this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Do unto others as
you'd have them do unto you. But if you bite and devour one
another, if you give the holy things to that dog, that swine
of your own flesh, put off that old man. Take heed that you be
not consumed one of another. What happens if I stand up here
and I start using these holy things, these precious pearls,
to try to make you do something and condemn you and rebel against
you? You might not say it out loud. You might not do it here,
but you'll walk out of here saying, damn him for saying that to me.
He's no better than I am. He don't have any right saying
that to me. You condemn me with the same condemnation that I
condemned you. We bite and devour one another. That's the swine
in the flesh. That's carnal religion. Now I
know our Lord, you've heard the common interpretation that you
don't throw those pearls to folk when folks make it clear, as
the Lord said, that they hate the gospel. They hate God. They
don't want to have anything to do with it. Leave them alone.
He means that. But read Luke 6. Listen to what Paul says here.
This I say then, this is what our Lord's getting at. Walk in
the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of that flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so that you
cannot do the things that you would." Look down at verse 22.
But the fruit of the Spirit. Here's the law. Here's the law
of that Spirit. This is the law written on the
heart of the believer. It's love. Joy. peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such there is no law. This is the law of liberty. This
is the rule of liberty. There's no law against this.
Now look at Galatians 6.1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ." What law is that? It's what we
just looked at. Love, gentleness, long-suffering. It's the law
in the prophets. Do unto others as you'd have
them do unto you. But look at verse 3, what if
we deal harshly with others instead of asking God? What if we look
to ourselves instead of Christ our wisdom? What if we take matters
into our own hands and try to make somebody? If a man thinks
himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. But let every man prove his own
work. In other words, What did the
Lord say? First cast out the beam out of
your own eye. How do you do that? Ask God. Go to God and ask Him to make
Christ your wisdom. Ask Him to take away that fleshly
old self-righteous man and to give you grace and to give you
wisdom and to give you knowledge and understanding to speak a
word of grace and season. Then shall you have rejoicing
in yourself alone rather than going around trying to make somebody
else do something and say, now look what I made him do. Rejoicing
in what you made some else do. And this is how James put the
same, he said the same thing. He said, if any man among you
seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth
his own heart, this man's religion's vain. He's talking about the
same thing, same exact thing. But he said, pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father is this. Here we go back
to that Fatherless and those witless. Visit them in their
affliction. Visit them. And to keep yourself
unspotted from the world. Isn't that what we would have
others to do to us? Watch this now. He said, visit them in their
affliction. Those helpless, the most utterly
helpless poor sinners there are, visit them in grace and love
and gentleness and kindness and mercy, just as Christ came to
you in that situation. And keep yourself unspotted from
the world. Now look back at our text, Matthew
7. Our Lord gives us these two things.
James is, he's preaching what the Lord said. Matthew 7, 12.
Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do
to you, do you even so to them, for this is the law of the prophets.
When you're poor and you're fatherless and you're a widow, you're the
poorest sinner there is because of your sin and your rebellion
and what you are in your flesh, you desire for somebody to come
to you with words of grace, words of comfort. He said that's pure
religion. And he said, keep yourself unspotted
from the world. Look at the next word our Lord
said. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is that gate. Brawl is the way that leadeth
to destruction and many there be which go in there. That's
the spot of the world. It's wide. There's a lot of folks
going that way. Keep yourself unspotted from
that. Because straight is the gate
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few be there that
find it. Go to Christ. Ask God to make
Christ our wisdom. give us grace and understanding
to know how to speak a word in season and out of season. I read
somebody this week, I can't remember who it was, said there's only
two times you ought to speak Christ to folks. That's in season
and out of season. That's what our Lord's teaching
us. This is the law in the prophets. Not to take the law into your
hand. Trust Christ who fulfilled it.
And not to take the law into your hands to make others obedient.
Trust Christ who made you obedient. Ask him to do for you what he
did for others and hold forth Christ and declare what he's
done. And he says, and I'll call out my people. I'll make them
obedient. This is the law in the prophets.
This is doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.
It's grace and love. Grace and love. Alright.