The Golden Rule

Turn back to Matthew chapter seven, and we're gonna read the 12th verse once again, and this is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, and it's called the Golden Rule. Matthew chapter seven, verse 12. Therefore, all things whatsoever that men should do to you, Do ye even so to them?

For this is the law and the prophets." That's how significant this statement is. This is the law and this is the prophets, what is known as the golden rule. Now, this is how we're called to treat others in every instance and at all times. That's a pretty tall order, isn't it? As you would that men should do to you, do ye even so them to them. Now it begins with a therefore and it could be called a summary statement for the whole sermon on the mouth. Therefore, everything I've said up to this point, 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, when he says, therefore, it could mean the whole Sermon on the Mount, but I know it means what's said in verse 11. If you then being evil.

Know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your heavenly Father, your Father which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him therefore, therefore. Is not the way God has done with you the way you want to do unto others. Now think of how God has done with you in spite of your evil. If you then being evil, that's the fact, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask? Now, is that not the way you desire God to do with you?

In spite of your evil, he gives you good things. Isn't that what you want? In spite of yourself, he gives you good things anyway. He chose you freely as an act of his grace before time began and gave you to his son. And he predestinated that you would be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. That is your inheritance. You will be conformed to his image. He gives you the righteousness of his son. and it becomes your personal righteousness. My personal righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

What a gift. He gives you eternal life. He gives you a new heart that was not there before. His creation. He gives you faith. You know it came from Him. If you have it, you know dead sure it came from Him. He gives you repentance, that change of mind regarding God and the world and yourself and sin and salvation. That's His gift. He gave it to you in spite of you.

He preserves you. He provides all your needs, physical and spiritual. We go on and on with the good things God does for us and he's not doing it so he might gain from it. This is not adding anything to him that he does this for you. He does it simply because of the greatness of his heart. Now, you would that God would do you that way, wouldn't you? That's the way I'm called upon to do others, the golden rule. Now, in 1984, I took a job with a company called Instaprints, the whiz of the printing biz. And I was the manager of a printing shop. It's the job, as far as jobs go, that I really enjoyed the most.

But I remember when they interviewed me, they said, you need to take the Dale Carnegie class. Many of you have heard of the Dale Carnegie class. He's the man who wrote the most famous self-help book of all time, How to Win Friends and Influence People. I bet you've heard of that book. How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Now, it was supposedly loosely based on the Golden Rule. Treat people the way you want to be treated. And this stuff's good. Listen, this would benefit all of us if, by the grace of God, we would practice this. Don't criticize people. Don't judge people. Don't feel like, make them feel like they're under your judging and critical eye. Don't complain. Show honest and sincere appreciation of those people. Make them feel appreciated. Show respect. Don't be disrespectful to anybody. Be genuinely interested in them.

Begin by remembering their name. I've been around people before who I could tell that they just read the Dale Carnegie book because of how often they say my name, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd. I'm thinking, I know what you've been doing. But what name are people most interested in? Their own.

So begin by remembering people's names. Make them feel important and do so sincerely to where it's not and act, smile, be a good listener. Avoid arguments. Admit it when you're wrong. Try to understand their viewpoint. There are other viewpoints. Try to understand their viewpoint. Ask questions rather than give orders. Make them think what you're wanting them to do was their idea. Well, everything I just said is good. By the way, I didn't take the class. Maybe I should have. But that is not the golden rule. Now, why do I say that?

The very title of the book is manipulative. How to win friends and influence people. How to affect them and get them to do what you want them to do. how to manipulate them. And we've all been around people where you feel like what they say is something they just read in a self-help book and trying to figure out how to deal with you to get what they want. And all that is is manipulation, trying to get you to feel some way so they can get what they want from you. The main motive behind that is manipulation. How to win friends. and influence people, supposedly based on the golden rule, but in reality, not at all based upon the golden rule.

And you know, just about every religion has their form of this rule. You read the Quran, you read the Hindu writings, Jewish, Confucius, and it's all presented in the negative. In every other one of these, do not treat others the way you do not want to be treated. All in the negative, but Christ puts it in the positive. Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

And then he makes this amazing statement. After he makes this statement, he says, for this is the law and the prophets. Now that's the significance of this statement. This statement, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is the Lord's comment upon this statement. He said, this is the law and this is the prophets. Would you turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 22? Just a few pages over. Verse 35. Well, let's begin in verse 34.

But when the Pharisees had heard that he'd put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him. Now, his motive was not because he wanted true information from the Lord. He was tempting him. He was trying to catch him in his words in some way. looking for a way to pounce on him, something not said right, tempting him.

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is likened to it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now that's the same thing as loving whatever you have your neighbor treat you, that's the way you treat them, that's the precise same thing. And he says the same thing about this in verse 40, of these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets.

Question, who is the only man to ever do this? Is that hard to answer? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one who ever loved God with all of his mind, all of his soul, and all of his strength. He's the only one to love his neighbor as himself. If you think you've done it, stand up and we'll recognize you. But hopefully we all have some understanding that we have not kept this commandment even one time. He is the only one to do it.

And something that I can't get away from is if these two commandments are the great commandment, to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself, this is the greatest commandment. On these hang all the law and all the prophets. That tells me that right now, present tense, always has been that way, I'm continually breaking the greatest commandment. non-stop. Would that be you? We've utterly failed and if these two commandments are the great commandments, it humbles me to think that I'm in a continual state of breaking the greatest commandments.

Your parents use this to tell their and teach their children how to treat others. But this goes way beyond that. And I want us to remember, the Bible never tells someone how to treat me. It only tells me how to treat them. The Bible doesn't tell other people what to do. It tells me what to do. I hope that that is emblazoned in our hearts. and does not treat others the way they treat you, tit for tat. You treat me bad, I'll treat you bad.

No, this is a command from Christ himself, and it is with regard to every situation. This is carte blanche over everything. I don't care what the case is. Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, Do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets.

Now why do I have to do this? I realize I failed and I realize that I'm called upon to do this in every instance, in every relationship, under every circumstance. I'm called on to do this. Why am I to do this? To win friends and influence people? To get my way? To manipulate you to get you to do what I want you to do?

No, you may treat somebody the way that you should, treat them the way you would want to be treated, and you're none the better for it. They stay just as bad, and you're not able to manipulate them, and you're not able to turn them your way, and you're not able to get them to do what you want to do.

Well, why continue to do it? Because Christ commands it. Any other reason needed? Because Christ commands it and to not do so is disobedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've said already, if you're like me, you're painfully aware that you've not kept this commandment and you really want to. Paul said, When I would do good, evil is present with me, and I'm longing to get rid of that evil. But I want to do this, don't you? I want to treat you the way I want to be treated.

Now, this is a good time to remember also, without me, the Lord said, you can do nothing. I love that statement. He didn't say, without me, you can almost do hardly anything. He said, without me, you can do nothing. And it is to be our goal, objective and purpose in every circumstance by His grace, Him enabling me to do this. I want to treat you the way I want to be treated without reference to how you treat me.

Now that is always the right thing to do. Now what is your ideal world? How would you like to be treated? Make your ideal world a reality for your neighbor. Not to try to make things better for yourself, but because Christ said to do it, and we don't have to wonder about, do I need to respond this way every time? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. Under no circumstances should I ever not respond like this.

And the Lord Jesus embodied all of this. And this is what I want us to go to and spend the rest of our time considering. Turn with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. Everybody that didn't love him, everything they said was trying to tempt him, twist his words, get him to say something where they could say, aha, I've caught you.

He tempted him, saying, master, what shall I do? to inherit eternal life. Now here we have the religion of the natural man, mixing works and grace. You inherit something, not because you've earned it, but because of who you are. It was given to you. It's not something you earned, but this man confuses that, as every lost man does. What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Let me remind you, the gospel message is not due. It's done. It's finished. My salvation has already been completed. I'm complete in Christ. I lack nothing, nothing for me to do. It's done. Does that come as good news to your soul? It's finished. He said, I finished the work thou gavest me to do.

Verse 26, and he said unto him, and I love the way the Lord will meet you at the place you come to it. And he meets this man right where he came to him. He said, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God. with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.

And I feel sure he probably knew that was the right answer. He was probably feeling pretty good about himself. I gave the same answer the Lord gave. He can't find any fault with this. This is spot on. And I love what the Lord said next. He said unto him, verse 28, thou hast answered right, and he did. this do and thou shalt live. He came to him on the ground of what shall I do? Well, if you want to come on that ground, do this and you'll live. Love God with all your heart. That means sinless. Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind and you love your neighbors yourself. You do unto them as you would have done unto you the same thing.

Verse 29, but he willing to justify himself. How often is that my response? I want to justify myself. That's every natural man's response. I want to justify myself. I want to look good. I want to be right. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? And the Lord answered, and here we have the golden rule.

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead." Now, what a picture. A bunch of thieves beat him up, rip off his clothes. He's unconscious, naked, laying there, half dead. And I used to wonder about the Lord using this know, I shouldn't have, but I, you know, what's half dead mean? Well, he was half dead. He was half alive. He was physically alive, but he's spiritually dead. So he was half dead. He was spiritually dead, but he was physically alive. But that is such a portrait of us.

Naked, wounded, Unconscious, can't even ask for help. There he lays there, beat to death by these thieves, and it was a perilous journey to go from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a long way, it was all downhill, and there were robbers waiting everywhere, waiting for somebody to come, and you were taking a chance if you made this journey. And he was beat almost to death, unable to ask for help.

Verse 31, and by chance. Does the Bible teach chance? Well, you know it doesn't. This is just the language of this passage of Scripture. We would say it on certain ways. We know everything is ordered by God and ordained by God, but sometimes this language is used and the Lord uses it. Don't make somebody an offender for a word. If they use this word, I hope they understand what they're saying. And by chance, there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw it, he passed by on the other side. He looked at him, and he went over to the other side of the road and continued his journey.

He could see everything that was wrong with him. He could tell you, this guy's been beat up. This black guy's been robbed. This guy, he's in bad shape. He could see everything about this guy, but this represents the law. He couldn't do anything for him. He could see him, and the law can see me in you, but it can't do anything for us. Only expose sin. Verse 32, and likewise a Levite. another representative of the law. When he was at that place, he came and looked, but that's all he could do. And he passed by on the other side, but a certain Samaritan. Now this is of great significance. The Lord picked out the person that he knew the Pharisees and the Sadducees hated. That's who he selected for this example. Do you remember when the Lord asked the woman at the well in Samaria for a drink? And she said to him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan, a woman from Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans. And they wouldn't. They wouldn't speak to them. They wouldn't touch them. They would do anything to not go through Samaria.

That's why I love that. Passage where the Lord says that he must need to go through Samaria. No good Jew would go through Samaria to stay away from those moral reprobates, those Samaritans. They hated him. And yet the Lord picks out this individual, a certain Samaritan.

As he journeyed, he didn't just look. He came where He was. Now, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me. And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you. He didn't come to you where you ought to be. He came to you where you were. Now false religion will always have, he'll come, if you come to the right place, if you do this, he'll come to you. If you do that, he'll come to you. All these things, hoops you need to jump through for him to come to you. But the good Samaritan, the Lord Jesus Christ, And that's who this represents, Christ himself. Yes, it's a good lesson for us to learn, but this is Christ himself.

He's the one who came to me where I was in my deadness, in my sin, in my evil, in my helplessness, in my inability, in my depravity, in my dead, in trespasses and sins. He came to me where I was. Religion never does that, but he did. And what did he do?

Verse 33, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. Oh, the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love it when that leper said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He hadn't had a human touch in who knows how long, years and years and years. And the scripture says, and Jesus moved with compassion, reached forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will.

Be thou clean. Now this speaks of the completeness of his salvation. So you see, he wasn't doing this in order to manipulate this man. He wasn't doing this to get brownie points. He was doing this because of the compassion of his great heart. This man couldn't add anything to him, but he was doing this out of the compassion of his great heart.

That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look how complete this salvation is. Verse 34, and he went to him. The priest didn't, the Levite didn't, the law didn't, but he did. And he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an end and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave him to the host and said unto him, take care of him. And whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again, I will repay thee. I'm taking care of it all. It's all on me. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?

The Lord Jesus Christ. the good Samaritan. And he said to him, he that showeth mercy on him, then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. As you would have him do to you, so do ye to him. Now let's go back to Matthew chapter seven and closing. Therefore, since your father gives you good things in spite of what you are, of you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, and your father gives good gifts to you. Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even to them, for this is the law, and this is the prophets.

Now I want to close with the word therefore. So then, as I said at the beginning, this could be the conclusion to the whole Sermon on the Mount, but we know the therefore is directly dependent upon what the previous verses said. Let's read them again. Verse 9.

Of what man is there of you? Whom if his son asked bread, would it give him a stone? Nobody there would do that. If your son was hungry and he said, would you give me a piece of bread? You'd hand him a rock, eat that. Of course not. Of course not. Or if he asked for a fish, would it give him a serpent? Can you imagine that? Him dropping a serpent in his son's hand, eat that. No, you'd never do that. You'd never dream of doing that. If you then, Being evil. And that's spoken of in the present tense. He didn't say you used to be evil. He said if you then being evil.

Now I know that I am justified before God right now because of what Christ did for me. I stand before God having never sinned. I stand before God's holy law perfect. Never broke a commandment. I have done unto others what I would have them do to me. I kept the law. I'm justified.

I know I was given a holy nature in regeneration, a new heart, a new heart that loves God, a new heart that hates sin. And I also know what the Lord is saying when he says, if you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. I know how to give good gifts to my children. And I know I'm evil. I know I have the same evil nature I was born with. Now I have a new nature. I've got a holy nature. I've been born of God. I've got a nature that doesn't sin, but I still have that same old nature I was born with.

I know what Paul meant when he said, when I would do good, evil is present with me, yet I have a heavenly father, and I love the way he says this. How much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Now, the Lord, in spite of us, gives us good things. Amen? Good things. He gave us himself. He gave us His righteousness. He gave us His grace.

Everything you have, He gave you. What do you have that you didn't receive? Who makes you to differ from another? Everything you have, on whatever level it is, He gave you. And He does it in spite of you. Not in payment to you, in spite of you. And not only that, He has nothing to gain from this. He is not added to by doing this for you. He's altogether glorious, sufficient in Himself. The absolute, independent, glorious being, the only independent being. This isn't benefiting Him. Who's it benefiting? You. Out of His own great and glorious heart. How much more will he give good things to them that ask him?

Now that word, ask, it's also translated, beg. Now that, let me be clear with this word, beg. That doesn't mean if you beg hard enough, he'll give it to you. That has nothing to do with what that means. Oh, if I just beg enough and I beg earnestly enough and beg sincerely enough, that's thinking you'll be heard for your much speaking. You beg because you know you don't have anything to pay. It's gotta be given to you. And you beg, you call for, you crave, you desire, you require the good things of the gospel, you require all spiritual blessings. And he freely gives, not for his gain, but simply because of his great heart.

Now, as much by His grace as I can, I want to be like Him. I want to treat you the way I want you to treat me. And I don't want to do it to manipulate you in order to get you to react the way I want you to react. I want to do it because Christ said to do it. And it's the thing to do. May God stamp this. in our hearts and cause it to be in front of us with regard to every way we treat everybody under every circumstance at all times. Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Amen. Let's pray.

Lord, how we thank you for the Lord Jesus that came to us where we were. For Lord, if he didn't come to us where we were, we could never be saved. And he bound us with the oil and wine of his grace, washed us in his precious blood. and took care of everything, he paid it all. And Lord, we give thanks. And Lord, as we see what you do for us, in spite of us, and not in order to what you can get out of us, Lord, enable us to follow our master's example by your grace. Lord, put this in our hearts, deliver us from thinking any other way at all times. Bless this message for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. Let's close with hymn number 125. We'll sing Jesus Paid It All. Hymn number 125.

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The Golden Rule

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