All right, we have a lot to cover tonight so let’s dig in. Turn your Bibles to Matthew 7:12-14.
Tonight we are going to look over what will be the summary passage for what we will cover for at least a couple of weeks.
Really it’s a summary of a summary, you see, from verse 13-27, Jesus is closing the Sermon down.
And he’s going to sum up all that He had to say and He does it in three distinct ways. And we’re going to look at each selectively, because the first is a general warning and then the other two are specific to particular groups and there’s a lot that we can learn from each of those.
Tonight we’re just going to hit the passage found in Matthew 7: 13-14. But before we get there let’s cover verse 12.
This passage is very well known and this verse, what many people call the Golden Rule, is not unique to the Christian faith. A bible scholar named Dr. Richard J. Krejcir, from Into Thy Word Ministries made a list of some of the world religions that have similar teachings, here are a few:
So this is practical. This is a text that is simply common sense. Even if you are not a Christian, you can probably get on board with the golden rule, let’s read it from the Bible one more time because there’s a key difference that we need to see and we’ll cover it because it takes us into the main teaching tonight.
In other words, Jesus teaches, if you or I are doing things to other people that we don’t want done to our self, then we are obviously not following the Law as God laid it out for us.
One New Testament Writer, taught us that, “if anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
Here’s the key. If we read this the way we read all the other versions of the Golden Rule, then we may be tempted into a form of sin.
You might ask, “How would it be sin? Jesus tells us — commands us — to do to others what we would have them do to us.”
Am I saying that following the Golden Rule is a sin?
NO WAY.
Listen, I might second-guess any other teacher or preacher, but I’m no dummy. I agree completely with my Lord.
Here’s how we might drift into sin. If we read this out of context, if we read it out of the context of the Sermon on the Mount and really if we read it out of the context of the Scriptures as a whole, then we run the risk of turning this into another avenue of self-righteousness and self-justification.
We can look to the command to do onto others, as we would have them do to us and say, “Awesome! I’m doing that!”
We can say, look how I treat my wife, look how I treat my boss or my employees, look how I buy lunch for the homeless neighbor, look how I, look how I, look how I…
When, instead the Gospel at it’s root is the news of, “Look how Jesus treated me. Look how HE loved me.” That’s what saves us folks.
It brings us back to the old hymn, Rock of Ages that says:
Nothing in my hands I bring. Only to the cross I cling.
And then later:
Not the labor of my hands,
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
…
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save and Thou alone.
Anytime we try to take the glory back to ourselves, any time we try to get the credit, anytime we don’t recognize God as the one who saves us; and anytime we drift into thinking that it is what WE DO that saves us. Then we have placed our eyes on our works instead of our Lord’s work.
And friends, that leads us down a bad path. Should we do onto others as we would have them do to us? YES. Again, Jesus COMMANDS it. But it has to come from the right heart. That’s what He’s been telling us throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Do what I’ve told you out of love for God and gratitude for what He has already done for you.
Remember, if the law and the prophets could have saved us, if we could have made it to Heaven by being good enough, Jesus never would have needed to die on that cross.
In Romans, Paul teaches us that the Law was not given to us in order to save us, it was given to show us our need for a savior. The Law gives us a glimpse of God’s design for our lives and anyone who reads it honestly, knows right away that they fall short of His design. That’s sin.
Even looking at the Golden Rule can be sobering if you are honest. Jesus teaches us to do on to others what we would have them do to us. Again, how far do you have to think back before you see where you’ve violated that command? A month? A week? Maybe for you it hasn’t even been two hours.
But the golden rule sums up the Law and the Prophets. So if you have broken the golden rule EVEN ONCE, that means you have sinned. And you’re not alone. I have too — we all have.
Let’s take a trip down the Roman Road. It’s an old time evangalism tool, that shows us who we are, what we deserve and what we are given instead of what we deserve by God through Jesus. Turn with me in your Bible to Romans 3:23 {unpack}, Now turn with me to Romans 6:23 (pg. 840) {unpack}, Now back to Romans 5:8 (pg. 839) {unpack}, And finally we get to the question, how do I take hold of that gift?
Let me tell you. First off, the gift takes hold of you before you can ever take hold of it.
We believe that salvation comes through faith alone in Christ alone. And we believe that the only way that our spirit could have faith in Jesus is by the grace filled gift of God to allow us to believe (Ephesians 2).
With that said, turn to Romans 10:9-13 (pg. 843) {unpack}.
Jesus said it with a lot less words than Paul in the Beatitudes, in the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
He teaches that we must understand our Spiritual poverty, we must mourn our sins and KNOW, Believe, trust in the FACT that we will be comforted. Then we simply focus our hunger and thirst (our worship) on righteousness — The righteousness of our Savior and we will be filled!
You see friends; Jesus and the New Testament writers keep pointing us back to God. Over and over, Scriptures reminded us (Old and New Testaments) that we fall short and NEED His mercy and grace.
Further, even if you’ve never read the Bible this rings true to your heart. Doesn’t it? Is there anyone here who thinks they’ve kept the law perfectly? Has anyone been perfect — PERFECT — with the Golden Rule?
No. So don’t look to your own abilities to save you. Don’t try to EARN your way into Heaven. Don’t think that you’d be doing God a favor by joining His team.
Now listen, let’s get back to the golden rule. With a clear understanding that God loved YOU so much that He sent His Son to die in YOUR place, what do you do? What do we do with that? We can’t pay Him back. What do we do?
A pastor spelled it out like this. Imagine you’ve got a checking account with overdraft protection. And things were tight and you overdrew your account. Anyone ever do that? What happens, that bank adds a fee to the account. And then, if you’ve messed up as bad as I have before, you don’t find out that you overdrew the account until three or four other checks go through. And the bank just keeps adding fees and your account just gets more and more deep into the negative balance.
So imagine a person comes along and pays all the fees and gets you back to zero. That would be great, right? Except, you still don’t have any money and the next time you need to write a check, you’ll be in the hole again.
Now imagine the same person not only paid the fees and got you back to 0, imagine he also added so much money that you could never deplete the account ever again.
That’s an imperfect illustration, but imagine God’s grace and forgiveness like that. He did enough to cover all the sins you have ever committed. He did it. When Jesus does it, it stays done.
And there will be times when you lose sight of the Gospel and drift back into sin. Some of you may be there tonight. We know from God’s word that you can’t escape God’s forgiveness and Grace if you are His (Philippians 1:6; John 10:27-29; Romans 8:31-39).
So we look at the Golden rule, we look at the Ten Commandments, we look to Jesus’ commands to Love God and Love others as we do ourselves and we see them as ways in which to show our love and appreciation to Him for what He has done, Not as a way to earn His favor, Amen?
But remember, if there is no remorse, no mourning and no repentance when you do sin; if you have no desire to love God or love others, if you have no desire to follow God’s plan, if you have no desire to obey as an out flowing of love and gratitude, then I would ask if you are really saved.
Let’s move on:
Matthew 7: 13-14
Before I really studied the Sermon on the Mount, I always used to look at this as a warning against living in all out rebellion — a warning against being a heathen or a pagan. I am in no way discounting that, but with all that we’ve seen in up to this point in the Sermon on the Mount, this has to be at least as concerned with the unbelievers who think they are going to Heaven because of what THEY do.
Let’s break it down:
First Jesus commands: 13 enter through the narrow gate…
Again this is a command. It is a command for us, not a suggestion. But what is the narrow gate.
He is the narrow gate. The narrow gate isn’t a what, it is a who. And the WHO is JESUS.
The gateway to Heaven is marked by the Cross of Christ. It’s not a gate in which, everyone will be saved as long as they are sincere about believing something, it has to be Christ in whom we put our trust.
In Acts 4:12, we read, “…there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one gets to the Father except through me ... "
In John 10:9, He said that He is the door and that anyone who enters by Him “Will be Saved.”
First Timothy 2:5 tells us, "... there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus."
Now I know that the world wants to call us intolerant, or too exclusive with our faith, but we are only able to teach what we find in the Scriptures. Jesus is clear. He is the gate.
And so, what is the wide gate? The wide gate is anything else but Christ. Here’s the thing, we’re ALL going to go through one gate or the other. We are all going to destruction, or to life with God.
If you refuse the gospel outright and say, “Yes I know you think these things are sin, but I don’t believe what you believe and so your rules don’t apply to me.”
If that is where you are, then you are on the broad path and that leads to Hell. And I don’t say that to be unkind, or hurtful. I don’t say it out of intolerance. I say it out of a deep love for you. Because, it would be the most unloving thing that we could do to not warn you.
If a bus is coming at you when we are crossing the street together and you aren’t moving out of the way, then I am going to force you to see the danger and push you to safety.
I honestly wouldn’t care if you were mad at me, at least you would have been saved from the bus.
Listen, we absolutely believe in eternal punishment for unforgiven sinners. And it is way worse than getting hit by a bus.
And you might ask, do you really believe in a literal Hell with fire and brimstone? And Honestly, I’d have to lift an answer from another pastor I heard who said no, I think it’s probably a lot worse than just fire and brimstone.
And that’s why we don’t teach anything but Christ as the avenue for our redemption and yours.
We believe that you absolutely need to go through Jesus to get to Heaven. It is His command to us. He does not wish for any of us to perish.
But, remember, how He ends this passage:
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Which gate are you going through? Tonight can be your chance to go to Christ; to believe that He has done the work and then to put all of your trust, all of your hope all of your dependence on Him.
Which gate will you enter through?
We’re going to move through more of this next week.
Come back and bring a friend who has not found the right gate yet.
Let’s pray…
