"All things you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them." That is the Savior’s Golden Rule of life. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone woke up in the morning resolved to live that Golden Rule. It would be worth a try, wouldn't it? That is the subject of our study today. Stay tuned.
Greetings to you, my friend, and welcome to our Bible study program, In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian in this world-- and to live in anticipation of the world to come. Yes, the Bible says much about a world to come! We are so glad you have chosen our program. And we pray we will both be blessed by our study of the Bible together. I not only want to take the time to remind you that we are closed captioned for those who have a hearing problem, we also have a free audio tape ministry for the blind. If you are such a one or know of someone who needs these, you might want to take advantage of them.
The Bible records a number of sermons that Jesus preached during His earthly ministry. Foremost of them is what is commonly called His Sermon on the Mount. Oh, it might have other names, such as The Proclamation of the King or maybe The Constitution of the Kingdom or The Sermon on True Righteousness or well it has been called The Sermon on the Plain, but by whatever name it is called, it is acknowledged by scholars to be the greatest speech in world literature. Of course, we who believe that Jesus was the Son of God believe it is because of its rich spiritual content. But, many unbelievers esteem it highly because of its style and its arrangement and so on, as well as its moral code that it pronounces.
Well, that section of it that we are considering today is some of the very best in it. It is called The Golden Rule. If you would like a free CD or printed copy, or audio cassette tape of it, just address your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@aol.com. Please give our staff some time now to fill your order. If you prefer, you may use our toll-free telephone number and make your request that way. And that number is 1-800-321-8633. You might want to see the program again-- or hear it-- or read it at www. searchtv.org. Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing, and then I will be back.
We are reading from Matthew chapter 7, beginning at verse 7 and we will read through verse l2. “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.” Now let us go to God in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful to You for sending Jesus into this world to be our Savior, our Redeemer, and the mediator that we have through whom we can come and approach You in prayer. Father, we are thankful for all of the blessings of salvation, of righteousness, of light and goodness that He brought. But, we are thankful, too, today, especially for His marvelous teaching. He shows us the best way to live that man has ever known and we are thankful to You. In His name we pray, Amen.
In the early part of His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had taught the nature and the blessedness of being His disciple. He had described the beauty of such a life, and when He came to that part that is recorded in the seventh chapter He was coming to the conclusion and as all good sermons do, He was calling for action on the part of His audience. They are not to be hearers only. His teaching isn't merely to be admired; it is also to be applied. Among the things He is asking people to do is to maintain a right relationship with their fellowman. "Relationships," well that is a word that we are hearing a lot about nowadays. Some have said that in this verse He reaches the very heights of His teaching. "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
Skeptics and critics of Jesus sometimes try to diminish from its beauty by saying that the thought was not original with the Lord; but He borrowed it from some other people. It is true that Socrates, some centuries before had made a similar statement. He said, "What stirs your anger when done to you by others; that do not to others." Also, Aristotle, Greek philosopher of the fourth century BC had said, "We should bear ourselves toward others as we would desire they should bear themselves toward us." And Confucius, the Chinese sage of about five hundred years before Christ had said, "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." And the prominent rabbi, Hillel, who was the father of Gamaliel, at whose feet Saul of Tarsus had studied in Jerusalem, had said something somewhat like what Jesus said: "What is hateful to yourself," he said, "do to no other."
But a careful look at Jesus' rule reveals its superiority of his statement over the others. He isn't saying, as did the others, that we should refrain from doing the evil, the bad, to other people that we wouldn't want them to do to us. But, more positively and comprehensively Jesus said, "Whatever you want men to do to you, do you also to them..."
Now, let me illustrate the difference. Several years ago I went to Long Island, New York to preach a gospel meeting at the opening of a new church building there. I stayed in the home of the preacher and his wife and two children. They told me that prior to the meeting, on a Sunday morning, their house had caught fire while they were away at Bible school and worship. The lady next door, who had been a good neighbor to them from the time they had moved there, discovered it and shouted to her husband, “Call the fire department.” He refused to do it, and he even forbad her to make the call because, he said, it was none of their business.
Now, mind you, the man hadn't set fire to the house. He wouldn't do anything to prevent it from burning to the ground either. It isn't that he wouldn't do to his neighbors what he wouldn't want his neighbors to do to them. But, neither would he do the good to them that he would have had them do to him, had the situation been turned around. So he lived by the rule of the others that we mentioned. But he refused to follow Jesus' Golden Rule of life.
Some years ago on a Monday morning at about 6:30, I boarded an airplane in Los Angeles where I had been on a preaching mission, and was returning home. I always requested an aisle seat when it is possible and was assigned one on this flight. This particular aircraft was one of those wide-bodied planes with two seats on each side and four or five or six or maybe more in the center section. When I found my row, there was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties in the window seat. I spoke to him, "Good morning," but I didn’t draw a response. I thought, "Well, O.K. maybe he has had a sad experience just before departure and he doesn't feel like talking to anyone right now." So I started to put my attache under the seat in front of me and sit down, but he had his foot over there. I asked him to please move his foot, but he ignored me. I said something to the effect, "Sir, I believe you have paid for that seat and I have paid for this one; would you please move your foot so I may sit down in this one?" He said, "You have a problem, don't you?" Well, I sat down and held my briefcase on my lap until the flight attendant came along. And just before she came to us, she was trying to close all the overhead baggage compartments, but one wouldn't close because someone's bag was just plainly too big for it. She asked repeatedly whose bag it was and no one responded. She was about to remove it when this surly fellow claimed it, and very rudely commanded her to leave it alone. So, they had a problem. The plane couldn't be moved until the baggage compartment was closed. I then asked to be moved to another seat and was politely accommodated. I didn't have my preferred aisle seat but I sat by a really nice gentleman in the broad section of the aircraft, and we had an enjoyable visit all the flight. But, why do people behave so obnoxiously? What do you think about it? Well, it is this kind of person who feels that life hasn't dealt him a good hand maybe, when in reality, he is doing it to himself. He is miserable and he is trying to make life miserable for everyone else. Oh, there are lots of people like that in the world. I am really sorry for them, and I know the Lord loves them, so He gave them a better way to live than that.
One of the most striking things about the teachings of Christ is their practicality. I mean, His teaching will work. Matthew says that when Jesus had finished this sermon, the people were astonished (another version says amazed) at His teaching, because He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Matthew 7:28-29) who really had nothing to say to them at all. Ya know, there is a vast difference between the fellow over here who is so full of a good message, he simply must say something, and the person over here who just as to say something. Well, people still marvel at our Savior's teachings when they see them and clearly have the faith to put them to practice.
It was never our Lord's purpose to be intellectual or oratorical, but to teach people the very basics of life, living life to the very fullest. In this He has no equal. Bible knowledge is of no value unless it is used in the development of a better kind of character-- unless it produces a better life. Our Lord's teachings do that, my friend. They really do. They really work. He said, "If you know these things, blessed (or happy) are you if you do them" (John 13:17). Oh, how true He was on that.
Could we suppose for a moment? What if everyone in the world got up in the morning resolved to practice this Golden Rule all day long with everybody they met-- just to do and to do for everybody, what we would all like everybody to do to and for us. Ah, a lot of husbands and wives would be reconciled and marriages would be saved by breakfast time. A lot of abused children would get a new lease on life. Neighbors, who haven't spoken for years, would be visiting over the back fence. Think what would happen if employers treated their employees as they would like to be treated if the tables were turned around and they were the employee. And, what if the employees performed on the job as they would like their employees to do, if they were the employers. We wouldn't need labor unions. Living costs would be cheaper because there would be no hidden costs like shoplifting, just as a matter of example. Taxes would be less because we wouldn't need police cars cruising our neighborhoods, prisons to house criminals. We wouldn't need a military force if everybody woke up in the morning resolved to live by the Golden Rule. There would be no more murders, no adultery, no thievery, no lying about one another, no envying and character assassination, no prejudices, religious or racial or otherwise.
You see that is why the Lord added that last thought to His rule saying, "for this is the Law and the Prophets." He is saying this is the law of love that fulfills all that is required of the law and the prophets.
Is there anything impractical about what He said? No. No, not at all. It is highly improbable that the whole world of six-and-a-half billion people will wake up that way in the morning, but you and I can and we can change our world today by practicing it. I saw a sign somewhere that said, "A better life begins with me." Oh my! That is so true, isn’t it? Jesus said, "Whatever you want men to do to you, do you also to them." If in all our relationships we would put ourselves in the other person's place, and act accordingly, what a difference it would make. It would eliminate selfishness and pride and injustice. It would destroy avarice and treachery and unkindness. It would do away with jealousy and backbiting and quarrelling. It would dispel all deceit and dishonesty. It would abolish all cheating and chicanery.
Then, why don't we do it? I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who once said, "Christ's way has not been found wanting and not tried. It has been tried and found difficult." Indeed it is difficult unless it is God-centered. It isn't a matter of mere positive thinking. We should treat each other, people like we like to be treated and we recognize the way they would like to be treated and their offspring. They are the offspring of God, too (Acts 17:28). We want to treat them right because we want to treat their Heavenly Father right.
I would like to think every one who is hearing me now is a Christian, and living a Christian life. But, I know from my mail that that isn't the way it is. If you haven't accepted the Lord and His way of life, why don't you just do that today by obeying Him in baptism? He said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16). Some people have a problem with believing that. They are probably skeptical about the Golden Rule, too. They probably have a problem with some of the other things that Jesus taught, too. We might even look on baptism as a "test run." If a person can surrender himself to do the Lord's bidding in baptism, the probabilities are great that he will be able to do it with the Golden Rule, too, and whatever else Jesus teaches us. It is by the grace of God that any of us can be saved, but the person who refuses to obey anything that the Lord commands is in no condition to receive the grace of God. We are here to help-- just to help show people the Lord's way to get the very most out of living. Let us pray. Thank You, God, for the excellent way of Jesus that You have revealed to us in your Bible. Thank You! Thank You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
My friend, God speaks to us today through the Bible. Regardless of what you may be being told or what you have been taught always, He speaks to us no other way. And in Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 to 15 He says, "You have been called to liberty; only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!" And what we know as verse 26 of the same chapter He continues, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another; envying one another." There is that oft-quoted passage in Romans chapter 12, verses 9 and 10 and 17, too: "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another. Repay no man evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men." Well, there is more that could be said and probably should be said. We will have to get back to this subject again soon.
Please remember now, due to the unusually large and good response to the messages that we did in June about churches of Christ, and why we don't just sell our property and move down the street and worship with some other group, our producer thinks it would be wise if we rebroadcast those messages in August. So, if you had to miss one or more of them in June, I hope you can be with us every week in August.
We are glad you were with us today, and we sincerely pray you will be blessed by our study. Our program is brought to you by your neighbors and friends, your merchants, your customers maybe, your school teacher or maybe the parents of your students, all of whom are members of churches of Christ in the viewing area of this station-- because we love you and we want to share the Lord's way with you and with people everywhere.
For a free CD or audio cassette tape or a printed copy of today's program, please address your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. You may view it again, or hear it again or read it again on our website (www.searchtv.org). If you prefer, you may use our toll-free telephone number (1-800-321-8633) and give us a call. If the lines are all busy when you call, call again please later. You won't need to send money and we won't be asking you for money. And, as much as we would like to send someone by your home to study with you, we won't do it unless you ask us to invite them. Nor will we share your address with anybody. We are not here to exploit you in anyway-- financially or in any other way. Join us again next week, will you? We will be studying one of the subjects that will be greatly important to you. We love you now. God bless you. |