Righteousness and Responsibility

It is once again an honor to stand before you presenting the Word of God. This is a great privilege and responsibility that has been entrusted to me by the Lord and this church.

Today, we are going to talk about responsibility. I would guess that most of us are familiar with the concept. We all have different responsibilities that we are in charge of in this life. There may be a particular task that you are responsible for getting done at work. You may be responsible for taking care of your yard or your home. I recently became responsible for the life of another human through the birth of my son. We all have responsibilities that we are called to take care of.

When you think about it, responsibilities are just aspects of, what’s one of my favorite words, stewardship. We are going to talk about stewardship a lot tonight as we walk through that section of the Baptist Faith and Message, so I wont linger here too long. But Stewardship, at its core, is taking care of or managing something that has been entrusted to you. When we talk about stewardship most of the time people think about how we are stewarding our money, that is how we are spending, saving, investing, and giving. That is a part of stewardship, but it really expands to every facet of our lives. When we understand that we were created by God, we understand that the life He has given us is a gift. Last week we said, “the ultimate point of anything in this life is to give God the glory.” So if God has given us life, which He has, and the ultimate point of anything in it is to give Him glory, then we are called to steward this gift, manage our lives, with the intention of maximizing the glory given to God.

We do that by living out Colossians 3:17 which says, “In whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

That is a very big statement. “In whatever you do.” That is because each of us are going to have different things asked of us, different responsibilities that we are going to have to manage in such a way that gives God the glory. It would be impossible for me to stand here and give everyone listening this morning the exact way to live out your specific life, job, familial situation, and responsibilities for the glory of God.

However, this morning, as we continue to walk through the Greatest Sermon Ever Given, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the King of kings is going to show us two responsibilities that everyone has. Understanding the proper stewardship of these two responsibilities will have drastic implications on everything else you do in your life.

So, with that in mind, would you please turn to Matthew chapter 7, today we are going to look at verses 12-14. As stated earlier, this comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the mount in which He is teaching His disciples and a large crowd gathers around. He is teaching about what true righteousness is. Jesus is indirectly denouncing the religious elites of the day for the hypocrisy of their beliefs. They Had the appearance of being righteous, that means it looked like they had it all together, but on the inside they had no real love for God. They were much more worried about serving themselves than serving God. So over the last few weeks we have seen how Jesus denounced the self-righteous, hypocritical judgment that would come from Pharisees. He tells His followers to use discernment when discussing what is Holy so that the name of the Lord will not be profaned. And last week, we saw how Jesus explains the good gifts God the Father gives to His children. Then we come to where we are going to begin this morning. Read with me verse 12.

Matthew 7:12 ESV

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

The first responsibility that Jesus is pointing out in this sermon is to

Treat others as you would want to be treated.

We all have the responsibility to treat others in ways by which we would wish to be treated. This is known as the golden rule and I would venture to say that most of us are familiar with this in some way.

At first glance, you may not think that this is a very revolutionary statement. We’ve all heard the golden rule. In fact, the golden rule, in some form, is found in many cultures, even predating Jesus’ use of it here in this sermon. Just about every religion or philosophy has a version of the Golden Rule. Here are a few:

The Philosopher Isocrates said, “Do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you.”

Hindus say: “One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self.”

Buddhists say: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Confuscists say: What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."

Zoroastrians say: Do not do unto others whatever is injurious to yourself.

Wiccan teach that the Mother Goddess says: “I command thee thus, O children of the Earth, that that which ye deem harmful unto thyself, the very same shall ye be forbidden from doing unto another.”

Even the Jewish religious leader Hillel, who predated Jesus, taught: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.”

So then, if this thought has been shared by so many different religions and philosophies spanning across time and region in human existence, what makes it such a big deal when Jesus gives the golden rule?

Before we get to the qualitative difference in Jesus’ command, I think it is important to note that the existence of this rule in so many cultures is actually an apologetic, that is a defense, for the existence of the One True God professed in Scripture. Way back in Genesis, we are told that the mankind was made in the image of God, in Latin, the imago dei. What being made in the image of God really means is that humans are moral creatures who are accountable to God. We have the ability to understand moral implications. It is written into the very nature of humanity and our morals are reflective of being created in the image of a Just and righteous God. Though we are fallen and often fall so short of the glory of God, humans understand moral standards at a basic level. The fact that so many religions, religions that deny the One True God of Scripture, come to a similar teaching in regards to the golden rule does not mean that Christ is copying this idea, but rather that being made in the image of God, fallen creatures still understand the basic principle of not harming others in ways that they would not like to harmed themselves.

But there are qualitative differences to the teaching that Jesus gives in the Sermon on the mount and the general revelation spread by other religions and philosophies.

One pastor likened it to harpsichord. The Harpsichord was arguably the most important musical of the 16th century. When the keys of the harpsichord are pressed a corresponding string is plucked. In that way it’s similar to a guitar that would be mechanically plucked. “But the tone made in that way is not pure, and the mechanism is relatively slow and limiting. Sometime during the last quarter of the 18th century, during Beethoven’s lifetime, an unknown musician modified the harpsichord so that the keys activated hammers that struck, rather than plucked, the strings. With that minor change, a major improvement was made that would henceforth radically enhance the entire musical world, giving grandeur and breadth never before known.”

In a similar way, that is what Jesus has done to the general revelation of the golden rule. He has made the general, special and breathed life into this moral philosophy. Let’s take note of what Jesus has taught here versus what I shared from those other religions.

First, remember that all of the other examples I shared are written in the negative. That is, “do not do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” Jesus says “whatever you wish others would do to you, do to them.” The change from a negative command to a positive makes a world of difference to what is being said.

“Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you” teaches an apathetic civility. Sure, by following such a rule you would not be a negative force in someone else’s life, but it most definitely would not be a calling to be any force for good. The focus is on the self! “The motivation is basically selfish—refraining from harming others in order that they will not harm us.”

Instead, Jesus teaches selfless love. Do unto others not how you expect them to treat you but by how you would want or wish for them to treat you. Even if there actions have shown they wouldn’t reciprocate such a treatment, Jesus says to treat others as you would wish to be treated.

Sinful man could only make it do not harm, Jesus says do good unto others.

On that line of thought there is another qualitative difference in Jesus’ Golden Rule to that of other religions. Is comes from that one little word in the beginning of the verse, “so.” In most other translations you’ll see the word, “Therefore”. If you’ve studied Scripture before you may have heard the old saying, “Whenever you see a therefore, stop and ask what’s it there for?”

This therefore ties Jesus’ thought to what He was talking about just before this, the verses we looked at last week. In those verses you will see Jesus explaining that God the Father knows how to give His children very good gifts. He is not deceitful to His children. He gives the good and beneficial gifts when His children ask of Him. So Jesus is saying here in verse 12. “SO/THEREFORE, because God gives good gifts to His children when they ask, In response to the grace and blessings you receive from Him, treat others well. Go out of your way to treat them how you would wish to be treated, how God the Father treats you!”

I’ve heard it said many times that Christians ought to be the most generous people on the planet. Why? 1. Because they’ve received a bigger gift than anyone could ever comprehend. And 2. Because they know they are storing treasures in heaven not the here and now.

When we understand that God the Father is so good to us, we are enabled to do good to others.

Before we move on to the next two verses, I want to point out one more qualitative difference to Jesus' Golden Rule.

Jesus says

Matthew 7:12 ESV

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

“For this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Why is this important? First of all, because it ties Jesus’ command to the whole of God’s revealed Word. He is saying that what we call the Old Testament points us to the concept of doing to others as we would have them to do us.

This is not the only time that Jesus references the Law and the Prophets in reference to commands.

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

From this we can see the connection Jesus is making in both teachings and we learn the real key to being able to love other and do good toward them. The key is to first love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind! That is why it is the greatest commandment. Everything else flows from loving God first. You love others better when you love the Lord first. Then from that understanding you are able to love your neighbor as yourself and do to them as you wish they would do to you. Because God loves you and gives good gifts to His children, because you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind you are able to love others and treat them well.

Jesus teaches that everything flows from being reconciled with God. You see the Golden Rule is a great moral teaching. But what we have to understand is that our morals, that is the good things we do or do not do, our morals do not save us. Allow me to say this succinctly:

The Golden Rule is not the gospel. Even if you were able to, by your own power, treat everyone else how you would like to be treated with 100% accuracy exactly as ambivalently as you would like to be treated yourself, that would still not provide salvation. That is because, as we will see in just a moment, there is but one path to salvation and perfect moral behavior is not that path.

Look at the next two verses from our section of the Sermon on the mount this morning:

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

In verse 12 we saw that Jesus gives the responsibility to treat others as we would be treated from the understanding of how gracious God has been to us. In verses 13 and 14 Jesus shows us the second responsibility everyone has:

To choose a gate.

Every person in existence has the responsibility to choose a gate.

Jesus explains two gates here. There is no ambiguity or middle ground. There are just two options. There is the gate that is narrow and the gate that is wide. The wide gate leads to destruction and the narrow gate leads to life. Many find the wide the gate. Few find the narrow. Everyone has the responsibility of entering through one of the gates.

It is at this point in Jesus’ sermon where things get decidedly divisory. There are many people who have a great deal of respect for Jesus, believing Him to be a good teacher, but not the Son of God. They will often point to the Sermon on the Mount as a great piece of teaching full of moral value for anyone to employ and enjoy a better life now.

One atheist wrote, “...I have come to have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Jesus. My respect for Jesus is not based on the Cross, but rather on the Mount--not on His death and supposed resurrection, but on His teachings as exemplified by the Sermon on the Mount.”

There are many that claim Jesus to be a great teacher, and He was. They claim He taught good morals, and He did. But Jesus points to something much bigger than moralIstic living. Here in verse 13 and 14, Jesus pushes beyond ethics and into the eternal.

He is saying that this message means more than just a way to have better relationships with others, this is quite literally and eternally, a life and death situation. Everyone must choose a gate. One is wide and easy to find. The other is narrow and few make it there. The first leads to destruction while the latter leads to life!

This is a wake up call to everyone hearing the sound of Jesus’ voice. In all intents and purposes, this is an invitation. Jesus is saying choose now between the one and the many, the one being right and the many being wrong!

“In perfect harmony with His absolute sovereignty, God has always allowed men to choose Him or not, and He has pleaded to decide for Him or face the consequences of a choice against Him.”

And everyone must choose. What is the choice between? It is between faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of your life or faith in anything else, which is faith in flesh. What do I mean by that? I say that faith in anything other than Jesus is faith in flesh because if your faith is in anything other than Jesus for your hope, peace, comfort, strength or anything else, your faith is in something man made rather than God-breathed. If your faith is in your self, that is quite literally faith in your own flesh. That looks like your peace and comfort coming from your own ability to provide for yourself. Maybe your ultimate faith is in a spouse, a boy friend or a girlfriend. That’s faith in another's flesh to sustain you. Maybe your faith, your comfort and peace, comes from material things, those are products produced by other men, produced by the flesh. Maybe your faith is in another god, a god that is not the God made known in Scripture. That could look like having faith in Zeus and Poseidon, or maybe Allah, or Confuscious, Bhuddism, or whatever. These are creations of man and thus fleshly.

Isaiah 43:10 ESV

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

God says He is the only God. There are no other acceptable objects of faith than Him. Everything else we place our faith, hope, and trust in are idols we create in our rejection of the One True God.

Isaiah 44:9 ESV

All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.

If your faith is in anything other than the God of the Bible, there will be no eternal profit. There will only be shame on the day of Judgment.

It really all boils down to faith in God or faith in flesh. It is the egotism of man that makes the creation of idols more appealing than faith in the One True God. Even the original sin in the garden of Eden was based upon Adam and Eve’s drive for self-sufficiency and a lack of reliance and faith in their Creator.

Faith in anything other than the triune God of the Father, Spirit, and Son revealed in His Holy Word, is faith in a fleshly creation at the inspiration of Satan.

That’s a pretty drastic statement. You might say, “Brad. You’re telling me the you are right and every other religion in this world of 7 billion plus people is wrong. That’s so close minded of you. That’s so presumptuous.” And I’d respond, “No, I’m not telling you that. God’s Word is. You don’t have to believe me but quite literally for the love of God, believe His Word!

Return with me to verses 13 and 14 as we break this down further:

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Look at the importance of that first word, “enter.”

Enter! Entering involves stepping through. To enter something is not to just stand there admiring it and then turn around and go the other way! When my wife and I went to England we spent the last bit of our time there in London. We walked quite a ways throughout the city. At one point we found ourselves in green park. It was beautiful to see the greenery amidst the bustling city. As we made our way through the park we eventually found ourselves at what is called the Canada Gate. Let me tell you, this is a beautiful gate. Iron and Gold. A magnificent site to see. We stood there for sometime inspecting the gate.

SHOW PICTURE OF CASSIDY AT THE GATE

It really was an amazing site to see. But had we just admired the gate and turned around, we would’ve missed out! Directly on the other side of the gate from Green Park is Buckingham Palace! And when we got there coincidentally it was the time for the changing of the guard. Had we never gone through the gate we never would’ve seen what it was ultimately pointing towards.

Here’s why I bring this up. Too many people admire the person and teaching of Jesus Christ without actually placing their faith in Him as their Savior. Jesus says enter the gate. This goes beyond just appreciating its beauty. It is the desire to go beyond appreciation and go to where the gate leads you.

Then there in verse 13 Jesus says the gate is narrow. This is not a broad gate.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:9 ESV

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Acts 4:12 ESV

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

1 Timothy 2:5 ESV

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Jesus is the only way. The narrow gate does not have multiple lanes. It leads to a one way road which is Jesus Christ. Some commentators suggest that the narrow gate should be thought of like a turnstile. It is too narrow to go through with anyone else. You have to go through it on your own. As Jesus said in John 10:9 If any ONE enters by me HE will be saved. You’re heritage and your upbringing will not drag you through the gate. It is up to the individual.

The narrowness of the gate means also that we are unable to take our baggage with it. We come through the gate bare and reliant on the Lord. Jesus says

Matthew 18:3 ESV

and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

A child is utterly dependent upon their provider for life. So to are the children of God. We are utterly dependent on Him. Not our things, not our works, not our selfrighteousness. We are dependent upon the God of grace and the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. “Salvation is the exchange of all that we are for all that He is.”

Few find such a gate.

Many find and truly seek the wide gate. This is the gate of self righteousness and self indulgence. Most would rather stay in their false beliefs than truly rely on the Triune God.

But know this, the same Jesus who said the wide gate leads to destruction and the narrow leads to life, also said:

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The wide gate and all the false belief systems in this world are of the devil. He is the thief that steals and kills and destroys. But thank God that Jesus came to give life abundant.

Jesus truly is the only person who can say and ultimately mean, “It’s My way or the highway.”

It’s the narrow way to life through grace by faith in Jesus Christ, or its literally a life lived on the highway to hell. Jesus leaves no middle ground. He says that those who find the narrow way, the path of salvation, are few.

I have to be honest and bare this morning. Salvation is not for those who want an easy escape from condemnation while being able to continue living in selfish sin. We will address that more in the coming weeks, but as we conclude this morning, we need to realize that God’s way of salvation is very simple, so simple that a child can understand it, but it is not EASY. Few actually find it. This is the way of Salvation:

Romans 10:13 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

But calling on the name of the Lord means that you do not just admire Jesus for what He did, but that you step through the Gate and understand Him as LORD. You willfully live in obedience to Him not because that will earn your salvation, but because you see that He is honored and glorified when we obey Him. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, everyone who realizes they are not Lord, but Christ is and respond with repentant faith will be saved.

Do that today. Come forward during this hymn of response. Submit to Jesus as the Lord He is. Enter the gate. Come now. Let’s pray.