Fall on the Mount
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· 3 viewsThe gate that is narrow and the gate that is large. What is the better option? Who is on the other side of what gate?
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The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule
Timothy Allen
Life Point Church Guest Speaker
Washington, PA
October 30, 2022
Subject: Golden Rule
Text: Matthew 7:12-14 “12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 “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. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Who I am
Thank you ya’ll for giving me the opportunity to speak to you about God and teach what it means to really walk with Christ. Thank you to Pastor Aaron and Mrs. Heather for allowing to be involved in this amazing church. I am a man who has ran from God most of his life, not from him in the sense of being with him but from his calling. When I was 17 I was saved and have walked with Christ every day in my heart, I have fought in wars with Christ by my side, been in law enforcement with Jesus on my side, I have always had him, and always tried to keep his word close to me so that I may not break my covenant with him.
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and
Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”
B. I am a Sinner
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I am righteous because guess what “I’m NOT”, I am a sinner, I am the reason they crucified Christ I am the reason Jesus died. Once we get these points across we must look further into the meaning of the word, we have to study it, live it, breath it, and let it control our lives. With all of these negatives there has to be a positive to what is being said, there has to be a reason, right? Well there is Jesus is the reason, Jesus tells us how to live, and that is in the Gospel of Matthew.
C. Why the Gospel of Matthew
It is one of the powerful Gospels that the church used more than any other early on Hence St. Matthew the Evangelist. With the greatness of the Book and the simplicity behind the structure of it gives heed to the notion that this is the reason for the church to be so loving of it. Matthew is brilliant in the formation as it catches the attention of the reader with Chapter 5 and even the previous chapters 1-4 as they directly relate to the Old Testament and the prophecy of Isaiah. This gives credence to the facts written, the truth told, and the love for man that God has. Without this book the church would have had a hard time fulfilling
Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
D. Scripture
Matthew 7:12-14 “12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 “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. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
E. Why this Scripture
The Golden Rule! I am sure that we have heard the Golden Rule a few times in our lives, we know that we must treat others how we would like to be treated, it often gets miss quoted and the second part gets left out. Not many know it comes from the Bible they have just heard it before and repeat it.
II. DESCRIPTION
A. Golden Rule
The Golden Rule is often placed on the lips of those that don’t even know the Bible or that it comes from that. Many believe this is a social norms imposed by basic human understanding and rights throughout the years. Yes, but it does have it origins to which it became mainstream, through scripture, and teaching during the years. This rule is the embodiment of
Matthew 22:37-40 “37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
You shall love your neighbor as yourself! Should you scheme against yourself for profit, personal gain, and monetary gain, because if you do then you should prepare for them to do the same to you. If we truly love God and chose to walk with Jesus then we must truly live as he has instructed. Do nothing to hurt anyone, love everyone, even your enemy as Jesus has instructed:
Matthew 5:44 “44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
This is important many will hate us and many will loath our existence because we choose to follow Christ and choose to love them. The hate is not of theirs but that of the evil that dwells in them, all people are inherently evil before the acceptance of Christ, our flesh is soaked with evil, our heart is only pure after we are born again and the hardened heart is removed and replaced by God with a heart of Flesh.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
B. Application of the Golden rule
Matthew 7:12 “12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Many miss the point on this and say it forgetting the context behind the words and scripture. Meaning they say: “do to others as they have done to you”. We’ve all been guilty of this, I did it for years in the military! Do we have any military Vets at Life Point? Well, the Army had a saying “There is only one thief and everyone else is just trying to get their stuff back.”
Every time I had a CIF item go missing this was the phrase told to me by the leadership, they were insinuated that I need to go take someone else’s stuff “steal” so that I could clear CIF (Central Issue Facility). Thank God I was saved before I joined and knew from conviction this was not the appropriate response, when I left the military I had a $1,500 bill to pay and I did the right thing by paying it. The items were stole from me for the use of someone else, instead of doing what someone did to me I chose to do the right thing and pay the money owed to the military. A little piece of me hoped that I would set the balance right with the world but we all know that’s not the case and items still go missing everyday in the military.
For this is the Law and the Prophets! This phrase that Jesus says at the end of Matthew 7:12 is instrumental to understanding the scripture. Jesus was brilliant in that he always referred to the Old Testament in order to gain a strong reassurance that he fulfilled over 300 prophecies and that he was the way to the Father. We have to research the Law and the Prophets. What he is saying about this statement is what Paul tells us in
Romans 13:8-10 “8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Think about this for a minute! If you truly love one another and live as Christ has instructed, commanded, and showed us then you cannot truly break those commandants with God. If you love your wife truly you will not commit adultery, if you love your fellow people you will not murder them, if you love your neighbor you will not steal from them, if you love God you will not say his name in vain.
Now I could have done what every other soldier before me did and break those commandments with God and saved myself $1,500 but I truly love them and I truly love everyone of you! This doesn’t mean that I am without sin, I will tell you this that when my final check came in and it was only a few bucks because CIF took their share out, I sure cursed the person who took my gear. I was not happy, one could say I wished ill will upon them, I may have even used the word “hate”, at that moment I hated them, I didn’t love them. I learned over time that I could still love them through scripture and through prayer to God on their behalf in hopes they find him to repent. To this day I still have no idea who it was but I pray for them.
This is my own personal do unto others as you would have done to you, but lets look it over on a larger scale and a situation that was made known through WWII.
“In March of 1943, Bulgaria, which had aligned with the Nazis, received orders from Berlin that they were to begin implementing the Final Solution, the extermination of the Jewish people in Bulgaria and deport them to Treblinka. The King of Bulgaria and the Parliament did not want to fulfill this order, but they passed it on nonetheless. The people of Bulgaria began to wonder what would happen to their Jewish neighbors and friends. The railroad cars were lined up 100’s long and the Jewish people in 3 towns were to be gathered at the local elementary school and then placed on the trains. Plodda was one of those towns. The Jewish people were told to bring only what they could carry. They were placed behind a chain-link fence at the school and they knew what was going to happen. They began to cry out to their neighbors and tell them goodbye with tears streaming down their faces.
When he had heard the news an Orthodox Bishop named Curel came to investigate. When he saw it to be true he cried out, "Children, the Christians of this country will not allow this to happen to you. I will not allow this to happen to you. I will lay my body on these tracks and they will have to run over my body. This will not happen to you." He and the people of that town began to speak out. Others began to speak out. Several members of Parliament stood up and spoke but they were relieved of their offices and never served again in politics. But the people refused to let the trains leave.
Months later, on June 7, 1943, the German Ambassador to Bulgaria wrote this back to Berlin: "I am firmly convinced that the Ambassador and the Parliament wish and strive for a radical final solution to the Jewish problem. However they are hindered by the mentality of the Bulgarian people who lack the ideological enlightenment we have."
Indeed. Instead they were enlightened by the teachings of Jesus who said, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. During the Nazi regime 6 million Jews were killed. However, because the Christians of Bulgaria took seriously the Golden Rule and had the love and moral courage to stand up for what they believed, every one of the 49,000 Jews of Bulgaria were saved; not a single one of them was killed.” Curel was willing to lay down his life in order to try and save the lives of others. The Golden Rule fulfils the law of sacrificial love.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/8220-we-must-help-8221-the-rescue-of-bulgaria-s-jews-jewish-virtual-library
C. The Gates
The second part of the Golden Rule is the mention of the Gates One 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. These gates symbolize that of the gates that stand in front of Heaven the way to the Kingdom where we can join Jesus and the Father.
D. The Wide Gate
The wide gate is a path that might be heavily traveled and filled with fun, ease, and sin. You can bring all of your baggage, sin, wordly possessions, family, friends, and money. This is the road that many travel, that many seek, yes, it does have some bumps and trials but overall it is pleasant. Many seek this road because of its ease but we have to see what it really means, what it will do to our soul. Our Father who is in Heaven does not want this for us, he wants to be with us, we aren't Christians because of the glory that we will receive on the Earth, we are Christians because of the Glory we seek in the Kingdom. But we can’t get there if we focus on the world and if we do that then we have chosen the path for the wide gate which means we will not make it to the kingdom.
E. The Narrow Gate
This is the road that is narrow and many will fall off path not making it to the narrow gate. We will attempt to enter the gate with all of our baggage, worldly possessions, money, hate, and false idols. This gate is only open to those that can fit in it, it is only available to those that headed Jesus’s teachings on Meekness, love, and belief. When Adam and Eve where in the Garden before the fall they were naked and able to walk with God, speak to God, and call upon him for anything. They were provided for, given life, food, shelter, and love. Yet they chose the wide path and causing the fall we are all suffering now.
I look at it this way, Adam and Eve were naked, the gate is so narrow that they could not bring any baggage with them, they could not have one item. It is the same for us we cannot carry in our heart hate, lust, greed, or vengeance for we will not fit through the gate. When the fall happened they immediately placed clothing on and were not allowed to be face to face with God any longer as they were not righteous.
F. Persecution for His Name Sake
There is nothing in the Bible that says this will be easy, it doesn't tell us that we will receive blessings on earth if we live this way. matter of fact it is the opposite
Matthew 10:22 “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
We are not doing this for blessings on Earth for those are temporary, we are doing this for the Glory to be given to the Father so that we may have our treasures in heaven.
III. Applied in Everyday Life
We have to forget that current arrangement of the Golden Rule brought on by the miss quotes for those to excuse their behavior “ Do unto others, what has been done to you” Reset this, forget about this, do not say it like this it is not written this way. Do unto others, what you would have done to you. Treat others with love, give nothing but the best and know that we will have heart break, hate, and tough time ahead but God has called us to love no matter the situation. If you love and truly live as described by our living God then you will truly be blessed with a spot in the Kingdom.
Heaven is so close to us we can see it just beyond the worldly things yet some of us will miss it, as my Pastor says some will miss it by 18”. We think that we are saved and born again yet we can’t even live by the Golden Rule and we choose the wide gate because it is easy.
Adam and Eve “Naked in the Garden with nothing and able to speak to God face to face before the fall
Baggage “the baggage that we acquire through our life”
The gates post not moveable “we don’t move the post farther apart, we have two choices the wide gate or the narrow”