Choosing the Hard Way - 7/21/2024 Sunday Sermon

The Tabernacle Today

Choosing the Hard Way

Today’s passage is so beautiful as in just one verse Jesus summarizes the intent of all 613 O.T. commands, getting to the very heart of how faith and love for God is to be lived out. It is well called the Golden Rule.

Matthew 7:12-14

The first reason believers practice the golden rule is to fight our sin nature.

The second reason believers practice the golden rule is to be used of God to meet needs.

The Golden Rule that sums up Old Testament Law - V. 12

Practicing the golden rule is not just basic good treatment of others, it incorporates the “going the extra mile” and “loving your enemies” language Jesus already gave in this sermon.

The golden rule is all about the flourishing of your relationships with the Lord and other humans.

“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.” - Matt. 22:37-40

A person who loves and fears God will be characterized by:

Obeying the Golden Rule

Loving God with all their heart and loving their neighbor as themselves

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. - Romans 10:4

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. - Romans 13:10

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” - Galatians 5:14

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully. - 1 Tim. 1:8

Where should our commitment to do unto others begin?

With the right to life.

In the O.T. we see God sometimes regulate what He didn’t condone, things like divorce and slavery, to keep people from being taken advantage of. That all stems from Genesis 1, where we learn that ALL people are created in the image and likeness of God, all with inherent value!

William Wilberforce understood that slavery was a moral evil and needed to end. He did three things at once. He helped those affected by slavery. He educated the empire about the moral evil of slavery. He got law after law passed year after year that cut slavery back until it was ended.

Another clear moral wrong addressed in the Bible is abortion. The Bible makes clear that life begins at conception and we are not to kill innocent life. Doing unto others begins with promoting the cause of life.

A nation that kills its babies won’t have a good record with do unto others. The rise of selfishness and disrespect and violence toward others in our nation starts with the cheapened value of human life.

Choosing to follow the Jesus Way - V. 13-14

Jesus knew that the things He has commanded in this Sermon on the Mount would raise in every person hearing it a negative reaction before there would be a positive response by faith.

When we come to verses 21-23, Jesus will let us know that those who reject doing what He teaches are simply not among those who are truly Christians. Ultimately the person who rejects Jesus’ teaching is really rejecting Jesus Himself.

There is way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. - Proverbs 14:12

Aren’t you glad Jesus calls believers to be His followers, not merely His fans?

Jesus would rather have the few totally committed to Him and His Way then multitudes who are merely interested.

Jesus said to Him, I Am THE Way, and THE Truth, and THE Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me! - John 14:6

But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our Fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets. - Acts 24:14