Does the Golden Rule Really Work?

Scripture Reading

Our Lord continues his sermon on the mount, and he speaks to his disciples, and says, Judge not that ye be not judged, For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye measure it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote, the speck that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother?

Let me pull the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye.

Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Give not that which is wholly under the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again, and lacerate.

You ask, and it shall be given.

You seek, and you shall find.

Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Or what man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone?

Or if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.

For this is the Law and the prophets, and we call that the Golden Rule, And Jesus dares to tell us that it works.

Do you do ye also to them likewise, that's Luke's version of what we call the Golden Rule.

Matthew 7:12 reads, Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, For this is the Law and the prophets.

The popular version is do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

But our Lord spoke these words to people who lived in a rural economy.

People who had never seen modern machinery, never ridden on a jet plane, never turned on a tape recorder.

A rather simple kind of an economy.

There weren't as many people in the world as there are now.

Life was a bit simpler, Not necessarily easier, but it was simpler.

You didn't come into contact with people in quite so many ways as we do today.

The minute a baby is born into a family here in the city of Chicago, he has a Social Security number, he has a bank number if somebody opens a deposit for him in the bank.

And before he knows that he is, whether he likes it or not, in touch with all kinds of people and agencies.

And this wasn't true back in Our Lord's Day.

And so this raises the interesting question.

Does the Golden Rule still apply and does it really work?

I'm sure someone is listening to me right now who is saying, fine, all of that is just so much froth.

It's a beautiful sentiment, do to others as you would have others do to them do to you.

But it just doesn't work.

I've tried it, says someone, I've tried it.

Now I think the Lord is saying to me today that the Golden Rule is necessary for my life.

The Necessity of the Golden Rule

Our Lord did not utter the Golden Rule, what we call the Golden rule, for the benefit of lost nations or for the benefit even of lost people, although they can be benefited from it.

He gives the Golden Rule for our benefit, and he's saying this is not a luxury that you ought to work toward.

This is a necessity that you really ought to have in your life.

In fact, it may be that the areas in our lives that are weak, shaky, would be strengthened if we could somehow lay hold of what our Lord is saying here.

So I'm going to assume I'm speaking to a group of people who want the Lord's Will.

You say I want this to be a part of my life?

What must I do?

Well, my friend, if the Golden Rule is going to work in our lives, there are several facts that you and I must consider.

There are three of them, in fact.

If you'll lay hold of these three basic fundamental facts, then the thing that we call the Golden Rule can go to work in your life.

And I think life will change.

I think there will be a new dimension.

I think there will be a new outreach.

I think that life will change if we'll lay hold of what our Lord is saying here in Matthew 7:1-12.

Understanding the Golden Rule

Fact Number one, you had better consider what the Golden Rule means.

Fact #2, you'd better consider what the Golden Rule costs.

It's the Golden Rule, not the Clay Rule.

It costs something.

And thirdly, you had better consider what the Golden Rule accomplishes, because it may be that in one of these three facts, you're going to uncover something that says, oh, that's not for me.

On the other hand, understanding these three fundamental facts, you may say that's exactly what I've been looking for.

I've needed this all of my life.

Fact number one, consider what the Golden Rule means.

Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye Even so to them.

Now let's begin with what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that this is the sum total of the Christian life.

Every once in a while, when you're witnessing, you'll meet someone who says, well, my religion is the Golden Rule.

Ever hear that?

I read about a Christian who was flying somewhere, and he happened to be seated next to a man who was a scientist.

And so the Christian began to witness to this scientist about his faith.

And the scientist said, well, don't bother me with that, I have my religion.

And the Christian gently said, well, what is your religion?

And the scientist said, my religion is the golden rule.

And the scientist said, you know, what do you know about science?

The man said, well, I don't think I know very much what kind of science are you in?

And the scientist said, I'm an astronomer.

The Christian said, well, I don't really need to know much about astronomy because I have my own astronomy.

And the man said, what do you mean you have your own astronomy?

What is it?

He said, Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.

And the scientists got the point.

You see, for someone to say the Sermon on the Mount is my religion or the the Golden Rule is my religion is foolish, because the Lord Jesus Christ said much more than the Golden Rule.

He said he must be born again.

He said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall never enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

The Golden Rule is not the sum total of the Christian faith.

It says nothing about the Holy Spirit or God the Father or God the Son, or the Blood of Christ or Calvary, or conversion or repentance or the Second Coming.

Don't take the Golden Rule as your religion.

Now, secondly, it's not the way of salvation.

There are people who have the idea that they're kind to other people.

Then this is their salvation.

That's not what he's saying.

Nor is it some kind of psychological warfare a la Dale Carnegie.

Many years ago, Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People was a best seller.

It was an amazing thing that a psychological book of that nature would be a best seller, and still is.

Thousands of copies are sold, and Mr. Carnegie tells you in there how to get people on your side.

It's a form of psychological warfare.

And that's not what our Lord is saying.

He's not saying, Now look, I'll do something for you if you'll do something for me.

He's not talking about empty flattery, nor is he talking about forcing your desires on other people.

Just because you enjoy swimming doesn't mean I'll enjoy swimming.

Just because you like to go to baseball games and eat hot dogs doesn't mean I may enjoy going to baseball games and eat hot dogs.

I might rather stay home.

What is our Lord saying in the Golden Rule?

He's saying this.

He is describing an attitude of life toward other people that wants the very best for them.

Because we want the very best for ourselves.

That's what he's saying.

Look at it.

Therefore all things, whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye Even so to them.

What is he saying?

That I am the measure of your happiness.

Know the things I enjoy.

You may not enjoy, but I want God's very best for my life, and I want God's very best for your life, whether you're saved or unsaved.

Therefore, I am going to treat you the way God treats me.

When I come and ask him for bread, he doesn't give me a stone, and when I come and ask him for a fish, he doesn't give me a serpent.

Therefore, I'm going to treat you the way God treats me.

I want him to build me up, and I want to be a channel to help him build you up.

That's what the Golden rule is all about.

Now, the Golden Rule is only for believers.

In a way, I'm sort of grateful we don't have the kind of high school baccalaureate and commencement speakers we used to have when I was in high school and was working as an usher and other things.

We'd go to commencement or baccalaureate, you know, and there'd be some speaker up there.

And they'd always end up by saying, if only the world would live by the golden rule, we would have peace and prosperity.

Well, that's like saying if only the fish would fly, we'd have cleaner lakes.

You see, my friends, the Golden rule was never given to unsafe people.

An unsafe person would have a really difficult time obeying the Golden Rule, because the Golden Rule makes yourself a channel through which the love of God can work.

And if you've never experienced that love of God in your heart, you can't share it with somebody else.

It's only for Christian people, and it's for everything in life.

Some folks have the idea that the Golden Rule is like their radio or their stereo.

They just turn it on and off.

Someone starts to get difficult and he says, oh, better turn on the Golden Rule Plan B.

No, no, he says all things whatsoever you do.

In other words, the Golden Rule is not something I do on Tuesdays or Sundays, but forget about the rest of the week.

The Golden Rule is not really a rule at all.

It's a principle.

It's an attitude toward life, that everything in our lives is dedicated to God so that he can give us his best and we can help other people get God's best.

The Golden Rule is not a bargain I'll do for you if you'll do for me.

Rather, the Golden Rule releases the love and the power of God through a human life to change somebody.

Now, obviously our Lord is talking here about values when He says all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye Even so to them.

He's talking about values.

The things that are important to us.

Our Lord is not talking about our tastes.

Our tastes are different.

You may like a certain kind of food that I may not like.

You might drive a certain automobile I don't enjoy.

He's not talking about tastes.

He's not talking about fashions.

He's talking about the values of life, the things that really count.

And he is saying as you want me to build up your life, then you want others to have their lives build up and therefore you become the channel through whom I can work to help other people, saved and unsaved.

Challenges in Practicing the Golden Rule

I once worked with a man who was very abrasive and abusive.

His tongue was sharp, his wit was sarcastic.

It was very difficult to work with him, and my first reaction was to tell him to jump in the lake and just go my own way.

The Lord said no, you can't do that.

You need him.

I want to put into your life certain things that you'll never get if you're run away.

And so we work together.

And I asked the Lord to help me treat him the way God treated me.

And so when he was somewhat sharp, I tried to be patient by the grace of God.

And the interesting thing happened.

We became very close friends, very close friends.

And it did help me to grow.

And I think the Lord used me to help him to grow.

This is what our Lord is talking about now.

It's a positive outlook on life.

You say, well, tomorrow morning I go off to school or to work, and there are people there that drive me up the wall.

You heard about the woman who said to her husband, you drive me crazy.

And he looked at her and said, honey, with you, it's not a drive, it's a putt.

Now there may be somebody in your life who's either driving you or putting you into great, great discouragement.

Our Lord is saying take a positive attitude instead of saying how can I get rid of her?

How can I get rid of him?

Try as much as possible.

Sometimes you can't succeed.

That's why Paul writes and says as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men, which suggests sometimes you can't do it, sometimes you run up against an abominable snowman and you just can't do a thing about it.

But by and large, in the everyday context of life, we've discovered that as God changes us, we can change people and it becomes a positive attitude toward life.

Now Confucius said something like this, but his was negative.

He said this: Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.

It's rather negative.

I don't want you to kill me, so I won't kill you.

Rabbi Hillel also had a negative approach.

He said that what is hateful to thyself do not to thy neighbor.

Our Lord takes it and makes it positive and says don't just avoid people and don't just stop doing evil.

Rather practice good, be not overcome of evil, said Paul, but overcome evil with good.

And so if we're going to let this thing work in our lives, we must lay hold and consider what the Golden Rule means.

It means all of my life must be given to him, to the Lord, and he can use me as a channel, building me up and then building other people up.

It's a great adventure.

The Cost of the Golden Rule

The second fact is this.

Consider what the Golden Rule costs.

Now this thing looks so flippant, so easy.

A little child memorizes the Golden Rule down.

The primary department hasn't the least clue what it costs, my friend.

You better read the fine print in the contract if you're going to sign your name to it.

If today you say, Dear Lord, you have saved me and I'm finding myself in difficulty with people, I'm having problems relating to people.

I'm thinking too much of myself and not of them.

Now Lord, I want you to change me.

You'd better count the cost.

You see in that Matthew Chapter 7 verses 1 through 11, all the preliminaries to this he tells us the price we're going to have to pay.

That's why he says in verse 12.

Therefore, because of all that I've said to you now, therefore, well, what price do we have to pay?

Well, let's start here, my friend.

If the golden rule is going to work in your life, you'd better be serious about life.

Our Lord here is talking about judgment.

He says, Judge not lest ye be judged.

Judge not that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye measure it shall be measured to you.

And why are you gazing with longing intent?

That's what the verb means on the little speck that is in your brother's eye.

And you can't see the 2 by 4 that's in your own eye.

Oriental people must have laughed out loud at this, the crowd that was standing around Jesus imagining an optometrist or an ophthalmologist with a great big 2 by 4 sticking out of his eye, working on a patient who's got a little speck in his eye.

They laughed at that.

Jesus says we are going to be judged.

The way we treat other people will come right back to us.

Now, the word judged at the end of verse 7 is in the tense, the Greek Eros tense.

That means a once and for all judgment.

He's talking not about judgment today, but about judgment in the future.

We've measured out criticism, All right.

God's going to judge us someday.

Say, wait a minute, I'm saved by grace.

I know you're saved by grace, but we're going to give an account of our works and what we have said and the motives that we have had are going to come up to God for judgment.

Judge nothing before the time, says Paul.

When our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, then the secrets of men's hearts are going to be revealed.

Got to take life seriously because God is going to judge us, you say?

Well, there's a person in my life who makes life difficult for me.

Fine.

This is going to come up with the judgment.

What are you going to do about it now?

Take life seriously.

There's also a judgment from men.

Over in Luke chapter 6, in verses 36 through 38, our Lord quotes the same passage and makes another application.

He says men are going to return to you.

They'll return to your bosom, measure for measure.

I have noticed that those who are the most critical don't like to be criticized.

You ever noticed that they can criticize everybody else, but the minute you start turning the spotlight on them, you're not spiritual And they say judge not.

Got to take life seriously.

Our Lord is saying one of these days we're going to be judged.

Are you willing to pay that price to live before the eyes of God and the ears of God?

He sees the motive of the heart.

He hears the words of the mouth.

That's pretty serious.

Now there's a second price to pay, he says.

You'd better be honest with yourself.

Start with yourself.

Now.

The Lord Jesus did not say that. I

t's wrong for me to try to take the speck out of your eye.

In fact, you probably can't do it yourself.

When I was in junior high school, down at Washington school in East Chicago, IN, we were out playing soccer.

One day, you can imagine me playing soccer, it was required of me and while I was playing soccer I got something in my eye and it hurt.

I went to the coach and he looked at it and said you better go to the doctor.

So I went home and they took me to Hammond IN to the eye clinic.

I was a woman doctor, Doctor Kuhn.

I can still see her.

She had hands like bananas.

I could not take that speck out of my eye.

It turned out to be a little piece of concrete that got lodged on the cornea and Doctor Coon had to deaden the area and then come down with a very fine instrument.

Just flick the thing off onto a little piece of gauze.

And she said, there it is.

I was glad that she knew how to do it.

And I've been glad in my spiritual life for people who have come and said, look, Pastor, you don't realize this, but and they've helped me to see better by taking something out of my eye.

The Lord did not say that it's wrong for us to help each other.

Paul writes to the Galatians and says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall, ye with your spirit shall restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

You don't let a brother stay down.

You help him up, you wash him up, you straighten him up.

That's what we're here for, to help each other.

But Jesus says, wait a minute before you start practicing the golden rule to try to help your brother.

Start with yourself.

You may think your brother's sin is so great, but have you looked in the mirror lately?

There's a 2 by 4 sticking out of your eye.

It's not wrong to help your brother see better, but make sure you can see yourself.

So here's the second price we have to pay: Not only take life seriously, but be honest with ourselves and not be hypocrites because the Golden Rule doesn't work with hypocrites, Play actors, pretenders.

The Golden Rule only works where there's sincerity and honesty.

We stand before God and say, dear Lord, I can't help him be better if I myself am not better and so help me, oh God, take the sin out of my life.

Some of the Saints are very good at going around judging some of the Saints.

Their only hobby is people watching, and they have binoculars with Bible verses on them, just like we have Combs with Bible verses on them.

The hairs of your head are numbered.

I fully expect to walk into a Christian bookstore someday and see baseball bats with Bible verses on them.

Go to the Ant, thou sluggard.

They have their binoculars and they're watching people.

Well, they're watching.

If you want to wreck your life, just watch people, Be a people watcher now.

Spiritual Discernment and Wisdom

The third price we have to pay is in verse six.

Take life seriously, be honest.

Clean up your own life first and use spiritual discernment.

In verse six, the Lord says wait a minute, don't go the other extreme.

If you're so anxious to help people, don't go the other extreme.

Be careful that you don't take that dedicated meat off of the altar and throw it to the dogs.

That would be terrible.

Can you imagine a man bringing his sacrifice to the Lord, putting it on the altar, dedicating it to God, cutting off part of it and giving it to his dog?

And don't take the pearls and throw them to the swine.

Now, they may think that they're nuts and they can eat them, but they'll discover they aren't, and they'll trample them.

And if you aren't careful, the dogs and the hogs will turn on you.

What's he saying?

He's saying that we don't indiscriminately, carelessly try to help people.

Now, if verse six were really practiced today, I think God would bless us more.

When you read the Gospels and the book of Acts, you discover Jesus and the apostle Paul didn't talk to everybody.

There were times when Paul said, all right, if you don't want what I've got, I'll go someplace else.

When Jesus stood before Pilate, he was very careful what he said.

When he stood before Herod, he said nothing.

You see, the pearls and the meat represent the truths of the word of God, and unsaved people don't appreciate the truths of the word of God.

You don't sit down with an unsaved person and try to explain election.

Most of the Saints don't even understand election.

Why explain it to an unsaved person?

You can't.

You're casting pearls before swine, he said.

Does the Lord say that unsaved people are dogs and swine?

Well, he was using language that was common in those days because these things were unclean.

Peter does the same thing over in Second Peter chapter two.

He says there are people who profess to be saved, but they're really dogs and they go right back to their vomit and the pigs go right back to wallow in the mire.

So our third price we have to pay is we've got to have spiritual discernment.

And spiritual discernment comes from the word of God and prayer and the Holy Spirit.

We've got to know when to speak and when to be silent.

We've got to know when to give.

There are people who are trying to be consistent.

Did you know that God is not consistent?

Sometimes God seems to break his own laws.

An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation.

Hey, Boaz, marry Ruth.

But she's from Moab.

Marry her.

A Raven is an unclean bird.

Hey, you Ravens, go take this food over to Elijah, would you?

There are times when God breaks his own laws.

It's impossible to be utterly consistent.

We aren't that smart.

But on top of that, there are times when God says say something.

There are times when God says be quiet.

That's the price we have to pay if we're going to practice the golden rule.

Now, if you're the kind that talks to everybody, gives a tract to everybody, you do what God wants you to do.

But Jesus is saying here, be careful what you do with the treasures that I give to you.

There's a fourth price that we have to pay, and this is found in verses 7 through 11.

We've got to depend upon God to give us what we need.

Why does he talk about prayer?

Well, suppose you're sitting in the congregation listening to Jesus preach, and he says to you judge not that ye be not judged.

The Pharisees were great at judging people, and the disciples had a good time judging too.

Which of us is going to be the greatest?

Peter said, I'll be the greatest.

I'm going to be, Judas said.

Who's got the money?

Matthew says, Who's keeping the books?

Judge not that ye be not judged.

Use discernment as you're ministering my truth, and I would throw up my hand and say, Lord, I can't do it, You're asking too much.

You're telling me so to live, that one day I'm going to face judgement, you're going to judge my works, and my words are going to come up before you.

And Lord, you're saying to me that I should help my brother.

You're talking about the one of the most serious operations that anybody can perform.

Eye surgery.

You're asking me to operate on my brother's eye.

I can't do it.

And you're saying don't throw the pearls to the swine?

I don't always know who the swine are.

And Jesus said, well, there's a way to do that.

Ask and it shall be given unto you.

You need discernment and wisdom.

Ask for it.

If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally seek, and you shall find you're seeking for ways to minister.

You'll find them.

The door is locked, is closed in your face.

Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Look, he said, Your Father's your evil.

If you, being evil, give your children what they need, Won't your Father in Heaven give you what you need?

For what?

For yourself?

Yes, and for others.

He's talking here about a very deep prayer life.

I have noticed in my own experience that the more I pray, the less I judge.

The more I pray, the more I want to help other people instead of condemn other people.

I've noticed that the more I pray, the more discernment God gives.

And so if you want the Golden rule to work in your life, you better have a prayer life.

You can't just spend 5 minutes in the morning and two minutes at night saying, Dear Lord, bless me today and help my family and help me out to be hit on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

There's got to be talking with God and walking with God and receiving from God.

We've got to depend on God's provision.

So living the Golden Rule is not a snap.

Living the Golden Rule is a costly thing.

What the Golden Rule Accomplishes

Finally consider what the Golden Rule accomplishes.

I'll tell you what it won't accomplish.

It won't make the world peaceful.

He never gave it for that purpose.

It won't make you more popular.

Jesus practiced the Golden Rule.

He got crucified.

Paul practiced the Golden Rule.

He was stoned, kicked out.

We have the idea that if we practice the Golden Rule, everyone's going to flock to us and say, oh, you're so wonderful.

That didn't happen to our Lord Jesus.

Didn't happen to Stephen.

They stoned him.

Didn't happen to Jay Hudson Taylor.

He went through difficulties, that some of which were unbearable.

What will happen if you and I are willing to practice the Golden Rule, as Jesus teaches us here, God will start to build our Christian character.

That's what he's concerned about.

He's not concerned about service.

He's concerned about character.

Character leads to service.

So many Saints of God are busy doing this and busy running there and busy they're not even have.

Don't even have time to stay home and pray with their own families.

God wants to build character.

For out of character comes conduct, and out of character and conduct come service.

If you and I are practicing this, God's going to start building our character.

We'll start to see the things that are in our own lives and by God's grace, pull them out.

We'll say, dear Lord, you've got to work on my patience.

I've got a lot of impatience in my life.

I read the other day about a man who'd been praying that way.

Dear Lord, give me more patience.

Went to work the next morning and something had happened to the train schedule.

And he missed his train by 30 seconds and spent the next 50 minutes pacing up and down the train station and snorting and storming.

And then the Lord said to him, didn't you pray this morning for patience?

Yes.

I'm giving you an opportunity right here to get some patience.

Oh, that's happened to me.

A flight is canceled.

And there you are.

The Lord teaches you.

Consider the what the Golden Rule accomplishes it.

It builds your own Christian character and it pulls the beams out of our eyes so we can see people honestly.

And we don't see them to judge them.

We don't see them to condemn them.

We don't come to them as judges with a gavel guilty.

Rather we come as skilled surgeons with a scalpel.

We say, hey, God help me, I want to help you.

It'll build your Christian character.

It'll release love through your life and one of the consequences is going to be people will turn on you, people will turn on you.

When you start releasing love, the devil turns on hatred.

When you start releasing truth speaking the truth in love, the devil turns on lies.

I have read so much Christian biography.

I can document this.

Whenever the spirit of God gets a hold of a man of God and he begins to live the way Jesus is talking about here, even Christian people turn against him.

Jesus's mother and brethren said he was crazy.

The Roman official said, Paul, much learning has made you mad.

And so don't expect that life is going to become easier.

It may become more difficult.

Don't expect that folks will come to your fall at your feet and you become a great Christian celebrity.

No.

You maybe will end up a martyr, but a beautiful thing will happen.

As you grow, God will work through you to touch the lives of other people, and they'll grow.

They don't know how needy they are.

As you live with them and pray for them, God works through you to touch them, and you're practicing the Golden Rule.

You're saying I want God's best for my life?

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

God's rule.

God's righteousness and all these things should be added unto you.

I want God to rule in my life, and I want God to rule in your life.

And I want God's righteousness in my life, and I want God's righteousness for your life.

And I'm going to help you because I'm going to treat you the way God treats me, because God and I are going to work together, and you're going to work with us and we're all going to grow.

That's the golden rule.

And the result of all this, of course, is that God gets the glory.

You don't get the glory if you're not looking for glory.

Stick, steer clear.

The Golden Rule.

God gets the glory.

That's the way it ought to be, because He's the one who does it.

And so you can see that the Golden Rule is not a little piece of pious philosophy for gentle people who are going to a tea party.

If that's your view of the Christian life, steer clear of Matthew 7:12.

The Golden Rule is a daring adventure for Christians who are willing to take the risks that are involved in relationship and love and truth.

But this is what the Lord did for us.

He's not asking us to do something that he didn't do for us already.

He looked at us in our sinful estate.

He looked upon us and saw the condition we were in.

He said, I want you to be like me.

I want you to have my righteousness and my love and my joy and my peace.

And I am going to pay the price for you to do it.

I'm going to come down there where you are.

I'm going to become what you are.

I'm going to take upon myself human flesh.

I'm going to take upon myself human sin.

And he went to a cross and died.

He practiced the golden rule on Calvary.

Why?

Even for his enemies He prayed, Father, forgive them, They know not what they do.

Jesus Christ wants us to be as he is, and he paid the price to do it.

Now he says to us, his children, you pay the price to continue that work.

That's what soul winning is all about.

Soul winning doesn't mean getting one more notch on your Bible, one more name on the blank pages.

You can show somebody I won 65 people.

That's not what soul winning is all about.

Soul winning is just continuing what Jesus did at Calvary.

I love you and I want you to have what I've got and I'm going to share it with you. I just wonder how many of us dare to pay the price to practice the Golden Rule.

I wonder how many of us dare to have this kind of positive philosophy of life that says, Dear Lord, work in my life to make me what I ought to be.

And as I see myself growing, Help me to help others to grow.

May I treat others the way you treat me.

You give me the bread, I'll pass it along.

You give me the fish, I'll pass it along.

Father, help me to live the way Jesus lived.

Now, some of you can't do this because you've never been saved.

You're dead and you ought to come and give your heart to Jesus Christ.

You can't begin to know God or to get along with people the way God wants you to, apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

And so there are some of you listening who ought to come and say, I need to be saved.

There are some Christians who have been away from the Bible.

You've been away from the word of God, away from prayer, and you're wondering why all your relationships are falling apart.

Dear friend, get back to the word of God and prayer.

Pay that price.

It's a difficult way to live, but it's a delightful way to live.

There are tears, but there's joy.

There are some defeats, but there's victory.

And as you grow and see others grow, you have the joy of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ.

That, my friend, is what the Golden Rule is all about.

Would you let it work in your life?

And would you pray that it might work in my life?

Gracious father, we are so prone to want to live on the lowest, easiest levels.

When you put before us a mountain to climb, we stay down below.

Forgive us.

We do want to grow, and we want that you should work through us to help others to grow.

Help us to want the very best for ourselves and for others, and to be channels of this kind of love that builds up.

Gracious Father, you're not impressed with our IQ.

You're not impressed with our skills.

You're interested in our character, and I pray you might build into us Christian character, to the glory of God that touches the lives of other people.

Help us to be channels through whom you can work.

I pray for those here today without the Savior.

Help them to come and trust him.

I pray for backslidden, careless, worldly Christians.

Oh God, Bring to them to the place of submission, cleansing, and surrender.

I pray for those who are obeying your word.

Perhaps they're discouraged.

Help them to know, oh God, that you're not going to sell them short.

You're not going to cheat them.

They're going to get their full reward.

To that end, bless this hymn of response and dedication.

For Jesus sake, Amen.