Well, hello everyone and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Friday, October 24th, 2025. And I hope that it finds all of you doing very, very well as you have made your way through this work week. Now y'all, this is airing on Friday. I'm assuming that Most of you are finding it on Friday October the 24th 2025, but maybe it's Friday whatever it is and at the end of October in 2026 doesn't matter if it's on a Friday a Saturday or even on a Sunday morning very early or any other day of the week you got time to plan for Sunday morning to be a regular part of worship at a Bible-believing church and if you're with us and This past Wednesday night, well, you know we not only had an excellent meal, you'll also know that we talked about why we worship. What worship really is. That worship is about praising God. Yes, it's about ascribing to God His worth, just like the Puritans spelled it, worth-ship, W-O-R-T-H, S-H-I-P. It's all of those things, but the ultimate expression of worship is to lay down. to absolutely and completely fully submit and recognize God's power, His magnificence, our need for Him, all of the things, all of the things. That's why we come together to worship. And God's Word commands that you do this with your life, yes, but also God's Word commands that you do this corporately with the people of God, that you come together. So the idea that you don't have to be a Christian, to go to church, well, that's true. You don't have to have a wedding to be married either, but you can get just a piece of paper, but consider what you're missing out on. And y'all, there is that other thing too where, If you're not in church, a lot of people don't go to church because of something that's happened in church. And admittedly, not to give credence to Gandhi, but a lot of times Christians make some really bad decisions. I've made really bad decisions. I've disappointed people. But y'all, remember why you go to church. It's to worship God. And because he's the one that calls you there. And also there's that whole factor of, If you don't love the church, how can you say you love Jesus if you don't love the church? Jesus died for the church and promised to build his church. So all of the assumptions of the New Testament And y'all, there's some serious problems going on in the New Testament. You realize that? I mean, think about the stuff, jacked up stuff going on in Corinth, all over the place. But you know, never in the New Testament is the answer given by any of the apostles, by the Lord. Never in God's word do you find any verse saying, you know what? Sometimes things get so bad, you should just really not go to church at all. No. The assumption of God's word is that you will worship with God's people. That's why it was Jesus's practice to be in the synagogue. That's why in Hebrews it says, not to forsake the gathering together of the believers to worship. But this is what the scriptures assume this is what God calls you to do. So if it is Friday, October 24th, 2025, you still got time. And we would love to have you at Old Providence. Absolutely love to have you doing something different, taking a break from the book of Revelation. And I think it's going to be very enjoyable, also very informative. And I think it will be a very worshipful time for us to participate in together. So be aware of that. Now, where are we? We're picking up in Matthew chapter 7. Do you remember the section that we covered yesterday? It's this portion of God's word that tells us to ask and it'll be given, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open. And what's implied there is that you're asking with the right motives. Remember we went to the book of James also where James said, hey, you don't have because you don't ask. And when you do ask, you ask with wrong motives so that you can get something and just spend it on you. That's the Patrick translation, okay? But the sentiment there is certainly implicit in Matthew chapter 7, that you're seeking correctly, that you're knocking. After all, he did just say, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. in Matthew 6, verse 33. And along those same lines, we're told to ask and it's given, seek and find, knock and the door will be open to you, but do so in faith. And then yesterday we rounded things out by Jesus giving the rationale for this command, yes, but this wonderful privilege. Y'all, don't let it be lost on you that Jesus is the living word of God. He was with God in the beginning. Nothing was made that wasn't made through him. So this is the God of the universe telling you, ask for it. Come to me, not just with the things you think you need. I know what you need. Come to me with the things that you want. asking it will be given you. What a marvelous privilege this is that we have. And the rationale that Jesus gives for it is this hypothetical scenario that he embarks upon in verse nine where he says, hey, which one of you, if your son asks for bread, you're gonna give him a rock? It's almost time for a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown. You remember that? All the kids get candy, and Charlie Brown's like, I got a rock, you know, kind of thing. Jesus says, which one of you, if your son asks for bread, you're going to give him a rock? Or if he asks for a fish to eat, you're going to give him a serpa? He says, how much more does your heavenly Father, who's perfect, y'all are evil, how much more will your heavenly Father give you, give good gifts to those who ask Him. What a wonderful picture this is of who God is and how He views us as His children. Now, interestingly enough, everything comes in this little section, comes to a conclusion, and it comes to a conclusion in line of what I told you when we first started chapter 7. Do you remember? When we first started chapter seven, it's the verse that the world loves. Judge not, lest ye be judged. That's the King James Version. Do not judge, seven verse one, do not judge or you too will be judged. And I talked about the real application of this, that in John seven we find out that we are supposed to judge, but we're to judge righteously, judge based on God's word. Judging has nothing to do with determining whether or not something is right or wrong. Judging has to do with determining the motives of someone else's heart and also pronouncing a sentence upon them, concluding that they are or are not believers. John 2 makes it very clear that only Jesus can see into a man's heart. You and I were told to judge fruit righteously by God's Word. But also do you remember I said that John 7 embarks on a section that's really about, it involves the vertical relationship between us and God, but much more so it's on this horizontal plane. This horizontal plane of how we interact with others. That's why it says, hey, with the same measure that you judge other people, they're gonna judge you. And that's true. That's true, the natural human tendency, well, is to sin, but in terms of interaction, in terms of knowing one another, that if you extend grace to people, usually, many times they will extend grace to you. And sometimes that doesn't happen, but y'all, what definitely doesn't happen is if you're a jerk out there and you're judging everybody, throw into it, if you're a hypocrite and you got a log jutting out of your eye, but you're trying to pick the speck out of your brother's eye, You're going to be judged with the same measure. So what Jesus is doing here is he's giving very practical wisdom in chapter 7. Then he talks about casting your pearls before swine. In other words, don't waste time arguing with people that aren't going to listen to you. Don't do it. Don't cast your pearls before swine. Don't give sacred things to dogs and then you turn your back and they devour you. And the reason I said that this is much more about the horizontal relationship between you and other people, we've been building to it, but the reason I said that is the verse that we come to today. Matthew chapter seven, verse 12. Then Jesus is gonna change the subject again, but verse 12 really sums up everything that we've seen thus far in chapter seven. How do I know that? Well, I know it because of how the verse begins. If you read it in context, remember, beware bumper sticker theology. Don't take singular verses out of context. Read them in light of the surrounding areas, and then you'll understand what they mean. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's pray, and then we'll read this verse that is a summation. Our Father, would you please be with us now, and would you guide us by your Holy Spirit so that we would have wisdom, so that we would have understanding, so that we would see what your word means and how it applies to us. And we pray all of these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, why do I say that this is a summation verse, verse 12, chapter seven of Matthew? It says, so in everything do to others what you would have them do to you. For this sums up the law and the prophets. All right, let's digest this. You know what we do this normally with, right? When we come to a passage and it says, therefore, what do we do? We stop and we ask what the therefore is there for. But you should also do this when you come to a passage that starts with but, or when you come to a passage that starts with and. Certainly, when you come to a passage that starts with so, Listen, if you're listening on a conversation, let's say you walk into a conversation, right? And it's between two people, and very clearly they've been talking as you're walking up. And the other person says, so my point in saying all of this is fill in the blank. Well, if you want to participate in that conversation, and they're looking at you like they want you to, then you're going to say, well, before you get to your conclusion, you said so in light of all this, what's the all this? Well, y'all, all this, so in everything, points back to what I've been talking about. It points back to how we interact with each other. It points back to how you extend grace to others. It points back to the mercy that you show to others. Jesus has been talking all along basically about two things, your relationship with God and your relationship with other people. And so when we get to verse 12 and it says, so in everything, that's a summation statement. It's like the capstone that's being put on this entire discussion. And what is that capstone? We read it already. Due to others, it's the golden rule, right? Due to others, what you would have them do to you. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if you want to get King James all about it, right? And then Jesus gives this qualifier, for this sums up the law and the prophets. But before we get to the qualifier, what does it mean to do to others what you would have them do to you? This is not complicated. It's really not. It means if you want grace extended to you, you need to extend grace to others. If you want forgiveness for when you mess up, You should be a forgiving person. If in times of need, you're looking for somebody to be generous to you, doesn't that mean that you should be generous to others? Y'all, that's a very basic idea that's presented here of loving one another. And this is an idea that Jesus carries through. In fact, if you remember just prior to his arrest and subsequent crucifixion, Jesus says, they're gonna know you're my disciples by what? by how you love one another. And also this whole concept of loving other people as you would love yourself, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus is gonna come back to this concept. In fact, he's come back to this concept all the way in Matthew chapter 22, getting closer and closer to his arrest, to his humiliation, to the agony that he endured, to his crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. It's in Matthew chapter 22 as Jesus is going along in his earthly ministry. Matthew chapter 22 verse 34 says this. It says, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. That points to the dynamic here. You got two main political parties in Israel at this time. You got the Sadducees, which were the really rich people, and they were super liberal and elite, and their theology was all kind of jacked up, and they were in favor of the empire and the big government and all this different stuff. And then you got the Pharisees, who were really paying attention to doing the right thing versus the wrong thing, and they were super conservative, grassroots kind of thing. They hated the Roman Empire. I know, I know. It's hard for us to envision a world where you've got two political parties and virtually everybody says, I'm this or I'm that. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But that's the dynamic going on there. Sadducees hated the Pharisees. Pharisees loathed the Sadducees. Sadducees really were liberals. They didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in the supernatural. They were also the lapdogs of the Roman Empire. They did whatever Rome told them to do. And as a result, Rome let them control the temple. Big business, y'all, really, really big business. And so they hated one another. Pharisees were grassroots. kind of the common man. There were a lot more Pharisees than Sadducees. However, Sadducees were like the ruling elites. And so, anyway, what you have here in Matthew 22, Jesus has just dealt with the Sadducees, who didn't even believe in the resurrection, and he silenced them. And so, verse 34 of Matthew 22, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him, Jesus, with this question. Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? Now, pausing for a second, you know what it means when he's testing him? I think the explanation behind this is he's wanting Jesus to say, oh, the greatest commandment is the law, and the law is to not have any idols. And then the Pharisee could go, oh, so you're saying it's okay to break the Sabbath. Or maybe it would be something else. Maybe the Pharisee wanted Jesus to say, oh yeah, definitely, don't murder people. And the Pharisee could say, oh, so it's okay to be a thief and to lie? Is that what you're saying, Jesus? John chapter two, Jesus knew what was in a man's heart. He also knew what was in a man's mind. He's way too smart. And so how does Jesus reply? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Does that sound familiar? It should. Why don't we just read in verse 12? So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. For this sums up the law and the prophets. Realize that that phrase, the law and the prophets, was applied to the entirety of God's Word at that time. They didn't have the New Testament yet. It was being lived out. They had the Old Testament. And so that terminology, the law and the prophets, refers to the different sections of God's word. And what Jesus says here is what he's gonna reiterate later on at the end of Matthew when they're trying to trip him up. And that is the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second one's like it, to love others. Everything in God's law hinges on those two things. If you don't believe me, take the Ten Commandments, for instance. If you look at them, you have this, it's not really a sharp dividing line, but you have the first commandments, which are all about your relationship with God. It's all about the vertical relationship. Don't take his name in vain, no idols, no other gods before him. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. And then when you get to number five, what do you find? Honor your father and your mother. And then you said, don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't covet. And it's all about the horizontal relationship that we have with one another. But the way that you summarize these two sections, if you will, of the 10 commandments is, if you love God, you're not gonna break the first four. And in turn, If you love your fellow man, if you love one another, if you do what Jesus told you to do, you're not gonna break the last sin. So all of the law and the prophet hinges on these. But what the really important thing for you and me to see is this, and this is your devotional thought for today, and with this we'll end, and come back next week and get to the narrow and the wide gates. But the devotional thought is this. Remember what I've been telling you all along as we've gone through the Sermon on the Mount. Remember what Jesus does, this common thread that runs throughout every portion of Matthew chapters five through seven. That common thread running throughout is that Jesus always brings things back to the heart. And he's done that perfectly here, because notice what he says, do to others what you would have them do to you. So y'all, it's not just Jesus saying, hey, do the right thing. Jesus is saying, do the right thing because that is what you would have done to you. It's not just about physical action. Jesus is yet again, getting to the motivation of the heart. Why you do what you do. The calling for us here, the obvious surface level one is very simple. How do you treat other people? Do you love people? Do you extend to people grace? Do you want that which is good for them? And before you say, oh yes, of course I love people. Well, the people in your life that you know, don't know Jesus. Have you told them the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ? Maybe I went from preaching to meddling just now, but all the reality is this, you can say you love people all you want and you can be nice to people all you want, The metaphor that I've used before, I remember Isabella riding her bicycle on the driveway, got a nice long paved driveway, and she'd just have the best old time out there, riding her bicycle up and down and up and down. Such a good time that I'd hate to call her in for dinner, all that kind of stuff. But if she's just having a good time riding her bicycle, and then she's going towards the road, and I see a garbage truck coming. And I say to myself, oh, she's having a really good time. I don't want to take this good. And I know that she's going to go turn around in the road, but she doesn't see the garbage truck. Is it loving for me to say, well, she's having such a good time? I really don't want to disrupt that. Or is it loving for me to run over there and knock her off the bicycle if I have to? Scream at her, yell at her, stop, stop, please stop. It's going to ruin the good time. It might scare her. But if I love her, that is what I'm going to do to protect her, to preserve her life. So before you say, yeah, I love people, do you tell them the truth? And no, I don't mean just going out there and said, hey, you shouldn't be doing this, this, this, this, and this. What I mean is you should tell them the truth about Jesus. Love people enough to tell them the truth. Y'all, if you really believe in the truth of the gospel, that without Jesus, you're bound for hell, is it the best possible thing if you're bound for hell? Is it the best possible thing for somebody to love you enough to tell you the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Of course it is. Here's the reason why the scripture talks about how the feet of those who bring the good news are beautiful. There's a reason why there's so much talk of God being glorified when a sinner comes to salvation. If you really love people, tell them the truth. And the other things are obvious. If you love people, be gracious, be merciful, be generous, be slow to anger, be quick to forgive. Point them to Jesus Christ, who is merciful, who is loving, who's full of grace and truth. And he calls us to be the same. But that's the surface level. It's not just the actions. Examine why you do what you do. Is it out of fear? Is it out of envy? Is it out of strife? Is it out of compulsion? Jesus wants your heart. He gave all of himself for you and calls you to surrender all of yourself to him. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we pray in light of these things that you would forgive us for when we only care about ourselves and not you. Father, we're so good at being so distracted. We're so good at having our own priorities and not yours. Please forgive us and lead us in the way everlasting. Help us to love one another deeply as we would be loved ourselves. And when we don't have the good sense to see what that is, then please let the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ shine forth in our lives. And we pray it all in his name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord Willem will be here Sunday morning at 10 a.m. streaming. A little bit of difficulty this past week, but we got it fixed. If we drop or something like that, don't disappear. You just come back in a few minutes. We usually catch it. But Lord Willem, Sunday at 10. If you can be in church, get yourself in church. But then Monday morning at 6 a.m., Lord Willem will be right back here picking up with the narrow and the wide gates. But until then, I hope you have a fantastic weekend. and get yourself in a Bible-believing church. Take care.