Chapter 7, this is page 965 in the Church Bible. Just one verse. Matthew chapter 7, verse 12. From Jesus Christ's mouth to your ears, this is the word of the Lord. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, send your Holy Spirit Fan into flame the faith that is within us. Bring us all over again to rejoice in believing in Jesus Christ and looking to him and him alone, not only for forgiveness from our sins, but also for a life of perfection granted to us through faith. In Christ's name we pray, amen. In general, I don't think anybody should have a pastor who has so much fun during the week that he's absolutely worn out by Sunday morning. But in the event that your pastor goes away to summer camp with the children of the presbytery and the wonderful volunteers to make that week a wonderful week for camp, perhaps, in that case, it is appropriate for a pastor to be worn out on Sunday morning because he's had so much fun all week long. This last week at the presbytery summer camp has just been time of refreshment, of restoring my soul, although it has been a busy and full week of summer camp. What's been remarkable to me about this last week, and reason to be appreciative of the campers who have gone, is that the whole week, which included at least nine different classes for the campers who went, was all on one verse, the one verse that we just read. So in a real sense, no glamor, no glitz, no posh, entertaining venues. One verse considered in at least nine different ways coming to youth who have all sorts of other things on their mind and yet sat through these different classes and seemingly enjoyed it and profited from it, in which the golden rule uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ was considered. So let's think about that. This one verse, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Not only one verse, but one verse that most people had memorized before they ever came to camp, or at least some part of it. How could this work for nine different classes over one week of summer camp? Let's dive in and try to do just that. We're going to look at it in four different ways. First, the universal golden rule. Second, the universally broken golden rule. Third, the perfectly kept golden rule. And then fourth, especially appropriate for today, the golden rule forever. The universal golden rule, the universally broken golden rule, the perfectly kept golden rule, the golden rule forever. First, we begin with this universal golden rule. And this is something to consider, is that it is not only in the words of Jesus Christ that we find the golden rule or some variation or form of it. The idea that we should do to others what we want done to ourselves, that we should love others the way we ourselves want to be loved or treated. we can find some variation of it in Confucius. So in ancient Asian culture, hundreds of years before Jesus Christ, we can find Confucius saying some version of the Golden Rule. In Greek antiquity, we can find the author Homer in the work, The Odyssey, saying some version of the Golden Rule. Again, in classical Greek culture, the philosopher Plato, hundreds of years before Jesus Christ, also had some version that he stated of the golden rule. And that's interesting because each of those examples come from a culture outside of Israel and a person other than Jesus Christ. And Jesus, in a sense, says you will find this outside of Jesus Christ. This isn't some new teaching I'm bringing to you. He says this is the law and the prophets. So at the very least, Jesus is acknowledging that before me, before he has come on scene in his way of saying basically the Old Testament, the law being the first five books of the Bible, still called the Torah today or the law by Jewish people. the books of Moses, the law, and the prophets who brought the books of Moses to bear on the cultures in which they lived. He said, you will find this instruction. And indeed, you can find Love Your Neighbor As You Love Yourself explicitly written by Moses in Leviticus 19.18. Moses, Confucius, Homer, Plato, the law, the prophets, Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The reason I keep equating those two things, saying that love your neighbor as yourself is another way of saying, do unto others as you would wish for them to do unto you, is because here in Matthew 7, 12, Jesus says, this is the law and the prophets. And that might recall for you a little bit earlier in this very worship service, where we had the reading of the law from Matthew 22, in which Jesus says in verse 39 of Matthew 22, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Jesus himself, according to Matthew 7, Matthew 22, is saying, these two things are essentially saying the same thing. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Not only am I saying these two things in two different ways, but this is a summary of the Old Testament. This is what Moses said explicitly in Leviticus 19.18. but it summarizes the entire law with concern to those who are closest to you, family, relatives, coworkers, neighbors. It is a universal rule. I want to say something that is in no way a criticism, but there is a real sense in which this golden rule that so many make so much of, is really not that profound. I mean, isn't it fairly obvious that you should treat other people the way you want to be treated? Isn't there an element to it where you could say, I'm not really sure I should need to be told that? In fact, I think it's fairly humbling that so many different cultures have made their way to observe that and state that. Assessing human nature, assessing all that goes on in society and saying, you know what we should do, folks? We should just treat other people the way we want to be treated ourselves. It's not really that profound, it's like, almost on the surface. And that brings us to our second point. Though it's written in the Law and the Prophets, though some variation of it comes through Confucius and Homer and Plato and others, this universal rule is universally broken. Consider human history. Now we could get into all sorts of questions. How do you keep the golden rule if you're a combat man, if you're in law enforcement and that sort of thing? Those are perfectly fine questions and we could speak to those, but consider the reason, the instance that nation goes to war with nation. What brings about a war on terror, like what we experienced earlier this millennium and century, but a violation, a crass, a terrible violation of the Golden Rule, doing unto others what you would never want them to do unto you. Consider all that goes along with warfare, pillaging, plundering, enslaving, taking advantage of, exploiting, doing unto others en masse what you would not want done unto you. What is the nightly news other than an account of instance after instance after instance through murder, theft, rape, and even worse things if there can be worse things? of one person doing to another person what they would never want done to themselves. And as comforting in a sick and twisted way as it might be to stick with pointing the finger at human history and the nightly news, which is human history and microcosm, this breaking of the golden rule is autobiographical for each one of us, isn't it? We see it at the youngest of ages. A toddler taking a toy from another toddler. Not something we teach the toddler. but sin is so real, it is so wrapped up with our nature, it is so true that we are born into it, it is so true that there is an originalness to sin, that there is a corruption of our whole nature, that a toddler, without ever needing to be taught how to steal from another toddler, will indeed steal a toy from another toddler, though it is not what he would like to have done to himself. Even simple sins of children, kicking, punching. Nobody wants to get punched. Nobody wants to be kicked. Nobody wants to be taken from. And yet we see this at a very young age, if nothing else. this sin is autobiographical to us in those younger ages. And though we've learned and developed and in so many cases have come to the Lord Jesus Christ and profess faith in him, know new life in him, know the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we have to admit if we're honest that there are points, even now, where we treat even our loved ones, even those we love the most, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters, we treat them in a harsh way, in a vexed way, in an annoyed way. We are aggravated by them, and we communicate it as such, even though we don't like to be the reason somebody else is aggravated, or annoyed, or vexed, or terse, or gruff, or brusque. We actually find it tremendously easy to go about our days treating other people in a way we wouldn't want to be treated. Our bent is in that direction. Human history, the nightly news, autobiography. Treat others as you would like to be treated, says so many cultures, says Moses, the law, the prophets, says Jesus Christ. And here we are. perhaps in violation of that rule even today. What kind of monsters are we? We shouldn't even need to be told, just treat other people the way you want to be treated. And we have cultures en masse, Jesus Christ himself and the law and the prophets, echoing what we know, what is on the surface, what isn't even that profound. And we still break that rule, day in and day out, perhaps just through inflection in our voice. or perhaps through something more radical, disrespect, theft, some form of sexual sin, lying. And we just need to, like, go through life. I mean, this is logic that makes sense to the youngest of us. Do you like having something taken from you? No. So you should never take anything from anybody else. Does anybody like having their possessions stolen? No. So there should be no thieving in this world. Does anybody want to be violently attacked or murdered? No. We go through life protecting ourselves against that because we don't want that to happen. So there shouldn't be any violence. There shouldn't be any murder. Our lives are in so many ways shaped and formed by the ways we love ourselves, and yet we fail to deliver that same love to those closest to us, even to our neighbors. What kind of monsters are we? How warped and bent and twisted are we that we want to be treated a certain way, but won't treat others in such a loving way? One of the campers this week, in reflecting on this very phenomenon, acknowledging that we don't want to, we shouldn't belittle, we shouldn't bully, we shouldn't make light of other people, we shouldn't make other people feel small, because we don't want that for ourselves, said, but you know what? In some cases, it makes us feel better to do that. What kind of monsters are we? How warped and twisted are we that we can say very quickly with very little reflection or thought, I don't want to be bullied, I don't want to be attacked, I don't want to be made fun of, I don't want to be belittled, but it makes me feel better about myself to do that to someone else. I suggest that there's only so much time we can spend asking how warped and twisted, how sinful, what kind of monsters are we? There's only so much time we can spend there before we lose all hope of any self-love. We just see ourselves for the monsters that we are by sin and through nature. and that the entire reason you have scripture, Jesus Christ, the good news, is not to pummel you, is not to bludgeon you and leave you bleeding out and dying in the woes of what it is to be a sinner. That is not the purpose of the bad news, but instead, it is there to drive you to Jesus Christ and the foot of the cross, and to see there the golden rule perfectly kept Indeed, the perfect rule, the sum of the law and the prophets, incarnate, full of grace and truth. Not just truth, but grace. Not just truth, but the truth in love. Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. What is that except for the golden rule? without any need whatsoever for any riches besides those that were his, the riches of heaven, the riches of eternity, the riches of the creator himself who invented and created riches as we commonly think of them. He laid all that aside to live among sinners. To have his life that reached into eternity come to death, even the death of the cross. Living at every point as the golden rule. incarnate, perfectly treating those around him the way he would want to be treated, laying aside his riches for poverty so that those impoverished might become rich with the richness that he knew from all eternity, a communion of God that was forever surrendered through sin apart from him coming in and saving sinners. We go right to the cross and you can see it before the cross. He washes his disciples' feet, something we wouldn't even want to do today with running water and indoor plumbing. He did that, the picture of a servant, the picture of a slave, he did it to give an immortal example to his disciples. He said, this is how you should treat one another. Leadership looks like this sort of service. The golden roll incarnate looks like this. Dirty, smelly, stinky feet. Hands and knees, labor to serve as you would want to be served. We could go to the cross. Peter, outspoken Peter. who denied Jesus Christ in an outspoken sort of way. And Jesus is no longer in the estate of humiliation. He has risen again from the dead. He has come and endured and lived perfectly, gone to the death of the cross, paid for the sins of his people, risen again from the dead because death couldn't hold him. He is now the exalted, risen King Jesus. And he goes out of his way to restore Peter. It wasn't beneath him to ask Peter each time for the times Peter denied him. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? And to conclude that account with those, in a sense, first words to Peter, follow me. If you deny Jesus the way Peter denied Jesus, and many of us come close to that at one point or another, how badly would you want Jesus Christ himself to restore you? And after his resurrection, after it is finished, it's not beneath Jesus to restore outspoken Peter by saying, follow me. But the golden rule incarnate, the golden rule perfectly kept, I don't believe can be seen any clearer, any better. If you want to know obedience to the point of death, even the death of the cross, see Christ thrice keeping the golden rule from the cross itself. Surrounded by enemies. Surrounded, even worse, by friends who had abandoned him. By Peter who had denied him. What's his prayer? Does he call down the angels to wipe out his enemies? Does he turn on his friends who had turned on him? Father. Forgive them. They know not what they do. They don't even know how sinful they are. They're putting the savior of humanity to death by the hands of human hands. Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do. Perfectly loving his neighbor, from the cross. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He sees his own mother from the cross, looks to his beloved disciple, and perfectly loves his mother from the cross by saying, mother, behold your son. provision, loving provision, loving his mother as he would want to be loved, loving his mother as he loves himself from the cross, entrusting her to his beloved disciple. And how about his neighbor who is also on a cross? A thief who apparently was mocking Jesus just moments before A thief who acknowledges that he deserves the death of the cross, while this Jesus is being put to death unlawfully by sinful hands, cries out to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Christ, the golden rule incarnate, literally does for that thief what will become of he himself. This day, you will be with me in paradise. We know, as those informed by all the tremendous theology in the New Testament, the scripture, the laws, and the prophets, what Jesus Christ was saying. You don't know this nameless thief. But here I am on my cross by sinful human hands unlawfully to shed my holy, divine, sinless blood for you who do indeed deserve death and even the cross. So I can say to you, this day I'll be in paradise with you. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Mother, behold your son. This day, you'll be with me in paradise. What wondrous love is this? You see, it's worth it. It's worth it to look and say we are monsters by nature. Woe are we. If we look at us, if we look at ourselves, even if we look at our autobiography, we are undone. We see we are twisted, we are warped, we are perverse. Each one of us has strayed. We have gone to our own way. And it is worth it to see the darkness of that, to turn to the light of the world, Jesus Christ, who even from the cross, as God himself approaches death, perfectly keeps. perfectly fulfills the golden rule, perfectly interrupts human history, giving us something to believe in, something to worship, something to rejoice in, something to delight in, something to hold before us, a reason for hope, a reason for comfort in life and in death, We look to ourselves, we look to those we love the most, we look to those we trust the most apart from Jesus, and we see that they can't even keep something as straightforward, as intuitive, something as obvious as the golden rule. But we turn to the New Testament, and we have four different accounts of the sinless man, the God-man, perfectly keeping the golden rule, page after page of his public ministry, right before the cross, right after the cross, and even three times on the cross. He was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And that brings us to something tremendous for today. Father's Day, also a day on which we reflect on the sad occasion of even children at points going before us to glory. And because the golden rule is kept perfectly for Jesus Christ, the future is not one where cultures recognize the universality of the Golden Rule and then proceed to universally break it. But that perfect keeping of the Golden Rule is now resulting in that same perfect keeper of the Golden Rule having dominion in even Earth's remotest regions, building up his people and eventually gathering them to himself in a place where the golden rule will be kept perfectly, uninterruptedly, forever. I don't think we can begin to imagine that. I was struck with this and it brings me back immediately to what kind of a monster am I. I was thinking, trying to think, trying to imagine, trying to begin to imagine a society, an environment, a culture in which the golden rule is perfectly kept uninterruptedly by all of the citizens, all of the members of that kingdom. And it was interesting to think about it because I actually couldn't keep myself from sort of becoming almost maniacal in considering it. Won't that be wonderful? All these people will be serving me to the best of their ability. Their whole lives, their whole entities will be grand conspiracies to do for me what I would want done for me. Won't that be grand? And it was interesting to sort of stop and say, no, you know, thank God. Thank God that won't be the case. Because me, even me, monster that I am, I'll be lost in serving others too. that maniacal conniving, calculating, how can I get others to serve me, to contribute to me, to chip in, to rule under me, to bow down before me, to build my kingdom, that will be gone. Entirely gone. And Christ, who even now is worthy of all worship, will be ceaselessly worshiped and praised. And each of us who have sinned, and if we're honest, are monstrous in some way, shape, or form, will be entirely lost, not in earning money, not in building up a resume, not in achievements, not in performance, not in building up our ever-craving egos, but will be lost in the eternal joy of serving Jesus Christ and perfectly serving our eternal neighbors in heaven. Fathers, parents, no father, no mother who loses a child can endure a Mother's Day, a Father's Day without that thought being very close to the surface. What a glory it is to stop and think that even when children do go before us to glory, even as we think of our sister Libby being in heaven, We can take heart, take joy, even delight, even if that delight comes through shed tears. That they know a world of love. That they right now know something of a society, a kingdom, in which the coin and currency is love itself. a perfect giving of self for the other, where there is no more selfishness, where there is perfect self-love, and that perfect self-love is visited into the lives of others ceaselessly, continuously, where they behold the face of Jesus Christ himself and worship him, for ushering them into a world of love where the golden rule is perfectly kept forever. There is no happier thought for Christian fathers and Christian mothers than to stop and realize that the Good Shepherd leads his people to heaven. a world of love. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, strengthen our weak knees. Make for each one of us in this room, Jesus Christ, our only comfort in life and in death, a comfort for body and soul. Build in us an appetite for the place where the golden rule is kept forever and ever without interruption, where love itself is the coin and currency. Thank you for loving us, and that through that love, we are now able to love with the love with which we've been loved. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.