Grace, the untoing peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. The primary text for today, Palm Sunday, sermon ever preached. The Sermon on the Mount continues today with the 12th installment, and the title of the sermon is Golden Gates. Now, the second word of that sermon title is obviously directly drawn from our text itself, because in verses 13 and 14, the Bible speaks of two gates, the straight or the narrow and the broad or the wide. Now, while the Bible does refers to what is commonly known as the Golden Rule. Verse 12 Therefore of all things, whatsoever ye that would men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law of the prophets. Essentially, how you want people to treat you This is commonly put like this, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or maybe in a contemporary English, you would just say, treat others the way that you want to be treated. And as we have seen time and time again, And I mean, this golden rule here, this can make a pretty good case for being one of the most or the most common thing that people will quote from the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, just about everybody has heard this at some point in their lives, haven't they? You may have been told this that many people would see as this is something good to live up to. Now we will see later that this verse can be tied to the Gospel mission of Jesus. But at this point, let's just take at face value this profound statement. Because as you know, there are many, many people in the world who don't follow Jesus They don't believe that He was the Son of God. But many of these same people, what will they tell you? They will tell you, well, I think that Jesus said some good things. He said some profound, some interesting things. And where they're often going to go to is this golden rule, aren't they? This is one of those things they might say, well, that was kind of Practically speaking, this good golden rule of do unto others as you would have them do unto you is pretty advantageous, isn't it, if we practice that? The Bible handbook writer Henry Healy points out that following the golden rule can be beneficial in our relationships, a friend or a significant other that treats you like you want to be treated, that's a keeper, right? That's somebody you want as a friend or a significant other because they treat you well, they treat you like they want to be treated. And on the professional side, if you are thinking of spending some of your hard-earned money at a store or hiring someone to do some work for you, if you believe that business treats their customers like they would want to be treated, that might be a company you'd want to hire, right? I've even seen some business slogans like that, you see in ads or signs, we treat you like family, we treat you like one of our own, and we were doing the job for them. It can be good. but it certainly does have a practical application. There are many, many things that God teaches us in the Bible that if people do them, whether they believe in Christ or not, it's going to make their earthly life better. So if you wouldn't with me think for a moment, just think about that for a minute. Think about if we lived in a world that practiced the golden rule consistently. What if we lived in a world that consistently practiced the golden rule? That would be great, wouldn't it? Kretzmann writes in his commentary, Now on the first day of class, I know all of you have been in a class at some point, maybe some longer than others, but on the first day of a class, what does the teacher usually do? I know some of you are teachers or retired teachers. It's usually the housekeeping day, right? The first day, the teacher comes in with a syllabus and says, okay, this is what we're going to be doing in this class. expectations of you in this class, this is what I want you to do, this is what I don't want you to do. Now as a teacher, I would always do that on the first day of class, go through all this stuff, even with the confirmation, the catechumens of the church, excuse me, the first class, the Morris kids a few weeks ago. And as I was going through those rules, what I would tell my students every single time is I said, you know, we only really need one rule in this class. And if everyone would follow this one rule, we can throw out all these other rules I got out of this paper. We could probably even get rid of the school fan book, the disciplinary code. If we would just follow this one rule, and you know what it was, the golden rule. I would tell them if you do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if you treat others like you wanna be treated, then all this other stuff will kinda take care of itself. Of course, that never happened. We had to have the other rules too, right? But think about it. Think about it for a moment. It sounds so simple, but all of our problems, our conflicts, and even crime, almost all crime would disappear if the golden rule were followed. It would be well like heaven on earth. And guess what? When we get to heaven, the golden rule is always followed. Now speaking more directly to what Jesus has been teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount, if you put this verse in context of what Jesus has been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, this is really the climax verse right here to what Master Rabbi has been teaching. Is it? Yes. Now Mark Luther, he makes a great opportunity Now I'm sure over the years you've heard some sermons you didn't think were that great and one of the reasons for that is because sometimes the sermons are all over the place, right? You ever hear a sermon like that where it's just kind of one story after another or one kind of random point after another? Hopefully you don't hear too many of those. and my servants a lot. If you don't remember one thing from this servant, I want you to remember this. I know you've heard me say that before. A former pastor I had, if anyone complimented his servants on the way out of church, you know what he would say? He'd say, well, what was the point? What was the teaching point? And he'd get a question back at him. Because there's usually one thing we want to take away. What is the main point here? And of course, Jesus being the best preacher ever, best teacher ever, he's gonna do that. He concludes the teaching He has been given in these three chapters and He wraps it up in a little package where it can all be found. So all this stuff Jesus is wrapping up in this little phrase, this little package as Luther calls it. So let's think about that. What has Jesus already taught us in the Sermon on the Mount? Remember He started out with the Beatitudes? Well what did the Beatitudes do? They held up the ideal type of person who is humble. We are told to be people that are salt and light. We are told to not be hateful to others, but rather loving. Not to betray others, but to be loyal. Turning the other cheek instead of retaliating. Not being showy in our religious practice before crowds, but humble before God. Not worried and suspicious, but calm and confident in God's provision. on them, but rather judging with the same godly standard that we would apply to ourselves. He has taught us to give good gifts rather than harmful ones. All that is a summary of everything we have been hearing in the Sermon on the Mount up to this point of chapter 7. Whatsoever he would that men should do to you, do ye even so them. What a summary. What a takeaway Jesus gives to summarize all of these things. Something that, well, we know it was remembered because people are still saying it today, aren't they? 2,000 years later. But we don't wanna forget the end of verse 12. What does the end of verse 12 say? and the promise. This sounds a little bit like what Jesus would teach later in the Gospel of St. Matthew in chapter 22, verses 34-40 to be exact. Some of you might remember this. There was a scribe, a lawyer, that came up to Jesus. You know, they are always trying to trap Him with questions and things. And this particular scribe's question was this, Hey Jesus, What is the greatest law? What is the greatest commandment? Now keep in mind that in the Mosaic Law, there were over 600. There were like 613 laws, and then folks like him had added thousands of other laws to it. So tell us which one is the greatest one. Jesus then says, think about verse 12, what He just said. Jesus then says in those verses, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. All of it. So you want to follow the law, you want to follow the Ten Commandments, it's summarized down to two here by Jesus. Love God more than anything else. Sounds kind of like what He's saying here in the Sermon on the Mount, doesn't it? Treat others as you would want them to treat you. Not how they treat you, but how you want them to treat you. And this is the Law and the Promise. In fact, this is so good. Some of the commentaries I was reading, some of the commentators are like, you know, Jesus could have just ended the sermon right here. This could have been it. Just stop it right here because He's somewhere else. because something else has to be done. Okay, Jesus has taught us all this, but He needs to tell people there's two paths. There's really two options of how you're either gonna do this or you're not gonna do this, and where these roads are gonna lead. So what Jesus does to conclude the Sermon on the Mount is He gives four examples. Five if you split the first one into two, but we're gonna take them together today. He says there are two ways and two gates. He says there are two trees. Foundations. Verses 13 and 14, we look specifically at the first of those examples. The two waves leading to two gates. So today is Palm Sunday. Today is Palm Sunday. You know, it's obvious you don't get one of these every Sunday when you come to the church. We got these and we have to go outside. But you know what, in thinking about that, there's some lessons we can learn there that relate to what we're hearing from Matthew's Gospel this morning. Because how did Jesus enter into the city of Jerusalem? Well, He came through the city gates. And those city gates, many, many, many, many people over hundreds and thousands of years came through those gates into the city. And especially that week, why were there so many people around? Because so many pilgrims were coming into the holy city through the gates. This was the Passover week. So when Jesus shows up and he comes through those gates, there's a lot of fanfare. There's a lot of glory, laud, and honor going on as we sing, as we persist into our sanctuary. This scene, if you think about it, it was pretty chaotic, but it was joyous, it was triumphant. the throngs of people greeting Him, people shouting, Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! People were literally throwing their cloaks down on the road before Jesus. They were waving palm branches because they were the ancient sign of victory, because the King was here. They believed Jesus would be their King. But alas, He wouldn't be the type of King that they wanted. because the crown that this king would wear is not one filled with golden jewels, but it's a crown like this. He was not there to make a political statement against the Romans. That's what most of the people wanted. So what happened just a few short days later, I hope you'll be here later this week as we remember this, but just a few short days later, Jesus takes another trip. He takes another trip through Jerusalem. And this time he's not going out, he's not coming into the city, he's going out of the city. Right outside the city walls. And there's a lot of people there too. There's a lot of people there that just take it naturally. But this time the crowds are not there to shout, Hosanna, but the crowds are there to mock him. They are to shout, They were there shouting, crucify him! Within a week, Mosanna to crucify him. Two walks, one into the city that's triumphant, one that seems on the surface very much gloom and doom. That walk on Good Friday was a much more difficult one. And even though there were people everywhere in it, it was a lot more lonely, wasn't it? But it was the road that would lead to salvation, to eternal life. So when Jesus speaks to us today, remember, He's speaking to the servant on the mount way before this would happen. But so many things we read to the servant on, that's exactly what Jesus is going to do, what happened to him. So He's telling us about these two roads, these two gates in verses 13 and 14. He says there is a straight, or there is a narrow gate, and then there's a broad one. And the broad road, you've got plenty of company, folks. You've got plenty of company to celebrate with you on that broad road. Now the narrow way, it's a lot more lonely. You're gonna feel a lot more lonely on that narrow way, a lot of the time. The narrow road, from that road, it's not gonna get you a lot of pats on the back and admirers. The narrow road, it's not gonna get you a lot of celebration by the pop culture of today. But the lonely and the narrow way, that is the one that leads to the straight gate, and that is the gate that is the entrance to life, to eternal life. Sometimes you gotta get off the path that everybody else is on to find the true treasure, don't you? Now I know some of you are younger folks, so you may still be in this phase, but the rest of us remember it. You ask your parents if you can do something Everybody else is doing it. Everybody else has that. And then what do we say, parents? We say, well, just because everybody else is doing it doesn't mean that you have to. That's what we say. Something to that effect. Well, think for a moment if there was a magnificent waterfall located out in the jungle that barely anybody ever got to see. Now I'm talking about, you know, if you've seen like the Black Panther movie, the amazing waterfall, it's like better than that. But very few people see it. So you go off in the jungle, and what you notice in the jungle, there is a path in the jungle, and it's pretty well worn. A lot of people have been on that path, but that's gonna tell you, is that path gonna lead to that waterfall? No, because nobody ever finds it. This is the way that everybody goes. So what you would need to do is you would have to find, there's gotta be another path. It's probably off to the side somewhere. You'd have to go through some brush. It's a little bit less obvious. It looks a little hard. People might not wanna do it. But if you take that road, you reach the waterfall. You reach the destination. You see the right path. What is the right path in life? What is the right path to eternal life? It is not a popularity contest. It's not determined by size. Luther said this about his time, it hadn't changed too much. He said, if that were true, if you take the road that is the majority position, and what's the accepted, this is what everybody wants to do, then Luther said that the Turks, that's the Muslims, and the Papists, that's the Roman Church, that's exactly what they argue. He said that's what they're telling people. He says, their argument is basically, there aren't many of us, and we've believed this for a long time, therefore we must be right. number of adherents. It is not determined by how long something has been done. The true path is determined by what? By Scripture. What did Jesus say in John 14, verse 6? I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. You see, the true path, the way through heaven's gates, is Jesus, as He has told us in His Word. And it can be lonely. It can be difficult. It's not going to change. But God is with us on that road, and that is enough. That is the only thing we need on that road is God. We heard about that in our psalm today, didn't we? Entering into the gates, and how was it done? What has Jesus been talking about? Through righteousness. Enter the gates with righteousness. So let's, before we close, let's go back to that golden rule for a moment. Let's return to that golden rule. Now, maybe in the world, as I said, they are familiar with the golden rule. It's not often practiced, but they know about it. Now, much more common and much more appealing to our sinful flesh, and actually how some people misquote the golden rule, is there's another rule, it's called the silver rule. It's called the silver rule. Some of you may be familiar with that. Yes, actually, I told you back earlier in the series about some of the things, if you take the opposite position of what Jesus says, you're actually literally taking something from the playbook of the Church of Satan. The silver rule is part of the creed of this Church of Satan, written in the book by Anton Bobet. And you know what it says? The silver rule is, treat others as they treat you. Well, that's what Jesus said. No, it's not. The Church of Satan says, though, treat people as they treat you. That's a lot more appealing to our sinful flesh, isn't it? The silver rule is that if people treat you poorly, guess what? You treat them poorly like that. Why would you do that? Because they don't deserve your respect. They don't deserve your kindness. They have got to earn it. Christianity, on the other hand, though, says treat others They might not deserve it. I mean, there's people I'm sure they treated you horribly and they don't deserve it. They don't deserve it. In some ways, the Golden Rule, it's not completely unique to Christianity. Sometimes people say, well, you know, every religion has the Golden Rule. Well, a lot of them do have a variation of it or something similar to it. For example, in the Hindu religious writings, the Udana Bharga, it says this, hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Well, it sounds a little similar. But what's unique about the Golden Rule? about the golden rule that Jesus brings forth that none of the other religions can claim. And that is because Jesus followed through on what He taught in a way that no one else could. I've repeatedly said that during this sermon series as well, haven't I? All of these things that Jesus is asking His disciples to do, which are hard, right? We're not sugarcoating because at least this is hard. Turn to the other chief, Love, don't love money above everything else. Take the narrow road even though a great's not gonna like you. I mean, this is hard stuff. But here's the thing, Jesus did all of these things. All of these things he tells us my disciples should be doing, he did every single one of them. And he does that with the golden rule as well. You see, the gospel, what is the gospel? The gospel is simply the good news that God himself has died to save us. He gives us salvation. He gives us what? Something that we have not earned, something that we don't deserve. And He gives it to us. Jesus ultimately does for others the most selfless service imaginable. What He does, and we're going to remember that this week, He takes that lonely road. He takes the lonely road to suffering and death on the cross. And He dies the death of a criminal, even though He had done no wrong. When everyone else was mistreating Him, even to the point of literally killing Him, how does Jesus treat other people? He could have called fire down from heaven. He could have called the angels down. But what does He do? He still dies for them. He still does His Father's will. He still says, Father, forgive them. Again, all things that were here this week, Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God.