Well, today we're going to continue in our study on the Sermon on the Mount. Verses 7 through 14. Thus far in our study over the last few months, we've seen Jesus instructing Christians on how to live moral and godly lives. He's taught us several things so far. We've worked through the Beatitudes. He's called us to be salt and light. He has said that He came to fulfill the law and not to abolish it. He's given us warnings against anger and lust and breaking vows and retaliation. He's instructed us on how to love our enemies and giving to the poor and he's taught us how to pray. He's instructed us on how to fast and taught us the importance of laying up treasures in heaven. He's also taught us not to worry or be anxious and not to judge others. Well, today we'll be looking in our text that asking and receiving, and we'll also be looking at the golden rule. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me this morning to Matthew 7, verses 7 through 14. Matthew 7, beginning in verse 7. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. So I'm going to look at this today under really five headings. We're going to discuss briefly and firstly, the context of these verses. Secondly, we'll look at asking and receiving, which we see in verses 7 through 8, the good gifts, which we see in verses 9 through 11. We'll look at the golden rule, verse 12, and then finally the gate in verses 13 through 14. First of all, remember, we need to look at the context of the Sermon on the Mount. As we've seen so far in our study, standards in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching on and has been teaching on, none of these can be achieved without the power of the Holy Spirit. None can. For example, how many can truly be meek or hunger and thirst for righteousness? How many can be pure in heart without the help of the Holy Spirit? What's the answer to that? How many? Zero. Zero. And so, in order to live out the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus intended, presumes, first of all, that we are Christians. Without being a Christian means, if we're not a Christian, means we don't have the Holy Spirit and the Sermon on the Mount is not even attainable. We must have the Holy Spirit helping in us, helping us to live as becomes the followers of God and thus fulfilling what's taught here in the Sermon on the Mount. So in this sermon, Jesus is speaking to the Christian. He actually refers to everyone else in the third person. Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites, insincere followers, unbelievers are all spoken of in the third person. Well, this brings us to verses 7 and 8. Again, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened. Again, these verses apply to the Christian. So a good exercise this week for you all to do is go back home and look at these verses and insert your name into these verses. David asked, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened. For David, when you ask, when you receive, the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened. You can insert your name into that, and that is Lord's promising to you as a believer. These verses deal directly with prayer. and the importance of it. The term everyone applies directly to those who belong to the Heavenly Father, those whom He has adopted into His family and who have a saving relationship with Him. These verses also were restricted to those who are obedient children, seeking by the Spirit's help to live God-honoring lives. How do we know that? Well, it's because in 1 John 3.22, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. So in the context of this verse, why do we receive when we ask of Him? Well, it's because we are called namely by Him to be His children, and we are living by the help of the Holy Spirit to live God-honoring, obedient lives. Of course, keeping His commandments doesn't mean perfectly. How many of y'all have kept the commandments perfectly this week or even this day? No, but it does mean a heart that desires obedience, a heart that desires obedience and strives toward that end. Well, certainly in asking of God as Christians, we don't ask things that are contrary to His Word. Rather, we seek for things in accordance with His Word, His character, and His promises. We ask for wisdom. We ask for His will to be accomplished in our lives. We ask for His blessing upon our church. We ask that He would help us to love others better. We ask him that he would help us to put on the fruit of the spirit. The list goes on and on. So in verse seven, Jesus puts it in the positive, we ask, and then we receive. James makes the same statement, but puts it in the negative. You may know from James 4, 2, he says, you do not have because you do not ask. Well, these verses have important implications for us today. And particularly for the Christian who is struggling, Maybe you've asked some questions like this, why can I not seem to find victory in the Christian life? Why is the Bible so hard and difficult to understand? Why do I struggle with sin? Why does what I hear and know to be true about Christian conduct have such little effect on me and my relationships with others? Well, what's the answer to these questions? Perhaps it's you're not asking the Lord to help you with these things. Remember, we have not because we ask not. So let us boldly ask the Lord in accordance with His will that He would give us these things which are important for godly living. Dr. Reuben Torrey wrote a book entitled, The Power of Prayer. It was originally written in 1924, almost 100 years ago. And as I read this statement about prayer, how much more true is it today of our culture? He said this, we do not live in a praying age. We live in an age of hustle and bustle, of man's efforts and man's determination, of man's confidence in himself and in his own power to achieve things. an age of human organization and human machinery and human push and human scheming and human achievement, which in the things of God means no real achievement at all. What we need is not so much some new organization, some new will, but the spirit of the living creature in the wills we already possess." If that was true 100 years ago, how much more true is it today? So often we see prayer as a last resort. Maybe you remember Pastor Phillips speaking about that a month or so ago from the pulpit. He said, you know, we see prayer as a last resort instead of a first resource, right? It is the power, such a power that we have right before us and we fail to use it. We forget to pray and try instead of human intervention first. We strive to receive instead of asking to receive. How many of you feel that way sometimes? We strive to receive instead of asking to receive. And then when that doesn't work, we think, oh, I need to pray now. God answers our prayers and then we're surprised. My wife and a friend were talking the other day and her friend was telling her how she had been praying for her children's future spouses. And then when God answered that prayer, she was shocked. Well, let us not be shocked when God delights in answering our prayers. God can do mighty things through prayer, and He is faithful in answering when we ask. So we see that we're not only to pray, but we're also to persevere in prayer. The imperatives used in verses 7 through 8 are ask, seek, and not. Now, there's two basic kinds of imperatives in the Greek language. The first is the aorist imperative, which is a command to do a particular thing at a particular time. So it's one thing at one time. But secondly, the present imperative is a command to do continually or indefinitely. That's what's being said here. It's we're asking, we are seeking, and we are knocking, not just a one-time thing, but it's continually, it's indefinitely. We're to be continually asking, seeking, and knocking. As Christians, this means adopting an attitude of and a posture of persistent prayer, much like Paul encouraged in 1 Thessalonians 5.17 to pray without ceasing. So if you're a weary Christian out there, like we all are from time to time, I would challenge you to pray, to give yourself to persistent prayer, and to see how the Lord uses it in your life. Well, this brings us to our next section of verses found in verses nine through 10. Or which one of you, if his son asked him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asked for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who seek Him? Well, Jesus has already said in verses 7 and 8 that God gives to those who ask in prayer. He continues along those same lines today in these verses by saying that He not only answers prayer, but He's also gracious in giving good gifts. We also see if you notice that Jesus says rather bluntly that we are evil, right? You see, did you catch that? If you then who are evil, who's that referring to? Us, right? We who are evil give good gifts to our children. So we see this points to our depraved nature, doesn't it? Our fleshly depraved nature. Well, how many of you give birthday gifts to your children? Do you all do that? Isn't it a fun thing to actually go and like buy the gift and then you wrap it? Well, that's not so fun to wrap it. But then you wrap it, and then you await their anticipation to open it, and you see their reaction and their expression. If we who are sinful know how to give good gifts to our children, and we delight in giving gifts to our children, and we're the ones who are evil and sinful, how much more does God delight in giving good gifts to you as His children? In fact, He's given us so many things, hasn't He? He's given us His very best. He gave us His Son, His perfect Son to die for our sins. He's given us His Word to help grow us in our sanctification. He's given us His church to help us hear the Word and to fellowship with other believers. He has given you, dear Christian, everything that you need in this life. Imagine a world without the Bible or without the church to come and worship and hear the God proclaimed and to fellowship with God's people. These are priceless gifts that I fear we take for granted. I'm convinced the longer you live as a Christian, the more precious these gifts really become. God's gifts are the best gifts. They are not laced with manipulation or strings attached. They are eternal, perfect, and life-giving. I don't know about you, but God is my favorite person to receive a gift from. And yet, how often do we neglect this privilege simply because we do not ask? Well, a parallel verse to this one is found in Luke 11, 13. It talks about God giving a gift. It says, if you then who are evil, there it is again, pointing out our sinful nature, right? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So what's the gift in that context? It's the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit has come and has regenerated our hearts so that we can see our need for the gospel. And then once we are converted, the Holy Spirit is given to us to help continue to convict us, help us understand a lumen scripture before us so we know how to walk in the ways of the Lord, convicts us of sin, and helps us live godly lives. We also see that the Lord is faithful to giving good gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, as James says in James 1.17. Well, Jesus then transitions from talking about asking and receiving and the Lord being gracious as a gift giver to now talking about what's been called as the golden rule. Now, this is probably the most well-known statement ever given by Jesus and it's found in verse 12. So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them for this is the law and the prophets. This is essentially one example of where Jesus is reinforcing the second commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, Leviticus 19.18. This verse is also primarily about doing for others. And it's not about doing for others to get, it's about doing for others out of love, out of genuine and sincere love for them. How we treat others is not to be determined by how we expect them to treat us or think they will treat us, but rather how we want others to treat them. Think about that in the context of your relationships, in the church, in your business, in your home. Men, don't treat your wife by how you expect they will treat you or how you think they will treat you. No, you treat them as if you want to be treated and you do so out of sincere and genuine love for them. Of course, the golden rule has been used throughout the centuries. but always put in a negative way. Whereas Jesus in these verses puts it in a positive perspective. The Jewish Rabbi Hillel said, what is hateful to yourself, do not to someone else. The book of Tobit in the Apocrypha teaches, what thou thyself hatest to not man do. Even Confucius taught, what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. Nicholas, an ancient Greek king wrote, do not do to others the things which make you angry when you experience them at the hands of other people. One Greek philosopher said, what you avoid suffering yourself, do not inflict on others. So you see how each one of those statements is putting Jesus' positive statement in a negative light. John MacArthur writes, these expressions go only as far as sinful man can go, and are essentially expressions not of love but of self-interest. The motivation is basically selfish, refraining from harming others in order that they will not harm us. You see the difference there? Those negative forms of the rule are not golden because they are primarily utilitarian and motivated by fear and self-preservation. As Scripture repeatedly tells us of fallen mankind, there is none who does good, there is not even one, Romans 3.12, and each one of us has turned to his own way, Isaiah 53.6. Well, the word rule found in golden rule can be seen as a ruler, a 12-inch measuring stick. I happened to look down in our school room today, or this week, and I found this. I found a ruler, but it also says the golden rule, which is pretty cool. So I thought I'd use it for today. But here's the idea. In England, a ruler is really called a straight edge. It's really called a straight edge. And so we could interpret this golden rule as being a golden straight edge, thereby seeing it as God's straight edge, which helps us see how morally crooked we really are. One English man described it this way, no man can justify himself before God by perfect performance of the law's demands. Indeed, it is the straight edge of the law that shows us how crooked we really are. But see, we tend to compare ourselves, don't we? And we don't compare ourselves with God's standards, we compare ourselves with others. And so we look at our golden rule and we look at our straight edge and we think, yeah, I'm pretty straight compared to my neighbor down the road. He's not a Christian. What are we supposed to be doing? We're to hold up the straight edge and we're to hold it in light of God's law to us and what God commands. And when we do that, we say, oh, we've got a ways to go, don't we? Hopefully not as far a ways to go as we did five years ago, because hopefully by God's grace, we're growing and we're becoming more and more holy and like him. But we still have a ways to go to meet God's standards in our lives, but we can do it by His grace and by the help of the Holy Spirit. Well, many will admire the Golden Rule. You hear it even in secular society throughout, don't we? Many will give praise to the words of the Golden Rule but have no intention of really following it. Martin Lloyd-Jones comments, after all, the law was not meant to be praised, It was meant to be practiced. Our Lord did not preach the Sermon on the Mount in order that you and I might comment upon it, but in order that we might carry it out. Verse 12 presents, again, something impossible for us to do apart from the Holy Spirit. However, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can do to others in a loving way as we would have them do to us. So to sum up, the golden rule is others focus rather than self-focus, which is really the backdrop of the Christian life. We're serving God, we're serving His people, we're loving people. In an imperfect way, yes, but we're loving people as He has loved us. Well, the last section of our text today, found in verses 13 through 14, really brings all of this to a head. And Jesus gives a command with a reward, along with a warning and a punishment. We read, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to eternal life, and those who find it are few. So, in these verses, he's really contrasting the narrow and the wide gate. So, what is the punishment for those that are going through the wide gate? What does it say there? Destruction, right? What is the reward for those that will go through the narrow gate? Eternal life, eternal life, such a contrast. So there's either the wide gate or the narrow gate. The wide gate is easy, it's attractive, it's permissive, it's self-indulgent, and it's self-oriented. There are few rules and there's few requirements. And even those rules and requirements in people going through the wide gate can change because who determines them? You do, right? So the whole word, such a popular word in today's culture is fluid. Even the rules and requirements for those going through the wide gate are fluid because they're self-determined. Notice that going through the wide gate is a self-indulgent path of righteousness. Notice that many will go through the wide gate. This includes Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, even some that believe they are Christians, but their hearts are far from Him. The wide gate is so popular now, isn't it? People want to label themselves as being a Christian, but they still want to live like the world. They want to call themselves a Christian, but they want to party like the world. They want to call themselves a Christian, but they want to imbibe of the indulgences of the world. Jesus says, no, the narrow gate is the better way. The narrow gate is difficult. It's hard. It's God-oriented with the focus being on God, not on man and what God has done for man. The narrow gate is Hard, God-oriented, but brings the ultimate reward. When I was preparing for this lesson, I kept thinking about Pilgrim and Pilgrim's progress. Remember the journey as Pilgrim was taking to that celestial city. How many times was he encouraged to take the wider road, to take the easier road, to take the more traveled road? But it was the less traveled road, wasn't it? It was the more difficult road that led to the ultimate reward. Well, these verses beg the question, who or what is the gate? Well, the answer is Jesus. It is Jesus himself who serves as the gate. John writes in John 10, 9, I am the door. And in some translations, that word door is translated gate. I am the door or the gate. If anyone enters by me, He will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Jesus says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It's a pretty emphatic and bold statement, right? But it's true. The only way to get to the Father, the only way to have a saving relationship with the Father is to go through the Son who is the way, the truth, and the life. You can't come to God through your genetics. In other words, just because you have a Christian home or grew up in a Christian home, doesn't make you a Christian. This is one of the things that we taught in the communicants class. Your parents are Christians, but you've got to make their faith your own. And at some point, you all did as well. You can't come to God through good works because there are no good works that can ultimately satisfy God's wrath against you. You cannot come to God through trying to live a moral life because God's standards are different than man's standards. You cannot come to God through a blending of ideas of religions, creating yourself a mini-God. No, you must come to God through the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. John Stott writes about these verses, Jesus cuts across our easygoing syncretism. And what is syncretism? It's the idea or the blending of different ideas or philosophies and religions. And it's so very popular today. I call it Oprah Winfrey theology. but it's so very popular today. And the idea is this, you're taking what you like about Christianity and you're discarding what you don't like. You're taking what you like about Buddhism and you're bringing that in and you're discarding what you don't like. So you're creating your own religion based on what you feel like you like. And so I mentioned it rather quickly, but I'll drive it home now. In doing that, who is God? You're making yourself your own God, are you not? Jesus says, no, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father. No one can be saved except through me. In that way, we have to believe, we have to rest upon the Word of God and receive it as absolute truth in our own life. John MacArthur writes, there have always been two systems of religion in the world. One is God's system of divine accomplishment. The other is man's system of human achievement. One is the religion of God's grace. The other is the religion of man's works. One is the religion of faith. The other is the religion of the flesh. One is the religion of the sincere heart and the internal. The other is the religion of hypocrisy and the external. Within man's systems are thousands of religious forms and names, but they are all built on the achievements of man and the inspiration of Satan. Christianity, on the other hand, is the religion of divine accomplishment and it stands alone. Well, Jesus continues in these last two verses what He has been saying all throughout the Sermon on the Mount. He's been contrasting external with internal righteousness. And here, He's just driving it home even more. It's external, pharisaical righteousness which matters not in the kingdom of God, but it's the inward, internal righteousness given by Jesus to those who truly have called upon Him in saving faith that really matters. Entering the narrow gate necessitates saving faith in the Lord Jesus. It also involves living a life that's worthy of the calling that we have as Christians. It is more and more, it's not an easy life as you all have seen. How many of you all became Christians as adults? And then all of a sudden your life got harder, right? It got more blessed, yes. But it becomes hard because now you have this inward struggle, right, between what was and what is now. Even those of you that became converts as Christians probably remember that. You didn't used to worry about sinning. As an unbeliever, it didn't bother you when you sinned. But now, all of a sudden, the Lord Jesus is coming to your life and now it bothers you. Now there's a struggle. No, it's not an easy life, but what a blessed life it is. It is a life more and more striving to do less of what we want to do in the flesh and more of what God wants us to do. It becomes less about satisfying our own desires and more about satisfying His desires. It's mortifying sins. It's fighting against the evil one. Charles Spurgeon once said, you and your sins must separate or you and your God will never come together. No one's sin may you keep. They must all be given up. They must all be brought out like Canaanite kings from the cave and be hanged in the sun." That's the picture of mortifying and putting to death, by the help of the Holy Spirit, sins in our life. Well, there was a chilling letter that was once written in a daily newspaper in Australia years ago. that describes one going through the wide gate, which leads to destruction. It reads this, after hearing Dr. Billy Graham on the air, viewing him on television and reading reports and letters concerning him and his mission, I am heartily sick of the type of religion that insists that my soul and everyone else's needs saving, whatever that means. I've never felt that I was lost, nor do I feel that I daily wallow in the mire of sin, although repetitive preaching insists that I do. Give me a practical religion that teaches gentleness and tolerance, that acknowledges no barriers of color or creed, that remembers the aged and teaches children of goodness and not sin. If in order to save my soul, I must accept such a philosophy as I have recently heard preached, I prefer to remain forever damned." What chilling words that is, isn't it? But as you think about it, isn't this what's preached now and proclaimed now? It's a religion of gentleness and tolerance. It's the wide way. It's not the narrow way. You've heard it before. If we say we must obey the Word of God, we're seen as being legalist. Well, that's not what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying, no, the narrow gate's hard, but it is obediently following the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. seeking His will, seeking to please Him. And so, my friends, let us pray. As we think about that chilling letter, pray for those in your life that you know are unbelievers. Never give up, persistently praying, as we talked about today, persistently praying that the Holy Spirit would do a mighty work in their lives. We should caution others of the wide gate. But we should also proclaim the glorious riches that lie beyond that narrow gate. Here's our assurance. Everyone that comes to the Father, remember, comes through Jesus Christ. And in Jesus' words in John 6, 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. What a blessing that is, isn't it? Some of you all may be struggling with assurance of salvation. Have you come to Jesus Christ in saving faith? Then what does Jesus say? Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And why is that? How can we be assured of that? Because God's Word is true, His words never fail, and God fails not. He doesn't change. So he's not going to say to you, I'm going to decide to save you and call you to saving faith today, and then I'm going to withhold that and take that away tomorrow. God's nature doesn't allow him to do that. He doesn't change. If you have come to the Lord Jesus in saving faith, Jesus says, I will never cast you out. And then in verse 40 of John 6, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. And the promise is coming, it's here, and I will raise him up on that last day. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for Jesus's words here on the Sermon on the Mount. Oh, Lord, we forget to ask so much. We strive in our own strength, and we go to that first instead of coming to you and praying to you and asking. And so we receive not because we ask not. Help us to ask more, to pray more, to persistently pray in accordance with your will. that you would show us, that you would teach us more of yourself, that you would show us and teach us more how to live godly lives. Lord, the narrow gate is difficult, but it's one that you've told us to go through and to keep pushing through and to keep persevering in. Help us as a body of believers to encourage one another. Lord, help us to pursue that narrow gate. knowing the blessed reward, not only in this life, but even the more blessed eternal reward that awaits for us in heaven. We pray, Lord, for those that we know that are unbelievers, help us in a winsome, in a loving, in a gracious way to proclaim the dangers of the wide gate. Oh, but to proclaim the glorious riches of what lies beyond that narrow one. Help us to do that, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.