This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 7, 1990.

It’s from Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, we are reading. Matthew 7, verse 1. And the word of God. After it shall be given you, take them you shall find. After it shall be opened unto you, for everyone that asketh will see this, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that lacketh it shall be opened.

For what man is corrupt through whom, if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a servant? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which 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.

This story is told of two men boarding a plane one evening for a trip together. After having traveled on the plane, they began to exchange comments. They enter into a discussion, and they find out one is an astronomer, the other is a minister. And the astronomer ventures forth his philosophy of life, and turns his comments to religion, and says finally to the minister, After all, isn’t the substance of religion do unto others as you’d have them do unto you? The minister was silent. He looked out the window, looked at the stars in the heavens. Then after a moment’s silence, he turned to the astronomer, He said, would you be interested in my view of astronomy? And the astronomer said, well, of course. To which the minister then said, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.

Well, you know me well enough to understand that I don’t usually begin sermons with public stories, but this one is very useful because it does call attention to two problems in relationship to the so-called golden rule. which appears for us this morning in Matthew 7 verse 12 and reads this way in that text.

And therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. This is the law of the prophets. The two problems presented here by the astronomer’s approach to religion as we go version of the golden rule, are these. One, there is always that temptation to isolate this text, making it into an individual gem, an isolated individual gem, a pearl of wisdom that could appear virtually on its own. Stand by itself.

And the second problem, of course, is this. That there are the many who see the Golden Rule as the sum and substance of biblical religion. So you have these two difficulties. a wrenching of the passage out of context, and the other one, the temptation to see this woven rule as the sum and substance of biblical religion, and that in its detached, isolated form. Well, as to the first problem, As we noted already, there is that habit to separate this 12th verse in Matthew 7 from the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, and from the rest of Scripture for that matter.

The text then standing on its own, becoming an independent maxim. In the hands of some, this approach goes to the extreme. you have those who then wish to reduce the sum and substance of all of religion to what is found here. Those who look to Jesus as some sort of wise sage, a person who is given to the presentation of a religious philosophy. There are those within the Church who have taken a disturbing approach to the passage as well.

There are those who see the passage also as an independent maxim, a pearl that stands by itself. In fact, they go so far as to say that verse 12 in chapter 7 of Matthew doesn’t belong there at all. It was an isolated statement by Jesus. It was placed here by Matthew for reasons known only to him, or for reasons which in the end don’t really work, don’t really suit the context. Now, we do have to face the difficulty of verse twelve here in this context. For the connection between this twelfth verse and what has gone before, verses seven through eleven, is not easy.

Still, that connection is real and intelligible. First of all, note this, if you will. Note what Jesus says at the beginning of the 12th verse. He has there the word, therefore, obviously, in his mind, there is a connection between this verse and what has preceded.

And this verse, then, provides a conclusion to what has gone before, what we have read, what we have heard in verses 7 through 11. Verses seven through twelve, then, hang together. They are a whole. And Jesus, as he gives us this twelfth verse, intends that verse to be a conclusion to what he has been saying in this section. Now note, secondly, in this twelfth verse there is the preservation of, the maintenance of, the general theme of these verses. You know how these verses start out. Verse 7, ask, seek, long. There is the theme of inquiry. There is that theme of the approach to God, gaining access to God, asking. And that theme is then carried through The theme is there.

In fact, as you read the twelfth verse, you may want to do a little bit of paraphrasing of your own, so that the passage would read this way. Whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask, do for them when they ask. Fill out that 12th verse in terms of the theme of asking things. We could paraphrase the text this way and paraphrase it well. Whatever you want others to do for you when you ask them, do for them when they ask you. for his mention in that 11th verse of giving. How much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? You could paraphrase that 12th verse in terms of giving. Whatever you want others to give to you, give to them.

So you see, Even though there may be problems for us as we read through this section and move from verses seven through eleven to the twelfth verse, recognizing problems, there is a wholeness there. There is an integrity. Verse twelve is completing the thought, maintaining the theme of asking. And thirdly, I want you to know how consistent this statement is twelve years with what we find elsewhere in the sermon on the mouth.

You know how much Jesus in the sermon on the mouth is interested in the action, the activity of his servants of the site of the game. That method used by Jesus, whereby he seems to turn things around on you in order to draw you in so that you would see that what he has in mind is not complete until there is an action on your part, an activity performed by you. You know how in this 12th verse, for instance, you know how Jesus reverses the direction that he has been moving in verses 7 through 11.

In verses 7 through 11, we are the ones who have been asking. Ask, and it shall be given to you. But then you come to the twelfth verse, and there it says, if the process is reversed and others are asking of you. That pattern is also observed when Jesus gives his instructions with regard to prayer in the sixth chapter. You remember the petition.

The fifth petition, verse twelve of Matthew six, and forgive us our debts. But then he concludes, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and if this petition were the very center of the prayer that he is teaching his disciples, he chooses it to comment upon At the conclusion, verses fourteen and fifteen.

For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. You’re asking for the discharge of the debt. But brought into view is you discharging debt. You’re asking for forgiveness, but brought into view is your forgiving attitude, your willingness to forgive. Jesus’ instruction on prayer in Matthew 6 is not complete until he’s gone on to tell his disciples that fact. Unless you will forgive, you will not be forgiven. Or forgive with the very same spirit of the One who has forgiven you. emulate your God, imitate Him, pattern yourself after Him.

Well, the impact of this, as we look at verse twelve, has to do with our attitude. has to do with the covenantal structure of things. God, indeed, acting through us, as we’ve seen in verses 7 through 11, but then you act in it. We respond in it. And actually, how does God establish it? And so does God, with respect to God, deal with it. So we will be forgiven as we have forgiven. Good will be given to us as we have found good.

With all of this, then, in an effort to demonstrate our peace, we have here a passage that is intricate, that cannot be chopped up, that flows, that moves, that hangs, that breaks. Now moving on to the second problem with regard to the so-called danger rule, that is likely to be turned into the sum and substance of biblical religion. And here the habit is, to take this text as if Jesus were the advocate of some form of moralism, as if religion could be reduced to morals, and that’s all that it was. As if it pertained merely to our behavior, as if it pertained merely to ethics, forgetting the power that would animate us, in the performance of those duties that are required, as if it were oblivious to the undergirding redemptive works of God, as if we could forget about the necessity of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, the necessity of his bodily resurrection for our redemption, as if religion were morals and had nothing to do with salvation, deliverance, and redemption.

I hope that you recoil from these things. I hope as I survey or analyze that approach to religion that reduces everything to morals, that you are recoiling internally, and that you find that abhorrent, because it means the loss of everything that is precious to you with respect to the gospel of Has Christ come merely to give you a code of behavior? Has He arrived merely to tell you one more time what you ought to do? Or has He come to save you? Has He shed His blood for you, and not necessarily, in order to deliver you out of the present evil age and rule over the present life?

Morals are fine, but you see they are in consequence of God’s redemptive activity. That’s called even the wettest of the wicked, or what’s invincible in the Bible. Morals in themselves can’t stand the good behavior of the worldly is an abomination to God, you must be born again. If you are not born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Well, how do we deliver this text from the moralists? How do we understand it in a redemptive frame?

Well, I’ve suggested the route already. It is essential to see at the center of this text the asking experience that we’ve already spoken of. Do you realize what’s going on when someone makes requests of another? That one who makes requests is literally placing himself in the power of the one he asks. In asking of God, we are placing ourselves in God’s power. But note now, when we come to God, asking of Him, placing ourselves in His power, how wonderfully God responds to us.

And this response of Him to us, undergirded by and sealed by His response to us in His Son, in the gift of His Son and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. All of that, the foundation of God’s response to us when we make requests of Him. But by this redemption now, this great work of redemption, we are brought into vital relationship with our God. And what is the consequence of that? Having been brought into vital relationship with our God, we are now compelled to respond with the graciousness and the generosity of our God to those who place themselves in our power when they ask of us, when they make requests. Our response to those who ask of us, then, is conditioned and controlled by God himself, who, in response to us, gave his all for us. And therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask of them, Do so for them if they ask of you. This is the law and the prophets.

Yes, in the end it proves to be the sum and substance of biblical religion, but biblical religion understood now within that redemptive salvation frame. truly a revelation of the truth. I understand as we reach the end of the matter. In our studies of this text. It is not merely a new game.

Of access to the father through the work of the It is a new day of access of others to us. Never before could you respond as you are capable of responding now in Christ when others make requests of you. Let’s pray together. Our Lord, we do beseech you that you would be kind and merciful continually For we do in fact make requests of you, but Lord, may we not be blind to the fact that others make requests of us. And may we learn well the lessons of the gospel. May we understand well the person of the Father in heaven and what you have done in Christ your Son. so that when others come to us, we might respond to them graciously and generously as you have responded to us for Christ’s sake. We pray this now, Lord, having set before us that testament to the fact that you have responded to our need in Christ Jesus, in his death, for us sinners on the cross. It’s in his name that we pray. Amen. As we come to the Lord’s table, we ask that we would sing together hymn 186. 186.

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