Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.northharris.freechurch.org/sermons/56405/26524-am/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Let us now worship God and we'll sing to his praise from the Psalm. It's Psalm 23. It's a version of Psalm 23 that we find in Mission Praise 1000.

[0:12] And the Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me lie in pastures green. He leads me by the still, still waters. His goodness restores my soul. And then the repeated chorus, and I will trust in you alone.

[0:27] And that's our expression as we begin this service of worship, that we trust in the Lord Jesus. And I will trust in you alone.

[1:04] And I will trust in you alone.

[1:17] And I will trust in you alone. For your endless mercy follows me.

[1:31] Your goodness will lead me home. He guides my ways in righteousness. And he annoys my every Lord.

[1:48] And my cup is over, flows with joy. I feast on his pure delight.

[1:59] And I will trust in you alone. And I will trust in you alone.

[2:11] For your endless mercy follows me. Your goodness will lead me home.

[2:24] And though I want the darkness run. I will not fear the evil one.

[2:36] For you are with me and your rod and staff are a comfort I need to know.

[2:48] And I will trust in you alone. And I will trust in you alone.

[3:00] For your endless mercy follows me. Your goodness will lead me home.

[3:13] Let's unite our hearts in prayer.

[3:24] Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, your day.

[3:37] We thank you that week by week we are able to come to this place and to gather together. In the name of Jesus, your Son, our Savior. We thank you that we can say with the psalmist that we are trusting in the Lord Jesus alone.

[3:54] We know that as the psalmist wrote, he could not yet see clearly the Lord Jesus. He is trusting in a promise of a Messiah who was to come.

[4:06] We thank you that we are able to see today what the psalmist could not see. We thank you that we are able to look and fix our eyes upon the Lord Jesus, the one who said, I am the good shepherd, the one who lays down his life for the sheep.

[4:23] We thank you that we hear the call of Jesus morning by morning. And especially on this, your day, we thank you that we hear that call as he says to us, come, all who are weary, all who are burdened, all who are thirsty in their souls, come, and I will give you rest.

[4:42] We thank you for the endless mercy that we've sang of. We are aware, Lord, we are conscious that we are those who are in need of mercy. We're conscious that the only way that we can become Christians, the only way that we can come to faith and find forgiveness and find life is by crying out with one of old, Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner.

[5:08] And we thank you that that prayer, when spoken from a heart in sincerity and in faith, is a prayer that saves. We know that we can speak many flowery words.

[5:19] We can use many religious phrases, but it's not the technicality of our words, but it's the sincerity of heart that is what you're looking for.

[5:31] We thank you for the assurance that we're given, that that prayer, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner, is enough to justify us, to make us righteous, on account of all that Jesus has done for us.

[5:46] We thank you that Jesus went to the cross. We thank you that he took the punishment. He took the pain. He was willing to suffer for our sake.

[5:59] We thank you that he was the one who satisfied the wrath of God so that we can be shown mercy. And we thank you that there's no end.

[6:11] There's no bottom to the depths of your mercy. No matter what it is we have done. No matter how far we wander. No matter how hard our hearts may become.

[6:23] We thank you, Lord, that when we turn, as the prodigal son did, and return to you, we never find that you push us away, but you will show us mercy.

[6:36] So how many reasons we have to come to you this morning. How many reasons we have to trust in the Lord Jesus. And we thank you for the assurance also that it's that trust, it's that faith that brings us to salvation.

[6:53] For God so loved the world that he sent his only son, that whoever believes, whoever trusts, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

[7:04] So we pray that you would give us faith. That each one of us here would be believing. That each one of us here would come and seek forgiveness, seek salvation.

[7:16] That each one of us would be able to say, the Lord is my shepherd. And that we would experience the contentment and the joy that comes from following the Lord Jesus through life, even through death, into life that's everlasting.

[7:31] We thank you that in the good days, when we are able to lie down in green pastures, you are with us. We thank you that in the dark valleys, when we're going through hard times, that you are with us.

[7:45] And so we pray that we would know your blessing this day. We pray for any who are going through dark valleys. We are always conscious, Lord, of those who are in particular need.

[7:56] We pray on for those who are grieving. And we ask, Lord, that you would comfort them. We pray again for the family of the Reverend Ian Morrison. As the funeral is scheduled in open this week, and then a service in back.

[8:11] We pray for all who will gather in these places to grieve. We pray that you would grant to them comfort. We pray especially again for Donald John and for Fiona.

[8:22] And we ask, Lord, that you would uphold them, that you would minister to them, that they would know that you are near to them in this week especially. We pray on for those who are battling with addictions.

[8:36] We pray for the Road to Recovery meeting. And we ask, Lord, that it would be a meeting where we sense your presence, where we hear your voice, and where we know that strength that comes from waiting upon the Lord.

[8:48] We pray for those who are sick. Those who are waiting for procedures. Those who have had procedures and are waiting for results. We pray for those who are waiting for us. We pray for those who are in homes, in Harris House and in Leverborough home.

[9:11] As we think of them, Lord, we pray for them. And ask that you would draw near to them where they are. Lord, we pray for our nation and those in authority over us. We ask, Lord, that you would have mercy upon us as a nation.

[9:25] As we take a different course to the course that you would have us follow you on. We confess, Lord, that we are far from you.

[9:36] Draw us back, we pray. And those in leadership, we ask, Lord, that you would touch their hearts. And that you would humble them. That they would look to you for the wisdom that comes from heaven.

[9:48] And we pray, Lord, for not only this nation, but for all nations. Every nation that's represented here this morning. We ask that you would be working across the world. And we pray especially for Sudan as we anticipate hearing more about that country and the work there.

[10:05] We ask that you would be moving in these places where there is such fierce persecution. We thank you that we can meet this morning with no fear, with no sense of danger.

[10:18] We pray for those who can't meet in that way. And we ask that you would protect those brothers and sisters in Christ who are in these difficult places.

[10:28] We thank you that in these places there is a resolve and a zeal to reach out with the gospel. We pray that they would continue to do that. And we pray that something of the zeal that they have would be felt and would be known here in this place.

[10:44] So hear our prayers. Take away our sin. And help us, we pray, on this day to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author, the perfecter of our faith. And we ask all this in Jesus' name.

[10:56] Amen. Boys and girls, would you like to come forward, please? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. How are you all today?

[11:16] Good, good, good. I think I've got a picture to show you this morning. I do have a picture. Do you know who this is? Does anyone know who this is?

[11:31] No? No? Anyone else know who this is? What is it? Is that a cat? It's a dog. And it's a sheepdog.

[11:44] And this sheepdog is called Bryce. So can you practice his name? Because you might need to shout it. Not here, but maybe later on.

[11:56] Bryce. Bryce. I've just seen Neil Cameron this morning. Praise the Lord. Neil Cameron's here. It's great to have you, Neil.

[12:07] What an encouragement. He's a real life, modern day Barnabas. You can look that up in your Bible. That's a good distraction. So Bryce.

[12:20] Can you say Bryce? Can you imagine shouting? Bryce. Do you want to shout it for a second? Bryce. Bryce.

[12:33] Bryce. Well done, Michael. Now, I'll tell you a story about Bryce. I haven't yet met Bryce, but I hope to meet Bryce sometime soon. Bryce is a dog, and he came off the ferry.

[12:46] I think he came off the ferry from Skye. Is that right? I think he came over from Skye. He's a specially trained sheepdog. And he was going to live with Alistair from Ardazic.

[13:02] Henry's Schenner. Peter's dad. So he'd gone out to Ardazic. He'd hardly been there any time at all, I don't think. And do you know what happened to him?

[13:16] He ran away. So he was there, and I suppose he didn't realize it was home properly yet. And so he took off, and he ran away.

[13:29] And I'm not sure what day it was. It was one day last week that he ran away. And so for a few days now, lots and lots of people have been looking for him. A dog. And the dog.

[13:40] Yes, it's a dog. And they've been looking for him. And there's pictures on Facebook, and there's a post telling us that his name is Bryce. And he's been seen all over the place.

[13:51] He was on the call on Friday. He was up at the hill behind our house. This morning, Casaldo was saying he was up over that way, out west.

[14:05] And so people have been shouting to him, Bryce, Bryce. And he's hearing them. Bryce, yeah, you've got it right. We get you out on the hill. We'll find him in no time.

[14:16] So they've been shouting for Bryce. And do you know what? He won't come. And so he's out in the hill, and people are shouting, and he won't come.

[14:32] And there's been a few people who've got really close to him. I think one person even got a hold of him, but he didn't have a collar on. He got out of his collar. So they couldn't keep hold of him, and he ran off again.

[14:44] And he's all way out in the hill still. And so we're shouting, and there's people looking. Everybody here, keep your eyes peeled for Bryce. Shout out for Bryce.

[14:55] Get your running shoes on. See if you can catch Bryce. I was thinking this morning. It's sad, isn't it? Because do you think Bryce, the sheepdog, would have a better life up on the hill, running around with no food and nothing to do and no friends?

[15:18] Or do you think he'd have a better life with Alistair, who's probably the best guy in the whole of Harris for keeping dogs? He looks after his dogs. He feeds them on the best of stuff. They've got all their dog family and friends.

[15:31] He cares for his dogs. They get a free ride on their quad bike anytime they want. And they get their favorite work to do. There's sheepdogs.

[15:42] There's nothing sheepdogs like better than working with sheep. And if he would just come down from the hill and go to be with Alistair, he'd have the best of lives.

[15:55] But he hasn't come down yet, so he's still lost. And we can pray about that. It's okay to pray about all kinds of things.

[16:08] Big, huge things. And small things as well. We can be praying that Bryce will find his way back to Alistair so he can have a good life. But it made me think of us.

[16:25] Because Jesus told us that there's something that makes us lost. What makes us lost? What is it that makes us lost?

[16:37] Michael? Sin makes us lost. And sin causes us to be a bit like the sheepdog running on all kinds of hills, running far away.

[16:51] And Jesus, in the Bible, in the message of the good news of the gospel, do you know what Jesus is saying? He's saying, come to me. Will you come to me?

[17:02] Come to me. Come to me. Come to me. And if we come to Jesus, what will he do for us? Take our sin away?

[17:15] Make our hearts clean? He promises that he will give us what we need. Not always what we want, but what's best for us. He'll give us what we need.

[17:26] He'll give us joy in our hearts. He'll give us peace in our souls. And he'll give us everlasting life.

[17:39] We just have to come to him. So, this morning, let's pray for Bryce. And he'll find his way back to Alistair.

[17:52] And he'll come when he's called. And let's, in ourselves, in our own hearts, think about whether or not we've come to Jesus. He's calling us all, young and old.

[18:06] He's saying, come to me. Get off the hills. Don't be far away. Come to me. And if we come to him, he will give us rest.

[18:19] So, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you love us. We thank you that you came to this world to save us. And we thank you that if we come to you, you'll never push us away.

[18:33] But you'll forgive us our sins. You'll give us peace. You'll give us joy. You'll guide us on the right path. You'll give us work that we enjoy doing. And you'll give us life that begins here and goes on forever.

[18:51] Help us, we pray, to come to you and know the blessing of being your children. And Lord, we pray for Bryce, the sheepdog.

[19:02] We thank you that we can pray about everything. The hymn that we often sing says, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.

[19:13] What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. And so we pray for Bryce and we pray for Peter and we pray for Alistair and for Henry and for all who are out on the hills looking for him.

[19:25] And we ask that he would be found. And Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. And we thank you for each person who's here today and especially for Neil Cameron.

[19:35] We thank you, Lord, for him being with us this morning. We thank you that as we've prayed, we have seen his strength increasing. We thank you for the fact that he's here back in your house.

[19:49] And we thank you for the blessing and the encouragement that he is as part of the church family here. Bless him and Ketak and bless each one of us as we look to you.

[20:00] And bless the boys and girls as they go to Sunday school shortly. We ask that you would minister to them and minister to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing now Mission Praise number 50.

[20:13] Be still for the presence of the Lord. The Holy One is here. Come now Be still for the presence of the Lord.

[21:09] The Holy One The Holy One is here. Be still for the glory of the Lord.

[21:21] Is shining all around. He burns with holy fire.

[21:32] With splendor he is crowned. How awesome is the sight.

[21:43] How radiant king of light. Be still for the glory of the Lord. Is shining all around.

[22:00] Be still for the power of the Lord. He's moving in this place.

[22:10] He comes to cleanse and heal. To minister his grace.

[22:22] No work too hard for him. In faith we sing from him. Be still for the power of the Lord.

[22:37] Be still for the power of the Lord. He's moving in this place.NING Matthew chapter 7 and we will read from verse 7 down to verse 14.

[23:37] Jesus says, 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. The one who seeks finds.

[23:50] And to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if the son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

[24:02] 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?

[24:13] 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.

[24:25] For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter it, enter by it, are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.

[24:37] And those who find it are few. Amen. And may God add his blessing to the reading of his word. We'll sing again now to God's praise from Psalm 23.

[24:54] Psalm 23. And we'll sing the first two stanzas of the psalm. The first three verses as they're marked. And I'll read it in English.

[25:05] We'll sing in Gaelic. And we remain seated to sing to God's praise in Gaelic. The Lord's my shepherd I'll not want. He makes me down to lie in pastures green. He leadeth me the quiet waters by.

[25:18] My soul he doth restore again. And me to walk doth make within the paths of righteousness. Even for his own name's sake. These two verses we'll sing to God's praise.

[25:30] NINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNING

[26:39] NING Thank you.

[27:14] Thank you.

[27:44] Thank you.

[28:14] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[28:26] If you could turn back to the passage that we read in Matthew chapter 7, please.

[28:56] And we'll pray. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for the word of God.

[29:07] We thank you that the book that we read and that we study is no normal book. We thank you that this is the book that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. And we thank you that in this book there are the words of life, eternal life.

[29:23] And so we pray that you would help us to listen, help us to speak, help us to respond in a way that brings life to our souls and glory to your name and encouragement to your people.

[29:38] We thank you for the amazing fact that we have the sermon that Jesus preached recorded for us in these verses. Help us never to lose sight of that, that God the Son left heaven to come to this world.

[29:54] And we have a record of what he said in the Sermon on the Mind. So open our hearts, we pray, that we would see, that we would hear, that we would receive all that Jesus has to give to us through the word.

[30:10] And again, Lord, we pray not just for ourselves here, we pray for the children and ask that you would open their hearts, that they would trust you, that they would know you and walk with you from the early years right through their lives.

[30:24] And we pray for the churches around us. We thank you that the gospel is preached in each church. And we ask, Lord, that as your servants open your word, that you would speak through them, that as John the Baptist prayed, that self would decrease, that Christ would increase, that we would hear in each place Jesus, and that we would be brought together in that gospel message.

[30:52] And we pray for the congregations that are connected to us as well. We know that there are people here from different places, even different nations. And we ask, Lord, as we think of our home congregations and places that we worship regularly, that you would bless them and that you would be present with them as we pray that you would be present with us.

[31:15] So hear our prayers. Help us. Apart from you, Lord, we can do nothing. We ask that you would do much in our souls, that we'll bring glory to your name, even in this hour.

[31:26] And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew chapter 7. We're coming to the end of the best sermon ever preached.

[31:43] I'm not talking about my sermon. I'm talking about the sermon that we have in the text here. The preacher in this sermon is Jesus, God the Son, which, again, is just an amazing, awesome thing to think about.

[31:59] That God the Son would preach, that we would be under the ministry of God the Son. The words that he spoke were captured, they were recorded, and we're sitting with these words in our laps.

[32:16] We're sitting with these words in front of us. The preacher in this sermon is God the Son. The sermon is known as the Sermon on the Mount. And the verse that we begin with this morning is probably the best-known verse in the sermon.

[32:31] It's one of the best-known verses in the Bible. So verse 12 in the ESV, it says, So whatever, as Jesus is speaking, he says, So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

[32:46] For this is the law. It's the summary of the law and the prophets. Or as the NIV puts it, So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.

[32:59] For this sums up the law and the prophets. So that's our starting point this morning as we come to verse 12. Three points in the time that we have together.

[33:11] The first point is the golden rule. We're looking at the golden rule. And the second point is the good Samaritan, Where we see the golden rule being lived out in a scenario, a case scenario.

[33:25] And the final point this morning is the gate. Jesus encourages us to come to him. He is the gate. So first of all, the golden rule. And if you've got an ESV Bible, I'm not sure if it's got this in the NIV, The heading for verses 12 to 14 is actually the golden rule.

[33:48] So it's highlighted. It's detailed in the section. It's given the heading, the golden rule. One of the commentators says, The actual words, golden rule, are not found in scripture, Just as the words, sermon on the mount, are also not found.

[34:03] These titles were later added by Bible translation teams In order to make Bible study a little easier. The phrase golden rule began to be ascribed to this teaching of Jesus During the 16th to the 17th centuries.

[34:22] So it's not clear where this term, the golden rule, actually came from And when exactly it started to be used.

[34:33] But it's not hard to understand why the term, the golden rule, Was applied to this teaching. It is a golden teacher. You know, when we think of something as, When we think of something as, As just the highest of standards, We would call it golden.

[34:59] We think of something that's amazing, That's to be aspired to, We would, We would associate it with gold, with golden. I was thinking back over, The kind of places, And things we would associate with this term.

[35:14] And my mind went, I don't know what this says about me, It probably says a fair bit about my stomach. My mind went, first of all, To Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Remember the film or the book?

[35:26] And in the story, There's golden tickets. And these golden tickets are hidden in five bars of chocolate. And Charlie, the main character in the book, He's a poor boy.

[35:38] He opens up a bar of chocolate, And he's got a golden ticket, And entitles him to a tour of the chocolate factory, And a lifetime supply, Listen to this, A lifetime supply, Of the most amazing, delicious chocolate.

[35:54] So it's no wonder, That this ticket was called, A golden ticket. Who wouldn't want a lifetime supply, To chocolate? The other place my mind went, When I was thinking about the term golden, Was the TV show, Britain's Got Talent.

[36:16] Some of you might watch it, I'm not sure, Is it still on just now? It used to be on Saturday nights, And you have all these performers, Who are auditioning, Because they think they have this, Amazing talent.

[36:28] And some audition, And they do well, Others audition, And they don't do, Quite so well, Some audition, And it's an absolute disaster. And so some get through, Some don't get through, Some get a thumbs up, Some get a thumbs down, But only the, The exceptional, The standout, Outstanding candidates, They get a golden ticket.

[36:50] And that golden ticket, Takes them, Through the stages, Into the, The final, Part of the show. So, Gold standard, Indicates to us, The best, Of the best.

[37:07] And this teaching of Jesus, This rule, That Jesus, Expounds in verse 12, Is the golden rule. Not hard to figure, Why it's called the golden rule.

[37:20] James Montgomery Boyce, Says, It has been called, The topmost peak, Of social ethics. Not just by people, Who are looking at the Bible, But, People who are just looking, At all kinds of literature, What they say is, This has been called, The topmost peak, Of social ethics.

[37:37] This is called, The Everest, Says Boyce, Of all ethical teaching. It's the golden rule. And clearly this rule, Is connected to the, To the second commandment, Mark 12, 31, Jesus, He says, You shall, You shall love your neighbor, As yourself.

[37:56] He's pointing to the, The second commandment, And it connects with this golden rule. And if we were to live, By this golden rule, That Jesus gives us, The world would be a better place.

[38:16] You know, By far. The world would be, An unrecognisably better place. I mean, Think about it.

[38:28] You have this verse open, In front of you, And you think about, The application of it. If the golden rule, Was effected, Across the world, Just now, The conflict, In the Middle East, Would be done.

[38:45] Immediately. The war between Ukraine, And Russia, Would stop. Famine would be over.

[39:02] Some people would be thinner. Some people would be much more healthy. There'd be no crime on the streets.

[39:16] They could send the police force off, To do something else. There'd be no bullying in schools. The teachers would be much less stressed. There'd be no disputes over fences, And boundaries, And sheep.

[39:37] There'd be no online battles. The Isla Harris Facebook page, Would become a page, Just with pictures of beaches, And messages of love. Thanks would be places of, Of peace, And harmony.

[39:55] And the list goes on, And it goes on, And it goes on. Sometimes people say, In fact, Often people say, Christianity causes all the conflicts, And all the disputes, In this world.

[40:08] You've heard that said, You've had that accusation, That pointed towards you. Christianity is the cause of, All the conflicts. It's just not true.

[40:22] It's us. It's sinners, Who cause all the wars, And the conflicts, In this world. If we were to live life, According to the golden rule, Of Christianity.

[40:38] If we were to listen, And live out, The golden rule, That Christ Jesus teaches. The world wouldn't be a place of conflict.

[40:52] It would be a place of, Of peace. So that's the big picture application. The golden rule, The golden rule, Is a standout, Amazing, Top level teaching.

[41:11] And the big picture application, Is such that, If the golden rule, Was lived out universally, The world would be transformed. And it sounds amazing.

[41:24] And yet, And yet, It seems so far, Removed from the world, We actually live in. So we, Read this rule, We digest this teaching, But we think, It just seems so, Unrealistic.

[41:43] It seems so far, Removed from, What we can expect, In the world. So what do we do with this? Do we just dismiss it, And say, Well, It's a nice idea, But it's idealism.

[41:58] No, Of course we don't do that. I think, What we do, Is we, We take the application, Of the golden rule, From the universal level, And we zoom in, And we face the application, At the personal level.

[42:13] We don't have the power, To change the world. But we do have to wrestle, With this teaching, In our own lives.

[42:26] So what would it look like, For you, And I, To live out the golden rule, In the detail, Of our own personal lives? What would it look like, For the golden rule, To have an impact, In the smaller scale, Of our communities here?

[42:40] Well, Jesus gives an illustration, Of what it would look like. And that takes us, To Luke chapter 10, And the story, Of the good Samaritan.

[42:53] So the golden rule, Point number one, Point number two, The good Samaritan. If you can open your Bibles, At Luke chapter 10, Please. If you don't have a Bible, It's okay.

[43:08] I'll read out, The, The, The section, Of the parable. So Jesus is telling a story. Jesus is telling a, A story.

[43:20] He's making, He's applying a, A lesson. He's giving an illustration. And this parable, Has, Has become known, As the good Samaritan. And I'm picking up, The parable, At verse 30, Of Luke chapter 10.

[43:34] And so Jesus says, A man was going down, From Jerusalem to Jericho, And he fell among robbers, Who stripped him, And beat him, And departed, Leaving him half dead.

[43:44] Now by chance, A priest was going down that road, And when he saw him, He passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, When he came to the place, And saw him, Passed by on the other side.

[43:59] But a Samaritan, As he journeyed, Came to where he was, And when he saw him, He had compassion. He went to him, And bound up his wounds, Pouring on oil, And wine.

[44:11] Then he set him, On his own animal, And brought him to an inn, And took care of him. And the next day, He took out two denarii, And gave them to the innkeeper, Saying, Take care of him, And whatever more you spend, I will repay you, When I come back.

[44:29] Which of these three, Asked Jesus, Do you think proved to be a neighbour, To the man who fell, Among the robbers? He said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, You go, And do likewise.

[44:50] Let's think for a moment, About this parable then. As we, As we, Connect it with the golden rule. What do we see in this parable? Well we see, That there's an, There's an aggravated assault, It's a serious assault, And there's a robbery.

[45:06] A man is attacked, His property is stolen, And it says in verse 30, That he's left half dead, On the street. So it's an awful scene, It's a common scene, In lots of cities, But it's an awful scene, Here's a guy, He's being robbed, He's being battered, He's bloody, He's fighting for his life, And he's lying on the street, On the pavement.

[45:30] So what happens next? Well along comes a priest, Verse 31, A religious man, One of his own kind, A man that you would expect, Would help, But he doesn't help.

[45:48] He sees him, Crosses over, He passes by. And then, Verse 32, Another man comes past, A Levite, Again, A religious man, Who works, In the church, He's part of the staff team, And he too, Sees this man, Who's in desperate need, Who's fighting for his life, He sees his need, He crosses over, He passes by, Doesn't want to get involved, Now think about this, If the priest, Or the Levite, Were lying half dead, In the street, If they'd been the ones, Who were attacked, Would they have wanted, To be helped at this point?

[46:40] Well of course they would, They would want, A passerby to stop, And come to their aid, Especially if he was, One of their own people, But they are not willing, To do for him, What they would want him, To do for them, They were not, Willing to, To live, By the golden rule, So we've got two, Negative illustrations, Of those, Who will not live out, The golden rule, Then verse 33, Along comes, A Samaritan, Now the Samaritan, And the Jews, You know, They were enemies, Some of us, Watched the football yesterday, And we saw, The sights, On the streets, Of Glasgow, And even on the pitch, The tension, Between Rangers, And Celtic, The tension, Between these people, Well, This is a, You could say, In modern day terms,

[47:41] The guy on the deck, Who is in need, Is wearing a ranger's strip, Along comes the guy, Wearing a Celtic strip, Is he going to help? Well we wouldn't expect it maybe, And that's what would have been expected, In this scenario, The Jews and the Samaritans, They hated each other, They didn't help each other, But the Samaritan, He stops, He sees the need, And he stops, He has compassion, For the man, And in verse 33, To verse 35, We see, That he helps, He gets involved, Even though it's dangerous, Even though it's a dirty job, To care for a man, Who's bleeding, And who's battered, Even though it's going to cost him, His own time, And his own mind, Even though the man's going to have to be placed on his beast, And he's going to have to walk, Even though it's going to be costly, He helps,

[48:42] He shows him compassion, He does him good, And so the Samaritan, He lives out the golden rule, And the Samaritan, Shows us what it looks like, To live out the teaching, Of Jesus, And it doesn't need to be an assault, And a robbery, We don't generally see people, We don't generally see people, Lying half dead, On the street, In Tarbert, Or wherever we live, But if you and I stop, And think for a minute, We can think of many people, Who are in need, There are people who are lonely, In Tarbert, North Harris, They need a visit, Maybe, They need a friend,

[49:47] There are people who are sad, Going through hard times, Dark valleys, As the Samaritan says, They need to be encouraged, There are people, Who are battling with addictions, Their lives are chaotic, They need support, That will be messy, That will be costly, They need support, There are people, Who are tired, Because, They're at a season in life, Where there's just so much, Going on, And there's so much, Asked of them, And they're tired, And they're weary, They need somebody, Just to come alongside them, Say, What can I do?

[50:38] Just to give you, A wee bit of rest, There are people, That we can think of, Who may be difficult, And who may be, Contankerous, And they need somebody, To show them, Grace, Not the same spirit back, But grace, And kindness, And there are many, Many people, Who are lost, They're headed, For a lost eternity, And they need, To hear about Jesus, And Jesus, Is encouraging us, To open, Our eyes, And to stop, Thinking about, Ourselves, And to think, About those around us, And to look for need, And to reach out,

[51:40] To those, Who are in need, Now, We're very quick, To think, About the, The things that we need, Nobody needs to tell us, And encourage us, And challenge us, To think about the things, That we need, Because, We're always thinking, About that, We get so angry, When someone treats us badly, We, We sulk, And we huff, When we feel that people, Aren't fair towards us, And Jesus, Is saying to us, Take all that energy, That you usually use, To think about yourself, And what you need, And what you're not getting, And how you want, To be treated, Take all that energy, And all that thought space, Says Jesus, And use it to think, About others, And what they need, And how they might,

[52:42] Want to be treated, And reach out to them, The golden rule, And we see that, Lived out, In the example, Of the good, Samaritan, I want to hit pause again, As we have done, In various points, In this, The sermon on the mount, And I want to, To just think for a moment, About, About, How we're doing, How we're doing, We have the word, Of God open before us, God the Holy Spirit, Is here, And he applies that word, To our lives, To our hearts, Let's think for a moment, About how we're doing, In terms of living, By the golden rule, And I can only think about me, Because I don't know, What you're doing, But for me,

[53:44] I would have to confess, This is, Not great, In terms of living, Out of the golden rule, In terms of following, The example, Of the good Samaritan, I can see a thousand ways, That I'm not, So this is a convicting passage, As I look in the mirror, Of God's word, I see how far short, I fall, Of what Jesus asks of me, And I doubt I'm alone, In, In feeling the weight of this, The reality is, It's easier to cross the road, Like the priest and the Levite, Than it is to respond, To the needs, Of the people, That we see around us, It's easier just to keep on walking, It can be risky, It can be messy, It can be costly, To get involved, In the lives of needy people, You're someone, Who's battling with,

[54:45] With addictions, Somebody who's struggling, With depression, Somebody who is feeling, Lonely, Can phone you up, At, The time is when, You'd much rather, Just stay in your house, And be cozy, And watch another, Three episodes, Of Netflix, And when it comes, Not just about practical needs, When it comes to spiritual needs, Is it not easier, To say nothing, Than it is to tell somebody, About Jesus, Isn't it easier, To stay quiet, Than it is to invite somebody, To come to church, And face the awkwardness, Of them saying no to you, Again, Isn't it easier, To say nothing, Than it is to challenge, And encourage the wanderer, Person who's drifting,

[55:46] It's easier to say nothing, Than it is to go to them, And say, I'm concerned about you, Tell me about your walk, Tell me about your heart, Tell me about your soul, If they're far from the Lord, They're probably going to bite you, And we calculate that, And so we stay quiet, The golden rule, Is a hard rule, To live by, The good Samaritan, Is a hard act to follow, So what do we do with this, How do we respond to this, Well the honest response, I think, Is to ask the question, How on earth can I live this way, This gold standard, Rule, This outstanding example, In terms of the, The good Samaritan, We look at this, And we say, How can I reach that, How can I do this, How can I live this way, I can't, I can't, I don't have the strength,

[56:49] I don't have the courage, To live this out, And if that's what you're thinking, Then Jesus has taken us, To exactly the place, That we need to be in, That's a good place to be, Because Jesus, Because Jesus, Doesn't expect us, To live in this way, In our own strength, He knows that we can't do it, John Stott says, Such love is beyond us, Apart from the grace, Of God, And so the God, Of all grace, Says to us, The same thing, That he says to us, Over and over again, In the Sermon on the Mount, He says, Come to me, You're an end of yourselves, You can see, Your failures, You can see your shortfalls, You can see all this need, And you can see, That you just can't reach it, And you're,

[57:50] Aware of your own, Moral bankruptcy, What do you do? Jesus says, Come to me, You have no strength, You don't feel you've got the courage, To speak out for me, Well come to me, And if you've drifted, Come back to me, And Jesus says, I will give you what you need, To live this way, I will give you, The grace, And the love that you need, Day by day, Even hour by hour, And it's only, With that love, And it's only with that grace, And it's only with his strength, That we can actually be his disciples, We can only be witnesses for Jesus, If we come to him, Continually, In worship, And so he says, Come to me, And that takes us to verse 13, Where Jesus calls us to enter,

[58:51] By the narrow gate, But I want us to, To just see this, This movement again, That we, We see all the way through the sermon, On the mount, Just glance at it with me again, For, For one moment, Because I, This is the thing that's stuck, More than anything in this sermon, It's just a sense of movement, A sermon on the mount, Chapter five, Verse one, The disciples, They come to Jesus, And Jesus blesses them, He fills them up, And then, In the second half of, Of chapter five, Jesus, He sends them out, He's filled them up, Now he sends them out, He says, You're going to be salt, You're going to be light, You're going to be my witnesses, My, My flavor is going to fill your lives, So come to me, And then go out into the world, That's chapter five, Then he takes us into chapter six, And again he says, Come to me, And he teaches us about prayer,

[59:52] And he teaches us, About not being anxious, And not worrying, He's saying, Come and worship me, Stay close to me, Chapter six, And then in verse, Then in chapter seven, He sends us out again, Out into the world, And he says, Don't be judgy, If you're going to live for me, You can't be judgy, You have to have compassion, And he calls them back in, He says, Ask and it will be given to you, Because you can't live this way, Can't you?

[60:24] They say, No, I can't, He says, Well come, Then he gives us, The golden rule, He hits us with the golden rule, He says, This is how I want you to live, And we say, How do we do this?

[60:39] How do we go out there, And live this stuff out? And Jesus says, Come back to me again, Come to me, Go out, Come to me, Go out, Come to me, Go out, That's the picture, Of the Christian life, And we're seeing it again here, That the golden rule, The good Samaritan, Live that way, Says Jesus, But the only way you can live that way, Is by coming to me, So, We come to the gate, Jesus says in verse 13, This is the third point, The last point, The gate, Jesus, Says, 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, So what is the gate?

[61:26] Well, I think we know the answer to that, But just in case we don't know the answer to that, We get the answer to that question, By crossing, From Matthew to John, The principle in understanding scripture, Is scripture interprets scripture, If you've got a question about one passage, You go to another passage, You get the answer there, So what is the gate?

[61:48] Who is the gate? Well, Go to John chapter 10, In verse 9, And it says, In the NIV here, Jesus says, I am the gate, Whoever enters through me will be saved, They will come in, And go out, And find pasture, The thief comes only to steal, And kill, And destroy, I have come, Says Jesus, That they may have life, And have it to the full, And so what Jesus is saying, As he brings this section to a close, Is, Come to me, It's so simple, We need to hear it so often, Because we're like the sheepdog on the hill, Jesus says, Come to me, If you want life, If you want strength, If you want what you need, To live out the golden rule, Come to me, I am the gate,

[62:49] It says, There in verse 13, That the gate is narrow, What does that mean? Well, It means that only Jesus, Can give us eternal life, It means that only Jesus, Can give us the strength, And the grace, That we need to live for him, There's no other place, There's no other way, No other source, Only Jesus, It's a narrow gate, We hear the same echoed, In John chapter 14, In verse 6, Jesus says, I am the way, And the truth, And the life, Singular, No one comes to the Father, No one gets to heaven, No one gets life, Except through me, It's a narrow gate, And of course, There are many people, Who say that there are, Plenty of other ways, You can go, There's plenty of other gates, To go through, You can go the way of, Other religions,

[63:50] It's a big wide gate, You can go the way, Of no religion at all, It's a big wide gate, It's a broad road, Some people would say, There are wider gates, To travel through, And Jesus says, That's true, But the broad road, And these wide gates, They take you, In a different direction, They lead to death, They lead to hell, Not life, Not heaven, And he says, There are many, There are many, Who are on that broad, Easy road, There are many, This morning, Some in this room, Many in this community, Who are passing, Through wide gates, And Jesus says,

[64:53] In verse 14, For the gate, Is narrow, And the way, Is hard, That leads to life, And those who find it, Are few, That's a serious verse, That we finish up on, The gate is narrow, The way is hard, That leads to life, Those who find it, Are few, That's a serious verse, And it should cause us, To ask the question, What road am I on?

[65:33] Have I come to Jesus? Have I come to the gate? Am I on the right way?

[65:44] Am I on that track? That narrow, Hard path, That leads to, Eternal life?

[65:57] Are we? It's the most, Important question, That we can face, Jesus says, There's just a few on it, There's many going through, The wide gates, There's many on the broad roads, There's just a few, On the narrow path, We need to ask the question, Am I on it?

[66:24] And for those of us, Who have come to Jesus, How do we, How do we respond to this verse? Well, I tell you how we shouldn't respond, We shouldn't respond by saying, Well, Thank goodness, I'm one of the few, I can sit down in a chair now, And fold my arms, And put my feet up on the table, That is not the response, That Jesus wants us to have, This verse, If we are, If we are those who are in Christ, If we have come to him, If we have gone through that narrow gate, This verse should drive us out of our churches, It should propel us out into the world, To tell the many, To tell people to repent, To change direction, To get off the broad road, At least to eternal death, To come to Jesus, And think about it,

[67:26] If you were, Were on some croft track, You were seeing some cyclist, Careering along this path, Knowing that there's a drop of a cliff, Just right in the corner, You would say to the guy, Stop, Change direction, And get off that track, What we are dealing with here, Is much more serious, And we have been given that challenge, That commission, To tell people, If we are on a broad road, It leads to destruction, Will you get off it?

[68:11] Will you change direction? Will you come to Jesus? He is the gate, He is the way, He is the saviour, He is the only one, Who promises eternal life, To all who come to him, Need to finish, But I want to finish, But I want to just finish, In one minute, With a couple of things, To take away, As we finish, I don't want anybody, To leave, This place this morning, With a sense, Of crushing guilt, And an unrealistic, To try harder, To live out the golden rule, And to live out the, The example of the good Samaritan, If that's what we,

[69:11] Go out this door, With, This kind of, Crushing guilt, And this resolve, To say, I must try harder, Then we've missed, The whole point, Because we just, Can't do this, We cannot live out, The golden rule, We cannot live out, The life of the good Samaritan, The only one, Who ever lived out, The golden rule, Perfectly, Was Jesus, He did it for us, Calls us to trust him on that, The character that we see, In the good Samaritan, Is the character of Jesus, And this Jesus, Is saying to us, As we head out that door, Come to me, Trust me, And I will save you, I will take you, On to the path, That leads to life, And as you stay, Close to me, Christian, I will sanctify you,

[70:15] And day by day, As you take time, In my word, As you take time, In prayer, I will mold you, And shape you, To make you more like me, So that's something, Of the golden rule, And something, Of the good Samaritan, Will be seen, In your life, And then as people, Look at you, They will see me, Says Jesus, And that's, Our goal, If we are like, If we are, Trust in Christ, We want, Christ, To be seen, In us, And so the message, For all of us, This morning, That comes from Jesus, Is come to me, And stay close to me, We'll pray,

[71:16] Heavenly Father, We thank you, For your word, And we thank you, For your son, We thank you, For Jesus, And we thank you, That he, Is the savior, That he is the gate, That he is the one, Who lived out, The golden rule, He is the one, Who showed us, The reality, Of the good Samaritan, And we thank you, That the message, Of the gospel, Is not a message, Where we have to try hard, To reach the gold standard, We know, Lord, That we can't, We confess, That we can't, We thank you, That the message, Of the gospel, Is a message, Where we hear Jesus say, Come to me, Trust me, And I will save you, And I will shape you, To look, A little more like me, Week by week, May that be,

[72:17] The reality, That is seen, In our lives, We pray this, In Jesus name, Amen, We'll sing to finish, Mission Praise, 1164, Come, O fount of every blessing, Turn my heart, To sing your praise, Streams of mercy, Ever ceasing, Most poor songs, Songs of love, Is praise, Songs of love, Abound of treasure, Song my angel, Tongues above, Songs that tell, The proudest measure, Of my heart's unchanging love,

[73:20] I remember, God's great mercy, By his help, I'm safely come, And I know, He will not fail me, But will surely, Make me home, Jesus taught me, When a stranger, Walking far away, From God, And to rescue me, From danger, Shed for me, His precious blood, Through God's grace, I am his debtor, Daily eyeless, Lord, Reveal, Let that grace, Lord, Like a fetter, Cry my wandering heart,

[74:21] To you, Pro to wander, Lord, I feel it, Pro to be the God I love, Take my heart, Oh, Take and seal it, Seal it from The coast above, Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, The love of God the Father, And the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit, Be with us all, Now and forevermore, Amen, Amen, Amen.