Always Be the Good Guy is a sermon teaching us to live the Golden Rule: Do unto others and you would have them do unto you.

Key verses:
Luke 6:26-38

I’m going to ask you to take your Bible now and turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter six, Luke chapter six. You’re familiar with the Gospel of Luke. You know it begins with the announcement to Zacharias of the birth of John the Baptist and then the announcement to Mary of the birth of the Lord Jesus. And then it gives us the account of the birth of the Lord Jesus. Well, that’s the first couple of chapters.

We have the adoration of Anna and Simeon eight days after the birth in the temple. Then, the story of the Lord progresses very quickly. We are told a little bit about Him as a young boy, not a great deal, a little bit. We see a glimpse of Him when He was about 12 years old, and then we see Him growing in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man, and then we get into His adult life in chapter six.

Several things are going on. There’s a miracle done in the beginning of the chapter, and then the Lord is calling the 12 disciples, and then we get into, starting with verse 20, we get into the Sermon on the Mount, which was Jesus’ first public sermon. A longer version of it is given in Matthew. Here, Luke gives it in one chapter, even a portion of a chapter, approximately 29 verses. Matthew records a longer version that covers three chapters. We’re just going to look at a portion of that tonight.

Good Guys, Bad Guys

Luke chapter 6, look at verse 26 if you will, for Jesus says:

Luke 6:26: “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”

Luke 6:27: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,”

Luke 6:28: “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Luke 6:29: “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.”

Luke 6:30: “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.”

Luke 6:31: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

Now, we’re going to look at more than that before we finish tonight, but I want to stop right there. That last verse that we read, verse 31:

Luke 6:31: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

What we used to call that, you don’t hear much anymore. We used to call that the Golden Rule and it’s the Golden Rule because it’s how we live, and if everybody lived that way, we’d have a wonderful world. We would.

But I want to talk to you this evening about a concept based on what we’ve just read. I call it “always be the good guy.” Always be the good guy.

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved stories. I like stories. I don’t read as many as I used to, though. I do still read books and things, but not as much as I used to, but I like stories. Some of my favorite stories are those that have a protagonist and an antagonist, or to put it simply, those that have a good guy and a bad guy. And the story is about who wins, the good guy or the bad guy.

Now, in those stories, I always like the good guy to win, and I always like it when the bad guy loses. Now, in some movies and stories, they make nowadays, in TV shows, the bad guy wins. I don’t like that. Well, does that happen in real life? Sometimes, maybe, but that’s not the story I want to hear. I like it when the good guys win.

When I was a boy, my sister and I would often play with other children in the neighborhood, and sometimes, not always, we did a lot of different things, but sometimes, we would play games that had a good guy and a bad guy. Usually, the idea was that we would take turns being the good guy and the bad guy. But there was a problem, and the problem was I never wanted to be the bad guy. And when it came to my turn to be the bad guy, I just didn’t want to be the bad guy, and that was usually the end of the game. So, we didn’t get to go anymore. I just didn’t want to be the bad guy. I never have wanted to be a bad guy.

Now, I would love to tell you that every day of my life, I have been the good guy, and I have never been the one who did anything that was wrong, but if I told you that, I’d be the one who did something that was wrong.

No, Not One

So, about this time you may be thinking, “Yeah, doesn’t the Bible say there’s none good, no not one?” And you’re right does. In Psalm 14:3 it says precisely those words:

Psalm 14:3: “there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Well, if that’s true and it is true, then how can we ever be good? So, let me share a couple of thoughts with you. Number one, we can never do enough good to outweigh our sins. We can never do enough good to outweigh our sins, no matter how much we do. If I tell a lie, how much good do I have to do to outweigh that lie? And the truth is I can’t. I can’t do enough good to outweigh that lie.

Many years ago, when I was about 16 years old, I started and worked there for a pretty good while. I worked for a Cadillac dealer down in Pompano Beach, and in the mechanic shop, they had a sign up on the wall. The sign, well, they had a lot of signs on the wall, to be honest with you. One of them said GM, stands for General Motors’ mark of excellence. And they had other signs like that, but this particular sign said, “Just good enough is not good enough.” Now, you think that through. What are they saying? They’re saying, “Yeah, well, I do. That’s good enough.” No, it never is. Just being good enough is not good enough. So, how good would you have to be to be good enough? You’d have to be perfect. In Matthew’s version of The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus actually says that. He says:

Matthew 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

So, not only would you have to be perfect, but how perfect would you have to be? You’d have to be as perfect as your Father in Heaven. That means you and I would have to be as perfect as God is. That’s why it says:

Romans 3:10: “There is none righteous, no, not one:”

Be Like Christ

Number two, as Christians whose sins are forgiven, we need to live a Christian life. Now, the name Christian means one who is a follower of Christ. It literally, in its most literal sense, means little Christ or one who is like Christ. Now, if we’re going to be a little Christ or we’re going to be one who is like Christ, then we need to be growing spiritually and we need to be growing to be like Him.

The Lord gave us instructions on how to live for Him many times. Many parts of the Bible tell us about how to live. The Lord gives us things. But I want to take a look at just a few verses tonight here in Luke chapter 6 and learn how we can always be the good guy. It’s a matter of choice. We will not be perfect. We certainly will not be as good as God, but we can be on the right side of things.

We can be the good guy at home. We can be the good guy out in public. We can be the good guy. Look at verse 26 again. We read it a moment ago. Jesus says:

Luke 6:26: “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”

Now, let’s think about that. What is He talking about here? False prophets. Well, false prophets and false Christians are always popular with hypocrites – that’s what He’s saying. People who are hypocrites like to see other people who are hypocrites, not because they enjoy other people’s hypocrisy, but because it makes them feel better about themselves. Well, if I’m a hypocrite and you’re a hypocrite, well, I guess I’m at least as good as you are. Maybe I’m not as bad a hypocrite as you are, so it makes me feel better about myself.

But there’s more to it than that. Jesus warned:

John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

John 15:20: “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”

What He is saying here is if you really live like Him, not everybody’s going to like it because if my hypocrisy makes the hypocrite feel better about himself, the more I am like Jesus, the closer I get to living like Him, the more it makes their hypocrisy look bad and makes them feel bad about it. People get convicted of their own sin when they see somebody else who doesn’t participate in that sin.

Not So Easy

Luke 6:27: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,”

Luke 6:28: “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”

Luke 6:29: “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.”

Luke 6:30: “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.”

Luke 6:31: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

The Lord tells us some things here about how to be a good guy every day, and I tell you what, they’re not easy. First of all, in verse 27, He told us, “Love your enemies,” and that’s not easy to do. Now, who is an enemy? An enemy is somebody who wants to do you harm. They want to hurt you, and they rejoice when you are hurt. Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” He says to do good to them who hate you.

We had a saying when I was in ministerial school about statements like this. They said that’s easy preaching, but it’s hard living, and what that means is it’s easy for me to stand up here and read to you the words of the Lord Jesus, saying:

Luke 6:27: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,”

That’s easy to say. It’s a lot harder to live out. Then, in verse 28, He said, “Bless them that curse you,” – another tough one. How can you? Somebody curses you. Somebody calls you terrible names, and they say horrible things about you, probably things that aren’t true. What are you going to do? Bless them that curse you. Well, look at verse 28:

Luke 6:28: “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”

Have you ever prayed for the people that you don’t like and that you know don’t like you? Do you ever pray for those people who have done you dirt? Now, I don’t mean somebody who was rude at the grocery store and cut in front of you in the checkout line. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about somebody who really did you wrong. Do you ever pray for him?

Verse 29, and you’ve heard this probably all your life. Jesus said to turn the other cheek. He did. He said if somebody hits you on the one cheek, turn them the other cheek. “Do you think you ought to do that preacher?” Well, that’s what He said. So, if He said that, did He mean it? He did.

Let’s put that in context. In the day and time that Jesus preached this, it would not have been unusual. I don’t say it happened all the time, every day. It would not have been unusual for somebody in authority to come up to somebody who they felt was of a lesser status and just smack them on the cheek if they said or did something they didn’t like. And a lot of times, people would get angry. I don’t want you to raise your hand, but think about whether you would get angry if somebody just smacked you across the face. You probably would. And then Jesus says to turn the other cheek. Let them hit you on the other side.

Now, I’m going to tell you something that a preacher I used to work with used to often say about that and understand that he was not being serious, but he said, “I read in the Bible that the Lord said if somebody hit you on one cheek, turn them the other cheek. But He didn’t tell me what to do after he hit me the second time.” He said, “So I searched all through the Bible to find it.” He said, “I finally found it where it says, ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.’”

Now, was he serious about that? He wasn’t. He wasn’t, but Jesus was serious about it. Turn the other cheek. And then He says, give up your cloak if you have to. Somebody would take it from you. Have people ever taken somebody’s garment? Yes. Oh, my goodness, yes. Well, could that be because you owed them money? Yeah. They used to do that kind of thing. They take your clothes.

I remember my dad telling me a story about a lady that he knew who was a relative. Somebody in the family had, I don’t remember who it was, passed away, and this lady wanted to go to the funeral, and she needed a nice dress to wear. There used to be, back in those days, this was a long time ago, decades ago, places where you could go, and you could buy clothes and pay for them a little bit each week and so this lady had done that. She’d gotten clothes to wear to the funeral, and she did it on the pay-by-the-week plan.

A man would come by, and this was this fella’s full-time job, he’d go out and represent the store and collect little bit of money each week that people owed for their clothes that they bought. And said the man kept coming by every week to this lady where this lady worked, actually, and would take, I don’t know how much it was, maybe a few cents a week or a dollar or two a week, whatever it was wasn’t a lot of money he collected every week. But she kept track of it, and it came to a point where she figured out, “I have long since paid for that dress. He keeps coming and wanting the payment every week. I know I’ve paid for that dress.”

One day, a new fellow came by to collect the money on the dress, and he came to the lady and came to the house and said, “I’m here to collect the money.” She said, “Where’s the old fella?” He said, “Well, he’s not here anymore, but I need to collect the money for this.” And he gave the lady’s name and said, “Because she owes for this dress.”

And my dad said that she looked at the man and said, “Well, you know what? She done died.” Now, did she lie? She did. She did but said the man never came again. Now, am I telling you to do that? No, I’m not. What I’m telling you that story for, is to tell you, are there people who will take your clothing from you? Yes. Do you know what Jesus said? He said you put up a fight; don’t let him do it. That’s not what He said, is it? “Him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.”

And that’s all you got. Your cloak’s the outer; we would call it an overcoat, and then your jacket is on top of that. Yeah, let him take it.

Don’t Expect Repayment

And then, in verse 30, He says:

Luke 6:30: “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.”

Now, in Matthew’s version of this, He said:

Matthew 5:42: “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”

But here, He says somebody takes away your goods. Don’t ask for them back. Do people ever do that? Yeah, they do. Give to those who ask if you can. If somebody asks you for something and you can do it, you do it for them, or you give it to them. That’s what the Lord said to do. But He also said not to always expect repayment. Don’t always expect somebody to pay you back.

Can I share something with you? If you give money to somebody and you expect to get it back, and you don’t get it back, what are you going to be? Well, number one, you’re going to be disappointed because you didn’t get it back, and secondly, you might get angry with that person. But if you do what the Lord said, you give it to them, and you don’t expect repayment. If they pay you, you’re going to be happy. If they don’t, you won’t be disappointed because you weren’t expecting it anyway. Is that the kind of thing He meant here? I believe it is.

The Golden Rule

But the key to it all is in verse 31, that Golden Rule we talked about:

Luke 6: 31: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

Treat other people the way you want to be treated. We say this here often, but I think it needs to be said that often, not the way they treat you. Don’t treat other people the way they treat you because other people aren’t always going to be nice to you. Some, a lot of times, they are, and if they’re nice to you, most of us don’t have a problem being nice back. But not everybody’s always nice. But you know what He didn’t say? Treat them the way they treat you. He said treat other people the way you want them to treat you.

Then verse 32, and we didn’t read on from here, He says:

Luke 6:32: “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.”

You know what He’s saying? You’re going to be children of the Father. You’re going to be like me, and the only people you love are the people who love you. First, how are you any different than the unsaved world? How are you any different than the people who don’t even know me because they’ll do that, they’ll love the people that love them.

He goes on verse 33:

Luke 6:33: “And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.”

And they will. If somebody’s nice to them, they’ll be nice back. If somebody does something for them, they’ll do a favor back.

Luke 6:34: “And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.”

So, He’s saying, anybody will do these things. Anybody will live like that. Anybody will do those things. They’ll treat other people well who treat them well.

Love Your Enemies

In verse 35, he says:

Luke 6:35: “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”

Think about that one for a minute.

Luke 6:36: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:”

And then He said:

Luke 6:38: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.”

Let’s talk about that quickly, and we’re finished tonight. He says love and do good to other people. Be merciful because your Father is merciful to you. God’s merciful to you. You be merciful to other people. He says to live like the children of God. Be kind to the unthankful and even to the evil. It says to be like your Father. Be merciful because He’s merciful, and then He says don’t judge and condemn.

Now, a lot of people who challenge that say, “Well, you have to judge right from wrong.” You do. You do have to judge right from wrong. But what He’s saying is to be careful how you judge them because, in verse 38, He says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”

That part we like, but look what He says at the end of verse 38, “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”

What is that saying? It’s saying whatever standard you measure other people by, you’re going to have to live up to that same standard. That’s where it gets challenging for a lot of people. What measure you “mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”

Do What’s Good

So, what’s the point of it all here? Here it is. As best you know how, to the best of your ability, live like Jesus every day. And when you find that you can’t do this on your own, and you will find that you can’t do it on your own, you’re going to have to trust the Lord, and you’re going to have to rely on His strength.

In John chapter 15, Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing.” That’s true. So, we have to, every day, do to the best of our ability what we know is right, what we know is good, and when we can’t do it or we find ourselves not doing it, we’ve got to lean on the Lord. That’s the way we enter this New Year.

Romans 13:3 Paul wrote, and he said:

Romans 13:3: “Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.”

When I was working in a Christian school, I was in charge of chapel services. I actually had a couple of Christian schools and I tried to convey that to the young students in the school. “Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.”

Why did I have to emphasize that with them? Because in the schools, we had rules and if they broke the rules, they were disciplined. And some of them didn’t like it, being disciplined, and I don’t know anybody who really does like that. But you know what? Do what’s good. You don’t get disciplined. “Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.” You won’t have to suffer consequences.

Amos 5:14 says:

Amos 5:14: “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.”

“Seek good, and not evil.” Isn’t that a good idea?

Amos 5:14: “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.”

So, I try, and I’ve been teaching children all my adult life, I try to teach children always be the good guy. Let somebody else be the bad guy. Plenty of people out there are willing to be the bad guy. You let them be the bad guy. Let you and I always be the good guy. And the only way we’re going to do that is to follow the Lord Jesus. Be like Him and depend on Him each step of every day.

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Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you that we have the opportunity to call you our Heavenly Father. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for forgiving us. Thank you for promising to be with us always.

Lord, it is my earnest prayer that you’d help us in this last service of the year to take personal inventory of our hearts and our lives and ask ourselves, “Am I to the best of my ability, the best I know how, am I living up to what the Lord would have me to do? Oh, Lord, help me to be good to other people. Help me to be a testimony of your mercy and your grace. Help me to treat other people not only as I want to be treated but the way you would treat them.” Lord, we fall short on this. We need your help now.

Lord, bless us as we come to the close of this service, the close of this year. And as we look at the opportunities of a new year, help us to always be a good person.

Heads bowed; eyes are closed. We’ll sing a short hymn of invitation. If God’s spoken into your heart, you need prayer as some have. You are invited to come. If there’s a spiritual need in your life, this is your opportunity to come and let us help you find the answers that you’re looking for.

Father, bless and move now in this invitation time. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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