Ask, Seek, Knock

Context of the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 7:7-11

0:05 We turn again this morning to the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 7.

0:33 In our continuation, in expounding this sermon of all sermons as far as those given by our Lord and recorded for us, we must ever keep before us the thread of thought that runs through each section and never attempt to handle any given verse or series of verses without seeing it in its relationship to the whole. Our Lord stated in Matthew chapter 5, verses 19 and 20, that unless our righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and the Pharisees, we would not enter the kingdom of heaven.

1:14 And in a real sense, all that follows right up to this section is laying out that greater righteousness, that practical godliness, which is to be the experience of God's children through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have studied this searching part in the first part of chapter 7, where our Lord forbids on the one hand, in verses 1 to 5, a hypercritical, censorious spirit. Judge not that she be not judged. Then on the other hand, a very real danger for some people, that of being undiscerning and not having enough spiritual, critical attitude about them.

1:58 And so our Lord says, Now this morning we come in our studies to verses 8 or verses 7 through 11, a wonderful section, but again, one of these sections that has been lifted out of its context and has been terribly abandoned, and has been abused, even by some of its supposed friends. Following this prohibition of a censorious spirit, following this equally strong prohibition of a guileless kind of a spirit that swallows everything

2:39 and will not discern between swine and dogs and those who are receptive to truth, our Lord now says as, And it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth.

2:58 And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent?

3:12 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? What a tremendous passage to attempt to handle in one message, to attempt to preach on it all. But as we attempt it this morning, and you'll be the judge as to how successful we are in our attempts to lay it out, there are three very basic introductory observations that we must make. And we dare not touch this passage and seek to understand it.

Three Introductory Observations for Interpreting the Passage

3:52 We must unfold it and apply it to ourselves until, first of all, we come to grips with these three principles. Number one, these words are directed exclusively to the children of God. These are general and broad promises. Ask, and it shall be given you.

4:11 Every one that asketh, receiveth. Every seeker will find. Every knocker will have it open to him. But remember, these are pearls of promise that are not cast out to the swine.

4:23 The swine of unregenerate flesh. They are spoken to those of whom our Lord can say in verse 11, How much more shall your Father in heaven? And our Lord never uses that phrase carelessly. Your Father in heaven.

4:43 You remember in chapter 5 where he's saying we're to love our enemies? He says that ye may be like your Father who sends rain upon the just and the unjust. He doesn't say he's the Father of the unjust. He said he's your Father.

4:58 And he sends his rain upon the just and the unjust. He told his own in chapter 6 that if God is concerned about the grass and the birds, how much more shall your Father in heaven take care of his own? But our Lord never uses this term carelessly as though God were the Father in this sense of all men. He is the Father of all men.

5:22 Not only in the sense that he has created all men, but this wonderful passage, replete with such tremendous promises, is directed exclusively to the children of God. Those who have come into the family of God by the new birth, those who have been awakened to their terrible state by nature and by practice, and who having discovered in the Lord Jesus their only hope of mercy, have fled their sins and their own sins. They have come to their own righteousness and have laid hold of Christ for righteousness, for life, and for eternity. Now what is perfectly right and proper for a prince when he comes before the throne of

6:06 his father who is a king, would be outright brassiness for some rebel who dared to come to the gate of the king and ask the same thing. For the prince who is the son of the king to come and say, Dad, I'd like this and that, is proper, it's right, and the king welcomes his son into his presence. But for someone who has rebelled against the authority and the laws of the king, and who stands out in defiance to the king's rule and reign, for him to dare to knock on the chamber room of the king and come in and say, Oh king, I want this or that, that's outright brazenness. And so for those who have bowed to the scepter of the Lord Jesus, the King of Grace, and

6:50 who by grace have been subdued and brought into his kingdom. Brought into his family and made heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ. What is fitting and proper for them in asking and seeking and knocking is outright brazenness and brassiness for rebel sinners who have never seen themselves lost and undone, who have never realized that they are rebels against the authority of God, and thrown down the weapons of their rebellion and fled to Jesus Christ pleading for mercy. And so we must practice what we've just read.

7:26 Cast not your pearl before swine, give not that which is holy to the dogs. And how many people who live in absolute disregard of the claims of Jesus Christ will get in a pinch and say, well, God says ask and it shall be given you. And they come like rebels and dare to enter the chamber room of the king and start demanding of that king. When that king demands you bow before me.

7:52 me and my son, ere you ever come seeking for the gifts and the blessings of my grace. If you're here this morning and you've not been born into God's family, I hope we can provoke you to jealousy. As we lay out these gracious promises and you realize that every time you start to reach out your hand to take them, God slaps that hand down and says, they're not for you. I hope it'll provoke you to jealousy.

8:19 In the right sense, Paul said that in Romans. He said, I want to provoke my kinsmen to jealousy as I speak of the blessings that have come to Gentiles. And I trust that some of you this morning who are not in the family of God, as you see the rich family promises that the Lord gives, that it'll just make you so jealous that you say, I'll not rest until I know that I can come as a prince to his father king and there plead the promises in his presence. Well, I hurry on now to the second introductory observation that's necessary.

8:52 And that is this. These words are not isolated from everything that precedes them.

8:59 These words are, in a very real sense, a climax of everything that has preceded us in the Sermon on the Mount. We considered the Beatitudes where Jesus said, blessed are those characterized by meekness, by poverty of spirit, by hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Those of us who've had at least a little glimpse of our hearts, we say, but. Everything in me is not meek, it's proud.

9:27 Instead of being poor in spirit, I'm self-sufficient. Instead of naturally hungering and thirsting after righteousness, I'm just content with the status quo. I rest on my oars. How can I be that meek man?

9:41 How can I be that broken, spirited man? How can I be the one who hungers and thirsts? We saw that the Christian is to be light in a dark world. He's to be salt in a bland world.

9:54 How can I continue to maintain my saltiness? How can I maintain the light that will bring illumination? And we looked at the law of God and its breadth, which the Christian is supposed to take seriously. Adultery touches the thoughts.

10:10 Murder touches the attitudes.

10:13 I face that blazing light of God's holy law in all its breadth. And I'm supposed to, by the grace of God, live up to that. Not in order to gain salvation, but as the fruit. The fruit of my acceptance before God.

10:28 We considered how the Christian is not to be troubled about food and clothing and raiment and about tomorrow. But I'm not built that way. I can think about tomorrow. And if I can think about tomorrow, I can worry about tomorrow.

10:40 And if I need food, I can worry about food. And yet the Lord says, don't be anxious. And then He comes to this section where He says, be never marked by a hypercritical attitude. At the same time, don't have a gullible attitude.

10:55 And when you hurt, don't have a gullible attitude. all of this, don't you throw up your hands and say, who is sufficient for these things? That I should be marked by all those characteristics of the Beatitudes. That I should be light and salt. That I should walk

11:10 in the light of God's holy law in all of its breadth and its length and its stringent demands. That I should be delivered from fretful care about the present and the future and about things. That I should be delivered from a hypercritical attitude and from an undiscerning attitude. We say with Paul, who is sufficient for these things? And our Lord

11:32 comes and says, ask. Ask. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and

11:41 it shall be opened unto you. I tell you, it will make a tremendous difference the way you claim this passage. What does it have to do with? Listen carefully.

11:49 It has nothing to do with a new car or a new house.

11:59 It's got nothing to do with a new suit of clothes. It's got nothing to do with advancement socially or physically or materially.

12:10 It has to do with the child of God who faces this standard and says, oh God, how can I be meek? How can I be light? How can I be salt? How can I walk at rest and not troubled by gnawing fears of the future and the pressure of worry?

12:28 How can I be discriminating and yet uncritical? How can I be uncritical and yet discriminating? And I see my need for grace to be the kind of the man or woman described in the Sermon on the Mount and sensing that I don't have it up myself, I begin to ask and seek and knock for what? For the spiritual things that our Lord has been holding up before us as the standard for our lives. And

13:04 to view this passage isolated from all that has preceded it, is to butcher the promises of the Lord Jesus. Now thank God there are some promises that have to say about a new car. If a new car is needed for me to do the will of God and to serve Him, then Philippians 4.19 says, my God shall supply all your need. And it's talking about material

13:28 need. But don't say this passage is talking about it. It's not.

13:35 And I believe God is grieved and righteously angered

13:40 when people whose concerns are as far from the first section of the Sermon on the Mount as night from day, will come to this section and say, God has said, ask and shall receive. Seek peace of mind. Wait a minute. Ask what? Seek

13:55 what? Knock for what? For everything that He's been telling us, we ought to be by His grace. And so these words are not isolated from what precedes, but they have to do with grace to be holy, to have discernment, to walk in peace, with God and with our fellow men for purity of mind, purity of motive, all of this.

14:19 And then the third principle that I want us to see at the outset is that these words are not isolated from the rest of the Bible. How often have I heard people say, and I've thought it myself, how foolish that I have, I've said, oh, if I could only live when our Lord was alive. You read the Gospels and you read of the multitudes that came and heard Him speak, and how did you thought in your own mind, oh, if only God had chosen to let me be born almost 2,000 years earlier? Have you thought that way? I'm sure a number of you

14:52 had. What a privilege it must have been to hear the words fall from His lips. He who spake is no man ever spoke. But I've come to see that I wouldn't trade places with them for anything. Because

15:05 we have the privilege, among other things, of taking what He said on any given occasion and comparing it with whatever else He said on other occasions, so we are kept from the tendency of misapplying and misinterpreting that is far more apt to happen when you only heard Him once. You see, I get into trouble with people who come to church here one time and they hear me say something that those of you who are here week after week, you can evaluate it in the light of everything else that's said, and you're kind enough to do it. Sometimes people come all triggered anyway and they've got their guard up. They've heard some strange things about that place up on the hill, and so they come all triggered, and they get a little statement, and they only come

15:49 once, and that statement just sort of sticks in them like a barb, you know, or like a burr, and it works on them and troubles them, and they don't put it in its right context, you see. Now, what's true with we who seek to preach the Word is also true with our Lord's words. So we have the privilege of taking the passage that's before us this morning and remembering that this passage is not isolated from the rest of the Bible, for the same Holy Ghost who wrote for us, ask and it shall be given you, also said, ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your

16:33 lust, James chapter 4. God says there's certain people who ask and they don't receive because their motive in asking is wrong. The same Holy Ghost said in Psalm 66, if I'm I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. You say, well, I've asked and didn't receive. Now, I can tell you why.

16:55 You've been regarding iniquity in your heart. That may be the reason. The same Holy Ghost who wrote for everyone that asked, received, said in Isaiah 1, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are full of blood. And so we don't isolate this passage from the rest of the Bible. Well, you say, Pastor, you've

17:17 spoiled it for me now. I just want to put my coat on and go home. That's one of my favorite passages, too. You started in on it, now you've spoiled it for me.

17:25 Now, listen. If those three principles have spoiled it, it's about time it got spoiled for you. Because you didn't have it straight. And if those three principles have spoiled it, it's time it got spoiled.

17:39 This passage is directed exclusively to the children of God. This passage is not isolated from what precedes it. It's a climax. And thirdly, it's not isolated from the rest of the Bible. Well,

The Threefold Command: Ask, Seek, Knock

17:54 I trust there are at least a few that it hasn't spoiled it completely for you. Then, what does the passage say? Well, very naturally, the passage can be broken down into two main headings. We have a three-fold command, followed with a three-fold promise.

18:09 Now, that should be easy to remember, should it not? A three-fold command, followed with a three-fold promise. Notice the command. Ask, seek, and knock. Now, why are they

18:25 in the imperative? Why did God put them in the form of a command?

18:34 I've been asking myself this question when I was working on the message and I looked up those verbs in the original and they're all in the imperative.

18:42 It's as though the Lord is saying, I command you to ask. I command you to seek. I command you to knock. And I say, now, Lord, why?

18:52 Why didn't you just say, you may ask? Why didn't you just entreat us? Why did you command us? Well, I don't understand all of the reason, but I think this is part of it.

19:01 The greatest way someone can show his or her desire on your behalf is to couch that desire in the form of a command. Let me illustrate. Imagine a king who has infinite resources at his disposal and out in his kingdom there are those who are destitute and in poverty and need what he has. In his heart he's willing to empty his coffers upon his people.

19:27 He's willing for them to share in all of his wealth. Now, there are two or three ways that he can make that known. He can send out an announcement through his kingdom, I have sufficient in my coffers, in my barns, in my silos, in my treasury, for all the people in my kingdom. And he can stop there. And you might be out

19:47 there in your rags and tatters and in your poverty and say, well, the king seems like a nice man and he sent out this announcement that he has enough for everybody in the kingdom. Now, he hasn't explicitly said that he wants us to come or he'd receive us if we've come, but maybe there's a possibility. So on that possibility of just a general announcement that he has enough, I'll venture to go to the palace and knock on the door and ask for an admission and ask for a supply.

20:17 Now, there might be a few people bold enough to do it, but most people would say, yeah, the king's got enough, but will he receive me? Well, the king might emphasize, his invitation a little bit differently, and he might do this. He might send out an announcement through his kingdom saying, I have enough for everyone in my kingdom to be well and wealthy and sustained and have all of their necessities met. Please come to my palace and receive what I have. Now, I imagine

20:47 there'd be a lot of people that would respond more than would the former one if the king said, please come. And some would realize, well, the king not only has the supply, and not only is there a possibility, but there's a strong probability that he'll give me. He said, please come. Now, if the king really wanted to get across the desire of his heart, you know what he would do?

21:11 He would send out an announcement through all his kingdom, and he'd say, my coffers are full, my barns are full, my treasury's full with enough for everyone in my kingdom, and as your king, I command you to come. My people would come in droves, and those who really loved the king and the thought of his large heart was fresh before them, they'd come, and that command would be the most gracious command they ever obeyed in all their life. I don't think they'd be dragging their heels. They'd be shouting and yelling as they went, the king has commanded us to come. How

21:44 can he make his desire any more plain than to command us to come? And that command would be an expression of grace. And I believe that's why our Lord did this. You and I face the standard of the Sermon on the Mount, and if it hasn't driven us down on our faces before, we'll be in trouble.

22:01 We'll be in trouble. We'll be in trouble. Therefore, God beloved, I don't know what will. When our Lord searches out the motive, searches out the thought life, deals with the terrible condition of the human heart, and we throw up our hands and say, oh God, I'm poverty stricken. I can't be that

22:17 kind of a man or woman. Now God could say, oh, I have enough to make you that. God could say, please come and I'll give you what you need. But he does something far more gracious than that.

22:29 He says, ask. He commands us to ask, so that he might make clear to us the largeness of the desire of his heart. And so in answer to the question, why does it come as a threefold command, the answer, I believe, is first of all that which we've given, to show the strength of the desire of God. Does God want you and me to be light, to be salt, to walk in the light of the breadth of his holy law, to be delivered from fretful concern about food and raiment, to be delivered from a hypercritical attitude, to be delivered from wrong motives in our praying? Ah, yes, he longs

23:09 for his people to be delivered from this. And so he says, come, ask, seek, and knock. The second reason is that he wants to overcome the reluctance of our hearts. As one old saint has said, when I can't pray as a privilege, then I better pray as a duty.

23:27 And I like that. Now there's times when God's command to ask is a privilege. Just like people who know that they're poverty-stricken and have confidence in the king's word, it's a privilege for them to run to the palace in obedience to the king's command. But there may be times when they think all is pretty well.

23:47 There may be times when their affection for the king is waning. All right, they can't come to the palace as a privilege, you better come as a duty. Your king's told you to come. And that's the way it is in our lives.

23:59 Blessed be God for the times when prayer is a privilege. When conscious of our own need, and conscious of the largeness of the Father's heart, we come with delight. It's a privilege to come. But listen, you won't live very long as a Christian before you realize there are times when prayer isn't a privilege. Either you're in

24:18 a state of mind or heart, or the enemy is putting pressure upon you, that it's just not a privilege to pray. All right, when you can't pray as a privilege, you better pray as a duty, because your king commands you to ask. He commands you to ask. And it's open disobedience to your king when you fail to ask.

24:37 So when I can't pray as a privilege, pray as a duty. But pray, ask, seek, and knock. And then I think the third reason why the Lord gave it in the form of a command is that he might reveal the terrible vileness or the ugliness of the sin of not coming. If he just said grace is available and made a general kind of a promise, we'd say, well, it just doesn't apply to me.

25:03 But the invitation is not vague. He says, ask, seek, knock. And so when I fail to ask, when I fail to seek, when I fail to knock, God wants me to face up to what that failure is. Downright open disobedience to the one who's purchased me with his own precious blood. And that's

25:26 why he's given it in the form of a command that you and I might not only see the strength of his desire, have our reluctance of heart, overcome, but that God might reveal the ugliness of the sin of not coming. Now having considered why a command, let's next consider what are the distinctions in the three words. Notice them. Ask, and it shall be given you.

Distinctions and Persistence in the Commands

25:51 Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Now I wouldn't want to build a whole sermon on the distinction between these three. I think there are times when we can make artificial distinctions. I think our Lord is

26:05 trying to build up words to emphasize one central truth. But there is a shade of difference. If I ask you for something, that's a verbal request. If I seek something, I get my body involved in that. I go

26:19 looking, turning over bedspreads or rugs or cleaning out closets or something else. When I go seeking for something, there's activity. And when I knock, there's an attempt to dispose of the obstacle that stands between me and what I want. What I want's behind that door.

26:37 I'm going to knock until that door is opened unto me. So I think we have here. I wouldn't stake my life on it. But as I've tried to feel the climate of this, I believe what we have is a rising crescendo of spiritual desire. Ask, that's

26:53 a verbal request. Seek, that's getting to move. Knock, you find an obstacle, and you're determined to pound away at that obstacle until it's removed, and you can get what you desire. So I think the reason our Lord gave the three words is to give that climate of a rising crescendo of spiritual desire.

27:13 So if you and I are to obey these commands, to ask, to seek, to knock, we've got to continually see our need. Only the empty go out asking. Only those who place value on a treasure will seek, and only those determined to find will knock. So when you get so you don't have much heart for asking, for seeking, and knocking, you know what you need to do?

27:39 You need to go back and start with chapter 5 and read the Sermon on the Mount again. That'll get you to see how poverty-stricken you are and that you need to go begging.

27:50 That'll show you the treasures of grace you don't have and get you to seeking them. That'll get you to see all the obstacles within your own heart and in the world toward being what God wants you to do. So if you've got no heart to ask, seek, and knock, it's because you don't see your need. Now you want to see?

28:06 Then just go back and read everything that precedes. See, that's the connection between them. Our Lord assumes that having heard all that He said, we'd have our hands up in despair and say, how can you get this out of old Adam's sock? You can't do it. And so the Lord says,

28:20 ask, seek, and knock. And then another thing that I want us to notice in the commands, not only why a command and then the distinction in the commands, but they're all in a present imperative. Our Lord is saying literally, keep on asking. Keep on seeking.

28:41 Keep on knocking. He could have used the verb form, which means, ask once and then forget it. Or seek once and forget it. Or knock once and go away. But He

28:53 uses the present imperative, which literally means, keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. You remember the two parables He gave on prayer in Luke 11, about the friend who went at midnight to get some bread for some strangers who came to visit him?

29:08 And then the widow who went after that judge in Luke 18 and kept after him until the judge honored her request? Our Lord is teaching us that though His provision is limitless and available, our need is continuous, and so as the provision is available and the need is continuous, let us continually come. And then there's another reason why they're all in the present imperative. And I trust you'll listen carefully to the next statement I make. I've written it down.

29:38 I want to say it right. So I think I've got it right in my study, and I want to read it to you. Listen carefully. The treasures of God's grace are stored up for the determined and the desperate.

29:53 The treasures of God's grace are stored up for the desperate and the determined.

30:03 Our Lord says, do you see yourself in need? Then keep on asking. I have nothing for triflers. If you're one of those paupers in the kingdom who can come to the kingdom of God, if you're one of those paupers in the kingdom who can come to the kingdom of God, go to the gates of the king's palace and stick your hand out and say, oh king, I'll have something if there's a little delay. Say, oh well,

30:19 I guess the king's not interested. I'll go on back to my hobble, back to my place of poverty. The Lord says, you won't get a thing. Those who come and ask and if there's a delay, they're determined to have. So they keep on asking.

30:31 And if no porter comes to the door of the palace when they first knock, they don't get discouraged and turn around and go home. They keep on knocking because they know behind that door is all they need. And they're going to keep on knocking. They're determined to have it.

30:46 Determined to have it. So what's our Lord saying? I think He's saying that the riches of grace, and they're all of grace, are stored up for the determined and the desperate. God has nothing for triflers.

31:02 Back of every new breakthrough in the realm of the Spirit is a desperate man, a desperate woman. For God has said, has He not, that those that seek Me with the whole heart shall find Me? Proverbs chapter 1, God says, If thou cry out after knowledge, if thou seek for her as for treasure and hunt for her as gold, then shalt thou find the knowledge of the Lord. May I be intensely practical?

31:30 You know why we get so little out of sermons? We don't come desperate to hear God speak.

31:38 That's why.

31:40 Proverbs chapter 2, I should have said. God says, If thou cry out after knowledge, if thou seek her as for hid treasure, then thou find the knowledge of the Lord. From the human side, why are so many people unsaved? Right under the shadow of gospel-preaching pulpits, they're not desperate.

31:57 Oh, it'd be nice to get saved and know you're forgiven, but it's not as nice to go to Florida.

32:05 You see, until this becomes the one thing needful, knowing God, being right with God, asking the treasures of grace, seeking the riches of His grace, knocking at the coffers of His grace, until this becomes the all-absorbing issue. God is nothing. Nothing for us. Now you say, Pastor, why should it be?

Reasons for God's Requirement of Persistent Asking

32:27 Does God like to tantalize us? No. Does our asking and seeking and knocking somehow store up merit? No.

32:36 But there are some very valid reasons. May I give you several? Why does God say, keep on asking, keep on seeking? First of all, He wants to prove the depth of your desire.

32:46 Some of you are in business. And here's a young man who comes and he wants a job. And so you're out when he comes. And where it is left, a young man came to see you, Mr. So-and-so,

32:58 interested in a job. Said he'd be back. Well, a day goes by, two, three weeks, six weeks, never comes back. Well, you know, this guy didn't mean business.

33:08 He's just a trifle. So you're glad he never did see him again. But suppose you're out, and he says he's going to be back tomorrow at 2 o'clock. And lo and behold, 2 o'clock, he's back, and you're not there.

33:18 He leaves word, I'll be back the next day. He'll be back the next day at 2 o'clock. So this goes on for five days in a row. After a while, you say, wait a minute, I think this guy's in earnest.

33:24 I'd give him his business. So when you finally are there, when he comes in, you sit down and talk to him. One thing you know, this guy wants a job. He may not be qualified.

33:33 He may not have what it takes, but he's sure got desire. Right? Sure. Now, the Lord says, keep on asking.

33:41 Why? To test the reality of our desire. The pauper who comes to the king's palace and asks once and goes away. He really didn't desire what the king was offering.

33:58 Secondly, to prove and to purify our faith. This is why our Lord asks us to keep on asking and knocking. You remember the illustration of the woman in Matthew 15? She came pleading for a touch from the Lord Jesus, and she wasn't a Jew.

34:13 She wasn't a Jewish. She was a Gentile. Remember, the Lord said they're almost cruel. First of all, the disciples discouraged her, and then she got over that.

34:21 And then she said to the Lord, I want you to meet my needs. And he says, no, I can't do that. You see, I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and I can't take the meat and throw it to dogs. I'm happy enough to discourage anyone to have the Son of God say, listen, you're nothing but a Gentile dog, and I've got nothing for you.

34:40 That's what our Lord told her. He says, you're a Gentile dog, and I've got nothing for you. Remember her answer? Ah, yes, Lord.

34:49 But the dogs can nibble some crumbs that fall from underneath the table. She hung up the Lord on his own words. Did he get mad at her? Did he get disturbed with her?

34:58 No, it says what? Oh, woman, great is thy faith. He commended her. He delighted in it.

35:05 What kind of faith? Faith that was purified in the midst of obstacles. First there's disciples. She pushes them aside.

35:11 Then the Lord himself puts out an objection. She sweeps that aside until she lays hold of him. And the Lord says, great is thy faith. He gave her. He gave her the crumbs.

35:23 You see, this is what the Lord is doing with us. How many times when he seems to say to us, he seems to say to us, no meat for the dog, stick our tail between our legs and we go away. Not that woman. She just kept right on persisting until the Lord gave her what she desired.

35:43 You see, not only is the Lord, say, keep on asking in order to prove the depth of our desire, but to prove and purify our faith so that little faith becomes great faith as we must wait. And then the third reason is to produce patience. Lamentations 3.26 says it's good for a man to both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, to produce in us patience.

36:09 Remember, when you're asking God for something, you're asking God for something. And if he's God, he's got a right to make the creature wait. Who are we to expect him to be like a little servant boy to us, that the minute we snap our fingers or clap our hands like they do in the Orient, he'll come running? If he's God and we're the creature, beloved, it'd be of grace that if we had to wait a hundred years in his footstool and if he threw us just a crumb after a hundred years of waiting, that would still be infinitely more than anything we deserve, would it not?

36:48 For the only thing I deserve is hell. And yet how the creature impatience of our hearts will rise up and we don't want to wait. And we interpret God's delays in a wrong way. And we say, There's something wrong with the heart of God.

37:07 When God says, No, the problem's with your heart. Now, when we've had to wait and our desire has been proven, and our faith purified and patience produced, what happens then when God gives you what you're asking for? Hmm? You know this by experience?

37:26 Think of those things that you hardly even prayed for, and lo and behold, God surprised you and gave them to you. Well, you were thankful. Oh, think of those things that you asked and asked and asked, and sought and knocked. Then when God gave them to you, I tell you, don't forget those answers.

37:42 You can forget some of the others pretty quick. Can you think of those places where faith was tried, desire was deepened, and patience was produced? Why, when you're having a time of praise to the Lord in your own devotions, those things will come up to your mind, though they happened years ago, and you've appreciated. God prepared you to receive the gift.

38:04 And you see, God's always concerned not only about the gifts that He wants to give us for our need, but He's concerned about the one to whom He gives them, that we might be able to receive them as from Himself. So much then for the threefold command. Why a command? To show the strength of His desire, to overcome the reluctance of our hearts, that when we cannot pray as a privilege, we'll pray as a duty, and to reveal the ugliness of the sin of failure to pray.

38:33 What are the distinctions? A rising crescendo of desire. Why in the imperative? God has His treasures of grace stored up for the desperate and the determined, proving our faith, testing the depth of our desire, producing patience.

The Threefold Promise: General, Specific, Illustrated

38:52 Now we move to the promise. And as we had a threefold command, ask, seek, and knock, now notice the breadth of the threefold promise. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find.

39:10 Knock, and it shall be given you. And it shall be opened unto you. Verse 7 gives us a general promise. Verse 8, For every one that asketh, receiveth.

39:18 And he that seeketh, findeth. To him that knocketh, it shall be opened. That's a specific promise. And then verses 9 to 11, What man is there, whom if his son ask bread?

39:30 Then we have an illustrated promise. Now how can the Lord do any more than that? He gives a general promise as broad as His own nature, then He makes it specific, and then He illustrates it. So with the threefold command, ask, seek, and knock, you have a threefold promise.

39:45 General, specific, and then illustrated. Notice the general promise, very obvious. After each command, He tells us, ask, shall be given you. The gift sought shall be obtained.

39:59 Seek, and ye shall find. The treasure for which you hunt, it will be found. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Every door standing is an obstacle.

40:10 You shall be opened. But all of those promises are in the plural. They're in the second person plural. Ask, and ye all together shall receive.

40:22 All of you seek, and ye all shall find. All of you knock, and it shall be opened unto you. What is our Lord telling us? He's telling us that for all of His people, the promises are the same.

40:34 But as the saying goes, everybody's job is nobody's job. So the human heart has a tendency to say, everybody's promise is nobody's promise. So the Lord says, I anticipate that. So now I'm going to take it out of the plural, and He puts it in the singular.

40:50 Everyone that is asking is receiving. Everyone that is seeking shall find. And everyone that knocks, to him it shall be opened. So our Lord says, this is not just like everybody's job, nobody's job.

41:08 This is for each one of you who feels your need of grace, you feel your need of power to be what has been described. Now come, and come in the confidence that you will receive. Let me illustrate just one of those aspects of the promise in verse 8. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

41:27 Our Lord is saying, when you knock, you're not to knock as a beggar, who when he comes to the door and knocks, always has a fear, well, people are going to see me and recognize I'm a beggar. And they're going to slam the door in my face. Or a stranger, he may be well dressed, but he knows when he knocks at your door and asks for something, you're going to be a little bit suspicious. Is he a crook dressed up?

41:52 Does he have a gun in his pocket? Is he a shyster? Is he going to con me? What's he going to do?

41:57 And so the stranger, if you come to someone's door as a stranger, you know they might be suspicious. You come as a beggar, they might be just plain rude. Or when you come as a friend who's got a standing invitation, what a difference. You've got some friends like that.

42:11 I remember when we were in the traveling ministry, we used to stop out at Wheaton, where Jerry and Mary Lou Gabriel and their family were ministering. And we had a standing invitation from Jerry. Any time you come through, any time, day or night, come by. There's a bed waiting for you.

42:29 Even if you have to kick somebody out. When Mary was staying out there, she had to give up her room and ended up, I don't know where she ended up. But I had that kind of a standing invitation. And when I'd go up to that door there and forgot the name of the street and knock on that door, I'm not knowing I have an entrance.

42:47 I had a standing invitation. I never feared they were going to come and look at me and say, Oh, you again. See, I never feared that they were going to say, What's this bum want? No.

42:58 Jerry said to me, Al, whenever you're coming through this area, you've always got a bed and a place to sleep and some food to fill your tummy. And I took him at his word. So whenever I came up to that door to knock, I knocked not with a hopeless despair of the beggar who might be rudely treated with the stranger who might be suspect, but with the confidence of a friend who knew he had an open door and an open heart behind that door. Now, the Lord says to his children, That's the way I want you to come.

43:29 Don't come at the beggar, afraid the door is going to be slammed in your face. Don't come like the stranger, afraid God might look down at a jaundiced eye and be suspicious. But come as one who is a friend with a standing invitation, knowing that as we ask, we shall receive. As we seek, we shall find.

43:50 As we knock, it shall be opened unto you. And remember what he's talking about. He's talking about asking for grace to be the kind of a man or woman that he's described in the Sermon on the Mount. So we have the general promise, the specific promise.

The Illustrated Promise: Arguing from Lesser to Greater

44:05 And then last, we have the promise illustrated. Notice in verses nine, nine to eleven, you students taking the course in logic. You see what we have here? What do we have in verses nine to eleven?

44:17 What man is there of you who, if his son asked bread, will give him a stone? Ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give good things to them that ask you? What kind of an argument is that?

44:37 You've got an a fortiori argument here. Arguing from the lesser to the greater. Right? Right?

44:47 Didn't you pass your course in logic? You ought to see that here. You've got that kind of an argument. He argues from the lesser to the greater.

44:56 Now notice what he does. And it's interesting. As our Lord builds this illustration of God's desire to answer the cry of his children for grace, he, in a little side reference, touches two tremendous doctrines of the Bible. And I want us to just sort of take a little side route here to look at them.

45:16 That's all. We can only look at them. He says, If ye, being evil. This is one of the clearest statements of the depravity of human nature found anywhere in the Bible.

45:28 He says, Your Father in heaven is your Father, but though you are his sons through grace, you are in and of yourself basically evil. And he uses the word that's used for the devil, paniros. He says, If ye, being evil, though you're my sons, you're basically evil. For in my flesh, Paul says, dwelleth what?

45:55 No good thing. People say, No doctrine in the Sermon on the Mount. Here you've got the doctrine of man's depravity assumed as the basis of an argument. He doesn't even stop to prove it.

46:05 He takes for granted that all these people have had sufficient acquaintance with the Bible to know that man is basically evil and depraved and a creature estranged from God. And then he mentions the doctrine of God's common grace. Even though you're evil, God's put it into the heart of earthly fathers to show kindness to their children. That's only the gift of God left to ourselves, beloved.

46:27 We'd be as cruel to our children as a hungry dog is to some little plaything that it sees that it wants to devour. If you don't believe this, you just read the account of what's happened even in the Bible when mothers ate the flesh of their own children in times of distress. During the siege of the captivity of Babylon, God had prophesied that mothers and parents would slay and eat their own children. And I'm sure they were shocked and said, Oh, never me.

46:56 The circumstances came and they did. And that's in the heart of every one of us. That potential is in your heart, because the human heart is basically evil and selfish, even to the extent of eating the flesh of its own offspring, if it means sparing my own hide. And it's God's common grace that restrains, even in unregenerate men, the terrible potential of the human heart.

47:22 And there are two great doctrines. I could preach the whole sermon on those. Just extract them and preach a sermon on the doctrine of depravity and common grace as set forth in the argument of the Lord Jesus. But we don't have time to now.

47:33 We want to get to his main illustration here. So he says, If you who are naturally wicked and selfish, you know enough and have enough common grace given to you by God to show kindness to your child. When your child comes and says, Daddy, I'm hungry and I need a piece of bread. There's not a father here who would even think it funny to turn around and hand your hungry son a stone.

47:58 I mean, even those of you who are the biggest kind of practical jokers, you wouldn't try that. That's just plain sadism, cruelty. You know better than to do that. If he asked for some fish, most of our kids wouldn't ask for fish.

48:12 We're not a fish-eating society. If you were in Japan, it might be a little more meaningful. We're living in an area where fish is one of the stable foods. But you wouldn't think it a joke to turn around and hand them a little venomous serpent that would bite them.

48:27 Now, that's even beyond the most practical, practical joker. We wouldn't do that. Now, our Lord says, If people basically evil would not stoop to that, how much more shall the Father in heaven, who is infinite purity, infinite love, infinite holiness, out of whose heart the little drops of common grace have shed upon the hearts of unregenerate men enough kindness that they treat their children this way? If they do this, what about the heart out of which all of this grace and love flows?

49:04 How much more shall your Father in heaven give good things to those that ask Him? One old servant of God has said, and I never can forget this, if we could take all of the tender affection that has existed in all the hearts of the tender fathers who've ever lived and could take all that affection and pour it into one heart, it would be as but a drop to the ocean and as a candle to the sun compared with the infinite measure of the love of the heart of God for His own. Now, beloved, you've got to pray this in.

49:48 I can't preach it in to you. In fact, I haven't even been able to preach it in to myself. I just don't have faith to take hold of that. I have to pray, Lord, give me a strong faith.

49:59 It takes a strong faith to somehow embrace the largeness of the Father's heart. Paul tries to state it in Romans 8 when he says, He that spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? In Romans 5, if we're saved by His death, how much more shall we be saved by His life? You've just got to pray that in.

50:26 I can't preach it in. I can't even, I'm unable to preach it in myself. I've got to pray it in. Until we realize the largeness of His Father heart is illustrated here in this particular promise.

God Gives Good Things and the Holy Spirit

50:40 Now, the only condition here is that what we ask for is good and that we ask for it. How much more shall the Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask Him? And I'm so glad, as a father, I know what's good for my son more than he does. You see, lots of times we're like a kid in a toy store.

51:00 We think what's good for us is every toy we see. Some of you parents know this. Mommy can have this, Daddy can have this, Daddy can have this. Now, it's not that you hate your children, even if you had the money.

51:09 If you had any good sense, you wouldn't buy it all for them. Woe, woe be unto you! Woe, woe be unto you as a parent if you indulge the whims of your children. You don't love them, you love yourself.

51:22 You got it? You love yourself. For if you love them and you know what's good for them, you know they can't go through life thinking everything they want they can have. They'll end up either criminals or so much in debt when they get out into life that they aren't worth anything because they've never learned that your desires have got to be disciplined in terms of your resource and in terms of what's good for you.

51:44 So a parent who loves his child, he knows it's not good to give him everything he wants. So you don't give them everything they ask for. And I'm so glad God's got the same attitude toward His children. If God gave you everything you've asked for as a Christian, think where you'd be today.

51:59 I'd tremble to think where I'd be.

52:03 So He knows what's good for me. He's promised to give me what's good. And all the things I ask for that He knows aren't good, He treats me like a little unwise, immature child. He still loves me.

52:15 I don't throw my son out when he says, Daddy, can I have this? Can I have that? Can I have the other thing? He's still my son and I still love him.

52:21 But I love him enough to say no. And God loves us. If we, being evil, know how to love Him, know how to give good things and withhold what would be to their harm, the Heavenly Father will withhold what is to our harm and give what is good. And then He says to those who ask Him, those who ask with that persistent asking in which desire is deepened and faith is strengthened and patience is imparted, that when we receive it, we go down in our faces praising Him.

52:53 Now, what are the good things? If you read the parallel passage in Luke chapter 13, Jesus says, how much more will He give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him? Now, that's what convinces me, and I never saw this until I prepared for the message today, that the things that we're asking for are essentially spiritual. Because in the parallel passage in Luke 11, 13, Jesus said, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?

53:18 So all the good things we need in the light of the Sermon on the Mount are communicated by the ministry and power and operation of the Holy Ghost. Meekness and gentleness and hungering after righteousness, the Holy Ghost. Lack of fretfulness and worry, the peace of God, communicated by the Holy Ghost. Who's a swine and who's a dog, discernment, communicated by the Holy Ghost.

53:44 The absence of hypercriticism, love, communicated by the Holy Ghost. And so the good things are spiritual things. So stop praying about material things and trying to claim this promise. If you're not concerned about spiritual things, you know what happened?

54:02 Jesus said, if you seek first these, all other necessary material things will be added. He doesn't even say you need to ask for them. He always told us to pray for bread. He hasn't told you to pray for ice cream, okay?

Conclusion: Blame for Impoverishment and the Wickedness of Indifferent Prayer

54:15 He said He'd supply bread, necessities, and anything else that He wants to add. This is His good pleasure. So what do we conclude, then, as we face this passage this morning? The thought that has struck me, and I share it with you as we close, is that what could God say more clearly than He said here to indicate His desire to give us all that we need to be all that is commandless?

54:44 Now, what more could be added to this passage? You've got a general promise, then you've got a specific promise, then it's illustrated in an area that we all understand. Can anybody say it's too general? No.

54:56 Can anybody say, well, it's just in theory? He doesn't talk about something you understand about fathers giving good things to their children. Practical enough? What more can God say?

55:07 And if you and I live impoverished as the children of God, we have only one person to blame, our own wicked hearts of unbelief, with such promises as these spread before us. And then the other thought that has come to my mind as I was thinking of drawing this to a conclusion is this. If you want more answers to prayer, then you've got to be less and less like the child in the toy department. You see, as I increasingly understand what is good, then I will have more and more answers to prayer, for He's promised to give good things to those that ask.

55:44 So, as my prayers are more and more directed for the good things of His grace and of His power and of His discernment and His enablement, then I'm going to have more and more prayers answered. You may be batting about 100, some of you. Maybe one request out of ten answered. Well, you examine those requests.

56:04 And you may be asking for things that aren't good. But when you begin to really plead with God for the good things, then more and more He will answer. I, frankly, as a pastor, am almost, at times, find it very difficult not to say things that maybe I ought to say. When I can see people who live in relative indifference to the Lord, to the Church, to the Word of God, to the fellowship of the saints, and the minute they get an ache or a pain or got to go to the hospital, whoa, my, my, they're going to pray God will help them.

56:41 Beloved, that is abominable. That's wicked. God's going to come and get our finger out. I've talked through somehow that God would get through to us the wickedness of this.

57:04 The absolute wickedness of it.

57:13 When I have been exposed to His Word and His demands of holiness and purity, and I'm crying for grace to be what He'd have me to be, and I enter a physical trial, then I call upon God for that. Yes, because it's part of the total facet of a life that's poured out to do the will of God. But to live in a realm of sin, a realm of selfish, self-centered concern, ignorant and indifferent to the purpose of God for holiness, and then when I get a physical need or material need to turn around, snap my fingers and begin to claim the promises of God. It's abominable wickedness.

57:50 And from such may God deliver me and deliver us as a Church. Beloved, I go through agony sometimes when I have to make pastoral calls because of this. But what am I to say? Put yourself in my place.

58:06 What am I to say? When people have been able to live without God and His Word in their prosperity, and suddenly, I'm talking about professing Christians, in their adversity, oh my, they want God to come into this thing. And I'm supposed to go and read the Bible to them and pray. I experience agony and agitation, turmoil of soul.

58:30 Do you see why? I'm not talking about the person who makes no profession of Christ, and who's been able to live without Him, and then physical trials come or emotional or family problems, and they begin to flounder and they call out, oh God, if there's a God, help me. Oh, what a joy to go and say, now look, you've been able to live without God, now God's shown you can't do it. It was my privilege to give the gospel to someone just recently in a situation like this.

58:56 Family and personal problems got them hung up at the end of the road. What a joy to tell them, look, you've lived without God, now you've found you can't do it, and to give them the gospel. I'm not talking about that, beloved. I'm talking about those of us who profess to know Christ.

59:09 That's who I'm talking about. And can live indifferently to His Word and His claims. And then when a pinch comes, call upon Him. It's wicked. It's wicked.

59:20 And I trust that you hear those words ringing in your ears. The first thing you do if you come into calamity and have been indifferent to God and His Word, you don't call upon God to help you in your dilemma. You fall before Him and plead for His mercy. That you've lived without Him and entered your trial without Him.

59:40 And now you do as the prophet says, you take with you words and return unto the Lord and plead for His mercy. And then when you know God's heard and forgiven, then you do like David did. You just say, Lord, I plead Your mercy. If you want to judge me, fine, you've got a right to, but I plead Your mercy.

60:00 I tell you, when you see that, then it's a joy to enter in and tell people, oh, God's got all kinds of love for the returning backslider, for the repentant David, for the repentant Peter, but for all others, I find no promises of mercy in this world. May God help us. I hadn't planned to speak that plainly on that, beloved, but I feel somehow the Spirit of God urged me to ask and it shall be given you. Seek, ye shall find. Knock, it shall be opened unto you.

60:32 Let us pray.