Luke chapter 11 again this morning
Luke chapter 11 Beginning in verse 9 And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, Will he give him a stone? Or if he
ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he
shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him? I want to start this morning
by pointing out again, we looked ahead at the passage we just
read last week, and now this week I want to look a little
bit back to the passage we looked at last week, just for the purpose
of pointing out this contrast again. Verses 5 through 8. He gave this parable. He said,
And then which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him
at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves
for a friend of mine, and his journey has come to me, and I
have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children
which are with me in bed, my children are with me in bed,
I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will
not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because
of his importunity, because of his desperation, his insistence,
his urgency, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. Now, in those, this teaches us
the truth. When we look at the contrast
between these two, we'll see the truth taught in each one
of these parables, but it also teaches us something about the
Lord's parables in general. In the first one we're represented,
you and I, we have a need. It's us. Which of you, he said,
when you You would go to a neighbor's house and ask for help. I need
something to eat because another friend is in town. But that neighbor
is not inclined to help us because we come late at night. Apparently
he's already in bed. His children are in bed. He don't
want to hear from us. But because we are desperate,
because we're insistent, because we're importunate, he does so
anyway. And our Lord gave us a model
prayer in verses two through four. Told us, pray this way. And we saw some wonderful, beautiful
things in that. But then in verses five through
eight, he teaches us how to pray with regard to the attitude of
our prayer. Not to be nonchalant about it. Not just, you know,
religion talks about let's have a quick word of prayer. Don't
ever have a quick word of prayer. Now that doesn't mean it takes
long to pray, but that's just nonchalant. That's just, let's
just throw up a prayer and hope it sticks, you know. No. They
say let's have a little talk with Jesus. No. We don't have
a little talk with Jesus. It's got to be something more
to it than that. Urgency. There's got to be a
sense of need. I'm not going away until I get
some bread. That's what that neighbor said.
I'm not going. I got to have some bread. And
that's how we are when we pray to the Lord. He teaches us the
attitude in which to pray. In verses five through eight,
though, he's not teaching us regarding our relationship with
him. He mentions our relationship with him in the model prayer.
Before that, he says, pray this way. Our father. Which art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then in the verse that we're
looking at, the passage we're looking at today, that's where
he's teaching concerning our relationship, not in verses five
through eight, though. And it's important to understand
that. He's teaching us about praying with urgency and not
letting go. We can't let him go. Where else are we going to
go? We've got to have him. And in doing that, though, he
uses a method called arguing from the lesser to the greater.
We have an example of that where our Lord does this three times
in the same lesson in Luke chapter 12. I want you to turn over there
because I want us to see this. Luke 12 24. Think about this thing
of arguing from the lesser to the greater. If this lesser thing
is true, how many times does the Lord say this? How much more?
That's what we're talking about. How much more? Look at it here
in Luke 12 24. Consider the ravens, for they
neither sow nor reap. which neither have storehouse
nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better
than the fowls? They're completely dependent
upon God. They don't have barns, they don't
know anything, really. And yet God takes care of them.
And how much more is he gonna take care of you? You're worth
more to him than ravens are. You see that? And then which
of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
Why worry about anything? Why strive on your own when everything
comes from God? You can't make yourself an inch
taller. If you then not be able, verse
26, to do that thing which is least, why take your thought
for the rest? You can't do anything. Quit worrying
about everything. Quit trying to figure out how
am I going to get through this. You're not. God's going to bring
you through it. That's how you're going to get
through it. If you did not see that, that's arguing from the
least to the greatest. Again, you can't change anything, much
less everything. Verse 27. Consider the lilies,
how they grow. They toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you that Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. They can't
fix themselves nice clothes or buy themselves nice clothes.
And they look better than you do this morning. You ladies are
looking nice this morning, I must say. Some of you look as pretty
as a lily. But, you see what he's teaching
here, very clear. Then God so clothed the grass,
which is today in the field. What a beautiful teaching this
is. Why are you worried about what
you're going to wear? And tomorrow that's cast into
the oven. How much more will he clothe you? You're his precious
children. Oh, you of little faith. We're
his precious children that don't half believe in him. Oh, may he give us faith, increase
our faith. The importunity in verses five
through eight teach us what many other scriptures do. Blind Bartimaeus,
boy, He cried them more. They told him to shut up, didn't
they? He just cried them more a great deal. Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. I'm not going to go away till
I get some bread. Keep on knocking. Jacob at Pineal, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. The king and that woman whose
daughter was vexed with the devil, perhaps the greatest example
of importunity in all the scriptures. The disciples said, Lord, send
her away. Get it. They said to her, go
away. You're bothering us. And the Lord wouldn't even speak
to her. And she came and begged for mercy. And then the Lord
said it wouldn't be right to take the children's bread and
give it to a dog like you. And she said, boy, that's the
truth. But even a dog gets the crumbs. The fall from the master's table.
She wasn't going away. And the Lord said, great is thy
faith. But the relationship in verses five through eight, they
are a contrast. They are the beginning of an
argument from the lesser to the greater. This is the lesser.
This man, this so-called friend who is evil, he's just, he's
ungrateful. If he was grateful to God that
he had so many loaves, he'd be happy to give some to his friend.
And if he was grateful to God for having a friend at all. How
many people don't have a friend? Not a real one. He'd have got
up, wouldn't he? And yet because of the importunity,
that's the teaching there. And then it's the beginning of
that lesser to the greater argument. If this friend who is evil will
give you what you need because of your importunity, how much
more will your Heavenly Father give you what you need? You're
not just a neighbor to him. And the second part of the argument
from the lesser to the greater is our text this morning. We see that man, he'd give it
anyway, but that's the lesser. How much more is God? This part
now teaches us regarding our relationship to God and how beautiful
it is. He is a father who would never
fail to give his child what they need. He gives good things. He only gives good things. And
he always gives good things. Always. He never fails. He would not be reluctant in
any way. It's never an inconvenience to
him, like the friend in the first part of this argument. When you see all of this together,
there are really three levels to it. There's the reluctant
neighbor who gives just because he's just not going to go away
until I give it to him. And then there's you, you fathers. You
will give to your children. Why? Well, because they're my
children. Because I love them such as my
love is. I love them. But he says, you're evil. You
love your kids, but you're evil. There's selfishness in your love.
There's a lack of wisdom in your giving. And then the third level,
there's the Lord, who is neither reluctant. He doesn't lack any
wisdom. He doesn't lack any goodness.
He doesn't lack faithfulness. He loves and is faithful and
is perfectly good and holy and right. There's our Lord. He gives selflessly. He gives
freely. Though there's not a single good
reason to give anything to you. That's what that word freely
means. It means without a cause. He gives that without a cause
in you. The only reason to give you anything is in Him. It's
His love for you. And it's a lot better than your
love for Him or anybody else. It's perfect love, infinite love,
eternal love, immutable love. What if in the case of the reluctant
neighbor, what if you had done him a terrible wrong of some
kind in the past? Would he have still given you
three loaves? What if you had insulted him?
Our Lord gives us all things freely. Though we despised and
rejected him, we were born spitting in his face. And ultimately we
murder him in our hearts. Every one of us are guilty of
his blood. Bless his holy name. That same
blood we're guilty of washes away all guilt and all shame. And notice what the children
are asking for in this parable. Bread, fish, and an egg. Those are things that you would
need. You have to survive. You have
to eat to live. And the Lord says, if he asks
an egg, you're not going to give him a scorpion. Will you give
him a scorpion? Nobody would ever imagine giving him anything
that would be harmful to them. You want to give your children
good things. And you're evil. Lesser to the greater. He's not
evil. But think about this. This crossed
my mind. I thought it was worth thinking
about. What if your child asked for a scorpion? They might well do that. If you've
had children, you know. You think, oh, a kid would never
ask for a scorpion. You never had children, have
you? If you're wondering that. They want to play with stuff,
you know, that's going to harm them. What if they asked for
a scorpion? They might do that. They don't
understand the danger when they're little. of that and they might
want to play with a scorpion or something like that that would
harm them. They ask for things that would be harmful don't they?
All of them do. Would you give it to them? Of
course not. So we have this added blessing
from our Heavenly Father. Not only does he give us good
things, but he won't give us everything we ask for. That's
an added blessing. That's better than getting everything
you ask for. Way better. Way better. When he says, ask and you shall
receive, what he's saying there is better than us getting everything
we ask for. You say, well that sounds like
you're getting everything you ask for. No, it's better than that.
It's way better. Our children ask us for a lot
of things over a lifetime. You who have children, let me
ask you this, your children have asked you, you couldn't even
count them all, could you? Since they were able to talk,
they've said, I want this, I want that. You go to a store, you
can't even take them to the store hardly. They ask you for thousands
and thousands of things over a lifetime. Let me ask you this,
what would be better? You having given them everything
that they ever asked for or what you did give them What's better And our heavenly father is not
evil like we are He's not limited in any way He's omniscient. He knows everything and he's
holy and good We have here a wonderful promise. What a promise this
is. Ask and you shall receive. We have a wonderful promise from
the giver of all things. You don't have anything you didn't
receive. Now you have something, you received
some things that you never even asked for. Aren't you glad that it doesn't depend on us?
But he does teach us to ask, what a privilege it is to do
that. Notice he says, I say unto you
in verse nine, I say unto you, who is it that's saying this
to us? What is there that he can't give?
That's who. What is there that he wouldn't
give to his people if he spared not his own son? but delivered
him up for us all. If anybody else said that to
me, it'd probably make me laugh. Ask anything, I'll give it to
you. Well, I'd be thankful for that. You must love me quite
a bit. But I'd start, I'd have to take into consideration their
limitations, you know. Because I've got a pretty good
imagination. Don't you? When somebody says, no limit,
well that's, I've got a pretty good imagination. Listen to this,
now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power, according
to his power, he has the power to do for us far above all that
we will ever ask or even think about. And that power works in
us. Isn't that beautiful? According
to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory. In the church. Right here this
morning. By Christ Jesus. Throughout all
ages. World without end. Amen. If you can't say amen to that,
boy, you're in the wrong place. Me too. Amen. Oh my. There is a saying, I heard this a lot in sales training
and just being in sales. The saying is this, don't promise
the moon and then deliver a flashlight. You've probably heard that one
before. You know, they say promise a flashlight and then deliver
the moon. The truth is you and I can't deliver anything apart
from God. We're limited in what we can
deliver and even that is God and his provision for us and
giving us a heart to give anything. Just because you got stuff don't
mean you're going to give it. He's got to give you the heart.
He's got to give you the stuff and he's got to give you the
heart. And at times we're gonna fail
to deliver because he's gonna Allow it and because we're so
limited in this flesh Our Lord doesn't fail. He doesn't need
to play games with our expectations He delivers exactly what he promises
and his promises are big promises They're big He has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. I've got a good imagination,
but it ain't that good. I don't even know what that is,
do you? Everything good, no good thing
will he withhold from them that love him. I can't even think. That's why he said, above what
we can even think, he blesses us. And he does it every day. He
does it every moment. He said, I'll open the heavens
and pour out my blessings upon your head. Can anybody testify
to that? He's done that. He's done that
for me. I've been too blind to see it just about my whole life,
but he's done that for me. Paul said, all things are yours
in Christ. And this is a relationship now
between the needy and the gracious. When need meets grace, that's
a happy union. When we first meet the Lord Jesus
Christ, what do you do? First time you met him, what'd
you do? Ask. You asked, didn't you? Lord,
oh Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. You've been asking just like
our children. As soon as they learn how to talk, what do they
want? I want that. I want that. Mommy, I want that. I want that.
Give me that. I need some of that. I need more
of that. I need all of that. We're the same way. His children
are just like that. We start out asking him for things,
for big things. And we still are this morning.
We've never stopped asking and he's never stopped giving. Continually, every day, many
times a day, all day, we ask things of Him. And this is a
good relationship because He is the great giver of all good
things. Every good and perfect gift is
from above, and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's
not going to stop blessing you because he don't change. Notice how he said in verse 13,
good gifts. He only gives good gifts. Every
good and perfect gift come down from him. Even when he gives
a trowel, even when he gives a thorn in the flesh, that's
a good gift. Paul asked that the Lord remove
that thorn in the flesh. There's nothing wrong with that,
with asking. But the Lord had given Paul a
good gift, and he taught him that it was good. Paul said,
therefore I will rather glory in mine infirmities. If it glorifies him, so be it. What are some good gifts that
we ask for? Well, we start out asking for mercy, don't we? Because
we know about His grace when He opens our eyes and our heart
to who He is and what we are. We know what we need. Got to
have mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. He said, He taught us to ask
for bread, didn't He? Well, that's a long way from
mercy. Yeah, but everything comes from Him. That's both ends of
the spectrum, isn't it? Lord, give me mercy, give me
forgiveness of sin, give me saving grace, and give me a dinner roll. Because I'm not going to have
either one without Him. What a picture of our relationship
it is to realize and to think that everything we eat and drink,
both physically and spiritually, we ask Him for it. And He gives
it. We literally need him every hour. It's not just a song that we
sing. We really do. And the bread reminds us of the
mercy, doesn't it? That may just be the main reason
he gave you the dinner roll. To make you think about this.
I am that bread which came down from heaven. If you eat of that
bread, you'll never be hungry again. We need forgiveness of sin. He
taught us in this model prayer to ask for that. Lord, forgive
us our debts. Well, that's a big request, isn't
it? Because they're great. We owe
a lot. And we're asking God to just
wipe the slate clean. You know, He's happy to do that.
It cost Him the blood of His Son. It cost Him His own Son
to do that. But He did that freely. He said,
I lay down my life of myself. I give it freely. This is my
body, which I break for you. Listen to this, seek. We ask
and we seek. For Jeremiah 29, 11, I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. This outcome
of this thing ain't in question. We want to give our children
an expected end, don't we? We want them to grow up and be
healthy and happy and prosperous and blessed. The Lord's able
to actually make that happen. And He does. Then shall you call
on me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto
you and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search
for me with all of your heart." Now you read that passage of
scripture, you think about that. I know the thoughts I think towards
you are thoughts of peace and not evil. I'm going to bring
you to an expected end. And you're going to seek me for
me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. So
who does it depend on? Oh, if we search enough, it depends
on our searching. No, he already said it's going
to happen. It's going to happen. And you
know when it's going to happen? When I bring you to your knees
to the place where nothing else matters but me. That's when it's
going to happen. That's an expected end. He's
gonna make it happen. Has he brought you there yet?
If he hadn't, I pray he will soon. I pray he will soon. We got to come to the place now
where he's all that matters to us. Everything else matters because
of him. Knock. What does he mean by knock? This is a reference to the parable
that he just told. The man knocked because he had
a need and he just kept on knocking. And the Lord said, knock and
I'll open. I'm not going to say to you,
go away. I'll just open the door. Everyone that asketh receiveth.
Everyone that understands by grace that what they need, they
can't produce. You know, when you ask, when
you need something that you can't come up with on your own. You
can't produce it. You can't provide it yourself.
Only He can. And so you ask. You ask when
all else fails. This is even true in earthly
matters. It's hard to ask somebody for something. That's the last
thing we'll do is ask somebody else to help us out, to give
us something that we need. We're going to try everything
else first, aren't we? We're just hard-headed like that. It's
even more that way with spiritual things. I'm going to turn over
a new leaf. I'm going to rededicate my life.
I'm going to resolve to do this and that. I'm going to, you know,
blah, blah, blah. I'm going to make a decision.
Quit it. You know what you need to do?
Ask. Ask. Salvation is not a decision.
It's a gift. Ask. God doesn't make deals. He doesn't bargain. We ask and
he gives. That's how it works. He causes
us to ask. We ask and he gives. Seek. When do you seek? When you're
lost. Have you ever been lost? I was lost in the woods one time.
I went deer hunting. I was a young teenager and I
don't think I'd ever been hunting on my own before. I got, you
know, a creek sometime. The way a creek turns and it
kind of loses its definition in places. You think you're following
that creek. The next thing you know you're following it back
the wrong way again. That's what I did. I ended up on the wrong
side of a huge property. And I was lost and the terrain
got scary. It wasn't where I expected to
be. And you know what? Nothing else mattered to me.
I forgot all my other problems. All I was worried about was finding
my way. I wanted to find home. The Lord
brings us there. We've lost our way to God. He
banished us from His garden and we don't know the way back. Seek. We don't know how to get to God.
That's why it says the Lord Jesus died, the just for the unjust. Why? That he might bring us to
God. That's how you're going to get
to God right there. But he causes us to seek. We've fallen and
by nature we're banished from his presence. How are we going
to get back? Seek. He said, when you seek with all
your heart, you'll find me. Why? Well, because we're such
good seekers. No, because he's already found
you. And he puts it in your heart
to seek him. Listen to it in John 6, 37, all
that the father giveth me shall come to me. He came down here
to see to it. Isn't that what he said? He said,
this is the work the father sent me to do. Every one of them that
he gave me, they're going to come to me. I'm going to see
to it. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now listen, if you seek God and
find him, it's because he found you first. He brought you to
himself through the means of seeking. He says to some, ask
with the same power with which he said, let there be light.
If he says that he speaks to your heart in that power and
effectual grace to you and says, ask, you're going to ask. Because
when he said, let there be light, there was light. Same God. Paul said, that God shined in
my heart. Lazarus, come forth. Here he comes. There's nothing
about the sovereignty of God in salvation that discourages
the seeker. The woman in Matthew 15 we referred to a while ago,
the Lord told her, I'm not come, but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. You know what that is? That's election. I've
come for a certain people and you're not one of them. She's
not saying she's not one of the spiritual elect, but there's
a very clear teaching here that even when confronted with the
doctrine of election, and you're not included, you're not one
of them. You know what she said after that? Lord, help me. Help me. And then he said it
wouldn't be right to take the children's bread and give it
to dogs and she bowed. to his sovereignty, and said,
Truth, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
their master's table. Are you discouraged by the doctrine
of election? If so, then your problem is not
the doctrine of election. Part of the definition of this
word seek, it means to crave, to crave. This is what he taught
us in verses five through eight. Ask, but don't ask nonchalantly.
Ask with hunger, ask with need and urgency. And he said, everyone
that knocketh it shall be opened. That's what a door is for. If
you don't want anybody to come in, you build a wall, not a door. A door is for access. We need access to God. And this
is what we're seeking for. How does that happen? How do
we have access to God? John 10 7, then said Jesus unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. That sounds a lot like the language
of our text. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. If any man
enter in by me, he shall be saved. Do you need anything? Ask. What are you looking for? Are
you looking for anything? Seek. What is it that we really need?
What is it that we really need to know and find? Where do we
really need to be? One thing is needful. Our Lord taught that just a few
short verses ago. You remember in the same context,
Luke 10, 42, the end of the last chapter, and this is pretty much
the beginning of the next chapter. One thing is needful. So what
are you going to ask for? Something you don't need? You
just need one thing. You need the Lord Jesus Christ,
you need his word, you need his truth, you need his gospel, which
is the power of God unto salvation. And notice in the text that the
good thing that the Lord gives to us, the good thing he gives,
how much more shall your heavenly father, who's not evil, who's
not like you, who's not limited, give the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit God is the giver and God is the
gift The Lord said in the text there
if you then being evil, what do evil people need the Holy
Spirit If you're evil you need him who
isn't The spirit gives us life. The Spirit, we talked about understanding
in our Bible lesson this morning. You know how you understand?
The Holy Spirit gives you light. Unless you're born from above
of the Spirit of God, he said in John 3. The wind blows where
it listeth, and you can hear the sound there, but you can't
tell where it came from or where it'll go. So it is with everyone
that's born of the Spirit. And what's the result of being
born of the Spirit? Now I can understand the Kingdom
of God and enter the Kingdom of God. Unless you're born again,
you can't enter in. You can't understand. You can't
know. You can't see it. Now I can. Because He gave me
His Holy Spirit. He gives us Himself. He's the
giver and He's the gift. The Holy Spirit gives me life,
regenerates me, births me again from above. Unless I'm born of
the Spirit, I can't see or enter the kingdom of God. The Spirit,
what else does He do in the scripture set? He takes the things of Christ
and shows them to me. Oh, thank God He gave me His
Holy Spirit. Now I can see His Son. He's shown
me His Son. And everything that pertains
to His Son, that's life. Oh, the Spirit of God, the Spirit.
You know what, too? We're talking about asking, praying,
seeking. Seek Him in prayer. Knocking
in prayer. Asking in prayer. You know, I
don't even know what to ask for. You know what the remedy to that
is? The Holy Spirit. Listen to it in Romans 8, 26.
Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know
not what we should pray for as we ought. You see why that's
in the context? of our lesson in Luke. We don't
even know how to ask. We don't even know the right
things to ask for, unless he gives us the Spirit. We know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Listen to Romans 8 and 9. You are not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit. This is because the Lord, what
the Lord said, how much more shall your Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask? And this is concerning those
who he's given his Spirit. You're not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
How'd that happen? He gave it to you. That's what
our text says. He gives the Holy Spirit. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His. Oh boy, that contradicts a lot
of teaching in this world. Oh well everybody knows the Spirit
blesses everybody and some reject Him. No, if He hasn't given you
His Spirit, then you're not His children. You're of your father the devil. and if Christ be in you by the
grace of God if he gives his spirit to you the body is dead
because of sin now we know that and everything all we can produce
is death dead works but the spirit is life because
of righteousness because of his righteousness but if the spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also, he's already life
in you spiritually, but he shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwelleth in you. So we have spiritual life
and we're gonna have physical life one of these days like we've
never even dreamed of because of his Holy Spirit. Let me say it one last time and
I'll end closing. God is the giver. This lesson, what's the lesson?
What's the teaching? Ask. Ask. That's simple, isn't
it? Ask. Seek. Knock. And he's the gift. Those that
hunger and thirst after righteousness, he said, they'll be filled. Filled
with what? Him who is righteous. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
of Christ. He's the giver and the gift.
And thanks be unto God. for His unspeakable gift. Let's
pray.