Turn with me, if you would, now
to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. As you know, we've been in Matthew
all day today. And in this chapter so far, we
have heard our Lord say to us, Leave all judgment in God's hands
and cast your all on him. That's what we have heard him
say to us so far. Leave all judgment in God's hands
and cast your all on him. Now, this evening, we're gonna
listen to his instruction as he says to us, beginning in verse
seven, He says, ask and it shall be
given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
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 he give him a stone? Or if he ask
a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that
ask him? Therefore, all things whatsoever
you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,
for this is the law and the prophets." Our Lord is saying all of this
to his people. That's who he's saying this to,
specifically his people. He is saying all of this to his
purchased possession, his purchased people. Only those that He has
given life to will have the ability to ask Him anything. Man hears
scriptures like this, and men want to put the responsibility
on man. Now, you need to ask. Well, only those who God gives
life to will have the ability to ask and be heard of Him. Only those who He has sought,
the message is, seek the Lord. That's the message, seek the
Lord and you'll find. The fact is, is only those who
He has sought will have the ability to seek Him in return. Only those
who the Father draws to Christ will have the ability to come
to Christ the door. Come to Christ and knock on that
door. Only those that the Father draws
will have that ability to knock on. In John 10, He said, I am
the door. In John 14, we heard Him say,
I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. In John 10, He
said, I am the door. And only those who have been
drawn to Him by the Father will have that ability to knock on
Him and have Christ the door opened. to them. So he's speaking
all of this to his particular people and he's speaking in light
of the salvation that he has accomplished for them. And that's
what I want to say before I say what I have to say. I want to
really get that across. None of what we have looked at
or will look at is for the purpose of bringing salvation to us.
If anybody hears this, I want to make this clear. If anybody
hears these instructions and in hearing this starts thinking
and wondering, do I need to do these things in order to be saved?
The answer is no. Christ finished the work of salvation
for his people. He said, Father, the work you
gave me to do, I finished it. And now to every person that
he finished it for, and every person that he saved, and every
person that he redeemed, to those that belong to him,
this is what he says. Because we belong to him, this
is what he says to us. And this is just precious. He
says in verse seven, ask and it shall be given you. You know, Romans 8 says, if God
gave us Christ his son, shall he not with him give us all things? Freely give us all things? He
said, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth. And he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. I think that's a real
word of encouragement to God's people who wonder, will he hear
me? Will he answer me? Our father knows what things
we have need of before we ask him. He knows. But what he's saying in this
is, he's telling his people, you have a relationship with
me. You have a living relationship
with me. It really blessed me, got to me, I don't
know what the word. It was an awaking moment. I used
to think, there was a time in my life when I thought that God
was like the Lincoln Memorial. I thought he was just a big concrete,
Never changing, never, I am the Lord, I change not. And then
when the Lord started to open up his word to me, it realized,
we have a living union with this man. We have a living relationship
with this man. And in the same way that we tell
our children, all you have to do is ask. Just ask, that's what he's saying.
You have a relationship with me. You have a relationship with
your heavenly father. And it's one of sincerity. And it's one of love. It's a
true relationship of love. Sometimes we wonder, how's he
gonna deal with me? He's gonna deal with me in Christ,
in love, in sincerity. The Father will deal with us
as sons and daughters. That's what He is saying to us,
as sons and daughters. He will deal kindly. He will deal generously. He will not withhold good and
just deal trials to us and troubles in His place just to do it. He
won't do that. Verse nine, He said, What man
is there of you whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a
stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
give him a serpent? He said, what man who loves his
son or daughter, really, truly loves his son or daughter? If
that son or daughter is asking for something in a real moment
of need, If he's asking for something
good and needful and profitable, something profitable for life,
not something selfish. Not something wasteful. I mean,
if he's truly in need and it's something good and profitable,
he said, what father who loves his son will, instead of that,
only give the things that bring troubles and trials and heartache,
what father who loves his son or daughter would do that? Just
to cold-heartedly do that. Because we know that everything
is in the hands of our God, we do. We know that. We are confirmed
and convinced of that. We know that everything is in
the hands of our God, and we know that everything is at the
hands of our God. We know the showers of rain that
come down is at the hands of our God, but what about the hurricane
that wipes out the city? at the hands of our God. Everything
is at the hands of our God. And because we know that he is
absolutely sovereign over all things, I believe we get it in
our minds sometimes that that's how he deals with us. That's
just, you know, he just deals hardships. That's just how he
deals with his people. He just throws hardships at them. You know, we want to be obedient
and we want to seek good from Him, but trials, He just sends
trials and troubles and we know they're good. You know, trials
produce patience and things like that. And it's true, trials are
good, trials do produce patience. But that's not how He deals with
us. That's not how He deals with
us at all. Turn with me, if you would, to James chapter one. just after Hebrews, James chapter
1. James 1 verse 2 says, my brethren
counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And it
does. And he said in verse four, let
patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing, lacking nothing. Let the patience that comes through
our trials mature us. Try our faith, prove our faith,
grow us, that we may be perfect and entire, Lacking nothing. But this is what he said in verse
13. If you look right here at James 1 verse 13, he said, let
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The
Lord God is good to his people. He is good to his people. And
he even brings good through our trials, the trials that he sovereignly
allows us to fall into. And because of the fall through
that trial, he will chasten us. He will correct us. He will. And he'll do that because he
loves us. But let's not make the mistake in thinking that
we ask Him for good and then He sends trials and troubles
as His answer in return. We bring all of our trials and
all of our troubles on ourself. I do that to myself. God in His
goodness is just constantly pulling me out of the pit I keep diving
into. He'll pull me back out. That's
just me. That's me. That's just me. And that's the truth. We bring
all that evil on ourselves. That's more reason to cry out
to Him for good. And this is the point of the
message tonight. We are His people. sovereignly
His people, chosen people, ordained people, purchased people, secured
people, preserved people. This thing is set in stone. But His exhortation to us is,
communicate with me, talk to me, pray to me. Oh, what peace
we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear
all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Talk to me. Make requests for good from him. Good to come from his hand. Everything
that comes from his hand is good. All things work together for
good. even the things that we mean
for evil. He sovereignly works good over it, works good over
us. And knowing all that, what I
want us to hear from him tonight is, he's established a relationship
with us. I have established a relationship
for you with me. A relationship of good, a relationship
for good. And he's telling us, communicate
with me and I'll communicate with you. Good, good things. He said, you ask from me good
things and you'll receive from me good things. I'm so thankful
every time I read the word shall. He said, you ask and it shall
be given. You seek me, the source, good
from me. He said, you'll find it. You
seek me, you'll find me when you search for me with all your
heart. And whatever it is that we need, go to him. He said,
I won't hide from you the good that you're seeking. He said,
just knock and I'll open the door to you. I'll open the door
to you. Look right here in the book of
James at verse four. James four, verse two says, you
lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and
cannot obtain, you fight and war At the end of verse two, he said,
yet you have not because you ask not. Verse three, he said,
you ask and receive not because you ask a miss that you may consume
it upon your lust. And that's a big problem for
us. It's a concern and a fear of
God's people that we're constantly asking for the wrong thing with
the wrong motive. Romans 8 verse 26 says, We know
not what things we should pray for, as we ought. We don't. Thankfully,
the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. But it's a fear and a concern
of ours When we pray to Him, we're constantly saying, Lord,
if this is not your will, I don't want it. If you're not in this,
close the door. It ought to be a concern. That
ought to be a fear of ours. We don't just flippantly ask
for anything we want. You said you'd give it to me.
Be careful, He may give it to you. If you're willing, if you
deem this to be good, thy will be done, not mine. We
do approach fearfully, but because we're so concerned
and doubtful of our own motives and requests, that's all the
more reason to draw nigh to Him. Lord, we're looking to You, we're
waiting on You. Give me what You deem is best. Look right
here in James 4 at verse 8. It says, draw nigh to God and
He will draw nigh to You. Draw nigh to God and He will
draw nigh to you. So that's what I want us to hear
from Him tonight and be encouraged to do. As children of the Heavenly
Father, trusting that He loves us. If He gave His Son for us,
He loves us. Unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins. Trusting that He's purposed good
for us. Let's enter into the ability
that He's provided for us, the comfort, the assurance, the necessity
of going to our Heavenly Father for the good that we have from
Him and in Him. Go with me, if you would, to
Luke 11. Luke 11, this is Luke's account
of what our Lord said in Matthew 7. And I want to read it here
because our Lord clarifies and summarizes exactly what good
we're asking from him. All good comes from God and everything
comes because of this good right here. Look at Luke 11, verse
nine. He said, 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 everyone that asketh, 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. God's Holy Spirit, He is what
we need from God. He is the one who takes the things
of Christ and reveals them unto us. God's Holy Spirit is. He is the one who blesses our
heart with every good and perfect gift that comes down from the
Father. So I want us to just take a minute
and I'm, winding down, but I want to take just a minute here and
think on some good things that have been given to us and applied
to us by his spirit. And I want us to consider a few
things that by his spirit, we can and should ask him for. Seek our God for, knock for,
and knock for, and knock for. You think about he said knock,
knock. That knocking is importunity,
meaning I can't stop asking. You know, we're reading right
here in Luke 11, this is the same account. The verses before
what I just read, if you look at verse five, he said unto them,
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 in 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
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, he will rise
and give him as many as he needs because that man will not go
away and he will not stop knocking.
The Lord said he will get what he came for. And we need to ask, seek, and
knock, and knock, and knock, just like when the Lord wrestled
with Jacob. Isn't that so sweet? The Lord
wrestled with Jacob in the Lord's kindness, in His sovereignty,
in His mercy. This is what He said to Jacob.
And He said this just so Jacob could hear the answer of his
own heart. The Lord knew. The Lord knew, and the Lord was
in control of this. But He said to Jacob, let me
go. You really think Jacob had a
hold on him where he couldn't get out of it? He said this so
Jacob could hear the answer of his own heart. He said, Jacob,
let me go. And Jacob said, I can't let you
go. I can't. I can't. The Lord said to his
disciples, will you go away also? They said, to whom shall we go?
There's nowhere else to go. I cannot let you go except you
bless me. I must have good from you. I pray the Lord will speak his
word by his spirit right now and convince us. Ask, Lord, I
need a blessing from you. I can't let you go except you
bless me. Our Lord said, ask, you'll receive. You shall receive. I thought
of some things. In reading this, I just thought
of some things that I wrote down, some good things that we can
and should ask our Heavenly Father for. As you think on things and
pray to Him, We really don't know what things we should pray
for as we ought. And if anybody feels repetitive,
I do. I feel like I'm constantly asking
the same things. So I just wrote down some things
here for us that we can and should ask our Heavenly Father for,
starting with Christ. Dear Heavenly Father, the Lord
said, when you pray, you say, our Father. Please give me Christ. Ask the Lord for Him. This is
what the Lord said. If you ask, you shall receive. Lord, give me Christ. I need
Christ so badly. Don't let me go into eternity
without Christ. If I have nothing else, give
me Him. Give me Him, we're asking for
His Spirit. The Lord said, the Father will
give you the Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one God. To have
His Spirit with us is to have His presence with us. Everything that I wrote down
that I'm gonna name is by His Spirit. and we would be so wise to ask
him to come to us in his spirit. We sing that song, fill me now,
fill me now, Lord Jesus, come. The song is constantly saying,
thou canst fill me, gracious spirit. Lord Jesus, you come. Fill me with thy hallowed presence. Come, oh come, and fill me now.
Lord, come to us as we attempt to worship you. We can and should ask for His
presence before we worship Him. I just would encourage you, we're
not under the law, and if you drive over here with the radio
on, that's fine. But it's really not the best
time for the radio. There's all these other times
for the radio. Drive over here in a moment of communion to the
Father. Before we enter into worship,
ask Him to bless you. Ask him to bless you,
ask him to take his word and feed you living bread from it. In the middle of the service,
there comes a point when you think, isn't he getting close
to being done? When you get to that point, ask
him at this moment, if this man stands up there for another 15
minutes, Would you use that vile, wicked creature to send the blessedness
of your spirit to my soul? Please come to me. I need you. When it's over and we go outside
and we start talking about everything under the sun, ask him, Lord,
retain your word with me. Bring it back up. It doesn't
matter what that man said of his own words, but retain your
word unto me. Bless me. Come to me. Ask Him. You shall receive. You shall
receive. Lord, fill me with your Spirit. Fill me with your presence. I
can't fill me. I can't fill you. That has to come from Him. He said, ask. You'll receive. Turn with me back to Matthew
7. Let me just continue with a few
things that I wrote down here. Let's ask for mercy. We do. We do all the time. We had a brother read scripture
for us this morning, and in his prayer, he asked for mercy. And just in the moment, I thought,
that's what we need. That's what we need. Ask for
mercy. Ask for mercy. I told you before
about that lady who called me. This has been a couple of years
ago, two and a half years ago now, but she called me from hearing
a TV message on the TV broadcast, just scared, scared, that poor
woman. She said, The TV was on and I
was in my kitchen and she said, I started listening and I didn't
leave the kitchen. I didn't sit down. I just stood
there, scared. And what she told me was, I am
a sinner. I am a real sinner. She started
telling me all the bad things she'd done. And I said, you don't
need to tell me all that. And I was, finally, I said, if
you find yourself standing before the judgment throne, ask God
for mercy. Only ask for mercy. Ask for mercy. When we pray, Lord, I need Christ. I need the blessing of your presence
in me. I need mercy that comes through
the blood. Ask for the blood. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. We got one hope. Cover me in the blood. Cover
me in the blood. Ask for forgiveness that comes
through that blood. Lord, forgive us. He said, you
pray to your father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. Let's ask for redemption, how
far we have fallen from him. Lord, redeem us back to you.
Let's ask for the salvation of eternal life. Let's ask for these
things. You say, well, I thought you
said we can ask because we already have all these things. In Christ,
we do. We do. We most certainly do. But he's made a promise to us
that if you ask, you'll receive. God's people can't help but ask.
God's people don't take anything for granted. They don't trust
anything in their flesh. We ask. We just ask. Why don't you stop asking? I
can't. I just can't. Our Lord said in Ezekiel 36,
He said, I'm gonna do all these things for my people, but they
are going to inquire of me to do it for them. So we ask. Let's ask Him for wisdom. Let's
ask Him for wisdom. which is Christ, wisdom, the
wisdom of his word, let's ask him for wisdom. And not only for ourselves, but
for all of God's people. Let's ask him for a heart to
worship. If he does not create a heart
of worship, we won't. Here or not here, we won't. Let's ask Him for the ability
to witness Him. Are you a good witnesser of Him? Are you good at telling Christ
to people when the opportunity arises? I'm not. I'm not. Somebody, the subject comes up
and you'd think that I would have something to say, but I
get really tongue-tied and my brain goes empty. Ask Him for
the ability to speak His Word in season. Lord, give me the
ability to witness you. Let's ask him for the blessing
on the ministry of the gospel here. Let's ask him to have mercy on
the souls of our children. Let's ask him these things. Let's
ask for him to increase our faith. Lord, increase our faith. We
believe, help our unbelief. Let's ask for Him to increase
our love for Christ and for each other. Lord, increase my love
for Christ as He has loved me. Please let me love Him and His
people. Let's ask Him to teach us what
it is to be a true follower of Him, a true disciple of Him. Let's ask Him to teach us what
it is to be true brothers and sisters in His family. This is
the family. And we'll close on that note
right there, okay? Verse 11, Matthew 7, verse 11,
it says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your father, which is in
heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things
whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even
so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." Lord, teach
me to treat and to do for my brethren as you have done for
me. Teach me that. He said, you ask
for these good things, ask for these good gifts. that come from
being united in a relationship with Christ, and you'll receive
them. You shall. I would love to receive these
things. I really would. I know we all would. So we ask. We ask. Let's ask. Let's go to
Him in prayer and ask, Lord, please give us these things.
All right, Brother Dwight, you come.