unto you now when he says this
I want to listen and see what he says 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 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's 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? The answer to those questions
are obviously not. 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've entitled this message, Asking,
Seeking, and knocking. Wouldn't it be something if the
Lord would enable us by his spirit to truly ask, to seek and to
knock. Now we live in a world that is
filled with doubts, fears, anxieties, insecurities, And every one of
us is oppressed by something. No one escapes that. So what
a blessing it is for the one who cannot lie to give us this
promise. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
to you. Now, the greatness of a promise
lies chiefly in the one who made the promise. How many times have
you said, I promise, and it didn't come to pass? But here we have the one who
speaks with the authority of God, the one who cannot lie,
saying, I say unto you, I say unto you, ask and it shall
be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened to you. Now, these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I say unto you. Now, when we ask, seek and knock,
There is a person we're asking. There's a person we're seeking.
There's a person on whose door we're knocking, who has the power
to give us that which we ask for, that which we seek, that
which we knock. When Abraham went out, not knowing
where he went, he still knew who was with him. And that was
enough. Now first, I would like to speak
to the unbeliever regarding this verse of scripture. Ask and it
shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened to you. I want to talk to someone that
doesn't have a drop of grace. Someone who, if they died tonight,
right this minute, they would go to hell. That's the person
I want to speak to right now. Someone who does not know the
living God. Ask. Seek. Knock. I don't care what your
state is. This is a promise. Ask. Seek. And knock. And the great truth of salvation
being by sovereign grace, we considered that this morning.
God electing a people. Christ dying for the elect. God
the Holy Spirit giving life to the elect. Salvation is of the
Lord. Do you know that doesn't hinder
anyone's salvation? Ask and you shall receive. What if I'm not elect? You don't
need to worry about that. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
to you. Now you ask for what you don't
have. Mercy. Ask for it. Grace. Ask for it. Salvation. Ask the Lord to save
you. Ask Him. Even now in your heart,
ask Him. Ask for faith. You say, I don't
believe, don't even know what it means to believe. Well, ask
the Lord to give you the faith. I can remember thinking, what does
it mean to believe? I hear I'm supposed to believe.
What's that mean? Lord, show me. Ask Him for repentance. Asking for a change of mind.
Asking for the forgiveness of sins. Lord, I'm asking you. You said ask and you shall receive.
I'm only doing what you said to do in your word. Ask and you
shall receive. Lord, I'm asking you to save
me. I'm asking you to forgive me
of my sins. I'm asking you to have mercy
on me. I know this. Everyone that asks
receives. No exceptions. And those in hell
all have this in common. Every one of them, they never
asked the Lord to save them. Now they might've used words
like save me, but they were trying to strike a deal. They were bargaining. They weren't really asking God
by His grace to save them. You seek that which you don't
know where it's at. That's why you're seeking. You
do not know where it's at, but you seek, you desire to have
it. Seek the Lord. Seek His face. Seek to know him. We seek the
Lord, don't we? Lord, say to me, just like you
said to David, I love that passage in Psalm 27, where David said,
when thou said, seek ye my face, my heart said, thy face, O Lord,
will I seek. Seek his face, seek his presence,
seek him. You see, everyone that seeks
finds. Let me say this very similar
to what I just said a minute ago. Those who are in hell all
have this in common. They never sought the Lord. Never did, because everyone who
seeks him, the Lord promises. This is his promise. This is
his word, not mine. This is his word. He that seeketh
Findeth. Knock. Aren't you glad there's
a door to knock on in the first place? What's a door for? It's
to let people in. What a blessed thing. It's to
let people in. An open door to let me in. I feel like I'm outside. I knock
on the door and we're permitted to knock long and loud with importunity. You know how loud you knock will
be Pretty much depending on how desperate you are to get in,
won't it? But we're allowed to knock long and loud with importunity. Back up to verse five. And 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 be not. The door is now shut. 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's his friend. Yet because of his importunity, his shameless
persistence, his continuing to knock, continuing to ask, he
would not be denied. Like Jacob wrestling with the
angel, I will not let you go except you bless me. I got nowhere
else to look. I'm going to continue to knock.
You know, the Lord allows us to be a pest. He allows that. He encourages it. continue to
knock. And we have this promise to him
that knocketh it shall be opened. Now, I don't care what your condition
is. I don't care how hard hearted
you are. I don't care how long you have resisted him. I don't care what the state of
your soul is. I don't care how bad it is. If you ask, you'll
receive. If you seek, you'll find. If you knock, it shall be open
to you. That's the promise of the Savior.
Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open to
you. And this is given in the form of a command. You're not given an option here.
You're not given a choice. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
himself commands you to do. Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be open unto you, and your right comes with the
command. If He commands you, you've got
a right to do it. And the ability comes with the
command, the ability to ask, the ability to seek, the ability
to knock. When the Lord said to that man
with a withered hand, stretch forth thy hand, He couldn't do
it. It was crippled. It was withered.
But when the Lord told him to do it, what did he do? He stretched
forth his hand. The ability comes with the command. And you are commanded to ask
with this assurance. Everyone that asks receives.
He that seeks finds to him that knocks. It shall be opened to
them. Now, what an encouragement. What
an encouragement. You know, the Lord delights in
mercy. Isn't that a wonderful scripture
to know that about the Lord, that he actually delights in
mercy? Judgment is his strange work. He delights in saving sinners. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And then he gives us this blessed
promise, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise, for no reason
cast out. What a blessed encouragement. Now, don't ever, you young people,
you've been brought up hearing that God elected a people and
only the elect will be saved and Christ died only for the
elect and accomplished their salvation and God the Holy Spirit
invincibly calls them. That's true. But that doesn't
keep someone from being saved. The only reason people are saved
is because of that. Ask. and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be open to you. That is his promise. Now, while an unbeliever can
take this promise to himself, this is especially addressed
to his children. When he tells these people, ask
and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it
shall be open to you. He says to them, how much more
shall your heavenly father? He's speaking to those who's
their children of the most high. How much more shall your heavenly
father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Now he had already in this passage
of scripture, this is the conclusion where he had taught us to pray
and he taught us what to pray for. Verse one, and it came to
pass that he was, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased,
one of his disciples said in him, Lord, teach us to pray as
John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when you
pray, say, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed, holy,
be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone
that's indebted to us and lead us not into temptation. We know
if we're tried, we'll fail, but deliver us from evil. Deliver
us from this evil world. Deliver us from the evil one.
Most especially save us from ourselves. deliver us from evil. And then, as we've already seen,
he gave us this blessed encouragement of praying with importunity,
shameless persistence, keep knocking. Now he says to his children,
ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open to
you. Now I hope you know, I know you do know, that this doesn't
mean that just anything you ask for, he'll give to you. Lord,
give me a million dollars. You ever prayed that? Perhaps you
have. But that doesn't mean you're
gonna get it, does it? How many times have you asked for things
that you did not get? You know, Paul spoke of his thorn
in the flesh. We don't know what it was, but
he asked three times that it might be removed from him. I
don't think that means he just asked three times and quit after
three times. I mean, he just kept asking, kept asking. And
the Lord gave him this answer. He said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. Now I've asked for many things
that I thought I needed, but evidently I didn't need them
because I'd have them if I did. And it was a mercy of the Lord
to keep me from getting those things I was asking for. It would
have not been for my good So He mercifully withheld those
things from me because He only gives good things. How much more
shall your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask
Him? How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask Him? Now I'm not, when I say this,
I'm not in any way discouraging you to ask the Lord about everything.
There isn't anything you ought not pray about. The Lord said,
cast all your care upon Him. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests
be made known unto God and the peace of God, which passes all
understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. Now he tells us pray about everything. Somebody says, well,
it's too insignificant. No, it's not. No, it's not. You know, Lord gives us that
promise. Be careful for nothing. Ask and you shall receive. Now,
first, we have a need. When we ask for something, it's
because we need it and we perceive that we do not have it. I have
a need. I seek that which either I've
lost or I don't know where it's at. I knock upon a closed door,
not an open door, but a closed door. And I want in and I knock. And I believe that there's an
increase in urgency in all of these. There's asking, and you
go from asking to seeking, and you go from seeking to knocking.
There's an increase in urgency in this. Now, a believer is someone
who has great needs. I love the way the Beatitudes
begin. Blessed are the poor in spirit. It's amazing to me that a Christian
is first of all defined by what he does not have and needs. David, the man after God's own
heart, said 10 different times, I'm poor and I'm needy. Now he was financially very wealthy,
but yet he says of himself, I'm poor. I have nothing and I have
great needs. Now, when I read that passage
of scripture in Matthew chapter seven, the Lord was winding up
the sermon on the mount and he had given them a code of conduct,
which was impossible for the natural man. He said, don't be
angry with your brother without a cause. If you do, you're guilty
of murder. He said, don't lust in your hearts. To lust after a woman is to commit
adultery with her already in your heart. He said, be truthful. Let your yay be yay and your
nay be nay. He said, we're to never seek
retaliation or vengeance. He spoke of loving our enemies.
He spoke of not doing what we do to be seen of men, never have
that as a motive. He warned us about laying up
for ourselves treasures upon the earth. And he said, lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven. He forbids worry, stress, and
anxiety. He said, be careful for nothing. He tells us not to judge one
another. And know this, to do so is sin.
And he told us that we had to have the wisdom to know what
swine were and how not to cast our pearls before the swine.
He told us to do unto others as we would have them do to us,
to treat everybody not how they treat you, but how you desire
to be treated. He gave us a code of conduct
that is impossible for a natural man. And then he says, ask. Lord, give me the grace to love
my enemies. Give me the grace to not judge
anybody. Give me the grace to not be angry
without a cause, to not murder my brother. Give me the grace
to never retaliate. Give me the grace to Never do anything to be seen
of men. Lord, deliver me from worrying and stress and anxiety.
Lord, deliver me from that. Ask. Ask the Lord to do this
for you. I'm asking the Lord to do this
for me. Ask. And here's the promise. It shall
be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
to you. This is not about asking for
a bigger house. Needy is the word. We don't want
to. I don't want to be like the Laodiceans. rich, increased with goods, and
have need of nothing. The idea here is needy. Somebody says, well, I'm saved.
I believe grace. I'm as saved as you are. I believe the gospel. I'm OK. I'm OK. What a wretched, wretched
attitude. No, poor needy. Now that's where I want to stay,
don't you? Poor and needy. And you know,
poor people ask. They don't have anything to buy
anything with. You know, the same word is translated, beg.
Why do beggars beg? Because they don't have anything.
They don't have any way of getting it. And the only way they're going
to have it is if you give it to them. So they beg for it. There's no other way they're
going to have it. Beg. And it shall be given to you. I need thee, precious Jesus,
for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need that cleansing fountain
where I can always flee. the blood of Christ, most precious,
the sinner's perfect plea. It's one thing to see that the
Bible does, in fact, teach what we call the doctrine of grace.
It's an altogether different thing to need His grace. Now, what a blessing that these
are all given in the form of a command. We are commanded to
ask. We're commanded to seek. We're
commanded to knock. This is the Lord's command to
me. This is the Lord's command to you. Ask. Translated beg,
crave, desire, require. I like those translations. Beg for mercy. As a beggar begs
for charity because he's not going to have it unless you give
it to him. Crave his grace. Desire forgiveness. Require salvation. I have to have it. You're commanded to seek. When
thou said, seek ye my face, my heart said, thy face, O Lord,
will I seek. You're commanded to seek the
Lord. What's more important than seeking the Lord? Can anything
even compare with the importance of seeking the Lord? We're commanded to knock. You
knock on a closed door. And like I said, how loud you
knock will depend upon how desperate you are for the door to be open
to you. You know, one of the things I
love about a lot of doors, doors have knockers to help you knock,
make them knock louder and resonate through the house more. You've
got a knocker and you knock that thing. You know, the Lord gives us some
knockers to use when we knock on the door. You know, one of
the things I say when I'm knocking on the door, I said, Lord, you
said this, not me. You told me to knock. You said
this. Do what you said. You're the
one that told me to do this. You're the one that told me to
seek. You're the one that told me to ask. That's a good knocker,
isn't it? Plead what the Lord has already
said in his word. And here's another good knocker.
Lord, I'm only pleading your name. I'm only coming in the
name of your son. I wouldn't dare come any other
way. I come in the name of your son asking, seeking, and knocking. And your right to ask and seek
and knock with importunity is because he has commanded you
to do that. Now hear the promise of the promise
keeper. You remember when promise keepers
were big a few years back, 10, 12 years back, and I'm thinking,
there's one promise keeper, only one. He's the promise keeper. Now, I'm not suggesting it's
OK to not be honest and do what you say you're going to do. I'm
not suggesting that at all. Well, we're sinful. We can't
keep our promises. No, I always want to do what
I say I'm going to do. I know there's times I haven't
done it, but it's not right. I want to do it. But really,
there's only one promise keeper in there. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says in verse 10 of Luke
chapter 11, for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that
seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. There's no exceptions to this
rule. Now, somebody is thinking. I've asked. I've sought. I've knocked. And I've got no
answer. Well, first of all, notice he
says, everyone that asketh, they continue asking. Everyone that
seeketh, they continue seeking. Everyone that knocketh. That's
a continuous action. They continue knocking. You don't
ask and then stop. You don't seek and then stop.
You don't knock and then stop. No, you continue to ask. You
continue to seek. And you continue to knock. Claiming
His promise. He said everyone that asks receives. He that seeks finds. To him that
knocks it shall be opened. I'm not going to stop. I'm going
to By his grace, I'm not going to stop. Or it could be you did
not ask. Tried to strike a deal with the
Lord. You tried to bargain with the Lord. You said, if you do
this, I'll do that. And that doesn't work with the
Lord. For one thing, you can't do it. Whatever you say you're
going to do, you won't end up doing it. And for another thing,
you don't come to the Lord bargaining. You come to the Lord for mercy,
for grace, not striking a deal with him. And if what I've done
is tried to strike a deal with the Lord, no, I'm not going to
have that. And then it could be you've not asked for good
things. The father only gives good things. Every good gift and perfect gift
cometh down from above from the Father of light in whom there's
no variables and it's neither shadow of turning of his own
will begat he us through the word of truth. Now, if the Father
only gives good things, we have a right to expect good
things. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Now look in verse 11 of Luke
chapter 11. He encourages us to ask, to seek,
and to knock, and then he gives us this example. If a son shall
ask bread of any of you that's a father, will he give him a
stone? You ever put a rock on your kid's
dinner plate? No, you've not done anything like that. Or if
he will ask for fish, that's a little bit more luxurious than
just bread. Fish, that's somewhere in the
middle, but it's good, fish. Will he throw a snake out on
his plate? Well, of course not. Or if he'll ask for an egg, an
egg was a delicacy, something very special, something unusual,
an egg. Will he throw a scorpion out
to him? Of course not. Now the Lord says in verse 13,
and I find such comfort in this, the way the Lord addresses his
disciples. He says, if you then being evil, Now, do you do a double take
if the Lord said to you, if you then, you, you, then being evil? You know, when the Lord says
that, yeah. You know, Paul said, when I would
do good, evil is present with me. Yeah. Yeah. When he addresses,
you know, if I came up to you and said, you're evil, It's offensive. Because anytime I say something
like that in that manner, I'm coming to you as somehow I'm
better than you. You're evil. You're an evil person.
Anytime somebody comes up like that, we'll be offended. No doubt. Somebody says, you can't offend
the chief of sinners. Yeah, you can. Chief of sinners get offended
all the time. They shouldn't, but that's what
we are. We're sinners. If you then being evil, notice
the Lord didn't say if we then being evil, he wasn't talking
about himself. He talked about us. If you then being evil, he's
talking to his children. He talked about your heavenly
father. And notice he doesn't talk about evil things that we've
done. He talks about an evil character. That's what he's speaking
of. An evil character. And if you
have an old man, if you have an old nature, you have an evil
character. There's nothing good about it. And he says, if you then being
evil, that's what the Lord said. That's what the Lord said to
his disciples. If you then being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children. You know, That's just the truth,
isn't it? Strong word, accurate word. If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him? Now in Matthew's account, it
says good things. Justification, sanctification,
forgiveness, love, repentance, a new heart, faith, perseverance. You know, we ask for those things,
don't we? I ask for those things all the time. You know what I
ask for most? Lord save me. Save me. I pray that prayer so often.
Lord, save me. Save me. That's a prayer that
never grows old with me. It never grows stale. It never seems inappropriate
for me. Weren't you already saved? Yeah,
but Lord, save me. Save me. Have mercy on me. Get me out
of this. Lord, reach down and pick me
up. Save me. But notice in Luke's
account, he says, how much more shall the heavenly father give
the Holy Spirit unto them that ask him. Now, if I have the Holy
Spirit, I have all these things. I'm asking right now, Lord, give
me the Holy Spirit. We're going to think more about
this next week, Lord willing, about God, the Holy Spirit, asking
to the Holy Spirit. But I need the Holy Spirit to
hear. I can't hear with prophet without
the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit to see
the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need the Holy Spirit
for me to see my sufficiency in Him, that He is my sufficiency. I need the Holy Spirit to preach
the Gospel. I need the Holy Spirit to believe
the Gospel. I need the Holy Spirit to love God. I need the Holy Spirit to love
you. And so we ask the Lord for the
Holy Spirit. Right now, we ask Him for His
Spirit. And He says, how much more shall
your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
Him? Now, isn't this a blessed promise
given to an unbeliever, given to a believer? It goes equally
for both. I'm thankful for that. You know,
so whenever we preach just to believers, we make a mistake.
Whenever we preach just to unbelievers, we make a mistake. You know,
the Bible is addressed to men. It's not so much addressed to
believers or unbelievers. It's addressed to men, whatever
kind of man you are. Might be a believing man, might
be an unbelieving man, but it's addressed to men. And we have
this precious promise. Ask and you shall receive. Seek
and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open to
you. Let's pray.