7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
In these twelve verses, Jesus is dealing with our relationships to people. That is the subject of Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 12. God is our Father, and Christians are our brothers. This are the two essential truths of Christianity. We are all a family, children in the household of God. In Matthew chapter 22, Jesus said "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
Much to our unspeakable shame, even genuine Christians are not characterized by love. There are, of course, exceptions. Unless we are rightly related to God, it is impossible to fulfill this ethical standard. Therefore, there is no capacity within the life of an unbeliever to function in this manner, though they might come close to achieving it every once in a while. The rest of the passage relates to this great truth. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Christ has been teaching about the character of those in His kingdom. He began with eight characteristics in the Beatitudes, that will be found in the life of someone who is truly born again.
They are the poor in spirit. They humbly recognize their spiritual bankruptcy before for God and their need for a Savior.. Then He tells us they are the mourners. While the world is boasting over their sin, true
believers mourn over their sin and the sin of others. They are the meek, they hunger for righteousness, they are merciful, and pure in heart, and they are
peacemakers. Ultimately, it is these same characteristic that will lead to them being persecuted by the world.
Then He contrasted the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, who lessened God’s commands, so they could fulfill them with the righteousness of those in the kingdom of God. They taught that if one had not committed adultery, he had fulfilled God’s Law. But Christ taught that if one had lusted for another, he had committed adultery in his heart. The Pharisees practiced and taught an outward righteousness, while God requires an inward purity, rather than the outward appearance of righteousness alone.
The summation of the law of God is clear in both the Old and New Testaments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." This is the whole law as it relates to mankind living in this world!
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank for Your Word and the clear teaching of Christ. Thank You for planting Your love in our hearts. May we who belong to Christ, manifest the love of the One Who freely gave His life for us. Lord, we pray that You will continue that work in in us until the day of Jesus Christ. We are commanded to love You and to love others as we love ourselves, help us to live with the capacity to fulfill these commands. Help us to fight against our self-centeredness, and self-righteousness that we would live more to your glory.We pray for those who do not yet know Christ, that it might be today they would open their hearts and give entrance to Christ, Who is the only Savior and the true Son of God.
We ask and pray this in Christ's name
Amen
Today's Message: The Key To The Golden Rule
In our last message, Christ taught the disciples that in order to help others take specks out of their eyes, they must first rid of their own sin and discern the receptiveness of those they ministered to. Anyone who has truly considered the standards of God’s kingdom, understands how easy it is to become crushed by them. Christian living calls for total humility and careful self-examination. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is a masterpiece, in it He reduces all of these dimensions of Kingdom living down to these all encompassing great statements of marvelous truths.
Throughout His sermon, the Lord has been making the effort to drive them to the desperation, to realize they are unqualified to be in God’s kingdom by contrasting His standard with the standard of the day, which were damning and condemning. After that He gives them the invitation that is to follow in verse 13. In other words, now I’ve shown you where you are and where you are headed, you can continue on the broad way that leads to destruction, or you can choose to enter at the narrow gate which is the entrance to God's Kingdom. By the way, I believe this must be the standard for all preaching, first the bad news and then the Good News.
Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7. It is my honor and great joy to share the Word of God with you again today as we return to our study of this marvelous portion of Scripture. If I had to summarize the tremendous truths in verses 1 through 12 in one simple statement, I would have to say "Love your neighbor as yourself."` As we have already discussed, there are two sides to loving someone, one positive and the other negative. When you love someone, there are certain things that you do and there are certain things that you don't. Verses 1 to 6 is the negative side and verses 7 to 12 is the positive side. You need to understand this the sum of all of our ethics. In other words, if you are to love the way God wants you to love, you need to understand that love does not criticize, judge, condemn, and damn others who fail to live up to your standards.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read these twelve verses, as we prepare our hearts for the Spirit of God is saying to each of us. Matthew 7:1-12.
"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
"In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
Let’s look at verse 12 first, to get a grasp on the basic principal that governs all of our human relationships, and then we'll go back. "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets." This truth was established by Jesus, and is really limited to the Bible. If you wish that no evil befall you, don't do evil to anyone else. You should act on the same principle toward others. Again, it’s a negative, refraining from doing to others what you would like them not to do to you.
To avoid suffering yourself, don’t inflict suffering on others, that's the point. It doesn’t necessarily mean they will or they won't, but that doesn’t change what we should do. You see? Love doesn’t criticize, love doesn't judge, love reaches out in ways it would to have others respond to itself. Even though we may know that it may never be done in return. We are to withhold from doing what is evil. Our Lord realizes the difficulty of the kingdom’s standards and therefore
teaches the disciples the secret to developing and maintaining them. We must ask, seek, and knock. Christ teaches that believers must ask, seek, and knock, and if we do, we will receive. I believe this is obviously a call to prayer. Our low spiritual ebb is directly traceable to the feeble flow of our prayers! As followers of Christ, we must constantly give ourselves to prayer.
In I Thessalonians 5, Paul says we are to "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
It is important to note, that Christ teaches that we can ask for anything, and if we have faith, we will receive it, only after He teaches about the righteousness of God’s Kingdom. In other words, we have the promise that if we pray for God’s will, which includes our developing righteous character, God will positively answer our requests. God never promises us that we will be wealthy, healthy, and free from life's problems as is often taught today. Therefore, we must commit ourselves to studying God’s Word in order to discern God’s will. It is through prayer that we are effectively pursuing the will of God by asking, seeking, and knocking. We must guard against the tendency to be self-seeking.
In II Timothy 3, Paul says "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Men are basically hateful because they're selfish and self-centered. As Christians certainly should not be characterized by that. We ought to be beyond that. Men are dominated by self preservation, fear is common to man, and causes them to avoid doing certain things. Love is completely different than fear. Men can control themselves from doing certain thing, but is not capable of doing certain good things because he doesn’t have the love of God. Genuine love demands the knowledge of Christ.
In Romans 5:5 Paul tells us "and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Fulfilling this has to come from outside our own fallen nature, it can only come from the indwelling Holy Spirit. The unregenerate man, due to his fallen human nature, is utterly, and selfishly self-seeking, hopelessly trapped in his sin. The mind of the unbeliever, because of his sinful bent, he will do what his fleshly impulses dictate.
If we are in Christ, He is not only commanding us to pray for kingdom character, but to pray continuously.To pray continuously demonstrates that we desperately desire His righteousness, much the same way pray when we're in a desperate health, relationship, financial situation or in a battle with sin and the evil one. We are to pursue Him and His righteousness with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Romans 13 says it this way " Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
In verse 8, Jesus says "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Because we have the confidence that we have the ultimate eternal resource to replenish our own needs, we can freely love others, sacrifice for others and to give to others. In other words, we are free to give everything we have to someone that has the need, without fear of being left with nothing. When we do, God will use us mightily for His purposes. Who is able to see sin in a believer’s life, and lovingly restore that believer? God alone that's Who. So if you seek to have that kind of information, you're going to have to Him on your knees.
In James 1, James teaches us "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind." However, God doesn't give us a blank check, He isn't going to unload all the wisdom of heaven on us. He gives us just enough truth so that we’re accountable, and just enough mystery so that we’re dependent.
Let me be clear, there are certain imperatives that apply here, first you have to be a child of God. Second, you must live in obedience to His Word. Third, you must submit to His will. If you're asking to receive to fulfill your own selfish desire for personal gain, you can forget it. The answer is simple, keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking, but we must pray in faith. Because the more we’re involved in the process, the greater our relationship with Him becomes. If we are willing to live out His principals in obedience God will replenish our own supply. He will meet our needs.
"Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?" A fish could be eaten because it was a clean animal, snakes could not be eaten because they were unclean animals. The point is, a father could purposely deceive his son, but why would he purposely defile his son? No loving father would ever do that.
Then, in verse 11 Jesus makes one of the greatest statements in the Bible regarding the fallen nature of man. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!"
There’s much more to this argument than first appears. Human fathers, who generally provide for their children, still have evil inclinations. Even when a father does good things to his children, he cannot override his basic vile, evil, and sinful nature. How much more generously will our heavenly Father give to His children who pray in faith. Our heavenly Father would not provide His children with that which is spiritually harmful. Certainly, God, who is perfect, Holy and not deceptive, will provide the best for His children who could never give back to Him anything in kind. Scripture often teaches about our need for faith, here Christ seeks to provoke faith in His disciples. Faith is the doorway to receiving all of God’s good gifts, including salvation! How can we say we are His children and do less for others, knowing He’ll replenish everything that we do for others? Therefore, with God as our pattern for giving, we are to give generously to others out of love.
That brings us to verse 12, "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
The problem is, even when we become Christians, because we still have sin in us, the fight for selfishness continues to dominate our lives. In order to receive God’s promises, including His righteousness, we must trust and believe God’s character. The requests of the double-minded man God will not answer. That's why Satan always attacks the character of God. Just as in the Garden of Eden, Satan deceived Eve, he convinced her that God was withholding what was best. And, when she believed that lie, she sinned against God. A doubting believer receives nothing from God. Therefore, miss out on His best. Due to their lack of faith, they have a flawed view of Him, they are robbed of wisdom, the fruits of the Spirit, and the freedom from habitual sin. We must recognize our lack of trust in God.
We must continuously pray, as we ask, seek, and knock, as we live in obedience to God’s Word. One who is weak in God’s Word will also be weak in faith. We increase our faith by knowing and obeying God. I believe it is imperative that we walk with others who are living out their faith, in obedience to God's Word. In contrast, when we are surround ourselves with those who are disobedient to His Word, we will weaken our faith and decrease our own obedience, inhibiting our ability to receive His best for us. I encourage each of us to examine our lives and ask ourselves, who are we walking with? Are we imitators of God or those around us?
In Closing..
God's standards for Kingdom character are too high and impossible to achieve through our human ability, as we have learned in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. We can only obtain it through continuous prayer, faithfully studying His Word and walking closely with Him. Only then can we love sacrificially, being kind, compassionate, and forgiving to one another, as graciously as Christ loves, cares and forgives us. Jesus is teaching us that we can only grow in kingdom character by imitating His loving nature. We who claim to be the children of God must therefore manifest the love of the one who is in us. The only righteousness we have is the righteousness of Christ in us.
Without Christ there is no capacity to fulfill what is needed to enter God's Kingdom! If you do not yet know Him as your Lord and Savior, I pray that this might be that day when you would open your heart, ask Him into your life. May you not ever be the same.
May it be so..
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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