WWUTT 1971 Ask, Seek, Knock (Matthew 7:7-12)

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What do we call that? That's the golden rule, right?

And Jesus gives it in the Sermon on the Mount and says that this fulfills the law and the prophets when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are still in the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter 7.

Picking up where we left off last week, I'm going to start reading in verse 7 and go through verse 12 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. 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?

Therefore in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them.

For this is the law and the prophets. Now, it might appear here at first glance that we've had a sudden change of subject.

For what did we just read? Last week on Wednesday, we were in verses 1 through 6. This is the famous passage where it says, judge not lest you be judged.

That's the King James Version. Or as we have it here in the LSB chapter 7 verse 1, do not judge so that you will not be judged.

For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

So as we had considered last week, what Jesus is confronting here is judging hypocritically. Don't judge someone for their sin when you're guilty of the same sin.

Or the judgment that you use against them is going to come against you. And here Jesus actually encourages right judgment.

For he says in verse 5, you hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

So he's not saying don't judge at all. He's saying, in fact, we should judge. And loving one another would require us to judge.

If you see somebody going down the path of righteousness, you don't want them to go to their destruction.

And so you would call them out on their sin. But see to it that you are consistent in your own pursuit of holiness.

So that when you're calling out that sin, you're not heaping judgment upon yourself. Jesus says, look inwardly at your own state before you're looking outwardly at the condition of your brother.

Now at the close of that section in verse 6, we have this statement. Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.

This is like what it says in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 12 .1, for example, but we have it in numerous places in Proverbs.

If you try to correct a fool, he'll hate you for it. But the man who loves discipline loves knowledge.

The stupid man hates reproof. That's specifically what it says there in Proverbs 12 .1. So what

Jesus says here, putting that into action in Matthew 7 .6, is that if you're going to correct somebody, if you have to correct somebody who's walking in sin, if they hate you for it, then don't continue to pursue after them in that.

The apostle Paul talks about this in Titus 3, in saying you warn a divisive person once, you warn him a second time, and after that you have nothing to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned.

So if that's the kind of person you're correcting, they will not receive your correction, they will hate you for it.

They are those that Jesus describes here as dogs and swine. So don't give what is holy to dogs.

Don't throw your pearls before swine. Save that correction for a person who will love you for it, but rightly discipline the person who doesn't receive it, if it happens to be someone within the church.

So this is Jesus encouraging us to judge with right judgment. Now, after all of that, in verses 1 through 6, now we get to verse 7, which says,

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. And you might be going, hang on, what's this transition?

We go from one subject to the next, is Jesus just rattling off things randomly? No, there is a consistent thought here, because as you are considering right judgment, in verses 1 through 6, and understanding who should receive that judgment and whom you are to keep it from, you might be left asking yourself, well, how will

I know? How will I know the difference? How do I know the right way to go? How do

I know that my brother is going the wrong way and I need to call him to correction? How do

I know what pearls I have? And I should give to this person, but not to this person.

And so, Jesus says, as kind of a natural response to such questions that would arise from the instructions that are given in 1 through 6, he says, ask, ask and it will be given to you.

Do you not know? Then ask. And as James says in James 1, 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach.

Very same thing that we see right here. Ask and it will be given to you. If you lack the knowledge, if you lack the understanding to follow the instruction was given in verses 1 through 6, to recognize the log that is in your own eye so that you can correct the speck that is in your brother's eye.

How do you know? Ask and the knowledge, the wisdom will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you.

Now, we can do these things, ask, seek, knock. There's the three actions that you have there.

We do this through prayer, right? How do you ask of God? You go to God and you pray.

How do you seek of God? You go to his word and you read it.

Seek what God has said in his word and you will find the answers that you're looking for when you are trying to glean wisdom from God's word to know how

I am to respond in these situations, how I am to live today, how I am to love my brother.

Those things are right here in the word. Knock and it will be open to you.

So you're asking, you're praying, you're seeking, you're reading the word. So what would knocking then be?

And it will be open to you. It would be persevering in all diligence and you will receive it.

It will be open to you. The very house of God will be open to you to dwell in. If you ask, if you seek, it will be open to you.

You will have the knowledge. You will have the understanding. You will have fellowship with God and he will be with you in all of your judgments.

Verse eight, for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

Let me read to you the first movement of Psalm 37 here. This is verses one through 11.

Do not fret because of evil doers. Be not envious toward doers of unrighteousness for they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.

Trust in Yahweh and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Delight yourself in Yahweh and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust in him and he will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noon day.

Be still in Yahweh and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way because of the man who carries out schemes of wickedness.

Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It leads only to evil doing.

For evil doers will be cut off but those who hope for Yahweh, they will inherit the land.

Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more. You will look carefully at his place and he will not be there.

But the lowly will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant peace.

Now, I draw your attention in particular to verse 4 where it says, Delight yourself in Yahweh and he will give you the desires of your heart.

If you delight yourself in God, if you desire to do the things that are pleasing to God, if that's your heart's desire,

God will give you that desire. He will give you what your heart wants. If you want the things that delight

God, you will have it. And we read that previously in the Beatitudes at the start of the

Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

God. Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.

I'm adding daughters. They shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.

If these things are your desire and as they should be for any disciple of Jesus Christ, God will give them to you and you will be satisfied with them.

Thus we can read, everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds.

And to him who knocks, to him who asks God, let me in that I may dwell with you, that your thoughts would be my thoughts, that the things that delight you would be the things that delight me.

The promise is that it will be open to you. Now as I started in on this section,

I didn't give you an outline. It would have been good to start with the structure, but verses seven and eight are kind of part one of this particular section.

In nine through 11, Jesus gives an example. And then we have a closing rule, another imperative in verse 12 that summarizes not only this, but Jesus says the law and the prophets.

So we just came through these three instructions, ask, seek, knock. And then

Jesus gives an example from natural generation or natural revelation.

We can see from the world around us, this play out really. Because when you seek

God, when you're asking of him, we're talking about prayer, we're seeking him, you're talking about reading his word, knocking, you're asking that these things would be fulfilled for your benefit and to the delight of God.

But all of this is very much happening on a supernatural level. So how do we know that when

I'm asking, I'm receiving? And so Jesus gives an example from natural revelation.

You can see this from general revelation. And so you can know supernaturally how this will extend to you as well.

So he says in verses nine through 11, what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone.

So even by your own experience, if your son asks you for something, are you going to give him something that's going to be of no benefit to him at all?

Or as a practical joke, you're going to give him something that's going to break his teeth. He asks you for a loaf, he wants some bread, he's hungry, but you give him something he can't even digest and will actually harm him if he tries to bite into it.

Who would do that? You know, I'm sure some practical joker out there is reading this going, well,

I would do it, but you know, it would be a joke. That's not the intention here. You would actually in your heart, not want to feed your son.

You would give him something that instead would harm him. What man is there among you who would do such a thing?

So verse 10, or if he asks for a fish, if your son asks for a fish, you won't give him a snake, will you?

He wants a fish to eat. We've got fishes and loaves here. Where else have you heard that in the scripture? You got the story of the boy with five loaves and two fish when

Jesus fed the 5 ,000. Anyway, that's not actually connected with this. I just, I just saw the, you know, it's interesting fish fishing loaves.

That's what most people are walking around with for lunch in Judah at this particular time. So your son asks you for a loaf.

You're going to give him bread. If he asks you for a fish, are you going to hand him a snake, something that wouldn't feed him, but would actually bite him and poison him and pretend to potentially kill him.

And so Jesus says this in verse 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, who is not evil, give what is good to those who ask him.

It's interesting here that Jesus labels his own disciples evil.

He's not being mean. He's showing the natural condition of our hearts.

We're evil. Even Jesus own disciples here, those that have come to sit at his feet and learn from them, learn from him.

He is saying they are evil because that's who we are. I mean, it says so in Genesis chapter six and in chapter nine, that the thoughts of man are evil from his youth.

In Isaiah 64, six, even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy God. And in Psalm 51,

I believe it's verse four in sin. Did my mother conceive me and says later on in the

Psalms that we are evil from the womb. So every single one of us are born with an inclination that is opposed to God.

That is our natural disposition in our very human natures. We rebel against God.

We don't seek God. We go against whatever he says.

We will break his law because that is our natural disposition. Since the fall of man, since the fall in the garden of Eden, part of the curse is that we are born with a sin nature.

And so Jesus defines all us human beings exactly that way. We're evil. If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.

And this is also in comparison with the father when you consider it. So compared to the father, we're not inherently good people.

Even if you wanted to make the argument, well, this is Jesus disciples. They've been cleansed of all unrighteousness.

They've been made righteous by his imputed righteousness, which hasn't happened yet because his death on the cross has not yet taken place.

But you get what I mean here. Even if somebody wanted to make the argument, well, this is his disciples. So why would he call his disciples evil when you are setting man in comparison to God?

There is no comparison. He's righteous and we're not. He's good. We're evil.

And so Jesus says, by that comparison, 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?

Remember, again, as we read previously in the Beatitudes, those who are pure of heart, those who are peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God.

So we, as children of God, adopted into his family through faith in Jesus Christ, when we ask of God, he will give to us.

So lest anybody think after verses seven and eight, well, how do I know what I ask that God is going to give to me?

Well, you know how to give good gifts to your children. God is much higher than you, much more righteous, much more holy.

So don't you think that he would give to you what you ask for? He knows how to give good gifts to those who ask.

So then in verse 12, therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them.

For this is the law and the prophets. Now, again, this is the third part of this particular section.

You have verses seven and eight. You have the argument from general revelation in verses nine to 11.

And then you have this closing imperative. It's the verse that we call the golden rule, but it does seem to be kind of set apart from the rest of this.

Ask, seek, knock. You who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. So will your heavenly father know how to give good things to those who ask of him.

Verse 12, therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them. For this is the law and the prophets.

And again, how does that go with the rest of it? Well, did we not just read that God loves us?

Verse 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, who loves you, give what is good to those who ask him.

And so as your father loves you, so you must love one another.

Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them.

In Romans chapter 12, Paul says, outdo one another in showing honor. That doesn't mean that we make giving to each other a competition.

Look how much I gave to you. You can't possibly top this. You know, it's giving to one another selflessly, not expecting anything in return.

Almost as if you would lavish so much on another person, there's no way they could pay you back. And maybe they do.

Maybe they match what you gave to them plus extra. But we shouldn't expect that.

That's not what we do when we give to one another. We just give because God gives generously to us.

So we must be willing to give to others. Don't you want somebody else to give to you expecting nothing in return?

And so we can use that same manner of judgment in the way that we give to others.

Whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them. For this is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, that God loves you.

You love God, asking, seeking, knocking. And then you are also to love others.

And this is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Now, Jesus will spell this out more plainly when we get to Matthew 22, 38.

For he says to the Pharisees that the first and greatest command is to love the Lord your

God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commands, all the law and the prophets are pointing to that. Love God, love one another.

So now let's tie this back into verses one through six. Because remember, these are questions that are naturally flowing out of the instruction that Jesus just gave about removing the log from your own eye so that you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Well, how do I know the log from the speck? How do I know the pearls and who

I give it to and who not to give to? And Jesus says, ask, seek, and knock so that you will have this wisdom and you will know how to make right judgments.

You will know how to love one another in a way that is pleasing and honoring to God. So let's consider it this way, all in context, verses one through 12.

All right. If you were going off the path of righteousness, if you were wandering away into sin that would lead to judgment if you continued in that way, wouldn't you want somebody to stop you and say, hey, what you're doing is destructive.

It's dangerous. It leads to death. Turn back now. Turn to Christ and live.

Wouldn't you want somebody to do that for you? And so you must do for one another.

But you must understand the right way that there is to go. You must walk in holiness so that you will know how to correct your brother and lead him in a right way in holiness.

And this is done in love, in fulfillment of all the law and the prophets, for it's the very thing that God has done for us.

He has shown us the right way to go through the knowledge of Christ, our

Savior. Amen. All right, let's finish there. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the salvation that you give to us in Christ.

We who are evil have been made right before you by faith in Jesus Christ.

He who died on a cross as an atoning sacrifice for sin, who rose again from the dead, who ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us now, so that when we ask, we know our prayers are heard and brought before the

Father by Christ who is our mediator. He is answering to us.

He is opening the door to us. And so may we see the right way that we are to go and consider one another in this as well, showing love to each other, the golden rule.

Whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them. And in loving God and loving others, we fulfill the law and the prophets.

Guide us in these things today in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt

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Bible study, When We Understand the Text. Good night.