SPEAKER_00: Well please take your Bible again and open it to Matthew chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that is Matthew chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're turning there, I'll just remind you of our plans for this week.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as we've learned in the last few weeks, what we plan doesn't always work out.
SPEAKER_00: But we go with what the Lord gives us.
SPEAKER_00: And so our plan is this evening at 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: to return to Psalm 23, looking specifically this evening at the phrase, I shall not want.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: And then, Lord willing, on Friday evening, we will have a time of study in the Word of God, looking at the testimony that condemned the Lord Jesus to death.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, we'll be back here next Sunday morning celebrating the risen Lord together.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning I wanted to return to Matthew chapter 7, sort of in a way to conclude our study last Sunday, because this passage beginning in verse 7 really summarizes or ties everything up from last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we begin, I would like to read again that passage that we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, I'll be reading Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 1, continuing all the way through verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus is speaking to the crowds surrounding him on the mountainside, and he said to them, Judge not that you be not judged.
SPEAKER_00: For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure that you use or you measure, it will be measured to you.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
SPEAKER_00: Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye?
SPEAKER_00: You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_00: Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: Ask, and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_00: Knock, and it will be opened to you.
SPEAKER_00: For every one who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.
SPEAKER_00: If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, this is an unusual time.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us is experiencing something different in life.
SPEAKER_00: Some in our country are are quarantined, some are are restricted.
SPEAKER_00: Others who who may not be restricted are are dealing with businesses that are shut down.
SPEAKER_00: Some have have lost their jobs.
SPEAKER_00: Others are dealing with loneliness and loss.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many things in our lives that are different.
SPEAKER_00: So it is a comfort to us.
SPEAKER_00: It is a rock upon which we can rest that you are unchanging.
SPEAKER_00: That you are the same yesterday and today and forever.
SPEAKER_00: It is a place of comfort and rest for us that your word is unchanging.
SPEAKER_00: And it is a place to find encouragement, to find strength in our time of need.
SPEAKER_00: So we ask that your spirit would be with us as we are dispersed this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That wherever we might be, that you would gather us together by your spirit to be refreshed by your word.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this, Lord Jesus, because you promised to send your spirit as a comforter to us, who would lead us into all truth.
SPEAKER_00: May He do that this morning using the Word of God to not only refresh us but to cut us.
SPEAKER_00: That your word would be that sharp sword that divides even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of bones and marrow, that we would be laid open before you to be to be renewed by your Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: All of it, Lord Jesus, to the praise of your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What if God promised to give you exactly what you need?
SPEAKER_00: No, let's change that.
SPEAKER_00: What if God promised to give you abundantly beyond anything that you could even ask or even imagine?
SPEAKER_00: What if God did that?
SPEAKER_00: Would you ask?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be bold enough to remind God of his promise and then trust him to be faithful?
SPEAKER_00: The prophets, the apostles, the pastors, and other charlatans of the health and wealth movement proclaim day in and day out that if you will only claim God's promise, if you will only ask in faith, if you will knock down his door and seek his presence, that God is somehow duty-bound, that he is obligated to give you what you ask of him in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the catch for them is that if you do not receive, if God doesn't answer, then your faith is too small.
SPEAKER_00: Now, most of those false teachers will have this passage in their repertoire of sermons.
SPEAKER_00: But is that really what Jesus is saying?
SPEAKER_00: Was it his intention to proclaim that God will answer any prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Is this an extension really of the passage previously in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus was teaching his disciples how to pray?
SPEAKER_00: Was he saying, if you ask, if you seek, if you knock, God will answer and will give you whatever you ask for?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it depends.
SPEAKER_00: On one level, it depends on your reason for asking.
SPEAKER_00: James, for example, the Lord Jesus' brother tells us in James chapter 4, beginning in verse 3, you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
SPEAKER_00: And then James continues on to make an in-your face kind of statement after that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00: To ask God to give you what you ask for so that you might use it to please yourself is to be an enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00: To ask rightly, then, is to ask according to the will of God, to what God desires, seeking his provision so that he will be the one that is pleased.
SPEAKER_00: So does this section of the Sermon on the Mount teach us that asking according to the will of God gets us what we ask for?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it depends.
SPEAKER_00: It depends on what you are seeking from Him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the key element in this passage of God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: If we miss this, we will misinterpret this section, we will misinterpret verses one through six, and we will likely be led to twist our understanding of God's word, especially as it speaks to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding this passage and rightly applying it all hinges on a single question.
SPEAKER_00: For what are we to ask, seek, and knock?
SPEAKER_00: Is it an open-ended question, an open-ended invitation to ask God for anything?
SPEAKER_00: Are we encouraged from this text to come boldly to the throne of heaven asking for anything?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus commands us to ask God the Father for something very specific.
SPEAKER_00: And when we obey this command, we will receive more than we can ask or even imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Do I have your attention yet?
SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
SPEAKER_00: I have two goals here.
SPEAKER_00: The first is to clarify the meaning of this passage because God's people should not abuse God's word through misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to clarify what Jesus meant.
SPEAKER_00: The second goal is practical.
SPEAKER_00: I want to embolden us to seek God the Father's provision.
SPEAKER_00: By the Lord's grace, both of those will become evident.
SPEAKER_00: So, first, notice with me from verses 7 through 12 the Father's inherent goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the Father's inherent goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we proceed here, we need to establish a foundational truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is directed towards God's children.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very specific, defined group.
SPEAKER_00: In the Sermon on the Mount, it's those who have become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, genuine disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It's those who believe that Jesus is the one whom God promised from times past to send.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: He is God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: God's children are those who have trusted in Jesus as the one who makes us right with God through his death on the cross and his resurrection to glory.
SPEAKER_00: These are the poor in spirit who have inherited the kingdom of heaven and who now submit to the rule and the reign of the King of the kingdom, the Lord Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: These people, the scriptures tell us, have the privilege of being adopted children of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, verses 5 and 6 tell us that God the Father predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.
SPEAKER_00: He purposed to adopt his children.
SPEAKER_00: Through their faith in Jesus Christ, these people have received the grace of God that gives them new life from sinful deadness, saving them from eternal punishment for their sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now we could stop our discussion of the Father's goodness right there.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5 in the same passage says, but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Now that is the you of these verses.
SPEAKER_00: The children of God who have been adopted by his grand goodness through his saving grace.
SPEAKER_00: God's adopted children saved by his good grace.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord Jesus does not highlight the goodness of the Father's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he illustrates the Father's goodness through a very stark contrast.
SPEAKER_00: He uses human fathers.
SPEAKER_00: He says human fathers by their very nature are evil in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: All parts, not just fathers, but mothers too, all parts of us are impacted by the curse of sin.
SPEAKER_00: There is not a part of us that is left untouched.
SPEAKER_00: And so our natural bent by nature is not toward God, but toward sin, toward ourselves and our sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, even with that natural bent toward sin, we have a remnant of the conscience with which God originally created us.
SPEAKER_00: So if our children ask us for something nourishing to eat, we're not going to give them a rattlesnake or a cobra.
SPEAKER_00: If our children come to us and say, Mom, Dad, I'm hungry, I need something in my stomach, we're not going to fill their stomachs with rocks.
SPEAKER_00: We try to avoid that, in fact.
SPEAKER_00: Rocks don't digest well.
SPEAKER_00: And venomous snakes are not the safest thing to give kids who eat with their hands.
SPEAKER_00: Now you see, human beings still have a semblance of love for their children in spite of the overwhelming impact of sin on their lives.
SPEAKER_00: We love our children and we want to give them what is best for them.
SPEAKER_00: So our nature is directed towards evil, but our desire is to give our children what is good.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how much more will our Father who is in heaven, who is by nature good, not evil.
SPEAKER_00: How much more will he give what is good to his children?
SPEAKER_00: Now we need to point out two elements of God's character here.
SPEAKER_00: The first is God's assumed goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't mean that we are assuming God's goodness, but that in his statement here, the Lord Jesus is resting his argument on the unstated fact that God is good.
SPEAKER_00: And the scriptures plainly declare that repeatedly.
SPEAKER_00: For example, the Psalms alone state directly that God is good eleven times.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's more than just that.
SPEAKER_00: But eleven times it states very directly that God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just run through them for you quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 25, 8.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 25.8.
SPEAKER_00: Good and upright is Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 31, 19.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how abundant is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, 8.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might have this memorized.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, taste and see that Yahweh is good.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 86, 5, for you, O Yahweh, are good and forgiving, abounding and steadfast love to all who call upon you.
SPEAKER_00: The Psalms continue to couple that sense of God's goodness with his steadfast loyal love throughout the rest of the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 100, verse 5, for Yahweh is good.
SPEAKER_00: His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 106, 1, hallelujah! Oh, give thanks to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is good.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 107 1, 118 1, 118 29 all say the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 119, verse 68.
SPEAKER_00: You are good, and you do good.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 136, 1.
SPEAKER_00: Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot read the Psalms and come away with anything but the fact that God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Underlying this section in Matthew is a foundation built upon the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is good, and he is the father of his children.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the children of God the Father have a good father.
SPEAKER_00: That is the first element of God's character that we must notice.
SPEAKER_00: The second element of God's character is that he is a giving God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, your Father who is in heaven will give good things to those who ask him.
SPEAKER_00: Now in verse 6, Jesus said that there comes a time when we must cease giving the holy and precious things of God to those who continually refuse them.
SPEAKER_00: And that follows the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: God himself, the one who is slow to anger, who is patient and who desires all people to come to repentance, at times says, enough is enough.
SPEAKER_00: And in return, he hands those people over to their own desires as a means of his judgment.
SPEAKER_00: He says, fine, that's what you want, go for it.
SPEAKER_00: You can read Romans chapter 1 for an illustration of that.
SPEAKER_00: God does not give his holy and precious word, his holy and precious grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He does not give his good gifts to those who respond to his goodness with viciousness and thanklessness.
SPEAKER_00: But when his children ask, when his children seek, when his children knock on his door, how much more will he give good things to his asking children?
SPEAKER_00: My friends, this is based on his character.
SPEAKER_00: James tells us in James 1.17, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
SPEAKER_00: Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
SPEAKER_00: God is a good God and a giving God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_00: God is a good God and a giving God who only gives what is good.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, those who have this God as their father receive good things from his unchanging and unending goodness.
SPEAKER_00: How necessary it is to become a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Come to him, confessing your sin, repenting of your faithlessness, and believe in Christ the Son for the forgiveness of your sin, becoming a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then, then, this good giving Father will bestow on you the good things out of his limitless treasure of his inherent goodness.
SPEAKER_00: The Father says to his children, I will give, and I will only give good gifts out of my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Notice with me secondly, the Father's kind intention.
SPEAKER_00: The Father's kind intention.
SPEAKER_00: When you read carefully, it's clear that Jesus says the Father will give good things to his children when they ask.
SPEAKER_00: But why?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why is the Father going to do this?
SPEAKER_00: What is his intention behind giving out of his goodness?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we need to remember the context to answer this question.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, beginning in chapter 5 and continuing all the way through this chapter that we're in in chapter 7, is like a normal sermon.
SPEAKER_00: It has an introduction, it has a body of text, and it has a conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: Where we are in chapter 7 is at the end of the body, of the main part of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And so verse 12, chapter 7, verse 12 is sort of like a bookend to the main part of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: So if you look back at chapter 5 and verse 17, you will find Jesus beginning the main section of the sermon by saying that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Old Testament, but instead to fulfill it.
SPEAKER_00: Now in chapter 7, verse 12, we have the other book end.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament was not abolished by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It needed to be fulfilled, not abolished.
SPEAKER_00: But the way the Pharisees and the other religious leaders of Israel were attempting to fulfill them, was insufficient.
SPEAKER_00: They could not keep it perfectly, because sinful human beings can't keep God's law perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the only way to get into God's eternal kingdom, the only way to become a child of God, is to have a greater righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus put it like this: He said, Our righteousness must exceed, it must go beyond that of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: And as we've seen in our study of Matthew, the only way for us to have that righteousness is through the King, through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because he fulfills the law.
SPEAKER_00: And his perfect obedience is then applied to the account of everyone who comes to him in faith.
SPEAKER_00: And now in chapter 7, verse 12, being more righteous than the Pharisees is summed up by the phrase, this is the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: God's children, Jesus said, are able to display a greater righteousness than the hypocritical Pharisees by doing to others what we wish would be done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Those whose righteousness is greater than the Pharisees will treat others, especially the children of God, with an unhypocritical love.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Father's kind intention.
SPEAKER_00: He desires us to display the righteousness of his beloved Son through our treatment of one another.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees are, for some good reasons, are the epitome of hypocrisy in the gospel record.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in our own world, we often use the Pharisees, Pharisaical, as a sort of synonym for hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is telling us that if we, as God's children, if we judge our brothers and sisters in Christ while living with unrepentant sin in our own lives, we are no different than those hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: If we seek to remove the specks of dust from the eyes of others while we have entire trees stuck in our own eyes, then we're not living out the righteousness of Christ, we're living out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what we cannot miss here is how God's character, how his goodness is connected with his intention for his children.
SPEAKER_00: So God is good and God has an intention.
SPEAKER_00: Let's connect the dots so that we can be clear in our understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven expects the law of God to be fulfilled in his children.
SPEAKER_00: That happens through his only begotten Son who came to fulfill every aspect of God's requirements.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness of God the Son is then credited to the account of everyone who believes in him.
SPEAKER_00: So follow me here.
SPEAKER_00: Because our account with God now says righteous instead of hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: Because our account now says child of God instead of Pharisee, our Father expects us to treat one another.
SPEAKER_00: Even, yes, even the frustrating and irritating members of our Christian family, as we would want our Father to treat us.
SPEAKER_00: Chew on that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you and I, as children of the living God, whatever we want our good Father to do to us out of his goodness, we must give that to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be more specific.
SPEAKER_00: If you want love from your Heavenly Father, you must give love to others.
SPEAKER_00: If you want mercy for your faults from God, if you want God to say, you know what, I understand that you've had a rough week and you know you tripped up here and you know there were people pestering you over here.
SPEAKER_00: If you want mercy from your God, that is, God to not give you what you deserve, if that's what you want, then you must give mercy to others for their faults.
SPEAKER_00: If you want grace and immediate forgiveness from your good father, if you have just a rotten week where you have sinned left and right and you come to him begging him to remove your sin from him as far as the east is from the west, and for him to remember it no more.
SPEAKER_00: If you want immediate forgiveness from your good father, guess what you must give to others?
SPEAKER_00: You must give grace and immediate forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: This is unhypocritical love.
SPEAKER_00: It's love that has its foundation in the love of Christ for his own people.
SPEAKER_00: It's love that has its foundation in the love of God the Father for His children.
SPEAKER_00: It's the love that's described in 1 Corinthians 13.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not a it's not a reward system.
SPEAKER_00: God isn't rewarding our forgiveness of others with forgiveness for our own sins.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's more a cause and effect because of a familial relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Sort of like father like son.
SPEAKER_00: My wife says to me on occasion, that looks just like your dad.
SPEAKER_00: That was just like your dad.
SPEAKER_00: That was just like Lynn.
SPEAKER_00: We display the character of our father when the righteousness of his son dwells in us.
SPEAKER_00: The hypocrite, the Pharisee, is not willing to do for others what he expects God to do for him.
SPEAKER_00: The hypocrite says, God, do this, this, this, and this.
SPEAKER_00: God forgive me, but never in a thousand years will he be willing to forgive that person who irritated him just that once.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee wants God to give and give and give to him, but he is not willing to give to others.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the Pharisee is only willing to be a dust inspector in the eyes of everyone around him.
SPEAKER_00: So you can see then why Jesus continues on in verse 13 to say, Enter by the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_00: For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And those who enter by it are many.
SPEAKER_00: For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: And those who find it are few.
SPEAKER_00: In our context, here in chapter 7, there are there are many hypocritical dust inspectors with trees in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: But the father's children are not so.
SPEAKER_00: They're not hypocritical in their judgments, but instead they treat others with proper judgment, out of love for their father and others.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's let's bring this all together so we can see the full picture of our Father's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do that by pointing out the Father's inviting directive.
SPEAKER_00: The Father's inviting directive.
SPEAKER_00: Ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who asks receives.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone who seeks finds, and everyone who knocks, it will be open.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God the Father has given his children a special gift.
SPEAKER_00: Special gift.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the gift of access to him.
SPEAKER_00: We are able to ask the ruler of the universe, who happens to be our dad.
SPEAKER_00: We can ask him, we can seek him out, we can knock on his door.
SPEAKER_00: And as a good father, he gives out of his inherent goodness.
SPEAKER_00: But this is not merely about the ability of a child to run to daddy and ask for help.
SPEAKER_00: This is a command.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a grammarian, it's an imperative three times.
SPEAKER_00: Three commands point to the same action with this sense of continuity involved.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.
SPEAKER_00: For what are we commanded to ask?
SPEAKER_00: I said earlier that this question is the key to understanding this passage and the key to rightly applying it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first part of the passage that we read earlier, verses 1 through 6, deals with our relationships with other people, especially within the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Deals with those relationships that go awry, that we see others and we see how, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: They've got a little bit of a character issue that I think it would be good for them to know.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to go tell them about it so they can get it fixed.
SPEAKER_00: They irritate us.
SPEAKER_00: They bother us, they frustrate us, and so we seek to help them grow up a bit.
SPEAKER_00: How kind of that of us, right?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, don't be a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: Let God, the Father, do some spiritual eye surgery on you before you go and help another person.
SPEAKER_00: And now we are told that our Father expects us to treat all of those people, whether they have specks of sawdust in their eyes or a bit of dirt in their eyes, or that they're so blind to their own faults that they have trees growing out of their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: We are to treat them all in the same way that we would want God the Father to treat us.
SPEAKER_00: How are we to do that?
SPEAKER_00: You all know certain people that just get on your last nerve.
SPEAKER_00: You know those people that you come into the church for you on Sunday morning and you spot that person out of the corner of your eye, and so you start working the other direction?
SPEAKER_00: You know who you are.
SPEAKER_00: How can our father expect us to treat those people with an unhypocritical love?
SPEAKER_00: How can our father, who knows our sin, expect us to love everyone else in the same way that our father loves me?
SPEAKER_00: It's very simple, really.
SPEAKER_00: Astoundingly simple.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on asking him.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on seeking him.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on knocking at his door.
SPEAKER_00: You see, our Father in heaven desires that his children display the righteousness of his son by treating others in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: But he knows our weaknesses, he knows our frailties, he knows our sin.
SPEAKER_00: He knows our inability.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how many commands he gives us.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives us what we need.
SPEAKER_00: He provides what is needed for us to deal with those irritating people who are our brothers and sisters in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: He provides the wisdom that we need to know when to take what is holy and precious and move on to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And so the child of God, hearing the words of the Lord Jesus, is able to say, I have every reason to trust my good father.
SPEAKER_00: I have every reason to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: I have every reason to love others well.
SPEAKER_00: And I have every reason to ask my father for help to do that.
SPEAKER_00: In case you didn't get those, let me say them again.
SPEAKER_00: I have every reason as a child of God to trust my good father.
SPEAKER_00: I have every reason to love everyone else well, especially my brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I have every reason to ask my Father for help, to do that, to love them well.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier I said Jesus commands us to ask God the Father for something very specific.
SPEAKER_00: And when we obey this command, we will receive more than we can ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus commands us to keep on asking for help so that we might treat others the way we want God to treat us, especially those who are most difficult for us to love.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's pretty specific.
SPEAKER_00: But we can get even more specific than that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus commands us to ask God the Father for something extremely specific.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see how grand God's good giving is.
SPEAKER_00: We find that in Luke chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 11 is the parallel passage to Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: So some of this will sound familiar.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in Luke 11, verse 9, and I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_00: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?
SPEAKER_00: Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.
SPEAKER_00: If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: What is the greatest gift that God can give his children?
SPEAKER_00: The greatest gift that he can give his children is himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's the greatest thing.
SPEAKER_00: What is the greatest need that we have in dealing with sinful, irritating people that fill our lives and our churches?
SPEAKER_00: The greatest need that we have is the ability to see others through God's eyes rather than our own, and the power of God to treat them in godly ways rather than sinful, self-centered ways.
SPEAKER_00: What then does Jesus command?
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Father, seek him out, knock on his door.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask selfishly.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask for ways that benefit yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Ask for him.
SPEAKER_00: Ask for the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Ask that the Father give you himself by means of his Spirit within you.
SPEAKER_00: And your Father, who is in heaven, who gives good things to those who ask, will give himself.
SPEAKER_00: What is the good thing that he gives?
SPEAKER_00: He gives himself.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have God the Spirit in his fullness, you have everything you need to live out the law of God that loves one's neighbor as oneself.
SPEAKER_00: When the Father gives you his spirit, you have everything you need to love others as Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And that Is the application of this passage, my friends?
SPEAKER_00: There is only one primary application.
SPEAKER_00: Obey Jesus and ask the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit so that you might not be a hypocrite, but love others with an unhypocritical love.
SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle to deal with other people?
SPEAKER_00: Of course, who doesn't, right?
SPEAKER_00: We all have those moments.
SPEAKER_00: In these moments that we're all cooped up in our homes, maybe we struggle to deal with our own families.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't have what you need because you haven't asked.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to obey the command of your Lord and ask the Father to give you his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: To give you his spirit and the power of his goodness so that you might extend some of that goodness to others.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have many helps given to us in our world.
SPEAKER_00: In the age of the internet, we have live streaming that is a help to us.
SPEAKER_00: We have helps in terms of resources that are out there.
SPEAKER_00: I have a library of books that I call my friends that are helps.
SPEAKER_00: We have counselors, we have coaches, and we have all of these things that are out there in our world that might be helpful to us.
SPEAKER_00: But if I may be very bold and very stark for a moment, just like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need a counselor, although one might be helpful.
SPEAKER_00: You need the counselor, the one whom Jesus said he would send.
SPEAKER_00: You don't so much need a life coach.
SPEAKER_00: You need the spirit who is life.
SPEAKER_00: You need the spirit of the living God to give life to your mortal body and to give light to your head, your heart, your soul, and your mind through the word of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Father.
SPEAKER_00: How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: Keep on asking.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we ask.
SPEAKER_00: We come to you, our Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We come in obedience to his word, asking that you would renew us, that you would give us clean hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And that in that purity of heart that comes through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you would give us a new desire to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That by loving you, we would seek your help to love others well.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we do not want to be hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be your children in all purity, all clarity.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean we won't fail.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that we won't treat people in harsh ways sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But we ask for your spirit boldly, in fulfillment of your command, in obedience of your command, and we trust that you will give us your spirit to fulfill the law of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.