Series:
Parables
Title: Seek, Ask, Knock
Text: Luke 11: 5-13
Date: February 6, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
The disciples asked the Lord Jesus to teach them to pray.
First, the Lord teaches us what to pray. The Lord did not teach us to pray
using those exact words. He gave an
outline of what we are to pray for. Notice,
Christ gives 3 specific needs which only God can give, which we must ask of
God:
1) Luke 11: 3: Give
us day by day our daily bread.
First and foremost, this is Christ our spiritual Bread. Christ said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things (temporal bread) shall be added
unto you.” (Mt 6: 33) Christ just told Martha in Luke 10: 42 that “one thing is
needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away
from her.” Once our new man is created by the power of God in the new birth, we
need God to renew our inward man day-by-day in the knowledge of Christ the
Living Bread. (Col 3: 10; 2 Cor 4: 6)
Only God can do this. But we must ask God for this
2) Luke 11: 4: And
forgive us our sins;
Above all else, sinners need for God to
forgive us our sins. By the blood and righteousness of Christ our Propitiation,
every believer has been forgiven our sins. But God will have us to ask him
continually to forgive us our sins. (1 Jn 1: 8-9; 2: 1-2)
3) Luke 11: 4: And
lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
We need Christ our Shepherd to lead us
because “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to
direct his steps.” (Jer 10: 23) We need
God to lead us away from temptation or else we will run headlong into
temptation. Only God can deliver us from evil—our flesh. (Ja 1: 13-14)
Then the Savior gives a parable teaching us how
we are to approach God for these things: for Christ our daily Bread, for
forgiveness of sins by Christ, to be lead and delivered by Christ our Shepherd.
Divisions and
Proposition: are found in Luke 11: 9: And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Title: Seek, Ask and Knock
I. SEEK, AND YE
SHALL FIND—Luke 11: 5: And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend,
and shall go unto him at midnight,…
This man had a need and he had a friend. So he went seeking his friend for help. Do you have a need? Do you have a friend that you can seek at
midnight? That is the question here, “Which of you shall have a friend, and shall
go unto him at midnight…”
Friend of Sinners
God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ is the friend of
needy, importunate, sinners. The
Pharisees meant it as evil but what they said is true, Christ is “a friend of publicans and sinners.” (Mt 11:
19)
He hates sin; he does not approve of our sin.
But all those God elected unto salvation in Christ are sinners and Christ is a
friend to true, needy, broken and contrite sinners.
Proverbs
18:24: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a
friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
That friend is Christ, he has many friends and he shows
himself friendly to his friends. Christ said of Lazarus, “Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth;” (Jn 11: 11) Of Abraham the
scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” (Ja 2: 23)
A Friend Who Loves
At All Times
What kind of friend is God our Savior to needy sinners?
Proverbs 17:17: A friend loveth at all
times,…
Christ is a friend
that loveth at all times. In the parable it
was midnight when this man went to his friend. Use a Strong’s Concordance and
search the word “midnight.” Every reference to “midnight”
in the Word of God is connected with an event that clearly pictures God’s work
of redemption and grace to needy sinners in Christ Jesus. It is no accident
that our Lord in this parable speaks of a needy man coming to “his friend at
midnight” because “midnight” signifies great need and great
urgency.
When God reveals to us our true need—for Christ the Bread,
for forgiveness of sins by Christ our Propititaion, for leadership and
deliverance by Christ our Shepherd--then it is as midnight in our souls. And God our Father and our
Savior Jesus Christ is “A friend [that] loveth at all times”,
especially in the midnight of our souls.
Application: So first, the man in this parable knew he had a need, he
knew he had a friend, so he sought his friend. Has God given you faith to believe that Christ is a friend to the
needy? Scripture says, “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.” (Heb 11: 6) If you know your need and believe that
God is a friend to the needy then our Savior says to us, “seek, and ye shall
find.”
II. SECONDLY, “ASK,
AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU.”—then
the man in the parable asked something of his friend—Luke 11: 5:…and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6: For a
friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before
him?
Prayer is Asking God
Prayer is not demanding, but asking God. God
will have us to ask him because in doing so we confess our sin and total
inability to God.
This man needed his friend to lend him three loaves. It was because another friend had come to his
house and he had nothing to set before him.
We
need three vital loaves. Our Savior just told us what these three loaves are
when he taught us to what to pray.
First loaf is “Give
us this day our daily bread”. When
the Holy Spirit gives a sinner ears to hear what the law says then the law is
like this friend who came to this man’s house—the law is a true friend, a
schoolmaster driving us to Christ that we might be justified by faith (Gal 3:
24)—the law demands of us what we do not have to set before it: perfect
righteousness from a perfectly holy heart.
We must have Christ who is the Righteousness of his people by his
fulfilling the law as the Representative of his people, by his obedience unto
the death of the cross. We must have
Christ formed in our hearts whereby Christ is our Holiness of Life, the
Sanctification, without which no man shall be accepted of God. Yet, we cannot
merit Christ, we cannot earn Christ, no more than we can earn righteousness and
holiness. All we can do is go to God in
the midnight of our souls and ask God for Christ the Living Bread to be our
Righteousness and Holiness. In doing so,
we confess our sin and total inability to God.
Second loaf is “Forgive
us our sins.” When the Holy Spirit makes us to know our sins then we behold that we have no way of putting away our
sins or of meriting forgiveness from God.
We must have Christ to put away our sins which is why Christ came and
what Christ accomplished on the cross. (Heb 9: 26) We must have Christ our Proptitiation to God. (1 Jn
2: 1-2) We must have God freely forgive us our sins for the sake of Christ
Jesus. All we can do is go to God in the midnight of our souls and ask God to behold
Christ our Propitiation—our mercy seat, our Atonement—and forgive us our sins.
In doing so, we confess our sins and our total inability to God.
Third loaf is “Lead
us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” When the Holy Spirit comes to us like the
friend in the parable and makes us know our flesh profits nothing, then we see we
must have God to lead us and deliver us from temptation and evil all our days. All
we can do is go to God in the midnight of our souls and ask Christ our Shepherd
to lead us and to deliver us. In doing so, we confess our flesh is utterly
useless and that we are absolutely dependent upon God.
Application: You will never seek God for these three loaves till you
know your desperate need. If God in his irresistible grace has brought midnight
into your soul, showing you your need of these three loaves, then Christ says, “Ask, and it shall be given you.”
But some might object, “But I have asked and God has not
given.” So that brings us to the Lord’s
third word.
III. KNOCK, AND IT
SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU— Get the meaning—knocking signifies broken-hearted,
shameful, desperation-importunity.
Do Not Petition God
Based on Friendship
First, the man petitioned his friend based upon their friendship,
Luke 11: 5: Friend, lend me three
loaves; Christ says in Luke 11: 7:
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut,
and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. Christ
says in Luke 11: 8: I say unto you,…he
will not rise and give him, because he is his friend.”
Petition God Based
on Importunity
But again, the man knocked, this time petitioning him based
upon his total inability, his great need, which only his friend could supply—Luke
11: 6: For a friend of mine in his
journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? Christ says, Luke 11: 8: I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is
his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as
he needeth.
Though God our Savior is a friend to sinners, God will
not answer any sinner, if we come to God imagining we are equal, not confessing
our total inability to God. This is what God means in James 4, when he gives
the reason sinners do not receive, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” (Ja 4: 3)
Many vocally ask God for Christ the Bread with their lips
but in their hearts they truly think they are righteous and holy by their own
vain works. Ye ask amiss. To consume it upon your lusts: to appear to
be trusting Christ when you really trust self.
Many ask for forgiveness of sins in Christ with their lips
but in their hearts they truly imagine they do not need forgiveness, they do
not need Christ who alone is the Propitiation of mercy for his people.
1 John
1: 10 If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Many ask with their lips for Christ to lead and deliver but in the heart they rare looking to
their own wisdom and strength to do so.
James 1: 5: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall
be given him. 6: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7: For let
not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8: A double
minded man is unstable in all his ways. [half Christ, half flesh]
Again, I remind you, Heb 11:6: But without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Yet, God shall answer when his child comes importunate—when
we come in shameless desperation confessing our sins, our inability, our
nothingness—when we come with a broken and contrite heart.
Have you come asking God for Christ the Living Bread because you have no obedience of your
own and can produce none to set before the law? Have you come asking God to
forgive you of your sins for Christ’s sake because
all you are is sin and you deserve no forgiveness except by the blood of
Christ? Have you come asking God to lead you and deliver you from evil because in your flesh dwells nothing
good, because you are totally unable to lead and deliver yourself?
Christ says, Luke
11: 8: I say unto you, Though he will
not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9: And I say unto you, Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you. 10: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Our Faithful Father Will Give the Spirit to
Make us Ask Aright
Also,
Christ speaks a word to us as sons of God as we continue to ask God for these
three loaves. He says that God shall give the very good thing we need and not
that which shall issue in our death—Luke
11: 11: If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give
him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12: Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
The
bread, fish and egg all signify food for life.
What we, as believers, truly want is Christ our Life given us through
the Holy Spirit. Yet, we often ask for things we think we need which things
which would be as deadly as a stone, a serpent or a scorpion.
But you
fathers would not give your sons death, you would give him life. Christ says,
Luke 11: 13: If ye 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?
So though we may ask for deadly things, our faithful
Father shall give his Sons the Holy Spirit to teach us what to pray as we
ought.
Romans 8: 26: Likewise the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.
So
the Lord shows this shameless desperation in prayer is no longer a prayer for
earthly bread: for long life, or riches, or good health; what shall we eat? or
what shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed? It is prayer for
Christ our Bread of Life, for forgiveness in Christ our Propititiaon and for
leadership and deliverance by Christ our Shepherd.
Application:
Thus our Lord teaches us how every child of God prays as we ought to pray. We cannot even take credit for praying as we
ought. It is because God gives us the Holy Spirit who teaches us to pray as we
ought.
·
God
the Holy Spirit gives dead sinners life.
·
God
the Holy Spirit convinces of sin, righteousness and judgment.
·
God
the Holy Spirit gives us faith and repentance.
·
God
the Holy Spirit sprinkles our hearts with the blood of Christ the Lamb.
·
God
the Holy Spirit puts the garments of salvation upon us.
·
God
the Holy Spirit speaks peace and pardon to our souls.
·
God
the Holy Spirit turns us back to Christ when we ask amiss.
And
this gift of the Holy Spirit flows to every elect, redeemed sinner from God,
freely, not by our merit, but by the merit, power, and efficacy of Christ’s
atoning blood.
Galatians
3:13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14: That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
So
sinner, “Seek and you shall find.”—Christ
is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, especially in the midnight hour
of our souls need for him.
“Ask and it shall be given you”—we
confess our sins when we ask for these three loaves: Christ our Bread, Christ
our Forgiveness, and Christ our Shepherd.
“Knock and it shall be opened to you”—God
does not open to us based on our friendship, but on our importunity, our
shameful desperation and need of him.
Believer,
though we as sons may ask amiss, by God giving us the Holy Spirit, rather than the death we ask for, God
shall see to it that we ask for the one thing needful as we ought.
Did
you see how the man in the parable changed his petition from basing it on
friendship to basing it on importunity? Did
you see how the son is changed from asking for death to asking for life by the
Holy Spirit. Prayer does not change God; God uses prayer to change his child.
Amen!