Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? MAT 7:9-11.

After Jesus has taught the true spirit of the second table of the law, and the need for prayer to seek God's help to live by the spirit of the law of love, He appeals to our reason to ward off Satan's attempts to keep us from coming unto God to obtain mercy in time of need. We do not realize how crafty Satan is; he uses so many devises to keep us from coming to the Lord. Jesus teaches us to use our reasoning; He uses comparison, comparing the lesser to establish the greater. He tells us to reason that we, as natural fathers, have such tender love for our children, and therefore, we can expect the Lord to have a far greater love for us.

I'd like to give you an illustration. If everything is going well, you might go a whole day without thinking of a child you love most dearly, but when that child is in difficulty, the more difficulty the child is in, the more the pangs of the heart go out to that child. That is what the Lord is illustrating here. When a child's heart is in distress, it draws the pangs of the Father's heart out to him.

Jesus asks in our text, if your child asked for a fish, would you give him a serpent? If your child asked for bread, would you give him a stone? Jesus is asking us to use our reasoning so we might understand the logic of the tender love of our heavenly Father.

PSA 103:13 says, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him." The Lord is teaching us that if we understand the love we have for our children, and how our love goes out to our child when they have a dire need, that is nothing, by comparison, of the love of the Father that goes out to His dear children. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

Our Saviour uses the words of our text to exemplify the truths which are being taught. He calls our natural reason into exercise to establish the tender, loving care our heavenly Father has for His dear children. It is to teach us how His ear is always attentive unto their cry, (Yes! He always hears, but He doesn't always answer.) but it is to caution us how Satan, and our own evil hearts, often picture God as a hard master. We tend to place all the blame on God because we don't call upon Him for all things. These verses are to show us that we are not to let Satan or our own evil heart hinder us from drawing our souls out to such a loving Father with all our needs.

As we see in Luke's counterpart to our text, Jesus teaches the need to ask with importunity or persistence as we saw in LUK 11:5-6, "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 is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?"

Therein the Lord is using a relationship that is more distant than a father to his children. It is just a friend. He shows that when they ask with importunity, they will not deny him because it is an inopportune time. He is also teaching us that we must ask with importunity; we must show the urgency of our case before the Lord.

Secondly, Jesus gives a reassuring promise in LUK 11:8, "I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet for his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." The Lord is teaching us this principle in the way of prayer. Even if we would question whether the Father would do it because we are His child, the importunity would prompt Him to do it. We may not let Satan discourage us from coming persistantly to the Lord in prayer.

Thirdly, Jesus disposes of Satan's suggested objection which many stumble over and never come unto Christ with their burdens. LUK 11:11-13 says, "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? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 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?" The Lord Jesus Christ is pleading with our reasoning.

How unreasonable it is to even question whether the Lord will grant what His children need. If your child asked for a fish, would you give him a serpent? If your child asked for bread, would you give him a stone? Jesus is asking us to use our reasoning so we might understand the logic of the tender love of our heavenly Father. See how many of Satan's wiles come against us to establish that we ought not to pray. Jesus is showing this to us.

Satan often whispers in a believer's ear saying, "Certainly God is gracious to His children, but you are not one of those privileged ones." Satan just loves to do that; oh yes, the tender Father of heaven is certainly gracious to His children, but Satan would discourage you and have you believe you are not one of them. That is why the Lord stoops so low, telling us that if we come to a friend, because we come with importunity, we will still receive. A prayer of faith comes against Satan's objections to follow the Saviour with a childlike faith.

Sometimes it seems as though after we have prayed over a certain trial, things only get worse. We see that so often. The Lord gives us a struggle,and He puts us into a trial to test our faith. Jesus says, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?" If our heart becomes as a stone, we come to a point where we have no prayer left; yet, Jesus says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. We must persevere in prayer; we must not be discouraged. We must not give up just because the Lord has not yet answered. The Lord is teaching us here our need to persevere.

Satan often uses God's Word out of its context to harass God's dear children; it is very important to understand this. Satan tells them they are not one of God's dear children, and therefore they cannot obtain mercy. I have talked to people who say they can't pray because the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. They will use Scriptures such as JER 11:14 to prove their reasoning, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble." Satan takes God's Word out of context to build a doctrine and makes it as though a person is not allowed to pray unless he knows he is one of God's elect.

Let's take a look at another example of Satan's perverted use of Scripture. ROM 9:13-15 says, "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated...I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion;" Satan takes that verse out of context to convince people they may not approach God in prayer until they know they are one of God's elect.

Another Scripture Satan often uses out of its context to harass God's dear children is HEB 12:17, "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Satan keeps whispering in the ear, "You will not find a place of repentance because you are not one of the elect." Satan claims we must consider the verse, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" out of its context, to say here that even though Esau sought to repent, carefully with tears, he could never repent because he was not of the elect.

Now let's consider this Scripture in its true context to see what an absolute, diabolical lie that is. Esau never showed one grain of remorse over his sin, neither did he have any desire in his heart to repent of his sin. He wanted Isaac to repent of giving Jacob the blessing! The term, "...for he found no place of repentance," means "he found no way to change Isaac's mind." GEN 27:34 says, "And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father."

Esau never once sought repentance because he had a remorse over his sin. We have to understand how Satan uses Scripture out of context, thereby discouraging repentance and coming to the Lord. These are stumbling blocks cast before God's people by Satan.

Esau's inability was not the reason he couldn't be saved, nor was it because he was not elect; he was profane and would not be saved. He was not willing to serve the Lord; his own rebellion against God was the cause. Our blessed Saviour said in MAR 3:35, "For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."

In the Day of Judgment there will not be one person who will be able to justify their rebellion against God's revealed will because they weren't elect, and therefore, couldn't be saved. REV 22:17 says, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Esau's condemnation on the Judgment Day will not be because he could not come, but because he would not come.

When Esau saw that he had forfeited the blessing, his heart was not filled with remorse over his sin, but it was filled with bitterness, and he comforted himself with the thought that he would kill Jacob. There was no remorse in Esau; he never regretted having sold his birthright. Esau never repented or asked God to forgive him, but he would rather have gone out to kill Jacob with a heart filled with bitterness. We see this in HEB 12:15-16. Notice now what it is to fail of the grace of God! "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright."

Bitterness comes because we do not have love for our brother; we do not confess our own sin. We do not repent with a remorse over having sinned. That is where Esau was short. "Many are defiled" because they harbor bitterness in their heart. Esau was so bitter against Jacob there wasn't a grain of remorse or repentance in his heart for what he had done. Esau was condemned because he was profane; he despised his birthright and sold it for a morsel of meat.

Men like Esau do not perish because they cannot be saved, or because they are not elect; they perish because they will not be saved. They have no desire to be saved from their sin. This is the stumbling block that Satan keeps placing in front of many of the church of God. In effect Satan says, "Oh, you are not elect; you can seek repentance, but you'll never find it." That is using Scripture out of context and making a lie.

Jesus said in LUK 13:34-35, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" It does not say they could not; it says they "would not." They were unwilling; they had no desire to be saved from their sins because they loved and cherished their sin. Salvation is to be saved from the power of sin as we see in MAT 1:21, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Their condemnation is their love for sin! "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God," JOH 3:19-21.

The Lord Jesus is teaching us in our text that no person who has a desire to be saved from the kingdom of darkness, that they might serve the Lord, need despair of coming unto the light. No person must ever despair of coming to the Lord. No person should ever listen to the whisperings of Satan and come to the conclusion salvation isn't for them.

Satan wants us to govern our life by the secret will of God instead of patterning our lives after the revealed will of God. He convinces many people they may not pray to God until He reveals the secret of their election to them. We are not to pry into God's secret will; we must govern our lives by His revealed will, doing what He commands under His law of love.

We do not realize how many people are deceived by the perverted teaching of the doctrine of God's election because they do not understand what God's Word says in DEU 29:29. "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." The Lord Jesus teaches us that we are to come to our heavenly Father through His precious atonement; we are not to allow Satan to hinder us.

Satan would have us despair of God's mercy by governing our lives by the secret will of God instead of doing what He commands us under His law of love as revealed in Scripture. The revealed will of God concerning our coming unto Him is so clearly revealed throughout Scripture, and we must govern our lives thereby. Let's look at just a couple passages of Scripture to illustrate this point.

Christ's invitation to all who are willing is identical to the Old Testament gospel in ISA 55:1-2, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."

Look at REV 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Does the call, "Come," exclude anyone? No one is excluded; it is a call that goes out to all of the human race. Can anyone come in the Day of Judgment and say, "I desired repentance; I hungered, and thirsted after righteousness, but it wasn't intended for me because I was not elect."? Consider these words carefully, "And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Concerning election, this teaches us they are not willing to come and take.

So how do we understand God's sovereignty in the doctrines of grace? There isn't one human being who would be willing to serve the Lord and be saved without God's special intervention; there is where we see election. It is only those whom God makes willing; "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure," PHI 2:13. It is by the grace of God that He gives them a new desire and works the wonder of His grace in their heart. They are the one's who will hunger and thirst after righteousness. Why? It is because we are enemies of God by nature. "Because the carnal mind [the unregenerate mind]is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," ROM 8:7. Man by nature has come to hate God, but the external call of the gospel is a universal call, and no man, no human being, will be able to stand in the Day of Judgment and blame God for their not being saved from sin.

Now I want you to see something I never saw until I began searching this out. It is awesome. See the connecting word with which REV 22:18 begins, For. We must see the connection between V:17 and V:18-19, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

The use of the word For is awesome. The call of the gospel in REV 22:17 is not to be altered! It may not have one word, jot, or tittle subtracted or added to it. Now let's read it again. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." That call of the gospel goes out universally, but that doesn't teach universal redemption. It teaches that no man will be able to say on the Day of Judgment he was not saved from the power of sin or be unable to turn unto the Lord in prayer because he was not elected or because he could not be saved. The next verse forbids adding to or subtracting from it. No man will ever be able to blame God for his destruction because he cannot be saved.

The great hindrance to our salvation is that every man by nature is at enmity with God. That is what we must learn to understand. Those who desire, those who will come, let them come. ROM 8:6-7 says, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." You see it is not because we cannot come; it is because we have enmity in our heart that we will not come.

Jesus calls our natural reason into exercise by comparing our natural love for our children to illustrate the tender love of God for His dear children. That is so precious. If we have had a family, we begin to understand the love of a father, and especially how that love is drawn out when one of the children is in a dire situation . Suppose one of those children is at the point of death. The bowels of the father are drawn out for that child. Such love, and a far greater love the Father has for those who fear Him. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," JOH 3:16. That is the message the Lord Jesus teaches us here in our text. Salvation is for whosoever believeth, but who will believe? ACT 13:48b says, "...they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." That is God's secret will, but we must govern our lives by His revealed will.

Jesus said, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?" He is calling our natural senses to reason. "Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

This teaching of our Saviour was not a new doctrine. The Lord Jesus Christ was expounding the gospel that had already been taught in the Old Testament. See how David acknowledges the tender Fatherly love of God as he sings of His mercy in PSA 103:8-14, "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. [If we would realize how we have sinned against the Lord, then we would see His tender love as a Father, still giving us a day of grace.] For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." This is the gospel of the Old Testament.

Do you remember the distinction between the lesser and the greater we discussed in the beginning of this message? The illustration contains the phrase, "If ye then, being evil." When Jesus brought forth the message we are studying today, He remembered "we are dust" when He said in our text, "If ye then, being evil [in our fallen condition], know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

Look at JOH 2:23-25, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man."

Notwithstanding our evil nature and our tendency toward that self-righteous beam in our eye, we are to pray to our heavenly Father for that Spirit of Christ with an eye upon His tender, Fatherly love. We must learn to understand our own pride and the wretchedness of our own heart. The Lord knows our frame; He remembers that we were made of dust. Now we are to pray for the Spirit of Christ.

LUK 11:13 tells us, "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?" He sees us as we are; He knows that we don't deserve it. He sees our wretchedness, pride, and our sins. He understands, He knows us, but He will give us much more than we are able to give our children. When the Lord sees in us, who are vile, a good thing, that good desire after the Spirit of Christ, and the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, He will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit--if we will ask Him.

Often our sins of pride, which work a self-righteous spirit of independence and self-sufficiency, come between us and our God. The Lord withdraws Himself when He sees these sins. The Lord Jesus is appealing to our reasoning the same as we read in ISA 59:1-2, "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear [The Lord's reasoning here is the same as that of Jesus in our text; this teaches us that we must come unto the Lord confessing our sins.]: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."

First, we must repent of our sins. We must come confessing our pride and self-righteousness, and that is so against our human nature. If we are truly one of God's people, we experience that frequently. Our old self wants to keep raising that ugly monster, "I." It is the fountain of all corruption. The Lord withdraws Himself until we come in our proper place.

It goes against the grain of our fallen nature to take our place in the dust while God's tender, Fatherly hand of chastening is upon us, and to sing of His mercy as David said, "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities," PSA 103:10. The Lord is dealing with us as sons. When the Lord is chastening us and putting us in our proper place, He is dealing with us in His tender, Fatherly love. Then we can come to Him, confessing we deserve much more chastisement, but He does not reward us according to our iniquities.

David understood those tender, loving chastenings of his heavenly Father from first-hand experience. It was David that could say, "O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day," PSA 119:97. It is important to make the connection between the above verse and what we see in DEU 8:5. It was David who taught his son, Solomon, "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee," DEU 8:5. You see, David was not a stranger to chastening; he taught this to his son. Solomon also cautioned his son in PRO 3:11-12, "My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." The Lord has no delight in those who walk in disobedience as we read in COL 3:6, "For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience."

We must understand that the Lord uses His chastening to correct our disobedience as He did with David. David had sinned in the matter of Uriah, the Hittite. Look at the grief it brought him in his life, but it also brought David back humbly before the Lord. When David confessed his sin after Absalom was slain, David said, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" 2SA 18:33b. David saw the Father's love in the scorching chastening he received for his heinous crime.

Jesus admonishes us that though we are evil, and the fountain of all our thoughts are evil, yet we are kind to our offspring. Remember how David prayed when the messenger came to tell him his child would die. Even though David had murdered Uriah, look how he pleaded for his child who was conceived through adultery. Look at the love David had for his own offspring; he struggled in prayer for that child until the child died, 2SA 12:14-19.

Parental love, by God's gracious arrangements, is one of the most powerful principles of the human heart and mind. At times when God has hidden His face for our sin, we may think He has forgotten us, but see the blessed assurance we have in this illustration that uses parental love to show us the love of our heavenly Father towards His children. ISA 49:15-16 says, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? [See how He draws on the most intimate parental love, a mother with a nursing child.] yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. [Do you see the lesser to illustrate the greater?] Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

Have you ever heard of the expression, "Tie a string around your finger so you don't forget."? Later, the string reminds the person of the thing he didn't want to forget. This is an example of a lesser thing being an example of something far greater. Now see how our names are engraved upon the palms of His hands. How could He forget us? It is an impossibility for Him to forget. Yet, old Satan will come with whispers if the Lord has withdrawn Himself a little because our pride and sin are a hindrance, he will tell us the Lord has forgotten and forsaken us. No, that is impossible.

Those whom the Father has loved from eternity are predestined from eternity to a life of submission and holiness in the Spirit and image of Christ that they may serve the Lord, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren," ROM 8:29.

When we serve self, we are serving sin. Then the Lord does withdraw Himself, but that doesn't mean that He will allow that to be a barrier for eternity.

Many people quarrel with predestination saying, "If I am not predestined, I could not be saved no matter how I prayed or repented!" That is not the meaning at all. We are predestined to be conformed unto the image of Christ, or unto holiness. The gospel command in EPH 4:23-24 is to all men, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." To those who are not renewed in the spirit of their mind we read, "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," HEB 12:4-6.

MAL 3:16-17 says, "Then they that feared the LORD [those who had a holy reverence for the Lord and His will] spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

Do you see the illustration of parental love? He brings us back to the father-son relationship to illustrate how He will spare His son. Which one will be spared? Do you remember the parable of the prodigal son? He was not spared while he was forsaking his father's will, but the prodigal son was welcomed after he repented and returned into his Father's service.

Our text says, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" MAT 7:9-11. See how the Lord is showing us the logic of parental love. He is calling upon our reasoning so we will understand there is nothing that should ever keep us from coming unto the Lord. If we see that our pride and self-righteousness has caused the Lord to withdraw Himself, that is not a reason for despair. It is a reason to come. It is a reason to return in repentance; calling upon Him for grace to walk in a way well-pleasing unto Him because we see that we have provoked His displeasure.

This tender Fatherly love of God for His people was the very pleading ground Isaiah used to plead for mercy in ISA 63:15-16, "Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? [Now see how Isaiah pleads.] Doubtless thou art our father, [Do you see how he is pleading that parental relationship to move those Fatherly bowels of mercy toward His people?] though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting."

The parental relationship between our God and us becomes such a blessed pleading ground! This is what you and I must understand when we come before the Lord. When our foolishness causes the Lord to withdraw Himself, we must come before Him with faith pleading that parental relationship. Why? It is because we do hunger and thirst; we do desire to come. We do have that holy zeal in our heart, so we must come like Isaiah pleading, "thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting."

The Lord appeals to our reasoning to see that we cannot serve two masters. See how beautifully the Lord calls on our human reasoning in ISA 1:16-19, "Wash you, make you clean [The Lord is saying up front to wash and be clean; we can't come before Him walking in filthiness and expect to be heard.]; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now [after putting aside evil, having remorse over sin, and renouncing sin, then we are to come.] and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If [Do you see the contingency? If] ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."

Notice, there is no talk of pardon until there is repentance and turning from sin. Our sins will be as white as snow, forgiven,if we are "willing and obedient."

When we are in our proper station, we are fallen prostrate in humility and contrition before the Lord. When there is true repentance in our heart, then we may understand what God says in ISA 66:12, "For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees."

Let's harvest from this verse for a while. "I will extend peace to her like a river." How does a river flow? Does it flow from the valley up to the mountain? No, it flows from the heights of the mountain to the valley. When we are in the valley, the place of humiliation, the peace of God will flow down unto us; then we will find peace. Do you see the beauty and the condescension of the Lord as we read the entire verse? God's peace flows down to those who are in the valley of humiliation.

When we have nothing to offer is when there is much to ask, and much to receive from Christ. This is what the Lord is teaching us about prayer; we have nothing to offer of ourselves. "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust," PSA 103:14. Jesus says, "If ye then, being evil," MAT 7:11a. In other words, we can't offer anything from our side, but we have so much to receive from Christ. The curse of the broken law is contention, strife, and confusion, but peace will come like a river when we are in the valley of humiliation.

When we walk in pride, with a self-righteous beam in our eye, we will not have peace flow to us because we are not down where we belong. The river does not run uphill, nor does God extend peace to those who walk in pride and rebellion. As long as we walk in rebellion, we will live in a state of confusion and contention where we will never know peace.

ISA 48:18 says, "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river..." Do you see that? What does that mean? When we are in a position of humility, we are walking in the ways of His revealed will, in subjection in the Spirit of Christ. "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isn't that precious? Do you see what the Lord is teaching us? Where is our proper place for receiving an answer to our prayers? It is in the valley of humiliation; it is being humble before God for "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." It is so necessary to learn to see that the Lord will never give us peace as long as we are walking in a state of rebellion against His will.

This station of humility before the Lord precedes any answer to our prayers. There will be no answer of peace to our prayers until we are in the way of the cross.

The Father's love is set in comparison to that of a natural father to teach the greater by comparison to the lessor. Based on your experience, what does that teach you? When children are in rebellion, defying their parents to their face, is that the time they should get everything they want? It is not if one understands what it means to bring children up in the nurture, i.e., the discipline, and the admonition of the Lord.

The word nurture as taken from the original Greek means to discipline, i.e., to train their thinking in self-discipline. We are to train our children to discipline their thinking based upon God's Word. EPH 6:4 says, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." To nurture our children in "the admonition of the Lord" is to train their thinking according to Scriptural principles. The Lord uses illustrations of parental love to illustrate how we are to come before Him and expect an answer of peace. It is when we come before the Lord in submission to His will.

Now let's analyze this comparison again of the lesser to understand the greater. How much more would the Lord want to see humility in you and me before He gives peace? We are evil; we can tolerate some evil, but the Lord cannot. However, He has opened the gate wide enough for the chiefest of sinners, but it is narrow enough that it will not allow one sin to enter. We must repent; we must turn from our evil ways. We must be conformed to that blessed image of Christ, i.e., Christ formed in us. That means we delight to do His will. Sin becomes the most hated thing of our life when we are truly conformed to the image of Christ. Now we can see the comparison. The Father will not send peace while we are in rebellion.

MAT 7:9-12 "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?" Do you see how beautifully Christ pleads with our reasoning? He uses a comparison between you and your children to illustrate the relationship between God and His children. "Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

Now look at the very next verse. V:12 begins with the word therefore. "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." How could God ask for anything less? See that word therefore; in other words, you must see any other person as if you were in his station. Would you want him to do that very thing to you? Is that what you would want? That is the golden rule; it is the rule by which we must appraise and evaluate every decision we make pertaining to our fellow man.

Some people's feelings are hurt so easily, and yet if you look at the way they deal with the feelings of others, it is hard to imagine how they can be so sensitive themselves. "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Would that action or statement offend you if they did that identical thing to you? If it would, don't do it to another person. Look at the word therefore. God is saying He is doing to us what He would want us to do to Him. He wants us to respect His feelings, to respect Him. He will give us whatever we ask as long as we walk in humility. We should respect His feelings the way we want Him to respect our feelings while we are prostrate on the ground pleading and begging for mercy.

If we want God to respect our feelings and desires, then we must respect His will. Quite reasonable, isn't it? Why should we be walking in pride and rebellion against God, and expect Him to cause the river of peace to flow uphill to us? If you want the Lord to grant your wishes, you should also, therefore, respect His will. If we don't respect His will or fear Him, holding Him in awe, we can't expect Him to grant our requests; we will have no petition to bring before Him; we will never know His peace.

It is so beautiful the way the Lord uses the word therefore to show the connection. If we ask the Lord for something and want Him to grant our desire, we must respect His will. What Jesus teaches in the golden rule, with respect to our fellow man, is teaching how the lessor confirms the greater. If we must do unto our fellow man as we would that he do unto us, how much more we must respect the Lord's revealed will, if we want Him to consider what we ask of Him.

Our text says, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? MAT 7:9-11. However, this is not a blank check to those who violate the golden rule! Read 1JO 3:22, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." Amen.

These on-lines sermons are a ministry of Gospel Chapel located in Conrad, Montana. We also have a book ministry and a daily devotion. For a list of sermons on cassette please visit our on-line tape catalog. See also, our sermon notes.

We pray this sermon has been a blessing to those who read it. If you share this sermon with a friend, please let us know. Thank you.

FEEDBACK