#436 ASK AND SEEK
Excerpt from SERMON #171 ASKING, SEEKING, AND KNOCKING

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” MAT 7:7.

Our text is a command to "Ask," i.e., as a beggar asks alms. Those who would be rich in grace must humble themselves to the poor trade of begging. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," MAT 5:3. He is saying that we must come as a beggar comes asking alms: unworthy, undeserving, and strictly on the basis of mercy.

The command to "Ask" teaches that we are to look to God to supply us strength to obey those precepts He has just so graciously taught. We must come before the Lord, asking and begging Him to give us the grace to deal gently with our neighbours in a certain situation. We don't go without prayer. We must have the Spirit of Christ, begging, asking for support in obeying His precepts.

This command to "Ask" is to teach us that we must inquire after directions from God as a traveler asks the way. If we have a certain circumstance with a brother who is taken in a fault, we must come prayerfully before the Lord asking, "How must I approach that person? How must I approach this situation? Lord, give me the grace and the humbleness and the childlike spirit, that Spirit of Christ, that I may be able to convince him." This is the kind of prayer we must bring before the Lord, asking for the directions to get where He wants us to be.

EZE 36:37 says, "Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them..." He doesn't want us to just go presumptuously expecting the Lord to tell us what to do or say. We are to ask; then when we do ask, He "...will increase them with men like a flock." That is what the Lord Jesus is saying; He is commanding us to live a life of prayer.

We are commanded to "seek"; that goes deeper than asking; there is a difference between asking and seeking. Seeking means we go with all effort to search out God's will as revealed in His Word with regard to the particular circumstances. We have as an example the woman who lost a piece of silver. She swept her house; she looked and didn't leave one corner untouched or one thing unturned until she found it, LUK 16:37.

We are commanded to seek the Lord's face with earnestness as we read in DAN 9:3, "And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." It was a matter of searching, not just asking, but searching with earnestness, seeking the Lord's will. It is not a matter of asking the Lord to help do this, this, and this; we cannot have the whole plan programmed, and then ask for help to carry it out.

We must seek the Lord's will. We must ask for the wisdom and understanding of how to approach each situation. Sometimes we find that the Lord's will is the opposite of our will. Sometimes we find we must come to that person, confessing our sins in order to enlighten him so he can see his sin. Sometimes that isn't quite the way we had it planned, but we are commanded to seek His will.

We are commanded to seek the Lord's face as a merchant man seeks goodly pearls. A man who is diligent in his trade seeks and searches everywhere to find the right market and how to put things together to make his business prosper. Those are like goodly pearls. He labors and strives and works with the sweat of his brow to bring about his purpose. It is with such diligence that we must seek the Lord.

"Again, the kingdom [to walk under the sovereign reign and rule of Christ as King] of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it," MAT 13:45-46. The merchant was seeking goodly pearls, and when he found one, everything else was put aside so he could obtain it. When we seek in prayer, we must be able to put our all on the altar. We may not have a hidden sin or secret thought that we cannot reveal and lay before the Lord. We are to seek the will of our God as the man seeking goodly pearls, and when we find them, we must lay everything else aside to obtain them. The goodly pearls are symbolic of the grace to walk under the reign and rule of Christ. Amen.

Prayer was appointed to convey
The blessings God designs to give.
Long as they live should Christians pray;
For only while they pray they live.

Depend on Him, thou canst not fail;
Make all thy wants and wishes known;
Fear not, His merits must prevail;
Ask what thou wilt, it shall be done.
Gadsby selection, 1838