How Much Will Your Father In Heaven

Matthew 7:7-11

“Jesus had little trouble reaching the harlots, the thieves, robbers, criminals, outcasts, and sinners of society, including tax collectors and the extortionists, but He had an almost impossible time reaching the religious, self-righteous, moral people who were under the illusion and self-deception that because of their goodness, everything was OK between them and God. They recognized no sin, so they needed no Savior. That is always the danger of morality. Morality creates an illusion of safety when in fact the person who is moral may be in the greatest danger of all.”

John MacArthur

This is a great understanding of this passage from Jesus’ sermon preached on the mount......

Matthew 7:7-11.......

This is better understood from the life of a sinner, than someone who “has it all together” or better said “they think they have it all together”

Morality as described by humans is not morality at all, it is called self-righteousness and is the greatest delusion that is in the world!

Morality can only be defined by God and His Character!

This, then, reveals the facts of the matter to us.........we are what the theologians and book readers call us “depraved”.....which simply means: “Morally Corrupt, Wicked”

This is a state that we are born in.......there is some truth to what some say “they are born that way”........but that is nothing to be happy about or to live out that life happily!

Martin Lloyd Jones said it this way: “There is a superficial evangelism which puts the Gospel entirely in terms of human beings. ‘Are you happy?’ ‘Are you worried?’ ‘Do you want this or that?’ ‘Come to Christ and you will get it.’ And so people come.......They have never trembled under the holy law of God, that is because they were never taught it. ‘Well’ they say ‘I’m alright now, I am forgiven.’ They are negligent about their conduct. They have not realized its importance because they do not know why a person is saved.”

Isaiah 66:2 “For all those things hath mine hand made, And all those things have been, saith the Lord: But to this man will I look, Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembleth at my word.”

Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

Why are we poor, why are we in need of Christ? This is the question that seems to be danced around and never dealt with!

We are of a poor and contrite spirit, because we have trembled at God’s Word, we saw that we have fallen away from God.....Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

What gets to me is these that would preach another Jesus that declares that happiness is based on our circumstance and Jesus will give us what we want. That is wrongly divided and I must say that is a wicked teaching!

I heard a young lady from the Oklahoma softball team say this after she was asked “How do you keep your joy?”...... “The only way that you can have joy that does not fade away is from the Lord! Any other type of joy would just be happiness based on circumstances and outcomes.”.........

Mighty powerful answer, 2 other young ladies went on to affirm what that young lady said!

These truths bring us back to our text........ASK, SEEK, KNOCK......what are we asking for? what are we seeking? what door do we want opened? This is what prayer is all about!

The ultimate answer is God, the ultimate way is Christ! The Godhead is the fulfillment of our lives!

The reason we are fallen is because we chose our own way and therein we have sinned and are sinful completely!

The reason we are poor and sorrowful, the reason we are of a broken heart is because of our sin against our Creator, our Father!

Paul in 1 Timothy 1:12-17 gets carried away in praise, when he talked about Jesus coming to the world to save sinners of whom he was chief.......1 Timothy 1:15-17 “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ...................... Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Carried away in the goodness and mercy of our Father, through His Son Jesus Christ!

Now, the understanding of this is greater when it is less about me and more about God the Father!

The earthly father’s purpose is to meet the needs of his family.....necessities, most especially, but sometimes and maybe more than sometimes goes above and beyond!

According to Jesus, the earthly father is evil..........that is not because of his care for his children, but he is a fallen creation! Fallen away from God!

If an earthly father provides for his family, what can a supernatural, eternal, immortal, invisible, God (the only wise God) do for his children? Rhetorical question!

Some might and have asked, then why can’t He give me what I want down here? There are some that states this as fact........but what is the answer to this........????

1 Corinthians 2 has the answer.........1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

If we continue to look at God and His Way through an earthly understanding, we will never understand this...........Jesus said in stating that we should love our enemies and pray for them that persecute you Matthew 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Good and bad befall the just and the unjust, the evil and the good, yes it is from the Father, but how do we differentiate His children from the devil’s?

They are not dictated by worldly/fleshly things, only by their Father!

Back to what we are asking for, seeking for, and knocking for.........it is God’s forgiveness, God’s way.......this asking, seeking, and knocking has a meaning of desperation more than it does we are just going through like and when we have something we need we ask God for it!

This is desperation.......Martin Lloyd Jones: “A sinner does not “decide” for Christ; the sinner “flies” to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying – Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Saviour, or I die. No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope, his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God’s holy law. Nothing else is satisfactory. If a man says that having thought about the matter and having considered all sides he has on the whole decided for Christ, and if he has done so without any emotion or feeling, I cannot regard him as a man who has been regenerated. The convicted sinner no more “decides” for Christ than the poor drowning man “decides” to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape. The term is entirely inappropriate.”

This idea in my belief is for the sinner and the redeemed, because we are all in need of Christ!

Once I am saved, I continually need Christ! Peter said while walking with Christ and was asked by Christ “will you go away also?”

John 6:68 “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

I believe that we have some that flaunt their evil, wicked, fleshly ways, around and are proud, as I quoted at the beginning they have no need for a Savior.......some say that they have a Savior but do not recognize what it is they are being saved from?

It is kind of moronic if you think about it.....if they continue in sin happily and there is no poor, broken heart, or contrite spirit, then why do they need saving?

Some might think that we have to get ourselves in that poor, broken, contrite mindset........that is not the case, it is a realization of the fact that we have fallen from God and that we are completely sinful!

You cannot force that feeling, it is an overwhelming presence at the knowledge of your depraved life!

It is mind that desperately asks, seeks, and knocks for the Only One that can save them!

From that point on, the asking, seeking, and knocking still continues and it is for the saved and those desiring to be saved!

ASK: “Ask with confidence and humility”

1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:”

James 4:3 “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”

SEEK: Seek with care and application

Jeremiah 29:13 “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

KNOCK: Knock with earnestness and perseverance.

John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”