Prayer Certified Of Success

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 19, 1873,

BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that
asks receives and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall
be opened." Luke 11:9-10.

To seek aid in time of distress from a supernatural being is an
instinct of human nature. We say not that human nature unrenewed ever
offers truly spiritual prayer, or ever exercises saving faith in the
living God. But still, like a child crying in the dark with painful
longing for help from somewhere or other, it scarcely knows where, the
soul in deep sorrow almost invariably cries to some supernatural being
for succor. None have been more ready to pray in time of trouble than
those who have ridiculed prayer in their prosperity–and probably no
prayers have been more true to the feelings of the hour than those
which atheists have offered under the pressure of the fear of death.

In one of his papers in the Tattler, Addison describes a man, who, on
board ship, loudly boasted of his atheism. A brisk gale springing up,
he fell upon his knees and confessed to the chaplain that he had been
an atheist. The common seamen who had never heard the word before,
thought it had been some strange fish, but were more surprised when
they saw it was a man and learned out of his own mouth, "that he never
believed till that day that there was a God." One of the old sailors
whispered to the boatswain that it would be a good deed to heave him
overboard, but this was a cruel suggestion, for the poor creature was
already in misery enough–his atheism had evaporated and he, in mortal
terror, cried to God to have mercy upon him!

Similar incidents have occurred, not once nor twice. Indeed, so
frequently does boastful skepticism come down with a run at the last
that we always expect it to do so. Take away unnatural restraint from
the mind and it may be said of all men that, like the comrades of
Jonah, they cry, every man, unto his God in their trouble. As birds to
their nests, hinds to their coverts, so men in agony fly to a superior
being for succor in the hour of need. God has given to all the
creatures He has made some peculiar form of strength–one has such
swiftness of foot that at the baying of a hound it escapes from danger
by outstripping the wind. Another, with outspread wings, is lifted
beyond the fowler. A third, with horns, pushes down its enemy and a
fourth, with tooth and claw, tears in pieces its adversary.

To man He gave but little strength compared with the animals among
which He placed in Eden and yet man was king over all because the Lord
was His strength. So long as he knew where to look for the source of
his power, man remained the unresisted monarch of all around him. That
image of God in which he shone resplendent sustained his sovereignty
over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field and the fish of the
sea. By instinct man turned to his God in Paradise and now, though he
is, to a sad degree, an uncrowned monarch, there lingers in his memory
shadows of what he was and remembrances of where his strength must
still be found. Therefore, no matter where you find a man, you meet one
who, in his distress, will ask for supernatural help.

I believe in the truthfulness of this instinct and that man prays
because there is something in prayer. And when the Creator gives His
creature the power of thirst, it is because water exists to meet its
thirst–and as when He creates hunger there is food to correspond to
the appetite. So when He inclines men to pray it is because prayer has
a corresponding blessing connected with it. We find a powerful reason
for expecting prayer to be effectual in the fact that it is an
institution of God. In God's Word we are over and over again commanded
to pray. God's institutions are not folly. Can I believe that the
infinitely wise God has ordained for me an exercise which is
ineffectual and is no more than child's play?

Does He bid me pray and yet has prayer no more result than if I
whistled to the wind, or sang to a grove of trees? If there is no
answer to prayer, prayer is a monstrous absurdity and God is the Author
of it–which it is blasphemy to assert! No man who is not a fool will
continue to pray when you have once proved to him that prayer has no
effect with God and never receives an answer. Prayer is a work for
idiots and madmen, and not for sane persons, if it is, indeed, true,
that its effects end with the man who prays! I shall not, this morning,
enter into any arguments upon the matter–rather, I am coming to my
text, which to me, at least, and to you who are followers of Christ, is
the end of all controversy.

Our Savior knew right well that many difficulties would arise in
connection with prayer which might tend to stagger His disciples and
therefore He has balanced every opposition by an overwhelming
assurance. Read those words, "I say unto you," I–your Teacher, your
Master, your Lord, your Savior, your God–"I say unto you, Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you." In the text our Lord meets all difficulties–first by
giving us the weight of His own authority, "I say unto you." Next by
presenting us with a promise, "Ask, and it shall be given you," and so
on. And then by reminding us of an indisputable fact–"everyone that
asks receives." Here are three mortal wounds for a Christian's doubts
as to prayer.

I. First, then, OUR SAVIOR GIVES TO US THE WEIGHT OF HIS OWN AUTHORITY,
"I say unto you." The first mark of a follower of Christ is that he
believes his Lord. We do not follow the Lord at all if we raise any
questions upon points whereupon He speaks positively. Though a doctrine
should be surrounded with 10,000 difficulties, the ipse dixit of the
Lord Jesus sweeps them all away, so far as true Christians are
concerned. Our Master's declaration is all the argument we need. "I say
unto you," is our logic. Reason? We see you at your best in Jesus, for
He is made of God unto us Wisdom. He cannot err, He cannot lie and if
He says, "I say unto you," that is the end of all debate.

But, Brothers and Sisters, there are certain reasons which should lead
us the more confidently to rest in our Master's Word upon this point.
There is power in every Word of the Lord Jesus, but there is special
force in the utterance before us. It has been objected to prayer that
it is not possible that it should be answered because the laws of
Nature are unalterable and they must and will go on whether men pray or
not. Not a drop of water will change its position in a single wave, or
a particle of infectious matter be turned from its course though all
the saints in the universe should plead against tempest and plague.

Now, concerning that matter, we are in no hurry to make an answer–our
adversaries have more to prove than we have–and among the rest they
have to prove a negative. To us it does not seem necessary to prove
that the laws of Nature are disturbed. God can work miracles and He may
work them yet again as He has done in days of yore, but it is no part
of the Christian faith that God must work miracles in order to answer
the prayers of His servants. When a man, in order to fulfill a promise,
has to disarrange all his affairs and, so to speak, to stop all his
machinery, it proves that he is but a man and that his wisdom and power
are limited. But He is God, indeed, who, without reversing the engine
or removing a single cog from a wheel, fulfils the desires of His
people as they come up before Him!

The Lord is so Omnipotent that He can work results tantamount to
miracles without, in the slightest degree, suspending any of His laws.
He did, as it were, in the olden times, stop the machinery of the
universe to answer prayer, but now, with equally godlike glory, He
orders events so as to answer believing prayers and yet suspends no
natural law. But this is far from being our only or our main
comfort–that lies in the fact that we hear the voice of One who is
competent to speak upon the matter and He says, "I say unto you, Ask
and it shall be given you." Whether the laws of nature are reversible
or irreversible, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall
find."

Now, who is He that speaks thus? It is he that made all things, without
whom was not anything made that was made! Cannot He speak to this
point? O You eternal Word, You who were in the beginning with God,
balancing the clouds and fastening the foundations of the earth, You
know what the laws and the unalterable constitutions of Nature may be
and if you say, "Ask and it shall be given you," then assuredly it will
be so, be the laws of Nature what they may! Besides, our Lord is by us
adored as the Sustainer of all things and, seeing that all the laws of
Nature are only operative through His power and are sustained in their
motion by His might, He must be cognizant of the motion of all the
forces in the world–and if He says, "Ask and it shall be given
you"–He does not speak in ignorance, but knows what He affirms. We may
be assured that there are no forces which can prevent the fulfillment
of the Lord's own Word. From the Creator and the Sustainer the Words,
"I say unto you," settles all controversy forever.

But another objection has been raised which is very ancient, indeed,
and has a great appearance of force. It is raised not so much by
skeptics, as by those who hold a part of the Truth. It is this–that
prayer can certainly produce no result because the decrees of God have
settled everything and those decrees are Immutable. Now we have no
desire to deny the assertion that the decrees of God have settled all
events. It is our full belief that God has foreknown and predestinated
everything that happens in Heaven above or in the earth beneath–and
that the foreknown station of a reed by the river is as fixed as the
station of a king–and "the chaff from the hand of the winnower is
steered as the stars in their courses." Predestination embraces the
great and the little, and reaches unto all things–the question is, why
do we pray?

Might it not as logically be asked why we breathe, eat, move, or do
anything? We have an answer which satisfies us, namely, that our
prayers are in the predestination and that God has as much ordained His
people's prayers as anything else. And when we pray we are producing
links in the chain of ordained facts! Destiny decrees that I should
pray–I pray. Destiny decrees that I shall be answered and the answer
comes to me. Moreover, in other matters we never regulate our actions
by the unknown decrees of God, as, for instance, a man never questions
whether he shall eat or drink because it may or may not be decreed that
he shall eat or drink–a man never enquires whether he shall work or
not on the ground that it is decreed how much he shall do or how
little. As it is inconsistent with common sense to make the secret
decrees of God a guide to us in our general conduct, so we feel it
should be in reference to prayer and therefore we still pray.

But we have a better answer than all this. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes
forward and He says to us this morning, "My dear Children, the decrees
of God need not trouble you. There is nothing in them inconsistent with
your prayers being heard. 'I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given
you.'" Now, who is He that says this? Why it is He that has been with
the Father from the beginning–"the same was in the beginning with
God"–and He knows what the purposes of the Father are and what the
heart of God is, for He has told us in another place, "the Father
Himself loves you." Now, since He knows the decrees of the Father and
the heart of the Father, He can tell us with the absolute certainty of
an eyewitness that there is nothing in the eternal purposes in conflict
with this Truth of God, that he that asks, receives, and he that seeks
finds. He has read the decrees from beginning to end–has He not taken
the Book and loosed the seven seals thereof and declared the ordinances
of Heaven?

He tells you there is nothing there inconsistent with your bended knee
and streaming eyes and with the Father's opening the windows of Heaven
to shower upon you the blessings which you seek. Moreover, He is
Himself God–the purposes of Heaven are His own purposes and He who
ordained the purpose here gives the assurance that there is nothing in
it to prevent the efficacy of prayer. "I say unto you." O you that
believe in Him, your doubts are scattered to the winds–you know that
He hears prayer!

But sometimes there arises in our mind a third difficulty which is
associated with our own judgment of ourselves and our estimate of God.
We feel that God is very great and we tremble in the Presence of His
majesty. We feel that we are very little and that, in addition, we are
also vile–and it seems an incredible thing that such guilty nothings
should have power to move the arm which moves the world! I wonder not
if that fear should often hamper us in prayer. But Jesus answers it so
sweetly. He says–"I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you." And
I ask again, who is it that says, "I say unto you"? Why, it is He who
knows both the greatness of God and the weakness of man! He is God and
out of the excellent Majesty I think I hear Him say, "I say unto you,
Ask, and it shall be given you."

But He is also Man, like ourselves, and He says, "Dread not your
littleness, for I, bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, assure
you that God hears man's prayer." The words come to us with the harmony
of blended notes! The God, the Man, both speak to us–"Dread not My
majesty, your prayer is heard. Fear not your own weakness. I as a Man
have been heard of God." And yet, again, if the dread of sin should
haunt us and our own sorrow should depress us, I would remind you that
Jesus Christ, when He says, "I say unto you," gives us the authority,
not only of His Person, but of His experience. Jesus was known to pray.
Never any prayed as He did! Nights were spent in prayer by Him, and
whole days in earnest intercession–and He says to us, "I say unto you,
Ask, and it shall be given you."

I think I see Him coming fresh from the heather of the hills, among
which He had knelt all night to pray, and He says, "My disciples, Ask,
and it shall be given you, for I have prayed and it has been given unto
Me." I think I hear Him say it with His face all bloody red and His
garments as if He had trod the wine vat, as He rises from Gethsemane
with His soul exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. He was heard in
that He feared and therefore He says to us, "I say unto you, knock and
it shall be opened unto you." Yes, and I think I hear Him speak thus
from the Cross, with His face bright with the first beam of sunlight
after He had borne our sins in His own body on the tree–and had
suffered all our griefs to the last pang. He had cried, "My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me," and now, having received an answer, He
cries in triumph, "It is finished," and in so doing, bids us, also,
"ask, and it shall be given you." Jesus has proven the power of prayer!

"Oh but," says one, "He has not proven what it is to pray in trouble
like mine." How grossly you attest the Savior's trouble was worse than
yours! There are no depths so deep that He has not dived to the bottom
of them! Christ has prayed out of the lowest dungeon and out of the
most horrible pit. "Yes, but He has not cried under the burden of sin."
How can you speak so thoughtlessly!? "Was ever such a burden of sin
borne by any man as was laid on Him?" True, the sins were not His own,
but they were sins and sins with all their crushing weight in them,
too! Yet was He heard and He was helped unto the end. Christ gives you,
in His own experience, the Divine proof that the asking shall be
followed by the receiving, even when sin lies at the door.

Thus much is certain, if you, who are Believers, cannot believe in the
efficacy of prayer on the very Word of Christ, it has come to a strange
pass, for, O Beloved, you are leaning all your soul's weight on Jesus!
If He is not true, then you are trusting a false Savior! If He speaks
not Truths of God, then you are deceived! If you can trust Him with
your soul, you must of necessity trust Him with your prayers! Remember,
too, that if Jesus our Lord could speak so positively here, there is a
yet greater reason for believing Him now, for He has gone within the
veil–He sits at the right hand of God, even the Father, and the voice
does not come to us from the Man of poverty, wearing a garment without
seam, but from the enthroned Priest with the golden girdle about His
loins, for it is He who now says, from the right hand of God–"I say
unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you."

Do you believe in His name? How, then, can a prayer that is sincerely
offered in that name fall to the ground? When you present your petition
in Jesus' name, a part of His authority clothes your prayers. If your
prayers are rejected, Christ is dishonored–surely, you cannot believe
that? You have trusted Him, then believe that prayer offered through
Him must and shall win the day. We cannot talk longer on this point,
but we trust the Holy Spirit will impress it upon all our hearts.

II. We will now remember that OUR LORD PRESENTS US WITH A PROMISE. Note
that the promise is given to several varieties of prayer. "I say unto
you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock
and it shall be opened unto you." The text clearly asserts that all
forms of true prayer shall be heard, provided they are presented
through Jesus Christ and are for promised blessings. Some are vocal
prayers men ask–never should we fail to offer up every day and
continually the prayer which is uttered by the tongue, for the promise
is that the asker shall be heard.

But there are others who, not neglecting vocal prayer, are far more
abundant in active prayer, for by humble and diligent use of the means
they seek the blessings which they need. Their heart speaks to God by
its longings, strivings, emotions and labors. Let them not cease
seeking, for they shall surely find. There are others who, in their
earnestness, combine the most eager forms, both acting and speaking,
for knocking is a loud kind of asking and a vehement form of seeking.
If our prayers are vocal speech with God, or if they are the practical
use of means ordained, which is real prayer–or if they should, best of
all, be the continued use of both–or if they are expressed only by a
tear or a sigh, or even if they remain quite unexpressed in a trembling
desire, they shall be heard. All varieties of true prayer shall meet
with responses from Heaven.

Now observe that these varieties of prayer are put on an ascending
scale. It is said first that we ask–I suppose that refers to the
prayer which is a mere statement of our needs in which we tell the Lord
that we need this and that and ask Him to grant it to us. But as we
learn the art of prayer we go on further to seek–which signifies that
we marshal our arguments and plead reasons for the granting of our
desires–and we begin to wrestle with God for the mercies needed. And
if the blessings come not, we then rise to the third degree which is
knocking–we become importunate–we are not content with asking and
giving reasons, but we throw the whole earnestness of our being into
our requests and practice the text which says, "the kingdom of Heaven
suffers violence and the violent take it by force."

So the prayers grow from asking–which is the statement, to
seeking–which is the pleading, and to knocking– which is the
importuning. To each of these stages of prayer there is a distinct
promise. He that asks shall have–what did he ask for? But he that
seeks, going further, shall find, shall enjoy, shall grasp, shall know
that he has obtained. And he who knocks shall go further still, for he
shall understand–and to him shall the precious thing be opened–he
shall not merely have the blessing and enjoy it, but he will comprehend
it! He shall "understand with all saints, what are the heights and
depths."

I want, however, you to notice this fact, which covers all–whatever
form your prayer may assume it shall succeed. If you only ask you shall
receive. If you seek you shall find. If you knock it shall be opened.
In each case, according to your faith, shall it be unto you. The
clauses of the promise before us are not put, as we say, in law,
jointly–he that asks and seeks and knocks shall receive–but they are
put severally–he that asks shall have, he that seeks shall find, he
that knocks shall have it opened. It is not when we combine the whole
three that we get the blessing, though doubtless if we did combine them
we should got the combined reply. But if we exercise only one of these
three forms of prayer, we shall still get that which our souls seek
after.

These three methods of prayer exercise a variety of our Graces. It is a
gloss of the fathers upon this passage that faith asks, hope seeks and
love knocks–and the gloss is worth repeating. Faith asks because she
believes God will give. Hope, having asked, expects, and therefore
seeks for the blessing. Love comes nearer, still, and will not take a
denial from God, but desires to enter into His house and to sup with
Him and, therefore, knocks at His door till He opens. But, again, let
us come back to the old point–it matters not which Grace is
exercised–a blessing comes to each one. If Faith asks it shall
receive. If Hope seeks it shall find. And if Love knocks it shall be
opened to her.

These three modes of prayer suit us in different stages of distress.
There am I, a poor mendicant at Mercy's door. I ask and I shall
receive–but I lose my way so that I cannot find Him of whom I once
asked so successfully. Well, then, I may seek with the certainty that I
shall find. I am told if I am in the last stage of all, not merely poor
and bewildered, but so defiled as to feel shut out from God like a
leper shut out of the camp, then I may knock and the door will open to
me. Each of these different descriptions of prayer is exceedingly
simple. If anybody said, "I cannot ask," our reply would be, you do not
understand the word. Surely everybody can ask! A little child can ask.
Long before an infant can speak it can ask–it need not use words in
order to ask for what it wants–and there is not one among us who is
incapacitated from asking.

Prayers need not be fine. I believe God abhors fine prayers. If a
person asks charity of you in elegant sentences he is not likely to get
it. Finery in dress or language is out of place in boggles. I heard a
man in the street, one day, begging aloud by means of a magnificent
oration. He used grand language in very pompous style and I dare say he
thought he was sure of getting piles of coppers by his borrowed speech.
But I, for one, gave him nothing. I felt more inclined to laugh at his
bombast. Is it not likely that many great prayers are about as useless?
Many Prayer Meetings' prayers are a great deal too fine. Keep your
figures and metaphors and parabolic expressions for your fellow
creatures! Use them for those who want to be instructed, but do not
parade them before God! When we pray, the simpler our prayers are the
better–the most plain, most humble language which expresses our
meaning is the best.

The next word is seek and surely there is no difficulty about seeking?
In finding there might be, but in seeking there is none. When the woman
in the parable lost her money she lit a candle and sought for it. I do
not suppose she had ever been to the university, or qualified as a lady
physician, or that she could have sat on the School Board as a woman of
superior sense–but she could seek. Anybody who desires to do so can
seek–be they man, woman, or child–and for their encouragement the
promise is not given to some particular philosophical form of seeking,
but simply, "he that seeks finds."

Then there is knocking–well, that is a thing of no great difficulty.
We used to do it when we were boys–sometimes too much for the
neighbors' comfort! And at home, if the knocker was a little too high,
we had ways and means of knocking at the door even then–a stone would
do it, or the heel of a boot–anything would make a knocking! It was
not beyond our capacity by any means! Therefore, it is put in this
fashion by Christ Himself, as much as to tell us, "You need have no
scholarship, no training, no talent and no wit for prayer–ask, seek,
knock–that is all, and the promise is to everyone of these ways of
praying. Will you believe the promise? It is Christ who gives it! No
lie ever fell from His lips. O doubt Him not! Pray on if you have
prayed, but if you have never prayed before, God help you to begin
today!

III. Our third point is that JESUS TESTIFIES TO THE FACT THAT PRAYER IS
HEARD. Having given a promise He then adds, in effect–"You may be
quite sure that this promise will be fulfilled, not only because I say
it, but because it is and always has been so." When a man says the sun
will rise tomorrow morning, we believe it because it has always risen.
Our Lord tells us that, as a matter of indisputable fact, all along the
ages true asking has been followed by receiving! Remember that He who
stated this fact knew it. If you state a fact you may reply, "Yes, as
far as your observation goes, it is true." But the observation of
Christ was unbounded. There was never a true prayer offered unknown to
Him! Prayers acceptable with the Most High come up to Him by the way of
the wounds of Christ. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ can speak by
personal knowledge and His declaration is that prayer has
succeeded–"Everyone that asks receives and he that seeks finds."

Now here we must, of course, suppose the limitations which would be
made by ordinary common sense and which are made by Scripture. It is
not everyone that frivolously or wickedly asks or pretends to ask of
God that gets what he asks for. It is not every silly, idle,
unconsidered request of unregenerate hearts that God will answer. By no
manner of means–common sense limits the statement so far. Besides,
Scripture limits it again, "You have not because you ask not, or
because you ask amiss"–there is an asking amiss which will never
obtain. If we ask that we may consume the good things upon our lust we
shall not have them. If we ask for that which would not be to our good
we shall be heard by receiving no such answer as we desired. But those
things being remembered, the statement of our Lord has no other
qualification–"everyone that asks receives."

Let it be remembered that frequently, even when the ungodly and the
wicked have asked of God, they have received. Full often in the time of
their distress they have called upon God and He has answered them. "How
can you say that" asks one. No, I say not so, but so says Scripture.
Ahab's prayer was answered and the Lord said, "see you how Ahab humbles
himself before Me? Because he humbles himself before Me, I will not
bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil
upon his house." So, also, the Lord heard the prayer of Jehoahaz, the
son of Jehu, who did evil in the sight of the Lord. (2 Kings 13:1-4).
The Israelites, also, when for their sins were given over to their
foes, cried to God for deliverance and they were answered–yet the Lord
Himself testified concerning them that they did but flatter with their
mouth.

Does this stagger you? Does He not hear the young ravens when they cry?
Do you think He will not hear man, that is formed in His own image? Do
you doubt it? Remember Nineveh! The prayers offered at Nineveh–were
they spiritual prayers? Did you ever hear of a Church of God in
Nineveh? I have not, neither do I believe the Ninevites were ever
visited by converting Grace–but they were, by the preaching of Jonah,
convicted that they were in danger from the great Jehovah–and they
proclaimed a fast and humbled themselves! And God heard their prayer
and Nineveh, for a while, was preserved. Many a time in the hour of
sickness and in the time of woe, God has heard the prayers of the
unthankful and the evil. Do you think God gives nothing except to the
good? Have you dwelt at the foot of Sinai and learned to judge
according to the Law of merit? What were you when you did begin to
pray? Were you good and righteous? Has not God commanded you to do good
to the evil? Will He command you to do what He will not do Himself?

Has He not said that He "sends rain upon the just and upon the unjust"
and is it not so? Is He not daily blessing those who curse Him and
doing good to those who despitefully use Him? This is one of the
glories of God's Grace and when there is nothing else good in the man,
yet if there is a cry lifted up from his heart, the Lord deigns full
often to send relief from trouble. Now, if God has heard the prayers
even of men who have not sought Him in the highest manner and has given
them temporary deliverances in answer to their cries, will He not much
more hear you when you are humbling yourself in His sight and desiring
to be reconciled to Him? Surely there is an argument here!

But to come more fully to the point with regard to real and spiritual
prayers, everyone that asks receives without any limit whatever. There
has never been an instance, yet, of a man really seeking spiritual
blessings of God without his receiving them. The publican stood afar
off and so broken was his heart that he dared not look up to
Heaven–yet God looked down on him. Manasseh lay in the low dungeon. He
had been a cruel persecutor of the saints. There was nothing in him
that could commend him to God, but God heard him out of the dungeon and
brought him forth to liberty of soul. Jonah had, by his own sin,
brought himself into the whale's belly and he was a petulant servant of
God at the best–but out of the belly of Hell he cried and God heard
him. "Everyone that asks receives and he that seeks finds; and to him
that knocks it shall be opened." Everyone!

If I needed evidence I should be able to find it in this Tabernacle. I
would ask anyone here who has found Christ to bear witness that God
heard his prayer. I do not believe that among the damned in Hell there
is one who dares say, "I sought the Lord and He rejected me." There
shall not be found, at the last day of account, one single soul that
can say, "I knocked at Mercy's door, but God refused to open it." There
shall not stand before the Great White Throne a single soul that can
plead, "O Christ, I would have been saved by You, but You would not
save me! I gave myself up into Your hands, but You did reject me. I
penitently asked for mercy of You, but I had it not." Everyone that
asks receives. It has been so until this day–it will be so till Christ
Himself shall come. If you doubt it try it and if you have tried it try
it again.

Are you in rags?–that matters not–everyone that asks receives. Are
you foul with sin?–that matters not–"everyone that seeks finds." Do
you feel yourself as if you were shut out from God altogether?–that
matters not, either–"knock, and it shall be opened unto you, for
everyone that asks receives." "Is there no election there?" Yes, yes,
doubtless there is! But that does not alter this Truth of God which has
no limit to it whatever–"everyone." What a rich text it is! "Everyone
that asks receives." When our Lord spoke thus, He could have pointed to
His own life as evidence–at any rate we can refer to it now and show
that no one asked of Christ who did not receive. The Syro-Phoenician
woman was at first repulsed when the Lord called her a dog. But when
she had the courage to say, "Yet the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
the table," she soon discovered that everyone that asks receives.

She, also, who came behind Him in the crowd and touched the hem of His
garment–she was no asker, but she was a seeker–and she found. I think
I hear, in answer to all this, the lamentable wail of one who says, "I
have been crying to God a long while for salvation. I have asked, I
have sought and I have knocked, but it has not come yet." Well, dear
Friend, if I am asked which is true, God or you, I know which I shall
stand by and I would advise you to believe God before you believe
yourself! God will hear prayer, but do you know there is one thing
before prayer? What is it? Why, the Gospel is not–"he that prays shall
be saved"–that is not the Gospel! I believe he will be saved, but that
is not the Gospel. I am told to preach to you. "Go you into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature; he"–what?–"he that
believes and is baptized shall be saved."

Now, you have been asking God to save you–do you expect Him to save
you without your believing and being baptized? Surely you have not had
the impudence to ask God to make void His own Word! Might He not say to
you, "Do as I bid you. Believe My Son. He that believes on Him has
everlasting life." Let me ask you, do you believe Jesus Christ? Will
you trust Him? "Oh, I trust Him," says one. "I trust Him wholly." Soul,
do not ask for salvation any more–you have it already–you are saved!
If you trust Jesus with all your soul, your sins are forgiven you and
you are saved. And the next time you approach the Lord, go with praise
as well as with prayer and sing and bless His name.

"But how am I to know that I am saved?" asks one. God says, "He that
believes and is baptized shall be saved." Have you believed? Have you
been baptized? If so, you are saved. How do I know that? On the best
evidence in all the world–God says you are–do you need any evidence
but that? "I want to feel this." Feel! Are your feelings better than
God's witness? Will you make God a liar by asking more signs and tokens
than His sure Word of Testimony? I have no evidence this day that I
dare trust in concerning my salvation but this–that I rest on Christ
alone with all my heart, soul and strength. "Other refuge have I none,"
and if you have that evidence, it is all the evidence that you need
seek for this day. Other witnesses of Divine Grace in your heart shall
come, by-and-by, and cluster about you and adorn the doctrines you do
profess–but now your first business is to believe in Jesus.

"I have asked for faith," says one. Well, what do you mean by that? To
believe in Jesus Christ is the gift of God, but it must be your own act
as well. Do you think God will believe for you, or that the Holy Spirit
believes instead of us? What has the Holy Spirit to believe? You must
believe for yourself or be lost! He cannot lie–will you not believe in
Him? He deserves to be believed! Trust in Him and you are saved, and
your prayer is answered! I think I hear another say, "I trust I am
already saved, but I have been looking for the salvation of others in
answer to my prayers." Dear Friend, you will get it. "He that asks
receives and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be
opened." "But I have sought the conversion of such an one for years
with many prayers."

You shall have it, or you shall know one day why you have it not and
shall be made content not to have it! Pray on in hope. Many a one has
had his prayer for others answered after he has been dead. I think I
have reminded you before of the father who had prayed for many years
for his sons and daughters and yet they were not converted. In fact,
all of them became exceedingly worldly. His time came to die. He
gathered his children about his bed, hoping to bear such a witness for
Christ at the last that it might be blessed to their conversion–but
unhappily for him he was in deep distress of soul. He had doubts about
his own interest in Christ. He was one of God's children who are put to
bed in the dark–this being, above all, the worst fear of his mind,
that he feared his dear children would see his distress and be
prejudiced against religion.

The good man was buried and his sons came to the funeral–and God heard
the man's prayer that very day–for as they went away from the grave
one of them said to the other, "Brother, our father died a most unhappy
death." "He did, Brother. I was very much astonished at it, for I never
knew a better man than our father." "Ah," said the first brother, "if a
holy man such as our father found it a hard thing to die, it will be a
dreadful thing for us who have no faith when our time comes." That same
thought had struck them all and drove them to the Cross–and so the
good man's prayer was heard in a mysterious manner.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but while God lives, prayer must be
heard. While God remains true to His Word, supplication is not in vain!
The Lord give you Divine Grace to exercise it continually. Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Luke 11:1-13; Psalm 107:1-31.
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A Holy Celebration