Today we continue in studying the Word of God in our systematic exposition. And we continue in Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 to 12. Now, before Easter, we expounded on Matthew chapter 7 and verse 7. In the book of God, we have discussed the seventh chapter of the Lord Jesus. And today we will continue in studying the words of the Lord Jesus from verses 8 to 12. So today we will continue in studying the words of the Lord Jesus from verses 8 to 12. Now, I ask our brothers to read for us, please, from verse 7 to 12 of Matthew chapter 7.
In this passage, we saw that in verse 8, God has made a promise. Here the Lord Jesus says, for everyone who asks, he will receive. Everyone who seeks, he will find. To everyone who knocks, it will be opened. And we saw that here is a word of God that can be tested, it can be proved. We saw that God is not afraid to give us words that can be tested. We saw that God is not afraid to give us any words that can be tested.
We find that this is not the only promise in the Bible that he makes, but here is something so clearly made, so clear a promise, that we can take hold of it and see whether God answers prayer or not. I find that God's word is so wonderful, in the sense that he makes his statements clear and specific. It is open to a clear empirical test, that is to say you can see whether it is true or false. He is actually towards every one of the challenges, to open them, and to be able to test their truth. Provided of course that like every promise you fulfill its condition, there are no unconditional promises that would be to leave the world open to abuse. And what this condition is, we shall see in a moment.
But I find how so much of false teaching is often so vague, that you are not sure exactly what it has said. In the outside Shanghai, I often like to relate this, there is a temple. I think those from Shanghai will know this, maybe Don knows the place that's called the Wong Miu, Chen Hwang Miu, a temple. And there people go, and of course they do the jaw stick thing, or you shake the stick until it drops out. So you go to the fortune teller, and they give you a reading. And what we find here is, I heard how the wording of these statements are made in such a way that they can never be wrong. And it's so typical, that either way you read it, whatever happens, the wording is so stated, it's always right.
The example that comes to my mind is that particular statement: "Parents both, you cannot lose one." I always remember that statement. Now the beauty of this statement is that whatever happens to your parents is always right. It can mean, "Parents both, you cannot lose one," meaning your parents will be both together, and you will not lose one. But also it can say, depending on the punctuation, "Parents both cannot, you will lose one." That means the two cannot be both, one will be lost. You see, you just put the punctuation in. You see, you read it the other way, it should be "Parents both cannot." But if you lose both, it says, "Parents both, you cannot lose one," means that if you lose one, you lose both. You see, you cannot lose only one. If you lose one, you lose both.
So in either way, if you lose both your parents, you lose one parent, or you don't lose any parent, the statement is always right. That is why, you see, there is also not only in the Chinese side, there was also in the Greek, in every type of fortune telling, there is this kind of element of deceit in it.
Some of you will know the actual factual case of history, where the king, the famous king of Croesus, went to see a fortune teller whether he should cross the river and attack the Persian Empire. And the Greek oracle replied, "You cross the river and a great empire shall perish." The poor man thought it was the Persian Empire that would perish. He went, and of course it was his own empire that perished. He lost his own empire, his own kingdom. You see, this prophecy cannot be wrong, because with this battle, one or the other kingdom would perish, so you can't be wrong in this kind of a statement.
Now you can see such false prophets that go around, and people believe them, people give money to these things. I see lots of people, they open the newspaper, and they look for the stars, the astrology, the astrologist's statement. Today if you are a Pisces, or Scorpio, or whatever you are, and today you this or that, and the statements are so general, that you just need to look at them, and you can see that whether you belong to that group or not, it's bound to be right.
And yet there are Christians, and this is the terrible thing about it, who order their lives, not only unbelievers, but Christians who order their lives according to these astrologists. And I know a Christian, or at least a self-professed Christian, who did exactly this, and it ruined his relationship in his family. Sometimes one doesn't know where these false teachers get their ideas from.
There was a Christian who went to a fortune teller, and the fortune teller said, "You have a very capable and brilliant son." It was not difficult for this fortune teller to know this, because this man was a very well-known public figure. So to know that he had a son who was brilliant was no great achievement. But the fortune teller said to him, "You must be aware of your son, because he is so capable, that he may put you in the shade, and overshadow you." Can you imagine what was the consequence of a statement like this?
If this father were not so ambitious, if this Christian were not so ambitious, he might have been happy: "Oh, my son will be greater than me. That's fine, it's wonderful." But this Christian was not so spiritual, nor so unselfish. As a result, he feared his son, he distrusted his son, and broke off his relationship with his son. Because he was very ambitious, he didn't want his son to be greater than himself. You can see how Satan then used this fortune teller to destroy the family of this so-called Christian. But of course, maybe the fortune teller thought that by saying his son would be greater than himself, many Chinese people would have been very happy about that, but didn't realize that that would not be flattery or a nice word to this man, that this man was so extremely ambitious.
So we can see though, that the word of God is completely different from this. And you have to discern by watching the content of what is preached and what is said, the difference of content and quality. No, the word of God is not vague. The Lord says this: if you fulfill the condition of what I teach — and I'm telling you what that condition is in a moment — you seek and you shall find, ask and you shall receive.
Now unless we are dealing with the living God, there is no way that a person can make this kind of promises. And if Jesus were a false teacher — I say this for the benefit of any non-Christian that might be present — if Jesus were a false teacher, he would do like all those false teachers. He would not make a statement that can be tested like this. But then you might say, "Well, the condition is so difficult that nobody can fulfill it anyway, so he can't be wrong." Actually, his condition is by no means unreachable.
But before he comes to the condition, he still is afraid that you might not ask. He is concerned that you shall ask. Why is he so concerned that you shall ask? Why is Jesus so concerned that we should learn to know God in this experiential manner? Because only in this way will your faith be established on the basis of a sure communication with God.
We see Christians who have no experience of God are Christians who live at second hand. They live on somebody else's experience. And this is to say, your Christian experience is derived because God did such and such for somebody else. But that is not much of a foundation for spiritual growth and the growth of faith. You see, to be a Christian is to be a witness for God in the world. And to witness means that you have been yourself an experienced someone, someone who has experienced what you are talking about.
For example, how can you witness to other people about being born again, the experience of being born again? I mean born as an experience, it's not a theory. I don't say that I'm talking about the theory of birth. I'm talking about the experience of birth. Now how can you witness to other people about being born again? How God can change a person if you haven't been changed, if you haven't experienced what it means to be born again? If you are the same today as you were before you were a Christian, what meaning has new birth got for you? It has no meaning for you. How can you say with Apostle Paul to be in Christ is to become a new creation, a new creature, when you look at yourself and you see only an old creature?
So we can see that it must always be that you can only speak with conviction and power when you speak about something that you know, you have experienced. Otherwise, people can discern that you are only talking theory, and who can't talk theory? Non-Christians can talk that too.
But to give this illustration that I have given about being born again, is also to see the order where we begin in the matter of asking. So when we just talked about the new birth, we need to see from where we begin to ask the question. You cannot take the second step when you haven't taken the first step. If you have not even come into the experience of God through the new birth, how can you enter into any other further spiritual experiences? So that shows us also how we begin to ask, and what we should begin to ask for.
So here we are telling us, we should ask for what we need to ask for. If you are only a nominal Christian, as there are so many in the church, then of course the first thing to do, as you honestly know, "I have never experienced the new birth. I heard about it, I heard all about it. But I don't know what it is in my own experience." So if you are a Christian, as in today's church, there are many in the church, and you have not experienced the new birth, then you ask for it. Say, "Lord, I don't know what is this experience. I have heard other people talking about it. I don't know what it is to be a new person. Make of me, I beg of you, a new person."
So if you are such a person, you should ask for God to make you experience the same. You have only heard other people, but you have never experienced it yourself. Up to now I have been satisfied with being a superficial type of Christian. Lord, I am not satisfied with this anymore. You tell God, "At this moment I want to begin to experience what you can do in my life. To experience what we saw last Sunday, the power of the resurrection. To change, to raise the spiritually dead into spiritual life." You can tell God, "I want to experience the Holy Spirit in my life."
Just think of this: once you have experienced God's transforming power in your life, the power of His resurrection, well, you are well on the way to spiritual life. So you think, if you have experienced God's changing power in your life, would you want to stop there? Oh no, you want to go on to know Him better and better. Because if you have experienced God's power in your life — I have found that the Christians who don't grow are the Christians who in the first place have not experienced God's power in their life. But those who have once experienced God's power, there is the fire, there is the enthusiasm, they want to go on. Those who have once asked of God and received from God, of course, are encouraged to ask again.
So the first problem is the first asking. Because you are not sure whether God gives or not. But once you experience God's answer, there is the encouragement to go on. "Oh, the Lord replied to me once. He is going to reply again." If you have once experienced God's power in your life, you will still be like this. Because you know that once is the fact, it will always be like this. But think that when you ask the second time and He answers, the third time and He answers, how your faith grows from strength to strength.
And by the time you have reached the stage of George Miller, who has made 50,000 prayers and got 50,000 answers — wow! What kind of a spiritual giant you are by then. Just like George Miller, if you ask the first five thousand times, and every time, the five thousand times, the Lord will always answer you, you will think that your faith will be great. And by this time, of course, people marvel. How is it that when you ask something, you have the certainty that you will get the reply? That would not be surprising anymore, because by the time the Lord has answered you so many times, you know how to ask rightly, and you know what to ask, and you know that you will get the answer. And how many times you know that even when you have asked, that you will get the answer before you have actually seen the answer.
That is the growth of faith. By that time your faith has grown in such a way that you don't even have to see the answer. You know it will come. The reason is because you have come to know God. You have come to know what He is like. You know the kind of prayers that He will answer.
I always recall as a matter of testimony and witness how once a girl in our church in London was critically ill. And the doctors said that there was next to no chance for her to live. She had hypertension, very high blood pressure which burst a blood vessel in her brain. And she was in hospital with a cerebral hemorrhage, that is bleeding in the brain. The doctor said that even if she had any chance of living, she would be paralyzed all her life. In fact, she was already paralyzed at that time because of this thing. And her life was hanging in the balance.
And I always recall that having prayed for her, the Lord gave me immediate certainty, right away at that very moment, that she would not die, she would live. Having already asked for her, asked for her life, the answer was given before we even saw the results. And somebody asked me, "Do you think that she will live?" And I answered unhesitatingly. I answered to this person, "She will live." No, you don't talk like that carelessly. Because if I were wrong, nobody would ever believe me again. In other words, you say such a thing as you stake your reputation on it. And I staked my words against the doctor's words, who said that the chance for her survival was very little.
In this situation, I shared with some of you how wonderfully God works. Because not only was I content to receive the Lord's reply that she would not die, I was going to continue to pray for this sister. Because I was very concerned about not only herself, but her husband. Because they had been recently married. And they were both young Christians. And I felt that this test might break this young Christian's faith.
Now the lesson is that when God brings a test, He is going to reveal His glory in a greater way to you. Never be afraid of testing. Whether it is financial testing, or physical testing, that is your health goes bad or you become sick, or family testing, some problem in the family. Whatever the testings are, never be afraid. Don't be foolish and say, "Oh Lord, why do you bring these problems to me?" Because if you haven't got the problem, where will you see the display of God's power to take you out of the problem?
Every time the problem comes, take it as an opportunity to ask something from God. When you have no problems, you often don't even know what to ask. And you have all the money you need, you can't ask for financial help from the Lord. Your health is so good, you can't say, "Lord, give me good health." You've got no problems in the family. There's nothing to ask for. You say, "Ask? I don't know, Lord. I don't even know what to ask for." But when the problem comes, there is your chance to ask. That's why Paul says, in every circumstance, give thanks. When the problem comes, here is the chance. In other words, every problem is a means of blessing, if only you know how to ask.
So next time your problem comes, remember these words: ask, and you shall receive. You find a door closed — knock. That's your chance. If the door is open, there's nothing to knock about. I remember when I was coming out of China, the door was so closed. How can I get out of China? I praise God for the closed door, because when you knock, you can see whether God will open it. Especially when you know only God can open that door, nobody else can. And how I experienced God opening that door. How amazing when He opened the door, even the non-Christians were astonished.
So in regard to that sister who was ill, and I was praying for that family. By this time, she was in hospital lying there like a cabbage that is completely immobile. She could not speak. She could not move. She was literally a cabbage. Maybe you'll start saying, "Lord, how can you deal with a young Christian like this?" Let me tell you, the more seemingly terribly the Lord deals with you, it's because He wants you to get a greater blessing.
So I prayed for the husband of this girl. I said, "Lord, have mercy upon him. He is so distressed. He is so broken. They have married only for a few months. And now she is turned into a cabbage lying in the hospital." So I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord gave me an answer. So I said to the Lord, "What shall I say to this brother that I may comfort him?" And I prayed to the Lord and the Lord gave me one reply: "Two, one, four."
I said, "Two, one, four. Lord, what's two, one, four?" And I prayed again. I said, "Lord, what shall I say to him?" And the answer came back: "Two, one, four." I thought 214, that must be a verse of scripture. Chapter 2, verse 14. The trouble is, it might be chapter 21, verse 4. I didn't know which book it was coming from. So I prayed again, I said, "Lord, what am I going to say to him?" The answer came back: 214. So I said, "Lord, which book is it from?" No answer for any book. So I said, "Chapter 2, verse 14? Chapter 21, verse 4? Which is it?" And I kept asking the question. And I got no more reply from the Lord, because the answer was finished.
I had asked the question, "What shall I say to the brother?" And the Lord had given me the answer, 214. But I couldn't go and say to him, "214." He'll think I'm crazy. So I said, "Okay, I'm going to make a fool of myself now." So I went to this brother, and I said to him, "Brother, I've been praying for you. And I want to give you some word of comfort from the Lord." And I said, "Here is the answer." I had to clear my thoughts with something. What's he going to think of me now? So I said to him, "The word that the Lord gives to you from me, after I have prayed for you, is 214." I thought he was going to look at me and think, "What's the matter with you?"
Well, the thing that so surprised me was that he wasn't surprised. And he said to me, "Oh, yes, I see, 214." I thought, well, he understands. He didn't ask me, "What's 214?" Then I'd be really stuck. He just nodded his head and said, "Oh, 214, yes." He just nodded his head and said, "214, I know, I know."
I was so amazed. You see, I had asked for an answer to him, not to me. I didn't know what it meant. I was just passing on the answer. Apparently, he knew what it meant. How often I realized then that the prophets spoke a word, but sometimes they didn't know what they were saying themselves. They just passed on the word of God.
It is a wonder when you read in the Old Testament, you ask yourself, could the prophet really have understood what he said? For example, when the prophets spoke about the Lord Jesus in Psalm 22, "They pierced my hands and my feet." Could the prophet really know what it meant to have one's hands and feet pierced? Especially since crucifixion was not used in the time of the psalmist. What would that mean to the psalmist? I'm not sure that he knew what he was talking about. He was simply speaking God's word. It was his job to declare God's word. Whether he understood it or not was not the point.
Anyway, eventually I understood what happened with this 214. Because I only understood it when this sister came out of hospital. She was able to walk. She was able to talk. And the Lord had healed her so, so wonderfully. And how I worked it out was like this: after she came out of hospital, I calculated how long she had been in hospital. 214 days. Then I realized, then I understood what the meaning of the Lord's word was. Is not God's way so wonderful? Now you can see that is why God invites us: ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you will find. And when you have done it, you say, "God is true. How wonderful are His ways. His ways are past finding out."
Now I also begin to understand why her husband seems to have understood what my answer was. He was clearly praying specifically that she would come out of hospital, asking "How long, Lord, might this be, that she would have to be in hospital?" Maybe every day he was saying, "Lord, how long will she still be in hospital?" And the Lord chose to give the answer through me. Of course I didn't know what his prayer was. So that when I gave him the answer, he understood. He said, "Oh," that was the answer to his prayer. He got it. But of course I didn't know that that was what he was praying. So it was only after she came out of hospital that I worked it out.
You see, it is through this asking, through this seeking, through the knocking that you come to know how wonderful our God's ways are.
# Ask for Bread and Fish — Matthew 7:8-12 (Part 2)
Through this asking, through this seeking, through the knocking, that you come to know how wonderful our God's way. Now you can see why the Lord Jesus is so concerned, so afraid that you shall not ask, that you don't ask. So He goes on to encourage us to ask by telling us how generous the Father is. So He says, maybe you don't ask because you don't understand that God is so generous. So He gives this illustration. He said, now you know earthly fathers. Earthly fathers, no matter how bad they are, how selfish they are, to their little children, they are always prepared to be quite generous.
So He says in verse 9, when your son comes to you and asks you for a piece of bread, you don't give him a stone. And so in verse 10, if your son comes to you and asks for a fish, you don't give him a snake. If you, this human father, who are selfish, who have, as we saw, the pig and the swine nature that we saw earlier in expounding the Lord's words in verse 6 onwards — if you have this kind of sinful nature inside of you, and you still know how to be kind to those you love, how much more your Father? How much more your heavenly Father?
That is, assuming He is your heavenly Father. Certainly, of course, He is speaking to His disciples, who know God as their Father. So for those who are not Christians, who do not have God as their Father, of course, they first have to come to know God as their Father. That is why for the non-Christian to ask things from God is completely beside the point. You don't go to the millionaire and say, "Give me money." He's not your father. Why should he give you anything?
Nor is it any good if you are merely a nominal Christian. Because a nominal Christian means that you are a Christian only in the eyes of other people. That doesn't make you a Christian in God's eyes. And you only get God as your Father when you are born into the spiritual life, when you are born anew. That's why we saw earlier on, unless you have the experience of being born anew, you don't know God as your Father. But once you know God as your Father, how wonderful to know also that He is generous, which seems to be something that many Christians don't know.
That's why James says in chapter 1 and verse 5, "If you lack wisdom, if you lack something, ask, because God gives generously and without reproaching." You see, the thing is that if you keep asking God, you might think we are troubling God. You might think God will rebuke us: "Hey, don't bother me all the time." Or else you might say, "You only came to me yesterday, and what, you are back again today?" You know, those of us who are earthly parents, we have to confess, sometimes we are really fed up with the children, always asking this, and asking for that, and asking that. And sometimes you really give reproaching when they come back again. But here is different, here is the beauty of it. In James chapter 1 verse 5, James says to us, He gives without reproaching. That is, He will never say, "Why are you always coming back all the time?" He gives gladly. That is His generosity.
Now also observe this, that what is asked for — the Lord Jesus speaks of bread and fish. Why does the Lord Jesus mention these two things? Because bread and fish was the staple food of the people. That is the food that they depended on every day. In Palestine, those were the two main basic foods. Rather like our Chinese rice and vegetables, the basic things. That is the reason why at the feeding of the 5,000, you notice two things: bread and fish. The five loaves and the two fish.
So you can see that when we come to God to ask, He is not saying we are going to ask for luxury. That is why in James it says there, "You ask and you don't receive, because you ask to consume it on your lusts." You ask for what you don't need. You ask for things which are not the kind of things that God will give. This doesn't mean that God will only give you the basic necessities of life. But it does mean that when we ask of God, we don't ask for luxury. So if you need a car, you don't say, "Well, Lord, make sure you don't give me a Mini. I'd like something bigger than that." Or if you give me a VW Beetle, it's not good enough. I'd like something really big. If you really need a car, you can ask God for it if you are using it for God, if you really need it as a child of God.
But it doesn't mean that you can go on to say, "Give me a Lincoln Continental." But it doesn't mean that you can't ask of God for what you need. He might give you something far beyond your expectation, and He often does. God's goodness is such, so often being put to shame. How many times have I asked God, "Lord, just give me this basic necessity," and He overwhelmed me with His kindness, and left me completely speechless.
I recall how I needed a watch once. In this modern life, it's very hard to go around without a watch. You don't know what time it is most of the time. And if you have to go to classes, you've got to know what time it is. I was content with anything that moves that gives me at least some rough idea of the time. And then one day my mother said to me, "You need a watch? And here's a watch. This watch was what your father bought, but he never used it. And since it's a man's watch, it's no use to me. So you take it."
When I looked at the watch, I dared not put it on. Here was a gold Omega automatic. Can you imagine I was walking around in England, even now, I hardly dare to wear the watch? I still have it. I'm wearing a very cheap watch, by the way. But I hardly dare to wear the watch. Here I was, a poor student, most of the time penniless, with a gold Omega automatic. I'm sure often when I said I was penniless, they didn't believe anything I said. Look at this guy with an Omega automatic, a gold watch on his wrist, and he says he has no money. Of course, I never said to anybody I had no money, but they wouldn't have believed me even if I said it.
So here to notice is that when we pray, when we ask of God, God has not said you have the right to come to your Father and say, "Give me the best there is." But such is the kindness, the generosity, exactly proving what the Lord Jesus says. If the earthly father knows how to give you good things — your father might buy you a very nice watch — my heavenly Father gives me a gold automatic. Now, often God gives it to us out of His loving generosity and kindness. Many times I have sought to go the hard road, only to find that in the hard road, I found the blessing of the Lord there.
Let me tell you a secret in the Christian life. If there is an easy road, and there is a hard road, the road of the cross, always choose the hard road. Because it is in the road of the cross that you will know how good God is. When I was going over from Hong Kong to Europe, to England, I was looking for the cheapest boat I could get onto. And do you know what I found I ended up in? I found myself on a freighter from Hong Kong to Europe, sitting in the first class compartment. Because all freighters only have first class. They don't have second class on freighters. They have only one class. Of course, not having been on freighters before, I didn't know this. And the freighter takes only 12 passengers. And all travel first class. And there was I, this penniless fellow, sitting among all these people in the first class. And I paid less on that passage than the other people who were traveling from Hong Kong to England on the P and O lines, traveling tourist class.
So we find that although we are willing to go the hard roads, the difficult roads, God constantly overwhelms us with His kindness. On the ship, moreover going over from Hong Kong to Europe, I shared the first class cabin with one man for four days. He got off in Singapore. And this man came to the Lord just as Singapore came into sight. So the Lord not only gave me a passage to reach Europe, He even gave me a soul on the ship. He knelt down with me and received the Lord Jesus. Four years ago, when we went back to Hong Kong, we had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife. Only I fear that in Hong Kong, he couldn't get much spiritual food, and perhaps has not grown much spiritually.
And so speaking of foods, the fish and the bread. How we need to ask the Lord, not only for the physical needs, but much more for the spiritual things. So many people are spiritually hungry, but they don't know how to get spiritual food. That's why they can't grow. Do you have difficulty understanding the Bible? Do you have difficulty understanding the Word of God? Then ask, He is able to teach you.
I am a man with a very big spiritual appetite. I am so hungry, I spend almost all my waking hours on spiritual food. You know that I am a spiritual glutton, never satisfied. I am all the time in the Word of God trying to get more food. And so as a young Christian already, I had this great spiritual hunger. All day long I wanted more spiritual food. And so I turned to the Word of God looking for food. And often I couldn't understand. But mostly I didn't understand. I read and I studied and I read and I still couldn't understand. And I'm sure that is an experience you are familiar with.
And so again I applied these words: "Ask, and you shall receive." I knelt down before the Lord and said, "Lord, I am hungry. And I am not getting any spiritual food. And I don't understand Your word. Teach me, I beg of you." So I got on my knees, I put my Bible on the chair, and I knelt down and said, "Lord, teach me." How amazing — the Lord began to open His word. And so there I got my spiritual food. And the more I ate, the more I grew. And the more I delighted in it.
I don't mean that I've got all I want. I'm still spiritually hungry. I'm still every day going after the food. But when you have tasted the good food, your appetite only grows. You want more of this delicious food. And as for me, my appetite needs to grow bigger all the time. As more and more I feed upon the richness of God's word — oh, it's so wonderful. And what have I found? God is so generous. He keeps giving in generous abundance. You keep asking, you will get. If you keep knocking, it will be opened to you.
And so I can testify to you, whether in material things or in spiritual things, God is so generous. Why won't you prove it for yourself? You don't have to take my word for it. I'd like you to prove it for yourself. That's what Jesus wants. But notice — suddenly He doesn't just say, sit back and wait for somebody else to feed you. He says, "Go and ask, get it, go out and obtain it." And if there's somewhere you can have spiritual food, go and look for it. Wherever there were men of God who proclaimed the Word of God, I was there to look for it. That is why in London, every Sunday I was there to sit at the feet of that great servant of God, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Always eager to receive whatever this man of God had to offer. That didn't mean that I was a Christian tourist going from church to church. No, I knew where the good restaurant was, and I stayed there. And there in Westminster Chapel, where Dr. Lloyd-Jones preached, there is where I got good spiritual food.
And so we find here that we need also to positively seek, exhausting every possibility. And then finally, in verse 12, we come to this condition. Once we know that God is generous, how then do we obtain from His generosity? So in verse 12, we read, "So whatever you wish..." The "so therefore" connects it to what goes on before. But what is the connection? How does this verse 12 connect with what goes on before?
It is sufficient to say today that this indicates to us by what condition, what kind of person God answers. It is the kind of person who does God's will. Because of course the law and the prophets is where the will of God is revealed to us. The law and the prophets was a technical term which is used to indicate the whole Bible, the Scripture. Even in modern Hebrew, you speak of the Bible as the Law and the Prophets and the Writings. And so here we find that this represents the will of God, and God answers in His generosity to those who do His will.
So here we can see how half-hearted Christians can get nothing from God. Because they are not doing God's will. It's when you are doing God's will that you will experience His generosity and kindness. Always walk in the center of His will. Then you will know the goodness of God in your own experience. And in that moment, you will know how beautiful the Lord is.
Now there is a lot more riches in verse 12. And God willing, we will continue to expound this next week. We have to look much more carefully into what it means to say, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them." What does this exactly mean? We will look at the Lord's guidance. He is going to tell us precisely what that will is. It's so wonderful. The Lord Jesus never leaves us in the dark. Everything is precise and clear. And so God willing, we will look into this next week.
In the meantime, then, let us take hold of His words and test them. In the meantime, let us just take the Lord's word and go and live it out and prove for ourselves the truth of His words. In our own life, we will go out and use the life to know that the Lord's word is real. Then we will know how sweet God's will is. How good He is. Let us pray.