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The Climax of the Sermon on the Mount

As you pointed out, many people misunderstand the promise in Matthew 7:7, treating it as a “blank check” for anything they desire. This is a tragic misuse of the verse. The promise is not a carte blanche for worldly possessions but is the climax and application of the entire Sermon on the Mount. It is an exclusive promise for the children of God, those who have repented and put their faith in Christ.

The Sermon on the Mount holds up a standard of holiness that is impossible for us to meet on our own. When we read about being poor in spirit, pure in heart, and completely free from worry, we are forced to confront our own depravity. It is a humbling experience that should bring us to our knees in desperation, crying out, “Lord, how can I ever live like this?”

The promise to ask, seek, and knock is God’s gracious answer to that very cry. He tells us that what is impossible for us is possible with Him. The Sermon on the Mount is not just a list of rules but a description of a supernatural life, and God is the one who provides the grace and strength to live it.

The Commands to Ask, Seek, and Knock

The use of these three verbs in the imperative form—as commands—is a powerful display of God’s desire to give us this grace. It’s not a mere invitation but a direct order from a King who has infinite resources. This command overcomes our reluctance and pride, assuring us that we have every right to come to Him for our needs.

The three verbs represent a progression of spiritual desire:

  • Ask is the initial verbal request, a humble plea from a soul that recognizes its poverty.
  • Seek involves a more active effort, rearranging our priorities to go after what we truly need.
  • Knock demonstrates a determined, persistent spirit, even in the face of obstacles, showing that we are desperate to receive the treasures behind the door.

This is a continuous, day-by-day effort. God makes us wait not because He is unwilling to give, but to test the reality of our desire, to strengthen our faith, and to produce patience. He is preparing us to receive the gift, knowing that a prize won with effort is cherished far more than one received easily.

The Good Things God Gives

The illustration of a father giving good gifts to his child highlights two key doctrines: the total depravity of man and the common grace of God. If even we, as fallen human beings, know how to show love to our children, how much more will our infinitely loving Heavenly Father give good things to us?

As you correctly noted, the “good things” here are not a new car or a job promotion. The ultimate “good thing,” as revealed in Luke 11:13, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who transforms us, giving us the grace to be poor in spirit, pure in heart, and to live a life that reflects the righteousness described in the Sermon on the Mount. He gives us the wisdom to discern and the strength to overcome our sinful nature.

This passage is a beautiful reminder that our greatest need is not for worldly blessings, but for the grace to be like Jesus. And God, in His immense mercy, commands us to come to Him and ask for the very things that will make us holy.

This is a command that reveals the strength of God’s desire for us. God wants us to be salt and light, to walk in the light of His holy law, and to be delivered from worldly cares and a hypercritical attitude. He longs for us to be delivered from this, so He says, “Ask.”

He wants to overcome our resistance. Sometimes we don’t realize the privilege we have. When a grace is announced, some people will come, but when it is a command, they come as a duty. This is a blessed time of prayer for us. When we realize our need and God’s great desire to give us grace, we pray with delight. But sometimes prayer is not delightful, so if you cannot pray with delight, pray as a duty.

A third reason why this is a command is to reveal the terrible ugliness of the sin of not coming to God. If He had only offered a general promise that grace is available, we might think it doesn’t apply to us. Instead, He says, “I know your state. Ask.” When I do not ask, seek, or knock, it shows my sinful heart, a heart that does not want to change and wants to continue living in sin.

The Grand Secret of the Sermon on the Mount

This is the grand secret for becoming a person who lives according to the Sermon on the Mount. There are three stages in prayer and in the effort we need to grow. This is not just about prayer, but about seeking supplies of grace to enable a believer to live a spiritual and supernatural life in this world. It is our utmost effort to use the means of grace.

The stages are:

  1. Ask: This is a verbal request. It is the first stage. As someone who is poor in spirit, you are like a beggar. Knowing your need deeply and knowing God can meet that spiritual need, you will ask with great intensity and consistency. Many of us have not even reached this stage. The first stage is consistently and regularly asking.
  2. Seek: This involves activity. You have realized your need more intensely and have moved past the stage of just asking. When you seek something, you rearrange your priorities so that you can search for what you desire until you find it.
  3. Knock: This is an attempt to overcome an obstacle between you and what you want. The word “knock” means to stand at a door and repeatedly rap it with your knuckles. You knock and wait, then you knock again, then you say, “I know you’re in there,” then you knock again and say, “I can hear your voice. Come on, open the door.” Then you knock again. If you’re on the other side, you know how annoying it can be to listen as someone knocks and knocks and keeps on knocking. But that’s precisely the picture here. It implies praying in the face of difficulty and even resistance. If you knock like this, your desire for entrance must be very great indeed.

This is a rising, step-by-step growth in spiritual desire, determination, and intensity. You begin with a verbal request, then you get up and move, seeking. When you knock, you have found an obstacle, but you are determined to overcome it.

To pray and live like this, we must continually see our need. Only the spiritually empty go out begging because they know their need. Only those who know the value of this treasure—who realize what a blessed treasure a heart that is pure and meek is—will seek it. Only those who are determined to become like this will knock and overcome obstacles. So when you wake up in the morning and don’t feel like asking, it’s not that you don’t have a need; it’s that you are blind to your condition and blinded by the vanity of the world. You need to go back to Matthew chapter 5 and read it seriously, knowing that only those described there will go to heaven.

Reading that will show you your spiritual poverty, that you need to go begging. It will show you what a blessed treasure this grace is. Right now, you may have no clue, but that will get you seeking. As you try to live and seek this grace, you will see all the obstacles within your own heart and in the world that will make you knock. If you don’t ask, it’s because you don’t know your need, so go and read the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord assumes that as we finish this, we will fall on our faces and say, “How can I live like this, O God? I am Adam’s fallen, sinful, depraved child. How can this divine life flow into my soul?” So the Lord says, “Ask.”

Notice also that these are in the present imperative tense: keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. This is not a one-time thing. It’s a continuous action. Remember the two parables He gave on prayer: the friend who went to another to get bread for his guest and kept on knocking until his friend came and gave him what he wanted, and the widow who kept asking a judge for justice until he did it. In both cases, success came through persistence. Our Lord is teaching us that although His provision is limitless and available, our need is continuous, so we need to ask daily.

The Desperate and Determined

Another reason, and listen very carefully because this is very important: The treasures of God’s grace are stored up only for the determined and the desperate. Do you see your need for grace and are you determined to obtain it? If so, you will ask. God has nothing for the careless, indifferent, or trifling. If a beggar comes and asks once, and then, if there is a delay, he goes away and does his own work, he won’t get a thing. It is for those who are determined. If there is a delay, they keep on asking, and then they move on to seeking, and then to knocking. If no one opens the door, they keep knocking because they know that behind that door are the eternal treasures they need. The riches of grace are stored up for the determined and desperate. God has nothing for triflers.

Behind every new breakthrough in the spiritual life is a desperate person. “Those who seek with their whole heart shall find Me,” says God. Proverbs 2 says, “If you cry out for knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” Do you know why our sermons are not blessed in your life? It’s because we do not come desperate to hear God speak.

Why God Makes Us Wait

Why does God say to ask, seek, and knock, and not immediately bless us? Why does God make us wait?

  1. To prove the reality and depth of our desire. Do you really want what you are asking for? If someone says he wants a job but doesn’t show up again, you know he isn’t interested. But a man who keeps coming back ten times—you know he truly needs a job and is very serious. That is the person you will help. God tests the reality of our desire. A beggar who comes and asks once and then goes away has no true desire.
  2. To strengthen and purify our faith. The Canaanite woman came for her daughter. The disciples discouraged her, but she kept following Jesus. He said, “I cannot give the children’s bread to dogs,” which would be enough to discourage anyone. But she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” She caught Him on His own words. He was not upset; He said, “O woman, great is your faith.” That was a faith purified in the midst of obstacles. This is what the Lord has been doing. Many times He has said no, but she kept asking. This is how little faith becomes great faith. He delays and makes us ask, seek, and knock to strengthen our faith.
  3. To produce patience in us. Remember that when you are asking God for something, you are asking God. If He is God, He has the right to expect us to wait. Who are we to expect Him to act like a servant boy, to come running the minute we snap our fingers to meet our needs? If He is God, if we have to wait a hundred years at His feet, and He throws us a crumb, that would still be infinitely more than we, sinful, depraved creatures, deserve, wouldn’t it? The only thing you and I deserve is eternal hellfire. How our sinful impatience rises up! We do not want to wait. We interpret God’s delays as something being wrong with His heart, but the problem is with our heart.
  4. To prepare us to receive the gift. When we wait, our genuine desire is revealed, our faith is strengthened, and we learn patience. What happens when God finally answers? Think of the things you hardly prayed for that God gave you anyway. You don’t value them. Now think of those things you asked, sought, and knocked for over a long time, and then God answered. You never forget those answers. It strengthens your faith and produces patience, making you more perfect. When you praise God, only such things will come to mind and fill your heart with gratitude. God prepares you to receive the gift. He is always concerned not only about the gift but about the state of the receiver.

The Threefold Promise

Look at the breadth of the three-fold promise in Matthew 7:7-11.

  • Verse 7 is a general promise: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
  • Verse 8 is a specific promise: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
  • Verses 9-11 are illustrated promises: “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

After each command, there is a promise. “What you seek will be found.” In verse 7, the people mentioned are plural, but in verse 8, He makes it singular. “Everyone who asks receives… everyone who seeks finds… everyone who knocks, the door is opened.” This is not everyone’s job, or nobody’s job. This is for everyone who feels his needs and comes. He will find what he is seeking.

Then He gives an illustration that even a child can understand. It is a very strong argument, from the lesser to the greater. In this example, He touches on two great foundational doctrines of the Bible. He says, “If you then, who are evil…” This is one of the clearest statements on the total depravity of man. He is not even referring to unregenerate men who are dead in sin. He is talking about God’s children. Though you have a Father in heaven and are His child through grace, you yourself are basically evil. The word used for “evil” is poneeros, the same word used for the devil. You are basically evil. As Paul said, “In my flesh dwells no good thing.” Man is evil like a devil; there is no good thing in him. He doesn’t deserve anything but to be put eternally in hell and suffer with the devil. Man is a child of the devil, fully depraved from head to toe. Jesus proves that here.

The next great doctrine is God’s common grace. Though we are evil, the reason we don’t live like devils and devour one another—even our own children—is because of God’s common grace. Any good in each man in this world, even the good of loving and giving good things to their children, is a gift from God. Left to our depravity, we would be like a bear to our children, wanting to devour them. If you don’t believe this, read the history of the siege of Samaria, where mothers ate their own children. That potential is in our heart. The evil heart is so evil. It is God’s common grace that restrains the terrible potential of the human heart. If He removes that grace from us, every man can become the worst devil in the world. These are two great doctrines of the Bible: Total Depravity and Common Grace.

If you, who are naturally wicked and sinful, have been given enough common grace to show kindness to your child, how much more will the Father in heaven, who has infinite mercy, love, and compassion, give good things? That little drop of His common grace that has fallen on evil men to love their children is nothing compared to His love for us. If we could take all the tender love of all the fathers who ever lived and will live in this world and pour it into one heart, it would be a drop in the ocean, a candle to the sun, compared to the infinite love of the Father for us. We cannot just preach about the Father’s love; we have to experience that joy. As Paul shouts, how can you doubt the Father? “He who spared not His Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Oh, the largeness of the Father’s heart! Not realizing that is the cause of all poor praying and spiritual poverty.

Seeking the Kingdom First

The only condition here is that we ask for “good things.” He will give good things. We should be so glad that our Father knows what is good for us. How glad we should be that sometimes when our kids keep asking for this and that, we don’t give them everything they ask for. If we did, we wouldn’t be loving them; we would be loving ourselves. If we truly love them, we know they cannot go through life thinking they can have everything they want. They would become criminals or be in debt their whole life. They need to learn, and we need to teach them very early, that their desires need to be disciplined in terms of our resources and what is good for them. God, as a good Father, knows what is good. If God gave us everything we asked for, tremble to think where we would be today. He has promised to give us what is good. When we keep asking for things that are not good, He disciplines us and teaches us what is truly good.

What are the “good things”? Luke 11:13 says the good thing is the Holy Spirit. That’s why this is about spiritual requests. It talks about the good things that are communicated by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being pure in heart, and being merciful—only the Holy Spirit gives that. A lack of worldly worry and peace that surpasses understanding in difficult circumstances—the Holy Spirit gives that. Knowing how not to be hypercritical while at the same time discerning dogs and swine—that discernment is given by the Holy Spirit.

What about material things? I have so many problems in my life. What about my family’s needs? What will I eat, what will I drink? Is this only about spiritual asking, seeking, and knocking? The promise we saw is that those who have ears will hear. If you seek these things first in your life, all these worldly things will be added to you, thrown in. These spiritual things are the most important treasure. This is what makes a person happy, peaceful, and live a blessed life walking with God. Money never gives peace or happiness; it takes away sleep and takes us away from God. Seek this first, and He didn’t even say to pray for those other things; He said He would supply your needs. But He said we can ask for bread.

Application: The Invitation

This verse is God’s grand invitation to all His children to come and seek the grace to become like the person described in the Sermon on the Mount. What more could God say to show His desire to give us all the grace we need to become the person of the Sermon on the Mount? He gives a general promise, a specific promise, and an illustration in an area that we all understand. It’s not too general. It’s very specific, and the example is not difficult to understand; it’s very plain and practical. What more can God say?

If you and I live an impoverished spiritual life without this rich grace, a low life, we cannot blame others. He has taught us how to deal with others. We cannot blame worldly difficulties, saying, “Oh, but I have so many worldly needs.” He has given us guidance on how to handle worldly treasures and worldly worry. He promises He knows and will add to us all our needs if we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

After all this, if you and I still live an impoverished spiritual life, we can only blame one person in this world: our own wicked heart of unbelief, with such great promises spread before us.

I really find it difficult. Some of you are very careless about the things of God’s kingdom, His church, the Word of God, and the Gospel. The minute you get some pain or a problem, suddenly you become very prayerful. That is very sad. You cannot claim that you are growing in God’s Word and grace and praying earnestly to grow in His grace and seeking His kingdom first, and then suddenly you get a physical trial and call upon God. It is wrong to call upon Him only in trouble. When you live in a selfish life with no care for God’s kingdom, self-centered, ignorant of God’s Word, and without holiness, and then there is a physical problem and you turn and want to claim God’s promises, that is terrible.

They ask me to pray and give them pastoral advice. What am I to say? When they are prospering, they live carelessly without God’s Word. Suddenly, in a difficult time, they want God, and they want pastoral advice. They want to read God’s promises and pray, but it is wrong to call upon God only in trouble.

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