SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND
Signs of the Times - July 15, 1855
“Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened,”
Matthew 7:7-8
These words are plain and emphatic, and sufficiently simple
to be comprehended by the merest infants among the children of God, whose minds
are unbiased by false teaching. But such has been the indefatigable zeal of the
enemies of the Lord, to pervert the Scriptures of truth, that even these words
of our divine Master, have been strangely misconstrued, and it is to be feared
that some of God’s dear children have been imposed upon by the enemy, in regard
to their real meaning. To understand properly any Scripture, especially the text
under consideration, it is indispensably necessary that we should observe who is
the speaker, and who are the subjects of address, as well as the true meaning of
what is spoken. The Scriptures generally are a communication from God himself.
Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and God spake to the
fathers, the ancient patriarchs, by the prophets, so that their inspired
communications to Israel were no less the words of God than that which he has in
these last times spoken to us by his Son. The words of our text were spoken by
our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and therefore must be regarded as clothed with
all the power and infallibility of the supreme and eternal Godhead. They are
entitled to the sacred reverence which we have for him from whose lips they were
spoken. No one, we conclude, who fears the Lord and trembles at the majesty of
his words, would designedly pervert their meaning, or countenance their
perversion by others. But so it is, as we shall presently show, this with the
general tenor of the Scriptures is most awfully misrepresented, distorted,
misinterpreted and misapplied, by very many who claim to be the children of God,
and ministers of the gospel. By them it is generally, and perhaps we may say
universally, applied to mankind in general, and to the unconverted or
unregenerated, in particular. Those who contend for what they call “Free
agency,” offered salvation on conditions to be performed by men, human ability
to repent and believe the gospel, to exercise faith in Christ, to love God, and
to secure their own eternal salvation by their own wills and works, frequently
repeat the words of our text, and other passages in the same connection, with an
air of assumed triumph, as though they either believed themselves, or intended
to make others believe, that these words were addressed by our Lord to the human
family at large, and to the most ungodly in a special manner. They even go
farther, and represent that the God of glory was in the act of expostulating
with unrenewed sinners, and laboring to induce them to apply to him for
salvation. As though the subject on which our Lord was speaking, was to show how
possible it was, and how very cheaply every sinner might save himself. That if
the sinner can be prevailed on to seek for religion, he shall find it; if they
will seek for Christ, they shall find him; and if they will seek for
justification before God, and eternal life and happiness, they shall find it.
That if they will knock at heaven’s gate, the portals of immortal glory shall on
that condition be thrown open to them. A careful examination of the Scriptures
however, will show to those unto whom it is given to know the things of the
kingdom of Christ, that such a gross perversion of the text is a most
presumptuous and blasphemous contradiction, both of the letter and spirit of
what our Savior said, and also of the uniform testimony of all the record of the
holy Scriptures on the subject.
Instead of addressing the words and assurances of the text to
the world of mankind indiscriminately, or to ungodly sinners in particular, they
were spoken exclusively to his disciples, and we have his own authority for
saying that they apply to no other characters. At the commencement of the fifth
chapter, we are informed of the peculiar circumstances of the occasion, when
Christ delivered this discourse, or “sermon on the mount,” as it is called,
which is given in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters, and of which our text
is an important part. It reads thus, “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into
a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his
mouth, and taught them, saying...” Now if he had intended this discourse to
apply to sinners indiscriminately, why did he retire from the multitudes and
address it exclusively to his disciples? Why, if it concerned the multitudes,
did he not address it to them? Can any mortal tell? Again, if he were only
speaking to his disciples of things which were applicable to the multitudes of
the unconverted, why did he address his words to them, in the second person, ye
and you, instead of they or them? Will any one dare to charge that he did know
the proper use of words, or that he would say one thing and mean another, and
that, too, essentially different from what he said? If in our text he had been
speaking of asking for, and receiving regeneration; seeking for and finding
pardon; knocking, and thereupon having the doors of mercy, or salvation, or of
eternal life, opened to them, then they unto whom the words were addressed, were
those of all men, unto whom they had the least application, for as his disciples
they were regenerated already, and he said they followed him in the
regeneration, they had already received the forgiveness of their sins, and
could, and did experimentally know, and unequivocally testified that, “The Son
of man had power on earth to forgive sins.” And in so testifying, Jesus said to
the rulers of the Jews, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have
seen...” They had already been admitted into the kingdom of the Messiah; had
already entered into life, and already stood freely justified in the Savior’s
righteousness, before the throne of God. Why then, we repeat the question, did
he retire from the multitudes, and speak these words only to his disciples? If
he had designed these words to express a conditional offer of salvation to
unconverted sinners, is it not rational to believe that he would have availed
himself of so favorable an opportunity as he had before he departed from the
multitudes? How irrational then to suppose that with these words on his lips for
the multitudes, that he who is too wise to err, should have deliberately left
those to whom he designed his words to apply, and who, more than all the others,
were the most vitally interested in them, and without uttering one word of the
kind to the indiscriminate multitudes, ascend a mountain, and when his disciples
came to him, open his mouth, and deliver to them the message which he had
intended for the very multitudes which he on that occasion purposely avoided.
Another equally conclusive and
irresistible testimony in the Scriptures, against the heresy of the Arminian
notion, that God has offered salvation to all who will seek for it, is found in
the words of our Lord in reply to his disciples, when they had asked him if
there were many that would be saved, In this case observe the subjects of
salvation, and concerning the extent of salvation Jesus said in reply not to the
world, but to his disciples “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many
shall seek and shall not be able.” Who can believe it possible that our Lord
should at one time say that all sinners who seek for salvation shall be saved,
and at another time declare positively that many should seek, and should not be
able to enter in at the strait gate, which leadeth into life? To say nothing of
the absurdity of the notion of blind men’s seeking, and dead men’s knocking, it
is enough for us to know that Christ is sought of them that asked not for him,
and that he is found of them that sought him not. That
We have shown, by such testimony as men will not disregard
with impunity that the words of our text were spoken by Christ, and addressed to
his disciples exclusively; that it is audacious presumption in those who labor
to pervert his words, and to turn the truth of God into a lie. It remains now
for us to show who are the disciples, and in what sense these words were applied
to them, and the eternal consolation which they afford to such as are his
disciples indeed.
They only are recognized in the New
Testament as his disciples, who deny themselves, take up their cross and follow
him. To be born again, born of the Spirit, and born into the light and love of
the Redeemer, affords evidence that we are the children, and heirs of
immortality; but some of God’s children walk in disobedience, at least for a
season; but in their disobedience to him as their Prince and Savior, their
Leader and King, they are not scripturally speaking, his disciples, though they
be his children. The disciples who went to him in the mount, and who listened to
his discourse, were those who had not only passed from death unto life, but they
had forsaken all, and followed him, to them therefore his promises in his
discourse were, and to such now, are applicable. “Ask, and it shall be given to
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” He had
told them in a former part of his sermon, or discourse, of the special
providential care which their heavenly Father had over them, that he feeds the
ravens, and protects the sparrows, clothes the grass, and beautifies the frail
lilies of the field, and that he would also provide all things needful for them.
Although exposed to the rage of their enemies, disfranchised as citizens, cast
out of the synagogues, and even driven from their houses and homes, they need
not distrust the goodness and constant providence of their God, or say, What
shalt I eat, or what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed? for their
heavenly Father knoweth that they have need of these things. They were directed
to seek first the
May the kind assurances with which the new covenant abounds
to abounds to them, be set home with power and grace to the heart of all who
love the Lord, and may we be encouraged to trust in, and rely upon him,
constantly, firmly and forever.
