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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 439 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Thomas: This is a good crowd for the first night. We're thankful. I was just thinking, I don't know how long we'll have to keep this up, but we'll keep up as long as we're ready and the Lord's ready, and the Lord is able to help us ready. Turn with me to Matthew, Chapter 7. I'm glad to see...anybody here for the first time tonight? Well good, good. Matthew 7--I'm gonna read verse 6 because of something that happened to me one time. That's really not the message or it's not the scripture that I actually wanted to speak to you from, but nevertheless we'll throw this in. "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." You know, we just need to pray and study the Bible and then ask God to give us the interpretation, the things that we need, and preach it the way He gives it to us instead of just preaching what we've heard. I remember I was going over to a certain place and I was going to be the minister-preach there. I had some apprehension about going. But that night I had a dream. In fact, I was standing out on, I suppose level ground, and a hog--what we call a shoat--it's about a half-grown hog, he come up to me and I was throwing some things on the ground and he jus' walked right through that. He didn't pay one bit of attention. And he began to hit me on the legs with his snout. Of course, I knew exactly what it meant. He was letting me know something about the condition of the people that I was going to be speaking to. It was people that were pretty legalistic about some things. And there are certain people today that you can't help cause they got their mind already closed to what you would...whatever scripture it is you might use. And that's exactly what was the case there. Those people-they didn't appreciate what I preach. They didn't like it because I ministered grace. They didn't like grace at all. If it wasn't for grace, wouldn't none of us be here tonight. ( congregational amen's ). But let's go on down now to the next four or five verses. "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. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" I'm gonna dwell on a little bit. I don't have anything in mind. But I do know this--that God is pleased, and God desires for us to communicate with Him and to ask Him for things. And of course this scripture here gives you...let's you know that it's things that's good, things that's wholesome, things that's proper, things that's probably pertinent and relevant to whatever your problem may be. When He says "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine," He's letting you know that you're not to take the things of God and then just indiscriminately give them out to certain people because they wouldn't appreciate them. But He wants us to know that there's an invitation to us-God does-to give out the things of God to those that desire them, those that want them, and those that will use them. Naturally it has to be somebody that would fit into this context here-somebody that would appreciate it. You wouldn't give it to somebody who didn't want the Word of God. You wouldn't give it to somebody who didn't care. You wouldn't give it to somebody that didn't appreciate it. But somebody that was hungry, they'd appreciate it. They'd thank God for it. Let's just examine that a little bit and see. Notice there He says, "Ask, and it shall be given you." Now seek is a continuation of ask. In other words, you don't just ask one time. He says, "Seek." Set your heart in that direction. Then He says, "Ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." He uses that word knock. Ask, seek, and knock. Of course, knock--now that's a continuation of your asking. I was just thinking, as a young man I used to pray. I loved to go to the woods to pray. I'm alone and I get out there and concentrate and I'd just walk and pray. I'd pray about things that I knew about and sometimes about things I didn't know about. As I would pray, the Lord would quicken me. He would give me a spirit of prayer. And so that of course is according to the scriptures which says, "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." In other words, you can get such a burden and desire in your heart for God to move in a certain specific way, until you can't put it into words, but you can utter from your heart. The one thing about God, even though you don't put it into words or phrases, He hears you and He knows exactly what you want, because He's a God that answers prayer. He's a God that wants you to pray. He invites you to pray. Many scriptures-- "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Don't you ever hesitate to pray about things. I don't mean now... you've only got one scripture that I can think of at this time. I'll just quote it. It's over in the book of James. James says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts." Now what they were doing were asking for things that they...it wasn't glorifying God, it wasn't in His province of the Gospel to grant that thing. God wants to give you those things. God wants to answer your prayer. What you need to do is to realize that you're pleasing God when you pray. You desire to accomplish something that you can't do yourself without prayer. And that's what prayer is all about. It's talking to God. Ask...now, seek of course is a continuation of ask, and knock is a continuation. It's a persistence. I mean it's a persistence in this thing that you just started. You're determined. No one ever got anything from God that didn't sincerely want it, or wasn't persistent. And God knows if you really want it, if you desire it for His glory. He knows that. He looks right in your heart. He knows what's there. He knows what's in the heart of every human being in this building tonight--God does. And He desires to grant you these things that will glorify Him and that will help somebody-help your brother, your sister, maybe your neighbor, your cousin. God wants... "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." And what's the purpose of it. That He might grant the request that's needed at that time. God doesn't do these things just to be doing them. He wants to bless us and He wants to bless your children. He wants to bless your neighbor. He wants to bless. I'll tell you this, if you pray for somebody, you ain't gonna be curt and have an ugly spirit around them. Praise God! You don't have to tell him about it, or her, as though you're making a report. Just do it. The God that hears all, He'll hear you. Now let's see here. He says, "If ye then, being evil," and we are. We're evil by nature. None of you are perfect, are you? Don't stand up. I don't believe there is. I didn't see a perfect one when I come in here. But that's the kind of people that God loves. That's the kind of people that Christ died on that cross to save. When He went to that cross, He was dying for you--paying your sin debt. ( congregational praise ). He was doing something for you that no one can do. You know that Jesus couldn't have died for you had He had any sin. But He didn't have. He went to the cross as a sinless Lamb of God. Whatever it was that you were guilty of and whatever it was that you fell from, from this status of grace to this one of that of a sinner, Jesus went to that cross to redeem you from that place. ( congregational amen's). And salvation...you don't have to beg God for salvation. You have to believe. Salvation is not something that's for people who beg God. Crying out and praying is good, but not to be saved. You say, why? Because salvation was paid for when He cried, "It's finished," on that cross. ( congregational praise ). There's not a thing in the world you can do to add to that. It's been paid for by the grace of God. You just bow down. Thank Him for it. Thank Him for it. Confess Him. "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven," Jesus said. And He will. Acknowledge Him. Confess Him as your Lord, as your Savior. Are you ashamed of Him? I don't believe you are. I don't believe you're ashamed of Him. How many of you are ashamed of Jesus? Nobody raised their hand. How many of you are not ashamed of Him. Praise God! That does you good just to do that. I suppose I was self-conscious when I came to the Lord. The next time I went into a restaurant to get something to eat--a sandwich or something, I don't recall now--I thought about, now am I gonna bow my head? I said, yes, Lord, I'll bow my head. So I bowed my head there and I thanked the Lord for the food I was about to partake of. And then I've learned to do this. If I'm with people, say two or three men, and we go into a restaurant to get a sandwich, most of them won't do that. But you can. You can inject a little bit of light into that conversation by just saying, men, I'm gonna bow my head and thank the Lord. I invite you to bow your head with me. Then you bow your head. They'll bow their head out of respect to you, if they respect you. And they will. But being ashamed of the Lord...can you imagine the greatest being in the universe-Him who knew no sin became sin for us. They placed your sins on Him. And He took them to that cross to die for those sins of yours. He died for your sins, every single one of you, Jesus did. They nailed Him to that cross and He hung there in agony. After a while He cried, "I thirst." They put a sponge that had been dipped in vinegar to his mouth. But what I'm saying is that Jesus wasn't just doing that to be doing it. He was doing it for you and He knows every one of us. We're His. He purchased us with His blood. He's redeemed us from that curse of the law. That curse can never touch you. ( congregational praise ). Let me say this about salvation. I said that curse can never touch you, that's true. He only died one time to redeem you from your sins, and He redeems you forever, not just for 30 days, not just for a period of time or if you hold out faithful. You're not gonna hold out faithful anyway. But He's gonna hold out faithful. ( congregational praise ). But what does He do? How does He keep you? Does He just let you run astray, promiscuously in sin and do like the rest of the world? No, He don't let you. If you're a child of God...I'll say this. The first barrier against sin is your own conscience. When God saves you He quickens your conscience. Your conscience is never the same again. Any time you do by word, by deed, or anything that's against that conscience, that conscience rises up. It recognizes. It's very sensitive. That conscience is the inner you. Actually it's Christ in you. He rises up and says, you shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have said that. How many of you have ever done something you knew was wrong and you asked God to forgive you? That's quite a few, yeah. I don't see but two or three people that's holy. ( laughter ). Well I'm glad you can confess it. There's mercy for you. We are God's child when we bow the knee to Jesus Christ His son. And we're His son forever! That don't mean that we don't...we're not aware of what's going on with our conscience and with us in our contacts with man, our brother in Christ and others. You don't feel good when you do something wrong. Your conscience protests-tells you you shouldn't have one that or shouldn't have said that. The thing that you can do that will help free your brother-and this is very important, very important. When you go to him or to her, whichever the case may be, and just honestly open up and tell them, I said so and so or I did so and so, and I feel like it was wrong. I want you to forgive me. You not only get free yourself in doing that, but you set them free, and perhaps that's the greatest blessing of all. When you do that they a sense of freedom. And it does something in them that couldn't be done otherwise. 
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