RIGHT REPLIES TO RIGHT REQUESTS – Charles Spurgeon

Right Replies to Right Requests

“If a son shall ask for bread of any of you who is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:11-13.

Introduction: The Progression in Prayer

In this chapter, there is an evident progression. It opens with the disciples asking the Lord to teach them to pray. To that, He gave a full and sufficient reply; He prepared them an outline of what complete prayer should be. Brothers and Sisters, we have need, some of us, to begin with asking to be taught to pray. It will be a blessed sign when it can be said of us, “Behold, he prays.” And just in proportion as we are instructed how to pray shall we give evidence of a more advanced Christian life. He has most grown in grace who prays best; depend upon it, the most acceptable prayer with God is the evidence of a most accepted state of heart within. Our growth in prayer may be to us the test of our growth in all other respects. “Lord, teach us to pray,” is a prayer for the young beginner, and for the more advanced disciple; it is a suitable petition for us all, for we have none of us yet learned to the fullest the sacred art of supplication.

God’s Assurance of Answered Prayer

Then the chapter proceeds a little further to answer a question: we are shown how to pray, but will God really answer us? Is prayer only meant to do good to the suppliant? Does it end with the benefit which it works in us, or does it really affect the heart of God? Do replies actually come from Heaven in answer to the entreaties of God’s children? The answer is given by our Lord with great clearness. We have a parable to show that as importunity does evidently affect men, so importunity will also gain an answer from God. He will be pleased to give us what we need if we know how, with incessant earnestness, to come again and again to Him in prayer.

We are assured that asking is attended with receiving, that seeking is attended with finding, that knocking will lead to opening, that it is not a vain thing to pray, that our prayers are not lost on the wind, or expended merely on ourselves, but that there is a connection established by Divine decree between the prayer that is raised on earth, and the mercy that is given forth from Heaven.

Addressing Doubts About God’s Answer

But since we are such sinful creatures, the chapter proceeds to deal with a grave doubt which may arise in the troubled mind. “It may be God will hear, and as a general rule will make replies in mercy, but I am an undeserving one. If the Lord should be incensed at my prayers, and answer me in wrath instead of love, I should deserve it; if after having made my confession, He should deal with me, judging me out of my own mouth, and then and there condemn me, what should I say?”

The Savior very explicitly answers the question as to whether God will give answers of peace, and will always grant us good things. He puts it thus to us: when your children ask for good things, you grant their requests. You do not mock them by giving them something that may look like what they asked for, but is only a deception; you never play upon their ignorance and mock their childish confidence by giving them the injurious semblance of what would have been a useful reality. When their prayers are right, you answer them. If you then, being evil, fallen creatures, yet answer your children’s right and proper prayers, how much more will your heavenly Father answer your fitting prayers, and give you good things? He will not put you off with evil things when you ask for good, but He will grant you in truth the good gifts which you are seeking.

The Certainty of God’s Goodness

You will observe that the fear, lest God should give us something evil when we are seeking something good, is very naturally raised in the heart by a sense of sinfulness, and is increased by the conviction that we should not always be able to judge whether the thing received is good or not good. We tremble lest we should receive from the divine hands what appears to be gracious, and yet may be sent in judgment. But He says, “No, your children trust in their father, and their father never deceives them; you may safely trust your heavenly Father that when you ask a good thing from Him, He will most assuredly give you a good thing, and not an evil thing in lieu of it.” You are true and kind to your children, much more shall God be good towards you.

In asking, “How much more?” we ask an unanswerable question! As high as God is above us, so high is the certainty that He will give us good above the certainty that we will give good things to our children. Yet since we feel in our hearts quite certain that we could not mock our children, let us be quite convinced that it is still further beyond all question that God will ever mock us, and give to us an evil thing when we are seeking a good thing at His hands! By the way, it has been remarked that the expression of our Savior here is, “you being evil”; that expression evidently teaching the doctrine of our fallen condition, the doctrine of human depravity. You, my disciples, you are evil; you who have children, whether you are upright or otherwise in others’ estimation, you are all evil, and yet, being evil, you still have such affection and judgment that you give your children good gifts; much more shall He who is infinitely good give good things to you when you seek them.

The Nature of the Request and the Answer

I have met with many expositions of this passage in which there is an attempt made to show that the child asked a wrong thing, and wished for a stone which appeared to be bread. Nothing of the kind is here! The child is not represented as asking for a stone, but as seeking, as he should, a most proper gift, namely, bread. No mistake was made at all by the child; his prayer was what it should be, and the point of the parable touches the father’s answer. The truth here taught is not that God will refuse us evil things if in our mistake we ask for them; that is a truth, but it is not alluded to here; the one statement of this verse is that prayers for good things will be answered, and that they will not be answered with gifts wearing the mere appearance of good, but with the actual good things desired.

I. Right Prayers, Right Answers

The child asks for bread, his father does not give him a stone. He asks for a fish; there are certain kinds of fish that are very much like snakes, but the father does not give him a serpent. The child asks for an egg; we are told by some that certain scorpions, when they fold themselves up, look like eggs; the father never makes a fool of the child, or injures him by giving him a scorpion for an egg!

If we may be allowed to put some interpretation upon this, I should say if we begin our prayers by asking God for necessities—that is, bread, bread temporal, or the Bread of Life—He will not give us useless, tooth-breaking, unsatisfying stones. We shall have, when we pray for necessary things, the really necessary things themselves, not the imitation of them, but the actual blessings. And if our faith grows a little stronger, and having obtained bread, we may ask for fish—not absolutely a necessity, but a comfort and a relish. If we make bold to ask for spiritual comforts, consoling gifts, and ennobling graces, something over and above what is absolutely necessary to save us, our heavenly Father will not mock us by giving us superficial comforts which might be injurious as a serpent; He will give us as much comfort as we can bear, and it shall be pure, holy, and healthy comfort.

II. The Prayer for the Best Thing is Surest of an Answer

The prayer for the best thing is surest of an answer, for, says the text, “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” There is no doubt about the Holy Spirit being a good thing; when we, therefore, ask for Him, for His divine presence and influence, we may rest assured that God will give it! Make that our first point under this head—God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for Him.

The Holy Spirit sometimes is represented as the wind, the lifegiving breath; He blows upon the valleys thickly strewn with slain, and they are quickened to life. You and I, though we are made to live, often feel that life to be flagging and almost dying; the Spirit of God can quicken us, revive in us the spark of divine life, and strengthen in our hearts the life of God. Pray for this quickening breath, and, my brothers and sisters, God will give it to you. As surely as you sincerely pray, you shall have and feel the revival of the life within!

III. The Holy Spirit’s Influence in Our Lives

The Spirit of God is sometimes compared to water; it is He who applies the blood of Jesus and sanctifies us; He cleanses us. Well, He will come to us in that capacity. Do we feel that our sin has much power over us? O Spirit of God, destroy sin within us and work purity in us! You have already given us the new birth by water and the Spirit, go on and complete Your work till our whole nature shall be fashioned in the image of the Great First-Born. You shall have it if you seek it—God will give you this Spirit if this you seek for.

The Holy Spirit is revealed to us under the image of Light, and He illuminates the mind, He makes our natural darkness flee. Wait upon Him, O child of God, that you may be led into all Truth; He can make that which now perplexes you to become plain; He can uplift you into truths of God which are now too high for your attainment. Wait upon Him! As a child of God, long to be taught of God.

Conclusion: Assurance of the Holy Spirit

I do not know how to express to you the sense I feel just now of the deep condescension of God in promising to give us the Holy Spirit. He has given us His Son, and now He promises His Spirit! Here are two gifts unspeakable in preciousness! Will God, in very deed, dwell with man upon the earth? Will God dwell in man? Can it be that the Infinite Spirit, God over all, Blessed forever, will dwell in my poor heart, and make my body to be His Temple? It is certainly so, for as sure as it is that God will give good things to those who ask for good things, He will surest of all give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for the Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit will come and bedew us if we seek Him. As the blessed dove, bearing peace upon His wings, He will come to us; in fact, there is no operation of the Spirit which will not be brought in us if we seek it; there is no attribute of the Spirit of God which shall not be put forth for us if we ask it. He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

From the connection in which the text stands, I gather the following remark: it will truly be the Holy Spirit. Go back again to that first thought. The child asks for bread, and does not get a stone; you ask for the Holy Spirit, and you shall receive the Holy Spirit.

Some persons have been misled by an evil spirit; I believe that very much of the rant that came out years ago about the date of the Second Coming of Christ, the unknown tongues, and I do not know what besides of blatant nonsense, was of an evil spirit, and I question whether there was a humble laying down of minds before God’s Throne to seek the Holy Spirit, whether there was not much self-sufficiency, and much desire for something that would make important its possessor which led certain eminent preachers into vain imaginings and fanatical rant. You shall not receive an evil spirit instead of the good Spirit if you humbly and patiently wait upon the Most High!

Did not we hear some time ago from certain wise brethren that we were never to pray for the Spirit? I think I heard it said often, “We have the Holy Spirit, and therefore we are not to pray for Him.” Like that other certain declaration of the same brotherhood, that we have pardon of sin, and are not to pray for it, just as if we were never to pray for what we have! If we have life, we are to pray that we have it more abundantly; if we have pardon in one respect, we are to ask for a fuller sense of it, and if we have the Holy Spirit so that we are quickened and saved, we do not ask for Him in that capacity, but we ask for His power in other directions, and for His grace in other forms.

The Need for Continued Prayer for the Spirit

I do not go before God now and say, “Lord, I am a dead sinner, quicken me by Your Spirit,” for I trust I am quickened of His Spirit; but being quickened, I now cry, “Lord, let not the life You have given me ebb down till it becomes very feeble, but give me of Your Spirit that the life within me may become strong and mighty, and may subdue all the power of death within my members, that I may put forth the vigor and energy which come from Yourself through the Spirit.” O you who have the Spirit, you are the very men and women to pray that you may experience more of His matchless operations and gracious influences, and in all the benign sanctity of His indwelling, may you seek that yet more and more you may know Him!

You have this as your encouragement—that God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! Ever since certain brethren gave up asking for the Holy Spirit, they have not had Him, and they have gone aside into many inventions. If they will not ask, they shall not have, but be it yours and mine to wait humbly and patiently upon the Lord that He may daily give us of His Spirit.

God Always Delivers What He Promises

I desire earnestly to call your attention to one thing which our Savior says—“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,” how ought it to run to make it parallel?—“How much more shall your heavenly Father know how to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Would not that be the parallel? Of course it would, but He does not say so; He very kindly puts it in the first place, that we “know how to give good gifts,” for sometimes we know how to give them, but we cannot do it.

It is a bitter thing, and yet it has sometimes happened that the child has said, “Father, give me bread,” and with a breaking heart, the father has had to reply, “My child, there is none.” It must be one of the hardest trials of human life, and yet it is the trial of tens of thousands in this city at this time, to have to say, “No, there is not even a crust of bread for my child.” You see the father knows how, but he cannot do it. But the text does not say that God knows how to give the Holy Spirit; it says a great deal more than that; it declares that He does give, because with Him to know how is the same thing as to do it. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him; He does not only know how, but He does it! Never does He have to say to His child, “My child, I cannot.”

God Never Withholds Good Gifts

The poor sinner says, “Lord, help me to repent,” and the Lord never says, “I have not enough of the Holy Spirit to make you repent.” When one of His children cries, “Lord, give me the anointing of the Holy One that I may understand Your Gospel more fully,” the heavenly Father never answers, “I cannot give you as much of the Holy Spirit as that.” Boundlessly will He give if faith dares but open her mouth wide! You are not straitened in Him, you are straitened in yourselves! Brothers and Sisters, I am telling you nothing new, but a very simple truth, and yet for all that, a truth which we do not put into practice.

The Spirit of God Working in Us

We may have the Spirit of God resting upon us; as Stephen was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, even so may we; no miracles do we seek, but all the spiritual uplifting which the Holy Spirit gave to men of old we need, and He can still give it to us! Though He will not reveal new truths, we do not need Him to, for we have already the complete Gospel revealed. He will bring home the old truths to our souls, and make them potent upon our consciences, and upon our lives—this is what we need! Oh, if any of you are but just Christians, and are not glorifying God, nor living near Him, nor mighty in prayer, nor well taught in Scripture, nor useful in your lives; I beseech you remember if you have not the Spirit it is because you do not seek Him importunately! You do not seek Him with a deep sense of your need of Him.

The Power of God’s Spirit

If you, being evil, give your children bread, how much more will God give you the Spirit? And as you, being evil, do not mock your child by putting him off without the bread, and giving him something else, neither will your heavenly Father; He will give you the real Spirit, not enthusiasm that might mislead you; not fanaticism that might injure you; not self-conceit that might become like a deadly scorpion to you, but He promises to give His own gentle, truthful, infallible Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

III. The Best Prayer: Comprehensive and Sure

Now for our last point, THE BEST OF PRAYERS, WHICH IS SURE TO BE HEARD, IS ALSO A MOST COMPREHENSIVE ONE. Turn to the parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew (7:11). Note that Matthew says nothing about the egg. And then read the 11th verse, “If you 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 those who ask Him?” Now what does our text say, “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Is it not clear then that the Holy Spirit is the equivalent of “good things,” and that in fact, when the Lord gives us the Holy Spirit, He gives us all “good things”?

What a comprehensive prayer then, is the prayer for the Spirit of God! Dear Brothers and Sisters, sit down with pencil in hand, and a sheet of blank paper before you, and write down all your spiritual needs. I will judge of your wisdom by the length of the list, for if you know yourself you will find you have not done yet; you are a great mass of needs; to pray for all these things separately might seem a very long exercise! My dear Brothers and Sisters, just take the pencil and do as the schoolboys do when they add up the total of their sums. You will find it all adds to this—the Holy Spirit. “My God, give me Your Holy Spirit, and I have all.”

The Holy Spirit: A Comprehensive Answer

“But do we not need the Savior?” asks one. Truly, but the Holy Spirit, when He comes, “takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us.” That is the great value of the Holy Spirit! “He shall glorify Me.” Wherever the Spirit of God comes, there comes the blood of the Atonement; we are brought near by it, and every spiritual blessing bought with blood is brought by the Holy Spirit home to the soul. If you have the Spirit, He does not come empty-handed, He comes loaded with all the treasures of the Everlasting Covenant—the blessings ordained for you from before the foundation of the world! And He brings the blessings secured to you in the Covenant of Grace, and the blessings bought for you by Jesus’ precious blood.

Intercessory Prayer for Others

Do then let this be your prayer; “Give me, O God, Your Holy Spirit.” Then, my dear friends, your prayer is intercessory as well as for yourselves. You pray for your children, for your wife, for your neighbors, for your friends; I hope your intercessory roll is a long one. If God gives you power to bless men by your prayers, do not prevent the blessing. What is it that you want for others? In one word, it is the Holy Spirit!

Let the Holy Spirit be given to that dear boy of yours, and he will have a tender conscience you have often wished he had. He will have a desire after Christ, and he will find Christ! He will be a Christian! Let the Holy Spirit be given to that girl of yours, and she will have a desire for the Word of God, a love for the means of Grace; she will find the Savior, she will become a useful Christian woman! Your neighbors, you prayed that they might go with you to hear the Gospel, and a very excellent prayer it was; but it would be a fuller prayer, still, that the Spirit would visit them. Some have been visited by the Holy Spirit who have not been in the House of God. Even at their work, divine impulses they could not account for have followed them. The fact is, the hearing of the Word is but the vehicle, the power lies in the Spirit of God!

The Importance of Praying for the Holy Spirit in the Church

I put it to you therefore, whether it is not a most fitting prayer for you to offer for your neighbors and kinsfolk. And now, the last point is one I wish to impress upon your hearts, my dear friends. Tomorrow is the Day of Prayer. As I have said, I hope you may be all with one accord, in one place in prayer. But I humbly suggest to you that we should all pray throughout that day and onward, that God will give to His churches more and more of the Holy Spirit.

Praying for the Church and Ministers

Just now I do not know how you feel, but I am ill at ease. The Church of England is eaten through and through with sacramentarianism, but Nonconformity appears to me to be almost as badly riddled with philosophical infidelity! Those of whom we thought better things are turning aside one by one from the fundamentals of the Faith; at first, they gave up the doctrine of the eternity of future punishment, now it must be the doctrine of the fall—first one thing, then another. If some men have their way, all the doctrines of the Word must go; they treat the doctrines of Scripture as though they were all disproved, and only held by a few ignorant bigots. Through and through, I believe the heart of England is honeycombed with a detestable infidelity which still dares to go into the pulpit, and call itself Christian. I pray that God may preserve our denomination from it, but my prayer shall go up that He will give us the Holy Spirit—for men never go wrong with the Holy Spirit, for He will keep them right, and lead them into all truth.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Church’s Future

Soundness of doctrine is only worth having when it is the result of the living indwelling of God in the Church, and because too much of the Holy Spirit has departed, we see the signs that the orthodox faith is given up, and the inventions of man preached instead. Sometimes I breathe, as I walk along, this prayer, that God would raise up more ministers to preach the Gospel with His power. There is so much feeble preaching, mere twaddling, and so little declaration of the Gospel with power, but I do not know that I will pray that prayer again.

I will put up this, “Lord, send Your Spirit upon the churches!” Then will come the ministers! Then will come the earnest workers! The Spirit of God will touch their tongues with fire, and they will say, “Here am I, send me!” And once again, we shall have back the Puritan age of preaching, and ministries like those of Whitefield, Edwards, and McCheyne! The Spirit of God is the power of the Church and speaks with might in her.

A Prayer for the Church’s Holiness and Unity

My longing is that the churches may be more holy. I grieve to see so much of worldly conformity; how often wealth leads men astray; how many Christians follow the fashions of this wicked world. But shall I pray that the churches may be holy? I will, but I will put my prayer in this form—I will ask that God will give the Holy Spirit; He is the Spirit of holiness; He leads to obedience, purges from sin, and creates the image of God in His people.

Conclusion: A Call for the Holy Spirit in the Church

I desire to see, and I think you all do, more unity among the churches. It is a pity when churches fall out, and chide, and fight. Ecclesiastical quarrels are generally more bitter than any other! Do not so much pray for unity, as put it all into this, “Lord, give the Holy Spirit; for if the Holy Spirit is in us and abounds, we shall not be divided—the Church of God will feel the unity of Life.” Life it is that creates true unity among the people of God! If there is anything else that we long to see in the churches, and I confess there are a thousand things, for I would desire to see them increased with men as with a flock—I would desire to see them built up in an intelligent understanding of the doctrines of grace. I desire to see them looking for the coming of Christ and ready for His advent. If we desire all these, let us ask that the Holy Spirit may be more plenteously given—and when this prayer is answered, as answered it must be, then shall we see all that our soul desires!

A Day of Prayer

I do, therefore, very earnestly, over and over again, ask you to make tomorrow a day of real prayer, and if you cannot be here in body, yet all day long cry mightily unto the God of Sabaoth, our Father, who has spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all, who will also with Him freely give us all things, if we know how to ask aright.

—Charles Spurgeon