IV The Sermon on the Mount
How to Pray, and Enter In
Here is a wonderful encouragement and a wonderful promise.
As our Lord proceeded with the Sermon on that Mount, and as He looked into the anxious, eager faces of the multitude around Him, He revealed to them some of the deepest needs of our hearts.
His words are very simple, and the youngest child can understand a little about them.
“Ask,” He says.
If a father or a mother says, “Ask me when you next see me,” the child is quite sure he will get his request!
Years ago, when I was quite a little girl, a favourite aunt tried to teach us all this lesson. When the grandchildren went to stay at that dear country house, they were told that on a Saturday they could ask their aunt for a “Saturday penny.” She wanted to impress upon our minds that God loved us to ask for what He had promised! So as surely as we asked, however many there were of us, she gave what she had promised.
And, though that is seventy years ago, you see I have not forgotten it!
Well! Our Lord says “Ask.” That shows that He knows we have some want in our hearts that we hardly are conscious of.
What is the need that hides down below everything else? It is forgiveness—to be assured that our sins are washed away.
People, however, try a number of remedies first.
They think “they will turn over a new leaf.”
They think they will strive more earnestly to improve.
They make endless resolutions.
But all these remedies fall short of the need. They do not go down to the root of the disease.
Suddenly we find the remembrance of some sin flashes into our thoughts and makes us miserable; or there is a defilement in our lives which we cannot get rid of by any of the means within our reach!
What then?
The words of Jesus Christ on the Mount, given so long ago, but of living power to-day, are—
“Ask! Ask of God.” He seems to say, “Ask, and you shall receive!” Go to God for forgiveness. Ask Him to wash you clean and white in “the Blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanseth from all sin,” and then you will be at peace, and life will be a different thing to you.
Then our Lord goes on to say, “Seek, and ye shall find.”
A woman who loses a piece of silver sweeps diligently till she finds it! A merchant seeking goodly pearls sells all he possesses to obtain Pearl of Great Price!
And then comes the third thought and the third promise.
“Knock!” Do not just go to the door of God’s storehouse of blessings and give a careless knock, and then turn away without even expecting an answer!
You see a boy delivering circulars down your road. He knocks and then runs on, and does not trouble himself further.
But there comes a needy man to one door. He has been told to come at any hour on any day, and he knocks.
There is no immediate answer. Shall he turn away? His need is so great that he knocks again. And still the answer is delayed.
“He told me to come,” murmured the man. “He told me to knock at his door!”
So he goes on knocking; and by and by the master, who is alone in the house, comes to the door, and with words of welcome, he bids the needy man enter.
And inside the master’s house there is a storehouse of blessings! More than the needy man can ask or think.
And the master showers warmth, and love, and food, and riches upon him, so that he goes on his way with every want supplied, and with promises of an endless supply.
How to enter in.
The answer comes back to us, like sweet chimes from afar, in our Lord’s own words—
“I am the Door: by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”
And Jesus shows us what to do and what to avoid, if we want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
He says: “Enter ye in at the Strait Gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be which go in thereat because strait is the Gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it.”
The Broad Way, looking so easy and attractive at first, is the way of sin, and leads downwards to destruction. The gate is wide open, and so tempting.
The Narrow Way leads upwards, to Everlasting Life.
The entrance to it is narrow and strait, and the path needs courage and perseverance to walk in it bravely; but at the end there are “pleasures for evermore,” and no more pain or sorrow or death, but Eternal Life! St. Paul says “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.”
Shall we not accept Him Who is Himself the Way? He is the Way, all along the path, let it be smooth or rough. He is the Truth, and will never deceive us. He is the Life, and in Jesus Christ it is reserved in Heaven for us.