And may we help to consider for
a few moments Luke chapter 11 and the text you'll find in verse
8. Luke chapter 11 and the text
you'll find in verse 8. I say unto you, though he will
not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because
of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. There was a time in the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ and as in many moments in his life
that he prayed. And there was a certain time
here that he was obviously praying in front of his apostles and
they noticed something about the way that he prayed that they
admired. And they asked him that he would
teach them also how to pray. it seems that John the Baptist
also taught his disciples how to pray and so Jesus then gives
them what is known as the the Lord's Prayer or the the prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ which he sets out an order by which
we might be able to follow or look at or meditate on in our
prayers beginning with our Father that God is the one who we are
approaching and his name is to be magnified and glorified and
he is to be the object of our focus when we pray and then as
he goes down that almost list in which we can mirror when we
come to the Lord in prayer. Then he seeks to set before them
a parable about prayer and about what the great need is of prayer
and the great need of prayer is a need. There was two friends,
the Lord Jesus says. The friend who had a visit from
another friend and therefore he goes to his other friend to
ask him for some bread. And he knocks on the door at
midnight and asks his friend for some bread. And at one time,
the first time, the friend, he makes an excuse. He says, I'm
in bed already. The door is shut and I can't. I can't give you. and his friendship. is not enough. It says, I say unto you though
he will not rise and give him because he is his friend. And
so there it wasn't friendship that caused him to get up but
it was this importunity, this consistent knocking at the door
that moved the man in frustration to get up and give the man what
he needed. And so it was a need that this
man had that drove him to his friend's house. Not only did
he have a need but he knew where to go. No doubt he had many neighbours. No doubt he had many other friends.
But he knew that this friend would be the one who was most
likely to have the ability to help him. This man would be the
one who would have the stock of food there. And so he went
to this particular man's house because this man he knew would
have the food. He knew that their friendship
was good enough that he could wake him at midnight and knock
on his door. Most people would be quite frustrated
I think if they got a knock at midnight even from your best
friend and asked for some bread. And yeah he felt that if I went
to this man, this man he would be able to help me. He knew that
he had bread and that he was able to help him. And so in his
mind when his friend arrived he knew that there was this one
person that he could go to and he had that knowledge of that
person that he had enough goods to be able to help him. And so
he was persistent at the door. He was persistent at the door.
If he had knocked once and the man had said, no I haven't got
anything may have gone away but because he had that knowledge
of his friend and he had the knowledge of what his friend
had that kept him knocking. The word impotunity means persistent
knocking to the point of annoyance And he continued knocking until
his friend gave him the answer. And so what drove this man then
to be so annoying to his friend? It was that he had nothing. He had nothing. Verse six, A
friend of mine is on A friend of mine in his journey has come
to me and I have nothing to set before him. He had nothing. There was nothing that drove
him to his friend's house at an antisocial time and caused
him to be persistent to the point of annoyance. It's that he had
nothing. He had a great need that moved
him he would not take no for an answer. And then the other
parable that we read in Luke 18 was the same there with the
widow lady. It was her persistence, her great
need, her great inability to help herself that she comes to
the judge asking for help and she's not willing to take no
for an answer. She is persistent because her
need is great and so much so that she wearies the judge. Because this widow troubles me,
I will avenge her. Her continual coming, she wearies
me. And so she had a need. and she
knew where to go and she knew that this person had the ability
to help her and so she persistently knocked at his door, as it were,
consistently put her case before him. She was desperate. She had
no ability to help herself. We could say she had nothing
but that nothing that she had drove her to where she believed
she could get something. and that persistence, it was
a true need and that true need drove her to the judge. And it's the same with the tax
collector. God be merciful to me, a sinner, he had nothing
of himself, nothing in himself he saw and so he was driven to
God and asking God for forgiveness. he knew that God was able to
help him, he knew that God was the one who is able to forgive
sin, he knew that God was the one who is able to justify the
wicked through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and
so that nothing in himself drove him to the one who is able to
help him and so My thoughts were this, really, on this word, nothing. You see, when we think of nothing,
it is nothing. But nothing drives us to where
we can get something. And so it's nothing in my house
drove him to his friend's house, where his friend was able to
help him. The lady, nothing. She had nothing. That nothing drove her then to
the judge and the tax collector. Nothing. I've got no good works. I'm not like the Pharisee. I
have nothing. But I come to God who is able
to deal with my nothingness and to give me all that I need. As I thought on this nothing,
How many wonderful answers to prayer have been given due to
people coming to God with nothing. Nothing drives people to the
throne of grace in desperation and earnestness and a continued
need, a continued persistence until they get the answer. You
think of Elijah when he was driven by the brook. He had nothing
and yet the Lord fed him. Then he went to see the widow
woman and she baked her last cake and she had nothing. But that nothing the Lord provided
and it became something. And in the lives or even you
think of the children of Israel walked through the wilderness
and the Lord fed them with manna. They said, we've got nothing.
And so God gives them manna. We've got no water, nothing.
God gives them a water. and in church history, those
who have been driven to the throne of grace because of nothing and
then the Lord provides for them in a wonderful way. And all of the Lord's people
have all come to that point of the tax collector, God be merciful
to me a sinner. They've come to that point of
nothing. They've lost sight of, they've shed the Pharisaical
robes And they have come with nothing to the throne of grace
except their sin and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And someone who knows their need
that they have nothing will not just knock once. They will continue
to knock. because they know that it's only
Christ that can clothe them and give them something. That nothing
which they have is able to be transacted with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to the throne of grace with nothing,
with an earnestness and a continued pleading. Christ will arise and give as
much as is needed. He says, yet because of his importunity,
by that persistent knocking at the door, the door was opened
for everyone that asks receives and he that seeks finds and to
him that knocks it shall be opened. 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 them that ask
of him. How often it is that our prayers
are so weak because We don't feel, we don't have that earnestness. There's still, as it were, a
savings account. There's still that, there's no
desperation. Because they haven't been brought
to that point of nothing. Nothing drives people to the
throne of grace. Nothing drives people to that
persistence until they receive. And often God does make us wait
to prove or to test whether we really are in desperation or
not. Sometimes it's just a knock,
no answer, and we go. this man continued knocking at
the door until his friend got up and answered the door. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the friend. He is a friend who sticks closer
than a brother. He is the friend who greater
love than no man than this that a man lay down his life for his
friends. And so as we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ even this evening we come with nothing nothing
in our hands we bring seeking for that divine appearing for
God to help us and to appear for us. And he has promised to give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask of him. Nothing in ourselves
keeps us knocking at the door and faith in the knowledge of
what God is able to do, in the knowledge of God's ability. We
looked at the other day that he can do more than we can ask
or think and that knowledge causes us to be persistent at the throne
of grace knowing that God is able Although he might delay
for a little while, that persistent need drives us to the throne
of grace to continue to lay those things at his feet, but also
in his character. He says he knows the things that
we have need of. He has told us that the very
hairs of your head are numbered. It's not that God doesn't hear
our prayers. It's not that he is deaf to the
cries of his people. His ear is open to the cry of
the righteous. but he often causes us to persist
at the throne of grace so that we prove that our need is genuine,
that our faith is tested. Do we really want or need the
things that we are asking for? If we just pray once and forget
about them is that really an earnest case? This man was in
a desperate need. His friend had come. He needed
to feed him. He didn't have the ability to
feed him. So he goes to the one who was able to provide for him.
And so when we see that we don't have the ability to deal with
certain situations, especially our sin, then we come to the
Lord Jesus Christ and persist at the throne of grace because
our need is great. And he has said he will open
the door, ask and you will receive, knock and the door will be opened
unto you. So I say though he will not rise
and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many as he needed. Christ would
rise because he is the friend not because he is annoyed, not
because he's frustrated that we have continued at the throne
of grace Christ rises because he is the friend of sinners and
he will grant the things that he needs best and he's always
provided for those who have come with their need of sin, he has
always come and he has always forgiven those who come unto
him with their need of sin and he always has provided the daily
bread for his people, and often he gives them more than their
daily bread. He grants them an abundance that
they may live on this earth. So may the Lord add his blessing
to these few remarks. Amen.