Let's turn to Luke chapter 11. Last week we were looking at
our Lord's instruction on the disciples' prayer. And just of
note, remember that it's not the words of that prayer that
have any power. It's the one to whom we come. And it's the disciples' prayers,
the prayer which our Lord taught his disciples to pray. And it gives us an outline, a
form of the things. It covers the things that are
on our heart, the child of God's heart who's been delivered from
the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of death and darkness, and placed
by the grace of God in Christ into the kingdom of light. the
kingdom of his son. And so our interest is the glory
of God. And secondly, our interest is
his kingdom, that his kingdom be established, and that his
word triumph in the hearts of his people, delivering them out
of darkness and establishing them in the kingdom of light. And that's on our heart. And
then comes our concerns and our needs. And what the Lord does
now, having looked at the first four verses, we come to an illustration
that Christ gave, an illustration for us, His disciples. And He says in verse 5, He said
unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto
him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves? for a friend of mine in his journey
has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him." That word
friend there is the same for both friends, the friend who's
come and the friend whose house he goes to. It's the same word
that the Pharisees used when they accused Christ of being
the friend of publicans and sinners. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut, and my
children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
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 needed. Now what this illustration is
not teaching us is that if we pray hard enough and we stay
at it long enough and if we nag God long enough that we'll finally
overcome the omnipotent sovereign will of God and get him to finally
bend to our will, for our nagging to conform him to what we want
so that he gets frustrated and wearied by us and gives us what
we want. We saw in the prayer, when we
looked at the prayer last week, prayer has something to do with
our will conforming to God's will. That through prayer the
Lord actually turns our hearts. How often has your own heart
been turned When you went to the Lord with a burden, with
a care, and He actually softened your own heart and turned your
own heart to be resigned to the will of God in this. He does
that often for us. The prayer that's in accordance
with God's will, that's the prayer that is effectual. That's the
prayer that is heard and answered of the Lord. We have Paul who
sought the Lord three times because of a thorn in his flesh. We have
thorns. The children of God have thorns
in the flesh and he sought the Lord to remove it from him but
the Lord said no. No, you're going to bear that
because I can bear it. My grace, I can handle it. I
can sustain you. And you're going to have that
weakness because my strength is made perfect in weakness.
I'm able to bear it. And so by grace and power, you're
going to bear it. You're going to be kept with
that. And he was brought into compliance. His will was conformed to the
Father's will in leaving it with him. So to understand this illustration,
consider the context that he gives us this illustration on
prayer. In verse 4, he had spoken that
that concern that we now come to the Lord with our cares is,
Lord, forgive us of our sins. Lord, lead us not into temptation. Lord, deliver us from evil. So that's the context that this
illustration is now given. There's a man who's shamelessly
knocking on the door at midnight. In the middle of the night, he's
banging away at the door because he has a need. And he's begging bread to satisfy
this friend who has come to his house, who's paid him a visit
on his journey. And so this parable, if you remember
the context, I know there's a breaking in the chapter. We go to chapter
11, but in chapter 10 at the end there, he was instructing
Martha in the one thing needful. the one thing needful, which
is Christ. And so this parable is given
to tell us how that a sinner in need obtains the one thing
needful in that hour that we most desperately need it. How we obtain the forgiveness
of our sins, how we obtain the salvation of God, how we are
delivered from all evil. This speaks to that. So the hour
here, the Lord tells us, is midnight. That means this man can't just
get up, go out of his house, and go to a store and get the
things that he needs. It's not available. It's closed
up. It's midnight. It's late. You're
not going out and getting what you need. And so he turns to
a friend. He's troubled because he doesn't
have what he needs and he turns to a friend, a friend's house. Now midnight is used a number
of times in the scripture. It's used a number of times in
the scripture. And when it's used, it's always
at a very critical moment in time. It's at a time when sudden
destruction is upon you. And you don't know how it's going
to turn out. You don't know if you're going
to be delivered. You don't know how this thing is all going to
go. You're afraid. It's midnight. It's midnight. And the day is far spent. Time's almost up and you don't
know what's going to happen, but before that sudden destruction
comes upon you, we see in the scripture how that the Lord gives
a mighty victory. And the Lord delivers you. When
you think you're swallowed up by defeat, he comes and snatches
you from the jaws of defeat and gives you salvation. Salvation. The Lord, for example, told Moses,
about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt. And there the destroyer slew
the firstborn of the Egyptians who were not under the blood.
But all who were under the blood were delivered. And the next
day, the Egyptians thrust them out from their presence. They
asked them, go, please, get out. Because God had brought a great
victory in that midnight hour. We're told of a time when Samson
was with his lover, and he was in the city of the Philistines,
and they wanted to slay him. And so they sealed up the entrance
and the exit. They sealed up the gate, locked
it, so he couldn't get out, and waited for him in the daytime. They thought in the day, when
he comes to get out, we'll get him then. Well, we're told that
he lay there till midnight, and arose at midnight and took the
doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away
with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and
carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron. And that, brethren, is a picture
of the salvation and delivery that Christ gives us who sit
in the darkness of midnight, and us who are trapped and sealed
behind an iron gate, a barred gate that you can't get out.
Christ is the one who broke that gate open and carried it up a
hill, leading us out of darkness, leading us into green pastures. Isaiah, I think Isaiah is speaking
of this thing in Isaiah 49 verse 9 when he says that of Christ
that thou mayest say to the prisoners Go forth to them that are in
darkness show yourselves and from the Savior he goes to the
shepherd and saying I they shall feed in the ways and in their
pastors shall be in all high places." Right? Where he carried
that gate up to Hebron, the hill of Hebron. And so Christ has
accomplished our victory. Christ delivers us from the midnight,
the night of midnight. We read, and it came to pass
at midnight that the man, speaking of Boaz, was afraid. That is, he was startled awake.
and turned himself, and behold, a woman, Ruth, lay at his feet. And there he blessed her and
assured her, you shall be redeemed by your kinsman, Redeemer." He
just had some business to settle. He settled it, and then he redeemed
her as her kinsman, Redeemer, and married her. David said,
at midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy
righteous judgments. Because that's when the Lord
visits us, is when midnight is in our soul. That's when he comes
and when we cry out to him, Lord, save me. I perish. And he saves
us and delivers us. We're told that at midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners
heard them. They were in the Philippian jail.
And then God brought a great earthquake. And the jail started
to fall apart, and the gates opened so that the prisoners
could escape. And the Philippian jailer was
about to take his own life, because he knew when the Romans see it,
they're going to take my life anyway, because they're going
to assume that I let them out. But Paul said, stay yourself. Don't harm yourself. And he came,
and they declared to him the gospel. And he heard of the salvation
of sinners, ruined sinners. who cannot save themselves and
he believed. And there are other examples
but they always connect this heightened moment of peril when
ruin is upon us, when death is upon us, and salvation is wrought
for us. Christ gives us this illustration
to tell needy sinners, you that are troubled, you that are troubled
by your sin, you that are troubled by your ruined nature, how to
obtain the salvation of God by His Savior, through His salvation,
through Him that saves His people from their sins. This is a time
when God has created midnight in your own soul. all his people
are brought to see, to feel, to know the midnight that we
are in by nature. God will bring his chosen child
into great straits, into great difficulties, so that then we
will seek God. Because when everything's going
well, our thoughts and our minds are not on the true and living
God. Very often they're on the world.
And we're looking at at worldly things and confident in ourselves
and very sure that we have what we need. And we're not thinking
of what we don't have. We're very confident in ourselves.
And so the Lord brings us to our knees. He brings us into
darkness so that we cry out to him, Lord, save me. Lord, I need
your salvation. Lord, help me. I'm a fool. Lord, I've sinned again. Save
me, Lord, help me. And so we begin to knock at the
door until we find satisfaction given to us by the Lord who then
reveals Himself to us and saves us. And so this is how it is
with every child of God when the day that this friend who's
on a journey as the Holy Spirit seeks out the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. He's seeking out his people,
looking for them. And when that friend comes to
you, that's when we're stirred up. That's when we're troubled.
That's when we realize that I don't have what it's going to take.
Everything's fine until suddenly it isn't. We think we're sure
we have what we need to stand before holy God in that day until
the friend comes and we open up the covers and realize it's
bare. I don't have a righteousness.
I don't have any confidence in myself. I thought everything
was great and then you realize it's not and you're troubled.
and you're destitute, you suddenly begin to feel that midnight darkness
in your soul. You suddenly begin to feel the
pangs of hunger for a righteousness. And your tongue swells up with
thirst for righteousness. And you look for works. You look
for something, something to give that friend to satisfy what he's
looking for. And he says, give me what you
got. And you realize, I don't have anything. I don't have anything
to stand before Holy God. And so we realize then that we
cannot satisfy Him. I have no bread. I have no bread. There's a day
coming, the Lord tells us, at midnight, there will be a cry
raised up. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye forth to meet him. And in that day, this sleepy
world will wake up and realize Christ is coming again. Where's
my lamp? Do I have any oil in it? Do I
have the spirit? Do I have any life? Any light? Any hope? And they'll be scrambling
and looking, but there's nothing there. And that day it'll be
too late. It'll be too late in that day. That's why this one
is called a friend. Because this friend comes in
the day of grace. This friend comes when there's
a friend's house to go to. And to seek that bread. to find
that bread that we need to set before this friend to prepare
us for that great and final day when the bridegroom comes again. It's a gracious thing for God
to trouble us now, for us to be troubled now, to look and
see I don't have what I need to stand before the true and
living God. And the way he does that is through
the preaching of the gospel, declaring the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's where we're stripped
down of all our vain fleshly confidences. We're stripped of
the works that we were so confident in and thought, this is my righteousness. This is my hope. But when he
shakes it, those things which are made by these hands, that's
when they crumble. That's when midnight enters the
soul. That's when we realize. We're empty. I don't have anything. I don't have anything to boast
in. And all our self-righteousness
becomes cankered. It rots. It falls apart. And our nakedness is exposed.
But this is the time that you want to know that I have a righteousness
for myself, that you might go to the house of the friend, that
you may obtain that righteousness, obtain that heavenly bread to
satisfy this friend who's come. And so he awakens our conscience,
he makes us to see that our works are filthy, that our thoughts
are wicked, that our heart spews a fountain of sin. He makes us
to see our nakedness now that we might find our all in Christ. So this friend at your door is
the perfect law of God demanding a perfect righteousness not a
half righteousness, not good enough righteousness, perfect
righteousness, 100% perfect in all your ways. James said that
the man who keeps all the law but is guilty of offending it
in one part is guilty of breaking the whole law, the whole law. And so He makes us, he demands
perfect righteousness. Give me what I need. And that's
when you realize I don't have. the righteousness that God demands,
that God is worthy of that perfect righteousness. The scriptures
reveal to us that we have accumulated a massive debt, a debt of sin. You think America's debt of some
36 trillion dollars is bad? Ours is worse. Each one of us
individually before the true and living God has a debt so
massive that we could spend an eternity in hell and never pay
it down. never satisfy what we owe to
God. Our debt of sin is so great.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're the
sinners. And our Lord calls this yearning
one a friend because he's brought upon you the midnight hour to
show you your need of Christ. your need of salvation, your
need of a Savior to save you to give what you stand in need
of. It's a day where we have the
home of the Friend, the house that He's built. one that that
house of Christ that he's built that we may go to and beg the
bread that we need to satisfy this friend who seeks out the
lost who seeks out sinners who seeks out those whom Christ has
shed his blood for to bring them under under into his family our
Lord said in verse five and six he said unto them which of you
shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say
unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine
in his journey is come to me. I'm the sinner. He brings that
to each one of us so that we know I'm the sinner. I'm the
guilty one. I'm the offender. I'm the offense
to holy God. And I have nothing to set before
him. And so these three loaves have
something to do with the life and the salvation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. These three loaves have something
to do with his sin atoning blood that washes us of our sins. These
three loaves have something to do with his perfect righteousness. They have something to do with
His Holy Spirit that gives us a new birth, not in the form
and creation of Adam, but in the last Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ. By Him, we gain all that we need
to satisfy holy perfect God, to satisfy the just demands of
the law, to satisfy the holy justice of God, to take us out
of the hands of justice, that we might go free in the Lord
Jesus Christ, alive and in His light, with His Spirit, living
by Him and unto Him, to His glory and power. And so by Him, we
are delivered of that which is, we are, we satisfy that which
is demanded of us. and we go free in Him. It is
Christ, sinner, that you need. It is Christ that we all need
as sinners. It's Christ who pleased the Father
well in all things and the Father tells us pointedly in whom I
am well pleased. I'm well pleased in Him. Come
to me in Him. and you come in perfect righteousness. All that you need, he gives as
the good, faithful shepherd. Everything that we need is given
to us by Christ the shepherd, Christ. He satisfies the need
of the sinner. Fly to him, sinner. Fly to Christ. Go to him because he gives you
what you stand in need of. He said, verse 9 and 10, Unto
you, he says unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek,
and ye shall find. Knock, and the door shall be
opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Christ Himself is telling us
how to obtain that perfect righteousness, that satisfaction that we need
to stand before the throne of God. You think of that, that
description, to stand before Almighty God in that day, seated
on His throne in all His glory. Just think of what our works
are going to do in that day. Think of the times that you've
had to stand before your dad and explain yourself. And what
you thought was your perfect excuse for what you did and why
you did it, all of a sudden, it just falls apart. And that's
just with your earthly dad. Imagine standing before the true
and living God and giving an account of what you've done or
not done, what you've said foolishly and in vain. We're undone. just the thought of that, to
stand before Him. But to stand before His throne
without spot, or wrinkle, or blemish, or blot, is to stand
in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
be found acceptable by the true and living God. For Him to say,
well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into thy rest,
prepared for thee from before the foundation of the world.
That's only in the righteousness of Christ. As Paul said, I don't
want to be found in my righteousness, which is by the law. I want to
be found in the righteousness of Christ. That's how we come,
brethren, in His righteousness. Turn over to Psalm 107. Psalm
107. I'm going to read a few scriptures
here, beginning in verse 8. It's a good Psalm to go back
and read because there's a pattern there that shows us and our works
and how God brings us into our need. and how that he satisfies
that need graciously and it's all in Christ. Psalm 107, let's
go to verse 8. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness, such as sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction
and iron. That iron means you and I, we're
not going to break those shackles. We're not going to deliver ourselves.
Because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned
the counsel of the Most High, therefore he brought down their
heart with labor. They fell down and there was
none to help. There's a picture of the disciples
doing that when they're out in the middle of the lake and they're
rowing hard to bring themselves to land and they could not do
it. These were well-trained fishermen
that rowed every day and they couldn't bring themselves to
land. That's us by nature. We can't bring ourselves to that
promised land in perfect strength and righteousness by what we
do. But when Christ came and entered the ship, then they were
suddenly on the other side. And all was calm and all was
well in him. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death and break their bands, those iron bands
that we can't break. He broke them in sunder. Oh,
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his
wonderful works to the children of men. Let's read one more,
verse 16 there. For he hath broken the gates
of brass and cut the bars of iron and sunder. Fools, because
of their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Right? We're fools to do these
things, to do foolishly, knowing, knowing how we're going to be
troubled, knowing how it's going to distress us, knowing that
it's destructive and destroys us and makes us fit for hell.
And yet we do it like fools. But their soul abhorreth all
manner of meat then, and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth
them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed
them, and delivered them from their destructions. It's like
looking at Jacob all over again. It's like looking at me in the
mirror. It's what we are by nature. what fools we are, and how gracious
the Lord is to grant repentance, to turn us from death, to turn
us from our foolishness, to bring us to see our need of Christ. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men. So we see a repetition here in
this psalm that speaks to our need. These people here in this
psalm don't save themselves. God saves them. God gives them
a heart to turn them from wickedness. Brethren, Christ is the one to
whom we came the first time. Christ is the one to whom we
come now. Christ is the one to whom we
shall go every time. If it's by the grace of God,
if you're saved, if you're his, he turns you again and again
to Christ. Don't stop coming to Christ. Go to him, fly to him, to his
house every time. We need Him. Do not turn from
Him because He is the One who gives the satisfaction that we
seek and need. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. So we see our need of coming
to Christ continually and throughout our sojourning here, he's made
us living stones. I think that's why we identify
so much with Jacob because Jacob was chastened and Jacob had to
be turned to see his folly, to see his weakness, to see his
need and be stripped down that he might be conformed to Christ.
Because it's only through that that we see and understand and
are strengthened by the grace of God to put off that old man
and to put on that new man born of his grace and power. But the
Lord does it through various seasons. He brings us through
times of dormancy when all is quiet and nothing can be seen. And then there are seasons of
bloom and spreading forth. He brings us through seasons
where we look beautiful and all looks good, and then he brings
us through seasons of a chilling wind that knock that beauty off
and strip us down and bring us low. Times of proving us, times
of strengthening us, times of causing our roots to go deeper
into Christ, times when he restores us, times when he grows us, and
times of midnight in the soul to bring us low in ourselves
to again see our need of Christ. in times when he affirms his
love unto us again in Christ. If midnight has come to your
door again though you've promised God and said I'll never do it
again you'll never see me here again at your throne for this
Lord because I ain't doing it ever again and then you do it
and you're embarrassed and ashamed and rightly ashamed rightly rightly
embarrassed, yet go to him. Ask, seek, knock on that door. Beg him for the bread you need
to satisfy that friend which has come to you and exposed to
you your need once more. Luke 11.8, 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 needed. That word, importunity, means
shamelessness. Shamelessness. It's a shameful
thing, right? But don't let your shame stop
you from coming to the fountain of Christ's blood, banging on
the door as a beggar in need. Go to Him. Go to Him. It is a
shameful thing. How dare you show up? after doing
what you have to promising and making things that saying that
you'd never do that again and yet we're gonna see that there
we are as shameful beggars shamelessly begging and knocking on the door
because we need the salvation and grace of God Ask for pardoning. Ask for a sin-cleansing blood. Ask for the refreshing spirit
of His grace. Keep knocking till He give you
all that you need. That's what he's saying there.
Peter said it this way, and I think this is relevant, in 1 Peter
chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning
in verse 1, He said, wherefore, laying aside all malice, all
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. Those
are the likes of what Paul wrote when he described the works of
the flesh. That's what we do by nature. Those are the works
of the flesh that we turn to to solve things and to get what
we want in life. by nature. But he says as newborn
babes, as little babes, desire the sincere milk of the word
that ye may grow thereof. So he is writing to professing
believers, those who profess to have a hope in Christ. And he says if so be ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now let me ask you, who has tasted
that the Lord is gracious? Is it the Pharisee who has his
works, who has fulfilled the law as far as he is concerned?
Has that one tasted that the Lord is gracious? No, he has
no need for God's grace. The one who has tasted that the
Lord is gracious is the sinner. And He's saying to you, desire
the sincere milk of the Word. Be turned to Him. Hear Him. Go to Him. Desire that milk,
to whom coming as unto a living stone Disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Brethren, we're
living stones, and the Lord is dealing with us graciously, bringing
us through those seasons as living things go through. and showing
us our need of Christ, conforming us to Christ, stripping us of
vain fleshly confidences in this flesh of loving this world and
turning us from this wicked, fallen world and our wicked,
fallen ways to Christ, to cry out to Him, to beg of Him that
bread which we need, to find in Him our all, We look for him,
brethren. Now our Lord, let me just say
a couple more things here. Our Lord in verse 11 says, if
a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will
he give him a stone? All right, you that need the
bread, will the father give you a stone? Will he say, here's
the law, suck on that for a while, get out of here? No, he gives
bread, the bread of heaven. Or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? All right, if we come by the
way of the law, we succumb to the bite of the serpent. We succumb
to that poison. We succumb to that death. No, we need the washing of our
sins in the flowing stream of Christ's blood. Or if he shall
ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Brethren, that speaks
of life. We were born dead of the sting
of the serpent, of the sting of the scorpion. We were dead
in trespasses and sins. But now we've been given new
life. What is an egg picture from your
chickens? It's life. It's a new life. And
that's what he's saying. You that need life, he gives
it. He's not going to give you that
which kills, that which destroys us, that which keeps us engulfed
in poison and death. Well, if you that are 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 Him? And so, you know, some men and
women see God only as a hard, cruel taskmaster, whipping and
beating them, and demanding of them that which they cannot give,
and have no satisfaction. And that's why a lot of people,
they see God only as that, as a hard, cruel taskmaster. What
you think He is, the God you expect to meet is the God that
you meet, if He leaves you to yourself. But in grace, he shows
you that he is very gracious, that he's provided all that we
need in the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us this gospel to strip
us down from having a vain, false confidence in self to find our
need in Christ, to fly to Christ, to bang on that door, Lord, save
me, help me. I need your grace. Deliver me
from death. Deliver me from what I am. I
need a new life. I need your grace. I need your
spirit. I need your salvation. Well,
if you can do that, how much more your Father will give you
the Holy Spirit, that new life, to you that ask Him. He does
it. He does it. In Christ, our Heavenly
Father gives us bread to satisfy our hunger, a fish, picturing,
I believe, the washing of our sins, an egg, which is the new
birth by the Holy Spirit. May this friend come to us in
his journey and drive us to seek, to ask, to knock on that door
of Christ's blessed home, that home which he has built, the
sinner's friend, the sinner's savior. He's the one who saves
his people, that we may find our all in him. Amen.