as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And 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. And he said, from within shall answer, 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 needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If he 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 him? Amen. May God bless the reading and especially the preaching of his word tonight. Well, it certainly is the case that when it comes to the things of God, we can become easily discouraged. I think you know that from experience, that when it comes to the things of God, it is easy to be discouraged. And you wonder if God is at work, if God hears, if God provides. What's the use sometimes of going to worship and so on? It's easy for the flesh to feel discouraged. You might even think that of your own prayer life at home or of your family worship. When it comes to the things of God, we are prone to be discouraged. But perhaps nothing more so than prayer and persisting in prayer. It is very easy to give up on prayer. Very easy to be discouraged. I've prayed once, I've prayed twice, and that's it. It doesn't seem as if the Lord is hearing. It doesn't seem as if the Lord is answering. And so it's not because the Lord has communicated anything to me to say to stop, but it's my flesh that decides I'm done. Perhaps prayer is of no value, or if I do it, it's just a mere duty. I do it just because God says to do so. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ, the good physician here, he knows that his people are often discouraged, and he has a word for you all. He has a word for you tonight that you remain persistent in prayer, that you continue to bring to the Lord those petitions that you have, that he has laid on your heart. Those things that you find are agreeable to his will and not to relent and not to give up unless providence or something else makes it plain that you are to stop. You are to plead with the Lord, even if you think that you are being annoying, which you're not, by the way, he's going to make that very plain. He says you go, and you go, and you go, and you knock, and you knock, and you knock, and you ask, and you ask, and you ask. See if you can wear out the door of heaven, he says. You can't, and you continue to go. Instead, what he teaches is something like this, that God delights in his children having such an expression of faith that they would be moved to continue on, to go to him, that they are so dependent upon his mercies that they will not stop coming to him and that they will continue relentlessly knowing that faith knows that God is, and God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And he loves to answer those who persist. Now perhaps you know this, it's not a mere story, this episode, you remember in Jacob's Life Children where he wrestles with God? until he prevails, that's how the text speaks of him, prevailing with God. Now obviously no man can prevail over the Almighty, but rather in prayer you can think of Jacob like this. You think about maybe you've done this with your own father, where you wrestle with your father, and you were very little, and your father is there wrestling with you and he lets you win. Right? To encourage you. So that you have delight in that. And that's what it is with God. No man is going to change the Almighty's mind. No. We've talked about that before. And no man can overpower God. But God certainly delights when his children exert themselves in the exercise of prayer, who will spend themselves in the exercise of prayer, and then he delights to relent, as it were, and give you that petition which you have asked for. It's a way in which we have communion with God, and we find our faith grow as we, so to speak, go the distance with God until he gives what we ask for. Well, through this text, we will flesh that out some more, as our theme is, as I've mentioned, persistence in prayer. Persistence in prayer. And we pray that God will give us the heart to persist with Him and prevail. We'll consider that under three heads. First, the proclaimer of persistence. Second, the parable of persistence. And third, the promise of persistence. So first, the proclaimer of persistence. Now, our Lord was in prayer. Now, we've, in our short time together, have seen the Lord pray often. You see in verse one, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. Now we find that the one who preaches on persistence is one who prays. with persistence. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his own practice of prayer, often went to God and often pleaded with the Lord. So nothing he is teaching here is something that is alien to his own practice. He often went to the Lord over and over again. And so he teaches persistence from a place not only of biblical truth, but also experiential knowledge as a man. Prayer was not just theoretical to our Lord, right? If God merely in the divine nature taught you on prayer, that would be one thing, we'd have to receive it. But when the God man teaches, who as man exercises himself in prayer, we take special note because he is one who practices what he preaches. Prayer was his life, in a sense. And in the Bible, we see that the Lord often retreats, and typically you don't get much more than a peek into his prayer life, right? He'll give you snapshots, typically. You'll see something like this. He'll tell Peter, as we considered recently, I have prayed for thee that thy faith faileth not. You see that in the Garden of Gethsemane, you see that wonderful prayer where he says, not my will, but thine be done. But of course, the greatest prayer that we have revealed of our Lord is in John 17, in that great high priestly prayer. And when you survey that prayer, something like this, Thomas Manton, I believe, preached 84 sermons on that prayer. It is so rich. And surely when you survey that prayer, you say, surely no man has prayed as this man prayed. Right? The Lord's prayers are so full and so rich and so glorious and so loving and compassionate. And it would be fitting then, as you see in verse one, that after observing him in prayer, a disciple asks him how to pray. Now this is actually, we think about this disciple here. This is a spiritually minded man, isn't he? His request of his Lord is teach us how to pray. And if all of God's people would be so interested, not only in learning how to pray, but you can think of it this way, praying, Lord, open my heart, teach me how to pray, show me how to pray, even in prayer, because here he is, he's in a sense praying, right, to the Lord. Teach me how to pray, this is a petition. Now, this is really, I thought about this, how it is part and parcel of our theme. Notice how approachable Jesus Christ is, right? As he prays in essence to Christ, the disciple asks a mediator, and what was Christ's response? Does he denigrate? Does he say, well, what do you mean? You don't know how to pray yet? How long have you been a disciple? Or does he say, I'm just too busy for you? I've got so much ministry to do. No, he graciously receives the request and does what this disciple asks for, doesn't he? This is encouragement in itself as he sets out the text. Always observe, now children, especially at a young age, when you go to your Bible and you find people ask the Lord something, for your encouragement, always notice how gracious and kind he is in response when they come in humility. He's always serving His people, isn't He? Compassionately, kindly. He doesn't rebuke them out of hand when they have a humble request. And so what you need to do is if you go to the Lord humbly in prayer with things agreeable to His will, think of the Lord dealing kindly with you. That He doesn't keep you at arm's length. He doesn't shoo you away. He doesn't say, no, I'm too busy. He does what you ask. It's really our flesh that is suspicious of his character. But he has an open arm, he has open arms and an open heart for you. Well, in response to this prayer, in verses two to four, Christ conveys a version of the Lord's Prayer. And you've become familiar with it, I trust, from Matthew 6, as we've had eight sermons on the Lord's Prayer. And this version of it here in Luke 11 is substantially the same, though there are some minor differences. And since we've been in the Lord's Prayer, I'm not going to cover it, obviously, other than to note this. The minor differences between the two texts shows us that, well, this was a different occasion, first of all, and though the overall pattern is the same as Matthew 6, it does show us that the Lord's Prayer is a pattern prayer. Remember, he said, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. And so the Lord's Prayer is not a strictly prescribed prayer. And so we can think of it that way as well, that we take these petitions and the Lord himself, he doesn't strictly use the exact pattern of words that he did in Matthew 6. Well, because we've had eight sermons, I'm not going to consider the Lord's prayer, other than we consider that he delivers, again, instruction on how to pray when God's people ask him to. So with that as background on the one who is so inviting when we go to him, let's consider our second head, the parable of persistence. And this is where we'll spend most of our time tonight. In verses five to eight, the Lord delivers a parable to get us to come to the throne of heaven. Now in this parable, and I'll summarize it, a man comes to his friend's home at midnight. It's the dead of the night. The friend is fast asleep and in his bed are his children. So his children are sleeping in his bed. It's midnight, you can think of the scene, and everybody is very comfortable there. And as you know, midnight is a terrible night to visit anyone, even a friend, and to knock on their door. This is not a great time to have visitors over. But this man in the parable you notice was driven by a need. He is a bit desperate. He has another friend, a friend who has visited him from a long way off, and that man needs food and is famished. So this man comes to his friend's home in the dead of night to ask for loaves of bread from his friend who is fast asleep. First of all, he doesn't ask for niceties, he asks for things that are needed, sustenance, things that are needed for sustenance. Give us day by day our daily bread. You can think of the fourth petition. Now, his friend initially denies him. Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give thee. It's a very understanding response, isn't it? It's middle of the night, I'm in bed, my children are here, I cannot rise and give thee. Now, you can imagine how disheartening that might be at first. Here's a friend telling him, no, I won't give it to you right now. And he could have at that point gone home despondent, couldn't he? He could have said, well, I guess I'll have to go someplace else. But this man does not cease. He kept knocking and knocking and knocking and asking and asking and asking and seeking and seeking and seeking. He kept pleading. Open the door. There is a great need here. I need food for my friend. And he was determined to get from his friend what he needed. His need drives him to his friend's door, and he does not get discouraged. And Jesus says, yet because of his friend's importunity, and that word is persistence, he would arise and give him as much as he needs. Okay. So because of his importunity, and also notice in verse eight, which is where I read that from, because he is his friend, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. So I'll consider the relationship between us and the Lord in just a moment. But at the very, very least, what you notice is he is connecting your relationship with God in a friendly way. There's another parable in Luke 18, where you have the widow going to the unjust judge. And there you see a man who has a contrary relationship, but here the Lord is saying, this man is a friend. You remember from places like Song of Solomon chapter 5, this is my beloved, this is my friend. You remember in Christ, Christ tells us, you are my friends. So he is reminding you of the fact there is a friendly relationship here. All the enmity between you and God is gone. There'll be more on that a bit later. But here you find his friend's importunity or persistence prevails. And this is the notion the older theologians might talk about prevailing prayer or import, importune prayer. This is that knocking and asking over and over again, prevailing with God, going to him over and over and not relenting. And in this word, importunity, there is a sense of relentlessness. It has the idea of earnestness and perseverance. Romans 12, 12 has a similar idea where we are to be continuing instant in prayer. The idea is to persevere with devotion, busy with faithfulness in prayer. And if you come to the Lord in faith, in prayer, you are allowed, brethren, here Jesus says, to come with importunity. And to not think that that is something untoward. That in fact, the Lord invites it. There are two discouragements. One is in thinking that the Lord does not hear. We'll deal with that in a moment. Faith takes care of that. But the second is that it's as though we're wearying God with our petitions. And the Lord says, no, he is friendly towards you in Christ. And you are by faith to continue to go to him over and over and over again. You are allowed to come with importunity. And the mediator who mediates for you with God says, do not relent. So here's the one who mediates for you, who is telling you himself, don't relent in prayer. Persist like Jacob who wrestles with God until he gets the prize and part of your access to God brethren in Christ is that you can come to him as you well know with boldness and That boldness is not a one-shot thing, but it allows for you to come to him over and over again now Why should we relent if we are bringing things that are agreeable to His will, right? In fact, this is the great exercise of faith in bringing petitions that are agreeable to His will. It would be really, in a way, a sin to relent if you had in hand a promise from God or a word from God out of the Bible saying, I am to pray for this and I'm going to stop. I'll cease praying for this. Right. Because what's wonderful about faith bringing petitions. So we're, we're just building on what we've built before is that when we pray according to the will of God, in effect, we are taking the word of God, which is his own, um, his own word to us, giving us all the warrant we need to bring a petition to God. And in effect, when we stop to pray for something that is in God's word, it is showing a lack of faith. You clutch his own promise when you come to the throne of grace. You bring his own word. And you remember that that is something that the Lord smiles upon. Instead, you are to give the Lord no rest day and night. Always remember that faith proclaims that it believes that God is and is the rewarder of him who, what? Diligently seeks him. Diligently seeks him in the word and even in persistence. Faith has qualities like refusing to be discouraged in any matter of faith, especially in prayer. So let's make sure at this point though, that we don't take the wrong lessons from the parable with regard to who God is. Now, children, this is not a lesson about how our God is like a slumbering friend annoyed at us. Right? That's not the lesson here. Jesus assumes that, you know, God is not like that. Is God like that? Is God ever asleep, children? No. We don't derive, in other words, our doctrine of God from the man in the bed. Now that's important to say, though it might seem obvious to you, but it's important to say in how people use parables. A lot of times people will, I don't know how many times I've preached a parable, or I've taught a parable, or I've even just read a parable. Somebody will come in after the service. What do you think that little feature over there of the parable means? What's the meaning there? I'll say, well, I don't think that has really any meaning, but it's there to set up a circumstance, right? Parables tend to have one main point and you don't take every little detail and then import spiritual meaning from them, right? You look at the point Jesus Christ is trying to teach, and then you take that lesson. Otherwise, what would your doctrine of God be here? That God is sleeping. that God sleeps and slumbers at midnight, right? This is the craziness that starts to happen when you interpret parables and take things that have no spiritual significance and start to give them. This is a setup to teach you something. There's no significance in every minute detail. These parables all have a main point. So what are we then to make of this man in his bed and his connection to God? Well, what Jesus is delivering here is what is known as a lesser to greater argument. a lesser to greater argument. If something is true of something that is lesser, how much more true it is of something greater. So if a mere man, so this is essentially the lesson, right? If a mere man who is your friend will answer for your importunity or persistence, how much more God, right? How much more God. The Lord actually gives you an illustration you probably have some sympathy for. In fact, the sympathy, don't think of the man at the door. Think of yourself in bed and a friend coming to the door in need. A friend knocks at your door. You don't want to get out of your warm bed. You don't want to wake up your little children who will cry, right? But you hear in your friend's voice a bit of desperation. Somebody is very hungry and he's in great need. And you yourself will give in. even if it makes you uncomfortable, right? That's the connection that you ought to make as well, is not just the man at the door, but also the man in the bed. Would you not eventually give in, even if it's an annoyance to you? I think many of you have done more for lesser needs. So the question is this, how much more than God, how much more than will God give what you ask for with importunity when you are in need. And consider how the lesser to greater argument can be proved in three ways. The first lesser to greater argument concerns the nature of the relationship. In the parable, the man being asked is a mere friend, but we come to a father, right? In fact, the Lord begins by saying in verse two, our father, which art in heaven. How much more inclined and how much more compassionate is your Father in heaven, brethren, to you than a mere friend? If your child came to the door, right, you would think about, think of your child being far away from you for some time, and then in the middle of the night, they knock the door and you're like, what are they asking for? You will treat that very differently than a mere friend, won't you? That's how Jesus frames our relationship with God if we are a believer. And that ought to, as you meditate on it, cause you to not relent when you go to the Lord persistently. The second argument concerns the nature of the friend in the bed. The friend is of flesh and blood. He is one who wearies and tires to get up. But our Heavenly Father is not flesh and blood. He is a spirit. You heard it already. He never grows weary. But if a weary friend, slumbering, will get up, we remember of the Lord in Psalm 121.4, Behold, that is, pay attention, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. But you wake up, even with terrors in the night, brethren, at two in the morning, and he is there to receive you. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He's been watching you even in your bed. He's caring for you even when you're unconscious. In so many ways, the Lord cares for you, brethren. When you yourself cannot care for yourself, who is keeping your body breathing at night, even after your anxieties are put away by sleep? He is keeping you. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He never wearies. Here's a friend who's wearied in the bed and is tired. Isaiah 40 assumes you know that God is not wearied. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? Could you even weary him by knocking over and over again at the door? Is he slumbering? Is he sleeping? That is how Elijah mocks Baal. Paradventure, he sleepeth and must be awaked. You should know this about your God. He is there. He is hearing even the rapping on the door of heaven. He hears it all. He has a good reason for not answering straight away. But he hears, he loves, he has compassion, and he is not annoyed. By faith, you know, he not only hears your cries, but he also hears your whispers, and he hears your groans. As you remember, the Spirit helps us pray in Romans 8. Even when we utter groans that no one else can decipher, The Lord is there hearing all of that. Faith believes this and is relentless. The third lesser to greater argument is the moral character of the man in bed. He's evil. He's a sinner. Verse 13 says, if ye 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 him? If you can expect that a sinner might give you what is needed, how much more are good and holy God? And sometimes we are relentless with mere men, with sinful men as well. You know, sometimes you'll go to a friend over and over again when you need help, but you'll be more discouraged to go to God. And that is ridiculous. because in every way he excels, the most caring person. If you feel like you can go to even mother or father or spouse more than God, that's actually backwards. That's actually backwards. He has a greater care for you than the closest person in your own life. And so our Lord also gives you a memorable turn of phrase by which you might remember the parable in verse 10. He says, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Ask, seek, and knock. Let's break down this memorable phrase. First, ask, and it shall be given you. The word ask has the sense of demand. Where we go to the Lord once again in faith that we will receive if we ask with importunity and we're not to go with doubting. This man does not go to his friend. Part of what drives his persistence is he doesn't go with doubt. He goes with the sense of belief that he will get what he asks for. And James 1 reminds you that you are to ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And for your walk with the Lord, I want you to remember there is a difference between asking in a submissive and humble spirit and asking with doubt. You know, Jesus asked with a submissive spirit, not my will, but thy will be done. That's not a doubting prayer though. That's not a doubting prayer. That is submitting to the will of the Lord. That is full of faith. You can ask with a submissive spirit that says, if the answer is no and no way, I will be content. But there is a fine line between that and going to God with doubt and thinking straight away, it's unlikely he will give me this thing. That's not the same as praying with a submissive spirit. Being double-minded, that's what that is. Going with doubts. Never go to the Lord doubting that he is good and cares for you, that he would never deign to give me this thing. It's so outlandish, but if it's according to God's will, I should go in faith. Don't go with those doubts, beloved. Go submissively saying, again, whatever the Lord does is good, but I'm not going to go with doubt. So ask, and ye will receive. Second, he says, seek, and ye shall find. Now, have you ever lost anything valuable? Now, you know the kind of panic that drives you to look throughout the house, to tear up the furniture, and to find this thing that you are missing. You're not ceasing, right, until the item is returned to your possession. I remember times I've lost keys, or I think I've lost keys somewhere in the house, and I'm just driven to go everywhere and find it, to seek after it, not relenting until the thing is found and returned to my possession. That is how you seek the Lord. for things that you need, those things that are needful for us. You seek an audience with him as the widow who went to the wicked judge with no rest, right? You go and you seek an audience with him in prayer, constantly. He is there to receive you. But there's also an implication in seeking. that I think is helpful, that we must also seek lawful means to procure what one is asking for. For instance, we ask for our daily bread and we don't just sit on our chair waiting for it to come, right? We have to actually go and labor because if one does not labor, they are worse than an infidel. There are some things that we ask for, give us this day our daily bread that requires something of us as well. So we don't just leave it with the Lord if there is something that we must do in order to receive it of our own labors. Now, you'll notice there's also here a seeking of the friend in the parable. Now, what is often noted is the discomfort of the friend in the parable who is sleeping. But what is often not noted is the discomfort of the one who seeks, right? He's out there at midnight. He's out there in the middle of the night going to the store. Perhaps it's cold. Prayer is often a difficulty for the one who prays, right? Jacob wrestled with God. We spoke of this as well. That's an exertion. I remember speaking to a man recently who is a salesman. He is 100% on commission. He literally knocks on doors and does not relent because otherwise he told me my family will have nothing to eat. as a man in a different congregation. And that drives him relentlessly every day to knock on doors. This is the kind of desperation we ought to have when we go to the Lord in prayer. If I do not get this thing from God, then I am undone. Right? When the Lord has us go to him, we have this kind of determination. It's amazing how determined we are in many things in this life. And yet we are not so determined in prayer. but let us go earnestly with importunity to the throne of grace seeking. Third, knock and it shall be opened unto you. You knock on heaven's door as one seeking admission that the door would be open to us as the friend's door would be open. You are told to go with boldness to the throne of grace. And if a friend will open the door, how much more a father who is watching and waiting for you to come as he did for the prodigal. You go boldly to the throne of grace. You don't make your presence known timidly in a sense as a mouse scampering in fear before the throne of grace. You come boldly, you knock with reverence, but with boldness, unrelenting. Why boldness? Because in Christ you have a warrant to knock. This text and others, right, these are the warrants we take in the hand of faith before the throne of God. This is a wonderful way to argue with the Lord. Open for me, Lord. Here is my warrant. Out of your word, out of the son of God's own mouth, you have said, ask, seek, and knock, and don't relent. You have said, importunity, persistence, unrelenting is rewarded. So don't just be persistent in coming with the petition. Be relentless in reminding the Lord, who, by the way, children, you know, never forgets, but he delights when you take his own warrants out of the word and brings it to him in prayer. Why am I here, Lord? But could you imagine having a relationship like this with the Lord? Which you can. Why am I here once again, this afternoon, this evening, at midnight? It's because you have given me a warrant to be here. And if I cannot come to you, I can go to nobody. And you just plead with the Lord over and over that way. Don't just take your petitions coldly and coolly to the Lord. This is what wrestling with God in prayer is like. You bring his promises, you bring his word, you bring his will, and you are unrelenting. And your friend, your father, will open the door. You say, because of the blood of Christ, I have warrant to be here. It's holy confidence in prayer. And undoubtedly alluding to all that you have heard in this text, Samuel Rutherford once wrote to a woman named Marian McNaught. It were good that we should knock and wrap at our Lord's door. We may not tire to knock oftener than twice or thrice. I love this phrase. He knoweth the knock of his friends. He knoweth the knock of his friends, right? There's a difference. You have a relationship with the Lord. He knows who's knocking at the door. And if I may be permitted to make a slight modification to Rutherford, I might say it this way. He knows the knock of his children. He knows the knock of his children. He knows you're knocking, Christian, and he loves it and he delights in it. When he hears you knocking, his heart, in his heart is something like this. Now here is faith in me. Here is trust in me. Here is hope in me. Here is dependence in me. Here is love for me as their father. He knows the knock of his friends. He knows the knock of his children. And it pleases him for you to go to him. It does not annoy him. The point of the parable is that the friend, even if annoyed, opened, but God is not annoyed and he never tires of his children knocking on his door. And so brethren, if you can imagine a sinful friend arousing up from the night, willing to even upset his children to give what was needed, how much more ought you to go to your father in heaven? No, you need to meditate on these things, not just hear it. You need to meditate on these things when you think of the character of your God. Faith endures until it secures the prize or Lord makes clear the answer is no. But even as you have heard in our sermon on answer to prayer, even when the Lord says no, it's in love. But maybe you have prayed for good things according to the will of the Lord and they've not been answered straight away. And so you stopped praying. Unbelief and discouragement have come into your heart, have they not? Rekindle with God's help, persistence, friends. There are many things that you are probably grown discouraged in that the Lord did not tell you to stop praying for, but you, your own flesh has decided to cease. If you felt discouraged or unbelief has come by way of thinking poorly on God, bring back to remembrance the things you once prayed for, but now has stopped. The family members that are not walking with the Lord, but you have stopped praying for their repentance and conversion. The besetting sin you have stopped asking the Lord to mortify. So you've stopped praying, deliver me from evil, but I've just given into it. Unbelief in this way has been a great barrier to your prayers. You've stopped believing in some way that your heavenly father who wants you to pray is asking you to pray for these things and to be persistent. And what that really is is that you've grown discouraged with him. You've really grown discouraged with him. And that's a terrible thing. And he sends his son in this text to teach you how much he wants you to come, right? And you want to think of it this way. The father sends his son to teach you this doctrine of prayer so that you would come to him, right? Do you think Jesus is inventing something about your heavenly father in this text? Or did the father himself send his son to teach you this? Jesus says, I have not spoken of myself, but the father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. John 12 49. So what he is saying and expressing is what your father in heaven wants him to say to you. So his son, the mediator is teaching you tonight to wrap your knuckles on heaven's door and not relent. Come through my son in prayer and persist as your forefather in the faith Jacob wrestled with me when I told him thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel for as a prince has that power with God and with men and has prevailed. Do you think prevailing with God was limited to Jacob? No. How much earnestness, how much relenting, how much pleading with God is there, really groaning with him until he gives what you ask for? One can prevail with God. Now one final thing about this parable. Note something of the kind of prayer being offered. In the parable, the man who knocks was an intercessor himself. He actually asks for bread for his friend and not for himself, does he? Now Jesus then intends for you to be an intercessor for others in prayer, and even to persist for them. Maybe even when they've grown discouraged themselves. And when they cease to pray, and when they cease to ask, you be unrelenting. Right, sometimes there is this problem where we find one of our brothers or our sisters, right, they've kind of given up. But the Lord says you intercede for them. James 5.16, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Pray for each other, brethren, in a fervent kind of way as well. I remember one time going to, when I was in the RP church, I went to the RP nursing home to go out there and visit and to see if there might be an encouragement for the residents there. And a lot of them were former pastors who had retired and they were spending the last of their days there. And I come in there, I've never met any of these men or women before, and they come and say, oh, you're part of that church in Dallas. We've been praying for you. I hear men who can no longer preach the word, but they can pray with fervency. And so there is a great call for us to be unrelenting, not just for the petitions we need, but for those our brethren need. And so when they are especially discouraged, you take up their cause before the Lord and maybe see if the Lord might change their own heart in that. Well, that said, we also need to understand when it is time to stop. David prayed for his son until his son died. Providence made it clear. Time was ready to stop with that prayer. But he was persistent until then. He fasted. He continued to go over and over again. But let us make sure that when we see that it is time to stop, it is God communicating to us. You are to not grow discouraged. But in something like that, David was made clear, you must not pray anymore. Because you don't pray for the dead, as you well know. So we are not to cease praying. And there are some things that, unless the Lord makes it clear to stop. Now, we can break up the word of God into two portions. You can think of definite promises that are to be prayed for without ceasing. Now, later on here, the Lord will say, pray for the Holy Spirit. That's not a prayer you ever cease. You pray that over and over again until the Lord relents, and we'll come to that in a moment. Or there's what we'll consider, Lord willing, on the Sabbath day, the calling of the Jews. You don't relent in that because the Lord has promised that they will come. And so you keep, no matter how discouraged the state of the world seems to you, you pray for them to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I will build my church. No matter how small this day seems in the church, you don't relent. You keep praying. But there are some things then that are indefinite promises, such as healing or conversions. And we ask these things insofar as they serve for God's glory and are good, but he will at times make you aware it is time to stop. praying. And if you are to continue to plead when the answer is obviously no, that is not importunity, that is obstinacy. That's a totally different thing altogether, to continue when God says no. Also be sensitive to the fact of when it is the Lord who truly takes away a desire for a matter from your heart. Be sensitive to that, that it's not discouragement, but the Spirit communicating to you that He will not grant your petition. We thought on this with the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. And we remember that he says, I will not give you this thing, but I will actually give you something better. I will give you grace to endure. Right? My grace is sufficient for thee. My power is perfected in weakness. Second Corinthians 12. So we pray without ceasing for definite promises, and we pray for indefinite things until it is clear we must cease to do so. Some of this we've already considered, but I bring it back for your remembrance. Let's conclude briefly with our last head then, the promise of persistence. Jesus also reminds what it is most needed for you to procure in prayer, the Holy Spirit. Verse 13, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? And so in all of, and I wonder where your mind was at in all of what we've heard of, Jesus Christ is saying, be very spiritual. when it comes to persistence in your prayer life, right? Sometimes we plead for things that are good to ask for. It's good to ask for health. It's good to ask for provision. It's good to ask that the Lord would help somebody in their job and so on. But the greater things that the Lord says are promises that you will have are spiritual things. And this is particularly where persistence in prayer is mightily blessed. Every spiritual blessing you need comes from the Holy Ghost. You find joy in the Holy Ghost. You find peace through the Holy Ghost. You find holiness in his ministry. You find the subdual of your flesh by him. You find comfort as he is the comforter. You find faith as he blows on us. You find illumination for the word and light to light our path by the word of God. You find our communion and union with Christ through his ministry. In prayer, not only is He given as a gift to us, but He communicates God Himself to us, and He applies all the benefits of salvation procured by Jesus Christ. In other words, every spiritual blessing can be yours, and is yours for the asking. And yet we don't ask. Or if we ask, we ask once or twice, but we don't keep banging at the door, so to speak. Give me the Holy Spirit. And he says to you, will I give you a scorpion? Will I give you a rock? I will give you the Holy Spirit. And that ought to excite us. And if it doesn't excite us, then we actually have to do much repentance because this is what we really need as God's people. You need to take the promise in hand and take the promise of Ezekiel 36, 27 in hand. I will put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. We need to ask for what the Holy Spirit will do in our life. Mortification, vivification, illumination of God's Word, power to persevere to the end, grace to keep the commandments of God. You struggled to do that? Ask for the Holy Spirit. and don't relent. You need comfort, the Holy Spirit is the comforter himself. You need joy, you find joy in the Holy Ghost. We as a church need power from the Holy Ghost to convert souls. Our brothers have prayed that way tonight. We need power to convert. We need him next Saturday at the abortion mill. And we need his ministry. And the Lord says, don't relent, don't give up. We need him to edify our congregation. We need to ask for him. We need to ask for all the ministers of God to be filled with the Holy Spirit when they preach to us. Right, this is what we need. And praise God that he says you will get him if you keep asking. And if revival has not come, if we still feel spiritually dry, we go and we go and we go and we don't stop because He has promised to give His Holy Spirit. Here is the promise. How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? This ought to excite us as we have loved ones who need conversion. We ask that they would be granted the Holy Spirit. We don't ask with doubting, but we do ask with submission, right? To his will. We need him to expand and grow the kingdom of God on the earth. And it is exciting to us to think that he will give his church what it needs in this evil day. We look at all the evils in our nation and in our church. How often do we pray for the Holy Spirit to come down and bless us with power from on high? Persist in spiritual prayers, brethren, and they will be mightily blessed. How busy, this is for you to consider, how busy, if you don't mind me saying it, is God in receiving your prayers? Hear Isaiah 62.6, ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Right? He says, until the kingdom of God spreads across the whole earth, until the glory of the Lord is known from sea to sea, keep no silence and give him no rest. Look at that language. Keep no silence. Give God no rest till the kingdom flourishes. You tire yourself out trying to tire him out. That's the invitation of the Lord. And this is again a way that we wrestle with God in prayer. Lord, thou has told me not to give you any rest. And that's why I am here. How he fills your soul with that love of complacency and delight when you bring his own word to him. Right? And he will induce you. Come to me again. Come to me again. Give me no rest. And even in that wrestling, right? Even if you don't yet leave with the petition, you have left with a sense of assurance and love and hope in the Lord rekindled. Trust vindicated. And if you ever need an encouragement to send you to prayer again and again, take another promise in hand. If God spared not his own son for us, how will he not with him give us all things? Right? Take promise after promise after promise. Have your hands overflowing with the word of God as you knock on the door. and see if he will not relent and he will not answer. You saw Abraham do this very thing. Well, you will see that very shortly in our Old Testament reading. As he goes to the Lord and he doesn't relent, and maybe he should have continued on until he asked the Lord, if one righteous man be in Sodom, will you spare it? But he gives up a little bit before that, doesn't he? And you know there was one righteous man in Sodom lot. What would it have been if he had persisted a little bit more? Now, obviously that wasn't the Lord's will, but it does make you ask these questions, doesn't it? Why did he give up then? Couldn't you have gone until there was absolutely one person that he knew had faith in the Lord and not give up then? I think the Lord might smile on that kind of prayer. Well, then you have been exhorted to prevail with God. May he bless a meditation on his word. We'll see where we will go from this point on in the doctrine of prayer, or if we'll go to something else next time. But until then, let us arise and go to the Lord in prayer. O Lord, our God, we confess, O Lord, that we give up far too soon. Though we have so many precious promises in hand, even one tonight, O God, that if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And so, Father, we pray that the Spirit would come and bless Thy people, that they would be persistent in prayer, for it is the Spirit only who can grant that persistence. If any here have grown discouraged in prayer, O Lord, may the word tonight that has come to them encourage them to knock on the door of heaven, to ask, to seek, and to knock until they prevail with God, until God makes it plain that they are to stop. But for the Holy Spirit, Father, we know that thou hast said, don't stop asking for him. And so we do ask that the Spirit would come and meet us, that He would fill our hearts with Christ, that He would give us every spiritual blessing to walk in the commandments of God, to mortify sin, for the Spirit devours the flesh, and to give us newness of life in Christ. We pray that our congregation would grow and the power of the Spirit. We pray for those loved ones who are unconverted, and we plead with Thee for them, for they will not ask, as we even saw here in this parable, how the man's friend does not ask, but the man asks on behalf of his friend. And so we do pray for our loved ones who are unconverted, for they will not ask Thee, Lord. And so we do pray for them. Help us not give up on those who are in need. We think of our brethren who might be discouraged, and we pray, O Lord, for them, for their sake, that they would find encouragement. And we do pray, Father, that Thou wouldst give us tokens of Thy mercy and love when we bring the promises of God in hand in prayer and we wrestle with Thee as Jacob. Help us, O Lord, for our faith is weak. Increase our faith. Help us to be a praying people. For it is said, rightly so, that a man is no better than his prayer life. And so, Father, we do pray that each member here, each person here, rather, would be praying steadfastly, steadily every day, and that Thou would build up our congregation through the prayers of Thy people. O Lord, we can accomplish none of this and we will come and ask Thee again for these very things in our prayer meetings until Thou relents and gives us what we need. Lord, we trust that Thou has sent Christ into the world to give us this word and by faith we will continue with Thy help to pray in this way. We ask all