As we said this morning, the theme of our sermons today is the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ on prayer. And so we open up to more of the Lord's teaching on prayer. here, and we read starting from verse one. 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. And there's our keynote for these sermons, that petition, Lord, teach us to pray, the petition we all ought to be praying. And as we look at the Lord's answer, the Lord's response to this request from His disciples, we see Him give this model prayer, the Lord's Prayer, and we rightly conclude that that is the response. But that's not the whole response of the Lord in teaching them to pray. Because He goes on, not only to tell them what they ought to pray for in that model prayer, but He goes on to teach them how they ought to pray. How they ought to pray. And so we read this parable in verses 5 through 8. 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 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 to get 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. Importunity. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches that we are to pray with importunity. That word, importunity, literally means shamelessness, shamelessness, shameless boldness in prayer. So consider the parable. In this parable, this man receives a visit at midnight from a friend on a journey, and he has nothing to set before him, nothing to feed him with there at his home. So he goes to another friend's house, and he knocks on the friend's door, though it's midnight, though the man's asleep, though the door is shut, though he has his children in bed with him, he's knocking at the door. Hey, open up. I need some bread. Do you have any bread that you can give me? You see his shamelessness. In the parable, the man basically forces his friend to give him the bread. He wakes him up, catching him off guard. He's about to wake up the whole family with his knocking and his asking. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise to get thee, is what the man might have said, if it weren't for the importunity of the man who persists. And he's about to wake up the whole house. in asking for bread. My children are in bed with me, and it's as though he's saying, just give me the bread, and I'll go, and you can get back to bed. Fine. Take as much as you want. And so even though he won't give him because he's his friend, out of the generosity of his heart, yet for his importunity, because of his shamelessness and the disturbance which he's causing to his friend, He will rise and give him as many as he needed. Shamelessness. Importunity with God is shameless boldness in asking for what we need. Shameless boldness. Now, importunity is not irreverence. You may think I'm speaking of being irreverent toward God in prayer, but importunity is not irreverence. It's rather driven by desperation. by a desperate sense of need. A friend of mine in his journey has come and I have nothing to set before him. He has this desperate sense of what he needs from his friend. It's driven by desperation and it's rooted in faith. He knows that his friend has bread and he's convinced that he'll give it to him if he asks boldly enough. And so where desperation and faith meet, the result is importunity with God in prayer, desperation in faith. Importunity. Importunity is gaining liberties with God. Importunity goes beyond the bounds of what seems appropriate with God. Importunity wakes God up, like the man going to his friend's house at midnight and waking him out of his sleep. If you noticed, the Psalms that we've sung, Psalm 59 and Psalm 7, this afternoon, both spoke in terms of, wake up, God. Arise to help me. We read of similar language in Psalm 44 verses 23 and following. Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off forever. To put it in modern parlance, wake up! Why are you sleeping, oh Lord? Get up, cast us not off forever. Importunity wakes God up. Like the disciples on the boat, they knew something of this. Tossed with the waves on the sea, feeling the desperate situation they were in, what do they do? They find their Lord sleeping. Arise, Master, carest thou not that we perish? So, importunity goes boldly and shamelessly to God, driven by desperation, rooted by faith, and takes liberties with God in prayer. Importunity lays hold of God and wrestles the blessing from his hand, crying, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. of the promises of God and presses them to God himself, saying, Lord, give what thou hast promised. Importunity brings arguments before the Lord, like what we read of in Job. chapter 23, in Job chapter 23, and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No, but he would put strength in me." Importunity brings arguments before the Lord and will not take no for an answer. This is shameless boldness with God, importunity with God in prayer. We have many scriptural examples of importunity. You have many examples of this in the life of our Lord Jesus himself, with people coming with importunity and the Lord rewarding it and commending it. And so consider that woman of Canaan in Matthew 15. Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. And he answered and said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So he rebuffs her, he turns her away. Then came she and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. Rebuffs her a second time. And she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table. bringing arguments before the Lord in prayer, not taking no for an answer, answering back to the Lord Jesus Christ when He rebuffs her. And then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very She answers back to the Lord Jesus, how inappropriate, how unfortunate. But the Lord Jesus marvels at her faith. O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. How many times do you see the Lord Jesus, through the Gospels, speaking to His disciples and saying, O ye of little faith. But he says to this Canaanite woman, this Gentile woman who comes with importunity and boldness, answering back to him, pressing arguments upon him, he says, O woman, greatest thy thing. because she had that importunity that was driven by desperation and was rooted in faith. She had a sense of her need and she had a confident persuasion that the Lord could meet her need and that he would meet her need if she pressed it upon him. Importunity. Another example of importunity is blind Bartimaeus. We read about him toward the end of Luke 18. You can also read about him in Mark chapter 10. Luke doesn't give us his name, but Mark does, Mark chapter 10. So Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem, and a great crowd of people is following him. He's at the height of his earthly popularity. He's about to saddle the ass and ride into Jerusalem with the people spreading their garments in the street and crying, Hosanna to the son of David. They're doing this because they all believe that He's the Messiah. And in their minds, this means that He's about to lay claim to the throne of Israel and liberate them from the Romans. That was the carnal expectation of the Jews at that time. Jesus is at the height of His popularity. There's a huge crowd going with Him. And then suddenly, while this is on everyone's mind, there comes a cry from the roadside, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And it says in Mark's gospel, many charged him that he should hold his peace. Be quiet. This is completely inappropriate. Don't you know who he is? Don't you see what's going on, Bartimaeus? Be quiet. But he cried the more a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Not willing to be silenced, not willing to stop crying out to the Lord. So the Son of God stops His procession to Jerusalem, and He calls Bartimaeus over. "'What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?' He says, "'Lord, that I might receive my sight.'" And He says, "'Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole." So you see how importunity stops God in His course, as it were. Jesus is on His way. His face was set like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He knew what He was going there for. Everybody else thought He was going to lay claim to the throne. He knew He was going to die for the sins of His people. His face is set like a flint. Nothing's gonna stop him on his way to Jerusalem. But then, here comes the blind beggar crying out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And he won't stop. And he continues on with importunity, shamelessly, as inappropriate as it seems, to be crying out to him, and it stops Jesus Christ in his course. And he calls him over. and he heals him, and notice what he says to him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. You see how he links Bartimaeus' importunity with faith, just like he considered the importunity of that woman of Canaan to be an expression of faith. Believing prayer is importunate prayer. Importunity is itself an expression of faith. So these are a couple of scriptural examples, but there are also many examples from church history, and I'll give just one. This was during the Lewis revival in the mid-20th century, when the Lord was pouring out his spirit in a remarkable way on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, and parish after parish were blessed with remarkable Seasons of revival, but there was one particular parish which saw which was seeing nothing They were seeing none of the blessing the surrounding region Was all experiencing revival, but this one was not and so there were some men including Five ministers and some others from the village who were gathered together in a barn praying praying through the night praying into the wee hours of the morning And one of the ministers who was officiating the prayer meeting called upon John, the blacksmith, to pray. He paused for a second or two. Then looking up towards the heavens, he cried, God, do you know your honor is at stake? You promised to pour water on the thirsty, and floods on the dry ground, and God, you're not doing it. They were pleading that promise. I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground, I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, blessing upon thine offspring. Lord, do you know your honor is at stake? You promised to pour water on the thirsty and floods on the dry ground, and God, you're not doing it. There are five ministers in this meeting, and I don't know where one of them stands in your presence, but if I know anything at all about my own poor heart, I think I can say, and I think that you know, that I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty to see the devil defeated in this parish. I'm thirsty to see this community gripped as you gripped Barbas. I'm longing for revival, and God, you're not doing it. I'm thirsty, and you promised to pour water on me. Then after a pause, he cried, God, I now take it upon myself to challenge you to fulfill your covenant engagement. Importunity. And when they left that prayer meeting there in the wee hours of the morning, the streets were flooded with people going to the churches, looking for somewhere where they might meet with God. The Lord poured out his spirit in reviving power and in grace. in answer to importunate prayer. Prayer with faith. Importunity in prayer. Second, I want to consider from the Lord Jesus' teaching, perseverance. Importunity and perseverance. You see, when Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock, as we just read in Luke 11, and as we read earlier from Matthew 7, the verb in the Greek, the verb literally implies keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. This implies perseverance in prayer. Perseverance or persistence is a necessary element to successful prayer. And indeed, it's a necessary element to believing prayer. Our Lord emphasizes the importance of persevering prayer in the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith? in the earth. Shall not God avenge his own elect, he says. Shall not God, notice the word he uses there, his own elect who cry to him day and night. If the unjust judge will avenge the persistent widow, shall not God avenge his own elect when they cry to him persistently day and night? He calls them his own elect, those whom he chose before the foundation of the world, whom he loved with an everlasting love. This should encourage us in persistence in prayer. That was the point of this parable, that men ought always to pray and faint not. That is, that they should persist and persevere in prayer. So consider when you're tempted to faint in prayer, to leave off praying about something and not to persevere in it. Consider, if you're a child of God, that you are the Lord's elect, that you are one of those upon whom he set his love before the foundation of the world. And shall he not avenge such whom he's loved from all eternity. Shall he not avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him?" Which cry out to him day and night. Notice that. Day and night. One element of persevering prayer is sometimes praying into the night, crying to God day and night. In the scriptures, as well as in the language that's been used through church history, the term watching has been used for praying into the night. So we talk about fasting, that's giving up food in order to devote ourselves more fully to prayer, while watching is like fasting from sleep. It's giving up the night hours, giving up the time that you would normally be sleeping in order to devote to persevering and importunate prayer before the throne of grace. And so we read, in the book of Ephesians, just after the section on the armor of God in Ephesians 6, he says in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. The word he uses for watching thereunto, it literally means staying awake from sleep. That's the literal meaning of that word. Staying awake from sleep, watching thereunto with all perseverance. Have you ever prayed into the night? Have you ever been driven by that same desperation we spoke earlier and faith to persevere even into the night, giving up the night hours to seek the Lord and His blessing, crying out to Him day and night. This is an aspect of persevering in prayer. I tell you, he says, he will avenge them speedily. He will avenge them speedily. He's drawing a contrast between the Lord and that unjust judge. The unjust judge wouldn't avenge her speedily. He only avenged her when he felt she was going to wear him down. But the Lord will avenge his own elect speedily. This should encourage us to perseverance in prayer. we should be encouraged to think the answer is right around the corner. He will avenge us speedily. Now, this isn't saying that he'll answer the first time you ask. That would be to undo the purpose of the whole parable. The whole purpose of the parable is to encourage perseverance in prayer, continuance in prayer. But one of the things that bolsters us up in persevering prayer is knowing that the answer is around the corner, that the Lord will avenge his own elect speedily. Nevertheless, he says, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Perseverance is an expression of faith. Believing prayer is persevering prayer. Perseverance. Perseverance may be considered an aspect of importunity in prayer because we continue on and we press it upon him and continue and continue and continue and won't take no for an answer. Importunity and perseverance go together. And so consider these things. Consider the Lord's illustrations He gives us of these things. The man who's asleep at night with his family in his house, and someone comes knocking, knocking, knocking, and asking for bread. And he's, fine, take the bread. Just go. Let me go back to sleep. this judge who doesn't care about this woman whatsoever, and yet she comes to him and comes to him and comes to him, and he says, she's gonna wear me down if she doesn't stop asking. And so both of these are actually, when you think about them, examples of people being rather annoying. Importunity and perseverance between one man and another, between one person and another. is obnoxious. It's obnoxious for someone to keep coming and asking and asking and asking, or to wake you up in the middle of the night to come with shamelessness and disturb you from what you're doing. But these are the illustrations that the Lord gives us to not give God any rest. Not give God any rest. Importunity and perseverance with God in prayer. Perhaps the greatest example of this in scripture is in Genesis chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32, when Jacob wrestles with God. Genesis 32, starting in verse 24. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Notice this. It begins with what? With God laying hold of Jacob. The Lord came and wrestled with him. Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. This is God coming in His providence. Is God laying hold of you in His providence? Has He awoken within you a desperate sense of need? Has He brought you into some circumstance where you see that the Lord has taken hold upon you and awakened a sense of need within you? This is like that man coming at midnight. May the Lord send a man at midnight to awaken us and to drive us to a sense of our need, that we would go with importunity and perseverance to seek the Lord's help. Well, the Lord lays hold of Jacob, and the Lord lays hold of us in his providence. But what does Jacob do in response? Jacob lays hold of God. He lays hold of him back, and he will not let him go. So that when the man, that is when the Lord, begins to draw back and wants it to be over with, and he says, let me go for the day breaketh, Jacob says, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. It can be that when you're wrestling with God in prayer and the Lord has awakened a need in you, that the Lord draws back those influences of the Spirit, and you don't have so much of a desperate sense of that need. And yet, if you're using your sanctified mind, you know that the need is still there. You know that there's still a need to persevere. And so the Lord starts to draw back, but you say, no, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And you stir yourself up, you stir up your new man, you stir up the grace that the Lord has given you, and you lay hold of God all the more, and you cry out like Bartimaeus, crying out, all the more, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. The Lord may bring challenges and difficulties to make it more difficult to persevere in prayer. He may touch the hollow of your thigh, as it were, like he did Jacob's, and his thigh was out of joint. so that it was more difficult for him to wrestle with God. But Jacob continued to wrestle with God, persevering in prayer with the Lord. Indeed, he persevered in wrestling with the Lord until the breaking of the day. There we see that element of watching again, persevering through the night. Jacob's losing a night's sleep, and he's not just losing a night's sleep, he's laboring through the night, wrestling with God through the night, seeking a blessing. If he wanted to, he could let go of him and he could get some rest. But he's not going to do that because he knows he needs the blessing. And so he perseveres in prayer. He makes importunate demands of the Lord. I will not let thee go except thou bless me. The Lord hasn't offered anything to Jacob here. The Lord hasn't spoken anything to Jacob about a blessing. And yet Jacob lays hold of the Lord and he makes these unfortunate demands of the Lord. I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And what's the end result? He prevails. He gets the blessing. He gets the new name. And what's the Lord say to him for his perseverance and his importunity, this believing, wrestling with God? He says, thou hast power with God. Thou hast power with God. Importunate prayer and persevering prayer has power with God. It wrestles the blessing out of his hand. and the Lord delights in it. The Lord loves it. The Lord delights to bless it. It wrestles the blessing from his hand. It has power with God. Thou hast power with God and with men and hast prevailed. It's prevailing prayer. It's prayer that prevails with God and wins the blessing. We spoke earlier about David Brainerd and how David Brainerd was a great man of God and accomplished much with the Lord's blessing and how he was a great man of prayer. And he knew times of great strength, great opportunity, great blessing in prayer. But it wasn't always like that with Brainerd. Those times were hard won on David Brainerd's part. He experienced great seasons of desertion, helplessness, and deadness on his knees before God, but he persevered. and he continued on, and the Lord would give him the victory. You see, the Lord delights in this, just like the Lord Jesus delighted in the argument of that woman who wouldn't take no for an answer. And the Lord put strength in his believing people when they lay hold of him by faith and say, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Did Jacob have some power in himself to bind God? He didn't have power in himself to bind God, but God gave him power to do it. God gave him power to prevail. God put strength in him, and God gave him the power to win with the Lord. As a prince, hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. This is importunity and perseverance. in prayer. Let's stand and seek our God's face. Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray with importunity. Lord, teach us to persevere. Lord, teach us to wrestle. Teach us to lay hold of thee. Teach us to desperately desire the blessing and to have the faith that thou will give it. Lord, grant us power with thee. Lord, grant us prayer that prevails. Lord, grant us a heart and a faith that will not let thee go, except thou bless us. Give us strength, Lord God. strengthen us in the inward man, help us to mortify the flesh and all the carnal weaknesses and lusts which would cause us to say, no, I think I'll just give up, but to instead persevere to the end by faith and prevail with God. Give us faith to believe it, give us faith to exercise it.