Beloved congregation, I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles again to Luke chapter 11. And we like to read verses five through eight. Luke chapter 11, verses five through eight. And Jesus said to them, which of you shall have a friend? And go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. Dear congregation, in the year 1711, the English poet, Alexander Pope, penned a line that is turned into a proverb. He wrote this. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. And the point of that parable is quite, or of that Proverb is quite obvious. Foolish people are often reckless and unthinking, and therefore they do things that the wise would avoid. That's what Pope is getting at. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. And with this proverb in mind, I want us to think this afternoon about prayer. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." And so here's the important question, how should we approach the holy sovereign God of the universe before whom the seraphim cover their faces in humility? I mean, listen to Isaiah in his vision, this is Isaiah chapter six, just to help us remember who we approach in prayer. Maybe we've forgotten. Isaiah six, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. The train, children, is the hem. So Isaiah is saying the hem of this great king fills the temple. That's how great he is. I just see the hem of his garment. Above it stood Seraphim, each one six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Congregation, that's the God who moments ago we were praying to. And so it's wise for us to ask, well, how should we come before him? Now we might think the answer is obvious, very cautiously. I mean, young people, maybe you know what it's like to meet someone special, and as you are speaking with them, you get cold, clammy hands, and you just want this encounter to be over, because you're tripping over your words, you're embarrassed, why are they paying any attention to me, little old me? And so maybe we pray in a timid way. God, I know you have a universe to run, You have eight billion people to care for, so if you think about it and it's not too much of a bother, I could use a little help. Or maybe we think we shouldn't even bother with prayer, because how could such a high and holy God really take any interest in me, and so my prayer life is dead, and I think for good reason. Dear friend, this afternoon Jesus wants to teach us about prayer. We're not here just to listen to some poet give us his proverbs. We want to hear from the Son of God about this most important matter. How can I pray? How can I draw near to the Holy God? And the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, in the flesh, is here in our text to teach us. And so let's listen to our Christ teach us this most shocking lesson about true prayer. Our title is, Where Angels Fear to Tread. And we have three points. Where Angels Fear to Tread is the title. First of all, the parable. If your Bible's open, it'll help you look at verse one. Notice what's happening here. Jesus has just finished praying when his disciples, who the text seems to indicate they've been eavesdropping in on his prayer, Jesus finishes praying, opens his eyes, and he stares into the face of these stunned disciples. They're looking at him and they stammer in amazement, Lord, teach us to pray, because after hearing you pray, I don't think I've ever prayed in my life. So teach me how to approach God. And Jesus gives them the what, he tells them what to pray for in the Lord's Prayer. And with each petition, Jesus is not saying you need to use this as a rote formula. No, they're kind of like, the Lord's Prayer is kind of like the training wheels on our petitions. They guide us as to what we ought to pray for. Pray for these kind of things with these kind of priorities. But Jesus doesn't stop there. Notice he goes on to give a parable that teaches them how to pray, and that's what we're looking at now. And to help us understand the parable that comes to us in verses five through eight, I wanna highlight a few things. The first thing, notice the timing. The timing of this parable. Children, this story that Jesus tells, it takes place in the dead of night. That's the timing. Notice Jesus says, at midnight. And already we need to explain this a little bit because the world was quite different back in Jesus's day. There were no street lights like we have today. There was no electricity. And so people only had oil lamps and fires to light up the dark sky. And so life, generally speaking, was dictated by the sun. The workday began when the sun rose around 6 a.m. in the Middle East, and when the sun went down, people generally settled in went to bed. There were no screens in their days to keep them awake and so at midnight everything is ordinarily quiet. The doors have been shut. That's what Jesus says in the parable. And children, that's usually one of the last noises you would have heard if you were a child in these days. Before you're drifting off to sleep, you would have been laying on your bed and you would hear mom or dad closing the door. This great iron gears in the door grinding shut. It was a loud business as they closed the door. And you would drift off to sleep. hearing that noise. And notice in the parable, all that's been done. The door is shut, and now even dad has crawled into bed. And again, we need to note how different things were in this day. Actually, similar to some places still in the world today, in these days, their home was a one-room home. And there weren't different bedrooms then with different beds, but there was one thick mat laid on the floor that served as the bed for everyone. And so dad has crawled into bed. That's the point in the parable that Jesus has got us to in terms of timing. And it's at this time, at midnight, just when you're getting to the good part of your dream, that suddenly you're woken by a noise. Friend! Friend, wake up! And you think, what's going on? It's the dead of night, this is terrible timing for someone to be stopping by, and so groggily you respond, yes, what is it? And that takes us to the second thing. First the timing, now the request. And notice Jesus tells us the request. Verse five, friend, lend me some loaves. And don't you love that? Lend me some loaves, as if you're gonna get those back. Just let me borrow some bread. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him. Now, people in this culture and at this time would sometimes journey at night just to stay out of the heat. And living in this culture meant hospitality was a huge responsibility. The host was responsible to care for their guest. And so when a friend shows up and he hasn't eaten anything, nothing to give them, that's a problem. And yet, even to Christ's listeners in that culture at that time, they would know that the situation that Christ is painting for us here is not at all an emergency. Your friend's wife isn't having a baby and there's complications. No one's dying. That's not the situation. No, your friend comes to you at a ghastly hour asking for a rather minor thing. Give me three loaves of bread. Now, loaves here is not like the loaves we might imagine, you know, the not very fresh and yet never stale Wonder Bread loaves. That's not what's in mind, these big loaves of bread. No, the three loaves were like the three little flatbreads on the side of the dish. Three little dinner rolls, you might say. They weren't a meal, they weren't even the main part of the meal, they were the little side that you add on. And so it's a ridiculous request. That's the picture Jesus is painting for us. Really, you can't wait until morning? You need to wake me up in the whole house for this minor request? Inconvenient timing, insignificant request, this is plain annoying. Notice the response. Verse 7, he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. Don't bother me. And notice the man doesn't even get up. He doesn't get out of bed. He's speaking from bed through the walls. Go away. All the parents in the crowd would have chuckled at this point. The poor dad finally gets the kids to bed. It's peace and quiet at last. And suddenly this interruption, there's this banging on the door, be quiet, leave. Congregation, it's through this very relatable parable that Jesus is telling his hearers that he reveals that he is the great spiritual doctor who knows exactly what lives in our hearts. He knows we naturally think God deals with our prayers like this. Why are you here? I mean, didn't you notice the hours posted on the door of heaven? Why are you back again at midnight? Can't you give me a little rest? And why don't you come next time with a real problem? I mean, I have a universe to run. Jesus knows our hearts. That's why he tells the parable. But what's the point? That's our second point, trying to figure out what's the point of this parable. So second point, the point. You can imagine the disciples smiling, maybe grimacing at this point. Jesus has been telling a relatable story. They could put themselves in these shoes, imagining someone disturbing them at a horrible hour with a minor request. The answer is a hard no. Go away. And so you can see the disciples drawing early conclusions in their mind. Jesus, we get the point. When we pray, We should be mindful to only go to God at an appropriate time with major problems. Okay, we will go to him sparingly because we don't want to bother him. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. We will try not to annoy the king of heaven. And it's at this point that Christ throws a great twist into the story. Look with me at verse 8. He says, I say to you, and with that, Jesus is saying, give me your ears again. You need to hear this. Here's the emphatic point. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. Not what we were expecting. because of his persistence. That's the key word we want to zero in on here. It's a tricky word to translate. This word only shows up once in the New Testament, and that's here. But it is used over 200 times in other literature of Jesus' day. And so we can look at some of these other writings, not biblical writings, but you can start to get a sense of how this word is being used in those writings. And here's the stunning thing with this word. Jesus uses a word that is only negative in all those other 200 writings. And so the translation here is trying to bring it out, but the problem is the word persistence, it has much too positive of a ring. I mean, you can write persistent on your resume and sell it as a good thing. And yet this is a word that was wholly negative. in all the other writings of Christ's day. And so we need to understand what this word is getting at. In the literature of the day, this word is consistently used for things like this, asking in a rude manner. To be constantly nagging until you get what you asked for. That's not what you want to write on your resume. It's got a different ring to it, doesn't it? So some modern translations, they translate it like this, they use the word impudence. And that's a good translation, but most of us don't know what that word means, myself included, so I had to Google it, and here's what impudence means. Shamelessness, or lack of proper restraint or consideration. Impudence is to be inconsiderate about time or place, and that's the word Jesus uses. Commending it. Let me illustrate it this way. Beggars are really good at this. Children, maybe you think of the story of blind Bartimaeus. He hears that Jesus is passing through Jericho, and you remember blind Bartimaeus? He's sitting in the city on the main road passing through Jericho, and he hears that Jesus is in the area. And so in his blindness and in his need, he just starts crying out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And you know what happens, the crowd around him says, hey, be quiet. Don't disturb this great miracle worker, this teacher who's clearly headed through Jericho to Jerusalem. He's on an important mission, be quiet. And the beggar doesn't care. Because he doesn't care about appearances or proper restraint. He's long past that. He cries out, knowing his need, all the louder, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stops and heals him. And here's the point. Jesus is saying, God wants you to pray like that. have the boldness of a beggar before the throne of God. Don't be proud. Don't be so self-conscious. Just come and cry out again and again until you're heard. Congregation, do you feel how stunning Christ's teaching is? Because if we aren't shocked by this parable, we haven't understood the point. Jesus is saying His people should approach God audaciously, be shamelessly bold in approaching the Father. This is the Son of God telling us this. Now, children, just to illustrate this another way, you are typically really good at doing this with your parents. You don't need to be taught how to do this. I mean, maybe this morning, after the service, mom was talking to her friends, and there you are at her elbow, just pulling on her elbow, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, and exasperated, she turns and looks at you and says, what? Can I go to so-and-so's house for lunch? Yes, go, please, be gone. Couldn't you wait a minute for me to be done? Now, we teach our children how to be polite, and that's a good thing. And yet, congregation, Christ is saying, it's quite possible to be bringing that politeness into your prayer life in a way that robs you. Be like a child. That's the shocking point Christ is making. Be persistent, even annoyingly so, if it were possible, like a child with God. God the Father wants that. Can you believe that? That's stunning. I think our problem in prayer, one of them, is that for many of us, we've learned to do what we think is the respectable thing with God, and so we try to keep up our appearances, and then our prayer life turns cold and it shrivels and dies like the unwatered plant in your living room. All because we bought the lie that it's childish or immature or inappropriate to pour out our hearts to God, and yet Christ is here to say, Run to the Father with boldness. One commentator writes this, prayer is not a polite religious sentiment. It is something on which people must be willing to stake their lives, the determination not to give up until God has heard us, kind of like Bartimaeus. I'm a beggar and I'm dying over here. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." That's the prayer practice Christ is commending. Come to God boldly, and notice how He fleshes this out. Ask, knock, seek, pray, pray, pray, and do it all with expectation. He will rise and he will give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. The point is very plain. Dear believer, pray persistently with confidence that you will be heard. That's the sweet invitation your Father gives to you through the lips of Jesus this afternoon. Now let me clarify one bit that your brain might be getting snagged on. Jesus is teaching us this in the way of contrast. So notice, his point is not to say that God is like the grumpy friend who finally gives in because you keep hammering at his door at night and you won't stop. No, all throughout, look at the context, Jesus has been saying God is the good father who loves to give good gifts to his children. You get that clarified in verse 13. If you then, being evil, And there he's talking to his disciples. He's not speaking to notorious axe murderers. He's speaking to, you know, respectable followers. And yet in comparison to the good, holy, pure God, he looks at them and says, you're evil, and you know how to give your children good gifts. They ask for an egg, and you're not handing them a poisonous scorpion. How much more Will your heavenly Father give the great gift of the Spirit to those who ask Him? And parents, even though we are selfish, self-centered, yet we do get up at night to give our kids that cup of milk or Tylenol or a cuddle or whatever it is. And yet here is the horrendous thing It's so easy for me to act like my perfect father in heaven isn't as good as a father as I am. Isn't that devastating? What does that say about my heart? That I think I'm a better father than he is. That I hear my children's cries and he won't hear his own. Jesus is teaching us that the Father loves to give us as much as is needed. Matthew Henry writes this, we must come to God with boldness and confidence for what we need, as a man does to the house of his neighbor or a friend who he knows loves him and is inclined to be kind to him. Dear Christian, So much of our prayer life is killed before we get to pray because of our view of God. Did you hear Henry? We must come to God with boldness and confidence for what we need as a man goes to the house of his neighbor or friend who he knows loves him. My neighbor loves me, this friend loves me. I know that, I believe that, and so then I go and ask the request. And Jesus is dealing with that portion, saying, what's your view of the Father? Because if your view of the Father is twisted, you're gonna stop praying. He knows, loves him, and is inclined to be kind to him. That's my assumption, Matthew Henry says, that I should have as a child of God as I look at the Father. John Calvin writes, whenever we engage in prayer, we ought to remember this gentle invitation by which Christ assures us of God's fatherly kindness. Let's take this to our final point. Let's apply this. Point number three, the practice, the practice. The parable, the point, and the practice Now Christ's point is clear, He wants His disciples to pray boldly, so what is the practical application for us? And I have two, and I think they will clarify for us the teaching of Christ and the message of this sermon. So here's the first one, don't be a proud fool. Don't be a proud fool. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and many foolish people attempt to rush into God's presence in themselves, based on their own worthiness. Maybe you've been misunderstanding Jesus in this text. So let's clarify what he's saying. The fool gives little thought to his own sinfulness and little thought to God's holiness, and therefore the fool sees no need for a perfect mediator. Of course I can pray, it's me. Why wouldn't God want to be graced with my presence? The fool is proud and makes a show of pretenses before God. The fool thinks his worthiness or her worthiness is in themselves. And so they seek to impress God with their prayers and they could be here this afternoon thinking, my prayers or my religious efforts, that's what gives me a hearing. And so I can go to God. Don't be a fool. A little dose of Holy Spirit-worked humility puts an end to those proud thoughts. Let me go back to Isaiah, who we began with. Remember what he said? For I am undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, because I have seen the King." The moment we see the King, we start to see ourselves. And what we see in Him is light. And what we see in ourselves is darkness. What we see in Him is holiness. What we see in us is unholiness. And so humility sees and says, I can't storm into God's presence in and of myself. I have no access to the holy God in myself. I am as banished from God's presence as Adam was from the garden. But then, Humility says, how dare I be so proud as to remain apart from Christ this afternoon in unbelief? Because I mean, it's only an egomaniac who would say no to the God of heaven when he calls us to come to him, the friend of sinners. I mean, when God says in Acts 17 verse 30, I command all men everywhere this day to repent and we're here saying, no, I won't. That is horrific pride. And so it's the very proud person who resists this gracious King. It's the proud person who won't draw near to this God through the mediator. And yet, dear Christian, it's easy for us, too, to be the proud fool. That's what we become when prayer loses its prime place in our lives. Isn't that right? Because when that happens to me, that's me saying, I can do life on my own, Lord. Which sounds a lot like pride. Or it's me saying, Jesus, I don't believe what you say about the Father. which also sounds a lot like pride, if I think my thoughts are more trustworthy than his. But humility, humility sees I am a sinner, I am unholy, and humility comes seeing Jesus clinging to him, the high priest that the gracious Father has given for sinners. And so that's the second application. First, don't be a proud fool. Second, draw near in bold faith. Draw near in bold faith. Congregation, all true prayer is made in and through Christ alone. Faith receives Christ's teaching and says, my father wants me to approach him in Christ with the boldness of an adopted son who has every right to be in his presence. And beloved, that is the main reason why the Holy Spirit has put this text in the Bible. Because that's why Christ taught this parable, to teach his people to draw near to the Father through faith in Him with boldness. Or to say it another way, faith rushes in where angels fear to tread. Faith rushes in where angels fear to tread. I mean, think of Isaiah. atoning coal comes off the altar it's pressed on his lips I'm a man of unclean lips I'm totally undone the atoning coal is pressed on his lips signifying Christ's sacrifices that perfectly cleanses and then what happens that Isaiah doesn't stay at a distance, but as the angels, the seraphim, who have never sinned a moment in their life, are covering their face and their feet in humility, crying, holy, holy, holy, in that moment, Isaiah comes forward to the Holy King and says, Lord, send me. It's the believer who asks with a surprising audacity and prays with persistence, refusing to let go until we receive a blessing. I mean, think about the Psalms. We sung one, Psalter 123. Did you realize how staggering these words are? Let me read the words that are behind that Psalter. This is Psalm 44, verse 23. And just think, dear child of God, the Holy Spirit wants us to pray like this. And compare this to your prayer language. Psalm 44, 23. Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Do you dare pray like that to the God who never slumbers and who never sleeps? Well, God has given us words to pray like that. Arise, wake up, get up. Do not cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our bodies cling to the ground. Arise for our help and redeem us for your mercy's sake. Congregation, how the angels must stand in awe of our ability to draw near to the throne in Christ. How the angels must have trembled this afternoon as we sung Psalter 123. How can they sing that? To say it another way, dear Christian, you are God's adopted child, adopted by grace, which means you are much closer to God than the holy angels who have never sinned will ever be. Do you believe that, Christian? Because you are accepted in the beloved, the son who is seated at the right hand of the father, who's on the throne. And Ephesians 2, 6 says, because of my union with him, I'm seated on his throne with him too. Faith rushes in where angels have no right to go. Sinful people like you and I, dear Christian, who are united to Christ by faith, are much closer to God than pure, perfect angels. And we draw near to God in Christ. And children, that's why we pray for Jesus' sake. Because this has nothing to do with me or my worthiness. And so the question that this text is asking us is, dear child of God, are you enjoying the privilege that Jesus purchased for you when he died and then rose again in terms of your prayer life? Are you enjoying the privilege of prayer? Or I can ask that in a different way. It's Reformation Day this week, and so here's my question. Are you praying like a Reformed Christian? And maybe you say, I don't know how to answer that. What's a Reformed Christian sound like when they pray? Well, let me take you in closing to the words of our Belgic Confession. This is Article 26, and you can just soak in these words as you hear them, and it summarizes and captures for us one practical fruit of what the Reformers, like Guido de Bray, lived and died for. Here's what Reformed doctrine, the doctrine of grace applied to your prayer life sounds like. Article 26 is on Christ's intercession. We believe that we have no access unto God, but alone through the only mediator and advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who therefore became man having united in one person the divine nature in human natures, that we humans might have access to the divine majesty. Why did Christmas happen? So you could pray, Christian. Which access would otherwise be barred against us. But this mediator whom the Father has appointed between him and us, Should not in any wise frighten us by his majesty or cause us to look for another mediator according to our own thoughts? For there is no creature either in heaven or on earth who loves us more than Jesus Christ. Believer, do you believe it? There's no creature, if you're married, your spouse doesn't even come close to loving you as much as Jesus loves you. who though he was in the form of God yet made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a man and a servant for us and was made like unto his brethren in all things. If then we should seek for another mediator who could be well-affected towards us, who could we find who loved us more than he who laid down his life for us even when we were his enemies? If you're struggling to pray, think about Jesus dying on the cross when you were spitting in His face and hating Him as an enemy. That's how much He loves you, and take that sense of that love to your prayer closet, and it really does things in your heart. It opens your heart to start to pray. There's one in heaven interceding for me that loves me. If we seek for a mediator who has power and majesty, who is there who has so much of both as he who sits at the right hand of his father and who has all power in heaven and earth? And who will sooner be heard by the father than the well-beloved son of God? So we must not plead our own unworthiness. For the meaning, and listen to this, the meaning is not that we should offer our prayers to God on account of our worthiness, but only on account of the excellency and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is become ours by faith. What Guido de Bray is saying is if you think you're too unworthy to pray, Well, know this, you are in yourself, and so come to the one who calls you today, come to me and I will give you rest and I will give you my righteousness. And if you've come to him, then he really, truly is your righteousness, which means that heaven is as open to you, dear Christian, as it is to Christ. And when you start to remember that, how it helps us to pray. You can continue reading that article, that's article 26. But let me close by saying this, dear, weak, sinning, often stumbling brother or sister in Christ, God in heaven is saying we can and should approach the throne of the Holy God with the same confidence as our elder brother, Jesus Christ. The disciples heard the Son of God praying to the Father, and they said, teach us how to pray. And Jesus turned to them and said, okay, let me teach you how to speak to the Father like a child. May the Holy Spirit help us, amen. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you are the only mediator between God and man. And what a perfect mediator you are. You are the great high priest of your sinful people, whoever lives to make intercession for us. And your righteousness has been gifted to us. So we are clothed with your law keeping. And so we can know that we are accepted by the Father and we have access. And so we can rush to our Father, to that throne of grace and pour out our hearts with urgency like a beggar and with boldness like a beloved child. Oh Father, thank you for hearing us for Christ's sake. And Father, if there are those among us who are still apart from Christ, help them to see the poverty of their condition, the danger. And Lord, help them to see the open arms of Christ the Savior. that they too might experience the warm embrace of the Father running to meet them for their good. O Lord, by your Spirit, do mighty things in our midst, save sinners, and help your saints to pray, to pray without ceasing, to pray with boldness, to pray expectantly, and to know that we are heard for Christ's sake. Amen.