I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke's Gospel, chapter 11. We will be focusing upon verses 1-13, but we will read the whole chapter. And this is a section of the chapter that I think you will be quite familiar with, given that we are looking at it in greater detail in the evening. We are introduced, of course, to the Lucan form of the Lord's Prayer. So here's a word of the Lord from the pen, or through the pen, of Dr. Luke. 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. 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 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 thee, 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 give for a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 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? And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb, and it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered. But some of them said he casteth out devils through beals above, the chief of devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man, armed, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through to dry places. Seeking rest and finding none, he sayeth, I will return unto my house once I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that beareth thee and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be this generation. The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, put it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light. But when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him. And he went in and sat down to meet. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed for dinner. And the Lord said unto him, now, do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter? But your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather, give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and rue, and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Then answered one of the lawyers and said unto him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest us also. And he said, woe unto you also, ye lawyers, for ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly, ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your father. For they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers, for you've taken away the key of knowledge. He entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. May the Lord add his blessing to the hearing and understanding of his most holy word. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the scriptures that you have provided to us this morning. We think of the teaching on prayer and perseverance and persistence. We pray that you would help us to understand this aright. to be reminded that we are in this to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as he taught us to pray. We pray that we would apply this word properly in our daily lives. In Jesus' name we pray this, amen. And so we come to this familiar passage in which Dr. Luke records for us the teaching on the Lord's Prayer, along with some additional teaching that has to deal with the way in which we approach prayer, the manner in which we do it. So we have, we might say, the matter, and then the manner of our praying. the matter being the content, what it is, the kinds of things we're to say, and then the manner, the way that we are to go about receiving, the way we ought to go about asking for what we want from the Father. And so I want us to look at these verses under the following four headings, Lord teach us to pray, yet because of impotence, ask, seek, and knock, and your heavenly Father gives good gifts. So those first four verses in chapter 11 give us the summation of what is called the Lord's Prayer, which we've been looking at in some detail, as you know, in the evenings, as we will continue for the next few weeks, wrapping up the study on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Here, our Lord himself was praying. and the disciples at the conclusion of the prayer came to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So these disciples who ask him to teach them how to pray have observed that John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. That ought not to be shocking or surprising. John was not only a prophet, but he was a godly man who had a band of disciples, which we know from reading the Gospels, the various Gospel accounts. had such an influence in Israel that even some scholars today try to expand the importance of John the Baptist to make him a rival of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we can see the potential of that happening in the Gospels, can we not? Because there's that little bit of rivalry in the Gospel of John where John and Jesus, their disciples, are comparing who did more baptisms. but that this is not what's happening here. Here, the disciples are asking Jesus to teach them how to pray in a way similar to how John had taught his disciples. And Jesus says, okay, very good. When you pray, this is how you ought to do it. And as you know, he teaches them to begin with a declaration. Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in heaven, so in earth. So we have those petitions, the first three petitions that are directed toward the Father. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, and your will be done. And we've looked at those in our evening study in more detail. It's not as if the disciples didn't already know how to pray at all. After all, they would have been trained in the synagogue and in the home. They would have been taught how to pray. They would have known the Shema. They would have known the Psalms. But they're wanting to get from the Master, the One who is in fact the Son of God in the flesh, they want to be taught by Him how to pray because they see that He is an effective prayer warrior in His own life. You remember that before he chose the twelve disciples who would one day become apostles, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, he spent the night wrestling in prayer. And so they have seen this, that prayer was not a one-off experience for our Lord. He prayed regularly and frequently and on occasion for long periods of time. And so the disciples are right to come and ask Him for direction as to how to pray, how to improve their prayer life. All of us, I think, would be sympathetic with that desire. I don't know that there are any of us here who think, who are completely satisfied with our prayer lives. We make the general statement that in the Christian life we can never achieve perfection this side of heaven, and we can make the more specific observation that perhaps our prayers can fall into a rut, they can become rote, they can become blasé, we can lose interest, we can lose the passion, we can give up too soon, and actually we're going to get into that in a few moments. But you can see why the disciples would ask the Lord to teach them to pray. And you notice that the prayer begins with its focus on God and not on us. Remember what I said earlier in our prayer, that in redemption as in creation, the glory is first to God, and the benefit is secondarily to us. And this is true in our prayers. We ought to focus upon who God is, because that will cause us to recalibrate our thinking. When we think about who God is, His holiness, and you see, we are reminded that God is in heaven. Now, He's everywhere, but there is a specific location where He has made His domain. And where the Son is at the Father's right hand. That is in heaven. Hallowed be Your name. Honored be Your name. Sanctified be Your name. And those aren't just empty words. To sanctify His name is to treat it with awe and with respect and with honor. To recognize the significance of who God is. That's what it means when we say we pray in Jesus' name, for instance. We mean that we're praying because of the value and the work that Christ has done on our behalf. and it makes it acceptable to the Father. And then we pray, Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. And we learned last week, did we not, the prayers, this petition, the third petition, that God would have His way on earth amongst human beings as He does in heaven with the angels and those saints who have gone before us. And then, of course, the petitions continue, give us day by day our daily bread, and the Greek word there can be translated this day, today, or daily, day by day. It has that range, and the meaning really doesn't shift that much. We understand what is being asked that the Lord would provide for us. We have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread. And the prayer continues, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. You notice there, sometimes it is understood that when we pray this way, what we're saying is, Lord, help us to earn your favor by forgiving others, and that's not at all what the Lord is teaching. For that would be to teach that we are saved by our works. What is being said is because we are forgiven, because we have been forgiven, we can forgive others. What did Jesus say about the woman who came to Him and was weeping tears over His feet? Remember, she loved much because she was forgiven much. Really, what the Lord was saying was that she had a better sense of the significance of her sin and forgiveness than many of us. Not that she was a greater sinner, but that she had greater awareness of her sin. It was more sensitized to it than perhaps we are. And so, the prayer is, Lord, help us to forgive the sins of others and to not have a double standard. Surely we have a double standard left to our own devices. That is, forgive me everything and help me to hold it over everyone else's head. We want to be forgiven ourselves, but we don't want to have to forgive others. Let's be honest, that's the temptation, and that's the temptation we need to fight against, and that's the request that is being made here, that we would not be that way. Remember the unjust servant. the one who was forgiven much. And then he forgot and went out and demanded the debts be paid from another servant of a significantly smaller amount. And what happened? The king found out and he had him locked up in prison until the day he died. The point being that when you are forgiven much, you must forgive much. And all of us need to be reminded of that the temptation is to make ourselves the grand exception to the rule which is we will live by a covenant of works. Yes, by that I'm expanding that expression to include the idea that, well, yes, I'm the recipient of grace through God's covenant of grace, but the rest of you are going to relate to me according to a covenant of works. You know exactly what I mean. That's unbiblical. That's not how we're called to live. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Perhaps you've heard the little cute expression, and lead us not into temptation, we can find it ourselves. That's true. Of course, God does not tempt. This isn't the only place where this is brought up. God does not tempt and He cannot be tempted. He will not do wrong because what would it mean for the God of all the universe who is the standard of justice and truth and goodness and right to do wrong? It is impossible. So you see, there are some things that God cannot do because it would be to go against His very nature. He will not lead us into temptation. That's the work of the devil. Now God will send tests our way, trials, but you see the difference between a trial or a test and temptation? The one is to strengthen our faith, the other is to destroy us. The one is God's method, the other is Satan's method. Now it may be that the same event or experience is operating on two different levels. But God will have His way. If you are trusting in Him and relying upon His strength, you will come through the trial. That doesn't mean it will be easy. And you may stumble along the way. But like Peter of old, whom Jesus prayed for, you will remember, and when he said, I've prayed for you, Peter, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. And when you have returned, not if, but when you have returned, strengthen your brothers. And so the prayer that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray is a significant prayer, is it not? So we're told this is the content. What is it that we are to pray for? So we think of that acronym, ACTS, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. If that helps you, use it. Remember it. You start with the praise of God. You recognize who He is. And we start that way because the world is so overwhelming in terms of its effect upon us. There's a reason why Paul in Romans 12 says, do not allow the world to put you into its mold, because that's what the world wants to do. And the prayer here is reminding us that no, God is God. God is in control. And notice the manner in which we are to pray. So we've looked at the matter, that is, the kinds of things we ought to be praying for. We ought to be adoring God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We ought to be confessing our sins. We ought to be thanking God for His mercies and blessings. And we ought to be praying for one another. That's supplication. And then we're told in verses 5-8, a bit about the way we are to pray. According to Jesus, we're to pray for something just once and leave it alone, right? Isn't that what we're taught here? We just mention it once and if we bring it up again, God is going to be irritated with us. I know that's how some of us work. Isn't it? Let's be honest. You may have seen the meme floating around on Facebook. You know, if a woman asks her husband to do something, she doesn't have to nag him. It may take a lifetime for the husband to get around to doing whatever he was asked to do. That's not how God is. God is not a lame man. He is the all-powerful God of the universe. See what it says here. 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 is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, that is, leave me alone. For the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed, and I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, that is Jesus says unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, but because of his importunity or impudence, he will rise and give him as many loaves as he needeth. This is building off of the, you know, the widely familiar concern in the Middle East for hospitality. It's a well-known cultural trait that hospitality is the big concern, so if your friend arrives in the middle of the night, and is hungry and thirsty, you want to be able to provide him with some nourishment. And you go to the cupboards and discover they are bare. Ah, but you know your neighbor next door, who's a good friend, has some extra food. Oh, it's a little bit inconvenient because it's in the middle of the night and he's gone to bed and we learned something about the customs and culture of the time that the bed was shared. with the children, and you can understand that. Perhaps if you've gone camping, or you've had a storm, and all the children get scared out of their wits and come into your bedroom, mom and dad, and they hop into your bed, you can understand how awkward it might be to get out of bed. But because the neighbor will not give up, and that's what importunity is, he will not go away, it's like the widow and the unjust judge, the same lesson is being taught, that the answer will come if for no other reason to get rid of the headache. Right? The neighbor will give this man three loaves of bread or whatever just so that he'll go away and leave him alone. Now, what Jesus is not teaching is that this is how the Father is with us. That the Father is like the neighbor who's irritated because we come asking, praying repeatedly, importunately, impudently, with boldness. Remember that prayer that I constantly resort to, the prayer of Daniel in chapter 9, because it's such a powerful prayer, where Daniel says, Lord, wake up, pay attention, listen, keep your promises, keep your word. That's the kind of prayer that God honors. And that's what Jesus is telling us here. Because of the impudence of the man, the neighbor will give him the food. Again, we're not being taught that God is an irritated neighbor. But that if it's true of this lesser story, that a neighbor who's in bed with his children and has no real desire to get out of bed and get cold and find the bread, he'll do it simply to get rid of you because you're annoying. That means that when you're praying to the Lord, don't just think that one prayer is enough. It may be that it will be. That does happen. What the Lord is teaching His disciples is that prayer is repetitive. Not repetitive in the sense that He's already told us in Matthew, don't think that you will be heard because you heap up phrases. It's an interesting word in the Greek, it's batalogia. The word itself sounds like what Jesus is condemning. Don't heap up empty words. What he's saying is pray, pray, pray, pray, pray until the answer comes. I've used the example of Augustine's mother, Monica. She prayed for 30 years that her son would come to faith. You think she prayed once in 30 years? I don't think so. Something tells me it was a daily, if not an hourly, prayer of hers, that her son would come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have to admit, when the Lord answered that prayer, He really answered that prayer. Probably in the history of the Christian Church, shy of the Apostle Paul, no one has cast a shadow longer than St. Augustine. Admittedly, it's a mixed bag, but it's still a long shadow. So, when we pray, we are to pray with persistence, not giving up. Because we will be tempted over the long haul, beloved, to grow tired, to grow weary in well-doing, to want the answer right away. And when we don't get the answer we want, or we were told to wait, then we give up. And I'm afraid that That is not what we are being taught to do here. We are being taught to hold on, to pray persistently. Now again, the assumption is that we are praying according to God's will. Although in prayer, over time, we begin to be molded according to the will of God. And so there will be occasions where we pray for things that are, it's best that we do not have them. Just as we go to our parents and say, I'd like to have this, that, and the other thing. And a good parent will, you know, filter all that and say, is this good for someone? Is this good for my son or is this good for my daughter? Or is this good now as opposed to, is it better later? If a good parent does that, how much more does the father do that? And so we are reminded then again, and Jesus is a good teacher, so we're getting it again in a different form. We've just been told the story, the parable if you will, the story of the neighbor coming in the middle of the night. But then he goes on and he says in verses 9 and 10, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh it shall be opened. And I wonder, I wonder if this is something that we've actually tried, or if it's been left on the shelf to gather dust. Have we actually stuck with it? when we've been praying? Or do we give up after the first request? If the thing is worth praying for, it is worth praying for over and over and over until you get it, and when you get it, you are thankful. Ask, seek. and knock." Now, you know that, as Jesus told His disciples, seek first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you. So you see, that's assumed. That's not spoken directly here, explicitly, but it's assumed that we are seeking first the Kingdom of God, then all these other things will be added. And you see, the first part of the prayer, the first three petitions are about seeking the Kingdom of God. And now we're looking at all these other things. And our Lord continues reminding us about who it is we're praying to. Beginning at verse 11. 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 ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Okay, in the Greek language, when a question is asked, the form of the question tells you the answer that is required. Unlike in English, where, I mean, even here in English, you know the answer should be no. Okay, that if a son asks for bread, will you give him a stone? No. If he asks for fish, will you give him a serpent? No. If he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? And the answer should be no. Because if you do, you're wicked. Beyond wicked. Because you see what Jesus says at the end, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to those who ask, your children who ask, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? If we who are evil and wicked know how to give good gifts to our children who ask, how much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? What does that say about fathers and mothers who do the very thing that Jesus says? It's not possible that you would really want to do that. Because the form of the question in the Greek language tells us what answer to expect. Yes or no? That's a nice little feature of the Greek language which we don't have necessarily in English. In this instance it does come through really in the English. And notice how the passage ends by Jesus reminding us what is the thing we really ought to be seeking? the promise of the Father. That promise, of course, is given on the day of Pentecost. So this prayer is offered up, this admonition is offered up in the flow of redemptive history. It's not hanging in midair. The Holy Spirit will be given by the Father to the Son, who has offered Himself up as a perfect sacrifice, and in reward of that, He gets the Holy Spirit to share with the people for whom He has died. And this is spoken in anticipation of that reality. What's the thing we ought to be praying for? that the Holy Spirit would be operative in our life, that it would be our heart's desire that the Holy Spirit would be at work in our life, working in us through the Word that He has inspired. That is the gift, that is the ultimate gift. You don't have the Holy Spirit inhabiting you unless you are saved. The only way you can be saved is if the Holy Spirit is at work in you, causing you to desire to be united to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. But the lesson we're being taught here is that the Heavenly Father far surpasses the puny efforts of earthly fathers. Earthly fathers fail. The best of us fail often. The Heavenly Father fails not. He does not fail. The Heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask. And He will withhold no good thing. Now, of course, it's His determination as to what is good and when it would be good for us to have the good thing. And remember, ultimately, what is good? That which conforms us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8.28, right? For we know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. It doesn't mean that everything we experience in life is good, considered in and of itself, but what is good is the purpose of God behind everything. But he also tells us that he will withhold no good thing from us. But we're not a sit-to-be-couch potatoes, spiritually, sitting around waiting for the Lord to give us these good things. He expects us to ask, to seek, and to knock. God has ends, and he uses means. And the means he uses is our praying. Praying has a purpose. It is not fruitless. We are not robots. We are not stocks and stones. We are human beings. And God interacts with us. And he loves us because we are in Jesus Christ. And he wants to share with us the good things. And we'll learn about that this evening in the fourth petition. of the Lord's Prayer. Your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those of you who ask. He will not withhold any good thing. Do you believe that? Or do you wonder? Do you believe that He will not withhold any good thing? Persevere in your prayer life. Hang tough. When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. For the Lord will be with you as you do that. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that You would help us in our prayer life, that we would grow in our conformity to the Lord Jesus, that we would learn from His prayer life, that we would be reminded that when we pray, The Holy Spirit brings those prayers to the Son who presents them to you. Help us to remember that our prayers are clothed in the righteousness of Christ so that they are acceptable to you. They are bathed in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ so they are pleasing to you. Help us, Lord. to be conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ in our prayer life. May we be persistent. May we ask, seek, and knock. We pray all this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.