To you a very familiar parable, Luke chapter
11.
First, I think it has anything to do
with this meeting.
It's everything to do with this meeting.
And it came to pass that as he
was praying in a certain place, that is
Jesus of course, when he ceased, one of
his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us
to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
And he said to them, when you pray,
say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as
in heaven, so on earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
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 to them, which of you
shall have a friend, and shall go to
him at midnight and say to 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 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 him, Ask, and it
shall be given you.
Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
For every one 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 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?
Prayer together.
Thank you, Lord, for all that you've said
to us already this morning, coming to us
with such conviction and such assurance and authority.
Write it all upon us.
Thank you for your word that we've just
read.
Lord, illuminate it to our mind, to our
will, and may we leave this service this
morning as those who love you and therefore
keep your commandment.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I've had my troubles with this commandment, with
this parable.
Not so much with the parable, but with
the commentaries upon it.
Most of them, anyway.
Because most of them suggest that this parable
is intended to teach us to be importunate
in prayer, or persistent in prayer.
Now, I've no problem about that, because the
whole New Testament tells us to be instant
in our praying, praying always with all prayer
and supplication.
But you see, if this parable is to
teach us that, then the man who knocks
on this door is a picture of myself
and yourself knocking on the door of heaven
long enough, hard enough, until we wake up
God.
But to make that interpretation a fit, of
course, you have to say that just as
a man in bed is unwilling to respond
and churlish and doesn't want to be disturbed,
couldn't possibly be God, so God is willing
to hear our prayer.
Obviously, this man can't possibly be God.
He only gets up to stop being troubled
and to keep his friend quiet and shut
him up.
But then that undermines the whole principle of
interpretation.
It can't be a fair interpretation of Scripture
to suggest that this parable is to teach
me to be importunate in prayer and then
to take one verse and says it means
exactly the opposite in order to prove my
point.
Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it's rearing
hold of God's willingness.
That's what prayer is all about.
And in that light, and in the light
of all New Testament understanding, interpretation, I just
have to reject the popular one.
It can't be a fair interpretation of Scripture.
The only fair interpretation of Scripture, rather, is
to take a text in its context and
in the light of the whole New Testament
revelation.
And therefore I must ask you lovingly to
look at this parable in new light.
You probably may not agree with me, but
I don't mind too much.
I'm just telling you what the Lord has
laid on my heart like a shaft from
heaven.
And if you don't agree, well, I'm so
sorry, but it will give you at least
the wonderful opportunity to practice that all too
rare but precious Christian grace of disagreeing agreeably
and not breaking fellowship.
I hope you'll try and love me just
the same.
Who is this suppliant at midnight?
Before I answer this question, just look for
a moment at the context in which this
parable is told.
Jesus has been in prayer, verse 1, and
the disciples have said, Lord, they've heard him
pray, they said, Lord, teach us to pray.
So he does.
First of all, he gives them the pattern
prayer.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
His name, His glory, His will come first
of all.
But these priorities are broken down because of
sin.
And so the prayer follows with a great
cry for forgiveness, for deliverance from evil, from
temptation, because of our complete failure.
There are two, therefore, tremendous streams of prayer
in the universe.
The prayer of our Lord Himself, which goes
on continually as He prays for His church
today.
And if we want to know what He
prays for us, you just have to read
John 17, the Lord's Prayer, and there you'll
find out, Father, glorify me with the glory
which I had with You before the world
was.
I've given eternal life to as many as
have believed You.
Father, keep them through Your name.
I'm leaving the world, but I'm leaving them
in it.
And I'm sending them into the world as
Thou didst send me.
I've given them Your word.
And I'm giving them Your glory.
You in me, and I in them, that
the world may know that Thou hast sent
me.
So I'm sending them into the world with
Your word and with Your glory.
Father, keep them.
The prayer of our Lord, the church with
His word and with His glory, the glory
of His Spirit in our hearts, sent into
the world as Jesus was sent.
That prayer, it doesn't seem often to get
heard.
It isn't answered.
That the world may know that You've sent
me.
That we all may be one.
And there's another prayer in the universe.
It's my little prayer.
My people, little cry to God.
My people concerned for my own life, that
He might use it and take it.
And that's the prayer that moves the hand,
that moves the world.
And there are two prayers, two parables here.
Yes, it's contrast.
And it's all here.
Verse 5 to 8, God pleading with you
and me.
Verse 9 to 13, our prayer to Him.
Who is this substant who comes at midnight
and says, he knocks on the door, Friend,
lend me three loaves.
Isn't this Jesus Himself?
How often He would take a parable from
His own experience.
There's nothing so forceful in preaching as that.
Think of that Nazareth home.
What poverty there was there.
Don't you think that Joseph or Mary or
even Jesus Himself had gone to a neighbor
often and knocked on the door and asked
for help and for a loan of food
and possibly received just the same answer?
Who is it in the New Testament is
the one who comes at midnight?
Didn't Jesus say in Mark chapter 13 and
verse 35 for example to His disciples, Watch
and pray.
You don't know when I may come.
Maybe, maybe it will be in the morning.
Maybe at evening time.
Maybe at midnight.
Maybe at the crock coin.
Watch and pray.
Isn't it Jesus who told the parable of
the virgin?
Five were wise.
Five were foolish.
But they all slept.
And at midnight the bridegroom came and they
went out to meet Him.
Why, at midnight if the bridegroom comes it's
the moment of His return.
Friend, lend me three loaves.
There's Jesus.
Oh, but who's this man in bed?
This well-fed, well-contented man who won't
bother to get up.
Too cold and snug and uncomfortable.
Don't disturb me.
Have you seen my label on my door?
Please do not disturb.
But eventually to silence the noise and send
His friend away He gives Him not three,
not four, not six but as many as
He wants.
Take as many as you can.
Only for goodness sake leave me alone.
Doesn't need much imagination to recognize that the
whole neighborhood has been waking up.
And everybody's shouting, Shut up!
Don't make so much noise.
And this man in bed absolutely fed up
can't get any peace or sleep has to
get up and give Him loaves to go
away and keep quiet.
Who's that man in bed?
God?
Of course not.
He never slumbers nor sleeps.
At what door is Jesus knocking?
The door of an unbelieving heart?
Maybe.
Maybe, and it may be there's such a
heart here being kezik all week and you
still not believe or trust it.
My dear friend, let me say to you
with all my love in my heart for
you He doesn't always knock on that door.
My spirit will not always strive with man.
Now comes the moment when His voice is
silent.
What is it at the untenable door?
No!
Friend!
It's a friend inside.
Let me be alone.
It's a friend who's knocking under the friend
in bed inside asleep.
It was the virgin who slept.
Remember, won't you, that it was a church
door at Laodicea where Jesus knocks.
The generally accepted interpretation of the letters to
the seven churches in Isiomena in Revelation 2
and 3 are that they are prophetic history
of a church between the first and second
advent of the Lord and Laodicea was the
last one.
Christ knocking on the door of His church
rich, contented, increased with good, has need of
nothing.
You're wretched, poor, miserable, blind, naked.
Knock!
Wake up!
Have you read recently the story of Bartimaeus
in Mark 10?
Have you noticed its context?
The Lord Jesus very near now to the
hour for which He'd come face set toward
Jerusalem.
Important discussions with the scribes followed by a
final word to the disciples.
Suddenly, everything is stopped.
Hold it!
Jesus!
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me!
Conversations, discussions with disciples stop.
Everything is held up.
The program of redemption is held up while
the Lord Jesus pays attention to one poor
blind beggar.
My dear friend, I don't want to get
hot about it, but I tell you my
heart bleeds how we've loaded our churches with
committees, organized out the Holy Spirit, programmed to
death, and Bartimaeus hasn't got a chance, hasn't
got a look-in, outside because we've forgotten
what Christianity is all about one by one
contact with people to lead them to Jesus.
Friend, lend me three loaves.
Wake up!
The church is asleep!
Wake up!
Friend, lend me three loaves.
Oh, but hold it.
What's the fuss about?
Why, there's somebody else in the story.
There's another friend lost in his journey.
A friend of mine in his journey, out
of his way, is lost.
Lend me three loaves.
Who's this man?
Surely this man is lost, can be none
other than a man without Christ.
Never heard of him, doesn't know him.
And you'll find all over the way, all
over the world today, millions of them, a
friend of mine.
His cry has come to me.
And from all over the world, not least
from our own country, there comes a cry
to heaven.
Oh, it's inarticulate.
Possibly they just don't know what they're crying
about and what the desperate need is.
There's a great cry that goes up to
heaven.
God hears it.
The Lord Jesus understands it.
He knows.
And it goes up from every country of
the world.
Friend, lend me three loaves because a friend
of mine in his journey is lost and
I have nothing to put before him.
That can't be God.
Can't it?
God can do anything.
Can He?
Yes, of course He can.
But He has so decreed to limit His
sovereignty to do it through human instruments.
Do you believe that the sacrifice of Jesus
on the cross is adequate for the salvation
of everybody from creation until now?
That it's sufficient one sacrifice of His blood
and Calvary, enough to save the world for
all time?
How will you answer that question?
I would say yes.
Yes.
John 3.16 is an example of that.
Of course.
Adequate for the salvation of all people.
Then, do you believe that everybody will be
saved?
Because Jesus died on the cross, somehow everybody
will get to heaven?
I'd like to believe that, but I don't.
If I did believe it, I'd have to
scrap the book of Revelation and the Gospel
of Matthew and whole chunks from my Bible
I'd have to tear them out.
Effective for the salvation, adequate for the salvation
of everybody, but effective only in the lives
of those who repent and believe.
Then do I believe that anybody can get
to heaven without hearing the Gospel, without a
preacher?
I find myself in Romans 10.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved, but how shall they
save?
How shall they hear?
How shall they believe without having heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach unless they're sent?
My dear friend, I don't know.
I trust that this grips your heart as
it grips mine.
Here's the picture in my mind as I
think of this parable.
Here's God, the risen Lord, the risen Savior,
on the very verge of His return at
midnight, almost about to break through and come
back again.
And He calls, and He knocks at the
door of His church that's sound asleep, comfortable,
cushy, cozy.
Friend, lend me three loaves.
I have another friend.
You don't see Him.
You don't hear Him, but I do.
His cries come up to me like the
cry of my people long ago in Egypt.
And I've seen their affliction and I've heard
their cry and I know their misery and
their emptiness and their sadness and their longings.
They don't understand it, but I do.
And I have nothing.
Nobody's put before them.
I have no messenger, no nurse, no teacher,
no doctor, nobody.
Friend, friend, lend me your life.
Did you see that program on Scottish television
some time ago?
I can't forget it.
God today dug me.
The program dealing with drug addiction.
The man was interviewing teenagers who were high
on drugs.
And he had a girl in front of
him and he said to her, Who's your
mother?
Don't know, she said.
She left me when I was two.
Oh, how old are you?
Seventeen.
Who's your father?
Don't know.
Lots of men around.
You've just been dragged up?
Yeah.
Just dragged up.
Are you on drugs?
Yeah.
Are you high on them?
Yeah.
What are you taking?
Heroin.
Heroin?
Aren't you afraid it'll kill you?
And she turned round and looked straight at
me in the face in that television set.
Looked at the face of two million others
probably.
And she said, I hope to God it
will.
And that quickly.
Gear in this cosy, lovely, beautiful Lakeland convention.
We're away from all that.
But that's the society in which we live.
Crazy, mad, helpless, inarticulate, quieter God.
And I've nothing to set before them.
How are you going to reach them?
Hymn, prayer, hymn, reading, notices?
Solo, hymn, sermon, hymn, benediction?
No.
You're going to do it with a church
program?
No.
You're going to do it with people who
are filled with the Holy Ghost and get
out where the action is and tell them
about the Lord.
Friend, lend me your life.
But the church is asleep.
Programmed to death.
Barnimus, not a chance.
Not a chance.
Oh, watch and pray lest when I come
I shall find you sleeping.
The passionate longing of Jesus.
The prayer of a risen Lord for His
people.
And the contrast?
Ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and you shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened to you.
Just like that.
For what earthly son would give a serpent
if he asked for an egg or a
stone for a fish?
How much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
My dear friend, Christian, isn't that the whole
story of the Bible?
The eagerness of God to meet us?
To forgive us?
The prodigal in the far country comes to
himself and the moment he starts out home,
his father knows it and he's on the
way to meet him.
You have to beg your father to come
and meet him.
He's on the road already and he's waiting
to hug him.
The first longing to the Lord that my
life should be at His disposal and he's
there with the gift of His Holy Spirit.
The first desire to wake up and live
for Jesus.
He's given me His Word.
He's given me His glory, the glory of
His Spirit.
The first desire that I want that life
to be His.
He's there and at this midnight hour He
knocks loudly at the door of your life
and mine and speaks to you about a
friend of His who's lost in his journey
and has nothing to put before him.
Oh, he may be in Bangladesh.
He may be in India.
He may be in Thailand.
He may be in Cambodia.
He may be in Manchester.
He may be in London.
He may be right next to you at
your doorstep and has nothing to put before
him.
Lend me your life.
Lend me your career, your education, your gift
and go and meet his need because, you
see, you are my friend but I'm the
friend of sin.
I want to say what a friend we
have in Jesus.
All our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God
in prayer.
Yes, Lord, what a friend You are.
You are my friend if you do whatsoever
I command you.
Are you His friend?
Friend?
Lend me your life.
Oh, but I can't.
I can't.
I'm afraid.
But the moment I say, Lord, I'm ready,
He's there with all the supply of resources
in the Holy Spirit.
He that loves his life, lose it.
He that hates his life for my sake
will keep it.
And brethren and sisters, if I hate my
life, I don't despise it.
I don't despise it.
But I tell you what I do, I
put it to risk.
I put it to risk and begin to
live dangerously.
A Christian knows that ultimately he's secure.
But in living for the Lord Jesus, in
society today, he lives dangerously.
There's a danger of caring.
Caring.
If I don't care for people, I become
invulnerable, hard, harsh, orthodox, correct, dispensational, communistic.
I believe it all.
God will save those He wants to save.
And those He wants to go to hell
will go to hell.
So I get myself off the hook.
If I care, I'm vulnerable, I'm open to
other people's hurts and that's costly.
Be hard, be orthodox, be sound and you'll
save yourself an awful lot of pain and
you can sit in your armchair and criticize
the church for doing nothing.
There's a danger of caring and a danger
of daring.
Beloved friend, I wish that our church committees,
parochial church councils, oversight, church boards, what have
you, so conventional, so computerized, would get on
their knees and ask for some spiritual shock
treatment and given half a chance the Holy
Spirit would send through us a galvanizing wave
of vitality and rescue us from our ruts.
So cozy, so smooth.
Pray to break into new forms.
Habit, habit, be my friend.
We've done it this way for 50 years.
Habit, be my friend.
No, says Jesus, danger, be your friend.
Live dangerously.
The seven last words of a dying church
had never been done this way before.
The danger of daring.
And my friend, lastly, the danger of sharing.
I don't know quite how to say this.
I'm just beginning to understand a little of
what it means in my life.
Put yourself in the place of another person,
the person who's lost to Jesus.
Put yourself in his place, his race, his
color, his background, his position.
That's dangerous.
That's dangerous and disturbing, uncomfortable, because you see,
if you care, you don't ask that wounded
person how he feels.
You become that wounded person.
Jesus did that.
He became sin for us.
I can never do that.
But, friend, lend me your life This means
that I've become identified with people wounded, hurt,
lost, bleeding.
Go to hell.
Friend, lend me your life.
Have you lent Jesus your life?
Your life?
Utterly, completely, absolutely?
Lord, I've not quite seen it like that
before, but you're my friend and you're knocking
on the door and you're saying, lend me
your life because you've other friends that I
don't know about.
Tell them what they are, where they are.
But, Lord, I'm ready for whatever my Lord
the King will command.
Take my life.