Opening Verses In Luke 11

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Prayer Meeting Address given at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Wednesday evening, 1st August, 2018

“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 every one 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 is 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 you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto 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?”—Luke 11:1-13

Seeking the Lord’s help, I would direct your thoughts to the passage we read in Luke 11. There are one or two comments I would like to make on the verses that we read.

The great burden upon the Saviour’s heart here was to encourage His people in prayer. And, as always, He set the pre-eminent example. “He was praying in a certain place.” It seems to infer that He was praying audibly; publicly. His little band of disciples gathered around Him and heard Him in prayer. How distinctive the prayers of the dear Saviour are! Ours are mingled with sin and unbelief. There are many tares among the wheat. But His were pure, undefiled, wholly sincere desires before His heavenly Father. And, when He prayed, He prayed not just for Himself in that onerous work that was laid upon Him, by His heavenly Father to undertake. Friends, He also prayed for His people. How dear they were to Him! He says in John 17: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world.” What a wonderful thing to have an interest in the prayers of the dear Saviour! Peter would never have come out of Satan’s sieve had that not been the case. “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” In the Book of Job we read of a man going down into the pit. Had that one not had an advocate with the Father, then no ransom would have been found. But, blessed be God, a ransom is found for the coming sinner who comes feeling his guilt, his unworthiness, his wretchedness and his debt to the law. Everything may be against him. But, “I have found a ransom.” What a wonderful ransom has been found in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ!

When the Lord ended His prayer, His disciples turned to Him and asked Him: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” We are not told how John the Baptist taught his disciples; with what words he exhorted them. The one thing we can say is that John, good, godly man that he was; he was an eminent saint and a burning and a shining light, yet he could not impart to his disciples the spirit and the grace of prayer. But, the Lord Jesus can. And that is how He teaches his people to pray, because real prayer is the fruit of the Spirit in the heart; that is what real prayer is. It is the Holy Ghost moving in that sinner’s heart, teaching him to confess, teaching him to mourn, teaching him to ask, teaching him to wrestle, teaching him to come and teaching him to give God no rest until he gets the answer that he has been taught to pray for. And, remember, there is that blessed aid of the Spirit: He “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” The Lord knows our weakness in prayer and how weak we are in it.

But, there were two words that stood out in meditation. Firstly, the Lord, both in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels, gave the pattern of prayer for His dear disciples. It is not that we have to take the exact words on our lips every time we pray. But the things which our Lord commends here to pray for, and the manner in which He sets it before them, is the perfect pattern for us in prayer. In particular, those two words stand right out: “Our Father.” This is a tremendously deep subject, and a very blessed one. Blessed are those here tonight who have had the answer to Anne Steele’s prayer:

“My God, my Father, blissful name! 

O may I call Thee mine?”

“Our Father.” In what way are God’s people able to say this? Of course, in one sense; in the creative sense, He is the Father of all creation. Creation is His handiwork, and His creatures are His to provide for. So, in that sense we can say He is the creative Father of the whole of Adam’s fallen race, reminding us we are accountable to Him as His creatures. We are answerable to Him, even as a child is answerable to his parent in that creative sense. The whole of Adam’s race is answerable to our God. But, that relationship, friends, is not the one spoken of here by the dear Saviour. That relationship will not save a sinner, neither you nor me. We may be wonderfully blessed in providence. We may have great success in our lives and we may go to the pinnacle of our career. We may be surrounded by every providential good God could give. But, if your soul is never wrought on by the Holy Ghost; if your soul is never indwelt by the Holy Ghost, then, dear friends, all that you may have attained this side of the grave, the grave will swallow up and leave you naked and bare before the great God to whom you owe everything in that great day of judgement and justice.

But, God’s children have a nearer, relationship. They are adopted. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the dear Son of God, is not an adopted Son. He is the Son by nature. He is equal with His heavenly Father and equal with the Holy Ghost. And I would just say this: when we pray to one of the persons of the Trinity, we are praying to all Three. When we pray to the dear Spirit, we are praying to the other persons of the Trinity. When we pray to the dear Saviour, the other two dear persons are engaged in that prayer, like as when we pray to the Father. He is one God, and yet here we are pointed, particularly to the first person of the glorious Trinity, The Lord Jesus Christ, of course, is the Son of God by nature. He is verily God; very God as much as the Father and the Spirit.

So the Lord Jesus Christ has, as it were, a divine right in His divinity to say of God the Father: “My Father.” Yet, He assumed that human nature: body and soul, and became a Man. In that holy humanity there dwelt “the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” The Spirit was given “without measure” to Him. In that sense, as we read in Hebrews 2: “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.” The One who sanctifies is the Saviour, those who are sanctified are His children, “for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” He is the elder Brother of the family. The sons and the daughters are brothers and sisters to Him in that deep, spiritual sense. Oh, how wonderful to think we may join with the dear Son of God in our nature and say, “Our Father!” “Our Father,” because He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! When He ascended on high He said: “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” Oh! To say: “Our Father,” in its deepest sense, is to come to the Father through His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Our Father.” God’s dear children are adopted. They are taken from the family of the children of wrath in which they are born in by nature, and they are translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. And thus they become part of the family of God. Those words “Abba, Father” then are suitable for them, and, as they approach their God, “Our Father.”

Now, dear friends, when a child is adopted, it is a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing when parents are constrained to give a child a good home. We have seen the evidence of it. But the second point I want to make is this: when God adopts His children He gives them a nature, too: a new nature. Oh, how wonderful! Adopted, yes. We are not God’s children by nature. We are not only put among the children, but we are given the nature of the children! This is a great grace. Every one of God’s dear people is an adopted people, and every one of them is given that new nature. What is this nature? Again, it was quoted in prayer: “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” And, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” “Our Father.” What access we have here! The best of all fathers, who knows best what to give us and what to withhold from us, how to lead us, how to guide us, how to provide for us and how to undertake for us! “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” Oh, friends! He is a wise Father, He is a kind Father and He is a just Father. Those of us who have been parents, we hope we have done our best for our children. But we look back on many mistakes because we are poor sinners. But this is the perfect Father. He will never cause His child a needless tear. He will cause them some tears, and if He does, they are needful. He never causes needless tears. Blessed be God for that.

And, even when His children do wander, and we do; even when the prodigal son was deep, deep down in that far off country wasting his time, he was still a son. Nothing could alter that. He wasn’t behaving like a son and he wasn’t enjoying the privileges of a son until he came to be in want, and then he wanted the privileges that belonged to the family. And he had them, didn’t he? The best robe, the ring on the finger, the shoes on the feet, the fatted calf and, above all, the kiss from his father; that kiss that covered all the foolishness and folly of that wandering, prodigal son. “Our Father.” Has He ever kissed you? Has He ever kissed me? Friends, if He ever has, you have been loved with an everlasting love. It is a love that cannot change; a love that will last beyond your last breath; an ocean you will swim in, in a spiritual sense, in eternity to come. Bless God for a kiss. “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: for Thy love is better than wine.” Some people are very concerned about their genealogy, and it may be a very interesting subject. But, dear friends, when all is said and done, Adam is our father. We are fallen in Adam. But what a mercy if we now have a relationship, by grace, with the second Adam. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

The third thing I want to bring before you is that little expression: “Which of you shall have a friend?” Here the Lord is speaking of a particular need that had arisen. He uses the illustration of a man who has a friend who comes to visit him and he has nothing to set before him. What is he to do? At midnight he goes to one of his other friends and asks him to lend him three loaves. At first the friend wasn’t very willing. “Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.” But the very pressing need of his friend overcame all his objections and all his prejudices. In the end he got up gave him what he needed. But friends, as we read that, I thought of something very precious. “Which of you shall have a friend?” The Father I have just spoken of is also a Friend as is His dear Son: a Friend who “loveth at all times.” He is that friend who “sticketh closer than a brother.” “Which of you shall have a friend?” If you have this Friend, you have all you need. Think of it! He went “unto him at midnight.”

“Which of you shall have a friend?” I could not help but think of that little verse, and the dear dying thief. It was midnight with the dear Saviour. It was His darkest hour. The wrath of God poured out upon the dear Redeemer, enduring in His holy soul agonies we cannot begin to describe! Midnight! Perhaps the most inconsiderate time for any sinner to approach, in one sense, if you understand me aright. So taken up with the awesome load He was bearing! Did He turn the dying thief away? No, he welcomed him! “Which of you shall have a Friend, and shall go unto Him at midnight?” Do you have a ‘midnight’ in your path? A dark path, with no light? Go to this dear Friend. He will not gainsay you. He will not turn you away. He loves a coming sinner. And, though He is now sat upon His throne in glory above, He is as willing to attend to His dear people’s needs at midnight, as He was to the dying thief on the brink of eternity. He was the one for whom the Lord found a ransom. “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a Ransom.” The Lord Jesus is the ransom through His precious, sin-atoning blood.

So, dear friends, though this friend in our parable here was somewhat reluctant, the Friend with a capital ‘F’ is not. He is able to save, able to deliver, able to succour, able to do and able to keep. What is He not able to do? Oh, if only you had a larger view of Him, all your unbelief would flee away. With such a Father to go to and such a friend to approach, all those questionings should flee away. Remember, the dying thief did not approach feeling he was an elect vessel of mercy. He did not feel like that, did he? He was an elect vessel of mercy, but he didn’t feel to be. He was a guilty sinner on the brink of eternity, needing a Saviour, and on that ground he came. And, you may come on the same ground; on just, the same ground.

Now the last thing I want to bring before you is this. Our Lord here sets before us how wide we should open our mouth in prayer. “If ye then, being evil…” there’s no doubt about that, is there? “…know how to give good gifts unto your children:” yes, and you give what you can with the means you have for their best, “…how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” I know that there are ever so many things to ask for. You need doors to be opened, mountains to be laid low and crooked things to be made straight. You need grace, strength and patience; I know all of that. But, my dear friends, when all is said and done, the Holy Spirit is your greatest of all needs. And, if He gives you that gift, everything else will fall into place. Everything, because it is the gift He gives to His dear children. In giving that gift to His dear children, you can be sure that having given His dear Son for them, and giving His Holy Spirit to them, what else will He withhold? The unspeakable gift of His dear Son has been given for His children, and the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost has made them His children. If these two unspeakable gifts flow from the heart of this loving, heavenly Father, then, dear friends, what else will He withhold? He knows your need. Paul summed it all up in Philippians 4: “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Yes, a Father, and a Friend.

An unlimited resource! We give to our children, and as we give, our resources are reduced. We do not complain about that, but when God gives His resources, they are never reduced. Never! They are no less when He has given as before He gave, because He is infinite. Thus, dear friends, your need tonight, whatever it may be, is within the blessed remit and within the blessed resource; the compass of this great God whom our Lord commends to His disciples. Tell Him; tell Him what you need. Lay it before Him, “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”

May God add His blessing.

Amen