Luke 18:1-8

This morning I invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke chapter 18 this morning. I’m going to look at the first eight verses. Luke chapter 18 and the first eight verses of the chapter. And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. saying there was in a city a judge which feared not God neither regarded man there was a widow in that city she came unto him saying avenge me of my adversary and he would not for a while but afterward he said within himself though I fear not God nor regard man Yet because this widow trouble with me, I will avenge her, lest by her continually coming, she weary me. And the Lord said here, but the unjust judge saith. Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? So I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, the son of man, when the son of man come, shall he find faith on the earth. May God bless to us, his sacred and holy word this morning. Tamburlame was a renowned Turkish conqueror of the 14th century. This Mongol warrior’s conquest extended from the black sea. sea all the way through the upper Ganges in India. At one point, his army was defeated and had to flee for his life. All seemed lost. He had an old barn. And he saw there an aunt carrying a big piece of grain up a perpendicular wall. He said the ant kept falling down. And he began to count how many times he was climbing up. It took him 70 tries to get up that wall. But he finally did. And Timberlane began to think about this. He took courage from it. I thought if I just am persistent, I can overcome this problem. And so he ended up raising a new army, defeated his enemies. His perseverance paid off, and he was once again the major conqueror. When you think about the graces of the Spirit, no doubt you think about love and joy and peace and faith and so forth, I don’t think perseverance is the first fruit you would probably think about. This grace is included in the word long-suffering in Galatians, Chapter 522. No one likes to suffer, especially if we have to suffer long. It’s hard to endure. But the Bible declares that the Christian must through much tribulation go through this life. There is much opposition by the world, by the flesh, by the devil against us, and you face. battles within your spirit and without in the world in which we live. And so the Bible talks about enduring hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The Christian life is more like a marathon than a sprint. We’re supposed to have to have to slog our way through a lot of it and face the difficulty one at a time. The perseverance of the saints is of great importance. Now our Lord is talking about perseverance in our text. Perseverance with regard to prayer. And so we are going to look at this matter of perseverance in prayer this morning. And so we have the parable of the persistent prayer. widow and the unjust judge that is set out before us here in this text. Now, a widow had a problem. She had been done an injustice by someone. Perhaps someone had swindled her out of her house and property or confiscated it in some manner. And so she was in death. desperate strikes. You recall the account of the Shunamite woman whose son Elisha raised from the dead. When there was a severe famine in land, Elisha told her to go somewhere else for seven years. And she eventually came back from Philistia after seven years of being in a way. But her house and land had been taken over by others and being without a husband, she had to appeal to the king that he went in her seat for her and help her. So she went forth onto the king to explain her situation. Now while she was going to the king, the king was speaking to Gahazi, the servant of Elisha. And Gahazi was explaining how one of the great featsy was explaining how one of the great feats of his master was raising this widow’s son from the dead. And lo and behold, here she comes in. He says, well, this is the woman. This is her son. And so that opened the door for the king to be sympathetic immediately. And in the providence of God, we find that he was moved to move to promote. for her. She said, oh, Lord, my king, this is the woman, or this is, he said, Yohazi said, this is the woman that I was speaking of. So he orders that her, the shunamite’s home and land be restored to her, plus all the crop value that she lost during the year she was in Felistia. And so she was, got satisfaction in this situation. Now, the woman we have before us has come to the king out of desperation, a different king, evidently. She was alone, without a husband, without resources on her own, and she had been cruelly exploited by someone because of her own. vulnerability. Now, only the judge could correct this injustice. The problem was, this judge was an unjust judge. He didn’t fear God. He didn’t regard man. He did whatever he pleased. And this was difficult for her. He was answerable nobody. He didn’t recognize the office of civil magistrate was given by God, that his duty was the punish the evildoers and to reward the righteous. And he didn’t see his job as being a minister of God in this regard. He was just a job. And he was looking out for number one. He didn’t want to be bothered by the widow’s case. So he refused to hear it and put her off and was just an unjust judge. The widow’s However, refused to give up. She kept showing out before the king. Kept saying, hey, I need your help. So eventually, she began to wear down the judge’s resistance. Like, remember the story of Samson’s bride to be when she wanted to know the riddle. Remember that he told the men who, where his companions at the wedding coming up. And she wept and she cried and she pleaded. You don’t love me. You don’t tell me what it is and so forth. But really, the men just told her it wouldn’t burn you and your husband, your father’s house down if you don’t find out what it is. So she nagged Samson until he finally told her in the last day before the wedding. And then he realized that these Philistines had pumped his wife and he used her to plead with him to get the information. But he finally gave in with all the nagging. Well, like Samson’s bride to be, this widow is pleading here, and she’s not going to relent. So to get her off his bed. back. He finally says, I’m going to avenge her. His attitude toward her hadn’t changed. He’s not doing this out of goodwill. He still has the same attitude. I shouldn’t be bothered with this, but she’s going to keep coming if I don’t do something. So he just wanted peace. So he ended up doing the right thing, but really for the wrong reason. And yet the injustice was finally fixed. And we see that here. That’s the story of the parable. Now, let’s look at the symbolism of the parable this morning. The widow here in this parable is a picture of the church of Christ in the midst of the world. God’s own elect people as verse 7 would indicate to us. Now, as a widow, the woman is deprived of her natural protector and provider and is thrown upon her own resources. She has to make her way through this hostile world without her husband. For Christ has gone to heaven. He is no longer physically present with the church. And so even though, we know that he’s spiritually present with us. We know that he’s not physically. We, as a widow, wait for Christ return. So at this time, the husband of the church, Jesus Christ, is physically gone into heaven. So the church is in a sense alone. As Jesus said in John 1711, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thy name, those whom thou hast given me. Praise that God would keep them while he’s absent. And that’s what we see here. It’s true that the scripture speaks of Christ being spiritually present. We’ve talked about that. We could talk about the spirit being given to us as a comforter. so forth. But it’s also true that the scripture speaks of the church longing for Christ to return. So the fact is, while Christ is in heaven and his people on earth, the church resembles a widow. And she is, apart from her husband, of a weakness, and exposed to all. hostile men. And so we find that she’s easy prey to the people of this world. That’s the danger that we face. Now the adversary here, the widow has an adversary, as does the church. Now the widow’s adversary was destroying her by taking away what was her rightful property. The adversary of the church is this world of wicked men in which we live, and the devil who is the head of these wicked men. Marvel not, my brother, if the world hate you. What do they care about you? They don’t fear God. They don’t fear man. They want to do whatever they want to do. They can care less about you. The wicked attempt to take the churches from the church all that’s dear to them. Her demise is the goal of Satan. So to gain that in, the wicked try to take away the ministry of the word and persecute and even kill believers. We find that we are the true heirs of this world. But we have squatters. The world has squatters. They have taken over. What is rightfully ours? So the adversary here is very strong. They’re in great numbers. If their forces are marshaled together, what chance does the church have? They control the means of communication and propaganda in the news media. distort the picture of the church in this world. You remember the story of Haman in the book of Astra. A wicked Haman came before the King Azuarez of the Mids and Persians with a slanderous account of the people of God. Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were in the whole kingdom, all 127 provinces, of the King of Hazawares. Ethiopia to India. So Haman misrepresented the people of God before the king. There is a certain people scattered abroad, dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom. And their laws are diverse from all people. Neither keep they the king’s laws. Therefore, it is not for the king’s prophet to suffer them. please the king, let it be written, that they may be destroyed. So with great glee, you can imagine Haman watching the king signed the edict that is going to bring about the demise of every Jew in this vast kingdom. At the end of the book of Revelation, you find Satan leading the horde of Gog and Magog against the camp of the saints, surrounding it with the purpose of trying to do. destroy it, the church is always in a vulnerable position. And we find that we are the ones, while heirs of the world, are getting cheated out of this world at the moment by these squatters. The third thing we see here is the unjust judge contrasted with God, who is the just judge. Now, I have to do it. have to admit, I probably have never used this illustration, but our Lord Jesus Christ does, and I may be he’s the only one that could do this to make such a contrast between the two, between his father and this unjust judge. We find that the idea here is that of contrast, not likeness. So the bad actions of the unjust judge. judge teach you something about the good actions of someone else, God himself. Perhaps, as I said, maybe the only son of God could make this comparison. I’d feel that I’d have trouble doing it myself. But if this wicked judge will yield to the mere persistence of a widow, Surely the just judged by God will yield to the persistence of his elect people that cry on the end day and night. That’s the point he makes. Does not God love his people with an everlasting love? Are they not the apple of his eyes? Does he not work all things for their good? Is he not concerned about them in this world? God has a plan. and a purpose for his church of grace, and he will pass final sentence upon the wicked eventually. He will deliver his church from the world, from the flesh, from the devil, and they will enjoy the rightful heritage on the new heaven and new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells and we no longer have to deal with the wicked. or all the wicked will be removed. So here’s the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. Now let’s make an application of this parable. One thing we should say here, persevere, for your prayers will be answered. If we faint not, well, it’s going to hear our prayers and help us. A great danger for the child of God has become discouraged. I don’t know about you, and there’s times you pray year after year for something, and it doesn’t happen. And it’s a struggle to keep praying. It’s almost as God has a deaf ear. And you have a difficulty with it. And we faint under the withering barrage of the world’s fire. and give up the fight. Jesus said, you ought to always to pray. We must not treat prayer as a useless exercise. It is useful. Even though we don’t get an answer immediately. It’s not for nothing that the apostle says pray without ceasing. Ah, he doesn’t mean to give up your job and your family and go live in a monastery somewhere. But he means we should be in a spirit of prayer at all times, be willing and anxious to go to the Lord in prayer, knowing that he’ll hear us and intervene on our behalf. Keep praying for the Lord to help you overcome the world. Keep praying for strength to help to advance the kingdom of God on earth. We read in Psalm 107, 6. Then they cried under the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them. other distresses and that’s what we need to know. God will not act like the unjust judge. He won’t keep putting us off forever. He will hear and answer our prayers. In Pilgrim’s progress, John Bunyan talks to us about Christina, or Christianity, I guess it is, who is the wife of Christian. And Mercy, the young woman and the children. They’re graphically pictured as knocking on the wicked door. They knock and knock and no one answers. Meanwhile, ferocious dog comes and begins to bark making the women and children are very afraid. They don’t know what to do. If we keep knocking, the dog’s going to attack us, perhaps. But if we stop knocking, maybe the door’s going to attack us. But if we stop knocking, maybe the door to work will be offended. So they determined to keep knocking ever so fervently. Finally, the voice of the doorkeeper asked who is there. And he said, John Bunyan says immediately, the dog stopped barking. In this frightening experience, persistence paid off. If they didn’t let outward circumstances get to the, this frightening experience, persistence, persistence paid off. to them and stop them from being persistent. So, let the dog howl, keep knocking. Let the world attack us. Let them do what they want. Just keep praying. Don’t give up when you pray. Persevere. Your prayers will be answered. Persevere for the justice of God will be carried out on Earth. Versus seven and eight A. God has an elect people. They’re under his care. Election is one of the deep truths of Scripture. We read in our confession, by the decree of God for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels, are predestinated or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious Christ. Chapter 3, Paragraph 3. And he says here that his elect cry unto him day and none. Now, they are essentially praying people if they’re elect people. You know, a prayerless person can never claim to be one of the God’s elect. God’s elect. They pray persistently. And that’s what he’s telling us here also. those who God loves, with an everlasting love, chose to be his people, are under his special watch care. And God says he will avenge them and they’re mistreated when they’re wrong. Now, compared with our sinful and patience, God is always working out his purposes he has a timetable for everything, and we just have to wait upon him. But the truth is, he is determined to perfect the perfect moment to deliver us in our affliction, and they answer our deepest and holiest desires. So God will answer them speedily, or we might say at least as quickly as possible. possible, he will answer them. But you must remember that God has an overall purpose to carry out. And there are times you’ll pray and you’ll get an answer the same day. There are times you’ll pray and not get an answer for weeks or months or even years. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness. But as one day with the Lord, is as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. So the Lord is long suffering toward his people. Not willing that any of them should perish, but that all should be saved, 2 Peter 3.9. So one of the reasons Christ has not returned yet is that he has not finished calling out his elect. His elect must be called out. And in the meantime, those who has been called out, they still are seeking deliverance from this world. And so we have to wait until God’s purpose is complete. Christ is going to return in flaming fire, rid this world of the wicked, and grant us our inheritance. Don’t forget, though, that God says in Psalm 58, He is a God who judges in the earth. He does judge in this life. So we have to look to him that he will settle the score when we need it. You know, a medical doctor who performs an operation on his son to save his life has to steal himself against the pain and agony that his son is going to go through. But he knows if he does the operation, his son will be well and recover. So God wait, that he may be gracious at times. And so we have to be patient and just seek him out and wait for his response. Persevering is important for there is great apostasy ahead. I’m not going to spend much time on this. We’ll be looking at it later. Verse 8B talks about when Christ returns. Is there going to be anyone of faith on the earth? Well, God’s a let’s love. that will be here. But it seems to indicate there might be a whole lot of the people of God compared to the hordes of this world. And so there’s a time of apostasy, a time of when real believers are going to be few in number when Christ returns in judgment. So we have to realize there is always a remnant according to God’s election of grace even though it may be a small remnant and here he indicates that it may indeed be small and we’ll be looking at this later but we have to realize we have to persevere people who don’t persevere are not true saints they don’t have the spirit of God they have never been given long suffering and therefore there is a problem. So be forewarned by this. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Do you have faith yourself? Is your faith such that it perseveres? It trusts in the Lord even when he does not immediately answer. Can you continue going to him? knowing that he will eventually help you. Or do you faint in your process here? He says, don’t faint. Keep praying. Yes, there is going to be a great time of apostasy. But don’t let that disturb you. Keep praying. Keep seeking the Lord’s help. Well, Tamburlaine, the great conqueror, almost gave up. But when he saw that ant’s persistence in carrying that large grain up the wall, he decided he needed to persist too. Perseverance is an important fruit of the spirit, absolutely for necessary in living the Christian life, especially for our prayer. Let us close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to read about persistence in our prayer life in Christ, the warning. I pray, Lord, that we may indeed love you. We may indeed not be faithless. Trust in you. Help us never to give up, Father, but to continue to pursue that which would be pleasing in your sight. Here are our prayers, Lord. Don’t forget about us. And avenge you. and help us in this life. Protect your people. For it’s in the name of Christ, we ask and pray these things with Thanksgiving. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.