Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Luke chapter 18, the chapter
that we read, and reading from our text, verse 7, verse 7. And shall not God avenge his
own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? The text is a question asked
after the parable has been told and the text then is the spiritual
application of the parable that we have in the first part of
this chapter. The answer really is given in
verse 8, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. But I want to confine our thoughts
to the word in verse 7. So in all parables we are told
the reason why the parable is actually given. It doesn't mean
to say that there is not other teaching that is to be had in
a parable. But we are to always bear in
mind the whole purpose of the parable being given. And so this
one and the one that follows, we are told very clearly what
the reason is. In verse 1, he spake a parable
unto them to this end, or for this purpose in view. This is
the teaching. that men ought always to pray
and not to faint. So whatever we might see else
in the parable or in the teaching, then this is what the Lord intended
to be taught here. Always to pray and not to faint. And I wonder how much as we come
before this word this morning that we may say we have need
of this word. of this teaching, because we
feel so often to faint in prayer, we are not forward in it, we're
very backward, we soon give up, we believe in prayer, we can
even believe that we should be constant in prayer, but putting
it into practice is quite another thing. And so when we have a
word that is before us here, Instead of just listening to
it as a sermon or discourse, to be in mind of how much we
need the word ourselves, that men ought always to pray and
not to faint. The second parable, of course,
he gives us very clearly the reason for that as well. is by
this parable in verse 9, unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. And yet, there
is a link in one way between the parables. Though with the
second parable, the purpose is very clearly set forth, but the
parable is about prayer, and our text is about prayer. The
first parable is about prayer. So the Lord then is showing as
well that we shouldn't despise others and trust that we ourselves
are a godly person, but also teaches us the manner of true
prayer. Not like the Pharisee, standing
and praying with himself, thanking God for how good he is, but like
the publican, God be merciful to me a sinner seeking for mercy. So though the parables are expressed
as two separate aims, yet you can see with the secondary teaching
there is a linking together. So what is the parable? Very
often in the parables it's a real help get our mind round what
is the picture, to actually picture what is going on. So we have the picture in verse
2 of a city, and in that city there is a judge. We're used
to, in our country, we have courthouses, we have judges, we have those
that are to decide If there's two people, one against the other,
who is in the right? Who is in the wrong? They are
those also that punish those that do wrong. And here is a
picture of a judge, and we're told that this judge, he wasn't
a godly man at all. He did not fear God, and not
only that, he didn't even regard man. He couldn't be intimidated
by any person, and he could not be swayed by the word of God
or the things of God. Really, he had no principles. What picture was put before us
is that this judge, it wouldn't give anyone much hope to bring
a case before him at all. He's very unlikely to help you
at all. Then we have the picture in that
same city of a widow, one that does not have a husband, her
husband died, so she hasn't got one that is strong to speak for
her at all. She is dependent, dependent for
her food on others, and yet she has someone that is going against
her, someone that is opposing her, an enemy, persecuting her,
an adversary against her and she comes to this judge and she
says to this judge, avenge me of my adversary or take away
this person that keeps coming against me. Stand up for me. Give me some justice. Deal with
this man. Punish this person. And we read that for a while,
this judge wouldn't do anything. No pity for this widow. He wouldn't
help her in any way at all. But then afterwards, he starts
thinking in himself, saying in himself. And he says, though
I fear not God nor regard man, Yet because this widow troubleth
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary
me. This widow kept coming to him,
and now he's going to do something to help her, not because he believed
in God, not because even he pitied her as a widow, but just because
of himself, because he didn't want to be continually troubled
by this person, this widow. It was a very, very selfish reason
why, and yet it was because she kept coming and kept coming to
him. So the Lord says here, listen
what the unjust judge said. And then there's the verse of
our text. And shall not God avenge his
own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long
with them? What a question. Here, listen. Listen to what this judge has
said. And now think, instead of this
judge, you think of God. You think of God and his own
people coming to him and they crying to him and praying to
him day and night. Won't he appear for them? With the judge it was said he
did not fear God, he wasn't a good man, but God is a good God. And those that are coming to
him They're not a stranger like the widow was to the judge. They're
his own people. But the Lord is teaching the
worth of coming again and again and again. Now we are warned
not to pray vain repetitions. We told the heathen that they
think that they shall be heard by their much speaking. But our Lord in the garden of
Gethsemane came and prayed the same words three times. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Vain means empty. But when God's
people are crying like this widow, it wasn't vain, it was a real
problem she had. There'd be something wrong if
we had a real problem and could then pray and the problem be
still there and we stop praying. And so when we think of something
that is empty, we're not thinking of prayer that is squeezed out
for a real sense of need and that is what is here. Well I
want to look with the Lord's help at this verse from three
aspects, three points. Firstly, a living God and shall
not God, a living God. And then secondly, his own elect. We are told here of the people
that are crying unto him, his own elect. And then thirdly,
the assurance God will deal with their case. Shall not God avenge
his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? Firstly, a living God. We read in the prophecy of Isaiah
45 and verse 20, of those that set up the wood of
their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. That cannot save. We think of
the trial in the days of Ahab and Elijah. when the children
of Israel had turned away from the true and living God and were
worshipping Baal. God has sent a famine for three
and a half years to make the people willing to come and listen
to the prophet and to make trial of who was the true and living
God. We should never just lightly
pass over when we come to a passage like this that speaks of prayer. Our Lord is making a comparison
between this judge and God. And it is right for us to think
that in this world, there are many, many people that are praying
people. that they are not praying to
the true and living God. And that was the trial that was
brought on Mount Carmel, and the two altars were set up, the
fire was made ready, the wood was put there, the bullocks were
put on the altar, and then they were to call unto their God,
and the God that answered by fire, he was the true and living
God. And those that were worshipping
Baal, they cried, and they cried from morning till noon, but Baal
didn't hear them, because Baal was not a true and living God. And we must really realise this. You know, in Genesis we read,
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The earth is
made by the true and living God. And we read in Jeremiah that
the gods that have not made the earth, that they shall perish
from under the heavens and from off this earth. And it is God
that has given prayer for man to speak unto God. But man then
has made his own gods, gods that are of wood and stone Gods that
cannot hear, that cannot speak, that cannot know, that cannot
make any laws of their own, they cannot enforce the laws of their
own. And that is what makes idols
very attractive to fallen man. Because when man has an idol
as a god, then that idol cannot see what he is doing. It will
not reprove him what he is doing. but it cannot answer him either,
nor can it help him in any way. But it's the most solemn thought
that there are so many millions who are coming in an attitude
of prayer, but they are not coming to a living God. They are happy
with their worship, with their calling upon these gods, but
never, never receive any real help from those gods. Those gods
are helpless, they are powerless. To help them, appear for them
in any way at all. The Apostle Paul, he was speaking
about things offered to idols. And he said in his mind, an idol
was nothing at all. It didn't matter if food was
offered to an idol. because that idol was no God.
All it was was a bit of wood. We think of even the brazen serpent
that was raised up in the wilderness, that God raised it up as a type,
and our Lord referred to that time in John 3. But in Hezekiah's
day, the people were worshipping that idol. They were going after
him, making it an idol. And so he ground it to powder
and he called it a tushtan. In other words, just a piece
of brass. That's all that it was. And when
we come here then, shall not God, we are talking about the
true and living God. And even though we may profess
to worship this God, it's good for us to tell ourselves again,
to rehearse again of the God whom we worship and believe in,
and to make a comparison to those who worship they know not what. Paul, when he came to Mars Hill
in Athens, then he saw altars to many, many gods. And just
in case that they left one out, They put an altar to an unknown
God. And so he said to them, him whom
you do ignorantly worship, I declare unto you. In him we live and
move and have our being. And he sets before them that
true and living God. How real is God to us? How mindful are we, day by day,
waking hours and at night, as in the context of this verse,
that this God is the true God, that he is the eternal God, that
he is the God who holds us in life and before whom we must
appear the last great Judgment Day. But in the context of our
text, a God that has instituted prayer. He has done it, not man,
not anyone else. God has determined that his creatures
that he has made will be able to speak on earth, whether audibly
or even in their thoughts, and that he in heaven will hear,
and that he will answer those requests and those prayers. God has ordained that. And from
the Old Testament, from the beginning, right through to the end of the
world, men will call upon the Lord. And the living God that
has given prayer, he has made a channel for that prayer. And
it's very, very clear in the New Testament that that channel
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, if you ask anything
in my name, I will do it. Ask and it shall be given you,
seek and you shall find not, and it shall be opened unto you. He is our high priest who is
set to appear in the presence of God for us, He is our advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He shall receive
the petitions of his people and present them before God the Father,
perfume with his precious blood, made acceptable by his own work
and his own blood. So when we come in prayer, we
come to the living God, the true God, a God who is able to do
exceeding far above all that we can ask or all that we can
think, and one who on Calvary's tree has made that way that he
can answer and he can give to his people those things that
they don't deserve, but by his grace and by his presence he is just and righteous to give
to them that ask him. So unto them think secondly of
his own elect that are spoken of here. And shall not God avenge
his own elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear
long with them? Many people are troubled whether
or not they are one of God's elect. What is very evident is
God does have a people that in our text are described as his
own, his own. We read, when our Lord came into
this world and was given the name of Jesus, the name was given,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, For he shall save his people
from their sins. Which tells us that he has a
people, that they are sinners, and that he shall save them from
their sins. Not might or maybe, but he will. And so here we have a people
that are God's own people, and they are described as elect. And the reason why they're described
as elect, because they have been chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He has loved them with an everlasting
love. The Father gave them to the Son
to redeem. In John 10, we read, the Father,
my Father, which gave them me, is greater than I. No man is
able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. So they are elect
because of that eternal love and eternal choice. How do we
know who are the elect? We know, as in the context here,
from two points, two things that mark out and are a clear evidence
of God's elect. The one thing is this, that they
cry, and not only cry, but day and night unto him. When the Apostle Paul saw that
he was ignorant of the Lord Jesus Christ, he fought against him,
he hated him, he was a praying man, but did not pray as a broken-hearted
sinner, but as a Pharisee, like in the next parable. And yet
when God met with him on the Damascus road and began working
in his heart, then the Lord said to Ananias, Behold, he prayeth. When prayer is really from the
heart, that is a mark of being one of God's elect. God teaches
to pray. He brings into need and he brings
the people to look to their maker, look to their creator and look
to God and to cry and pray unto him. And we must never pass over
that mark. And it is a mark where we do
not need to look back really all the time to a conversion
because God's people will be praying people all their days,
all their lives. And yet the very text here, the
very context tells us this, that even God's elect, even those
that the Lord is teaching and setting these truths before them
here, they need to be exhorted to pray. They need to be exhorted
to pray always. You might have one that says,
well, how can I be one of the elect? I'm so backward in prayer. I'm so poor in prayer. I so easily give up. I do not cry all the time. And yet the Lord speaks this
parable to encourage and to enforce in prayer. And in the things
that God brings into our lives, the troubles, the trials, the
sicknesses, afflictions and troubles. In those things he teaches and
he brings us to prayer. In Psalm 107, we have again and
again, a people that were brought down into trouble and many because
of their own rebellings and their own ways. And they fell down
and there was none to help. And I've often thought through
that, how could it possibly be? that God's people fall down and
there's none to help. Where were they looking for the
help from? But then we read, then they cried
unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their
distresses. And we tend to put prayer last. We go to the Lord last. We try
to fix something ourselves. We try to manage it ourselves. And we're not foremost in prayer.
So don't rule yourself out of being the elect, because you
look at your prayers and you say what poor prayers they are,
because the Lord teaches and exhorts those of his people in
the matter of prayer. But that they do cry is evident,
and that the troubles and things that they come into, the Lord
said, he must through much tribulation enter the kingdom, there will
be those things that they cry day and night unto the Lord for. And of course, the one great
need will be at first when the eyes are opened to see that they
are sinners and to realise their need of a saviour, when they
realise what a wicked, deceitful heart they have, when they realise
the pull of the world and how strong Satan is. If this widow
had an adversary, a child of God has an adversary in his own
heart, he has one in the world, he has one in Satan, and he may
have many adversaries in men. The Lord says in John 17, I have
given them thy word and the world hath hated them. And woe is you
when all men speak well of you, for so they did the false prophets
that were before you. And so the need of the crying,
there'll be many things that are brought before the Lord,
not only the needs of the soul, but in our lives, our providence,
in provision, in our keeping, in our guidance, in our instruction,
help in our lawful callings, help in the house of God, in
all things we will cry unto the Lord. And it is a matter not
just for day, but for night as well. And so a mark of God's
elect they cry, Another thing to note here is that God does
not avenge them immediately. It says here, shall not God avenge
his own elect which cry day and night unto them? But though it
says in verse 8, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily,
yet the very fact that they're crying day and night And the
very fact that this parable is speaking on importunate prayer,
it shows that instant answers are not always the way, that
we are to continue in prayer. It is remarkable, we mentioned
about Elijah, he only prayed once, a very short prayer, and
the fire came down from heaven, but there was still the rain
to come. And in that, he had to go again
seven times, asking for the same thing. And then the rain came. And so it's not a mark against
us, and not a mark that we're not of the elect, that we don't
get answers straight away, and that we are asking again and
again for the same thing. The encouragement this morning
is that we do go. We must go. We say, like with
Peter, To whom else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. There is no other help. There's
no other help in ourselves, in the world. We believe that Thou
art the true and living God, and so we must keep coming to
Thee. And it's good that we are cut
off from every other help but the Lord alone. So the mark,
firstly then, is that the elect They cry unto the Lord. The second thing is that he bears
long with them. Now some, several have interpreted
this in different ways. Some would mean that it is that
he doesn't answer them straight away. He bears long with them
and then at last he'll answer them. But I believe all of the
people of God will know this, When we look at our own sin and
how backward we are, how soon we turn aside from the Lord,
we prove the Lord is a long-suffering God. He bears long with us. He doesn't deal with us as our
sins deserve. He hasn't cut us off. He hasn't
dealt with us in wrath. He bears long with us. What one
of the people of God do not look at their lives, they marvel at
how long suffering the Lord is. Have you been discouraged as
you've been trying to pray and cry to the Lord and the devil
says, well, you look at your life. No wonder the Lord doesn't
answer. You look at what you're doing,
what you're thinking. You look at the unbelief of your
heart. You look at your practices and
your ways, and here is the Lord bearing long with his people.
When we think of the children of Israel through the wilderness
journey, how much they provoked the Lord. And he bore with them. Yes, he chastened them, he corrected
them, he dealt with them and for their sins, but his long
suffering towards them. And it'll be one of those things
that we find is an amazing thing that the Lord bears with us so
long. He doesn't deal with us as we
really feel that he should deal with us in. And so there are
these two marks here. And you might say, well, how
does that really show us to the election? When we have even thee,
those that believe in idols and they may cry day and night. The
difference is that those here are crying to the true and the
living God. We read of the long cloud of
witnesses in Hebrews 11, those that walk by faith, that without
faith it is impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. And so with the mark of election,
it is coming to the true and living God by faith, not to an
idol. It is mindful of whom we are
coming to. And then regarding the bearing
long with, There's the fear of the Lord, the sense of the majesty
and might and greatness of the Lord. There's a sense of what
we deserve, a sense of our sinnership that is actually felt by those
that are God's people, his elect. So they give assent to what is
set before us here. And we have that token. of being the people of God. Not just one of them this fits,
but fits all of the people of God. Shall not God avenge his
own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? We have then in the third place
the assurance that God will deal with their case. He will deal
with their case. The very way that the question
is put, shall not God avenge his own elect? Shall not he deal
with it? Shall not he take their case
in hand? And shall not he do what they
are asking for? And the answer in verse eight,
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. speedily in God's
own time and way. The Lord said to his disciples,
your time is already, my time is not yet. And we sometimes
get very impatient and that is the whole reason for this parable. And yet the assurance here that
the Lord will deal with their case. May we think of what our
cases are this morning, what is upon our heart, whether it
be our own sinnership, our besetting sins, our evil habits, our sins
of thought, of word, of deed, that we cry unto the Lord day
and night for, that he will appear regarding those. If it is the
a case of seeking a blessing for our souls. I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. Then the Lord will appear. Jacob, he wrestled with the angel. He had Esau coming. It was a
matter of life and death that was set before him. And so he
wrestled. He would not let the Lord go.
And the Lord did appear for him. The Lord changed his name from
Jacob to Israel. Why? Because he had wrestled
with God and with man and had prevailed. And then we see the
fruit and the answer of that. When he met Esau, he says to
him, I've seen thy face as the face of an angel instead of an
adversary. He had a brother that embraced
him Instead of the 400 men coming to fight against him, they came
in peace. And he saw the Lord appearing
for him and helping him in this case. And the people of God have
proved this again and again. We think of Jehoshaphat, when
those of Mount Seir and Moab came up against Israel. And he
comes before the Lord and with all the people of God. And he
says, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And the Lord said to him and
to all Israel through his servant, the prophet, that they should
not need to fight in that battle, but the Lord would fight for
them. And so he did. He set them all against each
other and they only needed to come and take the spoil and deal
with the slain. What an assurance, God will deal
with their case, your case, my case, personally, our families,
the Church of God. Those things, like with Hannah,
what was her case, that she had no child, And she came to Shiloh,
and if ever there was an impossible case there, we have an unjust
judge that has spoken here, but Eli's sons were most ungodly
men at Shiloh. But she came to the true and
living God. And though Eli mistook her case,
God heard her case. my soul unto God. And Eli said,
he said, the Lord grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked
of him. He did not know what her petition
was, but God gave her Samuel. And though several years later
when he was weaned and she brings him to the temple at Shiloh and
said, for this child I prayed and the Lord has given me my
petition. that I asked of him. The Lord
did deal with her case. And yet, I think if we read the
account, we can know that it was several years coming to and
fro each year to worship as a family up to Shiloh. And year by year,
she had the other wife that had children being given gifts by
her husband, and it rubbed in all the time that she did not
have that blessing and she did not have children. And the Lord
heard her and appeared for her. It is a blessed assurance when
we have those things that are too hard for us, the cause that
is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it. The assurance, especially when
It seems a long while and that God is not listening and not
dealing with it and not attending to our case. This parable, this
teaching, that we don't faint, that we always pray, is that
the Lord will deal with our case. He will appear for us. He will
help us. And we have this encouragement
that we must keep on. We must cry to the Lord. He is
our God. We are his people. We know that
we have none other to go to but him. And we know that he is a
good God and that he is able to manage it and he is able to
order all things concerning us. And so this is a real assurance
from the Lord of that help. to his crying and praying people. And shall not God avenge his
own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? I tell you that he will avenge
them speedily. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.