Let's go to Luke 18. Luke 18, our text this morning, concerns a widow and the unjust judge, this parable that our Lord gives us. And it seems that our Lord spake this parable upon the occasion that we looked at last week when he was teaching his disciples concerning the kingdom of God.

Luke tells us why he gives us this parable. Verse 1, And he spake a parable unto them to this end, for this purpose, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. So given what our Lord had just taught his disciples regarding the violent overthrows of kingdoms come and kingdoms going throughout history and the devices that are the wiles of the devil and the devices of the adversary of our souls given these things, he knows that prayer would be most needful for you and I.

Prayer is most needful for us in our life of faith. Our Lord knows our weaknesses. He knows our infirmities. He knows that we are but dust. This flesh was formed from dust, and to dust it returns. And therefore, He's speaking these words not to your flesh. He's not commanding your flesh. He's speaking these words which can only be heard in the new man. These are words spoken to the new man to encourage you and me to always pray and not to faint.

Pray. Pray to the Lord. Go to the Lord, because faint we would, and faint we could, and faint we do in ourselves. We faint. When considering our Lord's instruction under Paul's words, what he said, that in due season We shall reap if we faint not. Well, then we begin to see how the Lord brings that to pass. He sustains us in the spirit of prayer. He gives to his child a spirit of prayer. To his elect, he gives a spirit of prayer.

Now, prayer is indeed one of the earliest characteristics that's seen in one who is born again, one who is called out of darkness and given life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, he prayeth. And that was the Lord's testimony of Paul immediately after his conversion, when the Lord came in and interposed him when he was on his way to Damascus. And now the Lord says, behold, Ananias, he prayeth. He prayeth. That's where you'll know who it is. He prayeth. And that's what the Lord does in his people. He gives us a spirit of prayer.

Now, it is the Lord who is the very wisdom of his people who is saying this to us. He is our wisdom. He's our righteousness and our wisdom. And he gives this to his people. He designed this parable for us, and it's given to lead us into a spirit of prayer. He that dwelt in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, who knows the very mind and will of God the Father, Being the Son of God and being one with the Father, he tells us this parable to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

Not to grow weary in praying to the Lord, not to grow weary in laying our cares out before him. to pray to him who alone is able to answer our prayers, to pray to him who is willing to answer our prayers, and to pray to him who delights to answer the prayers of his saints. And he delights in it.

Now, I'm certain that there's more to this parable than I'll be able to bring out this morning. But I do want to go through with you. I'm certain that what our Lord says and what he's given me to say to you, it is for our good. It's for our comfort, our joy, and our encouragement, because it does conform us. He's conforming us to our Lord. He's conforming us to what we see in our Lord. He's God manifest in the flesh, and we see him with many examples of praying to the Father. The disciples saw him and recorded that often. We're told that when he was going to choose his disciples, that they saw him go out into a mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God. And so he's given us that example. We see him. If anyone didn't need to pray, it would be him. How much more do we need to pray? And he tells us, men ought always to pray and not to faint.

Now, he, through the scriptures, tells us much about prayer. He tells us, he encourages us often to prayer. He said, watch, therefore. And again, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. telling us the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh, this flesh is weak. It is. We've known that, we've experienced that, when we've all had a desire and a burden to pray, and before you know it, it's the next day, and you never got around to even praying. Or it's very minuscule, or you fell asleep, or whatever happens, but you know how weak this flesh is. I know how weak my flesh is.

The Apostle Paul, too, said much on prayer. He tells us, pray, without ceasing. And he says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. He says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, because this flesh is worthless, but pray in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, not only for ourselves but for our brethren whom we love and whom the Lord's given to us. And so we can't always be in the act of prayer, meaning we can't always just be in our prayer closet, as it were. We have to go out and do things, but we should be in a spirit of prayer continually, a spirit mindful of our needs, mindful of the Lord, mindful of It's what we're walking into very often, right? Mindful of these things and remembering his words to us in the scriptures to watch and pray.

Let me give you a few examples of why prayer is necessary. I'll just go through and see a few examples why prayer is necessary. For one thing, our Lord tells us that there are some things which go not out except by prayer and fasting, right? He tells us that. And the first way that I understand that, the easiest way to understand it, is there's things that we just simply cannot do. We cannot do them. God alone can do them. And in that spirit of prayer, we understand that. And we're confessing to him. We're humbling ourselves before the Lord. Lord, I can't do this. Lord, only you can do this. And so there are things that go not out, except by prayer and fasting, because he means it to be that way, to bring us before him in prayer.

Then another thing that our Lord told his disciples when he was washing their feet, he said this, for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

That's true in persecution. If they hated me, they'll hate you. If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you. I've given you that example. You see it. And I'm telling you.

We see it in his service here. Because that's what he was doing. He was washing their feet. The greatest was taking the lowest position and washing the feet so that he serves his brethren. And we'll serve our brethren in that same spirit.

And also, we see Him praying often. The Son of God, who is very God in the flesh, praying to the Father. Not doing His own will, but the will of His Father who sent Him.

Here we see a picture of him who is the greatest taking the lowest place of a servant. You have to be pretty low to be the one appointed to watch the feet of the people who come in through the door. That's the lowest servant there. And we see him go even lower when he, you would take the most expendable servant you have to lay down his life for you and the others. That's the place Christ took.

He took the most glorious, most wonderful God Almighty, came and took the place of a servant for me. For me, a weak, worthless, easily disposed of person. He could just chuck me aside and nobody would miss me. That's what Christ did for us, for us. That's what he's shown us there.

And he added, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. All right, how are you and I ever going to love one another in that same sacrificial love that Christ loved us and served his brethren, though he's the greatest, he served us who are the lowest. How are you and I gonna love one another like that?

In the spirit of prayer, only through prayer, right, will our hearts be turned, will we see ourselves in a right light And I'm not up here. No, I'm down here. I'm the lowest. I'm the weakest. I'm the one who should be doing this, not you. The low one. I should be serving you, not you serving me. That only comes by a spirit of prayer.

Then another thing, it will be by prayer that you're found trusting the Lord through the various throes and risings of kingdoms and comings and changes in the world that are all over, losing your job or having an accident or losing something precious to you, it's only gonna be through a spirit of prayer that you're able to trust the Lord through that and being kept in that and having that patient confidence that, Lord, you've not left me, you've not forsaken me. But the Lord does it, and he makes us patient in it because he makes us to see, Lord, you're separating me from the love of this world, and my attachment to this world. You're just separating me right from it. How do we willingly go that way? In the spirit of prayer, trusting the Lord. He gives us that trust and confidence in him.

or in fiery trials, right, that are proving our faith. How are you gonna trust the Lord in fiery trials and difficult situations and in persecutions and in temptations, how? How are you gonna trust the Lord and continue in the Lord in that hardship and that adversity and that opposition and all that trouble that comes in life? How are you gonna trust him in that? and a spirit of prayer he gives you. He gives you to help you in that.

Because loving your brethren as Christ loved you, trusting the Lord through significant life changes that come upon us all, remaining steadfast to Christ in the face of persecution, being found faithful in fiery trials that try your faith, and enduring numerous temptations, that's contrary to this flesh. We'll find the easy way out all the time. We'll take that gladly in the flesh, but if you're gonna endure it faithfully, it's gonna be the Lord that sustains you. And so how much more does that say, Lord, help me. I need your grace. I need your help, Lord. I can't do this. Lord, I'm failing. Lord, I'm slipping. Lord, I'm dead. Help me. It's by his grace that does it.

Watch and pray, therefore, brethren, Our Lord tells his people by the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 29, 11 through 13, the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. He's describing his grace, which he manifests now in his people. Because I do this, the Lord says, because I want to do this for you, because you're my people, to give you this expected end, then, here's the grace, then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me. And that's a blessing, a spiritual blessing that the Lord gives to his people. And I will hearken unto you. I'll hear you. I'll listen to you. I'll hear your prayer, your cry of faith. And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart." And so the Lord does that. He does that for his people. It's his grace manifested in our hearts that he works this.

When God declared what he would do for Israel, in Ezekiel 36, 37, he adds, I will yet for this, right, he says, I'm gonna do this, and then he adds, and I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel for this. I'll be inquired of you for this. I'm gonna do it, and I'm going to be sought by you for this very thing that I just said I'm going to do. I'm going to bring it to pass, and you're gonna pray to me for it.

And what I was thinking about this, God's not locked. Like he's not saying, and I'm not going to do this if you don't pray. He's not binding us with a law, a legalistic thing at all. There's numerous blessings that we experience and it never even enters our mind to pray about it, that we think about it. The sun rises and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We don't pray, Lord, please bring up the sun today. Lord, give us, sometimes we pray for rain, but many times we don't even think about these things. Lord, protect me as I drive down the road today. Or Lord, can you remember my child, or this or that. There's numerous things we don't even think to pray about at all that the Lord just does graciously, faithfully for us.

But there are things that he does burden our heart with. And I believe when he burdens the heart, he means for you to pray to him about it. He says, I'll be sought for you for this thing. I will do this, but I'll be sought for you regarding it. I'll be sought for you. Therefore, he spake a parable unto them to this end, that man ought always to pray and not to faint. There's things that he does burden our hearts with. Many things that don't ever burden our hearts, but there are some things that he just lays on our heart, because it pleases him to use it to bring us to the throne of his grace about it.

Now, the persons in the parable are a widow and an unjust judge. Let's read verses two through five. Saying, There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine 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 troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

I think it's pretty obvious that we're the widow in this parable. We are likened to this widow. A widow is a married woman whose husband is now dead. And she has no husband now. She's without her husband. And at the time that our Lord spake this, things were not like they are today. She didn't have older children. that could take care of her and provide for her, she was in a whole world of trouble. She was in great trouble if she had an adversary because she lost her husband, her head, who could speak for her and say, wait a minute now, you're not going to do that. You know, he would speak for her. He would come to her defense. But now he's gone. And men are like, well, I don't have to worry about anybody troubling me. What do I care? Right? You're not my mother or wife. So they didn't care. No one to save her from her troubles.

And then we see there's a judge in this parable. Now, sadly, due to the hardness of our heart, by nature, and the bondage to sin by nature, this is how we naturally think of God, isn't it? We think of God, God, you don't care about me. I'm crying out to you, I'm praying to you, and you're just ignoring me. And we think of him as this unjust judge. I don't want to say that. I'm ashamed to say that, but I know that. I know that thought. Lord, where are you? Lord, you've just forgotten me. Lord, you're not hearing me. Lord, where are you in all of this? Why aren't you listening to my cries? What happened to your promise never to forsake me nor to leave me? Why is this going on now?

We see God in that light in the flesh, in the hardness of our heart. That's our unjust thought of God. He's not unjust. He's not unfaithful. That's how we perceive God, especially in the flesh. We perceive him in that light. We're the unjust ones, but we think of God as he's the unjust one, that enmity there. And in times of great temptation, that's how we think of him. We see him as unjust in that matter.

But the reality is that our God loves His people. He loves His elect. He loves His saints. He loves those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. For God so loved the world, His people scattered throughout the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's grace, not work for it. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

And so Christ Jesus came into the world as the surety of his people, meaning that he came to satisfy the debts that his people racked up. That we accrued because we owe righteousness and faithfulness and perfection to God, but we can't pay it. We come short, and so we just build up the debt higher and higher and higher. But Christ came to satisfy that debt, to pay it off, to put it away, to fulfill all righteousness for his people. And the way he satisfied the debt as our surety, was to lay down his life as our substitute, to sacrifice himself, bearing the wrath and punishment of God that we earned, that we deserve, to shed his blood, to die the death that we owed to God for our sin, that we, by him, would go free.

Go free. And he blesses us to live unto him. We go free to live unto him. to serve Him, to know Him, to have that fellowship restored in Him, and by His grace, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. He gives us His Spirit and that life, making us new creatures to do that.

You know, I'm more convinced this is not part of, well, I'm more convinced now that when it says to live godly, we have this idea of being so good and so right in ourselves that we can just walk into a place and say, you're wrong, you're wrong, fix that. Hey, you, stop that. No more sin in there, right? That's what we think of as godliness. We have this negative thing, but I'm more convinced now that that godliness is having that, showing grace to others, that same grace that God has shown to me. To show others love, that same love that God loved me, and to be kind to others in the same kindness that God has been kind to me. That's what I believe is that godliness that the apostles spoke of.

that he does that for us and gives us a spirit whereby that's how we want to minister to others. Knowing that same kindness and patience of God with me, that's what I want to show to you. And walk in that light, and walk in that spirit rather than in the spirit of flesh that says, I'll show you, I'll get you. Oh yeah, you're going to do that to me? I'll do that to you. I don't want to do that. Not by his grace, I don't want to do that at all. And so that's godliness.

Now, like this widow, We have many troubles and many adversities, many temptations that are all aggravated by the fact that we're in this flesh, this dead, wicked, corrupt, vile, wretched flesh. We have it. And so we have the sin of our own flesh, and we have the adversary of our souls warring against us and all coming against us. And like so many of our problems, we don't have anyone to turn to. Even if we would, even when we want to be helped, we can't be helped, and that's because the Lord has purposed it that way. He's purposed it so that we can't fix it ourselves, and we can't get someone else to fix it. God alone is going to be the one that does it. He does it on purpose, and that's what this parable is getting to.

Our God wisely brings us into trials. We sang that in the first hymn, right? Every joy or trial cometh from above. It does. Your sovereign God has purpose to give you the trial that he gives you. and the trials that he gives you. He's purposed to do it because they can't be fixed and they can't be sorted by someone else. And trials and temptations that no one but God can resolve. And when he fixes them and heals them and changes them, understand it's not gonna be as you or I thought it should be, or as we asked it to be. But he has power and grace, he has all power and all grace to do, to work his will in such a manner so that it is wonderful when the Lord does it.

Because he can take my problems, my sorrows, my difficulties, my failings, my weaknesses, he can take that all and He has the ability to change my heart, to be content with what He shows me, to love, not because someone's lovable or deserves it, but because He gives me a heart that wants to just love and be done with it, to forgive as God has forgiven me, and to do that, to walk in that spirit. That's what he works, to make us content with what he's done, to accept what he's purposed. Not because it's changed or fixed the way I thought it should be fixed, but because he's able to give a new heart and turn my heart to be content and to walk in that spirit and love. He, to resign us to trust Him in it, right?

Brethren, turn over to Romans 8, Romans 8. And here we see being blessed with godly spiritual insight, we see the promise of God to do what's good and right for us, right? And by His grace in Christ. Romans 8, 28, beginning there. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. All right, he's able to know, to make you and I to know his good purpose. God is good. God has a purpose in it. I know he's got a purpose in it, Lord. And he gives that spirit of prayer, that burden, Lord, teach me and give me that trust and confidence in you. And so he reveals his perfect will to us by his spirit, which he gives.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. There's that example, to be conformed to him, to look to him who trusted the Father in all things and prayed to the Father always.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. And so he's doing all this to glorify us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has a purpose in what he's doing. Our trials, our sicknesses, our infirmities, our failings, our shortcomings, our difficulties are all working to conform us to the image of our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so as we consider the purpose for which our Lord spake this parable to us, to this end, that man ought always to pray and not to faint, understand his great love for us in it. that he's drawing us near to himself in it. He's drawing us near. He's separating us from this world, and he's doing it in a way that it's not a yoking bondage. He's not telling you to be in bondage to him. in that manner as if God won't do anything to help us if we don't pray to him. That's not at all what he's doing.

Our God is drawing us out from the love of this world. He's drawing us out from the conformity to this world, from the way of this world, from the course of this world, out from under the thinkings of how the Lord does this. He's the one separating us from this world. So God is bringing us into a knowledge and an understanding of our life through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, what He does, to work these things in you, brethren.

Look with me at Psalm 103. Go there to Psalm 103. In verse 2, The psalmist says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

In our flesh, we're very much like the oppressed widow. We're old, we're weak, we're unable to justify ourselves against our adversaries, against the devil. We can't do that. But the Lord who loves us calls us to Himself by grace. And in giving us His Spirit, and in giving us life in the Lord Jesus Christ, to know Him, to trust Him, to believe Him, to walk in that faith, in that light of the Lord, in doing that, He transforms this coldness and oldness and deadness of this flesh. that mistrusts him and doesn't see him as a just and merciful God. He turns our hearts to behold all the blessings in him. That's not natural. That's not of this flesh. That's the power of God to do that in us.

And so first, he notes what this unjust judge does for the widow in this parable. Look at verse four again. And he would not help the widow for a while, but afterward he said within himself, 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. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith. Now here is where the Lord enters in and shows us his grace and his love and mercy for his people. so that we go from seeing an unjust judge, a judge that doesn't care and is hard and indifferent toward me, to seeing actually how merciful, how gracious, how wonderful the Lord is in dealing with his people and doing good for us.

So he says there in verse seven, shall not God avenge his own elect? which cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with them. You see that transition there? We go from seeing this unjust judge to now beholding just how merciful, how loving, how gracious God really is to his elect, calling us, you're his elect, you're his people, you're his chosen people that he chose in Christ.

He bears long with his elect people, his chosen elect people, whom God the Father chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. Continuing in Ephesians 1, where I quoted from there, verse 5, that he's predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. He's accomplishing this in us. He's accomplishing that spirit of prayer in us. He's drawing near to us in love and in mercy and in tenderness to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.

We're such natural creatures that we think, well, I'm just doing this religion now. I'm just being a Christian now. I'm just going to do things this way now. And it's so cold. It's so still conformed to this world. But God, who is not content with that, who desires us to worship him in spirit and truth, he draws us to himself. This is where the trials come from, why they come. This is why the difficulties and adversities come, not to hurt you, not to punish you, but to draw you out of this world and being conformed to this world that we are, to being conformed to Christ, being drawn sweetly, wondrously, spiritually by his grace and power. He does that.

to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." All things that we see, wait a minute, this is done. It's past tense. He's accomplished this. It's not waiting, hanging on you to do something first. He's done it. And therefore, all that's necessary is provided in Him. He's doing this. He's working this in you, what He's already accomplished in Himself on the cross.

wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, that man ought always to pray, and not to fain, to trust him, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. Our Lord bears long with us in our adversity, right, and he bears with his elect in their adversity, and it's according to his wisdom, According to his wisdom and his prudence, and through that, through his wisdom, he's making us to know the mystery of his will in Christ.

And he's made us new creatures and he's growing us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through these things. He's growing us by his grace through the preaching of the word and burdening us to seek the Lord in prayer. and by giving us needs and burdens that he's pleased to give us and leave with us and allow us to feel these things and experience these things, all to draw us to Christ more and more. So we seek him and we see that he's our wisdom, our praise, and our all. That, continuing in Ephesians 1 verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.

So that he's making each of us to know our election through the various trials, through the various difficulties, and seeing that we're accepted in Christ, that he's our Savior, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.

The Father first trusted in Christ, meaning he trusted everything to Christ. He gave it all into his hand, and now he's turning us to trust Christ just as the Father intended it and purposed it to be. It's all by his grace and power.

Now, turn back to Romans 8, and I would encourage you to read all of Romans 8. later today, but picking up now in verse 31, what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Our Lord avenges us of our adversary, silencing his charge of guilt and shame, which is against us. He does that. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

And so God's elect are wrought by God. These things are wrought in us. This understanding is wrought in us. It's given to us. by the Lord's grace and power, and through His gracious work, He proves that calling, our calling in the Lord Jesus Christ, in trusting Him and believing Him.

Now, here again, what our Lord Jesus says there, in verse seven, shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? And so, the sense of our Lord bearing long with us seems to me, to be his patient and conforming work, like conforming the body to Christ. His church to Christ our head, gathering in all his sheep.

He's bearing long with us because it's done on purpose, where he's gathering in all his sheep, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us throughout the ages should come to Christ, to repentance of Christ, and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he adds this in verse 8, Luke 18, 8, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth.

Let me just address that in closing now. There is certainly a sense here that says that faith will be a rare and a scarce thing in the end days, of the end days. In the last days, the last days, faith will be a rare and scarce thing in all the last days, really. It's a rare thing, otherwise the Lord wouldn't bring judgment upon the earth. Unless faith was a scarce thing, he wouldn't bring judgment on the earth in that way.

Our Lord told his friend Abraham that he would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He said that. He said, I won't destroy the righteous with the wicked, but that he would spare all the place for their sakes. Even for only 10 souls, he said he would spare all that place. I found it interesting, as I was thinking about that, that Noah and his family were only eight souls. I'm not saying it's a number, but I mean, it just shows that, yeah, for 10 souls, he wouldn't destroy all the world. So yeah, faith will be a rare and a sparing thing. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Well, he had just said, as it was in the days of Noah, and so shall it be in the days, like in the days of Lot, that's how it's gonna be again and again at various times, like we saw last week. That's how it's going to be at various times, globally or locally, but where judgment is needed, God will bring it. And there won't be faith there.

And if there is faith there, if there is a Noah, he's going to bring them and put them in the ark. And if there's a lot, he's going to bring them out, and that judgment won't come until they step foot in Zoar. If there's a Rahab, he's going to provide a household with the scarlet thread to show that that's mine. Don't touch them. They're protected. They're marked by the blood of Christ.

And that's how it'll always be until the Lord returns and rolls this place up like a scroll here. But you may be certain that he will always provide for you that are his people, whom he patiently labors with in joy and conforming us to Christ and giving us a heart, showing us our need of the Lord Jesus Christ, crying out to him. That's what he does. That's how he works these things and gives a knowledge of these things.

That's how he turns us from loving the world to loving him, from trusting in ourselves to trusting him. He does that. He works it. We're new creatures, and we're living creatures, living stones that are being taught these things.

So you just remember the Lord's parable spoken here, to this end, that men are always to pray and not to faint. 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 shall avenge them speedily.

So you can be certain that he's providing graciously everything you need. And that's what he's teaching us here. It's not a work, it's a blessing. It's a grace that he works in you by his wisdom and grace and power. Amen.