It's kind of high, so bear with me. I told
Rick that if I can't get it, all he'll do is throw tomatoes. That's a good song, Noah. All
the songs of Fanny Cross would be right, sir. God honoring and
Christ exalting. "'Tis the blessed hour of prayer
When our hearts slowly bend And we gather to Jesus Our Savior
and friend If we come to Him in faith, His protection to share. What a balm for the weary. Oh, how sweet to be there. Blessed are our friends. Blessed are our friends. What a balm for the weary, oh
how sweet to be there Is the blessed hour of prayer when the
Savior draws near With a tender compassion his children to hear
When he tells us we may cast At his feet every care What a
balm for the weary How sweet to be there Blessed hour of prayer
Blessed hour of prayer What a balm for the weary Sing the third verse with me. "'Tis the blessed
hour of prayer, when the tempted and tried to the Savior who loves
them their sorrow confide. With a sympathizing heart, He
removes every care. What a balm for the weary. Oh, how sweet to be there. Blessed are our friends, blessed
are our friends. What a bond for the weary, oh
how sweet to be there. So you can sing the chorus with
me. At the blessed hour of prayer,
trusting Him we believe. That the blessings we're needing
We'll surely receive In the fullness of this trust We shall lose every
care What a balm for the weary Oh, how sweet to be there Singing,
blessed are our prayers Blessed I were, I'll pray. What a bond for all the weary. Oh, how sweet to be. Thank you,
Sherry. I'll be away with my voice now. You can turn in your Bibles to
Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18 you be covered
your prayers. During this message on prayer. It's entitled importunate prayer. Very familiar passage of scripture
here. I know the most of you. Now,
I preached a message here one, one, I believe it was Sunday
night entitled praying, believing and receiving. I don't know if
you remember it or not, but it was from Mark chapter 11, verse
24, where Christ said, whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe
that you receive them and you shall have them. I don't know
if you remember that or not, but in that message, I tried
to point out that the thing we need to be conscious of in praying
more than anything is this thing of praying in the name of Christ. That is not just repeating that
name, but praying in the will and the attitude of Christ. The way he prayed was, not my
will be done, but thy will be done. And I tried to point out
that in praying in that way, that's praying for God's glory,
not my will be done, but that will be done. You may have noticed
there in Luke 11, how that he taught us to pray in that fashion.
Thy will be done, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in
heaven, so on earth. And that is praying for God's
glory. And you can be assured that his will will be done and
that that prayer will be answered. I want to be a little more specific
tonight. I tried to show in that message
that sometimes we pray selfishly. I know you remember the message.
We talked about it in depth. Like James said, sometimes we
pray, we ask, we ask amiss. We ask things to consume them
upon our own lusts. And we ask not because we receive,
and we receive not because we ask them is to consume it upon
our lusts. And perhaps we pray often to
just be relieved of our problems and don't really have God's glory
in mind at all. Not really at all. So we really
can't be assured that these prayers will ever be answered in the
positive In favor of us we can't really be sure of that there
let me say this. All of our prayers are probably
answered. You know. Ungranted petitions
and he asked for a certain thing in prayer and the Lord doesn't
seem to give it to you. Ungranted petitions. Maybe, no. That's very simple, isn't it?
When he doesn't give you something that you're asking for, then
that may be your answer. Excuse me. No. No. Then again, he may give us something
to teach us a lesson. He may give us something that
we ask for to teach us a lesson. But the thing I want to dwell
on tonight is this thing of importunate That's a scriptural word, we
read it over there in Luke 11. The man, for his importunity,
when knocking upon that man's door to ask him for bread, because
of his importunity, not even because he was a friend, but
because he kept knocking, the man gave it to him. And that's
what I want to dwell on this evening. It's something I believe
that I've been lacking myself. I know I have been lacking myself.
I'm not sure how much we know about this, any of us. this thing
of continual knocking. That's what the word importunity
means. It means continual, urgent persistence
about something. Persistence about something.
Being worrisome and bothersome about something. Importunity
means continual, urgent persistence concerning something. Now, I've
said before That I worry about us having a so-called a quote
professional faith that is faith based based on a profession strictly
that is a faith based upon facts more than a. Person no personal
faith faith personal faith faith in a person and I worry about
you about me having a faith that is more professional. Faith based
upon facts rather than looking at a person. We have a living
savior. We have a living intercessor
and mediator at the right hand of God. We don't have a doctrine
at the right hand of God. We have a person that we can
appeal to personal faith that we look to him unto to whom coming. Peter said to whom coming not
to what to whom Don't you come to the doctrines of grace? You
come to an understanding of them, yes, but you come to Christ. To whom? Coming. So I worry about
us having a mere professional faith based upon facts and not
a faith in a person. And I don't want us to think
of the Bible as a mere source book or a history book or a rule
book, and I don't believe many of us do, or guidelines, but
I want us to think, I want myself to think. of the Bible as a hymn
book, a book, a personal letter from God to his people about
his love for them in sending his son down here to take care
of their problems. That's what this book is. It's
a love letter. That's exactly what it is. That's exactly what
it is, a letter from God Almighty to his people. of his love and
his mercy and his grace to us in Christ Jesus. That's exactly
it. It's a love letter from God Almighty. It's not just a fact
source book. It's a hymn book all about him. And in the same way, stay with
me, in the same way, I don't want us to learn to pray in strictly
an orthodox manner or try to say the right things in the right
way, using all the proper terms and so forth. But we need to
think of prayer as approaching the Holy God, yes, approaching
this Holy God, yes, with all respect and reverence, but also
as coming to our kind Heavenly Father, whom we can approach
with everything, everything, no matter how small or how trivial. Oh, I can't bother him with Oh,
yes, you can. You won't bother God anyway.
You can't bother God. My, my. But we come to this kind,
loving, heavenly Father with love, with thanksgiving, and yes, problems. Problems. Where else are we going
to go anyway? We've got to go with Him with
our problems. And based upon this parable, and you're going
to see it with me. We've been, I've been missing something here.
I pray that God will teach me and teach you too. Based upon
this parable this evening, there's something to this thing of continually
begging your father for something in order to get it. That's exactly
what this is teaching. It's not teaching anything else.
It really is. And we're going to see that. It's plain as the
nose on your face. That Christ is teaching us. That Luke 11
is teaching the same thing. That continually, continually
asking the Father for something. He'll finally give it to you.
Are you interested? Boy, I tell you, if you're not,
then, oh boy. Oh, look at it with me. Luke
18, verse 1. And Christ spake a parable unto them to this end,
or for this purpose, that men ought always to pray, and not
faint or to quit. Ought always to pray. Men ought
to pray. Yes, they ought to pray, because
prayer is chiefly praise and thanksgiving. That's what Christ
taught the disciples first thing. Hallowed is the first thing out
of your mouth, he says. It should be out of your mouth.
Holy. Praise to our God and thanksgiving. Men ought to pray, yes. Oh, the
psalmist said a couple, three times there in the psalm, oh,
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness. Every man ought
to pray on that day. Ought to pray. Ought to praise
God. Our Father, hallowed thy kingdom
come, thy will be done. And prayer is thanksgiving. In everything we're to give thanks.
Everything. We ought to thank the Lord for
everything. Everything. No matter how seemingly small
it may be. God gave it to you. It's from
his hand. And we're to pray without ceasing.
He says we ought not to faint, pray without ceasing. We praise
and thank God continually. But the sense in which he is
saying this, that men ought to always pray,
not just that men ought to pray. Yeah, they ought to pray. But
he's saying here, based upon what's going to follow here in
this parable, he's saying that men ought to keep on praying.
Keep on praying and never quit. Keep on praying. That is, pray
continually for something and don't quit until you get an answer.
And it seems to be that that's the only kind of prayer there
is. That's what I've been seeing here in the course of this study.
And I'll explain that a little more fully here in a minute,
but let me say a little bit about prayer. And I'll probably take
this up next Wednesday night and go into prayer a little more
in-depth, Oh, I got so much material out of this and just don't have
enough time to deal with it. But this thing of prayer, you
could go on and on about this thing of prayer. But let me say
briefly this about prayer. Prayer is chiefly three things.
Prayer is chiefly three things. First of all, prayer is confession. Confession. I said praise there.
We'll get into that. Prayer is chiefly, though, confession.
Confession. We always are to humbly come
before the Holy Father confessing our sins. We ought not to presumptuously
approach this Holy God unless we say, Oh Lord, I'm a Maggie,
I'm a Werner. That's the way you approach God.
That's the way, that's the person to whom God will look, to the
man who's lowly, a broken spirit and a contrite heart. The scriptures
are very clear that that's the only person he's going to hear,
the only person he's going to deal with. is a broken and a
contrite person and that comes as a result of seeing who he
is. See praise and confession go
hand in hand. Confession, seeing who God is
and acknowledging who he is and acknowledging what you are. But
let's go on. Prayer is secondly supplication
and intercession. Supplication and intercession. That is, we ask God, we entreat
God, we ask God for all of our wants and the wants of our family.
Christ said, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us,
and so forth. We ask God for our wants, the
wants of our family, and this intercession also. We ask for
the wants of the church, the wants of our friends, the wants
of so-and-so. We ask God for these things.
The church, the country, he tells us to pray for our leaders and
so forth. It's intercessory prayer. Thirdly, prayer is thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. After asking all of our petitions,
and we can come to God with our wants, with our petition, but
we better be thanking Him for what we've got already. He doesn't
have to give us anything else, but we better make sure we thank
Him for what we've got. Thank Him for what we've got,
not like a spoiled child, you know. But look back to the text
again. He says, me and ought always
to pray. That's a little brief description of prayer. But he
says, me and ought always pray. Always. Now this also means not
to keep on praying, but not only to keep on praying, but to pray
always, that in every way. That is, pray every day. Me and
ought to pray every day. When Paul talked about praying
without ceasing, he doesn't mean to pray every second of every
minute of every hour and so forth. You couldn't function that way.
We're natural beings. We're carnal, worldly creatures. We couldn't function that way.
But we ought to at least pray every day or at least think upon
God. You speak to God or thank God
and praise God some part, if not the most part, of every day.
Every day. Not always pray, every day. And
to pray always is to pray about all things. To pray about all
things. Whether they be secular or spiritual. All things. All things. That's
what Paul said there in Philippians 4, 6. in everything by prayer and supplication
and giving of thanks, let your request be made known unto God.
Let your request be made known unto God in everything, everything,
no matter how trivial. And to pray always is to pray
in every condition, not only to pray every day and to pray
about everything, but it's to pray in every single condition
we get into, every condition, rich or poor. Now, most people
pray when they get poor, but we ought to do more praying when
we get rich. Oh, Lord, keep me from dwelling
on these things. Keep me from forgetting you. We ought to pray in sickness
or health, especially in health, because we forget God. We're
in health. We're healthy. Everything's OK. We ought to
pray at the birth of a child or the death of a child. We especially
ought to pray at the birth of a God gave him, and at the death
that he received him, and on and on, whether you feel good
or not, religious or not, we need to pray in every condition,
in every condition, especially when you don't feel like praying.
That's probably when you ought to pray the most. And to pray always
is to pray all of our lives, all of our lives. I think about
these ladies that are getting up in years, and And you ought
to be praying more now than ever, not quit now, not because you're
tired, but now more than ever. Pray all of your lives, all of
your lives. And he says not to faint, not
to quit. Don't quit. We'll get into this
a little more here in a minute, but don't quit. We need to pray. Don't you wish, I wish God would
give us a spirit of of prayer, much in the manner of old Jacob
when he wrestled with that angel. And he said, I'm not going to
let you go. Have you ever prayed like that? Come on, be honest.
Has anybody ever really prayed? It says he prayed, he wrestled
with him from the morning to the break of day, didn't he?
All night long he wrestled with this angel. I know what they
say about that, praying through, you know. I went on to say how
the prayer is not just one night thing. It's a continual thing.
But nevertheless, I wonder how many of us know anything about
this thing of untainting prayer, like Jacob
with that angel. Well, Spurgeon said that some
prayers are like a boy knocking on a door and running off. Did
you ever do that when you were a kid, ring a doorbell and run
off? I know some of you. My wife said she used to. She's
a kid. Go up and ring somebody's doorbell
and run. Spurgeon said some prayers are like that. God help you. And go on about your wife. Instead
of banging on that door. Lord, please. Lord, please. And that's exactly the sense
in which he's giving this parable. and the sense in which he gave
that other parable there in Luke 11, importunate prayer. Let me
go on here. Prayer, let me say another few
things about prayer here before we get into the parable. Prayer
is God-ordained, God-ordained prayer because it honors God. It honors him. It honors his
power. See, we come to him. Not that
I don't come to my brother Terry and say, Terry, I've got a real
problem. I go to God. Why? You can't help me. He's the only
one that can. That honors his power. It pleases
him when we come to him, acknowledging that he and he alone is the one
that can take care of our problems. It honors his power. And he's
the one that ordained prayer for that purpose, to honor his
power. Prayer honors God's wisdom, that
he knows what's best. Well, we don't know where, Lord,
we don't, I don't know what to pray. Lord, decide this doubtful
case for me. You know everything. I don't
even know what to pray for. That honors his wisdom, they
say. That glorifies his wisdom, that he and he alone knows what
is best, and he knows the only way to do something. That honors
his wisdom. And prayer also honors God's
love. You like for your children, you want your children to come
to you about all things, don't you? Yeah, you do. And that's,
he's saying this right here, and he said it over there in
Luke, and he said it in Psalm 103, like a father pities his
children, so the Lord pities them with fear. He delights for
his children to come to him and ask for things. And obviously,
he delights to give them. He's given us a lot. My, my,
my, innumerable. Count your blessings. Can't do
it, can you? Too many. If I reckon them in
order, there's too many to number. Ask what you will. God tells
us to come to Him and ask what you will. You tell your children
the same thing, don't you? Hmm? Sonny, talk to me. Ask me what you will. I might
not give it to you, but ask me anyway. How are you going to
know if you don't ask? Right? Same way with God. And
prayer honors God's Word and His faithfulness. It honors his
word and his faithfulness because he said, ask and you shall receive. He said, do it. Well, I just
don't know. You calling God a liar? Ask and
you shall receive, he said. And we'll see in a minute how
that asking means to keep doing it. Not just, you know, knock
and run. Not that it, not it at all. Prayer,
very quickly, prayer glorifies the Father. Prayer glorifies
the Father. That's to whom we pray. We pray
our Father, which art in heaven. It glorifies the Son. We pray
in the Son's name. We pray in his blood and his
righteousness, plead in his blood and righteousness. We pray in
hopes that the Spirit will take our prayer and make it acceptable
with the Father. So it honors all three persons
of the Godhead, the Father, son and the Spirit. So now let's
look into this parable real fast, real quickly. Look at Luke 18,
verse 2. They said, the reason he gave
this prayer was for the purpose that men ought to always pray,
that is, keep on praying and don't quit. Now look at verse
2. They said, 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, he said to himself,
Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wearies
me. And the Lord said, to these people
he was telling this parable to, and he says it to us. Do you
hear what the unjust judge said? Do we hear what this unjust judge
said? Now, so many things can be said
about prayer, like I said, and we'll look into some more, I
believe, next Wednesday night, but the scope of this parable
scope of what I believe the purpose for what our Lord is saying here
is to encourage us to pray and to keep on praying, to pray and
to keep on praying. And that's what he said there.
Don't you hear, do you hear what this unjust judge said? Now here
we have the story of a beleaguered or troubled widow. who is appealing
to a ruthless and unjust, worldly and wicked judge. And it said
there in verse 2 that he didn't care about God, he took no thought
about God, and he didn't care about man, he didn't care about
anybody but himself, a wicked and an unjust judge. And in verse
3 it says that this widow came to him with her problem. She
said, "'Avenge me.'" Evidently some kind of problem was very
troublesome to her. It could be, I don't know, I'm
just speculating here what this problem could be, but see if
it might not apply to your case. It could be that this woman was
continually torn up by a persistent creditor, somebody that kept
demanding something from her. It could be she was torn up by
an irksome neighbor. It could be. It could be that
someone had taken advantage of this poor woman, swindled her
out of some of her property, and she finally found out what
had happened, so she went to the judge, this unjust judge. to appeal to him to help her
out. But she kept coming to this judge, kept coming or calling
him, maybe I'll put it in modern day language, she kept calling
him on the phone or kept going down to the courthouse every
day, every morning, maybe as soon as the courthouse would
open. Seven a.m. she'd come up there and the judge
would be getting out of his car in the parking lot. Judge Johnson,
it's witty and worrisome. Judge, you've got to help me.
Please help me. Get me out of this problem. When
are you going to do something about this old so-and-so?" And
look at verse 4, and it says, "...he would not for a while."
Every time she said no. It says, "...for a while." I
don't know how long this went on, but obviously it was a long
time. She kept bothering him. She kept
calling. She kept coming again and again and again. She kept
calling every morning at 7 a.m. Judge! Judge! Wait a minute,
Judge! Would you help me, please? I don't have time for you. I
don't have time. Maybe this unjust judge saw that
he couldn't get anything out of this poor woman, couldn't
get any bribes, any money or whatever. So he said, I don't
have time. But she never quit. These things bothered her. Problems. Troublesome to her. She had to
have relief. So she kept going to this judge.
And finally, one day, one morning, could be she called him up or
went back down to see him or whatever, but called him up on
the phone. He heard the phone ring early in the morning. He
picked up the phone and said, What is it? She said, Judge,
this is widow. He said, All right, I'll take
care of it. And hung up. Now, Christ said
in verse 6, Did you hear what this dude said? Did you hear what the unjust
judge said? Now look at verse 7, And shall
not God avenge his elect, which cry day
and night unto him, though he bear long with them? Shall not
God avenge his own elect?" You see, the unjust judge was just
that, unjust. God is just. Shall not the judge
of the earth do justly or rightly? He always does what's right.
He never does wrong. He never puts anybody off. because
he doesn't regard that man. Like that unjust judge, he didn't
regard God, and he didn't care about anybody else but himself.
But God regards himself, his name, he regards his honor, he
regards his glory as his chief interest. He's concerned about
his own glory. That's his chief interest. And
man, you and I, are involved in that glory of God. And there
are things that happen or take place in our lives, and his,
chiefly, his care for us, his glory is at stake in this thing.
Now, won't he take care of us? His glory is at stake in you. That's why he made you, Terry
Kingsley, for his glory. A woman who was a stranger to
him. She didn't know who he was. She didn't care. She was a stranger
to him. And he did this for her, even
though he didn't know her. But Scripture says that, shall
not God avenge his precious children, his elect, that he sent his Son
down here to die for them, and shed his precious blood for them?
and to live for, and to be brutally beaten and killed for, the ones
that God set his affection upon before the world began. Shall
he not avenge them? Why, yes he will. And this unjust
judge, he didn't have to do anything for this widow. He could have
finally said, Woman, you're bothering me. And he could have said to
one of his guards or something, Get her out of my presence. He
was under no obligation to do anything for her, and in a sense,
God's under no obligation to do anything for us. But there
is a sense in which God has obligated himself to his people. He has
bound himself with an oath that he's going to love us for eternity. He's bound himself by a covenant,
Terry. He made a covenant before we
were ever around. He said, I'm going to save them, I'm going to keep
them, I'm going to love them. I'm going to send my son down
to be a substitute for him, a surety for him. He bound himself. He
can't get out of it. He didn't want to get out of
it. But he bound himself to us, under obligation to us. Yes,
he is. That's not irreverent or not
glorifying the God. That glorifies him, the fact
that he'd make such a such a covenant concerning such a wicked creature.
But this unjust judge, this unjust judge had no bowels of pity.
The man had no compassion, no mercy upon anybody, Christ said.
I mean, he didn't care about God, didn't care about man, didn't
care about anybody but himself. Because this woman was bothering
him, he said, all right. She's pestering him. So he said,
OK. Well, he had no bowels of pity.
But the Scripture says about God, It is full of mercy, full
of grace. God is merciful and gracious
and slow to anger and plenteous in redemption and delights to
show mercy, the scripture said. He said, don't you hear what
the unjust judge said? And how much more, he said, shall
the just judge do what's right and show mercy unto them that
call upon him. And his very name, his very name
means that he answers prayer. What does that mean? What does
the name Jehovah mean? He says, I'll be called by a
name that they've not heard before, this name Jehovah. It means God
our Savior. That's what Jehovah means, God
our Savior. He's a just God, yes, but and
a Savior. That's what his name means, Jehovah,
God our Savior. Not just God. We delight in that
name, God, but Jehovah, God our Savior. to say, it honors him. It honors all of his characteristics,
all of his person. Well, look at verse seven again.
He said, Shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and
night unto him? Shall not God, that is, the just,
holy, and righteous, merciful Father, avenge, that is, deal
justly and rightly and fairly and favorably and protect and
keep and provide and save his own elect that is a particular
people that he bought with the blood of his own son with his
own precious blood actually got the blood of God. That he said
his love upon that love that's immutable that never changes
charity never fails that is God's love it never failed that the
people that he sent his son down here to die for. He says, His
own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long
with them. Now, look back at Luke 11 again,
in case you didn't pay attention, and there's just a slim possibility
that somebody did. Luke chapter 11. Look back there. It could be. Now, folks, if you
stay with me here, there's something to be had here, so gather yourselves. It could be, based upon what
Christ is saying here in Luke 18 and Luke 11, that continual
begging and pleading with God will get you what you're asking
for. Now, I'm not talking about, like
James said, to consume it upon your own lust. We'll get into
this in a moment. But it could be, and it seems to be so, Based
upon God's word, it is so. He says you'll get an answer.
Look back here at Luke 11. Look at verse 8. He says, I say
unto you now, that even though this fellow will not rise and
give this fellow what he's asking for just because he's a friend,
but yet because of his own importunity. Now why would Christ say that? Why would he say such a thing?
He said over there that Shall not God avenge his own elect?
Yes, he most certainly will. His elect and those that he calls
friends. But yet he said even because of his importunity, because
of his importunity, that his continual persistence in asking
something, he'll rise and give him as many as he needs. And he says, I say unto you,
ask. James said you have not because
you. Asked not. And the thing I believe this
is what he's saying is you don't keep on asking you might ask
very briefly for a. Kind of a. Formal way of you
know it's an obligation. Well I'm told to pray for the
opera. I didn't get it with God that God doesn't look on our
account and he's not paying attention to that prayer I don't care how.
form or how rightly they're worded. Right, Rick? He doesn't pay attention
to that. God looks on the heart. And from
the heart, from a heart that is continually baked, like somebody
said, I'll repeat it again, that it's better to have a prayer
without words than a heart without, than words without heart. Better
to have a prayer without words than words without heart. He said, ask, keep on asking,
and you shall be, it shall be given you. Now this is the Lord
talking here. He's not just, not just filling
up space. He said, ask, and it shall be
given you. Oh, he's talking to his disciples
here. You a disciple? Why, yes. He's talking to the
apostles because they needed these. Oh, they're no different
than you and I are. They needed some They needed
some credentials and so forth, but that's not what he's talking
about here. That's not what he's talking about. It doesn't say,
anyway, that it was just the apostles he was talking to. He
said it was his disciples. He had a lot of disciples on
the earth at the time. But he says, I ask and it shall
be given to you. Shall. He says, speak and you shall
find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. And he goes on to repeat
himself a little more clearly. He says, for everyone that asketh,
that's present tense, that is, keeps on asking, will receive.
Nancy, are you reading the same thing I'm reading? Isn't that
what it says? Everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that speaketh
findeth. Him that knocketh it shall be
opened. Well. It could be now based upon this
it must be that a continual begging and pleading with God will get
what we are asking for. Now let me let me put this three
way. I hope you know in what sense
I'm saying this and I'll try to explain myself. He may grant
us or he will based upon his word he will grant us something
Number one, maybe he might grant it in this respect to teach us
a lesson. Like I said, you know, like a
child asking for something, keep asking, keep asking, and finally
a parent says, OK, have it your way. You know what I'm saying?
Have it your way. And give it to them, and teach
that child a lesson, and they find that later on. The answer
to their prayer was, oh, he didn't really want me to have this after
all, did he? But he gave it to them to teach me a lesson. Secondly,
if it's a good desire for his glory, for his glory, he may
grant it. He will grant it, though it might
take a long, though he bears long, the scripture says, though
he bears long with them. He'll grant it, but he'll bear
a long time to prove whether or not you were sincere in the
first place, whether this was just something you really wanted
or not. We were talking about this at the dinner table. This
thing of. Praying to God coming to God
with something how much do you want something you pray for.
You know if you really want something bad enough. Sincerely enough
you'll keep on until you get it we're we're about that way
and everything we do our car whatever it may be I mean we
don't quit I mean it's probably something stupid. Something. ridiculous, maybe something hurtful,
but we'll keep on until we get what we're looking for. Well,
what about things of eternal consequences, of eternal matters,
of spiritual value, things pertaining to the glory of God, such as the salvation of a loved one? How can that be anything? How
can that be? If God saves that person, how
can that not be for his glory? Everybody he saves is for his
glory. And I've said this wrongly before.
I really believe I have. You know, we may pray for a loved
one, that God will save them, to get us out of a predicament,
get us out of the troubles that that person is causing us. I've
said that. And in a sense, what I'm trying
to say here that we may be having a bad time with somebody, a husband,
a father, a mother, a child, or whatever we say, in a particularly
bad frame of mind at that time. And so we run to God and say,
God help, save him, please, save her, her, please, Lord, we're
having so much. And that's asking to get us out
of our problem. And it's not asking for that
person's sake. for that person's salvation is to go to God when
the things are going good, when you're getting along just fine.
And generally, now if you're honest with yourself, generally
you'll say you don't pray for that man, do you? You quit, you
leave off praying until things get bad, and then you start praying
again. Right? Is that not the case sometimes?
I'm not saying that. But he says here, if you want
somebody saved, And I'm saying this very carefully, but this
is exactly what you're saying. You're reading the same book
I am. Keep on asking, and don't quit. Keep on asking, if you
sincerely and truly desire the salvation of somebody. Do you think for a moment, now
let's put this thing in perspective. I'm not talking off the top of
my head here, based upon the scriptures. Do you think for
a moment that if the Apostle Paul prayed for some salvation
of somebody that the Lord denied his request? Do you see any evidence in the
scriptures whatsoever of anybody praying for the salvation of
anybody, being led to really pray for them, and them being
denied their request? I don't recall any. You bring
it to mind to me later on if you do, but I don't recall it.
I just don't see God turning down any of his disciples, wherever
they went, whomever they prayed for, Lord, pour out your blessing. And the Lord seemed to do it,
didn't he? We're his disciples. We got the
same Lord. Yeah, we do. And you keep praying
for those children. Don't quit. You ought to always
pray. Yeah, you ought to. And that's
the reason we need this. We need to be reminded over and over,
we're so fickle and so fallible and so finite and so failing
that we'll quit. And we need to be reminded to
keep on praying. Not when just things are going
bad, but when things are going good, keep on praying. Knock
down, knock on, knock on heaven's door, keep on knocking until
God answers you. And it may be that He, like I
was saying, He'll bear along with you, put you off, it might
be put you off for twenty years. You see how long? 20 years. 30 years. 30 years. It might put you off to prove
how sincere you are about salvation of that person. Prove your faith. Does that make sense? To prove
your sincerity. Because faith is persistent. Faith is. Faith. If you continue in the faith. If you continue. Grounded and
unmoved settled in the faith faith is persistent and the prayer
of faith. Is persistent. Then we're going
to say there and James talk about the prayer of the faith shall
heal the sick and so forth. I'm not sure I know so much about
that but I know that we're very lax. I mean you may not be but
I am very lax in this thing of continual prayer. You know, I
briefly pray about something maybe, but then hopefully the
Lord lay on my heart or something to keep praying about a matter,
keep praying about a matter. And that's the Lord's sign, that's
the power of the Holy Spirit upon someone to, that's bearing
witness with your spirit that he may be going to grant what
you're asking for, that is to keep you in this family's mind.
So I, Christ says keep praying. Keep praying. Keep praying. Or he may answer that prayer
by changing your mind. He might just do that because
he'd quit asking. If he quit asking, obviously,
he didn't want it that bad in the first place, did he? He might
have taught you, oh, I really didn't mind. I didn't know what
I was asking for. It wasn't what I needed after
all. But don't quit until you get an answer. That's exactly
what this, Henry, that's exactly what this is saying. Yes, it
is, folks. That's exactly what this is saying.
Don't quit until you get an answer. Don't quit until he denies you,
until he gives it, or until he changes your mind about it, because
you quit asking. But keep asking, keep knocking,
and I say this, plead the blood. When you're that sincere about
something, salvation of a loved one, plead the blood of Christ.
Go to the Father and say, God, you sent your Son down here to
die for sinners. She's a sinner. She needs your
blood, needs your Son's blood. God, you sent your Son down here
to impute His righteousness, to live a life of thirty-three
years. and misery and sorrow. You brought him down here for
the express purpose of saving the people. And he's a sinner. He needs salvation. And plead
the Father's love for his son. Father, you love your son. All
the old writers that I read talk about arguing with God. That's
not in a bad sense that we think about arguing, bickering back
and forth. No, it's pleading God's promise. But God, you said, That's what
Moses did. That's exactly what he did. That's
what Abraham did. But God, if you find five righteous,
will you kill that sheep if there's five righteous? No. And God answered
him. No, no, no, I won't do that.
He argued God's promises. Lord! That make sense? God, you're loving. You're merciful. You delight to show mercy. Your
scriptures say that. that you delight to show mercy,
and you're merciful to all that call upon you. Lord, would you
cause him to call on you, or her? And keep on at that until
he either answers it, or changes your mind, or something. But
don't quit. I know the psalm says, take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. Yes. But it means keep
on taking it there and leaving it there. And the same burden
comes up every morning. His mercies are new every morning,
but keep on. Keep on. That's exactly what
this is saying. Exactly. I've never really seen
it in that fashion. That's exactly what he's saying.
He said, don't you hear what this unjust judge saying? Now
he says, if the unjust judge say, I'm going to give her what
she's asking for unless she bothers me. How much more will God Answer
the prayer of His people who keep coming to Him. God, please,
please. Lord, please. If you love your son, I know
you do, and you love me through your son, please, would you please
give me that? Please save my daughter. Please, Lord. But does that make sense in light
of God's character? Why, yes. How much he says, yes,
I'll tell you, verse 8, I'll tell you, he'll avenge them steadily
in light of eternity. It's right now. When you hit
70, Nancy, 20 years from now, and that daughter knows Christ
and sitting right here with a child of her own, and you're just rejoicing
over God saving her, you'll say, boy, he did it right quick. 20 years is a long time to you
right now. But you'll look back and say,
Boy, wasn't he time at all? He just, oh, I thank, so thankful
he saved her. Oh, boy. He said, Yeah, he'll
do it speedily. In light of eternity, it's quick.
What is your light? It's a vapor. In relation to
eternity, speedily. God will. I like the wills. Stainless is will. Will. Yes, he will. I tell you, he
will avenge them. Speedily, speedily. And he says here, Vengeance.
And let me say this, God will avenge his people in the sense
of the word avenge too. And that is those that are wronged
by this world, by the people in this world. God's people suffer
persecution all of their lives, go through toil and tribulation
and God will avenge right shortly. He'll come. Even so, come, Lord
Jesus. Even so, come quickly, the revelation
says. Come quickly. And he will. It's
going to be in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, and he's
going to come, he's going to avenge his elect by pouring out,
by destroying this world, pouring out his wrath upon this world,
and coming to receive his own back to himself. Now look at
this. This will prove that this is
exactly what he's saying here. Talking about importunate prayer,
that is, keep on knocking on the gates of heaven. Ask. And
he that asketh, he said, why did he say that back to back?
Unless that's not what he meant. Why did he say it again there
in Luke 11? Why did he just say it, he just
said it once and then he turned right around and said it again?
I tell you, he that asketh, didn't you hear what I said the first
time? And he said it just seven more chapters later, the same
thing. And this will prove that this
is exactly what he's saying here. Look at verse 8. He says, I tell
you, God will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man comes, is he going to find anybody praying like this? That's what he's saying there. Is there anybody with faith like
this? I got to admit, I don't have
it. How about you? I ain't been praying
like this. I tell you what now, I want to
learn every day, and I believe I'm learning something here.
I hope you are. But he said, I tell you, as the
Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth like this? Is there anyone this persistent
in prayer about the salvation of somebody? about spreading
the gospel around? How about that? And the gospel's
the glory of God, the power of God, it glorifies God. Who's
praying for the fervence of the gospel in this community? I mean,
really praying for it. Keep on praying for it. Let's hang our heads together.
Who's praying for the good of the church here, for people's
good here? Who's praying that they'll hear
the gospel when they come in, come to church? I mean, keep
praying. By the time you leave the house,
until you get here. Or is it a mere little knocking
on the door and run? That's exactly what he's saying.
Is there anybody? Who's praying about a particular
problem you may have, a besetting sin? Oh, my, my. Got a particular
problem with I don't know, whatever it may be within you. You don't really pray about it
when you're not suffering from it. But then when you go through
it, then you start praying. We need to pray for it when we
don't have it. Say, Lord, don't let me get back into that again.
That's what he said now. Lead us not into temptation. When we get into temptation,
we say, Lord, get me out. But he said, don't let me get
in it. And we're going to get into that next week, I believe,
next Wednesday night. the essence of prayer. And brothers and sisters, we ought to always pray. We ought
to praise our God, thank our God. Oh, my. We ought always
to pray and not to quit, and don't faint. And to those who
are praying for a loved one, you told me your burden about
your family and all. You ought to be, and you ought
to pray for them. And don't quit. Don't quit praying until you
get an answer. That's not being overly familiar. That's what it says right there.
That's God-honoring. Yes, it is. Don't quit now. How
long have you been praying for Him? How long have you been worried
about Him? A long time. Don't quit now. Keep going. Keep going. And I say that to
all of you. He talked about mustard seed.
Folks, I'm just not sure we know anything about this thing of
faith. I know I don't. I am a pretty leader. I don't
know anything about this thing. But I'm trying to learn. And
he talks about that much faith. He said, if you, if you had that
much. So apparently he's saying you
don't have that much. And he says right here, don't you hear
what this unjust judge says? Come on, he says, no, God, if
you keep asking. Henry, is that what that seems
to be saying to you? Or I'd like for him to teach
me that, wouldn't you? I'd like for him to. You got
good cause to listen to this, don't you? Anybody with a lost loved one,
you got good cause to. to listen well to this and apply
it. I sure do. We've all got to love
one another. There are many more things we
can pray for with one another. We've got problems here in the
church, you know. We've got people. We've got our own particular
problems now. Sin will be made like Christ. Let's keep on praying. You know,
the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, of Alois
Muck. You're a righteous man, Terry
Kinsley. Yes, you are, aren't you? You're either righteous
or unrighteous. You're righteous in Christ. And
he says, the effectual, fervent. You ever pay attention to that
word? Fervent prayer. The effectual, that is, effectually
working for God's glory. And some are eternal good. God's purpose, fervent, continual
prayer of a righteous man, that is, a man in Christ. God will
hear that. It avails much with the Father.
Yes, it does. And in the strictest sense of
that verse of Scripture, the effectual, fervent prayer of
that righteous man, it avails everything. Everything. And Christ
said, hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. And we'll
see that over in John 15 soon. He said, here, the two of you
have asked nothing in my name. The time will come when you ask
in my name and the Father, he'll hear you himself and give it
to you. Yeah, that's what he said in John 15. Shall we come up here and let's
sing a song? Let's sing Let's sing that sweet hour of
prayer. You know that, 361? Do you know
that? 361. Stand with me. I hope this has been
some help to you. We have a prayer. We have a prayer. of heaven and in the earth, as
my Father told me of Zion's holy city. Indeed, I love you, brethren,
and so Oh, will we, the brave and brave,
Are riding first tonight? He's out of breath, He's out
of breath, The day of my death will be the day. He'll bring me in the dark behind,
Hide me in the darkness and take my life. of love and light, we sing of
the land we love, the land we love, the land we love. you