Now let's turn back to Luke chapter
18. Luke chapter 18. Concerning this parable that
our brother just read, just a short parable, not very long, but it's
like all other passages of scripture, whether they're long in words
or short, it's certainly full of truth. in the depths of truth
that our Lord is teaching here, speaking to his disciples specifically
here, because he's speaking of three things, and that's the
title of my message this morning. Prayer, vengeance, and faith. Prayer, vengeance, and faith. And you might look at this and
you say, well, I can see where prayer and faith go together,
but what about this issue of vengeance? Well, this is another
parable of contrast. You know, we see in the parables
that we've studied so far, many times he'll say the kingdom of
heaven is like, or he'll issue a parable that will, by way of
comparison, show how the kingdom of Christ is initiated, established,
set up, and how it's promoted, and how it grows, and how it
comes to full fruition. And then there are parables of
contrast. In other words, he sets forth here in the realm
of persons and events, things that happen, and then he concludes
it with what I call a how much more. If this is the way that
sinful men act and do in their dealings in this sinful world,
this fallen world, this troublesome world, how much more? Will our Heavenly Father, the
God of all grace, deal with us in perfection, in righteousness,
in mercy and love? And that's what this is about.
So this is a parable of contrast. It's a parable they call the
parable of the unjust judge. Let's just read down through
it again, just eight verses. He spake this parable unto them
to this end, for this purpose. That man ought always to pray
and not to think. That's the purpose of this parable. To encourage his disciples to
be men and women of prayer. Men ought always to pray. And not to give up. Not to quit.
That's what faint means. Not to give up. Not to leave
the gospel. Don't leave the church. Don't
leave the gospel. Don't leave the fellowship. And
so they go together here, prayer, this perseverance, which he's
encouraging. That's what it is. When you don't
faint, you continue, you persevere in the faith. And we know that
all perseverance that we experience is ultimately the work of God
in us by His Spirit as He preserves us. We'll show you that in just
a moment. This issue of perseverance is not a condition. or a stipulation
that a believer must meet in order to make it to glory. This
perseverance is an evidence of God's grace by which he testifies
that he's sure for glory in Christ. And that's important. So this
is the purpose of the parable. To encourage men that they ought
always to pray. Be continual people of prayer. and not to think. And he says,
saying there was in a city, or a certain city as your concordance
might say, a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. This judge had no fear of God,
had no faith, didn't believe God, didn't respect God, didn't
regard God. This was an unjust judge, not
a believer, and neither regarded man. What that means is he didn't
care about anybody. Didn't care about anybody but
himself. And it says, and there was a widow in that city. poverty, the poor of the people
were represented mainly in widows and orphans, because they didn't
have programs like we have today, Social Security and orphanages
and all that. These people were left destitute
out in the streets. So here's a woman who's a widow
in that city, and she came unto him saying, Avenge me of mine
adversary. She wants this judge to bring
about vengeance on her enemy. Do you have any enemies? Do I
have any enemies? I do. You do. We know Satan is
our enemy. We know the world is our enemy.
We know the flesh is our enemy. But let's bring it down to where
we live Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday. Do you have any enemies at work? Any enemies in any realm? Family? We do. We do. done us wrong? Have they lied upon us? And do
we want to be avenged? That's what this widow is saying.
Avenge me of my adversary. Well, now, I can live here. In
fact, I told my wife, I said, you know, you know, I don't just
prepare these messages for you. I prepare them for me, too. Every
now and then it just seems like it just hits me square between
the eyes. And this one does. Especially
this last couple of weeks. It hit me right square between
the eyes. And so I'm preaching to me on
this issue. This issue of avenging vengeance. And he says in verse 4, and the
judge would not do it. He wasn't going to do it for
a while. But afterward, he said within himself, though I fear
not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me,
she won't stop. She was a persistent widow. He
said, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary
me. So he did it for the wrong reason,
just to get rid of her. He didn't want to be bothered
anymore. This unjust judge. Now, verse
6, the Lord said, the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith."
Listen to what this man just said. I'll do it. And he says
in verse 7, "...and shall not God..." Now, God is a judge,
but He's not an unjust judge. Our God is just in all things. "...shall not the judge of the
whole earth do right?" You bet He will. Our God judges always
according to truth, the scripture says. So he's a judge, but he's
not an unjust judge. Now, listen to what the unjust
judge said. Now, in contrast, shall not God
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, persistent
as this widow, though he bear long with them? He puts up with
a lot from them. And he said, I tell you that
he will avenge them speedily. That means exactly what it says,
quickly. Now, God's speed may be slower
than we think our speed is, but it will be speedily. I tell you
what, it will be too quick for those that He exacts justice
upon. To them, in their mind. And He
says, nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find
faith on the earth. Now, why did He end it that way?
He started out with prayer. Don't thank, pray. Pray. And then he talks about vengeance
in this unjust judge, and how God, who is a just judge, will
avenge his people. And then he says, when he comes,
when he comes a second time, that's his second coming, will
he find faith on earth? Well, this unjust judge didn't
even know this woman. That's the issue here, or the
implication. But as I said, our God, the true
and living God, who is the supreme judge of all, He is just. He's just in all that He does.
I'm going to tell you something. Whatever God does, He is right. And if you don't know that, and
you don't believe that, you don't know the God of this book. Let
me tell you something. When He condemns a sinner for
sins, He's just to do so. Am I right? There'll be no one who perishes
under the judgment who will say, God, you're unfair. You're unjust. Let me tell you something else,
and here's where we want to camp and live in our lives. When he
saves a sinner, he's just. He's just to do so. And hold
on to that thought, I'll get right back to it. But God is
a just God and a Savior. That's the question of questions
in the Bible, the Gospel. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? So now here's this unjust judge.
He didn't know this woman, but our God knows us. He knows His
people. Christ said that. He said, I
know my sheep. The Bible says the foundation
of the Lord stands as sure Having this sealed, the Lord knoweth
them that are His." He knows us, and that knowledge is not
just an acknowledgement or an awareness. It is an intimate
relationship, spiritual fellowship that we have with God in Christ. It's a salvation. And He loves
us. His own elect. You know, He mentioned
here, verse 7, look at that, "...and shall not God avenge
His own elect?" Now, who are the elect? You know, a lot of
people, they read that word and they don't like that word. You
know, they say, well, that's talking about the Jews. No. You
mean God's just going to, he's going to avenge the Jews and
that's it? He's going to avenge all his people, Jew and Gentile,
all who come to him by faith in Christ. People don't like
election. People don't like elect. I'm
going to tell you something. Salvation. Salvation is the product
of election. God's sovereign electing grace
in Christ. And those who are saved are the
elect. Who are they? Look, let me show you this. Turn
over to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. It's kind of
like we were talking about different things that people see in the
scriptures and they don't understand, so they automatically do what?
They deny them. Well, let me tell you something.
If you're going to get into this book from Genesis to Revelation
and you're going to take the attitude, well, I'm going to
deny what I don't understand, you might as well throw the book
away. I'm telling you the truth. There's
a multitude of things in this book we don't understand. But
they're so. I was talking about one fellow
who was saying that some co-workers were arguing about predestination,
because they said, we don't believe in predestination. And I told
him, I said, well, the next time they get to arguing about that,
ask them where they even got an idea about predestination. Where did that word even come
from? Where did they hear it? I mean, was somebody just walking
on a beach one day and say, hey, predestination? No. They got
it from here. This book. I never even heard
the term until I was in this Bible. So it's in here, and you
have it to deal with. You may not like it. You may
not understand it, but it's there. That's where it comes from. So
when you're arguing about it, just understand. You're arguing
what's in this book. You say, well, I don't know what
it means in that book. Well, the Bible tells you. It
may not give you a satisfactory answer that will give you an
argument or a debate to answer all the naysayers, but it's there.
It's there. You think you can grasp, as I've
always told you, somebody says, well, I can't wrap my mind around
all of it. We'll join the club. I'll give
you a pen. We'll make badges. You can wear
them and we'll all wear them. Our God is a God of predestination. That's what this book teaches.
And this thing about election, look here, look at 1 Peter 1.
He says, Peter, verse 1. 1 Peter 1.1, Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now you know what that
means? That means that this notion of
God looking down through a telescope of time and foreseeing what you
would do and then He chose you. No, it says elect according to
what? The foreknowledge. You know that word foreknowledge
is translated different ways in Scripture. You know one way
it's translated? Predestined. Romans 8. And he says, through sanctification
of the Spirit, that's the new birth, you must be born again,
unto obedience of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Somebody says, well, where's
faith? Well, that's the new birth. You must believe. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Whosoever will,
what? You know, a lady called Pastor
May one time and said, I believe in whosoever will. He said, I
do too, but the problem is the whosoever won'ts. See, man by nature is a whosoever
won't. Whosoever will call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen. Anybody who wants it. I told you the story about the
fellow who was talking to a man down in Albany, and this man
said, well, I've got it figured out. He said, salvation is like
a big chocolate cake, and anybody who wants a piece can have it.
And the fellow told him, he said, well, OK, I'll go along with
that. But he said, if we're going to stay with that illustration
and make it biblical, here's how you have to start. Everybody
hates chocolate cake. That's right. That's total depravity. That's
the sinfulness of man. You will not come to me that
you might have liked. You say, well, I've come to him.
Well, why did you? He said, because you're better
than the whosoever wants. You're less stubborn, less obstinate,
smarter. I'll tell you who makes us to
differ. God does. Look over at chapter 2 of 1 Peter,
since we're there. Look at verse 1. He says, Wherefore, laying aside
all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, 1 Peter 2, 1, and
envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. I'll tell you, if God's being
gracious to you, you'll desire the sincere milk of the word.
Isn't that right? that you may grow. If there's
spiritual life, there's going to be a desire for the milk of
the word, and there's going to be growth. It's just like a baby
who's born stillborn, without life, that baby's not going to
desire the mother's milk, because they're not alive. There's no
life there, no physical life. If there's spiritual life there,
what's there going to be? There's going to be That desire
for the sincere milk of the word. There's going to be faith. There's
going to be repentance. And he says in verse four to
whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men
and chosen of God as elect chosen of God. And that's talking about
Christ there. Isaiah said mine elect. But talking
about Christ and precious, you also as lively stones are built
up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God. How? By Jesus Christ, accepted
in the beloved, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness.
That's the only way God can accept me or my offerings to him. As they are washed in the blood
of the crucified one. as I stand before him justified
in Christ. Wherefore, verse 6, also it's
contained in the scripture, behold I lay in Zion, that's the church,
a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, that's Christ, you see, and he
that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore
which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient
The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient,
whereinto also they were appointed." That is by God. You say, I don't
understand that. Again, join this club. When God
does what He, Christ gave us the only answer that He gives.
Matthew 11, For so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. And
these are wholly accountable, but look at verse 9, But you're
a chosen generation. a royal priesthood and holy nation,
a peculiar people, that's a purchased people, that you should show
forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. You see that? That's the elect. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God. How do you know that,
Paul? Because the word of God came to you, not just as word,
the gospel came, not just something you heard with these physical
ears, but in power. How do you know that the gospel
came to a sinner in power? Because he believes it. He's
repented. He desires the sincere milk of the word. That's the
evidence of spiritual life. He told him in 2 Thessalonians
2 and verse 13. In fact, he thanked God for it.
He said, but we're bound to give thanks unto God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. And then he goes on. Through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 through
14. That's it. And here's the point. Go back
to Luke 18 now. Here's the point of this parable.
Now listen to this, you see. He's talking about his elect
being avenged. And we go through this life,
and we have enemies. Some of us make enemies. Some
have enemies thrust upon us. Either way, if we make enemies,
we're at fault. Isn't that right? If we go about to make enemies,
we're at fault. We are not expecting. God to avenge us when we go out
and make enemies. Peter said that. He said, when
we suffer because of our bad behavior, then that's just reaping
what we've sown. That's it. But if it's for the
gospel's sake, for righteousness' sake, then we have every right
to expect God to avenge us. You see, we have every right
to expect God to avenge us. We have no right to expect or
bring about or try to work personal vengeance. No right for that. But we can pray and expect God
to avenge us. So the point of this parable
is this, if this unjust judge avenged a stranger who he really
didn't care about and didn't want to do, then how much more
will our Heavenly Father, who is always just, who has already
judged us in and by Christ. How much more can we expect him
to avenge us in his time and in his way? Think about this. As I said, this judge was unjust.
Our God is just in every way. In fact, in the gospel way, it's
so beautiful. Listen, our gospel is a gospel
of justice as well as mercy. Our gospel is a gospel of righteousness
and truth as well as love and grace. In fact, if you believe
a gospel that does not set forth God in Christ as both a just
God as well as a merciful Savior, a righteous judge as well as
a loving Father, you don't have the true gospel. He must be both. And in Christ, He is both. Without
Christ, He's nothing but a just judge who will punish sin. But
in Christ, He's both a just God and a Savior. How is He just
to save me? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord charged not sin. Who did He charge it to? He charged
it to Christ. Christ died for my sins. The
justice of God was satisfied upon Christ, my substitute and
my Savior, my Redeemer. He paid the debt in full. I owed
a debt that I couldn't pay. He paid it in full. And what
was the price? Your faith? My faith? No. His
blood was the price. And it was the full price. And
he paid it all. This judge did not regard any
person. He didn't care for anybody. But
our God loves His own. Now, God is no respecter of men's
persons. His love, His mercy, His grace
is not shown toward any sinner because of who that sinner is.
or what that sinner does. You know what it's due to? His
own sovereign mercy. And that's it. You can sit around
and ponder the question, why did God set His love upon this
person? You don't know why. He regards
His elect. It's the election of grace, He
says. And then this woman, she was a stranger. But now God's
people, His elect are not strangers to Him. In fact, in Ephesians
chapter 2, speaking of the Gentiles who have been brought into the
kingdom, he says, you're no longer strangers, but you're fellow
citizens in the kingdom of God in Christ. And this judge, he
did not hear this woman at first. He didn't want to grant her her
request. But let me tell you something.
God hears his people all the time. He never fails to hear
his people. Now, you may not think he hears
you. And sometimes the answer of silence is the answer, no. Mom and dad, you ever said that
to little Johnny or little Susie? No. And why do you say that? Because
you're mean? They may think you are. You're
just not with it, mom and dad. Is that why you say it? Because
you're not with it? No, because you know to say yes would not
be good for them. And that's the way our Heavenly
Father is too. So the issue here is this, as
we go through this life, all of its trials and its troubles,
and as we approach our end in death, or as we wait for the
coming of our Lord, we're to persevere in prayer and in faith,
knowing and being assured that our Heavenly Father will be just
and a vengeance. He says here, verse 1, men ought
always to pray. and never faint, don't give up,
don't quit. Prayer and perseverance are both
acts of faith. Do we really believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ? If we do, we won't faint, we
won't quit. That's not to say that we won't
get discouraged and we won't mess up, we will. But we will
not finally apostatize from the faith. That's what this fainting
has to do here. Those who totally leave Christ.
Now, they didn't lose their salvation, as some say. They just revealed
that they never were saved. Turn over to 1 John chapter 2.
What does the Bible say about that issue? I'm going to give
you one example. I could give you more, but we
don't have that much time this morning. But listen to this.
You know, these people, they say, well, you can be saved and
then lost again. The Bible does not teach that.
Salvation is by grace, not by works. And let me tell you something
about that. That's all of salvation, not
just part of it. Now, you get away from these
people who are telling you you can be saved and then lost again
because that's a works oriented salvation. That's what it is. And here's what the Bible says
about it in verse 18 of 1 John 2. And as I said, this is just
one of the many examples. He says, little children, it
is the last time. And as you've heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know
that it is the last time. And look at verse 19. They went
out from us. You hear that? They left. They
fainted. They apostatized. They fell away. And he says, but they were not
of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. Do you see it? But they
went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not
all of us. In other words, they're leaving
it, fainting, going out, just simply expose the true state
of their heart. I'm going to tell you something.
If you're saved by grace, you'll be kept by grace. And there may be times in your
life that you don't look like a trophy of grace, but you still
are in God's sight. And that's why we have to be
careful. He says in verse 20, but you
have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
You know what that unction from the Holy One is? That's the indwelling
power of the Holy Spirit. Not only to bring us to the new
birth, but to keep us looking to Christ unto the end. So don't faint, he says. Paul
said, we're not of them who draw back unto perdition. He that
endures to the end, the scripture says. That's not a conditional
statement. It's an evidential statement. Those who endure to
the end give evidence of God's grace. Yes, the Bible says, if
you continue. If you continue grounded and
settled in the faith. That's not a conditional if.
That's an evidential if. It's almost like me saying to
you, you're alive if you breathe. You're alive if you breathe.
Now, you're breathing. did not make you alive. It's
just the evidence that life is there. And you try to stop breathing. Just try it. You ever had any
kids who hold their breath until they turn blue in the face because
you won't give them what they want? They may faint, but they're still
alive and they'll stay alive. You just try to stop breathing.
You just try to stop it. You can't. All of God's elect will persevere,
because he that began the good work in you will complete it
unto the end. Philippians 1.6. Kept, he said, in John chapter
10, he said, no one shall pluck them out of my Father's hands.
I and my Father are one. And then this issue of prayer.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. What about
prayer? He says, men ought always to
pray. Now prayer, you know the essence of prayer, the foundation
of prayer, is a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago, back in the
70s, early 80s, one of the Some religious preacher made
the statement that he said that God does not hear the prayer
of a Jew. And it just upsets the whole fabric of religion
in America. And so he had to take it back.
But here's what I'm telling you. Any sinner who comes to God without
Christ, my friend, that's not prayer. And God doesn't hear
that prayer in the way of blessing or guidance. I mean, he's aware
of what they're doing. He's aware of when a fellow bows
down on his face to Buddha. God's aware of that. Here's what
the man says. He's not praying to the living
God. I don't care who he is, Jew or Gentile, Buddhist, Hindu,
whoever. Here's prayer. Look at verse
14 of Hebrews 4. He says, seeing then that we
have a great high priest. Now, that's Christ, our high
priest. who is our representative before
God, our mediator, who presents the offering of His blood to
the Father for our salvation, in whom we stand righteous before
God. He says that is passed into the
heavens. Christ, He passed through into
the presence of God. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession. You see, that's perseverance
there. And he says, for we have not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that's not sin,
now that's the weaknesses of the flesh. And he says, but was
in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He was
tempted just like you and I are, except sinlessly. And what I
mean by that, let me give you that example. When Christ went
up on the mount to be tempted of the devil, it says he didn't
eat for 40 days and 40 nights. Can you imagine going 40 days
and 40 nights without eating? I've never done that. How about
you? I would say at the end of the
last night, you'd be pretty hungry, wouldn't you? You'd be so starved. And if somebody would come along
and tempt you with food or bread, and present before you a situation
where in order to get that food or that bread you would have
to deny God or do something against God. You have it in you and I
have it in me to deny God in order to satisfy that hunger.
We sure do. Now we may pass that test by
the grace of God, I don't know, but it would be a struggle for
us. Now Christ in his humanity, he
was just as hungry as you and I would be, and the devil came
along and tempted him with that breath, but he had no thoughts
or no struggle within himself whether or not to deny God in
order to relieve that hunger. And that's what that means. Yes,
he was tempted just like you and I, but he was without sin. He said, Satan has nothing in
me. Now look at verse 16. He says, for let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. We're not praying to
try to get God to change his mind. A God who changes his mind
is an imperfect God. Change has to be either for the
better or for the worse. Isn't that right? God can't get
any better, and he's not going to get any worse. We don't get
God to change his mind with our prayers. That's a myth. We're
not trying to get God, who is reluctant to bless us, to do
so by our persistent praying. In fact, the Lord said when he
taught his disciples to pray, he said, don't do that. He said,
God, He knows what you have need of before you pray. And He said,
just state it out. Let your petitions to be made
known. But don't repeat these words and these phrases. And
it has nothing to do with how many times you say it or how
many people you have. They have these prayer chains.
If we can just get this many people. But listen, they have
a national day of prayer now. Now, let me tell you something.
For the spiritual nation Israel, every day is a national day of
prayer. Because we're to pray always. That's the spiritual
nation of Israel. Spiritual Israel. You can't gang
up on God. That's not the way it is. And
this prayer, he says, pray always. That's any time. Pray any time. Not just at specific times. I
know we pray when we're in trouble, and we should, but pray always.
Pray in joy. No special place. It's not in
a church. You don't have to be in a church building. And somebody
said, well, you don't have to come down to the altar. This
is not an altar. In fact, we don't even have a bench down
here. This is not. Christ is our altar. He's our
high priest. He's our altar. He's our lamb.
Yeah, come to the altar. Come to Christ. And that's where
your prayer is. Don't go to the wailing wall.
That's just a dirty old wall. Go to Christ. No special season. Pray without ceasing, he told
the Thessalonians. Pray always with perseverance,
he told the Ephesians. Continue in prayer and watch,
he told the Colossians. Pray. Pray to God. And then look back at this thing
in Luke 18 on this thing of vengeance. He says, this woman wanted to
be avenged. Now, all personal vengeance is
forbidden. Vengeance belongeth unto the
Lord. We're going to see an example
of that tonight in 2 Samuel. But vengeance, why does he mention
vengeance in this parable specifically? I'll tell you, because it's a
big problem. It's a big problem. I mean, I find it's a big problem
with me. Maybe I'm just worse than you
all, and I'm just confessing before you. I don't know, but
it's a big problem with me. Because when an enemy says something
about me that's false, I just want to go knock their heads
off. I mean, I want to get them. I do. I'm just telling you the
truth. I mean, I listened last week to a man who publicly in
a message called me a slithering snake. And I just wanted, I said, God,
get him. And he told lies. Publicly. Put it out on the internet. We
found out wrong from a fellow from Michigan who gets our tapes.
That's how we found out about it. From the great north. And I just wonder, I mean, that
was my first, but I'm going to tell you something. That's wrong
for me to do that. Think that way. That's the flesh.
That's sin. What should I do? Pray for him. You say, but I don't feel like
praying. It has nothing to do with feeling. Now listen to me
now. He didn't say pray when you feel like it. He said men
ought always to pray, even when you don't feel like it. You say, well, you have to force
yourself to pray sometimes. I mean, it's not easy. And that's
why he says here, when the Son of Man come, shall you find faith
on earth. Well, he's going to find faith
on earth, and I'll tell you why, because faith is the gift of
God. You see, I don't have it in me naturally to pray for that
man who stood up and lied on me, slandered me. A man who I
thought was my brother preached the same gospel, slandered me. Somebody said, oh, to sue him.
I'm not going to do that. I'm not even going to answer
the fool according to his folly, but I'm going to tell you this
much now. It's not in me naturally. to pray for that man. But I know
by the Spirit and power of God, I do and I have and I will by
His grace. Faith is the gift of God. For
by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourselves
is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. And
I'll tell you what now, when I go through these times, you
know, I can certainly identify with King David when he said,
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Oh
Lord, if thou Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, who would stand?
You see, I have no righteousness in me of my own. My righteousness
is my Savior. I need His grace. I read in there, in Hebrews chapter
4, to find grace and help in time of need. I need it all the
time. I'm just a needy guy. The essence of this faith is
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, most emphasize today,
how much faith do you have? How much do you believe? The
Bible doesn't emphasize it that way. The Bible says this, in
whom do you believe? I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he is able. I'm not able. I mean, every
day proves that to me. I'm not able. He's able to keep
that which I've committed unto him against that day. Faith is the work of the Holy
Spirit within us. And He indwells us. Thank God
He does. I'll tell you what, if it weren't
for the work of the Spirit within me, I wouldn't even have struggled
with that matter last week. I'd have said, I've got a right. I've got a right to just kill
that sucker, you know. But no, sir, I don't. I don't,
Dan. I'm a sinner. And no sinner has
any right to take personal vengeance upon another sinner. Do you know
that? No matter how wrong he does you
or she does you. We don't have any right to take
personal vengeance upon any sinner. And I'll tell you something,
to understand that and believe it, it takes a lot of prayer
and a lot of faith. It does. This faith is the fruit
of Christ's work of redemption. Do you know that Christ died
for his people when we were enemies, the scripture says? And I look
back on times when I made statements that I'm just flat ashamed of,
and I'm glad nobody had a tape recorder around. Things I said
about Jesus. Things I said about the Bible.
Things I said in my rebellion. What if he'd taken vengeance
on me at that time? Say, by the grace of God. This faith is the mark of God's
elect. Ida spoke of the faith of God's elect. It's the evidence
of those born of God. It's the circumcision of the
true Israel. Circumcised hearts. It's a faith
that labors, and I tell you, it's a labor in it. It produces
a heart confession. It endures unto death. I want to show you one example,
and I think I'll come back to this, but look at Matthew chapter
5, and then I'll close with this. Let me show you an example of
what I'm talking about in Scripture. I've got some more here. Matthew
chapter 5. Look at verse 10. Now here's
faith, right here. Here's what we need to pray for
always in these times, bad times, good times. Verse 10. Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. That's
for the gospel sake. That's for Christ's sake. Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Now, how do you know that you
have the kingdom of heaven when you're persecuted? I'll tell
you how you know. There's only one way you know. You don't feel
it. It doesn't pop up in your head automatically. It's because
God's Word says it. You know what that means? Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The Word of God. I believe
God. That's what it says. Oh Lord, I believe, help thou
my unbelief. That's what I pray. Verse 11,
listen to this one. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. How do I know? When I heard that
message, when I heard that fellow saying all that stuff, I did
not feel blessed. I didn't. I didn't feel blessed.
I didn't automatically look up and say, thank you, Lord. But I know I am. Now, how do
I know that? It says it right here. I believe
God. I believe his word. I believe
it. That's the gift of God. That's faith. And he says in
verse 12, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you. You see what I'm saying? That's not in us naturally,
is it? That's not it, man. That's of
God. When we think about these things, prayer, vengeance, and
faith, think about them in terms of the Word of God. Not how you
feel, because that'll get you nowhere. Because I know, I felt
the same way. Still feel it. I had to fight
it all the time. I mean, it's a warfare, isn't
it? But think of these things in the realm of God's Word and
believing Him and that our hope is Christ and Him alone. All
right.