I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. Today, we're
going to talk a little bit about prayer. Not that we have not
done that before or that it is a subject that we are altogether
unfamiliar with, but because we are going through the book
of Luke and because the book of Luke affords us, as we've
said before, so many glimpses of the ways of our great God
in the person of Jesus Christ, we have come upon a portion of
Scripture in our excursion through Luke that demands that we pause
and reflect on the subject of prayer. I know that prayer for
virtually all of us is one of those subjects kind of like water. If someone told you to open your
hands and cuss them in a way in which you would be inclined
have to hold water in your hand, immediately you would start sweating.
Especially if you were told that you had to hold every drop of
water in your hand. And for each drop that would
fall through your hands, you would lose a portion of income. And that would be because you
and I understand that prayer is like cusping water in your
hand It's virtually impossible to do right and to a satisfactory
degree. So you and I are always obliged
to learn some things about prayer. And I don't have to tell those
of you who know the Lord Jesus that the Lord Jesus was a man
of prayer. I don't have to tell you that
the scriptures are clear that he was not only a man of prayer,
but he was want to pray. Now the context in which the
prayer of which our Lord is now instructing his disciples and
he's gonna instruct the broader crowd is a context in which he
is telling the disciples, you're gonna go through some trouble.
And the trouble in which you are going to go through is going
to require that you have a handle on your need of God in such a
way that prayer is going to be a natural part of your survival
mechanism. The context is trouble, the context
is tribulation. If you recall a few weeks back,
we were with our Lord going through Luke chapter 17, and he was warning
his disciples about that time that would come shortly before
our Lord returns, whether this is in the historical context
of the children of Israel or in the last days in which we
are, or whatever will be the ultimate last days, The church
will be in a situation where when trouble comes, if you are
not ready for that trouble, you will be seized upon by that trouble
and that trouble will expose you for not having been ready.
If you recall, we looked at that ominous language that is generally
viewed as in time language in Luke 17 verse 33 through 36,
whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, whosoever
shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you, in that night
there shall be two in one bed. The one shall be taken the other
left. Two shall be grinding together. The one shall be taken the other
left. Two men shall be in the field. The one shall be taken
the other left. And they answered and said unto
him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever
the carcass is, Tomah, dead body, not a living body, a dead body. Wheresoever the body is, there
will the eagles be gathered together. And he was describing the destruction
of a people who did not take heed to God's warnings. They
were culpable of a moment that seized upon them for which they
were not ready. And it's out of this context
that our Lord now moves immediately into a discourse of prayer to
his disciples. The disciples may not have grasped
that our Lord was talking about the destruction of the temple
and the nation of Israel in AD 70, which would have been for
them some 37 years subsequent to that exhortation, but they
may have. In any event, our Lord moves
immediately into a parable to enhance and to instruct them
as to how you and I are to be during times of difficulty and
tribulation. And in this context of tribulation
and difficulty, he is teaching us that he is coming back. That's
the hope of the believer, isn't it? Christ is coming back. But
between the time that you go through the trouble and the time
that the Lord returns, I need to have a people who know how
to pray. So he says in the last portion
of Luke chapter 18, he says over in verse eight, I tell you speedily
that he will avenge them. Nevertheless, when the son of
man comes, here's the question, shall he find faith on the earth? Now I want to quickly say that
prayer is not necessarily a synonym for faith. You can be a person
of prayer and your prayer be faithless. And I also want to
say that faith itself does not necessarily equate to prayer.
You can be a person who believes or professes to be a believer,
but don't pray. So when we are talking about
prayer in this context in our Lord saying, will there be believers
when I come? What he's asking is, will there
be men and women who have taken my suggestion to see to it that
in the midst of tribulation and difficulty, in the midst of turmoil
and conflict, in the midst of opposition and persecution, will
my people know that they must depend upon me so much that prayer
is just like breathing. That's just what they do. So they'll be doing that until
Jesus comes. Now, in this context, he's talking
to us, ladies and gentlemen, about a certain kind of prayer.
Now, obviously, our elder read through two parables, the parable
of which you and I will address today. And in that parable, it's
a certain kind of prayer being spoken of. In the second parable,
he gave a parable concerning two men, the publican and the
Pharisee. So there are three kinds of prayers,
two of which you and I are to embrace. One, we are to avoid
with everything in us. The kinds of prayer that we are
to embrace is a prayer of perseverance, a prayer of perseverance, and
then a prayer of penitence. The prayer of penitence is the
prayer of the man that leaves the presence of God justified. The prayer you and I are to avoid
is the prayer of pride. The prayer of pride. We'll deal
with those last two next week, the Lord willing. Today, I want
to talk to you about the first. Our Lord says men ought always
to what? Pray. That's the way he opens
up the parable. And Luke says, and it's to this
end that the parable was given. So you and I are not clueless
as to why this parable is given. It's given to us not only, listen
to me, ladies and gentlemen, not only that we should pray,
but we should pray a certain kind of prayer. Now there are
all kinds of prayers. benedictions, doxological prayers,
intercessory prayers, mediatorial prayers, supplicatory prayers,
imprecatory prayers, all kinds of prayers of which the scriptures
lay out and we are obliged to those prayers. And there are
different qualities of prayer as well. Today, I wanna talk
briefly to you about the prayer of perseverance. Prayer that
perseveres. Now, when I say prayer that perseveres,
what I am not talking about is intense prayer. You know the
kind of prayer where you sweat and you agonize. and you toil. That is a very, very important
kind of prayer, but that prayer is designed for specific issues,
poignant, pressing issues of the moment for which God impresses
upon a person or a people group or a prayer group to get at the
throne of grace with the level of intensity, with the level
of urgency, with the level of passion that corresponds to the
issue. If the issue is bad enough, I'm
gonna pray hard. How about you? But God is not
calling us to that kind of prayer here. I want you to understand
that. He's not calling us to the kind of prayer that has us
constantly sweating and wringing our hands and toiling with heaven
as if heaven can't answer the problem. Heaven can answer any
problem at any time, in any way, whenever it wants to. The people
of God know this. The kind of prayer that God is
calling you and I to is the prayer that endures. It's an enduring kind of prayer. It's the kind of prayer that
knows how to endure. It's the kind of prayer that
continues. It's the kind of prayer that
is steadfast, immovable, unchanging, always operating, The prayer
that God is talking about here is the prayer that moves as slow
as a train, but as certain as a train. You know, a train can
move slow at times, right? But would any one of you dare
to stand in front of that train to try to stop it just because
it's moving at one mile an hour? Because you know there's power
behind that movement. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The idea then about this kind of prayer is not the passion,
not the pressure, not the exhaustion or the urgency. It's the endurance. It's the kind of prayer that
God calls all of his people to endure. So I want you to follow
this with me. The idea of this kind of prayer
is laid out for us in the parable of a widow who has to seek vengeance
against her adversaries at the hand of a judge. And our Lord
Jesus lays out the parable in such a way that the disciples
understand strictly what's going on. This woman perseveres, doesn't
she? She presses through. She hangs
in there until she gets her request answered. Now I just want to
talk briefly about how the New Testament speaks to this kind
of prayer. If you will, in your Bible, Romans chapter 12, verse
12. This is the first of three passages I want to go to to establish
this point. Now prayer, as I am speaking
of it here and as our Lord is instructing His disciples, is
the kind of thing that should be done every day throughout
the day as part of your fellowship with God. It's the kind of thing
that should take place in your life and mine because everything
in our world is not all right. I mean, I think that it would
be safe to say that we wouldn't have to pray when we're getting
to glory, right? When we get to glory, prayer
will be a minimal capacity because prayer is simply requesting,
it's asking, it's beseeching God for things we don't have,
isn't that right? We get to glory, we're gonna
be doing a whole lot of shouting and rejoicing and watch this
for you lazy people working. But our ultimate requests shall
be so answered that there will be little by way of need that
we will have in heaven for which we will pray for we will have
everything when we get to glory. But down here the life that you
and I live presently suggests to us that we have need. And that's the reason for which
you and I should be praying. Now, when I watch this now, here's
what I'm getting at. You may be doing well, you 21st
century American culturized Christian with a very good job and a very
nice pension and a very nice home and health and strength
and everything. And you may feel like you don't
really need to pray. Well, if you think that way,
it's simply because you have failed to realize why God called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. See, even if
you don't need to pray for yourself, you need to be praying for somebody
else. Am I making some sense? So, you know, if God has called
you into his life, he's also opened your eyes up to a world
full of need. And that world full of need requires
somebody to stand in the gap. Now, if God has taken care of
all my adversaries, that's fine. But suppose I got loved ones
for whom they are in difficult straits and they need someone
to stand in the gap. Then I'm going to be standing
in the gap every day for them until God meets their needs.
Am I making some sense? And so God leaves us in a world.
He places us in a world, situates us in a world for which prayer
is always apropos. Now listen to what Romans chapter
12, verse 12 says around this. This is Paul giving instructions
to the church. And we went through this book
before. It's a glorious set of sort of ethics and ideals for
the church of the living God. I'll start at verse 10, go all
the way through verse 12. And verse 12 is going to capsulize
our message today. Listen to what it says. over
in verse number nine, let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that
which is evil and cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate
one to another with brotherly love and honor, preferring one
another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord. Now watch how he closes this
portion out. Rejoicing in what? Hope. And then he says, patient
in tribulation. continuing instant in prayer. Do you see it? Continuing instant
in prayer. Go with me in your Bible to Ephesians
chapter six, verse 18. I just want to show you one more
place where Paul expresses this kind of praying. And of course,
the New Testament epistles talk about prayer constantly as well,
but I just want you to see this kind of prayer. In Romans chapter
12, it says that we are to be instant in prayer while being
patient in tribulation. Now that sets the context for
the parable we're going to discuss today. A tribulous situation
this woman is in. And yet she's called to be patient
while constantly praying. Let's see if we can reconcile
those today, okay? Because this is very important.
You're going to see some wisdom on this woman's part, which of
course you and I can have for free. In Ephesians chapter 6,
The apostle Paul tells the church that you are not in glory, you
are not wearing your white robes, you are not dressed in your toga,
you're not celebrating your triumph and victory over all your foes
yet. You are down here on this earth,
and therefore, we are not to depict ourselves in a triumphant
display of absolute conquest as if we have no foes. That would
be delusional. You know, a lot of religious
church uses triumphal doctrine to kind of, as it were, depict
themselves always having victory over their enemies. Now, you
know that's not true, don't you? You know that's not true. Down
here, we're not wearing white robes like the Mormons. We're
wearing armor, full armor from head to toe. And we're telling
everybody we're in a warfare. We're waging war against hell,
against everything that stands against the glory of God. We
are soldiers of Christ. And we are more than willing
to stand and take the hit for the glory of God because of our
great captain who stood in front of the biggest cannon to save
our souls from hell. Our job here is to fight the
good fight of faith. Our job here is to war a good
warfare. Our job here is to proclaim the
glory of God against a hell-bound world headed to damnation. That's our job. And the enemy
would stop us with everything in him if he could, but God's
given us armor. having dressed us in the full-orbed
armor of God. He tells us over in verse 16,
17, I'm sorry, I'm just gonna read verse 18, praying always
with all prayer. We talked about that, all kinds
of prayer, every method of prayer, every technique of prayer, every
appropriate kind of prayer and supplication in the spirit. Now
here it is, watching there unto with all what? Perseverance. supplication for all Saints look
at verse 18 verse 18 tells you how you come to prayer what you
wear the prayer it gives you a list of all kinds of prayers
and then it tells you how to organize your prayers by being
circumspect and looking at the full field of and seeing every
strategic stronghold that opposes the glory of God and pray in
the direction of that stronghold, that issue, that conflict, that
battle. Are you guys following me? I'm
a soldier, so I'm given to watch. I'm given to intelligence. I'm
given to strategy. I'm given to know the traps and
gins and snares and pits of the enemy. And my soul is given to
stand in intercession in that particular place. That's what
it means. with all perseverance. You know what that means? Constantly. The soldier never goes to sleep.
He has no right to close his eyes so long as someone has not
said the war is over. And so the context is perseverance.
But I want to draw you back now. Go back to your text. Let's go
to work. I want to draw you back away from what would be sort
of an innate compulsion to believe that we are talking about Intensity. I am talking about perseverance. I'm talking about settling it
in your soul to be a person of prayer until you die. We're just
talking perseverance. So you take in a bunch of breath
and you breathe out and you relax and you talk to God every day. You commune with your maker.
You ask him to give you his thoughts, give you his views, give you
his burdens, give you his vision, give you his revelation, because
you want to be on his side. You want to have something to
talk to God about, don't you? You know, isn't it bad when you go
to pray and you start praying like a minute into your prayer
and you ain't got nothing else to say? That only happens to me. Now,
the reason that occurs is because your brain is a little thimble
of information that can run out in like 30 seconds. Can I get
a witness? Then you go, okay, so man, I
just didn't pray for this. I pray for that. Man, I'm done.
Two minutes into my prayer. What else can I pray about? Well,
if you start having your heart and mind filled with the knowledge
of God and the will of God and the purpose of God, you'd have
a lot to pray about. See what I'm getting at? There'd
be a lot to pray about. And you would be then, as it were, companions
of Jesus Christ, praying for the advancement of the kingdom.
Where do I start? Matthew 6. You can start right
there. But what we are going to deal
with now is a kind of prayer that our Lord commends, and it's
the prayer of perseverance. It's the prayer, really, of endurance
and faithfulness. It's the prayer that rewards
the person that believes that God is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. Do you remember that sister named
Hannah? Anna in Luke chapter 2. Go there for a moment. I'm
going to show you something remarkable about this sister right quick
in the area of enduring prayer. Because it sort of corresponds
to what we are dealing with. In Luke chapter 2, this is surrounding
the birth of Jesus Christ. And of course, this is a wonderful
passage to speak on if one were bringing a message around Christmas.
But in Luke chapter 2, notice what it says about Anna. One
of three or four very Spirit-filled individuals who met the baby
Jesus at his circumcision in the temple that day who had a
word from God for us because of her lifestyle now verse 36
is it says this and there was one Anna a Prophetess the daughter
of Fenuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age Don't ever
despise your elder mothers especially when their greatness of age is
coupled with a life devoted to the glory of God. She will always
have something to say to you. Now watch this. And she had lived
with a husband seven years from her virginity. You guys got that?
To help some of you, that means she was only married for seven
years. Ostensibly, when you get married, that's another message.
You're supposed to be a virgin, but In this context, from her
marriage to the death of her husband was seven years in. That would be a tragedy for most
of us. We would feel like the world is over with having loved
someone from our virginity, and then seven years in, that individual
dies. But I want you to know what kind
of vocation this sister takes up immediately after her husband
parts from her. The text says, and she was in
verse 37, a widow of about four score and four years old. Children,
how old is that? You grown folks, I said children.
84 years, 84 years old. Now, I want you to add this up.
I know this is gonna kind of twist your brain a little bit,
but you're talking 84 years as a widow. That's a long time. You're talking about seven years
in marriage. That brings us to the age of
91, doesn't it? But that was at the start of
her marriage. How old was she when she got
married? Let's give a very sort of moderate
number. Let's say she was 16 because
in that culture, You could have been married as early as 13,
14 years old because the environment set it up where it was possible.
Let's say she was 16. You know how old this sister
is when she walks into the temple? She's a hundred and something
years old. She's a centennial. Now watch this. She's a centennial
full of the spirit of God, committed to the glory of God. And she
has been rewarded this day for a life of fasting and prayer. She has persevered for 84 years,
fasting and praying, fasting and praying. Remember now, no
pressure, no intensity, consistency. No weight, no burden, no sweat,
just perseverance. No toil, no anguish, just endurance. You know what we call that? Faithfulness.
You got to have a revelation from God to be able to stay on
point for 84 years. You got to be able to see the
glory of God to stay on point for 84 years. You have to know
something to be able to stay at your watch, at your sentinel
for 84 years. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
She's a type of the church of the living God. She's a type
of God's elect. She's a type of the true believer
in this world, separated from her husband for this whole New
Testament age, knowing that if the church continues in fasting
and in prayer, one day the Lord Jesus is going to show up. The
Lord Jesus showed up on that day and the scripture says she
and Brother Simeon were moved by the spirit to come to the
temple. She comes to the temple and guess what? She's rewarded
for all those years of prayer Her heart is full now She's satisfied
She preaches she proclaims she prophesies to all in jerusalem.
This is the one for whom i've been praying all these years
Her soul is satisfied She's content now She's so happy You want to
know one of the secrets for which the children of Israel were kept
from being annihilated until Messiah came? This woman. You
want to know one of the reasons for which God sustained the wickedness
and evil in the nation of Israel, their rebellion against God?
Many women that prayed like this woman. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? It started way back with brother
Daniel. Then it moved to brother Ezra.
Then it moved to brother Nehemiah. And it came all the way down
the line to sister Anna. And the Lord showed up. God does
work through prayer. Do you believe that? You know,
sometimes when we come to prayer service, boy, we'd be so happy
because we'd be looking forward to telling each other how God
came through. Do you believe he comes through?
All right. So now sometimes you got to just know that God is
not on your clock. That prayer is not moving the
clock faster. It's just getting on God's side
and waiting for God to show up when God is determined to show
up. The idea is that of perseverance. Okay, let's go to work right
quick. There's some things about our text, Luke chapter 18, that's
remarkable and worth noting. The Lord Jesus says, men ought
to pray, right? Always, and do what? Not faint.
Men ought to pray always and not faint. Now what he means
by not faint is this. He means that you and I ought
not to give up on the benefits of prayer. You and I are not
to get so weary with the difficulties of life that we become disillusioned
into believing that prayer doesn't work. Stay with me now, stay
with me now, because see, one of the purest forms of faith,
and I know this for sure, is prayer. This is why it's so hard
for people to do, because it's such a pure form of faith. It
doesn't come with the residual benefits that you get from other
forms of faith. Prayer is one of those things
where you put in the deposit and you walk away, because it
may be a long time before you get return on your money. You
have to believe God when you become a consistent, persistent,
enduring prayer person. And see, that's what's going
on here. It's very important for us to know that what our
Lord says is men, men in general, men and women, families and churches
ought to always pray and not think. The word means do not
turn to evil. Don't turn to evil. I told you
this before, Saints. If you don't pray, you're going
to be fighting. See, our Lord says men ought
to always pray and not turn to evil. See, you know how you get
into a controversy with your adversary, and your adversary
is wearing you out and getting on your nerves, even to your
last nerve, and you're getting carnal, and you want to... Then
you need to go... Because if you don't pray, you're
going... Right? Right? See, that's what our Lord
is talking about. So see, so see, once you start
bobbing and weaving because you know you, you anticipate and
do it, you're out of prayer. You didn't stop praying. Now
you know you didn't stop praying. So, so, so, and that's what the
word means. It means that you will do evil. It comes out of
Romans chapter 12, which says, do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. And what we are learning in our
text is that this woman that's before us is struggling because
she ain't got nobody on her side. She's a widow. And the Bible
tells us a true widow, a widow indeed, is someone who is desolate,
without resources, without family, without any kind of structure
to support her. She's a bona fide widow. Now
widows in that day often became, like they are in our day, victims
of hoodlums. Not only secular hoodlums, but
religious hoodlums. Religious crooks in the pulpit. and then in the pew too. See,
widows are susceptible. They are vulnerable because they
are desolate. And I don't care how spiritual
you are, when you are desolate and you are vulnerable, you are
a person who can be had at one time or another. That's true
for all of us. Some of us are a little older
now, and we would be willing to admit that we've been duped
once in our life. Is that true? How about twice? How about three times? Now, come
on now, we feel so bad that we can get the wool pulled over
our eyes a third time, right? We come to understand that we
are by nature fools. And folly is our name and we
can be deceived if a person flatters us just right. Am I telling the
truth? And so I need the Lord to watch
my back. because I can't see circumspectly. I need him to see my enemies
because if I get weak on one day, he may come with flatteries
and get me. Well, the account before us is
powerful because it's about what I would call a wise widow. Point
number two in your outline, our object lesson is a wise widow
dealing with an unjust judge receiving the reward of faith.
Do you guys see that? I want to talk about this. A
wise widow dealing with an unjust judge receiving the reward of
faith. That's the way our Lord couches this whole story of which
he wants us to derive the application for us both personally, practically,
and redemptively. Now, what is a wise widow? I want you to grasp this now.
What is a wise widow? What makes this widow wise? Well,
the first reason we know she's wise is because she knows to
whom to go. She knows to whom to go. This widow was being provoked
and antagonized by an adversary. The term that's used for her
adversary is an individual who had a legal threat against her. A legal charge against her that
was about to take everything that she had. The vulnerability
of this woman was that she was about to be completely poverty
stricken because her adversary had a legal advantage over her. Are you guys following me? She
is in danger of losing whatever little she has and she knows
her adversary is not right. We'll get to the gospel in a
moment. She has an adversary that wants to take everything
that she has. Now, I say that she's wise because when you have
an adversary that wants to take everything you have, you better
go to somebody who knows how to fix it. She goes to the judge. She didn't go to her girlfriends.
She didn't go to her bingo partners. You know, when you ain't really
wanting to fix nothing, you just want to complain, you go to your
bingo partners. You go to people that have no
power, no authority to move nothing. You just want to vent. You're
not trying to fix anything. And at that point, you're not
wise. She's wise because she knows to whom to go. She's dealing with a legal issue
that threatens the welfare of her life. And so she must go
to who? The judge. She knew to go to
the judge. The purpose of the judge is to
adjudicate grievances, to correct misdoing, to render a sentence
upon evildoers. The purpose of the judge is to
defend the poor, the helpless and the vulnerable. That's his
job. Y'all may not have known that,
but from the beginning of time, God raised up judges to adjudicate
the needs of the poor, to handle conflicts, to deal with grievances,
to justify errors, to defend the poor, to defend the widow,
to defend the defenseless, to defend the vulnerable from wicked
men and women. We need judges, don't we? We
need good judges, don't we? We need judges who have authority
and power to make it right. Because have you found this out?
I found this out. I even got relatives that are
bad enough to take advantage of me if I let them. Y'all got
kinfolk like that? I got kinfolk that'll put a brother
under. Could care less about blood. And even in that situation, if
I'm going to be a wise person, I'm going to have to deal with
it legally. I can't take these matters into my own hands. So
she is inclined to do what's right because she knew that the
law says if a man has a controversy with another man, this is a book
of Exodus, book of Deuteronomy and in the Proverbs, let them
go to the judges and the judges will adjudicate the matter. They
will judge the matter seriously and decisively and they will
render a fair judgment between the two that are in conflict.
We got courts all over the place like that today, don't we? They're
supposed to be there to defend those who have accusations and
charges rendered against them unjustly. And this woman, therefore,
is depicting the wise woman. She's wise because she can go
to an authority that she knows will solve her problem. However, there's a little twist
in this because the judge to whom she is going is an unjust
judge. Now the Lord is playing on terms
that have to really do with righteousness. If we were to get behind the
language, we would be dealing with a widow who stands righteous
in a case, who is being charged with unrighteousness by an unrighteous
adversary, who goes to a judge who is unrighteous. See, the
believer has to be able to see the narrative, the metanarrative
here. This here is all about righteousness. So she goes to
the judge, and the text tells us that he was an unjust judge.
Listen to the language about this man. It tells us, and she
went to the judge and said, avenge me of my adversaries. And he
would not for a while, but afterwards, I'm sorry, verse one, there was
in a city a judge which feared not God and neither regarded
man. There was in a city a judge which
feared not God and neither regarded man. Our Lord sets this out at
the front, even before dealing with the widow. He sets her up
in a dilemma. It's a dilemma in which we are
all in, in this world. The dilemma in which you and
I are all in, in this world is that very frequently, not all
the time, I want to thank God for good judges. I want to thank
God for good lawyers. I want to thank God for good
politicians, but I have to tell it true. Ain't many of them. How many judges in our court
system fit this portfolio? How many men and women that wear
the robe and are on the bench to legislate and give an edict
or a judgment on the law are like this unjust judge? What
do you mean, pastor? They don't fear God. They have
no respect for God. They have no reverence for the
Word of God, the law of God, the truth of God, the ethics
of God, the norms of God, the morals of God. They don't. How
many judges we have in our court system right now who are atheists,
agnostics, spiritual pagans, who laugh at the Bible? They're
just like this man. Am I opening your eyes now? See,
this is one of the problems with thinking that politics can solve
your problem. When you don't have a moral ethical
base underneath the behaviors of human beings, it doesn't matter
who's wearing the robe or not. Unjustice is what's going to
come out of the heart. The heart of man is evil. The
heart of man is wicked. The heart of man is deceitful.
And he's going to operate with unjust scales to his advantage. How many times have you gone
to the courtroom and you lost the case and you knew you were
right? but you knew something was shaky going on. You know
what the proverb says? It is not proper for a judge
to take a bribe or a gift to pervert judgment. It is not proper
for a judge to take a bribe or a gift to pervert judgment. How frequently does that go on
in our land? How often do you look up and
realize that the judge is getting his palm greased by the lawyer
or the group of lawyers? Or they are all the whole constituency,
part of the same ideological construct that stands hostile
to the true and the living God. And they would throw the man
or woman that wants righteousness under the jail just to advance
their cause. How many judges that you and
I discover over time are not only unjust, but vile, immoral,
ungodly. I'm talking wicked. I'm talking
perverse. Vile, wearing the robe. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? Now, I don't have any confidence
when I stand before a judge who is a human being just like me
and expect him to do what's right, apart from believing that God
is the ultimate judge. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? I don't have any confidence. I don't have a natural confidence
that man is gonna be basically good and do the right thing.
I've been in courtrooms many times. Been in courtrooms many
times. Y'all can leave, you don't have
to come back if you don't want to. I'm just telling you the truth. I've been in courtrooms
many times. Ooh, pastor been in trouble.
That was long time ago. Now I go in to advocate for my
brothers, okay? And you can tell when you listen
to the judge that they already had their judgment even before
they walked through the door. that they weren't even regarding
the case, ultimately, because this is about numbers, and about
quotas, and about political advantage, statistics, and all sorts of
things. This stuff grieves the righteous. It ought to. See,
you know, we need righteousness in the land because we need equity. We need fairness. We don't have
to love each other. That is to have all the gooey,
gooey, emotional, you know, hair raising type of feelings. But
let's do what's right. You stay on your side of the
yard. I stay on my side of the yard. If we need something, we
can negotiate. But don't erase the lines of
what I possess just so you can get more mine because you're
greedy. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now, this is the context in which this woman is living. It's worse,
though. She's all by herself. And she
has nowhere else to go but to the court system. The very court
system of which I am describing to you is deplorable as a rule.
And if you don't believe that, just read all the prophets. All
the prophets says the judges in Israel and Judah are vile. They judge with deceitful scales.
They are wicked men. They sell the poor for a pair
of shoes, for a small basket of wheat. Do they get rid of
the poor? That's where we are in our culture.
Woe unto a man if he trusts in man. And yet we gotta go through
the system, don't we? We gotta go through the system,
because remember now, if we don't pray, we gonna what? We gonna
fight. And the text is telling us that
men ought to always pray, always pray. Now, what's going on with
this unjust judge and this widow woman? Why is she still persevering
with him? Why is she still? struggling
with this man. Why is she still going to him?
Because as I said before, she's wise. Here's what she believes. And I want you to get this. This
is part of the persevering nature of prayer. This woman believes
that even though this judge has let everybody know in the city,
he doesn't believe God and he doesn't fear man. What she believes
is, and rather she knows, he's just a man. You know what that
means? When you are a person of faith,
you can go into the courtroom of a wicked, ungodly judge who
had his mind set to throw you under the jail. And if you go
in there in faith, with a principle of decorum, respecting the court
system, knowing that God is the ultimate judge, having already
prayed about the matter, do you know what you can expect if God
wants you? He can get a hold of the heart
of that judge while he's walking in the courtroom, get a hold
of his heart and first shake him up with a little heart skip
so he can realize that he might meet his maker any moment before
he sits down on the bench. Are you following me? He can
give him a little heart skip, a little heart murmur. And so when he sits down, when
he sits down, he has just a little bit more reverence for his, for
his job, for his role. And then God can take that heart,
as the preacher said, and turn that man's heart. Turn his heart. Turn his heart. So that whereas
he wanted to make a judgment against you, he's forced to make
a judgment for you. This woman believed that. She
believed that. But more than that, more than
that, because what we are dealing with is a sister who refuses
to accept the word no the first time. Have you ever met those
people? They ain't going for no. This sister would get up
every morning, put on her scarves, get all warm, and take her time
and go to the courtroom. In fact, she was the first one
there every morning. And she would take her little
stool and set it right in front of the judge's door. She would
go, good morning, judge. Good morning. That's called perseverance. The text tells us, our Lord says,
and she went to the judge continually, continually, continually, continually. Look at verse three. And there
was a widow in that city and she came unto him. It's in what
we call the imperfect continuous verb form. That means she never
stopped coming. And every time she came to the
door of the judge's office, she said, I need you to avenge me
of my enemy. I need you to hear my case. I
need you to render a judgment against my adversaries. I need
you to do that. And he avoided her for a while. That's what our Lord said. Look
at verse four, part eight. And he would not for a while. Do you see that? And he would
not for a while. See now, let me help you. Prayer
is not designed to get answered right away. When you and I are
operating out of prayer, what we are doing is being shown by
the grace of God, the weakness of our faith or the strength
of our faith by the perseverance of our faith, by the perseverance
of prayer. Prayer will discover, this is
why people don't like to pray, how weak you are. Prayer will
show you how weak you are. In fact, listen to this. When
you have accepted the role of prayer, as a primary part of
your walk with Christ, you have already yielded to the reality
that you are weak. And this is something that true
believers have to come to at some point in their life if they
want to cease to be barren and unfruitful before God. What we
naturally do is operate out of our own strength and gifts. And
we do it as long as we possibly can. We exercise all of our resources
to negotiate and navigate our life. We can even make a lot
of advancements in the strength of our own wisdom, in the power
of our own giftedness, in the capacity of those resources that
we have at hand. And the honest truth is we can
wake up and assess after many years of doing things in our
own strength that very little of that was coupled with Prayer. Except every time you made a
victory, you bought a car, got a house and made more money.
You said, thank you, Jesus. I guess if you want to call that
prayer, thank you, Jesus. But what I am talking about is
when you discover in the blessed providence of God's mercy to
you that you are by nature weak. So weak that prayer needs to
just be a part of your life. That you want God to work through
prayer, not in spite of it, to give you everything you get.
And in fact, I'll tell you another secret. When you become a man
or a woman of prayer, for you, prayer becomes a privilege because
it keeps you close to Calvary and it makes the fall shorter
and therefore the pain more durable. And it's where you can experience
the blessings of God's grace to restore you when you make
mistakes. See, pride comes before a fall and a haughty spirit before
humility. God has to bring us low before
he honors us. And I'm here to tell you, if
you want to examine those areas in your life where you are wondering
why you aren't making the advancements that you ought to in your relationship
with God or in other areas, just start with prayer. Because what
prayer will teach you, that is the absence of it, is that you
are prouder than you thought you were. Am I making some sense? You are
prouder than you thought. See, God said it in the book
of Job. I'll move to my next point here
in a moment. He says, I don't even hear the voice of the hypocrite. He says, because even when they
get in trouble, they don't call on me. Not the hypocrite. The
hypocrite starts to scramble and look for resources, even
if he has to rip people off to get what he needs. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? God says the only people that
I hear, watch this now, are the humble and the poor and the needy
and the contrite. And haven't you found out when
God strips you of everything, how easy it is to pray? How easy
it is to, doesn't that marvel you? Your mouth opens up in prayer
like nothing when you're in trouble. Right? When your iniquities start
to come up on you and you know you're getting ready to be overcome,
you can pray. Why can't you pray? I know I'm telling the truth,
even if you don't like it. See, this widow woman depicts what
should be the constant position of the believer, even though
you may be successful in many areas of your life. Child of
God, accept. Where? Embrace the model of being
a widow because in reality, that's what you are spiritually You're
a widow spiritually in many ways Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of God Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness? For verily they shall be filled
where there's no poverty of spirit where there's no hunger and thirst
for righteousness We are operating out of our own strength This
woman gets up and goes every day to the courts, every day
confident that by long forbearance, isn't that what the proverb says?
By long forbearance, by the long forbearance of soft words is
a prince's heart changed. Just talk to him wisely, talk
to him kindly, talk to him respectfully. Every day, lay your case out
there. Every day, plead your cause. Every day, remind the
judge that there's an issue in your life that only he can fix.
Now watch how the Lord Jesus sets this up. He says over in
the latter part of verse four and five, and he would not for
a while, but after a while, he said within himself, Now the
Lord's going inside this man's head because nothing on the outward
has changed. Let me help you a little bit.
Now, see, this is a test of faith. Because you are in a situation
week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year
out, where it does not appear to be any change taking place.
On this day, the widow has for the hundredth time come at the
same time to the same place, squatted at the same time in
the same place in front of the judge's door, and she has requested
that the judge would hear her. What if this widow decided on
this day not to go because she grew faint? What she did not
know was that every day she was coming to the judge's door, the
text tells us that her actions was weighing heavy on this man's
heart. Are you hearing me? Watch it.
He said, he started thinking with himself. He would not for
a while, but after a while within himself, he was thinking, now
I don't fear God. He fooling himself, right? He
fooling himself. I don't fear God, nor do I regard man. You
know what he's doing? He's reaching for his reputation.
Because goodness is stripping him of his reputation. Remember,
you don't overcome evil with evil. You overcome evil with
good. And goodness is stripping him
of his pride. See, he likes hiding behind this
facade that he doesn't fear God. That's what judges do. They like
to, and I'm telling you, I know them, they act like they're God. They scoff. God stop at God and
he was he was he was holding to that facade that proud Papa's
facade Until one day as he's walking to the court, you know
what he has on his mind as he headed the court that woman And today he doesn't feel quite
the same She didn't got to him see the text says it like this
I As he was heading toward the court, he said within himself,
though I fear not God, nor regard men, yet because this widow is
troubling me. Now, she ain't done nothing.
She didn't behave herself. She's carried herself with all
kinds of civility. See, listen, she didn't do like
your civil rights activists do. I'm sorry. Listen to me now.
Don't get all upset. You political activists, we need
you. But see, she didn't turn to politics. She didn't turn to Molotov cocktails.
She didn't turn to picket signs. She didn't turn to protest. She
didn't turn to CNN News. She didn't turn to Fox News.
She turned to God. She turned to Christ. She turned
to prayer. She said, let me go to heaven.
I think heaven can move the courtroom better than politics can. Am
I making some sense? Am I making some sense? Now,
don't get me wrong. There are some people who are
so A-type driven that they can't sit down for five minutes to
pray. We know that. We got brothers like that. They
just, pastor, I just have a hard time praying, but I do something.
So those are the people that are more inclined to appeal on
their rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, all that.
Go ahead on. Y'all do all that. We will pray
for you while you're out there. But let me let you know something
right now, just in case you don't know. As you are making your
Molotov cocktails and as you get ready to tear up property,
because that's what it evolves into. That's what it evolves
into. I don't care. Listen, you're
not going to do civil demonstrations for long without it turning into
a Syria, or turning into a Benghazi, or turning into a Middle Eastern
thing, or turning into the stuff we've seen happen in America
century, decade after decade after decade. Why? Because the
heart of man is deceitful. He's not going to be contained
enough to just stand outside and do picket signs and sing
kumbaya in the cold and in the rain. No, you're going to get
a bunch of zealots, a bunch of Judas Iscariots who want to make
bombs and tap stuff. Listen, folks wanted to tap stuff
when the Giants won the pennant. Tap stuff. I said you knuckleheads,
we won. You don't have stuff when you
win, but see that's the nature of man Man is a beast. He he loves hand up stuff and
he'll start with prayer But he go in with bombs and I'm here
to tell you I'm here to tell you when you talk about doing
it that way. All you gonna do is meet with
the latest Technology that our military has just for you I They got some stuff for you.
You want to go out there, they'll have you seeing things. And you'll be so far a point
because a Molotov cocktail and burning up buildings and tearing
up property has never changed the heart of a man or a woman
ever. Never. Never. And see, this is
where the Church of the Living God needs to be careful. Pray
for our brothers who want to do it for all that, because they're
going to need prayer when they're in jail, when they're doing their
profile. They're going to need prayer.
They're going to need prayer. I feel so sorry for Syria right
now. I have a personal love for the
Middle East. I just do. Because I think the Middle East
is in between the same type of diaprax process that many professing
Christians are. I think they're pawns in a game
that's bigger than them. And the poor people in the middle
become shillings. They become obstacles. They become
collateral damage. And they get forced into a movement,
get forced into an agenda that sets them up for destruction.
What in the world is Syria? Have you seen Syria today after
all this destruction? I wish someone could really justify
all this mayhem and destruction. I wish someone could really justify
it. And don't tell me democracy, please. When you're talking thousands
and thousands and thousands and thousands of eternity bound souls,
men, women, and children destroyed and property just mangled everywhere. The Syrian government can't Fix
that. See, that's what happens when
we get blinded to the righteousness of God and the right way of doing
things. And we are weary because we don't
pray. See, had the Syrian brothers and sisters, when they were perturbed
with and concerned about all of the injustices that were going
on in their political system, simply called on Jehovah. I wish we would do this. Get
on your knees as a group and pray and call on Jehovah, call
on the true and the living God to come down and act. Now, unbelief
would say, yeah, well, we got to pray, but we got to act too.
No, pray if you're the people of God. Now, if you're not the
people of God, you can do whatever you want to. I'm talking to the
people of God. I'm talking to the people who
have access to the throne. access to omnipotence, access
to omniscience, access to the God who runs the universe, who
controls all the hearts of men, who does whatsoever he wills
in heaven and earth. I'm talking to people who have
access to the throne. Now, if you have access to the
throne, quit complaining because I'm here to tell you, you can
get to the president and he'll have your ear if you're his.
And he'll tell you to wait because I'm going to make things straight.
That's the promise to God's people. Am I making some sense? That's
the promise to God's people. Fighting doesn't accomplish anything. And our Lord taught us this model
in his own person as he made his way to Calvary. Every now
and then, that old fleshly, carnal thing popped up in Peter and
James and John, didn't it? Lord, let's just rain fire down
from heaven. We can straighten this out right now. Peter cleaning his sword. What
are you cleaning the sword for? He a fisherman. He can't hit
nothing straight if it was right in front of his face. But they're
ready to get down, because see, they smell blood. That's how
men are, their testosterone. Come on, come on, come on. Let's
get going. Let's get going. Woo. Settle down, boys. We're going to Calvary. We're
going to Calvary. You want to win this thing? You
want to really win this thing? We're going to Calvary. Because
our job is to win hearts, not political debates or kingdoms.
Hearts for the glory of God. And that means you're going to
have to take up a theology that is cross-centered. Not politically
charged, cross-centered. That's our goal. That's our objective.
We win from heaven. Not in debates, not in arguments,
from heaven. See, but that requires faith. That requires faith. That requires faith. Let's close
it out. The reward of faith for his elect in an unjust world. You know what happened? It says,
this man said with himself and himself, though I fear not God
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
her. Do you know he already put a
judgment in favor of her before he got to the courtroom? You're
talking about changing her heart. Changing his heart. On this day,
she won the case. He hadn't even come to court
yet. She won the case. Talking about walking by faith.
She won the case. You know how she won that case?
She beat that brother down. Look at the text. I'm going to
show you. Prayer works. You don't believe it. Prayer
works. Hallelujah. Listen to it. Though I fear not
God nor man, yet because his will troubles me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming, her continual coming, her continual
coming, this is to be coming every day, faithfully every day,
lest by her continual coming, she be me to a Pope. I love the way our Lord used
the language. That's a literal term here for weary. It comes
out of 1 Corinthians 9, verse 26, 27. Paul says, I bring my
body into subjection. Lest by any means after I have
run this race, I be disqualified. He's talking about what happens
when you prepare as a boxer for a fight. To bring the body into
subjection is for you to allow your body to be punched. to discipline
you, to condition you, to take the hitch. And it's also designed,
as Paul is using the analogy, is to take this carnal, fallen
nature of ours that would just run like a Tasmanian devil and
tear everything up. He says, I beat my body. I beat
it. I beat it. I wear it down. I
beat it. I beat it in the subject. And y'all got the picture? That's
what this woman did. Every time she came to the courtroom
door and she sat down, she had her gloves on. Your honor. Boom. Avenge me. Boom. Up my enemy. Boom. You're the judge. Boom. Deliver
us, sister. Boom. I'm waiting on you. Boom. You're the one that's got to
do it. Boom. God put you in that role. Boom. Take care of your
business. Boom. Hey, he took the hits for
a while. He took the hits for a while,
this old chick. But then after a while, I was
like, man, this is hurting. I love the Lord Jesus. Let's see, because you know,
some people you ain't going to whoop. You just not going to
whoop them. You understand? Because they're
going to keep coming. Some people you just got to give
in to. Because it's not about the intensity. It's not about
the pressure. It's not about the velocity.
It's just that they keep coming. They just keep coming. And this
woman kept coming. And this is the context. And
even with this, our Lord now sort of caps it off. He says
in verse six, he sounds like me. Do you hear what this unjust
just said? Do you hear it? And he said unto
them, do you hear what this unjust just said? He wants to drive
it home. How that prayer patiently, enduringly,
persistently, constantly works. It works. It works. Let me lay some promises out
to you. I'm done. Concerning God's elect. Concerning God's
people. This is about God's elect. Listen to the language in verse
8. Number 7 and 8. And shall not God avenge His
own elect? What's the answer? And shall
not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto
Him? We pray day and night. We call
day and night. Watch this. Though He bear long
with us, See, the Lord Jesus already told us, you guys, listen,
this is a long distance race. I'm doing a whole lot of things
all at once while I'm having you to pray. I'm moving mountains. I'm resolving issues. I'm changing
circumstances. I'm doing it incrementally. I'm
doing it imperceptibly. But one day you'll get the reward.
You got to hang in there with me. You got to believe that I'm
on the throne. You got to believe that I govern
this thing. You got to believe that I run this world. My people
have to believe in me. They've got the trust that I'll
fix this matter. Am I telling the truth? You got
to trust that God will fix this matter. You got to trust that
when we pray to God, our prayers are not in vain. He hears our
petitions for Christ's sake. He hears them even before we
say them. When they're said in faith, God hears our prayers
and he rewards them as he rewards this lady. He rewards them. So there's some principles for
us to derive from this as God's elect. Eternity is yours child
of God. Do you believe that? The world
is yours Eternity is yours Glory is yours. All things are yours
You in Christ have already accomplished eternal life You have overcome
You have overcome the wicked one. You have overcome the world.
You have overcome sin. You have overcome everything
if you are in Christ. In Christ, you already have the
victory. Do you believe that? In Christ,
you are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. In
Christ, you are already seated in glory. In Christ, you are
already glorified. In Christ, you are already secure
for the promise because of Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. That reality that revelation ought to settle you down We are
not to act as if we don't have what Christ said We already have
you and are to embrace the promises of God Understanding that all
of them are yes, and they are affirmed in Jesus Christ and
they are ours only We have not entered into the fullness of
them yet so we possess and We do not possess We are in that
interim period. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is the period of what is called hope. Rejoicing
in hope. Remember Romans 12, 12? Rejoicing
in hope, patient in what? Tribulation. Rejoicing in hope. Do you have hope you better rejoice
because hope makes not a shame when God fills your heart with
hope You know what that's saying. I believe the promises of God.
I'm headed towards the promises of God They are mine and in fact
people who are a faith They live by hope because they know that
one like this widow woman would have never persevered Had she
not had hope she would have never persevered. I Has she not at
all? See, hope is what gets you up
every day. Even when it's bad. Even when
it's bad. Hope gets you up every day because
you know God is able. and you know God is willing and
you know God will in His own time. God can't lie. God can't
change. God can't fail. If He promised,
He'll bring it to pass. Do you believe those promises?
But you and I gotta wait on God, don't we? We gotta wait on God.
You better get yourself in that position with that widow woman.
Now watch this now. This is for God's elect. You and I have eternity. We haven't
obtained it yet. God has called us to the sufferings
of this life because he's doing a lot of things all at once He
says in Romans 8 in fact the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us at the coming of the God of glory When Christ shall be
glorified in all of his saints Did you hear that promise? The
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
to the glory that will be revealed in us. You know what we're doing
when we try to compare the sufferings with the glory? We're sinning
against God. They're not worthy to be compared.
The great exceeding promises of God that are ours in Christ
compel us not to compare. It's not even worth comparing.
I'm just going to take the suffering because one day, one day, the
glory of God in Christ shall so overcome all my wants, all
my troubles, all my difficulties, that they will make them a thing
of the past for all eternity. And for those of you who don't
know Christ, I would encourage you to put yourself in the shoes
of that widow woman. Ask yourself Do I stand in the
same place as a lost sinner that this little woman does? She is
desolate. Are you desolate? She is vulnerable. Are you vulnerable? She's without. Are you without? She's in need. Are you in need? She has an adversary
against her. Lost sinner, do you have an adversary
against you? Yes, you do. That adversary your
sin. It's your sin. It speaks loud
against your conscience. It testifies to you that you
are under the wrath of God. It lets you know that you're
not right with God. You have an enemy that rises
up against you every day telling you you're not right with God.
Oh that you might find your place with that widow woman and go
to the judge who is able to deal with your adversary. Because
there's only one judge that can deal with your adversary, sinner,
the adversary of your soul, which is sin, which is the law of God,
which is the wrath of God. There's only one judge that can
solve that problem. That's the judge that is able
to take your sin and place them in his son, Jesus Christ. and
punish your sins in the person of Christ so that he can come
to you in the spirit of God and say to you, justify freely by
the grace of God in the person of Christ, because somebody died
on your behalf. That's what you need to do right
now. Call on him now, because that's the judge that you need.
And that's the judge we know. Isn't that the judge we know?
Isn't he a good judge? He's a glorious judge. He's a
glorious judge. So I say with my master, to my
brothers and sisters, and to all that need Christ, you and
I ought always to pray. Amen.