In all things, the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, is our example, the pattern we are to follow.
He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He is our
God. Our only righteousness is His
righteousness imputed to us by God's free grace. imputed to
us just as our sins were imputed to him when he suffered the wrath
of God in our room instead and by suffering with our sins made
to be his to the full satisfaction of divine justice that which
he deserved when he was made to be sin he has forever redeemed
us. That's our atonement. And we
are forever accepted of God. Forever, immutably accepted of
God. Just, righteous and holy. Now hang on till you see. Because
we are worthy of God's acceptance. In Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
By His righteousness. Do you understand that? Can you
get some idea of what that blessed doctrine of imputation is in
the scriptures? Christ died, the just for the
unjust, because he was made to be sin. Justly he suffered the
wrath of God. God will not condemn the innocent,
nor will he clear the guilty. When Christ was made to be sin,
justice was poured out on him, and he died under the wrath of
God. And now, we who are by nature
unjust, we who all the days of our lives have been and are nothing
but sin, having the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, We are
made to be righteous. The very righteousness of God
in his son. So that God in strict justice
deals with us according to our righteousness now and forever
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Therefore, he declares that we
are meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light. Now, I said that because it's
so important that we not ever imagine that when we have passages
before us in scripture that show us that the Lord Jesus is our
example, we must never imagine as multitudes do that he is only
an example. But let us never forget that
he is our example, preeminently so. The Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, when he washed his disciples' feet, said, I have given you
an example that ye should do as I have done. He shows us by
example how we are to love God and love one another. Matters
not what all the opinions of men may be concerning what love
is. Our Savior shows us by example.
Anything less doesn't measure up. He shows us by example what
it is to love God. and to love one another, committing
our ways to him, suffering patiently in his name, living by faith
in this world, believing God, serving him. In all things, Christ
is the pattern we are to follow. And in the matter of prayer,
our Lord Jesus is our supreme example, our supreme example. When he exhorts his disciples
and us to pray always, he is exhorting us just to do what
he himself has done. And yet when you think about
that, if ever there was a man who could rightly have lived
upon this earth and never prayed, that man is the God-man, our
Redeemer. He knew no sin. He did no sin. He had no lust in his members
with which he did warfare. Our Lord Jesus Christ was himself
the perfect man and walked on this earth constantly in perfect
obedience to his father and yet We read of him continually calling
upon God in prayer. Not only did he walk before God
in such a way as to reflect his constant dependence upon him,
but he would withdraw himself from time to time and get apart
in a mountain alone to pray. We're told in Hebrews 5 that
he cried unto God with fear, with reverence he calls upon
God. Our Lord Jesus spoke words of
thanksgiving and praise to our Heavenly Father. He calls upon
Him, pouring out His groans to Him. We're told very little of
what He prayed in actuality as He spoke His words of prayer
to the Father. One is recorded for us in John
17. Other places we have little bits and pieces. But He was preeminently
a man of prayer. This perfect man. Remember too
that this man, even while he walked upon the earth, is the
possessor of omnipotence. He's the ruler of all things.
He's God Almighty. And yet, he above all men who
ever lived was a man of prayer. He was a man of prayer. That
gives us an example. And that gives emphasis to the
reading of Luke chapter 18. Turn there if you will. Verses
1 through 8. I've said all that because I
want you to get the emphasis that needs to be had when you
read the opening words of Luke chapter 18. And he spake a parable unto them
unto this end. that men are always to pray and
not to think. What a mighty, mighty word from
our Redeemer. Luke tells us as he introduces
this parable, and this is very rare with dealing with parables,
he tells us as he introduces this parable that the Lord's
reason for giving this parable is to teach this lesson, men
are always to pray and not to think. So when we read these
first eight verses of Luke 18, as one of the old writers said,
he hangs the key on the door, says this is how you unlock it.
He says, this is the purpose of the parable, men are always
to pray and not to faint. All right, let's read it. And
he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men are always
to pray and not to faint, saying, there was in a city a judge,
a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there
was a widow in that city, and she came unto him saying, Avenge
me of my adversary. Do justice to me. You're the
judge. I've got an adversary who's giving
me a tough time. You deal with me and him in justice. And he would not for a while. But afterwards, He said within
himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man. Sounds like most
politicians. Yet because this widow troubleth
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary
me. And the Lord said, hear what
the unjust judge saith. He says, now I'm going to tell
you the meaning of the parable. And shall not God avenge his
own elect? Shall not God do that which is
right for his own elect? Shall not God do justly for his
own elect? Shall not God set all wrongs
right for his elect? That's the word. Shall he not his elect which cry day and night
to him, though he bear long with them? And I tell you that he
will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Now there are three
things I want you to see here. First, our Lord gives us some
instruction about prayer. Men are always to pray and not
to faint. This is the reason he speaks
this parable. He gives us this story about
a woman. A woman who was a poor needy widow. And she has an adversary
who oppresses her, an adversary who's dealing wrongfully with
her, an adversary who constantly stirs up difficulty for her,
puts trouble in her way. And she goes to this judge, an
unjust judge, a magistrate, a man who has authority over them both. And she pleads with him to avenge
her of her adversary. She goes to the judge because
he alone has the right and the power to do what she needs. She goes to him because she's
got to have his help. She cannot avenge herself. She
cannot take care of herself. The only one who can help is
the judge, if he will. But the judge isn't interested
in her, isn't interested in God, and isn't interested in right
or wrong. He doesn't care. He doesn't care
one way or the other. But because she constantly, constantly,
constantly goes to him. He says, looks like the only
way I'm going to get any relief from this woman is to do what
she wants. And she did. Or he did. Now our
Lord gives us this parable. to tell us something about prayer.
When I start to think about prayer, it's a subject that interests
me. I hope it interests you. Prayer
is the life breath of the newborn soul. Prayer is that by which the disciples
understood Saul of Tarsus, that religious hypocrite was converted. Behold he prayeth. But that man
been taught to say his prayers all his life. There's a difference. I hope you know the difference. It's a mistake to teach your
sons and daughters to say their prayers. It's a mistake. Try to teach them to pray. Teach them to know their need
of God Almighty. Try to teach them to know they
utterly depend on Him for everything. But when Saul of Tarsus was converted,
behold, he prayeth. It's a subject that interests
me, but I'll be honest with you, it's a subject that embarrasses
me. Before you and before God. Because I don't know much about
it. I just don't know much about
it. I don't. I gave up trying to impress you or anybody else
a long time ago with religious hypocrisy. I try to pray. Sometimes I think maybe I pray.
And I read books. I've got probably 25 or 30 volumes
on prayer in my office. And you know what? I've never
read a good one. I've never read a good one. I just haven't. Not even by the
best of men. Never read a good one. Not one. I've read lots of books that
stir you up emotionally, sound highfalutin spiritually, but
I've never read a one that was of any real help. Not one. Except this one right here. Our Lord is teaching us to pray.
He tells us that his meaning is men are always to pray and
not to think. The judge said, though I fear
not God and regard not men, yet because this woman troubleth
me, I will avenge her. I will see justice done to her,
lest by her continual coming she weary me. And our Savior
says in verse six, hear what the unjust judge saith. The day
is soon to come when the Lord God will avenge his chosen. He will do what's right for his
elect. He will do justice for them. He will set all things right. He will satisfy the cravings
of their souls. and he'll do it before their
adversaries, speedily. It'll be done. If constant, importunate
cries from this widow stirred up the heartless judge to avenge
her of her adversary, how much more shall the cries of our hearts
stir up our Heavenly Father to avenge us of our adversary. How much more? Now there's the
connection. He said men ought always to pray
and not to think. God's going to avenge his elect.
And somewhere in those words are some serious instructions
about prayer. He's not talking here about us
going to God and twisting his arm. And if we will just keep
up praying for the things that we want. Just keep wrestling
with God. People talk about Jacob wrestling
with God. Jacob didn't wrestle with God.
God wrestled with Jacob. There's a difference. Read that
passage. The angel of the Lord wrestled
with Jacob. We don't wrestle with God, twist
His arm, and get God to do what we want Him to do. That ain't
prayer. That's lust, trying to get God to do what we want to
gratify us. That ain't prayer. No, sir. That
ain't it. Oh, but prayer changes things.
Prayer doesn't change anything. Prayer doesn't change anything.
It changes you. Actually, it doesn't really change you. It
shows a change in you. Hezekiah turned to the Lord and
prayed, and the prophet came back and said, all right, this
is what God's going to do. He's not going to do what he
said. See, prayer changes things. You read the history of this
book, and you'll find out that Josiah, Hezekiah's son, wasn't
born until after he prayed this prayer and after he lived those
extended years. And that is the man through whom
the Lord Jesus came into this world. God changed? No. He changed
Hezekiah. He changed Hezekiah so that Hezekiah
turned to him in prayer. Well, what's he teaching us about
prayer? He tells us first, men ought always to pray. But can we always pray? Should we always be on our knees
in prayer? Should we be always literally
engaged in prayer? No, that's not what he's teaching
us. When our Lord speaks these words to me and I'll always pray,
the meaning is simply this. We ought to always live looking
to God our Father and our Savior in faith. Continually, constantly
carrying our soul's needs to Him. so that we pour out our
heart's desires to Him constantly, constantly. You remember when
Israel was in Egypt, after 400 years, they began to cry unto
the Lord by reason of their oppression. That's it. As you walk through this world,
children of God, cry unto the Lord. No need to whine to other
people. No need to whine to further folks. I get so tired of whining men,
but especially believers. No need to whine. No need to
whine. None. Cry to God and walk before
Him with confidence. Let's see if this is not right.
You hold your hands here in Luke 18, and I want to show you two
or three other passages where our Lord gives similar instruction.
Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4. Verse 2. Paul says, continue
in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. continue in
prayer, watchfulness, and thanksgiving. Now that's the sense of our Lord's
doctrine back in Luke 18. He doesn't tell us to pray all
the time. That's not possible, nor is it
reasonable. He tells us to live in the spirit
and attitude of prayer and fellowship with our God all the time. Again,
I'm not suggesting that we neglect times of prayer. I'm not suggesting
that we pray less as far as the actual act of prayer. Oh no,
no, no, no, no. Pray more, pray about everything. This is not important. If it's
important, if it deals with you, God's child, it's important to
Him. Pray always. Pray with regard to all things. Pray frequently. Call upon God
Almighty. Carry your heart's burden to
Him. But not just in a formal way. In your heart, Bobby, walk
with God. Trusting Him. Believing Him. Watch in prayer. Let us ever
be watchful over our souls. Watchful in prayer lest we sleep,
lest we become indifferent, lest our hearts grow cold and hard
and lukewarm. Watch in prayer with thanksgiving. To live watchful in prayer before
God, to live before God Almighty in this world by faith is to
live before Him with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Look at 1 Thessalonians
5. 1 Thessalonians 5. Shortly after God saved me, I
was going through a little trial. At the time, I thought it was
horrible. I didn't know where I'd make it. I just had a tough,
tough time. But it was kind of like pricking
your finger for the first time, you know. It wasn't much. It
wasn't really much. And I was reading this passage
of scripture. First Thessalonians 5 verse 16. And God took care of my little
trial right away. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. If you pray without ceasing,
you know always to pray. If you walk before God, worshiping
Him, believing Him, and when I say you, I'm talking to you,
Don Fortner, and to you, Lindsay Campbell, and everybody else
who hears my voice. You will rejoice. And if you don't rejoice, it's
because you're not walking before God, casting your care on Him. Rejoice evermore pray without
ceasing in everything give thanks How can that be because this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you now? Wait a minute preacher that can't
be applied all the time. Yeah Whatever your circumstance
is No matter how you got in it Whatever your present circumstance
is at any time at any moment if you belong to God if you are
one of his It is God's will concerning you. There are no accidents with
God's people. God's children don't accidentally
get into trouble. God's children don't accidentally
run into this difficulty or that. God's children are constantly
under His care. He constantly orders their every
step. He constantly brings them in
accordance with His will where they are. Rejoice evermore. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. And then He tells us here that
you and I, who are His, ought to constantly give thanks to
Him. How can I do that? In prosperity and adversity? In difficulty and in ease? Let us place such a high value
on Christ and God's boundless grace in
him both now and to eternity that nothing in time and nothing
in this world overshadows him. Set your affection on things
above. Pray without ceasing. Rejoice
in everything and give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. How can I murmur and complain
and thereby blaspheme God? Let's call it what it is. How
can I fret and gripe about God's providence when I am an heir
of God? and joint heir with Jesus Christ. We ought always to pray then
and think not. The word means don't give up. Don't quit. Don't grow weary. Don't get tired. Don't get tired. What? Don't get tired of living
in constant dependence upon God's bounty. Don't get tired. Don't quit.
He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. Don't quit. He's not saying stay on your
knees all the time and wrestle with God until you get what you
want. He's saying live continually trusting your God and don't worry
of living in dependence upon Him. We come to Him and we carry
our heartaches and our woes and our trials and our difficulties
to Him. But when we do, let us do more than that. Let us rest
in Him. Why on earth are we given such
admonitions and given them so frequently in the Scriptures?
Because we need them all the time. You see, it is so contrary
to our flesh to believe God. So contrary to our flesh to rest
in His goodness that this is a matter with which we continually
war. You remember when David went
out to avenge himself of Nabal? Nabal had embarrassed him, had
embarrassed his men. David said, I'm going to go down
there and I'm going to kill everybody in his house. A neighbor's wife,
Abigail, she said, my husband's name is Thule, and that's what
he is. She said, the Lord doesn't have you do this. David said,
you're right. I'll leave this in God's hands.
And when God kills that fellow, I'm going to come marry you.
And he did. The Lord used her to prevent
David from the evil. Let us learn to cast our care
on him. On him. resting in Him. Can you
imagine that widow who was hungry and she just had just enough
meal to fix one more meal, just a little cornbread for her and
her boy and they were going to eat that and die and the prophet
said give God that. Give it to God. That's what he
was saying. He said you fix a meal for me
first. Give that to God. Can you imagine that gal now
who knew what it was to live with hunger pains? Getting tired
of going back to that empty barrel that was always full by God's
hand. Can you imagine that? I believe I'll go out and see
if I can't find some acorns or nuts to chew on somewhere. The
Lord God constantly gave her day by day what she needed. And so she goes out and draws
out the mail. Children of God, our Heavenly Father constantly
gives us day by day what we need. Our Lord is telling us in this
parable that if we have great desire, If we want something
from God, then all we got to do is just stay with it. No.
That's not what it's telling us. No. No. No. That's what men say about prayer.
That's what religion teaches about prayer. Somebody said faith
is a... Prayer is like a blank check.
God signs it, all you do is fill in the amount. Nonsense. Nonsense. James tells us plainly. Behold, you ask and have not
because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your own
lust. I'm guilty. You see, it doesn't
matter how good and noble we imagine our desires to be. If they're just our desires,
they're our lust. Please hear what I'm saying in
the spirit with which it is intended. I pray for those two grandbabies
over there. Pray that God will be merciful
to them. And I don't know how to, I don't know how to do otherwise. But if it were a matter of real
earnest spiritual desire, God forgive me. I pray for your same
way. Thank God He doesn't deal with
us according to our iniquities, even in prayer. You mean preachers wrong to pray
for your children? No, pray for them and ask God
to teach you how to pray for them right. Pray for them, but
as you pray for them, believe God. You see, prayer
is not, it is not us twisting God's arm and getting God to
do what we want Him to do. it is us being subdued by God's
spirit and his grace to what he has purpose to do so that
our hearts are one with his and our will is one with his she prays and prays and finally she gets what she wants In one of these days, I'm going to get what I want. Have you no groans? No groans
with which you continually groan before God day and night and
night and day? Things that burden your heart
from which you can get no relief, things that lay heavy on your
heart because God Almighty has made your heart new by His grace? Sure you do. We groan to be like
our Redeemer. We groan to be free from the
burden of sin. We groan to be free from the
corruption that's in us. We groan for perfect perfect
conformity to God our Savior. In the parable of the unjust
judge, our Lord is telling us never to quit seeking His grace. Never to quit living by faith.
Never to quit looking for Him. Never to cease pressing on toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Never to cease pursuing Him who is our all together lovely
Redeemer. Never quit. And it tells us that
the Lord will avenge us of our adversary. The God of peace shall
brew Satan under your heel shortly. At the appointed hour, do you
remember how our Savior constantly said, especially in the book
of John, the hour has not yet come. The hour has not yet come.
The hour has not yet come. And then when he gets to John
17, he says, Father, the hour has come. At the appointed hour,
the God of heaven avenged his son. of all his adversaries. He set him down on his right
hand and gave him glory. And put everything under his
feet. Now hear me, children of God.
At the appointed hour, the God of glory will avenge you of your
adversaries. he will set you down with his
son in his glory and put all your foes beneath your feet and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow
nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former
things are passed away And he that sat on the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, It's done.
I'm Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him
that is athirst. Oh, how I thirst for life in
this body of death. He says, I will give. and give,
and give, and give, and give forever to him that is a thirst
of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh. And we shall overcome. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son."
Alright, back here in the parable. Two more things. To live praying without ceasing
is to live by faith, continually looking to God our Savior for
everything, casting all your care on Him. The second thing certainly set before us in this
parable is the fact the blessed blessed fact that God Almighty
has a people in this world whom he owns as his elect what a sweet
truth here's this poor widow and she is representative here
of God's own elect. God's own elect whom He shall
avenge, speedily. His elect, whom He loves with
an everlasting love. But if she's chosen of God, if
she's so special to God, if she's the object of His delight and
pleasure, how come she's a poor widow? Because God Almighty fixes it
so that the objects of his love cannot exist without him. He fixes it so that we must have
him and we must seek him and we must cast ourselves upon him
and he carefully takes care of his own. Like this poor widow
they cry to him day and night and he hears our cries. And you
know what it does with them? Turn over to Psalm 56. I read
this just a minute ago. Psalm 56. If this don't ring
your bell, your clacker's broke. That's all I can say. Psalm 56.
Verse 8. thou tellest all my wonderings,
put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? When
I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back. Now look at the connection. Put
my tears in your bottle. They're written in your book.
When I cry to you, my enemies are going to turn back and look
at it. This I know, for God is for me. In ancient times, I'm told that
the Egyptians at their funerals, of course this was common in
many societies, they hired mourners and I won't get into reasons
why Pharaohs had to hire mourners but they hired mourners and they
would come with little sponges, pieces of cloth and they'd catch
tears put them in a little vial, just a little bottle and for
silly superstitious reasons bury them in the tomb That's what
David alludes to here apparently. The Lord God Almighty so cares
so tenderly for his elect that he puts our tears in his bottle. And the day comes when he will
avenge his own. Oh, how we rejoice in electing
love. We're His because He loved us,
because He chose us. His everlasting love for us is
that which causes us to love Him, and His everlasting love
for us, choosing us in eternal election, is the absolute certainty
of our eternal salvation. No wonder they've been saying,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and calls us to approach
unto thee. No wonder he danced and jumped
up and down before the ark of God. He saw in that ark redemption
accomplished for him by Christ Jesus. And his wife, Michael,
despised him. And she said, you made yourself
vile before the maidens. He said, hang on, honey, you
ain't seen nothing yet. God chose me and rejected your
daddy, and that's why I'm rejoicing. I will worship him, and I will
make myself humble before him and before Israel. Oh, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee.
And yes, God will avenge us. He shall avenge his own who cried
to him, though he bear long with them. You see that? Bear long
with them. What's he talking about? He will
avenge them though he bear long with them. Bear long with our
enemies? Well, you can maybe get that
out of there, but he's talking about bearing long with his elect
to the day that he avenges them. He's talking about the same thing
Peter describes in 2 Peter 3. It's not God's will that any
of us should perish. He's longsuffering to his elect,
and his longsuffering is our salvation. He puts up with our
adversary and our adversaries. He endures the abuse of his own
and uses those things by which his owner abused for the salvation
of his elect to cause us to cry to him and turn to him. And when the last of his elect
is full, and when the vessels of wrath and the cup of their
iniquity is full, and the reprobate are fully fitted for destruction,
and all Israel has been saved, then Christ shall come, and he
will avenge them speedily. He'll avenge them speedily. I'm
learning. I haven't learned, but I'm learning
a few things. I'm learning that it's all right to put everything
off until then. I hear from folks every now and
then jacking, just jacking. And they want to debate and fuss
and want to argue, make accusations. Rather than fussing with them.
Now, if folks want to ask questions, I can help them. I'm glad to
do it. I'll spend all night long trying to help folks, either
writing a letter or talking with them. But just jacking, just
putting up with the insults and the spit that men work up. I'm learning to leave it alone.
Generally, I respond to them. God Almighty soon, soon will
declare the rightness or wrongness of everything I believe. Soon. The whole world is going to know.
I'll meet you at the bar of God and we'll see. Well that's arrogant
isn't it? It's either arrogant or it's
faith. One of the two. One of the two.
God's going to avenge us. He's going to set everything
right before all the world. And all the world shall forever
see that it's right for God. to receive us into his heavenly
kingdom because he has made us right before him righteous in
Jesus Christ the Lord and every adversary shall be subdued beneath
our feet.