Would you turn back to Luke Chapter
18? I've entitled tonight's message, Continual Coming. continual, non-stop coming. Now the Lord gives us this very
encouraging statement in Luke chapter 18, and he spake a parable
unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not
to faint, not to lose heart, not to stop. You pray, And the
Lord doesn't seem to answer you. He doesn't seem to give you your
request. You know, there's a lot of things
I've been praying for for a long time. It seems like the Lord
hadn't answered it yet. And I'm encouraged to continue
to pray and to not faint and to not lose heart. Now, this
is a blessing that the Lord has given us this statement. Men
ought always to pray and not to faint, not to lose heart,
not to stop, not to quit. I certainly wouldn't deny the
blessed truthfulness of this statement, but if that's all
I see in this parable, I'm missing a whole lot because we have the
gospel spelled out so clearly in this parable. Men ought always
to pray and not to think. Now, what is prayer? More than
anything else, prayer is asking God for things. I remember hearing
somebody once say, as you grow in grace, you'll ask for less
and praise more. That may be so, but I haven't
gotten there yet. I'm always asking for things,
always asking, asking. Look in verse 10 of this same
chapter. The Lord says, two men went up
into the temple to pray. Why were they going to the temple?
To pray, just what our Lord is talking about. The one a Pharisee
and the other a Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. Now he thought God was his audience,
and indeed God did hear what he said, but he wasn't praying
to God. He was praying to himself. And look at the words of his
prayer. I thank thee that I am not as other men are. extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice in
the week and I give tithes of all that I possess. Question,
what did he ask for? He didn't ask for anything, did
he? He gave God the credit, God, I thank thee. But what he was
doing was comparing himself to other men and thinking I come
out on top. That's the religion of the natural
man. He didn't ask the Lord for a thing. Look in verse 13. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner,
the sinner. Was he asking for something?
Yes. He was asking for mercy. Now
do you ever graduate past that prayer? A need for mercy. Actually the word is propitious.
He's saying do something about my sin. And that's what he's
asking the Lord to do. Do something about my sin. I
can't do anything about it. I need you to be propitious.
I need you to remove your reason for anger by removing my sin. That's what we say regarding
our sin. Lord, remove your reason for
anger. Be propitious. Be merciful to
me. Now, you ask God to do for you
what you cannot do for yourself. That's what prayer is. You ask
God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. And you're asking
God to do what he said he would do in his word. I'm not just
talking about asking the Lord to give me this or give me that
or get me out of this mess, although I do pray those prayers. But
I'm asking him to do What I can't do that he said he would do in
his word. What a powerful argument in prayer. Lord, you said this. That's what
David said. David said, Lord, do as thou
hast said. He made all these promises. He
said, Lord, do as thou said. The scripture that comes to my
mind first when I think about this is where we read this promise. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Four, you're not under law, you're
under grace. Now, Lord, you said in your word,
you said this, not me, you said this, sin shall not have dominion
over you because you're not under law but under grace. Now, do
what you said. Let not sin have dominion over
me. Let not any iniquity have dominion
over me and order my steps in thy word. Now, the Lord is giving
us encouragement. Don't faint, don't lose heart,
continue to pray. And then he gives us two characters.
This is a parable, and we read of these two characters in verses
two and three. There was in a city a judge which
feared not God, neither regarded man. Now that's not a very impressive
resume, is it? I mean, there's not much to this
guy. He has no fear of God, and he doesn't care anything about
men either. Now that person is not a good man, is he? As a matter
of fact, the Lord says, hear what the unjust judge says. That
was the Lord's estimate of this man. He calls him the unjust
judge. Now there was this judge who
had no fear of God and no fear or regard of man, verse three,
and there was a widow in that city. And she came unto him saying,
avenge me of mine adversaries. Now, most commentators believe
that this widow represents the church. And I believe that's
exactly what this widow represents because the Lord goes on to say
in talking about what happened, shall not God avenge his own
elect? He's talking about every believer.
So I believe this widow does represent the church. Now in
the world's eyes, this widow is small, weak, and completely
dependent upon somebody else. Sounds like a pretty good description
of us, doesn't it? Small, weak, and completely dependent upon
someone else to take care of us. And this poor widow comes
with a request. Avenge me of my adversary. Now, I don't think she was speaking
of somebody doing her wrong and she wanted that righted. I think
that she'd lost something to her adversary and she was asking,
oh, get this back for me. This is my only hope that you
would get this back for me. Now, in the New Testament, the
word adversary is used for two different things. First, your
enemy, your adversary, the devil. goeth about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And it's also used as an opponent
in a lawsuit. Agree with thine adversary, thy
opponent, in a lawsuit quickly, the Lord said. Now, the church,
the widow, this weak, helpless woman who's completely dependent
upon that judge to do something for her. She's in trouble if
he doesn't. She has adversaries. My adversaries, first of all,
this is the first adversary I have, my sins. My sins. What an enemy. And the second adversary I have
is the devil, Satan, the accuser of the brethren. And the opponent
of law that I have, the opponent in a lawsuit, is God's holy law
condemning me. Can you read the law without
feeling anything other than its accusations? When you read the
Ten Commandments, all it does is accuse me. That's it. Now,
there's nothing I can do about my adversaries. There's nothing
I can do about my sin. I can't make it go away. I can't
make it to where it didn't happen. I'm no match for it. I'm no match
for Satan. He's my adversary. And I'm sure
no match for the law of God. So I come to this judge, to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I say, avenge me of my adversaries. I'm no match for them. And if you're a believer, you
have these three strong adversaries, your sins, the devil, and the
law of God, and you know you're no match for these three adversaries,
so you go to Christ saying, avenge me of mine adversaries. Verse four. Now remember the character of
this judge is brought out by our Lord in verse two, he had
no fear of God and no fear of man. Verse 4, and he would not for a while. He would not for a while. I don't fear God. I don't fear
man. Why should I help this woman?
I don't care anything about her. I don't care whether anything
good comes to her or not. And that was his attitude. And
remember, the Lord called him the unjust judge. But look what he says. He would
not for a while, but afterward, he said within himself, though
I fear not God nor regard man, Yet because this widow troubleth
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary
me. She's gonna drive me crazy is
what he's saying. She's gonna absolutely drive me crazy. Now,
she comes to him, he doesn't hear her. She comes again, He
doesn't hear. He says, don't come back here.
Don't come to these courts of law. She sees him out in the
street. Avenge me of my adversary. I
told you no. Avenge me of my adversary. You
see, this woman knew that the only hope she had was this one. She didn't have any other recourse.
So she continues, avenge me of my adversary. He doesn't pay
any attention to her. That night, he is knocking on
the door. There's that widow again. Avenge me of my adversary. And he said, she's going to drive
me crazy, lest by her continual coming. Now, she knew that her
only hope was for the judge to hear her.
And if he didn't hear her, there wasn't any hope for her. So she
kept continually coming. And beloved, if you ever really
believe that Jesus Christ the Lord is the only hope you have,
you have nothing else. You know what you're going to
do? You're going to continually come. That is a definition of
a believer. Someone who continually comes. I love this description. This
describes every believer. First Peter chapter 2 verse 4
says, to whom coming. Not to whom you came, but to
whom coming. This is something you're always
doing. You're coming to Christ. John 637 says, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh. Now, wherever
you see that EHT, that means it's happening all the time.
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now this is what a believer does.
He's someone who is always coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
why do I come to him? Because I really don't have anywhere
else to go. The only hope I have of mercy is Him doing something
for me. And I'm going to keep coming
until I... I'm not stopping. I'm not stopping. Like Jacob,
I will not let you go except you bless me. You see, the only
hope I have is for you to do something for me. You come to
Christ because you need Him. You need His acceptance. You
need His grace. You need the forgiveness of sins.
You need Him to do for you that which you cannot do for yourself. So you're always coming. Now somebody says, what in the
world does it mean to come to Christ? Well, it means the same
thing as believing. John 6.35 says, He that cometh
to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall
never thirst. I am right now coming to Christ
in my heart. What does that mean? That means
I'm believing on Him as all I have to make me accepted before God.
I do not have anything else. I can't say, Lord, save me, because
I fill in the blank. No. Lord, save me for Christ's
sake. Let me come to Him as an empty-handed
sinner. And that's the way you continually
come. You come to Christ for mercy,
you come for rest, you come for grace. He said, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
He's got the power to do it and he's got the willingness to do
it. What a blessed scripture. He says, come to me and I will
give you rest. What do we come for? We come
for rest. I'm weary and heavy laden. And that's talking about
just being burdened by my sin. That's my burden, my sin. My sin's ever before me. And
I need rest. I need deliverance from my sin.
That is why I come to Him. Now how did you come when you
came the first time to the Lord Jesus Christ? I know how you
came. If you came at all, you came empty-handed, didn't you?
You didn't have one single thing, one feeling, one thought. You
had nothing to recommend you. Not a thing. Now that's how you
come all the time. If you come at all. And if I'm
not coming that way, I'm not coming period. And I'm so thankful
for the encouragement the scripture gives us. The spirit and the
bride say come. Not go away, but come. Let him
that heareth say, Come! Let him that's athirst, come!
And whosoever will, let him take all objections taken away. Let him take. But I haven't,
doesn't say anything about you. It just says, let him take the
water of life freely. Now the Lord uses the importunity
of this widow to teach us something about how a sinner comes to Christ. I want to know, don't you? I
want to be one of these sinners who comes to Christ, who comes
to this judge. And I think it's very interesting. He said, now
hear what the unjust judge says. If he can be moved by importunity,
how much more your heavenly father. Men ought always to pray and
not to faint. Now look back a few verses at
Luke chapter 11, a few chapters rather. The Lord gives us a very similar
statement, beginning in verse five, and he said unto them,
which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight? and saying to him, friend, leave
me, lend me three loaves. Now think of this person. You
got to have some brass to go to somebody's house at midnight
like this, don't you? I mean, somebody knocking on your door
at midnight to get bread? Go home. But the Lord is letting
us know this person is in the midnight of their soul, and they
have to have bread. They will not be denied. Now, isn't that presumptuous
to come into Christ's presence like that? Like you won't be
denied? Well, let's put it this way. If I perish, I'm going to
perish at His feet, asking for mercy. That's the attitude of
the one who comes to Him. I'm going to continually come.
Now, verse 6. He gives his reason. For a friend
of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to
say before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble
me not, the door is now shut and my children are with me in
bed, I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will
not rise and give him because he's his friend, yet because
of his importunity, His shameless persistence is what that word
means. He will rise and give him as many as he needs. Give
me three loaves of bread. No. I told you no. I need three loaves. I told you
no. A continual shameless persistence. You see, somebody like this is
not ashamed to beg because they need His mercy. At the midnight
of their soul, they need His mercy. Now do you need His favor?
Do you need for Him to do for you what you can't do for yourself? Like He said to Bartimaeus, what
do you want me to do unto you? Oh, do we got all night? I have
so much need, yet only one real need. I need you to have favor
toward me. I need you to have mercy on me. I need you to give
me your grace. Verse 9, And I say unto you,
Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened unto you. These are promises
for everyone that asketh receiveth. Somebody says, well, I've asked
and I haven't received. You expect me to believe you
or God? Really? You didn't ask. You were trying
to strike a deal. You were trying to bargain. You
were trying to say, if you give me this, I'll do that. That's
not asking. That's not asking. He said, Ask and it shall be
given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh
findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If the son
shall ask bread of any of you that's a father, will he give
him a stone? If your son is hungry and he asks for a piece of bread,
are you going to give him a rock and say, eat that? Of course
not. If he asks for a fish, will he for the fish give him a serpent?
Of course not. Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him
a scorpion? Of course not. If you then, What are those next two words? Would that describe you? Now
the Lord is speaking to believers here. And he says, if you then
being evil. Are you in that group? If you
then being evil, Know how to give good gifts unto your children?
How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him?" Now, this woman in our text hounded
the judge relentlessly. She knew she had no other hope,
but here And like I said, it's not that she was wanting some
kind of personal vengeance against someone who had done her wrong.
She had lost what she needed and she had to have it back.
And this was the only way she could have it. Back to our text,
verse six. And the Lord said, hear ye what
the unjust judge saith. Now, if this man can be moved
by importunity, this unjust judge, verse seven, shall not God avenge
his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he
bear long with them. There are a couple of things
that came to my mind. The Lord was getting ready to
pass through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. And he was going
to the cross at this time. Scripture says he'd set his face
like a flint. This is why he came. And he's going through
Jericho, and on his way out of Jericho, there was a beggar there
by the name of Bartimaeus. Stone blind, sitting in absolute
darkness, waiting for somebody to give him charity. And while he's sitting there,
he hears a commotion. And he asked what it meant. And
somebody says, Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. Now he knew who Jesus
of Nazareth was because he said, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. And I'm not saying it the way
he said it. I wish I could say it the way he said it. Can you
imagine the pathos in his voice when he said, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. But I have no doubt that at some
point, somebody had led him into the temple. He'd heard the scripture
read. He heard out of Isaiah that when
the Messiah would come, he'd give sight to the blind. And
that meant something to him. Now, if you could see, it wouldn't
mean that much to you. You'd think, well, that's a good thing if
somebody's ever blind, if they need that. But oh, if you're blind, that
means something to you, doesn't it? One day, as he was sitting
there by the road, begging, he heard that Jesus of Nazareth
had given sight to one who was born blind, and at that time
he knew he's the Messiah. And he thought, if he ever comes
my way, how I'm going to cry out to him. Now here he is, and
he hears this commotion, and somebody says, Jesus of Nazareth
passeth by. And he began to cry out, Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me! And you know they told him to
be quiet. Hold your peace, Bartimaeus.
Hold your peace. You know what the scripture says
he did? The scripture says he cried the
more. A great deal. Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. And the scripture says that Jesus
stood still. Now he was on his way to the
cross. But there's one plea that stopped him that he was interested
in hearing. It was this plea for mercy. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. That's what I need. I need your
mercy. And Jesus stood still. And the scripture says he commanded
him to be called. You see, although everyone tried
to quiet Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus would not be quieted. He kept
this incessant plea, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Christ commanded him to be
called. And he rose up and threw away his garment, representing
his own righteousness. And the Lord said, what will
you that I should do unto thee? He said, Lord, that I may receive
my sight. And you know what? The Lord gave
him his sight. You remember that Syrophoenician
woman. This is another example of importunity. She comes to the Lord with a
great need. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter
is grievously vexed with a devil. Now she came with a great need.
She came for the right thing, mercy, and she came with a reverence
for his person. He's the son of David. Now that
sounds awful good to me, but the scripture says he answered
her not a word. Now if I keep saying something
to you and you don't answer me, you know what I'm gonna do? I've
got more pride than that. I'm just gonna go, okay, if you're
not gonna answer me, be that way. Be that way, I'll just go
on. But not this woman. You see, she had a need that
only the Lord could meet. Is that your need? A need that
only He can meet. So she continued crying, and
she was doing so in a way that annoyed the disciples because
they said to the Lord, send her away. She crieth after us. She's
driving us crazy. Can't she take no for an answer? And the Lord said, I'm not sent,
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I've only come
for a particular people. Now, how did she respond to this?
She responded the only way you should respond. The scripture
says, then came she and worshiped him. Now understand this, the
only time you worship is when you worship Him for who He is
without reference to what He does or does not do for you. Can you worship Him for who He
is? Is He worthy of worship? Scripture says, Then came she,
and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me. She wouldn't be denied. She kept, Lord, And then he said
to her, it's not meat to take the children's bread and to throw
it out to the dogs. Now, how would you respond if
the Lord said this to you? How would you respond? You come
for mercy, there's silence. You come, continue to come. And he says, I've only come for
certain people. And then you continue crying out for help,
and he says, it's not right to take the children's bread and
throw it out to the dogs. You know what her response was?
That's the truth. True, Lord. If I ever heard the
truth, that's the truth. I don't claim to be a child,
but I'm a dog. And I'm your dog. And even the
dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And the Lord said, Woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. Turn back to our text, maybe
you're already there, Luke chapter 18. And shall not God avenge Hear
what the unjust judge saith. He responds to that persistent,
shameless, continual coming. He responds, and the Lord is
giving this us this encouragement. Don't quit. Keep coming. You will be heard. Shall not God avenge his own
elect? God has an elect people he calls
his own elect. You know who loves election? The elect. Every one of them
love election. Somebody else says, well, I don't
think that's fair. Well, that's your problem. You've got a problem
and you've got a big problem. As far as that goes, you're all
of a sudden becoming God's judge and you're able to say to Him
what you think's fair and what's not. You got no business going
there. You ought to have the same attitude that this woman
had. Then came she and worshipped Him. Now the Lord is giving us
this encouragement. And I love the fact that He began
this parable with these words. This parable spake unto them
to this end that men, Men ought always to pray and not to faint. It doesn't say the elect. It
doesn't say believers. It says men. I like that, don't you?
That means he's speaking to every person here. Men ought always
to pray and not to faint. Well, God will avenge his own
elect, which cry day and night unto him. Though he bear long
with them now, he's going to avenge them. Now, how's that?
Well, my adversary said, I'm praying for him to do something
for me about my sins. They're wiped out through the
blood of Christ. The devil, with all of his accusations,
are answered through the blood of Christ. The law of God, which
I cannot keep, I keep completely in my redemption. All my enemies,
all my adversaries are answered. Then he says in verse eight,
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. And then the Lord
ends this parable with these words. Nevertheless, when the
son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? When he returns,
will he find this kind of faith on the earth? I think of Paul saying, I have
no man like mine, not one, that'll naturally care for your state.
At my first, no one stood with me. And you know, the number
of people with faith on the earth at any given time has always
been few. And yet the Lord says, with regard
to his return, will he even find faith on the earth? Well, let
me tell you what I hope. I hope if he would return here,
he'd find this kind of faith on the earth. The faith of this
widow. who would not be denied because
she had nowhere else to go. She had no other hope. She had
no other options. If he doesn't avenge her of her
adversaries, no hope for her. So she will not stop. He spake a parable unto them
to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to lose heart,
not to faint. May God give us grace to do that.
Let's pray together.