Luke chapter 18. And, you know, as we sing that song, bring them in, bring them in. Help the shepherd. Bring them in. You know, much of our belief in the doctrine of election and that God has mercy on whom He has mercy and He hardens whom He hardens comes from the Apostle Paul. We wouldn't say that doctrine led Paul to inaction. On the contrary, we read of the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul and the other apostles. We believe this doctrine. God will save his people. He will. And he'll use you, and you, and you. He will. He's purposed to save sinners by the hearing of the gospel. And he's purposed to put it in earthen vessels. Fragile people, like you and me, to go share the good news. So let me encourage you, be bold. Don't be afraid. They will think you're strange, probably. Because they think darkness is light. And that light is darkness. Their world is flipped upside down. And they might think what you're telling them as good news, they might hate it. But it doesn't change the fact that it is good news. There is ultimate truth. And the gospel is good news. So please, I encourage you. Okay, chapter 18, the persistent widow. Starting in verse 1, He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. And for a while, he refused. But afterward, he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to His elect who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" May God bless the reading of His Word. Oftentimes, when we read parables, it's unclear Or it takes some digging to find out exactly what Jesus' purpose for the story is. Oftentimes his disciples, they'd been with him all the time. Right? They're in on it. They're in the loop. They're in the know. And he would teach in a parable and afterwards they would say, what do you mean? They didn't understand it. And often that's the case in parables. If we didn't have clues and sometimes later Jesus explaining it to them, we would be left foggy as to the exact meaning of it. But this parable, there's no doubt as to why he taught this parable. Luke tells us, he told in the parable that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. We know Jesus' intention in teaching this parable, so that we'll pray and not give up. We'll keep praying and keep praying. So let's look at the text. He said, that is Jesus, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. So, a judge in a certain city. He's not a God-fearing man, and he could care less what other men think about him. And a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary. And oftentimes when I've thought about this parable, I've pictured an older woman, maybe in her 60s or 70s or 80s. People didn't live to be that age very often in that time. This is probably a 30, 40, 50 year old. And it doesn't matter, but let's not have a picture and say it only applies to a certain age. And she kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary. And we're not really told what is the fault. Somebody did wrong. It was in the judge's power to help. She, a widow, is one of the most powerless in society. No power, no voice, And she comes to the judge and says, help me with this case. Verse four, for a while he refused. So notice this judge, he knows what justice is in the case. The text says he refused to do it. He didn't fear God. He doesn't care that somebody else is in the wrong and that she's in the right. He doesn't care. He refused. No. Go out. But afterward, he thought, excuse me, he said to himself, it's not because I fear God and it's not because I have respect for man. But I'm going to give in. I'm going to give her justice. Because she keeps bothering me. She keeps coming again and again and again. So that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. There's an interesting note on that, beat me down. It could literally mean a strike on the eye. And that he would sort of become this person that denies justice. And everyone sees the black eye that this widow has caused him. But either way, she's bothering him. He finally gives in. OK. And now Jesus is doing something here that we know. It says, if A is true, then B is even more true. Okay? If A is true, if this unrighteous judge, he could care less about the commandments of God, or perverting justice, or men complaining and saying, why are you being this way? He doesn't care. If the unrighteous judge will finally give in because of repeated asking, repeated coming, what about God in heaven? Verse 6, And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And what does the unrighteous judge say? He says, If you keep coming enough, I'll give it to you. In the text. Will he not give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? So listen to the picture. Here's a widow. The judge, he doesn't care about her. We don't see any friendship in the text or relation or she's from the same town as him or any reason for him to care about her. But that's not what we see that Jesus says about God. Will God not give justice to the elect Who he's loved forever and ever? That he sent Jesus to redeem them, to purchase them? Will he not give justice to his elect? I remember Dr. Brunson preaching one time about this, the elect, that God had a good thought toward us. Forever. These people who are the apple of his eye, that he spared not his own son, will he delay? Will he not give justice? And the rhetorical answer is, of course he'll give them justice. He loves them. They're his people. Of course. I tell you, verse 8, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth speedily? Now this is interesting, because people have been in situations of injustice for months and months and months and years and years and years and years, even until death, and not seen the answer. Now, how do we reconcile that with Jesus saying He will give justice and speedily? Well, I'd say that there are a couple of things. One, do not consider the patience of the Lord a thing that to us is Him taking too long. When God acts, it's the exact right time. It's not late. And I could give you a short thing from Lord of the Rings, which I love, the book and the movie. And in the movie, Gandalf shows up late. And the Hobbit character there, he says, Frodo says, you're late. And he says, a wizard is never late. He arrives precisely when he intended to. God is never late. You might wear out. Your faith might wane. You might be tired. And you pray and pray and pray and lose hope and say, God's late. I needed the answer six months ago before they cheated me out of my property. God is never late. Don't consider. He has a reason for what He does. And it's not an arbitrary reason. It's a good reason. He loves us. He's perfecting us. He's completing the good work that He started in us. And sometimes, Dr. Cindy, He leaves us in a precarious situation for a time. And He does it because He loves us. And it's not just because we need to experience adversity in general. He loves us. He's working it out in us. He's teaching us to love Him, to trust Him, even though we can't see the end. We have a very difficult situation and we think only God can help and we cry and cry and cry and don't see the answer. The text says, always pray and don't lose heart. He will give justice to His elect. He will. In verse 8, I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Will the virgins be waiting with their lamps when the Lord comes? Will they be heading back to town because they ran out of oil? Will you be praying continually when the Lord comes? Will you believe until the end that He will give justice to the elect? Though in this world you're often mistreated, there will be justice. And it might not happen until Judgment Day. But don't think somehow that that doesn't count. You know that sometimes when we say, they'll get what's coming. You see a wicked person who in this life they are prosperous beyond any measure that we have. And we think, that guy doesn't believe at all. Why is God blessing him like this? And somebody will say, he'll get what he deserves. And somehow to us that feels like a cop-out answer. It's not. God is keeping track. Every idle word will be called to account. Those who are not covered in the blood of the Lamb will pay for those sins. Justice will be done. But the question is, will the Lord find faith when He comes? Will you pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and not complain? We have a habit of complaining in our hearts while praising on the out. As our brother taught us this morning, sins of the mind. To complain in your heart is the same thing. Surely I'd rather you complain with your heart than with your mouth. But God looks at the inside, not as we do. We look at the outside only. We say, he's such a nice guy. We don't know what's on his inside. God knows what's in a man. We're told in the Gospels that Jesus wasn't entrusting himself to them, for he knew what was in them. God knows what's in us. Will he find faith, or will he find complaining? Murmuring, how long in this wilderness? I despise this worthless food. Sound familiar? It didn't turn out well for those who spoke that way. I know I've spoken to you recently about complaining, but in the context of prayer, Don't let prayer be the last thing you do. I know God does that purposefully in our lives to drive us to prayer. He delights when his people pray. When his people don't pray, he's not happy. He wants us to pray. But will you wait until you're in just such a desperate case Won't we pray always? Pray without ceasing? Is there a time that you shouldn't pray? Is there a day that is not important? A season? And you know this in your own lives. When things go well, you pray less. I'm sorry that's the case, but it is. We pray prayers of thanksgiving, But pleading and pleading and pleading and coming again and again and again for our friends and our family and our neighbors and our co-workers and those who are in situations of injustice. We grow tired and lax until it starts to touch us directly. This is the point. You should pray always. Don't lose heart. Don't give lip service to praying without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. Listen. Pray without ceasing. Our church needs it. Everybody in this church, be praying for each other. Make a list. Mark it off when you've prayed for those people. Be careful that you don't forget one family, one person. They need prayer. They're being barraged with temptation and struggle with their own flesh every second. Pray for them that they would be faithful, that they'd withstand the temptation. Even in the desert, the Bible says that the angels came and ministered to Jesus afterward. It's almost like a soldier who's been in battle and he needs some attention. This is Jesus. What about us? Do we need prayers? And we thank others for praying for us. I do pray for them. This is where the text starts, that we should pray always and not lose heart. And then verse 8, will he find faith when he comes? Will the Son of Man, will he find faith on the earth? I know prayer is difficult, and especially to persevere in it. And it shows our unbelief when we pray and we don't see the immediate answer. Even though God may have dispatched answers already, but we don't see the immediate answer and we stop praying. We lose hope. We start to doubt. Jesus' parable is designed to teach us to persevere in prayer. Church, please pray. Trust God. It's one of the things that we have that the wicked don't have. They don't have an audience with the Most High God. And you know this as it relates to our government. Especially in Cambodia too. Sometimes there's things that you can't get done. But if you know somebody, you can talk to them about it and they know somebody who'll get it done. Do you see? You know somebody who has infinite power and most kind and good And knows everything. And has infinite wisdom. Ask Him. Cry out. Lord, we want to see the Gospel in our generation. Move. Even in Plano, where everybody thinks they're rich. And they have need of nothing. Yet they don't realize they're naked. They need everything. Cry out to God. Ask Him to do work in our generation, in our towns, in our neighborhoods, among our families. And how often, often, without ceasing, continually. And by the way, a side note, we're not bothering God. That's the unrighteous judge who said, she's bothering me. He didn't give her justice because it was the right thing to do. He just wanted her to go away. Our God is not that way. He delights in our continual coming. He wants to hear us come. And if I was going to preach longer, I would. But the next section talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector. And what type of attitude you should have as you come to God continually. These parables are not out of context with one another. The next parable. The Pharisee. He thought he was righteous. that in himself he was righteous, and he treated others with contempt, the text says. That's not how we should pray and say, God, thank you. I'm not like these other wicked men. I do thank God that he saved me and delivered me from the power of sin. And we should. We should. But not in a way that treats others with contempt. God had mercy on you. You were a beggar. He gave you food. We should be humble as we pray. God, have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. I'm asking you for these things because you've told me that I shouldn't worry, but I should pray. And you've promised to give justice to the elect. Father, give justice to the elect. Do you see what I mean? We can presume that God wants to hear us and that we have an audience with him. But we shouldn't presume on how he should answer our prayers. He's wise. We should cry out like babies. Help us. Help us. He knows how to answer. And I pray that God will bless you as you try to do this. Pray continually. Pray without ceasing. Again and again and again. Don't lose heart. Believe. Be hopeful. And as we've started to have a list and pray for things in the church, it's not that we never prayed before. Certainly we did. But when we have it on the list and then we see, we take that thing and move it from a request to thanksgiving, we see God answered. He used the prayers of His people. He stirred us up. And I hope I'm stirring you up now. Don't give up on prayer. Pray. Pray for Edward and I. We need it. Pray for our deacons, that they would serve well. They need it. Pray for this church, that it wouldn't just be sustainable, but that it would thrive. that men and women and boys and girls would come to know Christ and be brought up in the most holy faith. Do you pray that? I hope you do. But let's pray it harder, more. And not just until it fills up. See, that would be the tendency of us. When it filled up, then we'd say, well, God answered. Pray always, don't lose heart. And in this text, the widow was asking for justice. But I think we can apply it to other situations. Pray always, don't lose heart. Whatever it is, don't worry. Worrying is a sin. Jesus said, don't worry. If you then worry, you've disobeyed the command not to worry. Don't worry. Pray. Let's pray. Brother Edward, would you close us?