of your soul. Take your Bibles, and we want to have, again, our needs met as we open up God's Word. Today from Luke 18, and I want to read verses 1-8, and we'll get started. Luke 18, verses 1-8, reading from the New American Standard Bible. Now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him saying, give me legal protection from my opponent. And for a while he was unwilling. But afterward he said to himself, even though I do not fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by continually coming she wear me out. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. And now shall not God bring about justice for his elect? who cry to him day and night, and will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Just recently I was reading, but one political pundit was saying, he talked about the two greatest attacks of terror on America today were perpetuated by the Supreme Court. Not by any Muslim or any other group, but by the Supreme Court of the United States. Those two attacks was, number one, the legalizing of abortion, and secondly, the legalizing of same-sex marriage. were both what he called terror attacks on the country. In both cases, the standard of God's word was attacked. No bomb, no explosion, no physical attack, but simply our country being terrorized by The very people who are most responsible to protect us from that kind of immorality, the very ones who are supposed to uphold the law become the ones who unleash immorality on our country. No human court, whether they be a civil court like in our text for this morning or a Supreme Court, has the authority to redefine what is moral. Our Supreme Court has said that murder is not murder, and marriage is not marriage, and family is not family, and they have begun to usurp the authority that belongs only to God, who is the creator of life, the creator of marriage, the creator of family, Any and all attempts to define morality differently than what God has defined it is a form of rebellion and a form of blasphemy. This nation, in our very highest court, has taken a position against God. Now we see that in our text today. we find a particular judge, as we unpack this passage, who does not fear God and has no respect for man. And it's as Bill was saying this morning, I thought it was interesting, it's the epitome of selfishness. To say, I do not fear God and I do not respect man, I will do what I want to do when I want to do it. Now, just to give the broader context here, we've been talking about the kingdom. Jesus has been talking about the kingdom specifically, not so much me. We're just echoing His words. But you go all the way back to chapter 17, verses 20 and 21, Jesus talked about the kingdom's first phase, which is spiritual and invisible. Namely, those who come into His kingdom do so spiritually. Even as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, and I read the verse, He said, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" Jesus said that to the greatest teacher at that time in Israel, a man by the name of Nicodemus. So Jesus talked about the first phase of God's kingdom, which is spiritual. But beginning in Luke 17, rather, verses 22 through 37, he talked about the second phase, which is the physical side of God's kingdom. Now I just need to back up a little bit. God's kingdom is the overall theme of the Bible, I believe. And there's two parts to God's kingdom. There's a spiritual phase, and the only way you come into God's kingdom is spiritually, and it's invisible, it's internally, it's your relationship with him through Christ. The second phase then is the physical kingdom, and that's described in verses 22 through 37, and it's a time of judgment that leads up to his millennial reign. We see today that how we are to live during this period between the two kingdoms. We are in between His first coming and His second coming. We are in between the first phase, His first coming, which dealt with pointing people how to become part of the kingdom, that is through faith in Christ, which will eventually lead to His second coming where there is judgment, where there is the bringing upon, the wrath of God upon those who are outside of Christ. There is the dealing with Satan and all of his minions. There is the 1,000 millennial, 1,000-year millennial reign of Christ. There is coming a new heavens and a new earth, and all that is precipitated by the rapture of the church, which leads into all that. I left that part out. There are two phases to the kingdom. How do we live in between those two phases when life becomes difficult, when we live in a world that thumbs its nose in the face of God, when we live in a world where courts and judges make the kinds of decisions that courts and judges do today, as I've already discussed with the Supreme Court, how do we live? We pray. We persistently pray. That's going to be the theme here of verses 1 through 8. And I reminded myself this week, as I was thinking about prayer, I'm not typically proud of my prayer life. I mean, I pray and I pray, but there are some people who really pray for for long periods of time. We don't have to do that per se, but we are told in the Bible to pray without ceasing, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5. So our lives need to be typified by prayer. And I've thought recently that, I'm reminded recently in a book that I've been reading about prayer, that prayer is not primarily for us. Prayer is not so much for us to gain what we think we need or deserve, as it is to give God the opportunity to manifest His glory. Prayer is not just me rubbing the genie bottle and giving God my three wishes, and poof, poof, poof, I get my three wishes. Prayer ultimately is for God, and incidentally, He might grant my specific request if it's in accordance to His will. If I never gained anything from prayer but communion with Him, then that would be sufficient, a good thing. But I would also add, and I'm reflecting the reading now of a man by the name of E. M. Bounds, He says prayer is even more than just the privilege of communing with God. Prayer is the opportunity for God to display His glory. So on one hand, we are communing with Him, and that by itself is good enough, even if God never grants my specific requests. Just praying to Him. Those of us who are growing older find our bodies breaking down, and we pray, God, take this thing away from me. Chances are he won't. The very thing that's bothering me now physically is probably gonna be the very thing that brings me into his presence one day. You see what I'm saying? And so, but in praying to him, I'm communing with him. And beyond that, in praying to him, I'm giving opportunity for God to show me his glory. Prayer gives God a vehicle by where he can demonstrate who he is. One writer said this, true prayer brings the mind to the immediate contemplation of God's character and holds it there until the believer's soul is properly impressed. I'll repeat that. True prayer brings the mind—your mind and my mind, our brains, our hearts—to the immediate contemplation of God's character and holds it there until the believer's soul is properly impressed. It gives me greater unction and desire to pray, to know that it's not just me rubbing the genie bottle and saying, Lord, grant my three wishes. That's far from what the purpose of prayer. Prayer is simply us communing with God, casting our cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for us. and knowing that He, through prayer, will show me His glory. He will do things through my prayers and through your prayers that show us more of His character. He may not specifically grant my requests. John chapter 14, verse 13. You've heard this verse. John 14, verse 13. Jesus says, if you ask anything in My name, I will do it, in order that the Father may be glorified. Well, to ask something in Jesus' name means to be asking in accordance to His will. It doesn't mean if I ask in Jesus' name for a brand new 2025 Mercedes-Benz that He is obligated to give it to me because I asked in Jesus' name. No, to ask in Jesus' name means I'm asking in accordance to His will. And it's not like the charismatics who will suggest that, you know, you should Whatever you ask of God, He's obligated to give it to you. You can demand, they say, demand from God whatever your faith is big enough to claim. This kind of thing is false. Prayer, that kind of prayer is all about just simply demanding things from God. Now, as we turn to our text for this morning, we're gonna learn that The main point of this passage, if I were to sum it up, would be something like this. Persistent prayer will demonstrate that God protects and cares for His own in the days that lead up to His return. Or as one writer called it, this is eschatological praying. I put prayer there, but it should be eschatological praying. in this manner, as being discussed here in verses one through eight, is to pray in light of the end times that we are now in, we are in the last days, the days leading up to the second coming of Christ, we are prayerful for God to bring about his justice, we are prayerful that he might even come back soon. And so, we find at the very outset, as we look at this passage, Well, yeah, just a reminder, at the end of the book of Revelation, John wrote, he who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly. And we pray to that end. First of all, we see, as we look at the text, from the very outset, the very first verse gives us the crux of this passage. It's a call to perseverance. Because as Christians, and this is in a context of the second coming of Christ, as we go all the way back to chapter 17, verse 20, that we need to be persistent and patient during the two comings of Christ, during that period of time between the two comings. Jesus here focuses on the need for believers not to lose heart as they yearn for His return. There's a dependency on prayer. letter A there in your notes, we are to be dependent on Him in prayer. Prayer becomes an expression of dependency. As we commune with Him in prayer, as we cast our cares on Him in prayer, as we are worshiping, we are expressing our needs. even in the days that are described here, and he says, now, he was telling, verse 1, look at the verse here, now, he was telling them a parable to show them that at all times, all times, they ought to pray and not lose heart. He's coming, he's coming, but sometimes the wait is so, it seems so long. I mean, after all, When was Jesus here the first time? Well, it was 2,000 years ago. And for us, that seems like a long time. For God, 2,000 years is a drop in the bucket. It's nothing, you know, the Bible says, for one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years as one day to the Lord. To God, who dwells outside of time, to God who actually created time itself, time is nothing. 1,000 years is a spit in the bucket. 10,000 years is maybe a spit and a half. And it isn't much at all. But for us, who have been waiting for him to come now for these two millennial, it seems like a long time. And the world gets worse, and the world gets worse. And it's easy to become discouraged. We can become discouraged without prayer, without casting our cares on him. Verse two reads like this. In the New American, it says, we ought to pray and not lose heart. I think the NIV, some of you have an NIV, it says, and not give up. The idea here is not to lose heart, or literally, the word there is agacao, which means to lose one's motivation. to become discouraged or to become cowardly, to become cowardly in light of all the horrific events that are going on where it seems like bad is trumping good and the evil is defeating all that is godly, we perhaps become less inclined to pray. So we ought to pray. Philippians chapter 1 verse 9, Paul says, in this I pray that your love may abound. I mean, he prayed this, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and discernment, to be growing in the Lord, or to pray without ceasing. I said that was in Ephesians. Actually, it's in 1 Thessalonians 5, to pray without ceasing. Or in 1 Timothy 2.8, therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath or dissension. James says, is any among you suffering that he must pray? Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. So prayer is to take place as a means of not allowing us to become discouraged. So he says in verse one, he says to... At all times they ought to pray and not lose heart. We are to take the Word seriously where Jesus said in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, He was teaching His disciples the Lord's Prayer, which is called the Lord's Prayer. And part of that prayer is where it goes, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. So a very key part of the Lord's Prayer is to pray for the coming of His kingdom. We are to pray, pray, pray, and not lose heart. We are to pray for the Lord to come back and to punish the ungodly, to reclaim the earth, to mete out righteous judgment, to vindicate His elect, to establish His glory on earth, to vanquish Satan, to take His throne, and to establish the glorious fulfillment of His promises. Even so, come Lord Jesus. We are to pray, pray, pray. In other verses, 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if anyone does not love the Lord, we go to him in prayer because we love him. And Paul says, if you don't love the Lord, you're accursed. He is to be accursed. That's pretty strong. James 5.8, you too be patient, strengthening your hearts. Be patient, strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Our hearts are strengthened as we remind ourselves and pray back to Him, Lord, come, even so come, Lord Jesus. That increases our patience. It strengthens our heart. We see the wickedness, we see the evil, and so we're mindful of the fact He's coming back. That strengthens our hearts. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4.8, he says, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. We love him, and we love his appearing. We love him, and we look forward to his appearing. There's a call here. Verse one is a call to perseverance. Don't give up. Pray, pray, pray. Now, that's the main point that Jesus is gonna make, but he does this, he makes this point in a rather peculiar way. Jesus is the master storyteller. Jesus takes what you might think are the strangest things and he'll make a point out of it, a spiritual point from a spiritual story. He'll compare and contrast, and he does that in all of his parables. He makes these comparisons and these contrasts, like he did in the parable of the prodigal son, where you have the comparison between the younger son, who was the prodigal, and the older son, who resented the father, and the desire in the heart of the father, and he ended up resenting the son even more. You see these strange comparisons. Well, today we have this comparison between God and a certain judge. God and a certain judge. And I call this a corruption of perspective. Where the main bit of the story is in verses two through five, where it talks about a certain judge. So Jesus makes this contrast or this comparison between a human judge and God Himself. And you see there in verse 2, He says, That's the epitome of this man's heart. He is wicked. He is selfish. He despised the first commandment, which was to love the Lord your God with all your heart. He despised the second commandment, which was to love your fellow man as you do yourself. And he despised both of those, both the first and the second main commands. In a sense, he did not love God, he did not respect God, and he did not respect man. He had no shame, no shame in his own selfishness. He did not care a lick what anyone thought. Now, Scripture repeatedly condemns wicked judges. In fact, I found so many verses in the Old Testament that condemned wicked judges. One that I found was in Amos chapter 5, verses 10 through 15, where Amos says, they hate him who reproves in the gate. That would be a judge. And they abhor him who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you impose heavy rent on the poor and exact a tribute of grain from them, though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, yet you will not live in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine. I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great. You who distress the righteous and accept bribes, crooked judges, They've been around for eons. And turn aside the poor in the gate. Therefore, at such a time, the prudent person keeps silent, for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live, and thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate, and perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. There was a writer that I read for this text. His name is Alfred Edersheim. He's a Bible scholar who's from a Jewish background. You can hear that in his name, Alfred Edersheim. Edersheim talked about people in the Old Testament. They would call these kind of judges robber judges. And without going into the details, they would change one letter in the phrase, judges of the law to judges who rob. And if you look at the Hebrew in that, they can change one letter to make it from judges of the law to judges who rob. It's sort of a play on words that they began to call these judges who were supposed to be judges of the law, they called them robber judges. And in the Hebrew, it's by simply changing one letter makes it totally different. It's kind of, if you don't know Hebrew, and I kind of fumbled my way through it in seminary, But I'm taking his word for it because he's a Hebrew scholar. He said they just changed one letter and redefined the word. And so they called these judges who were supposed to be judges of the law, they called them robber judges. Robber judges. And so he's describing that here. This judge is unkind and he's unconcerned because you look at verse three, there was a widow lady in that city. And she kept coming to him saying, give me legal protection from my opponent. So here's this contrast or this comparison. This widow lady, and if you read throughout the Old Testament, widow ladies were given special considerations like what you see here on Exodus chapter 22 verse 22, you shall not afflict any widow or orphan. And you go through the Old Testament time and time again, widows were to be given special consideration. They were to be given special considerations. This widow would be one who was basically all alone, because she's entering into this court system. And Jewish court systems were a male-dominated system. Women didn't go to Jewish court. Women just didn't do that. But if you're a woman, and particularly a widow, and you have no other man in your life, you don't have a dad or a son or a husband or someone who can stick up for you in a court of law, she has to go herself. She has to go herself. She has to plead her own case. And it says there in verse 3, interesting, this widow in that city, she kept coming to him. In the Greek, that's an imperfect middle. You could translate that, she herself kept coming, incessantly kept coming, kept coming. Repeatedly, repeatedly, without resolution to her case, she kept coming, desiring legal protection. She wanted the wrong that was done against her avenged. That's the idea of legal protection. She wanted to be avenged or vindicated. Vindicate me, give me what is mine. And this widow, seemingly she must have been some, it doesn't tell us she was defrauded, she was left destitute. And so she had to plead her own case. There was no man to pick up her case. And this judge, in the first part of verse 4, it says, and for a while he was unwilling. That's, again, a commentary on his disinterest, his indifference, selfish attitude, didn't give a lick about anybody or God Himself. Even though he undoubtedly knew that widows were to be given special consideration, according to the Old Testament, he didn't do it. He didn't do it. There are other verses, for instance, Deuteronomy 27, 19, cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, or widow. Cursed! And all the people shall say, Amen. Or Isaiah chapter one, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from my sight, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. There it is, plead for the widow. This woman had no one to plead for her. this judge should have taken up her case. If he cared, if he had the least bit compassion, he should have taken up her case. But verse 4 says, he was unwilling. Clearly, the picture that Jesus paints is that of a corrupt, worthless judge. I mean, it wasn't any different then, really, than it is today. I'm not so sure we're any worse off today than they were then. I had this discussion with my kids several times. We like to say, I like to say to them, you know, things are a lot worse today than they were back in the 1950s. And in some degree, I think there's some truth to that. But in another way, in other degrees, it's not. It's the same. It's the same. And so, here is this worthless judge. who's gonna stand before God, and as Hebrews says, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, a judge who did not do his judging correctly. People want vindication. Vengeance is mine, the Lord says, and retribution. In due time, their foot will slip, for the day of their calamity is near, and the impeding things are hastening upon them. When we get to the book of Revelation, there was a group of people who… who were martyred saints. And in Revelation chapter 6, they're all around the throne of God. And look what they're saying in Revelation chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood? on those who dwell on the earth. So here are people, even in heaven, even in the presence of God, wanting vengeance on those, they want God's vengeance to be poured out on those who had done wrong. So here's this certain judge. Reneging, ignoring, but all of a sudden, in verses four and five, he does a U-turn. A U-turn. A certain judge, letter C there in your notes, a certain judge does a U-turn. Kind of. He doesn't do it because he had compassion all of a sudden. He doesn't do it because it was the right thing to do. He did it because, well, for selfish reasons, again, He was still only thinking of himself, but he still did a U-turn. And you see that there in verse 4. He says, He's saying to himself, refers to her, this widow, presenting him with the burdensome distress over and over again. I immediately thought of the proverb, and don't take offense at this, but Proverbs 27, verse 15, a constant dripping on the day of steady rain, and a contentious woman are alike. This woman is contentious for a righteous cause. She had been defrauded, but she was like the steady dripping on a roof, on a steel tin roof. If you can imagine such a thing going just like this perpetually, it drives you nuts. After about 15, 20, 30 minutes, you hear this drip, drip, drip, drip, incessantly, never stopping, drip, drip, drip. She's like that. She bothers him, verse 5. And she, and then he goes on to say, and she wears me out. The Greek word there is hupopetsio, which is a boxing term. I'm speaking of the phrase, wear me out. It's a boxing term, which means to blacken the eye. to strike someone with a full blow to the eye, to wear him down by striking him in the, it's like a boxer who just, boom, boom, who pummels, who hits, pummels, that's the word, someone in the face pummels their face over and over again. And she wears him out. Paul uses that same word in 1 Corinthians 9.21 where he says, I discipline my body to make it my slave. Or some versions say, I buffet my body that I might make it my slave. Not buffet my body, that's a different idea. But I buffet my body, some of us buffet our bodies. But he's talking about buffeting the body. Same spelling but different. And the idea of bringing yourself under control, to discipline yourself. Here it has the idea, going back to Luke chapter 18, he's being beat to death. Pummeled is the word. I couldn't get it out. Thank you, Doug. So this powerful judge was defeated by a weak widow who just by sheer persistence, persistence, just being persistent and not giving up, she got him to do a U-turn, albeit for selfish reasons and not for good reasons, but he still made the U-turn. And we can strike that up as a win for the widow. Finally, the suffering believer can believe that if they keep coming, they can They can bring about change. God hears our prayers. God hears our prayers. And so, we see that is the main part of the story. But we learn the lesson, thirdly this morning, a confidence in providence, verses six through eight. we find that there can be a confidence. We're gonna see that God's delay is with promise and God's delay is with purpose. Because Jesus' explanation here, beginning with verse six, is a definite contrast between the injustice, selfish, apathetic, indifferent judge, and the commitment to justice that the true God of the universe has. This is a lesson by means of tremendous Comparison it's actually a lesson from the lesser to the greater which was a common way the Jews they would make comparisons from the lesser to the greater And there are illustrations like that in scripture where there's a lesser thing that is compared with a greater thing and If a person does this, but God is greater and he does this. It's a stark extreme. The wicked, uncaring judge with God himself. And if this judge will do what is right for this desperate widow, will not God do right for his own? Especially as verse six says, and verse seven says, now shall not God bring about justice for his elect? who cry to Him day and night. The elect are us. The widow is representative of us. Shall not God bring justice for His elect? That's you and me." This word, elect, is speaking of all those who are part of God's chosen family. That's not a term that some people really hate that term. The only reason we believe in divine election is because we find it taught in Scripture. No man or number of men ever originated the doctrine of sovereign election. Like the doctrine of eternal punishment, which is a horrific thing to consider, To think of someone will eternally be punished, that's hard. No man would think of that. That's a doctrine of God. Or the idea of the Holy Trinity. Or the idea of the miraculous virgin birth of Christ. Sovereign election is received because it's taught in the scriptures. And we receive it with just unquestioning faith. And so here is this widow, part of God's elect, And she's helpless. But if God be for us, who can be against us, Romans says. If God be for us, Paul says, who can be against us? God will indeed avenge himself against the wicked. And there's all kinds of verses that I was thinking of here. 1 Peter 2.23, speaking of Christ, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself Kept entrusting to him who judges righteously. Kept entrusting, that's what we need to do. And we do that through persistent prayer. We keep entrusting ourselves, praying to God, bring about justice, bring about justice. Well, eventually he will, in his time. Romans 12, 19, never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. or Revelation 19, one and two. After these things, John says, I heard something like a voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to God because his judgments are true and righteous for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality and has avenged the blood of his bondservants on her. Or Revelation 19.15, from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And lastly, Isaiah 11.4, but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth, and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. God is delay with promise. He will bring about justice. But there's also delay with purpose. As you look at the latter part of verse 7, after it says, "...shall not God bring justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night? And will He delay long over them?" The word delay long is the Greek word makrothumia, which is oftentimes translated patience. Patience. You can literally translate the latter part of verse seven, and be patient over them. And be patient. And will he be patient over them? He's long-suffering. He waits and He waits until ultimately He will bring the full force of His wrath down upon those who do not know Him and revere Him and honor Him. He will bring His wrath upon them. Verses like 2 Peter 3, verse 9, you know this verse, the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. God is waiting. He's slow to bring about the full force of His wrath on men. He's long in grace, long in grace, waiting, long, being patient, but then his wrath must be satisfied eventually. Verse 15, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. As we were studying our Revelation study last week, and we were in Revelation 14, I was caught up with the idea Revelation 14, 14-16, where John says, And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come. Finally, there comes an hour where God will reap, because the harvest of the earth is ripe. In other words, there comes a point in time when everything is ripe for the reaping and the reaper, Christ, is going to make that decision to reap everything that is worth judging at that point. God's delay is good. He is patient. His delay is for a purpose. Until everything, until he brings in all the elect, when the fullness of his church is full, and when the ripeness of the of the wicked is ready for the reaping. So he says here in verse eight, I tell you that he will bring about justice for them speedily. Don't think that God is delaying just because he's just sort of up there thinking, well, when am I gonna do it? When am I gonna do it? No, he has a plan. His delay is with purpose. He's being patient. He will bring about justice speedily for them. But then there's this final question at the end of verse 8, however, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Will He find people who are praying to Him, and coming to Him, and pleading their case before Him, expecting Him? Are there going to be people when he finally comes back, are there gonna be people who are looking for him to come back? He asks that question. God's delay is a good delay. It's with purpose and with intent. So we come to the end, I'm skipping a few verses here. Just some concluding thoughts and application here. that I was, as I was meditating on this passage. Number one, perseverance as saints, that's you and me, is sustained by the grace received through consistent fellowship with Christ in prayer. My prayer is fellowshipping with him. Whether he answers all my requests according to what I've asked him or not, just by sheer prayer, I am getting that communion with him. And that increases my perseverance. That increases my desire to stay the course, even in light of all the evil that's going on in the world. Secondly, prayerlessness results in faintheartedness. If you're prayerless, expect to be fainthearted. Expect to become discouraged. If you're prayerless, it will make you cowardly. If you're prayerless, you're gonna feel like giving up. The lesson of this parable is, don't be prayerless. Don't be prayerless. Going back to verse one, Jesus is telling them this parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart. Thirdly, injustice in this world does not equate to injustice from God. Just because there's so much injustice in the world, and we see that with wicked judges all the time, that doesn't mean that God's unjust and that He's not going to judge. Don't equate the injustices of men as being God being indifferent or God being like this unjust judge. God will judge. He's not like this unjust judge. On the contrary, He will bring about justice. Fourthly, God's purpose in our suffering goes far beyond our earthly experience and extends to the pursuit of His glory. My suffering, whatever that may be, it may be something physical, it may be something spiritual, if you're suffering for whatever reason, you use that suffering to draw near to Him. It's like John Piper wrote a book a number of years ago that the title of the book is Don't Waste Your Cancer. Sounds kind of funny. Don't waste your cancer. How can you waste your cancer? Well, as a Christian, you can waste your cancer when you don't use your cancer, stage four we'll call it, if you don't use your stage four cancer as a means to draw near to the Lord. To draw near to Him and just look expectantly to Him, whether He gives you, continues your life for another 10 years, or whether He takes you to be with Him in the next 10 minutes. Use your cancer to draw near. God's purpose in our suffering goes far beyond our earthly experience and extends to the pursuit of His glory. We're pursuing His glory through our sufferings. And fifthly, we can be certain that the wicked will know the fury of God's vengeance, but His patience is a grace His patience is a grace and not a dereliction of his duty to judge. Don't think that God is being a derelict because he's not judging right today. Now, I would love to see him bring judgment today. I'm the one who would be pulling the trigger a lot quicker than it seems like God's pulling it. But then for him, time is, he dwells outside of time. 2,000 years for him is nothing. We've been waiting 2,000 years for Christ to come a second time, but to God it's gone by pretty quickly. He dwells outside of time. So don't think that because he's being gracious that he's a derelict, that he doesn't care to judge or that he's indifferent to judging. He's not like the unjust judge. And we just finally close with, Number six, and I don't have this up here, but I wrote out, number six, God protects His own through our persistent prayer. God protects His own through our persistent prayer. We need to persist in prayer. It draws us to Him. It gets us lined up with His plans and purposes. It draws our hearts to Him so that we are one with Him in heart and soul. And regardless of what the world is doing, we have our eyes focused on Him. We sang this morning, turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of this world will grow strangely dim. See, we sang that this morning. Turn your eyes on Him, and the things of this world will begin to become less and less and less important. Let's close with a word of prayer, and then we'll sing the chorus of Find Us Faithful. Father, we thank You, Lord, for Your Word. We thank You that You are a God who keeps Your Word. We thank You that You continue to keep Your Word. Help us, Lord, to be consumed more and more with Your return. Grow our love for you, Lord. Increase our desire to invest in the eternal and not to chase after the fleeting things that pass away. Help us, Lord, to fix our eyes on You. You are forever. The souls of men are forever. Your Word is forever. Help us, Lord, to chase after and seek the things that are eternal. Lord, we plead for You to come. Change us into the image of Christ more and more. May Your glory resound one day throughout this corrupt world. We look forward to being part of that kingdom one day. And may You rule as You intended. We give you all the praise and the glory. We pray these things in Jesus' name.