Mrs. Hanover was married to a very successful businessman. She herself, she was a believer, a Christian, but her husband was not. And so she prayed for her husband that he might come to accept Christ. Day after day, month after month, year after year, but he did not. She was praying that God might send some circumstance into his life, no doubt, or someone, perhaps, that would convince him of his need to receive Christ. She prayed, she prayed, she prayed, until one day she got a phone call. That day, her prayer stopped. Her husband had been killed in an accident. From that day forward, she felt that God had failed her somehow, for perhaps he didn't love her or care about her needs. And Mrs. Hanover became bitter. She stopped serving the Lord, living for him. She didn't lose her salvation, we know that. But she lost her fellowship with God. They lost the joy of her salvation. She gave up on her daily relationship with her heavenly father. She walked away. Has the feeling that God has let you down ever crept into your life? Sure it has. We've all felt that, right? Sometime, someday, in some situation, without even any thought. It's just something that afflicts us as human beings. Maybe it was just for an instant. Maybe you reminded yourselves of how faithful God was and quickly got past it. Or maybe you harbored anger toward God for a long time, as Mrs. Hanover did. I've talked to far too many people over the years who did the same. But you see, Jesus understands how hard it is for us to trust Him. That's not so hard when all's going well, but in the dark days, in the difficult times, He knows how hard it is to maintain our faith. And he desperately wants to help us see things from an eternal perspective. And that's exactly what he's doing in Luke chapter 18, which is our text today. In the parable of the unjust judge, he's emphasizing the fact that we must never give up on God. He uses these words. The Scripture uses these words, at least in verse one, before he begins the parable. It says, now he was telling them a parable to show them that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. That means to give up, to become resigned, to lose hope. Now, the parable is about prayer, yes, but more importantly, it's about faith. Trust in God all the time through everything, the hard times and the bad, all that happened to us. Jesus wants us to trust him in those difficult days. He doesn't want us to ever come to that point where we throw up our hands and lose all hope and give up on God, give up on his goodness, give up on his faithfulness. but he knows there will be times when we'll feel like doing just that. And that's why he spoke this parable. And the gist of the parable is given to us in verse one. Luke writes, he was telling them a parable. It's interesting because the tense of the verb here, was telling, means that he didn't just tell it once. He was in the process of maybe repeating it. He knows how much it's needed. The message that he was about to deliver is called a parable by Luke here in verse one. Now, the word parable in the original means to lay two things down together, side by side, as if you were laying down two pieces of wood to see which one was longer or shorter or how they compared in some other way. So a parable always has a singular purpose. And that purpose is either a comparison of two things, or maybe we could say a contrast. It's looking at one thing versus the other. And the parable here is the story that Jesus tells. But there is a comparison he is making to what he is delivering here as a lesson. And that comparison is between the unjust judge and God. We must not make the mistake as we begin this parable to believe that somehow God is being compared to this unjust judge. No, that's not what's happening. It's not a comparison, it's a contrast in this case. The unjust judge is like this, God is like this. We have to keep that in mind to understand what we read in these verses. And what he's doing is giving us some very, very good reasons why we must never give up on God, that we must never lose heart, that we must never give up on prayer, that we continue to make our relationship with Him vibrant on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, and not because of some other circumstance, give up and walk away from that. So here's the message. He tells us in verse one, don't lose heart. Don't give up on God. Now he's going to tell us why, and he begins with the parable. So let's read it together. saying in a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect men. Now that's not a very good judge. That's not the qualifications you want for someone that you put in that position, right? He didn't fear God, and he didn't have any respect for men either. He basically didn't have any respect for anybody except himself. Self-motivated, that was it. Verse three, there was a widow in that city and she kept coming. That means she came over and over and over and over. She kept coming back to him with some need. It was a legal request. It was some relief she was after, some decision or judgment in regard to a civil matter perhaps between her and someone else. And there was a widow in the city, and she kept coming to him, saying, give me legal protection from my opponent. For a while, he was unwilling. I'm guessing it would have been for quite a while, because she kept coming and coming and coming. For a while, he was unwilling, but afterward, he said to himself, even though I do not fear God, nor respect this nor respect men. Yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection. Otherwise, by continually coming, she will wear me out." His motivation was selfish. He didn't care about the widow. He didn't care about her situation. He didn't care about her plight. It was of no concern to him. He could have done what she asked at any point, but he wouldn't even take the time or make the whatever little effort may have been required to do anything for her. But she kept coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, day after day. He finally got tired of it. He said, okay, I'll just give her what she wants and get her off my back. Parents, you kind of know what that's like, right? Your son or your daughter, your children, they keep coming, coming, coming, coming. If there's something they want, they'll remind you multiple times, right? Now, it's kind of difficult sometimes as a parent to know when to say no for purposes of not depriving them of something, but helping them understand something important. You can't have everything. You don't get every request that you make. And the Lord said, verse 6, after giving this parable, and the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Did you hear it? He doesn't care about this woman. He has no respect for them. Any man, he's got no respect for human beings. He doesn't fear God, he only cares about himself, and he only relented and did what he did because he was tired of the woman bothering him. The mistake we make is thinking that we're learning something about God here, and we are, but we're not learning it in the sense of comparing him to that judge. He's the opposite of that. He's the absolute 180 degrees different from this judge. But he says, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Hear what? Hear how unrighteous he was. Hear how selfish he was. Hear how it was necessary for him to be inundated with these requests to such a degree that he just threw up his hands and said, whatever, I'll give you what you want, get out of here, get off my back, get out of my life. That's what he said. The point of the parable is that we must not give up on God's help. He already told us that in verse one. So what's this? This is the contrast. You see, God's not like men. He's not like unjust men, and He certainly wasn't like this unjust judge. Men are not dependable, and they're selfish. Well, now, not all men all the time, but basically speaking, fallen human creatures can't depend on Him, and they're all about themselves. They're self-serving. But God is not like that. And God will respond to our needs for a totally different motivation and reason. Look at verse 7. Now, he says, Jesus speaking, now, will not God bring about justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? And will he delay long over them? Okay, let's examine those two questions. Will not God bring justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? The rhetorical question is answered with a yes. Yes, he will. He won't be like the unjust judge. He won't require. you convincing him to do what you need to have done. He won't make it dependent on your worthiness or your persistence or anything else. And then he asks a second question, will he delay long over them? And the answer to this rhetorical question is no, he won't. He will promptly take care of our needs. You see, when we understand this parable in the wrong sense, we come up with the idea that prayer is about convincing God to do what we want Him to do. We come up with the ideas that somehow God just wants to make sure that we're serious. That if we just stay at it, and we persist, and we continue to pray, and if we pray long enough, and if we pray hard enough, and if we pray to the degree that's necessary, eventually, God is gonna relent and answer our prayers. That is not how our loving God operates. It's just the opposite of that. That doesn't mean we should not persist in prayer. God expects us to let every request be made known to him. He tells us that in Philippians 4, 6, and 7. He doesn't mind we come over and over about the same thing. But God is a loving God and all that's required on his end is just one request. Have you ever prayed a prayer one time and forgot about it? And then God answers it, and you say, wow, look what God did. He answered my prayer. Like, what a surprise. I didn't have to pray for six weeks. I didn't have to pray for, when I was in college, we had this 24-hour prayer vigil. You ever do one of those things? Nothing wrong with that. It was a great experiment. As long as we don't take away from it the idea that God's only going to answer prayers when he's impressed with our prayer life. And we get confused and tend to wonder, isn't that what he's saying here though? Because when we read it and we don't understand it's a contrast, it's two opposites. then we get to thinking in the wrong way about prayer, especially when you come down to verse seven, the latter question of the two rhetorical questions. Will he delay over us? And we think, yeah, he will, because I prayed about this for a long time and nothing's happened. He hasn't answered my prayer. Well, there's some problems you see sometimes with our prayers. Sometimes God doesn't answer our prayer because we are not in a right relationship with Him. We are out of fellowship with Him. He, as a parent with a disciplined child, perhaps, is disciplining us, and He's not going to grant our request because we're not right. Sometimes he doesn't answer our prayer because our prayer is totally wrong. We're asking him for something we want, but it's not necessarily something we need. And I don't mean need in a desperate sense. I mean, we tend to pray too much about things we want and then get frustrated when God doesn't answer when our prayer has been all about Just that, our wants. And not what's best for us. So God sometimes answers our prayer not in accord with what we ask, but in a much better way. By working in our life to make us more like Him. The Bible teaches us that all things work together for good to those that know Him, right? Romans 8, 28. That's a matter of faith. And then there's those requests we make, and there's nothing wrong with us. It's a legitimate request. And it's even something He wants to do for us, but it's not the right time. There's a delay. God knows the right time, the right moment, the right moment that will do the most good in our life for our character development and our Christ-likeness, a time when it'll bring the most glory to Him, the time when it will be a witness to more people. There's a right time, a perfect time. And God's timing doesn't often match up with our impatience. That's all true. And there is nothing wrong with continuing to pray about something we feel is a matter of importance and trusting God in the process. We may even come to a point in our life where we stop praying about something because God's not answered. And we sort of come to that point of peace in our heart and soul and with the Holy Spirit. And we feel like, you know, this is just not God's will. And we put it aside. That's perfectly legitimate. That's not giving up on God. This parable ultimately is not about a singular request and whether we give up on that request. That's not what the parable is about. The parable is about giving up on our relationship with the God who answers our prayers. That's what Jesus doesn't want us to do. I can think of a number of things that I prayed for over time in my life and there come to a point where I just said, you know, Lord, I understand it's not your will. I've not prayed the prayer since. That's not giving up on God. That's understanding that my request wasn't his will in my life. He usually dictates that by some matter of circumstance that he sovereignly orchestrates, gets the point across. So the parable doesn't teach that God is like the unjust God. It teaches that he's exactly the opposite. He cares about us, and he will respond to our needs at the right time, the appointed time, his time. From 1873 to 1876, there was a grasshopper invasion in Minnesota. Some people call them locusts, some people call them grasshoppers, some species that devour everything. We're familiar with them biblically from the account of the plagues on Egypt. Now, they say that this plague of grasshoppers back in the late 1870s in Minnesota was of biblical proportions. I don't know that we can say that, but it was pretty bad. Beginning in 1873 and ramping up all the way to the most devastating year of 1876, for four years, they stripped the prairie, the fields of the wheat. They devoured it all. They blackened the sky. It got so bad that accounts say that they actually also consumed door frames, window seals, shovel handles, fence posts, and leather boots. That's a pretty bad grasshopper infestation. Needless to say, this was devastating to the livelihood of the farmers. As 1877 approached, they were terrified that it would be even worse, because it just kept getting worse every year, the reproduction of the insects. They had a new governor, his name was John S. Pillsbury, and he was doing what governors do, trying to figure out how to help the people that were suffering. But the people came to him and said, Governor, what we really want you to do is to proclaim a day of prayer. And he did, to his credit. Now, that doesn't mean nobody was praying from 1873 to 1877. They'd been praying and praying and praying for four years. Lord, relieve us of the grasshoppers. And the Lord hadn't done it, but they persisted. They continued to pray. They continued to trust the Lord. And they went to the governor and they said, proclaim a day of prayer, so he did. He urged every man, woman, and child to ask God to prevent further tragedy. On the day appointed, April 26th, 1877, schools, shops, stores, offices, all closed in observance of the day of prayer, and everybody prayed. Temperatures soon soared above what's even the norm in mid-summer in Minnesota, and this was April. And the heat persisted for three days. The people were terrified to discover that billions of grasshopper larvae were wriggling to life right before their very eyes. Their worst case scenario was about to unfold. It appeared the plague would return. But surprisingly, well, Maybe not so surprisingly. Surprisingly, after three days of heat, the weather turned cold. The temperature dropped dramatically. The frost covered the ground. And some accounts I read said they actually had snow and ice. The result? Every single grasshopper larva that was wiggling to life a few days before was killed. God answered prayer. He didn't answer it in 1873, 74, 75, did he answer it in 1877? At his appointed time, for his glory, for the benefit of those whose prayer he answered. So don't give up on God. He will answer our prayers. He will respond to our needs at the right time. the right time. That's reason number one why we shouldn't give up on God. Reason number two is found in verse eight. It involves what Jesus said after he delivered the parable. The second reason why we should not give up on God is caught in his words in verse eight. He says, I tell you, And this is kind of an answer to verse six, where he says, how long will He delay over them? Which is the answer is He won't delay long. Verse eight, I tell you, speaking of God the Father, He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? You see, ultimately, God will answer every prayer we've ever prayed, that's within his will, at the right time, and he will right every wrong, ultimately. That's what he's talking about here. Now let's back up for a minute and understand. The parable is about a woman who wants some legal relief. And that's why I say God will answer all of our prayers, and those answers are on the horizon, and He will also right all wrongs. But the parable is not just about some argument or disagreement or legal battle that we go through in life. It's about anybody that abuses us, takes advantage of us, whether in a court of law or some other way, and it's also about our needs, because that would just be one of a multiple list of needs that we would have in our life. The point of the parable is about not giving up on God, not the specifics of the parable. Now, in reference to our needs, God answers many prayers in many ways, promptly, maybe with some delay, but fairly promptly throughout our lifetime. God delights in answering our prayers. James writes in James chapter four and verse two, these words, you do not have because you do not ask. My wife quotes it to me quite often from the King James Version, you have not because you ask not. That's because she prays about everything. For some reason, I'm too practical as a man. I just pray about things that I think are really important. I don't know why, I just had that thought in my mind, you know, I'm not gonna bother God about a parking place. But she'll pray for a parking place. And lo and behold, there will be a parking place. I'll drive around the parking lot five times, not bothering God and not have a parking place. We have not because God delights in answering our prayers. I've had those experiences where I've prayed one prayer and God answered it, bang. Shouldn't surprise us, but it happens. I've had times when I didn't even fashion my thought into a prayer. I just thought, oh, I hope this happens. And God goes, pow. And that's just always an exciting thing to see. But most often, God doesn't answer prayers right on the spot, but throughout our lifetime, he answers multiple prayers, many prayers. And he says in James, there'd be a lot more if you'd ask more. We shouldn't be ashamed to ask God. Let all your requests be made known unto God, Paul says. While crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner, F.B. Meyer, who was a really well-known preacher back in the late or early 1900s, I think it was, was still traveling across the sea rather than airplanes, which were not available. So he was on an ocean liner and the captain came to F.B. Meyer and asked him if he would address the first class passengers. I guess they segregated those guys pretty well from those second and third class passengers. So he addressed the first class passengers. And the topic of his message was answered prayer. And he preached a message that was well received. But there was one guy who was an agnostic, an unbeliever. And someone said, well, what are you doing here? And he said, well, I just wanted to see what the old guy would say. I don't believe any of it. Later then, the captain asked the passenger, would he address the other passengers? And they all gathered to hear him. But a lot of the people that heard him the first time, the first class passengers, they decided they were gonna go hear him again, including the agnostic. And as he was walking down there thinking, I'll just go hear what the old guy says, I don't believe any of it, He picked up a couple of oranges and had them in his hand. First class passengers probably had more advantage to what they had to eat. As he walked across the deck, there was an elderly woman sitting in a deck chair, leaning back asleep with both hands open like this. He thought it would be funny to put an orange in both hands. So he put an orange in both hands and walked on, smiled. He went and he heard F.B. Meyer again. He came out and he was walking back, and there sat the woman in the desk, in the deck chair, eating an orange. And he said something to her about, was she enjoying the orange or whatever? And she said, yes, sir. My father was very good to me. He said, your father? Surely your father can't still be alive. She explained, I'll tell you, sir, I've been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I guess that helps seasickness, I don't know. Or she thought it did. I've been asking God to send me an orange. I suppose I fell asleep while I was praying. And when I awoke, I found that he not only sent me one, but two. And the agnostic was said to have walked off speechless. And by some reports later, became a believer himself. God delights in answering our prayers, sometimes in stunning fashion. But think about this now. Is it possible to go through life and God never answer a prayer in your lifetime and it still become a reality? Yes, absolutely. Isn't that what the scripture teaches us? How about Revelation chapter 21 verse four? John is describing eternity. This is after the millennium. He's about to go into a description of the new Jerusalem. We'll go all the way into chapter 22. He says in verse 21, or verse one of chapter 21, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And then in verse, Three, he says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and he will no longer, and there will be no longer any death, and there will be no longer any mourning, or crying, or pain. Doesn't that pretty well take care of it? Doesn't that pretty well encapsulate all of our needs for all of our lifetime? No more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. All emotional and physical pain and suffering wiped away. God will allow so much pain and suffering, physical, mental, and otherwise in this world. It's part of the trials we endure that he allows that we might be made in the image of Christ, matured, and so forth. He's like a father who doesn't always grant his son the immediate request because he needs to have his son realize some things he need to value more, wait on, work for, whatever. But ultimately, He will meet all of our needs. Isn't that a joyous thought? And one we need to keep before our eyes every day, every moment that we're praying about this or that, that is so important to us, when we're not seeing any movement in that regard. He will also right all wrongs, and since our parable used that as an example, think about it, He'll right all wrongs. The rich man and Lazarus, Luke chapter 16. The rich man had it all, lived just a luxurious life, had everything he needed, more than what he needed. And Lazarus subsisted on his garbage that he threw out. The rich man went to a place of suffering, and Lazarus went to a place where he was fully and completely comforted. Ultimately, the one who had no needs had an eternal need, and the one who had temporal needs had eternal comfort, eternal supply. So even the prayers that we don't see answered, the rights that need to be made, the balancing of the books that God will do in the far future are all a part of his character. Now look again at verse eight. You see that last part? However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Now if you just go back to chapter 17 of Luke and you read it, he's just completed the all of that discourse. It's all that he said to his disciples about the future. It's not as complete as what you find in Matthew 24 and 25, but he's talking about the same things. It's a cross-reference to Matthew 24 and 25. And in Matthew 24 and 25, he outlines all that will happen throughout the tribulation period leading up to the return of Jesus Christ at the end. And obviously that encompasses, of course, the believers being removed before all the suffering and the bad things happen. So, the Luke 18 parable, the unjust judge, is set in a prophetic context. That's why we can say with confidence, yes, he's talking about, look, you might have to pray about something for a lifetime But eventually, even if it's not now, eventually, God is going to come through. You can depend on him. Don't give up on him. And what Jesus is saying, when I come back, will I find faith on earth? Now, the very question presents The idea that he expects to find faith on earth, but it's not necessarily a given that he will, because that's up to us. Of course, we know that we will not be there, but there will be believers at that moment in time when he comes back, many that will come to Christ during the tribulation. So God expects us to have amazing faith, to trust Him in the good times and the bad, to trust Him in the dark days and the bright days, to partake of His goodness and receive of His answered prayers. But that's only a foretaste. That's just a foretaste of what's to come, the real answer to everything. the righting of all wrongs, the eliminating of all needs. That's something that the church and God's people should have in focus for their whole lifetime, and the church should never give up on, and individuals in the church should never give up. Roger Sims was packing for a business trip to Chicago. When he happened upon the business card of a man who had helped him in a time of need years before, he felt there would be a great opportunity to reconnect and express his gratitude to the man who helped him since he knew that man was headed to Chicago. And so he looked him up, so to speak, Drove to Chicago, that's where his business was, took along the man's card, found the offices of Hanover Enterprises, Chicago, went in and asked the receptionist if he could speak to Mr. Hanover. She politely said that he was not available, but that he could speak to Mrs. Hanover and ushered him into her office. She extended her hand and asked this question, you knew my husband? Roger explained they had met him while hitchhiking when Mr. Hanover had given him a ride. When was that, inquired Mrs. Hanover. Roger replied it was May 7th, five years ago. I know the day because it was the day I was discharged from the army. Five years ago, May 7th, Mrs. Hanover's husband had died in that tragic accident. And so, rather anxiously, she inquired, anything special about that day? And Roger said, Mrs. Hanover, I explained the gospel. He pulled over to the side of the road and he wept against the steering wheel, and that day he gave his life to Christ. And then he thanked me and he said, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. But you see, Mrs. Hanover didn't know it, and for five years, she quit serving God. For five years, she thought God couldn't be dependent on her. But God had sent the very person at the very moment that could deliver the message that would lead to his faith. Mrs. Hanover sobbed. and sobbed, and after she got a grip on herself, she said, I prayed for my husband's salvation for years. Anne said, Roger, where is your husband? He's dead, she said, still struggling with words. He was in a car crash after he let you out of the car that night. He never got home. To this, I will add, no, he never got home. but he went home, because God sent someone to tell him about Jesus. They'll never give up on God. That's what we take away from this. We can depend on God to answer our prayers. If they're legitimate prayers, if our prayer is right and within His will, And if we are in a right relationship with Him, He'll delight in answering our prayers, and He'll answer them for sure when the time is right. We don't know when that is, but He will. So I say to you this morning what Jesus said to us so many, many years ago. Don't lose heart. Don't give up on God.