Good morning. If you'd open your Bibles with me this morning to Luke chapter 18, we will look at verses 1 through 8. If you find Mark, make a right. If you find John, make a left. And I believe in the Pew Bible, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 877. Before we read, would you pray with me? Father, we are grateful for this day and we are grateful for the opportunity to gather as brothers and sisters in Christ and to look at your Word and to seek instruction. I pray, Lord, that you would help me to speak wisely, clearly, and rightly. that you would help me to avoid foolishness, silliness, and certainly anything that is incorrect. Pray that you would help the hearers to hear your word, to heed your word, that when we leave this place, we might seek to renew our commitment to being persistent prayers. We pray that this time, of course, would honor you first and foremost. We trust that you will do with this time what you have ordained and we humble ourselves before you It is a great privilege to hear your word. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8 says this. And 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. 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? I do not take lightly the privilege of being able to stand here this morning and do my very best to share with you this text, this parable that our Lord spoke to his disciples. I also recognize that I am not your pastor, nor am I on staff at this church in any way. And that, in my opinion, changes how I think about preaching, how I think about any sort of authority that I would Therefore, my goal this morning is to seek that we might leave this place being mutually encouraged by God's Word. So this morning I thought we would take a look at this parable in Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8. I believe that the purpose of Jesus' story here is to encourage his disciples on how they should live in the time between his first coming and his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and the time of his second coming, which is the same time, in fact, that we live in. I believe this because I think that this text comes on the heels of a discussion that began toward the end of Luke chapter 17. So that the context of this parable is a discussion that began between Jesus and a group of people, at least containing some Pharisees and some disciples. The discussion was centered around the kingdom of God. In verse 20 of Luke 17, the discussion begins when some Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. To which Jesus responded, Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Presumably referring to his presence and his ministry. As the discussion continues and Jesus continues to speak, he turns his focus to his disciples according to verse 22. And the gist of his comments moving forward in the passage, and as it progresses, concern the things that will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. That's verse 30. So there's a conversation that's going on that has in its substance the already and the not yet aspect of the Kingdom of God. And so he's encouraging his disciples in how they will live in that interim time between his first coming and then his ascension and his second coming. that time period where the gospel is going forth, spreading throughout the world, that time period where his disciples are going out and proclaiming this message, and then that time period where they're also facing heavy persecution for this message, and ultimately, most of them giving their lives for this message. So, How do they live as they await his arrival? As those who have been with him the last several years, seeing his works and his signs, hearing his teaching, seeing all the things that have happened, and now he's gone, how then shall we live? So this morning then, I want us to take a look at this story, this parable of Luke 18, and we'll try to hit it with three main headings. Those headings would be the parable told, the parable explained, and the parable lived out. You can see how incredibly good I am at coming up with headings. The parable told, the parable explained, and the parable lived out. So, let's start this morning with the parable told. Now, before we get into the meat of this story, I'd like us to establish a bit of a framework for our study. Because one of the things that's important for us to understand when we look at a parable is that it's a unique kind of literature that's going to present us with some unique opportunities and challenges in its interpretation. The word parable in the original language literally means thrown alongside or set alongside, so that It's a story that is set alongside a truth in order to, by way of comparison, teach us about that truth. Ultimately, a definition that I see over and over again among commentators of the word parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. So, a parable is a fictional or made-up story that is real world. Some of you like the shows that might be like a World War II or a Civil War setting, and it's a story about a fictional character that lives during a real-time actual event. These stories are made up stories that the hearer would immediately understand. So that if the teller, here Jesus, were to say or start a story about a widow and a judge who's unjust, his hearers would immediately get what he's talking about. So that if he tells a story about a sower who goes out to sow, immediately in the mind of the hearers, they know what he's talking about. That's what makes parables so effective. They're fictional, but they're real world understandable stories that are told to the hearers in order to elicit a response from the hearers. Next. As we start in our interpretation of this parable, I want you to know something about what I believe about the Bible itself. I believe that the Bible is inerrant. It is without mixture of error. I believe that the Bible is God-breathed. In other words, it's inspired by God. So that, if you said to me, who wrote the letter to the Ephesians? Was it the Apostle Paul or was it God? I would say, yes. So the Apostle Paul, in his personality, and his education, and his attitude, and his understanding, legitimately sat down and either dictated or wrote himself a letter to the church at Ephesus, and yet somehow, by God's mysterious providential grace, he caused Paul, by his spirit, to write exactly what he wanted him to write. I believe, therefore, that the Scripture is authoritative. It gets to tell you what to do. I believe that the Scripture is sufficient. And I believe it is clear. But, having said that, within the pages of Scripture, we also recognize that there are different types of literature contained within the pages of your Bible. And that those different types of literature need to be handled a little bit differently. They need to be understood a little bit differently. Let me give you a couple of examples. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus and a crowd of his disciples and other people went to a town called Nain, where there was a funeral going on. And what had happened was, a widow's only son had died. and the son was being carried out, taken in order to be buried. This would have been devastating to the widow, not only because she was already a widow and her son died, but because her son died. And her son was her only son and would have been really important for her as far as being able to provide for her needs. Jesus comes along, raises this young man from the dead and restores him to his mother. It's a miracle. This is narrative literature. There's no reason on the planet for us to interpret it any other way than Jesus came into this town, rose this man from the dead, and everybody went home happy. Straight up, straightforward interpretation. On the other hand, we might open our Bible to the book of Revelation. You say, I never open my Bible to the book of Revelation. You should. It's good. But you may come to some passages that are talking about dragons and beasts and different things like this. And because the book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature, we might take those pictures as a more picturesque word used by the Apostle John. In other words, We have a narrative account, we have an apocalyptic account, we read them a little bit differently. The Bible is filled with several different kinds of literature, poetry, wisdom, apocalyptic, narrative, and we handle them differently. So it's critical that we understand this about parables, that like these other types of literature, they are a type of literature, and they bring with them some interpretive principles that we would be well served to know. Now, throughout church history, people have handled parables differently at kind of different times, right? Maybe they've handled them better at certain times and not so well At other times, let me give you an example. There was a church father named Origen, and this is his thoughts on the parable of the Good Samaritan. Hopefully you're at least somewhat familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. He said, and I quote, the man who fell among robbers is Adam. Jerusalem represents heaven. And Jericho, since it is away from Jerusalem, represents the world. The robbers are man's enemies, the devil and his and his comrades. Robbers are man's enemies, the devil and his comrades. The priest stands for the law, the Levite for the prophets, and the Good Samaritan for Christ himself. The beast on which the wounded man was placed is Christ's body, which bears the fallen Adam. The end is the church, while the two pence are the Father and the Son. The Good Samaritan promises that he will come back again, so Christ Jesus will come again at the end of the world." I appreciate all the work that went into that. I'd say don't handle parables that way. I think the best way to handle parables is to look for a primary principle or truth that is being taught in the story. Don't take every little piece apart and try to make it into something. Find what the meaning and purpose of the story is and that will help you understand. So it's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, and it's usually teaching one primary thing by way of comparison. By the way, the main point of this parable is explicitly stated in the text, which is going to become clear to us over the next several hours. I'm teasing. Although when you don't preach very often, you never know how long your sermon's going to last. So if I just abruptly quit and walk down, it's either because I'm terribly discouraged or I'm out of time. So with that said, let's dive into this parable. The story that Jesus tells in verses 1 through 8 introduces us to two fictional but realistic characters. The first character we are introduced to in verse 2 is a judge. Now what you'll notice as you read through this text is that Jesus is very explicit in his description of the character of this judge, and that's purposeful. So that when we read about this judge and his hearers heard about this judge, they were able to picture what this guy was all about. Notice that the text says that the man neither feared God nor respected man, and that later in verse 6, Jesus just refers to him as unrighteous. And by the way, it's not just the watching world that sees that this man is unrighteous and unjust, but he himself in verse 4 says, though I neither fear God nor respect man. This is a fictional story about a man that is uber-wicked. They got it because in Rome this was all too familiar. This was all too common to have these judges who were unscrupulous characters, wicked, self-promoting people, many of whom are all too willing to have their judgments swayed by the highest bidder. So this is a wicked man. This is an unjust man. This is a cruel man. Notice, by the way, that when Jesus describes him, he describes him as neither fearing God nor respecting man. You guys are good Bible scholars. You guys know that the first and greatest commandment is what? I thought that'd be way louder. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Right? Fear God. And the second is like it, it is... That was better. Good. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus describes this man as being completely contradictory and on the other side of the first and greatest commandment and the second which is like it. About this man, John MacArthur says, this judge was shameless. He had no spark of honor, no sense of character, no noble point to which he could be appealed. Neither for God's sake nor for man's sake would he be moved to do what is right. This is the worst possible human being, and his wickedness has all kinds of tragic implications because he is making decisions that affect people's lives. Now, after meeting this character, we meet another character simply described as a widow. Now, here's where some cultural differences have to be ironed out. In our day, becoming a widow, let me say this right so I don't sound terrible, becoming a widow is not always dramatically a terrible thing, right? Becoming my widow would not be that bad, right? You understand what I'm saying? Now what I mean by that is that in our culture, often safety nets are put in place by husbands so that when he is gone and his wife becomes a widow, things are okay. He might have life insurance, he might have a pension, whatever might be the situation. If nothing else, she probably has social security. Her expenses are covered. Her provision is covered. That's our culture. The culture that Jesus is speaking to is not like that at all. In our culture, it's not necessarily a devastating thing. In that culture, it was a devastating thing to become a widow, especially if you're a widow without sons. So if I live in a patriarchal culture, the men are going out and they are providing for their families, bringing their sustenance, the wife is most likely most consumed by affairs of the family, and women are, for the most part, kept out of money-making commerce. We see some different things throughout Paul's letter referring to widows, but that's kind of the general idea. He makes the money and we go from there. Now the problem was that in that culture also, often older men would marry younger women. You might have a woman that got married in her teens to a much older man. And in that culture and in that time, the life expectancy was such that often men would die at a relatively young age. So that widowhood was a dramatic thing that was not all that common. And these women would find themselves without a husband, without provision, possibly in debt, and it was a destitute situation. So what would be even worse, and was probably the case for this woman in this story because Jesus tells the stories in kind of a worst case scenario situation, what would be an even worse situation would be if she lost her husband and was without a son to provide for her. So it's for this reason that throughout the scripture, we are told by God to care for the widow and the fatherless. Exodus 22.22 says, you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. And if you've read the book of Ruth, you see one of the ways that that happened is that the widows and other people in need were able to glean from fields that were not their own. Unfortunately, As is the case most often, widows were often mistreated, taken advantage of, and disregarded altogether. So here's a woman that has no advocate. She has no money. She likely has debt. She has no voice. She's in a desperate situation. Furthermore, as we read on, we see that this woman has an adversary who's seeking to do her more harm. Could be that somebody is seeking to fleece her. Could be that somebody is seeking to take what she has because of debts. All we know is that someone is seeking to take advantage of this woman. So it's hard to picture for us this woman's situation because we're so far removed from that way of life. But what if we drew something of a parallel between the widow of that day and the young single mom of our day? Often needing to work, obviously. Often not knowing who's going to take care of her children. Often falling into debt and often being very vulnerable. I appreciate about the women's ministry of this church that they are seeking to minister to those very people. That's good. So this woman is in a desperate situation, and there is one person that can help her. namely the judge that we met earlier. Now, remember, he doesn't care about God. He doesn't care about people. He is driven by self and sin and monetary gain. So when this woman comes to him saying in verse 3, give me justice against my adversary, this man has zero interest in helping her. The text says in verse 4, for a while he refused. He recognized he was to gain nothing from helping her, and he intended to ignore her at all costs. But notice that as time goes on, she just keeps coming back. She just keeps pleading with him. And according to, I think, the context of the story, her case is an obvious one. This is a woman who is being treated unjustly. This is a woman who is being fleeced. This is a woman who needs help so that as she comes back and back and back, the judge likely begins to worry that he's going to look bad if he doesn't help this woman. So according to verses four and five, he says, 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 so finally, after pleading and pleading and pleading, she gets the justice that she needed. Did the judge care about the woman? No. Did he really want to help her? No. Did he change his mind? No. Did he feel sympathy for her? No. It comes down to she's wearing him out with her coming. She's bruising him with her coming. Constantly coming to him, pleading to him. It's getting to the point where he's looking bad for ignoring her. So he gives her justice. Number two, the parable explained. So I told you that parables explain a truth by comparison, by laying a story alongside a truth. So we could read this parable and we could say, oh, I got it. We are the widow. God is the judge. And so what this parable is teaching is that while we wait for the return of Jesus, we're to wear God out with our prayers. If we want something, or we think we need something, if we'll just get our prayer life together, and we'll keep coming, and coming, and coming, and if we have enough faith, eventually, even though He's reluctant, He'll give in. That sounds crazy. Unless we've prayed that way before. I mean, I've heard sermons where that's the point of the sermon. Just keep coming back. Beat him into submission. I don't think that's the point of this parable. Rather, I think that when we look at this parable, the idea here, the application here can be summed up with three words of contrast. I don't know if you take notes. I don't know if you're writing your Bible margins. I don't know. Just remember these three words, how much more. That's the idea. Because you, Christian, are not the widow. You are not without an advocate. You are not coming to one who is unjust. You are not coming to one who wants to ignore you. You are not coming to one who doesn't want to hear it, but may relent eventually over time because he just wants to get rid of you. Instead, you, Christian, are cared for. You are beloved. He loves to listen to your prayers. He means good for you. He plans good for you. And He loves for you to come to Him. And He loves to give good gifts to His people. The unjust judge gives in and gives her justice. How much more a God who loves His people? That's how you work your way through this parable. How much more? Will our God, who is not like this judge, give us what we need? This parable is not about you beating God down by constantly bending His ear about what you think you want. This parable is about how great and kind our Heavenly Father is. So that leads us to number three, the parable lived out. These are just a few ways you could implement this. If this is how we're to live in our time while we wait for the Lord's return, what might that look in our day-to-day life? Number one, do what Jesus says to do. As I told you earlier, the point of this parable is specifically and explicitly stated in verse one. What's the reason he tells this parable? So that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. That's the point. That's the idea. Taking into account what we've learned about the widow and the judge and us and our Heavenly Father, we ought in this period of time while we wait between His comings while we see the culture darken, while we watch loved ones persist in unbelief, while we see the gospel spreading to every tribe and tongue and nation, while we face persecution, while we just at times grow leery. He's saying pray and don't lose heart. Pray and don't faint. Continue in prayer. Pray because your Father is good. Pray because your Father says to. Pray because it's a necessity for His elect. Will not God give justice to His elect who cry to Him day and night? Yes, He will. He means nothing but good for them. Will He delay long over them? No. He will give justice to them speedily. Prayer is a necessity for God's elect. God's elect must pray. His people must pray. If you are in this room and you believe yourself to be a believer, and you don't pray, and you don't see a need to pray, I'm not certain that your salvation is for real. God's people will pray. They have to pray. So do what the parable says to do. Continue in prayer. Don't lose heart. Continue. He hears your prayers. Second, elect of God, rejoice in the character of the God by whom you have been chosen. For a long time I struggled with this parable because I didn't like that God was being compared to an unjust judge. And then I came to realize that it's comparison by contrast. He's not like an unjust judge. Psalm 145 verses 8 and 9. says the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that He has made. Nehemiah 9.17 says He is a God ready to forgive. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4 says, The rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He. And we could literally go on for hours about the character and the attributes of our God. He's good and He's kind He's faithful. He's merciful. He's just. He's right. He's righteousness and He's holy. My second favorite book in the world is Knowing God by J.I. Packer. And that's the point. That for Christians, there is no higher study than God. to know Him, learning about His character. If you belong to Him, Christian, He loves you. He is for you. He has good planned for you. You don't have to beat Him down in prayer. Just persist in prayer. Just continue in prayer. Last point of application. If you haven't been saved yet, be saved. I don't know how a text could be more enticing than this for those of you who sit here today and you still haven't been saved. He is a Father to His people. He hears His people. He is not a God that is far off. He is a God that is near. Now, in regard to the phrase, His elect, as we see in verse 7, that word literally means chosen or picked out. And what the Bible teaches about the word elect is that God in His foreknowledge before the foundation of the world set aside a people for His own glory that would be ransomed out of their sin and brought into a right relationship with Him to enjoy Him for all eternity. He knew man would fall. He knew Christ would come. He knew Christ would perfectly accomplish the work of redemption, and He knew every one of us, past, now, and future, from throughout the globe, that would turn from their sins and put their faith in Him, and He will save every single one of them. And He will lose not a one of them. You say, I knew a guy though, and he believed, and then he walked away. He left because he was not of us. someday get saved. Listen, He will save every single one of His elect, and He will lose zero of them. In a church like this, you could be a young person who comes here week after week after week, and you say, that all sounds good, but what if I'm not the elect? What if I'm not one that's been chosen? What if I want to be saved, but I can't be because He didn't pick me? That could be a legit question a kid might ask. Or a new person. An old person. Let me answer that question for you. And this is how we will close. How can I know if I'm the elect of God? Here's what I want you to do. And what I want you to do is according to what the scripture says to do. I want you to recognize today that you have sinned against God many, many, many times. If you just read the Ten Commandments and read it legitimately, you will see I have sinned against God over and over and over again. And I want you to recognize today that according to the Bible, there's nothing you can do to fix that. Coming here every week isn't going to fix that. It's a good thing, but it's not going to fix that. Being homeschooled is a good thing. It ain't going to fix it. You say, I don't drink and I don't chew and I don't date the girls that do. That's a good thing. It ain't going to fix it. There is nothing that you can do to fix that. You're not going to be able to, by some cosmic scale, outweigh the good or the bad with the good. You'll never bring it up. It's never going to happen. It's impossible. But I have some tremendous news for you. God has loved this world so much that he sent Jesus into this world for the express purpose of going to the cross in order that people like you and me and all of them around can be saved. Can be brought into a right relationship with God and all of that sin the many many many times you've sinned against God that can be all taken away and You can be fully forgiven and fully justified Do you know there are people that say the word justification means it's just as if I never sinned and That's true. But you know what? Justification is so much more than that. It's not only, sinner, that it will be just as if you've never sinned. It will be, in God's eyes, just as if you only, always, perfectly obeyed His law. Because when Jesus went to the cross, What made it so dramatic and awful is that all of God's judgment for all of His elect from the past and from now and from however this thing lasts was taken and was put on Jesus. So that in this amazing exchange, His righteousness and perfection could be taken and credited to you. That's good news. I want you to understand that God says that if you believe on Jesus, you will be saved. If you put all of your trust and hope and faith, not in yourself, not in routine, not in religion, but on Jesus, you will be saved. There's no equivocation there. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. I want to encourage you to do that. And then I want to encourage you to always pray and not lose heart. And then I want to encourage you to follow Jesus by doing what He says in the Scripture. And I want to encourage you to follow Him every day the rest of your life. Constantly recognizing sin that remains and getting rid of it. Constantly fixing your eyes on Him and walking forward. And I'll tell you what will happen. If you get to the end, whether it's when He returns or when you are done, you know what it will show? You're the elect of God. You say, I want to be saved, but I don't know if I'm elect. If you want to be saved and you follow Christ, you are the elect. It's easy to answer that question. While we wait, Christians, let's persist. Let's continue in prayer. Let's pray right now. Father, we are grateful that you are good and kind and merciful and gracious and that you hear our prayers and that you have good planned for us. And we recognize that the greatest good that we will receive is you. I pray for those who would sit here and they haven't been saved yet, I pray for them that today would be the day of salvation. I pray for us as a church, help us to persist in prayer and not lose heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.