Book of Luke - Ch. 18, Vs. 1-17 (10/04/2020)

Persistent Prayer in the Parable of the Unjust Judge

Okay, this morning we're going to study part of the 18th chapter of Luke, and because this is a, the first parable is a parable about the persistence of prayer, I thought it would be good that we begin the lesson with a prayer.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for all of our many blessings. Thank you for providing for us the Holy Spirit and your Son. Thank you for giving us a way out of the situations of the earth that confound us.

Bless us and keep us, go with us through the day, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So this is the parable of the persistent widow, or it could be subtitled, we ought to pray without ceasing. Verse 1 begins this way, and he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

Okay, who is the them that he's talking about? You need to remember Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He knows the ordeal that he and his disciples are going to face in just a couple of weeks. He is on his way back to Jerusalem where he will be crucified and his disciples scattered.

He also knows the value of a strong prayer life in adverse times. Now you also need to remember this, he is speaking to us. In Timothy it says, all scripture is good for instruction, admonition, correction.

This is scripture and it is good for all of those things. It is to teach us the necessity of persistent prayer. In light of the coming trials that we're going to face and the tribulations we're going to face, it's incumbent upon us to pray also without ceasing.

So I'm going to go back and read the first verse again. And he spake a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. So here's the beginning of the parable, saying there was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man.

Now I broke off there. This judge was a thoroughly evil man, as well as a fearless one. He was not one to fear retribution, nor likely to have much patience. John MacArthur said this about the judge. The judge was not given as a symbol of God, but rather in contrast to it.

If such an unjust man would respond to persistent pleas, would not God, who is not only just, but also loving and merciful, do so even more readily? That was John MacArthur's statement. And there was a widow in that city.

And she came unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. Apparently, someone had taken advantage of her. And her only recourse was to appeal to this dishonest judge. There was no other mediator available to her.

Chuck Nistler says this about her and about the judge. The judge, not the law, set the agenda. He had to be approached through his assistants. And the assistants often needed to be bribed. I add in this.

And undoubtedly, this being an unjust judge would demand a bribe, and so would his assistants. Now back to Nistler. He said she has three obstacles to overcome. A woman had no standing before the law.

Being a widow, she had no husband to stand with her. So she had no access to the court, really. She had no standing herself. She had no husband to stand with her. She was not only that, she was poor. And even if she wanted to pay the bribes to get access to the judge, she has no money to do so.

So she was poor, and she couldn't pay the bribe if she wanted to. So verse 4 says what the judge did. And he would not for a while, well, I've been away a while, so would not want for a while, would not avenge her of her adversary.

The judge was not inclined to grant a relief and would have dismissed her outright. But she refused to be deterred. But afterwards, he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me.

Now, I've checked that out, and this is very interesting. The word weary, the literal translation is hit under the eye. So what he is saying is she's giving me a black eye. What the judge would not do out of compassion for the widow, he would do out of sheer frustration with her incessant pleading.

She just kept coming back and coming back and coming back. And even though he wasn't going to give her relief, he finally decided not to. I'm sorry, he finally decided to give her relief just to keep her from coming back again and again and again.

And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith. Now, what I have done is I have summed up this parable in my own words. Of all the things that I think were going through the mind of the judge as he is dealing with this woman who keeps coming back, keeps coming back, and keeps coming back.

The first thing he thought was, I don't want to help her. There is nothing in about her that makes me want to help her. There's nothing in it for me. Moreover, I do not fear God. I don't even know God, and I believe God doesn't know him.

I do not hold any man in high regard. I do not hold this man, or this woman rather, in high regard. So that's what's going through his mind. And yet he says this, nevertheless, I will grant her relief if only she will stop bothering me.

So he is willing to give her what she wants just so she'll quit giving him a black eye in public. That is what is in it for him. That's exactly right. Getting rid of having to deal with the constant badgering, if you want to say it that way.

I don't want to call it badgering. Let's just call it pleading. She's not badgering him. She's pleading with him. Now Jesus begins to draw a contrast between God and the unjust judge. Verse 7, and shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them?

If constant pleading or petitioning to an unjust judge could bring relief, consider what a similar petition might accomplish if it were addressed to the judge of the universe, a judge that is good, kind, and merciful.

Now when I got here this morning, I thought about this, an old country song, and I think I know the title of it, and maybe you can correct me if I forgot it. But the title of the song, I think, is Thank God for Unanswered Prayers.

You remember that song? The old timers in here remember that? It's a litany of his wannabe girlfriends, the people he wanted to be his girlfriend, and that he's now relieved that they're no longer with him.

And so I thought, okay, are there ever any unanswered prayers? Now I want some response on this one. Dave, what do you think? Are there ever any unanswered prayers? I don't think so.

You don't think so? You got yes, no, and maybe, and yes, no, and wait, right?

You certainly have, what I say it is, I don't think there's ever any unanswered prayers. They're all answered. They're just not all answered the way we want them answered when we want them answered. The answers can be yes, and they can be no, and they can be not now.

Wait a while, I think is what you said. But one thing you've got to understand, these are not answered prayers by an unjust judge. These are not unanswered prayers directed to a judge that doesn't know everything that's going on already and has control of it.

This is not addressed to a judge that is hostile or doesn't care for the person that's presenting the petition. All of these petitions are made to a judge that has the best interest of the elect at heart, even when the person that's making the prayer doesn't understand that.

So maybe the best answer is yes, and if the best answer is yes, God will say yes right then. Some of the times the best answer is no. That's what this country songwriter was saying. All of these things that I prayed for, all of these girlfriends that I wanted that I prayed for, he said no, and now I know that it was best for me that he said no.

And sometimes the best answer is, it's not time right now for you. It's better later. Unfortunately, we don't know everything like God, well, I don't think I can say unfortunately. I can just say this.

We don't know everything that God knows, and we don't know what's good for us even if we knew everything that was going on, but God does. And so the prayers that we will get, the answers we will get will be the best answer at the best time always.

It's not our decision to make the decision on when the prayer is. What is our decision? What part do we have in it? We have to keep praying. When we get a no for an answer, and we understand it's a no, and we understand why it's a no, we can quit praying for that.

Paul quit praying for his thorn to be removed when the Lord explained to him, my strength is sufficient for you. And he quit praying that that thorn be removed, but he didn't quit praying altogether. As long as you don't have a definitive answer from God that this is something you should stop praying for, you need to continue praying for it.

Because it might be that your answer is not no. It might be that your answer is just not now.

Yes. I think another responsibility that we have that I've been learning is that you have to keep moving. You can't just stop and wait. And waiting on the Lord doesn't mean you do nothing. It means you keep moving forward, you just do the next thing.

And keep praying that God will answer your prayer. We can't just do nothing.

I'm going to try to sum up what you said, and it's interesting that I've got a quote in here later on exactly dealing with that, where Paul says, I press on, I go on. But yes, while we're waiting for God to answer our prayer doesn't mean that we should stop doing what we know we need to do.

We should, one, keep praying, and we should also keep going forward, doing the things that God has set in front of us for us to do. And we can't stop and wait for God to answer the prayer, because that's not what He wants.

He wants us to keep doing what we're doing until we satisfy what He wants. And I believe when we satisfy all of the things that He's got us in the world for, He will take us home to a better place. But the long and the short of it is, every time that the Lord answers your prayer, whether it's yes, no, or not now, it's always in the best interest of the elect.

So Jesus goes on to say in His parable, I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. He's talking now about the God of the universe, Jesus. He's contrasting Jesus, God, to the unjust judge. He will answer.

The first part of this verse speaks to the previous question. Yes, the elect will be avenged when He returns. And they may get some avenging earlier, but they will always be avenged eventually. I'm going to string those two words together again.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? That's just a comment on the condition of society at the time of Jesus' return. And the question that He's asking is, how many elect will there be when I return?

Yes, the elect that's alive will be avenged when He returns. The ones that...but how many will there be? I know He knows that there will be some. Any questions or comments about the unjust judge or the necessity of persistent prayer?

Because we're getting ready to slip over into the next parable here. Yes, sir.

Does prayer not get answered for those who are not elect?

I think it does, but I think the answer is often no. But I think if you direct a prayer to God, I think He'll answer it. But I may be wrong on that. He hasn't promised to answer the prayers of the non-elect.

I think He hears them. And so I think He answers them, but I may be wrong. Anybody else got an opinion on that?

I think maybe it's learning to pray according to the will of God. And if you are an elect and you are walking with the Lord, then you would be in prayer and in His Word and seeking His will,.

And then praying accordingly. Okay, once you know what is in God's will, and you direct your prayers as He would direct them, I think the elect are immediately answered in the positive. When you answer, when you pray the prayer that the Lord wants you to pray, He'll answer that one right now.

Sometimes that's the issue of waiting a while. You haven't asked the right prayer. You haven't asked the right petition. But I agree with you. If we are walking with the Lord, we're seeking His advice on what it is that we should ask for.

I have a verse for you. Okay, yes. John 9, 31, now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and doeth his will, him he heareth.

Okay, here in the sense that he will hear and respond to it, not that the sound wave will bounce off of his head. I think that may be the answer to our question. God does hear and answer the prayers of the elect.

And I think God inspires prayers. I'm sorry? I think God inspires prayers. I think God will direct us in how to pray.

He will tell us what to pray when we pause enough time and get far enough away from ourselves that we look at what he wants us to do. That's part of the saying, not now, I believe. Thank you, sir. Okay, we're now going to go to the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Yes, sir.

I did have one question. On verse 18, I tell you that he will avenge your speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Scofield thinks that the word faith there does not mean personal faith, but it means the faith, in other words, churches.

With bunches of believers going to them and worshiping the Lord scripturally, the question is, will I find that? So I was out getting some water, and I might have missed what you said on that. What do you think about that?

Does that mean

I think he may be correct. What I just said is, the second part is simply a comment on the condition of society at that time. And you could include that, the church, as part of or not part of the society.

Well, I like your phrase better than Scofield's. It's a reflection of the state of the condition of the earth. At the time. In fact, it'll be just like before Noah. In the days of Noah, when only eight people were put on that ark.

Yeah, because of the day that he was yesterday, I spoke to my sister. And she called, and I hung up on her right away, because you pick up these little cell phones, and there's a button. And I turned her off, and I had to go call her back.

And we sit there, and we talked about 45 minutes. And she told me that my brother, my brother that lives in North Carolina, is selling all of his property, and he's moving to Huntsville, Alabama. He sold his business, he's selling his property, he's moving to Huntsville, Alabama.

What's special about Huntsville, Alabama? That's where his son lives. And so they're gonna go in and kind of get closer to his only son and their grandson. And as we discussed that, I told her, I said, I think the condition that we are in now is we're going tribal again.

We're gonna wind up breaking up into little small segments where families cluster together to have support from one another. And you could include this little church, as small as it is, could be like a family as well.

But the churches will not be big mega churches anymore, I don't think. I think we're moving to a time when churches will be smaller and will be more self-contained and easier to contact with one another.

And I don't know whether that's true or not, but that's just my opinion. And I guess maybe I'll leave some of my opinions on the side. But it may be, I think that maybe the mega church era is over.

Yes, sir. Why does Jesus put that as a standard?

Well, he said, will I find faith on the earth? Well, he's asking them, what do you think? Do you think I will find faith on the earth? And I think he's trying to elicit a response. Faith will be there, but it will not be like it is now.

I think Brother David is right about that. I don't think it's individual faith that's missing. I think it is a group of people grouped together with faith, of faith. In any case, anything else? Okay, now this is the longer part of the morning.

Justification by Faith and the Pharisee’s Self-Righteousness

The Pharisee and the tax collector, or who does God see as just? And he staked this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. John MacArthur says this, this parable is rich with truth about the doctrine of justification by faith.

It illustrates perfectly how a sinner who is utterly devoid of personal righteousness may be declared righteous before God instantaneously through an act of repentant faith. Now, he didn't insert this, but I'm going to.

Really, it's not his own faith that we're talking about. It's Christ's faith that is imputed to him, the sinner, at the time that he is deemed righteous, or at least at the time that he is justified. So if I were to have written this, if I were John MacArthur and I'd written this, I would have said God instantaneously through an act of his repentant faith that he is imputed to the sinner at the time of his justification is declared righteous.

It's not because of anything that that man has done. He is devoid. Now, he didn't say this. He is utterly devoid of any personal righteousness. This sinner is utterly devoid of any personal righteousness before God, is declared righteous before God instantaneously through an act of repentant faith, his faith, not the sinner's faith.

The parable is addressed to the Pharisees who trusted in their own righteousness. That's righteousness that they felt like that they earned. He says such confidence in one's inherent righteousness is a damning hope.

Now, I've got a few verses, a few passages rather, that MacArthur referred me to, and I'm going to read them. But as we read them, I want you to do two things. I want you to keep track of the number of times either faith or righteousness is described as belonging to God, not belonging to the man that is displaying it.

And I will go first to Romans chapter three, verse one, and I'll begin reading. And as we are reading and counting, don't lose sight of the fact that the Lord is saying something as well. We're not just doing this to count, but counting is part of what we're going to do.

What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? This is Romans 3, verse two. Much in every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God to the Jews.

And what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God? There's the first one, the faith of God, the faith that belongs to God. Did it make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.

Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our righteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say?

Whose righteousness? The righteousness of God. That's the second time. Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? So if we call on the Lord to take vengeance, or it comes the time when he's judging, when he sees an unjust person, an unrighteous person, and he judges them, he takes vengeance upon them, is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance?

I speak as a man. God forbid. Then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie to his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? How can I be judged as a sinner?

And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, as some affirm that we say, let us do evil, that good may come. So people were saying that Paul was teaching, since God shows his grace, we can help him out by doing evil, so that he can forgive us, so that his mercy might abound.

That's not what he's saying at all. We do not do evil, that good may come, whose damnation is just. What then, are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have been proved before both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. I'd like to, of course, exclude the one righteous man, Jesus. There was one, but he's the only one that was ever righteous. There is none that understandeth, except Jesus.

There is none that seeketh after God, except Jesus. They're all gone out of the way. They are totally become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.

With their tongues, they have used deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.

And the peace, and the way of peace, they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be judged guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God, there it is again, without the law is manifested. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, there it is again, which is by faith of Jesus Christ.

Whose faith? Jesus Christ, there it is again. Unto all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, we were counting, and I want to make sure we don't get so caught up in the counting that we fail to see what's being said.

What's been said in this passage? All have sinned. All have come short. None has deserved his salvation. None has earned his salvation. But some, a remnant, to them, it has been granted. So if there is any justification at all, it's only available to those to whom it was granted, not to those who earned it.

Verse 24, being justified freely by his grace that is pronounced just by the unmerited favor of God through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. And where's this redemption? It's in Christ. It's his redemption.

It belongs to Jesus, and he gives it to us. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. His righteousness for the remission of sins, our sins. Not his sins.

Jesus didn't die for his sins. He died for our sins. To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, his righteousness, not our righteousness, that he may be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Where is the boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Certainly not the works that we do. Yes, we're saved by works, but only by the works of Jesus, not by our own work. Nay, but by the law of faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith. Jesus' faith imputed to us without the deeds of the law. Now I'm gonna go on and pick another passage out of Romans, and in the midst of this one, we'll break off.

Brethren, this is verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness are going about to establish their own righteousness.

Here now, we have a different kind of righteousness, a self-righteousness, as it were. This is a righteousness that will be possessed by the Pharisee in the coming parable when we get around to reading it.

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth these things shall live by them. And I felt like I had to plug in here, Relations 5 .1, which says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, God shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole law. Christ is become of no effect upon you.

Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from the grace. I think that the most telling part of that's not the part that I underlined, it's the part that I didn't. Christ is become of no effect to you.

Back to Romans. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is, bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep?

That is, to bring Christ up again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. And that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and if thou shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the Spirit saith, whosoever believed on him shall not be ashamed. Now, who can believe on him and thus be saved?

Those that he has imputed his faith to. Because with our own faith, we can't believe. MacArthur goes on to say, because of human righteousness, even the righteousness of the most fastidious Pharisee falls short of the divine standard.

I'm just gonna read the divine standard to you. I'm not gonna have you look it up. It's in Matthew 5, 48, if you want to. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. That's a standard that no one except Jesus could meet.

That's the standard that we're talking about. Scripture consistently teaches that sinners are justified when God's perfect righteousness is imputed into their account. That was MacArthur speaking. Galatians 5, 1.

I'm sorry. Genesis 15, 6. And he, Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he counted it for him as righteousness. Romans 4, 3. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Paul's quoting that verse. But now to him that worketh is, the reward is not reckoned as grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that is justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Even as David also described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed righteousness without work, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Okay, now let's go to, back to MacArthur. And it was only on that basis that this tax collector or anyone else could be saved. Only on the basis of that they possessed the imputed faith, belief, righteousness of Jesus have they any hope of being saved.

So now the parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a publican, a tax collector. The first thing to consider is the view that each of these men had of himself. First, the Pharisee thought he deserved to be counted righteous.

Look what he said. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. I thought that was interesting. Who's he praying with? Is he praying to God or is he praying to himself? He says he's praying to God, but he's praying to himself.

God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. That was his first mistake. He's praying to the wrong man. He's praying to himself. He's not praying to God.

He doesn't understand what God wants him to pray for, so he prays for what he wants. And what he wants is he wants God to understand that he is better than everybody else. That's what his prayer. God, I thank you that I am not as other men are.

I'm not an extortioner, I'm not unjust, I'm not an adulterer, like this publican is, this tax collector. So his first mistake is he thought he was better than other men. He goes on to say, he's going to convince God of just how righteous he is.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. So I said, I suppose this was an attempt by the Pharisee to suggest to God that he deserved to be seen as righteous. Do you know how many times the Jews were required to fast during a year?

They're allowed to fast more than this, but they were only required one time to fast. And that was at the day of atonement, which we call Yom Kippur. What's he here? This Pharisee claimed he fasted twice a week.

If the weeks are the same, that's 104 times. That should make him 104 times as righteous as the man who followed the law exactly. So he's 104 times as righteous as he needs to be, right? Clearly he had a pretty high opinion of himself.

Surely his works justified him, or so he thought. Now, there was a time when Paul thought that of himself as well. We all understand that, that there was a time in the apostle Paul's life when he was Saul of Tarsus that this is exactly what he thought of himself.

He thought he was better, for example, than Stephen. But after his Damascus Road experience and his three years in the wilderness with Jesus teaching him, he began to understand the real value of his contribution to his salvation.

Anybody know what his real value is? Do you remember how he described it? We're gonna read how he described it. And in the old English, it's a little more polite than it would be here. Philippians chapter three, verse four.

And do go here. Now, he begins by telling his audience a little bit about himself, the Philippians. So here he goes. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh he have whereof he might trust in flesh, I more.

So what he's saying is, anybody else thinks they deserve their salvation, I had a better claim. If any one might attain righteousness by his own works, then I more so. That's what he said. If any man thinketh that he might attain righteousness by his own works, then I more.

I was circumcised on the eighth day, the exact day I was supposed to be. I was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning my zeal, I was extremely zealous.

I persecuted the church. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. What he's saying is I understood and I baked the law with a great deal of bitter. But what these things were gained to me, I counted loss for Christ.