Persistent Prayer

Luke 18 and the Call to Persistent Prayer

Please turn your Bible to Luke 18. This can be found on page 877 if you're using the Pew Bible.

In front of you.

They're going to begin chapter 18, but it follows fairly directly from what we see in Luke chapter 617. When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's word. 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 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?

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this parable. We ask that you would open our eyes to understand this parable. We know that the parables are often difficult to understand, so we ask that you would help us to understand it, and not only to understand it, but to believe it and to apply it to our own lives.

We pray that you would keep us vigilant in prayer and that we would not lose heart. In Jesus' name, amen. So we've been talking about vigilance in this context. We've been talking about the coming of the Son of Man and how this will divide many people.

There will be some who are ready, who are desiring the kingdom, and there will be some who are not. So it is important to maintain a desire for the kingdom of God and, likewise, to maintain a willingness to leave behind the things of this world.

One of the primary ways that you can maintain that desire, that vigilance of desire, is through prayer. In fact, there's a reason why we call prayer vigils prayer vigils, is because it's a form of vigilance in standing against the temptations that we face and standing against the evils of this world.

And so Jesus tells this parable to this effect that we ought always to pray and to not lose heart. He speaks of this widow who comes before an unjust judge who has no reason to give mercy beyond her persistence.

He does not fear God. If he feared God, he would give her justice, because he knows that he will one day have to give an account to God. He does not fear man, and so he does not give her justice. Because if he had feared man, at least he'd do some kind of semblance of his duty and be eager to do that.

But he does not fear man, and yet, because she persists saying, give me justice against my adversary, he is willing. Now, the widow comes to him, and she is described, as I said, as a widow. If you've ever wondered why the Bible talks about justice and widows and orphans, why there's a relation between these things, the answer is because if you are a woman without a husband, or if you are a child without a father, you have no man to stand before you in court.

And so if you do not have this representative to stand before you in court, you are likely to be taken advantage of. So there was no DA back then. There's no district attorney to come and stand for these people.

If you're an orphan or a widow, you are speaking for yourself. But yet, because she is so persistent, the judge hears her out. Now, this is one of those parables where a lot of the value is not found in the similarities, but found in the differences.

Okay, there are similarities here. The judge is being compared to God, who is the great judge. The adversary is like our adversary, the devil, and those wicked forces, including wicked men who are against the people of God.

And the widow is like the church. Yet, there are many differences between these. The chief difference that is highlighted between these is that we have a just judge, whereas the widow in this parable has an unjust judge.

The point being that if there is a, if an unjust judge is even willing to hear someone who is persistent, how much more would a just judge be willing? Okay, the point is not that God hears us begrudgingly.

Don't come away from the parable with that. The point is that even if someone is willing to hear begrudgingly, how much more will God hear willingly and answer those requests? And so, this parable tells us about the need for several things.

Justice, Persecution, and Imprecatory Prayer

First of all, it tells us about the need for justice. There are great evils in this world. There are all kinds of persecutions that Christians face. There are Christians who are killed for their faith.

There are Christians who are imprisoned for their faith, who lose their possessions, who are harmed, who are mocked, who are unjustly treated. Now, oftentimes, people will accuse Christians, especially Christians in America, of having some kind of persecution complex, of seeing that the world is always out to get them as though it's not.

But the reality is that it is, and Scripture makes that clear. And though we enjoy many freedoms in this country that we live in, and we're able to gather for worship here freely, it should be evident that there are many forces persecuting God's church.

It was not that long ago that the Supreme Court found that both the state of California, as well as specifically the county of Santa Clara, were biased in their rulings against churches. So, both California as a whole was declared by the Supreme Court to be unjust in the way it treated churches, and so was our very county, the county of Santa Clara.

And that is just one example. It is constantly that Christians are being mocked. You look at media, you look at movies, and Christians are depicted as fools. They're depicted as legalistic prudes. Now, occasionally, there'll be a hero where, because they so want to emphasize good and equal, they will make the hero Roman Catholic so they can use all the imagery and everything of good.

If you've noticed in the Marvel movies, there's this contrast where Daredevil and Nightcrawler that looks like a demon are both Catholic, so you get that artistic contrast in everything, but when it comes to the way evangelicals are portrayed in media, it's almost always as some kind of legalistic prude.

You know, Christianity is just constantly, constantly being mocked, and it is right to desire justice for these things, just like it is right for the widow to desire justice when her adversary was against her, it is right for us to desire justice.

Now, when I was a bit younger Christian, I thought it was very mature not to take offense at these things, but the reality is that if we are identified with Christ, you know, and the church is the bride of Christ, how much should it care about his honor?

We ought to be offended when the world mocks. Now, that does not mean we react without self-control, but we ought to be very offended when the world mocks the Christian faith, when the world mocks Christ himself, and we should desire justice.

It is good to desire justice, that punishment be dealt out to the wicked. Now, Scripture tells us that this is not for us, ourselves, to pursue. If you consider the words of Romans 12. Romans 12, 19 says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

So it is the Lord's place to grant vengeance. Now, in this world, there is justice that is still dealt out, and so God has appointed a special servant for human courts. That's why it says in the very next chapter, following that thought from Romans 12, speaking of what's known in theology as the civil magistrate, or your government, for he is God's servant for your good, but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is a servant of God, okay, so he's God's minister, doing something for God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

So vengeance is mine, says the Lord, but at the same time, in earthly courts, there is one who is specially tasked with doling out justice, doling out vengeance, and so that is why it is right for this widow to go to the human courts and to get justice against her adversaries.

What we are facing is something that is happening in the heavenly courts. We face a heavenly injustice that earthly courts do not have authority over. Earthly courts do not have authority against the enemies of God when they are mocked, and when Christ is dishonored as such.

Instead, we must go to the heavenly court, and we must ask for justice. Recall that this is all coming in the context of the day of the Son of Man. Jesus Christ has spoke of the coming kingdom of glory, when he will come, as it says in Daniel 7, of the Son of Man, who reigns of his dominion, that he will conquer all the adversaries.

And so, we must desire this. We must desire justice. We are to pray what are known as imprecatory prayers. Okay, imprecatory prayers are prayers for justice, prayers where we are acting God to bring punishment, to bring judgment on the wicked.

Now, there are several ways that these are to be prayed. Okay, first is against the plans of the wicked, the evil plans of the wicked that they would not prosper, that they would be brought to nothing.

We ought to pray that. We ought to pray against the obstinate, wicked, and abstract, right? Those who continue on without repentance in their wickedness, we ought to pray that God would bring justice and judgment against them.

And then we are even to pray regarding the wicked in particular, even specific wicked men. Now, we are to pray with the hopefulness to their conversion, but also with an acknowledgement that God will not save every single individual on this earth, and so, should they not repent, should they not turn to him, should he not be pleased to save that soul, that he would bring justice swiftly.

And so, we are to pray even for those individuals. As it says in 1 Timothy 2, it makes it very clear that we're to pray for rulers, and remember, at that time, just as now, many rulers were wicked and are wicked, and so, we're to pray for their good.

We're supposed to pray for their salvation, but that does not prohibit us from praying as we ought against the wicked. Justice, should they not, should God's hand not be brought down on them in discipline, they'd be ashamed, and so, turn to the Lord in repentance, that it would be brought down in punishment, that they would know the Lord that way instead.

There are a couple of exceptions to that. Those exceptions are, first, the demons. Okay, the demons, God has revealed in his word that there is no hope for salvation for them. It is not for angels that he came to save, as it says in Hebrews chapter two.

And so, for the demons, we are not to pray with any kind of hope. We are to pray that God would bring justice, and we are to pray that in an unqualified manner. And then, the Bible gives us one other category, and that is what is known as full apostasy, apostates.

Those who have, as it says in Hebrews 6, have tasted of the heavenly gift and then turn away, so that there is no hope for them. And it says in 1 John 5, 16, that the one who has sinned the sin unto death, speaking of apostasy, of a complete denial of Jesus Christ, after having been in the, after having experienced the goodness of God, that this is one who will not be saved, and so, it is not one who is to be prayed for.

Now, I've preached on this in the past. If you're wanting more clarification about how to understand that passage, look on our church's website for the message I preached on 1 John 5, 16 in the past about how you discern whether or not someone is a full apostate.

This is not talking about anyone who walks away from the church. This is talking about a particular kind of individual who has tasted the good things of the kingdom of God, and then rejects and denies Christ.

So, it is important that we pray for justice, that we pray for judgment. We're told in the Lord's Prayer to pray for God's kingdom to come. Luther, excuse me, Martin Luther, said that for God's kingdom to come, to pray for that is to pray curses, maledictions, and disgrace upon every other name in every other kingdom.

May they be ruined and torn apart, and may all their schemes and wisdom and plans run aground. You know, there is no kingdom that will last. Every kingdom must ultimately be brought to nothing. It is only Christ's kingdom that will last, and we ought to pray in this manner.

We ought to pray imprecatory prayers. There are a few objections that people often give to imprecatory prayers, and I do not say this as though those objections are always brought up insincerely or with a heart that desires to reject God's commands, but this can appear very confusing to people.

How is it that we are supposed to pray for justice and judgment on our enemies when we're also told to love our enemies? So the first passage is Matthew 544. Matthew 544, it says the following. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So it says that we're supposed to love them and pray for them. How can it be that we are supposed to also pray for justice against them? Well, that verse continues on with the next verse. So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

So, and you'll see this in every verse we're going to go through, every verse that serves as some kind of objection. If you just read the next verse, it gives you everything necessary in order to understand and resolve what appears like a conflict.

This is saying that our love needs to be a modeling of God's love. How does he love the wicked? Well, he still allows the sun to shine on them. He still brings rain on them. And so he is kind to them in a particular way.

Now this does not mean that he will not bring judgment upon them. We have seen in his word that he will bring judgment upon all those who do not repent. And so we should have our love being modeled after our father's love in order that we may be called sons of God.

The one who does not pray for justice is not a son of the father, because he does not desire the same things the father does. And so, yes, we pray, hopefully, for those whom God has not revealed whether or not they will finally return from their sins and repent.

Even for those wicked, we are to pray in hope that they would repent because God has not revealed that they will not. And yet, at the same time, we are to pray that should they not repent, that there would be justice.

And this is true, once again, like I said, of demons and of apostates, those whom God has revealed that we should not, that they would not repent. We are to reflect that in our prayers as well. There is not supposed to be some kind of love that is expressed towards demons.

I've heard people say this, that, you know, God is just all loving and therefore we need to love all too, and that includes Satan. We need to love him too. No, God has revealed his will for Satan. He has revealed his will for his angels of darkness, and he has also revealed his will for the apostates, for those who, on a full knowledge of God, reject Jesus Christ after having been a part of that kingdom and tasted it.

Gregory of Nazianzus, he has a bunch of sermons that are called orations, and in oration number 18, which is essentially his funeral sermon for his father, he speaks of his father and his father's prayer life, and he points out how his father was like Stephen, praying for the good, praying blessings on even his enemies, but then he points out that his father is also like Hezekiah, Hezekiah who prayed for the death of Sennacherib.

His father, Gregory of Nazianzus, his father, prayed for the death of Julian, the apostate emperor, because he recognized that this is one who there would be no repentance for, that in as much as God has revealed what his will is, we should be praying along with his will.

We should be praying for mercy where God has revealed there may be mercy. We should be praying for justice where God has revealed that there either will or may be justice. We should be praying for these things.

And then another verse that is often brought up in this context is Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 18, verse 23. It says, have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

And so people will point to that and say, well see, God does not desire the death of the wicked, therefore we should not desire the death of the wicked, we should not pray for the death of the wicked.

Once again, read the next verse. But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered, for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.

You see, God desires justice, we should desire justice likewise. Yes, he does not hold his justice higher than his mercy, we should not be like Jonah and be sad and despise it when God saves someone in his mercy, we should rejoice at that.

Yet we should also desire his justice even as God desires justice. Though he is not giddy over the death of the wicked, he loves his own justice and we should love his justice. And to take this position, that God does not rejoice in the death of the wicked and so therefore that means that God does not rejoice in justice in any sense, is to go so contrary to everything else that scripture has revealed.

Even in this passage it says, yet you say the way of the Lord is not just. This is what people are saying, they're saying the way of the Lord is not just, he does not do those sorts of things, he does not bring justice down on his enemies.

Psalm 2 .4 says that he looks down from heaven and laughs and holds the wicked in derision. Psalm 5 .5 says that he hates evildoers every day, hates them. You know those who say that because God is love itself, that there's no difference in his love for one creature to the next, mistakes us entirely.

He has a special love for his son, he has a special love for his people and his son and he lacks that love for his enemies, for those who obstinately reject him. And so once again, we must love as God loves, we must model our prayers after God's own desires, after his own will.

The next verse that people will often bring up is Proverbs 24 .17. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Okay, so if you're not supposed to rejoice in the failure of the wicked and his plans, then why should you pray for the failure of his plans?

The next verse, once again, it says, lest the Lord see it and be displeased and turn away from his anger, and turn away his anger from him. You see what the penalty is there? If you rejoice, why shouldn't you rejoice?

Because the Lord might turn his anger away, he might be merciful to this person. So we are actually supposed to not rejoice in the punishment of the wicked in order that they would continue being punished.

We are supposed to desire God's punishment. And so what is the concern here? The concern here is abandoning the glory of God and thinking of the glory of yourself, right? Gloating in your victory over your enemy rather than considering the victory of God over his enemy.

This is the concern. And so that he does not relent in bringing justice, we are not to gloat and consider it our own victory, we are supposed to regard it as only our victory in Christ, as only ultimately God's victory.

So do not despise imprecatory prayers. You would not despise human courts, I assume. You know, if someone lost all their possessions and lost all their family because a murderer killed them and took away all their possessions, you would not say, you know, don't go to human courts.

The right thing to do is just to love your neighbor and not seek any kind of justice. I hope you would not say that. I know there are some people who think this way, who think this is what Christ requires.

No, he has put that servant there for your good, that there would be justice in this land. And so it is good to go to those human courts to seek justice if it is good to go to those human courts to seek justice, it is good to go to the heavenly court and seek justice over our enemies, over the enemies of God's people, over his enemies.

Remember, once again, not your own glory but for his glory. And so we are to pray in line with God's will. We are to pray for his kingdom. It says in 1 John 5, 14. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. We are to pray according to God's will. And what has God revealed his will to be? His will is for his kingdom to come.

We are supposed to pray for his kingdom. This is how the Lord's Prayer starts. Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. We are supposed to pray for God's kingdom to come. And the rest of that is just a framing within that.

Why are we only supposed to pray for our daily bread? Have you considered that? If this kingdom, if these kingdoms of the earth were eternal, I think he would have us pray for more than just daily bread.

But given that these kingdoms do not last, and there's no eternal purpose in them, there's nothing more that's needed, and it's just what's needed for the day, just what's needed for this temporary time.

And so he has us pray for daily bread, yes, in order that we might pursue the things that God would have us to pursue, but not for more than daily bread, because this is not a permanent, this is not a permanent realm.

This earth will be renewed. It will be destroyed as it is and renewed in something much more beautiful. And then beyond that, he says that we are to pray for the forgiveness of our sins. Why should we pray for the forgiveness of our sins?

In order that we might be fit for his kingdom, fit for that coming kingdom, that we be equipped with that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Why should we pray that he lead us not into temptation for the same thing?

In order for us to be mature, in order for us to be suitable for that kingdom. All this prayer, all of your prayer, should be framed in light of God's kingdom. If you have any prayers that are not for God's kingdom, they are for another kingdom, then they ought not to be prayed.

All of your prayers must be for the kingdom of God. And if you are looking to make your prayers more in line with God's will, more answerable, you want to have a greater assurance that he will ask them, think about how this is for the purpose of God's kingdom.

If you do not know how it is for the purpose of God's kingdom, then maybe it ought not to be prayed. Consider what it says in several passages, how we can pray for this kingdom of God. It says in 2 Peter 3, eight and nine.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as 1 ,000 years, and 1 ,000 years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

So the Lord is merciful to his beloved, waiting for all to reach repentance. Now, once again, this is a passage that gets often used in reverse, right? This is a passage that often says, look, God desires every single person on earth to repent.

That's not what it says on a couple of accounts. First of all, now there is a sense in which he, you know, he does not desire them to do evil, he does desire them to repent. But it is not his ultimate purpose that they would all repent.

If you consider what it says here, that this, he is speaking to the beloved, and he says the Lord is patient toward you, right? So this is a particular patience towards God's people, that all of them be joined together before Christ returns.

There are a number of gods elect, when they are all together, then Christ will return. Now, what would this mean if you took the other view, right, that he's talking about everybody? At what point will everybody be saved?

It would have to be some point where there's been, you know, a nuclear holocaust and no one exists anymore, right, or perhaps every last person on earth is saved, you know, it's either one or the other.

It's either everybody or there's nobody in existence. It's either very bleak, or just far more glorious than Christ tells us it'll be. He tells us the tares are going to grow with the wheat. You know, there will always be tares until that day of judgment.

And so, what this is speaking of is God's patience toward his particular people. And so, as you pray for the salvation of people, you are praying for that coming kingdom, for that kingdom to be hastened.

And when you pray for things that are in line with the church's maturity, you pray for the same thing. It says in Ephesians 4, verse 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So, it describes us, it describes the church as having this head, Jesus Christ, but then being this body that is immature that needs to grow in order to match that head. And when it finally does, this will be the end goal of what God is accomplishing.

And so, as we pray, we can pray for the maturity of God's church, and all of your prayers can be prayed in that way. If you pray for some loss that you have, pray in order that God's name might be praised for the glory of this kingdom.

Pray that you might grow in maturity through whatever trial it is as you trust in him in order that his kingdom may come. As you pray for your daily bread, pray for it in order that you can do the task that God has accomplished to pursue the things that must happen prior to his kingdom returning.

All your prayers ought to be prayed in this framework of desiring this kingdom of glory to come. And if they are prayed in the framework, then you can know with certainty that God has heard them. And the more they are in line with his revealed will, the more assurance you have that they will be answered as you hope that they will.

You should pray in this way, desiring the goodness of that kingdom. It speaks of the thankfulness that we are to pray as well. In Psalm 145, 10, it says, all your work shall give you thanks, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you.

That shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

You see Nebuchadnezzar pray something very similar as well, that when we give thanks to God, we are giving thanks for his kingdom. So let all your prayers be framed by this kingdom of God, this kingdom that exists now that will become fully manifest then for the coming of that kingdom of glory.

Pray in this way. Like I said a moment ago, any prayer that is for something else that is not for the kingdom of God is for some other kingdom. A nation will supply its allies when it believes that it will be for its good, right?

It's used its resources for its good, but then it gives those resources to allies when it believes that it's for their good. So it's good sometimes for kingdoms and people within those kingdoms to desire the good of other kingdoms, but God's kingdom has no ally.

It has no ally. And so as you pray everything, even prayers for the good of your own nation, you know, the good of your own earthly kingdom, must be prayed with an acknowledgement that eventually it will be brought to nothing and Christ's kingdom will be the only kingdom.

Now why is it that we are to pray if God has already assured us that this will take place? Have you considered that? He's already assured us that this kingdom of glory will come. This day of the son of man is a real thing.

It is coming. Why is it that we need to pray for this thing? Well, he has revealed that it will come, but he has not revealed the timing of this event. He has kept this hidden from us. And so as we are praying, we are praying particularly for the timing of this event.

You know, this is probably why it is withheld from us in order that we would pray for that timing, right? In order that, this was withheld even from Jesus Christ and his humanity. It says that not even the son knew.

Maybe he does now, but then it says not even the son knows the day or the hour. And so we are to pray desiring for that day to be hastened. Consider how this parable speaks to that. And will not God give justice to elect who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. When you pray, what you are praying for is the hastening of this kingdom of God. Now, you might think to yourself, well, if you believe what the Bible says that all things are ordained by God, that's already, there's already a timestamp to that.

God has ordained both the means and the end. He has ordained them to be harmonious. You know, he has ordained all things. He's ordained today whether or not your belly will be full. But no one sits around and says, well, God has already ordained that.

I'm not actually going to eat because if he has decided that my belly will be full, it will get full on its own. God has ordained that the means go together harmoniously with the end. And this is true even with the prayers of the saints and the timing of the coming of Christ.

The more we pray, the more eagerly we pray for the coming of Christ, the more speedily he will return. This is the guarantee that God is giving for us. Now, yes, he will return.

It is happening.

You know, that train is in motion on a downhill track. But let us throw the fuel into the fire. And if we do not, God tells us what will happen. That fuel will be used for our own destruction. For those who do not desire this kingdom, those who are not waiting for this kingdom are left behind for judgment as he told us in the previous passage.

So let us pray eagerly knowing that our prayers are accomplishing something. We're not praying for something that has already been revealed and so our prayers are not changing anything. We're praying for something that has not been revealed, the specific timing of Christ's return.

And we pray for it to be soon in order that it might be soon. If this unjust judge will listen to this widow, you know, she's persistent and persistent, will he not give it to her fairly rapidly so he doesn't have to hear her obnoxious nagging anymore?

When we go to a God who loves us and is eager to give us what we want, which is in line with his will, will he not give it to us all the more speedily? And yet we think of God as withholding this, as being so slow as men count slowness, right, in this passage.

He is not slow. He is eager to answer. And so let us pray knowing that we are praying for something real and our prayers are having a great effect, but there is a great danger and there is a need for vigilance.

You know, it starts us off with, you know, Luke, it's so good when God tells us the purpose of the parables, because he does not always, but here Luke does and he says, he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

There is a great danger in losing heart. There are many discouragements that people face as they pray, especially because in this particular aspect, in this chief thing that guides and frames all our other prayers for the kingdom of God, as we pray for that, while we see that maturity increase, while we see his name spread abroad, we do not see the timing change at all.

And it can be very frustrating to some to not see the answer that they want to see. It's like digging a well where you have to trust the surveyor that this is where the well should be dug and you keep digging and keep digging and it's not until you hit water that you know that water is there.

You just have to trust. And so, so it is with our heavenly father. He has told us that it is coming. He has not told us the timing. And so we are to pray for it. We are to keep moving towards that heavenly kingdom, towards that kingdom of glory, trusting in him, not being discouraged because we don't see what that time is.