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Pastor David Mitchell
Okay, I believe we are in Luke chapter 18. Brother, I taught verse one,
Brother Otis came back and taught verse one. Now, I'd like to cover verse one again today. Now, I'd like to make a comment on a couple of the words in this passage beyond verse one.
And let me see, where should we start? I think we pretty well covered verse one, but I'll read it.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
If that's the case, I think we should begin with prayer. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the word of God that you've given us, protected for us, and preserved for us down to this generation.
Thank you for the life that's in it. Thank you how your Holy Spirit teaches us from it.
We ask you to do so this afternoon. Again, amen. All right.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not faint.
Remember last time we talked about the word ought is a stronger word in the Greek. It actually means necessary.
It is the word dia, which means necessary. It is necessary that men always pray.
The word always means at all times, so it actually means always. It means keeping an attitude of prayer at all times.
I believe this is how we remain in the spirit as opposed to in the flesh. And pray, the word pray means to, it's a motion towards something.
And the other word that goes together with it means to wish. So the word for pray means a motion towards wishing or desiring or asking
God for things. Ought not to faint, it says.
Now verse two, let's move on into some newer material. Saying there was in a city a judge which feared not
God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city and she came unto him saying avenge me of mine adversary.
I'm gonna bring up this word avenge because it's used again in this parable but it's not the same Greek word the second time.
So we have two different Greek words, two different, slightly different meanings. This word avenge means to vindicate, retaliate or to punish.
We're in chapter 18 of Luke, sorry. Luke 18 and we're on verse three.
The widow in that city, she came unto him saying avenge me of mine adversary. The word avenge means here, it is the
Greek word ekdikaio, ekdikaio. And we're gonna see this word avenge later and it's not the same
Greek word but this one means to vindicate. Verse four, and he would not for a while.
He wouldn't vindicate her for a while but afterward he said to himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, oh honey, you didn't use that right enough.
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her. Lest by her continual coming she weary me.
All right, now, God is using this to teach a principle of praying.
You cannot use it, at least not as it's given in the
English as an exact thing where you can say, well, God is like this judge because God is not like this judge.
But it is a lesson teaching us something about how we ought to pray.
Now, this says that the widow troubleth me, the human judge said that. Now, the word troubleth in the
Greek language is pareiko and it comes from two words, para, which means near, and eiko, which means to hold.
So it means to come near and hold something.
All right, so it's not quite the same as to trouble, like we use the word trouble.
It means to hold something near. Now, what it means is the widow was staying near this judge, she was being persistent.
And the lesson for us is in our prayer life, we ought always to pray is what Jesus says is being taught here.
So we ought always to draw near and hold on to God. That's what it's teaching.
And it says, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Now, this doesn't mean that you're supposed to nag
God. It does not teach in this. What it is teaching is that you should be in the presence of God all the time, just like this nagging woman was in the presence of this judge.
That's the only similarity. Doesn't mean you're supposed to nag God and just keep in a nagging way.
That's not the lesson. We miss the lesson if we focus on this part of it. But what it is, is it's saying we're supposed to hold on and to hold near to God.
Now, he says, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Let's look at this word weary.
This word weary literally in the Greek language means to hit under the eye. It's like if you punch somebody under their eye.
Or it means to tease or annoy someone. Now, if you take that in the context of what's happening to this human judge, and it says, this woman troubleth me, which means she draws near and holds on to me, so therefore
I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she annoy me, is what the human judge is saying.
Now, you cannot take that as a teaching that you're going to tease or annoy
God by coming to him in prayer. It's not teaching that. So you have to have a little bit of spiritual common sense to interpret this particular passage.
What it is teaching is that our continual presence or coming to God and to his presence should be just as continual as this annoying woman was when she was trying to trouble this human judge.
She had to be physically in his presence all the time and making her request all the time. While it annoyed him, it does not annoy our
Father in heaven at all. In fact, he takes great joy in our continual coming before him.
Verse six says, and the Lord said, "'Hear what the unjust said.'" Now, there's your key. See the word unjust in verse six?
That tells you that God's not using this as a comparison. It's a contrast because our God, our judge, is not unjust.
He's not the kind that would say, well, quit bugging me. He's not the kind that would say, you annoy me.
He's not the kind that says, well, you keep punching me under the eye with this request and it's bugging me so bad,
I think I'll just turn around and give it to you. You see, God the Father does not respond to you anyway. You can't punch him under the eye and get him to become annoyed and give you something on the basis of something that he just became because God never changes.
So obviously, Jesus' illustration is not meant to teach that God is like this, a judge, in the sense that he can be annoyed.
What Jesus is teaching is from your side, how should you behave? You should stay in the presence of God with your request, just like this woman did.
Stay in his presence, continue to make your request known unto him from your heart.
And then he comes and he says, and the Lord said in verse six, hear what the unjust judge said.
The word hear in the Greek means understand what the unjust judge said.
Verse seven, and shall not God avenge his own elect? Now he's saying if it's true that an unjust judge will grant this because this woman just bugged him, then how much more true is it that your father will grant your requests on the basis of the fact simply that you're his elect, not because you're bugging him?
Shall not God avenge his own, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
That teaches us something in the verse seven. What does that phrase, though he bear long with us, teach us about God's nature with regard to answered prayer?
Does he usually answer it just when you want it? Just like that, no. And that is another teaching from this passage that Jesus is teaching, is this woman had to come before this unjust judge again and again and again and again and nag him and bug him and nag him and finally said, just because you're messing with me,
I'm gonna do it, so you leave me alone. Well, God is not like that, and the mechanism is not like that.
The thing that is like that is God is teaching us that his ways are different than ours, his timing is different than ours, and he is not going to respond to our timing.
His timing is perfect, it's already been set in motion at the great event before time began at the counsel of God when all things were predetermined.
It's already there, he's not gonna change anything, and to us, many times it's gonna seem that we're having to wait and wait and wait and wait.
Do you know that if you were to look up the word that King David used most often in the Psalms, it would be, wait on the
Lord, and again, I say, wait on the Lord, because David had learned this principle.
Though he bear long with them is a great teaching about prayer. God's timing is totally different than yours, but God has already heard your request before you made it, and don't you dare let
Satan come and tempt you with the thought that God did not hear your prayer and that he's not in control and that he doesn't love you and that he won't bring the best in your life, just because it seems to us that he bears long with us.
It's a long time before he, quote, answers the prayer. That's how it seems to us, but it says
God will avenge his own elect, which are crying day and night. The day and night emphasizes again that the answer, what we call the answer, did not come instantly.
The reason is the answer is not an answer. The answer is a part of the life that God has already orchestrated for you and for me, and the only way you knew to pray for it was his
Holy Spirit put it in your heart to pray. God let you know the future in a way, and he let you know what to pray, and you became a part of God's plan.
And not only did God foreordain the end, he predestined and predetermined the means, and part of the means behind the way he does things has to do with your prayers.
Your prayers are an important part of what God does. They don't move God and cause
God to change his mind and do things like that. What they do is they become a part of God's will on this earth that others might see the glory of God because others sometimes know you're praying.
Jesus, when he went to the tomb of Lazarus, did he say, Father, I'm praying to you that this man would come back to life because if I don't pray, you won't answer my prayer and it's not gonna happen.
Is that how he prayed? No, what did he say? He said, Father, I know you've already heard my prayer and I know he's about to come out of this grave, but I'm praying for their sakes.
Now, we don't pray just for their sakes. We also pray for our sakes. Jesus didn't have to do that.
He did not have to pray for his own sake. He already knew the answer. He said, the Father has shown me all things and therefore
I do the thing he showed me and whatever he wants me to do, he shows me and I already know. That in a small way, a smaller way than that is how
God directs your prayer life. God shows you not all things like he did Jesus, but he shows you what to pray for next and you begin to pray and though he bears long with us, there'll be a long season of time before you see the end of that prayer.
It doesn't mean God didn't hear it even before you prayed it. You know how he did that? Because he's the one that had to put it in your heart.
So he knew about it before you prayed it. So it's not a matter of saying, well, he answered this one and he didn't answer that one.
That doesn't even, never works that way. If you want to use the human expression, he answered, then he answers them all because you wouldn't have the prayer in your heart if it weren't part of what
God's plan and program is. So what does it mean when it says God avenges his own elect?
Well, this is different than the word avenge we saw earlier where this human judge retaliated or vindicated or punished her adversaries on her behalf.
It's a completely different Greek word where it says God avenges his elect. Now, let me read it to you.
I want you to listen to the different shades of colors of meaning that are found in this word avenge.
It's the Greek word poieo. It says, and shall not
God poieo his own elect? You didn't know God was doing that to you, did you?
He is, he's avenging you, poieo. And shall not
God avenge his own elect? It means this, shall not God make or do things in the life of his own elect?
Doesn't he make things happen in the life of his own elect? Or you could say, shall not guide, and these are all different words that this same word's been translated into into the
English. Shall not God abide with his own elect? Shall not
God agree with his own elect? Shall not
God appoint his own elect and the things that happen in their lives?
That's predestination. All of this is found in this one word, poieo. Shall not
God band together with his own elect? Now, we like to think of it in terms of answered prayer, but let's see that this word, when he says he avenges his elect, it means my presence is with my elect.
It doesn't matter if, in our view, he answers or doesn't answer. We shouldn't even, we should learn not to think that way.
We should think in terms, what's it mean when it says he always avenges his own elect?
It means that he always bands together with us. So whatever happens is the way it's supposed to be, and God is bound with us in it.
It's all for our good. This word says, and shall not God be his own elect?
Now, wait a minute. Think about that. The word poieo can mean be, to be, not misbe, but to be.
What if you interpret it with that word in this, and shall not God be his own elect?
Well, you say, well, that's bizarre. That's like a Hindu would think. God's in the rock,
God's in the tree, God's in me. No, but there is a shade of meaning here, because as you stand in one, if this is your spirit, and this is the
Holy Spirit, and you stand as one with him, a person should not be able to tell the distinction.
There is so much perfect unity between your human spirit and God's Holy Spirit at that point, when you're filled with the
Spirit, that it's as if God is being you in a sense, because he is bound with you.
He is one with you. Just Jesus, like Jesus said, I am one with the Father, and the Father with me, and we with you, we with them, he said.
Another word is, and shall not God bear with his own elect?
And shall not God bring forth his own elect? Shall not God cause his own elect to be what they're supposed to be?
Shall not God be committed to his own elect? Shall not God be content with his own elect?
Shall not God continue on with his own elect? Shall not God deal with his own elect?
Shall not God deal with his own elect without any delay? That means when you think your prayer's not answered,
God's already dealing with it. He's already dealing with you. Shall not God exercise his own elect?
Shall not God fulfill his own elect? Shall not God gain his own elect?
Shall not God give to his own elect? Have his own elect? Hold his own elect?
Journey with his own elect? Keep his own elect? Lighten the ship?
Take the burden off the ship so it won't sink of his own elect? Observe his own elect?
Ordain his own elect? Perform his own elect? Provide his own elect? Shall he not purge his own elect?
Purpose things in the life of his own elect? Put things in his own elect's life?
Shall he not raise up his own elect? Shall he not secure his own elect? Shall he not show his own elect?
Take his own elect? Tarry with his own elect? Work with his own elect? Yield with his own elect? You can't even remember all the words that one word means.
But they're all compassed in what Jesus is teaching God does when you pray.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this word study.
The simple study of one word. And our little minds can't comprehend all the things that it means when it says you avenge your elect.
When we pray day and night, you're always with us as one.
You're always working. You're always ordaining. You're always tearing with us.
Father, we thank you for this truth. May we simply learn to watch your will being worked in our lives and be content with that.