Parables and Blessings
Book of Luke Chapter 18
Besides the Holy Spirit, prayer is our greatest weapon in this world against the evilness and wickedness of our world.
*****Luk 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Prayer is the meeting of our soul with the mind of God.
1Sa 1:15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
Prayer is beseeching the Lord.
Exo 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
Prayer is crying out to Heaven.
2Ch 32:19 And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.
2Ch 32:20 And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.
Prayers are seeking and making supplication.
Job 8:5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
Prayer is drawing near to God.
Psa 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
Prayer is the bowing of the knees.
Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Eph 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Eph 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
We must persevere in prayer because it is our duty!
We must put forth the effort to talk with God even when it seems He is not listening because He is always listening!
*****Luk 18:2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
Luk 18:3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
Luk 18:4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Luk 18:5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
What is persevering prayer? To persevere means to be constant in our purpose for praying.
When we look around, we see that we are in similar days of Noah and Lot where God brought destruction.
God has already promised a future destruction, and we are very near to it now.
Psa_2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Isa_9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
Isa_13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Zep_1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
There is power in persistence.
Continuous prayer is the only thing that gives us the strength to persevere.
Continuous prayer shows that we are confident in our God.
We are to pray and continue to pray until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to take us home.
In this parable, we see an unjust judge who disregards the laws, hates God, and hates those who come before him.
Yet he feels like he has the power to do as he wishes.
This is the way of our world today.
Everyone wants to reach in and grab a piece of power to do the things they desire.
We live in the day of the unjust judge, and it is very noticeable.
There was this widow who had been wronged and was seeking help from the judicial system, but this judge had no feelings for the truth, and he hated to be bothered with such trivial matters.
Every judge in our nation needs to understand there is a Higher Judge who has His eyes on them, and they, too, will be judged the same way that they judge others.
It is a fact that on that day of the widow, that most every widow, especially those who had no children, lived in helplessness and defenselessness.
Luk 7:12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.
Luk 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
Many times, this judge just ignored her and her problems.
We know this is not the way of the Lord Jesus, who is a most compassionate God.
This judge began to realize that if he did not do anything to help this widow, she was going to continue to come before him.
Finally, this self-centered judge did the right thing just to free himself from her ceaseless pleading.
The Lord Jesus is saying that if a corrupt judge on this earth will attend to the pleas of this poor widow whom he cared not for, how much more will God be moved by those He loves.
It is a fact that God is biased in favor of innocent victims of persecution.
We may never have to plead with God, but we must also understand that God will not answer every prayer at the time we think it is needed.
God knows what we need and when we need it.
God does not get mad at us if we ask for the same thing over and over again until we receive it or God says no.
*****Luk 18:6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
We must not think that this judge is a type of God; he is not. He is just an unjust judge who does not care about the suffering of any people.
The Lord Jesus wants us to continue in prayer of faith until we get an answer.
It is not that God is just too busy; it is just that God knows what we need and when we need it.
God knows our needs, and He promised to meet our needs.
God will avenge His own elect!
God's elect are those who follow His Son, Jesus!
As God's elect, we know that only God can meet our needs!
We also know that only God is the Judge of all His creation.
Luk 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
God is patient with all of us, but we know He is so full of mercy and grace that He will always meet our needs.
We must also realize that just as Jesus suffered, we will also suffer, and this will make us stronger witnesses and servants.
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
These things will make us stronger, and God wants us to learn from all our trials.
God will also avenge His elect without hesitation.
*****Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Our God is the only true Judge in this cosmos.
That word elect means God's favorites, God's preferred, God's believers, the disciples of Jesus Christ.
God will preserve all Christians from all their adversaries and save them from the seven years of Tribulation that is soon to come to this world.
Remember, this is God's choice, and He did not have to make this choice.
Only God can do the choosing of those who will not be a part of His wrath.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
If an unjust judge grants the petition of a defenseless person he cares nothing for, how much more shall our just Judge, our merciful God hear the cries and avenge the cause of those He loves.
We may have to cry out day and night before God will answer but He will answer.
He never said we would not suffer; in fact, He said we would.
Keep in mind the Jews suffered many years before God sent Moses to Pharaoh.
We should know that once God chooses to avenge His elect, He will come speedily.
*****Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
We must understand that persevering prayer is tied to our faith! He may not come soon but it will be suddenly.
Our adversaries will not know what hit them until it is over.
Jesus then adds, when He comes, will He find faith on this earth?
The Lord wants us to continue to pray even though it has been so long that we are losing heart, even though the answer is delayed, and we see evil increasing daily.
God is still hearing our prayers, but we must persevere until He comes.
We could ask how many will keep the faith until He comes?
We must guard against losing our faith!
God will always remain faithful to do as He says, but will we?
We swore an oath to be saved based on faith, and that faith must remain with us.
God does not have to think about whether He will return or not.
He knows He is coming and He knows when He is returning, and it will not take Him long to get here when He does come.
The Church may pass through a period of oppression in this world, but we must cling to our faith.
We should begin now by praying more earnestly.
If Jesus Christ seems to be delaying His return, then He has His reasons, and it has nothing to do with the Church.
The vengeance of the Lord will be a terrible time upon this earth, and the Lord will have to put aside His compassion to do those things, but He will do what He says He will for His Church.
Whenever deliverance comes, it will be sudden!
Then the Lord speaks with another parable.
*****Luk 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
The fact is that self-righteous people do not need to pray at all!
These people will never lose heart because they never had it to begin with.
They do not need faith to be confident in this world.
They feel that all they need dwells within them in their bodies and minds.
Pro 30:12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
We are in the generation of the return of Christ, but we are also in the generation of self-righteousness.
The Lord continues.
*****Luk 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
When we think we stand head and shoulders above all others, we are no better off than King Saul.
This Pharisee was a religionist.
This publican was a sinner.
Both these men went to the House of God to pray, which the Lord Jesus said was a house of prayer.
There is no better place to pray than in the House of God!
They both wanted to please God.
They were both seeking God to feel His presence in their lives.
Deu 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
This Pharisee represents the religious world in its most respected form.
This publican represents people who have no honor to maintain. He knows he is a sinner and is looking for the mercy of God.
The Pharisee prayed only with himself, only to himself.
He glorified himself before God and just told God how great a man of God he was.
This was not true prayer, and it did not reach into Heaven.
Joh 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Prayer is a means of worship, but this Pharisee only worshipped himself.
In fact, he actually thanked God for making him who he was.
God does not make us self-righteous, and God does not cause us to be sinners, and God does not tempt us in any way.
This Pharisee said he had not fallen into sin, which means he made himself to be equal with the Lord Jesus Christ, who truly had no sin.
He fasted twice a week, and he tithed. Both of these are good things and are pleasing to God, but these things do not make up for self-righteousness.
The publican.
*****Luk 18:13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
This man was ashamed and embarrassed by his sin, and others would not get near him because of his sin.
Remember Publicans were tax collectors for Rome, and the Jews hated them.
This publican stood far off, much like a leper.
He felt cut off by God and mankind. The Jews had a special hatred for publicans and considered them traitors to the nation of Israel.
I feel somewhat like this for all Democrats and many Republicans.
He would not even lift his eyes toward Heaven, but he did lift his heart toward Heaven.
He knew he did not deserve God's forgiveness!
He beat on his chest because he was angry with himself for his sin.
He pleaded with God to forgive Him. He pleaded for God's mercy.
We can only appeal to God's "Grace" when we do not deserve it.
There is no other way to be received by God than to acknowledge our sin before God and plead for God's forgiveness.
Mercy is not getting what we deserve, which is eternal death.
Grace comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is receiving what we do not deserve, eternal salvation.
We should understand that as long as we are in these bodies of flesh, we will never be righteous; we are only "counted righteous" by our Holy God because we are covered by the Blood of Jesus.
2Th_1:5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
Who then was justified?
*****Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
We can see that the words of Jesus do not line up with what the world says.
In fact, the words of Jesus do not line up with what many churches teach today.
It is the one who acknowledges that he is a sinner who has been justified by his faith.
Rom 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Rom 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
*****Luk 18:15 And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
Luk 18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Luk 18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.
We must be humble when we approach the Lord for forgiveness of our sins.
The first characteristic that fits the Kingdom of God is that of a child.
When we doubt that the Lord Jesus can save little children, we are acting like a Pharisee.
When we think the Church is spending too much money on our youth, we act like Pharisees.
When we do not look at our youth as being the future of the Church, we are acting like a Pharisee.
When we do not look at our youth as being the future of our nation, we act foolish because we need to train them to be the future of our nation.
God cares about every stage of the process of our growth, starting from childhood.
God loves the little children as much as He loves any of us!
Most children are obedient to their parents, and they can learn right from wrong at an early age.
Most children are far more forgiving than most adults.
When we get to Heaven, we will find that we are all children, God's children!
There is no way to get into Heaven except by receiving God's Kingdom like a child!
Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Amen
