Word of Salvation – Vol.23 No.45 – August 1977

 

Persistent Prayer (Luke 18:1-8)

 

Sermon by Rev. D. K. Baird, Th.Grad on Luke 18:1-8 (with L.D.45, A.116)

Scripture Readings: Numbers 11:11-25; Luke 18:1-8

Psalter Hymnal: 135, 21, 434, 275, 489

 

Prayer is often a mystery, isn’t it?  Why pray anyway?

Or, as the Catechism asks, “Why is prayer necessary for Christians?”
This is a real question that often goes through our minds.

Think of God: how great He is; how all-knowing He is: He sees right into our hearts and minds.
To quote Psalm 139, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, thou dost know it all.”
So why pray then?

The Lord knows what we are going to say.
The Lord Jesus Himself reminds us of this in the Sermon on the Mount:- “Your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.”

It is very comforting that God knows everything – that He knows our needs before we even ask Him.

It is relaxing just to dwell on that truth.
But does this mean we do not need to pray?
Is it that because God has promised to look after us mercifully in Christ, we do not need to worry about prayer too much anymore?

Well, that may appear to be logical reasoning, but from this parable of the Persistent Widow the Lord Jesus shows us quite clearly that such an idea is not biblical.

This is really a good parable for Calvinists, especially for Calvinists who like to be logical!

Calvinists will have to own this parable as being their own, because it speaks of God’s elect, and of God as the Sovereign Judge of the world.  Even so this parable tells us that we cannot be armchair Christians.  It tells us that a good Calvinist is a praying Calvinist.

No doubt God could have worked out an arrangement easily enough whereby we did not pray,

He could have arranged it so we just lounged around while He did everything for us.

But He has not done that.
He decided to institute prayer, and we need to accept that, and thank Him for that, even if sometimes we do not fully understand why.

In looking at this parable we can immediately see that Jesus told it to encourage His disciples to keep on praying.

Verse 1 says, “Now He was telling them a parable to show that
at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.”

We all need such a word of encouragement, don’t we?
It is too easy to not take prayer very seriously.
If we do not pray so much it may be that we really do not think we need to, OR it may be we have given up because we have found it too hard.

More probably with us it could be a combination of these two things.  We hope it is not really SO necessary to pray: that God will look after us regardless.

So when we find prayer rather time-consuming, inconvenient and just plain hard work, we find it fairly easy to give it up.

But the point of the parable again is this:-
“We ought to pray at all times and not lose heart.”
Or, to put it in the words of the Catechism:-
Prayer is necessary…
“because God will give His grace and Holy Spirit
to those only who with hearty sighing
unceasingly beg them of Him and thank Him for them.”

You can see this truth in this parable of the persistent widow.  This imaginary widow had an opponent who was oppressing her.  She looked to this judge for a legal protection.
However he was a bad judge and wasn’t interested.
He didn’t fear God nor respect man
so why should he bother with this insignificant nobody – this widow?

But the widow simply refused to give up.
She kept going back to him, time and time again, renewing her request.  The judge finally said to himself,  “This woman will wear me out by pestering me like she does.  Blow it, I’ll give her the legal protection she wants.”

In a word the point of this parable is PERSISTENCE.
She got an answer because she simply refused to give up.

Sometimes we get similar situations with those in authority.  The processes can be very slow.  But often those processes will be speeded up simply so they can get rid of us.  In this way we learn that it pays to be persistent way – that is the to get things moving.

But have we learnt to be persistent in prayer?

* * * * *

There are many calls in the New Testament for us to be persistent in prayer.  They amount to a call to:
Keep praying!
Don’t pray in dribs and drabs.
Don’t pray just when you feel like it.
Don’t start and then give up.
No – keep praying.
This is the repeated call of the New Testament.

Take these verses for example:-
“Be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12).
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving”.  (Colossians 4:2).
“Pray without ceasing”.  (1Thessalonians 5:17).
and especially Ephesians 6:18:-
“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”

It is quite clear that the Holy Spirit, in all these passages is encouraging us to persist in prayer.

* * * * *

We may find ourselves asking, WHY is Jesus telling us to persist in prayer in this parable?

We do not have to (as it were) twist God’s arm in prayer, as if He was unwilling to answer, or wasn’t interested in us.

He does know our needs; He does love us; He has promised to give us all things with Christ.

And in this He is just the opposite to the judge in the parable.  In the parable the judge is UN-willing.

Jesus describes him as an UN-righteous judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.

But God is just the opposite: He is righteous, and willing.

The point of it all is this:-
If a horrible, unrighteous judge, who was totally selfish,
was finally willing to vindicate this poor widow,
HOW MUCH MORE will God vindicate His elect,
whom He has chosen from eternity to receive His blessings?

We also need to notice here that Jesus has been speaking to His disciples of His second coming.

Notice that from chapter 17, verse 22 He has been speaking of the last days and the signs of the last days.

Then again in the last verse of our text (18:8) He speaks of the day when the Son of Man will come back.

We are waiting for that great day.
However in the meantime there is much sin around.
Our longing is that just as Jesus has forgiven us,
and has begun to cleanse us,
so He may complete that work in us.

Don’t you long that that pestering sin might once and for all be cleansed away?
Haven’t you prayed for that so many times?
But it hasn’t all gone yet has it?

Furthermore, what about the injustices that Christians suffer?
The worst cases are in some other countries,
but every Christian has it to some extent.

Are not we like that poor widow who was wronged?
Don’t we long for vindication and don’t we pray for it?
And yet all the wrongs haven’t vanished yet have they?
Don’t the answers to these prayers appear to be delayed?
Don’t you wonder why the Lord hasn’t done anything yet?
Don’t you sometimes think: “Why do I keep praying?”
“Why don’t I give up?”

In short don’t you feel a bit like the Christians portrayed in Rev.6:9-11?

“And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’  And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.”

Jesus told this parable to the effect that we ought to continue to pray and not to lose heart.

Why?

Verse 7:
“Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”

The answer is in verse 8:
“I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily”.

It does sometimes seem a long time before Christ returns.
But sometimes it will not be until then that the answers will come!
However we must remember that God is the RIGHTEOUS Judge!
He has not chosen His elect from before the foundation of the world for nothing.

Can you imagine such a gracious Lord delaying long?

The loving Lord who placed His own Son on the cross for us
will He not with Him freely give us all things?
He will vindicate us speedily!

* * * * *

Finally in the last verse, we have a gentle warning:-

“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

This is gently reminding us HOW necessary it is to keep praying, lest we should think that we can take it a bit easy.

In the end, says Jesus, there will be so few still clinging to the faith, because it is not easy to keep going in prayer.

The Lord will vindicate His elect.
He is ever so willing and able to do so.
But note: it is His elect, WHO CRY TO HIM DAY AND NIGHT that He vindicates.  Or again in the words of our Catechism:

“God will give His grace and Holy Spirit to those only
who with hearty sighing unceasingly
beg them of Him and thank Him for them.”

Brethren, “keep praying at all times, and do not lose heart.”

Amen.