Today we continue our exposition in the Word of God in Matthew chapter 18. In Matthew chapter 18, verses 1 to 8. As you know, we have been studying the parables that our Lord Jesus taught. And especially during the past month we have been studying the Lord's teaching in Luke and particularly the parables in Luke. We have had a few intermissions particularly because we had messages addressed to those who were being baptized. And so now we return to Luke chapter 18, verses 1 to 8. This parable which the Lord Jesus taught is known as the parable of the unrighteous judge, the unjust judge. And we need to ask: what is the message that the Lord wants us to get? What does He want to convey to us in this parable?
Luke chapter 18, verses 1 to 8. "And Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to lose heart. He said, 'In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, "Vindicate me against my adversary." For a time he refused. But afterward he said to himself, "Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming."' And the Lord said, 'Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate His elect who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless' — and here is the crucial line of the parable — 'nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?'"
Will He find faith when He comes? What is the Lord Jesus saying to us in this parable? In the context of this passage — and do not let the chapter beginning cause you to miss the connection with the previous chapter — what was the Lord Jesus saying just in the previous chapter? He was speaking about His coming again. The coming again of the Son of Man. And this parable is still on this theme. That is why the last verse, in verse 8, says, "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Now this is very important.
Now most people are aware — one point becomes very obvious as you read it. The persistence of this widow. The persistence of this widow. She kept coming to this judge and pestering this judge and giving him no peace until he gave her the justice that belonged to her. Now this point is very clear. And this matter of persistence in the Christian life, perseverance in the Christian life, we already expounded in connection with the Lord's parable about the friend at midnight. You will remember that we expounded it last October, which in the church catalog, I think, is in the series number 87. Now there we expounded the importance of perseverance or persistence in the Christian life when we studied Luke chapter 11, verses 5 to 8, the friend at midnight.
Now, is this then the same thing as that one? We remember in that parable, the friend kept knocking on the neighbor's door until he got the piece of bread, the loaf of bread, that he wanted to give to his friend. Is this then another parable simply repeating the importance of perseverance? Now certainly the importance of perseverance is being emphasized here. But is this the same thing then as that parable? No. There are some important differences. And it is these important differences that we are particularly concerned about. So I shall not repeat again the theme about perseverance, but look rather at that aspect of the Lord's teaching here which does not come out in the other parable of Luke chapter 11, verses 5 to 8.
What then is the theme in this parable? What is the point that the Lord Jesus wants to bring out to us? Well, let us take this somewhat verse by verse. There are only eight verses. And look at it verse by verse. "The Lord Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to lose heart." Now that is very important. That they must not give up. That they must not become so discouraged as to say, "There is no point carrying on. I quit. I am finished with it."
Now I, in pastoral work, know of people who, having continued in the Christian life for some time, just give up. They give up. They stop praying. "There is no use to pray. God doesn't answer my prayer. I give up. There is no use being a Christian anymore." If you don't pray, of course you cease being a Christian. You have cut the lifeline with God. And that is the end. This is the important point about this parable given to us right at the introduction: that you don't give up under pressure, in the face of difficulties. You finally say, "It's no point to carry on anymore." And as you and I all know people who once were Christians, who then just broke down under the pressure.
The word translated here "lose heart" in the Revised Standard Version means literally "to become tired, to become weary, to be exhausted." Exhausted. We know there are people who under pressure just become exhausted. They can't carry on anymore. It's too much for them. I remember one point in my Christian life where I nearly cracked under the strain. I couldn't go on. I remember that time very well. I had been three years as a Christian in China, in Shanghai, under the Communists. Three years of hunger. Three years of never having any breakfast. Sometimes having lunch. And oftentimes not having any supper. And my meal consisted of one pancake. A pancake which I made myself because the cheapest thing I could buy was a bag of flour. And you don't need a lot of fuel to make a pancake. The rice can take you 25 minutes to boil. A pancake is fried in something like two minutes. I mixed the flour with water and if I could afford it, I put a little bit of sugar inside there. So I needed only to buy flour and oil. Peanut oil. "Shengyu," we have it in Shanghai. So, you put in the oil, mix the flour with water and pour it in. You fry the pancake and that was my meal.
The Christian life plus the constant pressure of life — the Communists kept questioning me about why I was a Christian, why I go to church — this constant pressure of life without knowing what the future held, I guess, began to tell on me. I was cut off from my parents. I was alone. Alone, that is, on the human level, though never alone as far as God was with me. I remember the day after three years of this. Very exhausted, very thin, very tired, and probably my health as a result has never recovered from that time on. I knelt down on my concrete floor — stone, concrete, cement floor — where I was living in that room, freezing cold in winter. I knelt down on that concrete floor and I said, "Lord, I am exhausted. I am tired. I am weary. Lord, I can't go on anymore. Have pity upon Your weak servant. I am willing to do whatever You want me to do. I am willing to stay in China." I didn't suffer as much as some of the pastors had to suffer. I was a very young Christian. I had experienced God's mercy over three years, but even the miracles that I have experienced was not going to balance out anymore that physical exhaustion, that emotional weakening, that loneliness that many people do experience.
God understands us. God knows our problems. And many times I had prayed. Many times I had tried to leave China but they wouldn't let me go. Twice I applied. Twice my application was turned down. What's the point of applying anymore? I didn't know how to — there was no point to apply anymore. There was no — I had no contact with my parents. I had no money. I had no future. I had nothing except God. So I understand very much the meaning of this parable having experienced it. When you have prayed and the very things you have prayed for do not seem to be answered at that particular time. You wait and wait. And three years is a long time for a young man. Especially when your stomach is hungry and you don't seem to have any kind of future to look forward to. My health was poor through malnutrition. They had found a spot in my left lung. My whole condition was deplorable.
And in this condition I came before God. And this was not the first time I had prayed. But I remember that that particular morning when I prayed I was particularly weak and exhausted. And I felt I had come to the point where I might lose heart, as the word here. I might just give up. And so that particular day when I knelt down and prayed, God wonderfully answered me. He knows how far we can go. He knows to what point we can go before we break. Provided that we are determined, so far as it is possible within us, to be faithful to the end. He will do His part. He is the living God. And I shared with you that on that occasion how the voice of the Lord spoke to me as clearly as you hear my voice speaking to you now. When He said, "Eric, I will take you out of China." The voice was clear. This was not the first time — this was the first time God spoke to me, but not the last time that God was going to speak to me. But from that time on He lifted me up. He assured me that I was not alone. From that moment on I knew that I was leaving China. The Lord had told me so. Two months later I was out of the country. And the evidence of it is you see me here.
So this is a parable in which the Lord Jesus shows, from His point, how He understands our needs. He understands the fact that we can lose heart. That we can under pressure finally break and give up. And so there He spoke to me knowing that I was near to the breaking point. The voice of the Lord spoke clearly. And of course there was no imagination. I was wide awake. I wasn't asleep. In fact, I was so surprised to hear the voice, I turned around to look if somebody had stealthily crept into my room without my knowing it. No, there was no one in my bare room. My room was very bare. Concrete floor. Next to no furniture. There was nowhere for anyone to hide. God is the living God.
But what touches me about this parable is His concern for His disciples. Long before this time of testing was coming, He spoke to His disciples. He spoke to them. "Them" are the disciples, of course, as we read about in the previous chapter in verse 22. And this is the continuation of His talk to His disciples. And He told His disciples — He is speaking to Christians. He is not here speaking to non-Christians. He is saying to the Christians, "You are going to have a very hard time. I have told you so right from the beginning that you are following Me. You take up your cross and follow Me. And there will come a time when you will pray and you don't seem to get an instant answer." I had to wait three years. And three years is a long time in a young man's life to wait. I was barely twenty at the time. And then He understands. And so He is telling His disciples, saying this: Even though for the time when you pray there does not seem to be an answer, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Stand fast. He will let you go so far. He will allow you to be tested to such a point. But He will not let you go to the breaking point. He knows how much you can take. For your part — now He is not speaking here about God's part. The parable concerns our part. Stick it out to the end. That is what I mean.
As I say that I am particularly concerned about those who have gone back to Hong Kong and who are going back to Hong Kong. And of course also those of you who are here who have all kinds of problems. Which of us don't have problems? You don't have to go to Hong Kong to find problems. But of course those who go to Hong Kong will face peculiar pressures from the world. Sometimes you find pressures from within and from without. You find that perhaps you came to the Lord in Canada and you go to Hong Kong and you find that your parents don't understand you. "What is this nonsense about becoming a Christian and getting all fanatical and foolish about this? I mean, a little religion is okay for everybody. But too much religion is no good for anyone. Everything in moderation." And so you find that your parents don't understand you. Your brothers and sisters don't understand you. The society doesn't understand you. And so the pressure builds up and it becomes hard to take. And I suffer with those who suffer there in Hong Kong. I receive news from them and I know they have a hard time. It's not nice to go home and find that nobody understands you. That you are speaking a language they don't know what you are talking about. "Who knows about God? We only need money. Money is the only God we need. Who needs to talk about God? Be practical, realistic. When does God give you any food to eat?" Well, God gives you food to eat. But they didn't know that, of course. Three years God supported me. Not in chickens and turkeys and ducks and pasta and things like this. But I mean, pancakes is also food. And I tell you, God created miracles that I have shared with some of you. He sees to it that our need is met. And that He certainly did.
In fact, if it were not for the fact that God allowed my health also to suffer, I wouldn't be here today. The Communists would never have let me out of China. God had to allow me to go so far that my health also was in part broken. Because without that, if He didn't allow that, the Communists would never let me out of China. Sometimes it's painful, isn't it? I think, when I think of a parent that sometimes must allow certain things to happen to a child — the child must suffer certain things in order to be able to gain certain benefits. I think that is what God had to let me endure. He had, in His love to me, He had to see me getting thinner and thinner. Until I had this spot in the lung, some infection in the lung. Until the time the Communists were convinced that it's no use to keep this guy in China. He's going to be a medical burden to us. Just let him go. So, God has to sometimes allow us to suffer these things because He sees the overall plan. It is for our good.
I have had some of the most wonderful spiritual experiences in China. As I said, I have shared that with many of you. But the most wonderful spiritual experiences — and this is what I would like to say to those of you who are going back to Hong Kong as well — the most wonderful spiritual experiences are experienced not when you are enjoying a time of plenty, when you are having an easy life. It is precisely when you are experiencing hardship, difficulty, pressure. That is precisely the time of the greatest spiritual blessing. And therefore, don't be discouraged about going back to Hong Kong. The challenge and the problems which that situation will bring will be an opportunity for you to see whether God is the living God or not.
I say to every person, honestly and frankly, if God is not the living God, forget about Him. Don't waste your time with religion. Have I not said that many times before? If God is not the living God, forget Him. Finish with Him. Who needs religion? If you need one religion, that's up to you. That's your thing. I am not teaching religion. I don't preach religion. I preach the living God. I believe in Him. I follow Him because I have experienced Him. I know He is true. I also know that if I went out into the world today, maybe I'll earn many times more than what I earn as a pastor. But that doesn't interest me. Why? Because I am interested in God, the living God.
The day will come when your money doesn't count anymore. Your money will be gone. Those of us who came out of China have seen that happen so many times. The big businessmen of Shanghai, when the Communists came, they lost everything. Everything gone. My father's investment in a factory, everything is gone. Finished. A car gone, house gone, everything gone. The riches of this world will go quickly. But God abides forever. I have seen great politicians, many of whom I know, but today are nothing. Nothing. God — the glory of this world. My father himself held high position. There was a day when I went in and out of Nanjing with guards saluting me, standing to attention, even though I rode fast on a bicycle. Already the guards stand to attention to salute. Why? Because of whom my father was. But I saw also this glory fade away. Everything gone. The glory of this world is nothing. Exactly as that great king of Israel, Solomon, says in Ecclesiastes. It all fades away. Vanity of vanities. You live for that which fades away, that is not wisdom. To live for that which is eternal, that is wisdom.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. You remember those wonderful words. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep anyway, who gains what he can never lose. That is wisdom. To give your life to gain what you cannot keep — that is foolishness. To give up your life to gain what you cannot lose — that is wisdom. But there is nothing in this world you will not lose. You came into this world naked and penniless. You will go out of this world naked and penniless. Nothing you will keep. So you want to live just for the few years here? And that is wisdom?
As I reminded you how John Stott, who could have been professor of chemistry in 1910 — when he was asked, "Why did you give up your wonderful career in chemistry to preach the gospel?" — that was more or less the answer he gave: "I gave up what I cannot keep to gain what I cannot lose." That is wisdom. But in the gaining of that which you cannot lose — in being a Christian — I have said to you many times, being a Christian is no easy thing. I never preached the gospel on false pretenses. I never tell you, "Become a Christian and you will have peace and joy and easy time and God will just cause the money to flow into your pocket." What kind of Christianity is this? I don't preach this sort of Christianity. No, no. I tell you honestly, to follow the path of righteousness in a world of sin is bound to be difficult. To follow the path of humility in a world that is arrogant is bound to be difficult. To follow the path of truth in a world of falsehood is bound to be difficult. Therefore, to be a Christian — that means a true Christian — in a world such as this is certainly difficult.
Now you cannot have been a Christian for very long. You cannot have been a real Christian if you have not experienced the difficulties. All kinds of difficulties. So much pressure brought to bear upon you that many times you are going to feel as in this parable: "I just can't go on. I can't go on." You are so discouraged. You are so weakened. When I became a Christian, and when I determined to follow Christ, to preach the gospel — I was a Christian. Oh, the pressure broke out. My mother was against me. My father was against me. Everybody was against me. And you know, I was — being the only son, the only child, not only the only son, but the only child in my family — my parents put all their hope on me. "He is going to become the great politician. To succeed where father didn't succeed. He will become the great scientist, maybe, if he doesn't become a politician." I trust under God that I could have succeeded in those areas too. But I ask myself, "What is the point? What shall I achieve with this?" I had great military ambitions. But I ask myself, "What happened to Alexander the Great? He died and his empire collapsed. What happened to Caesar? He was killed, murdered by his own friend. What happened to Napoleon? He died on an island. What happened to all the great men?" Now, I am not afraid to die on an island like Napoleon. I am not afraid to be stabbed by a friend like Brutus. I am not afraid to die of fever in India or somewhere like Alexander the Great. But the point was, the question simply is this: what have you accomplished? What was it all for? Pointless. No enduring values.
But of course my parents didn't see it that way, at least because they didn't know God in the way that by God's grace I had come to know Him. And so the pressure came on. My father said, "Okay, you want to serve God? I am going to cut you off. You will have no education. I am not going to pay for your studies. No more money." Pressure built on. So he thought that maybe if he cut off my financial supply, since I could not go to study, I could not go to university, then I would buckle under. Little did he know that I had three years in China come to know the living God. I knew that the living God would see me through. And I went on. You know, he never ceased to regret what he did. My father never ceased to regret. Because in spite of his cutting off my financial supply, I still graduated from Bible college. I still graduated from the Faculty of Divinity. I still graduated from university. Because God saw me through the whole thing. And then he regretted. Because now he realized that I never owed my education to him. He had lost the chance of making me indebted to him for my education. God saw me through. He could never understand it. "How could it be possible that I don't give him money and he can still study and still graduate from university? I don't understand it." Why he didn't understand it is because he didn't understand that God is the living God.
My mother, who was very hard against the gospel, having seen the false Christianity that is so prevalent in Europe — when I graduated, she said to me, "I don't know about this God that you speak of. You always say that God will do this and God will do that." And she said, "Now I have seen with my own eyes that your God is true. Your God is real." She says, "I can't deny it. I have seen it in your life." And she knelt down with me and received Jesus into her life. That was the biggest moment of my life. Every time when it comes to Mother's Day, like today, I think of my mother. And I think of that wonderful day when my mother knelt down with me, with the tears streaming down her face, receiving the Lord Jesus into her life. She, who was so hard against the gospel, so rejecting of the gospel — she was a powerful intellect. She was a great thinker. And she had all kinds of intellectual objections. But when she saw the truth of the matter in the face of that evidence, she said, "Your God is real. There is no question about it."
But up before those glorious days, before the days when I was able to see the change — what pressure I received. What pressure. How many times in the days in the Bible Institute, I thought I was going to break up. How many times when studying in London, I thought, "I'm not going to make this thing." God's only truth. How do we survive? Simply in this very parable. Persevering. Holding on to the end. You know, there were times when I grit my teeth in the face of the pressure, and I said, "If I'm going to die here penniless in the gutter in England, if I shall starve to death here in this country in whom I know nobody, I shall be faithful to my God. I shall not swerve to the left or to the right, if it's the last thing I do." Sheer determination. The determination to be faithful to the end.
"When the Son of Man comes, will He find faithfulness?" The word "faith" and "faithfulness" are identical here. "Will He find faithfulness?" Or will we have lost heart by then? Will we have given up in the face of pressure?
Now the second verse — and we will move on much more quickly after this introduction — brings out the contrast of this judge. It tells us "in a certain city there was a judge." And what was this judge like? Well, this judge was not afraid of God, and he didn't care about man. We say in Chinese, "Tian bu pa, di bu pa" — he's not afraid of heaven, he's not afraid of earth. Oh, he is really something. At least in his own eyes he is something. He is his own God. He worships himself. He doesn't worship heaven. He doesn't care about man. Only himself. Oh, he is a marvelous guy. He thought the world of himself, obviously. Imagine a judge of this kind. Now, what kind of a person behaves like this? A person who is utterly self-centered, who is utterly egocentric.
We can see the character of this judge. He cared about neither truth nor justice. He cared about neither compassion nor any concern even for the law that he is supposed to administer. Because under Jewish law, the widow takes precedence over everybody else. The law is designed to defend the defenseless. But this judge has neither regard for law, nor has even so much as compassion. He cares about nobody but himself. His God is his own belly, as Paul said to the Galatians. There are these kind of people in the world whose only God is their belly. What a God to worship. No wonder the belly gets bigger and bigger as time goes on. Presumably we think their God is getting bigger. So, they worship their belly. Their God is their belly. And this is the kind of judge you have in a city.
Now, where would you get truth and justice where you have a judge like this? And this widow, verse 3 — the widow. Now, the widow in the Bible is the picture of a person who is weak, defenseless, poor. In the Bible, the widow is always the symbol of a person who is utterly without financial resources because she has no husband, she has no income. And she is without protection because there is no man to stand up for her. In Psalm 68, verse 5, God is spoken of as the only protector of the widow. The widow has no protection. There is nobody to stand up for her.
And let's consider again this judge. So, we have the picture of the widow and the judge. The poor, defenseless woman and this self-centered, arrogant, conceited judge who cares about nothing and no one but himself. Now, what does the Lord Jesus want to bring out from this picture? I think there are many things. You know, the judge in the Old Testament was God's representative. He was God's representative in Israel, among the people of Israel. And remember, this parable takes place in the context of the Jewish life, among the people of God. This widow is a member of the people of God, an Israelite. This judge is a member of the people of God, an Israelite. The judge is supposed to be God's representative in Israel.
That is why we read in this famous passage in Psalm 82, verse 1, on which — and I should really read you this psalm because this psalm reflects this parable. The parable almost seems to be taken from this psalm. Psalm 82, verse 1, reads like this: "God has taken His place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, He holds judgment." Now, I expounded all this when we were studying Genesis, and you remember the Lord Jesus quotes words of this kind: "I say, you are gods." That is the words addressed to judges. The judges were described as "gods" because they exercised the divine power of justice in the nation. And notice this word: "How long?" Verse 2: "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?" This is exactly what this judge is doing. He is — "How long will you judge unjustly?" He is an unjust judge, remember?
# The Parable of the Unjust Judge (Part 2) — Luke 18:1-8
...and be destitute. Who are the destitute? The widows who are exceedingly poor. The emblem of poverty. Verse 4: "Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Which is precisely what the judge should do and which this judge is not doing. And this whole passage then is, as I say, the psalm is the background for this parable.
Now, when we speak of the pressures, what pressures are we talking about that the Christian has to endure? What kind of pressures do we have to endure? What causes a Christian to come to the point when he is so tired, so weak, that he might break up? Well, the two areas of problems will come. One is from outside the church. One is from inside the church. From outside the church comes the persecutions of the world. Remember Matthew, where the Lord Jesus says, Matthew chapter 10, where He says, "I send you out as sheep among wolves into the world. You are as sheep among wolves." Like this widow, you are poor, you are defenseless. And where will you find justice for your cause in this world? Which judge will stand to your defense? So, under that situation, the Christian living under the stress of the hostility of the world, the opposition of the world, is one source of what grinds him down, weakens him.
But there is the other source, unfortunately. The problems that come to him from inside the church. This, I think, is particularly the stress of this parable here. Because the Lord Jesus chooses the picture of the unjust judge in Israel. You know, one of the reasons why Israel went into exile, the prophets tell us, is because the judges of Israel became corrupted and took bribes. And they did not defend the defenseless. They did not stand up for the widows. They did not care for the orphans and the fatherless. And God's anger was brought against Israel for this. You will find this in almost every one of the prophets as they spoke out against the judges in Israel. The judges, as I have just said, are the representatives of God in Israel. They administered the divine justice according to the law of God. The leaders of Israel became corrupted. And I think particularly in Ezekiel chapter 34, the whole chapter is a denunciation of the leaders of Israel, where it says, "You shepherds of Israel, who should have fed the sheep of Israel, you only feed your own bellies. You feed yourselves. You only care about yourselves." Like this judge.
And so, there is a condemnation of the leaders of Israel in the denunciation of the judges by the prophets. And it seems to me, as I look at this parable of the judge, that the Lord Jesus used the picture of the judge quite deliberately. If He wanted to represent the world as giving a hard time to the Christians, the judge would hardly be a symbol of the world. For the judge was God's appointed minister of justice in the nation of Israel. No, rather, perhaps the worst persecution that a Christian can experience, the worst opposition, is the carelessness of the leaders of the church to their own people.
And this I speak again particularly to those returning to Hong Kong. Especially as those who have reported to me who have already returned to Hong Kong, the problems they have received from leaders of churches. I am sorry for them. The judges who should be doing God's word in God's church too often are not doing it. They are simply doing their own thing. And unfortunately, there are too many pastors, as I have said before and I say again, who seem to be pastors for worldly motives, not spiritual motives. Who are more concerned about maintaining the status quo, of standing in favor with headquarters, of being accepted by other pastors of like mind so that they can keep their job, so that they can maintain their position. Now, I am not saying that all pastors are like that. And the Lord Jesus is not saying that all judges are like that in Israel. There were good judges in Israel too. But it is the bad judges that caused the people to suffer. It is the bad pastors who caused the churches to suffer.
Do you not see how amazingly God foresaw that what happened in Israel is going to happen in the church? And we see it exactly here. "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith?" Will He find faith in His church upon the earth? Well, if faith is not in the church, where do you expect to find it — in the world? Of course it has to be in the church. "Will He find faith?" You see, the Lord Jesus foresaw, and in fact, we find in Timothy, prophesying, the Spirit expressly says that in the last days, the churches will be full of false teachers. Preachers and pastors who come into the church just to feed their own stomach, to look after their own interests. Not all pastors are like that. Let me say it again. There are some very good pastors. But there are also some very bad pastors. Those are the ones who will make God's people suffer.
Now, it is easier to endure suffering from the non-Christians. It is much harder to endure suffering from Christians. And I say this again to those returning to Hong Kong. Stand fast. You will meet opposition from these kind of judges who instead of ministering the word of God that they should have ministered, care only for their own personal interests. They are standing in the eyes of the churches to be in good favor with everybody. Therefore, they suppress the truth. Stand fast.
But there is also a lesson which comes out of this: that persistence with such people. What shall we do if you come against a pastor like this? A pastor who is in the church just because he wants a good salary, because he can't get any other job. He is going to take his pastorate as his "fun one." He is going to — that is his bowl of rice. What shall we do? What shall you do when you go to Hong Kong and you go to a church and you run into people like this, pastors like this? One thing you can do is do what this widow does. Persist. Keep on persisting, demanding that he implements the word of God. Now what does this widow do? She is persisting with this judge and says, "You haven't given me justice according to the law of God in Israel. Fulfill the word of God. I insist that you fulfill the word of God. Please fulfill it."
And the lesson seems to be that if this judge does not fulfill the word of God because he cares about justice, he will fulfill the word of God because he is tired of being worn out by your persistence. I think there is a lesson there. Let me give you an illustration of this. When I first came out of China and I was in Hong Kong, the Russian Christians — a wonderful group of people that I met in Shanghai — they were Russian Baptists. They couldn't speak Chinese and China didn't want them. China really wanted them just to get out and go because they were not Chinese, they were Russians and they couldn't speak Chinese and they were really not integrated into the societies, and on top of that, they were Christians. They were devout Christians. And before I left China, these dear brothers, these dear Russian brothers and sisters said to me, "When you go to Hong Kong, will you please remind our Baptist church that we do exist. We are struggling to survive here in China. We are starving here. Will you please remind them to remember us here?" I said, "I will certainly do that."
And so when I got to Hong Kong, true to my word, I gave the Baptist Federation no peace until they did something about these Russian Christians in Shanghai. And it was very opportune that the president of the World Baptist Federation happened to be in Hong Kong at the time. And I gave him no peace whatsoever. Day after day, I pursued this man and he must have thought that the impertinence of this young fellow is just unbearable. I phoned him at his hotel and whenever I heard that he was speaking at some meeting, I pursued him to the meeting place and got hold of him after the meeting until he knew me very, very well. Every time, I said, "Oh yes, okay, okay, the Russian Christians in Shanghai." I said, "Right, now get on with it. Do something about it. They are starving there. Every day for you means nothing. Every day for them is a matter of survival whether they will survive another day." I told you how when I visited them with the elder of our church, the best food that they could offer to me was a bowl of soup and a slice of bread. They themselves only ate the bread without the soup. For us, as honored guests, we had a bowl of soup to go with the bread. Such was their poverty.
So I was determined to give the president of the World Baptist Federation not one moment of peace until they did something. And I'm glad to say that they all left China shortly afterwards because China didn't want to keep them. So the only thing which was necessary was the financial aid to see these several hundred people out of China. So I, perhaps like this widow, was very impertinent. This great Christian leader there — whoever he was, I even don't remember his name now — but I gave him no peace. I pestered him day and night.
And this is the word that is used here about the widow in relation. In verse 5 it says — the word that is translated here in verse 5, "she will wear me out" — in the Greek literally means "she will give me a black eye." "Hupopiazo," the Greek word, which is also used by Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 27: "I give myself a black eye." That means he punished himself, he disciplined himself. And here the judge was so concerned about this woman who kept pestering him day after day, lest she give me a black eye. I think he was not afraid that she would punch him in the eye — that maybe she wasn't strong enough to do that — but rather in the metaphorical meaning: "She will just wear me out. She's going to give me a hard time. She's going to keep pestering me and buffeting me." So, "Okay, even though I don't fear God and I don't care for men, but I care for myself, and since she's going to wear me out, I better give her what she wants so I can be rid of her."
As it were, there might be this strategy: since there are some preachers and pastors who don't seem to care too much about either God or man, they do care about themselves. So we might be able to give them such a hard time for themselves, so exhaust them, that they say, "Okay, okay, let's get on with doing God's word otherwise we'll never have peace from these people here." That might be a good strategy. Maybe that is the only strategy in the end time, when the church becomes more and more corrupt internally.
What will happen to the elect? Now, very important to bear in mind is the fact that the widow here represents not one person but the church. It represents the elect. And that's what you read in verse 7: "And will not God vindicate His elect?" So the widow represents the elect. The elect is always a term for God's faithful people in the church. And this I find is exceedingly beautiful. The church is pictured as a widow — alone, yet not alone; poor, and yet not poor because having spiritual resources from God; defenseless and not defenseless — so defenseless in the world, yet defended by God. The picture of the church is the picture of a widow. "Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God." The true church is always pictured as the poor, the widow.
And so, here we come then to the last verse, as we must now conclude. And the last verse says this: God will defend you. God will speedily vindicate His church. God cares about His church. This parable is a promise. It is a promise that if you stick firm to the end, God will certainly take up your cause. You will not be disappointed. He may let us come right up to the limits of our endurance. Not only He may, He will. He will let us come to the limits of our endurance. There are times when you and I, brothers and sisters, will come to the point — and I have come to that point many times — when physically exhausted, mentally worn out, spiritually depleted, we say to the Lord, "Lord, I can't go on. I can't." If anybody breaks down, let me tell you, I have all the sympathy for that person. I never feel I want to condemn such a person. I never feel superior to that person. I feel we must never judge or condemn such a person. Some just couldn't make it; they broke down. But God still cares. God cares for us so much. He says, "I will vindicate you. I will take up your cause."
And there is this reasoning in this parable. It is the reasoning that follows very much the pattern of Matthew chapter 7: "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give good gifts to you?" The reasoning is the same here. If the unjust judge can be pestered into giving justice, how much more will the just judge give justice readily and gladly. This is truly a beautiful parable.
But the closing verse is this. In spite of such a promise as God's encouragement, that He will stand with you and vindicate you to the end, will you be able to stand? The answer lies with you, not with God. God will never fail. The question is: will you fail? And the fearful answer is that some will fail. In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus warned His disciples that in the last days, many will depart from the faith. You cannot depart from the faith unless you have been in the faith. You cannot go away from Montreal unless you have been in Montreal. And the love of many will grow cold because of the surrounding wickedness.
What will cause us to break? That has been summarized before. Maybe you have been doing good. The same Greek word as we find in verse 1, "to become weary, tired," is used in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 13, where it reads like this: "Brethren, do not be weary" — that's the same word, weary — "lose heart in well-doing." There are some people who have done so much good. You keep on giving and giving of yourself — maybe financially, of your time, of your energy. You keep giving, giving, giving. And you realize that sometimes you give so much that you really become tired of giving because your own supply is exhausted. I once received some inheritance, insurance money. Gave, gave, gave, until I had nothing left and I began to get resentful. "I serve the Lord and I lose all my money as well in the process. I mean, Lord, there must be a limit to what one can give. It's enough. Must I endure poverty as well as exhaustion, as well as all these other things?" We become weary in well-doing, and then I become ashamed of myself. Can we ever give too much? Can we ever give too much, when He has given His all to us? But there are times when we do become resentful. We give and we give and we give until we are exhausted of our supply. And people don't necessarily seem to be all that grateful. People don't necessarily seem to be all that appreciative. Well, do we give because we want people to appreciate? Or do we give rather that nobody knows that we give? We give rather that God may see, not that man may see. So do not become weary in well-doing.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 9, has the same Greek word as "weary" that we have in chapter 18, verse 1 of Luke. There it says the same thing: "Do not be weary in well-doing, but we shall reap in due time if we do not lose heart." If we do not lose heart, we shall reap. You see, the great pity is that you sowed, but you didn't reap. That's a tragedy. You sowed, you put all your seed into the ground, you gave everything, and then you didn't reap. But you see, it takes time for a harvest to come out of what you sow. You cannot sow today and reap tomorrow. You may have to wait the whole six months before you can reap. And if you plant fruit trees, you might have to wait years before you can reap anything from those fruit trees. And so Paul is saying in Galatians 6:9, "Do not lose heart. It takes time before the harvest comes." And that waiting period, when you have put all your seed in the ground and you've got no more seed left, and you're waiting month after month — that's a long wait. But if you don't lose heart, you shall reap. And what do you reap? Verse 8 tells us: you reap eternal life. Oh, that is something very important. "He that sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap" — what? Reap eternal life. Eternal life is going to be reaped if you have due patience to wait for it.
So I plead with those who go back to Hong Kong, and indeed for all of us: stand fast. But then let us — yet one last point to conclude regarding verse 8. "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith upon the earth?" This is the question I have been asking from the first moment till now. And I said again just a moment ago, the question is not with God, the question is with you. Will you continue to the end? I beg of you, stand fast to the end. Continue steadfast to the end that you may reap.
You know, what I read here is very interesting. "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith?" Immediately brings me back to Exodus chapter 32 and verse 1. You know what happened in Exodus chapter 32, verse 1? It was this. Moses went up to God to receive the commandments and he disappeared. He went up, he ascended on high and the Israelites stood there, the whole multitude of the Israelites, and saw Moses going up into the mountain, disappeared into the clouds, and he was gone. And they sat there waiting for Moses — one day, two days, three days, four days. "Hey, what happened to Moses? Moses has gone up to God. He has gone up into the mountain to God and he is gone and we don't see him anymore." Six days, seven days, eight days, nine days — you know how long Moses was gone? Ten days, twenty days — "What happened to Moses?" And so we read in Exodus chapter 32: "As for this man Moses, we don't know what became of him." This guy — he went up to communicate with God, he went up there and maybe he is going to stay in heaven forever, he is never going to come back again, maybe God is going to keep him there.
And so it went on to twenty days, thirty days, still no Moses. People said, "Okay, well, I guess we have lost Moses. Moses has gone up to God, he is never going to come back again, so what shall we do? We are going to have to find something to worship. We are going to worship the golden calf. We are going to make a golden calf and worship it." And when Moses came back again forty days later, what did he do? Did he find faith upon the earth? You see the question? Did he find faith? No, he found all the people of God, except a handful, corrupted, worshipping the golden calf, worshipping money in their midst.
You know, the church has begun to worship money in many places. Many people go to church, they wonder, "What is the church? The church is a money-collecting organization." Offering plate comes by — okay, what? Another one coming by — what? Another one. You know, a friend of mine went to the States and they took four offerings — four offerings in one service. She, having come from England, used only to one offering, found that at the end she had no more money to put in the offering plate. Four offerings. The church begins to worship the golden calf.
What is this? A friend of mine joined a radio broadcasting ministry, which I shall not name, in the Far East. And after joining that ministry for a few months, he gave up. I asked him, "Why did you quit this radio broadcasting ministry?" He said, "Because all they want me to do — I thought I was going to be in the broadcasting business — all they wanted me to do is go around collecting money." He says, "I haven't studied the will of God for these years to come back to collect money." The church has become a money-collecting institution. I'm sorry to say, I love the church. I love it, and it doesn't give me any joy to say these things. But it reminds me of these words: "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith?" Or will the church be worshipping the golden calf? Collecting money, worshipping degrees, worshipping money, worshipping the worldly institutions, the golden calf of Egypt. We worship what the world worshipped. What did Egypt worship? Egypt worshipped the golden calf. What does the church worship? The church worshipped the same thing — the golden calf. Degrees, high position, money. Well, what else do we worship? We worship the same thing. Church corrupted from inside. No wonder this judge cares for neither God nor man. He has learned to worship his own belly.
What will our position be? When the Son of Man — remember I just mentioned right at the beginning that in the context this has to do with the coming of the Son of Man, the coming of Christ again — Jesus has gone. He has gone for 100 years, 200 years, 300 years, 1,000 years, 1,500 years. We, like the Israelites, say, "Well, this man Moses, he has gone up to be with God, we don't know what happened to him, maybe he'll never come again, we don't know." And those are exactly the words in 2 Peter 3, verse 4. The scoffers will say, "Well, nothing has changed since the beginning. I mean, Jesus went up there to heaven, He's going to stay there forever. I mean, we're not going to see Him again, so let's get on with worshipping the golden calf."
When He comes, will He find faith? Will we still be faithful? I beg of you, brothers and sisters, remember this: no matter what the pressures are — and this whole parable is about this, being faithful to the end under pressure — let us pray, especially for those who go back to Hong Kong, but also for all of us who must face all kinds of pressures in the difficulty of living righteously in an unholy world, of living for the truth in a world where lie and falsehood is the order of the day. God grant us the grace we need, knowing that He will stand with us to the end. Let us pray.