Secrets of the Secret Place - Part 2

Secrets of the Secret Place class, thank you for coming and being with us again. Turn in your Bibles please to Luke chapter 18, Luke 18, a parable that our Lord Jesus gives us, beginning in verse 1, Then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. We don't have to imagine what the purpose of this parable is. Jesus gives it, or Luke rather, gives it right at the start as a commentary. He says, Jesus gives us this parable in order to empower unrelenting prayer. It's very clear. Jesus wants you to pray and never give up. Especially living at the end of the age as we do. In verse 8, the Lord said about this parable, he says, Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Jesus is indicating that the Luke 18 parable in front of us is actually pointing to the end of the age and is more relevant to us today who live at the end of the age than it has ever been before. There is a scoffing spirit that Peter said would come in the end times and it asks this question, where is the promise of his coming? When you stand and hold to a promise of God and cry out to him to fulfill his word, there comes a scoffing spirit that attacks you in the place of prayer and says, what are you doing? Where is this promise anyway that you hold to? Jesus, knowing that we would face this kind of battle at the end of the age, gives us a parable and he says, I'm going to give it to you to empower you to always pray, to never give up and never relent until God answers the prayer that he has promised you. I want to be very clear tonight, we serve a God who answers prayer. One of the books I've written is entitled The Fire of Delayed Answers and every once in a while, I'll have a conversation with someone who is wanting to make mention of that book, but they forgot the title. And they say, oh, I love your book, it's got the red cover, I love that book, it's the book on unanswered prayer. And when they call it the book on unanswered prayer, oh, that's like taking your fingernails down the chalkboard. Don't do that, because it's not a book on unanswered prayer, it's a book on delayed answers. How many know there's a quantum difference between an unanswered prayer and a delayed answer? I don't have a theology to give you for unanswered prayers, because all I can come up with is a God who answers prayer, so I'm going to preach it until the day I die. Jesus answers prayer, he fulfills his promises, and he wants you to pray and never stop until he fulfills the cry of your heart. Unanswered prayers avail nothing. Why pray if there's never going to be an answer? The whole point of prayer is to lay hold of God until you receive the thing that he has promised in your life. Verse two, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now, there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. Now, when you think widow, the first association you have is bereavement. There's been a death. This gal, she's non-sorrow, she's vulnerable, and along comes an adversary who looks at her and her vulnerability and says to himself, easy pray, I can take advantage of her. So the adversary violates her life, and she doesn't have money for a lawsuit. She can't, she doesn't have any resources. She doesn't have friends in high places. She's only got one thing. She's got to cry, and so she parks herself in front of the judge, lifts her cry to the and says, get justice for me from my adversary. Beloved, you have an adversary. If you aren't in tune with that, it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. You have an adversary. He hates you. He's out to destroy you. Well, actually, it's not that he hates you. He hates God. But he can't get directly to God. But he knows, this is in Zechariah 2, that if he hits you, God takes it in the eye, because God says, you're the apple of my eye. So the enemy will lash out at you in his rage against God, knowing that when you take a hit, God takes it in the eye. This gal, she decided to lift her cry to God, and when you decide to stand before your God and lift your cry to your judge, the adversary will do everything in his power to move you from the place of prayer. Because when you stand at the throne of God, lift your cry to your God and say, get justice for me from my adversary. When you never relent, when you are never moved, but you lift your cry to your God, your adversary knows if you'll just stand there and lift your cry, one of these days something's going to happen. So your adversary will do everything in his power to get you to shut up. And that's why Jesus gives us the parable. He's saying, whatever you do, never shut up, never be silent, lift your cry to your judge, get justice for me. This gal's actually, this is her way of filing a lawsuit. She's saying to the judge, I don't just want you to get him off my back, I want him to pay. On one occasion, I received a letter from a medical professional, a brother in Christ. He'd heard about my local injury and he wrote me this letter and he said, Bob, I strongly urge you to file a lawsuit against the doctor's malpractice insurance company. He says, that's what malpractice insurance is for, it's there for people like you that have been injured such as you have in an unexpected way during a medical procedure. Well, I know the brother was real sincere in his email and I appreciated that, but, and I didn't really say it to this in my reply, but I'm thinking, you don't get it. I'm not interested in a lawsuit in some earthly court to get me a measly million bucks, I'm registering a lawsuit in heaven. I want, yeah, I'm filing a suit, all right, I'm suing in the court of heaven and I'm asking for justice from my adversary. I don't just want a mere million bucks, I want the adversary to pay for what he's done in my life. So, yeah, I'm suing, all right. First of all, here we go, and he would not for a while, the judge wouldn't respond, wouldn't, because she had no bribe money, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. So, this judge, he's an evil man, but he says, this lady will not get off my back. Yackity, yack, yack, lady, put a sock in your mouth, would you shut up, give me a break. The guy can't go anywhere on public property, and there she is, get justice for me, for my adversary. The guy steps out of his office to go on a lunch break, and there she is, bam, get justice for me. He takes his wife out on a date, they're at a nice romantic restaurant, they step out of the restaurant, and there she is, get justice for me, for my adversary. The guy's wife says, you do something about that lady, or you won't have a marriage. So, this judge is going to take matters into hand, he's going to get justice for her, not because he cares about her or her cause, but out of sheer self-interest, he's like, she is going to wear me out. He realizes it's either her or me, or do I put a gun to her head or a gun to my head, I've got to do something about this lady. And this judge is to be contrasted with our Heavenly Father, who is not inconvenienced by you when you pray. Rather, Proverbs 15 verse 8 says, the prayer of the upright is his delight. God loves it when you pray. He loves it when you park yourself on the platform that rewrites human history. At the throne of God, you're never going to be moved, you're never going to be silent, but you will lift your cry to your judge, get justice for me from my adversary. Verse 6, and the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect, who cry out day and night to him, though he bears along with them? It's a rhetorical question. Shall God not avenge his elect, his chosen ones, his loved ones? When God went across the face of the planet, he said, you, I want you. I choose you. You, sister, were hand-selected by the Lord Jesus Christ. You are his beloved, his chosen, his elect. And Jesus says, shall God not avenge his precious, beloved, chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? It's a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is, yes, God shall avenge his elect, who cry out to him day and night. And now we come to the controversial part of the parable. Here's where the trouble is. It's the last half of verse 7, though he bears long with them. I'm reading from the New King James Bible. Now this is the controversial statement in the parable. It's so controversial, in fact, that even the translations have a controversy with it. So, I'm about to do a little bit of translation bashing. If you have a New American Standard, your Bible's about to take a hit. If you use the NIV, the Amplify, the RSV, the Message Bible, there's a bunch of them out there, and they do the verse a total injustice. Now, the reason I'm coming down strong on some of these translations right now is because what they do with the verse is they make it say exactly the opposite of what Jesus said. And the reason we have the controversy is because there's a paradox in the parable. And the translators hit into the paradox and said, uh-oh, this doesn't work. And they tried to help Jesus out of the paradox. How many know it's dangerous to try to tell Jesus how to say what he wants to say? So, here's what they've done. Now, the New American Standard, this is how they render it in many other translations to this. And by the way, what I'm pointing out to, the Russian Bible makes the same mistake. The German Bible makes the same mistake. The Spanish Bible makes the same mistake. Many translations, many nations. And so, I'm taking on a whole lot of translations right now, but I'm just going to say it clear, okay? Here's what they do. They take the second half of the verse, though he bears long with them, and they turn it into a second question. So, they make the verse go like this, and shall God not avenge his own elect to cry out day and night? And then they start a new sentence and they say it like this, will he delay long over them? As though there's a second rhetorical question. If there's a second rhetorical question, then the answer would obviously be, no, God will not delay long over them. Beloved, Jesus did not ask two rhetorical questions. He asked one rhetorical question followed by a commentary, by a phrase, an explanatory phrase. So, if you have the King James Bible, you win tonight. If you have the New King James Bible, New King James gets it right. So, shall God not avenge his own elect day and night, though he bears long with them? You see, it's not a question, will he delay long over them? It's actually a statement. Jesus is making a statement. He is saying, sometimes God bears long with you. He will hear your cry. He will give you justice, even though sometimes he bears long with you. So, I did a word study on the word long. Guess what it means? There you go. Why does God sometimes wait so long? What is with God and this waiting thing? Has God ever said to you, wait on me? And you got nervous. Where are we going with this? Because God, you're on a different time schedule than I am. And sometimes he calls us to wait on him. He says, wait on me. And then he turns the fire on high, sticks you in the oven. Could we wait somewhere else? God says, no, I've designed this crucible. I am gonna mess with everything in your life. How many have ever said to the Lord, okay, Lord, if you're after something, just tell me what you're after. I'll deal with it and we can move on. Lord says, yeah, I'm after something. But while we're here, let's just go back to A, and we won't quit till we end at Z. And God messes with everything inside of you all while you're waiting on him. Now, this prayer, get justice for me from my adversary, may actually be perhaps the most powerful prayer a believer can pray. Because when you're crying out for justice, justice involves two things. Number one, it involves restoration. It involves a restoring of that which was lost. What was taken from you must be restored to you in its original condition. However, if the enemy has ripped you off, and now God bears long with you, justice requires not simply restoration. There's another element that kicks in. I call it restitution. Restitution has to do with punitive damages for losses sustained over time. Not only were you without that thing, you were without it for a long time. And if you're to have justice, justice demands not simply a restoration of what was lost. Justice demands restitution for the time you were without it. Example, justice says, you've got to restore Joseph's freedom. He's been in a prison for 10 years. It's wrong. Justice says, give Joseph restoration. Restitution says, wait a second, you just give Joseph his freedom. You haven't answered the years he's been living in that foul Egyptian prison. You can't just restore him and say it's even. Restitution says, you've got to do more than just restore his freedom. Restitution says, you've got to give him the palace. Restoration says, you've got to restore to Job his health, and you've got to give him 10 more kids. Restitution says, wait a second, you just give Job his health back and give him another set of 10 kids. That doesn't answer what this guy's just walked through. That doesn't compensate for the 10 kids he lost. That doesn't compensate for the hell he's been living through. Restitution says, if you're gonna give justice to Job, you've got to give him more than just his health and 10 more kids. You've got to give him double his wealth back, but that's not enough. You've got to give him the first book of the Bible, but that's still not enough. You have to give him a spiritual inheritance in every generation, but that's still not enough. You've got to give Job a revelation of the glory of God, and at the end of the story Job says, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, and justice required, not simply restoration, but restitution. I could illustrate this with many others in the scripture. It's a principle from Proverbs 6 verse 30. People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving, yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house. There is as much as a sevenfold restitution that your adversary will have to cough up, because you were without that thing for a long time, and now justice requires, not only restoration, but restitution. And I like that last phrase in Proverbs 6 31. He may have to give up all the substance of his house. I am asking that my adversary, that his house would be plundered because of what he has done in my life. I've had people say to me every once in a while, they say, well, Bob, have you ever thought about learning sign language? And I kind of nod and smile and act like, oh, there's an idea I haven't thought of before, but really what's going on inside of me is you, no, no, you don't understand. I haven't been walking through this fire, through the darkness, pressing into this secret place, coming after the heart of God. I haven't been in this war simply to learn how to sign to the death. I am in this thing to release the death. You see, I want to plunder the house of the adversary, and I am asking that God would give me justice for my adversary, not simply a restoration of what I lost, but a restitution sevenfold that the prisoners in the house of the adversary, those that are bound in affliction, that the Lord would say, I will release a grace on your life to loose the captives and to plunder the house of the adversary because justice demands it. So, when you pray that little prayer, get justice for me, for my adversary, you're praying possibly the most powerful prayer that you can pray. Somebody, maybe this is kind of putting some pieces together for somebody. You've been wondering, why have I been waiting on God for so long? Why has he not answered my prayer yet? Is it possible he hasn't answered your prayer yet? Because in his kindness to you, he's got more for you than you've got for yourself, and he's bearing long with you until the day will come when he will give justice for you from your adversary. There will come not only a restoration of what was stolen, but there will come to your life restitution. So, I will never relent this cry. Get justice for me, for my adversary. Verse eight, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Ah, wait a minute. I thought you just said he sometimes bears long with them. Now it says he will avenge them speedily. Ah, we've just bumped into the paradox. Which is it? Does God bear long with us, or does he answer us speedily? Perhaps you found the same paradox when you were in Habakkuk 2. It says in Habakkuk 2 verses 3 and 4, though it tarries, wait for it, it will not tarry. Ah, does it tarry, or does it not tarry? Does he avenge me speedily, or does he wait long? Which one is it? So, I looked at that paradox pretty closely, and I'm gonna give you my best answer to resolve the paradox. Here's the best answer I've got. Sometimes, God bears long with you in order to avenge you speedily. He might take forever, but when he gets justice for you from your adversary, fasten your seat belt, you are in for a ride. Because when God tips the domino and steps into the thing to get you justice, stuff is gonna change so fast, you'll be dizzy. And I could give you illustrations tonight. I could talk about Mordecai. Everything changed for Mordecai in one day. I could talk to you about Jacob in three weeks time. Jacob goes from a guy who is absolutely lost in darkness, to a guy that suddenly, he's got Joseph back, he's got Benjamin back, he's got Simeon back, he's got wealth and provision for his family, he's got a Cadillac taking him back to Egypt, he dies like a king, and it all turns around, boom, in three weeks, and he didn't even see the thing coming. I could talk about Abraham, who for 24 years waits on God until God tips the domino, and speedily, things turn around in his hundredth year, and he holds his miracle baby. It's a principle of Scripture over and over again. God will sometimes bear long with you, but there's a day coming if you will never relent, if you will never stop crying, but if you will stand before your judge, lift your cry to your God. Jesus says, I want you to always pray. I want you to devote yourself to prayer. Whatever you do, I hear Jesus saying, never shut up, lift your cry, cry out, get justice for me, for my adversary. There's a day coming when God will tip the domino, and he will give you not only restoration, but restitution. Lord Jesus, I pray for our class, that you would bless everyone taking this class, that you would put a fire in their spirit for the secret place, to stand before you, to lift their cry to you, to never shut up, never relent. I pray for a fire to be kindled in the heart of every believer, to stand before you, lift their cry, and pray, get justice for me, for my adversary. Amen. God bless you. The Lord bless your discussion groups.