Will Jesus Find Faith In The Earth - Part 1

And I'm going to ask you to learn the truth the same way it was originally heard, by listening carefully. When the, when the first apostles were teaching the church and the Lord Jesus was teaching the people, there were no chapters, there were no verses, there was truths written, and the people listened. And it's those who listened carefully and remembered them, wrote them down afterwards. And then men came along and to help us study, they inserted numbers and chapters for the study purposes. Well, we can go back and get those later. But what I really want us to do is to grasp the truth and understanding. You can look to confirm it like the Bereans. We can search the scriptures to make sure these things are true. And let's listen carefully. I want to go to Luke 18, where Jesus was concerned about his disciples knowing what they were going to face. I'm just going to read a portion of it. Jesus told the disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray. It's really in the original to show them it's necessary always to pray and not to lose heart or to give up. Then he gave a parable about us in a certain place, there was this judge, a person with authority, uncaring, unsympathetic, just indifferent, but he had the authority. And there was a widow in that same under that judge's jurisdiction, who is facing difficulties. She was facing opposition. She called it an enemy that she could not remedy herself. So she kept appealing to this judge for justice. And he said, although he didn't fear God, and he didn't care about men's opinion. And yet, listen to what this unjust, uncaring, indifferent judge says. This woman, if I continually let her keep coming to me, she is going to wear me out. It's the same word that Paul uses when he talks about I beat my body and make it my slave. Literally, you could translate it to be hit under the eye. If I keep let this widow, if I don't answer her and give her what she's wanting, she's going to knock me out. She's going to take me out. And Jesus used this situation to tell the disciples, consider even what this indifferent, unjust judge says. If he gives the widow her request, how much more will your father in heaven give justice to those his children who cry out to him day and night? But this is an interesting facet because the whole parable is to set up a situation that all of us should be able to relate to. Because all of us tend to give in and give up when we face something beyond our control. That's what the widow represents. A person cannot work out things for herself. Can't remedy, can't fix it. A prolonged situation that's very painful and difficult. The judge represents the only authority that is actually able to bring relief and do something about it and unjust. And when we find ourselves in situations where things are not going away, we think, or we're in a very difficult situation, we can tend to give in. The word here for give in is ekkako in Greek. It means this, to be spiritless, to be worn out. I got this from BibleHub, a place that I often go to. It's an electronic Bible app that you can read. It gave this definition. It means to become exhausted spiritually because you are negatively influenced with the outcome of dealing with inner weakness. You know, some of us are still plotting through inwardly weak right now. You may not have given up yet, but there is strong temptation for believers to give up, to grow weary in well-doing. So much so in three of Paul's letters to three different churches, he says, do not become weary in well-doing. Why would he warn of that if it were not such a reality? I think that the way we would put this in with the modern phrases that I hear and that I might have even used myself, I don't, I can't recall when I've said this, but I would be surprised if I hear from the Lord. Yes, you did, just because you can't remember it. I remember because he never forgets anything. Remember, man shall give an account on the day of judgment for every idle word spoken. Here's one of those idle words. It's no use. It won't make any difference. So what's the use? Nothing's going to change. You know what that is? That's poison. That's pessimistic poison, but it's a real temptation and Jesus knew it and recognized it as a weakness in his disciples and tried to prepare them to deal with it. But it's not just new to the New Testament. Even David, the man after God's own heart in the psalm, dealt with discouragement and as did another one of the writers of the psalm named Asaph. And in Asaph, in Psalm 73, he wrote, he put on paper what he was going through emotionally and mentally when he was battling this temptation to despair and discouragement. And so I've translated it from the Greek Septuagint. That's the Greek version of the Old Testament. So it may not read exactly like this in your Bible's version of Psalm 73, but it'll be close. Here's what he expressed. But my feet were a little shaken. My footsteps slipped a little. For I was jealous over those who were lawless while I was contemplating the peace that sinners enjoy. For there is no obvious sign of reluctance in their death, nor is there any real solid change in their being scourged. They don't appear troubled by the toils of men, and they seem to go unpunished with other men. Because of this, their pride strengthens them all the way to the end. They clothe themselves in their own injustice and irreverence towards God. And their injustice comes forth like the fatness of prized animals. They go about in whatever they set their heart upon. They rationalize and speak evil, and they speak unjustly in pride. They set their mouths in opposition to heaven, and their tongue goes throughout the earth. Behold, these are sinners, and they seem to prosper to the very end, having wealth. And then he goes on. And I said to myself, surely in vain has my heart been righteous. Surely in vain I've washed my hands in innocence. And I felt like a person being flogged all day, and it seemed like I was the being reproved every morning. But he said that only to himself in his battle. He goes on to say this. If I had openly declared things in this way, behold, in the generation of your sons, I would have broken covenant. And as I took to try to understand, to know this, it became toilsome to me. It wore me out until I entered into the sanctuary of God and came to understand how it would be for them at the end. It takes eyes of faith to see that God will be just. Back to what Jesus said about the widow and the judge. In the state of discouragement that he knows men are going to go through, he acknowledges that many would abandon the faith because of it. You understand that that's what he was thinking, because after he finishes saying, and consider what the unjust judge says, and will not your heavenly father bring about justice swiftly to those he loves who call unto him day and night, he will. He'll see that they receive justice. However, he says, here's what he finishes with, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Because there is a whole lot of people saying, what difference does it make? What have I gained being a Christian? How much better off have I been following Christ? And thousands and thousands are abandoning the faith and abandoning Christ, deconverting, denying their Christian upbringing, wanting nothing to do with the Bible, nothing to do with the church. They're staying. As a matter of fact, lawlessness, Jesus said, would be so increasing due to the increase of lawlessness.