If everyone could turn to Luke 11, I am going to read from Luke 11:1-13:
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
I will stop reading there.
As I am sure that you have heard one way or another, and many of you have heard often, Judgment Day is May 21 of 2011, which is not very far away. God, in His mercy and in His graciousness, is warning us. He is giving us advance information concerning the day of judgment; He is letting us know.
Why is God doing this? Does He need to reveal this in order to save His elect? Not really; no. He can save His people in many ways. He saved individuals throughout the church age and they never knew the time of the end of the world. But God, in His mercy, is warning the whole world in order that some may come to repentance.
Actually, the Bible tells us that God intends to save a “great multitude” of people from around the world. The only condition to this is that not one of them will be saved within the church, because the church age is over and God is not saving in the congregations anymore; however, He is saving a “great multitude,” which is probably around 200 million people out of the population of our world today that is approaching 7 billion.
As you may have heard Mr. Camping talking about this, the odds are that 1 in 70 people will become saved during this short season of the Great Tribulation; but, actually, the odds are better than this. Mr. Camping has been using the estimate of 7 billion people living previously throughout history; and now by the time of Judgment Day, we will be very close to another 7 billion people. It would not surprise me if we were right on the number of 7 billion itself, which would total 14 billion. Using this figure, 200 million out of 14 billion is about 1 in 70.
However, we also know that God saved people throughout history, but never in great numbers—until our time. Yes, He saved three thousand on Pentecost; and in the days of Israel, there were seven thousand at one point whom the Bible says “have not bowed the knee to Baal”; and He saved 120 thousand in the city of Nineveh. But we are talking, for the most part, very low figures.
Thousands add up to hundreds of thousands. He probably saved maybe a handful of a million people throughout the whole history of the world up until the “latter rain” period that began in 1994. This would mean that out of, in all likelihood, the 200 million whom God is saving, maybe 195 million or 198 million or 199 million—even though we do not know exactly—are being saved during this time.
Let us just go with 200 million, because this makes it easier to do this math. So we could basically say that 200 million are being saved out of 7 billion, not 14 billion, which cuts the ratio down from 1 in 70 to 1 in 35. This is much better.
I know that some people do not like talking about this in relation to something like a lottery or in terms of chances and odds, but I think that this is not a bad thing to realize. This is because people do buy lottery tickets, and what are their chances? Their chances are like one in a million or one in 10 million of winning a lottery.
It is pretty astronomically against them winning, and yet they tend to talk a lot about what they are going to do with this money. Maybe you have even heard this at work or somewhere when others pool together and buy lottery tickets. They will talk all day long about what they are going to do with the money if they were to win.
They speak about this excitedly; it is like a real hope that they have. They have hope that they are going to be the one or their group is going to be the group that wins the jackpot of 50 million dollars. They speak in terms of, “When I get my share, I am going to buy this and I am going to buy that,” and yet the possibility that they would actually win the lottery is astronomical.
Yet when people hear that God saves by election, that He predestinated a people to Himself before the world began and that this number is probably about 200 million, their response is, “I am not going to be one of them.” They have such pessimism and such a negative mindset, “There is just no chance for me.”
No, but they will believe that they could possibly win a lottery that 1 in 10 million might win. How strange that they do not think that there is a chance for them, when the odds are as good as 1 in 35!
Actually, the odds are better than 1 in 35, because there are about 2 billion people still within the church. If they continue in the church, how many will become saved on that day out of this 2 billion? None of them. Therefore, we can subtract 2 billion from the 7 billion people of our day, and we are now down to 5 billion.
As long as someone is in the right situation and is outside of the church, they have a chance. Of course, this is not a chance in terms of God’s perspective; but from our perspective, there is a possibility that they might become saved.
This means that the odds are now down to 200 million out of 5 billion, which is actually 1 in 25. These are far better odds than someone who buys a lottery ticket who talks all day long about the possibility of winning. To win the lottery of $100 million, what if you had a 1 in 25 chance? Well, they would really be excited and encouraged if this were the odds. “I have a good shot. I have an excellent shot at this!”
So I think that this is a good thing for us to think about, because people tend to be very negative when it comes to whether or not they can become saved; and keep in mind how God describes Himself in the Bible. He is seated upon “the throne of grace”; a throne of grace.
What do we picture Him as? Do we picture Him as some kind of stingy miser who has the power to save, someone who has forgiveness within His grasp, but someone who is a cruel Lord or fierce King, like Satan is described in the Bible as having a “fierce countenance”? Is this the nature of God? What does God tell us about Himself? What does He reveal to us in the Bible?
All we have to do is to look at Jesus. Look at Jesus as He entered into the human race. How many times did someone come to Jesus and ask for something? People had their problems then, just like people have their problems now. How many times did people go to Jesus with their problems, whether it was blindness or deafness or dumbness or lameness or leprosy?
No matter what it was, they went to Him in their ailment and they said, like Bartimaeus, “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.” Of course, when Bartimaeus said this, some of those who were with Jesus “rebuked him, that he should hold his peace.” Jesus was actually continuing to walk on, like He was walking right by him.
So Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus, “Thou son of David, have mercy on me,” and he was told to hold his peace, which is just like people today who, for some reason, do not like the idea that we have to humble ourselves and cry to God for mercy. They ask, “Why? If we are elected from the foundation of the world, this cannot change, right? So why should we have to do this?”
Well, this is just the pride of man. It is arrogant for anyone to say that we do not have to cry for mercy, when God plainly shows that, yes, He has elected a people, but He will draw each one of these. He will break and humble them so that they do approach Him by crying out to Him for His salvation and for His mercy.
So God reveals to us His nature, His character, and shows Himself to be a God of love, a God whom we cannot find in the Gospels to have refused anyone. People went to Him and they asked, “Give me sight. Give me ears.” Every time, Christ responded, “Yes,” and did what they asked.
We will talk about this a little later if we have time, but this is not to say that if we ask for something, God must give it. This was to show us the nature of God, that He is a God who the Bible tells us “delighteth in mercy.” He is not like some of us who respond to someone’s request negatively.
I have to raise my hand here, because when my children come to me and ask for something, I often reply, “How much do you want?” It is often hard for me to open up my pocket to get the money out, but this is not the nature of God. God is not like this. He gives “abundantly above all that we ask or think”; abundantly more is what God does.
Let us turn to Luke 11 where in the first four verses, we read the Lord’s Prayer. A disciple asked the Lord in Luke 11:1:
…Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
The Lord’s Prayer is instruction on how we should pray.
Then we read in Luke 11:2:
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven…
We are to pray to the Father. Later on in this passage, Christ will emphasize the nature of the Father and what a father is like. We are to go to Him with our requests, with our prayers, and pray:
…Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
We pray for God’s Kingdom to come. Have you prayed this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer? Have you prayed, “Thy kingdom come”?
This is actually a common practice out in the world in some places. For example, in AA meetings, they would sometimes recite the Lord’s Prayer. In other areas of the world, many people are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer; and yet people just seem to kind of say this without thinking about what they are saying, like they do with Psalm 23. “The LORD is my shepherd” is often recited at funerals. People say the Lord’s Prayer and they do not think about what they are saying or praying.
So man, who has been rehearsing this for centuries, has been beseeching God to come, “Thy kingdom come.” Man has been praying to the Lord for Him to come. The church has especially done this. In the churches and congregations, they pray, “Come.” As it says in Revelation 22, “Come quickly.”
They would profess with their mouths that they want Christ to come. Unfortunately, now that He is coming, this is the last thing that they want. They do not want Him to come. This is why so many so quickly and superficially say, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man. You cannot know; case closed.” We tell them, “Yes, but the Bible has other information,” and their response is, “I am not interested, because the Bible says that we cannot know!”
Well, if they were a noble Berean, they would check out all of this other information. They cannot just take one verse and make a conclusion on it. They get into all kinds of trouble when they do this with the Bible.
For instance, the Bible says, “The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” If they do not take these verses and look everywhere else in the Bible, they are going to think that Christ died for everyone because this is talking about “all” and that He is not willing that they “perish”; and yet people do perish by multitudes. No one denies this.
This means that they think that God is weak. This means that they believe that He is not powerful or almighty or able to accomplish what His will would like to have, which is that He is “not willing that any should perish.” Therefore, to them, the will of God is just not capable or able to save billions of people. This means that they believe it is only a special few whom God is able to save due to something within them that is good. No. There is nothing in anybody that is good. None is good. None is righteous; “no, not one.”
So when God says that He is “not willing that any should perish,” He is referring to His elect. Not one of them will perish. All of them will come to repentance. Then we see a powerful God who is able to accomplish His will and to perform what He says that He will do, not a weak God. However, you do not find this in 2 Peter 3:9, where we find this passage, because God does not spell this all out. He does not explain everything.
The problem is that people superficially come to the Bible. They read it and think, “Now I know what this means. God has a wonderful plan for my life. He died for the whole world”; and yet they are nowhere near truth.
This is exactly like those who say, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man. I know what this means. This means that we can never know”; but the Bible does not say this. It just says in Acts 1:7 that it is not “of you to know the times or the seasons,” which means that no man would have been able to figure out the end of the world on his own and by his own will. God had to give us this information at the proper time.
Well, we have been praying this and now God has heard. The Bible tells us that “he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world” and His Kingdom will come. He will usher in the Kingdom of God.
So we read next in Luke 11:3:
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Yes, we can pray to God to help us if we should need food to live; but more importantly, this is referring to spiritual food, the Bread of the Word of God.
Then we read in Luke 11:4:
And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
That great and “evil day” is fast approaching; and so this is a good prayer for any man to make, “Father, deliver me from evil so that I be not destroyed when this day comes.”
Then we read in Luke 11:5-8:
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
This passage is really encouraging. We need to get the main point of this, which is that there needs to be persistence in prayer. There needs to be persistence in going to God for the salvation of others—family, friends, neighbors—and there needs to be persistence in praying also for ourselves, for our own salvation. God is teaching us in this little parable about a man who was persistent.
Who here would get mad if you had a friend, someone who is really a friend, who calls you after 11:00 P.M.? You do not get mad? Oh, okay; well, everybody is nice except for me, I guess. I do not get mad; but, after all, it is 11:00 P.M. It is late.
Well, this man did not call, because they did not have telephones; but he went to his friend’s house at midnight. He was probably banging on the door. The house was all dark because they had all gone to bed. This is what the man says, “I am in bed with my children.”
So this friend is out there banging away at his door. After putting the pillow over his head and not being able to suppress it, this man finally gets up and answers him, “What do you want? Do you not know what time it is?” The friend says, “A friend of mine just came from a journey. I need three loaves. I do not have any food or anything to set before him.”
What this parable says is that this man does not give his friend the bread solely because he is his friend. He does not do this because he is his friend. This man is willing to say to his friend, “No way”; and he does say, “Trouble me not. I am in bed with my children! I have my nightgown on. I would have to climb over my children. I am in bed with my children and I do not want to have to climb out of bed to come down and to answer the door in order to give you this bread.”
By the way, in John 6—we say this, but it is good to read this—concerning bread, we read in John 6:31-35:
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Also, right in this same passage, John 6:48-51 says:
I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
He will give this for the life of His people. God is explaining here that “bread” represents the Lord Jesus Christ or the Kingdom of God and eternal life. If you can eat this Bread, if you partake of this Bread, you will live forever. If you eat the bread of this earth, the bread that we get at the supermarket, it will keep you alive, temporarily. It only keeps us alive temporarily, because we will eventually die; but spiritual Bread, which is found through reading the Bible and hearing the Word of God, if Christ feeds us with this Bread, we will live forever and never die.
So this man, in a bold way, comes to his friend’s house at an inopportune time, at midnight, and begins knocking on the door because he wants bread. He does not want this for himself, though. This is why God, in this parable, is primarily instructing us to pray for other people, to desire the Bread of Life for them that they might become saved.
This friend is coming and he is knocking shamelessly. It is probably obvious to this man in the house that his friend has in his mind that he is going to keep knocking and making this disturbance until he gets what he wants. No matter how much this man inside the house would dissuade him and say, “No; this is not the correct time. I am in bed. My children are here with me. Go away. Trouble me not,” no matter how many discouraging things the man inside the house says to his friend, the word “importunity” from Luke 11:8 indicates that the friend persists in knocking. He knocks again and again, and he is not going to go away.
So this is what the Bible teaches us about prayer. We are now going to read three different passages in relation to this. For instance, turn to Luke 7. Luke 7:1-6 says:
Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
We can see that the Jews thought that this man was worthy; and yet, of himself, he said, “I am not worthy.” People can think that someone is “worthy,” especially if they do something for the church; and yet the true child of God knows, “No; there is no worthiness in me. Worthy is the Lamb; there is no worthiness in me.” This man is giving every indication that he is a humble child of God, because he admits, “I am not worthy.”
Then we read in verse 7, Luke 7:7:
Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Is this not something? He is saying that Jesus did not have to come personally. This centurion points out in Luke 7:8:
For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
That is, his word has power. As a centurion, he has authority.
Likewise, God’s Word has power and authority. God can also just speak a Word from Heaven. He does not have to personally be here standing in front of us. He can speak a Word from His “throne of grace” in Heaven and say, “Let it be done” or “Let it be so,” and it will be done and it will be so.
In other words, have you ever thought about this when you read about Jesus in Jerusalem or in Galilee and there were crowds thronging Him, crowds all around Him, like the woman with the issue of blood who said, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole”? She sneaks up to Him and she does touch His garment, and then the issue of her blood ceased immediately.
Would it not be wonderful if Jesus were in downtown Philadelphia or in New York City? How many people would quickly, very quickly, get in their cars or on the bus or take a train to go to the spot where they knew Jesus would be? If He were at the Philadelphia City Hall by the Clothespin, would you not head down there as fast as you could and go up to Him and say, “Lord Jesus, please heal me”?
We understand in the Bible that in the healings that Jesus performed, He was teaching us about His healing of a sin-sick soul, which God accomplishes through salvation. Some might ask for physical healing, but God’s people would say, “Lord! Save me! Save me! This is my request to You. I am now in Your very presence. You are here. Save me!” We could look right at Him.
But is this really true? Would people go as quickly as they could? If this is true, if this is true, why do not these same people today, at any point during the day, why do these same people not go to Christ, who is seated upon His throne, and speak to Him in prayer, making their request known to God?
To many, this is not the same thing. They claim, “This is not the same thing, because I cannot see Him”; but this is carnal. This is what the flesh wants. The flesh wants to see Him, but we know that He is God and that He is seated upon His throne; and we know that He hears prayer and that He opens the door of His throne room whenever. We know that whenever we pray, we can approach Him, which is what He encourages us to do in Hebrews 4:16, “Come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” He encourages us to approach Him, to come to Him.
He knows everything about us and we are in His very presence in a more intimate way than we could ever be if He were physically on earth at this time, which is an impossibility anyway. Since God walked upon the face of this earth during the first century A.D., He has determined to never do this again. He is just going to come and take His people. Then, finally, He will destroy this world. On the new earth, He will dwell with His people forevermore; but not in this world.
It really does not make sense for people whom I know—and I would be included, too—who would try to get to Him as quickly as possible if He were in a physical location. However, this same excitement and this same desire to have our sins paid for does not seem to be there as much since God is Spirit and He is seated upon His throne.
Here, the centurion does not need Him to come personally, physically, and so he says in Luke 7:7:
…but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Then we read in the next verses, Luke 7:8-10:
For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
We see that this centurion was going to Christ for the healing of his servant, a friend, a trusted worker in his house. He approached God on behalf of another person, just like we have in our parable.
If we go to Mark 9, we read in Mark 9:20-27:
And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
Here we have a father praying for his son, a tortured boy who would throw himself into the fire. Talk about a needy child, like we see today with some children who are physically or mentally handicapped in some way, and yet this child was very self-destructive and was often trying to hurt himself because of the evil spirit that was in him, and so this father was at the breaking point.
So this father had had enough. He went to Christ and cried out, “Help him!” After Jesus said something about believing, this father replied, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief,” which is an excellent thing for any of us to pray. We can pray, “I believe, Lord. Help Thou mine unbelief that I might believe You more and more. Grant me Your faith and belief,” and yet here we see a man again going to Christ; not for himself, but for his son.
How many fathers have been praying for their sons? How many parents have been praying for their children, especially now? Maybe their children are not giving any indication of being saved, and also the children are not giving any indication that they understand what is right in front of them. Not all; some children do understand, and it is a wonderful blessing when you see that a child who does understand that May 21st of next year is Judgment Day. It is, however, a very sad thing when children do not understand this. They do not get this and are still thinking about the future and college and relationships, and so on, a future that is never going to come.
So God would encourage fathers, as He is here, to pray for their children. Pray that God might save them, that God might have mercy on them; because it is still the day of salvation. It is not too late. It is not too late at all. We can still pray.
One other example we have is of a mother in Matthew 15. This is the account of the Syrophenician woman, a woman of Canaan, who had some very admirable qualities. She really is a good mother. She is an excellent mother. We read in Matthew 15:21-22:
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
Our children may not know this. Of course, this is talking about an actual possession; evil spirits did enter into people. If you remember, there was a man who had “legion.” He had numerous evil spirits. I am not saying that our children are possessed or that they have evil spirits; but in an unsaved condition, what is the difference? Even if they are not possessed, they are still in rebellion against God and they are still under His wrath.
So we can go to God and we can pray for our children who are vexed with the concerns of this world or who are vexed with their own way of thinking or with the attitude of their friends. They are vexed with the mindset of a world that is opposed to God or they are vexed with a love of this world, in some way or another. We can go to God also.
Here, this woman of Canaan says in Matthew 15:22-23:
…my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
His disciples said this, which was similar to what was said of blind Bartimaeus as he cried out, “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.” It was those who were following Jesus who “charged him that he should hold his peace.” This is because Jesus had kept walking, and so they assumed that Christ did not care about this man. They thought that He evidently did not care anything about blind Bartimaeus, because He had kept walking. He kept walking, but blind Bartimaeus began to cry all the more. When he was not seemingly heard, he began to cry all the more, “Thou son of David, have mercy on me!” Then we read that “Jesus stood still,” which indicated that He had been walking. It was then that Jesus stopped and told the others to bring this blind man to Him. Then we read, “And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.”
Was this too hard for God, that this man was made to see or that lepers might be cleansed or that the lame might walk or that the deaf might hear or that the tongue of the dumb might speak or that the physically dead might rise or that the spiritually dead in heart who have hearts of stone might be brought forth to life? All it takes is for God to say, “Lazarus, come forth.” This is all it takes, because there is forgiveness with God. He is the Almighty Monarch seated upon “the throne of grace.” He can speak the Word, like was requested from the centurion; He does not have to be here in front of us.
God is everywhere, and we have access to His throne night and day, instantaneously. We do not have to hop on a bus to go down to a physical location. Wherever you are, you have access to the throne of God, except in the churches. Even if pastors are praying for people to be saved under their teaching, God is not going to listen to that prayer. They must get out of the churches. But out in the world at this time, where He is saving a “great multitude” of people, we have instant access into His throne room.
Notice what Jesus does here. We read in verse 23, Matthew 15:23:
But he answered her not a word…
So the disciples are naturally, but wrongly, thinking again that He had no interest in her, “He does not care about this woman. After all, she is a Syrophenician. She is not a Jew.”
Like the woman at the well who was a Samaritan, the disciples wondered why He would even talk to her; but God has mercy for all, not for a single person or a single race of people. He has mercy for all in the world, potentially. No matter what nation, no matter what tribe, no matter who you are or what you are or what color you are or what language you speak, God has mercy available for every person, potentially.
Jesus did not answer her a word, but it was not because she was a Canaanite. So why did He not answer her? Why not? Why did He not answer her a word? What do we call this? When we speak to someone and they hear us but do not answer, what do we call this? We know that Christ heard her, because God hears everything and knows everything.
When someone calls out to a person and that person heard the call but keeps walking, what do we call this? We call this being ignored. “I spoke to him and he ignored me!” Is it not offensive to you when you try to speak to someone and they ignore you intentionally? Is this not offensive? “Hey, you are not listening to me! You are ignoring me!”
How many times have you or I gone to God in prayer, in secret, and prayed, “O Lord, have mercy on my mother. Have mercy on my father. Have mercy on my children. Have mercy on my nephews, my nieces, my cousins, my neighbors, my co-workers”?
Normally, we tend to pray for those who are more involved in our lives. We are praying and praying, and some people have prayed for quite a long time. Does this not seem at times—maybe even all the time up until this point—that Jesus did not hear, that God has ignored your request? Maybe He has not granted salvation to anyone whom you have been praying for.
So why did Jesus not immediately, since He did hear her, just go right to her? Why did He act as if He heard not?
This is because God tries us and tests us. Sometimes, He pushes us away. He was, basically, giving this woman the forearm, a stiff arm, like a football player who is running down the field and trying to keep someone away, “Just stay over there!” He did this to see what her reaction would be. What was she going to do?
Some people get offended early on. For some, this happens early on. “Oh, I tried praying. I tried. I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. Nothing happened; so I quit! I gave up! What a waste of time!”
Even this woman could have heard reports of how merciful Jesus was and how He was saving and healing people, “But not me! I come with my request and He does not listen. He does not even respond to what I am saying to Him!”
So we come along and we say, “I hear that He is saving a ‘great multitude’ out there, but what about me? What about my family? What about my home? What about my friends?”
But, you see, this is what God does oftentimes. He is teaching us that He is not at our beck and call. It is not like we speak and He is supposed to hop to it and do it, which is a good way of humbling us and teaching us that God’s will be done. He will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. We have to respect this. We need to go to Him in prayer, humbly acknowledging His place as King of kings and as the sovereign God who does have power to pardon the sinner, to grant grace, to forgive sins. We pray, “O Lord, Your will be done. We wait for whatever it is that You would have us to do.”
So Matthew 15:23 goes on to say:
…And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
Then we read in Matthew 15:24:
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
She was not an Israelite, and so this was more discouraging information for her. Apparently, He was only sent to the Jews.
Then we read in Matthew 15:25-26:
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it to dogs.
Remember, we were reading about this “bread” earlier. Christ is again talking about “bread,” and He has the Bread of eternal life. If a person eat thereof, they will live forever. It is not meet to take this “bread” and “cast it to dogs.” This was for Israel; and it is for Israel, the Israel of God, those who comprise people of all nations, Jew and Gentile; it is made up of all of God’s elect.
So He is not making a wrong statement or an erroneous statement. He is actually going to indicate that this woman is one of the Israel of God and that this “bread” does belong to her, because she is one of God’s children. However, in another way, this is an insult. First, He ignores her; then He tries to discourage her, “I am only here for the Jews or for Israel,” not telling her what all of this means, which is that anyone could be part of the Israel of God; and He is now, basically, calling her a dog, which was an unclean animal.
Then we read in Matthew 15:27-28:
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
So Christ knew all along that He was going to hear her prayer and answer her prayer and heal her daughter, but He kept her at a distance.
The Bible says that God draws His people to Himself for salvation. On one hand, God discourages an individual who is one of His elect by ignoring them, by giving them discouraging remarks; but on the other hand, He holds them fast so that they cannot go away like other people. If an individual is not one of God’s elect and they are not being drawn by God, this kind of discouragement will lead them away and they will go astray. They will say, “Well, yes, He is a merciful God alright; sure He is, but not to me.” But God holds His people steadfast so that they cannot go. They cannot go until He accomplishes His purpose in them.
Do you remember the account in Genesis 32 of Jacob wrestling with God? It says in Genesis 32:24-26:
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man…
This “man” is God. It continues:
…and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh…
This is God speaking to Jacob who represents the elect, according to Romans 9. They are wrestling together, which we will find is for a blessing.
How could we ever wrestle with God, being the weak creatures that we are? This is not possible, unless God permits this and holds us right there in this wrestling match so that we cannot escape. And yet, who is the one asking to be let go? It is God. God is saying to Jacob, “Look, let Me go!” But Jacob is saying, “You have not blessed me yet!” God wants to be let go before He gives the blessing.
Well, this is discouraging. I am fighting against God and it seems and appears that God does not want to bless me. This is very discouraging. You might just faint at this kind of information. You might just give up at the thought that God does not want to bless you. More than this, the day is about to break, which I think relates to the coming day of judgment.
So here is what Jacob says in Genesis 32:26:
…And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
This is a pretty simple message. We are to hang on. Hold on. Do not let go. Do not give up. Do not turn back. Where are you going to go anyway? Are you going to go to something in this world? Are you going to go to this world in its sinfulness? What is back there in the world, really?
We know that the world is very deceptive. Unfortunately, people love being deceived, because they have a “desperately wicked” heart that “is deceitful above all things.” Multitudes gladly take this world as their inheritance, and yet there is something that is so much greater, so much better right around the corner.
The day is about to break; “the time is at hand.” Is now the time to stop? After possibly struggling and working out your own salvation “with fear and trembling” for so long, is now the time to let go? Is now the time to turn back? Is now the time to go away from God, disgusted and discouraged?
No; not now. Now is the time to hold on in any way that you can. In any way that you can, keep under the hearing of the Word of God. Keep reading the Bible. Keep listening to Family Radio, no matter what the whole world says. Keep listening to the Bible. Keep reading the Bible and believing God and trusting God and going to God and praying to Him, “O Lord, have mercy. Have mercy on my family. Have mercy on my children.” Just keep praying.
Does God not tell us this in one of the parables in Luke 18? We read in Luke 18:1-5:
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
The Bible tells us, “Pray without ceasing.” This basically means, “Do not give up! Do not turn away from prayer.”
It continues:
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me…
What did the man inside the house say? He said, “Trouble me not.” Here, the unjust judge is saying:
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
He is not a good guy. He is not an honest judge. He is an unjust judge, an evil man; and yet this widow is persistent. She is persistent in coming again and again and again. Who knows how many times he might have had her thrown out of his office, how many times he told her to go away, how many times, until finally, even this unjust judge has to do what is right and grants her petition. He grants her request.
So what is God teaching? He tells us in the first verse, in Luke 18:1:
…men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
We are to “be not weary in well doing,” and praying is certainly “well doing.”
Let us go back to Luke 11 and then we will get ready to close. It goes on to say in Luke 11:9-10:
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
We know that there are other verses that we do not have time to go to that define what God means here by asking according to the will of God. We cannot ask for a limousine or we cannot ask for a million dollars. This is not what God is saying; but if we pray in Christ’s Name, according to the will of God, then we can have an expectation of receiving. Even though this is not a guarantee, we can hope that God will hear our prayer and that He might answer our prayer; but this is not an automatic thing.
Then God gives us an example, as we continue reading. It says in Luke 11:11-12:
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
All three examples are a request for food, and fathers provide for their homes. They provide food. Most fathers try and would love to give gifts to their children in many different ways. Sometimes fathers even feel bad that they cannot afford to give a certain gift to their child that they would like to give.
So God has placed within earthly fathers a desire to meet the needs of their children. Whether it be food or gifts or clothing, or whatever it is, this is a natural desire that God has instilled in the father.
Notice what Jesus is saying here. To begin Luke 11, we started out reading in Luke 11:2:
…Our Father which art in heaven…
In response to the disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us to pray,” this was Christ’s response. We are to pray to the Father who is in Heaven.
Now in this parable, He is telling us about earthly fathers and that earthly fathers desire to give good gifts. Notice what He says in Luke 11:13:
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children…
All men are evil. We are all sinners. All people are evil. We all transgress the Law of God. Even though we are evil, we are not only going to give our child what he is asking for, but we are not going to give them something bad like a scorpion or serpent or a stone. When a child is asking his father for food, what father would give these kinds of things? No earthly father would do this, even though we are evil, just like the judge was an unjust judge.
But God is the Supreme Judge and He is very just. He is the Heavenly Father; therefore, if we go to Him, we continue on to read:
…how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
What does giving the Holy Spirit mean? If God gives the Holy Spirit, this is salvation. If you ask God for the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is granted and given to you, the Spirit of God indwells you and you are, therefore, saved.
So Christ is telling us to think about this. There is a Heavenly Father who is a billion times better than any earthly Father. He is just so superior in every way, as He is good and generous and gives abundantly. As we read in Psalm 23, “My cup runneth over.”
This is the nature of God. He “delighteth in mercy.” He is “full of compassion.” He encourages people to come to Him, to His “throne of grace.” If an earthly father desires to give good gifts, how much more the Father in Heaven?
So why a person would not go to God on a continual basis, every day if necessary, every day, beseeching Him for salvation, for the Holy Spirit, is really a mystery. It is a mystery as to why people will not do this and why they will not be encouraged and not give up.
We are to keep going to God, at His own beckoning. At His own beseeching, He is asking us to go to Him.
Let us stop here.