The Justice of Prayer

Human Need: Ever prayed for someone who is ill and they never got well? Did you think that something was wrong with you or the way you prayed? Where did we ever get the idea that we could change God?

Textual Idea: Abraham, shocked to hear that God would destroy two cities, intercedes and asks God to spare the righteous from judgment.

Thesis: Persistent intercessory prayer changes our perspective of God’s justice.

Interrogative: What ideas of God’s justice does prayer change in us?

This passage affirms three doctrines about the Justice of God.

God Is Just

A. Exegesis, vv. 25-28

1. Definition of Just = fair, upright, truthful; not arbitrary because of feelings.
2. Sodom and Gomorrah committed grievous sin–>homosexuality and rape, v. 20.
3. Because of God’s just nature, God hates and condemns sins.
4. Abraham thought God’s judgment was arbitrary; he thought God was just mad: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Abraham did not have the information God had, v. 20.
5. Abraham thought God’s judgment was partial or biased: “what if the number of righteous is five less than fifty?” v. 28.

B. Illustration–>Getting up on the wrong side of the bed and taking it out on anyone, everyone.

C. Application

1. Popular theology misrepresents God in faulty human terms.
2. Prayer teaches us that God is Holy and that God hates sin.

God Is Righteous

A. Exegesis, vv. 29-30

1. Definition of Righteous = acting in accord with divine and moral law; free from guilt or sin.
2. Abraham thought God’s judgment was based on feeling, not facts. He thought God was just mad.
3. Abraham assumed that righteous people were everywhere, and that God would not consider the hurt to be endured by righteous people: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” v. 25.
4. God’s judgment is not based on feelings; they are based on justice. Sin must be atoned or condemned.

B. Illustration

It was a mountain one-room school house where strict discipline was used to keep the rowdyism of uninterested students in check. The noon recess was ended and the teacher was interrogating the class about the disappearance of Sally Jane’s lunch. After a few minutes of verbal threats and demands, a sob was heard. It was Billy–a thin, undernourished child. His family was the poorest in the county.

“Did you take Sally Jane’s lunch?” demanded the teacher.

“Yes, sir,” mumbled Billy through tears. “I was hungry.”

“Nevertheless, you did wrong to steal and you must be punished,” declared the teacher, and rightly so.

As the teacher removed the leather stray from its place on the wall, Billy was ordered to the front of the room and told to remove his shirt. The arm of the teacher was raised over the bent and trembling form of Billy.

“HOLD IT, TEACHER!” shouted a husky voice from the rear of the room. It was Big Jim striding down the aisle removing his shirt as he came. “Let me take his whipp’n,” he begged.

The teacher was shocked, but knowing that justice must be demonstrated, he consented and laid the belt to the back of Big Jim with such force that even the stronger boy winced and his eyes watered. But Billy never forgot the day that Big Jim atoned for his sin.

C. Application

1. God is righteous; He judges sin according to right standards, not majority opinion.
2. Prayer teaches us that God judges fairly according to His omniscience, not according to our limited knowledge.

God Is Immutable

A. Exegesis, vv. 31-33

1. Definition of Immutable = “not capable or susceptible of change.”
2. Abraham believed he could change God’s will. He thought that he could negotiate a peace between God and the wicked.
3. God allowed this negotiating to go on to demonstrate the futility of trying to change the will of God.
4. Abraham stopped negotiating at 10 righteous people because the Lord’s response is ominous: “I will not ruin.” The Lord is righteous; He does not sin. Only sin ruins.

B. Argumentation–>Exodus 32, “the Lord relented / repented,” v. 14.

1. Definition of Relent = “to become less severe”
2. The implication of this statement is not that God repented or changed His mind because of Moses’ prayer, but that God tempered His judgment because of His unchanging promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
3. God did execute judgment on Israel’s idolatry, vv. 27, 33-35.
4. Read 1 John 5:13-15.

C. Application

1. God is Immutable. He is perfect; He does not change.
2. The one changed through persistent intercessory prayer is human, not divine.
3. Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which is out of the will of God.

Conclusion

Persistent intercessory prayer changes our ideas of God’s justice.

Pastor, if God is perfectly Just, Righteous and Immutable, what can save us from judgment? Why pray?

Prayer is a time of exposure of our soul to God. Instead of praying for God to change things, situations, and people, pray, “Lord, change me.”

Abraham Lincoln was walking to town one day when he was overtaken by a man in a wagon going in the same direction. Lincoln hailed him and asked, “Will you have the goodness to take my overcoat to town for me?”

“With pleasure,” responded the stranger, “but how will you get it back?”

“Oh, very easily; I intend to remain in it!”

Mr. Lincoln’s humor illustrates what happens when we believe and trust Christ as Savior. We put on Christ and are clothed in His righteousness. Because we are in Him, we are assured of reaching our destination: salvation and eternal life. But apart from Christ, we are left standing by the side of the road, awaiting the judgment of God–and no amount of good works or ritual-keeping or intercessory prayers of the saints can save us.

Repent and believe the Gospel!

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