It's great to be here with all of you this morning.
I've enjoyed worshipping with you together so far.
We have a good crowd here. We have several of our number
that are missing, but we have a good crowd because you're here.
And I hope that we have things this morning to discuss that
would be very encouraging to you and certainly edifying to you
from the Word of God. We're continuing our series that
I started, that I said I was going to do today, and
continuing on with it. And it's the gift of the Holy
Spirit. Part 2.
As I set this up by way of an introduction, we go back to the
day of Pentecost. That's how it all began in my
series after my Kingdom series where we talked about the day
the Kingdom came and the sermon was preached.
The gospel was preached for the very first time with the
opportunity for somebody to respond to it.
And in that sermon Jesus was preached.
Then Jesus was preached, and then finally Peter says very
directly, let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God
has made that same Jesus, that you crucified both Lord and
Christ. Verse 37.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what
shall we do? They needed an answer to their
souls inquiry. What do we do now?
We've just crucified the Son of God, the Messiah, the
long-awaited Messiah that we've always thought was coming, and
we crucified Him. They needed an answer.
Then in verse 38, here was the answer.
Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name or by
the authority of Jesus Christ. As we've established already,
there's two unbelievable blessings that we get when we
repent and are baptized by the authority of Jesus Christ.
Number one, we get remission of sins.
Everything that's ever happened in the past, every sin we've
ever committed in the past is washed away and is gone #1
pretty good blessing, isn't it? But there's more.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
These things are two gifts. They're not the same thing that
we've already established. I'm not going to go back and
read Teach by the way, but of these blessings that we have,
what did we learn with regards to the Holy Spirit and the gift
of the Holy Spirit? Three things and then I'm going
to talk and then I'm going to put up three benefits and we're
going to move on. What did we notice?
Number one, we know that the Spirit of God dwells in the
Christian. That is irrefutable.
The Spirit of God dwells in the Christian.
We also know that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, and as
we studied, it's the Holy Spirit that God has given to those who
obey Him and #3 our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in us. Then we noticed what the
benefits are, and last time we noticed 3.
The Holy Spirit is given to us as a guarantee, or the King
James Version says an earnest. And that's just a fancy word for
a down payment for what? Our eternal inheritance in
heaven one day, great blessing. We're given the Holy Spirit as a
guarantee. An earnest of our inheritance in
heaven one day #2 we're given the Holy Spirit.
That's true, but the Spirit, another blessing, bears witness
with not to, but with our spirit, that we are the children
of God. And I spent a long time dealing
with that last time #3 the Holy Spirit makes us alive
spiritually. How do I know if I'm alive
physically? I have a human spirit.
When I die one day, the Spirit leaves my body and I no longer
am alive. You know that I'm alive
physically because I have a human spirit.
You also know that I'm alive spiritually because I have the
Holy Spirit. So as we noticed last time, the
Holy Spirit is an invaluable assistant to Christians.
But please understand, He works with our inner man within the
bounds of God's Word to help us make heaven our home one day.
And as the last thing I said in our lesson last time, please get
this. The Holy Spirit has a work, we
get it. The Holy Spirit has benefits for
us, We get it all. That's 100% true.
But the Holy Spirit will never do for us anything that violates
the Word of God. For example, somebody might say,
I know the Bible tells me to do this, this, this, this, this.
And I used to always believe that, but I kind of think the
Holy Spirit is guiding me to do something else.
Now, that's kind of a popular thing that people say, OK, you
may be guided, you may be moved, you may be this, you may be
that. I'm not poking fun, but I'm just
going to tell you right now, that's not the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does not do for us or guide us away from
anything that the Word of God has already established.
And by the way, if it did, then the Holy Spirit would contradict
himself because the Holy Spirit is the revelation through the
Word of God. We get that.
OK, now we come to the 4th benefit and this is our sermon
today and it's such a big subject.
We got one point. Here it is.
The Holy Spirit helps US in our weaknesses.
I don't know about you, but I got some weaknesses.
I don't know about you, but there are times when I pray and
I need a little help. Notice please.
Here's the two verses under consideration.
Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not
know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself
makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. Now He who searches the hearts
knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes
intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
I'm going to ask you very kindly to do me a favor, and then I'm
going to do something for you in return, or I'm going to try to
do it. Whatever your preconceived idea
of these passages has always been, I'm going to ask you to do
this. Set it to the side and draw no
conclusions till the end. Now, it very well may be that by
the time we get through my conclusion that we're going to
make today's exactly the conclusion you've always felt
and always believe. Great.
It also may be that the conclusion that we draw today in
these passages by way of context and application may be something
entirely different than what you believe these passages to mean.
So all I'm going to ask is very kindly, whatever preconceived
idea or thought you've always had, set it aside.
I'm going to tell you something. I've been a Christian for Wow,
going on 50 years and I still learn, and I learned a ton on
this subject. So maybe we can all learn a
little bit. Stay with me and maybe it'll
just reaffirm also what you've always thought.
But anyway, just please just set aside any preconceived ideas as
we go through it. First of all, this phrase right
here. Likewise, the Spirit also helps
in our weaknesses. Please get this.
This is blessing #2 of five blessings that Paul describes in
Romans chapter 8. There's five unbelievable
blessings that God has given the child of God to help sustain
them as you journey through this life in view one day of our
ultimate demise or death. This is blessing #2 which one?
This right here, the Spirit also helps our infirmities.
Now, because we are jumping into blessing #2, it would be a
pretty good idea to jump in to go back and notice what blessing
#1 is. What is the first blessing of
Romans 8? We go back to Romans chapter 8.
Context, just a couple of verses before that, beginning in verse
24 and also in verse 25. Notice for we were saved in this
hope. But hope that we've seen is not
hope. So why does 1 still hope for
what he sees? But if we hope for what we do
not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
OK, notice this phrase. We were saved in this hope.
Hope's a big thing. Hope is a big deal.
My question is this though. What does hope really mean?
What's hope really mean? Sometimes we think that hope is
just prolonging the inevitable or putting off disaster or
putting off something negative. And because you got a time
period before something bad happens, that's hope.
That's not hope. I've said this in sermons and
days gone by. Some of you have heard it.
I've said faith and hope are similar in that they both trust
God, but they're different in that faith trusts God in the
present and hope trusts God for the future.
OK, makes sense. So what does hope actually mean?
Hope is actually looking forward.
Now for hope to be a blessing, it must involve 3 things. 1A
future orientation of something that's going to be better, a
desire that's deep and burning within us as we long for and
look for and a benefit that we're going to get.
It's got to involve all three for hope to be a blessing.
And remember, the number one blessing of Romans chapter 8 is
God has given us because of the facts and the evidence and the
promises that he has. He's given us hope.
So to express hope is to wait expectantly for what is good.
In other words, in context, this means the following notice
please. Life with all of its challenges
can never rob the believer of his salvation as long.
Oops, I didn't mean to have a extra S.
As long as he chooses to abide faithful in Christ, tragedy
after tragedy cannot steal the Christians future home in heaven
from him. None of the external forces on
earth like heart breaks, sorrows, disappointments,
problems and difficulties that a believer will suffer will be
able to remove him from the peace, safety and security of
the arms of Jesus as long as he chooses to remain faithful to
the Lord. Now, I'm going to say something
that probably might be a little repetitive, and I'm sorry, but
I'm not really sorry. Context.
Today we have to understand context in order to understand
the application of verses 26 and 27.
All right, So as one scholar put it, after you're baptized for
the remission of your sins, he said, yes, we've been saved by
the blood of Christ. We have remission of sins, but
not completely so. In other words, we haven't
received our eternal home yet in heaven.
So do not expect perfection and paradise yet.
It will come, but in the meantime, do not be discouraged
and do not give up. That's what hope is, by the way.
No wonder hope is one of the five blessings Paul promises the
believers as we endure the processes of life that come our
way and the blessings that we've been given from God to sustain
us through debilitating difficulties.
I'm going to tell you something. There are people in this room
that have had debilitating difficulties.
Our brother just had one. I don't mean to exclude anyone.
You had open heart surgery. You had cancer.
So did you. So did I, So did you.
We've had issues, right? We've had debilitating things
that have happened in life. The context of so far, what
we're talking about is we have hope.
So of you, we have hope that our salvation is not going to be
taken away regardless of the outward circumstances that come
our way, provided we never give up and we never choose to leave
the Lord. That's the context.
So with that being said, the same context rules us right into
verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps
in our weaknesses. By the way, the word likewise,
I'm not an English major. I'm not an English minor.
Yeah, I know that. But I I know what likewise
means. It's a marker of similarity,
right? I just made a statement and then
I'm gonna make another statement.
I said, well, likewise a marker of similarity.
OK. And the marker of similarity is
this hope was the blessing, the first blessing and benefit, the
second blessing is the Spirit helping our weaknesses.
OK, as we sometimes suffer and have futility, even leading to
our death again, let's get to the context.
In order to understand, we go all the way back to verse 18.
By the way, verse 18 was my mother's favorite scripture my
whole life as a kid. That's the first one we're going
to begin with. For I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for
the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but
because of Him who subjected it in hope, Because the creation
itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and laborers
with both pangs together until now.
Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly
awaiting for the adoption of the redemption of our body.
We're going to get back to these in a little bit, OK, at toward
the latter part. But my point is the passages
here in these verses lead us to the passages describing hope in
verses 25, four, and 25, which now lead us to the blessings
that are found in verse 26 about the Spirit helping our
weaknesses. OK, who's the Spirit?
Now? Don't do this.
Please don't say, well, it's the Holy Spirit because it's capital
S. That's a terrible argument.
I've heard that in my whole life.
That is a terrible argument. There's a terrible proof that
it's the Holy Spirit because it's capitalized.
Stay tuned. I do believe it is, but hang on.
There's three positions and we need to talk about them.
And so we're not confused amongst scholars, there's
actually three positions that people hold with regards to who
the Spirit is. Position #1 is that the Spirit
in verse 26 is Jesus Christ. And it's based upon two
different arguments. OK.
The first arguments found in Romans chapter 8 and verse 34.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and
furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God
who makes intercession for us. So the first thing that people
say is Jesus is our intercessor in this passage and therefore he
has a work and his work as our intercessor is to intercede for
us and also condemn those that are unbelieving and unfaithful
one day when people put those things together.
OK. The second passage that is used
to say that Jesus is the spirit of verse 26 is found in first
Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
OK, here's the problem with that interpretation from these
passages. Verse 34 when it says Christ
makes intercession for us. The context of verse 34 has
absolutely nothing to do with the context of verse 26.
That's number one. In fact, I'll just share this.
Number 34 is the fifth of the five blessings that we get as
the child of God. Verse 26 is the second of the
five. Two different things.
And by the way, we'll get to verse 34 in a lesson down the
road. I'm going to get to that because
I do think I'm going to preach on the all the five blessings.
Might as well. All right, that's number one.
Number two, in verse 26 of Romans chapter 8, Jesus Christ
is not mentioned at all. OK verse 34 introduces the 5th
blessing and also the worth of 1.
Mediator between God and man is not referring to prayer at all.
It's not instead this phrase there's one mediator between God
and men. It's talking about His
redemptive work that He did for us on the cross to shed His
blood for the remission of our sins.
How many did that one one. So the interpretation though, is
and incorrectly with good minds and good intentions.
If there's one mediator between God and man, and there's one
intercessor Roman, and there's an intercessor Romans 834.
Therefore if there's only one, then the intercessor of verse 26
must be Jesus Christ. That's how they draw that
conclusion, OK. I agree there's only one
mediator, but let's talk about that.
This is talking about his redemptive work on the cross.
2nd Corinthians 521 For he made him who knew no sin, that's
Jesus, to be sin for us, that he might become the righteousness
of God in him. First Timothy chapter 2 and
verse 6. He gave himself a ransom for all
to be testified in due time. OK, so what's the difference?
Maybe you're thinking, oh wait a minute, what's the difference
between a mediator and an intercessor?
This is the easiest way I can put it.
A mediator negotiates on behalf of both parties who are at
variance with one another. When man's sin, guess what?
Man's at variance with God. Man is at odds with God.
Man has separated his relationship with God.
Why? Because sin separates, God, in
His infinite wisdom sent us a mediator to pull the two
together. And now, through Jesus Christ,
his precious blood he shed on the cross, we contact the blood
of Jesus at baptism. Guess what?
We are now reconciled in our relationship to God by 1
Mediator, and that's Jesus Christ.
All right, what about an intercessor?
An intercessor pleads on behalf of only one side in a
difference. So having multiple intercessors
does not interfere or do away with the work of 1 mediator.
OK. In fact, by the way, Paul
encouraged all Christians to be intercessors for kings and all
of those that are in authority. First Timothy, chapter 2.
OK, did you know that every time you pray for someone, you are
being an intercessor for them? If I pray for my brother, we
prayed for Brother Ricky. We were intercessors on his
behalf. So we have many, many
intercessors in our life. Only one mediator.
That's Jesus Christ. OK, All right, Finally, proof
that this can't be Jesus in verse 26.
Jesus is never ever in Scriptures referred to as the
Spirit, not once. So the Spirit in verse 26 can't
be Jesus. All right, position #2 the
Spirit that makes intercession for us is the human spirit.
And I have to share something with you.
This is a position that I held for many, many years.
Now. I will tell you this.
Please get this. And I'm going to sum it up
afterwards when we get down to the end, when you pray, there's
three involved, obviously, according to Romans 8.
There's me, obviously, which is my human spirit.
There is God who is the recipient of the prayer, and
there is, and we might speculate, but we don't know
exactly who it is yet because we haven't proved the point yet.
And then there's the Spirit that makes intercession.
So you have the intercessor 3 things.
Make no mistake about it though, when we pray, when we pray, our
human spirit is involved, OK? Just know that Now, the position
that I held for years is that the spirit that makes
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered
was the human spirit. But I found an unbelievable
fatal flaw with my position. The fatal flaw is actually found
in the text. And you know, you know, my
father used to say, son, sometimes you got to let the
Word of God be its own best commentary.
Sometimes you just got to turn to the Bible and read it and let
your mind, your intellect, let it make some sense to you.
OK. The fatal flaw that I found
where it cannot be the human spirit is found in the passage
that is before us, which says for we do not know what we
should pray for. We don't.
So I looked into it a little bit further.
The knowing part of man is his mind or his reason.
We get that makes sense and according to Paul, it's
identified as man's spirit. Let me give you some.
Let me give you some Bible, Romans 1 and 9.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit.
Here's another passage. Romans 725I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God. OK, So what am I saying here?
I'm saying the human spirit is equivalent to the mind of a man.
Let that soak in. In other words, the knowing part
of man is his mind or his spirit.
OK now with that in mind, when we go to verse 26, it says that
the knowing part of man, which is his mind does not know what
to pray for. This is what got me on this
folks. This is what this is what
changed me. The mind or the Spirit doesn't
know what to pray for. So if the human spirit does not
know what to pray for, then it can't be the human spirit who
intercedes for the believer. If I don't know, I need an
intercessor. I need somebody to help me,
right? How am I helping me when I don't
know what to pray for? How am I interceding for me when
I don't know what to pray for? Facts.
I don't know what to pray for. Somebody has to intercede for me
in that prayer. There's a lot more.
It's coming. And that brings us to the third
position, which I believe to be correct, and that is the Spirit
is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the one who helps us
in our weaknesses and intercedes for us.
And by the way, if you look at the context, it makes so much
sense without doing this, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Just so you know, I've done some research, 14 scholars, and the
pages that I found it say it's the Holy Spirit, 14 notable
scholars that we all have respect for, whatever that
means, say this is the Holy Spirit that's doing the
interceding. OK, so let's go back and look at
the passage, please. Likewise, the Spirit also helps
in our weaknesses. Why?
For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but
the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.
Remember, this verse introduces the second in a list of
blessings for the Christian to encourage them and sustain them
as they face difficulties in suffering and futility.
And do you know what? Sometimes these things are so
painful and so debilitating. Man, we need some help.
Please don't ever think, no, I'm good, I got this, I'm good, I'm
good. No, no, no, no.
If you're honest with yourself, you need help.
And there's times when the debilitating circumstances are
so great actually needs somebody's help.
And with regards to prayer, we even need a little help there
too. And remember, this is not
limiting God. God can do whatever he wants to.
God is giving us this as a blessing.
Sometimes those things could be physical, mental, emotional and
psychological. It reduces the believer to a
state of weakness. And during these times, the
Christian does not know what to pray for.
Now I'm going to put something on the screen and and please
tune in. Don't misunderstand what I'm
saying, OK? Because I've heard this totally
misinterpreted, it does not mean that the Christian does not know
how to pray. The word of God is clear about
that. Jesus taught his disciples how
to pray before the Kingdom came. My favorite passage of
practicality in all the New Testament in Philippians 4, Paul
gives the antidote for anxiety. How did he do it?
He gave us a structure on how to pray.
We're told specific things to pray for.
Pray for those that are in leadership over us, Pray for
those that are in authority over us.
We pray for those that are lost in the world, that they come to
Jesus. We prayed that this morning.
We pray for the body of Christ, the Kingdom.
We pray for each other. We prayed for you and you and
you and on and on. OK Bible says we have not
because we ask not so a unanswered prayers like an
uncashed check. You got to go to God in prayer
1st and ask God, what does Paul say in Philippians 4?
Don't worry about anything but pray about everything.
So we understand that it's not that we don't know how to pray.
Please get that. The problem is that sometimes
the believer does not know what to pray for or what is most
needful. He does not know whether to pray
for healing or a merciful release into the arms of Jesus.
So sometimes we cannot see what the solution really should be.
Please notice this verse is not saying.
I'm going to back up a little bit.
There's no doubt things that God does, the Holy Spirit does and
Jesus does. That's not revealed in the word
that perhaps is happening with angels is particular.
I'm not limiting God. And you know what I want?
I like the words of Bob Smith. Years ago somebody asked him,
what do you want the Holy Spirit to do?
Never forget this. Yeah, this goes back 25 years,
30 years, 30 years probably. He said all he can.
So OK, great. But all that involved and all
that being said, I'm only going to preach specific things that I
can show you in the word of God and proof.
That's number one. Number two, please get this.
This passage is not saying that the Holy Spirit intervenes or
intercedes in every single prayer we pray.
It is not saying that there's a context that's connected to it.
This passage is referring to those difficult situations of
suffering and futility when we are so weakened that we do not
know what to ask for in such situations.
The Holy Spirit is given to us in that regard as a gift and a
blessing to intercede for us. And we're going to talk about
how also in just a little bit. But that's the context, folks.
I'm not going to go into all of the individual things that I've
had in my life where this happened to me.
But there's been a lot. And there were times in my life
when I was so overwrought. I was so overcome and I was so
overwhelmed. I could not figure out what to
say. You know, very recently, not
going to tell you the circumstances, but very recently
there was an issue in my head, in my mind, and I went to the
Father in prayer and in tears and I said I don't even know
what to say and I need your help.
I said I am hurting and I'm sorry.
I feel this way. Help me.
You know what I needed An intercessor.
And that's not the only time in my life.
Talk about how that all works in a minute.
But those are the facts when we're so weakened.
That's the context. But I want to notice what this
means right here, with groanings which cannot be uttered.
OK, let me show you the two positions that I've heard all my
life. Position number one, it's the
human spirit that makes intercession.
So the human spirit is doing the groanings, and God is hearing
the groanings that cannot be uttered.
And God is taking those prayers and hearing those prayers for
us. Now God is capable of doing
anything. I'm not limiting God.
That's position number one. That's a position I actually
used to hold position #2 it's the Holy Spirit that does the
interceding, and it's the Holy Spirit that does the groanings.
Both statements are half right. So both statements in total, in
totality, are incorrect. Stay with me.
We know that the Holy Spirit is the intercessor in such casings.
In such cases. My question is then, if the Holy
Spirit is doing the interceding, then who is doing the groanings?
Who groans? We do see that.
Doesn't that make sense? You think the Holy Spirit needs
to groan? I groan.
You know what the word grown is, EM, Zur says grown.
Another word for grown is sigh, with sighings that cannot be
uttered. That's my feelings.
Who's doing the groaning? I am.
Who's doing the interceding? The Holy Spirit.
OK, now I'm not going to leave it at that.
We're going to go to context, please, going back to verses 22
and 23. For we know that the whole
creation groans and laborers with birth pangs together until
now. Not only that, but we also have
who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown
within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption of the
redemption of our body. Just a few short verses before
the passage under consideration when it talks about groanings
that cannot be uttered in verse 26.
Who's grown in the whole creation?
And we ourselves, how about that we've grown.
I did a little research historically from Jewish history
and I found a very interesting quote from a cultural background
study Bible which said this notice please.
Historically, many Jewish people expected a period of intense
suffering just before the end of the age, and some spoke of this
period as birth pangs or even the birth pangs of the Messiah
or even the new Messianic era. Paul here portrays the present
painful period between the Messiah's coming in these terms
suffering to bring forth a new age.
So the point is this, when the believer can only sigh or the
believer can only groan because their suffering is so severe and
the problem is so overwhelmingly complex, the Holy Spirit
intercedes on their behalf. He's able to present our
feelings or our groanings that that we do straight to God.
Here's some scholars. McKnight said this.
The apostle now assures us that these secret groanings and
vehement desires, especially under pressure of affliction,
are not fruitless. For although we utter no words
because we do not know what to pray for, as we are the Spirit
Himself, that's the Holy Spirit complaints for us by these
inarticulate groanings under afflictions patiently borne
through His assistance. McKnight 2 quotes.
First quote with groanings that cannot be uttered is in
reference to the dimly perceived and partially understood
longings of the redeemed soul. That's me, which are impossible
for the Christian to frame into articulated petitions to the
Father. Those longings are heard and
understood by the Spirit of God who transfers such inexpressible
yearnings of the soul to the throne itself.
Finally, Kaufman said this. Therefore, when the Christian's
prayers have reached the boundary of language as a
vehicle for the conveyance of thought, when such prayers
become more of a heavenward sigh than a formal utterance, then
the Christian may know that the inward intercessor is fully able
to convey the soul's true desire to the throne.
One more quote from White Side. So these groanings are
unutterable feelings of need. The Spirit hurt us in these
groanings, for he understands our needs and longings and can
make them known to God. Again.
We do the groaning, the Holy Spirit does the interceding.
Now to the argument. Well, the Holy Spirit is the one
who groans to God on our behalf. I've heard this interpretation.
The groanings are some heavenly angelic type language that only
they understand. So that's the groanings that
cannot be understood by us and what have you.
Again, it doesn't make sense in context, but I'll give you one.
I'll give you what Lard said on this.
Lard said this. The groanings which give
inarticulate expression that these wants are not the spirits
groanings, they are our groanings, but the spirit forms
and directs them as to make them express our true wants to the
Father. OK, did you know that the very
next verse sums up what I just said?
Verse 27, and that's our last verse.
Verse 27 drives the whole point home.
Here it is for he who searches the hearts.
OK, who's He? That's God.
The hearts are the minds of believers.
In context, it refers to believers that are suffering
under some kind of tragedy or pain.
As a result, we don't know what to pray for and therefore we are
reduced to groanings that only the Holy Spirit or the Holy
Spirit makes understandable to the Father.
Why does the Father understand? Because he knows the mind of the
Spirit. They work together.
Do you know when the Bible says there's three that bear record
in heaven? There's God, there's Jesus,
there's the Holy Spirit, and these three are one or they work
together. They're one purpose.
They work together in everything.
God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit In the contending for the
faith commentary it says in summary of this passage or this
phrase. The Father knows with perfect
intimacy what the mind of the Spirit is, and the Holy Spirit
knows perfectly what the unutterable yearnings of the
believer are. Thus, perfect communication is
expressed to the Father on behalf of the Christian by the
agency of the Holy Spirit. Why?
Because He makes intersection for the Saints according to the
will of God. Remember when I said there's
three included here? OK, this is me right here.
I'm Ronan. My petitions are directed to the
Father who searches the hearts. The Father who's capable of
doing anything he wants, gave us the Holy Spirit as an
intercessor to make intercession for the Saints according to the
will of God. So in other words, He over there
is God, the hearts are me and you, and he is the Holy Spirit
that makes intercession according to the will of God.
And finally, one of those functions on behalf of the
believer is to intercede for them with God the Father when
they're struggling with such great difficulties that they can
only groan in their suffering context.
I don't know about you. That is amazing.
That is an amazing benefit, all the wonderful things that we
have as a result of being a child of God.
And by the way, we've only noticed 3.
Now there's two more in Romans 8 alone.
When we repent in conclusion this morning and are baptized,
we receive remission of sins, great blessing.
We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The gift is the Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts.
The benefits are as we noticed in our introduction, He's a
guarantee or an earnest or a down payment of our eternal
inheritance. He bears witness with our Spirit
that we are the children of God. He makes us alive spiritually.
And as we noticed this morning, He communicates our groanings to
God when we're weak and do not know what we ought to pray for.
Sounds to me the gift of the Holy Spirit's an incredible
gift. And he is an invaluable
assistant to Christians. He's working with our inner man
within the bounds of God's Word to help us make heaven one day.
And that is our greatest joy and our greatest goal.
OK, we're going to talk about the third great blessing for
believers. We talked about two today.
If I said three, I meant 21. Hope 2.
The intercessory work of the Holy Spirit when we don't know
what to pray for. But #3 and it's coming next
Sunday, if the Lord wills. All things work together for
good to them that love God and are called according to His
purpose. And I'm telling you right now,
that is one of the most misunderstood and misapplied
passages in all the teachings of Romans 8.
Does it mean everything's going to work out, or is there
something that's deeper, richer, and more meaningful?
I'm going to hang on that one. I want the deeper, richer, and
more meaningful interpretation context of the passage.
That's next time if the Lord will.
OK, Let me just say though, we've been given every single
reason to hang in there and succeed.
And I know life is hard. I get it and it and it actually
frustrates me sometimes when people say, when somebody says
I'm weak or I'm broken and they say, no, we're more than
conquer. Yeah, yeah, we are.
But we're more than conquerors because of God, because of the
strength we get from the Lord, because of the intercessory work
of the Spirit, because of all the spiritual blessings we have
in Christ, not because of us. So you know what I'd rather be
broken and get the benefits than think I'm pretty good all
amount. So remember this and I'm closing
with this. A 91 year old man said this and
I'm and when he said it, I said man, not a preacher comes
yesterday is history. So let it go.
Tomorrow is a mystery, so don't worry about it.
But today, today's a gift. So let's take the blessings
we've been given to sustain us, and let's live and make the most
of it. Next time, let's talk about all
things working together for good.
That will be the third of the five blessings that are found in
Romans 8. In order to have the blessings
we've talked about so far, then you've got to be a Christian.
You got to be a child of God. These are blessings that come as
a result of being His children. So we always extend an
invitation when we teach from the word of God.
You got to hear the word of God. Romans 10/17.
Here are the steps to become a child of God.
So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
After you hear the word of God, you got a choice to make.
You got to believe it with all your heart.
Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Then what? I got to make some changes in my
life. I got to stop going in the
direction that I've been going. I need to be a Christian.
I need to follow Jesus. I need to repent of my sins.
Acts 17 and 30. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Then I must be willing to confess Jesus Christ as the Son
of God. Acts 837.
Then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. These steps are prerequisites to
our salvation. They lead toward the point of
salvation. But we must be baptized for the
remission of sins in order to have salvation.
Mark 1616. Jesus said he who believes and
is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be
condemned. Is it necessary?
Does it really save us first? Peter 321.
The light figure where the even baptism doth also now save us.
Not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of
a good conscience comes out by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. If you're here today and you're
not a child of God, we would love to assist you in that.
Maybe you've taken those steps of obedience.
Maybe you just drifted away from the Lord.
You can do that. You can do that today.
You can come back to Jesus today.
Repent of those things. Confess those things.
We'll pray with you and for you. God will forgive and restore.
Be one of either class. Come forward while we stand and
while we sit.