As we think about help for our prayer lives, and that help is the Holy Spirit, there really
is no such thing as a Christian life apart from an understanding of and a participation
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As we have worked our way through this chapter in recent weeks, we have noted several works
of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
In verse 2, we note that He liberates.
He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who sets us free.
In verse 9, He indwells us.
In verse 11, we are told He will raise our bodies and give life to them in the resurrection.
In verse 13, He is the one who empowers us to put to death the deeds of the body.
In verse 14, He leads us as sons of God.
In verse 15, He encourages us as the Spirit of adoption to address God as Abba.
What an amazing thing.
We may call God our Father.
And then in verse 16, He witnesses, and the witness here is to our spirit and with our
spirit that we are genuinely God's children.
And now tonight in the text, verses 26 to 28, we see something more the Spirit does.
And in the same way, writes the apostle Paul, in the same way the Spirit also helps our
weakness.
For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words.
And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.
The Holy Spirit has a work to do with regard to our praying.
I want you to notice with me three insights to help us understand the importance of that
truth.
The first statement I want to make is that we have a weakness in prayer, which is pointed
out to us in verse 26.
I think most of us here tonight would be honest enough to confess that our prayer closet is
also a battleground.
It's probably not an area of our lives where we have more of a fight and a struggle than
that of our prayer life.
It is not easy, because the enemy knows the strategic nature of prayer.
And he knows that if he can stop us from praying for whatever reason, he has successfully performed
a preemptive strike against us, which neutralizes our spiritual power and effectiveness.
So the prayer life is a battleground.
We face the battle of laziness.
We all do.
We too often lack the discipline to pray, as we know we should.
We fight the battle of ignorance.
We don't know the basics of prayer sometimes.
With respect to the content of what we ought to pray, we don't know perhaps the basics
about the prerequisites of prayer.
What is necessary on our part so that we can pray effectively?
So we fight the battle of ignorance.
And then we fight the battle of discouragement.
Answers come but not as expected, or answers don't come as much as we can see it.
And we get to feeling that there must be something about us that we're not good enough, or that
our prayers for some reason are not getting through, and we become discouraged with praying.
Those are battles that all of us face from time to time.
But there is another difficulty, even when these battles may be won.
This is a universal difficulty.
It's the difficulty of weakness in praying.
In verse 26, we read, the Spirit helps our weakness.
But what is that weakness?
We do not know how to pray as we should.
That is the weakness.
Now Paul is not speaking here about feeling to know the content of prayer in a general
way.
That's a problem.
That's a battle.
We've already suggested that.
But he is saying that we as human beings have this weakness that we do not know the specifics
to ask for in every given situation.
Literally he says, for we do not know the what to pray for.
That is, we do not know the particular requests that we should always offer to God as we ought.
We do not know, because of our human weaknesses, what is necessary in cases that we pray about,
what the need is at the moment.
I am learning, and I am sorry to say slowly learning, that when God wakes me up at night,
that there is usually a reason for that.
Now if it's the kids waking me up, I don't think there is a reason for that.
That's justified.
But if God wakes me up, he must have a reason for that.
A few days ago I laid awake, I woke up about four o'clock.
I don't even remember now what woke me up.
But as I laid there, I began to meditate on the things of God.
God brought to my mind a number of different people to pray for.
Some in our church, some of our missionaries, some situations I am concerned about.
So I was able to utilize those times.
I believe that God may very well awaken us from our sleep.
Apparently he knows we don't need it as badly as we think we do.
And so he awakens us to use us as channels of prayer.
But the problem we have is that we don't know exactly what we are praying for.
Missionary X is laid in our hearts.
What's the need with him there on the other side of the world?
I don't know.
But it is no accident that his name or her name has come to my mind.
But my weakness is that I don't know how to pray.
What to pray for as I ought.
This weakness is no excuse for not praying, as we're going to see, but it is a weakness.
Now the second insight we have is that we have a helper in prayer.
The comforter, the Holy Spirit that God has sent from heaven, verse 26.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
He says in the same way he does.
That is in the same way that he encourages us to pray in the first place and call God
Father to address him as Abba.
That familiar term of the little child speaking to his father.
In the same way that he encourages us to pray in the first place, he also helps us to pray.
This word help means to lend a hand together with.
It's several Greek words all scrunched together to come up with this.
It is found only one other time in the New Testament and that is in Luke 10, 40.
You will remember the occasion when Jesus and others were in the house of Mary and Martha.
Martha was sitting there at Jesus' feet listening to the teaching of the Lord.
Mary, as was her womanly custom, was out there in the kitchen banging pots and pans together
getting things ready for this feast that she was going to have to cook and serve.
She got a little upset at Sister Mary.
She came in and she complained to Jesus about it and said in essence, Lord, why don't you
send her out there to help me?
That word help, to lend a hand together with me, is the same word used here of the Holy
Spirit.
He comes into the kitchen and he helps us in our prayer life.
He lends a hand with our praying.
Not only that, but it says in the last part of verse 26, the Spirit Himself intercedes
for us with groanings too deep for words.
The word intercedes means to plead on behalf of another.
Not only does our Savior, the Lord Jesus, stand in heaven perpetually praying for us
in His high priesthood, but we have one who indwells us, who likewise pleads on our behalf
continually, actively, persistently He pleads on our behalf.
It says here that He pleads with unuttered groanings, with sighs that are substitute for
words.
There's absolutely no thought here regarding glossolalia or the gift of tongues that some
people read into this verse.
This is something that is inaudible to the human ear, but which is well heard by the
ear of our Heavenly Father as the Holy Spirit groans within us.
Now we have learned earlier that nature groans, waiting its redemption.
We groan likewise, eagerly anticipating our adoption as sons, that is the redemption of
our bodies.
Now we learn that the Spirit of God groans within us.
With unuttered words, with sighs as it were, He brings to God requests on our behalf.
Thank God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
We have a helper in prayer who can show us how to pray and when we miss the mark in knowing
what to ask, He groans through us to the Father.
The result of that is, third insight, we have a confidence in prayer, verses 27 and 28,
because it says, He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is.
Question, who is He who searches the hearts?
Well, there are many commentators who believe it is the Father.
It's not worth arguing about, but my personal understanding of this is that it is the Son,
that it is the Lord Jesus who searches the hearts.
We read in Revelation 2, 23, all the churches will know that I am He, says Jesus, who searches
the minds and the hearts.
I believe it is our Savior, our great high priest, who searches our hearts.
It says that He knows the desires, the wishes, the mind of the Spirit, because continually
He is examining, searching out the mind of the Spirit who is interceding for the saints,
it says, according to the will of God.
So that when I cannot even verbalize prayers, or when I don't have time in the midst of
some crisis to utter a prayer, the Spirit of the Lord is continually offering up requests
on my behalf, according to the will of God, and the Son of God searching the mind of the
Spirit sees that and lifts it to the Father, so that even without my participation, and
in those cases even, there is prayer offered on my behalf and your behalf.
What a great confidence that is in prayer.
But there is another confidence, and that is, in verse 28, that the Father then, hearing
those requests, works all things out for good.
I suppose almost everyone here tonight can quote verse 28.
We know, we know from our experience that God causes all things to work together for
good.
I remind you, He is not saying here that everything is good in and of itself.
That is not what verse 28 says.
But it is saying that God brings all the pieces of our lives, the good and the bad, as we
evaluate them.
He brings them all together and brings them out to a beneficial end.
That's the point.
So that there is nothing that comes into my life but that it passes through the hands
of my Heavenly Father, and He allows them to come to accomplish His good purpose in
our lives, and that purpose primarily is that we might be like Christ.
So as the Holy Spirit prays, basically what He is saying is, Lord, Father, I pray that
You will make this character like Christ.
And the Lord Jesus hears that request, and the Father then answers that prayer perfectly
in my life and in yours.
That is, if we are those, as it says in verse 28, who love God.
That's not some general human kind of love like 90% of Americans have for God.
If you believe in God, you don't hate God usually.
No I was talking here about that love relationship that has been established with God through
a personal faith in Jesus Christ.
Those who love God, we don't love God first.
He loves us first, and we love Him, right?
We love Him because He first loved us.
What did He do?
He gave His Son for us.
We love God, and we are those who are called according to His purpose, and again that purpose
is further elaborated upon in the following verses, and we will come to that in time to
come.
I see the Father working here like a pharmacist.
This would be a good example for you pharmacists in our church, and we have some.
There are certain ingredients that you handle which by themselves or in larger doses would
kill the patient.
But you have a prescription in your hands that you fill, and the result is that you
take the right amounts of this and that until you put it all together.
You carefully measure it, you mix it so that the result is medicine, not poison.
That's what our Father does with the things that come into our lives because of the perpetual
intercession of the Spirit and of the Son on our behalf.
Let me just close with three thoughts about application.
Number one, we need to establish the priority of our prayer time.
If that slipped in our lives, then let's put it back up at the top where it belongs.
Let's not allow Satan to strike preemptively and cut off our power and cut off the blessing,
but let's establish and maintain the priority of our praying.
Secondly, as we pray, let's depend upon our helper to do his job.
That's why he's there, to help us in praying.
So let us pray in the Spirit, that is, consciously depending upon the Spirit as we pray.
Not rushing into prayer and offering up to God requests on our own, but pausing long
enough at the beginning of our praying to ask the Holy Spirit to quicken us, to enable
us, to empower us, to enlighten us.
Let's let him do his work in us.
Let's listen quietly to him.
Let's search the word that he's inspired and let him bring truths to us that we need
to pray about.
Then number three, we need to relax in God's sovereign work and his loving purpose in our
life's circumstances.
What a wonderful application we have there in verse 28.
As we come to the table tonight, we are reminded that the Comforter has come because of the
work, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Had he not completely finished the work of redemption so that the Father was satisfied
and accepted it, the Spirit would not have come.
There would have been no Pentecost.
The fact that there was a Pentecost when the Spirit came signified the fact that our Savior
went back to heaven, sat down at the right hand of God, his saving work, that is, his
sacrifice body, his shed blood, being finished and being acceptable to God.
Now God was sending the Spirit as a testimony of his Son's acceptance in heaven.
As we come to the table tonight, I'd like for us to bow together in searching prayer,
thanking God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit and asking him in the quietness of
these moments to prepare us that we might come to this table of the Lord in a worthy
manner that is our hearts cleansed and prepared to partake of this significant ordinance.
And I'll ask those who are serving to join me in the front while we're bowed in silent
prayer.
Father, thank you for the comforter.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for his ministry in our lives and for that prayer ministry in which he helps
us to pray and groans through us, intercedes on our behalf according to your perfect will.
And Father, we're thankful for what his coming signifies, that it's real proof in the world
today that the sacrifice of the Savior was accepted in heaven, that his work is finished
with regards to sin.
As we pause around this table tonight as a church family and other friends who are here
who know the Lord, who are trusting in Christ, we offer unto you thanks, for we remember
that the Lord Jesus there at that Passover meal first of all took the bread and gave
thanks for it, reminding us that it symbolizes to us his body.
And so we partake remembering with gratitude that sacrifice.
Amen.
Jesus said, this is my body which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
And once more, our Lord, Lamb of glory, do we bow to thank you for the fountain filled
with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
Thank you for the blood represented by this cup.
As we partake, we do so remembering with gratitude.
Amen.
Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
Don't you look forward to that day when we will sit at the table with him in heaven and
partake of that great married supper of the Lamb.
Would you please take your hymnals?
I'd like for us to sing in closing 165.
May I remind you that upon our departure, as is our custom, there will be an offering
received for benevolence for which we do have regular needs.
We thank you for participating in that cash offering used for those who have financial
needs.
There will be an usher there to assist you with that.
Now let's sing together, hallelujah, what a Savior, this great hymn by Philip Bliss.
You know when I get to heaven, there's a whole lot of people I want to see, but Philip
Bliss is one of them.
One of the great men of God of the last century.
One of my burdens is that we as a church might learn more about some of the great saints
of God in past generations, and particularly I'm thinking of musicians in the last century
or two.
And I'm hoping that we might be able to put together a drama group that through two or
three skits and evening service will be able to present to us some of the scenes of the
life of a man like Philip Bliss.
I've talked with John about this and he's excited about it, and that'll be something
God willing that'll be happening about once a quarter starting here, well maybe this fall
at least the first of the year.
Bliss is going to be one of the first ones.
You know Philip Bliss and his wife had two children, and God greatly blessed and used
his ministry.
When they were both in their late 30s, he was 38, I'm not sure of the age of his wife,
they had gone to visit his mother in Pennsylvania for Christmas.
And Bliss had some work I think with Dwight and Moody to take care of back in Chicago,
so they left the children there in Pennsylvania and he and his wife took a train.
And just outside of Ashtabula, Ohio, the train had a wreck and their car went down into a
ravine.
Bliss was able to escape the fire that immediately followed, but he couldn't find his wife.
And this man of God that God was so greatly using went back in the train and found his
wife and she was trapped and was going to die.
And he chose to stay in the train with her.
And they perished together in 1876.
You know it's people like that that we can't lose sight of because they were great in their
day, people who knew God and walked with him.
And so whenever I see his name beside a hymn, it always means something a little special
to me.
So with that thought about him in mind, I'd like for you to sing with me this truth that
he bore from his own poetic heart.
He wrote the music for this too.
Hallelujah.
What a Savior.
Let's stand together as we sing.
Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God, who came, through and sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my praise condemned he stood.
Sleep unbarned with his blood, Hallelujah, what a Savior.
He was a guilty file and helpless weep, spotless when on crime was he.
Holy atonement, can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Lifted up was he to die, it is finished once his cry.
Now in hell let's all deny, Hallelujah, what a Savior.
When he comes our glorious King, all his ransom home to bring.
Let us know this song will sing, Hallelujah, what a Savior.
And all of God's people said, Amen.
Good night.