John Piper - The Spirit Helps Us In Our Weakness

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Oh father in heaven there are some things that we know how to pray and that we ought to pray and must pray I pray for an anointing upon the Ministry of the word I pray for dead to be made alive I pray for blind to see death to hear and weak to be made strong and proud to be humbled and hateful to be made loving and hard to be made tender I pray for the confused and perplexed to be given light and guidance I pray for the alienated to be reconciled and I pray for the lost to be found I pray for Christ to be exalted in your name to be honored I pray for humility in the Ministry of the word and a deep reliance upon the spirits help and I pray for docile teachable Minds and now come please and in your great mercy towards me and us be our teacher and help us in Jesus name I pray amen Christianity is the only religion in the world and in history to affirm and embrace that there is only one to God and that in the one true God there are three persons God the Father God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit we call it the doctrine of the Trinity the church does not and has not embraced the doctrine of the Trinity because there's a sentence in the Bible that says there is one true god existing in three persons equal in essence and distinct in their personhood you won't find a sentence like that in the Bible the reason the church has affirmed and embraced the doctrine of the Trinity is not because there's a paragraph on the Trinity or a sentence that states the doctrinal precision of the Trinity the reason the Church has always embraced this doctrine and affirmed it and shed blood over it is because the Bible teaches unwaveringly that there is one and only one true and living God and that the father is God and the son is God and the Spirit is God and they are distinct persons that's what you find in the Bible over and over again spread out over all the books and all the chapters is there's one God there's a father and he is God there's a son and he is God there's a spirit and He is God and they are not completed into one person but three distinct persons relating to each other as persons and yet one God that's just what you find in the Bible the only reason we embrace the doctrine of the Trinity is because we are so bent rightly so on seeing the Bible whole they want to get it all together we want to affirm the totality of what the Bible says about God and so we're driven by the sheer reality of what we see in the Bible to say there is one God and only one God then the father is God and the son is God and the Spirit is God and they are not the same they are persons in their own right but one God now if that perplexes you as it perplexes many keep this in your mind you're not God you are a creature of this God and you are in no position to dictate to him the way he ought to be God is absolute reality we are contingent and dependent God absolutely is he never came into being he always was he never became nobody ever made him the way he was there is absolutely no reason that he is the way he is there is no explanatory data or fact outside of him that caused him to be the way he is he is what you've got to deal with in reality and therefore our role is not to tell him how it is but to learn how it is and then adapt our little finite minds and hearts to the way he is and the way he's made us so that we bring our minds and our lives into conformity to reality namely God the second person of the Trinity and the first and the third are all over Romans 8 the third person the Holy Spirit is perhaps more wonderfully dealt with as a person in this chapter than any other and it might be good for us to step back before we dig into verses 26 and 27 and get an overview of the Holy Spirit's life and ministry just in this chapter until the reason why I feel constrained to do this I could jump right into verses 26 and 27 which is where we are in our exposition but I know there a lot of visitors and I know there are a lot of us for whom the person and the ministry of the holy spirit is not well-known one of my goals in just this little 3 or 4 minute overview that I'm going to give you is that God would beget in your heart now love for the holy spirit and I would like in your heart by the time I'm done this morning for you to find yourself irresistible saying I love you holy spirit Jesus said the first and Great Commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and at the end of that first hymn that we sang to the great one in three eternal praises be hence evermore the sovereign Majesty may we in glory see and to eternity love so many of you have said Jesus I love you and many of you have said father I love you but I wonder how many have said holy spirit I love you let me just draw out of chapter eight about six or eight reasons why you ought to love it number one I'll refer to the verses they may be too fast for you to look at but you can if you want in verse two the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death the Holy Spirit has set you free from death and sin he's working in you to free you love him for it verse 4 the spirit helps us fulfill the just requirement of the law verse 6 the spirit gives us life and peace the mind of the Spirit is life and peace verse 11 God is going to raise your mortal body from the dead by the Spirit who dwells in you if the Spirit is in you now and you hope to be raised from the dead thinking he's the one who's going to do it according to verse 11 you want to be raised from the dead love the spirit he's going to do it verse 13 by the spirit we put to death the deeds of the body have you made any little micro advance in sanctification have you overcome some little bad habit have you become a little more loving thank him it's by him that you did it love him for it verse 14 all the children of God are led by the Spirit of God have you ever known or tasted the sweet leadings of the Holy Spirit into holiness and righteousness and love and wisdom verses 15 and 16 the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God do you know yourself a child of God today do you find welling up from your heart of a father an authentic cry to the father you know where that came from it came from the Holy Spirit the spirit of adoption if that is a valuable thing to you that you know yourself a child of God love the Holy Spirit thank the Holy Spirit rest in the Holy Spirit he produced that cry within you and gave it oughtn't isset II by his witness verse 23 the Spirit we have as a foretaste and a guarantee of our final redemption do you hope someday to be rid of this broken body some of you young people the last thing in the world you want is to be rid of your body right now because it gives you so much pleasure but I promise you the day is coming when it will be broken and it will be like Louise Nelson's body last Friday hanging on and on at age almost 90 just those little short breaths as we waited which will be the last one until it happened at 4:30 Friday morning you're going to be there kids middle-aged people 20-somethings you're going to be there you think you're in charge and not in charge and some of you won't get there and the Holy Spirit is the down payment and the firstfruits that you're going to be redeemed with a new body someday so you don't have to worry kids don't have to worry if your body is taken from you now or if it's taken from you at 90 you're going to get a new one and it's going to be better than this one it will be capable of ten thousand times greater pleasures than the best sex you ever dreamed of now here we are at verse 26 and he has another ministry to us let's read it likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we don't know how to pray as we ought but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches the hearts no notice this this is not my main point but I can't help but draw it out who is this he who searches the hearts this is the father he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit another mind because the Spirit of God with another mind is praying to the father on our behalf according to the will of God that is an awesome statement of the relationship between the father and the spirit as persons it's these kinds of texts that have driven faithful Bible readers to the doctrine of the Trinity and there are hundreds like this that say they don't teach the whole doctrine in and of themselves they just say huh the Spirit of God prays to the Father this must mean some kind of personhood and so on it goes let's start with the word likewise likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness what does that mean like Watson I think it means something like this Paul has been laboring especially from verse 17 on to help us endure the futility and groaning and pain and frustration and decay of this fallen age which we talked about the last two weeks or the weeks before last week the whole creation is groaning together waiting to obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God someday it was subjected to futility not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope and Paul's telling us these things that because of so that in all the futility and pain and frustration and sickness and danger that we are exposed to now we won't give up hope it's a very realistic passage we're going to get sick we're going to die things are going to break hardly anything is going to work kids will go haywire Minds will go haywire stomachs lungs prostates you name it they all go haywire and he says that's the way it's going to be and he's helping us with that reality he's helping us live in this real fallen painful frustrating world by showing hope likewise now the Holy Spirit has some help to give in another way that's the way I'm hearing the likewise I've been given your help with promises and hope to get you through this crummy world and now the Holy Spirit's got some work to do and I want to tell you about the Holy Spirit's work so you get help by you get encouragement from it you can endure with it that's the way I think it flows here so I have three questions to ask of these two verses number one what does the Holy Spirit pray for us what's he say what does he ask God for second question how does he pray for us do we feel it is it an experience one of these groanings third question why does he pray for us this is very strange I mean does it not strike you as very strange that the father omniscient needs the Holy Spirit to tell him what to do according to his own will this is very strange God praying to God to the God we do God's will this is strange folks if this doesn't boggle your mind you're not boggle a ball and therefore we need to ask why'd you set it up this way I mean just do what needs to be done God what's the point of these groanings and the Holy Spirit's telling you what you ought to do so that you would act according to your own will this is strange now I can only answer one of these questions this morning so I have decided to spend two weeks on this text so we will deal with question one this morning and if you're all worked up to hear the answer to that third question you got to come back next week but as I was preparing I had every intention of moving quickly through these two verses and moving on and getting through Romans eight I had to slow down because it's just too good it's too good and if if you don't share my taste buds for what is good then sorry skip next Sunday so here's question one and it's the only one we'll deal with what does the Holy Spirit pray for us now before I try to answer it just make sure that you see that he does and this is good news verse 26 likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we ought but the Spirit Himself may use that big word intercedes just means praise ask God for things he prays and intercedes for us with groanings we'll talk about that next week as to the how of this with groanings too deep for words so just know that the Holy Spirit is in the business of praying for you a strange as it may sound as perplexing and odd and maybe counterintuitive to your brain that's what the Bible says and who are we to say it can't be that way and shouldn't be that way I say let us revel in the fact that it is that way and try to figure out why it's such good news because Paul says is a help and I need all the help in this world I can get so what does the Spirit ask for now I see three clues to answering this question in the text as to what he's asking for then I'll point these Clues out and then we'll ask what they imply number one it says that the Spirit asks for things that we don't know how to ask for we don't know how to pray as we ought the Spirit is praying so there's a clue as to what the spirits praying he's praying things we don't know how to ask for second clue it says that the Spirit is asking for things that we don't know how to ask for because of our weakness now that word weakness is going to be a big clue because it's evidently the weakness that we have that is the reason why we're so unable to discern what to pray that's the second clue here's the third one at the end of verse 27 it says the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God so there's the third clue as to what he prays for us accords with the will of God now let's step back and take all those three clues and ask what do they imply about what he prays for well here's the first thing I see when it says that the spirit prays for me when I don't know how to pray that rules out a lot of things it seems to me that the spirit prays at least typically because frankly I know a lot of things I should pray for and just how to pray for them I know to pray that I should be a loving person I know the pray that I should be humble I know the pray that I should have faith I know the pray that I should have hope I know to pray that I should have wisdom I know I know all hundred things to pray for because it's very clear that every commandment of the Bible should be prayed in to reality if God tells you explicitly clearly in the Bible what to do you should pray that if he says don't commit adultery you should pray oh god help me not to commit adultery then get off your knees and don't commit adult if he says don't lie pray O God make me an honest person if he says don't covet you should pray O God make me satisfied with the things that I have and on and on and on we know what to pray for but this text says the Holy Spirit prays for things we don't know what to pray for so what might that be that's the way I'm getting at this answer what does he pray for us let's take the word weakness and see if we can refine the Pointer toward the answer it says that that he's helping us in our weakness now what is this weakness that is evidently creating the difficulty of us praying the way we should what's the weakness well the word weakness in the in the New Testament can be weakness owing to human nature Paul used it that way back in chapter 6 verse 19 he says I'm speaking to this because of your natural limitations word asthenia weakness or it could be weakness owing to sickness that was the word used all over the Gospels for the things that jesus healed it says he healed many Ostin is this word guru weakness was leprosy it was crippled Ness blindness it was deafness those are the weaknesses that might be a view here or it might be weakness owing to calamity or hardship Paul uses it that way in second Corinthians 12 which of those is it or is it all of them now I think the clue is is verse 23 in the context of 18 to 25 verse 23 we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons namely the redemption of our bodies so what's this groaning this is the groaning of bodies that hurt and the hurt I argued in two weeks worth of messages on that text of every kind whether it's caused by persecution accident or disease however your body hurts on the way to heaven that's what you're called to endure and your groan it says you glued Oh God how long how long until my body is redeemed and that's the resurrection so the context of 18 to 25 is futility groaning suffering decay and he's helping us with that weakness by giving us promises and likewise verse 26 likewise the holiday spirit helps us with our same thing week so I'm taking the word weakness here to mean the whole painful suffering of our bodies whether disease or persecution or calamity or accident whatever is stripping you of your pleasures and making you ache and feel pain that's your weakness and so he says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness because we don't know how to pray as we ought now I think I've gotten close enough to venture an answer we've seen that what he prays for us is things that we just don't know what to pray for we're at a loss and we've related it now to this weakness which is the weakness of pain and futility and frustration and loss and danger so here's my answer the Holy Spirit prays for us that the will of God be done concerning whether we get well or not or whether we escape hardship or not because what we don't know so often how to pray is are we going to get well aren't we am I going to get out of prison or aren't I will I be tortured or won't I we don't know what to pray the implication of this is huge for your life it's really big before I unfold some of those implications let me give you some examples from Paul's life to show you why I think I'm on the right track so what I'm saying is this there are experiences in life of weakness pain futility groaning it may be caused by sickness it may be caused by persecution it may be caused by accident and in this situation you don't know whether you're going to get out or not you don't know whether God might ordain that you be in it and stay in it and die in it or whether you might heal you or deliver you and you you grow not knowing how to lay hold on God for the one or the other now let me give you some examples from Paul do you remember his thorn in the flesh in 2nd Corinthians 12 we don't know what it was it caused him pain and and discomfort to put it mildly probably and he calls out o Christ have mercy and deliver me O God deliver me O God take it away and three times he hears no no no and on the third time the Lord says my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in weakness don't need to ask me anymore you're going to suffer now I put myself in Paul's shoes at that moment and for the subsequent years of his life if you had had that experience wouldn't every time you got sick every time you were beaten every time you were whipped every time you were shipwrecked at sea every time some faults brother lied about you you wouldn't know whether God wanted you to escape and get well or not because he said no last time I think Paul faced time after time after time in prison in danger and he didn't know what to ask for is he going to get out and fill a pie or not before the earthquake did he know mourning the chop in my head off I don't know should I be playing for grace and strength to endure martyrdom or should I ask for a earthquake here's another illustration when Paul was in prison in Rome he wrote Philippians and the first chapter of Philippians is such a magnificent display of the heart of the Apostle both in its Christ centeredness and its uncertainty of God's will at least for a season he wasn't sure what was going to happen let me read it to you for Philippians 1:22 if I am to live in the flesh this will be faithful fruitful labor for me I do not know what to choose there's that ignorance that we're talking about I don't know what to choose but I am hard pressed from both directions having the desire to depart and be with Christ because that would be very much better and yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake so how did he pray he didn't know at least for a season he didn't know my understanding and I'll jump ahead to next week's sermon just a little bit here is that what happens at those moments in the heart of the sight is groaning and it is a holy groaning and the essence of the groaning is the groaning of Philippians 1 where he longs for Christ to be magnified in his body whether by life or by death and he doesn't know which it's going to be and what the Holy Spirit discerns beneath words is this groaning is for the exaltation of Jesus and I will decide how it will happen and then he goes to the Father and he says father deliver Paul or father give him strength to die and it happens and Christ is exalted in the way the Holy Spirit decides and you may not know to the very end whether you're going to be delivered or healed now I said this is relevant for you and it is very relevant for you it's not only relevant for those in this room because of how much suffering there is in this room and how much pain and how much cancer and other kinds of diseases and you are wrestling oh god oh god what's your will for me what's going to happen to me will I live with this the rest of my life or will there be relief should I try this treatment or that treatment till I just break for healing shall I settle in and just take it like a thorn oh god I don't know there's a lot of that in this room and not only that it's going to get increasingly relevant because of the price to be a Christian increasing the price is going to go up folks you know don't you that America is abnormal we've got about 300 years here of abnormality peace security freedom incredible luxury the poorest of the poor have luxury in America this is abnormal and it will not always be the price of being a Christian in America is almost nothing depending on how hard you want to be holy and witness but nobody's stalking you nobody's tracking you down nobody's putting little microphones in your room nobody's knocking down your door and taking you off to jail it's a dream world it's a Disneyland and it will not always be that means that increasingly you're going to have to take risks to be a Christian and I ask you which ones you're going to take everywhere I go speaking around the country like in Indianapolis on Monday and Tuesday I tried to weave into my talks the call to suffering the call to risk the call to martyrdom the call to radical Christian discipleship so that my theme for three messages in Indianapolis was risk and the cause of Christ and my basic message was take some and everywhere I go the questions start to emerge with the children which countries can you wear gloves if you deal with the AIDS orphans can you take your kids there what about diseases Jesus didn't jump off the temple Piper you know the defenses go up increasingly we will have to make choices do you come home when there's a coup or don't you come home their sentence in the Bible stay in Liberia three more since the ku0 sent us can anybody find a sentence in the Bible to settle that one so we know how he ought to pray with regard to escape or not if you're put in prison do you say Oh God get me out for my family or do you say Oh God give me endurance or do you say Oh God give me strength to die I don't know of any sentences in the Bible that settles those things for you but the Holy Spirit will oh he will and what he wants to hear is groanings that our Christ exalting whether in cancer or in a prison or hovering on a decision to stay or to go like the email I got right after the Staines martyrdom in India from a little group of huawei MERS holed up in a building surrounded by a mob emailing out pray for us should we call in the government to deliver us to use force and sword we've established a good name for Jesus here we believe and we're inclined to stay no matter what what would you pray mobs are scary machetes are scary well let me let bunt John Bunyan bring balance to this because I'm not a very balanced person on this I I don't like prudence and no prudence is important so I have to compensate for my excesses by bringing in balanced people like Bunyan now you may not think Bunyan was balanced because he made a decision many of you would regard as stupid and wicked Bunyan stayed in jail for 12 years he could have gotten out anytime he wanted if he had signed the warrant I will not preach and he would not sign and he stayed in jail and he had four small children one of them blind did he make the right decision I must watch myself here because I get chastised by David Michael when I say things about the family that I shouldn't say like family is God to some of you so I'm back off it I really didn't say that but as a pastor you need to know that if you choose to go or stay I love you and support you now let me read the balanced words if the behavior of Bunyan didn't seem balanced to you here's the word this is balanced and this is biblical and so hear this he asked the hero to book because he knew people were asking this question his book was called advice to sufferers he asked the question may we try to escape is that legitimate may Christians try to escape out of Damascus in a basket walk through a crowd he said this thou may us do this as it is in the heart if it is in the heart to fly fly if it is in the heart to stand stand anything but denial of the truth he that flies has warrant to fly he that stands has warrant to do so yay the same man may both fly and stand as the call and working of God within his heart maybe Moses fled Exodus 2:15 and Moses stood Hebrews 11 27 David fled for Samuel 19 12 David stood for Samuel 24 8 Jeremiah fled jeremiah 30:7 11 Jeremiah stood 38:17 Christ withdrew himself Luke 19:10 Christ stood John 18 1 Paul fled 2nd Corinthians eleven thirty three pulses good acts 20:20 - and then he adds there are few rules in this case the man himself is best able to judge concerning his present strength and what weight this or that argument has upon his heart to stand or to fly do not fly out of slavish fear he says but rather because flying is an ordinance of God opening a door for escape for some which door is open by God's providence and the escape countenanced by God's Word as balance so here we are you got a sickness or you're facing a fork in the road and risk or just plain ambiguity or you're contemplating a ministry overseas you're going to take your little one with you Grandmama's not so exciting I love you for going and I will love you if you stay in close with five brief reasons why this should encourage you and strengthen you and help you number one be encouraged that you are not expected to know the will of God in every respect I find that as a huge burden lifted from my heart this text clearly implies you are not expected to know the will of God in every situation for what you should do next otherwise the logic of the passage just falls to pieces we don't know how to pray as we ought the Holy Spirit knows we don't know he intercedes he gets it done don't carry what you're not designed to carry don't wear the weight of of worry and anxiety about the uncertainty of what lies in front of you there are points in your life of course there are times when your ignorance may be owing to sin in your life but that's not what he's talking about here here there are times when we just don't know whether to do this or that whether to stay or to go whether to lay hold on God to get well or not to get well and ask that there be grace to endure don't carry a burden you don't have to carry be encouraged you don't have to know all the will of God number two be encouraged that in your perplexity and groaning you are not being watched you are being understood do you have an image of God that when you're facing a decision of whether to do this or that whether to pray this way or that way he's got his arms folded in heaven watching come on it's a matter with you dummy I gave you enough information to figure this out figure this out I'll act when you ask me properly because that's your picture of God watching you before a decision or prayer that's not the picture in this text the picture in this text is of you facing some kind of utter perplexity in life very dangerous or life-threatening or just huge for you and you don't know what to do but inside there's this groaning and it's a Christ exalting groaning all God I don't know which way to go but whichever way I go may Christ be exalted now the Holy Spirit tunes into groanings like that in fact they are his groanings that's next week's sermon they are his groanings and he gets in there and he says I like that Christ exalting grinds and he goes to the Father and he decides which way you will glorify the son life or death so he's understanding you he's not watching you number three be encouraged that God's work for you is not limited to what you can understand or express with words mmm this is how this is helpful for me be encouraged that God's work on your behalf is not limited to or dependent upon what you can think in your brain and articulate with your mouth we strive in prayer meetings to try to to think a God thought about what should happen in our church or what should happen in this life or what should happen in this vocation or what should happen for these missionaries and we strive and we try to articulate it and we feel so frustrated sometimes I can't think it I can't say it but the Holy Spirit is not limited by that he's not limited by that what you can know and what you can express he can interpret groans and he interprets them graciously he knows the Saints he knows the hearts of the saints and he puts them into words for the father to act number four be encouraged that in your weakness and sickness and loss and hardship and danger the Spirit of God is praying for you and not against you for you and not against you says that in verse 26 he intercedes for you in verse 31 we're going to read if God is for you who can be against you and we're already getting foretaste of that for you here God is for you in this verse 26 because the Holy Spirit is God and so take heart that while he is understanding you in your frustration and limitation and your perplexity and your groaning he's working for you and not against you and now lastly be encouraged that God the Father always hears the prayers of the Spirit and answers them yes and they are always prayers for you and I'll give you a little tip off two maybe three weeks out from now if you wonder why Romans 8:28 follows with a particular way of logic which I won't bother with now from these two verses we're real close to the answer here the Holy Spirit never gets a no from God the Father he is always praying for you and not against you therefore Romans 8:28 or you can turn it the other way around because of Romans 8:28 that's the way he prays so I close with this ground assurance for you not only is the holy spirit in this room praying for the Saints who are perplexed about what they should ask for in their crises God always hears the prayers of God God never says no to God you father I need your help to squeeze and penetrate the heart by your word to accomplish your saving and strengthening and encouraging purposes in this hour so come and help me I pray in Jesus name Amen we're focusing on verse 26 and 27 last week and this week you see what it says we have weaknesses the spirit helps us in our weakness part of our weaknesses that we don't know what to pray from time to time the spirit intercedes for us with groanings that our wordless the father who searches the hearts sees knows the mind of the Spirit and he does what the Spirit asked him to do and brings about everything to work together for our good I asked three questions last week what does he pray when he prays the Holy Spirit for us and how does he pray and why does he pray and I tried to answer the what question last week let me summarize and then move to the other two this morning what does he pray he prays that God would bring about decisions and circumstances that would magnify Christ in our lives when we don't know how to pray and don't know the particulars of how Christ would be glorified in our lives you see that word weakness there in verse 26 I argued that it that word weakness is filled up by everything in verses 18 to 25 it's filled up by the groanings it's filled up by the sufferings by the decay by the futility all those words that are used to describe this fallen world that we live and participate in we're weak and one of the effects of that weakness is that we come to our wit's end and we're at a loss to know how to pray next about what's coming in our lives and we can't see our way forward as to what the particularity is of God's will are that he might want us to pray toward we don't know whether to escape from danger or to stand we don't know whether be healed or to pray for endurance and be thankful for medication we don't know whether to take a risk with our life or to stay in safety but one thing we know we know that whatever happens we want Christ to be magnified in our bodies whether by life or by death that's what it means to be a saint and you see the word sight there in verse 27 that's not some highfalutin special category of Christian saint in the New Testament means Christian holy one set apart for God bought by Jesus to be a saint is simply to have that passion namely I want Christ to be exalted in my life but when you have that desire there many times you don't have a clue how that's going to happen you don't know whether is going to be by your life or by your death by being poor or being rich being healthier being sick being married to being single passing the course of failing the course I said it was really relevant to us because all of us will be sick and all of us will be in danger and the relevance increases as it becomes more dangerous to be a Christian in the world which it does every day we ask you this just to put it right on the immediate front burner what would you do if you were Lowell and Amy Stoltz was living in northern India right now president says come home sixty thousand Americans would you come maybe maybe not a tough call isn't it or let me read you another email that just came this week from another one of our missionaries as part of this church our confiscated books are now being scrutinized for subversive content meanwhile we have submitted notice to the authorities announcing our intention to recommence public meetings when the lawyer served the papers he was told it would have been better received if he had come and cursed them such as our welcome among the authorities please pray for us that we will have much wisdom it is not the best timing to have finally had these papers submitted as we sat and considered whom of our local brothers and sisters might be able to stand with us we are aware that each one has a very valid reason why it is not a good time to be arrested is it ever a convenient time to be arrested maybe not but some circumstances certainly make it even more a problem we need to hear from the Lord how to proceed now that couple will be listening to this tape within a few weeks probably so I want to say this with care and exhortation and encouragement maybe you don't need to hear from the Lord about what to do next maybe this will be a Romans 8:26 moment in your life in which you don't know what to do and you grow knowing one thing for sure I want Christ to be exalted here in this city how arrests are not arrests stay or go liked or disliked persecuted or affirmed I don't know and maybe in your ignorance you need to just relax and let the Holy Spirit pray because he will ask the Father for the particulars of how Christ is to be magnified here and it will be done either with illumination on your part or without illumination on your part you will find yourself led by the sovereign father in response to the merciful pleadings of the Holy Spirit so be encouraged Bethlehem and all those who hear this tape on the mission field be encouraged is it not wonderful at least I find it wonderful that in this text God is not condemning or even criticizing Saints for not knowing the will of God I find that unbelievably liberating and I know that there are many many profess perfectionistic be oriented Saints who would look at you and say now if you don't know the will of God this sin in your life so let's just get the sinning out of your life and you will know what to do next well I agree that happens yes if there's sin that we're cherishing we will probably be blocked from recognizing God's best next step but I'm here to tell you on the basis of this verse you get all the sin out of your life and there will be some times when this verse applies to godly saintly people there's no criticism in this verse this is not an indictment of saints this is a declaration of the mercy of God to care for weak Saints who don't know what to pray and they've done all the self-examination they know to do and they're at their wit's end to know what to do next that's what this verse is about it's about caring for the Saints and that's really encouraging that was question number one here's question number two how does the Holy Spirit pray for us now the sentence that gives the answer is in verse 26 there's also some in verse 27 but the one I want to work on is the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words what's that is that my groanings is that the spirit's groanings and not my groanings is that the spirit's groanings in and through my groaning is that groanings in my heart or is it groanings up in heaven where the spirit is making a case for my future before the father what's this groanings how does he do this how does the Holy Spirit pray I'll ask have you ever experienced this text do you know what it is like or is it to be experienced is it just information about what happens between the father and the spirit and you don't experience it it's a very very urgent question now I'll tell you my answer and then I'll give you four reasons for why I believe it my answer is that when it says the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that our unspoken unspoken groanings wordless groanings it means my groanings inspired by the spirit created by the spirit directed by the spirit informed and shaped by the spirit my groanings and his groanings now why do i think that's what is meant here number one because to start it's very hard for me to imagine though this isn't a very good argument you know my imagination has limits but it's where I start because that's where we live it's very hard for me to imagine why the Holy Spirit would groan to the Father except in and through my groanings because he doesn't need to groan he knows everything he's perfectly in charge he knows exactly what he wants to come to pass there's no aching and groaning in the heart of the Holy Spirit about the will of God to be done next he's not in heaven saying oh god it was a new rule there's nothing like that in the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is absolutely omniscient and so when he makes a case to the Father he knows exactly what he's communicating to the father and what he wants the father to do so what's why would he groan which draws me toward the other interpretation I think he's groaning in my groanings I think it's my groanings they're being talked about here brought about by the Holy Spirit but let me give you three more reasons for this view a second reason would be that it says the one who is searching and hearing is searching in the heart the end of verse 26 the spear himself intercedes for us with wordless groanings and he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit so the theater of the groaning is a heart the place the groaning is happening is in the heart which tends to make me think I experience this I sense this I know this is happening these are mine here's my third reason for thinking in this direction the word groaning in the context verse 22 verse 23 now again in verse 26 is what fallen aching broken frustrated people do and creation look at verse 22 the whole creation groans and suffers pains of childbirth until now verse 23 and not only the creation but we ourselves even we who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit and there that means in spite of the fact that we have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit we groan inwardly so groaning is something you experience when you're inadequate and you're weak and you're falling and you're sinful and you're broken and you're trying to give birth to newness and the Holy Spirit is not broken and he's not falling and he's not aching these are my groanings I believe prompted spurred directed and shaped by the spirit now here's my last reason for thinking this it's really powerful in my mind there is almost a perfect analogy between the groaning of the Spirit in verse 26 and the witness of the spirit in verse 15 and 16 in verse 15 it says you have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back again into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons when we cry notice we cry when we cry Abba Father the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God so I ask you who is crying here when there bubbles up Wells up from deep in my heart a solid authentic conviction father of a father God you are my father who's talking I'm talking and the Holy Spirit is talking I would never out of this fallen wicked self-reliant heart recognized in God a father to meet all my needs and on whom I should trust this is the work and the witness of the Holy Spirit so it is his witness and it's my witness it's my voice that it's his voice crying out Abba Father and when you come down here to verse 26 whose groanings whose groanings the spirits groaning zhis as plainly it's a spirits groanings but he hasn't need to groan he's in me groaning for me with me my groanings are his groanings and his groanings and my groanings he's partnering with me because he sees how I'm hitting the wall and instead of just any old angry frustrated groanings there is a Christ exalting root to these goings that's why I said it last week and I've said it over and over again what makes a person a saint is that when they hit the wall and they're at their wit's end they don't know what to pray they don't know what to do next they don't know nothing they know something namely they know that whatever happens I want Christ to be exalted and that's the essence of our saintly groaning oh god I don't know which way to go to the right or to the left to take this medicine or not to take this medicine to leave that land or not leave that land to take my children or not to take my children I don't know what to do next and come to a wordless and God looks into that heart and he sees two things he sees a sight groaning and he hears the voice of the Spirit in the groaning and what the Spirit is saying is magnify your son and do it this way and it will be done because that's the way son will get the most glory so my answer to the question how does the Spirit pray for us is that he stirs up Christ exalting groanings for God in our hearts and in them in a wordless language that the father discerns asks the father to do particular things that will most magnify Christ which is going to lead right into verse 28 all things work together for good for those who love God because he always gets his prayers answered God never says no to God I don't want to leap over just a word of application why does this matter to you I hope this does not seem like merely speculative information it really matters because you're going to grown our groanings and his groanings are one and you are going to grow you're going to hit the wall you're not going to know what to do next and this text is relevant because he's helping us endure suffering and futility and decay and groaning he's encouraging us now get this he's encouraging us that in this fallen world as Saints participate in the brokenness and the futility and the suffering one component of your weakness will always be ignorant of the will of God now let me say it perhaps even more carefully while we are on this earth being saved one component of our fallenness our weakness our humanists our brokenness our futility our groaning one component of it will be some ignorance of the will of God that is so important for you to know because you know if you don't believe that you're going to beat yourself up pretty badly over and over again when you get to junctures in your life and you don't know whether to go right or left and there are perfectionistic over realized eschatology folks who will say you can't know you got enough faith you'll know and I'm saying often you'll know often he'll answer that prayer and this text says not always and when it happens don't beat yourself up over what is designed for your faith in the Holy Spirit it's a gift to you at that moment at the very moment when you feel most weak most ignorant most frustrated this text is designed to say oh good there's somebody praying for me it really knows what it's all about that's the point of the text is to relieve you of the burden of those moments alright last question quickly why in the world is it set up this way remember I said last week it's so strange good night this is strange God praying to God that God would do the will of God this is very strange why would God ordained that God pray to God to get the will of God done it's just complicated just simplify move the middle component just father do it you know what needs to be done why do you need the spirit to tell you what needs to be done just do it well be careful Piper be careful who you think you are don't ever dictate to God how to save you and keep you and bless you and glorify his son don't ever use your reason to call this book into question as though you could design a better universe than God I believe me I would not trust you with the universe and I know you wouldn't trust me with the universe now here's what we have to do and our time is gone well we're going to do it anyway so hang on I'll do it as fast as I can I'm going to develop in five minutes a theology of Prayer in five sentences because you see this is just a problem of the bigger picture of Prayer I mean why pray at all John Piper suggesting to God how to run the universe give me a break what does he need my advice for I know nothing compared to what he knows I am a sinner he's not a sinner why would he come to me and consult what is the point of prayer that's a big huge massive important question why did God design a universe in which an omnipotent omniscient God would consult with me and say would you ask me to do a thing or two and then do it what a strange thing so here's my theology of prayer in five sentences one God created the universe and everything in it to display the riches of the glory of His grace if you don't buy that you won't buy a thing I say everything I preach is based on that sentence God created the universe and all that is in it to display the riches of the glory of His grace Isaiah 43 six seasons one six 112 114 Romans nine twenty-three are my foundation for that we don't have time to read them sentence number two therefore all persons in the world should act in a way that calls attention to God's glorious grace if that's why I made the world everybody should live so as to make much of the glory of God's grace Matthew 5:16 first Corinthians 10:31 sentence number three the obedience and service of God's people will glorify him most when they consciously and manifestly depend upon his help and His grace to do what they do God will be magnified gracious when we do what we do in dependence on his help that make sense and it's also biblical first Peter 4:11 let he who serve serving the strength that God supplies chosen in everything God may get the glory this is clear as a bell in the Bible that the way God gets glory is through our dependence on him to help us do what we do sentence number four prayer here comes prayer into this big global universal design prayer for God's help is one way that God preserves and manifests the dependence of his people on His grace and power in other words if God gets most glory by our depending on him manifestly depending on him consciously depending on him he knows one way to keep us depending on him put that ever and ever and ever on the front burner is to ordain that we pray to get the help we need help help help help is the way you pray without ceasing all day long help help help help help help to finish the sermon help to deal with the criticism is going to come because I'm over time help I live as a desperate human being and you do too only you may not manifest it so that God gets glory prayer is one of the manifestations that shows we're desperate desperate I'm desperate I'm desperate for you that's number four here's the last one here we are now at our text number five sent us five it's a long sentence got a cold and a lot of semicolons when the spirit inspires and directs the groanings of our hearts that's what we've got now and we're asking why what's going on here when the spirit inspires and directs the groanings of our hearts the ultimate purpose of the universe happens God gets glory because God the Spirit is stirring up the dependencies and the longings and the a kings even the wordless ones God gets glory because God the Father is the one who hears in discern so perfectly what those groanings really mean and acts God gets glory because God the Son bought every benefit that we will be given by the work of the Holy Spirit and fourthly God gets glory consciously because he has chosen that the theater of this divine interplay between the father and the son the theater is my heart so that I can discern it's happening I grow knit and then I'm taught by the Bible here's what that groaning means here's what's going on and you know it and what's the effect praise and thank him trust him lean on him and he gets the glory and that's why we were made so I close with this word when you feel very weak and you will if you don't know because of suffering or decay or sickness or futility or persecution or failed plans or baffling decisions do not despair at that moment God is not because of that angry with you in fact he has designed from all eternity a strategy to help you in that very situation what a gracious and merciful God we have who has planned and it's all here in Romans 8 this is getting better and better it's all designed nothing is going to separate us of God not moments of ignorance not frustrations not failed plans not sickness not futility not groaning nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus that's where we're moving in this chapter you can see all the foundations being put under how he is provided for every kind of challenge you have in your life including this kind and so let's close father encourage your people this week make them strong may all their groanings be the groanings for the exaltation of Jesus and may in their moments of uncertainty and confusion when they don't know how they should pray intercede for them and bring about wonderful things in their lives I pray and all the people said amen you're dismissed
Info
Channel: Descyple91
Views: 356,144
Rating: 4.770988 out of 5
Keywords: John Piper, The Holy Spirit, The Comforter, The Counselor, Bible, Scripture, Biblical Exposition, Prayer, Romans 8:26, The Trinity, Holy Spirit (Deity)
Id: EcjZrdQTX10
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Length: 72min 12sec (4332 seconds)
Published: Tue Oct 23 2012
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