When the love for your unsaved
child becomes so burdensome, you're at a loss, what is your
prayer? When a believer is faced with
a trial like this one that I'm faced with right now in my family, Between my husband and I, what should I pray for? When I see so much affliction
in my life, in my health, in my body, should I be asking God
to remove this affliction from my life or not? Those are the kinds of questions
that believers ask. Those are the kinds of questions
I've asked. And those are questions that
I have been asked. And this is the passage of Scripture
that comes to my mind most often. It's Romans 8, 26 and 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth What is the mind of the Spirit? Because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. We have right here
the very comfort of every believer. This is a very comfort for us
concerning all our feeble petitions, all our feeble prayers to God.
It says here, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. You know, we're
taught some things in the Scriptures concerning prayer. This whole
book is about praying. It's about coming to God and
casting all our care upon Him. And we're taught some things
in the Scriptures about that, about praying to God. The believer
has been taught by the Spirit of God that we pray to God, our
Father. We have one object of our prayer. It is the God of glory. And we
have been taught that we come to God through Christ. We know
we can't approach unto holy God except through a mediator. We
come in Christ. We've got some understanding
of who we pray for. We pray for ourselves, ask the
Lord to keep us. We pray for our fellow brethren.
We even pray for our enemies. And we know it's a great privilege
to approach unto God, to be able to come to His throne of grace,
ask our Redeemer for help in time of need. But brethren, we
know not what we should pray for as we ought. That's what
the Scripture says. We know not what we should pray
for as we ought. The infirmity of our flesh, that
which we are in our flesh, causes us to desire things that were
they granted to us of God, not only would they not glorify God
and our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, they wouldn't be any good for
us. That's so about our infirmities.
We can become so inordinate in our affection and our love for
another that it exceeds the love of God, the love that we have
for our Redeemer. We can become so offended in
our flesh by something that takes place amongst somebody that we
have a relationship with in this earth that we are not really
praying for them, but we really are praying against them. We
can have problems that are so afflicting in our flesh that
we're not really praying for God's grace, we're just praying
for it to be removed from us. The sons of Zebedee, I mean the
mother of Zebedee, look over at Matthew 20. Matthew 20. James and John, for the sons
of Zebedee. In Matthew 20, verse 20, it says
here that, it says here that, Then came
to the Lord the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping
Him, and desiring a certain thing of Him. And He said unto her,
What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that
these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the
other on thy left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said,
You know not what you ask. You don't know what you're asking.
He asked this to her, Are you able to drink of the cup that
I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized
with? And they truly, as feebly as
she came asking this, they thought what he meant was, can you drink
this cup and go through this? Can you be baptized? Can you
go in the water? And their reply was, yeah, we're
able. And that's how we look on the form of things, and we
think, well, yeah, I can do that. Yeah, I can pray. I can go through
that form of prayer. But we don't really know what
we're even doing most of the time when we do that. Not much
less what we're asking when we ask. You know the story of Paul,
I won't have you turn there, but in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul
was given that thorn in the flesh so that he wouldn't be exalted
above measure after all of the revelations that God had given
to him. And Paul prayed that that thorn
in the flesh would be removed to him, because it was an affliction
in his flesh, just like bodily sickness or any of those things
are. But the very reason God gave it to him was for his good.
And if God would have taken it from him, that wouldn't have
been for his good, and it wouldn't have been for God's glory either.
It kept Paul right where he needed to be, so that God received all
the glory, and he depended entirely upon the grace of God. And so
our text says here, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Every child of God has been given
some understanding of just how deceitfully wicked the old heart
of flesh is and just how depraved we are. That's some of the best
news we could possibly get, is the Spirit of God helps our infirmities. Look at verse 26. The Spirit
itself, the Holy Spirit of God itself, maketh intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The certainty and
the truth of us is that the infirmity of our flesh is so great, it
would be so prevailing over us, over the believer, that before
we can even come to the throne of grace and ask Christ our Lord
to give us grace to help in time of need, we have to have the
Holy Spirit teach us what it is to even ask for grace. That's
what He's telling us here. The Holy Spirit stirs up His
people. This is what He does in the hearts
of His people. He comes and stirs us up. And
He puts true prayer in the heart. He puts it in the heart. Our
flesh is taken up with the form of things. That's what the carnal
man's taken up with, the form of things. So flattered by our
own selves. Concerned about what we can see
and what we can look at we don't really even know our need of
God's grace until the Spirit of God comes and Makes it known
in our heart Until he comes we're just dead. We're dead. We're
under the law of sin and death. We're dead We can't bring ourself
to God. We can't look up to God. We can't
the carnal mind is enmity against God not subject to to anything
God says at all, not able to be, can't be. We don't even know
as believers that we have a need to ask God to forgive us our
sins, even as believers. We don't even realize we have
a need to be forgiven our sins. and realize we've come into sin
and we're walking away from God until the Spirit of God stirs
us up to see it. We don't even know that we've
come under a cloud of darkness at all. We could be told this
over and over. We could hear it preached over
and over, but we don't know it until the Spirit of God comes
in our hearts and makes it known unto us that we need The grace
of our Redeemer. We need God to give us more grace. We don't even know we need more
grace until He gives us that grace and stirs us up. That's what we're being told
here. The Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit. God the Holy
Spirit makes intercession for us. He comes in and He does this. And it says here, these are groanings
that cannot be uttered. There's times we can't even utter
a word, can we? There's times a believer can't
utter a word. Look over at Psalm 77. Look at
verse 4. Psalm 77, 4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking. You ever had that happen? Who held your eyes waking? We'd
just go fast asleep in all our sin and all our rebellion if
He didn't open up our eyes. Thou holdest my eyes waking. I'm so troubled. How can I speak? Look at Psalm 38. Back at Psalm
38, verse 8. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desires before Thee,
and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth. That's what we're talking about.
My heart is panting. You ever seen a dog pant? His
tongue just fell out just about touching the ground. He's just
panting. My heart pants. My heart is panting. My strength fails me. The light
of my eyes is gone from me. My lovers, my friends, stand
aloof from my sword. My kinsmen stand afar off." He
says, but Lord, verse 9, my groanings not hid from thee. Hezekiah, when he was brought
to that place, he said, I was like a crane, I was like a swallow
just chattering. Nobody could understand what
he was saying. Nobody could hear what he was saying. Nobody had
a clue what he was saying. He was just chattering. You know where he was brought
to? You know where the psalmist is telling us he was brought
to? Where David is saying he was brought to? He was brought
to say what Hezekiah said, Lord undertake for me. You know, we don't understand
when that happens. when the Lord's really working
in us, to make us pray. We don't understand the depth.
These are groanings that can't be uttered. It's not only that
we can't utter a word or really utter what we're trying to put
into expression, but we don't realize, really, the depth of
what the Spirit of God is working in us. We don't really understand that
the supplications that are created within us by the Spirit of God,
those supplications that are so heavy that we can't even speak.
We don't understand that these groanings are brought about by details,
intricate details of the Spirit of God that are too great for
us ourselves to even realize. We don't really have the appreciation
of what Christ has done for us, nor do we have an appreciation
really of what Christ works in us. But when we're brought to that
place, and we do cry out to Him, when we're brought to the place
where we really, where all we can really say, what do I pray
for? How do I pray? What words do
I say when we're brought to the place where all we can really
groan in our hearts is, Lord, thou knowest. Lord, you know. You know why that's such a wonderful
place to be for the believer? Because he does know. He does
know. Look at the next word. Verse
27, He that searcheth the hearts knoweth. He knoweth. See, that's what we're talking
about is the searching of the heart. We're talking about Him
stirring up the heart He's created. And He knows the heart He's created.
He knows What's the mind of the Spirit? We have the mind of Christ. That's what Paul said. We know
that things are freely given to us of God by the Spirit of
God working in us, so that we have the mind of Christ. We want
Christ to have the glory. That's what we really want. And
the Spirit of God puts that mind in us, and He that searches the
hearts is God Himself, Christ our intercessor. He gave the
Spirit, didn't He? He told His disciples, I'm going
to pour out, when I go to the Father, I'm going to send a comforter
to you. And when He's come, He's not
going to speak of Himself, He's going to speak of me. Whatever
things I've taught you, He's going to bring to your heart. He's going to guide you into
all truth. He's going to convince my people,
wherever they are in the ends of the earth, He's going to convince
them of judgment, of sin, because they don't believe on Me. He's
going to convince them of righteousness, of judgment, of righteousness,
because I go to my Father. I've accomplished the will of
my Father, and I've gone to Him, risen again. And He's going to
convince us of judgment, done, that the work is finished. But
he said, I'm going to do this through sending forth the comforter
of my spirit. And he is God the Son, the one
who is God in human flesh. And he searches the heart. He
knows the heart. And he stirs us up in the heart
by his spirit. And he knows what is the mind
of the spirit. Look over at Matthew 6. I know
that there's some who say, well, I know how to pray. You don't
tell me, I don't know what to pray for. The Lord said, beware.
He said, beware. Beware. of men who not only think
they know everything there is to be about prayer, but are ready
to stand up and prove it to you by praying in front of you. They
said, be careful, be very careful. But this is what, and these are
not the, so what I'm saying is I know that this won't be satisfying
to some, but I know this is what God makes in the heart of His
child. This is what He creates in His
child. I wouldn't tell anybody what
to pray. I would never answer. I can't.
I can't. But the Spirit of God does. The
Spirit of life Spirit of Christ that enters in. He does. He teaches
us. Only He can do this. And this
is the Spirit that what He teaches us. It's not the exact words. It's not what we copy. It's not
even put into words sometimes. But God doesn't need our words.
It doesn't mean we don't pray with words, but He doesn't need
our words. He doesn't need our words. The
desire that he's put there is there because he put it there.
And he already knows what we need before we ask him, because
he's the one that put it there. And this is what he's bringing
us every, all the time. This is it. This is the spirit
concerning God the Father. Verse nine. After this manner,
therefore, pray ye, our Father, our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed your name, Lord. That's
what he brings us to pray. Lord, Father, hallowed your name. Thy kingdom come. What does that
mean? Thy will be done. As it is in
earth, as it is in heaven. Look down at verse 13. For thine
is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. That's
the spirit of what He's bringing us to pray. Look over at John
17. This is the Lord's Prayer, really
the Lord's Prayer. If this is the prayer of our
intercessor, do you think this is the prayer that the intercessor
is going to put in the heart of His child by His Spirit? It
is. Here it is, John 17, 1. These
words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. That's the prayer he puts in
the heart of his child. Father, glorify your son. Glorify Christ Jesus, your own
son, that he may glorify you. As Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him. Lord, our Father, this is what
we pray. Father, we desire for Christ
to be glorified. You've given Him the power. You've
given Him power to give eternal life to as many as You've given
to Him. That's what we pray. Verse 3,
And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. That's what we
pray, to know God and Jesus Christ Look at verse four. Christ said,
I've glorified thee on the earth. And that's what we, that's our
petition. That's, we come to God through Christ saying, Father,
your son has glorified you on this earth. That's how we approach
in his name. Your son's glorified you on this
earth. He says, I finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. That's our petition to God. Lord,
for the sake of Christ who finished the work you gave him to do.
He came because we could not by our own selves accomplish
your law and satisfy your law and obey your commands and honor
and magnify. He came. And by His life, He
did so. And by His death, He justified
us from all sin. Lord, He finished. Father, He
finished the work You gave Him to do. This is praying in the
name of the Son. And now, O Father, Glorify Thou
me. This is what Christ, the Son
of God, prayed. Glorify Thou me. And this is
our prayer. When we pray in His name, we're
praying, Lord, Father, glorify Your Son. Glorify Your Son with
Your own self, with the glory which He had with You before
the world was. Glorify Him. Sanctify these that
you've called with your truth. And then we pray what he said
down here. Look here. He says down in verse 20, Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word. That's what we pray. Lord, we
pray for those that shall believe on You through the Word of this
Gospel, that they all may be one as Thou, Father, art in Christ,
and Christ in Thee, that they all may be one in us, Christ
says. that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. That's what the believer's praying. And by guiding us into all truth,
doing this through the Spirit of God, by God the Holy Spirit
himself, God the Holy Spirit's glorified. So that the prayer,
now listen to this. I mean real prayer. I'm talking
about when he brings this, when he puts this in our hearts. This
is what our text is saying. Prayer that's put in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit. Prayer that we're brought to
pray this very thing right here. It's in harmony with the will
of God. Of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit maketh
intercession, stirs us up, the saints up, according to the will
of God. And Christ himself is making
intercession for us according to the will of God. And this
all is done, and it's the will of God. God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is what we're learning. Prayer, it's not to turn us,
turn God to us. That's not what prayer is. Prayer
is God turning His child to God. It's not the child turning God's
will to us. It's God turning the will of
His child to God. That's what prayer is. True prayer
is. It may be the burden that He
gives us that's our own sin, It may be the burden of a weak
brother in the church. It may be the burden of a trial
in our home. It may be the burden of our unbelieving
child. But everything is to bring the
believer nearer to Christ our Redeemer. to teach us to submit everything
to the will of God our Father. You mean that my unbelieving child that I'm
so burdened down with, the purpose for which God's given me that
burden may not necessarily be as much for that child as it
is for my own self. That's right. That's right. To bring you, who He's given this burden to
Him, to cast it all on Him and trust Him. Have you ever prayed
sometimes when the Lord, He gave you a heart to pray? And you
pray and you ask Him to do something. And it came to pass and it seemed
like exactly, exactly what you asked God to do, He did it. Exactly. Have you ever experienced
that? And you're just amazed at it. And you say, He has heard
me and He answered me exactly according to what I asked Him. Do you know why that happens?
You know why that happens? It's not that we turn God to
do our will. It's that the Spirit of God turned
us to ask God for the very thing which God already purposed He
was going to do. Look, let's read the rest of
the context here in Romans 8, 28. And we know This is where He brings us. He
brings us to know. This is not just a doctrine.
He's going to bring His child to know this experimentally,
effectually in our heart. Through great burdens that He
puts on us, He's going to bring us to know that all things are
working together for the good of them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. Don't bring us to rest
right here that whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. And He's going to bring us to
this grand conclusion. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He the Spirit, not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all. For every child that He's redeemed
and called by His grace and made us to behold this great grace
He's done, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh the intercession for us. The Spirit's stirring
us up and working this in us and bringing us to cry out to
Him. And it's in perfect conformity with Christ at the right hand
of the Father who's making intercession for us there. And it's everything
He's making intercession for, presenting Himself to the Father,
being there in the presence of the Father, our advocate by the
Father, is all the great and glorious will of the Father. You see the harmony in all that?
That's why He's bringing us to cry these things. And so we have
this assurance. Turn over to 1 John 5.14. That's
great comfort to me. This is the great consolation
and support of the believer. You and I do not know what is
best for ourselves. We just don't. We just don't. We don't know the particular
things that we ought to be asking God for in this life. We just
don't. We do not know how to pray as
we ought. We don't know what to pray for
as we ought. But the Holy Spirit is going to bring His saints
to submit all at the hand of God and to ask for God to do
His will to glorify Himself and save all of His elect from our
sins. that Christ Himself may receive
all the glory. That's what our consolation is.
That's where He brings His child. And 1 John 5, verse 14 says,
And this is the confidence that we have in Him. This is that
confidence He gives us. That if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. How do we ask according to His
will? We just saw it, didn't we? The Spirit of God, He causes
us to ask, Lord, glorify Your name. And if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears
us, Whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we desired of Him. Does that comfort
you? Does that bring you to... Does
that answer the question? I can't put that in a person's
heart. If we... We see what happened. Our Lord Jesus Christ showed
us that that spirit of what true prayer is and what I read to
you there in Matthew that everybody calls the Lord's Prayer. And
we see what men will do with that without the Spirit of God. Men will stand up and say that
very thing. And that would be the case with
you and I. If somebody told us, what do
I pray in this situation? And somebody told us exactly,
another man told us exactly what to pray. We'd repeat it verbatim
and think, now God ought to bless me because I said that. That
just is not how God operates. He does this in the heart and
He makes it not a form. He makes it in power and in truth
and in spirit. And that's how He makes us rejoice
and console in our heart and stop praying for things that
are necessarily so selfish and so far asking of me as to bring
us to just say, Lord, do your will. You know, you know, Lord. And we know when we ask, we ask
what we ask every time. Amen.