As I've been doing on several
occasions, recently in the pastor's absence, I would read a sermon
by the late pastor, Mr Matrinola. This particular sermon is entitled,
Prayer and the Holy Spirit. It was a sermon preached on the
Lord's Day morning, 15th of March, 1992. And I think it's particularly
suitable for a prayer meeting. The text is Romans chapter 8,
verses 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. These are remarkable
verses in the Word of God. The truth contained in them is
profound, and yet it is of immense practical value. I trust therefore
that as we consider them, we might profit from what the Word
of God is saying to us. This chapter is one of the most
familiar portions of the New Testament, but we should never
forget that it was written in the light of persecution. If
not a persecution which the saints in Rome were presently experiencing,
a persecution which they had known and which they undoubtedly
would experience again in the future, there is much in it which
is designed to be for the encouragement of the Church in view of sufferings. if so be that we suffer with
him. Paul knew, and every true child
of God is soon brought to know also, that there is a suffering
with Christ. Yet if we suffer with him, we
shall also reign with him. for I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. The concluding verses
of this chapter unmistakably present persecution to us. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword, Paul himself goes on to answer the question. Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. The Church of Christ is an afflicted
people. It is a suffering church. If
it is not suffering actual persecution, it will nonetheless be up against
opposition. For the Christian, it's engaged
in a warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil. The
faith which Christ gives us is ever put to the test. It will
be tried. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. As Peter puts it,
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Oh, there is a glorious outcome
of the trial, though now for a season, if need be, ye are
in heaviness through manifold temptations. we may have the
prospect of a glorious future but we are still short of heaven
we are still in the warfare and we are still those who know the
sufferings which come upon us for the testimony of Jesus what do we have to help us in
the present in the many trials which come upon us we may have
personal trials bodily weakness the burden of the advance of
years and infirmities. It may be trials which come to
us as we live in the world, as individuals, as families, or
in our work situations. It may be the difficulties which
we face in church matters. Whatever constitutes the affliction
or the trial, what have we to help us? It's one thing to be told that
we shall suffer with him, but how are we to be upheld in the
affliction? It's one thing to be told that
we shall be glorified with him, but how shall we be upheld in
the present? Is there something upon which
we can rely? Well, there are two things upon
which we can rely, or to be more precise, there are two persons
upon whom we can rely. We have two gracious and glorious
helpers. One of these is Christ himself. Christ is at the right hand of
the Father. If any man sin, and we all do,
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We have a helper. We have one
who stands to represent us. We have one who is there to strengthen
us. All these concepts are embraced in the word advocate, or paraclete,
a comforter. We have one in the presence of
God to comfort us, to assist us, to stand for us, and to minister
to us. That is a wonderful thing! Christ
is praying for us! He who prayed for his own before
Gethsemane and the cross, that they should be kept, that they
should be sanctified, and that they should see his glory, continues
to pray for us. He prays for us, just as he prayed
for Peter, that he might be strengthened. Satan hath desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee. We have this glorious help and
therefore we are kept and we are strengthened. Have you got
that in perspective this day? Are you relying on the help of
Christ at the right hand of God? We have, however, another helper. we have the Holy Spirit. This
other paraclete who brings Christ to our hearts, he forms Christ
in our hearts, he fulfills the sacred office that he takes of
the things of Christ and makes them real and precious to us. He brings Christ to his people
when they are gathered together in the twos and threes in his
name, so that Christ himself is there in the midst. He who
is interceding in the Father's presence continually for us is
yet spiritually with us by the Holy Spirit. Christ is in our
hearts and in the midst of his people. The Spirit of God fulfills
this ministry of bringing Christ to us. But the Spirit of God
himself also ministers to us. By the Spirit of God, we who
were dead by nature, in trespasses and sins, have been quickened
to newness of life. The Holy Spirit has wrought within
us. The Holy Spirit has made us new creatures. The Holy Spirit
has granted to us faith and repentance. The Holy Spirit has brought the
Saviour and all the blessings of the Saviour to us. We are
no longer those who are carnally minded, for to be carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded, to have a mind which
is wrought upon by the Holy Spirit, is life and peace. We are those
therefore who have been helped hitherto by the Spirit. except the Spirit had condescended
to help us, we would still be dead in trespasses and sins. As God has set his love upon
us, and his dear Son has shed his blood to have us, the Holy
Spirit has helped us in bringing us to Christ, convincing us of
sin, converting us to God, and making us partakers of the divine
nature. In the text, Paul is emphasizing
that when we have got to face such suffering in its manifold
forms, the manifold temptations which come against us, we must
never forget that the Holy Spirit helpeth us in our infirmities. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. We have therefore before us this
very wonderful truth that we have the Spirit of God Himself
to help us. We have Christ praying for us
and Christ formed within our hearts by the Spirit. We have
many infirmities. but we have the Holy Spirit helping
us in our infirmities, and we find that he is especially a
helper to us in the matter of prayer. The Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us. This then is our subject matter.
God opened our eyes in the words of the psalmist, that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law. I want to speak firstly of the
Holy Spirit and His intercession and then secondly of the Holy
Spirit and the efficacy of His intercession. Firstly, the Holy Spirit and
His intercession. It is a fact. It is stated, the
Spirit itself maketh intercession for us. Perhaps someone says,
should it not read the spirit himself? Of course that is perfectly
true. The spirit is a person, not an
influence, not a thing. So why, therefore, do the translators
of the authorised version speak of the spirit itself here? And
also in verse 16, it manifests their faithfulness to the grammar
of the Greek. The word spirit in the Greek
is a neuter word, and therefore they say that the personal pronoun
joined to it itself must take its gender from the noun, therefore
it's grammatically the spirit itself. But we know that apart from the
grammar of the matter, in reality the spirit of God is properly
to be understood of as a person. The spirit is not merely an influence,
but the spirit is possessed of personality. It is the faithful
reproduction of the original, which is what we want when we
read the Bible. But it is right for us to say,
the spirit himself, and I shall therefore use that expression,
he is the third person of the Godhead. The spirit himself maketh
intercession for us. The Spirit makes intercession. He is our paraclete. He is our
advocate. He is the one who meets with
us, who is there to strengthen us and to comfort us. It is the
same word, only slightly altered, which we find later in this chapter,
used of Christ himself. the paraclete, who is at God's
right hand, Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. These two mighty praying comforters,
Christ and the Spirit, make intercession for us to the Father, Christ
at the right hand of of God making intercession for us. He is our
advocate with the Father. He is interceding on our account
with the Father. The Spirit of God does the same. He is interceding for us to the
Father. The Father is described as He
that searcheth the hearts. he that searcheth the hearts,
this expression could legitimately be used of all the persons of
the Godhead because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each
possessed of all deity and as such each is a searcher of the
hearts however in the gospel revelation he that searcheth
the hearts standeth for the Father the Lord looketh on the heart
Christ taught his disciples to pray to thy Father which is in
secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. There is therefore an intercession
to the Father. Christ intercedes for us in the
presence of the Father, and the Spirit of God intercedes 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.
But one may object, surely the Father knows all things. Why
therefore do the Son and the Spirit pray to Him? These things
are in the great economy of salvation. as it has pleased the Father
to send the Son, and as it has pleased the Ascended Son to send
forth the Spirit in His name, so are these particular aspects
of the working out of salvation. And the revelation is that it
is the will of the Father that prayer should be made to Him.
We pray to the Father through the merits of the Son and in
the Spirit. Christ and the Spirit in their
intercessory work pray to the Father. But for whom is this
intercession made? It is so plainly stated that
it is made for us. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit himself maketh intercession
for us. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints. We are also reminded in verse
34 that the intercession of Christ is for us. He does not pray for
the world. I pray not for the world, he
said in his high priestly prayer, but for them which thou hast
given me. He prays for his own, his people. It is an amazing thing that Christ
is praying for us and that the Spirit of God likewise is praying
for us, praying for the saints. The Holy Spirit is helping us! However, before we proceed to
the meaning of this intercession, we must also notice the opening
word of our text, likewise. How are we to understand likewise
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities? The Spirit himself maketh intercession
for us. I believe that it provides a
connection to the earlier verses on the Spirit, which we find
in the middle of this chapter, where we find that by the blessed
help of the Spirit of God applying the work of Christ according
to the will of the Father, there is the receiving of life, there
is the spirit of adoption. Ye have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but ye
have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself, or as we have
seen himself, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. The Spirit's work convinces us
of sin, the spirit of bondage, and converts us to God, the spirit
of adoption. He works that within us and brings
us to know that we are the children of God so that we address God
as our Father. And we know something of the
precious doctrine of adoption. Just as the assurance of our
adoption into the family of God is through the Spirit's work,
likewise the Spirit is also there to help us in our infirmities. This seems to be the order and
the signification of these words. It is as the Spirit ministers
to us in assurance, showing us that by the will of the Father
and by reason of Christ's work accomplished for us, we are the
children of God by adoption. Likewise, He is there to help
us in our infirmities, and He is making intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered. The same sort of intercession
which Christ makes in the presence of the Father for us is that
which the Spirit of God is now making within us. Why do we need this intercession? It's because of our infirmities.
It's because of the afflictions and the trials which we suffer.
The word which is rendered infirmities is a comprehensive term for all
our weakness. But note that it is never used
of sinful weakness. The Spirit of God will not help
you in your sinful weakness. The Spirit of God will never
foster vile imaginations or the implementation of evil and sin,
and we should never expect that He would. Infirmities means,
rather, our weaknesses. Those things which are not in
themselves morally evil, but which constitute the infirmities
which we are subject to, the difficulties which we face, the
burdens which we bear, the struggles which envelop us, the pressures
which are upon us, and which often brings us into heaviness
through the manifold character of these temptations. Our infirmities
are the things of which Paul speaks when he says he would
rather glory in my infirmities, the same word, that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. to Corinthians 12 9. There were those in Corinth who were
boasting of the gifts such as the gift of the spirit which
they possessed. The apostle said that he also
could boast he spoke with tongues more than all of them but that
was of no importance to him. Rather, he said, he would glory
in his infirmities because in those infirmities Christ's promise
had been made good. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul had so many
difficulties. You only need to read further
in 2 Corinthians chapters 11 and 12 to see the sort of things
which he faced. Physical difficulties. mental
difficulties, spiritual adversaries, the care of all the churches,
the apostles had infirmities. We all have our infirmities.
Christ in the mystery of the incarnation took upon himself
the infirmities which were ours. In all our affliction he was
afflicted and he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. we all have our infirmities but
just as the spirit within us bears witness with our spirits
that we are the children of God the spirit also is helping our
infirmities it's a hard thing to live as a Christian and it
gets harder as you go on it's not one of those things
which will get easier with more experience it will be a struggle
to live as a Christian even to our dying day And even in that
day, if we are sufficiently conscious and possessed of our faculties,
we will face as many battles as we have known at any previous
stage of our lives. We need to be helped. Thank God
that the Spirit of God within us will never be parted from
us. the Comforter which God has granted,
which Christ has promised, and which is sent by the Father to
us by virtue of Christ's ascending up on high as the glorious victor
over sin and death and hell, the Spirit abides with us forever. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. We shall need in our infirmities
the Spirit's aid all the time. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. What a comfort that is. If I
pronounced the benediction at this point, we would have sufficient
in this thought alone to encourage us. The Spirit is helping our
infirmities. Christ is helping. The Spirit
is helping. Christ is interceding. The Spirit
is interceding. But there is so much more yet
to see. What do we do in our infirmities?
What do we do in our infirmities? What do we do in the trials that
we face? We take them to the Lord in prayer. At least we should. Men ought
always to pray and not to faint. We are exhorted to be careful
for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. We are
to be those who are praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance. Those
who are continually in the attitude of prayer pray without ceasing. Do we know how to pray? The Saviour
taught His disciples when they asked Him, Lord, teach us to
pray. We know a great deal about prayer. We know that God wills it. We
know that God the Father is there to hear our prayer. We know that
we pray through the merits of Christ. We pray by the enabling
of the Spirit. We know something of the subject
matter for which we should pray. We can look at the biblical examples
of prayer and see what godly men and women prayed for, and
we can be brought to pray for the same sort of things. We have
examples of the prayers of faith in the scriptures to stimulate
us. We may know a great deal about
prayer, but when we're up against trials, we often find that the
hardest thing of all is to pray. Is that not the case? You know whom to pray to. You
know that it is through Christ and by the Spirit, you know the
things for which you ought to pray. But when the pressure is
on, when the pain is racking, when the devil is coming, seeking
to assault you, it's so hard to pray. There are many in different
walks of life who can do almost any difficult things which are instilled into them.
But when a crisis comes, they often freeze. They find they
cannot do, without a great deal of concentration, even the simplest
things. It's very much like that in prayer.
When trial comes, Some of you do not even pray at all. It's as though the Lord had never
commanded men always to pray and not to faint. All is confusion. You may try to pray, but your
mind, under all the pressures you're experiencing, is just
a blank. What does this scripture say?
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. We need help to pray, even when
we are spiritually on the mountaintop, when all is well with our soul,
when we're walking in a smooth path. We need the Spirit's help
at all times, whether to read the Bible, to worship God or
to live godly in this present evil world, We specially need
the Spirit's help when we are up against heavy afflictions,
when suffering is upon us, when we seem to feel that we are alone
and that God is at a distance. Asaph used this very expression
when he was going through a time of darkness in his soul. This
is my infirmity. Psalm 77 verse 10, this is my
infirmity. What was his infirmity? He felt
that God was removed from him, was remote from him, that he
had forgotten to be gracious. Will the Lord cast off forever?
And will he be favourable no more? If, however, on the other hand,
there is someone here who says, I don't find it difficult to
pray, thank God that you do not and long may it continue to be
so. But sooner or later, you will find that a day will dawn
in your experience when you will not find it so easy to pray and
that you will not know what to pray for. What a comfort it will be then
to know the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. For example, you may need guidance
in a particular matter. What a problem guidance can be,
especially in big decisions. Perhaps to do with persons, or
work, or the future, or the church. It can seem so hard to pray then,
especially when you've got two possibilities, and when there
are advantages and disadvantages in both courses. What about prayer when we scarcely
know what to pray for in a situation? what a comfort it is to know
that the spirit is helping us in our infirmities and that the
spirit himself is making intercession for us with those groanings which
cannot be uttered the spirit is there the spirit is praying this doesn't mean however that
the spirit is praying independently of us He doesn't do our praying for
us. Christ is praying independently of us. All that Christ has done,
He has done independently of us. He trod the winepress of
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God alone. The Father loved us, independently
of us. He never sought our counsel on
the matter. The Spirit of God works independently
of us in separating us to grace. The will of the flesh never came
into it, whatever men may say. But in the matter of the praying
of the believer and the Spirit of God indwelling us, helping
us, and making intercession for us, it is not independent of
us. The Spirit is praying in such
a fashion that we never know that He is praying, in that we
never hear the words which He is addressing to the Father,
for they are groanings which cannot be uttered. There are petitions being made
alongside our poor petitions which are unuttered or unutterable. but which are the petitions of
the Spirit of God Himself making intercession for us. The Spirit
is praying along with us. And this is the truth. It's not
that we let Him pray for us. He will not do it for us. But
it means that when we pray, and we know not what to pray for
as we ought, then the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. The
Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered, groanings which may not be heard by us, but which
are heard by God. Let us pause for a moment and
think this through. The Spirit of God is interceding
for us from the position which he occupies, which is within
us. For our body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost, which is in you. The Spirit has come to take residence
within us. What a mystery that is! That
Christ should take flesh is the mystery of godliness. but that
the Spirit should take residence in your heart and mine is also
a great mystery. But it's true. It is also a great
mystery that the Spirit of God within us is there when we come
to pray and when we find it such a struggle and we feel to be
so barren and dark and so beclouded that we know not what to pray
for as we ought. Yet the Spirit himself is interceding. We don't hear him, but God hears
him. That brings me to say something of the efficacy of the Holy Spirit's
intercession. God receives it. God receives
it. He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for us according to the will of God. The Father knows what
is the mind of the Spirit. He knows what is in our mind. He knows what we're up against.
He knows our case altogether. But in this matter of prayer,
when we feel to be so dark and shut up at our petitions, seem
to be so indifferent and so poor, yet God is still being petitioned
in such a way as is according to His will in every respect. We don't know what the will of
God is in a matter. And therefore, we have to say,
if it be according to thy will. But the Spirit of God never has
to say that. Part of the problem with our
praying is that we do not know the secret will of God, but the
Spirit knows it. He who is praying with us when
we pray knows all things. He knows what the secret will
of God is and he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. The Spirit of God with a sure
and perfect intercession is praying for those things which are according
to the mind of God. It cannot be otherwise since
he is God. He is praying with us and he
is praying for us in the sense that he is praying with us. Even
when we are in a secret place and you're laboring in prayer
and even to get started in prayer seems to be so difficult and
you are tempted to give up because you don't know what to pray for
and all sorts of ungodly thoughts crowd in. And yet you are determined
you're going to pray for men always to pray and you pray and
you feel your words are almost having to be dragged out of you. I love in a prayer meeting when
a man finds that the words have to be pressed, almost squeezed
out of him. Some have a great facility of
utterance. But I think most of us find that
prayer has got to be forced out of us. But that's a wonderful
thing. For it is surely prayer which
is indicted by the Spirit of God. He is helping us to speak. even when we're unaware of it,
with groanings which cannot be uttered or put into articulate
sounds. He is praying agreeable to the
will of God so that when you are praying the Spirit is praying
as your helper. This is an enormous and profound
doctrine which should enliven and encourage us in prayer. to
know that the spirit of God is there and that we never pray
alone should give us direction in our praying. There's a general
sense in which he is helping us to pray reminding us about
prayer and those things which we learn in the scriptures concerning
prayer but over and above that general sense is an imperceptible
And in an unheard and, I'm afraid, often unreckoned upon way, the
Spirit of God is making intercession for us. And it is a prevailing
intercession with the one that searcheth the hearts, he who
knows what is the mind of the Spirit, who maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. Well, there it is.
What a truth is contained in this short statement. The Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit of God is helping
us. Perhaps it is an extension of the Apostles' teaching in
Ephesians that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think. Ephesians 3 verse 20. we usually
take that to mean that God is able to do more than we ask and
even when we do not ask him God is able to bring the things which
we only think to pass also he is the God of omnipotence the
God who is able but might not these words unto him that is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
have also within their scope the thought that above all our
asking and thinking there is the intercession of the Spirit. There is that which is supplementary
to our praying, and there is that which is bringing before
the omnipotent God all our case according to the will of God,
and therefore there is the effectuating of all that God intends to bring
to pass. May then this be put within our
hearts. Our prayers may often be very weak, but when we grasp
this and when we remember that however weak our prayers are,
they are handed in by Christ into the Father's presence, and
the Father receives them, stumbling as they are. And when we also
remember that with our stumbling words there is the infallible
praying, there is the perfect petitioning, agreeable to the
will of God in every respect, of God the Holy Ghost, we can
take heart. What a thing prayer is! What
a thing prayer is! How important prayer must be
when these two persons of the Godhead give themselves to it. Yet how we remiss We are so often
about prayer. The Saviour is not amiss. He's
not remiss. He was not remiss in the days
of his flesh, he would frequently pray all through the night, and
now in the Father's presence he continually makes intercession
according to the will of God. And the Spirit of God, that blessed
person who comes to make Christ precious to us, and forms Him
in our hearts, and resides there Himself, and abides with us forever,
He prays through us. When did the Spirit of God last
intercede like this in my case? Are we praying? Because if we're
not making any effort to pray, then the Spirit of God is not
doing the praying for us. Or may we then be diligent in
prayer? However hard it may be, it's
a battle. The devil hates prayer. Restraining prayer, we cease
to fight. Prayer makes the Christian's
armour bright, and Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint
upon his knees. Richard Sibbes says, the devil
will fetch up strength against you when you go to pray. He hates
prayer, which is why prayer is so difficult. The devil wants
you to give up praying. the devil would like you to say
that you do not need to pray. He wants you to come to a hyper-Calvinist
position, which says prayer doesn't matter, because God knows what
he's going to do beforehand. So why should we bother praying?
The Apostle Paul concludes his description of the Christian
warfare on the note of prayer. All the pieces of the Christian's
armour have to be put on with prayer. Ephesians 6.18, praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. I cannot understand
why God has put prayer into his purpose, but he has. Hart says in his hymn, prayer
was appointed to convey the blessings God designs to give. long as
they live should Christians pray for only while they pray they
live if you would live then you must pray when you find it so
hard to pray think of the verses of our text when you're not making
much of prayer when your infirmities seem to crush all the life out
of you The Spirit himself is making intercession for you with
those groanings which cannot be uttered and God receives the
Spirit's intercession as he works along with you in this matter
of prayer and as he makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. We dare not stop praying. We dare not stop praying when
we see the importance God gives to it. If the Son prays and the
Spirit of God makes intercession for us, how can we think to live
as those who are spiritually minded, which is to be possessed
of joy and peace, and not pray? I leave these thoughts with you.
God grants us to be encouraged to pray and to be faithful and
diligent in praying. What a provision! All of grace
is given to us. We have two mighty intercessors. one at God's right hand and the
other resident within us, who makes intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered, and it is an efficacious intercession. He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. Amen.