Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles back to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. The title of my message this
evening is three words. Need, plead, intercede. The first two of those words
are very obvious what they mean, and most of us use them. The
third word, intercede, is something we need to define to make sure
we're all on the same page. The definition of the word intercede
is to attempt to reconcile differences between two people or between
two parties. That means to try to fix things,
to make two people be on the same page about something they
disagree about. Now there are two different types
of intercessions or interceding. The first is to say something. I might have a little bit of
a reputation with some of the mothers of getting kids riled
up. So after church today, if I snuck
up behind one of the little boys and scared him or tickled him
and they screamed, I surprised them. Their mom would immediately
look at them and say, come here right now. Well, I could say,
I'm so sorry, it's my fault, I got him, I startled him, he
wasn't doing anything, it was my fault. That might, that's my
attempt to keep them from getting into trouble. Now, it might work,
it might not. The second type of interceding
is to do something. So the first one is saying something,
the second is doing something. So in that same scenario, the
little boy screamed and the mother reached over to grab him by the
arm and instead I grabbed him and picked him up and held him
like this. And just kind of looked at him and tried to protect him.
Now, that might keep them from getting in trouble. It might
not. At some point they have to leave
and go home. I have to put them down. Now this definition is
an accurate definition, but like so many words in the Scriptures,
we have to be careful with our definitions, with the man-made
definitions, because words in the Scripture don't always apply
with man-made definitions. The word intercession is used
three times in this passage of Scripture. And this word is something
that God, the Father, the Son, or the Spirit is doing. So we
need to change the definition of intercede. The first two words
of that definition are to attempt. We just have to take that out.
God doesn't attempt anything. So the actual definition of intercede
as it's used here is to reconcile differences between two people. In this passage and in this chapter,
it says on the top of my headings, it says, they that are in Christ
free from condemnation and the ground and assurances of the
Christian's hope. The title need, plead, and intercede
is talking about salvation and the experience of a child of
God in salvation. When we're trying to intercede
here, the definition of to reconcile differences between two people,
this is what God does between a child of God and himself. So we need to realize there's
not two things in the world that are further apart that need to
be interceded more so than a sinful man and a holy God. So that's what we're talking
about when we say intercede. Somehow, a sinful man and a holy
God have to be reconciled with each other. Okay, so look here
in this chapter at verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. This is the Holy Spirit we're
talking about, helping with our infirmities. Now the our here,
is what we see in this whole chapter. Up top it says, they
that are in Christ, or a Christian's hope. This is a child of God
we're talking about. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.
I've always thought that that meant He helps us when we're
sick. He helps us through our problems. But I see here infirmity
is actually just our weaknesses, our shortcomings. He helps us
in everything. And then it says, for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought. but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us. Praying is a very difficult thing
to do. Public prayer is very hard. Private
prayer is very hard. It says here the Spirit makes
intercession for us. Not only does our Lord God and
the Holy Spirit pray for us, we see that many times, But it
also shows us here that the Spirit makes intercession for his children. It says, with groanings which
cannot be uttered. What the Holy Spirit does for
his children, okay, for a child of God, is he puts inside the
child of God groanings, a feeling, an understanding of who we are. That is the base for our prayer. We have to know what we need. We have to understand that before
we can pray or before we can plead. If we don't understand
that, our prayers don't really mean anything. So here, hymn-making
intercession, it shows us what we need. It gives us a boldness,
an understanding that we must approach our Lord. It gives us
faith in His blood and righteousness. It gives us a reason to pray.
We see who He is and realize that He's the one who can help
us. All right, look at verse 27. 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. This is telling
us who the Spirit maketh intercession for. It's for the saints according
to God. Now read with me here, and this
goes into further detail of who and what He's done in interceding
for us in verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose, for 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. What shall we then say to these
things, if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? The intercession
of the Lord is for those that He predestinated, those He conformed,
those He called, those He justified, those He glorified. Now the process
that I'm saying tonight, need, plead, and intercede, that's
the experience we have. And I'll go through that here
in a second. The way it actually works is that God, before time
began, interceded for His children. And He's currently interceding
and He will intercede for them. Go on down to verse 34, Who is He that codemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. He maketh intercession because He died, because He was risen
again, and He is now at the right hand of God. One of the writers
wrote, His intercession is done by the appearance of His person
for us. by the Lord Jesus Christ's presentation
of His sacrifice, by the offering up of prayers and praises for
His people, by Him declaring it as His will, our prayers and
praises as His will, that such blessings be bestowed upon us,
and by seeing to it that the benefits of the death of Christ
are applied to those for whom they were designed. His intercession
always continues. It is ever present, it has a
full influence, and it will secure his children from condemnation.
All right, turn with me to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. In preparation for this message,
I had a conversation with my six-year-old daughter last night.
And I asked her a question or two and I was trying to see how
good of a job I was going to do explaining the word need and
the word plead and intercede and see what she understood.
And she's very smart and I thought if she can understand this conversation
it's going to go really well. So she understood what the word
need meant. And I decided I'm going to explain what the word
plead meant to her. So we're sitting at the dining
room table and I said, Finley, what would you do if you walked
out the door and you got locked out? You're locked out of the
house. What would you do? And looked at her. And without batting
an eye, she looked right at me and she goes, well, I could get
a drill and drill back into it. And I thought, okay. And then
I said, well, you know, I thought I was just going to lead her
right into this, calling for daddy, get some help. And so then she
said, and I was like, well, and she goes, well, I could get a
rock and break a window. And this went on for a few more things.
And I'm sitting there like, well, I sure didn't do a very good
job of this. And I thought to myself, I've got to go back to
the drawing board. I thought if my own daughter, who knows
I love her, and knows if she ever got in trouble and she hollered
my name, Lord, we'll not do anything in the world for her. I'd come
right and get her. But that's not what she thought. I was very
frustrated by this until this morning, and we heard two messages.
We heard someone say, where it reads in the scripture that men
will say, Lord, Lord, and He'll say, I never knew you. And then
we heard whom we preach. and how works don't have anything
to do with salvation. And it hit me sitting there that
what she answered me is a perfect example of what the people of
this world answer when it comes to salvation. There's an obvious
answer when we're in trouble. There's an obvious way for salvation. This book tells us very plainly
and clearly. The problem is that when I asked
her those questions, I didn't put her in a position that she
thought she needed help. And sinners today think they're
not in a position where they need help. They think when we
say salvation, either they're not in the list of sinners, they
don't need anybody to help them, or they think that they're a
sinner but not really that bad of a sinner, and what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna give a lot of money and that's gonna be fine,
or I'm gonna go help a lot of people and that'll make up for
it, or I'm gonna stop doing this or that and everything's gonna
work itself out. What the Spirit does when it intercedes for us
in Romans 8, the Spirit opens our mind that we have a need. And until we have that need,
we don't ever ask for help. We think too highly of ourselves
to plead to someone else except when we really think we're in
trouble. So, I'm gonna go through a couple examples here of individuals
that the Lord, in a few verses, they found out their need, They
came to him, they pleaded, and he interceded. All right, the
first one is Mark 10, look at verse 46. And remember that the issues
that each of these people have, they're earthly issues for the
most part, but they're examples of things that we need. And all
of these people, when we talk about the Lord interceding for
them, it's not just on their issue. The Lord has interceded
for these people before time began. So look at the first one,
verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples and a great number of people, Blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out
and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Blind Bartimaeus
knew he was blind. The Lord put him in a position
he knew what he needed. He's blind. That's what we are. We're all blind. And until the
Lord shows us, we don't realize we're blind. Blind Bartimaeus
had the benefit, and I mean that literally, the benefit of already
realizing he was blind. So many people go through this
life thinking they see things perfectly when they're actually
blind. So he knew he was blind, and what did he do? He was begging. He needed help. He couldn't do
anything himself. And he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth.
There was a lot of commotion, and he heard that's who it was.
So he began to cry out. He started screaming, Jesus,
our son of David, have mercy on me. And look at verse 48.
And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he
cried the more, a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy
on me. When it comes to pleading to the Lord Jesus Christ, don't
ever let anyone tell you to keep your mouth shut. Blind Bartimaeus
knew he needed help. What if those people said, be
quiet, and he said, okay, I don't want to disturb anybody. No,
his need was so great, and the person that he was pleading to
was so great, he had to get the answer. So hear what it says
in verse 49, And Jesus stood still, the Lord heard him, listened
to him, and he commanded him to be called. And they called
the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he
calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. I love the thought of this man
casting off everything he has and coming to Jesus. I used to
think someone led him there, but I don't think they did. I
think he stood up and the Lord just drew him right to where
he was. He couldn't see anything yet. He just knew where the Lord
was because the Lord showed him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. This is the
first example of what we should plead to our Lord. Lord, that
I might receive my sight. We ask for spiritual sight. We
feel like we see fine, but we need to see the things of the
scripture. We can't understand things, we don't get it. We need
the spirit of the Lord to open our eyes. And verse 52, and Jesus
said unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And
immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. As we'll see throughout all of
these examples, the Lord always answers his children's prayer.
That song we just sang, God leadeth me, God be with me, it says whatever
you ask, he'll provide. Alright, next one. Look at Mark
chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, look at verse
24. And from thence he rose, the
Lord, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered
into a house, and would of no man know it, but he could not
be hid. This does not mean that the Lord
didn't want anyone to know where He was and He just couldn't hide
from everybody. What this means was the Lord
didn't tell anyone where He was, but He still drew His children
to Him. Look who it is. For a certain woman whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit heard of Him and came and fell
at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician
by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the
devil out of her daughter." So this woman comes on behalf of
her daughter. Here's another important part
of pleading to the Lord. Blind Bartimaeus was pleading
on his own behalf. This woman had some knowledge
of who the Lord was. searched him out. She found where
he was. He was not advertising where
he was. He went into someone's house and she was searching for
him. But she wasn't there on her own behalf. We should take this woman's lead.
We should plead to the Lord for our daughter, for our children,
for our loved ones, for everyone. See what the Lord says to her
in verse 27, Let the children first be filled,
for it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast
it unto the dogs. The people told blind Bartimaeus
to be quiet, stop it. The Lord tells this woman, let
the children be filled, it's not meat to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. He called her a dog. She answered
and said unto him, yes, Lord, She agreed. She's okay being
a dog. She's not there for herself.
She doesn't care what she's called. She's there for her daughter.
And then she says, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's
crumbs. This woman could have taken this
as a rebuke from the Lord. He just said who she was, but
he could have taken this as he was saying no to her. We need
to realize when we ask things of the Lord, when we plead to
him, we might not get the answer we want or the signs we want. It's very important we don't
interpret the events of this world as our Lord's answer, yes,
no, or lack thereof. If this woman would have taken
him literally and thought, he's calling me a dog, he's not gonna
help me, then she would not have gotten the answer. He said unto
her, and verse 29, for this saying, go thy way, the devil is gone
out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her
house, she found the devil gone out and her daughter laid upon
the bed. This woman's daughter, as far
as I know, was not pleading to be saved. She was not pleading
to be healed. This is a wonderful sign for
us. This is wonderful news that this woman approached the Lord
on behalf of her daughter and the Lord saved her daughter. It's great news that we can see
in the scripture about the Lord telling us that if we ask for
things, He'll grant them. But it's even better to realize
that the Lord will answer our prayers for others. Now, our
prayers are not what saved someone. This woman's prayer was not what
saved her daughter. The Lord saved her daughter.
The Lord is the one who did all this. But it should make us to
realize we should plead on behalf of so many others. All right,
go to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5 and verse 25. And a certain woman which had
an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many
physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing
bettered but rather grew worse. Can we please take this example
and not exhaust the things of this world to solve our problems?
It doesn't matter how things are going at home, it doesn't
matter how things are going at work, it doesn't matter how big
our bank accounts are, how healthy our family is, none of that matters.
If we chase the things of this world, or chase the things of
this world to help us with spiritual things, we will always come up
empty. Or as it says about her, but
she rather grew worse. Verse 27, when she had heard
of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. I use the word plead and I never
thought until I read this story that you could plead without
actually saying anything. We see the first one is blind
Bartimaeus who goes out screaming. That's how he's pleading. Then
we see the Syrophoenician woman who comes up quietly and just
asks the Lord for help. Now we have a woman who sneaks
up, unassuming, doesn't want to be seen, doesn't want to be
heard, just trying to get a blessing. This world thinks that the Lord
interceding and the way we plead to get it is an outward thing.
Pleading has nothing to do with a walk of any kind, whether it's
up front, whether it's in front of people, whether it's to the
pool of water. Whatever it is, that has no bearing
on pleading. It doesn't matter when you do
it, how you do it, how loud you do it, how often you do it. Pleading
is a conversation between a sinner who needs something and a holy
God who can provide it. If our plead is with those two
things, a heart in need to a Savior who can intercede, that is where
the answer comes from the Lord. So keep going here with the woman.
For she said in verse 28, If I may but touch but his clothes,
I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she
was healed of the plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned about in the
press and said, who touched my clothes? The Lord knew exactly
what was going on here, but he still was calling out this woman
in this experience. The Lord always does this. This woman was already made whole. But the Lord was going to make
her face and admit her sin. This is what the Lord did to
Adam in the garden after he ate of the fruit. He said, Adam,
where art thou? He knew where Adam was. He knew
he was hiding, but he made him come forth and admit what he
did. Then he said to Cain, Cain, where is thy brother? He knew
what he'd done with his brother, but he made him say it. The Lord
is making this woman confront, admit to her sin. In verse 31,
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging
thee, and sayest thou, Who touch me? I love it that no one in
this crowd, the throngs, hundreds if not thousands of people around,
no one with him, the one next to him, the one behind him or
the one in the back, no one else there except the woman and the
Lord knew what was going on. Her pleading to him was between
the two of them, nothing else mattered. And he looked round
about to see her that had done this thing. He looked at her. He knew who had touched him.
He didn't make her come forth without it. He looked straight
at her. And in verse 33, but the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. The Lord, in making this woman
come and do this, this is not to embarrass her. This is not
to make a point of her. And I used to think this woman
came up and she explained her situation. Well, I've been sick
and I went to the doctors and all this. That's not what happened.
When it says she told him all the truth, what she said to him
was some form of, I needed help. You're the only one I had left.
I just, I didn't feel like I could come to you, so I just wanted
to touch you. That's all I had. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm whole.
I had a blood problem. It's good. I'm done. That's all
I need. Thank you so much." And that's
all it was. She was just pleading to him,
please don't take this away from me. She'd already been made whole.
He had already interceded for her. And he said unto her in
verse 34, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace
and be whole of thy plague. All right, let's look at one
more. Turn to Luke 23. Luke 23. Romans 8, don't turn there, we
read how it says, He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Luke 23, look at verse
39. The Lord at this very moment
is in the middle of that part of His interceding for us. The
Lord has been made sin and is dying on the cross to bear our
sins." And this is the conversation he has. And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. One of these men that was beside
him and about to die as well had no knowledge of who he truly
was. that He was the Lord. And He says, ìIf youíre Him,
save yourself and us.î And what Heís really saying in this is,
ìI donít really know if you can, but just save me.î Thatís all
Heís worried about here. ìAnd the other malfactor answered,
rebuking Him, saying, ìDoes not thou fear God, seeing thou art
in the same condemnation?î And we indeed justly, we belong here,
for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath
done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. What we know about this malfactor,
this thief, is very little. What we read in these four verses
is all we see of him. We see in verse 43 that the answer
to his pleading, Lord remember me when thou comest into the
kingdom is, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with
me in paradise. This man has just given us a
couple things. We don't know if he knew something
before. We don't know if he just learned
something. But there are only a couple little facts that we
know about him. The first is he knows who he is. We're here for our due reward
of our deeds. We deserve to be here. He knows
who the Lord is. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. And he calls him Lord. So he
knows who he is. He's a sinner. He knows the Lord
didn't do anything. And then he says, remember me
when thou comest into the kingdom. He knew who he was, he knew who
the Lord was, and he asked the Lord, he pleaded to him, and
that's all he did. The Lord says, verily I say unto
thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Thankfully, that's all we have
to know. is all we have to know is the
Spirit has to reveal to a child of God that we can't save ourselves. And then He has to reveal to
us there's one who can save us. And then He has to make us plead
to the Lord Jesus Christ, please save me. Now, none of those three
things are things that we can do on our own. That's why we
have to have the interceding part. In Romans 8, 26 and 27,
it says that the Spirit intercedeth for us. The Spirit has to show
us who we are. It's not a coincidence that so
many people don't know who they are. And it's not a coincidence
that there are some that do know who they are. The Spirit quickens
all of those that the Lord predestinated, He chose, He sanctified, He justified.
Those are the people that the Spirit quickens. And without
that, they don't know anything. So with this, we can say, if
the Spirit would please make us to know that we have a need,
if the Spirit would make us to please plead to the Lord Jesus
Christ, thankfully, we know that those two things are the ending. The Lord has already interceded
for all of the people who will ask those things. The Lord interceded
in the beginning, choosing a people. He interceded right here on the
cross, dying for his children, for every single one of them.
In this very moment, the Lord was remembering this one sinner. When we think of remember, we
try to remember what we can. I forget things that I thought
about five minutes before I woke up here that I wanted to say.
The Lord on the cross remembered this man. He remembered you and
he remembered me. On the cross, the Lord, at the
exact same time, remembered every single one of his children. because
He was bearing every single one of their sins. Thankfully, He
interceded when He chose us, He interceded on the cross, and
He is still interceding for us now. So we can request of the
Lord, please give us a need, make us plead, and thank you
for interceding. All right.