God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all involved in our prayer life. And so when we speak of providence, understand it's a little bit different from sovereignty. The sovereignty of God emphasizes and underscores God's right to rule over us in every aspect of his creation. But God's providence Is focused on the believer largely, and the emphasis is on God's care, God's love, God's concern, and watching over every aspect of our life. Welcome to your side.
Search the scriptures. The Bible Teaching Ministry of Dr. Carl Broge. Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church, In Beaufort, South Carolina. Today's sermon is entitled, The Providence of the Triune God from the book of Romans chapter 8.
Verses 26 through 26. Thank you. this passage today. teaches us that the Holy Spirit is with us in our weakness. He is personal with all the attributes of a person.
and intercedes for us when we do not know how to pray. Expressing groanings beyond words. This demonstrates God's care and love. As the Spirit prays on our behalf, according to his will. Let's join Pastor Carl now.
as he begins. Take God's word with you this morning. Turn to the book of Romans, chapter 8. If you're here for the first time, it's our custom typically to go through entire books of the Bible, but every once in a while I pray. Push the pause button.
And we're doing a series from Romans 5-8 on our new identity in Christ.
Now our world would encourage us to look within to find out who we are. But those things within are purely external.
Some people find a sense of Security and self-worth in the job they have, the company they own, the people they manage. Those things are external. Maybe the things that come with that, success, fame, wealth. Those are all external things. And if that's where you put your confidence, you'll sooner or later be disappointed.
But God never changes. We studied in Malachi, the last book we went through, that God said, I, the Lord God, do not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so discovering your identity in Christ is more than simply saying, well, I'm a Christian, or I've been saved, or I'm born again. It's understanding who God is.
what he has accomplished for us. What he now says about you as a new creature in Christ Jesus. And so these chapters are instrumental in growing us in Christ.
Now, Romans 8. The focus is on the Spirit of God. Incredible ministry that he can have in our lives. He has scarcely been mentioned up until this point. In chapter 5, it said, the love of the Holy Spirit has been poured out in our hearts.
And then in 7, 6, it tells us that we're not to live in oldness of letter, but in the newness of the Spirit. But here in chapter 8, he's everywhere. 19 times in the scan of 27 verses, he's mentioned.
Now if you remember in the seventh chapter Paul confesses the struggles that he had. And every Christian has struggles. And in one sense, we saw that these struggles are never entirely eradicated.
However, the overall tenor of those struggles should change if we understand the truths of Romans chapter 8. Paul will say in Romans 7, What I am doing I do not understand. I am practicing what I do not want to do, the very thing I hate. The good that I wish I cannot do, I do the very thing I don't want to do. But he doesn't leave us there with that struggle.
We come into the eighth chapter, and he begins to teach us about God the Holy Spirit and the role that He wants to have in our life.
Now, why is it that some Christians, when they face struggle and hardship and turmoil in this life, On the back side, they come out much stronger. And then you have other believers who go through the same struggles. They come out mad, upset, bitter, resentful sometimes, even Christian people.
Well, it's a matter of perspective. And so God is trying to give us perspective. Paul will write to the church in Corinth, no temptation. Or you could translate it, no trial. The word temptation and trial is the identical Greek word.
And so when James speaks about the trials that we'll encounter, a few verses later, he speaks of the fact that God doesn't tempt. Same word. anyone. And so temptation and trials are identical. And so in some of your English Bibles the identical word is used and so it doesn't say no temptation is overtaking you, but no trial is overtaking you.
And technically both would be correct.
So, whatever trial or temptation that you're going through, it's not unique to you. It's common to all men. And God is faithful. He'll never allow you to be tempted beyond that which you are able. But with the temptation, God will provide a way of escape if we'll look for that.
so that we can endure it. And so why are some successful and others failures? It's not simply a matter of being saved. It's a matter of perspective. And so in the 12th chapter, the apostle will admonish us: don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed.
How, through the renewing of your mind, that you might prove, test, know, experience that God's will is something that's good and acceptable and perfect.
Now, if you were here last time, we examined verses 18 through 25, in which suffering and groaning are hallmarks of the Christian experience. But now, in verses 26 through 30, he's going to offer us some encouragement. He's going to give us some vertical perspective. And the hard things of life. I want to begin reading where we left off, Romans 8, verse 28.
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. Our weakness, For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes with groanings too deep. for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is. Because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Now let's read while we're here verses 29 and 30. And I think there'll be at least two more sermons just on these verses. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. to become conformed to the image of his Son, So that he would be the firstborn among many brethren, or he might have first place in all things, some of your Bibles say. And these whom he predestined.
He also called, and these whom he called he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified.
Now let me remind you of the context. Obviously, there's a stark contrast between the seventh chapter where the Apostle Paul is preoccupied with the law and the eighth chapter where he's preoccupied with the Spirit of God. And so here in this eighth chapter, he's focusing. On the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we looked at first how He came to live in you.
So that you could carry out God's plan and will for your life.
So when Jesus came, He came not simply to forgive your sin, though He did, if you've trusted Him for that. But also that you can be different. And so, if you notice in verse 4, it informs us that. God sent His Son to forgive us, but also so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Then second, we saw how the Holy Spirit comes to subdue our fallen adamic nature. We carry this fallen nature until we are glorified. And so Paul will say in verse 12: So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh. to live according to the flesh.
So we're under a new obligation not to follow after the old fallen sinful nature, the flesh, but we're under obligation, as he'll go on to explain, to live according to the Spirit. Then in verses 14 through 17, we saw the ministry of the Holy Spirit in reference to our adoption as sons, that he leads us into freedom. And so the Bible tells us here in verse 16, the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. And then, if you were here last time in verses 18 through 25, we saw the Spirit's relationship and relationship to our future glory, and that he assures us, he guarantees us. that it's only going to get better.
And so in verse 23. That like the creation, he says, we ourselves, meaning we who are believers, we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly. for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
So on the one hand, we've been adopted, but the adoption and its completion is still in the future. And so he reminds us of this sure and certain hope that we have. And it's proven by the Spirit who is Pictured as a first fruit. And so we studied the feast of first fruits, and first fruits is a picture of a greater harvest to come.
Well, the Spirit, in that sense, is like first fruits, and that He's our pledge, He's our earner, He's our down payment, He's our guarantee that what God started, He is going to complete. And so right now we just have a small taste. Of our future inheritance. In the strictest sense, we're partially saved.
Now that may sound contradictory, but Paul has already taught us that in Romans 5. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. That typically is referred to as justification. We are being saved from the power of sin as we grow up in Christ. That's called typically sanctification, though there are three tenses to sanctification, if we want to be technical.
But then in the future, we'll be saved from the very presence of sin. It's called glorification. When God will make our bodies in likeness to Christ.
Now, if one has happened, the other will happen. And He's going to unfold. that for us in the verses that will follow. And so the Holy Spirit's indwelling in us assures us that only better things are yet to come, which is why he says here in verse 18: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And if you've ever been suffering, You have maybe a coping mechanism within, and things can get better if you're in freezing cold.
You think, well, down the road, there's a warm place where I can be. Or if you're in intense suffering, You hope, well, hopefully this pain will begin to dissipate. And so the Spirit of God is our guarantee that even if you're in extreme persecution. which he's going to highlight here before the chapter is finished. There's something better out front.
And without that perspective, We might not go through our suffering in the manner in which God wants us. And then, fifth, this morning, we're going to look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit as he relates to prayer. And so, beyond the Holy Spirit, however, each member of the Godhead is involved in prayer. And so, the Holy Spirit is not only going to highlight his ministry, he's going to highlight the ministry of God the Father and God the Son in this whole process of prayer. And so, you can see that the title of the sermon this morning is The Providence of the Trinity in Prayer.
The providence of the triune God in prayer. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all involved in our prayer life. And so when we speak of providence, understand it's a little bit different from sovereignty. The sovereignty of God emphasizes and underscores God's right to rule over us in every aspect of his creation. But God's providence Is focused on the believer largely, and the emphasis is on God's care, God's love, God's concern, and watching over every aspect of our life.
And so, the Spirit is going to underscore the providence of each member of the Godhead.
So, first, the providence of the Spirit in prayer. Notice verse 6:26 begins in the same way. And of course, as you're a careful reader of Scripture, you're immediately asking in the same way as what? And that causes you to look back at verses 24 and 25 about this future hope, this future guarantee that is out in front of us.
So, in the same way that our hope sustains us, even so, The Holy Spirit helps us when we pray. He comes to our aid. Look at the whole verse. In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. And specifically, he helps our weakness in prayer.
He helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should.
Now it's important that we understand the nature of the Spirit's help. This is a very long Greek word that is translated help, but it's used outside of the New Testament of two men carrying a log. One is on one end. And the other is on the other end. And in the realm of prayer, the Spirit's help doesn't mean that He does all the praying for us.
But he helps us in the midst of our prayers that are being offered to God. And so our infirmities, our weaknesses, When we don't know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit of God comes alongside. And so, as Christians, we go to God's throne to find grace and help in time of need. It might be for wisdom, it might be for power, or for courage, or boldness, or consistency, or healing, or forgiveness or some need that we have. And as we do so, when we understand the will of God, the Spirit of God in the midst of that prayer is going to come alongside the Parakletos, the one called alongside, as our helper to sustain us in the midst of that prayer and to help us when we don't know how to pray.
Sometimes we don't know how to pray. We're just not certain what we should be asking God for.
Now, this word helps is an interesting word. It's used in one other place in the New Testament, in Luke 10 and verse 40. And in the occasion, if you remember, is Jesus is in the home of Mary and Martha. And on that particular day, and Jesus would often go to their home. It's on the back side of the Mount of Olives, a little town called Bethany.
They would feed him and take good care of him. He was a real human. He needed to be fed and sustained and so forth on that level. And on this occasion, Mary is working hard. Many of you are familiar with the passage, and Mary is sitting at the Lord's feet.
And she says, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her. to help. Same Greek word, tell her to help me. Tell her to take her end of the log, so to speak, to use that word picture.
And so the new American Standard, the ESV, the New King James renders this helper, because the Spirit is one who is called alongside to help. But keep reading. Notice the next word, but. It's the strongest adversative. in the New Testament bot The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Now, if you were with us earlier in this series, we documented how the New Testament and the Old Testament. Teach that the Spirit is God and He is a person. He's not something. And this is a challenge because, in one English translation in the 17th century King James, it doesn't say the Spirit himself. But the Spirit itself And sadly, that translation, though correct, and we'll see why in a moment.
has propagated an error. And so people have used that to say, well, the Spirit is not really a person. And so we documented, as this chart reminds us, we saw that the Spirit of God has intellect, he has emotion, and he has will. When we come to verse 27, he will speak of the mind of the Spirit. He has intelligence.
He is referred to as the teacher. He is the one who moves men along as they're spoke by God to give us the inspired word of God. He has intellect, as every person does. He has emotions. And so Paul in Ephesians 4:30 will speak of grieving the Spirit.
You can't grieve things. He can only grieve people. He has emotions. But he also has will. And so he will, on the day of your spiritual birthday, give you a spiritual gift.
And if you don't know what that gift is, maybe go to searchthescriptures.org and take the spiritual gifts inventory that I've written. It might be helpful to you. But you have a particular ability that God gave you on your spiritual birthday. in which to serve the body of Christ. And so he's not some force, he's not some influence, he's not some thing.
Never call him in it. He's a person. with all of the attributes of personhood. But unfortunately, the King James Translation has fueled the Jehovah's Witness error to deny the Trinitarian God. I have a son who lives in Greenville, and I've told you before sometimes I'm waiting on the women as they go shopping, and I'll just, you know.
Travel around from one Jehovah's Witness station to another. I've never seen so many JWs in one city as in that particular place. I mean, they're just like on all street corners with their little, you know, display and everything else. A lady came to our conference here recently with Mike Gendren, and she said, I want to learn to witness the Jehovah's Witness. I said, go to Greenville.
And I said, you will soon learn. And they will pull out this verse of scripture from the King James Bible. They'll say, you see, the King James has the Spirit itself. And so they'll say he's just a part of God, just like part of Carl Broge, part of the immaterial portion of me, is the spirit of Carl Broge.
Now, I'm not saying that the translators of the King James Bible were ignoramesses. They just assumed The masses had some grammatical acuity that, for the most part, we've lost in our day. Without getting too detailed into Koine Greek, I don't want to bore anyone. But understand that in Greek every noun has a gender. It's either masculine, feminine, or neuter.
And so if you have a masculine noun, you will modify that masculine noun with a masculine pronoun. Which is beautiful because it Definitively tells you what is being said and to whom it is being said. And sometimes in English we do the same thing. If you have a boat, you will typically refer to that boat as a she. Maybe if you have a car, you'll typically refer to that car as a he, but we know they are genderless objects.
They have neither femininity or masculinity. It would be better to say it. Think about the word for child in Greek. There's two words for a child.
So you know, are we talking about a little baby or an older child and so forth?
Well, in Greek, the word for child is neuter. But we don't call little children it's. because we understand they are persons. We have some German members who come to the first service every week. And in German, the Greek word for girl is neuter.
But again, they refer to girls as she.
So the translators of the King James Bible were not stupid. They just believed that the people understood more language. And wanting to be super precise, they said itself, though the new King James says himself. And in fact, there's not a single English translation that goes with itself anymore. But just to underscore That the Spirit of God is not in it.
Apart from that chart, Jesus tells us something where He breaks the rules of grammar. Listen to these words in John 15:26. When the helper comes, he's talking about the Holy Spirit. Whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. He, and he uses a masculine pronoun to modify a neuter word.
The word pneuma, whether it's the Spirit of man or the Spirit of God, is a neuter word. And yet Jesus says, He will testify about me.
Now the doctrine of the Trinity, if you have taken our discovery class, we demonstrate from the Old Testament that the doctrine of the Trinity is not simply a New Testament doctrine. It's affirmed in the Old Testament. And so when I witness to Jewish people, I need to be able to show them from the Tanakh, from their Bible. That we don't worship three gods, that we worship one God who manifests himself in three co-equal, co-eternal persons. And yet, on the one hand, revelation is given progressively.
So, in the opening chapters of the Bible, God gives a promise of a Savior. But we don't know that that Savior's name will be Yeshua or Jesus. God reveals that through the centuries, and He reveals the specificities of prophecy that relates to the Messiah and how He'll die and so on and so forth. And so again, we do the same in English. We say, John has a book.
He loves the book. Who's the he? John, obviously. And so Greek does the exact same thing. And Jesus, actually, all the way through John 14, 15, and 16, repeatedly describes the Spirit of God with this pronoun.
Because while in kernel form, and in many ways, The doctrine of the Trinity is found in the Old Testament. Jesus is progressively unfolding it so no one can miss the fact that the Spirit of God is a person, that He's a member of the Godhead.
Now, you've got to be careful with the word progressive revelation because liberal theologians use it today to say that God is still speaking. And so, what meant in Paul's day about, say, the homosexual lifestyle, God has now progressively revealed some new truth to us.
So when I use the term progressive revelation, I'm using it in its historical context. that God progressively is giving more and more information. And now, of course, that information is complete and the canon is closed. And so today, any person who describes the Spirit of God with the word it, you shouldn't do that. And you don't relate to him as a thing or as a force, you relate to him as a person.
So, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weaknesses, verse 26, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself, that's the thrust, intercedes for us with groanings too deep for us. Words. Here again is this word groaning. If you remember, we've seen it already twice in the context. In verse 22, he says, For we know that the whole creation groans.
Last time we read that that's an expression of God's grace, that when Adam rebelled, creation fell with Adam. God didn't leave us in a Garden of Eden kind of environment. We've seen that in the last few days, haven't we? With this storm, and it's taken, I guess, over 55 people already, and a lot of people's homes and things are totally gone and devastated. God just puts us on notice.
And as we move towards the end of the age, we can't expect things to get better. God tells us the creation is going to groan and shout even louder. As we approach the second coming of Christ. But there's coming a day when God will create a new heavens and a new earth. And so all of creation, He personifies it, is groaning, looking for that magnificent new creation that God has.
But not only does the creation groan, we saw believers groan. Look again at verse 23. For not only this, but Also, we ourselves. having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves. grown within ourselves.
He's talking about born-again believers. We groan, we suffer, and if you're not prepared for that, then the Satan can come along and lie to you and pull the rug out from underneath you and try to convince you that God doesn't care. But on the other hand, we do groan because life is difficult at times. And evil is growing. And sometimes within you just say, Lord Jesus, I want you to come.
Even so come with John. Even so come, Lord Jesus. We groan within. But in addition, verse 26, the Spirit groans. Look at the verse again in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness.
For we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us. How? With groanings. Too deep.
For words.
Now first of all notice what he's describing here, our weakness. And our weakness specifically is we do not know how to pray as we should. I'm so glad I haven't circled in my Bible the first person plural pronoun. Paul included himself, we. This giant in the faith.
admitted that there are times Like you, like me, we don't know how to pray as we should. And so I'm at a hospital bed with a woman, 87 years old. I love her deeply. But I'm not sure how to pray for. I say, Lord, on the one hand, I just wish you'd keep your hair just a little bit longer.
She has so much wisdom and so much depth of life, and she hasn't substituted service for a rocking chair. She hasn't substituted being engaged in the local assembly with hobbies and the like. And on that occasion, God's supernatural, they said there was a 1% chance that she'd live. God supernaturally Heard the prayer. And she lived for another almost two years.
Audrey's grandmother. She's a little bit older the next time. And I think Lord I don't know if you want to do it again. But maybe it's just time. Take her home.
I don't know how to pray as I should. God understands that. And the Spirit of God comes alongside, and He carries the other end of the log as you pray. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures. At 877-877.
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