And Paul shared one of his personal testimonies when he was unsure how to pray. Remember, we touched on it briefly last time from 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He was given a thorn in the flesh. God had given him a glimpse of glory, and it was so powerful, and God pulled back the curtain. It was just.
Inexpressible. But just to remind him. that he was not to share some of the details. Or to become boastful or arrogant over the experience he had, God gave him a thorn in the flesh. We don't know what that thorn is.
Welcome to Search the Scriptures. the Bible Teaching Ministry of Dr. Carl Broge. Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church, Amy. Beaufort, South Carolina.
Today is part two of Pastor Carl's sermon entitled, The providence of the triune God from the book of Romans chapter 8, verses 26 through 28. He highlights the perfect wisdom and providence of God the Father. God knows the deepest thoughts of our hearts and works all things, both trials and blessings. for the ultimate good for those who love him. Nothing in our lives is wasted or random.
Every circumstance is guided by His sovereign hand. to accomplish His divine purpose. For our growth, sanctification, and ultimate glory to God. Let's join Pastor Carl Now. as he continues.
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 is 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 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. 2D.
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 They admitted that there were 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 her. 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. The Spirit of God comes alongside, and He carries the other end of the log as you pray. Paul understood this.
Remember when he addressed the church at Philippi? For to me to live is Christ. To die is gain. But then he will quickly add, But I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. He was hard pressed because there was much here on earth that could have kept him.
Yet on the other hand, and think about when Paul writes Philippians, and if you were with us in our series on Acts, we documented when all of Paul's epistles were written. By the time he writes Philippians, he's gone through quite a bit of life and ministry. There's a part of him where he just said, Lord Jesus, I'd be happy tomorrow if you took me home. Because when you die, you depart from this world and you're with Christ.
So don't buy into the error of Seventh-day Adventism. that has crept into some evangelical circles. Where body, soul, and spirit sleeps in the grave. No, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When you die, like Paul, you depart and you are with Christ.
That's a marvelous, marvelous promise. Yet, verse 24 says, to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. On the one hand, if I stay here, I'm still needed here. And God could certainly use me in that whole process. And so sometimes you think it would be great for the person to go home.
And yet, on the other hand, you think, oh, it'd be much better if they could stay just a little bit longer. How many of you have ever had some kind of a situation where you didn't know how to pray as you ought? Raise your hand. Yeah, I think all of us. And God understands that.
And you're in good company with Paul, for we. do not know how to pray as we should. And there are times when I know exactly how to pray. Why? Because it's clear, it's defined in Holy Scripture.
I don't have to wonder. But in other times, I'm not certain. And Paul shared one of his personal testimonies when he was unsure how to pray. Remember, we touched on it briefly last time from 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He was given a thorn in the flesh.
God had given him a glimpse of glory, and it was so powerful, and God pulled back the curtain. It was just. inexpressible. But just to remind him. that he was not to share some of the details.
Or to become boastful or arrogant over the experience he had, God gave him a thorn in the flesh. We don't know what that thorn is. I suspect it was an eye problem based on his writing to the Galatians. I wouldn't be dogmatic. I certainly wouldn't start a denomination over it.
But still, it was some kind of excruciating pain, which is the word that is used for thorn.
Now, Paul didn't know. Three times he said, Lord, take this thorn away. If he knew, he would have said, Lord, don't heal me. Obviously, it's your will for me to keep this thorn. Just help me to work through it.
But he didn't know.
So he said, Lord, remove this from me. And finally, God reveals to him, Paul actually. You're going to have this thorn. Because my power is Found in the midst of weakness. My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is perfected in weakness.
And the word that Paul uses for weakness there is the identical word that he uses here in Romans 8:26. In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray. Paul knew this not simply by divine inspiration, but by personal experience. Even this man didn't know exactly.
You say, well, Pastor Carl, do you believe God answered his prayer? I happen to believe that every time Paul prayed, Lord, remove this thorn from me. That God answered his prayer.
Well, how could he have answered his prayer if God didn't remove the thorn from him? Because God knew Paul's heart. And God knew that in Paul's heart his desire more than anything else was to do the will of God. And so what had happened? The Spirit of God interceded with groanings too deep for words.
The Holy Spirit said to the Son, who went to the Father. Lord Jesus, Paul wants your will. But he really doesn't know how to pray as he ought. And so it would be ideal for the sanctification process, for his testimony as an apostle, for this thorn to be kept. And the son, who is searching the Spirit's mind, takes it to the Father.
and says, let him keep the thorn.
So, in this case, as you know, the answer Paul wanted was yes. But both the Spirit and the Son. said no. And again, because God was going to work through weakness.
Now, a lot of our people are missing this morning, I know, because they have no power. Um Yesterday we had a wedding, it was a pretty full day, and we're dialoguing in the fellowship hall, and a couple brothers, and we're talking about you got power. I always have power, and how about you?
Well, I lost it for a day, or I've got no power, and I said, I don't have any power either. You got a generator? Yeah, I got a generator. And we started talking about generators and... I said, you know, there's a brother in the church who has a 500-gallon generator.
Says he can go for like 10 days. I said, man, that's got to be sweet. This other brother and the... Dialogue, I said, you got a generator? He said, Yeah, I got a generator.
I said, You got a tank? Yeah, how long can you go? He said, Well, I have a 30,000-gallon. Tank.
Well, that's like a two-story building. Yes I don't know. I said, you've got to be killing. He said, I can, when the thing's empty, we can go on fumes for a couple months.
Well, if you ever see some big, massive Mushroom cloud outside of Walterboro, you know that family's gone to heaven. I said, I wouldn't want to live next to you. In either case, You got a generator passer? I said my son gave me one five years ago. I said it's been in the box for five years and every time I get ready to take it out.
The power comes back on. And it's just easier to soar in the box. And then I dialogued with some of the guys working on the lines. They said, it's going to be another two, three days. They told me yesterday.
Okay. I guess I'll break out the generator. Broke it out. Put the oil in it, put the gas, cranked right up, plugged in the refrigerator, trip. Plug it in trip.
It kept tripping. And so I'm sharing my little testimony. And I said, so driving in here today to the church for the second time, I'm on hold for 42 minutes before I get a live person. You get this lady, I don't know where she's from, Taiwan or something. I mean, I can't even understand her.
I said, can you say that again just a little slower? Spell it. You know, it's one of those deals. You know what I'm talking about. Thank God we need these people, but you can't always understand these people.
Finally, she said, well from what I can tell, if you plug a refrigerator into our generator, it's going to trip in the GAF plug, so you need to plug it into the 220 plug. The 220 plug, she said, Well, there's an adapter. I said, Well, it didn't come with a generator. And she said, yeah, but you need to get this adapter if you want to plug in your refrigerator. I said, you would think that that would be kind of standard equipment since you know people usually buy generators for hurricanes to spare their food.
I said, send me a picture. I said, I don't want to take a two thousand dollar refrigerator and plug it in with your adapter in for the thing to caulk. She said, I'll send you a thing.
Well, it never came.
So we're having this dialogue, and one of the brothers there said, Well, no, there's a plug that. Takes that 220 power and regulates it to 120 so that it won't trip and the refrigerator will keep going.
So I go to Lowe's, which is a sin in my son's mind. He's the president of HomeDepot.com, but I'm not going to drive over to Bluffton. And so I go to Lowe's, and they don't have one, and they say, oh, this place has been cleaned out. They're buying everything.
So I go home and I just relegate, well Lord, I guess we're just gonna let the food spoil. That's okay if that's your plan. And I thank the Lord for it.
So I'm going around the house with a flashlight, and I hear this knock on the front door. And one of the brothers in the conversation said, Hey, I found a plug. I said, Where'd you find that? At Lowe's. I said, At Lowe's.
He said, Yeah, I found it at Lowe's. I said, The guy who works that aisle, but nobody knows what they're doing on those aisles half the time anyway. He said, I found it. I said.
Now I don't want to plug this refrigerator in. To save $200 worth of food if it's going to fry the electronics. He said, no worries. This is like a transformer. And it's going to change the power so that your refrigerator will work.
And sure enough, we plugged it in and By 9 o'clock, I was right on the edge of the food spoiling. Don't tell my wife, she'll throw it all away. We're going to eat that food. And we're not going to get sick. My point is this: the Holy Spirit of God is like a transformer.
He takes our prayers. And he transforms them through his omniscient mind, knowing what is perfect for us because his principal ministry for the believer is in the process of sanctification, of shaping us like Christ. And when we don't know how to pray as we ought. He takes that prayer and translates it with. Too deep for words at Texas.
With groanings too deep for words.
Some of your translations say, with groanings inexpressible. With groanings unspoken, With groanings unexpressed. Here's four translations. And interesting, the word in its muted form means someone who is dumb or mute. And so with groanings that are wordless, you can literally translate it.
And so that's what he does for us. The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings. Too deep. For words.
And by the way, this has nothing to do with the charismatic chaos that people use this verse for. And they're talking about the believer speaking in tongues. Actually, the one doing the groaning. It's the Spirit of God. And it's with groanings wordless.
Sometimes, um You just have a deep sigh and your wife knows what that sigh means.
Sometimes husbands communicate To their wives with groanings and grunts, you know, and they know exactly what those grunts and groanings mean.
Well, the Spirit of God with words inexpressible, without a single word, and by the word, the word that's used to describe the gift of tongues is always used to describe actual words and words that can be understood through a supernatural gift called interpretation, not the gibberish we see today. Hate to disappoint those people, but they're very, very confused and deceived, and many don't even have assurance of salvation. By the way, this is found in only one other place. In the New Testament, this word groan, and it's in Exodus 3 and verse 7. When quoted in the book of Acts, Stephen is preaching of that experience that Moses had at what he called a thorn bush.
And he said, quoting the Lord, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt, and I've heard their groans. There it is, same word. And I have come down to rescue them. Come now, and I will send you to Egypt.
So, the burden of the Egyptians in that painful groan. God heard. But here, the one doing the groaning is not us, but it's the Spirit. But he's probably using this anthropomorphism because sometimes when we pray, we can hardly even put it into words, and there's just a sigh in your prayer closet, a groan in the heart. But the Spirit, by his supernatural ministry, and that's the one doing the groaning and the verse.
as he translates it accordingly. to the Lord and he who searches the heart Now precisely who is it that searches the heart?
Well, he's referring to Jesus. The context draws that out. Look at verse 27. And he who searches the heart, that's the Lord Jesus, knows what the mind of the Spirit is. Because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Now we know there's only one intercessor between God and man, Christ Jesus.
So to pray to Mary or some other saint. It is to enter into the realm of idolatry. It's something that is forbidden in Scripture. If your authority is Scripture alone, then you won't do that. Nor will you propagate that error by endorsing it.
There's one behavior between God and man. And in the near context, in verse 34, he tells us, Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, he who is raised, who is at the right hand of the Father, who intercedes for us.
So clearly it is the Lord Jesus who searches the heart and knows what the mind of the Spirit is. God the Son has X-ray vision. He's searching your heart right now. He knows what you're thinking. He knows what you're thinking about the person next to you.
He knows what you're thinking about me as a pastor. There's not a thought that runs through your head that he does not see. Nothing is hidden from his sight. And if we knew that, some of us might like to have a stained glass window over our hearts. But listen, he sees it all.
So we should be real with God and we should bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
So, verse 27 says that Christ searching the heart because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. The Son is searching your heart. And he takes our deepest needs as translated through the ministry of intercession by the Spirit, and He brings them to the Father. That brings us to Roman numeral number two: the providence of the Father in particular. In particular.
So there's not only the providence of the Spirit in prayer, there's the providence of the Father in particulars.
Now, I want you to think about the providence of God the Father in every particular circumstance of life. I suppose if I had a top fifty favorite verses Verse 28 would make it in there. And we know, it says, that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
So, verse 28 gives us a picture of God the Father's providence as it functions in your everyday life. There are several truths about this verse that I want us to know because it's often misunderstood. First, the promise. It does not say, and we wonder, it says, and we know. It does not say, and we imagine.
It says, and we know. It does not say, and we desire. It says in we know. It's absolute. It's firm, it's clear.
And the word know is a Greek word that speaks of some absolute unshakable truth. You could paraphrase it, and we know beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Now, please understand that scripture will do you zero good in your life unless you, by faith, Take God in His Word. You have to claim it by faith. when you find there's some suspicious lump in your body. That God is working all things together for good. You have to claim it by faith when you discover that your child is in some accident.
You have to take it by faith. When you have a close relative who has been assaulted. When there's some robbery or some event that is so disgusting you don't even want to verbalize it. Paul says, and we know. But that's a promise that we must take by faith.
Claiming the promise by faith. is essential. if we're going to continue to walk in an uninterrupted fashion through the pain we're going through.
So there's this promise, but notice the plan, and we know that God causes all things. to work together for good. Not some things. But all things God is over everything when you have a swarm of Sand fleas around you. God is over something so small, the big things and the small things.
And to an omnipotent God, there's nothing big and there's nothing small. Nothing happens by happenstance or chance. The Christian should never say, well, I was lucky. Remove that from your vocabulary because there's no such thing as luck. for the believer.
And so, in describing this plan, and we know that God causes all things to work together. It does not say You see all things working together. There are some things you will not understand on this side of heaven. There are some things that in hindsight you can see, oh, I can see how God orchestrated that conversation in the fellowship hall for a brother to come out and bring me a plug last night. And it's almost like God was waiting for me to say thank you first, and I did, and then the next thing I know is I got this knock at the door.
But there's some things you won't understand. You see in a mirror dimly. We only know in part, but a day is coming when we'll know in full. Years ago, my. Dad sent us this called Jigsaw Puzzle.
It was over 800 pieces. No. And he obviously worked very hard to find this thing because it had a biblical theme and So I felt a certain obligation to put it together with my children. But I'm not a jigsaw fan, so don't buy me a jigsaw puzzle for my birthday, all right? In either case, you know, we started, you find the edges, and you slowly put it together, and before long, The whole picture was magnificent.
It was beautiful to look at. And so sometimes you're going through frustrations. or what you consider to be an interruption in your life. And you're not really sure how it all fits together. But God has a plan through it.
Some of you have Romans 11:33 written out on the margin from a prior sermon some years ago.
Next to verse 28, it says, Oh, the depth of the riches of both the wisdom In knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures. At 877-1787. 787. seven four seven eight and requesting program Our Identity in Christ.
zero one nine Don't forget tomorrow that Pastor Carl's wife Audrey is in this time slot with her program for women. Mothering from the heart. You can hear more of Audrey's messages on the Search of Scriptures app. found in the iTunes and Google Play Store. Also, Check out Audrey's podcast, Rare But Real.
on Apple? Google? and Spotify podcast platforms. You can also listen to her podcast at searchthescriptures.org. We hope that you will join us next week.
as we continue to search the scriptures.
