The Gift of the Holy Spirit Part 2 | Frank Brancato

It's great to be here with all of you this morning.

I've enjoyed worshipping with you together so far.

We have a good crowd here. We have several of our number

that are missing, but we have a good crowd because you're here.

And I hope that we have things this morning to discuss that

would be very encouraging to you and certainly edifying to you

from the Word of God. We're continuing our series that

I started, that I said I was going to do today, and

continuing on with it. And it's the gift of the Holy

Spirit. Part 2.

As I set this up by way of an introduction, we go back to the

day of Pentecost. That's how it all began in my

series after my Kingdom series where we talked about the day

the Kingdom came and the sermon was preached.

The gospel was preached for the very first time with the

opportunity for somebody to respond to it.

And in that sermon Jesus was preached.

Then Jesus was preached, and then finally Peter says very

directly, let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God

has made that same Jesus, that you crucified both Lord and

Christ. Verse 37.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said

to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what

shall we do? They needed an answer to their

souls inquiry. What do we do now?

We've just crucified the Son of God, the Messiah, the

long-awaited Messiah that we've always thought was coming, and

we crucified Him. They needed an answer.

Then in verse 38, here was the answer.

Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name or by

the authority of Jesus Christ. As we've established already,

there's two unbelievable blessings that we get when we

repent and are baptized by the authority of Jesus Christ.

Number one, we get remission of sins.

Everything that's ever happened in the past, every sin we've

ever committed in the past is washed away and is gone #1

pretty good blessing, isn't it? But there's more.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

These things are two gifts. They're not the same thing that

we've already established. I'm not going to go back and

read Teach by the way, but of these blessings that we have,

what did we learn with regards to the Holy Spirit and the gift

of the Holy Spirit? Three things and then I'm going

to talk and then I'm going to put up three benefits and we're

going to move on. What did we notice?

Number one, we know that the Spirit of God dwells in the

Christian. That is irrefutable.

The Spirit of God dwells in the Christian.

We also know that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, and as

we studied, it's the Holy Spirit that God has given to those who

obey Him and #3 our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit

who is in us. Then we noticed what the

benefits are, and last time we noticed 3.

The Holy Spirit is given to us as a guarantee, or the King

James Version says an earnest. And that's just a fancy word for

a down payment for what? Our eternal inheritance in

heaven one day, great blessing. We're given the Holy Spirit as a

guarantee. An earnest of our inheritance in

heaven one day #2 we're given the Holy Spirit.

That's true, but the Spirit, another blessing, bears witness

with not to, but with our spirit, that we are the children

of God. And I spent a long time dealing

with that last time #3 the Holy Spirit makes us alive

spiritually. How do I know if I'm alive

physically? I have a human spirit.

When I die one day, the Spirit leaves my body and I no longer

am alive. You know that I'm alive

physically because I have a human spirit.

You also know that I'm alive spiritually because I have the

Holy Spirit. So as we noticed last time, the

Holy Spirit is an invaluable assistant to Christians.

But please understand, He works with our inner man within the

bounds of God's Word to help us make heaven our home one day.

And as the last thing I said in our lesson last time, please get

this. The Holy Spirit has a work, we

get it. The Holy Spirit has benefits for

us, We get it all. That's 100% true.

But the Holy Spirit will never do for us anything that violates

the Word of God. For example, somebody might say,

I know the Bible tells me to do this, this, this, this, this.

And I used to always believe that, but I kind of think the

Holy Spirit is guiding me to do something else.

Now, that's kind of a popular thing that people say, OK, you

may be guided, you may be moved, you may be this, you may be

that. I'm not poking fun, but I'm just

going to tell you right now, that's not the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does not do for us or guide us away from

anything that the Word of God has already established.

And by the way, if it did, then the Holy Spirit would contradict

himself because the Holy Spirit is the revelation through the

Word of God. We get that.

OK, now we come to the 4th benefit and this is our sermon

today and it's such a big subject.

We got one point. Here it is.

The Holy Spirit helps US in our weaknesses.

I don't know about you, but I got some weaknesses.

I don't know about you, but there are times when I pray and

I need a little help. Notice please.

Here's the two verses under consideration.

Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not

know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself

makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be

uttered. Now He who searches the hearts

knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes

intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.

I'm going to ask you very kindly to do me a favor, and then I'm

going to do something for you in return, or I'm going to try to

do it. Whatever your preconceived idea

of these passages has always been, I'm going to ask you to do

this. Set it to the side and draw no

conclusions till the end. Now, it very well may be that by

the time we get through my conclusion that we're going to

make today's exactly the conclusion you've always felt

and always believe. Great.

It also may be that the conclusion that we draw today in

these passages by way of context and application may be something

entirely different than what you believe these passages to mean.

So all I'm going to ask is very kindly, whatever preconceived

idea or thought you've always had, set it aside.

I'm going to tell you something. I've been a Christian for Wow,

going on 50 years and I still learn, and I learned a ton on

this subject. So maybe we can all learn a

little bit. Stay with me and maybe it'll

just reaffirm also what you've always thought.

But anyway, just please just set aside any preconceived ideas as

we go through it. First of all, this phrase right

here. Likewise, the Spirit also helps

in our weaknesses. Please get this.

This is blessing #2 of five blessings that Paul describes in

Romans chapter 8. There's five unbelievable

Romans 8 · chapter mention

blessings that God has given the child of God to help sustain

them as you journey through this life in view one day of our

ultimate demise or death. This is blessing #2 which one?

This right here, the Spirit also helps our infirmities.

Now, because we are jumping into blessing #2, it would be a

pretty good idea to jump in to go back and notice what blessing

#1 is. What is the first blessing of

Romans 8? We go back to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Context, just a couple of verses before that, beginning in verse

24 and also in verse 25. Notice for we were saved in this

hope. But hope that we've seen is not

hope. So why does 1 still hope for

what he sees? But if we hope for what we do

not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

OK, notice this phrase. We were saved in this hope.

Hope's a big thing. Hope is a big deal.

My question is this though. What does hope really mean?

What's hope really mean? Sometimes we think that hope is

just prolonging the inevitable or putting off disaster or

putting off something negative. And because you got a time

period before something bad happens, that's hope.

That's not hope. I've said this in sermons and

days gone by. Some of you have heard it.

I've said faith and hope are similar in that they both trust

God, but they're different in that faith trusts God in the

present and hope trusts God for the future.

OK, makes sense. So what does hope actually mean?

Hope is actually looking forward.

Now for hope to be a blessing, it must involve 3 things. 1A

future orientation of something that's going to be better, a

desire that's deep and burning within us as we long for and

look for and a benefit that we're going to get.

It's got to involve all three for hope to be a blessing.

And remember, the number one blessing of Romans chapter 8 is

Romans 8 · chapter mention

God has given us because of the facts and the evidence and the

promises that he has. He's given us hope.

So to express hope is to wait expectantly for what is good.

In other words, in context, this means the following notice

please. Life with all of its challenges

can never rob the believer of his salvation as long.

Oops, I didn't mean to have a extra S.

As long as he chooses to abide faithful in Christ, tragedy

after tragedy cannot steal the Christians future home in heaven

from him. None of the external forces on

earth like heart breaks, sorrows, disappointments,

problems and difficulties that a believer will suffer will be

able to remove him from the peace, safety and security of

the arms of Jesus as long as he chooses to remain faithful to

the Lord. Now, I'm going to say something

that probably might be a little repetitive, and I'm sorry, but

I'm not really sorry. Context.

Today we have to understand context in order to understand

the application of verses 26 and 27.

All right, So as one scholar put it, after you're baptized for

the remission of your sins, he said, yes, we've been saved by

the blood of Christ. We have remission of sins, but

not completely so. In other words, we haven't

received our eternal home yet in heaven.

So do not expect perfection and paradise yet.

It will come, but in the meantime, do not be discouraged

and do not give up. That's what hope is, by the way.

No wonder hope is one of the five blessings Paul promises the

believers as we endure the processes of life that come our

way and the blessings that we've been given from God to sustain

us through debilitating difficulties.

I'm going to tell you something. There are people in this room

that have had debilitating difficulties.

Our brother just had one. I don't mean to exclude anyone.

You had open heart surgery. You had cancer.

So did you. So did I, So did you.

We've had issues, right? We've had debilitating things

that have happened in life. The context of so far, what

we're talking about is we have hope.

So of you, we have hope that our salvation is not going to be

taken away regardless of the outward circumstances that come

our way, provided we never give up and we never choose to leave

the Lord. That's the context.

So with that being said, the same context rules us right into

verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps

in our weaknesses. By the way, the word likewise,

I'm not an English major. I'm not an English minor.

Yeah, I know that. But I I know what likewise

means. It's a marker of similarity,

right? I just made a statement and then

I'm gonna make another statement.

I said, well, likewise a marker of similarity.

OK. And the marker of similarity is

this hope was the blessing, the first blessing and benefit, the

second blessing is the Spirit helping our weaknesses.

OK, as we sometimes suffer and have futility, even leading to

our death again, let's get to the context.

In order to understand, we go all the way back to verse 18.

By the way, verse 18 was my mother's favorite scripture my

whole life as a kid. That's the first one we're going

to begin with. For I consider that the

sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared

with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for

the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but

because of Him who subjected it in hope, Because the creation

itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption

into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and laborers

with both pangs together until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the

Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly

awaiting for the adoption of the redemption of our body.

We're going to get back to these in a little bit, OK, at toward

the latter part. But my point is the passages

here in these verses lead us to the passages describing hope in

verses 25, four, and 25, which now lead us to the blessings

that are found in verse 26 about the Spirit helping our

weaknesses. OK, who's the Spirit?

Now? Don't do this.

Please don't say, well, it's the Holy Spirit because it's capital

S. That's a terrible argument.

I've heard that in my whole life.

That is a terrible argument. There's a terrible proof that

it's the Holy Spirit because it's capitalized.

Stay tuned. I do believe it is, but hang on.

There's three positions and we need to talk about them.

And so we're not confused amongst scholars, there's

actually three positions that people hold with regards to who

the Spirit is. Position #1 is that the Spirit

in verse 26 is Jesus Christ. And it's based upon two

different arguments. OK.

The first arguments found in Romans chapter 8 and verse 34.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and

furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God

who makes intercession for us. So the first thing that people

say is Jesus is our intercessor in this passage and therefore he

has a work and his work as our intercessor is to intercede for

us and also condemn those that are unbelieving and unfaithful

one day when people put those things together.

OK. The second passage that is used

to say that Jesus is the spirit of verse 26 is found in first

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5. For there is one God and one

mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

OK, here's the problem with that interpretation from these

passages. Verse 34 when it says Christ

makes intercession for us. The context of verse 34 has

absolutely nothing to do with the context of verse 26.

That's number one. In fact, I'll just share this.

Number 34 is the fifth of the five blessings that we get as

the child of God. Verse 26 is the second of the

five. Two different things.

And by the way, we'll get to verse 34 in a lesson down the

road. I'm going to get to that because

I do think I'm going to preach on the all the five blessings.

Might as well. All right, that's number one.

Number two, in verse 26 of Romans chapter 8, Jesus Christ

Romans 8 · chapter mention

is not mentioned at all. OK verse 34 introduces the 5th

blessing and also the worth of 1.

Mediator between God and man is not referring to prayer at all.

It's not instead this phrase there's one mediator between God

and men. It's talking about His

redemptive work that He did for us on the cross to shed His

blood for the remission of our sins.

How many did that one one. So the interpretation though, is

and incorrectly with good minds and good intentions.

If there's one mediator between God and man, and there's one

intercessor Roman, and there's an intercessor Romans 834.

Therefore if there's only one, then the intercessor of verse 26

must be Jesus Christ. That's how they draw that

conclusion, OK. I agree there's only one

mediator, but let's talk about that.

This is talking about his redemptive work on the cross.

2nd Corinthians 521 For he made him who knew no sin, that's

Jesus, to be sin for us, that he might become the righteousness

of God in him. First Timothy chapter 2 and

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

verse 6. He gave himself a ransom for all

to be testified in due time. OK, so what's the difference?

Maybe you're thinking, oh wait a minute, what's the difference

between a mediator and an intercessor?

This is the easiest way I can put it.

A mediator negotiates on behalf of both parties who are at

variance with one another. When man's sin, guess what?

Man's at variance with God. Man is at odds with God.

Man has separated his relationship with God.

Why? Because sin separates, God, in

His infinite wisdom sent us a mediator to pull the two

together. And now, through Jesus Christ,

his precious blood he shed on the cross, we contact the blood

of Jesus at baptism. Guess what?

We are now reconciled in our relationship to God by 1

Mediator, and that's Jesus Christ.

All right, what about an intercessor?

An intercessor pleads on behalf of only one side in a

difference. So having multiple intercessors

does not interfere or do away with the work of 1 mediator.

OK. In fact, by the way, Paul

encouraged all Christians to be intercessors for kings and all

of those that are in authority. First Timothy, chapter 2.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

OK, did you know that every time you pray for someone, you are

being an intercessor for them? If I pray for my brother, we

prayed for Brother Ricky. We were intercessors on his

behalf. So we have many, many

intercessors in our life. Only one mediator.

That's Jesus Christ. OK, All right, Finally, proof

that this can't be Jesus in verse 26.

Jesus is never ever in Scriptures referred to as the

Spirit, not once. So the Spirit in verse 26 can't

be Jesus. All right, position #2 the

Spirit that makes intercession for us is the human spirit.

And I have to share something with you.

This is a position that I held for many, many years.

Now. I will tell you this.

Please get this. And I'm going to sum it up

afterwards when we get down to the end, when you pray, there's

three involved, obviously, according to Romans 8.

There's me, obviously, which is my human spirit.

There is God who is the recipient of the prayer, and

there is, and we might speculate, but we don't know

exactly who it is yet because we haven't proved the point yet.

And then there's the Spirit that makes intercession.

So you have the intercessor 3 things.

Make no mistake about it though, when we pray, when we pray, our

human spirit is involved, OK? Just know that Now, the position

that I held for years is that the spirit that makes

intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered

was the human spirit. But I found an unbelievable

fatal flaw with my position. The fatal flaw is actually found

in the text. And you know, you know, my

father used to say, son, sometimes you got to let the

Word of God be its own best commentary.

Sometimes you just got to turn to the Bible and read it and let

your mind, your intellect, let it make some sense to you.

OK. The fatal flaw that I found

where it cannot be the human spirit is found in the passage

that is before us, which says for we do not know what we

should pray for. We don't.

So I looked into it a little bit further.

The knowing part of man is his mind or his reason.

We get that makes sense and according to Paul, it's

identified as man's spirit. Let me give you some.

Let me give you some Bible, Romans 1 and 9.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit.

Here's another passage. Romans 725I thank God through

Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself

serve the law of God. OK, So what am I saying here?

I'm saying the human spirit is equivalent to the mind of a man.

Let that soak in. In other words, the knowing part

of man is his mind or his spirit.

OK now with that in mind, when we go to verse 26, it says that

the knowing part of man, which is his mind does not know what

to pray for. This is what got me on this

folks. This is what this is what

changed me. The mind or the Spirit doesn't

know what to pray for. So if the human spirit does not

know what to pray for, then it can't be the human spirit who

intercedes for the believer. If I don't know, I need an

intercessor. I need somebody to help me,

right? How am I helping me when I don't

know what to pray for? How am I interceding for me when

I don't know what to pray for? Facts.

I don't know what to pray for. Somebody has to intercede for me

in that prayer. There's a lot more.

It's coming. And that brings us to the third

position, which I believe to be correct, and that is the Spirit

is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the one who helps us

in our weaknesses and intercedes for us.

And by the way, if you look at the context, it makes so much

sense without doing this, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Just so you know, I've done some research, 14 scholars, and the

pages that I found it say it's the Holy Spirit, 14 notable

scholars that we all have respect for, whatever that

means, say this is the Holy Spirit that's doing the

interceding. OK, so let's go back and look at

the passage, please. Likewise, the Spirit also helps

in our weaknesses. Why?

For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but

the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.

Remember, this verse introduces the second in a list of

blessings for the Christian to encourage them and sustain them

as they face difficulties in suffering and futility.

And do you know what? Sometimes these things are so

painful and so debilitating. Man, we need some help.

Please don't ever think, no, I'm good, I got this, I'm good, I'm

good. No, no, no, no.

If you're honest with yourself, you need help.

And there's times when the debilitating circumstances are

so great actually needs somebody's help.

And with regards to prayer, we even need a little help there

too. And remember, this is not

limiting God. God can do whatever he wants to.

God is giving us this as a blessing.

Sometimes those things could be physical, mental, emotional and

psychological. It reduces the believer to a

state of weakness. And during these times, the

Christian does not know what to pray for.

Now I'm going to put something on the screen and and please

tune in. Don't misunderstand what I'm

saying, OK? Because I've heard this totally

misinterpreted, it does not mean that the Christian does not know

how to pray. The word of God is clear about

that. Jesus taught his disciples how

to pray before the Kingdom came. My favorite passage of

practicality in all the New Testament in Philippians 4, Paul

gives the antidote for anxiety. How did he do it?

He gave us a structure on how to pray.

We're told specific things to pray for.

Pray for those that are in leadership over us, Pray for

those that are in authority over us.

We pray for those that are lost in the world, that they come to

Jesus. We prayed that this morning.

We pray for the body of Christ, the Kingdom.

We pray for each other. We prayed for you and you and

you and on and on. OK Bible says we have not

because we ask not so a unanswered prayers like an

uncashed check. You got to go to God in prayer

1st and ask God, what does Paul say in Philippians 4?

Don't worry about anything but pray about everything.

So we understand that it's not that we don't know how to pray.

Please get that. The problem is that sometimes

the believer does not know what to pray for or what is most

needful. He does not know whether to pray

for healing or a merciful release into the arms of Jesus.

So sometimes we cannot see what the solution really should be.

Please notice this verse is not saying.

I'm going to back up a little bit.

There's no doubt things that God does, the Holy Spirit does and

Jesus does. That's not revealed in the word

that perhaps is happening with angels is particular.

I'm not limiting God. And you know what I want?

I like the words of Bob Smith. Years ago somebody asked him,

what do you want the Holy Spirit to do?

Never forget this. Yeah, this goes back 25 years,

30 years, 30 years probably. He said all he can.

So OK, great. But all that involved and all

that being said, I'm only going to preach specific things that I

can show you in the word of God and proof.

That's number one. Number two, please get this.

This passage is not saying that the Holy Spirit intervenes or

intercedes in every single prayer we pray.

It is not saying that there's a context that's connected to it.

This passage is referring to those difficult situations of

suffering and futility when we are so weakened that we do not

know what to ask for in such situations.

The Holy Spirit is given to us in that regard as a gift and a

blessing to intercede for us. And we're going to talk about

how also in just a little bit. But that's the context, folks.

I'm not going to go into all of the individual things that I've

had in my life where this happened to me.

But there's been a lot. And there were times in my life

when I was so overwrought. I was so overcome and I was so

overwhelmed. I could not figure out what to

say. You know, very recently, not

going to tell you the circumstances, but very recently

there was an issue in my head, in my mind, and I went to the

Father in prayer and in tears and I said I don't even know

what to say and I need your help.

I said I am hurting and I'm sorry.

I feel this way. Help me.

You know what I needed An intercessor.

And that's not the only time in my life.

Talk about how that all works in a minute.

But those are the facts when we're so weakened.

That's the context. But I want to notice what this

means right here, with groanings which cannot be uttered.

OK, let me show you the two positions that I've heard all my

life. Position number one, it's the

human spirit that makes intercession.

So the human spirit is doing the groanings, and God is hearing

the groanings that cannot be uttered.

And God is taking those prayers and hearing those prayers for

us. Now God is capable of doing

anything. I'm not limiting God.

That's position number one. That's a position I actually

used to hold position #2 it's the Holy Spirit that does the

interceding, and it's the Holy Spirit that does the groanings.

Both statements are half right. So both statements in total, in

totality, are incorrect. Stay with me.

We know that the Holy Spirit is the intercessor in such casings.

In such cases. My question is then, if the Holy

Spirit is doing the interceding, then who is doing the groanings?

Who groans? We do see that.

Doesn't that make sense? You think the Holy Spirit needs

to groan? I groan.

You know what the word grown is, EM, Zur says grown.

Another word for grown is sigh, with sighings that cannot be

uttered. That's my feelings.

Who's doing the groaning? I am.

Who's doing the interceding? The Holy Spirit.

OK, now I'm not going to leave it at that.

We're going to go to context, please, going back to verses 22

and 23. For we know that the whole

creation groans and laborers with birth pangs together until

now. Not only that, but we also have

who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown

within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption of the

redemption of our body. Just a few short verses before

the passage under consideration when it talks about groanings

that cannot be uttered in verse 26.

Who's grown in the whole creation?

And we ourselves, how about that we've grown.

I did a little research historically from Jewish history

and I found a very interesting quote from a cultural background

study Bible which said this notice please.

Historically, many Jewish people expected a period of intense

suffering just before the end of the age, and some spoke of this

period as birth pangs or even the birth pangs of the Messiah

or even the new Messianic era. Paul here portrays the present

painful period between the Messiah's coming in these terms

suffering to bring forth a new age.

So the point is this, when the believer can only sigh or the

believer can only groan because their suffering is so severe and

the problem is so overwhelmingly complex, the Holy Spirit

intercedes on their behalf. He's able to present our

feelings or our groanings that that we do straight to God.

Here's some scholars. McKnight said this.

The apostle now assures us that these secret groanings and

vehement desires, especially under pressure of affliction,

are not fruitless. For although we utter no words

because we do not know what to pray for, as we are the Spirit

Himself, that's the Holy Spirit complaints for us by these

inarticulate groanings under afflictions patiently borne

through His assistance. McKnight 2 quotes.

First quote with groanings that cannot be uttered is in

reference to the dimly perceived and partially understood

longings of the redeemed soul. That's me, which are impossible

for the Christian to frame into articulated petitions to the

Father. Those longings are heard and

understood by the Spirit of God who transfers such inexpressible

yearnings of the soul to the throne itself.

Finally, Kaufman said this. Therefore, when the Christian's

prayers have reached the boundary of language as a

vehicle for the conveyance of thought, when such prayers

become more of a heavenward sigh than a formal utterance, then

the Christian may know that the inward intercessor is fully able

to convey the soul's true desire to the throne.

One more quote from White Side. So these groanings are

unutterable feelings of need. The Spirit hurt us in these

groanings, for he understands our needs and longings and can

make them known to God. Again.

We do the groaning, the Holy Spirit does the interceding.

Now to the argument. Well, the Holy Spirit is the one

who groans to God on our behalf. I've heard this interpretation.

The groanings are some heavenly angelic type language that only

they understand. So that's the groanings that

cannot be understood by us and what have you.

Again, it doesn't make sense in context, but I'll give you one.

I'll give you what Lard said on this.

Lard said this. The groanings which give

inarticulate expression that these wants are not the spirits

groanings, they are our groanings, but the spirit forms

and directs them as to make them express our true wants to the

Father. OK, did you know that the very

next verse sums up what I just said?

Verse 27, and that's our last verse.

Verse 27 drives the whole point home.

Here it is for he who searches the hearts.

OK, who's He? That's God.

The hearts are the minds of believers.

In context, it refers to believers that are suffering

under some kind of tragedy or pain.

As a result, we don't know what to pray for and therefore we are

reduced to groanings that only the Holy Spirit or the Holy

Spirit makes understandable to the Father.

Why does the Father understand? Because he knows the mind of the

Spirit. They work together.

Do you know when the Bible says there's three that bear record

in heaven? There's God, there's Jesus,

there's the Holy Spirit, and these three are one or they work

together. They're one purpose.

They work together in everything.

God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit In the contending for the

faith commentary it says in summary of this passage or this

phrase. The Father knows with perfect

intimacy what the mind of the Spirit is, and the Holy Spirit

knows perfectly what the unutterable yearnings of the

believer are. Thus, perfect communication is

expressed to the Father on behalf of the Christian by the

agency of the Holy Spirit. Why?

Because He makes intersection for the Saints according to the

will of God. Remember when I said there's

three included here? OK, this is me right here.

I'm Ronan. My petitions are directed to the

Father who searches the hearts. The Father who's capable of

doing anything he wants, gave us the Holy Spirit as an

intercessor to make intercession for the Saints according to the

will of God. So in other words, He over there

is God, the hearts are me and you, and he is the Holy Spirit

that makes intercession according to the will of God.

And finally, one of those functions on behalf of the

believer is to intercede for them with God the Father when

they're struggling with such great difficulties that they can

only groan in their suffering context.

I don't know about you. That is amazing.

That is an amazing benefit, all the wonderful things that we

have as a result of being a child of God.

And by the way, we've only noticed 3.

Now there's two more in Romans 8 alone.

When we repent in conclusion this morning and are baptized,

we receive remission of sins, great blessing.

We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The gift is the Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts.

The benefits are as we noticed in our introduction, He's a

guarantee or an earnest or a down payment of our eternal

inheritance. He bears witness with our Spirit

that we are the children of God. He makes us alive spiritually.

And as we noticed this morning, He communicates our groanings to

God when we're weak and do not know what we ought to pray for.

Sounds to me the gift of the Holy Spirit's an incredible

gift. And he is an invaluable

assistant to Christians. He's working with our inner man

within the bounds of God's Word to help us make heaven one day.

And that is our greatest joy and our greatest goal.

OK, we're going to talk about the third great blessing for

believers. We talked about two today.

If I said three, I meant 21. Hope 2.

The intercessory work of the Holy Spirit when we don't know

what to pray for. But #3 and it's coming next

Sunday, if the Lord wills. All things work together for

good to them that love God and are called according to His

purpose. And I'm telling you right now,

that is one of the most misunderstood and misapplied

passages in all the teachings of Romans 8.

Does it mean everything's going to work out, or is there

something that's deeper, richer, and more meaningful?

I'm going to hang on that one. I want the deeper, richer, and

more meaningful interpretation context of the passage.

That's next time if the Lord will.

OK, Let me just say though, we've been given every single

reason to hang in there and succeed.

And I know life is hard. I get it and it and it actually

frustrates me sometimes when people say, when somebody says

I'm weak or I'm broken and they say, no, we're more than

conquer. Yeah, yeah, we are.

But we're more than conquerors because of God, because of the

strength we get from the Lord, because of the intercessory work

of the Spirit, because of all the spiritual blessings we have

in Christ, not because of us. So you know what I'd rather be

broken and get the benefits than think I'm pretty good all

amount. So remember this and I'm closing

with this. A 91 year old man said this and

I'm and when he said it, I said man, not a preacher comes

yesterday is history. So let it go.

Tomorrow is a mystery, so don't worry about it.

But today, today's a gift. So let's take the blessings

we've been given to sustain us, and let's live and make the most

of it. Next time, let's talk about all

things working together for good.

That will be the third of the five blessings that are found in

Romans 8. In order to have the blessings

we've talked about so far, then you've got to be a Christian.

You got to be a child of God. These are blessings that come as

a result of being His children. So we always extend an

invitation when we teach from the word of God.

You got to hear the word of God. Romans 10/17.

Here are the steps to become a child of God.

So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

After you hear the word of God, you got a choice to make.

You got to believe it with all your heart.

Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith, it's impossible

to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,

and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Then what? I got to make some changes in my

life. I got to stop going in the

direction that I've been going. I need to be a Christian.

I need to follow Jesus. I need to repent of my sins.

Acts 17 and 30. Truly these times of ignorance

God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

Then I must be willing to confess Jesus Christ as the Son

of God. Acts 837.

Then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. These steps are prerequisites to

our salvation. They lead toward the point of

salvation. But we must be baptized for the

remission of sins in order to have salvation.

Mark 1616. Jesus said he who believes and

is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be

condemned. Is it necessary?

Does it really save us first? Peter 321.

The light figure where the even baptism doth also now save us.

Not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of

a good conscience comes out by the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. If you're here today and you're

not a child of God, we would love to assist you in that.

Maybe you've taken those steps of obedience.

Maybe you just drifted away from the Lord.

You can do that. You can do that today.

You can come back to Jesus today.

Repent of those things. Confess those things.

We'll pray with you and for you. God will forgive and restore.

Be one of either class. Come forward while we stand and

while we sit.