The Spirit’s Ministry of Prayer

Transcript

The Spirit’s Ministry of Prayer
04/19/2020
GR 2234
Romans 8:26-27
Gil Rugh

Good evening. Welcome to Sunday night at Indian Hills. We’re going to be going to the book of Romans, chapter 8 in your bibles, as we make our way through this tremendous letter of Paul to the believers in the church at Rome. A letter directed and guided by the Holy Spirit so that it is the word of God, not only for the church at Rome but for us as believers as well.

We’re in Romans chapter 8. Let’s open with a word of prayer. Thank You Lord, for the privilege that is ours to have Your eternal word in our possession. How blessed we are to have such a treasure. The riches of Your very words that we are privileged to study, to ponder, to take into our thinking, to our hearts, to have our lives shaped by them. As we look at this great passage in Romans 8 this evening, I pray the Spirit will guide us in our study. Help us to be attentive, be attentive especially to the ministry of the Spirit as He is the one who brings these truths to our heart in a powerful and effective way. We commit the evening to You in Christ’s name. Amen.

We will look at Romans and then afterwards I have several questions that have come in, so I’ll be addressing those after we do our study in the book of Romans.

Romans began in chapter 8, verse 1 with that great statement, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What a remarkable statement! We started out in the body of the letter by Paul showing the just, righteous condemnation of God on all of us as unbelievers. Every single person, Jew and Gentile alike are under the condemnation of a holy God because of our sin. Then we came to chapter 8 which opens by saying, “…there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And that’s the key. What a tremendous section this has been in the word of God! Beginning in chapter 3, verse 21, through chapter 5, he showed how God provided salvation in Christ. And then he talked about not only justification, but we moved to the sanctification in chapter 6, 7, and where we are in chapter 8. Providing for holiness of life not only declaring us righteous and free from the penalty and power of sin, but now power and enablement to live the life we have in Christ.

Chapter 8 is really about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That has not been a focus through the first seven chapters, and we wonder why more hasn’t been said about the Holy Spirit. Now chapter 8 is dominated by an emphasis on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He plays a key part in all our salvation, all parts of our salvation from the provision Christ made, to the walk we have today. He’s proceeded through chapter 8. We’ve come down to verse 26. In verses 18-25, just to remind you, Paul talked about the suffering and difficulties that characterize life in these present days. The finality of what God has prepared for those who live in Him has yet to be realized. That’s a hope that we have. A glorification in the very presence of God. Verse 18 said “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 all creation joins us in anticipation of that time when the curse will ultimately be lifted from the creation and we will enjoy all the blessings that God has prepared for us as His children.

He said in verse 23, “And not only this, but we also 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.” That’s the final step in the salvation God has provided for us. The transformation of this body into a resurrected, glorified body. And in connection with that, Christ will come and establish a kingdom. All events related to the package of what we call “the second coming” of Christ beginning with the rapture, then followed by the return of Christ to earth, and the establishing of the kingdom. That gives us hope. Verse 24 said “For in hope we have been saved…” And hope is something you haven’t yet realized. We’ve realized part of our salvation, but we haven’t realized the final part of it. And the hope that we have of realizing all that God has promised.

Verse 25, “But if we hope for what we do not see,” now note this, “…with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” What he’s been reminding us of, is that this present time for us as believers is a time of trial, suffering, difficulty. It’s not the same for every believer, every time. It’s not the same for every church, at every time. But generally, life on this earth, in this present world, has its difficulties. And sooner or later we all experience them. And sooner or later death comes, the last enemy that will be removed as Paul told the Corinthians. But it’s a reality. Sickness comes, illness comes, financial stress, family pressures, persecutions of one kind or another. It’s characteristic of this life. So that’s what He is preparing us for. Verse 18, which we read, “…the sufferings of this present life.” Put them in the context of the glory that is to be revealed to us. Sufferings are part of God’s plan, trials, afflictions. Jesus told His disciples as He was preparing for the crucifixion, preparing them for what would lay before them, “…In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

So that’s what we are dealing with in the book of Romans, chapter 8, in this section. These trials and tribulations are not to discourage us. They are to strengthen us. Verse 25, “…with perseverance,” endurance, “…we wait eagerly for it.” What God has promised. So have our sights on the goal, like we often do with times of suffering. Some of you have gone through surgeries, major surgeries. You didn’t do the surgery because that’s a fun thing to do. But you went through that time of suffering and difficulty and pain because you were looking for the goal, a life that was more satisfying, and health that you didn’t have. A correction of a problem that prevented you from enjoying certain things, those kinds of things. It develops perseverance, a readiness to go through trouble and trial. That’s where our hope is held out. This is not a ‘pie in the sky’ because it’s promised to us by the God who cannot lie. And He confirms it to us who are believers. So, we put this in balance, sufferings and glory. We keep our eyes on the glory that’s promised. That gives us endurance to go through the suffering.

We already covered some of this in Romans. Come back to Romans chapter 5. The chapter opens, “Therefore, having been justified by faith…” Having been declared righteous by God, having Him credit us with His own righteousness, so there’s no charges to be brought against us. “…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand…” It’s a grace that continues, the grace that brought us salvation. It’s the grace that cares for us and provides for us and protects us and keeps us. It’s the grace in which we stand. “…we exalt in hope of the glory of God.” That is just as sure to us as a present reality. We exalt in that hope. “And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations…” Well, maybe not so much. But in reality, we see the hand of God in it. We realize it is for our good to prepare us for His glory. That puts it in perspective. We exalt of the hope of the glory He’s promised us. We exalt in the tribulations. In the part they play in developing us and preparing us. Verse 3, “…knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Now he’s talking in chapter 8 more about the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And how He is working and developing us and so on.

So that developing process, that’s the confidence we have. We don’t know what will come in o our lives. We don’t have a good human explanation, even as believers, why did this have to take place? That’s so painful, it’s all I can do to bear it. And then I back up and we’ll get to this later in Romans 8 as we proceed through the chapter, but God is working for our good and His glory. And that’s what gives us endurance. I can do this because God gives me the strength and enablement. And I know His hand is in it, and His purpose is good for me. It’s like our little children. They go through something hard, and we comfort them. This is for your best. This is good for you. Oh, and they’re crying, I don’t know, I don’t want to do it. No, it’s good. And if they trust us, they go through it. When they come out, it’s as we said. Because we don’t do it just to hurt them. We do it for their good. That’s what God is doing with us.

So, you see that purpose of suffering. Now he’s elaborated more what he’s said about the Holy Spirit when we come over to chapter 8. Come back to chapter 8 again and the Spirit’s ministry in our heart and in our lives as God’s people. We have the Holy Spirit. And he starts verse 26, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness...” What do you mean “in the same way?” Well, the Holy Spirit has confirmed in our hearts, verse 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God...” And we have verse 23, “…having the first fruits of the Spirit…” Even as we’re groaning with the pressures and trials that we’re going through, His fruit is there. Carrying us, strengthening us, encouraging us, helping us to focus on the hope that God has given us. Verse 26, “In the same way the Spirit helps our weakness...” He not only helps us focus on the glory, but He does for us even what we are not able to do for ourselves. He has a ministry of prayer on our behalf. It’s not only what He’s directly doing in our lives, it’s what He is doing in representing us to the Father in glory. He helps our weakness. Weakness is not talking about our sin in this context, but it’s talking about the difficulties of life, whatever they are.

Remember in the gospel of John where Jesus confronted a blind man and the disciples said to Him, who sinned, his parents or this man, that cause him to be born blind? And Jesus said, no one. His parents didn’t sin, he didn’t sin. He was born blind so it could bring glory to God. And God through Christ, healed his blind eyes. So, he helps our weakness. We’re struggling through, I know I don’t necessarily see a purpose in this trial because I can get short sighted. That’s why I have to keep the long term in view. Put your eyes on the hope. This is part of what God is preparing, and I’m learning to trust Him. Pressure is good for me. I see God working as I look back and see things that seemed so difficult, then I look back and see, you know they weren’t good. The Lord brought me through, and it was a growth time for me. We don’t want to miss the blessing. The Spirit helps our weakness. Weakness goes with this life. I want you to know something before we move beyond that. It says, “…the Spirit also helps our weakness…” You note, it does not say, the Spirit removes our weakness. Because He doesn’t always.

Sometimes the weakness may be something shorter, but remember we grow by going through it, not avoiding it. If God took away every problem, how would that help me grow? Well, it’s like a child that’s been raised in a hot house atmosphere and he’s so protected, we wanted nothing ever to come into his life that would be unsettling. How does he mature? How does he learn how to handle the reality of life when there’s no one there to protect him from every bump and bruise? So, as you’re going through it, remember pressure is humbling. That’s good! And more pressure is better, because it makes me realize, I don’t think I can handle this. That’s part of what I need to learn. Lord, if you don’t provide the strength, my trust is in You. Because when I see my way out, which is often, well, I can handle it. That’s why I need bigger problems, cause the little ones, I think, I’ll take care of it and move on. The bigger problems help me to focus. I don’t know that I can do this. So, I need to grow that way, appreciating what God is doing. How’s He going to help us here? It’s an interesting thing, because we’ll see more about this whole area of prayer, before we’re done with Chapter 8.

But know what it says at the end of verse 26, “…but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words...” The weakness I’m going through, the trials of this life, what am I going to pray about? I don’t even know what to pray for. Lord, I’m overwhelmed! I pray in my ignorance so often. For the best I can tell, Lord, here’s what would be. I’m asking Him to do something, but it may not be the best thing. What do I do? We don’t know how to pray or what to pray for, as we should. Remember we told you in Ecclesiastes, we don’t know what tomorrow brings. I don’t have a good reasonable, rational answer for every problem that comes into life. I mean, some of them are great! They hit you so hard, you feel like you can’t get a breath. I think, this is crushing, what do I pray? Help! Lord, I don’t know, but the Spirit knows. He intercedes for us. And there’s an emphasis here, “the Spirt Himself”, you get that. The Spirit is the third person of the triune God. He Himself is deity. “…the Spirit Himself intercedes for us…” Think about that. We’ll sometimes ask one another, we have prayer requests, we share them. We appreciate other believers praying for us. But, oh my! The Spirit of God who indwells me, is praying for me also! It’s good for us to pray for one another, we are supposed to. But my, the Spirit of God is praying for me, for things and in ways that I would have no way to pray for myself. He “…intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…” He intercedes for us. He goes to the Father on our behalf. Now, this is remarkable, we can become so small in the way we think about the salvation we have in Christ. What a magnificent salvation it is! It is provided for us in ways that go beyond what my finite mind can comprehend.

The Spirit of God now indwells me, and He goes before the throne of God to bring me before God. My needs, my situation. And there are groanings here, and it does not mean it’s painful for the Holy Spirit. But these go to a depth, it’s God the Spirit, communicating with God the Father on my behalf. And that gets to a depth of communication that I am incapable of. It’s groanings too deep for words. He can come with a level of request and a depth before the Father, that I couldn’t. And we’re not done. When we get down to verse 34, we’ll read of chapter 8, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” The Spirit indwells me and He’s interceding in prayer for me. The Son is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He intercedes for me. And the Father has called me to be His own. He’s ready to do everything good and necessary for me. We sometimes settle down into the little puddle we’re focused on and fail to appreciate what God has done for us in His salvation?

Come over to Hebrews 7, this is about the high priestly ministry of Christ. And it’s a similar verse in Hebrews 7 that we just read in Romans 8, regarding Christ. We’re talking about the priesthood of Christ, and it is a permanent, eternal priesthood. Verse 24, “…but He, (Christ) on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” The triune God is working and operating on my behalf, on your behalf as a believer. That’s why Paul can write with confidence to the Philippians in chapter 1, verse 6, “…that He who began a good work in you, will perfect it (continue to bring it to completion) until the day of Christ Jesus.”

There can be no failures! God is for us, who can be against us? That’s where we’ll get to back in Romans 8. No one can condemn us. Nobody can bring a charge against us. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are working on my behalf. I couldn’t be any more secure. Any more protected. Now when that’s put here, where are we in the context of sufferings, trials, and difficulties? I don’t have to give up. I can be honest with the Lord. Lord You know me, I’m at the end of my rope! I don’t know, I’m here talking to You and I’m not even sure what I ought to pray, how to pray. I’m just coming, asking You to do what is best for me. To give me the grace and strength to go through this. I don’t have to know every detail. I don’t have to sit there until God explains to me why He’s doing, what He’s doing on this specific occasion and what the solution is. I’m stuck where I am, I don’t know tomorrow. I have no control over tomorrow. I can make plans, but they’re all conditional. Lord willing, tomorrow I’ll be doing this. This is what I’ve planned. Lord willing, this week I’m going to keep a doctor’s appointment, or I’m going to do this or that. Who knows? God knows! And God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the omniscient God, one God, three persons; they can represent me. The Holy Spirit can pray for me in ways I cannot pray for myself. So, that’s the way He intercedes. He helps our weaknesses even when we don’t know what to pray for; in the most difficult situations that He can bring us.

We ought to go to 2 Corinthians 12, as an example. Some of you are probably thinking of this passage. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about a trial he had. And there were many trials, but this one made life difficult for him. Verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 12, “And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations…” Note this, “…because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself...” God was going to do with Paul, something He rarely did. He was going to reveal His truth directly to Paul. That’s why we’re studying Romans. We’re in 2 Corinthians, we studied Titus earlier today. Revelations and truths being given to Paul, and Paul still in the flesh, a physical body. And we can get puffed up. We know how that is, God uses us, and we sort of feel that tinge of pride that I’m probably a little more spiritual than some others, because look how God used me. So, to keep Paul from developing that kind of flaw that would limit his usefulness, to keep him from exalting himself… Oh, couldn’t God just tell Paul, don’t get proud? No, you know how that works. Works all right until the opportunity for us to maybe, pat ourselves on the back. This is a purpose of God. “…there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me (torment me, beat me) to keep me from exalting myself!”

It was a constant reminder, you are weak. Was this for a bad purpose? No, it was for good, so God could use Paul in a greater way than He would use someone else. Because Paul was less of a sinner or less tendency to sin? No! So, keep that in mind. Maybe think, well, a little bit of suffering is good for me. I want God to use me. We pray Oh God, use me in the greatest way You can. I want, above all, to be an instrument in which Your power can be demonstrated, that I could be effective for You. And then suffering comes and we say, oh no Lord, what is going wrong? Well, I thought you wanted to be used in a greater way. Well, I mean without the suffering. So, this is what Paul is saying; to keep me, you note he said that twice, in verse 7, “…to keep me from exalting myself…to keep me from exalting myself!” He allowed Satan, to have one of the demons, afflict Paul in a special way. Now, when the Devil gets that kind of freedom, you know he can make life difficult.

We have a protection, but we saw what happened when God removes some of the protection from Job. Family, his kids died, his health went to pot, his friends abandoned him, his wealth was lost. And here Paul says, I had this “thorn in the flesh”. Satan sent that demon to beat on me, to torment me, and I prayed. Paul knew how to pray. “Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” And I’m sure Paul was saying, Lord I could be so much more effective for You. I would have so much more energy. I would be able… We don’t approach God with selfish reasons, but God knows what’s best. Verse 9, “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’” Power is perfected in weakness. What a statement! “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’” In our weaknesses, we have the Holy Spirit interceding on our behalf, praying for what is really our good, because we don’t know.

If I had major surgery scheduled for this week, I’d be praying diligently! For what? A good outcome, for God to give the surgeon special wisdom, to guide their hands in this surgery. But you know, I’m praying, I don’t know how God’s going to use this. Maybe it won’t come out the way I would be praying. And maybe God will get greater honor, and my testimony will have greater power when it goes the opposite way. But the Spirit knows. The Spirit is interceding on my behalf for the grace to be given to me to handle it properly. And think correctly and keep my vision where it should be. And so on. God’s grace is sufficient. Part of the grace that is provided for me is that the Holy Spirit is representing me and going on behalf of me. Who else could you ask to pray for you? The Holy Spirit is praying for me. I want others to pray for me and I count the prayers of believers of great importance. But you know, there are things in my life that I wouldn’t even know to ask about and ask prayer for. But the Spirit does. So, what’s Paul’s response? And the is the response that we all want to learn. Verse 9, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

It’s the very thing I want. God use me in the greatest way possible. God don’t let any trials or suffering come into my life. I don’t know how to pray. Lord whatever it takes to make me the most effective servant for You, give me the grace to welcome that and honor You in that. And the Spirit is representing me, Christ is representing me. Paul uses himself as the example here. We won’t go to Hebrews, but Hebrews could have picked it up while we were there. Hebrews says that Christ learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Even in His humanity, He had to go through sufferings, trials. The ultimate sufferings of the cross. And it developed that He was truly human. As we read in the second chapter of Luke, when His parents failed to understand why they had been caused grief, because He wasn’t with them and so on. But, what did it say? He returned home and He grew in wisdom and stature. That was part of the process, human. And the sufferings that go with being truly human, He had to endure. That ultimately was the cross.

Come back to Romans 8. Verse 26, “…but the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…” This doesn’t have anything to do with speaking in tongues. Some come to this and say, that’s what tongues are. We’re speaking a language we don’t understand, but it’s a heavenly language. No, this can’t be put into words. It doesn’t come through my lips. It comes through the Holy Spirit who dwells within me to the throne of God the Father. Just as Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding for me. That doesn’t have to come back down through me and up back to the Father. He’s at the right hand of the Father interceding for me. He’s directly interceding with the Father. The Spirit in me is directly interceding with the Father. So, this has nothing to do with creating prayer languages or angelic languages, or anything like that. That just reduces it. Understand here, these “groanings too deep for words”, they can’t put into words. Not anything like angelic languages and things that we’d be talking about here.

This is God speaking to God. Something only the Godhead can do. Verse 27, “…and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is...” The Father is the one who searches the heart. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it. “I, the Lord, search the heart…” I try the reigns, as found in Jeremiah 17: 9-10 and other passages that we won’t take the time to go to. But God searches the Heart. He knows what’s going on within us. He knows the mind of the Spirit. He searches the heart. He knows us as we truly are. And He knows the mind of the Spirit. You see, this can go from, as we would talk about it, from mind to mind. The Spirit can communicate perfectly to the Father, because He’s God. Just like the Son can communicate perfectly with the Father. The Father with the Son, with the Spirit. So, that’s what he’s saying. “and He who searches the hearts (the Father) knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” So, you see how this comes full circle, so to speak. It’s God communicating with God. There’s one God but there’s three distinct persons. And God the Spirit communicates perfectly with God the Father. And it’s always in concert, it’s always in perfect agreement. He is interceding for me in perfect agreement with what the Father’s will for me is. I’m well taken care of. It doesn’t get any better.

We ought to have as full appreciation of this salvation God has provided as we can in these finite bodies. Come over to 1 Corinthians 2. We looked at this passage earlier today. 1 Corinthians 2:10, to see what God has revealed to us. We’ve got this all going on, the Holy Spirit was the person of the God who directed the writing of scripture. Men of old wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God. He’s the one who brings that revelation to man. What God has prepared for us, well the preceding verses. But verse 10, “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit...” The things you can’t find out. You do not know about God’s salvation. You do not know what God has provided, all of that, unless you have revelation. And apart from the word of God, you cannot know the truth of God. I only know certain things; that creation reveals God, but even that’s perverted by sin. But what God has prepared for us, “…for those who love Him…” at the end of verse 9. You don’t find that anywhere but in God’s Word. God has revealed them through the Spirit. Why is the Spirit the one who reveals them to man, like Paul, like the prophets in the Old Testament and so on? Well, He searches all things, even the depths of God.

With our finite minds, think about it, we’re destined to live for eternity. Eternity! We can’t grasp that with our finite minds. And you know what? We won’t have exhausted the knowledge of God. There will be still more to learn, more to know. But with the Spirit of God, He has that full, complete knowledge, as does the Son of God and the Father. That’s amazing! “…for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” The Spirit is all-knowing, He’s omniscient. It’s one of the attributes of God. He knows the depths of God and in the persons of God as they communicate to one another. He knows fully what is consistent with the mind of the other persons of the Godhead. Here, talking about the Father. He uses an example, verse 11, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him?” He would know that. We’ll say to someone, a penny for your thoughts, because we can’t tell what they’re thinking. They have to tell us. And that’s the point here. “…Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”

I know what God the Father has revealed, through God the Spirit. But that’s the limitations of my knowledge. That’s why this is so important. God has revealed these truths to us. That’s why the devil is constantly trying to move us. Trying to move the church away from a serious focus on the word of God, the study of the word of God. Because you can’t know God apart from what He has revealed. You don’t go to the world to find this out. This is where the world got trapped in psychology and that. Well, we have truth out here, and all truth is God’s truth. It’s not truth that the unbeliever can find. You find that truth in the Word. So, what does that mean? Verse 12, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” That’s why we know and understand. That’s why men can become expert in languages. Spend their lives studying the scriptures, write books on it and be lost and without hope. Because if they’ve never trusted Christ, they can study language, they can study what’s written here, but they never really understand.

The greatest Greek scholar, New Testament Greek Scholar of the last generation, was an unregenerate man. He believed in universalism. He did not believe in the deity of Christ. But he’s written commentaries and he’s got insights into Greek and insights into culture. But he didn’t know, because he didn’t have the Spirit. How do you do that? We forget, and when these kinds of individuals, like we were talking about in Titus, infiltrate the church, it seems like, oh yeah, they know a lot. But wait, without the Spirit, they begin to pervert the truth. We know it, because the Spirit of God is within us. Now, He doesn’t reveal it to us apart from the word. He, the One who revealed the word, is now our teacher. It’s why 1 John says, you don’t have need for anyone to teach you, because you have the Holy Spirit, and He’s your teacher. Now he uses physical teachers in the church as He uses other gifts. But apart from the ministry of the Spirit, I can’t teach anyone anything. It’s only as He uses me, to communicate and explain. That’s the process that goes on. So, verse 14, “But a natural man (a soulish man) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them...” It takes the Spirit.

Come back to Romans 8. The Spirit knows all things. God has given us the Spirit. He intercedes on our behalf according to the will of God. He perfectly knows the depths of God. My life is nearing the closing end. I was blessed to come to know Christ young. I’ve been blessed to study the Word, to be taught the Word by godly people. To study it and teach it. And you know, you feel like you know so little. And we do, and we want to learn more. But the Spirit knows the depths of God. And He intercedes for me. He’s acting on my behalf and He’s praying for me according to the will of God, who is my heavenly Father, who works all things for my good. And the Spirit knows that. And He always prays for me according to the will of God. I want to pray diligently. I want people to pray for me diligently. But then I’m glad to know that it’s the Spirit, who’s going before the throne of God, interceding for me, and assures everything that gets there, is exactly as it should be, according to God’s will.

That’s why we can rest secure in difficulties, in trials, in temptations, sufferings. We don’t have time to look at all the passages. Like in James where Paul says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various kinds of trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” We want to grow stronger. Let’s pray. Thank You Lord, for the riches of Your word. Lord, what a salvation You’ve provided for us! We want to grow in understanding, grow in appreciation. And we are in awe of Your love, Your mercy, Your grace. We appreciate the ministry of the Spirit. Lord, He directs our attention to Christ and the salvation He provided. And Christ directs our attention to You. And Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all work in complete harmony. And we belong to You and we’re secure. That’s our confidence as Your children. We thank You, in Christ’s name. Amen.

Ok, a couple questions that I want to address. One I want to pick up came to me today as a matter of fact in an email. It was a comment and a question from outside our congregation, but I thought it applies to us and applies to all congregations. It has to do with Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, “…not forsaking our own assembling together...” If you want to turn there. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. Chapter 10, how does this fit? The government says we can’t meet together. I’m speaking to basically an empty auditorium. There are four people in an auditorium of two thousand seats, whatever. Are we disobeying scripture? Verse 25 of Hebrews 10 says, “…not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some…” Does that mean we’re disobeying the Lord when obeying government? We must obey God, rather than man, the disciples told the Jewish leaders when they tried to keep them from teaching the word.
Answer – I think context is crucial as always is. He had been talking about the high priestly ministry of Christ, down through verse 18 of chapter 10. He began that back at the beginning of chapter 5 of Hebrews. It’s about the high priestly ministry of Christ. And then like Paul does in his epistles whether Paul wrote this or not, there’s discussion but we’re not going there. But he picks up in verse 19, “Since therefore, brethren...” Now he’s going to talk about their behavior and their conduct. We have that in Titus, only he mixes it. He talks about their conduct, then he talks about the doctrine, then he talks about their conduct, then he talks about the doctrine. So here, he’s talking about the doctrine and the high priestly ministry of Christ. “Since therefore, brethren…” “Since…we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus…” He has opened access directly to the Father. We’ve been talking about prayer and the Holy Spirit representing us, but we have the privilege to come with confidence before God’s throne directly. Christ is our high priest. We are believer priests. We have confidence to enter the holy place and Christ made that possible. Verse 21, “…and since we have a great high priest over the house of God…” So those two “sinces” – we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Christ and He’s our high priest operating on our behalf. We saw that. He’s at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. He’s our high priest. The spiritual reality of what was pictured in the Old Testament. But that’s no longer operative. There’s no longer any high priest on earth. There are no longer individual priests that stand between us and God. So, since we have confidence to come before the throne directly, and since we have the great high priest that is required having offered the sacrifice that opens the way, he gives three instructions. “…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” Second one, verse 23, these are present tense subjunctives, that we are to be doing. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering…” And thirdly, “…and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds…” That means we are not to be “…forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some…” Now I think in the context here, and where he’s going, is there were some who had stopped getting together with the church when it met. And it seems in the context it has unbelievers in view. Note what he says in verse 26, that it begins with the preposition “for.” “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment...” In other words, if you refuse to believe in Christ there’s no place else to go. There’s one God and one Mediator between God and men. You choose to reject that one Mediator, the High Priest, who is over the house of God, who provides access to God, there’s no place else to go. There may be a hundred million options, but none of them are effective. There’s only one way. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” That’s the narrowness of Scripture. Some were abandoning what they professed to believe because of pressure and trial. So, he reminds them you got punished when you were under the Law of Moses for disobedience. How much greater do you think the punishment will be when you trample under foot the blood that the Son of God provided? His death on your behalf. That’s what it is to refuse to believe in Him. You’re treating it as of no value to you. You disregard it and you insult the Spirit of grace. The Spirit who is the One that Christ sent, remember, to earth to bring conviction. To bring the message of salvation. Verse 32, he reminds them, “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings…” You went through being made an object of reproach, persecution, and so on. And you even joined with those who had been in prison and you gladly went and visited with them. Verse 36, “For you have need of endurance...” You see what he’s doing? He reminds them of the options because some have opted out. Remember 1 John 2, verse 19, John wrote about the same thing. He said “They went out from us, but they were not really of us…” because “…if they had been of us, they would have remained with us…” He’s not just talking about leaving one believing church and going to another believing church. It’s those who decided they didn’t want to go any further. I started out, I thought it was good. Like the seed that fell on the shallow ground, sprouts up, but has no root. It withers under persecution, under trials, under difficulties. That’s what he’s talking about here. A warning! Are you that kind of person? Well, remember you endured. You have need of endurance. He’ll tell them in verse 32, “…you endured…” Then verse 36, “…you have need of endurance…” It’s not done. You did it because you realize there’s something better. You have something better. “…a better possession…” at the end of verse 34. Remember, Christ is coming back in a very little while. Verse 38, “But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him...” That’s good to start out, but if it’s real you can continue. The person who bails, that’s too much, that’s not where I’m going. We were talking about someone this afternoon with some people I was with. We were talking about someone we all know who has been in this congregation for years. They have gone so far away from truth, what do you say? It doesn’t matter where they were. True faith endures. “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” Verse 39.

I think what he’s talking about in verse 25, “not forsaking”, that would go with the “…hold fast…consider how to stimulate one another…” That’s part of that. But we’re not doing that, because we don’t want to get together as believers. Not because we don’t consider it important. There are times if half of our congregation got the virus that’s going around and were restricted to their home, we wouldn’t say, well, you’re forsaking the assembling together. We’d say, well, that’s not what your desire is. And I realize they say, will this get to a point? When we were in communist China many years ago, they had house churches because the government said you cannot meet together. Well, that’s something we have to do. We’re not able to do it because we’ll get arrested and put in prison, but we break the group down into mini-groups and we meet. And it’s somewhat secret. There comes a time when you obey God and not government. But on this, if they were just singling out the churches and told, we don’t allow churches to come together, we’d say, well, I’m sorry. We will. And we’d fight that. But for something like this, it’s true for restaurants. It’s true for businesses. We’d say it’s true for putting crowds together of any kind. Well then, we say, we’re not forsaking our assembling together as the writer to the Hebrews is warning about. Because it’s not important to you and you don’t care about other believers and you’re just running from any kind of identification as a believer to try to avoid the readiness to suffer. So, we’re willing to suffer for the gospel. To suffer for the truth as a church. But by the same token, as I’ve said, we obey other laws, fire codes, parking guidelines. We obey what they expect since we’re in a residential neighborhood, that there’s a limit on the kind of sign our church can put up. Quite frankly, I appreciate that, because I live in a residential neighborhood. I wouldn’t want a church putting up a huge billboard on the corner of my house, so I appreciate the restrictions. We honor those. So, to me the not assembling during this time is a general rule that encompasses all assemblies of any size. It’s not breaking that law. I think reading the overall context gives you an appreciation for what he’s talking about here. We assemble around the Word together, even though we are not together. Some churches don’t have that ability. They may join in with other church bodies at this time. But I don’t see this as under Hebrews 10:25. Again, if they selected churches out as some communist countries do, then we would have to break the law, because the law is subject to God’s law. This isn’t a binding like that so I’m comfortable that we’re doing what we should do as good citizens because this is good for the society. If we come together, get the virus, then we go out everywhere in the city and we may spread it. I can understand they don’t want that to happen. Just like they have closed other businesses and assemblies of large groups. So, I think we want to be careful we don’t just pull out a verse and then apply it to a situation it might not be applicable.

Let me do another question. I was asked a question about the soul. What is my definition? Would you please give me your definition of soul? If I was just going to give a basic definition, I’d say soul refers to the immaterial part of man. But I realize, that like any definition, there are facets of the definition. I think the inner part of a person, the immaterial part of a person, can be called soul, spirit, heart, mind, will, conscience. We want to be careful. A few weeks ago, I was reading in a theology journal. A person was trying to build a theology out of some of the distinctions of these words. I think we should be careful because they can be used interchangeably. So, we talk about the soul. We’re talking about the immaterial part of man, but it can be just used of a life. Like we do. The Titanic sank and 2000 souls perished. We’re not primarily talking about the immaterial part of them. We use that part to refer to the whole. So, I say I’m going to usually use it for the immaterial part of a person, but it can be used just of life. Maybe one reference on that is Matthew chapter 16 if you want a verse of Scripture. I sometimes do these because if I don’t, you’ll ask a second question, where did you get that in Scripture? Well, Matthew chapter 16. Jesus is talking about how you have to take up your cross, deny yourself, to follow Him. Verse 25, “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” And you look at the word translated life is the word soul. I think there He is using it in the sense of what we talked about just a little bit ago like in Hebrews. Believers wanting to avoid persecution, professing believers, for their life. “For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?” I don’t know if He’s talking about there, particularly the immaterial part, because He’s talking about in verse 24, taking up your cross and following Him and denying yourself. He’s talking about the cost that will be involved in this life in becoming a follower of Christ. Realize what will you have? A billionaire can have a dozen mansions. He’ll die like the poorest man on earth. And if he doesn’t have Christ, he will have nothing. You lose everything when you die. We joke, there’s no trailer behind a hearse and things like that. But it’s a reminder, naked we came in, naked we’re going out. I think that’s what Jesus is talking about. Count the cost. I’m telling you it’s going to be costly to be My disciple. But what will you have, if you don’t? He may be using soul and life interchangeably. We use it that way. I think sometimes it’s used in connection with the spirit. This attempt to divide the inner man, we can make distinctions. We can talk about the conscience and the conscience acts on the knowledge that it has and so on. And the mind and the will and the heart and the affections, but Jesus said out of the heart comes all kind of sinful actions in Mark 7. We’d say, well, the mind is real. It’s just not the affections. It’s the mind, our thinking is corrupted. In Jeremiah 17, we are told that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, and who can know it? Only the Lord knows it. “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind,” test your thinking. What’s your decisions? So, these can be used interchangeably in the inner man. It doesn’t mean there aren’t some distinctions that can be made, but we want to be careful. Sometimes you understand, the body without the spirit is dead. Well, sometimes they say, the unsaved man has a soul, but he doesn’t have a spirit. But when the Holy Spirit makes us new, then we have a spirit. Well, that’s not true because believers and unbelievers alike die, and it’s the body without the spirit. You have passages of Scripture where their spirit left them, the spirit came back to them. The spirit again is used of that immaterial part. That inner life that will never end, we’re eternal. When this physical body dies, that soul, spirit, inner person is alive, either in Hades, like the rich man in Hades in Luke 16, or the believer in heaven. So that’s eternal. Sometimes you could call it the soul, you could call it the spirit, it’s all that we are, that inner man, heart, mind, will, conscience. I just was trying to think of the different words that can be used interchangeably for the inner person. So, I think they can be used somewhat interchangeably but you can make some distinctions. But be careful about building a closed box for each one. The heart can only refer to affections. The mind can only refer to thinking. The heart, the mind, the will, well what’s the difference between the mind and the will? Well, my thoughts affect my actions, so my will is putting that into practice. But I thought that Jesus said it comes out of the heart. Well, maybe it starts…we can’t sort it out. Again, I don’t mind making distinctions of some kind, but we can’t make a fixed line.
All right let’s have a word of prayer. Thank You Lord, for the time together. We’re not together physically but we’re together as Your family of believers. Our hearts and minds are joined, and we are joined with You our heavenly Father. Lord, be with believers wherever they are, experiencing the same wonderous salvation, having the same Spirit of the living God indwelling each one of us individually and personally, and indwelling each individual congregation of believers wherever they are. Lord You are an awesome God! May that strengthen our confidence and resolve. The week before us, we don’t know what it holds, we don’t know what will unfold, but You do. You have prepared it. You’ve prepared the way for us. The Spirit who indwells us will provide the strength and grace, and He will represent us before Your throne for every need we might have. We commit our lives to You in Christ’s name. Amen.