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Romans 8:26-2, 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 with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
I had a professor in seminary refer to the big theological terms as “sixteen-cylinder” words. Are you familiar with the sixteen-cylinder theological term “Pneumatology?” You men may have some pneumatic tools in your arsenal. Pneumatic drills, hammers, saws, grinders. To use any of these tools you need a compressor that sends air through a hose to the tool. If you don’t have a compressor the tool is useless. Be careful – they can be dangerous. One time I was talking with some workers who’d been putting on a roof using pneumatic hammers. The compressor was turned off so one guy, trying to be funny, made believe he was going to shoot me with his hammer. He didn’t realize there was still air pressure in the hose, so when he pulled the trigger, a nail came flying out. Thankfully he had moved the hammer away from me or that nail may have lodged in me somewhere!
In the Bible the Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, which has the idea of breath or wind. So “Pneumatology” is the theological term for the study of the Holy Spirit. And like that compressor driving a pneumatic hammer, the Spirit of God drives our Christian lives. You can’t live the Christian life without the power of the Spirit in your life any more than you can use a pneumatic tool without a compressor.
This is why Jesus in the upper room in John 14-16 emphasized the importance of the Spirit. He repeatedly assured the disciples, “I will ask the Father and He will send you the Helper, the Holy Spirit.” Helper is parakletos, meaning one called alongside to help. Jesus also called Him the Spirit of Truth. You cannot understand God’s Word without the Spirit illuminating your heart to the Word. You can’t become a Christian or live the Christian life without the help and truth from the Holy Spirit. We need a high view of the Spirit of God, especially His work in the life of a believer.
PNEUMATOLOGY IN ROMANS 8
We’ve spent several weeks in Romans 8. Up to verses 26-27 Paul has referred to the Holy Spirit 18 or 19 times. He has given us a course in Pneumatology right here.
Verse 2 – The Spirit gives us new life in Christ, or regeneration.
Verse 4 – The Spirit enables us to fulfill righteousness. He is the power in our sanctification.
Verse 6 – The Spirit gives us life and peace.
Verse 9 – The Spirit dwells in every believer. If you don’t have the Spirit, you aren’t a Christian.
Verse 11 – The Spirit guarantees our resurrection.
Verse 13 – The Spirit leads us to mortify or put to death sinful deeds of the body.
Verses 14-16 – The Spirit assures us of our adoption as God’s children.
Verse 23 – The Spirit is the first fruits of our final redemption. Second Corinthians 1:22 says He is our down payment of our coming glory.
And now, in verses 26-27, the Spirit helps us in our spiritual weakness. These are the last references to the Spirit in Romans 8 and these two verses are most encouraging. You cannot live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit, any more than you can use pneumatic tools without a compressor. Let’s look at three encouraging truths in verses 26-27 about how much you need the ministry of the Spirit of God every moment of every day until you reach your coming glory.
YOU NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT BECAUSE OF YOUR WEAKNESS
Romans 8:26, In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness…
The word “weak” speaks of all kinds of spiritual inadequacies and lacking strength. As long as we are in this world in these dying bodies, we are weak. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus as our High Priest understands our weaknesses, our frailties, our feebleness. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Jesus promises that His power is made perfect in our weakness. Paul even says, “Most gladly I will boast in my weaknesses, that Christ’s power might dwell in me.”
How are we weak? Certainly in prayer. But we are also weak in fighting sin, enduring trials and troubles, in grasping truth, in serving others, in forgiving others, and in taking up our cross and following Christ. We need the Spirit’s help. When we see how weak we really are, we have no room for arrogance, pride, or self-importance. And we realize how dependent we are on the Spirit. Calvin says we can’t complain our burden is too heavy because we are sustained by a celestial power!
God’s people have always been weak. God’s work doesn’t make progress through our strength and greatness. God uses weak people to show Himself strong. The Red Sea didn’t open because Moses was so powerful. Jericho didn’t fall because the Israelite army so mightily marched around it. Gideon didn’t conquer the Midianites because of his military genius. David didn’t kill Goliath in his own strength. He assured the giant, “The battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hand.” Samson wasn’t naturally strong, right? Without his hair he was a weakling.
We are weak. Isaiah 40:7 says we’re like grass and flowers. God blows on us and we are gone! It’s all about God and His power, and He gets all the glory! Who do we think we are? We are so utterly dependent on God’s moment by moment strength. Sometimes we talk about spiritual giants or “great men of God.” There really aren’t any “great men of God.” There are only weak men and women who serve a great God. God has greatly used men like Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon, MacArthur, men we highly esteem, but every one of them would be quick to confess their weakness, along with the apostle Paul! “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.”
Left to ourselves we would always be in trouble. Knowing that we are weak and totally dependent on God’s Spirit to help us is so encouraging to me, who knows my spiritual weakness more than anyone. My weekly prayer in preparing for a sermon is, “Lord, I need your help, big time.” If God does anything through us, it is God, not us. Any eternal good through us is God’s work. He gets all the glory all the time. “To God be the glory, great things He has done!”
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. The word “help” is another seven-syllable word: sun-an-ti-lam-ban-e-tai. (Does anyone remember what a poly-syllabic word is called?) It means to come alongside someone who is trying to carry a huge burden and taking the other end and helping him. Here’s a guy trying to carry a table or long bench when along comes a much bigger guy who takes up the other end and they easily carry it away. That’s the ministry of the Spirit, taking up our burdens with us and helping us carry them. The only other time it is used in the New Testament is in Luke 10:40 when Martha, in the kitchen all beside herself rattling those pots and pans, calls out and scolds Jesus, “Don’t you care I’ve got to do all this serving alone? Tell my sister to get in here to help me.” She wanted Mary to help her carry the cooking burden.
Notice the Spirit helps our weakness. The Spirit doesn’t do it for us. He helps us. He strengthens us to do what God calls us to do. It’s never “Let go and let God.” Spurgeon compares it to a father teaching his son to pull a bow and shoot an arrow. The father’s hands are over the son’s hands; together they bend that bow and shoot the arrow right into the bull’s eye. That’s the Spirit helping our weakness.
A. W. Pink in his excellent book on the Holy Spirit, has some wonderful things to say about the Spirit’s helping us. He asks, “Why has not your many infirmities annihilated your faith or extinguished your hope? The answer is because the blessed Spirit silently, invisibly, yet sympathetically and effectively helped you. We are not left alone to endure our infirmities; we have a Helper, a Divine Helper; One not far off, but with us; nay, in us. The Spirit supports our poor hearts and keeps grace alive within us.” The Spirit helps our weakness.
YOU NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT TO HELP YOU PRAY
Romans 8:26, 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 with groanings too deep for words;
I’m guessing the thing you struggle with most in your Christian life is your praying. You probably don’t claim the title “prayer warrior.” Prayer is so important in our walk with God. We need to pray without ceasing, and yet we often don’t pray or don’t know what to pray. We feel weak, cold, and ignorant in praying. Paul tells here in verse 26 that we don’t know how to pray as we should. Sometimes we are so perplexed, so torn up, or so cold that we can’t gather our thoughts and our prayers tend to be self-centered. “Gimme, gimme” or “Get me, get me.” “Lord, change this horrible person at work who is getting on my nerves.” “Lord, change my husband, he’s getting on my nerves too.” Or “Lord, get me a wife, or a new job.” Missionary C. T. Studd asked God for a wife. When he met her, she didn’t want to marry him. He told her, “You have neither the mind of God nor the will of God in this matter, but I have. And I intend to marry you whether you will or not, so you’d better make up your mind and accept the situation.”
We typically pray for God to change our circumstances or the people in our lives, whereas God is interested in changing us to handle the circumstances in our lives. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul prayed three times for God to remove that thorn, whatever it was. It may have been a particular person causing him grief.
2 Corinthians 12:8-9, Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
I love that. God’s strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. And when we just don’t have the words to pray because something is going on that’s causing us inner turmoil and all we’ve got is groaning, the Spirit intercedes for us. We may try to utter our prayers and we just don’t know what to say, we know the Spirit helps us and is interceding to the Father for us. Some commentators say these groanings are the Spirit’s groaning. Others say the groanings are ours. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is horrified at the thought of the Spirit of God groaning. “God doesn’t groan,” he says. Which is it? We’ve seen the creation groaning in this fallen world and believers groan in verse 23 under the curse of sin in these bodies. In Psalm 5:1 David cries out to God, “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my groaning.” As we groan with the burdens of our weaknesses, the Spirit helps us and intercedes for us.
And not only the Spirit, but we’ll see in verse 34 the Son at God’s right hand is interceding for us! We are well represented before our heavenly Father – the Spirit interceding down here and our Savior interceding up there, and both for us! What a privilege to be so well represented by both the Spirit and the Son before the Father’s throne! By the way, interceding is in the present tense, so the Spirit is always interceding for us.
This doesn’t mean we don’t need to pray. We are commanded to pray, and God’s ears are open to our prayers. Praying is a mark of a true believer. But God is encouraging us here. Don’t worry if you don’t know what to pray or if you can only groan in your spirit. The Spirit in us takes our inexpressible thoughts – too deep for words – and intercedes for us to the Father. We don’t need flowery prayers or long prayers. The Pharisees prayed to be noticed by men, praying long prayers. Many of my prayers are “flare prayers” like Nehemiah prayed. “He prayed to God and said to the king.” We’re to pray without ceasing and Romans 12:12 says be instant in prayer, quick to pray. In Luke 18:1 Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to lose heart! So, the Spirit’s interceding doesn’t remove our responsibility to pray!
YOU NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT TO KEEP YOU IN GOD’S WILL
Romans 8:27, and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Who is searching your heart right now? The Father is. Jeremiah 17:9, “I the Lord search the hearts.” He knows exactly what we are thinking, what we are wanting. First Peter 3:7 indicates God knows exactly what’s going on in your marriage, men. If you aren’t trying to understand your wife or not listening to her and not treating her with honor, God says I’m not listening to your prayers. “That your prayers are not hindered or cut off.” He’s saying, “If you’re not listening to her, I’m not listening to you.”
So, does the Father know you? Absolutely. He’s searching your heart right now. No one else knows what’s going on in your inner thinking, but God does. If you’re not a believer in Christ, that’s scary. God knows your sin and pride and lust and love of self and money and pleasure. He knows your great guilt, and yet offers you full, free forgiveness and eternal life through His Son. Why would you not right now bow your heart and receive Christ as your God and Savior? You can’t hide from Him.
But for believers, God is our Father, we’re His adopted children. He loves us and knows exactly what we’re dealing with – our temptations, fears, hopes, discouragements, and sense of weakness. He knows if you’re struggling with lust or jealousy or resentment. He knows your hope that your children or grandchildren will come to Christ. He knows what’s troubling you even if you don’t know.
But notice, the Father knows what the Spirit is thinking, and you’ve got the Spirit living right inside you! And the Spirit is God also. So, there is perfect harmony between the Spirit in you and the Father on His sovereign throne. What does the Spirit do? The Spirit knows our groanings and spiritual needs and He edits our prayers as they head to the Father. The Spirit is your PRAYER EDITOR. You pray for healing and the Spirit knows what God’s will is, so He edits your prayer that you will glorify God in your sickness and pain. We pray for stuff that will make our lives easier, and the Spirit, knowing what God’s will is, prays that we grow and become more like Christ. He prays that God will give us the grace and strength to handle the trial and grow the fruit of the Spirit through it. We pray, “God, get the heat off,” and the Spirit edits, “He’s too proud, he needs someone to offend him so he’ll learn humility.”
“I just don’t know how to pray about this issue.” Don’t worry about it. The Spirit does and that’s what really matters. We don’t know what God’s will is, but the Spirit does. We do know that God causes every circumstance in our lives to work together for good to fulfill His purpose, which we’ll learn about next week in Romans 8:28.
I remember sitting at a conference in Orlando in June 2000, when R. C. Sproul announced that his good friend Jim Boice had gone to be with the Lord. Jim was 61 and had come down with liver cancer. Pastor Boice asked his congregation to pray for wisdom for his doctors, but then he said, “Above all, I would say, pray for the glory of God. If you think of God glorifying himself in history and you say, where in all of history has God most glorified Himself? He did it at the cross of Jesus Christ, and it wasn’t by delivering Jesus from the cross, though he could have.” We should always pray that God would be glorified in our lives, whatever we’re going through.
SO WHAT?
People, we are weak, every one of us. If the great apostle Paul was weak, so are we. And often we don’t know what to pray for. But the Spirit helps us and edits our prayers according to God’s will. And most of all, we can pray that God be glorified, whatever our struggles and troubles may be.
Pray that God would use us in this Genesis 3 world to bring Him glory until we come into that future glory which we are eagerly anticipating. In the meantime, be sure to take some time to pray about everything in your life. Use your Bible to help you pray. Meditate on a Psalm and then turn it into prayer. Or take the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for prayer. Join others in corporate prayer on the last Sunday evening in the month. Don’t worry about being a great “pray-er.” There are none. No one is put on the spot. Praying is voluntary. And we’re not there to impress others with our praying; we just bring our weakness to God confident the Spirit makes intercession for us according to God’s will.
Are you aware of your spiritual weakness? Are you aware that you can’t possibly live your Christian life without the help of the indwelling Spirit, the Helper Christ promised there in the upper room? Do the words “I need Thee every hour, most precious Lord” resonate in your heart?