"Grace for Waiting"
Romans 8:26-28
December 9,
2007
Is
God involved in your life? Is he personally and actively working for your good?
It
was about 15 years ago.
Ken had just begun attending our church but my first
conversation with him was when he called me one evening.
Ken told me he was struggling and wanted to know if I would meet with him.
I set an appointment for a couple of days later and then
prayed for him on the phone.
When
he sat down in my office the next week, I had no idea of the story he was about
to tell me.
Years earlier Ken had developed a serious drinking problem
and it was ruining his life.
His family was in shambles, his ability to work was compromised, and he seemed helpless to control his habit.
Talking
to a friend a couple of weeks earlier Ken was encouraged to attend Southern
Gables and to call me.
The friend wrote my phone number on a piece of paper and
handed it to Ken.
After that conversation, Ken laid the phone number on the table and forgot all about it.
Then
two weeks later Ken hit bottom emotionally.
After years of struggle, failure, and the discouragement of
his life, he had reached the conclusion that he couldn’t go on.
Sometime earlier he had purchased a handgun.
That night he got it out and loaded it.
Earlier
that evening he had purchased a bottle of alcohol.
He got the bottle and a glass and with the handgun he walked
to the table.
His intention was to drink himself into sufficient courage to commit suicide.
As he laid the gun on the table he noticed the piece of
paper, with the phone number, that he had laid their two weeks earlier.
Instead of picking up the glass, he picked up the phone and
called me.
When
I received his phone call that evening, I had no idea there were a bottle of
alcohol and a loaded revolver both waiting to be used.
After we prayed, Ken threw the alcohol out and returned the
pistol to its place.
·
Did chance have a
friend give Ken my phone number weeks earlier?
·
Was it chance that
had Ken lay the phone number on the table instead of throwing it away?
·
Was it chance that
had Ken lay the gun by the piece of paper?
·
Was it chance that
had me immediately available to speak to Ken when he called?
·
Was it chance or was
it God?
Is
God personally active in your life?
When
everything is going well in our lives, it is very easy for us to say, "God
is good".
It is easy to believe that God is personally smiling down on
us.
But
what about when we encounter the truly hard times of life?
Are we then so certain that God is acting on our behalf?
I
remember a young woman looking at me with tears filling her eyes as she said,
"I don't know if I can stand it anymore."
In her case it was physical suffering - she was afraid that
she'd finally crack and that she'd join Job's wife, desiring to finally curse
God and die.
"I
don't know if I can stand it anymore" is a statement that is made in the
minds of many Christians:
A wife in a painful marriage; A child or young person after
years of insecurity in a breaking or broken home; Or a man or woman without
work and losing confidence in him or herself.
The
Christians in Rome, to whom the Apostle Paul was writing, apparently had had it
very rough.
Their suffering, like ours, was not only suffering for their
faith but also suffering for just being part of the human race.
Suffering job losses, physical illness, and families that
self-destruct, and the ever-present suffering that comes from being sinful
people - deeply disappointed even in ourselves.
In the 8th chapter of Romans, Paul writes to encourage those Christians.
Romans 8:15-30 “For you did not receive a spirit that
makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by
him we cry, “Abba,Father.” 16
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then
we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his
sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I
consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed in us.
19 The creation waits in
eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was
subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who
subjected it, in hope 21
that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and
brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time. 23 Not only
so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as
we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were
saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already
has? 25 But if we hope for
what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same
way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray
for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s
will. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers. 30
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified;
those he justified, he also glorified.
In these verses Paul
writes:
·
(15-16) By grace
through faith in Christ we have been adopted into God’s family, we are his
children.
·
(17) As God’s
children we are co-heirs with Christ of a future of experiencing and reflecting
the glory of God.
·
(21) That future will
be lived in resurrected bodies on the new earth.
·
(25) Because that is
our certain future, we are called to wait patiently for it.
But waiting is not our strong suit.
Especially when the present overwhelms us.
These are Christians who look
forward to that promised future but don’t know how they can manage in the mean
time.
And
so in our text for today, we are told what God is doing right now that
encourages us and even enables us live patiently and fruitfully.
As we read just a minute ago: Romans
8:26-28 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know
what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans
that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. 28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose.
The
phrase, “in the same way,” is a word that can also be translated “so also,”
“likewise,” or “similarly.”
Not only, as we saw earlier, does God give us a certain hope
of the future, but “so also,” or “likewise,” or “similarly,” or “in the same
way” he gives us further encouragement.
Remember
the question with which I began? - Is God personally and actively involved in
your life?
Paul
says, “Let me tell you what God is doing in our lives right now!”
To
help us look at these verses. I want to look at them in two parts:
1. Our problem
2. God’s provision
I. First, our problem:
Paul
describes the problem in two ways:
Verse 26: As
"our weakness and that "We do
not know what we ought to pray for"
The word "weakness" is the opposite of "strength" and refers to our inability.
I love the story Jim Dobson told years ago about his then three-year-old son Ryan.
Ryan was hanging helplessly off the back of a truck
muttering to himself "Somebody help the boy - won't somebody help the
boy?"
He recognized his inability, his weakness.
Spiritually
speaking, we are little children in a strong man's world.
Ephesians 6 says "Our struggle is not against flesh and
blood but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil..."
And these forces are far superior to any of us, and all of us.
Martin Luther got it right in his famous hymn:
"This world with devils filled is threatening to
undo us, were not the right Man on our side our striving would be
losing."
But not only are we weak compared to forces outside of ourselves, we also know our internal weaknesses.
Romans 7 struck a chord with all of us - we recognize that
we struggle with ourselves - we often seem weak in the face of our sinful
tendencies.
When attack comes, when the enemy strikes against our souls,
when we face temptations, when severe difficulties come into our lives, the
truth is we are weak.
But
notice how Paul also describes our problem:
"We do not know what we ought to pray for"
Our weakness affects even our prayers.
Life
can be so confusing that we don't even know what to ask of God.
Or we are so discouraged that we don't even pray - just
emotionally out of gas.
And
even when we do pray, our prayers need correcting to be what they ought to be.
We ask too often out of mixed motives, or worse, wrong
motives.
James 4:3 “When
you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may
spend what you get on your pleasures.”
But look at God’s solution to our weakness and ignorant prayers:
In
verse 26 it is stated in general terms as simply "The Spirit helps
us..."
The word "help" means in the Bible just what it
means to us: To take part in someone's burden, to take hold of something with
someone.
We have the problem, we are carrying the burden and the Spirit comes alongside and takes hold of it with us.
He shares the weight, the burden, or the pain.
When
our weakness and inability leaves us in jeopardy - the Spirit helps.
When I was very young I followed my brother to the swimming
hole in the River. Because I couldn’t
yet swim, I was in the shallow part and he went to the deep end.
When I wanted to leave I went to the deep part to get him
and one of the other boys pushed me in.
Just as my brother was running to dive into the water, out
of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw me falling into the deep water.
He swam to me and pulled me out.
That may be a homely illustration but it certainly describes
weakness, inability and help.
When we are weak, when we are unable, the Spirit's promise
is that he helps us.
How he helps us and what the results
of his help are will be seen more clearly in the rest of this verse and the
next verses.
So
how does the Spirit help?
"The Spirit intercedes for us."
Again
this word meant to the Romans what it means to us:
It means to ask on someone else’s behalf.
To go in their place and make requests for them.
But
there are some very special aspects of this intercession.
First
of all he intercedes for us in a way “that words cannot express.”
This doesn’t mean a private language; it means no language.
It is not words of a peculiar kind but non-verbal communication between the Spirit and the Father.
Secondly,
he “intercedes for us with
groans…”
God, the Holy Spirit, is not a mechanical robot - an
unfeeling, spiritual machine.
He intercedes with "groans".
In his intercession for us - he feels what we feel.
In
his book entitled "A Tearful Celebration", Dr. Jim Means, of our
church, described the ordeal of his first wife Norma's cancer.
He wrote, "There is the vivid image of hospital
corridor. A year and a half after the
first surgery, the cancer had spread to the spine and Norma was having trouble
walking because of the pain.
“One day when I was leaving her room she insisted on walking
me part way to the elevator.
“After she turned to head back to her room, I went on but
then turned to see her leaning against the wall for support as she limped in
agony back to that room."
Then Jim writes, "I ached for her".
The Holy Spirit of God aches for us no less.
We hear God’s compassion in these examples:
·
In Hebrews 4:15 We have a high priest who is able to
“sympathize with our weaknesses.”
·
In Luke 23:34 Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they
do not know what they are doing.”
·
We see his compassion
again in Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I
have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, but you were not willing.
It is in our weakness that the Holy Spirit of God tenderly, with groans, with sympathetic care, begins to intercede for us.
However, not only does the Holy Spirit tenderly intercede for us, but he also asks on our behalf for exactly what we need.
When you are in your weakness, when you are too far down
emotionally to even know what to pray - Know this:
The Holy Spirit is praying for you - asking for exactly what
you need.
Look at Verse 27: “And he (God the Father) who searches our hearts knows the
mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance
with God’s will.”
The
God who knows even our thoughts and intentions surely knows the mind of his own
Spirit.
Especially when you consider that the Spirit intercedes in
ways wholly consistent with the will of God.
One commentator expressed it this
way: “Our failure to know God’s will and consequent inability to petition God
specifically and assuredly is met by God’s Spirit, who himself expresses to God
those intercessory petitions that perfectly match the will of God.” (Moo, NICNT, 526)
The
Spirit of God, with immediate awareness of our situations, and with deep
compassion, is personally interceding for us every day in the specific ways
that fit God’s will for us precisely.
Christian, even when it is darkest, know that you never walk
alone!
And what is the result of that personal intervention by the Spirit of God?
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
That may be one of the
most well-known promises in all of Scripture.
We
love it, but what does it mean?
First
of all what are the “all things?”
“All things” certainly includes the “sufferings” already
spoken of earlier in the chapter, but it also includes every circumstance of
life.
These are not just the good things but also the hard things, even the bad things.
The late English journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge wrote,
“Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the
time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed,
I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my
seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and
enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through
happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other words, if it ever were to be
possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some
drug or other medical mumbo jumbo . . . the result would not be to make life
delectable, but to make it too banal or trivial to be endurable. This of course
is what the cross [of Christ] signifies, and it is the cross more than anything
else, that has called me inexorably to Christ. (Malcolm Muggeridge, Homemade, July, 1990)
Secondly,
what or who is working?
Is it chance or is it God?
If
we read only the King James Version of the Bible we might think that it is just
a natural outcome of all things working together.
KJV “And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
While
that is a perfectly acceptable translation, it is more helpful to see the NIV
or NASB translations where it is more explicitly God who is making or causing
all things to do what he intends.
NIV “And
we know that in all things God works for the good
NASB “And we know that God causes
all things to work together for good…
In all translations the idea is not that everything that happens is good, we know that is not true, but that God uses all things to bring good.
One man wrote, “All things work
together for good for the saints because God presses them into His service. God
uses every event of our lives for the express good of his people.” “Paul is not talking about some sort of
general principle of the universe. You know, when our football coaches tell us
it takes the hard times to make the good times, no pain, no gain; that’s not
what Paul is saying. He is not saying, "You know, going through suffering
makes you a better person." It’s far grander than that. It’s far more
purposeful. This is not just a mechanistic principle in the universe. This is a
specific activity of the sovereign God on behalf of His children whom He has
drawn into a saving relationship. By Max Forsyth http://www.fpcjackson.org/resources/sermons/romans/romansvol3to4/28bRomans8.28to30.htm
This
is about the providence of God.
“The providence of God is his completely holy, wise and
powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English)
God’s
promise is that right now he is using every circumstance of life to accomplish
his good purposes in us and for us.
Fourthly,
I want you to notice that this promise is for specific people:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose
There
are those who say, “Oh, it will all work out in the end.”
For many people that is not true!
In the end, for many, it won’t work out:
Hebrews 5:27 “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
The
stupendous promise of Romans 8:28 is for God’s people!
And
who are God’s people?
Remember the old negro spiritual “Going to Shout All Over
God’s Heaven?”
One line in it captures an important truth: “Ev’rybody
talkin’ ‘bout Heav’n ain’t goin’ there.”
Not everyone who
claims to be a Christian is a Christian.
Christians are those who have turned to
Christ, and in trust and obedience desire him more than anything this life has
to offer.
One man has grasped
this well when he writes, “Love for God is valuing God and prizing
God and revering God and admiring God beyond his gifts. All
these words are grasping for that essential response of the heart to the
revelation of the glory of God, especially in Christ through the gospel. It is
a glad reflex of the heart to all that God is for us in Christ.” Piper, “All things for Good” Part 1
But
our text further defines the person for whom this is a promise: It is those “who have been called according to his purpose.”
Verse 29 will help us understand this:
Romans 8:29 “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed
to the likeness of his Son…”
God has brought us into a relationship with himself for the express purpose of us reflecting and experiencing the glorious perfections of God.
The
promise of verse 28 is for all true Christians who do love God, though not yet
perfectly, and who are called to be more like Jesus.
I want to give you a biblical example of the kind of “behind the scenes” working of God in our lives.
In the opening of the book of Exodus, Moses condenses 500 or
more years of history into one short chapter to demonstrate what becomes so
easily obscured by our shortsightedness.
·
In
Canaan, a much-loved son, Joseph, is separated from his father and sold to
slave traders by his own brothers.
·
Joseph’s
slavery turns to a privileged place in Egypt,
but then prison, and then privilege once again.
·
A
famine threatens the lives of his family back in Canaan.
·
But then
the family is saved by Joseph’s position in Egypt.
It is then that we read Joseph’s
prescient understanding of Romans 8:28: “You intended to harm me, but God
intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done
·
Over a
period of 400 years the now huge family’s privileged place in Egypt turned to
slavery.
·
And
then the cruelest time of all, the slaughter of their newborn sons.
But what was happening through it
all?
God has been in charge all the time,
working his plan for the salvation of the world.
The very river that was supposed to
kill the Israelite babies became the river that floated their deliverer, Moses,
right into the Pharaoh’s own house.
And the rest is, as we say,
“history.”
I suppose we could
misunderstand and conclude that we are nothing or that we are mere pawns on a
great chessboard controlled by God.
But what we see is that God is in control of every detail of life because of his love for us.
God sees far
beyond the 15 minutes that someone might live, or the years of suffering someone
else might experience.
God is controlling the immediate circumstances and setting things up for the future.
Oh the matchless wisdom of a God who can work “all things
together for good” for his glory and therefore the welfare of his people
forever.
Christian,
you are not on your own.
God’s Spirit, who knows your smallest and
greatest needs, is interceding for you with requests that perfectly match God’s
good will for you.
And God is working in
every detail of life to bring about his purposes, which in his grace
includes us.
Tony Dungy
is the coach of the Superbowl champion Indianapolis Colts.
On Wednesday, I received a copy of his book entitled Quiet
Strength.
I have read many
times that Dungy is a faithful Christian and so I was interested in his story.
Having
forgotten about his teenaged son’s death, I expected the book to be another
rags to riches, obscurity to fame, story like so many others.
But as I read, I realized that in spite of his high profile position, here was a man who faced and faces what we all face – the loss of a job, separation from his family, deep disappointments, betrayals, and great loss.
In the midst of a
high-pressure job, his mother died and then his father died in 2004.
But the worst was when he received a phone call in the middle of the night less than a year ago, on December 22.
It took a few
minutes before the nurses words sunk in, his 17 year old son Jamie was dead.
Dungy
wrote, “It wasn’t until days late, when I was standing over Jamie’s casket and
preparing for the visitation, that it really started to sink in and become
real. (In this life), I’m never going
to see him again.” (Dungy, Quite Strenght, 249)
Two years
earlier, Dungy’s quarterback, Trent Dilfer, lost his five year old son.
When Dungy, at that time, told Dilfer that he didn’t know if he could handle such a tragedy, Dilfer told him, “You could Coach, if you had to. The Lord will give you the strength at that time, because you can’t do it alone.
Dungy then
writes, “Now facing my own tragedy, I knew I needed to accept the truth that
God’s love and power were sufficient. If I really believed it, I needed to use
this personal and painful time to validate that belief. God would work for the
good of those who love him, even if we didn’t understand how he was going to do
it...” (ibid, 261)
“Why do bad things happen? I don’t know. Why did Jamie die?
I don’t know. But I do know that God has the answers, I know that he loves me
and I know he has a plan – whether it makes sense to me or not.” (Ibid 261)
At the funeral
service, Tony Dungy stood before a crowd of people and said, “What’s kept our
family going these last couple of days is what we believe, and we believe God
when He says that he works all things for good for those who love the Lord.
It’s hard to accept because we can’t see it, but we have to believe it.” (ibid, 254)
I began with a
story today wherein the “good” unfolded in a few weeks.
I told another from Exodus that unfolded over 500 years.
I could tell you other stories that demonstrate God’s use of myriad circumstances over a long period of time to bring about a “good” end. We love those stories, as well we should.
But I have
also told you briefly the story of Tony Dungy, whose son is dead.
I could tell you of John the Baptist who was beheaded,
the story of Jeremiah who died in exile,
of Peter who was crucified upside down,.
And I could tell you stories of the faithful saints through
the ages who lived out their lives on earth in seeming obscurity, afflicted
with many of the miseries of this life BUT faithful to God.
As
difficult as our lives may be or as incidental as they may seem, they are
planned by a sovereign, benevolent God
We are the objects of his love but we must see that love from the perspective of eternity, not just from the perspective of our present circumstances.
God
says that he is at work even now, in your life and mine:
Romans 8:26-28 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in
our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches
our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the
saints in accordance with God’s will. 28 And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose.
Linda Dillow - Calm
My Anxious Heart
"We say we want more faith but really what we want is sight.
Sight says I see that it's good for me, so God must have sent it. But,
faith says God sent it so it must be good for me."
The
Christian understands the word
"good" in another sense. By "good," he understands spiritual
good. "Ah!" saith he, "I do not call gold good, but I call
faith good! I do not think it always for my good to increase in treasure, but I
know it is good to grow in grace. I do not know that it is for my good that I
should be respectable and walk in good society; but I know that it is for my
good that I should walk humbly with my God. I do not know that it is for my
good that my children should be about me, like olive branches round my table,
but I know that it is for my good that I should flourish in the courts of my
God, and that I should be the means of winning souls from going down into the
pit. I am not certain that it is altogether for my good to have kind and
generous friends, with whom I may hold fellowship; but I know that it is for my
good that I should hold fellowship with Christ, that I should have communion
with him, even though it should be in his sufferings. I know it is good for me
that my faith, my love, my every grace should grow and increase, and that I
should be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and
Master." Well, Christian, thou hast got upon the meaning of the text,
then. "All things work together," for that kind of good to God's
people. "Well!" says one, "I don't think anything of that,
then." No, perhaps thou dost not; it is not very likely swine should ever
lift their heads from their troughs to think aught of stars. I do not much
wonder that thou shouldst despise spiritual good, for thou art yet "in the
gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity;" a stranger to spiritual
things, and let thy despising of spiritual things teach thee that thou art not spiritual,
and therefore thou canst not understand the spiritual, because it must be
spiritually discerned. To the Christian, however, the highest good he can
receive on earth is to grow in grace. "There!" he says, "I had
rather be a bankrupt in business than I would be a bankrupt in grace; let my
fortune be decreased—better that, than that I should backslide; there! let thy
waves and thy billows roll over me—better an ocean of trouble than a drop of
sin, I would rather have thy rod a thousand times upon my shoulders, O my God,
than I would once put out my hand to touch that which is forbidden, or allow my
foot to run in the way of gainsayers." The highest good a Christian has
here is good spiritual.
Spurgeon, October 18, 1857 “The True Christian’s Blessedness” http://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/0159.htm