Please be seated. Well, if you would turn with me and your copies of God's word to Romans chapter eight, we're considering verses 15 through 27 of that great chapter, that great chapter of the Holy Spirit. And this will be my final chapel message to the student body. You have been precious to me, and I have been so thankful to labor with God's word among you all. And I'm thankful for this this final opportunity. Even as I say that, it might come as a bit of an anticlimax that we're just going to be talking about prayer and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in prayer. And yet, joyfully, that's not an anticlimax at all. We're focusing on the ordinary means that the Lord has given us. And one of the persons of the Trinity who is often referred to as the forgotten member of the Trinity, as we consider the Holy Spirit's ministry to us in prayer. Let's give attention to Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 15. reading through 27. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. That the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with cronings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Sends the reading of God's word would he bless it to not only the reading but also the preaching this day. Well, have you ever been in a conversation when someone else is talking, and not about you, and the words that they're saying are causing you embarrassment? And you want to revise their words for them as they're coming out of their mouths, right? We do this with our spouses, perhaps, especially, oh, what he really means to say. or what she's trying to say. We try to revise it for the other person to kind of modify the embarrassment. We also experience this with children, perhaps most especially and most acutely, the things that come out of kids' mouths. I remember one of my daughters, when she was quite young, she asked a relative about an outfit that the relative was wearing. What are you wearing? And the relative said, oh, it's a sweater. And she said, yeah, it's ugly. What do you do with that? How do you modify those words that have just come out of a little one's mouth? And you just stand in awe and kind of embarrassment. Well, the Holy Spirit isn't embarrassed by the words that we say and the words that we pray, but the Spirit does minister to us in our prayers, leading us, guiding us to pray in accord with the revealed will of Christ and ministering to us in our groaning and in our agony and suffering that we would pray in accord with the will of the Spirit. And so we will consider very simply this morning that the Holy Spirit ministers to you in prayer, and so therefore pray in the Spirit. Well, first, you cannot pray but by the Holy Spirit. We see in verse 15, and it's an element that we miss as we first read verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Do you see that? That we cannot even cry, Abba, Father, but by the Holy Spirit, who is referred to as the Spirit of adoption, and by whom we cry, that trying out is prayer itself. It is the idea of, of course, praying in the Spirit, and praying according to this Spirit of adoption. We need the Spirit's work in our life, if we're to even pray at all. As Zechariah 12, verse 10 says of the Holy Spirit, I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication. Do you hear that? He is the spirit of supplication. That's who He is. That's who He's known as. He is the spirit of prayer. We need the Holy Spirit to even be able to pray. And yet, the natural man has a notion of prayer, does he not? The man devoid of the Spirit. Oh, my thoughts and prayers go out to you, people will say. I never know how to respond to that. I don't want their prayers going out to me. No, no. May your prayers go out to the Lord. Or even the natural man devoid of the Spirit, the pagan, prays in mindless repetition. But it's not prayer. It's not truly communing with the Father. The Spirit is the one who enables us to sincerely pray. It is the work of the Spirit by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Next, He bears with us in our weakness, even as we pray. The main focus of our message here this morning really is verses 26 and 27. Look again at verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. And I'll pause there. It's one thing to say that we can't pray by the Holy Spirit. In fact, that's plenty. We can't even pray but by the work of the Holy Spirit. That's an altogether different thing to say that we don't know what to pray and how to pray. apart from the Holy Spirit. We desperately need his ministry in our lives. He restrains us to pray that we would pray according to the will of Christ. He's inspired his scriptures that he has given us a rule and a guide and inscripturated prayers in this holy text by which he leads us according to prayer, apart from which we'd have no direction in prayer. We'd just be fumbling around. Even as he records particular prayers in the scriptures, that doesn't mean that we just say them in vain repetition and don't pray in the Spirit. I remember as a young man going over to my family's house, my extended family's house, and they would pray before every meal the exact same words. Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen. And if the food was particularly hot, they'd pray it particularly quickly so that they could get to the food. It was just a vain repetition, a mindless saying of words, of praying our prayers. And that is not what we are called to hear in prayer. Prayer requires great mental energy and praying in the Spirit as we see in this context. It's a context of suffering and agony and difficulty and groaning. Did you see that as we were reading? In verse 17, the context, we are heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him. And then verse 18, I consider the present sufferings not worth comparing. In verse 23, we're like the creation, groaning inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. This is a context of suffering, a context of struggle, a context of difficulty. And it is only by the ministry of the spirit of comfort that we can know his ministry of comfort in our suffering. No one wants to suffer and experience this. Well, we wouldn't wish this upon our worst enemies, this type of groaning and this agony. And yet, friends, if you know the comfort of the spirit in your sufferings and in your agonies, you know that it is a ministry of the spirit you cannot know apart from suffering. As Psalm 107 says, we behold his wonderful deeds from the deep. There are deeds that we can only know from the deep, that we do not know unless we're in the deep, unless we're in the throes, unless we're in the suffering. And that is what the Spirit is doing as He ministers to us in our suffering. But again, this notion of groaning, that the creation is groaning and longing for redemption, and we too, likewise, are groaning and longing for redemption. We're longing to be delivered from this body of sin. It is only by the Holy Spirit that we sincerely desire our sins to be further revealed and for us to put off sin more and more. The natural man does not pray, show me my sin. The natural man just wants to be free from the consequences of sin. It is the person who is indwelled by the Spirit who prays like David, as we sang in Psalm 51, or like David elsewhere, keep me from hidden sins. or in accord with the Apostle Paul, reveal to me that which is grieving your Holy Spirit within me. I know that particular prayer does not show up, but the concept of grieving the Spirit shows up in the writings of the Apostle Paul. It is only by the Spirit that we want to put off sin and be conformed more and more. You know, my main conversation partner in my dissertation is William Perkins, and an illustration from William Perkins comes to mind as he speaks of the work of the Spirit in our life, like a man who's sitting in a darkened room where there is no light, And upon conversion, the Spirit parts the curtains and light shines in and so we can see the clutter and the dust that's around us. And then our life through as we are sanctified, the curtains are pulled back more and more and we see what was always there. But it appears more and more odious to us as the spirit shines more and more light upon our lives. And it is only the natural man who's there. It's only the spiritual man, the man indwelled by the spirit, who says, please continue to search me and know me, O spirit. Notice that the Spirit intercedes for you as well. In verse 26, I stopped reading at one point, but notice how it goes on. The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. You see that? The Spirit searching our spirits, communicating to the Father, knowing our spirit more intimately than we even know ourselves. He knows those depths, those areas that we ourselves cannot know at this point, and He is communicating our full selves to God Himself. The Spirit who knows God fully and who knows us fully, He is interceding for us in ways too deep for us to even know. Reminds me of a mother who's caring for a sick infant, that all the infant can do is scream and cry. It cannot articulate anything but agony and difficulty. But what does the mother do? The mother shushes the child and rocks the child and cares for the child and is tender toward the child and the mother prays for the child in ways that the infant can't even understand. And yes, we want the child to grow up and to pray in the way in which the mother is praying and be able to bear his own load, but all the preciousness of that mother who intercedes for her sick child. And that is a picture of the spirit caring for us in these agonies and in these difficulties as he intercedes for us. Some of you know the name George Mueller, I'm sure. And you know that he was famous, of course, for opening an orphanage in England. And he was also known for his many prayers, recording 50,000 specific answers to prayer in his prayer journals. And it was said of George Mueller that when he knew the will of the Lord in a certain situation, he would not relent praying for it until it was so. Kind of like the spirit of Jacob, I will not relent until you bless me. Now we could make application to ourselves of how we need to pray like George Mueller, but I will not moralize George Mueller and instead just say, do you not realize that that's how the spirit intercedes for you? and praise for you, I will not relent until you bless them. I will not relent until you bring about my intended will in their life, their sanctification and ultimately their glorification. That is how the Holy Spirit intercedes for you. I would point out also that Later in the passage, in verse 34, Christ is mentioned as also interceding. And it might read in that verse as though it's just one more thing that Christ does. But I would submit that the Apostle Paul is highlighting we have two intercessors. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is always at the right hand of the Father, always interceding for us. and the Spirit, His Spirit, who indwells us, also interceding for us in a different way, in a different capacity, helping us in our weaknesses when we do not know how to pray. Well then, in all of this, it brings us to the point of pray in the Spirit. Therefore, pray in the Spirit. Look again at verse 26 and 27, this time in totality. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Now, you might hear those verses as they've been unfolded, as we've heard them here this morning, and you might think, well, the Spirit can pray far better than I can. I can kick back. I don't have to be very skilled at praying. After all, who would ever say, yes, I've arrived as it comes to my prayer life? I mean, if we surveyed the room, would anybody say, yes, I have arrived. My prayer life is exactly where I want it to be. But instead of this being an excuse to rest on our laurels or rely on merely the Spirit to minister to us, I think elsewhere, as the Apostle Paul calls us in Ephesians 6 to continue to persevere in prayer, as he's there speaking in the context of spiritual warfare and the full armor of God, he says, praying always in all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. We're called to therefore pray in the Spirit. If this is how the Spirit ministers to us in prayer, we should be among the most eager to engage in this prayer and to grow in this type of prayer. Praying And as we think back to that illustration of the sick child on his mother's lap, we should not content ourselves with weak and sick prayers, but to grow up into a greater fullness of praying as we ought. As we think about 21st century American Christianity, Where are the great prayers of church history? Those prayers who used to be feared by leaders at the time for their great prayers. Now that doesn't mean that we should just pray bold, strong things or harsh things, but it is a call that we would be ones who are immersed in this discipline of praying in the Spirit. But lest you think I'm concluding my final chapel message and concluding this chapel message with a call to try harder and works righteousness of prayer. My mind goes back to the spark of the Reformation, Martin Luther himself. Before he was converted, he took a pilgrimage to Rome. And he went to the sacred stairs that allegedly the Lord Jesus had to ascend in his trial before Pontius Pilate. These stairs that are venerated that Martin Luther went on his knees, stair by stair, praying the Our Father and the Hail Mary and venerating the saints and kissing the steps. And as he got to the top of these allegedly sacred stairs, he was quickly shuffled away, because there are so many people there, realizing, of course, that this isn't a solemn occasion, but is for sightseeing, if you will. And as he was shuffled away, he looked back and thought to himself, how can anyone know that this be so? These prayers done by human effort. not done in the Spirit and by faith. No, I'm not calling us to a works approach to praying in the Spirit, but do you friends see how the Spirit ministers to you in prayer? Why would we ever want to forsake this precious discipline of communing with the Spirit in prayer as He ministers to us in these unique ways? Friends, I hope you see how indeed the Spirit does minister to you in prayer. Therefore, pray in the Spirit, friends. And let's pray in the Spirit now. Our Father and our God, thank you for the blessing of the third person of the Trinity. Thank you, O Spirit, for your ministry to us. Even in this immediate time, as I pray with feeble human words, what can my words accomplish? It's as though sound just goes out, hits our ears, hits the ceiling. But Father, you have ordained that prayers would be used in your eternal plan and purposes, that they ascend to the throne. and that your spirit ministers to us in prayer and in the ministry of prayer. Thank you that he is the one who knows us more intimately than even we ourselves. And he knows you and the mind of God more intimately than we ever could. And so, Father, thank you for this precious gift of the spirit. May we be ones who are marked by praying in that blessed third person of the Trinity. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Would you turn with me by way of response to Psalm 5, Selection A. And here we see a crying out in suffering, a crying out in prayer and agony and in opposition. And indeed, David is crying out by the spirit of adoption. Let's stand and sing Psalm 5, Selection A at this time.