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- I am looking forward to eternity. And you too. Amen? But sometimes it's difficult for us to grasp eternal things when we still live in these finite bodies.
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- Well the Spirit helps us in those moments of weakness when we understand the text. This is
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- When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.
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- Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. The Romans chapter 8 verses 26 through 30 is where we are today.
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- One of the meatier sections of Romans 8, and really I don't even know how I can say that because all of Romans 8 is pretty meaty.
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- Of course the famous Romans 8 28 comes in the middle of this paragraph here and we'll probably be looking at that verse more tomorrow.
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- Let's start in verse 26. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the
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- Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the
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- Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love
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- God all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.
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- For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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- And those whom He predestined, He also called. Those whom He called, He also justified.
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- And those whom He justified, He also glorified. What a beautiful paragraph. And in these five verses, each one of these could be its own sermon.
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- You could build a sermon out of verse 26, sermon out of verse 27. On and on it goes.
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- Let's see how far we get with verse 26, okay? Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
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- So with that word likewise, of course, we're coming back to the previous thought. And I want to say that the previous thought goes back to verse 23.
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- Well, in 22, Paul says that all of creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
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- And then in verse 23, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the
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- Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
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- For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees.
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- But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the
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- Spirit helps us in our weakness. So we've just read about this desire that we have to be delivered from these bodies, to be delivered from a creation that has been subjected to futility, to death and decay, to destruction.
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- All things are kind of falling apart. Even as we grow older, we feel our bodies breaking down and falling apart.
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- We are, and the older that we get, probably the more anxious we are to be delivered from these bodies into the redemption that we are waiting for in Christ Jesus.
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- The glorification of our bodies, no longer having to deal with pain and struggling and emotional hurts, physical hurts.
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- I mean, on and on the list goes. All the blanks that you could fill in on the stuff that you struggle with in your life, in your walk in this life, in the body that you inhabit, in the experiences that you have had.
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- We eagerly anticipate the deliverance from this fleshliness into a spiritualness that is so perfect, we will not be tempted by sin anymore.
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- We won't sin anymore. There will be no corruption. There will be no more pain or tears or any of these other things.
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- So we're anxiously awaiting that day. But here's the problem that we have. We still inhabit a fleshly body that exists in time.
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- And so it is difficult for our minds to conceptualize eternity. We read in Ecclesiastes that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men, but they cannot fathom what he has done from beginning to end.
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- And here we are awaiting a redemption from these bodies into a glorious body that has been promised us in Christ Jesus.
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- We read in 1 John 3 2 that a day is coming when we will be delivered from this into a glorified body, and then we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.
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- But we can't we really can't fathom that. We really can't conceptualize these eternal things while we inhabit these finite bodies.
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- And so we struggle and we are weak and we struggle with trying to understand how the experiences that we go through in this life right now measure in comparison with eternity.
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- Because we remember we just read in verse 18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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- And on the surface, that statement seems to be absurd. Well, of course, sufferings can't be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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- But the point that Paul is making is that the suffering that we endure while we are in this life is producing something.
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- It is shaping us into something that is more like Christ. So there is a process of glory that is happening.
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- But the glory that is to be revealed to us when we graduate from this life into the next just is incomparable.
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- That's a glory that just cannot be compared to that process of sanctification that we are going through right now.
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- It is so much greater than this. But again, we can't fathom that because all we have is this.
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- All of our experiences have been dictated by what we have experienced in the flesh. And so how can you conceive of the infinite?
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- How can you understand that a situation that you are going through now measures in eternity somehow?
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- This is how we're weak. This is how we struggle in trying to understand the concepts of the eternal promise that is given to us in Christ Jesus.
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- And so when we hit those moments of weakness and trying to understand these things, we don't know what to pray for as we ought.
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- What do I say? I mean, how do I grasp eternity when it says in Colossians chapter three that we have died and we're hidden with Christ and God?
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- So that's where our thoughts and our minds need to be is on the eternal things. And Jesus said not to store up treasures on earth, but to store up your treasures in heaven for where your treasure is there.
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- Your heart will be also. I mean, those things are sometimes easier said than done. Right. Well, how do you do that in our weakness?
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- We don't understand. But the spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words.
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- We don't know how to conceive of the infinite. And so are our if we were left to our own devices to try to grasp those things, we would never make it.
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- We would never be able to understand those things. But the spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words.
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- We don't always know the will of God. We don't always know exactly how this is going to play out, what this that we're experiencing now is going to turn into later down the road.
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- And again, how what we're experiencing now is going to look in light of eternity.
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- We can't understand these things, but the the spirit is interceding for us through unspeakable groans.
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- Now, I say that very specifically unspeakable groans because it can't be articulated and we don't know what those groanings are, but we know that the spirit is aiding us somehow strengthening us in our present circumstances.
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- We know that's going on because the Bible assures us that's what's going on now. Understand something about Romans 826.
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- I find it necessary to have to say this, but this verse is not talking about speaking in tongues. Even those theologians that I have listened to who think that tongue speaking is still a regular practice among Christians today, even they concede that Romans 826 is not talking about speaking in tongues because what's being articulated here is something that happens for every single believer.
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- The spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. However, we read in first Corinthians 1230 that not every believer will speak in tongues.
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- Not all Christians speak in tongues. And so just taking those two comparisons,
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- Romans 826, first Corinthians 1230. We know that Romans 826 is not talking about a speaking in tongues.
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- Rather, there is something that is happening on a spiritual level that cannot be put into words at all. Not even the gibberish that sometimes gets mistaken for speaking in tongues.
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- We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words.
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- What are those groanings and what kind of language is the spirit speaking in some sort of spiritual realm that we can't hear or fathom?
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- I don't know. Maybe the day that we get to heaven, we will understand what it is those words were that the spirit was interceding for us in, keeping us steadfast in the faith.
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- It is the spirit that keeps us steadfast. When things are too difficult to understand, whether it's the will of God and how it's playing out in our lives in the present moment, or whether it's trying to understand the things of eternity.
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- Paul said to the Philippians, Philippians 1 .6, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
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- This is the power of God that is working in our lives to keep us steadfast in the faith. And we read also in Jude 1, it's probably my favorite doxology in the
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- New Testament, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.
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- To the only God, our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time now and forever.
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- Amen. But again, that verse there, verse 24 in Jude, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.
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- These are some of the ways that the spirit serves us and works for us when we just cannot fathom what
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- God is doing from beginning to end. As the philosopher said in Ecclesiastes, the spirit is interceding for us with groanings too deep for words, keeping us steadfast in the faith, keeping us focused on the things of tomorrow.
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- If you're in a place right now where you just cannot see what the Lord is doing, or you don't understand how your present circumstance is something that is supposed to be giving glory to God, will pray to the
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- Lord and ask him for words that you might proclaim his glory even in the midst of your current situation.
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- And the spirit interceding for you will give you those words to pray. Now perhaps even as we're talking about these things now, you aren't going through something that is terribly deep or something where this might hit you in a real powerful way at this moment in time, but a day is coming when you will.
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- And so know this, that even when those struggles arise and we just wonder how we're going to make it through this moment, another moment that I've got to get through before I get to eternity, pray to God and ask for his strength and his help and we have this assurance that is given to us in Romans 8 .26
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- that the spirit helps us in our weakness. Come quickly
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- Lord Jesus, Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt
