The Deep Groanings of the Righteous — Carter Conlon

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The Inner Groaning of the Righteous

I'm going to speak to you about the deep groanings of the righteous. There are some of you that are gathered here this morning. And you've had this inner groaning from the day that you became a Christian or perhaps shortly thereafter.

And you're wondering why this groaning is in you. I believe that the Lord's going to answer your question this morning. If you'll turn to Psalm 6 with me, please. The deep groanings of the righteous. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart.

Truth, Spiritual Understanding, and the Coming Days

Lord, you are leading your church into truth. Only truth will sustain us in the coming days. God Almighty, you gave Daniel an anointing to dissolve doubts. And I pray, God, today that you would strengthen my mind and physical body.

Grant to me the ability to speak in a manner and come, Holy Spirit, and unravel all of the mysteries of things that are spiritual. But the natural mind can't understand them. Help us to understand these things.

Let the devices and the arguments of the devil be destroyed. Let there be a shout of glory in the hearts of those who are righteous. Lord God, we're not afraid of the days that have come upon us. Because we know that you're here with us.

Now help us to understand the deep inner workings of the Holy Spirit. I ask it in Jesus' name. Psalm 6, the psalm of King David. Verse 1. O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed. But thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy's sake.

For in death there is no remembrance of thee. And in the grave who shall give thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning. All the night make I my bed to swim. I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief.

It waxes old because of all mine enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. Deep groanings of the righteous. Now this psalm is written at a time when David is surrounded by enemies.

He says, my eye, in verse 7, is consumed because of grief, and it waxes old because of all mine enemies. Now these enemies are either visible or they can be invisible enemies. They can be enemies from without, or they can be enemies from within, as the apostle Paul spoke of his own struggling as he walked to fulfill the call of God on his life.

David feels weak and powerless to do anything about it. And he begins to feel, in some measure, that God is displeased with him. Now this is one of Satan's most potent tactics against the righteous. It's to get you to feel in times of deep inner troubling that somehow you have fallen into disfavor with God.

When in reality, something much deeper is going on inside of you. Now I want you to hear this very clearly. You walk through this life, you walk through this society as a child of God, you have this deep, deep inner troubling going on inside of you.

It causes, now it doesn't mean you're walking around constantly with a long face. You can be walking through your day, you can be going to your place of business, you can be smiling, you can be shaking hands with people, but there's an inner troubling, an inner groaning that never seems to go away.

When you're alone walking down the street, or just alone in times when no one else is around, a deep sigh, perhaps, you'll find coming out of your heart. Because there's something going on inside of you.

The enemy is right there over your shoulder to tell you, God is angry with you. You've somehow, in some measure, failed God. God has looked down upon you and seen something in you that he has found displeasure with.

And because of this, you're falling out of favor with him. Folks, I want to show you something in the scripture that I'm believing is going to help you in these times. Now, in Psalm 22 .1, please don't turn there.

David cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? And the word roaring in Hebrew means a moaning. It's a groaning going on in his spirit.

And he cries out, this is David, the king again, who wrote this. Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Now, David is unaware at this time that this writing, that having a heart for God has brought him to a place where he's inwardly experiencing a measure of the agonies of Christ.

He couldn't have known this. He is a man who has a heart for God. And because he has a heart for God, he's being brought into something of the life of God that is producing this cry within him. He has no way of knowing that these are the very words of Christ on the cross many years into the future.

If you read on through Psalm 22, he'll say, My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth. The people are looking upon me and staring at me. Their assemblies of the wicked have enclosed themselves around me.

They're parting my garments among them. Here he is now, been brought by the Holy Spirit into an incredible agony that Christ himself was about to experience. Now, this is an agony that is associated with our redemption.

But I want to suggest to you that when you and I have a heart for God, we're going to be brought into something. We're going to be brought into an agony, an inner agony, that is the result of our redemption.

An agony that very few understand, and many live their whole life before Christ and even after Christ, trying to escape what I believe is one of the deepest workings of the Spirit of God. You see, we're given a new nature.

But this new nature is a mystery to those who have unsurrendered hearts as of yet to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The moment you were saved, this new nature of Christ was put within you. And with the nature of Christ came a deep inner longing into you for a new place to live and a new way of living.

God planted it there. The groan that is within you was planted by God. It is the groan of the Holy Spirit. He longs for you to become and to understand. Remember Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, He will come and He will show you the things that are mine.

He will show you things to come. There's a longing in the heart of God for everyone who's here today to understand the completeness of the victory that was won for you two thousand years ago on Calvary.

There's something in God's heart. There's been a groan in the heart of God from before the foundation of the world to have you and I back in fellowship with Him. Not just here in time, but also for all of eternity.

Go with me to Romans chapter 8, perhaps it explains it a little bit better. Where Paul speaks about this inner groaning that comes to us when we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. Now here it is, in verse 26, Romans chapter 8.

Likewise, Paul says, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.

God's Holy Spirit inside of you, if you're a genuine believer in Christ, there's a yearning in the heart of God for you to know the victory, for you and I to experience the fullness of the life that was bought for us on Calvary.

There's an inner groaning. Folks, you have to acknowledge that this is something of the Spirit. You didn't have this before you came to Christ. You couldn't care less when you spoke in a manner to somebody that you shouldn't.

You willingly took on grievances when somebody wronged you. You didn't feel a pang of conscience about it. You fully felt like you were justified. You could walk away from situations that make the heart of God cry, dusting off your hands and your feet, feeling fully satisfied.

But then, a new nature was given you. And you get involved in a situation, perhaps, where God says to do one thing and your flesh is doing another. And you walk away, and you simply can't walk away from what God says is right.

And an inner groaning comes into you. You can't escape. It's always calling you back. It's the Holy Spirit constantly calling you back and constantly calling me back into doing what is right in the sight of God.

Sometimes seems like an impossibility. Verse 27 says,. And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now, the Holy Spirit knows what the will of God is in every situation.

If we're not walking in the will of God, the Holy Spirit will come and He will begin to intercede within you. There'll be a cry that comes right from the heart of God. And because God's character is intertwined now with yours and mine, as genuine believers, you and I will feel these things that the Holy Spirit is feeling within us.

As He's calling us back, as He's crying, leading us back into the will of God for our lives. And then we come to this understanding. Verse 28,. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.

You see, beloved, the very things which we avoided with all our energy before we were saved, we now begin to realize is for our good. We lived our lives to avoid trouble. We lived our lives to avoid feeling bad.

That's why most of you spent your weekends in bars and places like that. You lived your life. That's why people get engrossed and involved in all types of things, trying to push away anything that would resemble this.

And now we begin to realize that this inner groaning is for our good. God, You're not mad at me. You're leading me into something of Your life. I might not understand it. I might not see it. I might even be resisting it.

But You're not willing to let me go. You're not letting me go. You're drawing me. You've even drawn me here this morning. For many who have come and you are walking with this inner groaning. And it's been a mystery to you.

And you don't understand it. You don't know why this is happening, especially at this time when all the news is bad and the world seems to be unraveling. Wouldn't it be better just to be happy all the time?

And there are theologies that will take you there, but it's very superficial. You'll never know any great depth of the life of Christ. Romans 8 .23 tells us that we groan for the manifestation of the full redemption of our bodies.

Read it here with me. And not only they but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body.

You see, we groan to become the new creation that God has intended us to be. This full redemption as it is. Or the manifestation of what is already ours. A new nature. A new heart. As Ezekiel says, a new mind.

God, I don't want to think the old ways I used to think. I don't want to respond the way I used to respond. I don't want to pursue the things that I used to pursue. I don't want to try to take you, Jesus, and try to package you into my plan for my life.

I want your will for my life. Wherever it leads me, wherever it takes me, God, whatever it causes to come into my heart and my home, I want your will for my life. Now, it's not a natural thing. It has to be a supernatural thing to want the will of God.

Because to the natural mind, it's not a pleasurable thing to follow in the will of Almighty God for our lives. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 2 -4 tells us that we groan. It's the same thing, really, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

Let me read it to you. 2 Corinthians 5, 2 -4. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan.

That's what Paul says. Paul lived with this interior groan of the Holy Ghost. He knew what this is about, being burdened. But not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

This was the cry of the heart of Paul. We're not talking now about a religious sourness. We're talking about the genuine cry that comes from the hearts of the converted. Paul said, I groan. There's a cry in me.

And the cry is simple. Jesus, I want to be more like you. I want what you purchased for me. I want your nature to be my nature. The true child of God can't act in a way that is contrary to the nature of Christ and walk away without being burdened of the Holy Spirit.

And there's an interior groan that God puts in the lives of those that are truly, truly righteous. Folks, we groan because we inwardly long to be free from all the power of indwelling sin. That's the mark of those that are truly born again by the Spirit of God.

John said it in one of his epistles. We can't continue to live in sin if we belong to God. We can't continue because the seed of God is now in us. A new life has now come into ours. We can't continue to do the things we used to do.

And if we can continue to do them without conscience, it is doubtful that we've ever truly been born again by the Spirit of God. When we're born again by the Spirit of God, God puts this cry. Let me read it to you from David's, another one of his psalms.

David’s Groaning and the Evidence of New Life

Psalm 38, verse 7. Listen to what David says. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there's no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

Lord, he says, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hidden from thee. My heart pants. My strength fails me. And as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Amazing. David said, God, I don't want to live a mediocre life in your presence. I don't want to settle for some kind of a substandard relationship that brings no honor and glory to your name. And David is deeply, deeply aware of what's going on in his physical life.

It's in all of us, folks. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's not one righteous, not even one. David is aware of this. And when you are truly saved, when you truly have come to the knowledge of Christ, there will come an inward knowledge of sin.

Not a knowledge that will condemn you if you have trusted in Christ for your salvation. But a knowledge that will say, God, I don't want this. This doesn't honor you. I thank you that you've forgiven me.

But, oh God, I want to live in a manner that brings glory to your name. I don't want this in my heart anymore. I don't want this in my mind. I don't want to live this way. I want to be able to walk through this society in a manner that truly honors you.

When I speak, I want to glorify you. When I touch, I want it to be with the tenderness of God. Where my feet are going, I want it to be the path that you've prescribed for me. I don't want my hands to be selfish.

I want my heart and hands to be opened to the needs of society all around me. Where I live, where I work, and ultimately in my city and in my world. But a very strange thing happens now. In verse 11, David says, my lovers and friends stand aloof from this battle I'm in.

And my kinsmen stand afar off. You see, the ungodly and unsurrendered to Christ will begin to consider you somewhat of an oddity. When you want to live for God. Every carnal Christian, if there is such a thing.

Every light seeker of God. Everyone who likes to sing God Bless America, but doesn't really want to live in the words of that song. They will look at you, and because you truly are a seeker of God, you'll become an oddity to them.

And all of a sudden you find yourself with enemies that you didn't have before. It does produce another kind of a groaning. I know many who are sitting here today. You've got to walk into the most ungodly of work environments now.

And something is getting a hold of the people. A vileness. A dumb-downedness. A stupidity is getting a hold of people in this society now. And it's causing in you. You've grown getting out of bed. You've grown going into work.

You've grown going throughout your day. And you've grown on the way home. And there's a cry that's coming into your heart. God Almighty. People I thought were my friends and people who told me they attend churches are now...

All I want is to live for you. All I want is to serve you with all my heart. All I want is to have a life that truly honors Jesus Christ. And now I find all of these people, they don't want to hear anything about this.

They want to live like a flat little stone on the surface of an ocean. They just want to skip along and they want nothing that ruffles their day. And when I begin to speak of what you're doing in my life, they just stand aloof and far off.

They don't understand this. They're not interested in truly being a light in a darkened place in this generation. And often we'll find ourselves experiencing trouble at the hands of those who claim to know God even in some measure.

Endurance in a Hostile Generation

Listen to what he says, the psalmist in Psalm 102, verses 2 to 8. He said, For my days are consumed like smoke and my bones are burned as a hearth. My heart is smitten and withers like grass so that I forget to eat my bread.

By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. I'm like a pelican of the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert. I watch as a sparrow alone upon a housetop. My enemies reproach me all the day and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

Now folks, I wish I could tell you that everything in the coming days is going to be so great and thousands are going to turn to you and say, Oh, tell us, how do we find the way home? We see such holiness in you, tell us how we're going to be saved.

No, that's not what my Bible seems to say. It talks about a generation coming of people who are so lust-laden, so filled with hatred for things that are righteous, so much given to a form of at least speaking the name of God, but having no inward power to turn from sin, no desire to turn from sin whatsoever.

No, I think it's going to be harder to stand in the coming days. There was a season, even in this country, when it was fashionable to be a Christian. Everybody was born again. Do you remember that? They weren't born again, but they said they were born again.

It was fashionable to be born again. Entertainers were born again. Singers were born again. Athletes were born again. And all of a sudden, now, in a day of unpopularity, my question is, where are all these born-again people that were supposedly so high in the marketplace only a few years ago?

No, no, it's an unpopular season now. It's a difficult season. It's fair game on those who call themselves by the name of Jesus Christ. It's not going to get easier. Not in the natural. We've also grown because of the Song of Solomon.

Longing for the Presence of the Bridegroom

Go ahead with me, please. Right after Ecclesiastes and before Isaiah, you're going to find the Song of Solomon. It tells us that we've grown because as true children of God, we are unsatisfied to live without the evidence of His presence.

Folks, I'm not satisfied to go throughout my day without the knowledge of His presence. I don't want to be where He's not. I don't want to do what He's not doing. I don't want to live outside of the life that He's got for me, the full life that He has for me.

Listen to what this writer says in Song of Solomon, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth. I sought Him but found Him not. I will arise now and go about the city and the streets and in the broadways, and I will seek Him whom my soul loveth.

I sought Him but I found Him not. I see a groaning in this bride for her bridegroom. She says, I'm not satisfied. I'm not satisfied with just theories about Him. I want to know Him. I want to know where He is.

I want to know where He lives. And not only just know, I want to go there. I want to be His. And I want Him to be mine. And I want it to be a reality. I'm sick and tired of just hearing stories about Him.

And faint little glimmers and whispers of the fact that one day He's coming. No, He's already here. I want to walk with Him. I want to know Him now. I sought Him, she said. I went into the broadways. I find it kind of ironic that here you are this morning on Broadway looking for God.

Chapter 5, verses 6 to 8. She says, I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself. And He was gone. My soul failed when He spoke. I sought Him but I could not find Him. I called Him but He gave me no answer.

The watchmen that went about the city found me. They smote me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved that you tell Him that I'm sick of love.

You see, there's a groaning. There's a groaning in the true Bride of Jesus Christ. We groan when we're subjected to theological perspectives that take away the veil. Now, listen to me on this. This is a type of the Bride of Christ.

And she said, I opened my heart. And I wanted Him with everything in me. I sought Him but I could not find Him. I called Him but I couldn't seem to find an answer. So I went about the city. And the watchmen, those that are supposed to be speaking of His coming, those that are supposed to know where He is, those that are supposed to understand the times that we're living in, they found me.

They wounded me. In other words, they didn't tell me where I could find Him. Perhaps they told me my pursuit was too excessive. Maybe they told me I was overly religious and too serious about this thing.

And they took away my veil. We're living in a generation when preachers are taking away the veil from the Bride of Christ. This Bride had a veil. In her heart she's saying, Oh God, I want You. I'm willing to follow You.

I want to be betrothed to You. I want my heart and Yours to be one. I want Your children to be my children. I want, oh God, to walk with You. And she said, I walked into this house and all I found were watchmen who took away my veil.

They said, How much do you owe the Lord? And she said, I owe Him everything. And they said, Sit down. Write a bill for half on unsanctified watchmen in the house of the Lord taking away the veil from the Bride.

But if the Holy Spirit is truly, truly upon you in this generation, you will not be satisfied. You will not be found among those who sit in supposed houses of God with your feet on the altar rail and a cup of coffee in your hand listening to a PowerPoint sermon about a Christ they don't know.

You will not be satisfied. Your separation. And God, by His grace, will put a groaning in your heart that you may go there and even for a season you may agree with Him, but you will never be satisfied until you are His, until He is yours.

This is the reason why some who are listening even now and will be listening to tapes in the future, you just can't lighten up and enjoy these theologically shallow experiences like so many around you are today.

Everyone around you is saying, Oh, lighten up, lighten up. God's love. God's good. God's kind. God is nice. Come to church in your Bermuda shorts. Stick your feet on the altar rail. Have a coffee and cookies with us.

We'll hear three-point messages on nothing about God, but there's a stirring in you. There's a stirring in the true bride in this generation. We're living in a time, as the prophet Malachi said, when those who feared the Lord are going to get together one more time and think on His name, and a book of remembrance will be written for them, and they will return, and they will know the difference between those who serve God and those who don't serve Him.

David thought that because he was aware of his own weaknesses, that somehow God felt about him the same way that he felt about himself. That's why he said in Psalm 6, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Have mercy upon me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, for my bones are vexed. And no doubt the devil was there to try to reinforce him of this wrong perspective. No, David was a man after God's heart. God had planted this in his heart.

And if you have this inner groaning inside of you, thank God for it every day. Thank God that you have this groaning. Thank God that you're not satisfied with nominal Christianity. Thank God! Thank God that you've been sent on a search for Him.

It's evidence that the Holy Spirit is within you. He's drawing you, He's guiding you, because God loves you with all of His heart. Hallelujah! Thank God! I want to challenge you with everything in me.

Press through! Press through the crowds! Press through the religion! Press through the schemers! Press through your enemies! Find Him! Find Him! Find Him! Find Him! So how does God feel about those who groan?

God’s Mark on Those Who Grieve Over Evil

I've had this groaning in me. It seems to be increasing all the time. I say, God, is something wrong with me? Why? This constant sigh inside of me. This groan. Have I done something wrong? And you know, I began to see the Scriptures that David had gone through this.

Men and women who have been used of God in days gone by have gone through this. And the enemy is right over the top of your shoulder. But the Lord led me to Ezekiel. I don't turn there. But in Ezekiel chapter 9, a society had dealt so casually and carelessly with the things of God, they were now under His judgment.

Enemies were right at the borders. They were just ignorant of it. Sacrifices are going into the temple and out of the temple. Prophets of success and prosperity and endless good times now had arisen among the people.

So few voices now left speaking anything for God. And now the justice of God had come. And you can picture on the earth as it is, all of this activity going on. Everybody pushing away the day that comes to every society that deals carelessly with the presence of God, especially when they've known His presence.

And this day has come now. It's right at the borders. All the activity is still going on. The false prophets are standing. And they're producing this casual likeness about the things of God. The people's minds are dulled.

Everybody thinks now as long as we're just saying the temple, the temple, the temple, everything is fine. As long as I'm just saying I'm a Christian, I'm a Baptist, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist, I'm a Pentecost, everything is just fine.

Hovering above them. The justice of God has come. But the Lord says now, in the Scriptures as a messenger, The Bible describes Him as a man with an ink horn or a pen. And He says to them, Now go down and set a mark on everyone who sighs and cries because of the evil.

Everyone. You see, folks, you don't sigh and cry for the evil in a society until you've first sighed and cried about the evil in yourself. The two go hand in hand. You're not going to attend a casual church and all of a sudden be gravely concerned about the issues that are very, very rapidly eroding everything godly in this society.

No, it begins in you first. It begins in me first. There's a sighing, there's a crying. You want to live for God. And as you're moving towards Him, as your heart is yielding and surrendering on a daily basis to the things of God, you're looking around you and you're watching the whole of society and even a great measure of the church going the other way.

And there's a cry. There's a sigh and a cry that comes into your heart. Oh God, this isn't right. It's not right they should live like this. My God, it's not right that children should be in our society in a position where they can't talk to an adult because most adults are considered perverts now.

Oh God, it's not right what's happening. It's not right what's on the airwaves. It's not right what's going on even in your name in our generation. God said, go down and set a mark on them. And then when judgment begins, it's going to touch all.

Young and old, rich and poor, influential, uninfluential, old and middle-aged. Everyone is going to be touched by this. But do not touch those upon whom I have placed my mark. Folks, I want to tell you something.

When judgment on the ungodly society of Ezekiel's day came, the people who were marked by the heart of God were spared. Folks, thank God. If you are groaning today, thank God that you are. If you are groaning for the things of God, thank God that you are.

You've trusted in Christ because you have this inner cry. You cannot walk through society unaffected by its evil and rejection of God because you refuse to deal lightly with sin. You know that the soon-to-come judgment has already passed you by.

There's a mark of righteousness. And the mark of righteousness is that you are affected by evil. Both in your own heart. I'm talking about affected in the sense that you shun it. You abhor it. You want no part of it.

You don't want evil thoughts in your mind. You don't want evil practice in your life. You don't want evil response in your heart. And you long for men and women to begin to know the greatness of God. You long for the name of Jesus Christ to be adorned and exalted in a society that is quickly moving to the justice of God.

You begin to understand, no, God is not mad at me. Death and hell have no power over me. I belong to Christ. I'm in this world, but I'm not of this world. I'm not going in the direction of this society.

I'm not moving in the direction of spiritual dullness in my generation. I'm moving in the other direction. And no matter who tries to stop me, that's why David says in the last verse, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. God knows that it's Him that I'm searching for. Get away from me, Satan. Get away from me, every religious voice that tries to stop me on this pursuit. God knows, God knows, God knows that I want Him with all my heart.

And I will have Him with all my heart. And when the day of justice comes, you will stand, the Bible says. You will stand as lights in a darkened world. You will stand with a sureness in your heart. You will stand with a bounce in your step.

You will stand like the Apostle Paul on the deck of a perishing ship that's falling apart, saying, Be of good cheer. I'm on a journey. And God has promised that everyone who goes with me is going to make it as well.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God. With everything in me, thanks be to God. I will declare, David said in Psalm 22, verse 22, Thy name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him. All ye that see of Jacob, glorify Him. And fear Him, all ye that see of Israel. For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither has He hid His face from Him.

But when He cried unto Him, He heard. He hears every cry. Did you know that every groan is a prayer? You don't know that, do you? Every groan is a prayer. Every time you step out of your apartment and you let out a sigh, simply because you want God.