Sermon 1532. The Holy Spirit's Intercession

(No. 1532)

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 11th, 1880, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

'Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should what pray for as we ought: but the Spirititself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what isthe mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according the to will of God.'Romans 8:26,27.

THE APOSTLE PAUL was writing to a tried and afflicted people, and one of his objects was to remind them of the rivers of comfortwhich were flowing near at hand. He first of all stirred up their pure minds by way of remembrance as to their sonship,'forsaith he 'as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' They were, therefore, encouraged to take partand lot with Christ, the elder brother, with whom they had become joint heirs; and they wereexhorted to suffer with him, that they might afterwards be glorified with him. All that they endured came from a Father'shand, and this should comfort them. A thousand sources of joy are opened in that one blessing of adoption. Blessed be theGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have been begotten into the family of grace.

When Paul had alluded to that consoling subject he turned to the next ground of comfort'namely, that we are to be sustainedunder present trial by hope. There is an amazing glory in reserve for us, and though as yet we cannot enter upon it, but inharmony with the whole creation must continue to groan and travail, yet the hope itself should minister strength to us, andenable us patiently to bear 'these light afflictions, which are but for a moment.' This also is a truthfull of sacred refreshment: hope sees a crown in reserve, mansions in readiness, and Jesus himself preparing a place forus, and by the rapturous sight she sustains the soul under the sorrows of the hour. Hope is the grand anchor by whose meanswe ride out the present storm.

The apostle then turns to a third source of comfort, namely, the abiding of the Holy Spirit in and with the Lord's people.He uses the word 'likewise' to intimate that in the same manner as hope sustains the soul, so does the Holy Spirit strengthenus under trial. Hope operated spiritually upon our spiritual faculties, and so does the Holy Spirit, in some mysterious way,divinely operate upon the new-born faculties of the believer, so that he is sustained under hisinfirmities. In his light shall we see light: I pray, therefore, that we may be helped of the Spirit while we considerhis mysterious operations, that we may not fall into error or miss precious truth through blindness of heart.

The text speaks of 'our infirmities,' or as many translators put it in the singular'of 'our infirmity.' By this is intendedour affliction, and the weakness which trouble discovers in us. The Holy Spirit helps us to bear the infirmity of our bodyand of our mind; he helps us to bear our cross, whether it be physical pain, or mental depression, or spiritual conflict,or slander, or poverty, or persecution. He helps our infirmity; and with a helper so divinely strong we neednot fear for the result. God's grace will be sufficient for us; his strength will be made perfect in weakness.

I think, dear friends, you will all admit that if a man can pray, his trouble is at once lightened. When we feel that we havepower with God and can obtain anything we ask for at his hands, then our difficulties cease to oppress us. We take our burdento our heavenly Father and tell it out in the accents of childlike confidence, and we come away quite content to bear whateverhis holy will may lay upon us. Prayer is a great outlet for grief; it draws up the sluices, andabates the swelling flood, which else might be too strong for us. We bathe our wound in the lotion of prayer, and thepain is lulled, the fever is removed. We may be brought into such perturbation of mind, and perplexity of heart, that we donot know how to pray. We see the mercy-seat, and we perceive that God will hear us: we have no doubt about that, for we knowthat we are his own favoured children, and yet we hardly know what to desire. We fall into such heaviness of spirit, andentanglement of thought, that the one remedy of prayer, which we have always found to be unfailing, appears to be takenfrom us. Here, then, in the nick of time, as a very present help in time of trouble, comes in the Holy Spirit. He draws nearto teach us how to pray, and in this way he helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavyburden without fainting under the load.

At this time our subjects for consideration shall be, firstly, the help which the Holy Spirit gives; secondly, the prayers which he inspires; and thirdly, the success which such prayers ore certain to obtain.

I. First, then, let us consider THE HELP WHICH THE HOLY GHOST GIVES.

The help which the Holy Ghost renders to us meets the weakness which we deplore. As I have already said, if in time of trouble a man can pray, his burden loses its weight. If the believer can take anythingand everything to God, then he learns to glory in infirmity, and to rejoice in tribulation; but sometimes we are in such confusionof mind that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. In a measure, through our ignorance, we never know what we shouldprayfor until we are taught of the Spirit of God, but there are times when this beclouding of the soul is dense indeed, andwe do not even know what would help us out of our trouble if we could obtain it. He see the disease, but the name of the medicineis not known to us. We look over the many things which we might ask for of the Lord, and we feel that each of them would behelpful, but that none of them would precisely meet our case. For spiritual blessings which we know to be according to thedivine will we could ask with confidence, but perhaps these would not meet our peculiar circumstances. There are otherthings for which we are allowed to ask, but we scarcely know whether, if we had them, they would really serve our turn, andwe also feel a diffidence as to praying for them. In praying for temporal things we plead with measured voices, ever referringour petition for revision to the will of the Lord. Moses prayed that he might enter Canaan, but God denied him; and the manthatwas healed asked our Lord that he might be with him, but he received for answer, 'Go home to thy friends.' We pray evermoreon such matters with this reserve, 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.' At times this very spirit of resignationappears to increase our spiritual difficulty, for we do not wish to ask for anything that would be contrary to the mind ofGod and yet we must ask for something. We are reduced to such straits that we must pray, but what shall be the particularsubject of prayer we cannot for a while make out. Even when ignorance and perplexity are removed, we know not what weshould pray for 'as we ought.' When we know the matter of prayer, we yet fail to pray in a right manner. We ask, but we areafraid that we shall not have, because we do not exercise the thought, or the faith, which we judge to be essential to prayer.We cannot at times command even the earnestness which is the life of supplication: a torpor steals over us, our heart is chilled,our hand is numbed, and we cannot wrestle with the angel. We know what to pray for as to objects, but we do not know whatto pray for 'as we ought' it is the manner of the prayer which perplexes us, even when the matter is decided upon. How can I pray? My mind wanders:I chatter like a crane; I roar like a beast in pain; I moan in the brokenness of my heart, but oh, my God, I know not whatit is my inmost spirit needs; or if I know it, I know not how to frame my petition aright beforethee. I know not how to open my lips in thy majestic presence: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. My spiritual distressrobs me of the power to pour out my heart before my God. Now, beloved, it is in such a plight as this that the Holy Ghostaids us with his divine help. and hence he is 'a very present help in time of trouble.'

Coming to our aid in our bewilderment he instructs us. This is one of his frequent operations upon the mind of the believer: 'he shall teach you all things.' He instructs us asto our need, and as to the promises of God which refer to that need. He shows us where our deficiencies are, what our sinsare, and what our necessities are; he sheds a light upon our condition, and makes us feel deeply our helplessness, sinfulness,and dire poverty; and then he casts thesame light upon the promises of the Word, and lays home to the heart that very text which was intended to meet the occasion'theprecise promise which was framed with foresight of our present distress. In that light he makes the promise shine in all itstruthfulness, certainty, sweetness, and suitability, so that we, poor trembling sons of men, dare take that word into ourmouth which first came out of God's mouth, and then come with it as an argument, and plead it before the throne of theheavenly grace. Our prevalence in prayer lies in the plea, 'Lord, do as thou hast said.' How greatly we ought to valuethe Holy Spirit, because when we are in the dark he gives us light, and when our perplexed spirit is so befogged and becloudedthat it cannot see its own need, and cannot find out the appropriate promise in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God comes inand teaches us all things, and brings all things to our remembrance, whatsoever our Lord has told us. He guides us in prayer,andthus he helps our infirmity.

But the blessed Spirit does more than this, he will often direct the mind to the special subject of prayer. He dwells within us as a counsellor, and points out to us what it is we should seek at the hands of God. We do not know whyit is so, but we sometimes find our minds carried as by a strong under current into a particular line of prayer for some onedefinite object. It is not merely that our judgment leads us in that direction, though usually the Spirit of Godacts upon us by enlightening our judgment, but we often feel an unaccountable and irresistible desire rising again andagain within our heart, and this so presses upon us, that we not only utter the desire before God at our ordinary times forprayer, but we feel it crying in our hearts all the day long, almost to the supplanting of all other considerations. At suchtimes we should thank God for direction and give our desire a clear road: the Holy Spirit is granting us inward directionas to howwe should reckon upon good success in our pleadings. Such guidance will the Spirit give to each of you if you will askhim to illuminate you. He will guide you both negatively and positively. Negatively, he will forbid you to pray for such andsuch a thing, even as Paul essayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered him not: and, on other hand, he will causeyou to hear a cry within your soul which shall guide your petitions, even as he made Paul hear the cry from Macedonia, saying,'Comeover and help us.' The Spirit teaches wisely, as no other teacher can do. Those who obey his promptings shall not walkin darkness. He leads the spiritual eye to take good and steady aim at the very centre of the target, and thus we hit themark in our pleadings.

Nor is this all, for the spirit of God is not sent merely to guide and help our devotion, but he himself 'maketh intercession for us' according to the will of God. By this expression it cannot be meant that the Holy Spirit ever groans or personally prays;but that he excites intense desire and created unutterable groanings in us, and these are ascribed to him. Even as Solomon built the temple because he superintended and ordained all, and yet I knownot thathe ever fashioned a timber or prepared a stone, so doth the Holy Spirit pray and plead within us by leading us to prayand plead. This he does by arousing our desires. The Holy Spirit has a wonderful power over renewed hearts, as much poweras the skillful minstrel hath over the strings among which he lays his accustomed hand. The influences of the Holy Ghost attimes pass through the soul like winds through an Eolian harp, creating and inspiring sweet notes of gratitude and tones ofdesire, towhich we should have been strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation. He can arouse us from our lethargy,he can warm us out of our lukewarmness, he can enable us when we are on our knees to rise above the ordinary routine of prayerinto that victorious importunity against which nothing can stand. He can lay certain desires so pressingly upon our heartsthat we can never rest till they are fulfilled. He can make the zeal for God's house to eat us up, and the passion for God'sgloryto be like a fire within our bones; and this is one part of that process by which in inspiring our prayers he helps ourinfirmity. True Advocate is he, and Comforter most effectual. Blessed be his name.

The Holy Spirit also divinely operates in the strengthening of the faith of believers. That faith is at first of his creating, and afterwards it is of his sustaining and increasing: and oh, brothers and sisters,have you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your trials? Have you not, like Noah's ark, mounted towards heavenas the flood deepened around you? You have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about the trial. The affliction was,as it were,in your very bones, but the promise was also in your very heart. You could not doubt the affliction, for you smarted underit, but you might almost as soon have doubted the divine help, for your confidence was firm and unmoved. The greatest faithis only what God has a right to expect from us, yet do we never exhibit it except as the Holy Ghost strengthens our confidence,and opens up before us the covenant with all its seals and securities. He it is that leads our soul to cry, 'though my housebe not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure.' Blessed be the DivineSpirit then, that since faith is essential to prevailing prayer, he helps us in supplication by increasing our faith. Withoutfaith prayer cannot speed, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and such an onemay not expect anything of the Lord; happy are we when the Holy Spirit removes our wavering, and enables us like Abraham tobelieve without staggering, knowing full well that he who has promised is able also to perform.

By three figures I will endeavour to describe the work of the Spirit of God in this matter, though they all fall short, andindeed all that I can say must fall infinitely short of the glory of his work. The actual mode of his working upon the mindwe may not attempt to explain; it remains a mystery, and it would be an unholy intrusion to attempt to remove the veil. Thereis no difficulty in our believing that as one human mind operates upon another mind, so does the HolySpirit influence our spirits. We are forced to use words if we would influence our fellow-men, but the Spirit of God canoperate upon the human mind more directly, and communicate with it in silence. Into that matter, however, we will not divelest we intrude where our knowledge would be drowned by our presumption.

My illustrations do not touch the mystery, but set forth the grace. The Holy Spirit acts to his people somewhat as a prompter to a reciter. A man has to deliver a piece which he has learned; but his memory is treacherous, and therefore somewhere out of sight thereis a prompter, so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word, a whisper is heard, which suggests the rightone. When the speaker has almost lost the thread of his discourse he turns hisear, and the prompter gives him the catch-word and aids his memory. If I may be allowed the simile, I would say that thisrepresents in part the work of the Spirit of God in us,'suggesting to us the right desire, and bringing all things to ourremembrance whatsoever Christ has told us. In prayer we should often come to a dead stand, but he incites, suggests, and inspires,and so we go onward. In prayer we might grow weary, but the Comforter encourages and refreshes us with cheering thoughts.When, indeed, we are in our bewilderment almost driven to give up prayer, the whisper of his love drops a live coal fromoff the altar into our soul, and our hearts glow with greater ardour than before. Regard the Holy Spirit as your prompter,and let your ear be opened to his voice.

But he is much more than this. Let me attempt a second simile: he is as an advocate to one in peril at law. Suppose that a poor man had a great law-suit, touching his whole estate, and he was forced personally to go into court andplead his own cause, and speak up for his rights. If he were an uneducated man he would be in a poor plight. An adversaryin the court might plead against him, and overthrow him, for he could not answer him. This poor man knows very littleabout law, and is quite unable to meet his cunning opponent. Suppose one who was perfect in the law should take up hiscause warmly, and come and live with him, and use all his knowledge so as to prepare his case for him, draw up his petitionsfor him, and fill his mouth with arguments,'would not that be a grand relief? This counsellor would suggest the line of pleading,arrange the arguments, and put them into right courtly language. When the poor man was baffled by a question asked in court,he would run home and ask his adviser, and he would tell him exactly how to meet the objector. Suppose, too, that whenhe had to plead with the judge himself, this advocate at home should teach him how to behave and what to urge, and encouragehim to hope that he would prevail,'would not this be a great boon? Who would be the pleader in such a case? The poor clientwould plead, but still, when he won the suit, he would trace it all to the advocate who lived at home, and gave him counsel:indeed, it would be the advocate pleading for him, even while he pleaded himself. This is an instructive emblem of a greatfact. Within this narrow house of my body, this tenement of clay, if I be a true believer, there dwells the Holy Ghost, andwhen I desire to pray I may ask him what I should pray for as I ought, and he will help me. He will write the prayers whichI ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I shall see them there, and so I shall be taught how to plead. It willbe theSpirit's own self pleading in me, and by me, and through me, before the throne of grace. What a happy man in his law-suitwould such a poor man be, and how happy are you and I that we have the Holy Ghost to be our Counsellor!

Yet one more illustration: it is that of a father aiding his boy. Suppose it to be a time of war centuries back. Old English warfare was then conducted by bowmen to a great extent. Here isa youth who is to be initiated in the art of archery, and therefore he carries a bow. It is a strong bow, and therefore veryhard to draw; indeed, it requires more strength than the urchin can summon to bend it. See how his father teaches him. 'Putyour right hand here, my boy,and place your left hand so. Now pull'; and as the youth pulls, his father's hands are on his hands, and the bow is drawn.The lad draws the bow: ay, but it is quite as much his father, too. We cannot draw the bow of prayer alone. Sometimes a bowof steel is not broken by our hands, for we cannot even bend it; and then the Holy Ghost puts his mighty hand over ours, andcovers our weakness so that we draw; and lo, what splendid drawing of the bow it is them! The bow bends so easily we wonderhowit is; away flies the arrow, and it pierces the very centre of the target, for he who giveth have won the day, but itwas his secret might that made us strong, and to him be the glory of it.

Thus have I tried to set forth the cheering fact that the Spirit helps the people of God.

II. Our second subject is THE PRAYER WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRES, or that part of prayer which is especially and peculiarlythe work of the Spirit of God. The text says, 'The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot beuttered.' It is not the Spirit that groans, but we that groan; but as I have shown you, the Spirit excited the emotion whichcauses us to groan.

It is clear then the prayers which are indited in us by the spirit of God are those which arise from our inmost soul. A man's heart is moved when he groans. A groan is a matter about which there is no hypocrisy. A groan cometh not from the lips, but fromthe heart. A groan then is a part of prayer which we owe to the Holy Ghost, and the same is true of all the prayer which wellsup from the deep fountains of our inner life. The prophet cried, 'My bowels, mybowels, I am pained at my very heart: my heart maketh a noise in me.' This deep ground-swell of desire, this tidal motionof the life-floods is caused by the Holy Spirit. His work is never superficial, but always deep and inward.

Such prayers will rise within us when the mind is far too troubled to let us speak. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, and then it is that we groan, or utter some other inarticulate sound. Hezekiahsaid, 'like a crane or a swallow did I chatter.' The psalmist said, 'I am so troubled that I cannot I have roared by reasonof the disquietness of my heart'; but he added, 'Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.'Thesighing of the prisoner surely cometh up into the ears of the Lord. There is real prayer in these 'groanings that cannotbe uttered.' It is the power of the Holy Ghost in us which creates all real prayer, even that which takes the form of a groanbecause the mind is incapable, by reason of its bewilderment and grief, of clothing its emotion in words. I pray you neverthink lightly of the supplications of your anguish. Rather judge that such prayers are like Jabez, of whom it is written,that'he was more honourable than his brethren, because his mother bare him with sorrow.' That which is thrown up from thedepth of the soul, when it is stirred with a terrible tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the intercessionof the Holy Spirit.

These prayers are sometimes 'groanings that cannot be uttered,' because they concern such great things that they cannot be spoken. I want, my Lord! I want, I want; I cannot tell thee what I want: but I seem to want all things. If it were some little thing,my narrow capacity could comprehend and describe it, but I need all covenant blessings. Thou knowest what I have need of beforeI ask thee, and though I cannot go into each item of my need, I know it to be verygreat, and such as I myself can never estimate. I groan, for I can do no more. Prayers which are the offspring of greatdesires, sublime aspirations, and elevated designs are surely the work of the Holy Spirit, and their power within a man isfrequently so great that he cannot find expression for them. Words fail, and even the sighs which try to embody them cannotbe uttered.

But it may be, beloved, that we groan because we are conscious of the littleness of our desire, and the narrowness of our faith. The trial, too. may seem too mean to pray about. I have known what it is to feel as if I could not pray about a certain matter,and yet I have been obliged to groan about it. A thorn in the flesh may be as painful a thing as a sword in the bones, andyet we may go and beseech the Lord thrice about it, and getting no answer we may feel thatwe know not what to pray for as we ought; and yet it makes us groan. Yes, and with that natural groan there may go upan unutterable groaning of the Holy Spirit. Beloved, what a different view of prayer God has from that which men think tobe the correct one. You may have seen very beautiful prayers in print, and you may have heard very charming compositions fromthe pulpit, but I trust you have not fallen in love with them. Judge these things rightly. I pray you never think well offineprayers, for before the thrice holy God it ill becomes a sinful suppliant to play the orator. We heard of a certain clergymanwho was said to have given forth 'the finest prayer ever offered to a Boston audience.' Just so! The Boston audience receivedthe prayer, and there it ended. We want the mind of the spirit in prayer, and not he mind of the flesh. The tail feathersof pride should be pulled out of our prayers, for they need only the wing feathers of faith; the peacock feathers of poeticalexpression are out of place before the throne of God. Hear me, what remarkably beautiful language he used in prayer!''What an intellectual treat his prayer was! Yes, yes; but God looks at the heart. To him fine language is as sounding brassor tinkling cymbal, but a groan has music in it. We do not like groans: our ears are much too delicate to tolerate such dreary sounds; but not so the great Father of spirits.A Methodist brother cries, 'Amen,' and you say, 'I cannot bear suchMethodistic noise'; no, but if it comes from the man's heart God can bear it. When you get upstairs into your chamberthis evening to pray, and find you cannot pray, but have to moan out, 'Lord, I am too full of anguish and too perplexed topray, hear thou the voice of my roaring,' though you reach to nothing else you will be really praying. When like David wecan say, 'I opened my mouth and panted,' we are by no means in an ill state of mind. All fine language in prayer, and especiallyallintoning or performing of prayers, must be abhorrent to God; it is little short of profanity to offer solemn supplicationto God after the manner called 'intoning.' The sighing of a true heart is infinitely more acceptable, for it is the work ofthe Spirit of God.

We may say of the prayers which the Holy Spirit works in us that they are prayers of knowledge. Notice, our difficulty is that we know not what we should pray for; but the Holy Spirit does know, and therefore he helpsus by enabling us to pray intelligently, knowing what we are asking for, so far as this knowledge is needful to valid prayer.The text speaks 'of the mind of the Spirit.' What a mind that must be!'the mind of that Spirit who arranged all the orderwhich now pervades this earth! There once was chaos and confusion, but the Holy Spirit brooded over all, and His mindis the originator of that beautiful arrangement which we so admire in the visible creation. What a mind his must be! The HolySpirit's mind is seen in our intercessions when under his sacred influence we order our case before the Lord, and plead withholy wisdom for things convenient and necessary. What wise and admirable desires must those be which the Spirit of Wisdomhimselfworks in us!

Moreover, the Holy Spirit's intercession creates prayers offered in a proper manner. I showed you that the difficulty is that we know not what we should pray for 'as we ought,' and the Spirit meets that difficultyby making intercession for us in a right manner. The Holy Spirit works in us humility, earnestness, intensity, importunity,faith, and resignation, and all else that is acceptable to God in our supplications. We know not how to mingle these sacredspicesin the incense of prayer. We, if left to ourselves at our very best, get too much of one ingredient or another, and spoilthe sacred compound, but the Holy Spirit's intercessions have in them such a blessed blending of all that is good that theycome up as a sweet perfume before the Lord. Spirit-taught prayers are offered as they ought to be. They are his own intercessionin some respects, for we read that the Holy Spirit not only helps us to intercede but 'maketh intercession.' It is twiceover declared in our text that he maketh intercession for us; and the meaning of this I tried to show when I describeda father as putting his hands upon his child's hands. This is something more than helping us to pray, something more thanencouraging us or directing us,'but I venture no further, except to say that he puts such force of his own mind into our poorweak thoughts and desires and hopes, that he himself maketh intercession for us, working in us to will and to pray accordingto hisgood pleasure.

I want you to notice, however, that these intercessions of the Spirit are only in the saints. 'He maketh intercession for us,' and 'He maketh intercession for the saints.' Does he do nothing for sinners, then? Yes, he quickens sinners into spiritual life, and he strives with them to overcometheir sinfulness and turn them into the right way; but in the saints he works with us and enables us to pray after his mindand according to the will of God. Hisintercession is not in or for the unregenerate. O, unbelievers you must first be made saints or you cannot feel the Spirit'sintercession within you. What need we have to go to Christ for the blessing of the Holy Ghost, which is peculiar to the childrenof God, and can only be ours by faith in Christ Jesus! 'To as man as received him to them gave he power to become the sonsof God'; and to the sons of God alone cometh the Spirit of adoption, and all his helping grace. Unless we are the sons ofGod the Holy Spirit's indwelling shall not be ours: we are shut out from the intercession of the Holy Ghost, ay, and fromthe intercession of Jesus too, for he hath said, 'I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.'

Thus I have tried to show you the kind of prayer which the Spirit inspires.

III. Our third and last point is THE SURE SUCCESS OF ALL SUCH PRAYERS.

All the prayers which the Spirit of God inspires in us must succeed, because, first, there is a meaning in them which God reads and approves. When the Spirit of God writes a prayer upon a man's heart, the man himself may be in such a state of mind that he does notaltogether know what it is. His interpretation of it is a groan, and that is all. Perhaps he does not even get so far as thatin expressing the mind of the Spirit, but he feels greenings which he cannotutter, he cannot find a door of utterance for his inward grief. Yet our heavenly Father, who looks immediately upon theheart, reads what the Spirit of God has indited there, and does not need even our groans to explain the meaning. He readsthe heart itself: 'he knoweth,' says the text, 'what is the mind of the Spirit.' The Spirit is one with the Father, and theFather knows what the Spirit means. The desires which the Spirit prompts may be too spiritual for such babes in grace as weareactually to describe or to express, and yet the Spirit writes the desire on the renewed mind, and the Father sees it.Now that which God reads in the heart and approves of'for the word to 'know' in this case includes approval as well as themere act of omniscience'what God sees and approves of in the heart must succeed. Did not Jesus say, 'Your heavenly Fatherknoweth that you have need of these things before you ask them'? Did he not tell us this as an encouragement to believe thatwe shallreceive all needful blessings? So it is with those prayers which are all broken up, wet with tears, and discordant withthose sighs and inarticulate expressions and heavings of the bosom, and sobbings of the heart and anguish and bitterness ofspirit, our gracious Lord reads them as a man reads a book, and they are written in a character which he fully understands.To give a simple figure: if I were to come into your house I might find there a little child that cannot yet speak plainly.Itcries for something, and it makes very odd and objectionable noises, combined with signs and movements, which are almostmeaningless to stranger, but his mother understands him, and attends to his little pleadings. A mother can translate baby-talk:she comprehends incomprehensible noises. Even so doth our Father in heaven know all about our poor baby talk, for our prayeris not much better. He knows and comprehends the cryings, and meanings, and sighings, and chatterings of his bewilderedchildren. Yea, a tender mother knows her child's needs before the child knows what it wants. Perhaps the little one stutters,stammers, and cannot get its words out, but the mother sees what he would say, and takes the meaning. Even so we know concerningour great Father:'

'He knows the thoughts we mean to speak,

Ere from our opening lips the break.'

Do you therefore rejoice in this, that because the prayers of the Spirit are known and understood of God, therefore they willbe sure to speed.

The next argument for making us sure that they will speed is this'that they are 'the mind of the Spirit.' God the ever blessed is one, and there can be no division between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These divine personsalways work together, and there is a common desire for the glory of each blessed Person of the Divine Unity, and thereforeit cannot be conceived without profanity, that anything could be the mind of the Holy Spirit and not be the mindof the Father and the mind of the Son. The mind of God is one and harmonious; if, therefore, the Holy Spirit dwells inyou, and he move you to any desire, then his mind is in your prayer, and it is not possible that the eternal Father shouldreject your petitions. That prayer which came from heaven will certainly go back to heaven. If the Holy Ghost prompts it,the Father must and will accept it, for it is not possible that he should put a slight upon the ever blessed and adorableSpirit.

But one more word, and that circles the argument, namely, that the work of the Spirit in the heart is not only the mind of the Spirit which God knows, but it is also according to the willor mind of God, for he never maketh intercession in us other than is consistent with the divine will. Now, the divine will or mind may beviewed two ways. First, there is the will declared in the proclamations of holiness by the Ten Commandments. The Spirit ofGod never prompts usto ask for anything that is unholy or inconsistent with the precepts of the Lord. Then secondly, there is the secret mindof God, the will of his eternal predestination and decree, of which we know nothing; but we do know this, that the Spiritof God never prompts us to ask anything which is contrary to the eternal purpose of God. Reflect for a moment: the Holy Spiritknows all the purposes of God, and when they are about to be fulfilled, he moves the children of God to pray about them, andsotheir prayers keep touch and tally with the divine decrees. Oh would you not pray confidently if you knew that your prayercorresponded with the sealed book of destiny? We may safely entreat the Lord to do what he has ordained to do. A carnal mandraws the inference that if God has ordained an event we need not pray about it, but faith obediently draws the inferencethat the God who secretly ordained to give the blessing has openly commanded that we should pray for it, and therefore faithobediently prays. Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favourcasts the shadow of prayer over the church. When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectationover his soul. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of themovement of the wheels of Providence. Believing supplications are forecasts of the future, He who prayeth in faith is likethe seer of old, he sees that which is to be: his holy expectancy, like a telescope, brings distant objects near to him.He is bold to declare that he has the petition which he has asked of God, and he therefore begins to rejoice and to praiseGod, even before the blessing has actually arrived. So it is: prayer prompted by the Holy Spirit is the footfall of the divinedecree.

I conclude by saying, see, my dear hearers, the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit, for if the saints know not what theyshould pray for as they ought; if consecrated men and women, with Christ suffering in them, still feel their need of the instructionof the Holy Spirit, how much more do you who are not saints, and have never given yourselves up to God, require divine teaching!On, that you would know and feel your dependence upon the Holy Ghost that he may prompt theonce crucified but now ascended Redeemer that this gift of the Spirit, this promise of the Father, is shed abroad uponmen. May he who comes from Jesus lead you to Jesus.

And, then O ye people of God, let this last thought abide with you,'what condescension is this that Divine Person should dwellin you for ever, and that he should be with you to help your prayers. Listen to me for a moment. If I read in the Scripturesthat in the most heroic acts of faith God the Holy Ghost helpeth his people, I can understand it; if I read that in the sweetestmusic of their songs when they worship best, and chant their loftiest strains before the MostHigh God, the Spirit helpeth them, I can understand it; and even if I hear that in their wrestling prayers and prevalentintercessions God the Holy Spirit helpeth them, I can understand it: but I bow with reverent amazement, my heart sinking intothe dust with adoration, when I reflect that God the Holy Ghost helps us when we cannot speak, but only groan. Yea, and whenwe cannot even utter our groanings, he doth not only help us but he claims as his own particular creation the 'groanings thatcannot be uttered.' This is condescension indeed! In deigning to help us in the grief that cannot even vent itself ingroaning, he proves himself to be a true Comforter. O God, my God, thou hast not forsaken me: thou art not far from me, norfrom the voice of my roaring. Thou didst for awhile leave the Firstborn when he was made a curse for us, so that he criedin agony, 'Why hast thou forsaken me?' but thou wilt not leave one of the 'many brethren' for whom he died: the Spirit shallbe withthem, and when they cannot so much as groan he will make intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered.God bless you, my beloved brethren, and may you feel the Spirit of the Lord thus working in you and with you. Amen and amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Romans 8:14 to end.

HYMNS FROM 'OUR OWN HYMN BOOK'1009, 978, 400.