Introduction:
A. Several years ago there was a car on the side of the road with its hood up. One man, dressed in a suit, passed by and looked at the engine and told the owner how to fix the car with a simple procedure. It worked great and the owner asked him, “How did you know this?” The well dressed man said, “I’m Henry Ford and I helped to design that car.” Our Heavenly Father designed us and he is the one who can diagnose the problem and enable us to apply the solution.
B. Years ago, Deborah Kerr played a role in Quo Vadis where the Christians are thrown to the lions. Newspaper reports asked Deborah, “Weren’t you afraid when you knew that you were going to be thrown to the lions?” She said, “No, I read the script before I accepted the role.” God has given us the script. This is his book of instructions, so we know how it is going to turn out and we know how we are going to reach our destination.
C. It is important that we pay attention to the instructions. Let’s look at Romans 8:26-30.
Thesis: 3 key words that we need to understand in order to operate as our Maker intended that we should.
For instances:
Prayer- Vs. 26-27.
A. We are weak. We all have a problem. God knows what that problem is. God is concerned about that problem. He wants to help. We don’t know how to pray. He gives the Holy Spirit.
B. We all have a weakness and the weakness is because of my sin problem in my life. My eyes see things that should not be seen, my ears hear things that should not be heard, my hands handled things that should never be touched, my feet taken me places where I should not have gone, my mind has entertained thoughts that should never have entered. I got a problem and I’m working on that but I need help. God offers me that help.
C. Jesus Christ died for us and in his death he proved God’s love and concern for us. In the resurrection he proved that he has a solution. We acknowledge that when we became a Christian. The moment we were baptized into Christian our redemption began, first with justification. The penalty is taken care of. This is a done deal.
I also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit goes to bat for me in working out the process of sanctification. 1 John 4:4: the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
With this, I now how the power over sin. Not visa versa. I am a forgiven man and a man who is growing into the likeness of Christ. My redemption is not complete. I don’t fear the penalty and I don’t fear the power. My problem is that I live in a world where sin is present. It is not until sin is removed completely that my redemption will be final.
Until that time the Holy Spirit is interceding for me. He is not the only one, vs. 34 Jesus is also. People are also interceding for us. I don’t begin to understand or know how many people are praying for me. I pray for others. Pray over many names. Are our prayers always effective? I don’t know. Have we always prayed for them as we should? I don’t know. The Holy Spirit does.
There are times when I pray that I don’t know what to say. Ex. The old person is not going to live much longer and they are really sick and they want me to pray. God let them die, absent from body is present with the Lord. Is that what the family wants me to say? Probably not. Many times the Holy Spirit intercedes because that is not what I meant to say.
With groans- Holy Spirit communicates not only with words that express the mind but words that express the heart, the emotions, the feelings that are involved. Many times we best express ourselves not with words, but with an aching heart. With a heart of concern. many times we communicate with a smile, frown, a worried look.
What a blessing to know that God is on our side, He knows that we are surrounded with a sin sick world. some of that rubs off on us and it keeps us from operating the way that we ought to operate. God says that I understand, the Spirit is interceding on our behalf. Take courage.
Providence. Vs. 28-
A. We know that God causes all things to work together for good. Don’t leave God out of that verse. He is concerned.
What is providence? Joseph in Genesis. In a position to never see family again. The day came when Pharaoh had a dream. 7 years of plenty with 7 years of famine. Plenty years Joseph was in charge of collecting. In famine years his family was suffering. The family of Joseph was brought back to Egypt. When Joseph reveled himself to his family, they were frightened because they knew what they had done.
Genesis 50:20: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Providence.
In OT, when Sennacherib surrounded the city of Jerusalem, Hezekiah was concerned and sent to Isaiah and they prayed and that night 185,000 Assyrians never saw the light of another day.
E. The apostle Paul completed 3 missionary journeys. In Jerusalem, placed in prison. Go from bad to worse. Nephew heard and told uncle Paul. Paul was escorted to city of Ceasarea. 2 years there. Onto Rome, shipwreck. another 2 years before resolved. Wrote letter to Philippians. Philippians 1:12-14: Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
This is what is talked about in Romans 8:28.
F. He was serving a church in the state of Washington, and he became very discouraged. Finally one day he just gave up. Packed his family in the van and headed east. He got as far as Ohio and it was noon time and the children said, “Daddy, we are hungry.” They passed in front of pizza parlor. He stopped and everyone went in and got a pizza. The preacher didn’t want a pizza so he walked down the way while his family was eating to get a hamburger. On the way he passed a filling station. There was an outside phone booth and the phone was ringing, so the preacher answered it. He picked up the receiver, and the voice on the other end said, “Preacher.” The preacher said, “Yes.” The lady said, “I’m so glad I was able to reach you today. I made up my mind that if you did not answer the phone I was going to take my life.” The preacher talked with her and prayed with her. He went back to the van to meet the rest of the family and drove on. He didn’t say anything. His wife couldn’t help but notice that there was a different expression on his face. She asked, “What is it?” The preacher said, “God’s got my #” I understand that the way that this happened was that this lady was a member of his congregation and lived just far enough away that she is in a different phone area code and she just by one # dialed the wrong area code but all the other # were identical to that phone in Ohio. Did that just happen?
G. At 2006 when the National Missionary Convention was held in Indianapolis, IN, the invited guest for the Bible study was a man named Mont Cox, a professor at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He told a story I think I will never forget. As a young man growing up he wanted to become a medical doctor. Wanted to drive a Mercedes, but then the day finally came when he decided that he needed to be a missionary. He and his wife prayed about this and decided to go to Kenya, Africa to serve as missionaries. The expression on his parent’s face when he told them obviously they disapproved. The day came when he and his wife and 3 daughters went to Kenya. When they got to Kenya the first thing that he did was to learn their language because he wanted to convey the gospel in their language. He studied hard and learned to speak it fluently. Once he learned their language, he thought about how he was going to get a crowd. He found out that many people in that community hang out at the beer hut. He thought that if Jesus hanged out with sinners then I can certainly hang out at the beer hut. He went to the local beer hut and sit down on the men’s side and talk with them about the Lord. Did this for a number of days. Customary for men on one side and women on the other. Older lady hear him talking and was struck by what she was hearing so she kept moving closer to the men’s side. Finally she got over next to him. She looked up into his face and said, “Your a white man.” Within a few days this lady had learned enough that she decided that she wanted to be a Christian and she was baptized. In Kenya for 6 1/2 years and his father came to visit them. He was introducing his father to some of the people who had become Christians. Among them was this older lady in her 80’s. When she was introduced to the father, she said through interpretation by the missionary, “When I was just a little girl my grandfather used to say to me that a white man would come and tell us something that we needed desperately to hear.” Did that just happen? God answers prayer, I believe in the Providence of God. Not just my prayer or yours but the prayer the Holy Spirit is praying on our behalf.
Predestination. Vs. 29-30
Predestination is a scary word. God predestines every man to be saved. The devil predestines every man to be damned. Man has the casting vote.
Foreknew, who is that, those at the end of vs. 28. What did he foreknow? That’s us.
Not predestining people to be saved or lost. God chooses. No, vs. 11 and vs. 23 he is looking to the time when our redemption will be complete. When we will be removed from the presence of sin, and we shall be given the glorified body when Jesus returns for his church. 1 John 3:2: We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
To be conformed to the image of His Son. Who are those? The ones he justified- vs. 30. Those who are called. Those he glorified. Past tense. Have we been glorified? No. Not yet. We know a God who knows no time limitations and He speaks of the future as being a present reality to underscore the certainty of the reality. The master mechanic knows what is under the hood. He can fix it and he will because with God all things are possible.
