Chapter Two The Holy Spirit Giving Birth The greatest work of the Holy Spirit is not to knock somebody down! Being slain in the Spirit may be exciting but it ranks way down on the list of mighty things He does. I have personally seen Kathryn Kuhlman, by the power of the Spirit, knock down 8,000 people with the wave of her hand (and I was one of them). That’s power. But it isn’t as powerful as what can happen to simply one soul. Neither is speaking in tongues the greatest gift of the Spirit. In fact, Paul puts it way down on the list of wonderful things the Holy Spirit empowers believers to do (1Cor.12:7-10, 28-30). Some people think speaking in tongues is the key to spiritual life. In fact you don’t even HAVE the Holy Spirit until you have spoken in tongues, according to them. I once heard a preacher wax eloquent on the reason Paul was the greatest man of God in church history. He said it was because he spoke in tongues more than anyone else (1Cor.14:18). He may have, but that was not the reason for his greatness. I myself speak in other tongues, but I can tell you the Holy Spirit has done something far more significant in my life, and it only took Him a moment to do it. He did it 33 years ago and I haven’t gotten over it yet. I never shall, for its effects will last forever. Healing is not the most powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Even prophesy has to take a back seat to the most necessary and important work that the Holy Spirit does for us. What is it? What is the greatest work of the Holy Spirit? It is the giving of life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Sinners are dead to God. They are what we call - lost. Unsaved people are lost to God. They may not be dead to religion, or dead to emotional or spiritual stirrings, or even to Biblical morality. But, they are dead to God. They know not the life of God in their own spirits. Being dead to God is described in Eph.2:1-3 as walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” We are in the lap of the wicked one (1Jn.5:19) and don’t even have enough life and light to know it! That is, until the Holy Spirit begins His life-giving work in us. Without the Spirit of God in our lives, “there is none righteousness, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” (Rm.3:10-12) We are dead to God. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to resurrect us. That is the greatest and most powerful things He does for us in saving us from our sins. We will begin a study of the Holy Spirit’s wonderful works where He begins His work in us. He is in the world to make us (the elect) like Jesus. His salvation is to make us into the image of God. Never forget that. He births us into the kingdom and family of God. That is His first step in us to make us like Jesus. He who is the express image of God was Himself born of the Spirit. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Mt.1:18; Lk.1:31,35) The elect sinner is Mary. Jesus has many mothers (Mt.12:50). The Holy Spirit puts the life of Jesus Christ inside the sinner and Christ begins to be formed in him. This is the new birth and it is accomplished in us the same way it was accomplished in Mary - by the Holy Spirit. “The power of the Highest” accomplishes this. The Holy Spirit always works with the Word of God. It is the Word and Spirit who originally gave life to the dead universe (Gen.1:1-3). It is the same Spirit who gives life to the dead sinner; and He always works in conjunction with the Word of God. “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth …” (Jas.1:18) It is by the preaching of the Word of the gospel that the Holy Spirit implants the divine life, the eternal life, into the heart of the sinner. And this makes him alive. He passes from death to life, in a moment. That is power. And it is the most important, powerful, significant thing the Holy Spirit does for us. God pictures the natural birth of Israel in Ezekiel, chapter 16, as a very sad day indeed. The nation was born of fallen mankind and left totally uncared for. “You were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.” Born dead. Lost. Hopeless. Unable to help themselves. In their own blood, in the field, having no one to pity them or have compassion on them. But then God says, “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’” (v.6) What a graphic picture of salvation and of the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who announces life to the dead, pronounces life on the dead! He looks at the natural born elect sinner and says, “Live!” And that which was dead to God comes alive. An even more graphic picture of the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation is given in Ezekiel, chapter 37. The prophet is shown a valley full of “very dry” bones. These bones had even been scattered across the valley in disarray. God asks Zeke if he thinks the bones can live. He replied that only God knows. The prophet was instructed to preach the word over the bones and as he did, the breath of God (the Holy Spirit) began to move through the valley and miraculously the bones began to come together. Sinews, flesh and skin were added to each skeleton. He prophesied again and the breath came into them, “and they lived.” Working with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit raises the dead to life. And so the whole house of Israel will be restored to life in the latter days, even as Gentiles and Jews alike today are being raised from the death of sin to the life of God. This is marvelous. It is a mighty work that only the Holy Spirit can perform. He does so, bringing to life all those the Father has chosen and all those for whom Christ died. To whom the Father selects and gives to His Son; to whom the Son redeems by the shedding of His blood; the Holy Spirit applies that redemption and gives life that they might believe and be saved. Hallelujah! Charles Spurgeon comments on Eze.37:13, “Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.” (NIV) The most remarkable of all changes a person can undergo is the change from death to life. How well do I remember lying in the valley of dry bones. Blessed is that day when Sovereign Grace sent a messenger to prophesy over me. There was a stirring within, and the creating God breathed life into my spirit. Truly it can be said of me: This my son was dead, and he is alive again. The rest of this study will be on the third chapter of John where Jesus taught on the Spirit giving birth and life to the sinner. We are honoring the Holy Spirit in this study. The Word of God always honors God in everything, especially in salvation. Man has no honor when it comes to this matter of salvation. Like I heard one fellow say, “My only contribution to my salvation was my sin!” Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). What is the lost person’s condition before he is born again by the Spirit? He is dead to God (Eph.2:1-3). What can a dead person do? Nothing. He does not act; he must be acted upon. I’ll tell you what a dead person can do: he can stink and rot (get worse), he can raise a hand, walk an aisle, audibly repeat a prayer, sign a card. He can do a lot of things but not repent and believe, not toward God. What can a dead (unborn) person not do? Anything. He cannot do anything. Remember this. “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” (Jn.3:1) To say the Nick in this story is a religious man is like saying Tom Hanks is an actor, or Michael Jordan is a basketball player, or the Pacific Ocean is a lot of water. Jesus called him, “the teacher of Israel,” in Jn.3:10. Not “a” teacher of Israel, but “the” teacher of Israel. This was the dean of the school of theology in the Hebrew seminary of his day. Nobody better or more schooled in the Scriptures than Nicodemus. “This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’” (v.2) Now, if someone said that about you or me, we would be greatly honored. And it was certainly true of Jesus. He was a teacher come from God and He had done great signs. In the context of this passage, Jesus had done so many signs in Jerusalem that “many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.” (Jn.2:22) No doubt about it, Nick was right. He had seen some things. He had seen some miracles and was convinced that only someone from God could do such things. What is dishonoring and wrong about what he said about Jesus is that it didn’t go far enough. It revealed a serious lack in his spiritual eyesight. God was not only with Jesus; Jesus Himself was God! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn.1:1) Nicodemus had seen some signs of the kingdom but he had not seen the kingdom, for he had not fully recognized the King who was doing the signs. He knew something about Jesus but He didn’t know who Jesus was. If he had seen who Jesus was, he would have seen the kingdom of God. If you, dear reader, haven’t seen who Jesus is, you haven’t seen the kingdom of God either. You can’t see the kingdom of God unless you are born again by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is about to tell Nicodemus that he hadn’t really seen anything because he hadn’t seen the kingdom of God. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (v.3) You haven’t seen the kingdom if you have not seen the king. Nicodemus hadn’t done that and Jesus lets him know it. He had to be born of the Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God. Jesus is talking about what we call being “born again,” which is actually a translation of the Greek words which mean “born from above.” I’ll talk about he significance of the literal translation in a moment. Right now, I want you to notice that Jesus didn’t tell Nicodemus that he had to wait for three years for that to happen. Many in our day believe that people didn’t get born of the Holy Spirit until after Pentecost. The Greek word for that is - bologna! Since the beginning of time men have seen God and walked with God because they have been born of the Spirit (Gen.2:7). The Holy Spirit had indwelt people all through the Old Testament. (See Gen.41:38; Num.27:18; Neh.9:30; Is.45:14; 63:11; Dan.4:18.) Enoch walked with God. Abraham saw God. Jacob saw God. Moses saw God. Joshua saw God. Lots of people saw the kingdom of God. How could they do that if they had not been born again of the Spirit? First Peter 1:11 is the end of the argument for me. Speaking of the Old Testament prophets who prophesied of the coming of Christ, Peter wrote: “searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was IN them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.” End of argument. Nicodemus was living in that Old Testament dispensation, before the death of the New Testament Testator (Heb.9:15-17). Jesus didn’t tell him that he would have to wait until Pentecost. Can you imagine Jesus saying to Nicodemus, “You must be born again, but that cannot happen for another three years?” No, you can’t. Neither can I. Because - it isn’t true. Had Nicodemus been born again, he would have seen the kingdom of God; but he didn’t because he hadn’t That is the gist of Christ’s word to him. Multitudes had received Jesus for who He was because they had been born “not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Jn.1:13) That is, many had received Him because they had been born of the Spirit of God. There has never been but one way to be saved. All people of all times have been saved the same way. They have all been born of the Spirit so they can see the kingdom and thus repent and believe in God. There has never been one way to be saved at one time and then another at another time. Folks in the Old Testament didn’t get saved any other way than folks in the New Testament did. Redemption was given in hope of the coming of the Lamb of God in the Old Testament. The believer looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. In New Testament times (this present age) believers look back to the coming of the Kinsman Redeemer. But always there has been the twin towers of redemption and regeneration. The books of Hebrews, Romans and Galatians (and John) take great pains to show that salvation has always been the same in the Old and in the New Testament. By the way, whenever the new birth is discussed in the Bible, the birth always comes before the believing. First there is the birth - then there is the believing (Jn.3:3 - then Jn.3:16). What can a person do before he is born? Nothing. Can he make a quality decision before he is born? Can he make the most important decision of His life before he has even been born? Can he see before he is born? No. NO. NO! He can only believe after he has been born. The new birth is “from above” and thus is under the sovereign direction of God the Holy Spirit (Jn.3:8). He is prevenient in all His operations. Before anybody does anything, the Spirit has to give life. First life and then action. This shows the grace of God. We are alive to God because the Holy Spirit birthed us into His family. Hallelujah! “Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’” (v.4) And all the mothers said, “NO!” Old Nick can’t see past the physical in his understanding. He can’t see the kingdom of God. He’s thinking natural child birth and Jesus is talking spiritual. He doesn’t get it. And Jesus tells him so. “Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” (v.5) There is no baptism in this verse of explanation by Jesus. Many read these words and see water baptism all over it. But the Lord is not talking ritual, sacrament or ordinance here. He is addressing Nicodemus’ dilemma. Nick is thinking physical birth and so Jesus contrasts that with the spiritual to show that there is a distinction. They are not the same thing. Jesus is not talking baptism here, He is talking physical birth. How do I know? Because He tells us so in the very next verse. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (v.6) The water of v.5 is the flesh of v.6. When a child is born of the flesh the mother’s water breaks. The child has been incased in water inside the mother’s womb. In order for him to come out the water must break. That is the physical birth of which Jesus speaks. He is informing the teacher of the Jews that his physical birth does not equip him to see the kingdom of God, nor enter it. Another birth is necessary to enter and see the spiritual kingdom. That is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. The natural man can see the miracles of God, but he cannot see the God of the miracles. Nicodemus had seen physical miracles with his physical eyes. He got those eyes at his physical birth. But more is needed to see the kingdom of God the Spirit. He must be born of the Spirit. “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (v.7) That is the greatest work of the Holy Spirit, birthing people into the family of God. Giving life to dead spirits is the most necessary work of God the Holy Spirit. You must be born again. Throughout this conversation, Nicodemus has been confused. Every time he opens his mouth it seems he asked the question, “How?” He asks it in v.4 and then again in v.9. He doesn’t understand. He needs this explained to him. How does this happen? The Lord has a simply profound and profoundly simple explanation. It is not what you would expect. He doesn’t explain it so we’ll understand it. We cannot understand it. It is mysterious, as mysterious as the wind. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn.3:8) What a loaded verse, and so full of mystery. Beware those who would take the mystery out of the new birth. Renown believers will write books on how to be born again, totally ignoring the explanation Jesus gives here. The Master of all teachers does not give a step by step list of things dead people must do to explain “how” the new birth happens. Indeed, He does not give one thing for man to do. He simply talks about the wind. Both in the Hebrew and Greek languages the same word is used for spirit and for wind. “The wind,” said He, “blows,” and the very same word would have been employed if He had meant to say, “The Spirit blows where He wishes.” There is a very close and intimate parallel between the Spirit of God and the wind. The Bible uses several metaphors to explain the work of the Holy Spirit: dew, fire, oil and water. Here Jesus uses the wind. In Spurgeon’s sermon on this text he gives several likenesses of the wind and the Spirit. Both are mysterious in their operations. Weathermen are wrong most of the time for this very reason. Even with all their meteorological equipment they still get the forecast wrong about as much as they get it right. Why is this? Because weather is carried by the wind and the wind shifts - mysteriously. Jesus tells us why the meteorologists are wrong most of the time. “The wind blows where it wishes.” Its direction will shift in a moment. Jet streams will shift. We have cross currents, gales, tornadoes, hurricanes, upper and lower level air streams, and trade winds. Weathervanes turn and we know not why? We have such a hard time predicting where the wind is coming from and where it is going. The wind is very mysterious. So is the Holy Spirit in His operations. When we say, “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” we do not mean weird and unusual ways. Mysterious means in ways that can not be detected by the natural senses. His ways are mysterious, hidden, and beyond our sense comprehension. The Holy Spirit visits one church and not another; even one person sitting in one service and not another. He will blow on one continent and not another, in one country and not another, in one denomination and not another, in one city and not another. At one time and not another. There is a divinity in both the wind and the Spirit. Who can create a wind? Men may huff and puff but they do not and cannot make a wind in the atmosphere. Only God can do that. Only God can give life to a dead man. “Revivalists may get up excitement with the best intentions, and may warm people’s hearts till they begin to cry out, but all this ends in nothing unless it is divine work. All that is of nature’s spinning must be unraveled. Thou mayest blow with thy mouth and produce some trifling effects upon trifles as light as air; man in his zeal may set the windmills of silly minds in motion; but, truly, to stir men’s hearts with substantial and eternal verities, needs a celestial breeze, such as the Lord alone can send.” Both operations are sovereign. This is the main intent of our Lord’s words here. Nicodemus wants to know what he can do to effect this spiritual birth, even to the ridiculous point of suggesting that he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born. Our Lord’s point to him is that the new birth is not something YOU do, it is something GOD does. “The wind (Spirit) blows where He wishes.” We are as dead concerning spiritual things as the corpse in its coffin; worse, as the corpse that is rotting in its grave, and have become like Lazarus in the tomb, stinking and offensive. There is a voice that can call you out of your grave, but if that voice come not …! The wind blows where it wishes. The wind blows differently. It blows with varying force across the land and seas. Sometimes it blows a breeze and sometimes a hurricane. Sometimes a tornado and sometimes a blizzard. Sometimes it hardly seems to blow at all; the trees do not move and the flags hang limp. Sometimes the Spirit comes to a person like a rushing mighty wind. He first came to me as such when He blew into my life with such force that I cried and cried out in anguish, “I surrender to You, O mighty and loving One.” But to some people He comes as a gentle breeze and they can scarce know how it is that they came to believe, but they have. The wind also moves in different directions. It is always shifting. Some are brought to Christ by the Spirit moving through a sermon. Others through the prayers and witness of a friend. Still others during a song at a revival meeting. Some are born again riding down the road in a car. Some are saved through the terrors of the law which thundered into their conscience, and some by the sweet wooing words of a loving mother. The wind has different effects. Sometimes it blows gently and cools the brow. Sometimes it blows trees over and wrecks the countryside. Sometimes it wails and at other times it sings. “You hear the sound of it,” Jesus said. Sometimes the Spirit produces brokenness of spirit and sometimes joy that cannot be held inside or described. Sometimes a song and sometimes a wail. And sometimes laughter. Oftentimes the recipient of the Spirit will be so full of love that it spills over on all who are near and far. On and on we could go, but the point Jesus is making to Nicodemus is clear. The new birth is not something that YOU do, it is something the Holy Spirit does. He moves where He wishes. And when He moves people come to life. They become alive to God. “So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” I want to close by making this mysterious work of the Spirit practical to us. First, if the new birth is necessary and “you must be born again,” and it is something that only the sovereign Spirit can perform, then how thankful and full of praise to God we who have born again should be. Should not this cause the believer to fall on his face and thank God that the wind blew across his dry bones? “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph.2:1) To God be the glory; great things He has done. This is the glory of God, that He has birthed us into eternal life and we shall never perish. How can you help from dancing like David did before this ark of testimony to the grace of God? We will lose our dignity as we think how the wind has sovereignly chose us to reign and have dominion with Him world without end. We shout before the walls of our death that have been torn down by the Spirit of life. We fly our emotional kites because of the wind that has so graciously come to take us to the living heights of glory. We worship God with all our might, for the Holy Spirit has made us alive and we will use our life to the fullest in the worship of the living God. The Holy Spirit’s mighty melody has awakened a song in my soul; shall I not sing it and that with all my heart? Yes! I will not hold back. I will hoist the sails of my praise and move with power through the waters of worship. Next, does the Spirit move in conjunction with the Word? Then I will speak that living Word to those who yet lie in the valley of dry bones. I will receive the Holy Spirit upon me and He will make me a witness for Christ to all who come under the sound of my voice. I will speak His Word and pray that the wind of the Spirit will rattle the bones of others and make them come together. I will say to the Lord and to the skeletons, “Come, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” If the wind blows where it wishes then I must wait on Him and look to Him, as the sailor looks to the heavens for the wind to blow. I will keep looking to the Holy Spirit, knowing that I am at His mercy. I will pray for the wind to blow and perhaps God will hear my cry and cause His mercy to bring life to those who hear my witness. God is gracious. To those who have not yet been born again, I have a word as well. While it is true that you cannot make the wind blow, still God has made you responsible. You can get to where the wind blows. There is such a thing as what is called a “prevailing wind.” Along the gulf shores the trees are bent back toward the land because the wind is always coming off the water. There are places in the earth where the wind has the habit of blowing constantly. And there are places where the wind of the Spirit blows. It blows in a church that gathers for the worship of God in spirit and truth. It blows in the preaching of the Word. You can get your body out of bed, place your feet on the floor, then one foot in front of the other, put your clothes on, walk out the door and make your way to the house of God. You are responsible for what you can do and you can do that. The wind blows in the Bible. You are responsible and very well can open the pages of your Bible and read the Word of God. You can read, so read. The wind blows in the reading of the Bible. Feel its breath as you open its pages. The wind blows in prayer meetings, so get to them, as often as you can. You are responsible for that. You can’t make the wind blow but you are responsible for getting to where the wind blows. It blows when others are talking the gospel. Pull a Christian aside and have him or her tell you the good news. And ask God to breathe on you. “You must be born again.” Jesus didn’t say, “May,” He said must. He didn’t say, “Can,” He said must. Would you escape the flames of hell? Then you must be born again. Would you enjoy the glories of heaven with God forever? Then you must be born again. Would you know joy overflowing and peace like a river even now? You must be born again. This is the one condition that never moves. God never alters it, and never will. You must, MUST, MUST! be born again. You cannot enter the kingdom of God without it. You must be born again. How? The wind blows where it wishes. Get to where the wind blows.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 20:37:04 +0000
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