May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 3, and we'll read verse
8. The Gospel of John, chapter 3,
and reading verse 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth. and thou hearest the sound thereof
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so
is every one that is born of the Spirit this was part of the answer that
Jesus gave to Nicodemus because the Lord had come to Nicodemus
as Nicodemus had come to the Lord by night and obviously he
was probably embarrassed or afraid to come at daytime so he came
at night time so that he wouldn't be seen because of course he
was an important person he was the ruler of the Jews But nonetheless,
he came to Jesus. And he came to him and he said,
we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. And Jesus really bypassed that
statement. He didn't really make any reference
to it. but he directed the man to that
which was very important and it was very important to Nicodemus
and it's very important for us today because the Lord spelt
out very simply except a man be born again he cannot see the
kingdom of God And that of course is in a natural way and also
in a spiritual way. Well that was something beyond
the understanding of Nicodemus. And it's beyond the understanding
of us naturally to understand such a statement that we need
to be born again. Born again by the Spirit of God. And many people just carry on
aimlessly in this life, forgetting this great and important need
that all of us have. All of us must have the evidence
in our very heart that we are born again, that we have a new
nature, that our spirit is born again. We're not left in that
dead condition with which we were born. We're born naturally. All of us here are born naturally.
We're all alive naturally. If you weren't alive, you wouldn't
be here. And that's evident from our physical
being. But the other side is that we
all have a never-dying soul. No one can see that. That's invisible
to our natural eye. But nonetheless it's equally
true, as sure as you and I have a natural body, sure it is that
we have a never-dying soul, which is invisible to our natural seeing. And so we're born naturally,
we live alive we are naturally we're born with a soul but we
go back and we often have to go back and I often go back as
you know and it's important that we do to Genesis because there
in that Garden of Eden in that perfect condition that sinless
state Adam and Eve listened to the temptation of Satan and succumbed
to his statements. And they knew very well that
they were not to eat of that tree, the knowledge of good and
evil, because as the Lord had told them, and they knew, in
the day they ate of it, they would surely die. And it's important
to just note He didn't say in due time you will surely die. They would. But he said that
day, that time. And therefore that's very clear
that the Lord was speaking there that they would die in a spiritual
sense. And they would therefore be dead
spiritually. And they would then need to be
born again. And that's true then of every
one of us. We're all spiritually dead as
we're born. Because we're born in sin and
shapen in iniquity. And we cannot escape that truth. Because the Word of God is true. Never doubt God's Word. God's
Word is true. Hold on to it. Believe it. And
recognise the truth of it. And so, here we have this statement,
you must be born again. Clearly spelled out by the Saviour. It had been prophesied back in
that chapter in Genesis, back in the early history of the world.
All the Old Testament people had walked through it and realised
that there was this need, it was couched in not easy terminology. And yet, you see, the truth was
there. But now, now to this one man,
Nicodemus, the Lord powerfully speaks to him this great truth. He must be born again. Well, Nicodemus couldn't understand
it, and you and I naturally cannot understand it. Man generally
does not understand it, does not want to understand it. He
does not want to think that he has more than his natural life.
He wants to think that when he's finished his natural life, that's
the end of everything. There is no other life. He wants to think that therefore
he has control of his life. That's why so many people commit
suicide. They think they can control their
life. Well, they can control their
natural life. They can't control their spiritual life. And so
here we have the Lord speaking very clearly. And he says, very,
very again, you see, repeats it. I say unto thee, except a
man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. That means that you and I cannot
go to heaven unless we are born again. It's not a question which
is irrelevant. It's a very important question
which all of us want to be able to answer in a positive way and
that positive way is to be able to testify that by the grace
of God we are born again of the Spirit of God. Well, the Lord
tells Nicodemus not to marvel He says, Marvel not that I said
unto thee, Thee, ye must be born again. And again, it's very clear,
isn't it? Ye must be born again. No doubt about it. There's many
things you and I want in this life. Many things, perhaps, that
we crave after. And yet, the most important thing
is, without any doubt, that you and I possess the gift of eternal
life. and that we are born of the Spirit. You must be born again. Well that introduction really
brings us to this eighth verse. And then the Lord explains how
this happens. And he brings the analogy of
the wind. And it's good for us just to
think upon this analogy. We all know what the wind is,
don't we? It's quite blustery today. We all know what the wind
is. And so the Lord comes and says,
the wind bloweth where it listeth. This word listeth is, well, it's
a word translated from the Greek and there's many variations in
it. But nonetheless, it really means It goes wherever it wants
to go, wherever it's directed. That's where the wind goes. The
wind bloweth where it listeth. And then the Lord says, we hear
the sound, we do hear the sound. The wind blows and it rustles
leaves. Even perhaps it just moves grass. Nonetheless, we
do hear it and sometimes we just hear it blowing with a kind of
a whoosh noise. But we can hear that. We can
hear it. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof. But then the Lord says, but we
can't tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. We perhaps
get the general gist of direction it's coming from, but we don't
know where it commenced, We don't know how it started. We don't
know how it gathered force. We don't know how it lost force. We just accept the position.
There's this wind and we can't tell whence it cometh and whither
it goeth. So therefore the Lord gives this
very vivid picture, doesn't he, of the wind. And I'm sure we
can all understand that, can't we? What the wind is like. And
then the Lord concludes by saying, so is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. And it's very clear, it tells
us here, and so is everyone, not some, not the odd person
here or there, but everyone Everyone, without exception, that is born
of the Spirit will spiritually understand that God has come
into their hearts in a way which they're not able to know how
it really happened. And so, Nicodemus asked the question,
how can these things be? Well, naturally speaking, of
course, it doesn't seem tangible, does it? But that's why God gives
to his people, to his church, his true church, the gift of
faith to believe. And my friends, all of us, All
of us need the gift of faith to believe. The last verse in
this chapter that we read this morning tells us this. He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. That's clear, isn't it? And he that believeth not, the
Son shall not see life. That means he's not blessed with
eternal life. He's blessed with, as the scripture
terms it, eternal death. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And just note that it doesn't
say the wrath of God will last for an hour or a day or a year,
it abideth. And friends, we will always eternally
be the recipients of the wrath of God. unless we possess that
gift of faith to believe on the Son of God. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. Now, you and I will only come
to that position to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Saviour. as the Son of God, as the great
judge of mankind, as the creator of all things, we should only
come to that true spiritual understanding when the Holy Spirit blows, shines
and comes into our very being. So that we have the evidence
within us that we are born again. And that comes when the Holy
Spirit reveals to us, first of all, what we are. You say, well I know who I am.
I know I'm a human being and I know I live on this earth.
Well that's a natural understanding. But when the spirit of God comes
and speaks to us, it then shows to us a very, very vital thing. And that is that we are a sinner. That we have disobeyed the word
of God. That we have disobeyed God. That
we are guilty. as a sinner before God. And because
of that sin, we deserve eternal punishment. And that eternal
punishment is eternal separation from Almighty God. Well, that
surely is a very clear position But my friends, it's a very important
thing that you and I must consider. Remember, this tells us everyone,
everyone, everyone. We can't tell. So is everyone
that is born in the Spirit. But what a blessing it is this
morning if you and I are first of all able to confirm that the
Holy Spirit has come has come into our hearts in a way perhaps
that we never expected in a place perhaps that we never expected
and yet that Holy Spirit has come upon us and directed us
to realise that we are not a very good person We're in actual fact
not a person who has any merit with God. We might look upon
the good things that we've done, but before God, in comparison
with our sin, they are irrelevant. What a blessing it is if the
wind of God's Spirit was blown upon us. It was blown upon us. You might remember there was
that wonderful occasion which we spoke about a couple of Sundays
ago, when it was that day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
descended upon the disciples. And what a wonderful effect it
had. What a wonderful effect. In their
case, of course, they were blessed with the gift of tongues to be
able to speak everyone in their own language. In essence, it's
very similar for us today, because when the Spirit descends upon
us, it reveals to us what we are before a holy God, as a sinner. a sinner who deserves endless
punishment. Now that's not something which
is attractive to the natural mind and it's something which
you may try and ignore and try and turn away from and not to
consider. You may not want to think about
a situation like that. You may want to pass on and think,
well that's not very relevant. What a wonderful blessing it
is that the work of the Holy Spirit does not cease. When the Holy Spirit enters into
our heart, and we are born again in that Spirit, that work continues. That work continues. It continues
to convince us that we are a great sinner, and it continues then
to show us that we need to be delivered from our sin otherwise
we shall never enter into heaven and then what a blessing it is
when that spirit continues to direct us to none other than
the great and glorious Jesus that spoke to Nicodemus so very
clearly these words and told him you must be born again and
therefore then to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And come
then, pleading for mercy. Because when the Holy Spirit
convicts, what it means is we are shown that we are a guilty
sinner before a holy God. Yes, we're a guilty sinner. And you won't be able to justify
yourselves. You may have tried to, perhaps
when that first occurred. You may have tried to look at
all your good points and try and add them up and think that
you've done enough to justify yourself. Well, my friends, that's
utter failure. Because sin is mixed with all
we do. We cannot justify ourselves. That means we cannot make ourselves
just before God. We cannot make ourselves acceptable
to God. We need the work of the Holy
Spirit and we need it to come upon us like the wind. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. So what a blessing if you and
I, in our soul, in our very innermost being, are conscious of a stirring,
just like the wind. We may say, well, it's like being
asleep. Well, the truth is, it's because
we were dead. But then to think that spirit
has therefore stirred us from death into spiritual life, spiritual
life, so that we now realize that we are a lost and undone,
a hell-deserving sinner, and that we need deliverance. We need to be freed. We need
the Holy Spirit to come and to direct us to the great and glorious
way of salvation. We need Christ to be revealed
to us as our personal Saviour. Real religion, my friends, is
personal. The Holy Spirit comes to us individually. And you and I can't give that
Spirit to anyone else. Because God, my friends, is a
sovereign, holy, gracious God. It's His work. And He will have
the honour and the glory. And no one else will be able
to claim any glory. God it is. who works, I will
work. Bless God, if therefore we have
in our hearts today the evidence of this great and blessed work
of the Holy Spirit, which has shown us, therefore, that we
do possess spiritual life, life within. And that is the great
and glorious gift of eternal life. And let me tell you something
else. That will never be taken away. Once the Lord gives the great
and wonderful gift of eternal life, it is not removed. It's not taken away. That's why the Apostle Paul,
when he wrote to the Romans and when he explained in that sixth
chapter something of what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him,
how bad he was and how he couldn't do really what he wanted to do.
But he comes down to the end of that sixth chapter in the
epistle of Paul to the Romans. In verse 22, he tells us, but
now being made free from sin and become servants of God, you
have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. That is what we all need. Four,
he tells us the wages of sin, that means the payment for our
sin is death, it's eternal death, but the gift of God, the unmerited
favor of God, the grace of God, the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then as he goes on to the
seventh chapter to explain so clearly the law of sin and death,
and how he was condemned under that law. And as he comes down
to the last two verses in this chapter, he says, O wretched
man that I am. Yes, you won't be able to stand
and think you're a good person when the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit
convicts us. We're like this, and we stand
before God. You don't have to stand before
man, you stand before God. And the apostle said, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. There was his hope. And my friends,
your hope and my hope can only be there, nowhere else. And what
a blessing it is when you and I can come having received the
work of the Holy Spirit and be able to say, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What a blessing that is. That
means freedom, freedom. And the Lord Jesus spoke in the,
I think it's the 15th of John. If the son therefore shall make
you free you shall be free indeed. And that's why the apostle goes
on to the first verse in this eighth chapter and he says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now you see, if the Holy Spirit
has revealed to us the truths that I've been speaking of, then
we have the evidence that we are in Christ Jesus. And if we
are in Christ Jesus, then the glory of the gospel is, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death." Well, there is reason then to rejoice in this great
salvation which the Lord Jesus has brought to us. And it's His
work it's nothing in ourselves we'll never be able to glorify
ourselves but you and I will want to glorify the Saviour for what
he's done and what has he done? he's given his life to set us free that was the price
required the life of the Saviour. The perfect life of the Saviour
had to be laid down, had to be given, that His Church could
be freed from the condemnation of sin. Well, what a blessing
today, if you and I have the wonderful favour, realising that
the spiritual wind The Spirit of God has blown upon us. And
there we have the evidence of it within us. We know it's happened. Once I was dead. But now, by the grace of God,
I'm alive. Spiritually alive. You see, I can't answer for you.
You can't answer for me. We all have to answer to God. And the word here is very powerful. Everyone that is born of the
Spirit. All of us here this morning are
either born of the Spirit or we're not born of the Spirit.
We either have the evidence that this spiritual wind has blown
upon us or we've not had the evidence of it. There aren't any gray areas in
the truth of God. The devil will try and fudge
the issue. And you'll try and convince us,
well, these things are, you know, not all that important in actual
fact. You carry on as you are. And in effect, you can change
your life as you get older. Well, the Word of God tells us
this today. if you will hear his voice harden
not your hearts not tomorrow tomorrow may not come we may
not see tomorrow but we are today in a gospel day we are still
on this earth we can still plead to our God we can still pray
to our God that he will come indeed And powerfully, that wind
may blow strongly and reveal to us that we are born of the
Spirit of God. Well, you see, Nicodemus, he
quite struggled with these things and he said, how can these things
be? You see, naturally, naturally,
if you try and work things out with your own mind, you won't
be able to do so. Because God gives us faith to
believe. Faith to believe. Faith is the
wonderful gift of God and I often refer to it and it's very worthwhile
referring to it. And that's the second chapter
in the Ephesians and the eighth verse. It's the real wonderful
gospel. And this is what he says. For
by grace are ye saved. And as I've told you many times,
grace is the free unmerited favour of God. For by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You and
I will not be able to boast of what we've done, but you will
be able to boast of what Christ has done. You will desire to honour and glorify the blessed
Lord Jesus for what he's done and never underestimate what
he's done. Never underestimate the cost
of your salvation, my friends, to take away your sin. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
give his life. He had to give his life. And
we have many descriptions, don't we, in the word of God, how that
came about. But we know the Lord Jesus Christ
had to be crucified, the most painful death. He had to endure
the hiding of his father's face, who he'd always been with from
eternity. He had to do that. He had to
endure that to satisfy the righteous, the holy demands of Almighty
God. But today, can we not praise
God for that wonderful work of salvation? It causes us to think
perhaps of the case of Jonah, who was so disobedient to his
Lord, and ran away, and cast into the sea, swallowed by a
whale. In there for three days and three
nights, total darkness, the weeds wrapped around his head. And
then it was, he said, I will remember. He would remember the
Lord God. He prayed then. And he was able
to make that wonderful statement. Salvation is of the Lord. And that's not a statement which
is confined to Jonah. It's a statement which is blessed
to the whole church of God. We come to be able to say, yes,
by the grace of God, I know that salvation is of the Lord. And I can, praise God, because
the spiritual wind of His grace has blown into my heart and it's
revealed to me that I am a needy sinner and that that same wind
has gloriously directed me to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that I have that humble confidence
to be able to say I'm clean, just God. I'm clean, washed in
the blood of the Lamb. These are great truths, my friends.
They're necessary truths, they're vital truths. And what a blessing it is when
the Holy Spirit takes us, and He takes us individually, as
it were, by our hand, and leads us into all truth, as it is in
Jesus. We understand then the wonder
then of this which the Lord speaks to Nicodemus. It wasn't a long
conversation, was it? He wasn't there for hours and
arguing this way and that way. You see, when the Lord speaks,
it's done. And you and I receive it as The Word of God. His truth. And that Word, when spoken to
our souls, brings peace. And it brings joy. And it brings
happiness. Because we have the evidence
that this blessed Spirit of God has blown into our hearts. And we have the evidence of this
great gift of eternal life. Well, says then the Lord, the
wind bloweth where it will. Yes, it comes in different ways,
in different power, sometimes very quietly. Remember Elijah,
in the mouth of the cave, there was the whirlwind, there was
the earthquake. No, the Lord wasn't in that. Then there was
the still, small voice. Yes, that soft wind blew, but
it had an effect. And that's what the work of God
does. God's wind, when it blows, it
has an effect. And it has an effect which doesn't
disappear, because it's the work of God. The wind bloweth where
it listeth. And thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, the effect you see in
our hearts. And whither it goeth, so is every
one that is born of Spirit. I do want to home in this morning
on this simple word or two words. Everyone, without exception,
everyone here today, must know this path. Everyone must know
this path. There are no exceptions. There's
no different access. There's no back staircase, we
might say. There's only one door. And that
door is, as the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am. He is a door. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. There is no other way. What a
blessing it is for us today then to rejoice in the great truths
of God. Well, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus
and asked him, and he said, aren't there a master of Israel? And
no, it's not these things. Very, very understanding. We
speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive
not our witness. My friends, you've heard these
truths today. Has God given you grace to receive
them? Or do you reject them? Do you
think it's irrelevant? Do you think it's something which
you can put off? Something you don't need to consider?
Well, the Word of God is true and the Word of God is very strong
and the Word of God is very, very powerful. You see, until
the work of the Spirit comes, we're just as Ezekiel says, dry
bones, there's no life. But bless God, when that work
of the Spirit does come. And it is so enlightening to
our very being. And it's a wonderful possession. that we have God's gift to quicken,
make alive our souls. As the Apostle said in that second
chapter, we refer to this now over Ephesians, and you hath
he quickened, no doubt, and you hath he quickened, who were dead,
past, were dead, were dead, but now are alive. Well, my friends,
may we have the evidence. If we don't have the evidence,
may we earnestly seek unto God that he will cause us to know
the work of his Spirit within us, so that we do know that we
are born again and that is therefore well with our soul. You see,
the question is, is it well with our soul? Is it well with your
soul or is it well with my soul? And my friends, we must be able
to say, by the grace of God, it is well. Amen.