Returning to our text in John
chapter 3, I want to read a good portion of Ezekiel chapter 37. And this will serve as the introduction
for my message. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and sent me
down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. and
calls me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were
very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you
and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and you shall live. And ye shall know that
I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise. And behold, a shaking. And the
bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld,
lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them. And the skin
covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then said
he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and
say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may
live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came upon them, and they lived. Stood up
upon their feet and exceeding great army Then said he unto
me son of man These bones are the whole house of Israel Behold,
they say our bones are dried. Our hope is lost. We are cut
off for our parts therefore prophesy and say unto them thus saith
the Lord God and Behold, oh my people, I will open your graves
and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you
into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves, oh my people, and brought
you up out of your graves and shall put my spirit in you. Let those words serve as the
introduction for my message. Our text is John chapter 3, verse
8. Our Lord's words to Nicodemus.
The title of my message, if you're taking notes, is Listen to 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. Now men commonly use many words
to convey very insignificant thoughts. Politicians and preachers
are real good at that. Our Savior used few words to
convey very great thoughts. Here he speaks of the Holy Spirit
and the work of the Holy Spirit by which sinners are saved, brought
to life in faith in the Lord Jesus by God's almighty grace. He compares the operations of
the Spirit to the movements of the wind. And when he does this,
our Savior shows us the absolute necessity of the wind. Imagine
a world with no wind. Every pond would soon stink with
death and stagnation. And without the spirit of God,
without the wind of heaven, the scene would be infinitely worse
than us being without the wind on this earth. The trees of the
forest would clap their hands no more. The bones of the valley
would still lie dead and without life. The sweet odors of the
rose of Sharon would never be smelled by any. Even as the son
of righteousness brings healing under his wings, so the wind
of heaven, the spirit of God brings life to dead sinners.
We rightly worship, adore, and give praise to God the Holy Spirit
as one with the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity. Without
the wind of heaven, We have no life. Without the wind of heaven,
we cannot read this word with profit to our souls, hear it
preached with benefit to our souls, or preach the word for
the benefit of others. Without the wind of heaven, we
cannot sing God's praise, call on His name, and worship Him.
We must have the Spirit of God. As our Savior said concerning
Himself, so the Spirit of God might say, without me, ye can
do nothing. Now I want us to look this evening
at how our Lord compares the Holy Spirit To the wind and we'll
do three things first. Let's look at the comparison
itself The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the
sound thereof But can't not tell whence it cometh and whither
it goeth So is everyone that is born of the Spirit Now this
comparison of the Holy Spirit to wind is maintained throughout
the scriptures. In fact, if you care to get down
to Concordes and look at it, the words in the Hebrew text
and in the Greek text, the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Greek
of the New, which are translated spirit and the word translated
wind are exactly the same. So whenever you read the scriptures,
you have to determine by the context, is it talking about
the wind that we feel blowing across our faces when we're outside
on a breezy day? Or is it talking about the breath
of a man? Or is it talking about the spirit
of God? The word wind and spirit are
the same words translated in our English text. The very first
thing that comes to mind when I think about this comparison
is the fact that the wind is unexplainably mysterious. It's unexplainably mysterious. Nicodemus could not understand
our Lord's doctrine. He could not understand it. He
was a master in Israel. But he didn't understand the
teaching of the Old Testament, the plain statements of the Old
Testament about God putting his spirit within us. He didn't understand
what the Savior said when he said, you must be born again.
Our Lord Jesus says to him, are you a master in Israel? And yet
you don't know these things. You ask me, how can these things
be? And as soon as Nicodemus asked
him, how can these things be? How can a man be born when he's
old? The Lord Jesus said, the wind blows where it will. You
hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it came from
and you can't tell where it's going. So is everyone that is
born of the Spirit. You can see where the wind has
been. But nobody can tell where it
came from, what its origin was. And nobody can predict with certainty
where it's going next. It blows north to south in one
part of the world and south to north in another. The wind may
be blowing from west to east in eastern Kentucky and blowing
from east to west in western Kentucky at the same time. When
flying in a plane, you will sometimes Have the pilot come on and tell
you to take a seat when you're fixing to land because you're
going to meet some crosswinds. And the crosswinds can give such
turbulence as will shake your teeth out, especially on a small
jet. It'll just make you think you're
just absolutely not going to make it because the winds are
crossing that plane as the plane's trying to land. Like the wind,
God the Holy Spirit works mysteriously. mysteriously. Brother Todd Nybert's
mother-in-law, Chuck Moore, commenting with regard to the heretic he'd
been listening to, he said, I can't put my finger on what's wrong,
but there's no glory to the message. No mystery. No wonder. No wonder. When you can Put it
all down on paper. Write it all out and explain
it. When there's no mystery left, no wonder left, then you've missed
the gospel altogether. You've missed it altogether.
A mystery. I can't define spirituality. Can you? I've read a lot of definitions,
but I can't define it. And I've not found anyone who
could, but I know what it is when I'm around it. I can't define
unction, the unction of the spirit. I've read lots of definitions.
I know the meaning of the word, but I can't define that special
unction of the spirit upon a man preaching the word, but I know
it when I'm present with it. Don't you? There's a mystery
about the work of the Spirit. Everything about the way God
does things is mysterious, wondrous, profound. His ways are not our
ways. They are so far above our ways.
His ways are higher than our ways, as high as the heaven is
above the earth. Mysterious. Redemption is a wondrous
mystery. God assuming our nature. He who knew no sin made sin for
us. He who made the curse of the
law being made a curse for us. That's a mystery no man can explain. the Lord Jesus coming, giving
life to a dead sinner by the power of his free grace. He comes
to those who were dead and puts in us his own life so that we
may partakers of the divine nature so that a man lives on this earth,
man and Christ in one flesh, a new man and an old man in one
person. This whole work of redemption
is mysterious. The Lord God by the power of
his spirit, calls out his elect from the four corners of the
earth. And mysteriously, wondrously, as he will, he calls out his
sheep here and there, this place or that place, exactly as he
will. He sends a great movement of
his spirit upon one congregation and not another, as he will.
And there's no explaining it. People write books about revival. And they try to conjure up revival. And they say, now this is what
folks did to get revival. If you'll do the same thing,
you'll get revival. God's spirit moves where he will. Where he
will. He calls out a people where he
will. He pours out his manifest blessings
where he will and when he will. I'm certain that our Lord intended
for Nicodemus to understand and intends for us to understand
by this comparison that the operations of God the Holy Spirit are not
only mysterious, but they are sovereign and irresistible. Sovereign and irresistible. God has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. Now, here's a fact that ought
to humble our hearts before God. We're in his hands. We're in his hands. He can do
with us what he will. He can save us or he can damn
us exactly as he will. He can give you life or he can
pass you by exactly as he will. He can this moment cause you
to hear his voice and believe on his son or he can leave you
as you are right now as he will. We're in His hands, who maketh
thee to differ from another. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Now, if you did receive it, don't glory as if
you hadn't received it. The Spirit's work is sovereign
and irresistible. The wind bloweth where it listeth. God, the Holy Spirit, is free,
sovereign, uncontrolled, unregulated, irresistible. In all his operations
of grace, in regeneration, he comes and gives life. Son of
man, can these bones live? Oh, Lord, thou knowest. Thou
knowest. Only you, only you. He comes
to give life to whom he will and in the dispensing of all
his gifts of grace To all his elect in all the ages of time
in all the parts of the world He gives to every man severally
as he will so that each person in his kingdom, each member of
his family, each one in his church is gifted of him exactly as he
will to serve his generation where he is in his kingdom for
his glory. That means that God put you in
his kingdom where he would have you with the gifts, the means,
the abilities and the opportunities at your disposal that he's put
in you and put in your hands to use for his glory. And that's
where he uses you. That's true with regard to you
who give and support and work for the furtherance of the gospel
in this assembly, our friends from over Lexington, other people
all over the world where God gathers out his people. And it's
true of every preacher called and gifted of God for the service
of the kingdom of God. Not only are men called of God
to preach the gospel, God gifts specific men to minister to specific
people in specific places at specific times. He gives to each
one the gifts needful to open a door before him and use him
in that place. That's how God works. Not at
all controlled by man, not at all controlled by the plans of
men, but rather all the plans of men controlled by his purpose,
his decree, and his work. Like the wind, the Spirit of
God is irresistible, omnipotent, powerful. The Spirit of God doesn't
try to do things. The spirit of God is not just
an influence to target your heart. God, the Holy Spirit is God omnipotent. He does what he will. He gives
grace where he will. He gives life where he will.
He works where he will and none can stay his head are saying
to him, what do is that? He cast down, as John Gill wrote,
he cast down Satan's strongholds, demolishes the fortifications
of sin. The whole posse of hell and the
corruptions of a man's heart are no match for God's spirit.
When the spirit works, who can let, who can prevent? So was
everyone that is born of the spirit. All who are born of God,
every saved center is regenerated by grace that is free and sovereign,
powerful and irresistible as the secret. Unexplainable, imperceptible
movements of the wind. God, the Holy Spirit moves sovereignly
and works irresistibly where he will. The spirit of God is
like the wind in another way. like the wind in that work of his that he performs
wherever he works. The Spirit's work is obvious.
You can't tell where it came from. You can't tell where it's
going, but you can dead sure tell where it's been. You fellas
remember the night the wind came through here? What was it, 1979?
and leveled this place. No trouble seeing where the wind
had been, was it? No trouble seeing where the wind had been.
You've seen tornadoes, you see where the wind's been. You can
see the path like that, spot it immediately. Nobody has to
tell you the tornado touched down right there. I can see that.
I can see that. Where the wind has blown, the
grass lays down. Everything in the path of the
wind bows by the wind Now hear me all who are born of God are
by the Spirit of God bowed before God Bowed to Jesus Christ the
Lord willingly bowing to him the wind moves in the path Ordained
by God the Lord has his way in the whirlwind And wherever the
wind comes, everything before the wind bows as the wind of
heaven was involved in the first creation. So the wind of heaven
is he who makes us new creatures in Christ, giving us a new nature
as the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So the
spirit of God moves upon the hearts of men and gives us life
before God. Now, secondly, The spirit here
is compared to the wind, and the wind is spoken of as a sound. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. But
the wind's sound is more than just a noise. The word that is
translated sound here is the word from which we get our word
phone, or phono. It is the word that's most commonly
translated sound, or most commonly translated voice. Not just sound,
but voice. Voice. The wind bloweth where
it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof. The voice
thereof. What's that? What is the voice
of the Spirit but the Word of God? The Lord's talking about
the new birth. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1
Peter chapter 1. The voice of the Spirit is the
Word of God by which the Holy Spirit communicates life and
faith and grace to chosen redeemed sinners. Now this is a thing
that makes us distinct from multitudes. We fully believe, according to
scripture, that God uses the preaching of the gospel to give
life to dead sinners. People say, well, that limits
God's sovereignty. Not at all. Not at all. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Well,
what if there's not a preacher? Do you really reckon that's a
problem to God? Whether he's got some of his elect down in
New Guinea but no preachers there, he can put one there like that.
Like that. Have the preacher sent, no problem
to him. God has ordained by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. The gospel is the power of God
under salvation to everyone that believeth. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. That's that's Bible language.
That's what the book says. God uses his word to give life
and faith and grace to chosen, redeemed sinners. Look here in
1 Peter 1, verse 23. Peter says, we're born again.
We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. This is the word right here,
the whole thing. which by the gospel is preached
to you. That man who preaches the gospel from the book preaches
the book. Now you can preach the letter
of the word, you can preach the historic facts of the word, you
can preach the grammatically correct interpretation of the
word, you can preach the word in its historic context and be
exactly right and never preach the word. This is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. So that if we expound the
scriptures as they are intended by God the Holy Spirit, we from
the scriptures expound to men and women the person and work
of Jesus Christ, God our Savior, in the saving of chosen sinners.
Now, may God the Holy Spirit give us grace to listen to and
hear his voice. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
And thou hearest the voice thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 37. How often the scriptures speak
of the four winds. Four winds representing the four
corners of the earth. God gathering his elect from
the four corners of the earth. so that there is no place in
the earth where God doesn't have his elect and no place from which
God does not gather his elect. I think I've told you this before.
The last time Brother Mahan was here, we had just begun this
thing with Free Grace Radio and I was trying to encourage him
with regard to his own messages being aired over the Internet
and the great multitude of people listening. He said to me, Our
Lord said, before the end comes, this gospel is going to be preached
among all nations. Maybe this is the way he's going
to do it. He will gather his elect from the four corners of
the earth. Ezekiel 37, 9. Then said he unto
me, prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy son of man and say to
the wind thus saith the Lord God come from the four winds
all breath prophesy to the wind and say come from the four winds
all breath of heaven and Breathe upon these slain that they may
live. Look at Matthew chapter 13 Our
24 rather Matthew chapter 24. Yeah chapter 24 verse 31. I He shall send his angels with
a great sound of a trumpet. What's he talking about? What's
he talking about? His angels are gospel preachers,
his messengers. And they come with a trumpet
sound, a jubilee trumpet, sounding liberty and freedom, sounding
good news to all who hear. And these angels used by God
Almighty, they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other. These four winds. Let's see how they're used. We'll
look just briefly at all four. Turn back to the Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon chapter four. The Lord Jesus speaks concerning
his church, his bride. He says in verse 16, song of
Solomon chapter four awake. Oh, North wind and come thou
South. A blow upon my garden that the
spices thereof may flow out that my beloved come into his garden
and eat his pleasant fruit. The chilly north wind awakens
as God the Holy Spirit awakens the soul by strong cold gales
of conviction, reproving us for sin, convincing us of sin because
we believe not on the Savior. The south wind comes. Our Savior
says, awake, O north, and come thou south wind, blow upon my
garden. The south wind is gentle, warming, and full of
comfort. When you see the south wind,
our savior said, you say there will be heat and it cometh to
pass. It takes both the chilling wind
of the north, the chilling wind of conviction, and the comforting
balmy wind of the south. to cause the fruit of his garden
to bud forth and bring forth life from his garden, suitable
to his praise and for his glory. He sends his spirit and the spirit
of God by the operations of his grace takes that redemption accomplished
at Calvary and effectually applies it to the hearts of chosen sinners,
causing the redeemed sinner to hear his voice and live before
him. Turn to Isaiah 40. Let me show you what that comforting
wind is. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that she hath her iniquities pardoned, for
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. We come with the sound of the
gospel and the spirit brings this blessed, blessed south wind
of grace and declares to God's people that her iniquities pardoned,
that her warfare is over. She's received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Not only does he forgive our
sin, but he made us righteous. He's he's he comes and gives
full mercy to sinners who need mercy As it's used in the scriptures
to describe the winds in and around Israel the West wind Is
that wind that brings rain from the sea? Elijah sent his servant
to observe and see if the clouds were coming. And he said, no.
He said, you'll watch seven times. And on the seventh time, the
servant said, I see a cloud about the size of a man's hand. He
said, you go tell Ahab to get down to Jezreel. It's fixing
to rain. The rain's coming. You observe the wind that comes
in the west, and you say, tomorrow rain shall be here. You've got
to have more than wind to make the garden fruitful. You got
to have some water. And the Lord God sends the water
of his grace at exactly the time needed the former and the latter
rain to bring forth fruit in his garden. And then he sends
an east wind. He turned to Acts 27, Acts chapter
27. I'll get there in a minute. You
remember how Pharaoh told Joseph his dream and Joseph spoke of
the dream to Pharaoh and told him what he must do. He's going
to be seven years of famine and seven years of seven years of
feasting and seven years of famine. And after the feasting, he said,
behold, seven years withered thin and blasted with the east
wind sprung up after the seven full years of corn. The east
wind blast away carnal hope. The east wind blast away all
carnal security. The east wind blast away all
life that you think you have in yourself. The east wind takes
away all carnal strength and carnal support and carnal hope
and graciously, sweetly, forces us to flee to Joseph, our Lord
Jesus Christ, for everything we need. It was a mighty east
wind in Exodus 14 by which God drove back the waters of the
Red Sea and caused the children of Israel to cross over dry shod. It was an east wind that caught
the ship carrying Paul and his companions forcing them to give
up hope in themselves and better drive. And the east wind broke
the ship into pieces. Look at Acts 27 verse 9. We'll
pick up the story right in the middle of it. Now when much time
was spent and when sailing was now dangerous because the fast
was now already passed, Passover was already over, time now come
for storms to arise. Paul admonished them, his captors,
and said to them, sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with
hurt and much damage, not only of the lady and the ship, but
also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion believed
the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which
were spoken by Paul. Verse 12. And because the haven
was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to
depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to thinness,
and there to winter, which is a haven of Crete, and lieth toward
the southwest and the northwest. And when the south wind blew
softly, Supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing
fence, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, there arose
against it a tempestuous wind called Euroclidan. And when the
ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let
her drive. this Eurycleidon, a wind from
the east, actually strictly from the east-northeast. And running
under a certain island, which is called Plauta, we had much
work to come by the boat, which when they had taken up, they
used helps undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should
fall into the quicksands, strait sail, and so were driven. Verse
18. And we being exceedingly tossed
with the tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. And
the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of
the ship. Verse 20. And when neither sun
nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us,
all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after
long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them. and said,
Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from
Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort
you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any
man's life among you, but of the ship. You're going to live,
but you're going to lose the ship. For there stood by me this night
the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear
not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath
given thee all them that sail with thee. Verse 39. And when
it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain
creek with a shore. into which they were minded,
if it were possible, to thrust the ship. Now, you can get the
picture. Here they are. They've been tossed
on the storm for days, and the ship's out of control, and they
see just a little opening, and maybe we can get the ship right
in there. All right, read up. Verse 40, and when they had taken
up the anchors, they committed themselves to the sea and loosed
the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind and
made toward shore. And falling into a certain place
where two seas met, they ran the ship aground and the fore
part stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hind part
was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldier's
counsel was to kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim
out and escape. But the centurion willing to
save Paul kept them from their purpose and commanded that they
which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea
and get to land. And the rest and some on boards
and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass
that they escaped all safe to land. Now listen to me. Listen to me. God Almighty, Merle Hart, never
uses anything but broken pieces. Nothing else. Nothing else. And he graciously, wisely sends
tempestuous east winds to break those whom he's pleased to make
the objects of his grace and to use in the cause of his kingdom. Now, Lord, break me. and break you. He won't use anything but what
he breaks. Nothing except what he breaks. And the breaking is never easy. Never easy. They lost everything. right down to the ship itself.
And when all's said and done, Tom, they didn't lose anything. All right, now turn back to Song
of Solomon, and I'll send you home with a prayer from our Master
for you. Verse 16, chapter 4. Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Awake, O Lord, and send the wind, the north wind, the chilling
cold hard north wind that exposes what I am to me. And come thou south, O Lord,
send the wind of your grace. The south wind warms my heart
for you and make my cold icy heart to burn with love for my
Redeemer. Blow upon my garden the garden
he purchased with his blood, the garden he's established in
the earth, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved
come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Oh, Lord, send the wind of your
grace and cause the sweet spices of your grace to flow out in
your own nostrils for your own pleasure. And come, eat your
pleasant fruits from your garden for your glory. Amen.