The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.(John 3:8 – ESV)
The word used for wind and the word used for Spirit is the same in this verse. Truly, the Spirit blows where He wants to, He is sovereign over who is born again. Remember this fact: the Spirit blows where He will, not where we will. No one knows where the wind blows, yet we can know in a sense, because where the true gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, there the breath of God will surely be felt among those whose dry bones now live. We are born again by the Word of God (James 1:18 / 1 Peter 1:23-25), which is empowered by the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13), so where there is true gospel preaching, the wind of the Spirit is sure to blow.
Now true gospel preaching will make much of the fact that we can bring nothing to the table to bargain with God. No matter how good we have been, no matter how much sacrifice we have made, no matter how little we have injured others, and no matter how we think we have served God, we have nothing with which to enable us in any way to advance our case. We must have the righteousness of Jesus Christ accredited to our account or we will never be forgiven, never be reconciled to God, never be redeemed, and never enter heaven. The only thing that can count for salvation is the righteousness of God Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21 / Titus 3:5), that is the only thing He requires, and we must have it or we have nothing.
We might think we have something to say, but we mustn’t speak of our own merit when approaching the bar of God. Even those gracious acts of God wherein He has allowed us to pursue some measure of righteous action in no way constitute saving power. Anything He gives us as an instrument is still only something to use for His righteous glory, and it is not His righteous glory itself, which we must have or we will not have what we need the most. Save your sanctimony or you won’t be saved. The wind blows on those who know they have no breath, and that they must have the breath of God Himself in order to truly live.
The gospel has been largely lost today, and we need men and women who have a passion for the gospel, people who feel the power of the Word of God in their own souls. Believers who believe that the gospel is what we need today, and every day, and people who will stop looking for answers everywhere but where the One True answer is. Most Christians would say they know the gospel but we need people who have a real grasp of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We need people who are possessed by the gospel, who are controlled by its grip. We need people who know that God is sovereign in salvation, people who have been knocked down from their pedestal and onto their blinded faces by the glory of God like Paul on the road to Damascus. We need people who realize that the only reason they have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ is because they have felt the icy chill of the windy Spirit on their dead bones. We need people who have felt the power, who have heard where the wind blows, who know that salvation is all of God or it is none of God.
9 comments:
Thank God for His Sovereign grace...
Good teaching JD.
Like those trees in your photo, we can see the the affect of the Spirit. Where the Spirit of truth and love abides, there will be truth spoken in love.
"Most Christians would say they know the gospel"
I heard on the White Horse Inn where they interviewed 60 Christians at a Christian Book Conference and asked them to define the Gospel. I believe they said two out 60 understood the Gospel of grace. The Church is in big trouble.
Keep preaching and teaching, we need it.
Thanks, Don...yeah, I heard that program, and unfortunately, it didn't shock me, that is where we are in Ameerica now, we need to recover the gospel, and we need true gospel preachers in the pulpit...
The Church is in big trouble.
Yes, it is not that we are headed for big trouble, but that we are already in big trouble...
Speaking of understanding the Gospel of grace, John Macarthur gave a great teaching on the parable of the prodigal son. I have never really looked at that in such depth, or placed myself in the shoes of the son, and placed God as the father.
In doing that, it really puts grace in perspective for me.
It is Macarthur's 'Tale Of Two Sons' series for anyone interested.
I also heard somewhere recently....
Before Martin Luther's reformation and introduction of the truths of grace, we were in the dark ages.
Kinda interesting thought. Maybe there are many Christians that are still in the dark ages.
Chris, that is also the latest book from John MacArthur, and yes, it is good stuff...
Also, indeed, the Protestant Reformation led to all sorts of advancement, and it is credited by secular and well as church scholars as the genesis of the Enlightenment period, and the primary thrust out of the "dark ages"...
Christians are to lead the way in excellence, working as unto the Lord, we are the ones who should advance technology, foster scientific discovery, build schools, hospitals, and such...great minds of the past like Newton, Pascal, Kepler and others remind us of our duty...
For your edification, read Francis Schaeffer, "A Christian Manifesto" for more of this type of thing in a modern light...we have it available in our church library…
"We need people who have felt the power, who have heard where the wind blows, who know that salvation is all of God or it is none of God."
Powerful exhortation!
Thanks Blue...I think I will preach that tomorrow...look for it on sermonaudio tomorrow evening...
(yes that was my plan already, same title, but an expanded version, of course...)
We need people who realize that the only reason they have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ is because they have felt the icy chill of the windy Spirit on their dead bones.
Powerful use of words to illustrate the point!
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