SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/17/2016
10:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 The
Insight
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 3:4-8
Message of
the verses: “4
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He
cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?" 5
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water
and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do
not be amazed that I said to you, ’You must be born again.’ 8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you
hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is
going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”
Here is how I want to do this SD this morning as
there are things that have happened early this morning that cause me to not
spend as much time on this SD as I would like to, but a few days ago I listened
to a sermon by John MacArthur done in the early 1970’s that gave to me the best
explanation on verse five that I have ever heard and so I want to quote from
that sermon in this SD and then hopefully will finish up this section in our
next SD.
“Now there's a very important verse...a verse
that's been interpreted all kinds of ways. Let me share with you what I believe
the Spirit of God means here in the words of Christ.
“First of all, Jesus says you have to be born of
water and the Spirit...that's connected. There's no comma there, you have to be
born of the water and of the Spirit, no. Of the water and Spirit. Now what does
He mean "water"? What kind of water is this?
“Well, some people say that's H20. That the way
you get saved is to get put in the water. I would daresay, ladies and
gentlemen, that if you were to assume that salvation comes by water, that you
have cross-grained every biblical principle of salvation by grace through
faith. Salvation cannot be accomplished by an external bath. Water brings out
no spiritual cleansing. It is merely a symbol...as it was in the Old Testament
a symbol of purification. He cannot be talking about water.
“Incidentally, in John 4:2 it says Jesus baptized
nobody. And if it was that important, He'd have been baptizing somebody. It's
not the water baptism that saves a man. That's the fallacy of various churches
that take a little tiny baby and put water on it and assume that that seals its
salvation. Salvation is by faith, otherwise Romans 3 is a lie and so is
Ephesians 2. He's not talking about the water of H20 type water.
“Then someone else says, "Well, there's
another kind of water. That's the water of physical birth. That He's saying to
Nicodemus you have to be born physically cause the baby is born in a physical
way. When a baby's born, it's born in a sack of water." And so what He is
saying is, "Nicodemus, you have to be born naturally and then
spiritually." The only question is, why is He standing there telling this
old man that he has to be born physically? He was born physically long ago.
Plus the fact that that would be completely read into the text, appears no
where else in the Scripture and is pure conjecture.
“Well, then, what water is it? Well, let's
take the context. What water would Nicodemus have thought of? If Jesus said to
him you must be born of water and the Spirit, what water would have come to
Nicodemus' mind? Very obvious. The Old Testament water used for purification.
He would have immediately remembered that whenever an object or a person was
defiled and unclean, that person had to go through ceremonial washing of water
which symbolized an inward perfection. That's what the baptism of John the
Baptist was all about, it was symbol of cleansing on the inside.
“Now think with me on this, don't lose yourself.
To the Jews, water meant cleansing. And Nicodemus' brain would have gone right
back, cause he knew the Old Testament, to Ezekiel 36:24 to 27. And you know
what he would have read there? Listen, "I will sprinkle you with clean
water," and then two verses later, "I'll put My Spirit within you."
In Ezekiel's prophecy that God would redeem Israel, He says it will take two
forms, I'll sprinkle water upon you and you shall be clean, the water of
cleansing and I'll put My Spirit within you. That's what it was. It was a
symbol of cleansing. H20 water isn't even there in verse 5, that's not talking
about water water, that's talking about purification in the inside. So He is
saying, "Except a man be cleansed, purified, he can't enter the Kingdom of
God." And it's interesting to me, also, that the agent of this purification
is the Word of God. And we'll show you this in a moment.
“So, here's the picture. This person needs to be
purified. That purification is done by the Holy Spirit using this water. And
what is the water? Ephesians 5 says that Christ shall wash His church by the
water of the...what?...Word. The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and purifies
the soul of a man. That's what's here in view. You know what this is? And get
it and get it good...this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, this is what that
is. Now in the book of Acts, there's a distinction because it's transitional.
Today and here, this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy
Spirit in baptizing one at the point of salvation. We are cleansed by the Word
as the Spirit of God administers it to us. We are regenerated, baptized,
indwelt and sealed all at the same point. That's why Paul told the Ephesians
there's one Lord, one faith, and 34 baptisms. Is that what he said? One Lord,
one faith, one baptism...at the time of salvation is the only time you're ever
baptized with the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in the Bible does it have anything to do
with tongues or anything else. It's only a point of salvation that involves the
baptism of the Spirit.
“And so, here is basically what this is
about. That the Spirit of God purifies us by the water of the Word at
salvation. It's all done inside by the Spirit. And that's what John the Baptist
said in chapter 1 verse 33 when he said, "I baptize you with water but
somebody's coming after me who's going to baptize you with...what?...with the
Holy Spirit." And that's what this is. When a man is cleansed by the
washing of the Word and the Spirit of God recreates Him, then he can enter the
Kingdom of God. That's exactly what Jesus is saying. Before a man can enter the
Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit must recreate him, must regenerate him and he
accomplishes such a cleansing by the power of the Word of God.
“Now the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a very
purposeful thing. This work where the Spirit of God comes upon us and
regenerates us, and, of course, it's all wrapped up in the same thing. But it's
a very important reality because it involves two things. The baptism of the
Holy Spirit, first of all, unites us with Christ. That's what Galatians 3:27
says, "For as many of you have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ." It also unites us with His body. "For by one Spirit are we
all baptized into one body," 1 Corinthians 12:13.
“So, at the point of faith when you receive
Christ, the Spirit of God recreates you, regenerates you by the washing of the
power of the Word and brings life where there was death. And so, Jesus is
saying to Nicodemus essentially, without trying to split it all up,
"Nicodemus, it's all an inside job done by the Spirit." That's
basically it. All your laws and all your rules and all that other baloney is
worthless. It has to be the Spirit of God inside washing you clean and
recreating you in union with Christ. And that's exactly what Paul meant in
Romans 6 when he says, "We're buried with Christ when we receive Him and
we rise, we're buried with Him by baptism, that's the baptism of the Spirit
that buries us, and we rise again in newness of life." And so He says that
the Spirit of God does a recreating work in us.
“Now, of course, this is really hard for Nicodemus
to grab. Verse 6 is a statement of Jesus that reflects the attitude of
Nicodemus. Now between verses 5 and 6, Nicodemus' thoughts must have gone
something like this: "Oh, I can't accept this. I have been so programmed for
law and works, how in the world could I just drop that and assume that
everything that happens inside by the Holy Spirit? That's too much for me.
There's got to be rules. I've got to see it to believe it. I mean, I've got to
have some things that I can do. I..I..."
“You see, Jesus has said, "Nicodemus,
it's all inside. The Holy Spirit does the whole thing in recreating you. You
don't have to have all these other things." Oh, that's hard for him to
accept. And in verse 6, Jesus says to him, "Well, you don't even have a
part in it, Nicodemus. That which is born of the flesh is...what?...flesh. You
can't recreate yourself. You can work on all your resolutions and you can go
after the law and you can do all these works, you're not going to do a thing,
your flesh and you're going to come out with more flesh."
“"But, that which is born of the Holy Spirit is spirit." The
Spirit of God can get in and recreate you. And I believe that's the Holy Spirit
there because of what it says at the end of verse 8 when it talks about being
born of the Holy Spirit.
“And so, He says, "Nicodemus, you haven't got
anything to do with it, neither do I. No one does. Your salvation is
accomplished by the Holy Spirit." Jeremiah 13:23 says, "Can the
Ethiopian change his color? Can the leopard get rid of his spots? Just about as
much as you can change your sinful nature." You can't do it. It's the Holy
Spirit's work of recreating you.”
I do hope that this will make more sense on what
verse five means, as I have heard many different sermons and read other things that
have made this verse confusing to me, and this makes it have more sense to me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“Christ” (Romans 10:4).Today’s Bible question: “To whom did the angel say, ‘Fear not for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy?’”
Answer in our next SD.
1/17/2016 11:00 AM
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