Sermon
The Workings Of The Spirit Of God
June 24-25, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and join with me in a passage we've been considering now for some weeks. If you're going to use the red pew Bible, it's found in page 715. If you'd like to turn there. I'd like for all of you to either have your Bible or the pew Bible. We have now for some weeks been thinking about this conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus. We've been here for about six weeks. We'll be here for six weeks more, but I'll tell you why. I'm convinced that this conversation is one of the most important, if not the most important, conversation recorded in human history. Now I think it's imperative that you and I understand it as best as we can, so we'll just take our time as we have done and move from verse to verse, phrase to phrase, word to word.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 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?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' "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 the Spirit." Let's stop there. That's not all of the conversation, but that's as far as we're going to go today.

Now I have an apology. You hold in your hands notes, but somehow they got all mixed up when I... So the first thing we've got to do is we've got to number the pages because I don't know what happened. That computer got so excited, I don't know, but you won't be able to make heads or tails out of it when you get home because it's just not - I'll have to tell you how to read it. So let's mark our pages first, shall we? We have 'The Workings of the Spirit of God' so we'll mark that page 1. Then we have 2, 3, and 4 of the first section, mark it at the top. Then we have 'The Workings of the Spirit of God' (Section 2, Page 5), that's already marked for us. And there are only two pages remaining, 6 and 7. And if you'll mark them then when I reference them you'll be quickly able to find them.

Here's what we've learned thus far. Nicodemus was a deeply religious man. He was also a very powerful man because he was part of the 70 ruling men of his nation. It was an expanded Supreme Court. And we learned that Nicodemus was, most likely, very well wealthy. He was the one who brought that large burial substance of myrrh, 100 pounds, and only a wealthy man could afford that kind of a burial. He did that for Jesus. So he was religious, powerful, and wealthy. But under the guise or under the cover of darkness, he seeks out to have a conversation with Jesus. He addresses him kindly and says, what You do could only be done by a man who is touched, and a man who is empowered by God. And you'll notice Jesus didn't even elude to his comments.

Verse 3, he said, unless a man is born again, he cannot see (understand, know, become acquainted with, be a part of, comprehend). That word see means to understand and become involved in. He cannot become involved in the kingdom of God. Now we learned also a couple of weeks ago that the word again means born from above or born anew. It means that it's an action that's taken by God for a human being wherein He moves in love, and mercy, and grace, touches our hearts, saves us, and makes us His child. But it's an act that begins or originates in the heart of God. If you're a Christian today, your salvation started in the heart of God. The Bible says you didn't choose Me, I chose you.

Read Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 14 and Paul makes it very clear that it was His choice to make us the objects of His grace. So that's what Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, unless God has taken a divine initiative to touch your heart and change you and make you a new creation in Christ Jesus, you don't understand. You can't comprehend, you're not involved in anything that has to do with God. Well then, we come to that same thought of being born again, and last week just before we closed we went to the writings of Peter, and Peter picks up the same subject of being born again. And he writes for us that, in verse 23 of 1 Peter 1, having been born again - so the subject is the same - not with corruptible seed, but with incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. So Peter is talking about the same subject, he does something very interesting.

We think oft times of something, an abstract concept, this idea of being born again it's something beyond us. It's of another world and sometimes it's hard for us to take spiritual or abstract truths and pull them into our mind and heart and make them relevant. You say paint me a picture, give me an illustration, do something so I can make this truth relevant. But just to pick an abstract thought and understand it, that's why most of us had difficulty in our philosophy classes in university. It's dealing with the abstract, trying to place it in something that is relevant to me. So here's what Peter does and you'll find this out, because if we were reading the ancient text called the Latin Vulgate, the word for seed is semen. Now that's interesting. So what Peter does he likens divine birth to human birth.

Now to our notes in the very first sentence under message: What happens when a man or a woman is born again, or born from above? The answer is that God first of all plants within the heart of the person what we might call the ovum of saving faith, for we are told that even faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Now Paul says that a sinner man, a natural man, a man that's not spiritual, he does not understand the things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). And the reason why a sinner doesn't understand spiritual things is because the Bible says that they are spiritually discerned or understood or comprehended. It takes the Spirit of God living within us for us to understand spiritual truth. And in the passage that deals with conversion, I missed my thought here for a moment, in the passage that deals with conversion Peter is saying that God sets up the condition, the ovum, of being a receptacle ready to believe and receive. And only God can do that, and He does it in many ways.

The Bible says faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And sometimes in our life when as sinners God allows the Word, the message, maybe a preacher on the radio somewhere, the Word of God comes to us and there is an interest. There is a desire to understand that more, and then sometimes God puts into our lives people whose lives have been affected by a new relationship with Jesus Christ, and we observe their lives and we say if God can do that, He surely can do something for me. But what happens is God begins to shape the mind and the heart in preparation for the seed. Every time I stand here on a weekend and look at the congregations as they come and go, I know that God has been at work preparing your heart, setting up the ovum of faith.

Now back to our notes. Secondly, God sends forth the seed of His Word so that the seed of the Word which contains the divine life within it, pierces the ovum of faith that God has already placed within the heart. The result is divine conception. You put faith and the Word of God together, and new life begins. That's what Peter says, we are born again as the Spirit of God prepares the heart, that incorruptible seed, the divine truths of God's Word comes to that faith. Look at the next copy for you, the Amplified Bible, of Hebrews 4:12. "For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and morrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart". What the writer of Hebrews is saying is there is an inmate divine power in the Word of God, that when you hear it, because its source is from God, it touches the very deepest parts of us. That's true. So here's Peter's comment, if you want to understand the divine birth, think of it in terms of human conception - the ovum, the semen, and of God's plan it's the faith (the seed) coming together and new life begins.

Now I have the joy almost every Sunday of seeing that take place. Throughout the day people come to our congregation. They're searching for God. God in a way has prepared their hearts and then I have the thrill of planting the seed, the Word of God, and watching that take effect and divine life begins. So here's what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus; Nicodemus, what I'm talking about is something that starts in the heart of God who wants to make you its object and the beneficiary of divine grace and forgiveness, but it starts with God. And until you respond Nicodemus, you don't know anything that's worth knowing.

Now, verse 4, Nicodemus said, just a minute Jesus, how can that be? Can a man when he is old go back into his mother's womb and be born all over again? He didn't get it. Verse 5, Jesus answers and says to him, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot into the kingdom of God. Now the conversation is getting complicated, and this is a verse that has had a field day with the theologian because there are many different interpretations. Did Jesus say, Nicodemus, you've got to go get water baptized and then the Spirit of God will work on your heart. You see Nicodemus knew that John the Baptist was down there on the river baptizing. Nicodemus surely knew that Jesus had established baptism as part of our Christian faith because He'd been in the baptism. So maybe it might be quite natural for the interpreters to say, did Jesus mean that salvation was part of two things - me being baptized and the Spirit of God working on my heart? Is that what He meant?

Well, on page 4 of the first of your notes down about one-third of the page, would you turn there with me? And we're going to work with this idea of what did Jesus mean. I'm at about a third down on the page, and you'll notice it says, This expression, see it there? (of water and of the Spirit). I'm at page 4, has been the occasion of wide difference by Bible scholars. There are different interpretations. Let me suggest a few.

Number 1: One interpretation suggests that "WATER" is referring to physical birth. Now this was an interpretation that came out of the days of the Puritans, and some of the great Puritan theologians thought this is what Jesus was referring to. He said, when He spoke of water, He was speaking of physical birth. Why? Well it's based on the fact that physical birth is accompanied by the release of the embryonic fluid from the womb of the mother, and so the old translator said what Jesus was referring to, if this were the proper explanation, Jesus would be saying that in order for a person to be saved he must be first born physically and then his physical birth must be followed by a spiritual birth. But the word "WATER" is never used in this way in the Scriptures therefore to suggest such an interpretation would not harmonize with the teaching of the Scripture.

Let me explain. The best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible itself not me or any other preacher. And here's what I'm saying, if you really want to understand the Scriptures and there's a phrase or a word, you either get a concordance or some other biblical help, and you go through the Scriptures and you find out how that word or how that phrase is used throughout the Scriptures, and then you come to a consensus that in most cases it has this reference and therefore that's what it means as it says it in the Scriptures. That's the best way. Let the Bible tell you what the Bible says. But, my suggestion is this, that if we took the word water and went through the contents of the Scriptures we would never come to the conclusion that water ever referred to physical birth. So therefore to use this interpretation would be an improper way, it would be a violation to scriptural interpretation. It's not been a popular interpretation, but that's what some think. Let's go to number 2.

Number 2: Another interpretation is that which sees water as referring to water baptism. Now the text says nothing at all about baptism, and the Bible elsewhere teaches that no one is saved by any external rite of religion. For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. Salvation is a work of God, totally, entirely. And if we take and give that translation that salvation is not only a work of the Spirit of God but it's something I do in water baptism, then I'm putting together works and faith and now I'm in violation of the Scriptures.

On with our notes. Baptism is a sign of what has already taken place within the heart of the believer through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but baptism is not the agent by which salvation takes place. Let's take some Scripture verses, shall we? Romans 6:3-6; "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

Now go back a page because here's another translation. Come down about two-thirds of the page and you'll notice a passage there in Colossians. That should have followed the passage of Romans. I'm on page 3 of section 1. "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Paul is simply saying that when we came to Christ, Christ cut away, took away, our sin. It's gone, as far as the East is from the West He's taken our sins from us. Then he goes on, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and in the un-circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taking it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

Paul said in his writings that in baptism we are buried with Christ in His death, and we come forth in resurrection. When you come to the service this evening, a number of folks will be baptized, and we say, I baptized you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And we take that candidate in our beautiful baptistery and we put the candidate beneath the water which is a symbol of death. We bury them in the waters of baptism, and when they come forth it's symbolic of resurrection. And what the candidate is saying is I am telling the world that in my heart I have put my faith in the Christ who died for me at the cross, paid the penalty for my sin, and came out of that grave victorious. He's the object of my faith, and by participation in water baptism I identify with Christ because those were the instructions that He gave to the early church. Now, therefore, baptism is something we do that tells the world of something that has happened spiritually inside of us. It's an outside action that identifies us with the Christ of the kingdom.

Now there are some interesting things I just want to quickly share. I have a few moments here. One of the questions I would ask if I were a seeker after Christianity; I'd say Pastor Sheley, how did baptism get into the Christian faith? What was it's origin? Where did it come from? It's a good question. Let me tell you, remembered now John the Baptist is the one that's been doing the baptism, but now what's his background? John comes from a priestly family and he understands that when an outside person, a gentile, decides to convert to Judaism he is known as a proselyte. A proselyte is one who comes from another faith into this faith. That's a proselyte.

I'll use as an illustration, many years ago when Sammy Davis was alive, I think he was born into a Baptist family. Sammy Davis made the decision to renounce his Christian faith and become a proselyte to Judaism, and thus he became a practicing participant of the Jewish faith. He was a proselyte. It's interesting. What was that proselyte baptism like? Well it was the conviction of the Jews that a gentile was a heathen through and through, and thus he would have to wash away all of his heathenism, and to do that, it was a private baptism and the candidate was totally naked. That is, it was there conviction that there could be no clothing that would hinder the washing away of any portion of his heathenism. So a Jewish proselyte baptism was private without any clothes.

Now John says that he went to the wilderness and he lived. He dressed in the clothes of a prophet and he ate locusts and wild honey. And most Bible scholars believe that what happened is John may have been influenced by the Essenes. Well who were the Essenes? Well about forty miles from Jerusalem to the East down along the Dead Sea was this little conclave, this little community called the Essenes. They were separatists. Their conviction was that those religious folks up there in Jerusalem forty miles away were liberals. They were contaminating the purity of their faith, and so these Essenes decided we're going to protect the purity of Judaism, and the purity of the Scriptures. Very exclusive, closed off. In fact, it's believed that it was the Essenes who put the Scriptures into the vases that were stored in those caves when in 1957 they were known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were found. Now something about those Essenes, they believed in baptism too, but they were baptized three times a day. They believed in ablation and they baptized morning, noon, and night. They wanted purity and that represented purity. Now most Bible scholars think, now John comes from a priestly family, he understands baptism as its setting within Judaism, but he also understands those Essenes who baptized themselves three times a day.

So John comes on to the scene and he preaches, 'Repent and be baptized'. The John says my baptism is for repentance, but there is one who will come after me whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose who will baptized you with fire, and he spoke of a spiritual baptism. So when you conclude, where did the origin of baptism come to in the Christian faith? The Holy Spirit under the direction of John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Christ, set water baptism, and Jesus responded. And Jesus knew it was right because He said, I have come to fulfill all righteousness. Said Jesus was baptized and He told the church, now you go out and make disciples out of all men and you baptized them in the name of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit. So baptism now is a part of our Christian faith, and has been since Christ authenticated it.

Now come back to this verse. Did Jesus mean that salvation included the act of water baptism? Is it necessary to be baptized to be saved? That's the question. Now in theology there is what is known as baptismal regeneration. It means that the act of regeneration or salvation takes place as the result of being baptized. The agent for baptism becomes its power. In other words, if you have been baptized, no matter what the object is or no matter what the condition of the heart, the act itself saves the object even though there isn't any faith within that object. That's called baptismal regeneration. That's why segments of the Christian church baptized babies. They say that the act of baptizing them makes them a Christian no matter what condition their own heart, even though there's an inability to have a faith. Now if you say the act becomes the power and the important thing, not the heart, now you take the position of baptismal regeneration.

That's why when you go back into the early pages of church history, when the church now has its authority under the Roman Empire in the year 313-331, and now the church is aggressive and it's going out and making Christians of all the nations. They'd take an entire city and drive them into the waters or to a river, and they called that baptism, and that act of baptizing them made them all Christians even though they didn't want to be in that water. That was known as baptismal regeneration. It's what we call a sacrament. A sacrament has the power within itself to disperse the blessing, and you use sacrament in that term, although sacrament can mean the expression of a loyalty by a soldier.

Now this is the confusion on this verse. If we say Jesus said salvation includes baptism and the work of the Spirit, then we've got to determine what kind of baptism is. Now here's what happens in religion. I'll show you what happens. We may disagree entirely with one point of view so our natural tendency is to go to the opposite extreme. It's interesting. Let me show you. When the Protestants broke away from the Catholic faith, and I do this just as history, this is not in any way judgmental. The Protestants did not like the fact that the Catholic folks believed that there was a literal transformation of the bread and the wine. Because our Catholic friends say that when the host is prayed over that turns into the actual body and the blood of Christ. That's what they believe with all their hearts. Protestants said we don't believe that. So they go over clear to this side, this is 450 years ago, and because they didn't want to be identified with what they thought was an extreme, they threw out the communion service, or only had it once a year. And you go to Northern Europe today and in some countries you'll only find communion in the service once a year. Do you know why? They were reacting to the extremes of those who they disagreed with. Maybe that is the reason folks why most Protestants don't give high credence to communion. That's why some of us came from churches where communion was only celebrated once a month, if the preacher remembered that that was the first Sunday of the month. It didn't have importance, and it's a reaction 400 years later to an extreme that became a disagreement in the church.

So in the early church if one believed that the act of baptizing became the act of salvation, having nothing to do with the human heart, then the other folks reacted and said well we won't even have baptism at all because we don't want anybody to think that because we put them in the water they got saved, so we'll not even have water baptism. And I can take you to congregations today who don't have water baptism for simply this reason. They don't want to be misunderstood, for anybody to think that because they were put in the waters they were saved. Isn't that something? So what we say is, well then what did Jesus mean when He said now Nicodemus, it takes water and the Spirit for the new birth?

So let's go back to our notes, and it's page 6, the last section. And I'll hurry along to finish it up. I'm two-thirds down on the page now. I'll bring it all together, just hang on with me here just for a minute. Okay? Referring back to verse 5, do you see it there? We have noted that Jesus said that one must be born of water and the Spirit. And my understanding, and this would be the consensus of most theologians today, that born of water and the Spirit is as follows...water refers to the Word of God. The Word is ever the instrument used by God in regeneration. In every passage were the instrument of the new birth is described, it is always, always the Word of God that is mentioned.

In 1 Corinthians 4:14, we find the apostle saying: "I have begotten you, that I have birthed you, through the gospel." And again, we are told, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." Peter we've noted, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth. And thus, the new birth then is the Word of God and there are many, many other verses, but I didn't put them here. Then the Word of God, and one of the emblems of the Word is "WATER." God employees quite a number of emblems to describe various characteristics or qualities of His Word. He likens His Word like a "lamp" because it illumines. It causes the heart and the mind to understand, and He likens it unto a "hammer" because it breaks up the hard heart. The Word of God does. And He likens it unto "WATER" because it cleanses. So BORN OF WATER means born of the cleansing and purifying Word of God. I believe that that possibly is most likely, and most theologians would agree, that what Jesus was saying is, Nicodemus, listen! What you're hearing is the Word of God! And if you'll listen, and you'll open your heart, the wind will blow - the wind of the Spirit.

Now you understand ladies and gentlemen why in this church I make it my goal to stay as close to the Scriptures. I know this, that it's the Scriptures that transform people. That's why we use the Bible. We stay so close to it. I'm not interested in preaching that's thematic and telling people anything, I just want us to know the Word of God because I know as the Word of God is planted, and the more of the Word of God we have, the greater the spiritual life that will be within us. Amen? (Congregation amen) it's so true. And thus, my goal as your pastor is just to keep us as close to the Word as we possibly can be, and we won't get into error if we stay close to the Word. And I've watched it over and over again, God prepares the heart, people walk into this sanctuary, the ovum of faith is set, and then when I say that's why I forget everything else - I forget baby dedications - because I'm ready to plant the seed and preach. And I watch, I watch people, I watch your face, you just all of a sudden - it's just like a flower. That truth just comes alive, and God by His Spirit, the faith is there and the seed hits that faith and (claps hands) new birth begins. It is wonderful.

The other day, last Sunday at one of the services, a lady comes just weeping. And she came and said, Pastor, I want to be born again. God had prepared her heart, she had heard the Word, and new life was ready to start, and a new babe was born into the kingdom. You say, Pastor, isn't that simple? He said, Nicodemus, just listen to what I've got to say because it's the eternal Word, and if you listen the wind of God's Spirit will start blowing across your soul. And next Lord's Day I'm going to talk about the wind of the Spirit. It to me is a fascinating subject, where I'm going to verse 8 when Jesus said, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it came from, you don't know where it's going. So is the Spirit of God. We're going to talk about it next week.

Lord Jesus, we love Your Word. It just feeds us and it fills us. It satisfies us. We can walk way today and know that Your Word has taught us. What we want to thank You for, Lord Jesus, most of us sitting here today You commenced a work, a spiritual work in our life. For all of us it's different because our datings are different and our time of conversion is different, but You set our heart. You prepared us by giving us a gift of faith so we could understand spiritual truth, and then You allowed the Word of God and it's truth to be planted in our minds and hearts, and now we're born again. Ah! Wonder of wonders, and Lord Jesus, if there are those with us today who are in search of that divine life that only You can give, I ask You to commence that work of opening their heart. Surely You've begun it because that's why they are here today. Now made a work of the Holy Spirit take the seed of the Word and plant it, and may it grow forth to life eternal. Thank you Jesus. Thank you very much.

Every head is bowed, every eye is closed. You say Pastor, I'm really searching. I'm one of those searchers. I just want you to know I'm here today. My heart is wide-open still searching, but I really want to come to that place where God's life commences in me and I can say I'm a born again Christian. Do you want to just raise your hand? What you're saying is God I'm here, I'm a candidate, I just need Your grace and your Spirit to work in my life. Is there anyone here today? Just raise your hand. You're raising it to God and saying, God, I'm ready. Thank you sir. Others? Thank you, thank you ma'am, thank you. You're just saying, God, here I am and I don't know much, but I'm searching. Yes. And I want You, here's my heart it's wide open, You do with it whatever You would like to because I want to become a born again Christian. Yes sister, God bless you. So many people.

Would you just say, all of us will say this prayer with me; Jesus, here I am. My heart is wide-open. I want You to take my life and transform me. Place Your life within me and make me to be born again. Fill me with Your Spirit and teach me to love You and serve You. Here I am Jesus. Do whatever You want. Amen. God bless you.