From Greenville, South Carolina, we present, Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, preaching Christ in all His fullness. Thank you for joining us today. This is Alan Kearns with you once again, welcoming you to Let the Bible Speak. It's good to have you listening in, and I trust you'll stay with us for the rest of this 30-minute segment, as today we continue our studies in the life of Christ. This week, our theme, the Lord Jesus Christ as He revealed Himself to Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. in that famous interview in which the Lord Jesus said, ye must be born again. It's a fascinating revelation that the Lord Jesus gave of himself and we'll be pursuing that in today's broadcast. But first, it's time for our daily commentary, our hot topic for the day. At the beginning of February, what many people take to be America's greatest sports extravaganza, the Super Bowl, took place, and it generated interest on a few fronts beside the sports front. The coach of each team was black, so that for the first time, an African-American coach would lead his team to the Lombardi trophy. As it turned out, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts was the victorious coach, while his friend, Lovie Smith, will have to wait for another day. The press were all into the social significance of a black coach winning the Lombardi trophy and asked Dungy if he was proud on that account. Saying that he was indeed proud to be the first African-American coach to win the trophy, Dungy went on to say that both he and Lovie Smith were Christians and that he was much prouder of that. He tried to make it clear that for him and for Smith, being Christian coaches meant much more and was certainly more important than being black coaches. The newspapers gave some traction to the statement, though one major news organization cut it out entirely, and the rest did continue the emphasis on the racial aspect, which Dungy and Smith had made clear was to them less important than the Christian testimony that they sought to bear. In other words, the reference to Christianity didn't fit with the press agenda. So even in the sports columns, you have reporters with their own agenda, and often it's an openly anti-Christian agenda. Another thought comes to mind How many of the millions of people who followed the big match ever stopped to think that really this isn't important at all? That there's something vastly, yes, infinitely more important. I wonder how many among the millions who were swilling beer and yelling like lunatics because a ball was being kicked or dropped or thrown or a line was being crossed. I wonder how many of them give a thought to the reality of their soul, its need, God, Christ, and eternity. That's certainly more important than any sports event or any racially or socially significant event. I trust you'll give that some thought. And if you've never personally learned the lesson of the supreme importance of being a Christian, then you realize there's no better time and place than now to seek the Lord. The sweeter part thy face to see, And in thy presence Your voice can sing, your heart can pray, your camp of men divine. O hope of every country God, O joy of every heart, To those who fall, how kind, how kind! How good to those who speak! But what to those whose minds Are lips, nor tongue, nor head? You're listening to Let the Bible Speak, coming to you from Greenville, South Carolina, the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. I trust that you have already ordered your Let the Bible Speak quarterly magazine. We have a wonderful variety of subjects in this particular issue on the Psalms, including the Imprecatory Psalms, the 119th Psalm, the Shepherd's Psalm. You'll find much here that will be a blessing to you. Many articles, good writers, good devotional, much instruction. All these things are yours free of charge in the Let the Bible Speak quarterly magazine. At the back page you'll also be able to read of our worldwide programming schedule and that will enable you to pray for us. So, write to us for your copy of the LTBS quarterly at Let the Bible Speak 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615 Or you may email us at ltbs at freeprez, F-R-E-E-P-R-E-S, freeprez.org. Or you may call us toll free 1-866-877-LTBS, 1-866-877-5827. We look forward to hearing from you. Fill all my vision, Savior, I pray. Let me see only Jesus today. Though through the valley Thou leadest me, Thy faithless glory encompasseth me. Fill all my vision, Savior divine, Till with Thy glory my spirit shall shine. Fill all my vision, that all may see thy holy image reflected in me. Fill all my vision, let not of sin shadow thy brightness shining within. Let me see only Thy blessed face, feasting my soul on Thy infinite grace. Fill all my vision, Savior divine, till with Thy glory my spirit shall shine. Fill all my vision till all shall see Thy holy image reflected in me. And now we return to John chapter 3 where the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself to Nicodemus. I've been making the point that the Lord Jesus made great claims for Himself the only begotten Son of God, the Son of Man, the only Mediator and Savior, the authoritative witness of God on earth, God's love gift to the world, the proper object of our faith. The Lord Jesus taught Nicodemus that all who refused to believe on Him were condemned already, because He is God's light, the perfect revelation of God in all His perfections. He also made it clear that Any refusal to believe in him was not because of any clarity in the revelation, but because of human darkness and depravity. Thus, this is the point at which we will take up today's broadcast. The reality and honesty of any man's profession to be interested in divine truth is tested by this. Does he or does he not come to Christ? The refusal of any sinner to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not because of lack of clarity in the evidence. It's not because the revelation is not plain. It is not because the invitation is not sincere. It is not because the grace is not available. The reason why sinners do not believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ is, according to Christ, the darkness and the depravity and the wickedness of their own heart that there is sin that they're hanging on to. They love their sin and they're willing to reject light for darkness. They're willing to reject life for death. They're willing to hang on to their own wickedness and pay the price and say goodbye to Christ. That's what the Lord Jesus teaches in verse 19 through verse 21. And thus, the reality and the honesty of a man's profession To be interested in divine truth, as Nicodemus was expressing an interest, to be interested in divine truth is tested by this. Not how much theology can he understand. Not how deeply can he get into the Hebrew or Greek text. But does he come or does he not come to Jesus Christ? Simple as that. No man is seriously interested in getting rid of his sin if he is not willing to come to Christ. That's what Jesus says. It's not my invention. That's what Jesus says. Do you read verse 20? Verse 21, "...everyone that doeth evil hateth the light." Why do people stay out of the light? Because it will make their deeds known. It will make their heart known. And they don't want their heart to be known. Why do they not come to the light? Because, like certain little creatures, they love the darkness. That's why they don't come to the light. That's what Christ says. They don't want their deeds reproved, could be put discovered. They don't want to face up to what they really are. Oh, sinners can be the greatest, well, by nature always are the greatest bunch of hypocrites. I love to talk about Christians being hypocrites, but their own hypocrisy is greater. I always remember, my friend, you've heard me talk about various times Jordan Kahn, great Indian preacher. Most remarkable character. Not a Pentecostalist, not a charismatic, but I want to tell you the experiences the man had were just like out of the Acts of the Apostles. I remember him telling me of a time he went to a place, I forget where it was, but he was preaching through an interpreter, couldn't speak the local language at all. And this woman came weeping, wailing, under terrible conviction, I want to get to Christ, I want to get to Christ, I can't get to Christ, all this sort of thing. She said she was bound by the devil and she just couldn't get through. And as Can witnessed to her through the interpreter, the interpreter started going on and on. The woman came to pray and even though he couldn't follow the language, Can was not happy in his own soul about this praying. So he just stopped her. And he commanded the devil to leave her. And she fell to the ground, got up, started to pray. And Can was still not happy. And he looked at that woman, and remember all her pretensions and all her professions. And you've got to see this big character with six feet two, eyes that were like burning coals of fire. And he looked at her and he pointed to her and he said, Woman, you are an adulteress. How did he know that? I don't know, except the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And he certainly knew that when she hit the ground this time, it was with conviction. Here was a woman, and she wanted the joy, the peace, the forgiveness, everything else, but there was one area of her life that was a dark, hidden secret. The preachers locally didn't know it. The pastors didn't know it. The interpreter didn't know it. Nobody else around her knew it. They were all helping, helping, helping, helping, until a man of God could come and say, in effect, Madam, there is darkness that you're not willing to bring to the light. That's what Christ was saying here. You see, that's the test of the sincerity of any man's interest in the things of God. Now, here's the claims of the Savior. I'd like to have time to deal with the claims that he made. They're great claims. I've simply listed them. But this is the Son of God. By the way, I want you to see the difference between what Jesus is saying about himself and the puny little Christ that is being preached, say, by the social gospelers. Or the puny little Christ that is being preached by new evangelical compromisers. A sort of a patch-up expert. who can come and stick a band-aid on people who are feeling down and feeling bad, make them feel a little bit better for the moment, but there is nothing of the majesty and the glory of God incarnate, the Son manifested for the deliverance of sinners. This is Christ in His own terms and in His own revelation. And these claims are not empty. He evidenced them in many ways. I'm only going to have time to deal with one of those ways today, and that would be that he gave evidence of his claims by his omnipotence. We go back to 2.23. We read that when he was in Jerusalem in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles that he did. The word miracles is signs, when they saw the signs that he did. Now, there's no record of how many there were, there's no record of the kind of miracles that he did, but one thing we're absolutely certain about, they were public and they were impressive. Look at chapter 3, verse 2. Nicodemus said, We know that thou art a teacher come from God. Why? For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Here were miracles that swept even Nicodemus away, and he recognized. He recognized. This is not just someone like Judas who had come saying, I am Christ. No, this is different. This is not somebody making great claims. Remember, until Jesus appeared in the scene, the Jews had not witnessed a miracle for over 400 years. Remember that John the Baptist, John 10, 41, tells us, did no miracle. Even the mighty John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets, but he did no miracle. Now comes the Lord Jesus, and He doesn't do just one miracle, or a miracle away in some little corner, but He's doing a great multitude of miracles. And He's doing powerful miracles, inexplicable things. If you're to take the rest of the Gospel record as a guide, there must be the healing of the sick, there must be giving sight to the blind, the opening of the ears of the deaf, the making the lame to walk, perhaps even the raising of people from the dead. We are not told, but they were public and impressive, miraculous signs. We shouldn't be surprised that we have this small reference that speaks of so many miracles. At the end of this gospel, John says in John 21-25 that there are also many other things which Jesus did to which if they should be written every one, I suppose that the world itself couldn't contain the books that would be written. At the end of chapter 20 in John's Gospel, he says, many other signs or miracles truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but notice this, these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. So here are some of his mighty works. They're not just demonstrations of power. They're signs. And remember what we saw a couple of weeks back in chapter 2, verse 18? The Jews said, what sign shows that? And He gave them a sign, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again. But just like the Lord Jesus, He then gave them a great number of signs. And they recognized him for what they are, or what they were. For Nicodemus said, we know. Now remember who the we is. Nicodemus was a member of the great council. He was a ruler of the Jews. He was in touch with the top men. among the Jews. He knew the thinking of the chief priests and the chief of the scribes and Pharisees. And he says to the Lord Jesus, we know that you've come from God. Actually, I've often said this to you following the idea of a great German commentator, Rudolf Stier. I love to read Stier on the life and the words of Christ. I don't always agree with it, but nonetheless, some tremendous insights. And he points out here, the word rabbi, you know, it had a very ordinary term, but there were times when it would be used, and he quotes Isaiah the prophet here, that in its highest connotation, it actually was a title of Messiah. And given by a rabbi to one that he took to be an unlearned countryman, or otherwise would take to be an unlearned countryman, it assumed that official aura. Thou art come from God was a Hebraism for the Messiah. The one come from God was the Hebrew conception of the Messiah. Now put it together. Rabbi, thou art come from God. This is the order of the words in the Greek sentence. Thou art come from God. And the natural thing would be to finish the sentence, Rabbi thou art come from God, the promised Messiah. But Nicodemus, faltering, timid, tripping over his own words, couldn't finish the thought that was already in his mind, and he ends it off in a way that's completely foreign to all Jewish thinking. Rabbi, thou art come from God. And you can hear him stutter practically. A teacher. A teacher. And even then he had to say, for no man could do these miracles that thou doest, except God. We see the force of these signs. We can't escape the force of these signs. It's impossible for any man to see what I have seen without knowing that you have come from God. You've been listening to Let the Bible Speak, the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. I hope that you found today's broadcasting a blessing to your heart. If you'd like to email us, our email address is ltbs at freepres.org. Or if you'd prefer, you may write us at LetTheBibleSpeak 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. We would love to hear from you. If you'd like to know how to be saved and how to be sure you're saved, we'd like to send you my booklet, A New Beginning, and I think that you'll find it very helpful. Each quarter we publish a free full-color magazine, Let the Bible Speak Quarterly, with a good variety of Bible teaching and testimony. It's available to all who request it. If you'd like to receive more information about the Free Presbyterian Church of North America and its ministry, we'd like to send you our booklet, Separated Unto the Gospel. Or if you'd like to have tape or CD copies of the messages here in Let the Bible Speak, you may have them by contacting us. Or you may visit us on the web at letthebiblespeakradio.com. Now that's a lot of information to digest all at once, but you can find it all on our website, LetTheBibleSpeakRadio.com. There you'll be able to listen to and download our programs, visit our online bookstore, and read a text version of each day's commentary. So visit us today at LetTheBibleSpeakRadio.com. This is Alan Kern saying, thank you for listening. I trust that you'll join us each day at this time, Monday through Friday, as we let the Bible speak.