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. This is Alan Kearns with you once again saying hello and welcome to Let the Bible Speak. It's our privilege to be with you and I trust that the Lord will richly bless you as today we return one more time to John chapter 3 showing how the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to Nicodemus. That's all in just a moment or two. As usual we have good gospel music for you But we start off with our hot topic for today, and this is of interest to anybody who has any knowledge of or connection with the United Kingdom. Bleep! Save Our Queen. Hollywood has produced a film titled The Queen. A version of that film was distributed to Delta and other airlines for their in-flight entertainment programs. In this edited version, all reference to God was cut out. leading to the rather ridiculous line when a character in the film addresses Her Majesty, bleep, bless you ma'am, instead of God bless you ma'am. It's well that the film doesn't contain the British National Anthem, God save our Queen, otherwise it would have run something like this, bleep, save our gracious Queen, bleep, save our noble Queen, bleep, save our Queen. An embarrassed Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the Studio City, California company that supplied the movie to the airlines, said it was a mistake committed by an overzealous and inexperienced employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies. A reference to God is not taboo in any culture that I know of, Klein said, we excise foul language, excessive violence, and nudity. It's hard to take Klein's explanation seriously. I mean, who in his right mind, however inexperienced, would ever think that, God bless you, ma'am, was a profanity or a blasphemy? I suspect that either a prankster or an atheist loony was at work here. But whatever the cause, the erring editor got to keep his or her job and Jaguar Distribution reissued the film to the airlines with God's name included. Now obviously this isn't a big story, but as Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's famous fictional detective might have said, it causes one furiously to think. We British people sing God Save Our Queen. Personally, I mean it from my heart. When I look at Britain today, I see a country adrift from its historic Christian moorings, its historic Parliament, often called the Mother of Parliaments, its constitutional monarchy, its famous Act of Settlement, its ancient Bill of Rights, and its stated national adoption of Christianity have all been perverted or sacrificed on the altar of the self-idolatry that we call humanism. I find it offensive and grieving to see such a respected lady as the Queen, reduced to mouthing the vile policies of a socialist government that has gutted the British Constitution and overthrown all decency and morality. In other words, God has long ago been excluded, and not by mistake, not only from the national anthem, but from the affairs of the nation itself. This is the ultimate profanity and blasphemy. and unless it is excised, and that right quickly, the results will be disastrous. For countries such as Britain, and you could add America and many others, there is a striking text of Scripture that ought to drive us to our knees. It is Psalm 9 verse 17 which reads, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. Like a ship upon the sea, Thou who rules wind and water, stand by me. In the midst of faults and failures, stand by me. When I do the best I can And my friends misunderstand When I'm growing old and feeble stand by me When I'm growing old and feeble stand by me And I draw my latest breath, O thou God of all the ages, Father, Father, Father in Heaven! Thou who knowest all about me, You're listening to Let the Bible Speak, the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. We have a very special offer for you in this month of April, and I trust that you'll avail yourself of it. As our gift to you, we'd like to offer you my book on the Lord's Prayer. This has been a book that the Lord has greatly used and has been very instrumental in leading many Christians to a deeper experience of God in the sacred place. The book is yours if you wish to have it by writing to us or emailing or calling. Our mailing address is, let the Bible speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. Our email address is ltbs at freepres.org. or you may call us toll free at 1-866-877-5827 1-866-877-LTBS we look forward to hearing from you and to letting you have The Lord's Prayer a book you'll thoroughly enjoy ♪ Joy and its most perfect peace ♪ ♪ All the Lord is joy and in its bright increase ♪ ♪ Perfect yet is love and for the every day ♪ Perfect yet His promise, He borrowed away. Savior born to all, God's all-holy rest, Finding that He promised perfect peace and rest. ♪ With blessed eyes ♪ ♪ Never spoken for long ♪ ♪ Never treated just ♪ ♪ Not a touch of worries ♪ ♪ Not a shade of dread ♪ ♪ Not a glance of worry ♪ Hey there, poor Jehovah, heart of holiness, Find me, that ye promise perfect peace and rest. ♪ Heav'nly joy on high, on high above us ♪ ♪ Praise the Father high above Christ the Son of God ♪ ♪ He makes us victorious, victorious, victorious ♪ We would shout him glory, find him all in truth. We now return to John's Gospel chapter 3 to conclude our study of Christ revealing himself to Nicodemus, evidencing his claims by his omnipotence, by his omniscience, and finally by his love. Dealing with love we now come to a great objection to the sovereign grace that Christ announced in Nicodemus, an excuse indeed that men make for staying in sin and making God guilty for it. So listen carefully as we turn now to John chapter 3. I really get very impatient with these people who want to make the sovereignty of God an excuse for remaining in sin. I speak as a five-point, if there was such a thing as a fifty-point Calvinist, I'd be that. But I get sick, sore and tired about these people who say, oh, if only I knew I were elect, I would come. You're a liar. You're a liar. Don't put the guilt of your shame and your sin upon God. Oh, I would love to be saved, but I don't know if God would accept me. You're a liar. Now that's blunt. That's blunt. But then I have had to work at trying to express myself clearly. I've always been so mealy-mouthed. But that's a lie. That is an absolute fabrication. How do I know it? Because Jesus said, look, if you're working in truth, you come to the light. I'm the light. I am the light. You say you want to be saved? You're true and honest? Then come to the light! You say you want your sins forgiven? Then come to the light! Get out of skulking in the darkness of your own philosophy, or your own doubts, or your own little stories. Get out into the light of the truth of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. He says, everyone that's doing truth comes to the light. There's nothing uncertain about that, nothing very difficult about that. It's simple. That's what he was saying to Nicodemus. You see, the Lord Jesus knew him, just as he knows you and me. And I'm glad he does, because we hardly know ourselves. And hypocrisy and unbelief can put on so many faces. They would bamboozle us completely. But Jesus knows us, and he reduces things. to the rock-bottom simplicities of the gospel. This supernatural knowledge witnesses to a divine person. In the Greek text actually this comes out very much more clearly than in any translation because in that text there is a constant emphasis upon the pronoun himself. Let me give you as it stands in verses 24 and 25 in the original text. But Jesus Himself did not trust Himself to them, because He Himself knew all men, and that He had no need that any should testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. You see the constant emphasis in that reflexive pronoun? Himself. Himself. Himself. This knowledge that Jesus here evidences supports His claim that He Himself is the very Son of God and Savior of the world. Finally, let me say that He evidenced these claims by His love. And I will here be very, very brief. What kindness the Lord Jesus showed to Nicodemus. What patience. Can I say he is the same yesterday and today and forever. The Lord Jesus was, showed little patience with the hypocritical Pharisees. Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!" That's how he dealt with them. But here with Nicodemus trembling before him, what kindness, what patience. And he's still the same today. The hymn writer said, a trembling soul, I sought the Lord. Thank God there is a patient, kind, knowing, loving Savior for every trembling sinner. And in love he dealt with the issues that Nicodemus needed to know. He dealt with life, the new birth, by what he calls spiritual water, born of water and of the Spirit. I'm not going to repeat myself too much here. Remember, that is a figure of speech that's known as Hendiodes. The two words actually describe one entity. Water and Spirit are spiritual water. Did that mean anything to Nicodemus? You absolutely can be sure of that. Nicodemus remembered Numbers 19 and the water of separation. Nicodemus remembered all that Ezekiel had said about the new birth and the new heart and the washing of the water. He knew all about spiritual water. Jesus is saying, this new heart, that's the new birth. Love, not just life, but love. evidenced by the Father's gift of his own Son to the cross, that believers might be saved. And then light, verse 19. These are the three great things that Jesus speaks to sinners about. Life, love, and light. Now that's a sermon in itself. It's not my sermon this morning, because I'm dealing with the life of Christ, rather than the things that spin off from it. There are still the three things, however, that you and I need to hear about. Life, for by nature we're dead. Where do you get life? Jesus said, I am the life. He that hath the Son hath life. How do you come to the place where you can say, I have or I possess the Son? As many as receive Him, even to them who are the believing ones on His name. That's how you have Christ. And you have life. Love. Now, let's be honest. You look in the mirror, and if you see half of what you really are, You'd be a lunatic to love yourself. You see something that's hateful, wicked, vile, vicious. I often come before God in simplicity and honesty and confess, if God were to give me one millionth part of what I have merited, I would be deeper in hell than Tyre and Sidon. You look at yourself and there's not much to love, is there? But God looks on you. And I don't understand the love of God. How God can love sinners, but God commandeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Foul, filthy, corrupted, rebellious sinners. He commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What is the great proof of the love of God? It's the cross of Christ. Again, I get upset with people who come and say, if God were a God of love, why this, why this? Let me tell you, after Calvary, God doesn't need to say a word or do a thing to prove that He is the God of all love. God has given us His Son. And if we could only understand the other things that now don't seem to add up, if we only had the wit to understand them aright, we would see that even they are testimonies to God's love in Jesus Christ. And then there's light. By nature, you're in darkness. Where Jesus left Nicodemus was with a tacit call. It's as if he was saying, Nicodemus, it's time to get out of the night into the light. It's time to get out of the darkness into the day. He didn't despise him or easily give him up. He called him. And I believe that night Jesus won Nicodemus. I say that because in chapter 19 verse 39 you have Nicodemus right out openly the disciple of Christ. Nothing more powerfully witnesses to the Savior than his love for sinners. The love of God robed in flesh for sinners. That's a wonderful theme. It called Nicodemus. It calls you. It calls me. I trust that our response as we see the claims of Christ and the evidence with which he supports them will be the word that Thomas uttered when he saw there is in Christ My Lord. My God. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, bless Thy Word to every heart, how we thank Thee that the Lord Jesus Christ, not only claimed to be God incarnate, but proved His claim. We thank Thee that Every word and every work of the Savior, the love that He showed, the supernatural knowledge that He exhibited, all get together in one mighty chorus to say, Jesus Christ is Lord. May there be many a true Nicodemus here who will seek the Lord and come out of the night into the light by faith in Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 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 freeprez.org. Or if you'd prefer, you may write us at Let The Bible Speak, 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 to hear 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 Allan 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.