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 saying hello to you once again and welcome to Let the Bible Speak. It's good to be with you as we continue our study of the Ten Commandments. Today we look again at the first commandment. This will be our last treatment of it. That great statement of the Lord, thou shalt have no other gods before me. That'll be in just a few minutes. First, however, as I like to do in every broadcast, let me make sure that you have our contact information. If you'd like to receive any of the resources that I have mentioned here in Let the Bible Speak from time to time, or if you simply wish to comment on a broadcast, you may write or call us. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. or you may call us toll free at 866-877-LTBS 866-877-5827 and of course don't forget to visit our website LetTheBibleSpeakRadio.com or if you prefer the abbreviation LTBSRadio.com and there you'll find audio files of our broadcasts and printable text files of all our commentaries. We look forward to your visit. I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior, true. No, I was found of Thee. Thou didst reach forth Thy hand, and mine enfold. I walked and sank not on the storm-vexed sea, Twas not so much that I on thee took hold, As Thou, O Lord, on me. I find, I walk, I love, but, O the whole of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee. For thou wert long beforehand with my soul, always thou lovest me. Now that the hype about the Disney film based on C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia has settled down, we may be able to look calmly and objectively at the Lewis phenomenon. C.S. Lewis was born in the city in which I was born, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He went on to become an Oxford Don, an atheist, who converted to theism, and who joined the Church of England. He was the author of many books, including one I had to study at school, Mere Christianity. This was based on a series of broadcast lectures that he gave before World War II and set out to give a rational apology for Lewis's view of God. However, his most famous works are undoubtedly his fictional books for children. seven novels in which he employed myth as a vehicle to convey what he conceived to be the message of the gospel. The Chronicles of Narnia tell the story of four children journeying through a wardrobe into Narnia, a world of talking animals that is plunged into endless winter by a witch. The children and animals rally to Aslan, a noble lion. On one side, church groups, backed by the film's producer, Disney, are promoting the story's message as Christian, with Jesus, represented by Aslan, saving a world fallen into sin. Others say it is just an adventure story that draws on a variety of religious and folklore sources. Douglas Gresham, Lewis' stepson, said recently, Churches in Britain and America are promoting the film as a Christian film, but it's not, and the Narnia books aren't Christian novels. However, Lewis's stepson is wrong. Recently, a letter from Lewis himself to a young fan, written in 1961, states bluntly, the whole Narnian story is about Christ. He explained to his young correspondent, Supposing there really was a world like Narnia, and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it as he did ours, what might have happened? The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because, A, the lion is supposed to be the king of the beasts, B. Christ is called the Lion of Judah in the Bible. Now this is important because we must now look at Narnia not just as an adventure story but as C.S. Lewis's presentation of the gospel. And that is when things begin to get scary. I say scary because while Lewis is largely ignored by religious liberals, He is a constant object of adulation by evangelicals. Christianity today labeled him the 20th century's greatest Christian apologist. Everywhere you turn, evangelicals are quoting or praising Lewis as if his views were representative of biblical orthodoxy. This is difficult to explain for, as even Christianity today had to admit, Clive Staples Lewis was anything but a classic evangelical. He denied biblical inerrancy and the substitutionary atonement of Christ. He believed in purgatory, confessing to a human priest, prayers for the dead, the salvation of the heathen without faith in Christ, and, if we are to take his Narnia teaching seriously, as he intended we should, the ultimate salvation of all men. Lewis was a universalist. All this makes C.S. Lewis a man of whom Bible believers should be wary. His gospel is not our gospel. His Christ is not our Christ. He is one of those of whom the Apostle Paul warned in 2 Corinthians 11. Indeed, Paul might well have written this passage directly to today's ill-informed compromising evangelicals. I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguile thee through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." Evangelicals, not only bear with the heretical C.S. Lewis, they positively embrace him. And, I suppose, in the end, that says more about them than it does about him. Thy people still offend. Oh, through this weary, ill-breed nation, we now present thee for thy throne of grace. ♪ And be the glory of their success. ♪ Which perplexing path of life A wandering foot has died. In us each day He reigns, and faith and peace provide. Did all our wanderings cease? And death, our final destination, of the moon, the stars are rising here. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Every sin is committed in the Lord's face, under the Lord's eye, but especially this sin of idolatry. Idol worship, all this great catalog of crime and sin and wickedness, is not only not hid from God, But it is committed right in His face. That's why He says in Jeremiah 7 verse 9, Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not, and come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Let's stop there. Will you do that? Do you think you can get away with that? To set up idolatry? Be it covetousness, stubbornness, hypocrisy, or other ungodliness? That you can set up idolatry, and then you can come into God's presence and think because you do so, because you bow before Him, and you join in the congregational worship, that somehow or other, that will make your idolatry alright with God. He says, is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord." Here is the duty of man, and it condemns every one of us by nature and by practice as an idolater and a criminal at the bar of God. Will you not tremble to break the first of these great commandments? This commandment exposes sin, and it calls you, as the Thessalonians did, to turn from idols to serve the living and the true God. And therefore, it holds out a message of hope. For the third and final thing that the commandment does is it teaches us the eternal deity of Christ. Follow me carefully. Worship belongs only to Jehovah. Isaiah 42, verse 8, I am the Lord. I am Jehovah. That is my name. And my glory will I not give to another. neither my praise to graven images." Now, let's get that clearly in our minds. I am Jehovah. Worship belongs to Me alone. Yet, Hebrews 1, 6, "...when He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He, Jehovah, saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him." By the command of God, worship belongs only to Him. And by the command of God, worship is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's grasp the plain logic of the Word of God here. Dr. Connolly mentioned the existence of that logical construction called asylogism. You all know by now from what he said what a syllogism is. There are two propositions, a major and a minor premise, which lead to an inevitable conclusion, and the strength of the conclusion depends on the rightness of the major and the minor premises. For instance, if I were to say that everything that has four legs is an animal, My table has four legs, therefore my table is an animal. You would say you're crazy. There's nothing wrong with the logic except that the first premise was wrong. But when the premises are right, the conclusion is inevitable. I follow the Scriptures. Worship belongs exclusively to the true God, Jehovah. God commands worship to be given to Jesus Christ. Conclusion, therefore, Jesus Christ is the true God and Jehovah. This commandment teaches us the eternal deity of Christ. It is a commandment, therefore, that should be read in gospel light. When it says, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, it is a commandment to acknowledge and confess the Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God and our God and our Savior. The Savior Himself said this, John 14 and 1, You believe in God, believe also in Me. That's the commandment. So this commandment then comes down. To this it condemns our sin, but it points us to Christ and it says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What a picture the New Testament presents to us. It presents us the picture of the Lord walking among men as a man. As a man, He obeys the law of God perfectly. He offers up that perfect obedience to the Father as a sacrifice on our behalf. That sacrifice is accepted. Then He offers to us as His free gift, that perfect obedience as a garment of salvation and as the robe of righteousness. Convicted by the law. condemned as an idolater. Every man and woman among us should hear the voice of this first commandment to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Acknowledge and confess Him. Cry with Thomas, My Lord, My God, My Lord, and My God. And I will say this, it is only then that you can begin to live in obedience to the first commandment. Every Christ rejecter is an impenitent idolater. on the road to an idolater's hell with the judgment of the first commandment hanging over his head. It is only when he gets to Christ that he begins to understand the fulfillment of this commandment. It's then that he begins to live for God. It's then that he can say with the hymn writer, the dearest idol I have known, what e'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee. May God show us these three tremendous truths, His exclusive dignity, our essential duty, and Christ's eternal deity. May He bring us to the feet of His Son, Our Savior is our perfect righteousness and our perfect Redeemer. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's all pray. Father in heaven, bless Thy Word to every heart. And after the faltering voice of man is silent, Lord, speak on to every soul. Lord, we pray, that thou wilt save the lost, convict sinners of sin. We live in a day when there is such a low view of the holiness of God, such a low view of the law of God, such a low view of sin. O God, we pray that thou wilt convict sinners of sin. Idolatry is a heinous and vicious and diabolical crime. Gracious God, bear the full weight of that condemnation in on every heart. And then, we pray, point souls to Christ. We thank Thee He is God of very God. We thank Thee He is God manifested in the flesh. We thank Thee He is God revealed for our salvation. Jesus, our Emmanuel. O Lord, tonight we pray, that thou wilt bring souls to the feet of Jesus. And Lord, bring thy people to total dedication. We believe in the deity of Christ. We believe in the salvation of God in Christ. We believe the great truths of the gospel. Lord, then, let us live one hundred percent for God. Oh, take us up and use us in the power of Thy Spirit in the service of our great God and Savior. Hear our prayer. Bless us, we pray. Keep us near the cross and let us remain faithful to Thee as we look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Part is with Thy blessing. Keep us in Thy fear and in the enjoyment of Thy favor. Let the beauty of the Lord be upon us, we ask 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 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.