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. Once again, this is Alan Kearns with you to Let the Bible Speak. I'm glad you're able to join us today as we continue our series of messages just commenced earlier this week on the subject of the law of God, God's law in relation to the cross and the Christian. As I've been pointing out, the subject of the relation of the law to the gospel is the key to interpreting and understanding the entire revelation of scripture. So plan to be with us day by day, as for quite a while into the future, as the Lord wills, we'll be looking at this subject. Each program I bring before you, our website, and remind you that at ltbsradio.com you can listen again to any of our broadcasts, you can read the various commentaries, on the subjects I bring before you day by day and you can visit our online store. There you'll see various books, pamphlets, DVDs, things that will be of interest to you and help to you in your walk with the Lord. ltbsradio.com or if you prefer to spell it out in full letthebiblespeakradio.com Remember also that we have a monthly magazine tape or CD and you can pick this up free of charge by writing to us or by calling us toll free. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina 29615. And our toll-free telephone number is 866-877-LTBS. 866-877-5827. So with all these ways to get in touch, I hope that that's precisely what you'll do. We look forward to hearing from you. Could we catch the glistening of the dew or snowflake? Or the rainbow colors painted on the clouds? Add to these the brightness of the stars and moonlight And the mantle white which mountains eat and shroud Then if we could catch the glitter of each jewel From the earth or gathered from the briny sea Blend them all together in one mighty prism, Still the loveliness of Christ is more to me. He is altogether lovely, He's the fairest of the fair, And on Him alone through life I can depend. Oh, all language fails completely when I try to tell the world of the loveliness of Christ my Lord and Friend. Did you ever see a baby smile on waking or behold the mother light in eyes of love? Something which no artist ever yet was able To portray unless inspired from above Yet my soul hath seen a vision quite immortal Far beyond the power of human eyes to see Something sweeter, grander, holier, and lasting It's the loveliness of Christ my Lord and King I have reveled in the glory of the sunset and the blending of God's colors at the dawn. I have marveled at the petals of the flowers, and I'm thrilled while listening to the night birds song. I have passed through lanes with orange perfume labels, still enraptured in its magic power I dream. Could some way be found to gather these In October 2004, a group of nine high school students here in Greenville, South Carolina, completed what is called the Outward Bound Unity Course. At the end of 2005, one of the students wrote of what she had learned. what had made her, quote, no longer a self-absorbed teenager, but a concerned citizen of the world. The outward-bound movement has schools in many parts of the world. It has many admirable aspects, especially in challenging young people's mental and physical endurance with a host of daring and exciting activities. However, it goes far beyond teaching young people strength and self-reliance and becomes openly activist in promoting socialism and secular humanist values. The Outward Bound Unity course in North Carolina openly states its objective in such terms. I quote, Communities are crisscrossed with social fracture lines across which people learn to separate themselves, fear each other, and perpetuate inequalities. race, economics, gender, sexual orientation, and religion can all present barriers and challenges to forming a just, inclusive community. Young people offer important leadership on issues of diversity and social justice because divisions are less entrenched in their beliefs and behaviors. The Unity Project is a year-long program designed to harness and develop this youth leadership in order to build stronger schools and communities." And I close the quote there. The girl who wrote the report I have referred to swallowed this dogma, hook, line, and sinker. She commenced the course believing that America was a land of opportunity. But her instructors soon disabused her of that idea. They had a novel way of getting their socialist point across. An instructor stood out front with a bag of M&Ms in her hand. All the students stood in a straight line opposite her. They would race toward her, and the first to reach her would win the M&Ms. Nothing unusual in that, you say? That was when she decided to teach them her lesson. She told those whose family owned a computer to take a step toward her. Then she said, if your family could afford to send you to a private school, take two steps forward. Next, the instructor told those whose school had less than two teachers of their race to take two steps backward. After several other similar instructions, some students were a lot nearer the finish line than others, and not surprisingly, the ones at the back hadn't a chance of taking the prize when the race got underway. The young man who'd started off nearest the goal took the prize. The entire event was devised as a sort of parable. The M&M prize represented the American dream, and the starting positions of the competitors represented the inequalities of the American system. Now let's be clear. There's nothing wrong in making people understand that many around them do not enjoy a lot of the advantages that they may take for granted. Compassion is a virtue. that Christians should be the last people in the world to denigrate. But what those students were learning was more than compassion. As a result of what she learned, the young lady who reported on the course says, I now believe that it is my responsibility, not choice, to assist in achieving social justice. In other words, whether she knows it or not, she has espoused the political doctrine of socialism. She was taught that the disadvantages that many people suffer are because America is not a land of equal opportunity. It's as if the American system stacked the deck against a segment of the population, causing them to become disadvantaged. The fact that the privileged teenager who wrote the article attended the very same state school as some of the disadvantaged seemed meaningless in the scenario created by the outward-bounded structure. So was the fact that the school system provided access to the computers that some families couldn't afford for themselves. Even the provision of free meals and transportation were evidences of American injustice. And what convinced the bright young high school student of all this was that parabolic race that her instructor arranged. In other words, the teacher used an old ploy of people whose argument is weak. She used an emotive illustration, and on it erected a political and social dogma. That's not my purpose to engage in political commentary. I raise this issue to emphasize a couple of dangers that all too many of us are unaware of, the first I'll briefly mention now, and the second I'll leave until tomorrow. Teachers wield immense power over the minds of young people. It is not only in outward-bound courses that kids are being indoctrinated into socialism, it's happening in state schools all over the nation. It is time that parents wakened up to the fact that teachers often set out to impart far more than the three R's, and often use their privileged position to indoctrinate our children into the humanistic mores of socialism. Ironically, It was the founder of the Outward Bound movement, Kurt Hahn, who said, indoctrination is of the devil. That work of the devil is evident all around us and lays on every parent and every pastor the obligation to combat the doctrine of the devil with the pure truth of the Word of God. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty All thy words shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy Today we come to consider a little further why God gave the law. And we start with the first two of seven reasons that I'm going to adduce in answer to that question. I want us to ask the question that Paul asked in Galatians 3.19, Wherefore them the law? And I want us to study for a little bit the subject why God gave His law. Now, the text asks a question, and the Bible supplies clear answers. What I want to do this evening, and I will have to be abbreviated in doing this because we have taken a lot of time to get to the point, I want to make you understand why it's important that we cover this subject. What I want to do tonight is take a number of simple, but the more you think of them, far-reaching truths that will give the answer to why God gave His law. God gave His law to make men know that they are responsible and accountable to Him for all they are and do. The law did not commence with Moses. The law commenced with God. And He gave it not first to Moses, but to Adam. The law is not limited to the Jews. The fact that they had it in the written form that God gave it on Mount Sinai is not to be taken to mean that nobody else ever had the law, because Paul tells us in Romans 2.15, the Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts. I want you to note those words, underline them. I don't want to get off track, but in the study of theology and even in the study of philosophy, these are some of the most important words in the New Testament. The law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing them. Now, I'll ask your attention to that text of Scripture, not that I intend to expound it in any detail at this time, but I want you to get exactly what it means. And if there is one truth that springs right out of that text of Scripture, it is this, that no man, be he Jew or Gentile, be he Greek or barbarian, be he wise or unwise, learned or illiterate, Religious or totally infidel, no man can escape the authority of his Creator. That's what Paul is teaching. The law expresses the Lord's right to command. When he gives his law, he is saying, I am God. I am your supreme Creator and your constant sustainer. I am, and because I am, and because of my will and my work, you are. And that is the relationship. I am the creator, you are the creature. I am the sovereign, you are the subject. That is what God is establishing when He gives His law. And when He writes that law on the tables of every man's heart, He is saying, this is my right to command. This law written on the heart of man, and then later on the tables of stone, shows God to be holy and majestic. It proves that this holy God actually requires obedience to His revealed will from His creatures. And it shows to every man the unpalatable truth. It is unpalatable to man by nature. He has spent the whole of history trying to escape from it, but he can't. That God will hold men to account by His standards and not theirs. Why does God give the law? First, to make men know that they are responsible and accountable to Him. If I could put it very, very colloquially to you, the very existence of what you call conscience and what the Bible calls conscience tells you God holds you responsible. You are not a victim. You are a responsible, moral agent whom God will call to account by the standard of His inviolable law. Second, God reveals His law to make clear His standard of right and wrong. That is clear from the verse I read in Romans 2.15. That verse again makes it absolutely clear that the moral law is the standard of right and wrong. The standard of right and wrong is not ultimately standards of contemporary society. Today, there is little shame, if any, in some of the most heinous crimes and moral perversions that a person can possibly commit. But don't be misled by that. Because however much governments change and judges and court systems change, God's law never changes. That's the standard of right and wrong. Nowadays, there's very little acknowledgement of this divine authority in determining what's right and wrong. One of the most vexing questions in America today is how to square your constitutional right of free speech and all that that has been interpreted to include by a bunch of half-witted legal experts with the public good. The airwaves are polluted every day. by the foulest, most hellish trash that you can possibly imagine. Homes are being polluted. We're looking at the result. We have now an increasing troop of 10 and 11 and 12 year old rapists and murderers. And the how-to is right in their own home every day. And some godless, wicked, money-grubbing companies and film producers are getting rich on the blood that these people are learning to shed. Nobody doubts anymore that Mr. Quayle was right when he talked of the role of filmmakers and television producers in the whole sordid story of the country's moral decline. Nobody doubts that anymore. It was, for a while, politically advantageous to mock it, but now everybody's saying, yes, it's true. But the question is, how can we stop them? We're told, you can't legislate morality. Oh, it's okay to legislate immorality, but you can't legislate morality. We're told quite openly, look, if people want to watch this, why don't they have the right? Well, of course, that's just one step removed, and I realize to many it's a big step. But if someone wants to burst into your home and assault your wife and children, rape and pillage and murder, if he wants to do it, why can't he do it? Oh, they say, of course, he's hurting somebody now. But what about the millions of little children who are being hurt and who are being so thoroughly corrupted by this wickedness that the rest of their lives will be spent in misery in the rest of many other people's lives, will be spent in misery as well. If they want to do it, do they not have the right? That raises the greatest question that this nation can really face, and that is the question of ultimate moral authority. When you have denied God, you have banned God from the education of your children. When you have denied His Word, you have removed the very foundation of moral authority. Why did God give us law? In order that God would reveal the standard of right and wrong. Paul says in Romans 3.20, by the law is the knowledge of sin. James tells us in chapter 1, verse 23 through 25 of his epistle, that the law is like a mirror and it lets a man see himself as he truly is. Why did God give the law? To establish what is right and what is wrong. Let me say to you tonight that this has a very individual application. Ultimately, you are not going to stand before any human judiciary. Ultimately, you are going to stand before God. It matters not how acceptable your life is to the corrupt and vile society in which we live. It matters not how morally you stand towering superior over this age and the people of it. You will stand before God to be judged according to His law. That standard of right and wrong never, never, never changes. You have 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 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 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.