Study the Word

Guest (Male): Pastor Tom Keller says, be a Berean and test what you hear.

Guest (Male): The most dangerous message you're ever going to hear is 28 minutes of truth and two minutes of lies. Because you'll be sitting there going, yeah, yeah, oh, that's good, yeah. Man, this guy's on right. And then ding, you go, what? That doesn't sound right, but the rest the rest was so it must be right. Listen, yeah, 30 minutes of lies, you pick it up right away. The dangers, that's why you have to really listen carefully. Listen carefully to me. Be like the Bereans. Check out what I say with the word of God. Test it to make sure that it's true.

Many today are looking for completeness in another person like their spouse or from their job or in wealth. But the truth of the matter is we'll only find completeness in Jesus. Today on Study the Word, the focus is on Christ, his sufficiency, and that we're made complete in him. We'll also learn how to protect ourselves against the empty philosophies of this world. Pastor Tom Keller is moving right along in our series in Colossians. And today he has an eye on chapter two, beginning at verse nine.

Pastor Thom Keller: Hey, if you have your Bibles, we're in Colossians chapter two. And as you're turning to that, this is a true story. Now, some people say they're true stories and they're not. This is a true story. A mother was on the lookout for a good name to christen her son at his upcoming baptism. As she's riding through town on her bike, she saw a door on the building with the name Nason Mo. It was so different it appealed to her that she decided she would have her child baptized Nason Mo, Nason Mo. A few days later, she rode past the same building.

And this time she saw the name King on another door. She thought the two names would sound great together, so she had her son christen Nason Mo King Smith. On her way home from her son's baptism, delighted with the names that she had chosen, she passed the building again. But this time the two doors in which she had seen the names were now closed together. And what she read was not Nason Mo King, but no smoking. True story. The moral of the story, be very careful or you could name your son No Par King. Now, there's a plus side to that.

Any place he would go, he would have his own parking space with his name on it. Well, let's keep going here. In today's lesson, we're going to park ourselves for a while looking at the matter of baptism and how that may relate to you. Colossians 2:8 So Colossians 2:8 says, don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that comes from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. Here Paul speaks of empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense. The NIV says hollow and deceptive philosophy. New King James says empty deceit according to the traditions of man.

And remember, this high-minded deceit that Paul is speaking of here is probably in large part Gnosticism which claimed they hire more intelligent intellectual knowledge of God available only to those who were initiated into this higher range of understanding. And folks, Satan has been tempting man on this front from the very beginning where he promised Eve a greater, deeper knowledge than God had given her. In the book War and the Saints, Jesse Penn-Lewis says this, unfallen man in his pure state was not perfect in knowledge. Eve was ignorant of good and evil. And her ignorance was a condition which lent itself to the deception of the serpent.

Goes on and says the devil's great purpose and for which he fights is to keep the world in ignorance of himself, his ways, and his colleagues. And the church is taking sides with him when siding with ignorance about him. Every man should keep an attitude of openness to all truth but shun false knowledge which has slain its tens of thousands and kept the nations in the deception of the devil. Two weeks ago, I received this Facebook message from a woman who used to attend this church and has since moved out of state. Listen to what she says.

There is no God or Satan. God is actually just a symbol for higher consciousness and Satan is a symbol for the ego. You must use higher consciousness to overcome your lower ego desires. She goes on and says, I've learned that always chasing the light doesn't really bring about much change. I left religion for all the right reasons. Now, think of Gnosticism and teaching that there's higher, a greater intellect to achieve it. Listen what she says. Just saying, if you ever want to be filled in all the additional info I've sought and learned, my way is transformative, freeing, and actually helpful.

She ends by saying, this is how I steer people away from religion now, the freedom from feeling guilty for being human. We can't control negativity. The darkness is just as necessary to bend the light. She drank the Kool-Aid. She swallowed the lie, hook, line, and sinker. So how do you protect yourself from these empty philosophies and these high-sounding nonsense? Folks, you read this book. That's how you do it. And as you read, God will increase your level of discernment so that when you hear some high-sounding nonsense like what I just read to you, your spirit will react by saying something like this.

I may not be able to quote chapter and verse but what you just told me isn't right. You're saying it's an A, it's an A flat, it's an A sharp. That's not an A. You know, it's like this tuning fork, if I can pull this off. Anybody here have perfect pitch? You know what that is? There's only one in 10,000 that has perfect pitch. And that's why we use tuning forks because we need a tuning fork in order to give an accurate pitch in music. And so most tuning forks used by musicians are a 440 cycles per second, which is the musical note A above a middle C.

So the word of God is a tuning fork. You put it by your ear, you put it by your eyes, you memorize it. And then that's what you tune all of life by. That's what you examine, that's what you measure, that's what you test all of life by, that tuning fork. But you have to start with a pure tone, the right tone. And a lot of people will come representing something else to be an A sharp or an A flat, and it isn't. And the people that have the discernment to know the difference are the people that spend time in this book.

Folks, it's how it works. It's how it works. It's the tuning fork. And the longer you do that the more closely you will come to having perfect pitch. You'll never have perfect pitch until you get to heaven. But you'll get closer. And listen, this is why so many in the church today are lacking discernment. We're choosing to walk down roads without being aware of the signs pointing along the way that are sending us in the wrong direction. So many like this woman on Facebook are falling for high-sounding nonsense that as Paul says, come from the evil powers of this world.

And why? Because they don't know this book. And the Bible says about this discerning the difference between the true and the false. Jeremiah covers that in Jeremiah chapter 23. This is so good. Let these false prophets tell their dreams but let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between straw and grain, between chaff and wheat. Does not my word burn like fire, says the Lord? Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces? Listen, if you've been a student of the word for a long time, if you love the word of God, you know that there's a difference between straw and wheat, between straw and chaff, between chaff and wheat, between the fire and empty words.

Is it not like a mighty hammer? The word of God is. You know, Spurgeon said this, which is so good. He said discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It's knowing the difference between right and almost right. You know, people think that God is represented by white a Satan is represented by dark. And the truth is God is represented by white. That's true. But Satan has every color all the way to off-white, almost pure white. He has every of those one of those colors available to him. And so that's why I've often said the most dangerous message you will ever hear.

Folks, lock this one away because this is going to come up sometime. The most dangerous message you're ever going to hear is 28 minutes of truth and two minutes of lies. Because you'll be sitting there going, yeah, yeah, oh, that's good, yeah. Man, this guy's on right. And then ding, you go, what? That doesn't sound right, but the rest the rest was so it must be right. Listen, yeah, 30 minutes of lies, you pick it up right away. The dangers, that's why you have to really listen carefully. Listen carefully to me. Be like the Bereans.

Check out what I say with the word of God. Test it to make sure that it's true. Always remember that. Look for those zingers. Don't expect them but don't be surprised by them. Second Timothy two says this, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. And then in verse nine, Paul in just one sentence addresses the core lie of Gnosticism. He says, for in Christ lives all the fullness of God keys key part in a human body.

Now, why does Paul have to say that Jesus lived in a human body? Because the Gnostics taught that Jesus never came in an actual material human body. The reasoning was that all matter is evil and so God who is spirit and good could not have possibly taken on the evil matter of a human body. They taught instead that Jesus came like a kind of spiritual phantom, an apparition, a supernatural, non-material vision. They taught that when Jesus walked on the sand, he left no footprints. They taught that he cast no shadow. And this heresy was and is still in existence today.

It's broader than just Gnosticism. The broader umbrella is known as Docetism. And Docetism is the doctrine important in Gnosticism that Christ's body was not human but either a phantom of celestial substance and that therefore his sufferings were only apparent not real. They teach that Christ was born to Mary as a sort of non-material hologram baby and never took on material form. As a result of that belief, that means that the acts and sufferings of Jesus Christ, including his crucifixion, were mere apparitions, not reality. And so as a consequence of that, they denied both Christ's bodily resurrection because he had no body and bodily ascension to heaven because he had no body.

And so in verse nine, Paul tackles this head on. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. And this was arguably the number one threat to the early church. And Paul wasn't the only one that had to deal with this. The Apostle John did as well. In second John 1:7 he said this, I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. He's speaking of the Gnostics. Such a person is a deceiver and an Antichrist. In first John 4:2 he addresses it again.

This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Listen, every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is a spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. And then John puts a twist on this in the positive light. In John 1:14 it says, and the word, word being Jesus, Logos, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us. So going on in verse 10, Paul says this, so you are complete through your union with Christ who is ahead over every ruler and authority. Paul says you are complete through your union with Christ. In Greek, the word complete is and it means to make full, to fill to the full, to the top so that nothing is wanting. Strong says it means to be richly furnished with the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit rooted in Christ by virtue of the Listen, by virtue of the intimate relationship entered into with Christ.

Paul says, you are complete in Christ. You are filled to the top from bottom to top with nothing lacking. Now, you might say, I don't feel very complete in Christ. Well, you are. Just because you feel it doesn't make it so. Let me give you an analogy. You know, I love my wife like many of you love your wives. And although I can be self-centered and selfish, in spite of that, I love my wife filled to the top rooted, tied together with her because of the intimate, exclusive covenant of marriage that we've entered into. But what if she didn't fully believe that?

Would that diminish my commitment to her? No. And folks, that's just a human love. God's love for us, if we don't believe that he loves us that much it's not diminished by our unbelief. I'm speaking of a husband with a human love. We're talking about a God with a love that we can never even imagine the extend of it. Listen, this next picture might be true of the oceans because the oceans do ebb and flow but the truth is that God's love and commitment to you does not ebb and flow. It does not rise and fall.

It does not go high and then low. Never. His love is maxed out for you every single day to the max. On your best day, he loves you to your max. On your worst day, he loves you to the max. He can't love you less than the max once you're saved. I've said this before but on many of my anniversary cards to my wife and there have been 45 of those of us far I will include something like this. My love for you just grows stronger and stronger through the years. And that's true. But do you know God can never say that to you?

Never. And do you know why? Because it's not true. Because on the day you receive Christ as your Savior and Lord, he fell in love with you. And on that day, his love was absolutely maxed out. And it has stayed at that level unaffected by your good or bad days. And it will continue at that level for the rest of your life. And here's a really cool part. All the way off and into the end of eternity. You know, think about that. You think when you get to heaven, he's going to love you a whole lot.

You know what? He can love you more. He's not going to say, boy, you really cleaned up nice in heaven. I really love you. He's going to love you then with the same love he loves you with now. It's just that then you're going to I'm not even sure we're going to we're going to see the full extend of his love there but you're going to have a much fuller understanding of his love there than we have now but it's at the same level. It'll never change. It never has. It never will. You know, I said this before.

It's not in my notes but this is so important. You know, it's so genius that God set up that way because the times that we're really hurting are the times we have to know he didn't turn his back. The times that I really mess up is when I have to know that he hasn't turned his back to me because I've often said this, if your picture is that God has his back turned to you, how are you going to turn God around? He's God. If that's his position, I'm done. And so if if Satan can get me to believe that he's turned his back on me, what do I do?

I go back out. I go back out. But what Satan doesn't want you to know is this that his arms are always like this, always. You mess up he doesn't want you to mess up. He doesn't treat that lightly. There are consequences to our mess ups. We get that but it doesn't affect his love not his love for you. His arms are always welcoming you back, prodigal son, casing coin. Father runs off the porch, runs down the word, arms open. Father, I'm not deserving to be called your son. Quick, bring the ring, bring bring out the fatted calf.

We're going to have a feast. My son was lost but now he's found. His love has stayed at that level unaffected by your good or bad days and will continue. And again, as I said, are there consequences arising out of my bad choices that gave me those bad days? Of course, there are consequences but one of those consequences is not a diminishing of God's love for you. Again, Paul says in verse 10, you are complete through your intimate relationship with Christ, filled to the top. Again, in him you have been made complete and he is the head.

Again, we looked at that before. So let's go on verse Colossians two, the second half, who is the head over every ruler and authority. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority. King James says it this way, which is the head of all principality and power. And principality in Greek is a word and it means the first order. In other words, God's first creation. In other words, the world of angels and demons created before in existence before man was created. And here he's saying that Jesus is Lord over the angelic and demonic realm, heaven and hell, the unseen first order, God's first creation.

That's principalities. And then it says principalities and power. The word power is and it means universal authority over mankind. So putting these together is saying Jesus is the ultimate supreme authority over the angelic realm and the entire realm of mankind. And folks, this has huge implications for us because what that means is every angel, every demon, every man or woman is ultimately under Christ's authority. You might say, but I thought every single human being was born into this world into Adam's original sin. And as such, they're automatically by default until they accept Christ under the authority of Satan.

Well, that's true but whose authority determined that? Jesus. That wasn't Satan's call. That was God's because Satan can do nothing unless Jesus first allows it. You know, many believe that the Gnostics, speaking of this verse, had a fixation upon and encouraged the worship of angels. And so what Paul was saying here is that Christ has rank over every human being and every angelic being. And so he's saying to the Gnostics, if you follow the wisdom, the logic through then, if that's true it is pointless to seek the help of a private in Satan's army when you can seek the favor and ear of the king.

And one caution here, this idea of worshiping angels, this still goes on today. You can buy lots of books on how to uh worship an angel, how to get in touch with your spirit guide. What is a spirit guide? Uh I believe, I know a spirit guide is a demon. That's what it is. Spirit I just found this on a website, a pro spirit guide website. It says spirit guides are beings that have transitioned into the afterlife rather than reincarnating on earth again. They've chosen to dedicate their existence to being spirit guides as a way of continuing their soul's evolution.

One author on the subject says this, quote, my guides aren't far off figures that I only call upon once in a while when I need help. In fact, rarely does a a day pass when I don't speak to them and feel their loving presence. They go on and say, how can you open yourselves up to feel the presence of your guides every day? You don't have to be a medium or psychic to make this happen. With focus, mindfulness, and gratitude, you can invite your guides in, your demon in. And then they say how. Invite your guides to join you.

The guides won't interfere with your free will. That's a lie unless it's an emergency. You're going to find over time there are a lot of emergencies in your life but they'll always be there willing and happy to provide what you need. And so to do this, it says relax and clear your mind. Listen, folks, it's good to relax. Just did it. It's not good to clear your mind. You don't ever want to clear your mind. Clearing your mind creates a vacuum, a spiritual vacuum that demons can enter into. If you ever do any exercise, anything, and they say clear your mind, do not clear your mind.

If they teach you that and it's a time when everyone else is clearing their mind, start quoting scripture verse. Don't clear your mind. It is a vacuum. It works that way. Any new age teaching clearing your mind is a part of it. Why? Because it's integral. It's necessary to opening your spirit up to bring in evil spirits.

Guest (Male): Today on Study the Word, Pastor Tom Keller has been teaching us from the book of Colossians. You can hear this message again online at ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. If you'd rather have a CD copy, call us at 717 273 5633. Have you been helped by the ministry? Let us know that. It would be so encouraging to Pastor Tom and the team. Give us a call at 717 273 5633 or write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. You can also email us through the website at ccleb.com.

Study the Word is made possible through the generous support of listeners just like you. And thank you for helping us reach out with the love and truth of Jesus Christ at a time in human history where people really need biblical encouragement. You can give online at ccleb.com or call 717 273 5633. We hope you'll visit us sometime here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. For our service times and more information, go to ccleb.com on the web. You can also watch our live stream there at ccleb.com or on our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

May God richly bless you as you study the word.