Study the Word

Guest (Male): Addressing the practice and implication of praying to angels and saints, here's pastor Tom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: When you pray to angels, you are disconnected from Christ because you are not holding solely and supremely to Christ alone. When you pray to saints, you are disconnected from Christ. When you pray to Mary, you are disconnected from Christ because you are not holding to Christ alone. And this concept of not holding to Christ alone is the wellspring of all false teachings of all apostasies.

Guest (Male): The old hymn puts it well. In Christ alone our hope is found. Yet many in the church today through a lack of instruction often don't realize they've misplaced their hope. It's not a new problem as we'll hear on today's Study the Word with pastor Tom Keller. Continuing in Colossians 2, we'll hear how false teachings that led to unbiblical practices crept into the church. Starting off with one we heard about last time, here's pastor Tom.

Pastor Thom Keller: Now asceticism, New Living Translation says pious self-denial, New King James says false humility. Asceticism is defined as severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence typically for religious reasons. It's from the Greek word ascesis, which means exercise, training, or practice, asceticism. William Barclay, the commentator, says this, quote, the Gnostics considered all matter to be evil. We've talked about that before. So if matter is evil and then the body is evil, and if the body is evil, then two opposite conclusions can be arrived at. First, since the body is evil, it doesn't matter what you do with it.

Being evil, it can be used or abused in any way because it makes no difference. It's evil. Or the other side is since the body is evil, it must be kept down. It must be beaten and starved and every single impulse chained down. If you've done any reading on church history, you know that this has taken place throughout the history of Christianity, wrongly so, even up until today in the Philippines, where they beat themselves on certain holidays because that's how they show their devotion to God. Asceticism. And it is this second view, this rigid asceticism that Paul is addressing here.

And yet at the same time, we know that Jesus said it makes no difference what a man eats or drinks. And we know that God confirmed that to Peter in Acts 10, when Peter had a vision of a sheep descending down from heaven filled with all kinds of prohibited animals, and God said, can eat of any things. That broke that kosher taboo. Now I could give you a lot of examples to the last 2,000 years from people whipping themselves, beating themselves to nuns, putting sharp stones in their shoes. But to show you how crazy asceticism can get, to give you one example that to me is above all the others in audacity is the stylites.

Stylites comes from the Greek word stylos, which is pillar, stiletto heels, pillar. And these are men and women, the stylites, who lived and stood at the top of pillars for decades as a form of self-denial. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus in 1456 speaks of a stylite who stood upright for many years absorbed in contemplation without ever lying down. Theodoret claimed that he had seen a hermit who had stood for 10 years in a tub suspended in midair from poles. One stylite, Alypius, after standing upright listened for 53 years, found his feet no longer able to support him.

But instead of descending from his pillar, he instead laid down on his side and spent the remaining 14 years of his life top of that pole in that position. 67 years he lived on top of the pole. Roger Collin in his book Early Medieval Europe, you're going to like this one. This is hard to believe, but if you know the nature of man, it's not hard to believe. Roger Collins in his book Early Medieval Europe said that in some cases two or more pillar saints of differing theological viewpoints would build their towers within yelling distance of each other and then would argue with one another from the top of their columns.

That's not too hard to believe knowing the nature of man, is it? Putting all that flesh on top of a pole and then then still yielding to it. In recent centuries, although this form of asceticism has become virtually extinct, there is yet today in modern-day Georgia a monk of the Orthodox Church who's lived on top of the Katskhi pillar for 20 years, coming down twice a week. This pillar is a natural rock formation jutting upward from the ground to a height of approximately 140 ft. He's been up there for 20 years. Now before we laugh at them too loudly or judge them too harshly, have you ever fallen into the lie that God loves you more or is more inclined to turn his ear to you if you give something up that's dear to you?

Like, oh God, I'll never mow on a Sunday again if you let the Phillies win this weekend. Deals with God that if I give something up, it gets me points with God. If I sacrifice in some way, it gets me God. It gets me favor with God. Now are we to deny our flesh? Yeah. But we do that for our benefit, not for God's benefit. Or I've told this example before. I had a good friend that got radically saved in his 30s. He was probably 35 years old. He was single, attending a church Bible study, and he said, Tom, he loved to play hockey, ice hockey.

He gave up hockey. I said, why'd you give up hockey? He said, I think I liked it too much. I said, what do you mean you liked it too much? Oh, I said, I think I think I think God didn't want me to like something that much. And I said, well, did it interfere with church? Oh, no. Bible study? No, no. I just think I liked it. He's single. I said, listen, that's not God. God doesn't want to take things away from you that you enjoy just for the sake of you suffering or not enjoying it.

That's not God. You know, in Ecclesiastes, Solomon said, young man, take in everything you want to do. Just remember you have to give account to God for all that you do. Enjoy life. Take life in. You know, God is not a killjoy. He does not try to take things away from you the moment you figure out something you really enjoy doing. A lot of people have that misconception of God. Maybe they'd never say that, articulate that way verbally, but on some inside level, they feel that way. As an example, don't refrain from overeating in attempt to make God love you more.

Now that guy ought to refrain from overeating. But we don't refrain from overeating because it'll make God love us more. We refrain simply to obey the commandment against gluttony. And then Paul addresses the second issue, worshiping of angels. Verse 18. Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial, we just looked at, or the worship of angels. Now the worship of angels was excused on the grounds that the law had been given through the ministry of the angels. And therefore seeing the angels as a sort of middle nature between God and man, presuming that the angels through prayer could be prevailed upon to intercede for man before the throne of God where they appeared regularly.

For this reason, it was held that angels could be worshiped probably in the same way during those later centuries. Prayers were offered up to venerated saints. It's been noticed that in the Council of Laodicea, Laodicea, to whom this letter was also sent, the Council of Laodicea, which was held in the 4th century, several canons were passed forbidding, quote, to leave the church of God and to go away to invoke or seek angels. It's also interesting that this Council of Laodicea, which was 394 AD near Colossae, this letter forbids Christians to leave the church and go away to name angels in secret assemblies, calling this a secret idolatry, apparently connecting it with Jewish influences.

Theodoret in the 5th century in his commentary, listen to this, speaks of the existence in his time of small chapels being built to the archangel Michael in the region of Laodicea and Colossae, this very area. Paul writing well before 100 AD, 200 years later they're still doing this. They built small chapels to the archangel Michael in the region of Laodicea and Colossae and of their popularity apparently as rivals to the regular Christian church. Again, verse 18, the second part, going on, delighted false humility, the worship of the angels, and then intruding third, intruding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his own fleshly mind.

New King James says vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. ESV says puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. Paul is warning here of false teachers and their supernatural visions that they're having supposedly about not eating certain foods or visions of worshiping angels. And Paul says that these come from the flesh of these false teachers, from their vain, puffed up, sensuous mind and are not from God. Jesse Penn-Lewis wrote this, one clear, strong principle from eating all of the supernatural manifestations of today is this. One should not accept anything supernatural until he is first sure of its source.

How little many believers understand what a spirit and how many live in the soul or sensuous life and call it spirit. There are experiences in the soul life which appear to be spiritual, but are instead sensuous and holy of the realm of the body. They say the counterfeits of today are the demons, counterfeit demons are generally wrought upon the soul or sense life or the feeling of believers who have not yet learned to distinguish between soul and spirit. The church is not only carnal, fleshly, but it is calling soulish things spiritual. Deceiving spirits depend upon this ignorance and only through bitter tears are the eyes of many of God's children being open to deceptions in the highest altitudes of Christian life.

She ends by saying this, nothing supernatural should be felt by the senses, but by the spirit. Let the Lord's children ask God to teach them to know what is spirit and what is soul, then they will understand. And what Paul is saying here is that one of the telltale signs that these visions, these signs, these wonders are not from God is found in verse 18. They are vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. So I encourage you folks, be very careful to discern between things you experience and before you ascribe it to the spirit that you're not first testing it if it's of soul versus spirit.

An example is being slain in the spirit. Being slain in the spirit is where, you know, somebody touches you, hits you in the head and you go down. And I talked to a woman this morning after the second service. She said she was slain in spirit and was out for 20 hours, 2 hours flat. Now when you talk to someone who's slain in the spirit and ask them about this, this is what they'll say. If I say, you know what, are you sure that was of God? I'm not sure that was of God because my my point is we're never to give up control over faculties.

In Matthew, Jesus said that if someone casts a demon out of someone, it goes out into the dry places and it comes back and it finds the person's mind clean but empty, clean but empty. An empty mind is a very dangerous place. That's why Eastern religions account owning down to clear your mind. And that is a vacuum for evil spirits. Well, people get that in that context. You don't clear out your mind, but the same is true here. You don't clear out your body of your own volition to control it. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.

He will never demand control of your body, never. He say wants to take control of your body. He wants to make you a robot. That's what he's all about. And so when people give up control of their bodies, that's not God. He won't do that. But here's what people will say. If I challenge them and say, you know, are you sure that's of God? I'm not so sure. This is what they'll say almost without exception. They will say, Tom, has that ever happened to you? I'll say no. They'll say, you don't know what you're talking about.

Nothing that feels that good could not be from God. That's what they say. Nothing that feels that good could not be from God. So that's the test. If something feels good, then I know it's God. Listen, Satan is a deceiver. He's a counterfeiter. What do you think he's going to do? Get his pitchfork out and poke you until you're screaming running down the street? Of course not. He gives you those kinds of experiences to create the counterfeit, to create the false, to draw you in with an end game, always an end game in mind. I'm going to show you a little clip makes a case and then I want to make a point about this.

These are Christian services. All of this is supposedly the Holy Spirit. They bark like dogs, roar like lions. You can hear one mooing in the background.

Guest (Male): And what if it blows our little minds, let them be blown. Father, we want all of what you have.

Pastor Thom Keller: We want all of what you have, all of what you have.

Guest (Male): We thank you.

Pastor Thom Keller: Has a leash on him.

Guest (Male): What does the man be at the old hill where he leaves, I will follow.

Pastor Thom Keller: Now here's my point. When those people went to that first service, they all thought it was crazy. But they went back a second week and it wasn't quite as crazy. And they went back a third week and it wasn't quite as crazy. And after a month of that or 2 months of that, it is normal fare for them. It's just standard. But the discernment was there in the beginning to say there's something wrong here. But through practice, through use, they became they fell into that pattern. So again, folks, here's the key. This is dangerous. You don't ever accept anything that's of the supernatural until you're sure of its source because there's some crazy stuff out there.

And this is dangerous. Verse 19 says this. They've lost connection with the head from the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews growing as God causes it to grow. Paul says these people who've had these visions have lost their connection. Bengal, the commentator, said this, quote, he who does not hold solely and supremely to Christ above all others does not hold to him at all. So applying that, when you pray to angels, you are disconnected from Christ because you are not holding solely and supremely to Christ alone. When you pray to saints, you are disconnected from Christ.

When you pray to Mary, you are disconnected from Christ because you are not holding to Christ alone. And this concept of not holding to Christ alone is the wellspring of all false teachings of all apostasies. It's been said concerning those who are vainly puffed up, who promote their stories, their agendas, their special teachings, their special revelations. Remember this one. Says you cannot at the same time give both the impression that you are a spiritually advanced Christian and that Jesus Christ is a great savior because if you call attention to yourself and your own competency, you cannot effectively call attention to Jesus and his glorious sufficiency.

Listen one more time. He who does not hold solely and supremely to Christ above all others does not hold on to him at all. So how does today's lesson apply to me? Just one question. And I said this in the first service, I hope Sue and I can die at the same time. That would be my dream to go up to heaven at the same moment. But God has a plan. But I would love to die a minute before her and be there to see her jump in his arms for the first time. Oh man, I'd love to see that.

Oh man, I love that picture. Here's the question for you. Are you connected solely and supremely to Christ above all else? In Greek the word connected means to hold fast. Do you hold fast to Christ and Christ alone? You know, I had mentioned this before, but when I was in my early 30s, I went through a crisis, was depressed and suicidal, didn't want to live. And it culminated in in wrestling with God until one night I gave up. I surrendered. I said, okay, I'm all in. I'll go anywhere. I'll do anything you want. And I was changed in in in a night.

And I really, it's true, it was I was a different person. So I started praying and reading my Bible, but the problems then go away. And so as I would pray, I would say I knew I was going to get up from my knees and go to work and they're all going to be there again. And so I had this picture in my mind. I pictured Jesus being 100 ft tall and I was a height that I am and I had my arm around his ankle. And I said this, I said, Jesus, as long as I'm hanging on you today, no one's going to take me down because no one can take you down.

And if I'm hanging on to you, I'm not going over. I'm not it's not possible. If I let go and I then stride into the woods, all bets are off. I'm on my own, but I'm not going to let go because I can't. I can't. And I held on to that ankle. And you know what, my problems didn't go away overnight. They didn't go away in a month, but they went away over time. And God was faithful. No one ever took me down. You know why? Because I was hanging on to him. See, if you're connected solely and supremely to Christ, you'll come to realize that's all you have, that he is all you have to hold on to, and he is all you need to hold on to.

Jesus and Jesus alone. Are you holding on to Jesus? Remember as we close, this life is just a vapor, a shadow. If you want reality, you want to hang on to something that is real, that is permanent, that is final, that is forever, hold on to Jesus. He'll never fail you.

Guest (Male): Indeed, he won't fail you. Great encouragement there from pastor Tom Keller to get a hold of Jesus and hold tight. Stay with us. Pastor Tom will be right back. And this is Study the Word. 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.

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Now to wrap up our time with a preview of what's ahead of us next time on Study the Word, here's pastor Tom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: The only place where true liberty, true peace is achieved by our identification with Christ's death and resurrection. You have died with Christ and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. You have died with Christ and it is due to that fact, that fact that you have died with Christ, that sin has actually truthfully lost its power in your life. Listen to Romans 6. Paul says this, well then should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not. Listen, since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Jesus Christ in baptism, we joined him in his death. For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. He goes on. Since I have been united with him in his death, listen, since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power.

This is what we said earlier, that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin. You, you and me. So you, you sitting here should also consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

Guest (Male): More on this liberty in Christ next time on Study the Word, an outreach of Calvary Chapel Lebanon.