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Guest (Male): Stories confirming salvation. That's next on Study the Word. It's time to study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller. Glad to have you on board. We're in Colossians chapter two if you want to head there now. Today we're going to be giving you a few tools that will not only help you see things correctly, but also to share Christ effectively. So if you're ready, let 's lean in and hear what Pastor Tom has to say here on Study the Word.

Pastor Thom Keller: So folks, look at these verses that we're looking at today. Colossians 2:4 I am telling you this so that no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. And verse eight, 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. And you know, I believe this is the primary strategy used today to keep more people on their pathway on the many pathways to hell than any other strategy, and that's pluralism. This idea of many roads to God. In Paul's day, he battled with Judaizers and Gnostics.

I think we deal primarily with a lie of pluralism today. And as you know, many main line churches have fallen prey to this deception. There is some good news actually. There are some trends trending in the right direction. I like good news. 2020 Ligonier State of Theology Study revealed that the number of Americans ages 18 to 34 with evangelical beliefs rose significantly from 14% in 2016 to 18% in 2018. That's substantial. That's a 20% bump in two years. Ligonier also noted a large increase in evangelical millennials affirming that salvation is found in Christ alone, up 62% from 53% in 2016.

Again, that's a 20% bump in four years. Ligonier survey also found the millennials ages 18 to 34 have grown a bit more conservative on abortion as a sin. 57% agreed in 2018 versus only 50 in 2016. And on sex outside of marriage as a sin, 54% agreed in 2018 versus 47 in 2016. Now, although that trend is good, that still leaves almost 40% of those 18 to 34 year olds who identify themselves as evangelicals. Over 1/3 of them believing that Jesus is not the only way. How can that be? How can they come to that conclusion?

You know why it is? It's because the church in many parts of the country holds a low view of scripture. John 14 verse six says this, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. Listen, if you have a high view of scripture, what do you do with this? I am the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me. No one. Sounds like a pretty narrow path, one path. A 2009 survey by Public Religion Research revealed that 71% of mainline denomination clergy, clergy, pastors disagree with the statement that the Bible is the inherent word of God, both in matters of faith and historical, geographical, and other secular matters.

Or said conversely, only 29% of mainline clergy agree with that statement. Agree. Only 29% agree that the Bible is the inherent word of God. That was a study, a survey taken of United Methodist pastors, Evangelical Lutheran, American Baptist USA, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and Disciples of Christ. And get this, 51% of mainline clergy support abortion in all or most cases. 51% Think that reflects a low view of the scriptures. So I believe exactly the same beguiling Satan causing people to think wrong, to deceive by false reasoning, to delude, to circumvent the Bible is going on today just as it was in Paul's day.

Now these false teachers then and now propagate a higher knowledge, a higher truth which they will teach uh with big smile in the faces. Is open only to those with greater and more intelligent minds, those who have scaled the mountain of knowledge. These are many university professors today. You know there truly is nothing new under the sun. It went on 2,000 years ago and it's still going on. And so folks, please, please, please do not fall prey to this lie. Because if you do, listen closely, if you do, you'll stop witnessing to people. Because what's the point if in the end they probably have figured out their own way to heaven?

Why should I tell them about Jesus when they maybe have another way of getting there? It just shuts the whole thing down. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I to tell them this is the only way? Well it is the only way. That 's why. Which brings up a second test of logic. Let's say that you ask someone about heaven. You say, what do you believe about heaven and hell? And how do you think you get there? What what answers will you get? Well, some some will say, why believe in heaven and hell?

Kind of an orthodox view. Some will say, I believe in heaven, but I don't believe in hell. I don't think God would do that. Some say, I don't believe in either. And some say, I don't care. And then you ask, well, how do you get there? How do you get to heaven? Some will say, well, I believe everybody gets there. You hear that often. Or they'll say, I believe if someone lives a good life, they'll get there. Or some will say, I believe only Christians get there. Or some will say, I believe when I die, I die.

That's it. I 'm dead like a dog. I 'm gone. Well, let's test that logically and ask this question. Are they all correct? In other words, if I believe everyone gets to heaven, do they? If I believe there's no hell, there isn't a hell. If I believe I will come back to the earth reincarnated as a bug, I will. Or said another way, can every person determine their own personal eternal existence after death and by believing it make it so? Make it reality? No, of course not. Now you might respond and say, listen, if I can't create my own personal reality, so then what is reality when I die?

And they coming at me as a Christian, they might say, listen Tom, that's no proof that you're right. That's no proof that there is a heaven and a hell and that only Christians go there. That's no proof. No, it's not. That's not my point. My point is that you are lying to yourself and living in some grandiose self-delusion if you believe that you can create your own custom design reality concerning life after death because you can't. Look, logic would dictate there's one single outcome that applies to all people. People say, well, are you saying that logic proves it's Christianity?

No. I am saying if heaven and hell hinges on getting it right, then start your search. Do the research. Be honest with yourself. Do the hard research. But give up this this ludicrous idea that I can just determine what I want it to be and that's how it what it's going to be. So moving on in verse six. And now just as you accepted Christ as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Here is a message for all of us today. Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, it says now live in obedience to him.

Live in Greek. The word here means walk or walk it out. Walk the talk. So the question for us is, do you walk the talk? Do I walk the talk? Do we walk out our faith? Do we live at our faith? Are you the same person here on a Sunday as you are at the workplace on Monday? Are you the same person here on a Sunday as you are in school or in college on Monday? How do you live out your faith? Do you know that this is how you prove to God that you love him by walking it out?

John 14:15 makes that clear. Jesus speaking, if you love me, you will keep my commands. If you love me, you'll walk it out. John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me. You walk it out, that's who loves me. 1 John 5:3 Loving God means keeping his commandments. Loving God means walking it out. And his commandments are not burdensome. And you know, this is also how we come to get to know, to understand Jesus by walking it out. 1 John 2 verse three says this, And this and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep our commandments.

You come to know him by keeping his commands, by walking it out. And folks, as you obey God, your faith will grow. Colossians 2:7 the very next verse says this, Let your roots go down into him, into Christ and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught. And you will overflow with thankfulness. And I've told you this before, but people from my past that were my mentors and people that I really respected, you know, when they when they stood there, you could tell their roots went 20 ft down into the ground and their roots were like that thick.

And they were they were welded. Their feet were welded to that that root by a rebar and locked in. And you could tell, you didn't have to talk to them long, but you could tell that they were rooted and that nothing was going to knock them over. They'd been through the winds, they'd been through the storms, they'd been through the hurricanes, they'd been through the tornadoes, and they stood and they still stand. I had a friend uh if you know the name RG LeTourneau, RG LeTourneau started LeTourneau Paul, which was a forerunner to Caterpillar, and amazing man.

Gave himself uh surrendered himself to the Lord in the middle of owning the business and decided that the tithe was backwards. He said, instead of giving 10% and keeping 90, I figure I ought to give 90%. I'm going to give 90% and keep 10. And that's what he did. An amazing man. Started LeTourneau College in Texas, Longview, Texas. But I had the opportunity to meet his personal secretary. His name was Nels Charnstrom. And Nels traveled with RG and Nels is in heaven now. He traveled with RG and did a lot of his writing for him.

And Nels Charnstrom was about 3 ft 8 in tall. No, he wasn't that tall, but he was short. But when I remember Nels in my mind, when I picture in my mind, he was 7 ft tall. Do you get it? Do you ever notice some people like that that in your memory of them they were a lot taller? You remember them than they actually were because of their stature, their character, who they were. And I'm telling you, when you saw Nels and he stood there, he put his feet down. He was he was sunk in.

And when I think back to the people that have impacted me, the people that I have admired, the men and women in my past, many with the Lord now, they all had those roots. They went deep. And you know how they get those roots? You know how you get those roots? By walking it out, by obeying the Lord, by trusting in him, and walking it out. The only way you get that root structure. After the first service, someone said to me, I forget that, Sequoias I think he said, their root structure is not deep, Sequoias, but goes out and hooks up with the roots of other trees.

And he said, isn't that a great photograph of the church? Right? That our roots go out and touch the roots of other and through that we're all strengthened in that um ability to stand. And uh so if you this also has overtones of Psalms chapter one, which gives more detail as to how we can establish these strong roots. Psalm chapter one verse two, it says, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the river bank bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all that they do.

What a beautiful picture. You know, do you love the word of God? Psalm 19 verse eight says this, God's Listen how beautiful this is. God's laws are perfect. They protect us, make us wise, give us joy and light. God's laws are pure, eternal, just. They are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb. For they warn us away from harm and give success to those who obey them. See, if you delight yourself in the Lord, if you delight yourself in the word, which I believe is the same as delighting yourself in the Lord, then this promise follows found in Psalm 37 verse four.

Listen. It says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. It doesn't say he 'll give you what you want. It says he'll give you the desires of your heart. And listen, the desires of your heart are those things that God knows will bring fulfillment and joy to your life based on how he wired you, how he made you. See, I thought that what I wanted in life was money and power and all of that garbage. But God knew that desire of my heart, the way he wired me, the way he made me, my desire of my heart was to be a pastor.

I never would have figured that out. But he gave me the desire of my heart which went beyond what I wanted. Do you get that? And that's why if you delight yourself in the Lord, he will use the word to give you to take you to that place that brings fulfillment in your life based on how he wired you, how he created you and give you the desires of your heart. Now you say that all sounds good Tom, but how do I begin? Well, in your Bible there is a suggested reading plan. I encourage you to take that spend a little time with that.

We 'll go through this briefly. But my suggestion is the key is start slow. Please listen what I want to say. In the beginning, if you have been not be reading your Bible, consistency is what you're after. It's better to discipline yourself to read five verses a day consistently and discipline yourself to do that for 100 days in a row than to try to begin by reading five chapters a day getting frustrated, failing, and giving up. Consistency, consistency, disciplined consistency. Some use a one year Bible, that's a great reading plan. Some use a chronological Bible, that's an interesting reading plan.

I followed one that I started in 1980. I suggested people begin with the book of Proverbs. One chapter a day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. You read the chapter that matches the date. So in June 20th, you read Proverbs 20. If you do that for 30 days, 31 days, you'll get through all the chapters. Do this for 30 or 60 days, and if you miss a day, don't beat yourself up or stop, just come back and keep going. Once reading Proverbs becomes routine, I would then suggest that you apply add a chapter or part of a chapter out of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And then keep that in rotation. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Do that for six months. Then when you're ready for more, add a chapter out of the book of Psalms. When you're ready for more, then I encourage you to start reading in multiples of 30 in the book of Psalms. There are 150 Psalms. So in the first you read Psalm one, Psalm 31, Psalm 61, Psalm 91, Psalm 121. And if you do that reading in multiples of 30, after 30 days you'll be through the whole book of Psalms.

And listen, here's why I suggest that routine. Proverbs, gospels, and Psalms. Because Proverbs is where you learn wisdom and equity. You learn the mind of God in the book of Proverbs. People say, I have a teenager, why don't I just take them right to the gospels? Because your teenagers, they think they're geniuses and they don't need any wisdom. They don't need God. Proverbs will tell them they're not as smart as they think they are because they're going to read things in Proverbs they go, whoa, that's true. Wow, that's true. It's going to make sense. You start in Proverbs.

Proverbs makes a man, a woman, a girl, a boy wise unto salvation. It makes them aware of the fact that they need salvation. They need God. That's the starting point. Start with Proverbs where you get wisdom. Then the gospels is where you get to know Jesus. And the reason you add Psalms is Psalms is where you will discover the heart of God. David was a man after God's own heart. You will discover the heart of God and it will build faith. Because what Psalms is all about is David and the other writers saying this, I don't know how you're going to do this God, but I know you're going to.

I don't know how you're going to make this work out God, but I know you will. And he always does. And then the psalmist praises him for working it out. You cannot read the book of Psalms for 60 days and your faith not increase. If you wish you have more faith, get in the book of Psalms. I'm telling you, you do that for six months, your faith is going to increase. That's not a maybe. If you're a believer and you read Psalms, your faith will increase. And one key point here and I really really suggest you buy a new living translation when you start reading the Psalms.

And the reason is that the King James version I'm not against the King James version, but in the book of Psalms it is tough plowing. These are some words that are in the King James version. Be ray. It means to reveal, declare, carriages, baggage, charger. That doesn't mean a cell phone charger, folks. It means a platter. Who knew that a charger is a platter? A to do to wit. How many people wrote a letter this week and said to do to wit in it? Huh? Or fetch the compass or leasing means lying. See, my point is when and I've done this, I've sent people into the book of Psalms to read the book of Psalms.

And a week later, a month later I come back and say, how's it going? They say, I gave up. I just just didn't make sense. And see, here's the problem, folks. This is why I'm I'm so strong in this issue is because once you ask someone to read the book of Psalms and they prove to themselves that they can't, they won't go back to it. And man, once you lose them to the book of Psalms, you've turned them away from a huge gift. They have to read it. They have to understand it. So I'm not legalistic about this, but I'm saying if you really want people to read and love and understand the book of Psalms, I would suggest new living translation.

So how does today's lesson apply to me? I know I've said this often, but I make no apologies. Folks, read this book daily. Daily. I surrendered my life to Christ when I was in my early 30s and I began reading the Bible daily. And God started to break lies in my mind, lies that I believed were true, lies that I had been told from a child on up, lies that I learned in college about finance and business. And my mind did a 90° turn in my brain. Everything re-shifted and realigned. And I remember thinking I was so grateful for this book.

And so I remember thinking as as those novas were going off my brain. I've said this before, but I said to myself, you know what? Every Sunday morning, every pastor, every Sunday school teacher should stand up and hold this book in front of their class and say, this book changed my life. It will change yours. And there are a number of you in this fellowship that know this is true because it is true. It is true. This book will change your life, but you have to discipline yourself to be in it. It doesn't come by osmosis.

And listen, no one was ever made a spiritual giant by one sermon a Sunday, one sermon a week. It doesn't happen. You will find and any of you that are in your Bibles, you know what I'm going to say next is true. You will find that your richest, most wonderful, most intimate times with the Lord are just you and the word together by yourselves. That's where it happens, folks. So what I want to do on Sundays, my goal on a Sunday chapter by chapter, verse by verse is to make this book inviting to you, exciting to you, relevant to you, so you want to dig in on your own.

If that is accomplished through these times of teaching, man, that is that's the prize. That's the that's the goal. Because you have to get into this book. But you must discipline yourself to get into this book and to stay in this book. But if you do, here's God's promise to you. Psalm one verse two and three. But they delight in the law of the Lord meditating on it day and night. And I picture some of my mentors, many of these people are now in heaven. I picture them along a river bank with their roots sunk down into that river bank.

They are. They were. They are like trees planted along the river bank bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all that they do.

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.