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Guest (Male): You may have noticed there's a great deal of infighting today in the church, and pastor Tom Keller says it's really a terrible witness to the world.

Thom Keller: This is such an indictment against the church, especially today, especially in the day of COVID. The fighting and vitriol and failure to accept and love one another through this pandemic has greatly damaged what God says is the primary witness to the world. Our love for one another being knit together by strong ties of love as opposed to being torn apart by strong divisions.

Guest (Male): I'm sure you're well aware of how quickly mold spreads on bread. It starts off in a little area and before you know it, the entire loaf is a black fuzzy moldy mess. Well, today on study the word, we'll see how destructive false teaching can be in a local church. If undealt with, it can spread quickly and affect the body in adverse ways. As our study of Colossians takes us into chapter two, we'll see how the apostle Paul takes on some heretics that were infiltrating the church. Here's pastor Tom Keller.

Thom Keller: So good to have you here. We are in the book of Colossians chapter two, Colossians chapter two. You know, being an invisible man really isn't all that is cracked up to be. Consider these complications. The invisible man married the invisible woman, and their kids weren't anything to look at. Or consider the invisible man who walked into the doctor's office and said, doctor, doctor, I'm dying. The secretary said, I don't think I can help. The doctor can't see you. Or how it affects employment. Why just last week, the invisible man turned down a job. You ask why?

Look at that. You did ask why. He just couldn't see himself doing it. Well, in today's lesson, we deal with a heresy that affected the church for the first 300 years that said that Jesus never was actually come in the flesh and blood, just a vision, a figment of everyone's imagination, an invisible man of sorts. And we'll see how Paul addresses this issue known as gnosticism. In chapter one, after Paul's greeting to the church in Colossae, this church that Paul had neither founded or even ever visited, he goes on to emphasize that Christ is supreme over all things.

And even though God is invisible to the gnostics point, even though God is invisible, Christ is invisible. He says it back in chapter one verse 15. Christ is a visible image of the invisible God, a strike at the gnostics. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. And then Paul goes on in verse 26 to tell them that as gentiles, God has a secret message for them that they likewise are not invisible to God. New living translation says that this way, this message, the mystery hidden from ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.

And what is this secret, this mystery? It's verse 27. To them, God chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, your hope of glory. This is the mystery, Christ in you. And Paul uses this word mystery very intentionally. The word mystery is actually at the very core and center of why Paul is writing this letter. Again, as background, the understanding is that a man by the name of Epaphras is the pastor of this church in Colossae, him having undoubtedly been converted under Paul's ministry.

In verse 1:7 makes that point. It says you learn about Paul says you learn about the good news from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ's faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. And then just as this sign I found is a a broken up sign of the city of Colossae, so the fellowship of Colossae is being beaten up as Epaphras is its pastor having some trouble in his church. Some trouble that he can't settle, some trouble that he asks Paul to address. And what was this troubling issue? Well, here is what we know with certainty.

Chapter two verse four says this. I'm telling you this so that no one will deceive you with well crafted arguments. So they were bringing well crafted arguments into the church. And verse eight, same chapter. Don't let anyone capture you with these and high sounding nonsense that comes from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world rather than Christ. People bringing empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense. So what was this empty philosophy, this high sounding nonsense, this heresy that Paul is addressing? Well, there are two possibilities. The first is gnosticism. The word gnosis means in Greek having knowledge or to know.

Its adherents were known as gnostics. These gnostics claimed to possess a higher truth and have access to mysteries beyond what the Bible revealed. Mysteries open only to those intelligent enough to grasp these mysteries. They taught that these mysteries were acquired on a higher mystical plane of existence. And as such, they saw themselves as a privileged class elevated above everyone else due to their superior knowledge of truth. And gnosticism would prove to be probably the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church for the first 300 years, 300 years. So it's good that God through Paul deals with this early on.

We believe this letter was written about 62 AD. So the church had the benefit of this teaching for another 250 years dealing with gnosticism. Now, what did gnostics teach? Gnostics divided all life into two categories, either spirit or matter. Gnostics taught that all matter, all matter, everything, anything you can see, touch and feel is evil. And that matter was eternal and that the universe was created out of this flawed material. And they taught conversely that all spirit is good. So since the body is matter, they said it is inherently evil and can do only evil.

So it doesn't matter what you do with your body, even the most vile heinous sins, because the body is evil anyway. What's the point of trying to restrain it? And beyond that, gnostics taught that the golden life was gnosis knowledge. And so since the body is evil and the golden life is knowledge, they said you should explore all of life's possibility, the full range taking in and plumbing the depths of wickedness, depravity and sin because that's a part of the discovery process. That's a part of discovering the full range of gnosis knowledge. And really, there is nothing new under the sun.

This was King Solomon's goal during his apostate years. In Ecclesiastes 1:12 he says it clearly. I, the teacher, was the king of Israel and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to search for understanding in Greek it would be gnosis. And to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. The next chapter verse one, he says here's his quest. I said to myself, come on, let's try pleasure. Let's look for the good things in life. But I found that this too was meaningless. Verse three, Solomon continues after much thought I decided to cheer myself with wine.

While still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people will find during their brief life in this world. Verse four, next verse. I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. And verse 10, he says this. Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. And where did this lead Solomon ultimately? Chapter two verse 17. So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless like chasing the wind.

It's where our search outside of Christ will take us, meaninglessness. And this heresy of gnosticism had a huge effect on the doctrine of creation, because if God was spirit good, how could he have worked with this evil matter to create anything? Therefore, God was not could not have been the creator of the world. That's why Paul hits this lie early on in chapter one verse 16. He says this. For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him, a direct attack at gnosticism. Gnosticism also perverted key doctrines concerning Christ. How so? Because again, if all matter was inherently evil, listen, if all matter was inherently evil, Jesus who they agreed was God, then Jesus could not have had a body of flesh and blood, because matter was evil. It would be impossible for God who is spirit good to be in a body that is evil, because his body would have been evil. So they taught that Jesus was a kind of spirit, non-material vision that people saw, but who never really existed.

And that required that Jesus's atonement on the cross be reduced to a vision of suffering as well, because he never really suffered or died. He didn't have a body. And the apostle John took this one head on as well. John chapter one, this is going after the gnostics. Beloved, this is John saying this. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they be of God, because many false prophets have gone into the world. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is a spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. But an area that affected churches when gnostics took hold of them was in the area of legalism, because again, if the body is evil, then there are two places you can go with that. Number one, as we said, if the body's evil, then it doesn't matter what you do with your body, spirit is all that matters. But the second end where you can take that is a polar opposite sign.

The second way of viewing it is that if that's true, then I'm going to starve and beat and deny my body and practice what is called asceticism, which involves severe self-discipline, self-denial where every need and desire is refused. So asceticism could take off into two polar opposite directions, into asceticism with all kinds of laws and restrictions or into rabid hedonism where the fulfillment of pleasure in every area of life was pursued, where all immorality was justified and even sought in the cause of seeking knowledge. And it was more the first position, however, the holding to laws and restrictions that gave Paul's churches most of the problem.

The gnostics reasoning went like this. We know that it takes special knowledge to reach God, and the simple message of salvation by grace through faith alone that Paul preaches is really way too simple. And they said we know that God has given us some of the special knowledge, this gnosis we need through the Old Testament Jewish law. So that said, it is by strictly adhering to all the Old Testament law, all of the 300 613 Old Testament stipulations commandments that our knowledge will be made complete. Because again, the quest was for knowledge. Gnosticism and the result was that there was a strange attraction to gnosticism for Jews who converted to Christianity.

Listen, think about the Old Testament law. Judaism was complicated with the law. Christianity for these Jews that converted was way too simple. And for these former legalists, gnosticism just fit the bill perfectly. Earlier, I said that gnosticism is one of two possibilities of the heresy that it's sunk its tentacles into this church in Colossae. The second possibility is that is a bit less philosophically out there, and that is the threat of Judaism which demanded that gentiles become circumcised, become Jews before they could ever become Christians. And then they would have to adhere to the Old Testament law.

I tell you that because if you do studies on this, you're going to find people take different positions, gnosticism or gnosticism, the judaizers. But whether the issue troubling the church in Colossae is gnosticism or Judaism, the solution ultimately is the same. The supremacy of Christ and the cross. And so with that as background, let's see how Paul takes on these heretics who are trying to infiltrate the churches in this region. Colossians 2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those that lay at the sea and for all who have not seen me face to face.

Paul acknowledges that he doesn't know many of them, and yet he struggles for them. New living translation says agonizes over them. In Greek, the word popularly refers to a combat or contest more likely struggles and efforts at the public games. Think Olympic games. Originally, they originated in 776 BC, 776 BC. So they were familiar with these games, and Paul is referring to the agonizing labor and toil involved in obtaining a victory in these games. He agonizes over them. And then verse two is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Before Paul paints the ugly on the canvas, he's first going to paint the lovely.

And he tells us what his prayer is for these people in Colossae. And for the past 20 years, these two verses have been my life verse for this fellowship, my crowning hope and desire for all of you. Colossians 2:2 to 3 beautiful words. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan which is Christ himself. In him, in Christ lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Let me read that again. This is so beautiful, and this is my prayer for you.

It has been for 20 years. I want you to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want you to have complete confidence that you understand God's mysterious plan which is Christ himself. In him, in Christ lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Paul says I want them knit together by strong ties of love. To me, that is a love that is kind, a love that is gracious, a love that is long suffering, a love that is slow to take up offense, a love that is quick to forgive, a love that is quick to accept strangers.

Love is the critical requirement for every church. Autoconic who was a missionary to Papua New Guinea head hunters and Papua New Guinea said that many times missionaries will come back from the foreign foreign lands where they've seen miracles and all kinds of demonstrations of God's power. And wonder why they can't transport that back to the United States. Why is it different here? It's a great question. This is what he said. In a culture, in a land where there is no Christian presence, God will use the second best tool, miracles. But in a nation where there is a Christian presence, he uses the number one tool which is love.

John 13:35 says that by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Listen, our love for one another is God's primary tool to reach everyone. New living translation says the world. It's the convincing argument that we follow Jesus. And Jesus said that this unity and love that we have for one another, listen, that love will convince the world that the one true God sent and commissioned Jesus as his son. John 17:21 listen closely to what this says. I Jesus speaking high priestly prayer. I pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one, just as you are in me, father, and I am in you.

Listen, and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. So the Bible tells us that the primary and best witness God has to the unsaved world as validation of the truthfulness of the gospel that we preach, we proclaim is our love for one another. But as I said, in a nation, in a culture, in a society where there is no Christian presence, God reverts to his second best tool which are miracles. And I can prove to you that that's true. If you believe because of your childhood that all marriages are a sham, a lie, they're all disasters, which of the following two things would convince you otherwise?

The first case would be you live as a guest in a home of a devoted loving Christian couple for one full year and you observe them. That's the one option. The second option is you observe a husband who just like Moses is able to make frogs and locusts and flies appear on command in his wife's kitchen. Now, which of those two are going to convince you that love in a marriage can be genuine and real? The miracles won't touch that. Oh, little dog and pony show, little flash pizam, here we go. But after it's done, what did you learn?

Same thing with this. And folks, this is such an indictment against the church, especially today, especially in the day of COVID. The fighting and vitriol and failure to accept and love one another through this pandemic has greatly damaged what God says is the primary witness to the world. Our love for one another being knit together by strong ties of love as opposed to being torn apart by strong divisions. And then he goes on in verse two and says this. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God mysterious plan which is Christ himself.

It says I want them to have complete understanding of God's secret plan. King James says knowledge of the mystery of God. And here Paul takes a crack at the gnostics. He says, look, I want you to have a knowledge of the mystery of God. But the word that he uses here for knowledge is not gnosis. It's a variation of the Greek word gnosis. It's epignosis, epignosis. Nosis means knowledge, but epignosis means precise and correct knowledge. Paul is saying your gnostic teachers are pushing their exclusive and high-minded knowledge on you, gobbledegook really. But I want you to have precise and exact knowledge.

And that is our goal as pastors for you as well. Folks, there is so much error in the mainline denominations today. There are a lot of pastors that are leading their flocks astray. I feel like Paul concerned for some of you falling for false teaching and wrong doctrine. Paul wrote this in Acts chapter 20. I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out. Remember the years the three years I was with you, my constant watch and care over you night and day and my many tears for you.

You have a picture here of Paul just wrapping his arms around the sheep. Chuck Smith is a founder of Calvary Chapel, a gentle kind man, loving gracious man. Uh one of his young men that started with him from the beginning said that he was on campus one time with Chuck uh when Calvary had been pretty large. And he saw Chuck grab a man and physically eject him from the campus. And this man knew Chuck well. He never saw anything like that, never. And he said Monday morning at the office, he said to Chuck, he said, Chuck, what happened that you would do that to that man?

He said that man was a false teacher in sheep's clothing and I was getting him away from the sheep. That's a shepherd. That's a shepherd that understands the danger that those false teachings can be.

Guest (Male): You're listening to pastor Tom Keller on study the word, and we're in a study of Colossians right now. Would you like to give this a second listen? Either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Simply subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and you can watch our services live or on demand. That includes this series in Colossians. For those interested in a CD copy, call 717 273 5633. Once again, that's 717 273 5633. Study the word is listener supported. With your help, we're able to reach thousands of people all over the world.

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