Study the Word

Guest (Male): Pastor Tom Keller speaks of the power of God's word that can impact your life just as it did for him.

Thom Keller: This book changed my life. This book will change yours. But you have to explore it. You need to test it. You need to trust it. You need to spend time in it. But but but if you do, you will discover that in Christ and Christ alone lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Guest (Male): There's a proverb that says one word of truth outweighs the whole world. The author of it, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, recognized the power of that truth and the impact it has. And on today's study the word we'll learn about the source of truth and its application. Of course, Jesus is the truth. And in him is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And these treasures are available to you. Here to tell us about them is Pastor Tom Keller. We're in Colossians chapter two.

Thom Keller: Earlier I said the 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 Judaism, 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 two, verse one. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea 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 properly 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 two, two to three, 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. Ardel Canick, 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 a 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 and a culture and 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, a little dog and pony show, a little flash pizzazz, 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 in vitro 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's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.

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 was saying your Gnostic teachers are pushing their exclusive and high-minded knowledge on you, gobbledygook 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 these sheep. Chuck Smith is the founder of Calvary Chapel, a gentle, kind man, loving, gracious man. One of his young men that started with him from the beginning said that he was on campus one time with Chuck 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. And what is it that is at the root, at the core, at the center of this real mystery, this real epignosis, the precise and correct knowledge? Verse two tells us they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. Listen, Christ is not only at the center of God's mysterious plan, Jesus Christ is the sum and totality of God's mysterious plan. In fact, verse three goes on and says this.

In him, in Christ lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Wow. And this is the calling that we as pastors, as teachers have on our lives to teach the word of God chapter by chapter, verse by verse, to help bring you to a point of having a full and absolute confidence in Christ, in the word of God. And who he is and what he says about you. What an honor it is to be able to open his word and explain Christ's mysteries. We have always considered first Corinthians four to be the mandate and charge for us pastors here at Calvary.

First Corinthians four, one. So Paul and I should be looked upon as Christ's servants. I love this who distribute God's blessings by explaining God's secrets. That's what the word of God does. And then consider this incredible implication in verse three. Says in him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, hidden, hidden, hidden. That means you have to unearth them. You need to uncover them. You need to explore them. You need to test them for yourselves. My first mentor was a an EC pastor by the name of Russ Wise.

And he said that in his Bible he showed me in a border in the margins of his Bible it said tested and proven true, tested and proven true, tested and proven true. When you get to a promise, he tested it and then he write tested and proven true. But you see you have to uncover that. You need to explore that. You need to test that for yourself. Malachi says test me and try me, see if I won't. You know when I was 30 years old, I told this before, I was depressed, suicidal, had done everything my way and had a big goose egg, nothing.

And in one night God changed everything. He did. It was a surrender and a yielding and but with that he gave me just a hunger for this book. And I remember as I read this, new truth was just breaking into my mind. And old lies that I had believed about myself, lies that I believed about the world system, lies that I believed about things applying to business and finance has just revealed the truth. And I remember thinking that every I thought, you know what, every Sunday, every pastor, every Sunday school teacher should hold this book up in their hands and say this, this book changed my life.

It will change yours. And folks, that's the truth. This book changed my life. This book will change yours. But you have to explore it. You need to test it. You need to trust it. You need to spend time in it. But but but if you do, you will discover that in Christ and Christ alone lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures. In Greek, the word all is the word pass. It means all things, everything, whatsoever, all manner of always all wisdom and knowledge. And it says wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom in the Greek is Sophia.

It means a broad and full knowledge, intelligence. It's wisdom belonging to man, also the wisdom belonging to God. That's wisdom, Sophia. Knowledge, you know the word gnosis, it means knowledge, knowing, general intelligence. So Paul says, listen you Colossians, if you want knowledge, if you want gnosis, you really want gnosis, here it is, verse three. In him, in Christ lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And why is Paul writing this letter to the people of Colossae? Verse four. He says, I'm telling you this so that no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.

We're going to look at these well-crafted arguments, these persuasive arguments next week. You don't want to miss next week. So how does the day's lesson apply to me? You know there really is nothing new under the sun. For 300 years the Gnostics attracted believers, lacking discernment, by offering them secret knowledge, things that others don't know about but could. And folks, for someone desiring to peddle secret knowledge, the internet is a dream come true. So I caution you, be very cautious of teachers, things on the internet offering you interesting and salacious things you've never heard of before that contradict Orthodox Christianity.

It's been said if it's true, it 's not new. And if it 's new, it's not true. Listen, you're not we're not 2,000 years into Christianity. You're going to discover something no one ever discovered before. If it's true and could be discovered, it would have been discovered. If it's true, it's not new. And if it 's new, it's not true. As far as hermeneutics goes, you can live by that maxim. Now listen, if you have doubts or even questions about some of these issues, email us, call us as pastors. It is our responsibility to protect this little part of God's flock from wolves.

The second application is the supremacy, the sufficiency, and the superior, faultless, and immeasurable value and worth of Christ and Christ plus nothing. Meaning that when you have Christ, you have everything. You know when a a six or seven-year-old child accepts Christ and they say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. I want you to be my savior. That's simple prayer. What I think now is you have no idea of where you are going. You have no idea of the potential your life has in Christ. You have no idea who you have just invited into your life.

It's kind of like when I do weddings, when I do the vows in sickness and in health, in sickness and in health. Listen, when I was 25 years old and I went to a wedding and I heard sickness and in health, that meant one thing. Now that I'm 60 I'm not sure what I'm 67 I think I am. Now that I'm 67 you know memory goes with age. Now when I do a wedding and I get to that in sickness and in health, seeing all that I've seen, I think you have no idea what you're saying here.

I hope you mean it and the Lord will let you be true to that. But what can they know at 21 all excited about marriage? You have no idea. And in the in the other side of this, it's the same thing with Christ. When that little child accepts Christ, oh man, they have no idea the door they're opening. No idea. Listen, this is not hyperbole, which is a representation of something that goes beyond facts. No, this is the case. These are the facts. In fact, these facts transcend the representation made in verse two. When you accepted Christ as your Lord and savior, you had no idea.

You still have no idea. No one has ever yet had any idea of the exceeding and true value, the worth of coming to know Christ. I've shared this story before. It's been a while. This is the verse in the Bible where this story fits. True story. There's a very wealthy man, one of the wealthiest couples in England during the time of the Second World War. They had one son. He fought in the RAF was shot down and killed during the Second World War. Only child. They're now left childless, fabulously wealthy couple. The wife died, then the husband.

And the talk of everyone was where does all this wealth go? Well, the terms of the will, they had cottages and homes and mansions, but a very expensive uh uh art collection. So the terms of the will says that the first thing that would be sold would be the art. And so they went to a big art house and they cataloged all these items that are to be sold. And because it was so so much high worth, buyers from all these museums were coming to look at the art. House was packed. And the first painting that was put up was a painting that had been done by a no-name artist of this wealthy man's son.

It was the father's favorite picture. It hung over his mantel because it was his life. And of course, all these big name buyers, they weren't interested in this. Had no value. It was a no-name artist. First painting. They couldn't get a bid. And one of the men that had been a servant in that house was present that day. And he saw this this art and no one bidding on it. He thought that's a travesty. That's so horrible that the painting that meant the most to my master can't even get a bid. And so he bid on it and bought the painting.

When the gavel came down on that art, the auctioneer stood aside and the attorney came to the podium. He said, I now need to read the terms of the rest of the will. The terms are this. Whoever buys the son painting of my son gets everything else. Whoever buys the painting of my true story. And folks, why I love that story is this, it's the same thing with Jesus. When you get Jesus, you get everything. You have no idea. None of us do yet. None of us do. He is all sufficient. He is more than sufficient.

You will never need anything outside of Jesus. Listen, listen, it's all about Jesus. And Jesus is all about love. Right? It's all about Jesus. You keep those two things in the front of your mind, you're going to do all right. It's all about Jesus. And Jesus is all about love. Even in his discipline, it's about love. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you for the sufficiency of Christ, the immeasurable worth that there is in Jesus and our relationship with him. And I pray, Father God, that we would always remember we have nowhere else to look.

We have nowhere else we ever need to look but to Jesus. And listen, if you're here this morning or you're listening to the radio or you're watching on the internet and you've never accepted Christ as your Lord and savior, you have no idea of the world that he wants to walk you into with him. You say that, you know what, I just need to understand more before I believe. The Bible says actually it happens the other way. You believe first and then you understand. And that makes sense really. We get the Holy Spirit when we believe.

He is the one that teaches us. You believe. You make that leap of faith and then you will understand. If you'd like to do that this morning, I invite you to pray this prayer. Just pray it quietly in your heart. God can hear your heart. Father, I admit that I have sinned. I have made so many mistakes. And I ask you to forgive me. And I do receive Jesus Christ, his death on the cross as payment for my sins, him dying so that I could have everlasting life. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me that much, that you would die for me.

Now, Lord, help me, help us to live lives that honor you. And, Lord, may the love of this church be a demonstration to the world around us that we are who we claim to be and that you are who you claim to be. And this we pray in Christ's name and all of God's people said Amen.

Guest (Male): What a great lesson here today on Study the Word. We were reminded that when we have Christ, we have everything. And in him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Pastor Tom Keller's message goes by the title of The Gnostic Heresy, Alive and Well. 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.