Stand For Yahweh's Truth (4/30/12)

Shalom,

Please begin by reading Col 2:6-10.

What is the purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ? One very large purpose is it exists to equip saints and prepare them for the battle over truth. Do you know the Bible well enough to identify false teaching, the kind that comes in looking intelligent but is actually only "hollow and deceptive philosophy?" To identify the counterfeit we must know the true so well that it's obvious when something different comes along. Bank tellers learn the look and feel of real money so they can identify counterfeit bills when they come their way. It isn't good spending too much time learning what the counterfeit looks like because a counterfeit is an imitation meant to deceive. We can get ourselves hung up and bogged down with deception and struggle to know the real.

In actuality, Yahweh's truth can't be refuted. He is the truth. Everything about him is truth. We must allow our minds to settle and dwell in his truth so our hearts can know real and deep peace. In this passage, Paul was referring to an assault on truth by an unusual brand of Gnosticism. Gnostics, the "knowers." felt they had the upper hand in truth because of their amazing intelligence and profound experiences. But truth isn't based on our level of intelligence or experience. Truth is based in the Lord God Almighty.

These false teachers were very tricky and sly and deceptive. First, they used philosophy as a means of leading people's minds away from Jesus. These false teachers claimed to cherish wisdom. The problem was that the wisdom they cherished so much wasn't coming from Yahweh. The wisdom they chased after was in accordance with the "elementary principles of the world." They talked with great confidence and authority, making people think they knew what they were talking about. But their foundations were smoke and mirrors. They put together their teachings to sound impressive, but they actually had no solid substance to hold them up.

These Gnostics taught things that were rooted in man's thinking, a mix of tradition and philosophies and anything they felt gave them the best shot at salvation. But no man can come up with a better plan than Yahweh already put in place. None of us can replace the Creator. To combat this Paul, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, exalted Jesus and what we have by walking with him. Yes, there's a battle to uncover error and teach real truth, but most important is our own surrender to his Lordship. The more we put our trust and hope and faith in Jesus and his finished work of salvation, the more prepared we are to take on false teachers.

These false teachers used "empty deception." Realize that all man has ever come up with outside of Yahweh's truth concerning spiritual life and salvation is nothing more than "empty deception." The phrase is an old expression meaning "to trick." What they said seemed to have substance, but was in fact empty and of no value. Man's philosophy comes across as seeming to be intelligent, but it's actually only simple trickery and subterfuge. All that man can come up with concerning salvation is pitiful compared to what we have in Jesus. It's amazing that still today this kind of hollow philosophy and empty deception greatly affects the way people think and act. People are constantly falling back into the same spiritual deception traps.

These false teachers were also very good at debating and using persuasive arguments. We shouldn't be amazed that there are so many false teachers, but actually at how easily they seem to infiltrate the Church. The only way to combat this false teaching is to stand firm in Yahweh's truth. The letter to the Colossians is an attempt to frame up what the purpose of the Church truly is. Most of the time heresy is an attack on the divinity and sufficiency of Jesus. Instead of spending too much time attacking the error, we've got to be able to preach and teach the truth about Jesus.

One of the most used modern-day Gnostic philosophies is that every religion prays to the same god. A simple study of the main points of each religion can easily prove that they're all very different. No other religion has a phrase like Jesus used in John 14:6. "No one comes to the Father except through me." There are passages in the Old Testament where Yahweh insists that we must have no other gods before him. He's jealous for his name and his reputation.

Another side of this is that many people believe all religions are just different paths up the same mountain. The Bible makes it very clear that other religions don't compare to Christianity. Again, Jesus made exclusive claims to unity with the Father that deny this belief directly. The Bible clearly teaches that there aren't other ways or others gods we can follow. He is the one and only source of salvation. This isn't a sincerity issue, it's a truth issue, we can be sincerely wrong. The idea of "many" truths is some of that empty and deceptive philosophy Jesus tells us to avoid.

Probably the greatest deception of our day is that many people feel they can be their own moral judge. They believe they can tell if something is morally and ethically right by whether or not it feels right to them. If it feels right and seems successful then it must be OK. Is that what Hitler thought? I bet he felt pretty good about what he was doing, and a nation bought into this philosophy and caused a lot of suffering. We can drift very far from Yahweh's truth by telling ourselves to judge everything by our feelings. This terrible lie causes many people to reject Yahweh's truth and live in sin. Heb 11:25 tells us its possible "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time." Don't forget a lot of sin "feels good."

Listen to some words from Ravi Zacharias. "Jesus Christ was at the center of his Father's will at the worst moment of his life." For us as Christians, morality and ethics have very little to do with our feelings or how well something seems to work out for us. They do have a whole to do with our obedience to the will and purpose and Word of Yahweh. Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't "feel" good. Sometimes doing the right thing actually hurts. But the blessing of doing the right thing no matter what the consequences is worth it.

Truth, not the refuting of arguments is our strength. Sometimes people aren't going to be convinced by what we say because they have unspiritual minds which can't comprehend spiritual truth (1 Cor 2:14). We can say exactly what people need to hear and their free will choice can be to reject the truth. But Yahweh's truth can bless us and uphold us against the strongest and most humanly intelligent arguments. We need to be strong in what we know and believe to help us overcome the bombardment of lies and deception that will come our way in this world.

Man's wisdom is deficient. The wisdom of Jesus is all-sufficient. Verse 9 encourages us, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." Yahweh is pleased that we're reconciled to him through his Son (2 Cor 5:19). He's pleased to reveal himself to us through his Son (John 14:10-11). There's so much to encourage our hearts and strengthen our resolve if we'll spend time in the Word and let it fill our hearts and minds. Be encouraged by 2 Pet 1:3. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

We can't trust human philosophy, because they're only enticing words used to draw us away from Yahweh's truth. If human philosophy worked we wouldn't constantly be hearing of new and improved versions or going to back to old ones. If they work we should be able to use one over and over and over again, just like Yahweh's truth. We've got to be looking to Jesus and his wisdom, not the pseudo-intellectual mind games of fallen man. Fullness of life and all the answers to all our questions aren't found in human philosophies. They come from a person, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Most people used to believe that truth was objective and absolute. The modern belief that truth is relative is a weak position. Denying absolute truth doesn't make it go away. We can still stand on the fact that truth can be known and believed because it's true in every circumstance. Right and wrong don't change with increased education. Good and evil don't swap places because we've become more intelligent. Isa 5:20-21 strongly warns us about this way of thinking. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight."

When mankind becomes the determiner of what is true and good and right, we have a huge problem on our hands. Mankind's version of truth has a tendency to change over time, and not always because of new discoveries. Sometimes we just want to throw out old standards because we feel we don't need them anymore. But we're not more intelligent than people used to be. We just have more gadgets and an excess of information.

People have all sorts of weird ideas about who Jesus is. Some think he spent time visiting gurus and shamans, learning to become "the Christ." Many have said they were the reincarnation of Jesus. But how can he be only a good moral teacher when he claimed to be God Almighty? When people speak these crazy ideas challenge them to show you evidence that proves their point. You'll find most of them don't have anything but a personal bent in that direction. Free will has enabled many people to come up with their own belief system, but those won't lead to eternity in Heaven.

If you're grounded in the Scriptures, you'll learn to spot error and you'll know why it's wrong. If you know Jesus, you should be able to discuss and debate this error in a calm manner. 2 Tim 2:24 says, "The Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." Go and spread the Truth. Help people know who Jesus really is because you know him so well yourself.

Blessings & Peace, Mike