“Deceptive Philosophy”
March 13, 2011
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8
Last week we talked about a hollow and deceptive philosophy. I called it the “Big Lie”. Do you remember what the ‘Big Lie’ was? Here’s the background Scripture for it. The lie was told to Eve. She was innocent and pure and inexperienced with deception. Satan, in the guise of a serpent, spoke to her. He said,
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” Genesis 3:1-4
There it is. That’s the “Big Lie”. You can sin and not die. We hear it all the time. The world trivializes sin. Much of the church trivializes sin. I have heard some pretty elaborate theories on how to sin and get away with it. Have you heard the one that God looks through the blood of Jesus at our sin and can’t see them? Kind of like those decoder rings we used to get in cereal boxes when we were kids. Do you remember them? A piece of paper would have all kinds of letters on it printed with all kinds of colored ink. When you took your decoder ring and looked through the red glass, all the red disappeared and you only saw the dark letters. You could read the hidden message then.
Really? Do you think God does that? Do you think we can sin, do whatever we want, and God doesn’t see it? What do you think that does to our concept of God? Not too smart. Not too holy. Pretty easy to fool Him.
What does that do to our concept of man? We can sin. We don’t have to repent. We don’t have to change our life. Pretty appealing theology for sinners.
Then there is the banker theology. God is a divine generous philanthropist. It’s kind of like someone puts millions of dollars in our bank account and we can spend it however we want. There is enough to last our lifetime. Anything we want – anything we desire is all taken care of. It’s all paid for.
In this theory, Jesus paid the price for all our sin, past, present and future and we have a free ticket to heaven. All our sin is paid for, therefore, it doesn’t matter if we sin. Some people take it a step further and even say if you don’t sin – you are making the blood of Jesus useless. Therefore, sinning brings out the grace of God. Paul wrote about that to the Romans. He said,
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Romans 5:18-20 -6:1)
There were some people who were saying that sin revealed the grace of God and the more we sin the more it reveals the goodness and grace of God. So, logically, they concluded that when we sin we actually reveal the goodness of God.
Sound’s like some pretty creative thinking to allow us to keep on sinning. The fact of the matter is, we like to sin. We WANT to believe the ‘Big Lie’. Sin is willful rebellion against God, as we talked about last week, and naturally we would much rather do whatever we want to do instead of answering to God. That, if fact, makes us god of our lives. We don’t like to surrender that spot to God or anyone else. We like to be in control. So we come up with all these creative ideas to remain of the throne.
There are two dynamics at work in the Christian’s life. Flesh and Spirit.
“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other,”
Galatians 5:17
“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” Romans 7:21-23
I think it is important to understand we are fallen flesh and also, divine spirit. When we enter into life, we come in the fallen flesh mode. We are born ‘on the throne’. We are born sinners. No child has to be taught selfishness. No child has to be taught he is the center of his universe – we are born that way. We enter into life self centered and doing what we want – if we can get away with it.
This kind of living leads to much pain and unhappiness. Selfishness always hurt ‘self’ the most. And our lives degenerate into a painful mess of self seeking. Our selfishness pushes others away and we find ourselves lonely and lost.
But a day comes that God invades our life and we realize He has created us for a purpose. He has a plan. We have been deceived. We thought doing our own thing would result in pleasure and happiness. It doesn’t. It results in pain.
Jesus says, “Come to me. Confess your sin and I will forgive you and give you a new start.”
We do that – and life becomes wonderful. We are forgiven, cleansed, loved. But there is still a sinful nature in our hearts. It is still our nature to do our own thing. And before long we find that we are right back doing those things we hate doing and not doing the things we know God wants us to. Paul says,
“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Romans 7:21-24
What a wretched person I am! Did God save us for this? Did Jesus save us to go through life wretched and miserable – longing to be rescued from sin? A lot of Christians think so. They live right here. Sinning and falling; repenting and confessing; only to sin and fall again. What a terrible way to life. Paul, from the depths of his soul groans, “Who will rescue me!”
We sing about Jesus the wonderful, merciful Savior – who rescues the souls of men. God does not want you to go through life miserable, powerless, suffering the effects of sinning. He wants to deliver you. Who will deliver from this living death? Jesus. Jesus will. Paul says,
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25
It is a hollow and deceptive philosophy that tells you that you have to remain a sinner. That goes against the loving nature of God and the testimony of the Scriptures. When Paul wrote that letter to the Roman Christians there were no chapters so the answer in the eighth chapter was easier to see. Read it.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son…”
Romans 8:1-3
The Levitical law was unable to give us power over sin. It revealed God’s will. It revealed how we sinned. But there was no remedy – no power in it. The Power was (and is) in Jesus. Jesus died, not only to pay the penalty for our sin, but also to provide the power OVER sin. Now we don’t have to sin. We don’t have to live in rebellion with God, falling and repenting continually. We can live victoriously through the Spirit. Paul writes,
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Romans 8:5
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:12-13
The Big Lie says you will not die if you sin. God’s Word says you will. But it also says that we are not to live in the flesh. We are to live by the Spirit. Paul says,
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16
What does it mean to “walk by the Spirit”? Verse 18 of this chapter says, "If you are led by the Spirit you are not under law." If Paul had said, "If you follow the Spirit you are not under law," it would have been true, but in saying it the way he did ("If you are led") he emphasizes the Spirit's work, not ours.
Someone said that the Spirit is not a leader like the pace car in the "Daytona 500." He is a leader like a locomotive on a train. We do not follow in our strength. We are led by his power. So "walk by the Spirit" means stay hooked up to the divine source of power and go wherever he leads. Jesus said,
"Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit." So "walk by the Spirit" means "abide in the vine." John 15:4
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc." If our Christian walk is to be a walk of love and joy and peace, then "walk by the Spirit" must mean "bear the fruit of the Spirit." But again, the Spirit's work is emphasized, not ours. He bears the fruit. Perhaps Paul got this image from Jesus. Keep yourself securely united to the living Christ. Don't cut yourself off from the flow of the Spirit.
We began with this Scripture:
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8
There are a lot of Christians who have fallen for the lie – “you can sin and not die.” They form fine sounding arguments as to why they can continue in sin – but their doctrine is based on “elemental spiritual forces of this world” – not on Christ. Do not be taken captive through that hollow and deceptive philosophy. Get on the train! The power is available. We don’t have to do it ourselves. The Power is in God. And, again, don’t fall for the false definition of sin. If sin is any deviation from perfection – of course we all HAVE to sin. But that is a deceptive definition to excuse sin. If we make sin to be something we have no control over – we have to conclude we all do sin every moment of every day. We conclude that we have no choice in the matter – so we might as well go ahead and sin.
The only sin we need be concerned with is willful sin, Numbers 15 reveals to us. To remain on the train and in the Spirits power, we only need be surrendered to God’s will. C. S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end; Those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to who God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”
The rebellious of heart want their will to be done. On judgment Day God will say to a lot of people who considered themselves Christians, “You did not want to do my will. You wanted to be separate from me. So be it. Let YOUR will be done.”
I don’t know about you – but I want to be in the center of His will right now. May He continue to do His will and His work in my life.
“Wonderful, Merciful, Savior”
Dear Jesus,
Forgive me for demanding my own will and my own way. I have been so selfish. Please forgive me and cleanse me from that selfish spirit. From this moment on I give you my heart; my soul, my life. Give me the power to do your will in my life.
