Illus: If you are an insurance salesman and you drive up to a home that has a large sign on the gate of the fence that says, “Beware of bad dog”, you can not blame the owner if this vicious dog tries to eat your leg off before you get to the car.
Life is filled with many things to BEWARE of!!!
Illus: Did you hear about this fellow that came home from work one day to find that his vicious dog had his neighbor's pet rabbit in his mouth. The rabbit is dead and the guy panics.
He thinks the neighbors are going to hate him forever, so he takes the dirty, chewed up rabbit into the house and gives it a bath, blow dries its fur and puts the rabbit back into the cage at the neighbor's house, hoping they will think it died of natural causes. A few days later, the neighbor is outside and asks the guy, “Did you hear that Fluffy died?” The guy stammers and says, “Um...no...um...what happened?”. The neighbor replies, “We just found him dead in his cage one day, but the weird thing is that the day after we buried him, we went outside and discovered that someone dug him up, gave him a bath, and put him back into the cage. There are some real sick people out there!”
We all know there are some bad dogs out there that we need to BEWARE OF, but also there are some two legged creatures that God’s Word talks about. Colossians 2:8, warns, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
Look at the word “Spoil” this speaks of something going bad.
Illus: You can put a lovely bowl of fruit on the table, but if it stays there a LONG TIME, it will begin to spoil. And Satan, day after day, is trying to “Spoil” us.
Let me show you two things that will keep Satan from doing that to us.
I. STAY IN THE WORD
The only way we can protect ourselves from Satan is to STAY IN THE WORD OF GOD. Paul list two ways that Satan attacks us, look at verse 8:
(1) THROUGH PHILOSOPHY
Our philosophy is what we believe.
Illus: It is like the Democratic party and the Republican party, they have two different philosophies that motivate them:
• The Democrats believe in big government. Let Uncle Sam take care of us.
• The Republicans believe in small government. Do not take the bulk of our income in taxes, leave us alone and we can take care of ourselves.
These are the two basic philosophies that motivate many Americans to vote the way they do.
But there are two different philosophies that divide the SAVED FOLKS from the LOST FOLKS.
• The UNSAVED man is motivated by the philosophy of this world. The lost man does not think for himself, he allows the world in which he lives to determine WHAT HE THINKS, WHERE HE GOES, HOW HE LIVES, WHAT HE WATCHES, and WHAT HE READS - ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE DETERMINED BY THE WORLD IN WHICH HE LIVES!
• The SAVED man is motivated by what the Bible teaches. It tells him WHAT TO THINK, WHERE TO GO, HOW TO LIVE, WHAT TO WATCH, AND WHAT TO READ.
As Christians, we are trying to CONVERT the lost world to live according to the Word of God, and the lost men of this world are trying just as hard to convert us to their way of living. Paul said as Christians we need to BEWARE of this! They want to take the PHILOSOPHY this WORLD teaches and SPOIL us! They are trying to take us as their “Captives”.
HOW DO THEY GO ABOUT DOING THIS?
(2) THROUGH VAIN DECEIT
If you listen to something enough, you will soon begin to believe it. THAT IS CALLED BRAINWASHING.
Once a person has become brainwashed, they no longer see things as they once did, their mind is now all messed up! They now can not see any danger to fear. Some folks have become so brainwashed by the lost world in which we live, they do not seem to have a brain left.
They have listened to the world so much that they no longer think for themselves.
Illus: A man goes to a doctor for a physical checkup. The nurse starts with certain basic items. "How much do you weigh?" she asks. "One-seventy." The nurse puts him on the scale. After she weighs him she said “Your weight is 183”. He said, “Are you sure about that?” She said, “Believe me, you weigh 183 pounds.” The nurse asked him his height. He said, “I am five-eleven." The nurse measures his height and says, “Your height is 5' 8 1/2". He said “Are you sure about that?”
She said, “When I tell you that you weigh 183 pounds you can believe me, and when I tell you that your height is 5' 8 ½" you can believe that also.”
She then takes his blood pressure, and it's very high. The man explains, "Of course it's high. When I came in here, I was tall and slender. Now, after listening to you I'm short and dumpy."
Listen, we need to learn that there are people who want to do your thinking for you. Paul is telling these Colossians Christians to see to it that no one deceives them and takes them captive through philosophy.
When you have Christians staying in the Word of God daily, they live a victorious life.
The weakest spiritual Christians in this church are those who have time to read the newspaper, watch several hours of television each day but do not have time for the Word of God in their life . The devil has them just where he wants them.
Romans 8:5 says, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”
The world in which they live has robbed them of the PEACE OF GOD, and they have no desire to:
• Come to a worship service
• Come to Sunday School where God’s Word is taught
• Associate with godly members of the church
They have been deceived by the devil and the devil’s crowd.
Their whole life is based on what the Bible says is HUMAN TRADITION. It is the only kind of life they know that exists. You see folks, human tradition is a fickle thing.
I know I am going to get in trouble for this, but many men believe women are hard to figure out because they change from day to day. About the time you think you have them figured out, they will do a 180 degree turn on us and this is confusing to say the least!
• Men have the same hairstyle all their life. But women seem to change their hairstyle with the seasons. A woman constantly changing hairstyle six or seven times a year is confusing to men.
• Men need only a couple pair of shoes, but many women need anywhere from 30 to 40 pair. This is one reason it takes them so long to get dressed. It takes them a long time to decide which one of the 40 pair they are going to wear.
The world in which we live is fickle also, it is forever changing.
• What is popular today may not be popular tomorrow
• What is wrong today may not be wrong tomorrow
• What is right today may not be right tomorrow
The “Human Tradition” is forever changing.
But the Word of God does not change.
• What is wrong today will be wrong tomorrow
• What is right today will be right tomorrow
This is why we have young people today who do not have any absolutes in their life. They have been deceived by the devil and the devil’s crowds. The lost world in which they live is telling them:
• Homosexuality used to be wrong, but no longer is wrong
• Abortion used to be wrong, but no longer is wrong
• Sex outside of marriage used to be wrong, but no longer is wrong
The world is forever legalizing and justifying sin.
In a world full of fluctuating values, we need a solid reference in order to make sense of it all.
If we are going to overcome the devil and not be deceived by this evil world in which we live, we need to STAY IN THE WORD.
• Some of you here today are very careful to get in the Bible every single day. I applaud you and say keep it up.
• Others in here may not have opened your Bible in years, and the only exposure you get to Scripture is when you come here on Sunday mornings. You are in for some serious trouble if you do not STAY IN THE WORD!
WHAT KIND OF TROUBLE? We begin to think like those we hang out with. And if you:
• Hang out with the lost world, you will begin to have their mindset.
• Hang out with the Word of God, you will begin to have the mindset of Christ.
There are some news channels that I refuse to watch because they have a hidden agenda in their reporting of the news. They are not reporting news, they are in the business of brainwashing people to think the way they think.
I personally like to watch the Fox News Channel. I believe they do a better job of reporting the news than anyone I know of today! They may change in the future, but they seem to report the facts and they have a slogan that says, “We report and you decide.” That is important, “We decide for our selves!”
As a believer, every day when you go to work the devil has a crowd out there that has this evil philosophy, and they are quick to tell you what THEY THINK IS RIGHT or what THEY THINK IS WRONG!
Do not allow unbelieving friends and coworkers to tell you what you should believe about God or what this Bible teaches. If you don’t decide who to listen to, then you have, by default, allowed the world to decide for you. It is a world that doesn’t care for Christ or the Bible.
Guard your thought life. God’s Word says, “Beware” the devil is trying to deceive you and “Take you Captive”. STAY IN THE WORD OF GOD and you will not go astray.
Men, I’m going to speak to you for a moment. This is hard for me to talk about, and it’s a pretty heavy subject, but hang in there with me for a few minutes…okay?
Every man on earth battles temptation, especially sexual temptation, at times. Men have more of a problem with this it seems than women, because men are stirred by SIGHT, while women are stirred by TOUCH. The lost world is aggressively trying to persuade Christian men that IT IS ALRIGHT TO LOOK, JUST DO NOT TOUCH! But what they do not tell you is this, if you look long enough you will touch because men are STIRRED BY SIGHT!
Illus: When my oldest son was a teenager, he borrowed my truck. He came home one day with the side mirror torn off. He told me he got to close to a road sign and hit it by accident. It was only years later that he confessed he saw a pretty girl jogging down the street and was looking at her when he ran into the road sign and tore the mirror off the side of his dad’s truck.
Listen, men are stirred by sight and there are ungodly women out there every day that know that. This is why:
• They dress the way they do to attract
• They smile the way they do to attract
• They wear perfume that attracts
Many of them are a “Trap” waiting to “Snap!”
Listen, you godly men need to know that when temptation comes your way, the Word of God says you have a choice.
• Follow it into sin
• Walk away from it
Illus: When Potiphar’s wife laid her dirty hands on Joseph, the Bible says he “fled”. He did not hang around and talk about it, he FLED!
This sinful world today in which we live tells us:
• You can flirt with sin and get away with it
• You can look, but not touch
This is not the way God wants us to act.
The Bible says Satan is pacing the earth like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and I tell you as a child of God, he is after every man, woman and teenager here.
Illus: Samson flirted and played around with Delilah and eventually it cost him his testimony and his life.
• We have Christian men today who believe they can sit in their home and watch nudity on television and get away with it, BUT IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY WILL BE DOING MORE THAN WATCHING.
• We have Christian women today who sit home and watch the daily “Slop Operas” of people cheating in their marriages, and one day they will decide they want to do some cheating themselves.
I want to take a few minutes to speak to the good Christian ladies in this congregation. If you want to be victorious in your marriage, LEARN TO OPENLY BRAG ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND! Why? There are ungodly men out there, and if they hear you putting your husband down, you are sending them a signal that you are not happy in your marriage. They will get the signal you are sending and then they will start:
• The Flattering
• The Flirting
• The Touching
WHY? Because you sent them the signal and now they are ready to act on the message you sent them. But when you Christian ladies brag on your husband publicly, you are sending a strong signal that YOU ARE SATISFIED!
We Christians live in an evil world that is trying to take us CAPTIVE and we better BEWARE! If this is where you are today, YOU HAVE BEEN DECEIVED!
Illus: On the television program "Hee Haw," Doc Campbell is confronted by a patient who says he broke his arm in two places. The doc replies, "Well then, stay out of them places!"
He may have something there. When faced with the problem of temptation, we need to take the good doctor’s advice and, "Stay out of them places."
STAY IN THE WORD and -
II. STAND ON THE WORD
HOW DO WE DO THAT? Look at Phillipians 4:8, we read, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
This Bible teaches that we are to think about these things if we want to refrain from living in sin.
IF YOU THINK WRONG YOU WILL DO WRONG!
Illus: Listen, we all have minds. (humor: I have met some that I wondered about at times) These minds that we have control everything about us.
• They control the movement of our mouths to talk and eat.
• They control the movement of our arms and legs.
These minds control everything about us!
The Word of God says that if we are going to defeat the ungodliness of this world, we are going to have to have the mind of Christ and THINK THE RIGHT KIND OF THOUGHTS.
We can not turn our minds over to the lost world and let them do our thinking for us. We are controlled by the Word of God.
• If it is in accordance with the Bible, I ACCEPT IT!
• If it goes against the Bible, I REJECT IT!
We do not accept everything that comes down the pike, even if it claims to be from a Christian source. We pour it through the filter of God’s Word.
Illus: Today we have filters for our computers and they filter out all the filth on the Internet. Without these filters we are open to the attacks of Satan.
STAND ON THE WORD! You will never go astray if you STAY IN THE WORD and STAND ON THE WORD OF GOD.
Illus: A young man in seminary seemed to love the Lord. He had to have a Bible verse for everything he did. He was trying to use the Bible as a filter, but it was going just a little far. For example, one day he was preaching and in the process he swallowed a fly. Some boys on the front row who knew he tried to live his life according to the Word of God said, “Give us a scripture for that! ha-ha!” He thought for a few minutes and said, “He was a stranger and I took him in.”
Illus: Another young man in seminary who tried to live his life based on the scriptures, fell in love with a beautiful coed. He wanted very much to kiss her, but he just couldn’t find a scripture to okay it. So, true to his conscience, he would simply walk her to the dormitory each night, look at her longingly, and then say "Good night." This went on for several weeks, and all the time he was searching the Bible, trying to find some scripture to okay kissing her good night. But he couldn’t find one, until finally he came across that passage in Romans that says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." He thought, "At last, I have scriptural authority for kissing her good night." But to be sure, he went to one of his professors to check it out. After talking with the professor, he realized that the passage dealt more with a church setting than with a dating situation. So once again he simply didn’t have a passage of scripture to okay kissing his girl good night. That evening he walked her to the dormitory and once again started to bid her "good night." But as he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, and planted a 10-second kiss right on his lips. At the end of the kiss, the seminary student gasped for air, and stammered, "Bible verse, Bible verse." The girl grabbed him a 2nd time, and just before kissing him again a verse of scripture came to him and as he got ready to kiss her he said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Contributed by: MELVIN NEWLAND from Sermon Central.com)
Listen, you can never go wrong standing on the Word of God.
Conclusion:
I. STAY IN THE WORD
II. STAND ON THE WORD
