Beware! Part 5

My message today is part 5 of my Beware series. I started this back on the last day of Unleavened Bread. And we've been focusing in on the warnings that either Jesus Christ or the apostles gave about elements of danger to our salvation. Things that we must all be aware of because if we allow ourselves to become entangled in them, they could cause us to lose our focus. And they could cause us to fall short of the grace of God. And of course, the end result of that would be missing out on the kingdom of God. So the warning is, beware. Watch out and take heed. Now, today's message is a continuation of that same warning and this time as it was issued from the Apostle Paul. So I'd like to begin in Colossians chapter 2 as we examine this beware. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8. I'll just jump to it specifically and then we'll look at some of the surrounding context. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8, the Apostle Paul says, beware. And whenever you see that word, beware or take heed or watch or watch out by any of these men, you can bet there's something very important to consider that follows. So he said, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. So there's a description contained here of things that can creep into the heart of a believer that can cause them to lose focus or, as Paul said, cheat them or blind them or in some way misdirect them from the focus that we should have as God's people and honestly deceive them from embracing the true knowledge of God, what it is that we've been given to live by. It's an alternate message that could pull us away from foundational truth of the Bible and direct it into another way, again, according to, as Paul said, the basic principles of the world.

He said, beware. And so the title today is Beware Part 5, Beware Philosophies and Empty Deceit.

Beware philosophies and empty deceit. And in this message, we're going to examine the destructive nature of certain philosophies. And I say certain because I don't want to paint this with a broad brush and say all philosophies, but there are certain ones we need to be aware of, and we need to know what our response to them must be as God's people. Now, in order to appreciate why Paul gave the warning and under what circumstances, we need to look at least some of the background and understand what was going on in the church, even in his time, and we'll see that actually it's not so different than what can go on in the church and the world around us in our day as well.

So let's back up to the beginning of the chapter, Colossians chapter 2 in verse 1, and we'll pick up some context. Colossians 2 verse 1, Paul says, For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. You know, this is a prison epistle. Paul's under Roman guard, Roman chain, and he's writing to these churches, and he's not even seen them face to face, but word of them has come. Verse 2, And that their hearts may be encouraged. He says, Knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And so the point he leads off here by making is that true knowledge and true wisdom come from a foundation that's based in God the Father and Jesus Christ. That's where true wisdom comes from, true knowledge. It's knowing who they are. It's having a relationship with them, engaging in them with them, having God's Spirit in you, and it's possessing an intimate understanding of their revealed plan, their purpose of salvation, because see, that's what guides and directs our lives in very fundamental ways. So Paul says that's the treasure. Okay, that's the blessing. That's the knowledge, the wisdom you want, the foundation in the blessed treasure, the knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Verse 4, he says, now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order in the steadfastness of your faith. He says, as you have therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Again, he's declaring the essential need to be grounded in the faith of God and Christ established in it. It be the process by which you order your steps and live your lives, because he says, some are going to come along with deceitful words and a different understanding. But where's our foundation? That's the question. As we live our lives in this world, what is our foundation grounded in that keeps us on track? Again, it's the wisdom of God and Christ and this word and what it is we've been called to. Those things will help us to both identify and avoid different philosophical approaches when we are indeed confronted by them. Verse 8 says, beware, again, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Again, the foundation of what they're bringing to you is of the principles of this world. And you know what? Some can be good and some can be not good. This is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And so we have to be able to assess these things and sort these things out. But he always keeps coming back to, though, the foundation of we base our wisdom on is God, it's Christ, it's this word. Carrying on, it says, for in him, in Christ, rolls all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power. It's a completeness of if you have this relationship and know this word, you don't have to go searching. In terms of, I have this empty void I need to fill through some philosophy or some position of this world. You're complete in these things that have been given to us by God in Christ.

Verse 11, in him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. And and I don't think I need to go any farther than that. This passage here, verse 8, is the only place where the biblical writers use the word philosophy. And it's a word that's come down to our time with very little difference in definition. It essentially means to us what it meant to them in that day.

Philosophy is translated from the Greek word of philosphia. Philosphia, it's like philos, which means fond and brotherly, and also sophia, which is wisdom. And basically, at its core, we have the same definition today. You could go Google philosophy as what these Greek words mean. But it's essentially the love and pursuit of wisdom.

It's love and pursuit of wisdom, but it's by intellectual means. Not until all intellect is bad, right? We should be intellectual beings. We assess the word of God, we assess the world around us, and we make certain intellectual decisions as well as spiritual decisions. So intellect isn't all bad. It can be a very positive thing because God gave it to us. But the point is this is a love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means, oftentimes, I would say most times, apart from God. According to Wikipedia, philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about reason, existence, knowledge, values, mind, and language.

So, you know, through philosophy, you can try to answer questions like, what is our purpose? And we actually, going back decades in the church, have a booklet, you know, Why Were You Born? and later was titled, What is Your Destiny? Of course, we pull that from the wisdom of God's word, but the world around us tries to understand it as well and to answer it by and large by intellectual means.

But these are important questions that come up in philosophy. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation. So again, this isn't all bad, all right? You don't want to just lump the entirety of philosophy into, this is all bad. We're talking about discussion and questioning and critical thinking and rational arguments. And actually, philosophy has opened the door to a lot of things and advancements in mankind's history.

Why are we flying in planes and driving automobiles? Why are we developing technologies that we do? Well, because by scientific study and intellect and the laws of physics and things that God created in place, man has discovered those things, considered what's the next step. Maybe philosophized about these things and somebody took action, and maybe they ran into a dead end, or maybe they ran into an open door that led to another advancement. So, you know, we're talking about, in many ways, again, the intellectual discussion and thought.

But the difference comes down to, Paul says, be careful. Some is of God and the wisdom of God, and some of it is not. And we need to be careful to know the difference. I would state that some of life's philosophical discussions take place in the lecture hall, you know, as he talked about deep and intimate methods of questioning and critical discussion.

And I would say that some philosophy takes place over a beer, you know. And when I'm off traveling in Africa with Henry Aikens, you will finish the day, likely at the hotel in the evening with a beer and solve all the world's problems, right? And maybe some philosophies and ideas shouldn't even be considered at all. But worldly philosophy is not wisdom as it is defined by God, by and large, but rather wisdom as defined by man and his intellectual pursuits.

And again, brother, it's important to understand the difference because you don't want the intellectual pursuits of man leading to a philosophy be something that comes in and pulls you away from the wisdom of God and what it is that he's given us. And Paul's warning to the church in Colossae was that a Christian runs the risk of being cheated, cheated out of the relationship with God and Christ through entertaining certain ideas of philosophy of man that causes them to maybe distract their focus or take their eyes off of where God is leading.

You know, being talked out of faith. Because there's things that are of the intellect of man that can be sort of laid out and scientifically proven, mathematically proven, and yet faith is a little more abstract than that. But it's very real to the believer, but you don't want to be talked out of some of these things. And as I've said, it's not all bad in terms of the philosophies around us, like many other things. It's a mixture of good and evil. It comes from the first choice of the tree of knowledge of good. There is some good and evil.

And we live in this world. Even though we've been called to live under the tree of life, this world functions by the other tree. And we need to understand what it is that we can engage in with our lives and what it is we need to avoid.

All the necessary questions pertaining to God—this is important—all necessary questions pertaining to God and the godly life are answered in the Bible. Okay, godly wisdom tells us the meaning of our life, how we're to live, the purpose God has set before us. So those questions are answered in the Bible, so we don't need to go delving into this world's philosophies to answer, you know, why was I born? God has provided clearly the answer for us. But in terms of a field of academic study, philosophy can be enlightening in our dealings with the world. And we're actually going to see a little bit of that as well as we go on. So Paul's warning is not directed against all philosophy, but instead a particular type of philosophy that the Church of God needs to be careful of. He references philosophies that constitute vain deceit, as in they're empty.

They really don't lead to anywhere fulfilling as maybe you're going to ask, what's the purpose of life? You know, they may just lead you off into never-never land. God's word gives us the answer.

So watch out for those things that are vain deceit, that are empty and misleading. Paul says things that follow human tradition, which again is the accepted opinions of man. And again, those aren't necessarily based on the Word of God. Sometimes they can be, but oftentimes they're not.

And also, beware of the philosophies of the elementary principles of the world. These are things, again, that can take our focus off of God, point it in another direction, and maybe even point it at ourself. And as we're going to see in a little bit, the age we live, pointing our philosophical basis for an answer at ourself is the age that we live in. So when we're confronted with these things, we have to make assessments, and there's got to be a lens of perspective.

As in, what's the lens that you view these philosophies through? And you need to ask, is it an agreement with the truth of God, or is it contrary? Should I go there, or should I not?

The apostle Paul was addressing certain philosophies that had crept into the early church, and it was affecting the church, but it was a Greek culture. So this was cultural all around them, this way of thinking and the philosophies that the church had to combat against. And the specific ones that he's addressing in the book of Colossians were primarily asceticism and Gnosticism. And asceticism actually sprung out of Gnosticism, but we're going to see that the effect here was having an impact on the church, and Paul had to issue the warning.

The philosophy of asceticism is essentially teaching people that you can lead a fulfilled life, through deep contemplation, rigorous self-denial, and abstinence. And that was the philosophy of asceticism. They said, wisdom, humility came from extreme self-denial. Don't taste, don't touch, don't enjoy anything of the census, and that made you more more righteous. And Paul had to contend with this. Let's look at Colossians chapter 2 and verse 20. Colossians 2 verse 20, Paul says, therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though, living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? He says, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concerns things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and the doctrines of men. Again, we're coming back to the wisdom is of men, not of God. Verse 23, he says, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom, of self-imposed religion, of false humility, and a neglect of the body, that they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Make up all your rules and regulations for what would be righteousness, but if it's apart from the word of God, it's actually of no value against the carnal nature, against the sins of the flesh.

And he's just essentially saying there's nothing inherently righteous about this behavior at all, because it's man's wisdom, not the wisdom from above. In light of the mindset, the Church of God often stood out as different, because you know what? It taught a proper and a balanced enjoyment of life. Think of the Sabbath. You think of the Holy Days. You know, as the Church taught, you just walk in the door, sober, solemn. You don't in any way do anything that brings enjoyment, fulfillment. You know, John was just talking about fellowship and sharing food together, and those are blessed things that we do as we come together as God's people on the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and yet these things are being talked about through asceticism as not good. That doesn't lead to wisdom. But the Church stood out because it is teaching how you keep these days are to bring enjoyment and fulfillment to your life and its obedience to God. And so the problem that the members of the Church were getting pulled into was the false philosophical mindset, beginning to believe that they had to deny themselves. They had to abstain. Not that God's Word doesn't set those standards, but it's God's Word that does, not the traditions and the philosophies of men. And we can see how it was beginning to affect their worship. If we go back to verse 16, still in Colossians 2, this is why Paul says, let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. You know, Paul here is interdressing whether they keep these or not. You know, we've we've hashed that over the last 25 years, and we know he's not doing away with the Sabbath and the Holy Days and these things. He is saying how you keep them. Don't let anybody judge you in the manner in which you keep the Sabbath and you keep the Holy Days, because these misguided philosophies were threatening to take their eyes off of God. A personal example would be for us in our house on Friday nights, we enjoy a meal together as a family. And that's our Friday night tradition. Almost every Friday night that we can, unless someone's sick, we gather the family together. You know, it's parents, it's cousins, it's nieces, it's nephews, it's the family. Everybody gathers around the table and we share a Sabbath meal together. We talk about our week, we talk about God's calling, and it's a joy. It's the most expensive meal of the week in our house, and yet it's what makes the Sabbath the delight, because it brings us together and it makes it special among us, a family who is keeping God's Sabbath. Well, asceticism would say that's not wisdom. That's not humility. You have to deny yourself if you're going to be truly righteous and religious. And again, it was creeping into the church from the culture, and people were beginning to think that, well, if we're going to be more righteous in how we keep the Sabbath of the holy days or observe what it is that God has given us, then we're going to abstain. We're going to pull back. Paul just said, don't let somebody else judge you on those things, because he said, the substance is of Christ. The fullness of what we've been given is in the wisdom of God and Christ, and that is where we look for keeping these things. And that must be our lens.

Again, worldly philosophy is essentially the wisdom as defined by man in his intellectual pursuits, not the wisdom as defined by God. And Paul begins the book of Colossians, then just launches right into it by giving the counterbalance to what it is that they were facing. So we go back to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9. Again, this must be our lens by which we look at the world, and we consider the philosophies around us. Colossians chapter 1 verse 9 says, For this reason we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Philosophies of man, for the most part, do not increase in the knowledge of God. They reject the knowledge of God for their own intellectual understanding and exploration, at least the types of philosophies that Paul is pushing back against. And it's not only the Word of God that we're going to find the absolute truth and wisdom, but it's in the relationship and by God's Spirit as well. But that is the foundation.

Paul says you must grow in these things because you're being confronted by those things. If you know how you're going to answer the one, you must understand the other, the knowledge of God, and that is our lens. Apostle Paul's writings were filled with combating another philosophical threat to the church as well, and so were John's writings, so were Peter's writings. It's all throughout the New Testament. They were also combating Gnosticism. Paul and John wrote a lot about the dangers of the Gnostic philosophy creeping into the church, and you find it, again, repeatedly time after time after time because the brethren themselves were struggling against the philosophy of the age around them, against the Greek culture, and it affected how they worshiped God. And as the lessons as we walk through these things for us is to consider how it could affect us today as well by the philosophies of our day and age. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. It's just essentially what it means. It means knowledge.

Binds complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words on page 348 defines Gnosticism as primarily a seeking to know, an inquiry, and an investigation. And so it's a philosophy of knowledge, but based on what? And whose knowledge is it? And that was the challenge, right? Coming into the church, it wasn't the knowledge of God. It wasn't the truth of God.

Quoting from the United Church of God article, a treasure digest article titled What is Gnosticism, just to help us understand what the first century church was wrestling with.

It says, quote, Its core teaching could be described as what we call dualism. In this case, the teaching is that the spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. I've explained this before, and it has repercussions then into the acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ.

From this idea, Gnostics included several things. Chief among them is the idea that man's body, since it is matter, is evil. And maybe a way that we understand this exercise of how do we look at philosophy around us, the Gnostic said that all matter is evil, the body is evil, but we have the Word of God. So you look at the Word of God, and you go back to Genesis, and God created the first man, he created the first woman, he said, it is good. And that is the wisdom we live by, and we understand what is true and what is not. But Gnosticism said that all matter is evil. They also claimed that salvation was attained by escaping the body through special knowledge. And again, that's why Gnosis, Gnosticism, knowledge was the basis of what they were known as. This was, if you want salvation, there's things you need to know.

And there are things we need to know, but these aren't the hidden knowledge.

God has made it clear to us by his Word and by his Spirit. But this was a special knowledge, which included the worship of angels. They denied that Christ had actually come in the flesh, since they believed that matter was evil, and they thought the Son of God could not have really been a human being. It claimed that would mean that we have no Savior, since he gave his life to pay for our sins. One form of Gnosticism held to the fact that the body was to be treated harshly, since it was matter, and therefore evil. Contrast that to Paul's exhortation to glorify God in our bodies, since the body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit. Gnostics taught that this particular brand of Gnosticism was aesthetic, as we just talked about, the denial, the self-denial. It was aesthetic, reclusive, and they lived like hermits. But like so many other philosophies, you have different sects of it as well. Different sects. Another form of Gnosticism, an estranged twist of reasoning, held that since it was matter that was evil or sinful, not the breaking of God's law, it didn't matter what a person did in the flesh, because only the Spirit was important. And these types of Gnostics were people who led wild lives, they were licentious, and unrestrained.

This was the philosophy, the Greek philosophy around them, that was constantly pushing against the church, and in some ways making inroads into it. Gnosticism essentially combined the ideas from Greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism with Christianity, and it was a classic example of syncretism. Right? We know what syncretism is. It's taking a piece of this false religion, a piece of that false religion, blend it together with the worship of the true God. Remember the golden calf incident? God says, I hate that. It's not to be so among my people. We're not to blend the philosophies of the age with our worship of God. Again, Gnosticism essentially combined ideas from these philosophies into the worship of God. Now, if we go back to chapter two of Colossians in verse 18, I mean, it's incredible to me. Chapter two, we end up reading the entire book, but we're kind of taking it in bits and pieces, but we see it's throughout the entirety of what Paul is addressing. Colossians two, verse 18, Paul said, let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility, in worship of angels, intruding to those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, again, fleshly intellect, puffing up with this philosophy, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. It is the head, Jesus Christ. It is God the Father. He's where the wisdom comes from, and we hold fast to that, and that is our answer as we consider philosophies of this age. Paul said, beware. We notice in 1 Timothy chapter six as well, his warning to Timothy as he wraps up the book. 1 Timothy chapter six and verse 20, Paul warns as now, Timothy is carrying on in his ministry, and we find that this same philosophy was being combated with, even where Timothy was pastoring in Ephesus.

1 Timothy chapter six and verse 20, Paul just says, O Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, gnosis, Gnosticism. He says, by professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith.

Grace be to you. Amen. So Paul's warning again was to watch out for the same false knowledge, the same contradictory issues of philosophy which had derailed others from the faith and turned them aside from the true knowledge of God. Again, his foundation in Colossians was the Word of God, the relationship with God, Christ as the Head, the knowledge of God, both of the Father and of Christ. As he said, over and over and over, that is what is to keep us grounded and is to be, if I can use the term, our philosophical approach to life. And again, the lens through which we evaluate everything else. The same principle applies to us today, that we have to reject false knowledge. We have to reject worldly wisdom in favor of obeying God and learning to think as he thinks. Not all philosophy is bad. Not all knowledge and wisdom that this world has accumulated through intellectual study and investigation is wrong. In fact, much of it has led again to incredible advancements. You know, we're comfortable, air conditioning is going, and we have lights, we have technology, we can webcast.

People thought about those things, talked about those things, considered what was discovered and invented and theorized and what the next step could be and where it could lead. And again, philosophy ties into those concepts. So it's not all wrong and bad, but we do have to be careful. As the people of God, we have to guard against wrong philosophies, empty deceits, things that we acknowledge lead to a dead end because they're contrary to the wisdom of God. And those things constantly barbarred us in this age, in this world that's everywhere. And we have to be careful. We don't take our eyes off the true knowledge and the true wisdom which comes from God.

Paul said, beware, watch out and take heed. There is philosophical ideas that have come down through the ages to our day today.

And we would like to think that we're so much more advanced in some ways we are, but we're still human beings and we buy into certain concepts and we like to not retain God in our knowledge.

We like to think that we're not like the first century Greeks, that we've put many of those things behind us. We like to think that we're enlightened and have such notions that are well beyond what people used to get hung up in. And this is the age of technology. And how would we ever succumb to such things? Well, the truth is our modern age of enlightenment and reason has brought us to a point, really, that we're no different and our philosophies are no different than that of the first century, and we too must be aware. Worldly philosophy is not wisdom. Again, I remind us of this because it's consistent. Worldly philosophy is not wisdom as it is defined by God, but rather wisdom as it is defined by man in its intellectual pursuits, and it may agree with God's wisdom or it may not. I believe one of the greatest philosophical threats to the Church of God today is humanism.

Humanism, and particularly secular humanism. It's rampant in the world around us.

Humanism is everywhere. It's in our social culture. It's increasingly in our governmental culture. It's in the underpinnings of our educational system. It is really, in many ways, the evolving foundation of how society looks at the world.

Wikipedia, again, defining humanism. It says, humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the potential and agency of human beings individually and socially.

It considers human beings as the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. And maybe that doesn't sound so bad, but consider what, for us, as the people of God, must be the starting point of inquiry, of answers to life, of discovery. Is it self, or is it not God's word, God's wisdom? Indeed, it is of God. But humanism, again, considers human beings as the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which I've identified with it. Generally, however, humanism refers to the perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress, and it views humanity as responsible for the promotion and development of individuals, espouses the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings, and emphasizes a concern for humans in relation to the world. Again, some elements of that sound good, and like most philosophical deceptions, it's rarely 100% bad. There can be some elements of good mixed in, but what is the package? It goes on to say, in modern times, humanist movements are typically non-religious movements aligned with secularism, and today's humanism may refer to a non-theistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science and reason rather than to revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world. Again, end quote. So, in a nutshell, humanism looks to the intellect of man, to the wisdom that man can provide, as authoritative for the answers that they seek. And in some cases, it can be true, because things are provable. Things are, things are, you know, you can assess, and you can scientifically prove. You can have mathematical equations that add up. You can have all these things that can be correct and lead to the next step, but the problem is looking to self for all the authoritative answers to life, rather than looking to the wisdom and knowledge of God. And humanism, especially secular humanism, is a philosophy that is dangerous, absolutely dangerous to the Church of God. And as Paul said, beware.

Watch out. Take heed. Consider these quotes from practicing humanists. I think you'll find them enlightening. Isaac Asimov, who was the author and past author, excuse me, author and past president of American Humanist Association, again Isaac Asimov, he said, quote, humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests, end quote. So you can probably see some of the trouble with this concept. He says the focus is on using reason as the guide. It's human reason. And human reason can be a guide to a point, but we also understand human reasoning is flawed, especially as it rejects God in its knowledge. And when you get down to flawed human reasoning, that's an enemy of faith. And we stand at risk of overthrowing our faith if we just charge wholeheartedly down that path. This comes from Albert Schweitzer, when he was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, he said, quote, humanism in all its simplicity is the only genuine spirituality. In humanism, in all its simplicity is the only genuine spirituality. That's where fulfillment comes from. It's where knowledge and wisdom and all you need to be fulfilled in this life, your spirituality is in humanism. And finally, we would recognize this name, this individual said, quote, it seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept, which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or some goal outside of the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but that charges unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based on based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs. No religious basis is necessary. He says man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. And that quote comes from Albert Einstein. Scientists, Nobel Prize winner in physics, originator of the theory of relativity. And I was just going to say, brethren, that science need not be in conflict with religion. God's word is true, and the more that science explores and discovers things that are legitimate and accurate and correct, the more it agrees with the word of God. And so science ought not to be in conflict with an opposition with religion, but again it comes back to what lens do you look through? Is it through the lens that God is real? And that there is a God, and he's the creator of all things, including us? Or do you look through the lens of there is no God at all? Because you can, again, prove certain things absolute, but your conclusion you draw from that, and the philosophy you draw from that can be very different. Can you take you down two very different rows depending on whether you believe there's a God or not? The starting point for us in the Church of God must be the acknowledgement that we don't have all the answers for ourselves. Because the Humanist Movement says, all right, we don't have all the answers for ourselves, but self can find the answer. And self will eventually have all the answers. And you look to self and self-intellect to discover these things. You and I, our starting point is we don't have all the answers, and we must look to God, and to the Word of God, and the wisdom of God, for the answers to life. When humans believe that there is no God, and they inherently have all the answers of life for themselves, or they can discover them for themselves, they are deceived.

And He's going to take you down a completely wrong philosophical path to discover something. It is so, but throw God out of the mix. It's going to lead you down the wrong path. Psalm 14, verse 1, King David said, The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Human beings may be able to prove something scientifically profound, but to deny God in the equation makes them nothing more than a fool. Because in denying God, human beings make themselves God in the place of God. And that is where the problem arises, and that is the philosophy that you and I must all be aware of in the Church of God, not to put ourselves in the place of God and look to self for the answers. God gives us wisdom, and He gives us principles. And you know what? We do have to take those principles and wisdom because He doesn't give us every answer to everything on, you know, this morning, here's what you do when you get out of bed. Step one, step two, step three, we use our intellect. We use God's Spirit to understand those things and to gain answers. But the wisdom of God and the acknowledgement, there is God, is what takes us down the right and the proper path. The societal effects of denying God in knowledge and wisdom was described centuries ago by the Apostle Paul as he confronted idolatry in his day. And as we as we look at a few of these passages, you're going to see his day again not so different from our day. Romans chapter 1 verse 16. Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Verse 19, he says, Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. They can look around, they can discover, and yet God's fingerprints are on everything.

Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So to look up in the night sky and take a telescope and look around and see the vastness of all that you can see and say, there is no God, it's kind of a foolish thing. Or to take a microscope and, you know, you can go broad or you go macro or you can go micro, right? You get a microscope, look down at the cellular level. It's just as complex as taking the telescope and looking out into space. But to say, there is no God, again, it's a very foolish thing to say. It's an inexcusable denial of God.

And you know what? There are consequences for that in the human realm.

We're starting to see those consequences, and we have seen those consequences playing out. Verse 21, Paul says, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful. They became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became as fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. We might say, we are an enlightened society. We don't have idols of stone and wood that we bow down to and worship, but we still serve the creature. We are a creature. We worship the self rather than the Creator. It's the age and the time we live in, and it's the concept of humanism that is so incredibly dangerous to the church. Verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. He's going down the line of the consequence in humanity by your philosophy rejecting God. Verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, since they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Tell me this is not where our enlightened humanistic society is leading today. You can't hardly read through that without considering the elements we see around us of a culture that does not like to retain God in its knowledge, no matter how advanced, no matter how enlightened.

Brother mankind cannot remove God from their perspective and expect to wind up at a place that is right and proper and good. Humanism ignores the lessons of history. It ignores the wisdom of God. Beware that modern philosophy. God must always be foundational to our wisdom, to our knowledge. It is His word that must be the lens through which we view everything else around us, not the prevailing philosophy of the day. Sometimes the question comes up, is it wrong to study philosophy? You know, a lot of our young adults in high school and college, philosophy is a main course. The question is, is it wrong to study philosophy? And in my opinion, no. It's not wrong to study philosophy, but again, you have to be careful. You have to be aware what the source of the thinking is, where it is leading, and you must always look at these things through the lens of God so that you can hold on to the good and reject the evil.

So Paul said, beware. So I'm not saying that, you know, you just open your mind up to everything, but I'm saying, I'm not saying you slam the door on everything as well, because human intellect is something that God gave us, and it is used for good as well, but it just means, beware.

Use God's Spirit, use God's Word, consider everything through the foundation of the wisdom of God.

To know some philosophy on an intellectual level can actually be useful to reaching others with the gospel. That might seem a little odd, but just consider this. Acts 17, let's notice the apostle Paul's example. Acts 17, Paul was a very learned man, highly educated, and he could hold his own with anybody in the room. Acts 17, verse 16, says, now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those happened to be there. Verse 18, in certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him, and some said, what does this babbler want to say? Other said, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he's preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. Verse 19, in they took him and they brought him to the Areobagus, and they said, may we know what this new doctrine is, which you speak? For you bring some strange things to our ears, therefore we want to know what these things mean. Paul's on Mars Hill, and now he's engaging with the philosophers in Athens, immersed in the Greek culture and Greek philosophy, and he kind of pricked their interests because obviously they're willing to worship any god, even the unknown god, or have an idol, or a monument, or a statue, or willing to consider anybody else's ideas. It was a very open, free-thinking society, and Paul's going to use that to his advantage. He's up here with the philosophers. Verse 21, for all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but to either to tell or hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and he said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown god. Therefore the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. It's like, let's, okay, let me share with you, if I can borrow that term, some of my philosophy, Paul says, of what is based in God's Word. Verse 24, he says, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heavens and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he need anything, since he gives to all life and breath and all things. You know, it's a concept of actually a philosophical discussion.

Not that God's words are philosophy, but this is where you engage. What's the meaning of life? Who is God? What is our purpose? Why is the world as it is? And Paul is taking wisdom of God and engaging the philosophers on the level of questioning that they would be seeking to reason through. Verse 26, and he is made from one blood every nation of men to dwell in the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, and hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets, their philosophical writings have said, for we are also his offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art in man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he is appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, and he has given us assurance of this all by raising him from the dead. Verse 32, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, We will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, and among them were Dionysius and Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. So, you know, the Apostle Paul was the master of meeting people where they were on their level, and then bringing them to Christ. He met the philosophers where they were, and engaged them on things that they philosophized about. Purpose of life, and God, and the brotherhood of man, and all these things. And he brought them to a place where he imparted wisdom of God. And at least some of them said, We'll hear more of this.

And apparently, some of them even followed. Again, God must always be the foundation of our wisdom in knowledge. It is his word that must be the lens through which we view everything around us.

You know, if that makes us foolish to this world that, oh, you have a faith, you trust in that old book. You believe in someone who you can't see. You believe in somebody who died for you that you never met. That doesn't exactly line up with my intellectual thought. If that makes us foolish in the eyes of the world, then you know what? So be it. 1 Corinthians 1.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, God's word, brethren, tells us that we can't know him through human wisdom. And that's an important thing to remember, too. We can't know God through merely human wisdom alone. He's not working primarily with the wise, with the enlightened of this age.

Again, I said, if you believe in these things and they make you a fool in the eyes of others, then so be it. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, Paul says, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved. It is the power of God. Verse 19, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise?

Where is the scribe? Where is the discerner of this age? As not God made foolish the wisdom of this world. For since the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom, did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached, the gospel, the foolishness of the gospel, at least in man's eyes, to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign in the Greek seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block.

And I say, why would Christ crucified be a stumbling block to the Jews? Well, because they didn't recognize him as the divine son of God. They didn't recognize him as the one who came in the flesh and laid his life down, the sins of mankind as the Messiah. They killed them.

And so for the gospel message to be, this is the one whom God has resurrected and sits at his right hand, and you can be saved by coming under his sacrifice, that was just foolishness, again, to the Jews. And it was a stumbling block, actually, more than foolishness. It was a stumbling block. They tripped up over the doctrine of Jesus Christ. But Paul said, we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. Well, foolishness to the Greeks because they had all their gods, and you're always trying to appease this god and that god and that god for a blessing, and you'll worship all these gods. And the concept that there is a supreme god and that there would be a god being who would actually leave behind his divine station and come and die in the flesh for his creation, well, that's foolishness. According to Greek philosophy, a god wouldn't do that. But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are being called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not to put bring to nothing the things that are. And notice why. That no flesh should glory in his presence. No human being would say, it is my intellect, it is my wisdom, it is my philosophy that's brought about this great and this wonderful kingdom in righteousness. It is, God is putting to shame the wisdom of the world, and he is elevating what appears to be foolishness to this world, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Verse 30, but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that it is written, he who glories let him glory in the Lord. Again, worldly philosophy is not wisdom as it is defined by God, but rather wisdom as it is defined by man in the intellectual pursuits of men. Paul's warnings to the church in Colossae was that the Christians ran the risk of being cheated out of their relationship through God by trusting in philosophies, by chasing down rabbit holes of vain and empty deceits, that again, not every one of them was, is bad or wrong, but we have to understand what is of truth and what is not, because the follower can take their eyes off of what is true knowledge. We can remove our focus from what is true wisdom and where our true worship ought to be. Let that not be so among us, brethren. Beware philosophy and empty deceit. Watch out for it. Take heed. Make every effort to immerse yourselves in the word of God and a relationship with God, and from there you will draw on true knowledge. You will come to understand what is indeed true wisdom. You'll be able to answer life's important questions, and then from that perspective you will be able to look at the world through the lens that allows you to see their philosophies from the perspective of God's wisdom in you.