Grow With Pastor Joe

On October 31, 1517, a brave German Augustinian monk named Martin Luther took a walk with his 95 theses in hand and nailed them to the Castle Church in Wittenburg Germany. The sound of the hammer hitting the nail would ring out throughout Europe and throughout the centuries into today’s world. Those 95 theses covered various topics, but all of them together were posing ideas that he felt needed discussion and debate within the Roman Catholic Church. There was, however, a main target of motivation behind the writing and nailing of the theses. During this period, indulgences as they were known were being sold to individuals to raise money for various projects of the church with the promise to the purchaser that it would eliminate or lessen their consequences for sin. Many indulgences were bought with the prospect of getting out of purgatory sooner. Luther had enough. While the nailing of his theses was just the beginning of what Luther would become and was just one of many sparks of the Reformation there is much to learn from this historic event. The great takeaway from this event is that in all of life the only question worth pondering is, “What does God say?” Ultimately the Reformation had its foundation in this question. The Reformation period that followed Luther’s actions that day focused on coming back to the supremacy and sufficiency of scripture. It is the scriptures that teach that Christ is supreme and sufficient. Not a monk, priest, or pope. No work can save but Christ and no teaching outside of the scripture is sufficient for life and godliness.

Today, as we continue our study in Colossians, we will see in Col. 2:18-19 that we are to be set free from mysticism. The verses say, “¹⁸ Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” These two verses come in the middle of Paul’s greater argument and application of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ through addressing the three-fold threat of Gnosticism which are made of legalism, mysticism, and ascetism. Each one of these issues is addressed in his closing comments of the chapter. These three beliefs and practices are inferior and insufficient of themselves to save, sanctify, satisfy, strengthen, or sustain believers in their walk with the Lord. All of these things seek to be accepted by God through some form of personal and fleshly work. Essentially, the legalist, mystic, and ascetic all depend upon their own merit which is an outright rejection of Christ’s supremacy and sufficiency. The Colossian Christians were being judged as unspiritual by just holding onto the gospel, grace, and glory of Jesus Christ. To put it another way, like the Reformers and modern-day Biblicists, they were being judged and often intimidated by those who rejected the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ, the scriptures, and the fullness of salvation in Christ.  In today’s verses, we will focus on the freedom that we have from mysticism. Mysticism is the pursuit of deeper or higher personal spiritual or religious experiences or expressions. This pursuit seeks emotional and fleshly satisfaction through experiences whether perceived as real or not. It is emotionally and experientially driven while also rejecting truth. It trades facts for feelings. It denies that the scripture alone through the work of the Spirit indwelling the believer is enough to know Christ, grow in Christ, and live for Christ. Paul opens up these verses with the command to “let no man beguile you of your reward.” Why does he strongly command this? The phrase comes from the word “katabrabeuo” which means to declare unworthy or against. Paul is referencing the athletic games which were called a “brabeus” and the prize of the game was called a “braberion.” The “kata” is a negative intensifier. Here, Paul uses the present imperative to strongly tell these believers to stop consistently being judged unworthy or disqualified from the reward of being in union with Christ by those false teachers who promoted legalism, mysticism, and asceticism as ways of being accepted by God. Today, we will focus on this command in regard to the mystics addressed in Col. 2:18-19. Believers today must not be amazed by, deceived by, or intimidated by the mystics of our day. They are everywhere. They can be spotted by what they say, how they say it, and the way that they carry themselves. Mystics are often professing believers, some perhaps genuinely saved, but they driven to find the next spiritual high or experience. They are carnal. They can’t handle real meat nor can they be satisfied by the plain exposition of scripture. For the mystic, church, preaching, and singing is about an experience to make them feel closer to God, but the real issue is that they worship their own flesh. They seek the tingles on their neck more than they seek the glory of God. We must remember that as believers, we are called to be people of the book. Doctrine matters. Truth transforms. Experiential theology is not that we get the tingles all the time, but it is that we see the exposition of the scriptures empowered by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit apply the truth experientially or practically in our life. As we study our verses today, we will see the contrast between mysticism and Biblicism.

First, we must see that mysticism is inferior and insufficient. The mystic is self-deceived but also seeks to deceive others through a variety of ways. In Col 2:18-19, we see several characteristics of the mystic. The beliefs and behavior of the mystic are inferior to Biblicism. It is a trust in self not Christ. It trusts in emotions and experiences, not the trustworthy truth of the scripture. Deceived people deceive people. Paul commands us to not be judged as unworthy or disqualified spiritually by these people. The way that the mystic deceives believers is through “voluntary humility.” Humility was not a positive Grecko-Roman virtue. It was viewed as weakness. The New Testament however shows repeatedly that it is a trademark of truth saving faith. The fruit of our faith shows up in true humility both in our attitude and actions. Those who function with “voluntary humility” are those who exhibit a false humility that delights in how low, and humble one is. Just as the boastful arrogant man may be prideful so too is the one who brags about how humble and lowly they are. Both are equally prideful. Both are self-centered. The true spirit of humility is to have the mind of Christ (Phi. 2; Gal. 5). Those who live with false humility talk a good game; they are inwardly prideful but put on the makeup or mask of humility. It is for self-glory. This idea of false humility will be further demonstrated in Col. 2:20-23 when Paul deals with the ascetics. Furthermore, the mystic deceives and is deceived through the “worshipping of angels.” Angels are created beings. Christ made them because He made all things and is the Head of all things (See Col. 1:15-20; 2:10). Why would anyone worship another created being? This sounds crazy, yet there are countless who do this exact thing. The Mormons have their founding in angels coming to Joseph Smith. The Seventh Day Adventists believe angels came to Ellen White their founding prophetess. The Roman Catholic church places Mary as mediator, promotes praying to her and angels. All Eastern Mystic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam etc.) all have their idolatrous ways of worshipping angelic beings. However, the worship of any other but Christ is idolatry. All of these individuals who follow these false religions and cults are mystics. They trust in mystical explanations and experiences. It is its own form of legalism. They are blind and bound to the mystical malarkey that they are taught of antichrists. Heb. 1; Gal. 1; 2 Pet. 2 all show that Christ alone is worthy of praise and that all who promote otherwise preach a false gospel and will be judged and damned. Christ is supreme and sufficient; therefore, no worship should be offered to another. The mystics also focus on “intruding into those things which he hath not seen.” Here, Paul addresses how the mystics are deceived but also deceive others through their so called “visions” and “experiences.” All of the above examples have their fair share of these visions and experiences. They say that they have seen a vision, dreamed a dream, or have been given some extrabiblical word from God to give an extrabiblical prophetic utterance. It is nonsense. It is bologna. It is garbage. It is heretical. These things are faked. They are fraudulent. This is why we must not look for a sign, but we must be submitted to and satisfied by the scriptures. Those who are deceived by mystics are those who aren’t “filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding “ (Col. 1:9). Mystics are “vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.” They are self-deceived by their false humility and false experiences. They walk around with a false sense of spiritual superiority and sufficiency. Oftentimes they overlook or downplay the need of solid Bible exposition. Instead, they focus on experiences, feelings, and emotions. They are carnal fleshly people who are led by their flesh. Today, we see that many hold experience higher than Biblical exposition. How frightening and how sad this is. These mystics live this way because they are “not holding the Head,” which is Christ. Their source of their spirituality is not Christ, but themselves. They are their own God. They are their own authority.

Second, we must see that Biblicism is superior and sufficient. Before we go further, this should not lead us to pride, but rather true humility. We should be humbled that we have been saved according to the scripture alone by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. The mystic rejects all of that as sufficient. Because Christ is supreme and sufficient we don’t need to live with a false humility because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who works through the scriptures to humble our hearts to see that we are inferior and insufficient on our own. The work of the Spirit through the Bible deepens our dependence upon Christ and our devotion to Christ. We don’t have to fake it or force it. We don’t live for mystical experiences, but we live out of the union that we have with Christ. We are complete in Him and completely in Him. He is our life. He is our Head. He is our everything. Because the scripture is superior and sufficient, we have no need of dreams, visions, and mystical experiences. We have the inspired, inherent, infallible, and all sufficient word of God. We have been given the Holy Spirit to lead us into the truth of God’s word, point us to Christ, and enable us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we don’t need to worship angels or go through another to get to God. We go to God through Christ by the Spirit. We have the privilege of direct access to God through union with the Son and are enabled by the Holy Spirit to pray, read, and commune with Christ. Christ is the Head; we need no other. Christ is our Mediator; we need no other. Biblicists do not worship the Bible, but instead we worship according to the Bible. The Mystic has a high view of self, we have a high view of the word, work, and will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our spiritual growth doesn’t come from some mystical experience, but through the life-giving strength of abiding in Christ, our Head. He has united us together in and with Himself. He not only provides all that we need, but He is all that we need. There is no substitute or supplement for Christ. Being a Biblicist means that we believe that Jesus Christ is superior to all other religious or experiential endeavors. It is to believe that Jesus Christ is sufficient compared to all other work or experiences that we could ever accumulate in our life. The greatest experience that we can have is resting in the supreme and sufficient person and work of Chris. The deepest spiritual experience that we could have is to rest in the Spirit’s abiding work that causes our hearts to humbly submit to Christ’s supremacy and be humbly satisfied by His sufficiency.            

As we bring this to a close, we must see that the only way we can be accepted by God is through Jesus Christ. Mystical experience won’t cut the mustard. Going to God through angels, or some other religious representative won’t help. Trusting in some sort of vision or emotional feeling will only further deceive. The scripture is clear. Jesus Christ is the supreme and sufficient Savior to all who believe. Are you trusting in Him or yourself? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. For those who do know Christ, don’t be deceived by the pseudo-spiritual mystics of our day. Don’t be discouraged in your walk by their mumbo jumbo. Don’t let them intimidate you into thinking that you need more than the plain milk, bread, and meat of the word of God. Don’t let yourself feel disqualified from spiritual growth because you don’t have these wild religious or emotional experiences. Don’t trust in experiences or emotions, trust in the word of God. How can we keep our heads and hearts in these days with so many insisting that we need some sort of mystical experience? We must hold onto the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to His supremacy and be satisfied by His sufficiency. Look to Him. Rest in Him. Stand in Him. We must be a people of the Book. Are you in the word? Are you reading, memorizing, meditating, studying, obeying the scriptures? Yield to the Spirit’s work through the word of God in your life. Years after Martin Luther nailed the theses to the door, he was being tried for heresy under Pope Leo X in 1521. He refused to recant his teaching and work. His words are as follows, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither safe for us nor open to us. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen” In these days, the only thing that should hold us captive is Christ and His sufficient word. Don’t be swayed by feelings or the mystics of our day that tell us how unspiritual we are. I’d rather be called unspiritual by some mystic than be called unscriptural by the Lord Jesus Christ. Stick to the Book.