Why Did Paul Warn Against Worshiping Angels?

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody in again today, and our numbers are way down. I guess we've got a lot of flu in the area, and we just trust that they'll all be well by the time we tape our next session. For those of you joining us in television, of course we always like to let it be known that we're just a simple, plain Bible study. We don't try to build any kind of a great organization or anything, but we're just hopeful and I think I can say, according to our mail, we're making headway. People are writing over and over that for the first time in their life they are studying the Bible on their own, and this is all we ask. The only reason we teach is to help people discern the Scriptures, because it's not a matter of just reading it, it's a matter of studying it and getting the pieces to fit, and they will fit. I had a gentleman call this morning from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, but he was in Albuquerque vacationing and caught our program and he said, "...I never realized before that the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation fits." Yeah it does, it surely does. It all fits, there's no contradictions, but everything dovetails together. So for those of you out in television, I just want you to know that this is the reason we teach. It's to help you search the Scriptures and study them, and I had to tell someone just the other day, go and buy a good concordance if you don't have one, and buy a good study Bible and get to work. I guess I better let it be known that all our past programs are available on videotape, the little printed books, and the audio cassette packages. So if you're interested in any of those vehicles of information, you just give us a call or write to us, and we'll get that out to you. Ok, this is a Bible study, and so we'll get right back in. Now we've been coming up through the Scriptures of course, and I just told somebody before we started the taping, I didn't realize that it's been almost 8 years that we've been in Paul's epistles. We started in Romans 8 years ago, and we've been going almost verse by verse through all the intervening books, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and now we've already started Colossians on that same format. We'll just go through it verse by verse, and then of course we'll move from here right into the Thessalonian letters. Now I'd like to give a few words of introduction before we start a new book as we call them. Remember that Colossians is also one of the prison epistles. This is another one of the epistles of Paul that were written while he was in prison in Rome. It's in that category of letters then that is a jump up doctrinally from his introductory letters of Romans, Galatians, and Corinthians, and as soon as we get into these prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and so forth, it's just higher ground. It's deeper water, and these are elements of the faith that I'm afraid too many people are just glossing over, or not paying any attention to, but it's paramount. If we want to really get into the depth of the Word of God, we have to do a study of these prison epistles. And Ephesians remember was just almost totally doctrinal. Our position. Where are we as a believer? In the Body of Christ. Well what does that mean? Well it's a position. It's something that the Old Testament believer knew nothing of. That we are in the Body, and we're connected to Christ the Head. Even though He's in glory, and we're on earth, there's still that connection, and so Ephesians brings that out. And then of course Philippians had to bring about the fact that even though we may be going through trials, and temptations, and tribulations, we have every reason in the world to rejoice. Rejoice the Apostle Paul says, in spite of our circumstances. And now Colossians of course is written, I think primarily to warn the Colossi believers, as well as us today, of things that can so easily make inroads into our belief, or into our faith. Now Colossians you're going to say, well I didn't know that Paul dealt with any kind of false teaching in Colossians. Yes he does. He deals with two facets. One of them was asceticism. Most people I think probably hear the word, and don't really understand what it means. Asceticism was that teaching that you had to put down all the desires of the flesh. And it all had to do with, you can't do this, and you can't do that, and you can't enjoy this, and you can't enjoy that. In fact I think some of the early church monks, and the monastery type people, they would just literally put themselves through misery for that very reason, that they were not enjoying not a single day of life, and hoping thereby to gain favor with God. You know you've probably heard of the hair shirt, where they would just wear that shirt with the hair next to their skin, and just be miserable. Well they thought by so doing they were pleasing God. Well that's asceticism. And then of course on the other hand, you had these people who were trying to convince the early church believers that there was more to it than what Paul had given them, and that you had to get in and get an understanding of the angelic powers, and some of these things as today we would say the New Age movement, and so forth, and were up against the same thing. In fact I guess I'll let you read the two verses where that's brought out the most clearly, and that's over in Colossians chapter 2 verse 8, and then the other concept is over in verse 16. And so the whole little book of Colossians revolves around these two warnings, and it's just as appropriate today as it was when Paul wrote it. So go down to chapter 2 verse 8, and just for an introduction now, we're going to go back to the first chapter in a minute. And he says, Colossians 2 verse 8 Now what is that? That's a word of warning. Look out, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. See now that's where it comes in, don't do this, you can't do that, and you've got to put yourself down, and you've got to keep your appetites under control. Philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, in other words it's not God's Word that they're following, they're following man made devices, and not after Christ. That's a warning. Now turn the page, at least my Bible over to chapter 2, and you come down to verse 16. And here we have this warning not to get caught up in these things that we do to again, in the flesh, merit favor with God. Verse 16 Let no man therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, or of any other day of the week, or of any other worship. You'd be surprised how many letters and phone calls we get from the television audience that aren't we supposed to be keeping the Saturday sabbath. Well see here's a warning, don't get hung up on those things, and of course I always answer with one stock answer. We're not under law demanded sabbath worship, seventh day sabbath, we're not under anything like that. And so here is the warning, don't get hung up on some of these things as to what you eat or what you drink, or a holy day, or a new moon, or the sabbath days. And then let's see, I think there's another one that I wanted to see if I can find it. Yeah that is it, looking right at it and one seeing it. Thank you Jerry. Verse 18 Now this is the other warning, let no man beguile you, or deceive you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels. You see what that says? A voluntary humility is something that you force on yourself, to literally put yourself down so that somehow God will feel sorry for you. So don't be taken in by that, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Now you know in the last few years here in America, have you noticed this constant emphasis on angels? Especially at Christmas time, everything you see is angels, angels, angels. Popular television show is something to do with angels, I've never seen it, but I can just about imagine what it amounts to. And listen, we're warned, we don't get involved with things like that, and we'll be commenting on that more strongly as we come through it verse by verse. So anyhow this little letter of the Colossians was along with other things written to warn us of various types of false teaching. And of course always remember, I'm afraid too many believers today do not get a concept of what the Apostle Paul was up against when he went out into that Gentile world. And he did not have a great big army of advanced men, he didn't have a great big entourage of people getting ready for the Apostle Paul to come to town. The poor fellow with maybe one or two of his co-workers, Luke or Barnabas or whatever, they would come into these pagan cities, steeped in paganism. And even as you visit some of the ruins of those ancient cities, and you see the ruins of these temples, and you see the female goddesses, umpteen of them just standing there in a row up on top of those columns. That's all they saw, everywhere you looked. It was a constant reminder of their worship of the gods and goddesses of mythology, and along with that of course was gross immorality. And so into that environment comes the Apostle Paul with nothing more than the Gospel. And yet the Gospel was so powerful, that in the midst of all that idolatry, he was able to bring people out of it, and put their faith in that finished work of the cross, and it so transformed lives, that the Ephesian silversmiths were losing so much business of making their idols, and these new found believers were throwing them away, and were no longer buying them. Now listen, you know what that tells me? He made such an impact in the city of Ephesus, that it affected the business people who were selling idols and so forth. Well we can't imagine what that must have been like, and without any support. Now the same way with Colossae, Colossae was a little city just a few miles inland from Ephesus, and it was evidently a congregation that had been begun by one of Paul's converts at Ephesus, and then from that one individual, a little congregation again of pagan people had become believers, and so as Paul writes this letter, he's never met these people. This is one group that he writes to, that he didn't know a one of them by face. But it was still the result of the man's ministry in Ephesus a few miles away. So always remember that whenever Paul writes to these believers, they had just recently come out of abject paganism, idolatry, the worship of the gods and the goddesses, and then to be able to bring them to the place where they would separate from all that, endure the persecution that was brought on them, I just can't imagine it. Because here we are in our enlightened America, and with all of our constitutional rights, and we can't get people interested. Isn't that amazing? And yet he went into these pagan cities, steeped in their idolatry, and did nothing but preach the Gospel, and they came out by the school. Well that's the background of this little letter to Colossae then. Colossae is inland from Ephesus, which of course is on the western end of present day Turkey, and a congregation as I said, who he had never met personally, but he had heard of them through Epaphroditus, and consequently he writes this little epistle. Starting at verse 1, Colossae is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. A lot of people have gotten the idea that Colossae was some kind of an egotist, he just sort of went out on his own, in fact the Corinthian church kind of accused him of that. He just sort of got this idea that he could start something on his own, and he was making inroads into Judaism and all that, but no. Here he makes it so plain that his apostleship was by the will of God. And of course Timothy is with him, now remember he's writing from prison in Rome, and Timothy our brother, now here again I'm always emphasizing to whom is he writing? To the saints. Paul always writes to the believer, never to the lost world. But he's writing to the believers, and so these are Gentiles like we, and so this is why we can read the book of Colossians and Ephesians and Philippians and say, well it could just as well have been said to the believers in the United States of America in 1999 or whatever year we happen to be in. Could have just as well been. Colossians 2 and Ephesians 2 are the same, and so he says to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, who are at Colossae, grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and pray always for you. You remember one time back in the Corinthian letter where he was listing all the pressures and tribulations he was going through, and how many times he was cold and hungry, and on top of all that he had the care of the churches. Well this is what was on his mind constantly. These little groups of believers scattered throughout the Roman Empire, praying constantly for them. Colossians 2 and Ephesians 2 verse 4. Now here is proof that he�s never been to Colossae, but since we heard of your faith in Christ, and of the love which you have to all the saints, have you ever had someone ask you, �How can I know that I�m really saved?� That�s a good question. I don�t mind a bit if someone calls and says, �Unless you�re always talking about someone being a true believer.� How can I know that I�m a true believer? And not like multitudes of others who are simply church members, and they�re sitting in their pew for an hour on Sunday morning, and hope that they�re okay. How can I know that I�m a true believer? You know what my first answer is? Do you love the Word of God? That�s my first question. And then I follow that right up with the second one. Do you love being with God�s people? In fact I just had a gentleman call last night, and ask the same question. And I asked, �Ok, do you have a love for the Word of God?� He said, �I do now, the last couple of years, but I just can�t get enough of it.� I said, �Alright, then my next question is, do you enjoy being with God�s people, or would you rather be in some nightclub instead of a Bible study?� He said, �I hear you.� Well that�s just exactly what Paul is saying here. What was the proof of their faith? Their love for fellow believers. The world doesn�t love us. The world would much rather be out there in some nightclub, or some other place of amusement, than to be in a Bible study. You know that. But we�re the other way around. We�d much rather be with fellow believers studying the Word, than we would be out there being entertained by some ungodly place. But that�s always the mark. So here again Paul says that the proof of their faith was the love that they had for the saints, or their fellow believers. Now that doesn�t mean that every believer is perfect, and I don�t think that we even have to like every believer. You know there�s a difference between love and like, but I maintain there is a difference between liking someone and loving them, and you don�t necessarily have to do both. You�ve got to love them, but you don�t necessarily have to like someone who rubs you wrong, and doesn�t have the same interests that you do. You just certainly wouldn�t say, �I wish I could just spend every day of the week with that individual.� No, you don�t have to like people all that much, but we have to love them. Now there�s a big difference. Love is that which seeks the other person�s highest good, and you can like someone without necessarily loving them. But these people had a love for the fellow saints. Let�s read on. Verse 5. Now I was mulling over the programs as we�ve produced them, and now there�s been almost 500 of them, and I was mulling over, and I got to thinking, maybe I have not been emphasizing enough that one of the fruits of our salvation is not just the hope of glory, but eternal life. Now think about it. You probably haven�t been hearing me emphasize that as much as I should. But when we�re saved, we enter into eternal life, as over against death. And this is all part of the package, that when we step in by faith and embrace the Gospel, God imbues us with eternal life. That means that we will never die. Now I know we think of it casually, but I�m going to hit the nail on the head a little harder. Do you know what it means to have eternal life? It never stopped me until the other day, I was reading an article again on how many billions and billions of years the universe is. And I got to thinking, even if it is that old, I don�t believe it is, but if it were, do you know that we�re going to live way beyond even that length of time? Do you realize that our life will never end? That�s beyond me, and I think it�s beyond you. But see this is all part of what Paul is talking about, that not only is it just a salvation for the here and now, not only is it a fire escape, that we�re not going to go to hell, but that we have eternal life. And life is something that is vibrant, life is something that is exciting, life is something that there�s never a dull moment. You know I�ve always prayed, �Lord whenever I get to the place that I haven�t got a quality of life, I want to be gone. I don�t want to lay around as a vegetable. Now I know we haven�t got any control over that, but if I could have my desire, I�d want to go from one day of total activity, and be gone. Because that�s what life is all about. But listen, when we get into eternity, it will be, it�ll be vibrant, it�ll be exuberant, and it�s going to be forever and ever. You�ve been hearing Handel�s Messiah lately, haven�t you? Forever and ever, and ever. I told Iris the other night as we were listening to it, and I said, �I wonder if the people that are singing that, really know what they�re singing.� Forever, and ever, and ever, that�s eternity. That�s what Paul is talking about. So the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before? The Word of the Gospel. Now verse 6. Ephesians 2. Now I�m going to deal with the word fruit when we get up to verse 10. So I�m going to skip it here in this verse, but when we get to verse 10 I�m going to talk about what he�s talking about when he prays that we�re to be fruitful. So now let�s come on down to verse 7. As you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love. That should be the very epitome of a believer�s life, is our love for the Lord first and foremost of course. You love the One who died for you, and bought you, and forgave you, but then that love just literally goes out all the way around us, to our family, to our co-workers, to our fellow believers, and love of course is the key as Paul teaches it throughout his letters. Now then verse 9. For this cause, in other words because of the love that he had heard of these Colossae believers, and don�t you dare forget, what were they just a few months ago, or a few years ago? Pagans! And pagans didn�t know what love was. We got missionary friends down in Bolivia, and he was just sharing with us that they were doing a translation for some of those primitive tribes, and every once in a while they get hung up in their translation, because those people just don�t have a word for something. And you know what one of them was? Love. They didn�t have any idea what love was. They didn�t even have a word for it in their vocabulary. Now that�s shocking to us, but listen, when you have people who have never been exposed to the love of God, and the truth of the Gospel, they don�t. They don�t understand real love, and these pagans especially, they had no love, and consequently they could follow all these gods and goddesses and stuff, because there was no true understanding of love. But now then Paul says, for this cause, because he understood that the Colossae believers knew what love was now all about. They loved each other, they loved the Word, they loved God, and so he says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, in other words, what do we call that today? Reputation. What was the reputation of these Colossae believers? They were loving, they were sincere, they were godly ex-pagans, that�s the best way I can put it. And Paul says, when we heard it, we just could not stop praying for it. Well what are you supposed to be praying for? That it wouldn�t stop, that it would just continue. And of course this is the reason I think that the Scripture told us that Christianity literally did turn the Roman Empire upside down. And it was because they were so sincere in their love, first for one another, as well as for the Word and for God Himself. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. 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