Session 5: Dan Phillips - Charismaticism: A Different Biblical Approach

Kootenai Church

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All right, this session has to do with a different biblical approach to correcting the error of continuationism.

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Our speaker for this session is Dan Phillips. He's the author of these two books, The World -Tilting

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Gospel and God's Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. So please welcome Dan Phillips. Before we pray, let me just say how very grateful

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I am to be here, how grateful I am to all of you for the great care and welcome you're giving to all of us, to Jim and to David, and I'm very much enjoying the talks right alongside you.

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So let's look to the Lord in prayer together. Heavenly Father, we come before you, not just with words, but from our hearts, asking for your blessing on us, asking for the blessed work of the

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Holy Spirit, glorifying Christ. As we look at these words that we will see, which are so full of Christ, we know that he loves to do the ministry of shining the spotlight on your beloved son.

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And as he does, we pray that our hearts will be drawn out in greater love, greater devotion, greater commitment, and a greater appreciation for the majesty of his person.

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We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, you know, when we talk to charismatic friends about and try to present our position, which we call cessationism, it comes across to them as a very negative message.

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It sounds like we're saying something very negative. We're asking them to give up something that to them is very positive.

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It is very meaningful to them. It is essential, in fact, to their Christian walk as they see it.

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We're asking them to trade what they see as a warm, personal, intimate relationship with God for something that to them is distant and formal and cold and lifeless.

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We're asking them to trade the hope they have of getting a constant flow of text messages from God and trade that for, in essence, having a form letter with all of the informality to whom it may concern.

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That's how our position sounds to them. That's good to know, and it's good to see that as Paul approaches false teaching, he doesn't just have one approach in how he deals with error.

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I'm going to start by showing you two, a case study, two case studies in two different approaches.

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They're both necessary. They're both essential. They're both good, and they dovetail, but they have very different tone and emphases.

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The first case study I'd like to take is the letter to the Galatians, letter A in your outline, and I see his approach to the

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Galatian error as being a confrontive approach, a confrontive approach.

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Now, just think if you've read Galatians and it's fresh in your mind, think of the tone of the letter. So think of two dads getting home.

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First dad gets home, a couple of happy beeps in the driveway, and the first thing the kids hear from their rooms is his voice saying, kids,

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I'm home, who wants a hug? And in another house, there's no honk. First thing the kids hear is a slam on the front door, and they hear dad's voice from the front of the house saying,

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Thomas Elizabeth, Mary Louise, front room, right now. Well, now, those are very different experiences.

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Which one of those is like Galatians? Look with me at the opening words of Paul's letter to the

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Galatians. As kids on their way out would know that there was something very, very wrong, and they're gonna be called on the carpet, and they're gonna hear some hot words.

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Well, in most letters, when Paul writes to the churches he writes to, he addresses them.

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He says, grace and peace to you, and then he says, I thank God constantly for you, and then he lists off some of the graces in their congregation, and then he eases into the subject of the letter.

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By contrast, look at Galatians. Paul, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the

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Father, who raised him from the dead, and the all brothers who are with me, to the churches in Galatia, grace to you, and peace from God our

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Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our

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God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. I marvel that you are so quickly deserving him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

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What a start. That is grabbing you by the collar and getting your attention. Make sure you are eyeball to eyeball on this issue, and that continues through the letter.

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It's the tone that carries throughout this letter in how he deals with the error, the errorists in Galatia.

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I'm just going to single out five elements in his method. Five elements, just a really quick overview.

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First, you see fiery warnings and denunciations. You see that right away in the very next words of this, and you're all very familiar with this.

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Galatians 1, 8, and 9. Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed.

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And you know that means let him be damned. Let him be eternally under the judgment of God. And then, if once wasn't enough, he says it again.

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If any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you receive, let him be accursed.

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Fiery warnings and denunciations. Secondly, biting reproof. If you were to look over at Galatians 3, 1, you'd see

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Paul saying, oh, foolish Galatians, who bewitched you before whose eyes

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Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit?

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Are you now perfected by the flesh? Biting reproof.

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But then at the same time, you also see warm personal pleas, such as in chapter four, verses 15 and 16, where he says to them, having hammered on this issue for four chapters, now he says, where then is that sense of blessing you had?

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For I testify of you that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.

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So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? My children, with whom

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I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. And then he just breaks off after that affectionate appeal.

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Warm personal pleas. And fourth, specific denunciation of the error and the errorist.

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Chapter, not aorist, if you're a Greek student, but errorist. Chapter five, verses three and four.

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And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law.

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You have been severed from Christ. You who are being justified by law, you have fallen from grace.

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And then he says famously in verse 12, I wish that those who are upsetting you would even mutilate themselves.

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As I recall, the old New English Bible said, I tell them I wish they'd just let the knife slip.

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Well, now this is very, very fiery and this is very, very confrontive. And also

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Galatians features just lengthy refutation of the error. Just to single out for the implication that his gospel is just one of many.

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That's where he starts off. And that perhaps there are better gospels better suited to the Galatians. He deals with that in chapter one, verse six through chapter two, verse 10.

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No, there's just the one gospel that I got directly from Jesus Christ and even the apostles in Jerusalem verified that gospel.

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Secondly, the resurrection of the Jew Gentile division. He gets into that in chapter two.

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You know the incident of Peter, Barnabas and the ham sandwiches. You know that story. Thirdly, finishing the course by law works.

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He deals with that chapter three and chapter four at Great Lake. And finally, the issue of circumcision.

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He gets into that in chapter five, basically through the whole chapter and returns to it a bit in chapter six as well.

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So to summarize this, his approach to the error in Galatia is just a sustained confrontation.

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Very intense from start to finish. It's like a running dialogue, a running eyeball to eyeball, shoe to shoe confrontation over this issue.

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Now his approach to the error in Colossae is different. If his approach to the

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Galatian error is confrontive, his approach to the Colossian error is what

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I call expulsive. That is letter B in your outline, it is expulsive. Now, like Galatians, Paul still does identify the error.

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He still does denounce the error. But unlike Galatians, the way Paul does this is basically by preaching such a magnificent Jesus and such a robust gospel and such a powerful final revelation from God that by the time he's done, there's no room for the error.

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He has filled the room with Christ, his gospel and God's revelation so that the error is simply pulled out, pushed out, pardon me, pushed out, expelled, and all that's left to Paul to do is to say, so why would you subject yourself to regulations?

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Why would you have anything to do with this given all these truths that I've laid out for you?

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So it's a difference of tone and even more a difference of emphasis. Let's look at it now in greater detail how

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Paul approaches the error in Colossae. By first glimpsing the error, we're going to start with that because we have to because Paul doesn't.

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Paul doesn't even really tap on it until chapter two, verse four, unlike in Galatians.

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And he doesn't really start dealing with it until chapter two, verse eight. He actually lays the foundation before he even says anything directly.

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Although once you understand the error, you see that the opening words are really very polemic all throughout.

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He is confronting it in his way, in his expulsive way throughout. But let's glimpse it and try to identify it.

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I think it was the teaching of an individual. Kind of frustrating to read the commentaries. Many of them note that all of the verbs and numbers are singular.

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And then they just go on to talk about the false teachers. Well, I don't know why they think there's more than one. I think there was just one very charismatic individual.

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He characteristically speaks in the plural in other letters, for instance, in Galatians, he talks about falsely brought in, false brothers, plural, secretly brought in.

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Those who trouble you, he talks about. It's plural. But in Colossians, it's always singular.

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He talks in terms of one very, I'd say, not capital C charismatic individual, personable, powerful individual that evidently was getting some people's attention.

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And what he was bringing was sort of a mishmash involving Judaism, involving

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Christianity, involving Neoplatonism, and then his own secret sauce.

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And you say, well, that's kind of vague, you know. So you can't just say Gnosticism. No, some commentators did, but there was no

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Gnosticism until the second century. It's not just Judaism. It's not just, in fact, we can't really put a label on what it is.

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And to some people, that's very frustrating. But what I'd like to point out to you is really that's not a bug, that's a feature.

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It really is a good thing that we don't know exactly what it is because then we can look at the way that Paul approaches this and we can make multiple applications of it.

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And perhaps some of you are already thinking about Paul's thorn in the flesh. Yes, it's like that. If we knew that Paul's thorn in the flesh was,

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I don't know, myopia, diabetes, high blood pressure, whatever it might've been, then if we don't have that, we'd look and say, well,

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I can't really identify. But he doesn't specify it. And so we can identify with the principles he learns because of his thorn in the flesh because we don't know what it is.

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So it is here, we don't know exactly what the error is, but we do know that the way Paul approaches it teaches us principles that are very, very applicable to us.

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So I'm not suggesting that it's Charismaticism at all, but boy, oh boy, there are a lot of parallels between the two.

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So let's do our best to look at the specifics of the Colossian error. And I'll just single out four to the best of my ability briefly.

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First, it is a wannabe philosophy. Paul calls it such.

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It's a wannabe philosophy. It promises wisdom. It promises knowledge. You see that in chapter two, verse eight.

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See to it that no one, now there, literally the Greek text says, watch lest there be someone.

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Watch lest there will be someone who takes you plunder, an individual, because there is an individual.

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See to it that someone doesn't take you captive through philosophy and empty deception, or probably a better translation would be through empty deceptive philosophy.

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It's a profession of love for wisdom, but really there's nothing inside of it. And what's on the outside is deceptive, he says.

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So don't let somebody take you, somebody plunder you, carry you off as plunder through that, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world.

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In chapter two, verse 23, speaking of some of the specifics of the false teacher, he says, these things are matters having to be sure, a word of wisdom.

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They have a reputation for wisdom. That's what the marketing says about them. This is wisdom.

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This is the way it's presented. That's what it is, a wannabe philosophy, promising wisdom and knowledge.

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So people who follow this false teacher are made to feel like they're getting something inside.

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They're getting something other people aren't getting. This is something he alone is bringing to them, and they're getting something special.

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And of course that, in some people, creates a very, very special feeling, and is very, very appealing.

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They want to get what other people aren't getting and have that special insight, that special line.

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It gives them inside wisdom nobody else knows. That's what it promises. Secondly, it ranks and stratifies

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Christians. In other words, Christians are not just one, but there are levels of Christian experience, and you might find yourself excluded.

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You might find yourself on the outside looking in, with your little nose pressed against the shop window, looking at all the kids with the candy, wishing you could be one of them.

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And that's intended. That is the intended impression. Chapter two, verse 18. Paul says, let no one, do not let someone, again an individual, keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self -abasement and worship of the angels, going into detail about visions he has seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind.

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So this man claims to have insights and experiences that he's happy to relate on the talk shows in Colossae, that impart special methods and special approaches and special knowledge.

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That it's a good thing you're listening to him because he's the only one bringing this to you. And they're very interested in supernatural forces and dealing with supernatural forces.

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And wouldn't you know, he's all about that. So in doing that, he excludes simple believers who, well, all they've got is

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Jesus in the gospel and apostolic teaching. That's all they've got. They don't have the special thing that he's bringing to them.

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And so if you don't have these insights, if you don't have these methods and are not following his program, too bad, you're outside, you're excluded.

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The verb suggests an umpire ruling you out of the game and he's the umpire. It ranks and stratifies

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Christians. Are you seeing any parallels? Thirdly, it is obsessed with things.

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It's obsessed with things, verse 16. Therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a

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Sabbath day, things which are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. And then in verses 20 through 22, he says, if you have died with Christ in the, if you have died with Christ to, more literally from the elementary principles of the world, if Christ's death has delivered you from the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees?

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Do you not handle, nor even taste, nor even touch, which deal with everything destined to perish with use, which are in accordance with the commands and the teachings of men?

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So it's a funny kind of materialism that is meant to create greater spirituality. Spirituality by materialism could have been his motto and it's all about diet and it's all about calendar and it's all about man -made rules and man -made doctrines, all this for the deeper life, which only his auditors, his hearers can have thanks to him.

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And also you see a very great interest in spiritual powers, not Christ, but angels, supernatural powers, which people in the first century were very, very concerned about, the idea of elemental forces of nature.

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In Colossae, either just before or after this letter, there was a tremendous earthquake that ruined everything and they didn't have the sharp division we have between the natural and the supernatural and they could see spiritual forces behind natural events.

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Well, if this man had something that would deal with that, of course, they'd be very interested, especially if it's after the earthquake.

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Fourth, it's nothing but marketing. That's what goes in that blank. It's nothing but marketing.

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All of this is just talk. He doesn't really have it, he doesn't really deliver. Chapter two, verse four, the first time

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Paul taps on this false teaching directly, he says, I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument, because that's all he's got.

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Pithonologia, persuasive speech, talk, words that are very powerful. Chapter two, verse eight, again, see to it that no one takes you captive through empty, deceptive philosophy.

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And then chapter two, verse 23, they have a reputation for wisdom, a report of wisdom in self -made religion.

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Self -made religion, just made it up, constantly watching Charismatics. The question

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I ask, usually out loud, is what verse are we on? And the answer is, we're not on any verse.

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We're off onto stories and experiences. Paul calls it him going on about his vision.

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Paul calls it self -made religion. Self -made religion, self -abasement, severe treatment of the body of no value.

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So everything is the front. It's a glitzy, glossy front meant to impress, meant to entice, and that's all he's got.

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So these are four specifics about this false teaching. And the larger impact, number three, the larger impact of this false teaching is that it divides the body of Christ and it divides the blessings of God.

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It divides Christians into the haves and the have -nots, the theirs and the not -quite -theirs, the arrived and the not -arrived.

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It stratifies and ranks them. And one common factor is that simple believers who just simply have believed the gospel and trusted in Christ are out.

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They don't have everything that they need in the gospel, in Christ, in the teaching of the apostles. They need to buy into this special doctrine.

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No simple Christian has everything that he needs. For that, everybody needs this guy and his special insights.

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I'm resisting the temptation for a side road here, so let's move on. If I have leftover time,

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I may return to it. So let's grasp Paul's response. Letter B is grasping Paul's response.

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How is it he deals with this? Well, it's not the same way he does with the Galatian error. In a nutshell, we see it in chapter one, verses 27 and 28.

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Chapter one, Colossians one, verses 27 and 28. I love these verses. I could go on and on about these verses, but I will forbear.

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In verse 27, Paul says the wonderful truth of this revelation, the riches of the glory of this mystery, this new covenant revelation among the

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Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, just by definition, you.

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You as a Christian, you as a saint. Whoever you are, I don't need to know anything more about you.

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Any special teaching you are, any special strata you are, any special experience you are, I just need to know, do you believe in Christ?

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Well, then Christ is in you, and that's the hope of glory. And now, that's not even the big point. The big point is verse 28.

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Whom we proclaim. We proclaim Christ, and then he uses the Greek word pas, which means all, four times in this one verse, and that's actually key.

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You can't translate it all every time in English, but every and all, same Greek word.

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So all is four times. I'll count it off as I read it. Whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

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And that, in a nutshell, is what he does in this letter. He preaches Christ to every man, preaching all the wisdom of God, which is in Christ, so that every person might arrive at completion, at perfection, at maturity in Christ.

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The gospel and the truth of the gospel and God's work of redemption in Christ is for all of God's people as one people.

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So let's look, let me talk about that a little bit more. I wanna talk about that word all.

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I told you that was key. He uses that word a lot, and he uses it polemically as a response to the false teaching.

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He uses the word all, pas, the Greek word, 27 times in chapters one and two.

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Now that's really quite a lot. How many times does he use that word in the first three chapters of Ephesians, which he wrote at about the same time?

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Well, in Ephesians, he uses that word just 21 times in three chapters, more writing, fewer uses.

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He wasn't dealing with the same thing in Ephesus. How about the book of Romans? Let's say, how many times does he use the word in the first eight chapters of Romans?

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He uses it just 31 times in eight chapters as opposed to 27 times in two chapters.

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So is this an emphasis? Yes, it is. It's an emphasis because what Paul wants to show is that all of Christ and all of Christ's blessings are for all of God's people, and they have all of it when they have

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Christ through the gospel. Paul does sound that note in Ephesians 1, 3, doesn't he?

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us with what? Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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But that is exactly the truth the Colossians need brought home, and that's what he does in this expulsive manner.

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So the essentials of his approach, I'm just going to single out two emphases which

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Paul expresses at length in his letter to the Colossians. First is the real gospel for all saints, letter

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A, the real gospel for all saints. And just remember that in the view of the apostle and the truth of the matter there's just two kinds of people.

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There's saints and there's ain'ts. And that's just it to him. There aren't further stratifications.

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So the real gospel for all saints. First of all, the real gospel for all saints is one everywhere and for everyone.

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And he sounds that a number of times, I'm just really having to go through quickly, but chapter one, verses five and six, he's noted their faith and their love.

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And he says, those are because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth.

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Now the false teacher has a reputation word, but the gospel is a true word.

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It's not empty deceptive, it's true. And they'd heard that word, the gospel, but he's got more to say, verse six, which has come to you just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and multiplying just as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.

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Now that word understood is the Greek word epigonosko, which is a deeper kind of knowledge.

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So remember this guy promises a kind of knowledge. Paul tells him you got the deepest kind of knowledge when you got the gospel.

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The gospel gave you that knowledge. But more he's making the point that the gospel you got, it's the same gospel everybody got.

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Everywhere and everywhere it goes, it bears its fruit just like it's doing among you, just like the fruit that I just mentioned, faith, hope, and love.

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Because you heard this one gospel, there are not multiple versions of the gospel. And again, he sounds that note in verse 23, where he says, don't depart from this faith of the gospel which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.

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There's just one gospel and that's the gospel you heard. This is part of the cause of the writing of this letter.

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Epaphras who founded the church, went to Paul and told him about the problem. And in part, Paul wrote back just to confirm that the gospel they heard is the one gospel there is.

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And that comes out in the next point, number two, that this real gospel is exactly what you were taught.

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That's the word that goes in the blank, exactly what you were taught. Says that in chapter one, verse seven, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow slave, who is a faithful servant.

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Don't breeze past that. Faithful, you can trust him, you can rely on him. He brought you the real gospel.

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He brought you that one gospel. When he taught you the gospel, he taught you the gospel.

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So the real gospel for all saints is one. It is one and it is exactly what they were already taught.

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They already have everything they need, as we'll see. And then his second emphasis is the real

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Christ. And my, we could spend a wonderful time on that. We'll just have to go through quickly.

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The real Christ, first Paul wants to say the real Christ is supreme over all. He says that in many places, but chapter one, verse 15, he speaks of Christ who is the image of the invisible

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God, the firstborn of all creation, or I translate the firstborn over all creation.

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He has that position of firstborn, of the prominent one, and he is that in relation to all creation.

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So somebody wants to go on and on about angels or about even elemental powers, perhaps. Well, you know what?

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I want to tell you about the one who is supreme over all. Shouldn't we go straight to that one who is supreme over all?

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Whatever else there might be under him, he's over it. Firstborn over all creation.

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Verse 16, for in him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, and speaking to their possible interest in spiritual beings, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him, oh boy, oh boy, and for him.

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So whatever they are, they're really about him. Shouldn't you be, wouldn't sound teaching be about him?

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And then verse 17, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the sustainer of the universe.

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He's the glue of the universe, the active, living, providential, powerful glue of the universe, personally holding all things together.

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So spiritual forces, elemental forces, not a concern for the Christian because the

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Christian worships this one Christ who is creator, supreme, sovereign, controller, and sustainer of all.

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Matter is not an obsession to the Christian, the creator of matter is. Christ is all.

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Secondly, the real Christ deals with all your real needs. The real

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Christ deals with all your real needs, number two, all your real needs. Well, what is our real problem?

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Is our real problem that we need to learn to worship like the angels do, or more likely that we need to worship angels, that we need to be very aware of all the powers that angelic beings have over our lives, so we need to either appease them or worship them, and there's just a very brief suggestion that there's some obsession with angels in his teaching.

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Is that my real need? Oh, no, that's not my real need. Paul gets to my real need in chapter one, verse 21.

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My real need is that I was formerly alienated in enemies in mind and in evil deeds.

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I was God's enemy. My problem wasn't angels, it was their creator, it was God. That was my problem, and the real

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Christ deals with that problem, that real need, because verse 22, now he reconciled you, to whom?

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To God, in the body of his flesh through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

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Christ does this, not a special experience, not a special doctrine, Christ does this.

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Verse 23, if indeed you continue in the faith firmly grounded and steadfast.

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So here's one of those little subtle polemic notes. Don't let anything take you away from Christ, because in Christ, and in Christ alone, all our real needs have been met, and that's that gospel is proclaimed in all creation.

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And he returns to that again in chapter two, verses 13 and 15 now that he's broached specifically the subject of the false teaching, and you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, well, that's kind of a problem, being dead, wouldn't you say?

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Kind of hard to move on from that. So you got a nice story about a vision you had that's gonna help me with this being dead thing?

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You have a diet or a calendar that's gonna help me not be as dead as I am? Well, actually, only

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Christ does that. You being dead, he made you alive with him. And why was I dead? I was dead because of my sin.

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Does he have an answer for that? Could a calendar do that? Could rules do that? Could worshiping angels and hearing stories?

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No, no, he graciously forgave you, charisomenos, graciously forgave us all our transgressions, having wiped out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us.

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He nailed it to the cross. In so doing, verse 15, he disarmed the rulers and authorities, displayed them as defeated, and triumphed over them in the cross, in the cross.

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The cross is where God did everything that we needed done in the work of Christ on the cross.

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So my real problem is not angels, it's not elemental forces, it's not my need of deeper secret knowledge.

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My real problem is I'm a sinner who's dead and I need saving and I need life, and Jesus does that.

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My real problem is God's judgment and Jesus delivers me from that, you see?

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So only Christ deals with that. And then third, the real Christ is all and all for, sorry, all in all for all saints.

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He is all in all for all saints. Chapter one, verse 18, he is the head of the body of the church, and if I'm a saint,

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I'm in that body. He's the head of the body of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything.

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And then again, Paul proclaims him to every man with all wisdom. No man is the head, no man is the life giver, no matter how many amusing, diverting stories he has,

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Christ is head and he's first over all. And then the wonderful follow -up truth number four, he's the source of all fullness and blessings for all saints.

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His concern for those in Laodicea who haven't met him in chapter two, verse two, is that their hearts may be encouraged, having been held together in love, even unto all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding under the full knowledge, there's that word epignosis again, the full knowledge of God's mystery, oh, what's that?

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Christ himself. All of this for all of his people.

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Full knowledge in Christ. And chapter two, verse three, Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Not meaning that once you come into Christ, you gotta start looking and getting secrets as to how to find these hidden treasures, meaning that they're hidden in Christ.

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If you're outside of Christ, you'll never find them. Philosophy will never lead you to them. Introspection will never help you find them.

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The only place where they are, they're hidden in Christ. You come to Christ and they're all yours, Paul is saying.

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All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And then this wonderful pairing, chapter two, verse nine, in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells bodily.

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And we stopped there because that's a good one for the Jehovah's Witnesses, but we shouldn't stop there because it's a good one for the

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Charismatics too. All the fullness dwells in Christ, but what does verse two say, 10 say, the next verse?

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And in him you have been filled full. Just the verb of the same word. The pleroma is in him,

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I'm pleroad, if I can say that. Making Greek people wince, but I'm filled full in him.

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I'm filled full from his fullness. His fullness is for me. It's for all of his people.

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You think of John 1, 16. From his fullness have we all received and grace upon grace.

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This is the fullness that all Christians have in Christ and that the false teacher would at best distract and deflect them from.

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He doesn't hold fast to the head, verse 19 says. So wisdom, life, assurance, all of this is in Christ for all his saints.

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And that man has none of these things to offer. So letter C, our real focus needs to be in chapter three, verse 16.

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Having laid this premise, chapter three, verse 16, Paul can say, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

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Now this is not a word just to individuals for our need for daily Bible study, although that's true.

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But this is a word to churches. This is what churches need. At this point, I always say, if some churches had the word of Christ dwell in them, even a little bit, that'd be a real nice change.

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But what Paul says is let the word of Christ dwell in you what? Richly. All y 'all.

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Not the special initiates, but all y 'all. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another.

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You have this ministry to each other in this one body. You're not chopped into halves and have -nots.

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If you have Christ with all the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, that's the same thing

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Jesus says in John 8, 31, 32. If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples and you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

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And then he promises in John 14 through 16 that the Holy Spirit will bring the apostles his word, that he will inerrantly and infallibly lead them to teach the truth.

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And so what does this new church do when it's constituted in Pentecost?

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What's the thing that the church does immediately after Acts 2, 42? They devote themselves to the apostles' teaching.

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That's the word of Christ. That's the word of Christ. And a church must let that indwell them richly.

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So now if you just come to this tour de force of him tearing down this aberration, chapter two, verses 16 through 22, you see he has laid the premise of the fullness of Christ and the fullness in Christ for all believers.

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And that's why he can just lie into this. He can just barrel into this briefly, but from the perspective of having laid down the fullness of God's provision in Christ.

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Therefore, no one should judge you in food or drink. What does that have to do with what Christ has done for you? He's fulfilled all shadows and forms and brought you to the reality.

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And don't let, verse 18, don't let anyone keep defrauding you of your prize, ruling you out. Christ has ruled you in.

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Christ has reconciled you to the father. Don't let some guy come in and unreconcile you or disqualify you because of your lack of this experience or that practice or this badge of achievement or possession.

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And verse 20, if you've died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees?

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He doesn't even have to refute them. He's already done that expulsively. Why would you do this?

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Why would you do that given what you have in Christ? So why would you have any interest in this given the fullness of God's provision in Christ?

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Given the fullness of Christ, given the fullness of the gospel and of God's word, what need do you have of this?

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Why would you even want it or permit anyone to impose it on you? Because Christ's fullness and his full person and his full provision expels it.

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You see, it leaves no room for it. That's his approach. So how could we adopt this in our approach to the charismatic error?

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Well, the Galatian approach is appropriate and it has its use and it's the one that most people do use to show how charismatic teaching is wrong.

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That's absolutely necessary. And to speak bitingly about the false teachers is absolutely necessary.

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But then there's Paul's approach to the Colossians which is expulsive. Letter B, God's provisions in Christ are lavish and all satisfying and they leave no room for the false teaching of the charismatics.

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Who, wherever you are in the scale of charismaticism, you know, and you know that there are many permutations of it, but wherever you are, the essence of charismaticism necessarily divides

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Christians. They believe that the scripture is not the complete revelation of God and so individuals are getting little mumbles and little text messages from God individually that, well, they're kind of garbled and they're not sure it could be last night's pizza or it could be a word from God.

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And so since the Bible doesn't tell you how to tell one from the other, well, that's why they need these teachers and they need these seminars and they need these books.

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And you need tongues to show that you're baptized with the Holy Spirit in some parts of charismaticism.

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Well, how do I get it? Nothing in the Bible tells me how to do that. There's a reason for that, by the way, but I digress.

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Nothing in the Bible tells me how to do that. Well, then I need them to tell me how to do it. I need them to show me how to do it because it's not in the

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Bible, you see? And so here's a Christian here. Here's a word from God, he thinks.

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And here's one who doesn't ever think he hears a word from God. Now, they don't talk about this guy, but what's he to conclude?

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He sees dad over there talking with Cindy, but dad never comes over and talks to me individually.

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What does that mean about me? I guess I'm not his in. Well, I heard there was a real great revival somewhere last week.

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I better listen up close so I can find out where the next one is next week and I can be there. And maybe I'll get lucky too.

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Maybe this time the holy outpour of blessing will land on me. And to that we can say to them, oh no, friend, look, let me tell you about all that God has done in Christ.

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For all of Christ's people. Let me tell you about the fullness of wisdom and revelation that are to be found in Christ.

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Let me tell you about the sufficiency of God's outpouring of his heart in this perfect sufficient word of God.

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And you can have 100 % of what God has to give anybody. You can have 100 % of that whoever you are, simply by hearing the gospel, simply by trusting the

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Christ the gospel presents, and simply by listening to the word of God.

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So you're waiting in your hopes for a text message. The trouble is you're overlooking the fact God has already sent a text message to all of us.

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And it has every word from God that we need. So our response is not just that the distinctives of charismaticism are wrong and harmful, though they are.

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It is instead that their distinctives, their distinctive teaching is unnecessary.

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It is, in fact, impoverishing. It is harmful, and it is distracting.

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All of us have all we need in Christ, his gospel, and his word.

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Let us close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this, your word.

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We thank you for this, your Christ. We thank you for this, your gospel. We confess that Christ is all in all to us, that he is all over all, that we want him to have first place in our hearts.

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We want him to have first place in our lives. We want his word to dwell richly in our churches.

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We pray that you'll grant that for your glory. We also pray that you will break the chains that bind so many well -meaning but vulnerable people who are locked in the dark dungeons of false teaching, that on them will shine the light of the glory of the face of God in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, revealed to us in the gospel in your inerrant, sufficient word. In Jesus' name, amen.

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If somebody has the gift of miraculous healing, surely all he needs to do is to prove it.

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But let's face it, we've been battling with COVID and the so -called miracle workers went into hiding together with us.

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Cessationism is the view that certain miraculous gifts that stood as signs of an apostle, speaking in tongues, healing, prophecies, interpretation of tongues, gifts like that, ceased with the apostles.

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Cessationism has fallen out of favor because commitment to the authority of Scripture has fallen out of favor.

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When you turn on Christian TV, you don't see expositors of Scripture, John MacArthur or Steve Lawson.

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You see Joel Osteen, Joseph Prince, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Paula White. That's who you see because that's the mainstream.

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Speaking in tongues. You're gonna speak out of your spirit. Don't worry about what it sounds like.

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Our understanding of speaking in tongues must be guided by the Scriptures, not our feelings.

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They were known languages that were capable of interpretation and not everybody speaks in tongues.

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If God speaks, it must be infallible, inerrant and authoritative. And the Lord said to me, will you howl for me?

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I said, don't ask me to do that, Lord. There's no longer the need for the gift of prophecy, speaking forth divine revelation from God.

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We have now the whole counsel of God. This word is the final word.

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The apostolic gifts have gone. They were never intended for our generation. We have everything that we need from the

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Holy Spirit today. It's hard to get anyone who's gone through that to come back and take a serious look at faith in Christ, focused on the gospel, rather than focused on these phony miracles.