The Letter to the Colossian Church- 07

Subtitle: The Dangers around Them-2

Colossians 2:9-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

We continue looking at the danger that the Colossian Christians faced of teachers who would try to take them captive through wise sounding ideas.  Of course today, such teachers are readily available on the internet.  It is the same danger, but we face far more of it.

Paul had challenged them in verses 6 and 7 to walk in Christ.  When we are positively focused on Jesus, it is our best defense against false teachers.

In verse 8, Paul identified the roots of the attacks from these teachers on the Gospel of Christ.  These teachers were using philosophy and empty deceit that was often mixed with religion and personal visions.

Let’s pick it up at verse 9.

The benefits of being in Christ

When a person understands what they actually have in Christ, they are not susceptible to these philosophies and vain deceptions that false teachers use.  They are looking for people who are hungry for something more.  This is why Paul has emphasized over and over that we have everything we need in Christ.

Verse 9 ties back to chapter 1 verse 19.  There, in the hymn to the Son of God’s love, Paul made the statement that “it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in him.  In chapter 2 verse 9, this statement is made again, but some more exact language is added.

The first word added is the word “deity.”  Although “the fulness” was strongly connected with the concept of God and deity, Paul adds the word deity so that there is no  question.  The fullness of deity dwells in Jesus.  The believer needs to understand that there is nothing about what makes the Father to be God that isn’t fully present in Jesus.  We can use ideas like omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence as a starting place.  There does not exist a “greater fullness” of deity than exists in Jesus.

Paul also adds the adverb “bodily.”  Part of the attacks against Christians had to do with the inability to accept that full deity could exist in human form.  It was common for these teachers to diminish the man Jesus and treat the “spirit of Christ” as something separate.  Yet, they still sought to attach themselves to Christianity because it would make it easier for them to draw Christians after them.

Jesus has full deity, and yet, he is fully man, body and all.  This bodily emphasis shuts down the penchant for Greek thinkers to view the body as evil or incompatible with full deity.  This is the one you are following.  He is fully God.

Secondly, You are complete in him who is the head over all rule and authority (v. 10).  The word for complete here is the idea of being fully supplied.  Jesus has full deity, and in him, you are fully supplied for whatever you may face.  Essentially, there is nothing you need that hasn’t already been supplied for you.

Notice that Paul emphasizes that Christ is “the head” over all rule and authority.  This would be over human authorities for sure, but Paul is more focused on spiritual rulers and authorities.  These false teachers loved to project spiritual hierarchies that one could discover and benefit from them.  However, Paul shuts that down.  There is no higher authority than Jesus.  No other spiritual entity can give benefits to you that are greater than those Christ gives, and without his approval.  These fallen spiritual beings that were being worshipped by the Gentile world have no power and authority over Jesus.  It is the other way around.

So, why is it that Christians sometimes feel like there must be something more than what we have?  This can be for various reasons. 

One reason is that you may not be completely trusting Christ.  If we are only half-hearted in our “walk” with Christ, sometimes trying his way, sometimes listening to the world, then the Holy Spirit will stir up in you a holy discomfort so that you will press into Christ more.  You need to take Christ seriously.

Another reason could be that you are paying too much attention to the messaging of the world around you.  The world is great at telling you that you need to act now, or you will not get what you want.  It stirs up an unholy dissatisfaction with life and the supply of Christ because he is not supplying the whims of your flesh.

Also, you may simply be a weak human who is learning how to trust in the power of Christ, rather than the feelings of your flesh.  We walk by faith not by sight, nor by feelings.  Those moments of “feeling”  like there should be more is a test to double down and trust the Lord.  Lean into the supply of the Christ: the Word of God, the Holy Spirit’s help, and mature believers in Christ who can help you.

In verse 11, Paul shows them some of the things they have in Christ that are connected to what the false teachers were often promoting.  One of those teachings had to do with Gentiles being circumcised.  Paul tells them that they were circumcised without hands, in Christ.  This is a clear reference to a spiritual circumcision of the heart, which is done by the Holy Spirit.  We’ve seen this before in the Old Testament.  Even as Moses is declaring God’s love of physically circumcising Hebrew boys on the 8^th day, we find passages that emphasize a circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16).  The Lord spoke to Israel through Jeremiah about this as well (Jeremiah 4:3-4).  Here is Deuteronomy 30:6.  “Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

The physical circumcision of a child was representative of a greater circumcision of the heart.  It would remove the barrier of the desires of our flesh from between  us and the LORD.  It would allow for a relationship of love.

Christians, even Gentiles, have had their hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirit, the greater circumcision.  They do not need to go back and do the physical.

Yet, there is a second layer to this teaching.  Though Christians have been spiritually circumcised in heart, everything that Jesus did in the body as the perfect man is applied to them.  Our faith in Christ allows his perfect work to apply to us.  Thus, Jesus was physically circumcised on the 8^th day.  That act doesn’t save us, but it does apply to us.  His circumcision is our circumcision by faith.

We see this same mechanism in verse 12 concerning water baptism.  Water baptism symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus died to this world and its false life, and was raised up to live the true life that God the Father had for him.  When we are water baptized, we are identifying with Jesus.  Just as he died to this world (literally), we die to this world (spiritually),  Of course, we will physically die and be physically resurrected one day too.  However, we do not have to wait until then to have the benefits of his death and resurrection apply to us. 

We are identifying with what Jesus did and what will one day be done for us, but we are also participating in his death and resurrection spiritually.  We continue to physically live, but we do so with the same attitude and heart that Jesus had.  We do not live for this world or our flesh and its desires.  Instead, we live for the will and plan of God the Father through the Son of His love.  Jesus is the victor over the worst that the devil can throw at us.  This victory also belongs to those who are in Christ today.  The same power that raised Christ from the dead works in us to break free from the hold that wicked spiritual beings have had on us through our sin.

We have been raised up already by the Spirit through our faith in Christ and the working of God.  We are alive to God and His purposes while remaining dead to the world and its purposes.  This is not a mere mental trick.  This sinful world and the sinful spirit-rulers crucified the Lord of Glory.  Do you think Jesus is interested in anything they have to offer now?  He wasn’t interested when he was in mortal flesh, and he is even less interested now that he is in immortal flesh.

The sin of this world, my own included, will only lead to death and judgment before God.  This brings us to verse 13.

All of these benefits of Christ come to us while we are yet sinners.  Paul reminds them that they were dead in their transgressions and in the uncircumcision of their flesh.  It was precisely in such a condition that Christ made us alive together with Him.  You are alive spiritually, which allows you to hear and to be led by God.  All of this is possible because Jesus has forgiven us all of our sins and transgressions.  Of course, Christ didn’t just willy nilly zap you.  It was your faith in him that becomes the channel of God’s grace to you through the forgiveness of Jesus.
This leads to a Holy-Spirit-influenced digression by Paul.

How can Jesus simply forgive us our sins?  The short answer is that he has died in our place as a substitute.  He paid our penalty for us.  Yet, it is deeper than that.

Paul pictures Jesus at the cross with a sign above his head that was supposed to list the charge against him.  However, Pilate put on the sign, “King of the Jews.”

Of course, the charges against Jesus were bogus, and he was not worthy of being put to death.  Yet, if you and I were put on a cross, there would be all kinds of true charges that could be placed on our cross.  This is what Paul is talking about when he mentions the hand writing document of decrees that are against us.  Some versions couch this in debt terminology.  That is okay, if we think of it as a moral debt.  Yet, in light of the experience of Jesus on the cross, it is probably better to see this as a document of the charges for which we have been found guilty.

As Christ is nailed to the cross, so too the accusations against him and us are nailed there too.  In Christ, our accusations and charges are nailed along with his.  The fact that Jesus would purposefully do this is a powerful act of love.  Our charges are stuck there on his cross forever, unable for any spiritual being to take them down and try to pin them against us again.  Jesus has cleared the way for us to approach the Father and come into His presence.  If God does this for us, then what spiritual being could stand against Him and us?

Satan is the origin of the concept of lawfare.  It has been his only weapon against humanity.  He has always used the law as a weapon against God and his human imagers.  Why didn’t God stop him from tricking Adam and Eve?  A deeper question would be this.  Why didn’t Adam and Eve (and you and I for that matter) remain faithful to the God who had only done us good?

In verse 15, most translations say that Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities.”  Of course, he was not disarming Herod and Caesar.  It is talking about Satan and his cohorts.  Yet, the word for disarmed is about more than simply taking a weapon from Satan.  These continual charges and accusations of Satan against humans have been taken by Jesus and publicly nailed to a cross.  The accusers are not only disarmed, but also disbarred.  They have nothing with which to approach heaven and accuse us, and they have lost access to make such accusations.  The power of this lawfare has been ended in Christ.

Satan has always played the cool lawyer.  He can always point to the action of others and present his own in their best light.  However, his actions with Jesus publicly demonstrate his true heart.  If given the chance, he would kill God.  His accusations have nothing to do with true righteousness.  He does not really desire social justice.  This is only a convenient placard that he uses to retain the color of law.  At the cross, Jesus made a public spectacle of just how wicked the devil is, and just how loving and gracious the Father is.  He triumphs not only over the devil’s plan, but over the devil’s argument.  He is our champion, and the devil is powerless to do anything about it.

This means that we have a choice.  Whose on the LORD’s side?  He can cover every single sin of ever single person that has ever lived on earth.  Yet, God is giving us a choice to walk away from the powers of this world, and to turn towards Jesus, who is the Messiah of God.  The character of both has been put on display once and for all.  The devil is a self-righteous, lawfare operating, spiritual being whose future is to be walled off from God’s good creation by the Lake of Fire for eternity.  Yet, Jesus is the one who took  your punishment upon himself so that you could be set free from your sins and live in God’s good creation forever.  If you haven’t yet, make the choice today to turn from your sins and turn towards the One who saves sinner!

Dangers 2 audio

A Tribute to the God Who Set Us Free

Exodus 1-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 6, 2025.

The title that I have chosen is a bit vague. 

As Americans, this is the Fourth of July weekend in which we celebrate our freedom from Great Britain, which God gave to us.  At the foundation of this freedom, we must always recognize the grace and help of God in this.

As Christians, we rejoice that Jesus has set us free from sin.

It is easy to say that we “want to be free!”  However, freedom always brings with it responsibility and duty.  We see this in the story of the Exodus.  The people of Israel had been pressed into slavery in Egypt, and yet one day, God showed up and set them free, leading them out of Egypt.  He did this through great acts of power.

Though this is real history, it is recorded in the Bible for a greater reason.  This story is key to understanding God’s purpose for humanity, and the redemption that we have in Jesus.  So, if you are asking yourself what God is doing today, you only need to look to this story to see that He is setting us free.

Leading up to and during the time of the War of Independence, Exodus 1-14 was quoted and preached quite often.  It is ironic that a people could draw such hope from this passage and, yet, balk at giving that same hope to others.  I’m talking about the slavery issue.

The newly formed States were divided over this issue of slavery.  The northern States were strongly opposed to it while the southern States were strongly in favor of it.  Of course, the States that were in the middle had some that were for and some against. 

After, the war, they were in a pinch.  From a moral standpoint, those strongly opposed to slavery felt they should refuse to allow the slave States into the union they were forming.  George Mason of Virginia said at this time, “As much as I value a union of all the States, I would not admit the southern States into the union unless they agreed to discontinuance of this disgraceful trade [i.e., slavery].”

He was an important voice and was respected by many.  Yet, pragmatism won the day.  Others believed that the British would eventually return, and if the States were not strongly allied, they might not be so lucky.

Of course, luck had nothing to do with it.  No, it was God who gave them (gave us) independence, freedom.

Many do not realize that the Article 1 Section 9 Clause 1 was a compromise between both opinions.  It essentially said that Congress could not pass a law regarding the slavery issue (and immigration of any sort) until 1808.  This essentially set a clock of twenty years.  In 1807, Congress passed a law that made trafficking of slaves into the union illegal as of January 1, 1808.  This wouldn’t stop the slavery that was already here, but it would squelch further importation of slaves.

Black communities celebrated this date for years.  The first black Anglican pastor in America, named Absolom Jones, preached from Exodus chapter three, calling his people to recognize that day as a day of thanksgiving for God’s grace.   In fact, verse 8 details how God tells Moses that He has “come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.”  Pastor Jones then went on to declare that God had come down into Congress in their day in order to give them grace.

After the War between the States, the 13^th Amendment would make all slavery illegal in America.  At that point, the stopping of the importing of slaves into America became yesterday’s news.  Now, something even greater had been given to the people of America, both blacks and whites.

This idea of God coming down and setting people free is baked into us as a people; it is part of our cultural DNA.  Freedom is a big deal.  However, when you have never been physically in bondage, it is hard to understand the true benefits of your freedom.  You take much for granted and neglect to see the many ways you are bowing to slavery of different kinds.

The colonists testified that they had been reduced to bondage by their own people, King George and the British Parliament.  They had been enslaved under a system that was making money for the crown and the great trading companies of the day.  Yet, that is a lesser bondage than that of those who were actual slaves.

Even though troops and battles were involved, the victory was given by God for His purpose of teaching us the truth about freedom.  The challenge is this.  It is easy to be for “my freedom” in a particular way, but lose sight (be blind to) the need for freedom that others have.

Whether we are wanting free from a corrupt political system, literal slavery, or an oppressive economic system, we must understand that, though God is also concerned about these things, He is concerned about so much more than we tend to see.  The slavery of sin in all of our hearts is at the root of all the others kinds of slavery.

Today, we give this tribute to the God who sets us free!  He is the One who is fighting for complete freedom, not just the myopic freedom upon which we tend to fixate.

Humanity was made to glorify God through a fruitfulness that images Him (Exodus 1:7)

The people of Israel are described in this verse as being fruitful, increasing greatly, multiplying, becoming exceedingly mighty, and filling the land.  This terminology is descriptive of their experience.  However, it is using words that come directly from Genesis 1:28.  God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.  This can be seen as a command or mandate. Yet, at a deeper level, it represents God’s desire and purpose for humanity.  We were created to express the glory of God by a life of fruitfulness on the earth.

We see this same desire and purpose reiterated to Noah following the flood in Genesis 9:1.  Though He had poured out great judgment upon humanity, His desire and purpose were not changed.  In fact, the judgment can be seen as a way of protecting that purpose from the great evil and corruption that had spread throughout all people.

This same theme is spoken to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They are the chosen line through whom God’s promises to help humanity would be fulfilled.  Israel’s fruitfulness is a sign that God is faithfully keeping His promise to them, and to humanity.

This is a strong theme of Genesis and the Bible as a whole. Of course, this is not meant to be only a material and natural fruitfulness, i.e., population growth, crops, wealth, etc.  This is a fruitfulness that is a product of a spiritual relationship with God.  We are first spiritually fruitful in our hearts, families and communities, and this spreads out into these material and natural things.  We are intended to be a source of life in all of its connotations.

Here is a question we can ask ourselves.  Am I like a weed or thorn bush to others, or am I like a fruitful tree?  Am I imaging the destroying influence of the devil, or am I imaging the life-giving activity of God?

From the very beginning, the devil has attempted to stamp our this purpose within humanity.  However, God continues to help us against him.  The source of his despising of humanity is not completely explained, but it is real nonetheless.

This story of Israel’s fruitfulness is then connected to a Pharaoh who, much like the devil, despises and fears this.

This is a threat to tyrants (Exodus 1:8-14)

Israel had been only a blessing to Egypt.  Yet, the fruitfulness and freedom of those who are called by God is generally taken as a threat by the devil and those who are cooperating with or trapped within his systems.  Thus, powerful people who have sold out to immorality have actually given their services to the devil, whether they know it or not. 

We see Pharaoh in these passages pressing the free Israelites into slavery.  In that bondage, he uses them like cattle to labor for his great glory, and the glory of Egypt.  This is a signature of tyrants.  They harness the labor of the people for their own glory, whether that is Egypt, Babylon, Rome, London, or Washington D.C.  There is a long history and a well crafted art of subjugating a free people.   Some ways involve brute force.  However, there are far more insidious ways that essentially seduce a people into shackling themselves.  Once they realize that they are in slavery, it will be too late to back out of the trap.

This is what the colonists of the 18^th century came to understand.  George III and the British Parliament took advantage of their great distance from their brothers in Britain and supplanted their English freedoms.  All of this was done for plunder and great gain for the crown and elite of Britain.  The colonists were not pressed into abject, literal slavery.  However, they were in slavery to a system that was using them for its own gain at the expense of their freedoms.

The Great Awakening of the American Colonies was a time of spiritual renewal in the 1730s to the 1740s.  This movement stirred up a recognition of God’s purpose in governments and how this was being abused.  The preaching that began in this period and continued up to the War of Independence was not about rebellion and war.  It was about the purpose of God for His people and for human governments.  It was a recognition that even kings are accountable to God and the people they are supposed to serve.

Whenever a people are under bondage, it can feel hopeless and futile.  In fact, a subjugated people will often self-monitor themselves out of fear of being found out.  They can rat out their brother and collaborate with the tyranny in order to protect themselves.

Yet, there is one more aspect to this story that we need to remember.  Why was Israel in Egypt in the first place?  Why did they leave Canaan, the land promised to them?  We could say that it was all about a famine that required them to go to Egypt for food.  However, that famine was long gone.  If we go back further, we know that Egypt had food only because Joseph their brother was there and was used of God to save it.  Why was Joseph there?  At the root of this story, we find the sin of the patriarchs of Israel.

God is concerned about our slavery, but He is more concerned about our sins that keep pulling us into bondage.  God is in the business of helping us to face our sins, not because He delights in rubbing our noses into it, but because it is a place where our flesh is most able to hear His rebukes and turn to Him for help.

Let’s read further.

God hears the cry of those in bondage and responds (Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-8; 3:19-20)

In chapter 2, we find that God is responding to the cries of Israel under their bondage.  We can feel forgotten during times of bondage.  However, God has not forgotten us.  Notice the verbs that God uses in that first passage: God heard, remembered, saw, took notice.  Throughout these passages, He also says, “I am aware…I have come down to deliver them…I will stretch out My Hand…with all my miracles.”  They may have felt forsaken, but God had not forsaken them.  He had a perfect time of deliverance planned all along.

We can say that God began to help them when Moses came out of the wilderness, but it is clear that God was already moving on Israel’s behalf at his birth.  We often think that God is not doing anything because we don’t see anything that looks like God in our life.  However, the things that God does are often unrecognized until after the fact, and that is if we trust Him enough to cooperate with His salvation.

What we have here is a template of God’s heart and plan for us, for humanity.  This world is full of slavery systems that have been harnessed by the devil to subjugate us.  However, in Christ, we have a calling that he cannot destroy, and we serve a God that he cannot resist.

God showed up and mightily saved Israel from Egypt, but the next forty years revealed that Egypt wasn’t their true problem.  They were having trouble trusting God, and it continued to lead them into discipline and even judgment.  Thus, the redemption from Egypt became a picture of what God would need to do for His people when Messiah came.  The prophetic books are full of allusions back to Exodus while pointing forward to the Messiah who was coming.  In the first century, Israel was not just in bondage to Rome.  They were also in bondage to their own religious leaders as a people and their own sins as individuals.  Jesus went to war against their greater enemy (sin within us) and called his followers to extend an offer of grace to the Romans, et. al.

The colonists of the 18^th century found themselves under a similar tyranny.  Yet, they weren’t as good at seeing the tyranny that they were doing.  Don’t get me wrong.  Many abolitionists spoke out against the evils of slavery during this period, but their voices were not the ones that won the day, expediency did.

I believe that the War between the States was God’s judgment against the North and the South for not giving to the African slaves what God desired for them.  God won’t force us to do His will, but He will hold us accountable to ignoring it and pushing it off to a later date.  Yet, He is also faithful to open up doors of repentance even in the midst of our bondage.  He may let us circle for forty years in the desert, but He will always bring us back around to the greatest act of faith, repenting of our willfulness and trusting Him.  It is these hard years of bondage that soften our hearts to hear the message of repentance.

I want to end by looking at two New Testament verses.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  Galatians 5:1 (NASB).   This first verse is particularly talking about the freedom Christians have in regard to the symbolic aspects of the Law.  It can be called a religious freedom, but it is deeper than that.  It really is a spiritual freedom given to us by God through Jesus.

“[T]he creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”  Romans 8:21 (NASB).This verse is talking about a freedom that is cosmic, universal.  It is not just spiritual, but a freedom for all of the creation that has come under the effects of the curse of Genesis 3.  Though God placed the creation under a curse, it was always His purpose to bring it to a day of removing the Curse.  All of human history between Genesis 3 and Revelation 19 has been us circling in the wilderness.  Yet, God was being faithful to teach us all along so that we can be ready, like Joshua and Caleb, to enter into the Promise that He has secured for us through Jesus the Messiah.

We must unravel the layers of bondage and face our own sin

We can imagine a spectrum that goes from spiritual bondage on the left to physical bondage on the right.  Our tendency is to point to the things on the right and complain that God is not doing anything about them.  However, it is the bondage on the left of this spectrum that God is most concerned about because it is at the heart of why we end up on the right side of the spectrum.  The moral, social, economic, political, and global problems of our world are not because of a particular system, nor is it because of a certain race of people.  It is always about the heart of people who are trapped by their sins and unwillingness to surrender to God.  Thus, we become tools of the true enemy (the devil and his cohorts) instead of becoming fruitful imagers of God.

God could destroy the Romans, (insert most feared nation here), but would it “fix” everything for Israel or for us?  Israel had the same problems as the Romans who had the same problems as the Americans and any other nation.  We need God’s help, and He has given it in Jesus.

Christians cannot be satisfied just to work for spiritual freedom in their life and the lives of others.  We must advocate against and proclaim the truth about the systems of bondage that we have created in our world.  However, we cannot fix systems while ignoring the greater problem beneath.  Thus, in the name of humanity, we will crush individuals.  Is this righteous?

This is a signature of those who hate freedom.  They use the guise of helping a particular group as a moral cloak while binding everyone (the group included) under a system that entraps them through their own sins.

Jesus has shown us the strategy.  First, become a person who is free from sin by dying to yourself and living for him.  Then, work to bring that freedom to others.  As we do that, God works and supplies help for us to demolish systems of bondage in our own heart, family, town, State, Republic, even world.  It is ours to trust Him and be faithful to the moments when He comes down to deliver.

Yes, in facing our own sin, we can feel discouraged because we will never be perfect enough.  However, God’s plan has taken this into account.  Through death and resurrection, God will perfect us into beings who are not sinful by nature.  Even now, we can live as spiritually fruitful trees in this world.  We can image the life-giving source of God Himself to our world.

So, what did fruitfulness and multiplying look like for Jesus?  “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.”  John 12:24.  Dying to what I can do in the flesh will help me to come alive to what the Spirit of God wants to do through me.  We serve a God who sets people free!  When we whine to God about fixing the government or the world, He responds by saying, “Let’s talk about you first.”  Don’t be threatened by this.  God loves you and wants to use you to help the world around you!

Tribute to God audio

The Battle of the Mind- 4

Matthew 24; Acts 20:28-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

All humans have to deal with a mental battle, but Christians have an understanding and help that others do not.  This is made available to us through Jesus and was God’s intention all along.  Humans were never designed to live life disconnected from their creator.

One of the biggest parts of this battle is the mental battle of deception.  Like Pinocchio being deceived into going to Pleasure Island, the battle is between what is presented as truth versus what actually is the truth.  Thus, the wooden puppet is promised freedom, but Pleasure Island is taking him to a life of slavery in a salt mine, or something similar.

Yet, lies by their very nature dress themselves up as truth.  This is the rub.

We are going to look at several passages in which we are warned as followers of Jesus against deception.  In so doing, we are immunizing our minds against the allure of the lies de jour.

Let’s first hear our Lord Jesus warn us in Matthew 24.

Be watchful against deception (v. 3-5)

Jesus and His disciples had been in Jerusalem.  The rural Galileans were impressed with the temple buildings.  They were in awe and remarked about it to Jesus.  Of course, they were shocked by the response of Jesus.  “I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  Essentially, the place was going to be demolished.

Later, at the Mount of Olives, they pressed the issue further.  When will this happen?  They also asked what would be the sign of the end of the age and the return of Jesus.  It seems apparent that they do not understand that these three areas are not necessary simultaneous.  Of course, this is not my point today.

Notice that the first thing Jesus does is to warn them against deception (vs. 4).  This word calls for us to look, to watch out, to be vigilant.  “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ.’”  We see that part of the power of the deception will be centered on the fact that Jesus has gone away and has promised to come back.

Christians have an expectation for Jesus to come back.  In this case, we have the New Testament (and the Old Testament) to help us know what Jesus should be like.  We are hungry for him to come back, but we can know what he is like.  This is better than being hungry for something, someone, without having a concrete idea of what they will be like.  This second situation sets people up for deception.

In the first century, the religious leaders did not recognize Jesus for who he was.  God gave Israel just under 40 years to make up their mind about Jesus, and then, He sent the Romans to destroy the temple (70 AD).  Later, in 135 AD, a man named Simon bar Kochba was promoted as the messiah by a respected rabbi.  Yet, Simon proved not to be Messiah.  The Romans came and destroyed their uprising as well as Jerusalem again.  This does connect to what Jesus was saying.  Here was a false christ, false messiah, of the ilk that Jesus warned about.  However, Jews who do not believe in Jesus are not the only ones who have had false Christs.  Among Christians, there have been many through the years who proclaimed themselves as being Jesus, the Christ, or even finishing what Jesus didn’t finish.  Regardless, Jesus warns that there would be great deception around this area of the coming of Messiah.

(V. 11-14)  In verse 11, Jesus warns again of deception, but this time, he warns that false prophets will come and deceive many.  The false prophets won’t claim to be messiah, but they will claim to speak on behalf of God.  It is more common for people to claim to be a prophet than it is to be the Christ.  Yet, there is one thing that is the same about them all.  They don’t come claiming to be false.  They all claim to be the real thing.

So, how can we know if someone is false or true?  This would be a scary thing for new believers.  Can you imagine someone who was saved while watching an evangelistic TV program.  Such a person isn’t connected to a body of mature believers in Jesus.  Yet, Jesus has warned them in this passage against deception.  They still need to connect with a body of believers and start learning the truth.  This is a dangerous situation.  When we learn to feed upon the Word of Christ, the false will stick out all the more.

Verse 13 tells us that those who endure to the end will be saved.  The word for endure here has the idea of staying underneath of something heavy, sticking in there when it is difficult.  A lie always comes in opposition to the truth.  It doesn’t call itself a lie, but it is opposed to the truth.  So, if you have been following Jesus, you will have some measure of understanding of the truth.  Yet, the lie comes along like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  “Did God really say…Did Jesus really say….?”  It twists and contradicts what our Lord has said.  This builds a tension between what I thought was right and what is now being offered as that which is right.  That heaviness is tough to remain under.  Many people fall to temptation because they grow weary of holding up under such pressure.

It tells us in verse 11 that many will be deceived.  These then become part and parcel in pressuring those who are not deceived to follow them.  We are not told that this will be easy to face, but we are told to endure the difficulty until the end.  It may feel easier to cast off restraint, but it leads to heavy destruction.

This is the message of Pinocchio in regards to Pleasure Island.  It looks like freedom at first when we cast off restraint, but in the end, we will never be more enslaved than when we go that route.  May God help us to have stick-to-it-iveness in this matter of the truth.

(V. 23-27)  These verses are essentially telling us that the coming of Jesus will be obvious.  No one will have to tell you that he has come back.  Of course, this is different than his first coming.

Now, not all false christs do great signs and wonders.  Many simply employ the art of manipulating others.  Yet, verse 24 tells us that some will do powerful signs and wonders in order to deceive.

This is similar to the opposition of the Egyptian priests against Moses.  They replicated some of the miracles that God was doing through Moses.  Their “miracles” were not as great (the serpent of Moses ate the serpents of the priests), they were not able to reverse or fix the plagues God brought through Moses, and they eventually could not continue doing what Moses was doing.  Their dark arts could only go so far.

In Matthew 24, Jesus warns that people will try and talk you into going with them to a place in the desert, or a room in a building.  “We found the Christ!  Come follow us and see!”  This may sound good, but Jesus is warning us that deception will be great, especially in the last days.  Jesus will not come back and hang out in the desert waiting for people to come to him.  He will not come into town and rent a convention center so people can come and see him.

To help us understand, Jesus uses a metaphor of lightning.  When lightning strikes across the sky, no one has to tell you that it just happened, not to mention the resultant thunder.  It is obvious.  Similarly, the coming of Jesus will be just that kind of event.  These deceivers try to make the coming of Christ something less than it is going to be.  Scripture says that Jesus will come riding the clouds of heaven in great majesty.  We may not know what that will exactly look like, but the charlatans will not be able to duplicate it.

So, this is what Jesus had to say about our need to be careful.  Now, let’s look at what the Apostle Paul had to say about it.

(Acts 20:28-31)  Paul is speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus.  He knows that he will not have another chance to speak to them so he gives his final encouragements and warnings to them.  Though Paul does not use the terms deceive or deception, he does describe it: “men will rise up speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.”  Perverse things are things that have been twisted.  Like a twisted driveline, to twist the truth is to make it a lie and neutralize any good benefits it could have given.  Paul warns against men who pervert the truth and try to draw disciples away from the Truth and from Jesus who is the Truth.

Paul, therefore, warns them to watch!  This is a similar word to the one used by Jesus, but it adds the idea of bringing something close for an inspection.  We need to watch ourselves by slowing down, taking time to pray, and asking the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom.  We need to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Paul also tells these elders to watch over the flock (believers) in their church.  These shepherds are not to rule over the flock, but to help them not fall into deception.

The ego of man draws many people off course.  Whether a person began following the truth, or they were always a wolf, it is tragic when they get off course.  Of course, you don’t have to be a shepherd to watch out for one another as brothers and sisters.

I want to look at one more passage to finish up this warning about deception in our days.

The truth immunizes us to the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

Something was going on in the church at Thessalonica in Greece.  People were being told that they had missed the Second Coming of Jesus.  Paul even mentions the idea that someone may present a letter as if it was from him (a fake letter).  These other people have disturbed the church, and Paul is reminding them of the truth.

The Day of Christ (vs. 2) is talking about the Day of the Lord that we find in the Old Testament.  It is a time when God judges all of the nations through Jesus, the Christ.  It is not just a 24-hour period.  Rather, it is a brief period and quick, but more than one day.

This day of judgment will be bad for the wicked, but it will be good for those who are caught up in wickedness.  It is similar to a test time in school.  Everyone will take the test, but not everyone will pass.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that a great falling away must happen first.  This is an apostasy, falling away, from the Truth of Jesus and the faith once and for all handed down to the saints by his apostles.

When I think about the condition of the Church today, I don’t think the problem is in the disagreements over tangential things, and that we have made separate denominations.  I think the real problem is that, more and more, we have churches, pastors, who are promoting something that is clearly contradictory to the commands of Christ and his apostles.  They twist and pervert the Scriptures to their own ends.

This is the warning.  A great falling away from the truth is not just coming, but is happening even as I write this.

Listen, if you are looking for a Bible teacher who promotes what you want to do, then you will find them online.  Someone somewhere is teaching every apostasy that you can imagine.  Guard your heart.

Apostasy has always been with us from the first century to today.  However, it is growing worse.  We must avoid being caught up in the spirit of this age because a “Great” falling away is beginning to happen.

The truth is intended to immunize us to the lies.  I thought about using the word antidote, which is okay.  However, an antidote is given after someone is bitten.  Whereas, immunizations are given before a virus is caught.  Don’t wait for the serpent to bite you with lies.  Pull out your Bible and look for the Truth that will protect you from the toxins of deception.  Read it, pray about it, and live it out!  This is how we steel ourselves against deception.

Yet, Paul reveals that an arch-enemy will be revealed at some point who is against all that is worshiped as God.  This ultimate enemy of Christ is called “The Man of Sin,” and “The Son of Perdition.”  The man of sin is self explanatory, but perdition is destruction.  This means that his nature is that of a destroyer and his destiny is destruction.  To follow him is to follow the path of destruction.  He is not called the Antichrist in this passage, but it does say that he will oppose (anti) and exalt himself against all that is worshiped as God.  In fact, he sits in the temple of God declaring himself to be God.  Could we fall for something like this in the modern age?  Let’s read on.

(V. 5-12)  In verse 8, we are given another title for this man, “The Lawless One.”  This doesn’t mean that he loves to drive 120 on the freeway when the speed limit is 70.  We can set up laws that are against God’s revealed will.  Thus, we would be a lawless society all while pretending to be law-abiding.  However, we only follow the laws of our own making.  This man will be a law unto himself, but extremely lawless towards God.

This passage is important for a greater reason than learning about the Antichrist.  Notice the relationship between truth and lies in it.  The coming forth, revealing, of this man is being restrained.  The mystery of lawlessness has always been working. Yet, the schemes of the devil have a certain level of mystery to them.  People often help his purposes, whether knowingly or unknowingly.  Yet, God has been restraining it.  This man would have come forward centuries ago, but God has not let it happen.  Think of that?  We cannot know how much evil God has kept from happening on our planet.

The power of this evil man will wow people (v. 9-10).  They will quickly move away from all the other religious “solutions” out there, including true Christianity.  They will embrace this deceiver.  But, what is he pushing?  He is definitely not promoting Jesus.  He is promoting himself..

Thus, verse 9 tells us that he will do powerful signs and lying wonders.  These demonstrations of power will lead people to follow him.  They will be deceived.

Why will they fall for it?  Verse 10 tells us that it is because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  Notice, the powerful miracles will help, but they are not the actual reason people fall for deception.  It doesn’t even say they will be deceived because they didn’t have the truth.  It says they did not receive the love of the truth.  In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God is giving a love of the truth to us, not just the truth.  Even right now, God is trying to give each one of us a love of the truth, if we will have it.  Those who love the truth (not just know it) will see this guy and know instantly that he is not even close to Jesus.  He is a lie, and a liar.

It is important that we don’t just read our Bible to gain information.  We need to ask God to change our heart so that we come to love it.  In fact, as I have said above, Jesus is the truth.  The Bible itself is just a facsimile of Him who is Truth, Jesus.  It reveals him to us.  May God help us to fall in love with the character and work of Jesus.  May God help us to fall in love with the way that he tells us the truth, “You are a sinner in need of salvation,” and yet also has loved us so much that he paid the price for our redemption.

Those who do not receive a love of the truth by the grace of God’s Holy Spirit will be hungry for a savior, but they have been refusing what God  has been trying to give them.  It is dangerous to be hungry for anything but what is good for you to eat.  The world will be hungry for anything, but Jesus.

Don’t set yourself up for deception.  Ask God to help you to internalize the truth of the Bible and to be able to break down the harder things that God reveals in it.

In the end, the man of sin will reveal who actually loves Jesus.  Just as Christ was a litmus test for his generation, so the Antichrist will also.  God will send a great delusion in order to expose the hearts of many.  It won’t just be lost people following him that day.  Many who claimed to be Christians will do so as well.  May God help us to warn the lost, but may we also protect ourselves by loving the truth.

Deception audio

The Kingdom of God- 5

Subtitle:  Our Battle in the Kingdom

Ephesians 2:1-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 13, 2025.

Today, we are going to identify some enemies of the Kingdom of God and anyone who is a part of it.  We need to see these in our own life and learn how to deal with them.

Let’s look at our passage.

Our enemies (v. 1-3)

When we talk about enemies as Christians, it is important to recognize a huge shift from the Old Covenant with Israel through Moses and the New Covenant with “whosoever will” through Jesus.

Israel was commanded to go into a specific area that had been judged by God.  Thus, there were literal battles between Israel, representing God’s people, and the nations that were in rebellion against God.  Israel would be a sword to some nations, but also a revelation of the One True God to the nations surrounding the area that God had given to them.  In other words, Israel was not trying to take over the world, nor were they commanded to do so by God. 

Yet, even in the Old Testament, we see that these enemies were not the only enemies Israel faced.  There were Israelites who were unfaithful to God and misled the people.  There is even a testimony from the prophets that there wasn’t one of them that was totally righteous before God.

God shows anyone with eyes to see through His interactions with Israel that no amount of fighting bad people, bad nations, and stamping out the sinners in their own nation, would fix this world.

Yet, in the New Testament, the command of Christ to his disciples does regard battles and going to the ends of the earth, but it is not about fighting physical enemies and taking physical territory.  The battle is more about the spiritual enemies that are keeping the world captive to sin. 

This highlights a common mistake that atheists will make.  They will challenge Christians with a statement like this.  “Your God commands you to kill homosexuals!  How can you defend that!”  Of course, they have clearly not understood the message of the Church, and more importantly, Jesus Christ.  The New Testament presents that all people (including Israel) are sinners in bondage to sin.  All are guilty before God and deserve death, rather than salvation.  Yet, God sends us Jesus.  He is the divine intervention that helps us in this tragic predicament.  Yes, we are all worthy of death, but Jesus has obtained for us the hope of forgiveness and redemption.

Jesus is not currently taking territory geographically, but rather, internally.  Those who believe on him are not only forgiven, but the Spirit of God enables them to take possession of their inner souls.  This is intended to spill out into their life and affect the people around them.  It spills out into their family and neighborhood.   If enough people in an area are transformed by faith in Jesus, then it can even spill out and affect a whole nation.  Thus, geography can come under the rule of Jesus, but that is not the current focus, the heart of people is the focus.

For the Christian, there are still very real enemies, and some of them are even people.  Yet, we do not deal with them in the same way as Israel was commanded.  So how are we to deal with them?  This passage in Ephesians chapter 2 helps us to identify them, and then, we will talk about how to battle them.

#1 The World-

In verse 2, Paul talks about how each of them (of us) were before the believed on Jesus.  They walked “according to the course of this world…”  The word translated “course” in the NASB speaks of the systems of humanity within a nation and the world as a whole.  They may have distinctions, but there is a bent to them that is away from God.  This can be more or less, religious or secular.  Humans born in those societies tend to follow this course that is away from God.  Israel, which was supposed to represent a system of God, had become deep-captured, until they were just like the world around them, standing against God without even knowing it.  These systems of the world are more than just a bunch of individuals doing bad things.  It becomes a system that is greater than any one sinner, and is more than the sum of its wicked parts.

Of course, we cannot blame all of our sin on the world and culture around us.  However, a culture that is far from God makes it easier for a people to fall into the trappings of sin, and even define it as good.  If adults teach and model things to their kids that God says is sinful, then they are more likely to follow them, and that place becomes a place of bondage and tyranny, both spiritually and literally.

This can even happen in a society that claims to follow God.  The political leaders of Israel (Herod when Jesus was born) had created an anti-God power structure, no matter how much lip service He might give to Him.  Similarly, the religious leaders of Israel in the first century had also created an anti-God, anti-Messiah, religion in God’s name.  Think of that.  In God’s name, we put to death the very Messiah that He sends.  Of course, this isn’t an Israelite problem.  It is a human tendency driven by this world.

Christians do not fight the world systems primarily through political means.  We know that no amount of laws, punishments, prisons, wars, etc. will ever fix this world.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t have laws and such, but that we are not looking to these things to fix the world.

Jesus sends us to the world with the message of the Gospel.  We are to tell people the truth of their peril and God’s offer of forgiveness through Jesus out of love for them.  We also live our lives according to the words of Christ and his apostles (the New Testament).  Thus, we refuse to conform to the ungodly pressures of the society around us.  We go to battle against the philosophies, ideas, and false religions that hold them captive, rather than against them.

Though our primary focus is not political, the politics of a nation will change when enough people repent and believe on Jesus.  When enough people are living out the commands of Jesus, that nation will be transformed.  We are not talking about reaching 51% and taking over.  Rather, a life that is lived for Jesus by the Holy Spirit’s leading is far more powerful than a mere vote in an election.  Thus, a once pagan place that persecuted Christians can become a place in which they are free to worship God.

The difference here is that our focus is not on the political, but rather on changing hearts.  The Scriptures are clear that Christianity will impact the whole world and make a huge impact upon it.  However, it also makes it clear that the political powers of the nations will not embrace Jesus when he comes back.

#2 The devil-

Verse 2 also says that they walked “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…”  This prince of the power of the air is a reference to a spiritual enemy, the devil.  Him and the spiritual entities in league with him have deep captured the world.  Yes, the world is bent away from God, but the devil takes advantage of that and harnesses it for his ends.  2 Corinthians 4:4 says that the “god” of this age [the devil] blinds people from believing God and the Gospel of Jesus.  This spiritual layer lies behind the world system.  It ends up doing the bidding of the devil.  Some people do so knowingly.  We would call them satanists.  However, most people do so unknowingly.  They are simply caught up in a way of living that they have known from birth.  It becomes natural for them to do the bidding of the devil without actually trying to follow him.

We should recognize that, though the sin of humans is definitely a big part of our problem, the interference and misleading of these spiritual beings has made it far worse than it would have become.  Those who think we can build a Utopia by casting off Christianity do not understand the fire they are playing with.  These spiritual beings do not love humans.  They want to destroy us forever.  It is only by the grace of God that they haven’t done so already.

So, just as we can picture humans deep capturing the governmental structures of a society for criminally helping themselves to the people’s treasury, so we can picture the devil and his spiritual cohorts deep capturing the systems of this world to trap people in blindness to God’s offer of help.  This is what Jesus faced: a corrupt Roman system of government and religion, and a corrupt Israelite political and religious system.

There is a spirit (and spirits) working through those who are in disobedience to God (sons of disobedience) in order to create a world system that keeps humans in bondage to sin and blind to the Gospel.

How do we fight these spiritual enemies?  First, we put our faith in Jesus.  We listen to the teaching of Jesus and obey his commands.  This will immunize us to the false teaching and wicked commands of this world.  We also fight him by being alert to his schemes.  The Bible records all the ways that humans are tempted to rebel against God and live contrary to His design.  We fight him by being spiritual people who are not in bondage to sin (James 4:7).  We fight him by using the spiritual armor that Jesus supplies to his people (Ephesians 6:10-18).  We fight him through praying for one another.

Of course, some people say to themselves that they will not listen to the world or God.  They believe that they can somehow just serve themselves.  However, serving yourself only ends up serving the devil.

#3 Our Flesh-

Our third enemy is outlined in verse 3.  “We all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind…”  Yes, we have the world and the devil to watch out for, but the most difficult enemy is internally ourselves.  Paul speaks of lusts of our flesh that fulfill the desires of the flesh and mind.  The desires are the simply what we want, our wishes.  These are connected to what is pleasing  to the senses of our body and what is pleasing to our mind.  Whereas, lusts refer to a strong passion for these things.  We can imagine a spectrum of intensifying desires that go from a low level preference for something all the way to a heated desire that is hard for us to restrain.

It is not that a pleasure in and of itself is evil.  Rather, when we live only to satisfy the desires of our body and mind, then we become captive to our flesh.  It knows no boundaries.  Without the help of the truth of God and the Spirit of God, we will become enslaved to the lusts of our flesh.  This can also happen when we pursue a spirituality that has no connection to the truth of God.  False religions all have their source in the devil and his cohorts.

We might even try to blame God for our penchant to over indulge our flesh.  However, God made these things to be a joy when they are not in control of our life.  If we listen to Him, then they will take their proper place and be His gift to us.  However, if we ignore Him, then they will become a curse to us as they continually seek pleasure at the cost of truth.

This is what we used to be.  However, now, we have become spiritually alive in Christ.  We are still in a body that is used to having its desires and lusts satisfied.  Thus, we have an internal battle against these.  Romans 8:13, “if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  This is not just a list of do’s and don’ts.  We are called to be led by the Holy Spirit in putting them to death.  This begins with the Word of God, but is empowered as we listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We also fight these lusts by staying in a community of Christ-followers.  Thus, we have a Kingdom Community, the Holy Spirit, and a new spiritual life that corresponds to the old world, devil, and flesh.  When you lean into these things, you will find a growing victory over time.

We are to fight this battle of sin in a spiritual way.  Thus, the Word of God, which is spiritual, is essential, as well as prayer and fellowship with other believers.  If we feed upon the garbage of this world, then our old nature will overcome our new nature that is spiritually alive to Christ.

Up until now, Paul has reminded them of their old way of life that they had left behind.  Yet, notice in verse 4 that there are things that God is doing.

Our heavenly Father (v. 4-10)

No matter how bad our situation was, or is, or even could become, God is for us.  He has helped us, is helping us, and will complete the good work in us, if we will simply trust Him.  We are His family, and He cares for us.

Paul emphasizes that our heavenly Father is merciful and loving.  He may seem hard and unloving at times.  However, He wants to break through our blindness and our stubbornness.  No matter how failed and plundered a person may become- think about the thief on the cross- you can still believe in Jesus.  The mercy and love of God is not just offered to some.  It is offered to all who are lost.  This doesn’t mean that everyone will embrace it.  But, they reject it over the top of God’s amazing love.

It is His covenant-keeping, merciful, faithful love that makes it possible for a person who is under the tyranny of a spiritual enemy, stuck in the ruts of this world, and enslaved to the lusts of their flesh, to be able to break free, even when they are dead in their transgressions.

Verse 5 reminds us that it is God who makes us spiritually alive together with Jesus.  This is a very real spiritual work that is done by the Spirit of God when someone believes in Jesus.  From this point on, we can read the Scriptures and sense the Holy Spirit speaking to us.  We can be led by Him through the Word, Prayer, and actions of faith.

Paul reminds us that we have been raised up with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places.  This is a spiritual connection that we have to the greatest throne in the universe.  Yet, upon our deaths, we go to be with Christ, where we belong.

Verse 7 explains that our connection to Christ and the now, but not fully yet, aspect of the Kingdom has a climax.  In the age to come, God will demonstrate the surpassing riches of His grace toward us who have believed in Christ.  Yes, we will see the riches of God’s grace, but ultimately, we are the demonstration of God’s riches to the heavens and to the earth.  The resurrection promises to give all who have died and those who are still alive in Christ, glorified heavenly bodies.  We will shine with the glory of Christ at his side.  This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 8:18-25.  The heavenly beings, the faithful ones and the fallen ones, will see the faithful of humanity not just restored, but raised in glory.  Even rebellious and wicked humans will see the glory of those who trusted in Christ.

However, in all of this, the greatest battle is keeping ourselves focused on God’s purpose.  Thus, in verse10, Paul reminds us that we are God’s workmanship, His special work.  He works in us to do the good works that He has prepared for us in Jesus.

There is nothing wrong with making money, saving up, retiring, etc.  But, if that is all you are living for, then it will be wrong.  It is not the thing really, but me that is wrong.  When Christ comes in, all things should take their proper place so that we are no longer a slave to them.  We don’t have to be a slave to the lusts of our flesh, the course of this world, and the devil.  We can be free in serving Christ!

Our Battle audio