"Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. Christians today create sacred items which they barter for the Word of God. They think their faith is enlivened by them. Satan is placing something besides Christ as the object of their faith to keep them out of the strait and narrow way." ROM 1:25

Once a man told me that he felt so blessed to be able to look to the baptized foreheads of his children. I truly believe this man was a dear child of God, yet you can see how Satan was trying to remove his eyes from Christ. Where does Scripture mention a baptized forehead? Oh beloved, though it may seem so sacred, may God enlighten the eyes of His church to see the delusion.

Oh beloved, God’s Word admonishes us in COL 2:8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

The gospel of Satan will spoil us and cause us to rest on something outside of the blessed atonement and perfect righteousness of Christ. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

God’s Word admonishes us to beware of Satan’s gospel preached by those who received not the love of the truth. They can barter the Word of God for something that is sacred and precious to them; by so doing, they become gainsayers of the Word. They start adding to or taking from the Word of God saying, "But we must presume," when God’s Word calls presumptuous sins the great transgression.

David said in PSA 19:13, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." Satan’s gospel sets God’s Word at naught.

Where is the authority of the Word of God? These satanic substitutes and human reasonings destroy the sacredness of the Word of God. COL 2:8 says, "Beware lest any man spoil you [by following these philosophies we are spoiled!] through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." It is so important that we understand these admonitions.

How can it be a blessing to place our children under the covenant of circumcision and thus make them debtors to do the whole law? COL 2:10-11 tells us "And ye are complete in him...In whom also ye are circumcised...by the circumcision of Christ." It was in the circumcision of Christ that He became a debtor to do the whole law on our behalf. When we re-circumcise our children, the circumcision of Christ in their behalf is nullified.

This is why the apostle says when we administer the covenant of circumcision, "...Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, [because you are re-circumcised, you have nullified Christ’s circumcision on your behalf, that is why Paul says,] whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."

How can we pretend to place our children under the covenant of circumcision when the apostle so sharply admonishes us in COL 2:ll saying, "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased."

Satan tries to use these things which can seem so sacred to replace the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of our comfort and our salvation. Something can become so sacred to us; we can be so sincere, and yet be so sincerely wrong. Satan is coming forth as an angel of light. He pulls our eyes away from the perfect righteousness of Christ; then Christ is not the center and object of our faith.

2TH 2:10-11 speaks of those who, "...received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." These strong delusions become so sacred that we hold them above the Word of God. Verse 12 continues, "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Having pleasure in something besides that perfect light and having our eyes fixed upon something besides Christ is a delusion.

The men of Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica. ACT 17:11 says, "...in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."

We must sort out all these gospels with the Word of God. Anything that is not founded 100% upon the Word of God must be filed in that little round file, the trash can; a lid must be put on it, so we will never refer to it again.

If we have to add any philosophy to God’s Word to gain our interpretation, we must throw it away. It is Satan’s gospel. There is only one true gospel, and that is the Word of God. If we don’t understand the authority of the Word of God, we can never be a true light to the world. We can be ever so sincere, and yet be sincerely wrong if we are not settled wholly upon the authority of the Word of God.

We must understand that human intellect and humanistic reasoning is confounded by the true light. 1CO 1:27 says, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." What seems so insignificant within the Word of God will confound the wise men of the world. It will confound the things which are mighty. The Word must become our total authority.