In Ephesians 4-11 it says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry
edifying of the body of Christ.
So here he's explaining the purpose for pastors and teachers in the church and he says it's
to edify or build up the body of Christ.
Look at verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the what?
Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ that we henceforth, meaning from here on out, be no more children tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up
into him in all things which is the head, even Christ.
Go back to Colossians 2.
So in Ephesians 4 there he explains that in order for us to not be deceived and not to
be beguiled and not to be fooled by false teachers and false prophets and liars who
are going to come in and teach lies, he said we must have knowledge.
We must grow in knowledge.
We must be built up in the knowledge of the Son of God.
We need to have knowledge.
We need to have wisdom.
We need to have understanding.
Look, that's why it's important that at church here the preaching be a teaching of God's
word, not just a sermon where we go and we hear some preaching that makes us feel good.
Maybe it encourages us.
Maybe it even motivates us to do great things for God, but we need it to be a place of teaching.
It should be learning because in many churches it's rare that you're learning something,
and it should be the utmost importance in our service, and it should be a priority in
our preaching to teach sound doctrine.
Otherwise if we don't know the doctrines, if we don't have the knowledge of the Bible,
if we don't know what the Bible says, the Bible says there are already people lying
in wait to deceive us.
I mean people who literally, that's their whole purpose.
That's their whole goal.
They designed it in advance.
They decided, hey, we're going to go in there.
We're going to teach lies.
We're going to teach false lies.
You say, do you really think people do that?
Hey, the Bible tells us over and over again that they do.
He said in 2 Peter chapter 2 that they'll do it.
He said in Jude that they would do it.
He said there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.
Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord
God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, look, there are wicked, evil people.
Their goal is to come in and corrupt your doctrine.
Their goal is to come in and teach lies.
Their goal is to shake your faith and to get you to believe in things that are not biblical.
The only way to defend yourself against false teaching is to know the Bible.
If you know the Bible, you're not going to be fooled.