In Ephesians 411 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,
for 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 white 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,
okay?
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 falsehood."
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.