A Defensive Strategy

Legend has it that there was a football game once between the big animals and the little animals. The big animals dominated the first half. They ran the elephant up the middle every time, touched down. Ran the hippo off the left tackle every time, touched down. They ran the grizzly bear round the end every time, touched down. Just no contest at all. Big animals were just mopping things up in the first half. They ran out the second half. They ran the elephant up the middle. He was stopped at the line of scrimmage. Ran the hippo off the left tackle, stopped at the line of scrimmage. Ran the grizzly bear round the end, stopped at the line of scrimmage. They couldn't do a thing. And in the defensive huddle, one of the small animals said to the others, who is making all those tackles in this half? And the centipede said, it's me. And so one of the other animals said, where were you the first half? The centipede said, I was in the locker room, get my ankles taped. Well, there are different kinds of defensive strategies. In football, you have three lines of defense. You've got a front line, you've got line backers, you've got defensive backfield. Three lines of defense. What we're going to look at tonight is three lines of defense against false teaching. Please open your Bibles to Colossians chapter two. We're looking at Colossians on Sunday evenings. And we have seen that the theme of the book of Colossians is the Lordship of Christ. The book really centers around Christ, and who he is, and what he's done for us. Chapter one, the Lordship of Christ, in the church and in creation. In chapter two, the Lordship of Christ, in doctrine. And what Paul does in chapter two is he begins to take to task the false teaching and the false doctrine that was causing trouble in Colossi. Now we've talked a good bit about that as we introduced the book. And up to this point, we've talked about some of the problems with this cult that was common in Colossi and was already troubling the church there. It was a cult that had Jewish legalistic elements in it. It was a cult that had some other types of secret knowledge type of elements in it. It was a cult that would later become full blown about 30 years or so after Paul wrote this letter in the form of what's called Nosticism, a cult which claimed to have secret knowledge of God. And knowledge that only a select few could really have, and yet be in the in group to get it. And that's part of what Paul talks about in defending against that false teaching. Last week we saw in verses one through five of chapter two, Paul's concern for the church as he introduces the topic of the Lordship of Christ in doctrine. Now in verses six through fifteen, not all of which we'll look at tonight, but in that section of chapter two, he talks about the reality of true doctrine. He talks about what true doctrine really is. And then at the end of the chapter, verses 16 to 23, he will expose the false teaching. And that's where we get most of these elements of this cult that were troubling the Colossian church. Tonight I want us to look at verses six through ten. And Paul is going to show us a defensive strategy against false teaching as he presents the true doctrine of Christ. And remember that the doctrine that is at stake here, the Bible teaching that is at stake is the person and work of Christ in Colossians. And so that's the doctrine that Paul is really going to focus on. Who Christ is, the person of Christ, and what Christ has done for us, and its sufficiency to save us without anything else, that's the work of Christ. So the person and work of Christ is his real focus. But as he's concerned about this false teaching, we saw last week that he talked about Christ in whom, in verse three, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And he says, I tell you this in verse four, so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments. So he's concerned that this may be invading the church at Colossi. And he says in verse five, I'm delighted to see how orderly and firm your faith is now. So he's convinced, and he's delighted in the fact that they are standing firm in true doctrine now, but he's concerned that this continued onslaught of false teaching could wear down the Colossian church. And so what he's saying is with this broad offensive against you, and doctrinally, you need to have three lines of defense against that false teaching. First line of defense in verses six and seven is to keep growing. Keep growing in verses six and seven. He says, so then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Now the common interpretation, the common way that verse six is often understood is that you received Christ by faith when you got saved. And so if we're to continue in Him in the same way to live, then that means we're supposed to live by faith too. But in the context, that's really not what Paul's talking about, although that's a good truth, and John does talk about that in first John chapter two, that's not what Paul's talking about here. Paul is talking about continuing in the doctrinal truth you have received about the person of Christ. In fact, you see the word there in verse six, the word received. Paul uses that word eight times in his epistles to speak of instruction that's received from a teacher. So he's talking about those things about Christ which were taught you. The instruction given you about the Lord Jesus, stick with that, stay in that, don't depart from that. The focus has got to be kept on Christ. And in verse seven, he talks about being strengthened in the faith. So the whole context is against this false teaching and what it taught about Christ, and he's saying what you need to do is keep growing in Christ, in your knowledge and understanding of who He is and what He has done. His person and his work, and that's the first line of defense against this false teaching. Now remember what we've said about this false teaching is that they believed that there were a number of different beings between God and man. This particular strain of false teaching believed that God is way up here. God can have no contact with humanity in a bodily form and still be God because this cult taught that anything bodily was evil. So between God and man, holy and pure God, there are a number of lower beings, each one a little less God than the next. Finally, you get all the way down here to where the lowest one is Christ, Jesus, the one who comes down to earth, and He doesn't really resemble God at all. There's nothing left of God to be had. He's way down here. And so God is up here and Jesus is more like us and they denied the deity of Christ. And so Paul is really going to hammer on that. And what he's saying is just like you received instruction from me about who Jesus is and what He's done, then stick with that, continue in that, keep growing. Now as he talks about this growth in Christ, growing and continuing to understand who He is and what He's done, in verse 7, he mentions four elements of growth. If we're going to grow in Christ, there are four elements of growth to be had. First of all, we need to grow deeper. Notice he says, continue to live in Him. Verse 7, rooted is the first word, rooted. That's talking about growing deeper. Actually, it really could best be translated, having been rooted. It's talking about something that happened in the past that has present consequences. It's talking about a specific event in the past. You were rooted in the past and that has consequences from then on. The idea is that there must have been a point in your life and experience where there was a root system started and developed. You were rooted in Christ. I think he's talking about the new birth. I think he's talking about salvation. To be rooted in Christ means that there was a point in your past when you recognize that you needed Jesus Christ as your Savior. You placed your faith in Him as your Savior. You were born again. You were placed in the family of God. And that's where your root system's down. And that's where growth begins. Having been rooted in the past, which now affects you even to this present time. You see, the Christian life has to have a root system. The Christian life is not just a lifestyle that you assume and discard at will. The Christian life is not just something you say, well, you're not kind of like to live that way for a while. So I think I start going to church. I think I start reading my Bible and I think they talk about prayer and stuff like that. So I'll try some of that too. You just kind of pick up the lifestyle and say, you know, I'm going to try that for a while and see if it helps me out. The Christian life is not something just to be picked up and then discarded when it doesn't work for you anymore. What we're talking about here is putting down roots. We're talking about faith in Jesus Christ, which establishes your life. Jesus talked about this, didn't he? In the parable of the soils and the sower and the seed. When he said, you know, spreading the gospel is like a sower that goes out and he has seed and he's sowing it. And he's sowing as much of it as he can wherever he can, which is the way we ought to be spreading the word, the gospel. Jesus said, now, you know, some of that's going to fall. That seed's going to fall on different kinds of soil. Some of it is going to fall on just hard packed ground like pads where people have walked. And that seed's just going to lay on top. It's not going to be able to penetrate down and get a root system going. In fact, the birds of the air probably pick it up before it has any chance to take root. And he said, you know, that's like the devil taking the word of God out of people's hearts. People's hearts who are hard against the gospel. And then he said, you know, there's some seed that is sown on stony ground or ground that has maybe just a little bit of top soil, but then it's really hard rock underneath. And the root system doesn't really have a chance to get deep enough to sustain the life of the plant. So when the sun comes out, it dries up. It's gone because there's no real root system. And then he says, there's some seed that falls on what he called thorny soil, which is soil that is all, you know, the underbrush hasn't been cleared yet. So it's all kinds of stuff growing up around that takes all the nutrient out of the soil. And that seed really doesn't have a chance to develop a root system and grow either. In all three of those first cases, there's no root system developed. That's the reason why it doesn't grow. Now he said, the fourth kind of soil that seed can fall on is soil that what Jesus called as good soil. That means soil that is prepared, soil that has been nourished, soil that has been tilled. That means the Holy Spirit's been working in someone's heart. They are ready to receive Christ. And when the seed finds that kind of soil, what happens? The root system starts developing. And that's the first thing that has to develop before a plant can really take off, right? The root system. Now what Jesus was talking about, only one out of those four kinds of responses leads to salvation. And that's the seed that falls on good soil that takes root because it has something to start with. Now what Paul's talking about by being rooted in Christ is that you got saved. There was a point in time where you put some roots down into something solid. And that was you trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior. So the first step of growing in Christ is first of all to make sure you're connected. Make sure you've got your roots down into the Lord Jesus that you've trusted Him as your Savior. That's growing deep. Now that root system will continue to develop and grow even deeper. But that's where it starts. The second element of growth is growing higher. Not only do we grow deeper, we grow higher. Notice he says, rooted and built up in Him. Burbs into present tense, being built up, continually being built up. This is growth. This is continual activity of growing from that root system. You know, it's not enough just to have roots. I don't know much about plants. I guess I'm like most men. Some guys are into that kind of thing, I guess. But I'm like most men. I don't really know that much about plants. And Jeanne loves plants. And I remember a particular plant that she used to have and occasionally still gets one of them where you start the thing out in a jar of water. And for a while all it does is grow roots. It's grotesque looking. There's nothing growing up. It's just growing down. Just a bunch of roots. And then I think you're supposed to take that and transplant it into soil. And once you get it into soil, then it starts growing up. Now if all you've got is a root system but you never grow up and develop anything from that root system, you turn out to be kind of a grotesque looking Christian too. People who get rooted in Christ but never grow beyond that, never grow higher, really are not developing Christians or at least developing as they ought to be. Now the idea in this word is to develop higher layer by layer. In other words, level by level. All of us have to grow this way as Christians. We grow deeper by having our roots planted in Christ but we also grow higher as we learn more about the Word of God and we learn a layer at a time. We learn a little bit at a time. When you build a building, let's say it's a five-story building, you lay the foundation. That's kind of like a root system in a plant. Now the next thing you do is not to build the fifth floor. You don't build the fifth floor and then say, okay now let's go back and fill one, two, three and four. The first floor first, right? Then the second floor, you build it on up. That's the way growth is in the Christian life and in our understanding of who Christ is and what he's done. When you first get saved, you start with bottom level kind of stuff, with introductory stuff. We can't expect a new believer to be on fifth level type of doctrine before he's had first level kind of doctrine. So it's important that we feed people and teach people and help people grow in a way that gives them the foundation first but then helps them to build layer by layer. Sometimes we expect new believers to understand everything that you may understand after having been saved 30 years. That's not reasonable to expect that. They've got to grow layer by layer like you have. Little higher, little more, little at a time and hopefully get to the point where most of you are in your Christian walk, in your walk with Christ. So we grow deeper, we grow higher, thirdly, we grow stronger. He says it there in verse 7, strengthened in the faith as you were taught. Being strengthened, increasingly stable and firm in the Christian life and what you believe. You see, he talks about being strengthened in the faith. That's what you believe. That's doctrinal truth. That's understanding of the word, where to grow stronger in that way. Just like a plant develops first of all root systems, then begins to grow up out of the ground, grows higher, then it begins to grow stronger as it broadens and the roots grow deeper and the branches grow thicker and it gets stronger. And as it gets stronger, it is able to withstand storms and wind a lot better. The little sapling is not much of a match for a strong wind but you get a mighty oak that has developed and grown strong. That thinking withstands a lot of wind. And when false doctrine comes at us, when false teaching comes at us like it was the church in Colossi, Paul is saying you got to be growing stronger, understanding more of the word of God and more about who Jesus is, what he's done for us, getting more of this book into our hearts and minds so that we're strengthened in the faith in line with what we were taught. So we grow stronger. And then a fourth aspect of our growth in verse 7 is to grow sweeter. To grow sweeter. Now you know a lot of people grow deeper and grow higher and grow stronger and grow sourer all the time. They're doing that. The older we get, the more sour we get. And Paul is saying, no we ought to be growing sweeter at the same time. And he says that at the end of verse 7 when he says, and overflowing with thankfulness. You see, thankfulness is the fruit that grows on the tree. You got the root system, you got the growth above ground, you've got the strengthening as it broads and grows thicker. But then you got the fruit that comes. And I think thankfulness is kind of like the fruit that comes that makes the whole experience of the tree sweeter. In fact, this whole idea of thanksgiving, overflowing with thanksgiving is something that the writer of Hebrews speaks of in terms of being sweeter with praise. Notice he says, through Jesus, therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise the fruit of lips that confesses His name. Praise to the Lord is the fruit of a life. It's the fruit coming off of our lips that confesses His name. Fruit always indicates life that is deeper down. And praise always indicates or should indicate life which is rich inside. And so not only do we grow deeper and higher and stronger, but we also grow sweeter as we develop a more, a spirit of praise to God, a more overflowing heart with thanksgiving. To be thankful for what God has done for us, who He is, what He's given us. And you know a thankful heart keeping your focus on the Lord Jesus that way and being thankful for all that He is and all that He's done will make you less liable to doubt. It will make you less liable to being overthrown by false teaching. It is part of that first line of defense. You keep growing and you'll be better able to defend against the encroachment of false teaching. That's true of a church like ours. It's true of our own lives individually. So we've got to keep growing in Christ. Understanding more of His Word, who He is, what He's done for us. Understanding better. Having been rooted in Him, having been saved, then we've got to keep growing higher level by level, adding more to our understanding and growing stronger all the time to be able to resist the winds of temptation and false teaching and at the same time growing sweeter as we bear fruit as we give thankfulness to God. So the first line of defense against false teaching, keep growing. Second line of defense. In verse 8, keep on the lookout. Keep on the lookout for false teaching. Notice what Paul says there in Colossians 2 verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Now Paul thought of this as a real possibility. When he warns, see to it that no one takes you captive through what he's going to describe as this false teaching. He regarded that as a very real danger, as a very real possibility that a church could be overtaken by false teaching. And he was concerned about that, not only with the Colossian church. Look at what he says to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 3. He says, but I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the Serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. He was always concerned about the Corinthian church falling into false teaching and being led away from their simple, pure devotion to Christ. He was also concerned about the same thing in the Galatian churches because in Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 and 7, he says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. But evidently some people are throwing you into confusion or trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. He was concerned about the churches in Galatians, that province, that they were also being led away by false teaching, same thing with the church at Colossian. So you see Paul is concerned about at least those three churches and others as well that he writes to, it's a very real possibility that a church can begin to follow false teaching. That's why he says, keep on the lookout, don't think it won't happen to you. Don't think it won't happen to you personally. Don't think it won't happen to you as a church. It's awful easy to think, well, we've had strong Bible teaching for some years here, preacher Jimmy, for 37 years taught the word of God, preach the word of God, laid a strong foundation of sound Bible teaching. We've got the kind of history that would keep us defended against any kind of false teaching. We better not get too complacent. You see, these people had Paul teaching them and Paul himself was concerned that they could still be led astray by false teaching. So we can't just rest on our laurels and our history, we have to make sure we keep on the lookout for false teaching. Now it's interesting to me how he describes that false teaching in verse 8. Now some of these things have to do particularly with the cult there, but it's amazing to me how many of these things are true of most kinds of false teaching today as well. Four things, four characteristics of false teaching you mentioned in verse 8. The first is empty speculation. He says, see to it that no one takes your captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. Now there's nothing wrong with philosophy. I've heard this verse used to say, you know, all philosophy is wrong. The word philosophy simply means love of wisdom. That's what it means. There's nothing wrong with love of wisdom. The key is where do you get the wisdom from? You see if it's God's wisdom, we ought to love that. That's good sound philosophy. But if it's not based on God's word, then it's hollow and deceptive. In other words, it's empty speculation that just comes from human traditions, from human teachings. That's the kind of wisdom, worldly wisdom, man's wisdom that we need to be on guard against. That's why it's so important to stick with the word of God. Because the word of God will lead us to the love of the right kind of wisdom. God's wisdom, there's a whole book in the Bible written about wisdom and our love of wisdom. Look at Proverbs. It talks constantly about our love of wisdom, our desire to embrace wisdom. That's good biblical philosophy. But the vain deceitful kind that comes strictly from man's thinking is empty speculation. You need to be careful about that. The second element or mark of false teaching is human tradition or human origin. See he says, beware of this hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition. It's one of the few times in the New Testament in his letters that Paul uses the word tradition. And by the way, the word tradition is sometimes used in a good way in the New Testament. Tradition is not necessarily bad. Not all tradition is bad. Tradition can be very good. Our traditions that we have from our past can keep us stable and can be very, very good. What Paul is talking about is make sure they're not purely human traditions, make sure they are biblical traditions. If tradition has root in the Bible, that can be a great thing. It can be a wonderful thing to keep us rooted in God's word. Two things we have to be careful about about our traditions. The first thing is our tradition anti-scriptural. Any tradition which basically is just something we have learned to do from our history, we've just done it a certain way and that's what we've always done. We'd like to continue doing it that way. Well, if we find that a particular tradition that we have is not biblical, obviously that tradition needs to be dropped. If it's not biblical, I mean that should be kind of a given, right? I should understand that easily. The second thing we need to be careful about with traditions is that we don't elevate traditions to the level of scripture. There may be some traditions that are just fine, just wonderful. For instance, we all have traditions about service times and how many times a week we meet and things like that, but there are nowhere found in scripture. They're not bad traditions, they're fine traditions, but they're not the same level as the authoritative teaching of scripture. So if some of those traditions are changed, it doesn't mean we've abandoned the scriptures, not at all. If there is a good, cultural or practical reason for abandoning that kind of tradition in favor of doing something more effectively, then there's nothing wrong with that because we've not abandoned anything scripturally. See, we have to be careful that we don't place our traditions the way we've always done things on the level of scripture so that if we change a tradition, we begin to think, oh man, they're abandoning the Word of God there. We're doing something anti-biblical, not necessarily. We need to make sure that whatever we're doing is biblical, but tradition in and of itself can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how it's used. You see? So what Paul is warning about is human tradition, empty speculation that is based on human tradition, that kind of thing needs to go. The third element of false teaching that he's talking about is that it is legalistic, legalistic, or just legalism. Notice what he says there in verse 8. You wear of this hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world. Now that's an interesting expression, basic principles of this world. Is he talking about worldliness? Is he talking about worldly things you may do? Well, that's what it sounds like, but that's not really what he's talking about. If you take this phrase, basic traditions of the world and trace it through Paul's writings, you get a better idea of what he's talking about. This is where good Bible study methods, comparing scripture with scripture, come in handy. In fact, Paul uses the same expression a little later in this chapter and makes it more clear what he means by the basic traditions of the world. Look down at verse 20. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? In the verse 21, he gives some examples of these rules that he's talking about, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Now when we come to that passage, we'll describe what that means is something called asceticism, which basically means that you deny yourself any bodily pleasure because all that's sinful and evil. And that was a teaching that was identified with this false cult. What Paul is saying, what I want to emphasize tonight is simply what he means by the basic principles of this world is these legalistic rules that are supposed to order every part of your Christian life and you're supposed to do everything exactly like the rule makers tell you to do them. And these are not rules that are found in scripture. These are rules that we make up, things that we do to keep people in line to order their lives. They're not found in scripture, a lot of the things that are like this, not found in scripture at all. Paul uses the same expression, basic principles of the world in the book of Galatians, and it's even more clear there that he's talking about legalism. If you'll look, well I think we've got this one on the screen, Galatians 4, yeah we did. So also when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. Now what does he mean by that? In verses 9 and 10 he tells us, but now that you know God or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to these weak and miserable principles? What kind of principles? Verse 10, do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You're observing special days and months and seasons and years. He's talking about Jewish legalistic observances. The legalism of the Jewish faith, the Old Testament Judaism, that Jesus battled throughout his ministry, which put emphasis on keeping certain days and certain things more holy than others. And Paul was saying, you're going back to those basic principles of the world, that's worldly legalism. And so what he's talking about here, one of the false teachings that we need to stay aware of and need to be alert about is legalism. That legalism has two forms in the Bible. One form is a list of do's and don'ts to earn salvation. That's primarily the kind of legalism that Paul talks about in Galatians. Do this, do that, stay away from that, stay away from that, and you'll earn salvation. That's one form of legalism. But there is a second form of legalism which is a same kind of list of do's and don'ts, observances you're supposed to do not do in order to be spiritual as a Christian. Now that kind of legalism can be just as deadly. Won't rob you of your salvation, but it can be just as deadly to your spiritual life. And to your vibrancy as a Christian. I want to tell you something very risky but very real. Legalism is basically an attempt to control people's lifestyle and thinking. It's a substitute for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to control our thinking and our lifestyle by the Word of God. Now to a lot of people that sounds risky, I can't leave that up to the Holy Spirit. I got to make sure people are not going here, not doing that, doing this, doing that, make sure all these legalistic rules are followed. So it sounds risky to some people. If I just let people learn the Word of God and the Holy Spirit convict them about things, then I'm afraid they won't shape up to what I think they ought to do. Well it may sound kind of risky but it's much better to learn to live by the Word of God, the direction of the Holy Spirit as he applies the Scriptures to our lives than it is by a list of man-made rules. Because what happens if you live by the man-made rules, when the man who made the rules is no longer around then you get lost. You don't know what to do because he's no longer there to find out what to do. The Word of God will always be around. The Holy Spirit will always be able to apply it to our lives and individual specific situations to help us know what to do. And that is the grace way of living the Christian life. Legalism is deadening. And it will dry up churches and dry up Christian lives. So rather than man-made rules to try to order the Christian life by, let's just make sure we stick with the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to convict us when we're disobeying His Word and keep us in the right path and He's able to do that. Legalism is something we need to be warning against and staying away from. The fourth element of false teaching is that false teaching is Christless. Notice at the end of the verse he says, human tradition, basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Every kind of false teaching, heirs, is wrong when it comes to either the person or the work of Christ. Practically every kind of false religion and cult heirs when it comes to the person or the work of Christ. The focus gets off of Christ and onto something else. When we keep the focus on Christ, when we understand that knowing who He is, biblically, knowing what He has done for us biblically is the most important thing we can know about the Scriptures. Then we keep the focus on Christ like that, then we will stay away from false teaching. Now that leads me to the third defensive strategy. Paul leads right in from verse 8 to that in verses 9 and 10. The third defensive strategy is to keep the focus on Christ. That's simple. Keep the focus on Christ. So we've got to keep growing. We've got to keep on the lookout for false teaching and we need to keep the focus on Christ. Leading straight in from verse 8 where he says these people are Christless in their emphasis, he says in verse 9, for in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form and you have been given fullness in Christ who is the head over every power and authority. What does it mean by fullness? That was a favorite word of this cult that was troubling the church at Colossi. And what they meant by fullness was all of those beings between God and man. All of that together was what they described as the fullness and what Paul is saying is no all of that is in Jesus. All of it is in Jesus. There's nobody else but Jesus between God and man. The fullness of deity. In other words, all that God is resides totally in Jesus Christ. God's nature, God's attributes, God's power, everything that God is and does is in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ does not share that with anybody else. My friend Christ doesn't share it with anybody else today either. He doesn't share it with Muhammad, doesn't share it with Buddha, doesn't share it with Confucius, doesn't share it with anybody else. Jesus is the totality of the essence, attributes and power of God in one person, Jesus Christ. All the fullness of the deity abides in him and notice Paul sticks that in there to really get a dig in it, this cult, in bodily form. Jesus in his human body on planet earth had all the fullness of God in him. So that went right in the teeth of this cult which said anything in bodily form could not be pleasing to God at all. So we've got to have all these other beings in between. And Paul says, Christ in his human body was all the fullness of the deity of God. And he goes on to say because of that all we need is in Christ, verse 10. You've been given all fullness in Christ who is the head over every power and authority. Everything we need is found in him. And Paul will develop that further in verses 10 through 15 which we'll look at next time. He'll describe what it means for us to have all that we need in Christ. So this, my friends, is the defense that we need against false doctrine, against false teaching. And that is keep growing, keep growing in your understanding about the Bible teaches about the person and work of Christ. Keep on the lookout for false teaching and these kinds of elements we need to keep on the lookout for those kinds of things and make sure we do not allow them to get a foothold in the body of Christ. And then we need to keep the focus on Christ. And don't let anything distract from him who he is and what he's done because he should be our focus. All of what God is and does is found in Christ, nothing else, no one else. That's how we defend ourselves against false teaching. Personally and as a church, that's how we stay pure doctrineally. So let's stay right there, okay? Did you join me in prayer? Father I pray that you will help us to keep growing. I pray that you will help us to keep on the lookout for false teaching. And I pray that you will help us to keep the focus on Jesus Christ. Never lose our love for him or our doctrinal focus on him, who he is, what he's done for us. We thank you, Father, that you love us enough to send your son to die for us, to be our savior. Not only that, but to be our Lord, our constant companion and guide through life. To be the one that we focus our hearts affection on, help us to keep that first love for him every day of our lives. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.