THE Apostle Paul is ever a faithful pastor who is always looking to care for the believers under his charge, and concerned that they may not be led astray. Here at the end of his long letter, which has been an exhaustive declaration of doctrinal truth, he still cares for the Christians in Rome and seeking their protection from the attacks of the evil one. Paul is never finished with teaching the truth, and this we find in these verses which, when we meditate upon them, we find ourselves being led into important truth which is so important for our spiritual health.

I URGE YOU, BROTHERS.

Paul as always is a gentle and caring pastor. He does not command, but urges. He does not set himself above the believers in Rome, but identifies himself with them. He speaks of himself as one of the family, a brother amongst a family of brothers. Although by virtue of his apostleship, and the fact that he has been so much used by the Lord in establishing churches, and leading so many into the truth of their salvation, Paul still does not command, but in real love, urges the believers to be on their guard. In spite of the fact that Paul knows them to be obedient to the truth (verse 19) he still is concerned for them because he knows in his own experience the terrible attacks and subtlety of Satan, and how easily the best of us can be led astray.

Here is an important example for all pastors and teachers in the church of Christ. We are shepherds of Christ's flock, and we must always be aware of the dangers of satanic attack, and be careful to keep our 'sheep' safe from his influence.

THE WARNING.

In his concern for the church in Rome Paul warns the Christians against the danger of false teachers. Paul warns against those who cause divisions in the church, and place obstacles in the way of the believers. How are these achieved by Satan? Paul tells us that it is through false teaching. He speaks of teaching contrary to the teaching the church in Rome had received, and specially contrary to the teaching given by Paul in this long letter.

So we have a warning against false teaching. It is a warning against being led away from the truth of salvation which will endanger peace of heart, and endanger Christian security in Christ. It is a great truth of the Bible that all who are truly saved from sin and death through faith in Jesus as their sin-bearing Saviour and Lord, can not be final lost, but Satan can cause great harm in the Christian life and cause them either to backslide, or be brought into bondage by doubts and fear. It is this Paul is concerned about so he gives this warning.

False teaching is one of the devil's greatest and most persistent tools to cause pain, and cause trouble, in the life of Christ's church. There are examples of this all down the history of the church, and it is a very real danger today, and wherever the true church of Christ is found in the world. Jesus taught this danger in the parable of the wheat and the weeds. The parable speaks of the devil coming and sowing weeds amongst the wheat, in other words sowing false teaching and error amongst the truth.

The trouble is that the devil comes with his error with great plausibility and reasonableness. He does not come out with false teaching in the open, but insinuates it by introducing some slight error, which like yeast in bread dough, then permeates the whole with its malicious damage.. The devil knows that if he can gain such a foothold in the life of the church, he will soon be able to use this error to introduce bigger and more damaging error, until he has achieved almost complete perversion of the truth, so the church becomes ineffective. We have this portrayed for us in the Jewish church when Christ was teaching. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had so perverted the truth given by God through Moses, that the whole religion of the Jews had become an offence to Christ, and people were being led to believe in that which could not make them right in the sight of God.

THE DAMAGE OF FALSE TEACHING.

Jesus marks out two ways by which false teaching brings harm into the fellowship of Christ's people. The first is it causes division, and secondly it places obstacles in the way of faith. Let us consider both these harmful things.

False doctrine causes divisions. There can be no doubt that divisions are a curse which have afflicted the church down the centuries, and is a curse in the worldwide church today. Divisions cause the church to waste its energy and time in seeking to heal the divisions, and such is the subtlety of Satan's activity, that through these divisions the truth of God can be watered down in the mistaken opinion that the healing of the divisions is to find some way that all opinions can be accepted, and so everybody may then be satisfied. Here is the smooth talk and flattery by which Satan makes things worse. In this way Satan causes those who are faithful to the truth of God to be treated as the trouble, and the causes of the divisions, when in reality it is the false doctrine, put over by Satan, that is the cause of the divisions.

The only way to combat false teaching is to teach the truth, and show how it corrects and condemns the error.

Then what are the obstacles found in false teaching? The obstacles of false doctrine are many, and sometimes very difficult to discern until we trip over them. The obstacle of false teaching is the doubts that it causes in the mind of believers. False doctrine is always turning us away from Christ to natural religion and works for our acceptance with God. One obstacle which is so popular in the devil's arsenal is the suggestion that our many failings must be put away before we can expect God to accept us. This is a total lie, but very easily accepted, but if we do, then we will never have Christian assurance or be able to have any victory over our short comings. The fact is that we grow in strength and victory over sin when we rest in the peace with God which comes from faith in Christ's work for us, and so in love we are more diligent in the pursuit of holiness, and have the grace of the Holy Spirit sanctifying us.

Another obstacle that false teaching places in our way is that it causes us to question the truth, and wonder whether we may be wrong. Such is the power of false teaching because the majority in the church seem to be following the false teaching, and we feel a doubt of the truth because we are alone. The answer here is to go back to the Bible and reaffirm the truth which we have been taught.

Another obstacle in false teaching is that, though we know that the teaching is false, we are not able to bring arguments against it, either to give us peace of mind, or to be able to stand against those who oppose the truth.

Such is the cleverness of the devil in these obstacles that he is always reinventing them, or raising new ones, so Paul's warning is only too relevant.

FACING FALSE DOCTRINE.

For most of us, we know and feel that we are not equipped to combat false teaching. From time to time God raises up champions for the truth, to whom he gives grace, wisdom and knowledge to combat the errors which Satan is sowing, but for most of us, all we can do is to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

Paul gives sound advice which seems cowardly at first, but is the best advice possible. Paul tells us to keep away from false doctrine, and keep away from those who teach false doctrine, and from the places where false doctrine is being taught.

This teaching is to keep out of danger. We do this in many ways. The first is to belong to a fellowship of believers, a local congregation, where the truth is being faithfully taught. This is not always possible, so what do we do then when there is no church near us which is faithful to the truth? Do we stay away from worship Sunday by Sunday? I don't believe so! The way forward here is to guard our minds from the false teaching by study of the Bible and the reading of books where the truth is faithfully proclaimed. If we are well founded in the truth we will be able to discern when it is not being followed, and thereby avoiding being taken in by it.

If we are conscious of a call to the ministry and to teaching we need to be sure that we chose a place of learning or a college which is faithful to the truth. Many people who have sought to become ministers have found their faith undermined by the false teaching they have received from those who should be teaching them the truth.

We also keep away from false teaching by not reading books which are not faithful to the Bible truth, and avoiding attending places where we know truth is being denied.

THE CHARACTER OF FALSE TEACHERS.

Paul tells us about false teachers. He tells us that they are not serving the Lord, but are serving their own appetites. By this he means that they are motivated by self. They seek their own glory. They are seeking a following. They want to please themselves.

CONCLUSION.