“The Freedom Jesus Gives!”
2 Peter 2:17-21
David P. Nolte
Today we celebrate and appreciate our nation’s freedom. Freedom purchased and maintained by the sacrifice of the nation’s finest. From July 4, 1776 to the present we have enjoyed 241 years of freedom. Freedom sure beats the socks off of the alternative. Yet people allow themselves to be put into bondage to something
There is a huge difference between freedom and license. Freedom is liberty to do what we choose insofar as it does not impede or interfere with the freedom or safety of another. License cares nothing for others, it looks to its own interest, good, and liberty. Freedom says, “You have a right to swing your arm around like a windmill – but that freedom ends where my nose begins.” License says, “If your nose gets in the way of my fist, tough luck for you!” Freedom says, “You allowed to drive your car on the freeway, but you are not allowed to drive north in the southbound lanes.” License says, “I’ll drive as I like and let the other guy beware!” Freedom is a good thing – license is not.
Peter wrote: “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” 1 Peter 2:16 (NASB).
Peter said, in reference to false teachers, advocates of unfettered liberties, “These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.” 2 Peter 2:17-21 (NASB).
Let’s consider our freedom from 3 perspectives:
I. IT IS A CONTROLLED FREEDOM:
A. “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering (excuse) for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.”
1. Freedom is not license! License is using freedom as a covering for sin.
2. We substitute license for freedom to the endangerment of the salvation of our souls.
3. Hear Peter again concerning the danger of following teachers of absolute, unbounded freedom, “who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.”
B. Controlled freedom is that which, with regard to sin in its various forms, declares:
1. “That’s not for me!”
2. “I want no part of that!”
3. “Others may, I may not!”
4. “I’d rather eat a live chicken than to indulge that sin!”
C. By controlled freedom, I mean: the ability and desire
1. To eschew and renounce known sin – however pleasurable.
2. To say, “No!” to the tempter when he entices us with our own desires.
3. To say, “Yes!” when the Holy Spirit urges us to obedience or some service for others.
4. To limit your rights for the good of others. Your freedom of speech does not include slander or perjury or yelling “Fire!” In a crowded theater when there is no fire.
D. We are free to choose our master and our actions – but Paul wrote, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:15-18 (NASB). Bad choices, bad consequences; good choices, good consequences.
E. We had a little dog, a Chihuahua-terrier, named Boots. Every Christmas, Boots would tear open a package or two of Keri’s – if they contained candy or other tasty edibles. She never chose John’s, or any of Marlene’s or mine. Here’s the point: She had the run of the house, she had food, she had a lot of freedom; but she pushed her freedom beyond the bounds of liberty and into license and encroached on Keri’s right and freedom to enjoy her gifts. Boots’ freedom was, unfortunately, uncontrolled.
IT IS A CONTROLLED FREEDOM, AND:
II. IT IS A CONDITIONAL FREEDOM:
A. “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.” Galatians 5:1-5 (NASB).
1. It is conditioned upon the work of Christ, not our own efforts.
2. It is conditioned upon standing firm. Don’t be moved away from your faith, hope and confidence in Christ.
3. It is conditioned upon faithfulness to Jesus Christ: Otherwise::
a. Christ will be of no benefit to you.
b. You will have been severed from Christ.
c. You will have fallen from grace.
B. Jesus paid for, and freely offers, freedom – to those who meet the condition of making Him Lord of life.
1. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” Hebrews 5:8-9 (NASB).
2. Paul’s task was to bring about the “obedience of faith among the gentiles.” Romans 1:5 (NASB).
3. “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.” 2 John 1:6 (NASB).
C. There is not a work we can perform that meets the qualification for salvation, but we must have faith; and faith is belief that trusts and obeys. Upon the condition that Christ remains your Lord, and you stand firm in your faith and obedience, you are free.
D. To be free, become His servant; to stay free, stand firm in your faith!
E. A miller told the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king called for the girl, shut her in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, and ordered her to spin the straw into gold or he would lock her up in a dungeon forever. While she sat hopeless, an imp-like creature appeared in the room and spun the straw into gold in return for her necklace. The next morning the king put the girl to a larger room filled with straw to repeat the feat, and the imp once again spun it into gold, in return for the girl's ring. On the third day, when the girl has been taken to an even larger room filled with straw and told by the king that he will marry her if she can fill this room with gold or banish her to the dungeon if she cannot. By now, the girl had nothing left with which to pay the strange creature so he extracted from her an unwilling promise that she will give him her firstborn child if he spins the straw into gold.
The king married the girl. But when their first child is born, the imp came to claim his payment, she offered him all the wealth she had but the imp had no interest in her riches. He finally consented to give up his claim to the child if she can guess his name within three days. Her many guesses fail, but before the final night, she wandered into the woods searching for him and came across his remote mountain cottage and watched, unseen, as he hopped about his fire singing, "Tonight, my plans I make, tomorrow, the child I take. The queen will never win the game, for Rumpelstiltskin is my name!"
When the imp came to the queen on the third day, she spoke his name and he lost his temper and jumped out of the window never to be seen again.
The bargain was conditioned upon guessing the imp's name and she met that condition. Our Christian freedom is conditioned on believing in Jesus and calling on His name.
IT IS A CONTROLLED FREEDOM; A CONDITIONAL FREEDOM AND:
III. IT IS A CONSTRUCTIVE FREEDOM:
A. "Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God." In contrast to the false teachers of libertarianism and unbridled, destructive freedom,.
1. It is freedom that results in Purity, not perversion.
2. It is freedom that produces wise, not wicked, living.
3. It is freedom from the onus of earning salvation.
4. It is freedom that enables us not to do just as we want, but to do just as we ought.
5. It is freedom from sin’s power and penalty.
6. It is freedom from fear and dread.
7. It is freedom from death.
8. It is freedom to become all that God intends us to be.
B. Those who have found that kind of freedom in Jesus, are being formed into His likeness.
1. Paul wrote, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NASB).
2. To put it another way, “This Lord is the Spirit. Wherever the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. As all of us reflect the Lord's glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into his image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (GW).
C. Do not be misled by those whose so-called “freedom” leads to depravity and slavery.
D. License is destructive and leads to unrestrained indulgence; godly freedom is constructive and leads to obedience and life.
E. To illustrate that, I share this with Mary’s permission. My good friend and brother, Norm Suiter, A.K.A. “Normal,” is a perfect example of constructive freedom. I quote from his book written a year or so prior to his entrance to Heaven. I tell it with mixed emotions: I miss him exceedingly, but rejoice with him in his eternal victory and freedom. He wrote, “In one of my morning devotion times recently, I ran across some Scripture that had touched my heart a few years ago and I had marked it. ‘I am under vows to you, O God; I will present my thank offerings to you. For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.’ Psalm 56:12-13 (NIV). Only I had changed ‘delivered me from death’ to ‘delivered me from alcohol.’ Alcohol and death do go together. It’s a deadly disease. Praise God for deliverance.” Norm continued, “I’ve had three divorces, several business failures, have suffered from depression and at times was suicidal.” But he discovered freedom. “Praise God for Grace and Forgiveness. The Lord Jesus Christ is helping me to take one step at a time in getting to the point where I am living a life that can be an example of my Savior here on earth.” You can see the constructive effect of freedom in his life. He wrote further, “I want to talk about the changes that have taken effect in my sobriety and in my Christian walk, .... well, the positives in my life include a marriage to a wonderful woman that the Lord led into my life, and my pastors Dave Nolte and Keith Sorenson who have led me into a more fulfilling life. While I am not, nor never will be perfect, I still confess sins every day. I want to live my life as an example of my Lord and want to spend eternity with Him someday.” Norm, because of the constructive freedom you knew in Jesus, you got your wish!
Like Norm, let Him have His way and it will pay off for right now and for eternity to come. "Have Your Own Way" is more than a song, it is a prayer, it is a commitment it is a surrender. Sing it, pray it, and mean it this morning. You are free to decline Christ’s offer of salvation and eternal life; you are equally free to accept it as we sing. PRAY / INVITE
