The Promise Of Liberty-5 Series

The PROMISE Of LIBERTY-V—2Peter 2:17-22

Attention:

Freedom?

The Fourth of July was coming up, & the nursery school teacher took the opportunity to tell her class about patriotism.

"We live in a great country," she said.

"One of the things we should be happy is that, in this country, we are all free."

One little boy came walking up to her from the back of the room.

Standing with his hands on his hips, he said, "I'm not free. I'm four."

You may be something other than free!

There are many purveyors of false ‘truth’ who are infecting & effecting our great country’s government. In fact, because we are not a ‘Christian nation’ per se, but are rather a ‘Christian influenced’ nation,

The politicos promise happiness, prosperity, peace, freedom, wellness, care, etc. within a background of the church...BUT is their’s True(real/actual) Liberty/Freedom?

We must ask ourselves a question in all seriousness...

Is Liberty/Freedom a reality for you?

Peter revealed that a false liberty had been presented to the Church.

The true Church yields to true liberty.

But panderers of false Liberty/Freedom can mislead the Church.

Why must the Church yield to God’s liberty?

9 distinctions/functions/invitations/stipulations of true Liberty...God’s liberty.

We have found previously that...

True Liberty...God’s Liberty stipulates/assumes...

1. A QUENCHED THIRST(:17a)“wells without water”

2. ETERNAL LIGHT(:17b)“blackness of darkness forever”

3. HUMILITY(:18a)“great swelling words”

4. FULLNESS(:18b)“emptiness”

5. OTHER-WORLDLY ENTICEMENT(:18c) “allure”

6. A RESTRICTED SATISFACTION(:18d) “thru lusts of the flesh” “lewdness”

7—True liberty stipulates...

A RELIABLE PROMISE/Promise’s Liability(:19a)

Explanation:(:19)“promise them liberty”

:19—“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”

Their mantra may have been similar to our excuses, ‘I can do whatever I want!’ or ‘It’s legal so it’s okay!’ Such as these thrive on the coattails of majority opinion, crafting a salve of self-made morality(:18).

This is where the Church’s influence is brought into play. The true Church can & does positively influence the morality of the land. If it can not, it is because it is artificially silenced thru the authority of a secular culture made nervous at the prospect of accountability for personal sin.

Isa. 55:11—“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

And remember, ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Good News.’

The Holy Spirit tells the Christian:

1Cor. 6:12—“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

**We must ask ourselves, “What is this promise based upon?”...& “Is that foundation trustworthy?”

JESUS’ PROMISE:

Lk. 4:16-21—“So He[Jesus] came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, & stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, & gave it back to the attendant & sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

“In...the Old Testament, there are several dozen major prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, who would be sent by God to redeem His people. In effect, these predictions formed a figurative fingerprint that only the Anointed One would be able to match. This way, the Israelites could rule out any imposters & validate the credentials of the authentic Messiah.”.....“the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled[in one person] is one chance in one hundred million billion. that number is millions of times greater than the total number of people who’ve ever walked the planet.”.....“the probability of fulfilling forty-eight prophecies is one in a trillion”--13X over!—Lee Strobel & Louis Lapides in ‘The Case For Christ.’

*If anyone promises you a ‘liberty’ that is not soundly centered & based in Christ Jesus then that person is a liar or those people are liars! Such ‘promised liberty’ is all borne of the lie that the devil proffers—That we don’t need God’s solution(Jesus’ payment for our sins)...We only need a common, nondescript, subjective spirituality & religious feel-goodness.

“Promise”—epaggellw—Verb—1) To announce that one is about to do or furnish something—1a) To promise(of one's own accord) to engage voluntarily; 2) To profess—2a) An art, to profess one's skill in something. Strong—reflexively--To announce upon, i.e. by implication--To engage to do something, to assert something respecting oneself. Used 15X.