Key Truth: We must beware false teachers who would re-entangle us in the sinful patterns of our old lives.

Introduction:

“The purpose of life,” said P.T. Forsyth, “is not to find your freedom, but to find your master.”  Just as a gifted musician finds freedom and fulfillment putting himself or herself under the discipline of a great artist, or an athlete under the discipline of a great coach, so the believer finds true freedom and fulfillment under the authority of Jesus Christ.

2 Peter & Jude: The IVP New Testament Commentary Series,
Warren Wiersbe, in Robert Harvey & Philip H. Towner

How would you finish this statement: I would truly be free if...?

Beware False Freedom:

2 Peter 2:17-22

“The pastor’s difficult task is to justify the Christian ideal of love between man and woman in a cynical world that constantly taints, and degrades and exploits.  Is the long, hard struggle for integrity and idealism really possible, and is it worthwhile? This is the question that the Christian is continually having to ask himself—in Africa, in Europe, in America.  And it is a question that merely happens at the present time to find its focus in the area of sexual behavior. It applies equally to every aspect of the life of man where the way of Christ challenges the convenient compromises that human nature has made with primitive impulse and practical convenience.”

I Loved a Girl: A Private Correspondence,
David R. Mace, in Walter Trobisch

In what areas of life has the call of discipleship been particularly difficult for you recently?  
In what areas of life have you particularly seen God’s goodness and faithfulness to you?

“People are frequently immunized against a disease by being inoculated with a mild form of it, or with a related but milder disease.  And in the spiritual realm experience suggests that it is possible to be “immunized” against Christianity by being inoculated with something which, for the time being, looks so like the real thing that it is generally mistaken for it….It is a question of people who see clearly where the truth lies, and perhaps for a period conform to it, but then, for one reason or another, renounce it….God has pledged Himself to pardon all the truly repentant, but Scripture and experience alike suggest that it is possible for human beings to arrive at a state of heart and life where they can no longer repent.”

2 Peter & Jude: The IVP New Testament Commentary Series,
F.F. Bruce, in Robert Harvey & Philip H. Towner

2 Peter 2:17-22 teaches us that:

- In Christ we have been set free from the enslaving passions of our old nature.

- We must therefore resist any teaching that would encourage us to become re-entangled with the sinful patterns of our old lives.