True Freedom: 2 Peter 2:19-22
Albert Camus was born in Algeria on November 7, 1913. He was a philosopher, author, journalist, and political activist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature when he was 44 years old. He died tragically in a car accident, in France, when he was just 46 years old. His philosophical writings flowed from his worldview, which falls into the category called the Absurd. Camus, along with Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean Paul Sartre are the most well known proponents of an Absurdist worldview. What is Absurdism? For Camus, the absurd is the conflict caused by our desire for order, purpose, and meaning in life and a universe that is silent. Camus held that this realization is not the end, but the beginning. Once we acknowledge that the universe has nothing to offer us, we are free to live with our own definitions of meaning and purpose.
In 1942, Camus published his most recognizable work, The Myth of Sisyphus, to share his thoughts about the meaning of life: “Man’s futile search for meaning in an unintelligible world devoid of God, values, and eternal truths.” Sisyphus was a figure from Greek mythology who was caught sharing secrets with mortals and was sentenced, by the gods, to push a huge boulder up a mountainside. Each day Sisyphus would push and push the huge boulder up the side of the mountain, but at the end of the day, just as he would approach the top, the boulder would roll back down to the bottom. The next day Sisyphus would have to start all over again. The point of Camus’ story is that life is being sentenced to do something pointless, living each day, from which nothing ever comes except the need to do it again. In that predicament, we are free to chart our path to meaning and purpose. Albert Camus said,
We modern people believe in absolute freedom. Many of us don’t believe in God at all. Many of us don’t believe in a God that you can know. Therefore, we believe in no God or no God you can really know because we believe in freedom. If there was a God we could know, who told us how we had to live, and who gave us the rules, and the regulations, well, then we wouldn’t be free but because we believe in freedom and because we don’t believe in the traditional view of God…we are free. But if we are free we are all like Sisyphus. (Albert Camus)
It is not just “modern people” who believe in absolute freedom. People throughout time have rebelled against being under the control of others. We don’t want others telling us what to do, and that includes God. You can read about it in the pages of history and watch it unfolding in our day in nations all around the world. We just celebrated Independence Day here in the United States. The question has to be asked, “What is freedom? Free to do what? Whatever we please?”
We began our study of 2 Peter 2:17-22 last week by taking a look at the characteristics of false teachers and those they target with their false teaching. We didn’t quite make it through to the end of Scripture so we are going to pick up today where we left off last week. Let’s go back and read the entire section of Scripture and then we will focus on verses 19-22. Read along with me.
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity-- for "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them." 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud." (2 Peter 2:17-22 NIV)
Let’s pick up in verse 19 where Peter says the false teachers “...promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity…” What kind of freedom were these false teachers highlighting for their followers? There are most likely two answers to that question, but they are really two sides to the same coin. First, the false teachers were leading everyone to believe that there would be no future coming of Jesus and therefore no future judgment. We will learn more about this in our study of 2 Peter 3. The other side of the coin follows naturally, if in fact there will be no accountability for the life we are living–we are free to do whatever we please. Peter, in his first letter, encouraged these same believers, in 1 Peter 2:16.
16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves. (1 Peter 2:16 NIV)
Evidently it isn’t just the modern-day church that is plagued by those who call themselves followers of Jesus and yet live their lives however they choose to live it. Paul urged the people in Galatia to use their freedom to serve, not sin. Turn with me to Galatians 5:13 and let’s read together.
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13 NLT)
There is no group of people on the planet today who are more free than the followers of Jesus. I can say that with absolute confidence. We are not free to do whatever we want, but we are free “in Christ.” A.W. Tozer wrote,
Be careful when someone promises you freedom with "no strings attached" (e.g., freedom to live as you please), because true spiritual freedom in Christ is not the right to do as you please, but is the liberty (and the power) to do as you should. No man is right to do as he pleases unless he pleases to do right! In other words, true Christian liberty is the liberty from sin and not to sin. The glory of the Gospel brings spiritual freedom, while the disgrace of this "brand" of false teaching brings bondage to sin, self and Satan. (A.W. Tozer)
Another great Bible teacher, Tim Keller, wrote, “Freedom, then, is not the absence of limitations and constraints but it is finding the right ones, those that fit our nature and liberate us.” Jesus frees us from the shackles of sin and self, gives us new life, and calls us to follow Him. Jesus told His followers.
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32 NIV)
Knowing the truth about ourselves, we are sinners who are lost, desperately lost and can’t even begin to find our way, and knowing the truth about Jesus, that He is the Way, and following Him leads to the greatest freedom we could ever know. This truth is true whether we are sharing it in Oklahoma City where we, as followers of Jesus, have such incredible freedom to worship and share our faith, or if we are sharing it in China or Iran or Nigeria, three nations where Christians are most persecuted. Did you know the church in Iran is one of the fastest growing in the world, despite knowing the penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity to possibly be torture or death?
Peter says the false teachers of his day, and this still holds true in our day, promise freedom, but they are slaves of depravity. At the end of verse 19, Peter writes, "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them." I can remember sharing with my kids while they were living at home about all of the things the world has to offer that can lead them down a dark path that ends in destruction. I would say, “Be careful that you don’t crack that door because if you do you might not be able to close it.” Paul shares the same truth, but much better when he writes,
16 Do you not know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey-- either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, 18 and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18 CSBO)
The pursuits, people, and experiences that seem to hold so much promise of bringing us what we are looking for in life, which will finally make us happy, they can absolutely destroy our lives. We think they will serve us, but in actuality we end up serving them. That great American theologian, Bob Dylan once said, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody…” and it is true. You will either serve your self-determined path or you will serve the Lord. In the first century the famous philosopher of Rome, Seneca, wrote, “...to be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes.” We will lead ourselves into slavery to that which will destroy us or we can choose to be a slave of Jesus, the One who sets us free! Michael Green, in his commentary on this verse, writes,
…the heretics proposed a new paradox, freedom from the rules of love imposed by their new Master–only to plunge them back into the bondage in which they themselves lived. No man can serve masters; but all men must serve one. …Healthy Christian living comes when God’s commands are seen as the kerb stones on his highway of love, the hedge encompassing his garden of grace. (Green, Michael. 2 Peter and Jude. pg. 139-140)
I want to take the rest of our time this morning to address a topic that I’ve heard discussed over and over again during the past 35 years that I have been here at Britton Christian Church. The topic is salvation: How do you receive it? Who has it? Can you lose it? All of these questions come into play when we read the last three verses of our study for this morning. Let’s read verses 20-22 once again.
20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud." (2 Peter 2:20-22 NIV)
Peter is still writing about the false teachers. If you carefully read these verses you can draw your conclusion that these false teachers were at one point in time true followers of Jesus. Look at what Peter says about them: They had “escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” At one time they knew “the way of righteousness…” At the same time, Peter says they have become entangled and overcome once again by the corruption of the world. He also says even though they knew the way of righteousness they had turned their backs on it. So, the question has to be asked, “Were these false teachers true followers of Jesus who had renounced their faith or were they never true followers of Jesus at all?” This is the most important of questions for you and me and these verses have troubled so many people through the years. Dick Lucas and Christopher Green write,
These verses have caused great anxiety and discussion over whether it is possible to be saved but then to lose salvation. Worried Christians wonder whether they are Christians at all. Confident Christians count raised hands at evangelistic meetings as denoting new believers, and then wonder why so many fall away. (Lucas and Green. The Message of 2 Peter and Jude. pg. 109)
The question of whether someone can lose their salvation has been debated throughout Church history, but instead of walking the halls of history I would prefer to walk you through the Scriptures this morning. Let’s start with Jesus. Turn with me to John 10:27-30.
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one." (John 10:27-30 NIV)
Jesus said, “I give them eternal life…no one will snatch them out of my hand…no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” If salvation was something you and I earned then it would be something we could lose, but it is God’s gift to you and me, His free gift. Paul puts it like this, in Romans 6:2-23.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:20-23 NIV)
The wages of our sin, what we have earned from God, is death, spiritual death or separation from God, as well as physical death, but the “gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Let me show you just one more example. If you will turn with me to Ephesians 2:4-9.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:4-9 NIV)
You and I were dead in our sins, but God “made us alive with Christ.” “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” Your salvation, my salvation, is the work of Jesus and the free gift of God to all who will believe. Your salvation is not determined by how many Sundays a month you are in worship and Sunday school. Your salvation is not determined by how nice you have been to the people you live with and work with each day, though your kindness is a fruit of the salvation you have so freely received. Your salvation is a gift from God provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the One who paid the price for our reconciliation. My favorite preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once told his congregation,
It is not your hold of Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument—it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to your hand with which you are grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to your hope, but to Jesus, the source of your hope; look not to your faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
I mentioned that our kindness doesn’t result in our salvation, but that it is a fruit of the gift of salvation. Those who are true followers of Jesus exhibit a changed heart which leads to a changed way of living life. Paul wrote to the people in Corinth.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
For the followers of Jesus, there is the old life we used to live and then there is the new life that Jesus empowers us to live through the Holy Spirit. Paul, in his letter to the church in Galatia contrasts the two lifestyles this way.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:19-24 NIV)
A real conversion will result in the Holy Spirit making changes in our lives, changes which will continue throughout our lives. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean that we are sinless, but it does mean that we will sin less. And, this leads us to the false teachers Peter has been describing for us. They had momentarily, for some period of time, escaped the corruption of the world and had become knowledgeable about Jesus. They learned about the path of righteousness, but then they turned back.
In all of the years I’ve been working in the church I have heard so many reasons why people have accepted Christ and begun to follow Him. I’ve known young guys who fell in love with a girl who loved the Lord with all of her heart. They thought that going to church and Bible study with her would give them an inside track in the relationship. Once the relationship ended, so did his love for Jesus. We’ve all heard of jailhouse conversions. Someone gets in trouble and makes a pact with the Lord. “Lord, if you will get me out of this jam then I’ll serve you for the rest of my life.” I know from experience that you don’t have to be in jail to make that kind of pact with the Lord. I prayed that prayer many times when I was a kid. Some of those desperate cries to God stick and lives are truly changed, but most of the time once the trouble subsides, so does the passion for the Lord. This is nothing new, it’s a story as old as time. Jesus told a parable that describes what we’ve been talking about, it’s called the Parable of the Sower. Turn with me to Luke 8:4-9 and let’s read together.
4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." 9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. (Luke 8:4-9 NIV)
Thankfully, Jesus did explain what He meant. The seed that fell on rocky soil represents the people who hear the Gospel, are excited about the Good News, but they don’t have any roots so “they believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear the Good News, but they get distracted by “life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” The seed that fell on good soil, planted in fertile hearts, represents those who hear the Good News, “retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”
Did you hear that word “persevering?” It is such an important word. Jesus said, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22 ESV) The word “endures” is the same as “persevere.” Paul wrote to the people in Corinth,
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1-2 NIV)
There is this doctrine which we don’t hear much in the modern-day Church, but which was taught often by the old dead preacher friends of mine. It is called the “perseverance of the saints.” What it means is this: God has done something; God is doing something; and God will do something. The God who started His work in you will finish it. This is what Paul was saying in Philippians 1:6,
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 NIV)
The false teachers of Peter’s day and the false teachers which are still plaguing the Body of Christ in our day are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They knew about Jesus, they may have even followed Jesus for a while, but eventually their true colors came to light.
If God has saved you, given you the free gift of eternal life through Jesus, then you have been given true freedom my friend! I wonder if there are any here this morning who God is calling to receive that gift this morning? If so, I want to invite you to come forward so we can all celebrate with you.
Mike Hays
July 13, 2025
