Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Human history is filled with stories of liberation from tyranny, the triumph of freedom over oppression. But it also tells of the abuse of liberty and confusion over freedom. Today on Telling the Truth, Stuart helps you see the correct way to view personal liberty in light of your faith in Christ.

Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of Scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion. We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now here's Stuart with his message, Liberty Has Its Limits.

Stuart Briscoe: Look at the terms that Peter uses here. In verses 10 through 14, he talks about the corrupt desire of the sinful nature. Now let me make application here of his description of these false teachers. Illustrations of what it means to be dominated by the corrupt desire of the sinful nature. It says that these people follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Read on. Not only are they bold and arrogant and not afraid to slander celestial beings, it goes on to say in verse 12, "These men blaspheme in matters they do not understand." They speak with tremendous authority from the depth of their ignorance because, you see, having ruled out eternal things, having ruled out divine things, having ruled out ultimate things, having denied any eschatological dimension towards life, they are living in self-induced ignorance. That doesn't stop them speaking with tremendous authority from the depths of their self-induced ignorance, and they can't see their bondage.

Read on. They are blots and blemishes. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. What matters to these people? What matters to people who are being dominated by the corrupt desires of the sinful nature? What matters to them is freedom to enjoy themselves. The more they are focusing in on enjoying themselves, the more they focus in on pleasure, the more pleasure begins to pall, and the more they will need to go to extremes. And the more extremities they go to, the more they will discover an emptiness that has come from the error of their ways.

Why is it that the pleasures that we seek that will satisfy us in a transient way but will never lead to satisfaction? It is because there is something that cannot be satisfied in the human sinful nature by purely earthly pleasures. A person who is living in the freedom that is bondage is a person who is living in bondage to his own corrupt sinful nature, despising authority, bold and arrogant, going to extremes as far as pleasures are concerned, blaspheming in matters they don't understand, with eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning.

Actually, the expression here in the original language is "with eyes full of the adulteress." What that means is this: that there are some people who are so into pleasure, so into satiating their own passions, that they cannot see a woman without seeing a sex object. Their eyes are full of the adulteress. Whenever they see a woman, they see a sex object. Now we've got a nice name for it now; we call it sexual addiction. Peter calls it simply claiming to live in freedom to do whatever you want to do, go wherever you want to go, be whatever you want to be, and to be in abysmal bondage to your own sinful nature.

Guest (Male): More teaching from Stuart and Jill Briscoe is coming up, so stay with us. Did you know you can find more life-giving content from the Briscoes at tellingthetruth.org and on the Telling the Truth app? There you can sign up for daily devotionals, watch videos, read blogs, and access a variety of other resources to help you experience life.

And while you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource as thanks for your gift of support to help share the abundant life Jesus offers with more people around the world. Visit us online or download the app today and experience life with Telling the Truth. Now here's Stuart with the conclusion of his message, Liberty Has Its Limits.

Stuart Briscoe: Now please notice three things here. Jesus is talking about people acknowledging that His word is truth. That is the truth. Now, if you will acknowledge that what Jesus says is truth and the opposite is error, and you will submit to that truth, you will then become His disciple.

If you'll submit to His truth and His discipling, then you acknowledge His lordship. If you'll submit to His truth, if you'll submit to His discipling, if you'll submit to His lordship, guess what? You'll be free. You say, "Oh, come off it. I'll be in bondage to truth, and I'll be in bondage to discipleship, and I'll be in bondage to His lordship." Right. It's the bondage that in Christ leads to freedom.

You know why, don't you? There's no such thing as absolute freedom. There is no such thing as absolute freedom. So what you have to decide is this: Will I be mastered by that which is fundamentally malevolent, or will I be mastered by that which is fundamentally benevolent?

Will I be mastered by that which corrupts and is corrupting, or will I be mastered by that which is gracious and transforming? Will I simply say I'll have nothing to do with truth, I'll have nothing to do with lordship, I'll have nothing to do with discipleship, I'm free to be me? Or will you say, "I will acknowledge the bondage that that liberty has brought me into, and I choose, instead of being free to be me, I choose to be free to be His"? And that's the bondage that in Christ is liberty.

Why? Because He becomes the counteracting dynamic who begins to counteract the corrupting influence of the world. He is the counteracting dynamic who begins to counteract that inner sinful nature. He is the counteracting dynamic who takes away the fear of ultimate judgment. He is the counteracting dynamic who introduces into my life the power to be what I ought to be, that in myself I could never be. One is free, not when he can do what he wishes to do, but when he wishes to do and can do what he should do.

I give you that again. One is free, not when he can do what he wishes to do, but when he wishes to do and can do what he should do. Are you free? Or would it be that somebody has promised you freedom while they themselves are a slave of depravity, and they didn't tell you that the freedom that they offer is bondage indeed?

The freedom that in actuality is apostasy. Now here's the situation. Peter is addressing these false teachers, or rather the people who have been exposed to the false teaching, and this is what he says to them: "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they're worse off at the end than they were at the beginning."

Okay, the false teachers are coming to some people who have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They're coming to them and saying, "You don't want to be into this lordship thing, you don't want to be in this discipleship thing, you don't want to be into this truth business, we'll liberate you from all that." And Peter says, "If you listen to them and you turn your back on that which you know of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are entangled again in the corruption that you escaped from, your second position is worse than your first."

Then he repeats it. "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 commandment that was passed on to them." So what's he talking about here? He is talking apparently about the possibility—hear me very clearly—he is talking apparently about the possibility of men and women knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, having received the sacred commandment, then being attracted to this enticing idea of liberty where they reject lordship, where they reject discipleship, where they reject the truth and decide to be free.

And Peter says, "You may call that freedom; I call it apostasy." A rejection of that which formerly you embraced, a denial of that which formerly you believed, an antagonism to that which formerly you stood for. Now the Old Testament is full of stories of the apostasy of the children of Israel. They were a covenant people. God told them the way that they should live, He gave them the truth, He embraced them in His grace and His covenant. And what did they do? They relentlessly, repeatedly apostatized.

You say, "Oh boy, now you've got me scared. I thought if you were once saved, you were always saved. Once saved, always saved." That's the expression that people use very often. It is not in the Bible, by the way. You say, "Well, don't you believe that?" Let me tell you what I believe. I believe this is what Scripture teaches.

I believe that Scripture teaches that God, in His great prevenient grace, draws men and women to a position where they understand the gospel, that by His grace of Spirit He allows them to respond to the gospel, and they are forgiven their sins and they're given the gift of eternal life and they're baptized by the Spirit into Christ, and Christ is in God, and they are secure in Christ and they're secure in God. But apparently it is possible for some people then, for some reason, to deny everything they believe, to reject everything they once affirmed, and to speak out against that where they firmly stood before. It's called apostasy.

You say, "Well now, I don't know where I am. You really messed me up now." Let me put it to you this way. All I need to do, all I need to do is to understand that Christ has graciously drawn me to Himself, that He is the one who says no one will pluck me out of His hand. There's no way I'm going to slip out of His hand by accident. I don't need to be watching every P and every Q and dotting every I and crossing every T, because if I don't dot every I and cross every T, I may slip out of my salvation and I might lose my salvation. I don't need to be worrying about that. All I need to be worrying about is this: that He, having drawn me to Himself, will keep me for all eternity.

I can be assured of that. But what I need to concentrate on now is obeying the truth, acknowledging His lordship, living as a disciple of the Lord Jesus. Be assured that He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him. But be assured that if you choose to apostatize, apparently that is a danger that you don't even need to be worrying about if you're obeying the truth, acknowledging His lordship, and living as His disciple. This is a difficult passage of Scripture to deal with. May God's Spirit take it home to our hearts.

Guest (Male): Stuart, can you share with us again what you mean when you say that man is totally depraved?

Stuart Briscoe: The best definition of this theological expression, total depravity—which quite frankly causes a lot of heartburn and a lot of heartache for many, many people—the best definition I've come across is one by Dr. J.I. Packer. Now, I hope that I am quoting him pretty accurately, but Dr. Packer is a gracious man who'll forgive me if I don't get him quite right.

But this is what he said, basically: "Total depravity does not mean that man is at every point as bad as he could be, rather that man is at no point as good as he should be." Now there's a big difference there. I think many people have got the idea that total depravity as the theologians talk about it is that man is at every point utterly rotten and incapable of anything that is good or right or beautiful.

Well, that's frankly nonsense. There's no question about it that the biggest blackguards in the world are capable of kindness, and some of the most beautiful music was written by people whose lives were reprehensible. No, total depravity does not mean that man is at every point as bad as he could be, but rather at no point is man as good as he should be. In other words, every aspect of our humanity is less than it ought to be.

Guest (Male): What does it mean to be a slave to Christ?

Stuart Briscoe: This is an expression that probably gives a lot of people something close to a heart attack. "I don't want to be a slave," they say. Well, okay. It's an expression that the apostle Paul loved to use relating to himself, although it's usually translated in the New Testament as a servant of Christ, for instance in Romans chapter 1, verse 1.

Now the idea of being a slave to Christ does not mean that we are placed against our wills into a servile relationship with a slave master. No, a better picture is found in Exodus chapter 21. In the Hebrew culture, it was possible through a lot of very unfortunate circumstances for somebody to find themselves in slavery. If they did find themselves in slavery, then they could be held for six years, but on the seventh year they had to go free; they had to be released.

But sometimes the slaves would say, "I love, I love my master, I do not want to go free." And if he did that, the master would take the slave and he would take him before the judges, and they would certify that he did not want to go free, and they would bore his ear, a hole through his ear to the doorpost—which doesn't sound like fun at all, but it was a statement that out of love and loyalty he was utterly devoted to his master. And that's the sense in which Paul uses it; it's the sense in which we are to be servants of Christ.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're so glad you've joined us, and we pray this message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promises. Today's culture is a revolving door of ever-shifting views and beliefs. That's why it's so important to test new ideas against the timeless truth of Scripture. It's the best defense against the world's confusion.

We want to help ground you in the foundations of your faith by sending you Stuart Briscoe's six-message series on the book of Second Peter, Six Things We Must Never Forget. This series will anchor you in six time-tested truths from God's Word so you can stand strong in your beliefs as you remember the deep spiritual truths that are foundational to your faith.

The Six Things We Must Never Forget series is our thanks for your gift to help keep Telling the Truth going strong, sharing life-giving teaching from Stuart and Jill with more people all over the world. So request your copy when you give today and get help staying grounded in truth in today's shifting culture. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for listening today. Be sure to come back again for more biblical encouragement and teaching from the Briscoes. Experience life next time on Telling the Truth.