ESCAPING DESTRUCTION
2 Peter 2:11-22

Ali is a young man with little money and no wife. This is all the incentive he needs to take the ninety-minute bus ride from his village to Baghdad. As soon as he arrives, the 21-year-old Iraqi heads straight to Abu Abdullah's. There it costs him only $1.50 for 15 minutes alone with a woman.

The room is a cell with a curtain for a door, and Ali complains that Abu Abdullah's women should bathe more often. But Ali sees the easy and inexpensive access to sexual favors as a big improvement over the days when Saddam Hussein was in power. The dictator strictly controlled vices such as prostitution, alcohol, and drugs. The fall of the regime gave rise to every kind of depravity. In addition to brothels, Iraqis have their choice of adult cinemas, where 70 cents buys an all-day ticket, and the audience hoots in protest if a non-pornographic trailer interrupts the action.

Referring to all the newly available immoral activities, Ali grins and says, "Now we have freedom." - - Christian Caryl, "Iraqi Vice," Newsweek (12-22-03)

If freedom is genuine, then all choices have to be available. Unfortunately, some will choose to squander their freedom. To waste a second chance at new life is incredibly disappointing and anguishing. We grieve when we see people around the world trade in their freedom for false security or idle pleasures. We a sickened by those in our country who have opportunities to escape their circumstances but their own foolishness returns them to a life of misery. How often do we consider our freedom in Christ as a precious opportunity? How often do we stop and consider how freedom from sin and death has given us more than just an exemption from condemnation – it has given us a new life to be lived well!

Peter warns the church not to end up like the false teachers who are enslaved to their foolishness. The false teachers claim that freedom gives them power to do whatever they want, but Peter shows that they really have no freedom since their life isn’t conformed to that which is greater than ourselves ...

2:10 - Being bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to slander glorious beings. ¹¹ Yet even angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous accusation against them from the Lord. ¹² These people, like irrational animals, are mere creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. They insult what they don’t understand, and like animals they, too, will be destroyed, ¹³ suffering wrong as punishment for their wrongdoing.

1. Stupid Animals – [They do not recognize anything greater than themselves. Antithesis to the promise of God]

   • Disregard for the power of sin and evil – like a stupid animal. Dismissal of final judgment and the consequences of their behavior. They claim freedom over these.

   • Sin has consequences – It should not be treated lightly. It is dangerous and kills, it hurts and maims. (Harmless fun?) Don’t try this at home! Why? Despite appearances and the luck of stunt performers these acts are dangerous.)

   • Freedom does not give license to ignore consequences. (Yelling "Fire" in a theatre, joking about bombs in an airport terminal is not protected free speech because it is irresponsible.)

   They take pleasure in wild parties in broad daylight. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures while they eat with you. ¹⁴ With eyes full of adultery, they cannot get enough of sin. They seduce unsteady souls and have had their hearts expertly trained in greed. They are doomed to a curse. ¹⁵ They have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the reward he got for doing wrong. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his offense. A donkey that normally cannot talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity.

2. Stains and Blemishes – [They are a corrupting influence. Antithesis to the Path of godly living.]

   • Reveling in their deceitful pleasures – this is in your face behavior! Why? Why make it so obvious and direct? The need for acceptance and enablement. And we need to be careful because this is done in some subtle ways ...

   • Sins like violence, greediness, irresponsible sexual behavior, drug use are glamorized to suppress the real human cost of the behavior. (We try and cover over the stain and blemish of sin.)

   • Sin distorts human relationships and others are viewed as people to be manipulated and used. (On the streets of London – everyone was someone to be used or exploited. Why did you take his money? Well he’s bad and uses drugs. So said the man who wanted me to buy him more liquor. So said the man who stole money from others.)

   • Balaam: We have wandered off the straight path. Balaam did not recognize that there was something greater than his greed. We have made the self the most sacred principle and we have denied ourselves the freedom that comes from knowing the source of power for Godly life ...

   ¹⁷ These men are dried-up springs, mere clouds driven by a storm. Gloomy darkness is reserved for them. ¹⁸ By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ Promising them freedom, they themselves are slaves to depravity, for a person is a slave to whatever conquers him. ²⁰ For if, after escaping the world’s corruptions through a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and conquered by them, then their last condition is worse than their former one. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them. ²² The proverb is true that describes what has happened to them: "A dog returns to its vomit" and "a pig that is washed goes back to wallow in the mud."

3. Dried-Up Springs, Dogs and Pigs – [They are slaves to their sin. Antithesis to the Power for Godly living.]

   • How is the empty cry for freedom and liberation to be believed when it only promises more bondage? Dried up springs and wispy clouds look good, but they cannot offer life giving water to the thirsty and drought stricken.

   • (Hurricane Charley – How foolish it would be for those who escaped to rush back into the full force of the hurricane thinking they are safe because they "got out.")

   • How can you promise freedom when you are a slave? (The hopeless and empty solutions of the false philosophies of our age: examples.)

   • God does more than forgive – he cleanses, he heals, he frees us and then he leads us.

   • God has set us free. We have escaped the corruption of this world – what a shame it would be to squander the opportunity to share in the divine nature. – This present world, as corrupt and conflicted as it is, will pass away when the morning star rises and the Day of the Lord arrives.

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 15 August 2004

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