Counterfeit Liberty.

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. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."

2 Peter 2:19-22

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Adolf Hitler is known as one of the cruelest men ever to come to power, but what many don't know is that he did not win his position as head of the German state by military force, but by constitutional means. In 1933, the aged President Hindenburg entrusted Hitler with the chancellorship, and soon the German Parliament turned over to him the full power of the government. How could this happen? First, money. In 1921, the German mark fell to 75 to the dollar. By the beginning of 1923 it was 7,000. Second, the French occupation of the Ruhr. When a nearly bankrupt Germany defaulted on payments of timber (part of the reparations demanded in the treaty that ended WW1 in 1919), the French occupied this border state and thus cut off 80% of Germany's coal and steel supply. With this new blow to the German economy, the fall of the mark continued until the currency became worthless.

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Hitler promised to fix these ills; he promised "work, freedom, and bread," but what he delivered was something different, Peter said there are people in this world peddling freedom (like Hitler did), and when they get victims to buy in, they find slavery instead, and then they find it next to impossible to get away.

The devil will promise you freedom from restraint, but we should understand that restraint is often beneficial for us. If all restraint is bad, why do we put guardrails on our roadways? When we have small children who can't yet understand the dangers of electricity, we put safety covers on our electrical outlets. The devil would like to convince us that freedom is simply life without constraint -- a lie that he tried to press upon Eve in the garden. He loves to parade in front of us all the pleasures that accompany sin. When he sells a prospect on instant gratification of fleshly desire, he always takes care to conceal the true price of his wares. The devil will promise you any liberty that attracts you, but he will deliver none of them, because he himself is among those delivered "into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment" (2 Peter 2:4).

The Lord, on the other hand, delivers true freedom. Peter reminds us of how God delivered Noah from a sinful world (2 Peter 2:5) and Lot from wicked Sodom (v. 6-8), and he assures us that God still knows how to deliver the godly (v. 9). We can choose to let God set us free from sin through obedience to Him (v. 17-18), or we can choose to continue to obey the lusts of the flesh and prolong our bondage as we enjoy our independence from God (v. 19-20) and anticipate the payment of sin's wages (v. 21-23). If we wish for the freedom that the Lord offers, Paul says that we must obey our new master and be delivered over to Him (Rom. 6:17) and present ourselves as instruments for His service (v. 12-14). The freedom that the Lord offers is genuine. Will you accept it?

Would you be free from you burden of sin? There's wonderful Power in the blood!

(Lesson taken from the bulletin of the Elizabethton Church of Christ in Elizabethton, Tennessee.)