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Welcome back, this is day 4 together of our look through 2 Peter chapter 2 and
I'd like to begin by reading verses 15 and 16. About these false teachers, Peter
writes, "They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of
Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked
for his wrongdoing by a donkey, a beast without speech, who spoke with a man's
voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

" Now there's a story from the Old Testament, the story of Balaam and Peter
brings it out here to talk to us about the danger of false teaching. Let me just
remind you of this famous story from the Old Testament. There was a prophet by
the name of Balaam and he was hired by Barak, king of Moab, to curse the
Israelites as they came through on their way to the promised land, heading
towards Moab.

He wanted to make sure they didn't come through and eat all of their things. He
wanted to make sure they didn't come through and ruin the country. So he hired
this prophet who lived in the land, not an Israelite prophet, but a prophet of
God who he knew of, to go and curse the people of God.

Now God speaks to Balaam so he obviously is somebody who is listening to God
somehow and he tells him, "Don't go. " But then he allows Balaam to go and you
have to read between the lines a little bit in the Old Testament to see it's to
bring a message to the king instead of bringing a curse upon God's people.
Balaam starts out but God sees that he's intending to curse God's people.

He's intending to get the money from the king that he's going to pay him if he
brings this curse upon the people of God. So God puts an angel in front of
Balaam to stop it but he doesn't see it. His donkey sees it and the donkey stops
and in one of the most humorous exchanges except for the donkey in all the Old
Testament, Balaam gets off of his donkey and beats the donkey, gets on it until
it starts off again.

The donkey goes some more steps and it sees the angel of the Lord in front
again. Balaam, the prophet of God, does not see the angel. The donkey stops
again.

Balaam gets off the donkey, beats the poor donkey again until the donkey gets
started again and finally then the donkey sees the angel of the Lord a third
time and there's no way to get around this angel. Donkey stops again. Balaam
gets off, beats the donkey a third time and the donkey looks at Balaam and says,
"What have I done to make you beat me these three times?

" And then Balaam has this little conversation with the donkey which amazes me.
I don't know if this had happened before. It seems to me it could have never
happened before but for all of you who like to think that maybe animals could
speak, we know at least one time God allowed an animal to speak.

And in this conversation Balaam sees the angel and in seeing the angel decides
to obey. So he goes to Barak and he tells him that he cannot curse the
Israelites and in fact he gives some oracles, some prophecies from God as he's
speaking to the king. But then later we find out, we actually find this out
later in the Old Testament what Balaam decided to do, that he advises the king
to send women into the Israelite camp to tempt them to worship false gods.

So although he maybe technically didn't bring a curse upon God's people, he
tells Barak how to bring a curse upon God's people. The women go into the camp,
they tempt the Israelites, they do fall into sin, worship of false idols and
24,000 die because of that sin. And finally Balaam finds a way to get paid.

Balaam was going to find a way to get that money and whether he had to beat the
donkey to get where he wanted to be or to beat God to say what he wanted to say,
he found a way to get the money. And as Peter says here, he loved the wages of
wickedness. Here's the truth about life.

You will either love the wages of wickedness or you will love the fruit of
righteousness that the New Testament talks about, the fruit of living out the
kind of life that God has for us. You're going to love one or the other. Now
before you get to feeling too comfortable, we all love the wages of wickedness
at times.

The thrill of doing what you know is wrong. If you've ever had that, if you've
ever chased after that in your life, if you can admit that to yourself, that's
the wages of wickedness. The extra money that comes from just slightly shaving
your integrity and maybe even the adrenaline that comes with that extra money,
that is the wages of wickedness.

Or the escape of telling a lie. Didn't have to deal with that one, got away with
that one. Who hasn't gone down that path?

That is one of the wages of wickedness. If you look at the story of Balaam, God
warned Balaam again and again and again. There's that angel of the Lord in front
of him.

There's that donkey speaking to him. But Balaam kept running through the red
lights. He kept finding a way around.

Listen, God's will in your life, it will become an obstacle to avoid if you
don't take the path of righteousness. And that's what happened to Balaam. God's
will became an obstacle to avoid.

He had to find a way to get around God's will. And he thought he figured it out.
He didn't.

We read later in the Old Testament that when the evil kings were defeated,
Balaam lost his life along with them. He got caught up in wickedness. He got the
wages of wickedness.

And for him, he thought it was the money that he got in the moment. But the
truth of the matter is, well the New Testament tells us, the wages of sin is
death. That's the true wages of wickedness.

That's what you get in the end. And so when you look at this story of Balaam,
the question for my life, for your life is, where are you trying to find a way
around God's will instead of finding your way into doing God's will? Is there
some sin in your life?

You know it shouldn't be there, but you're trying to find a way to keep it
there. You're trying to reason your mind into keeping it there. You're trying to
look for other people who may be committing the same sin and say, well if
they're doing it, it must be okay for me.

You're living with the thrill of doing what you know is wrong. You're living
with the thrill of getting as close as you can to that sin, to that gossip, to
that lust, to that greed, to that evil speaking about other people, to whatever
it is, that sin, you get as close as you can to it seemingly because of the
thrill of it. Where is that happening in your life?

Where are you allowing the desire for things to overwhelm your love for people
and chasing after some thing, some material thing, some job, some money, some
position, some house, some boat, some whatever, it is the number one thing in
your life right now. You've got to have that thing. It's what's going to make
you happy and it can't.

No thing can make you happy. Only God can bring you joy. Things don't last, so
obviously they can't make you happy.

Maybe for a moment, but that's not what you're looking for. You're looking for
joy in your life. Where are you living with the escape of telling a lie and it's
eating you up inside even though you're telling that lie?

And it feels like you're getting the wages of wickedness, you're getting away
with it, but the truth of the matter is you're being destroyed by it from the
inside out. Where are you trying to escape to avoid doing God's will instead of
finding your way into doing God's will? If you're struggling with that, so am I
at times, so is every believer you know at times.

We all struggle with this and we need to pray together right now that God will
strengthen us to follow his way because you know that's where the truth is. You
know that's where the life is. You know that's where the joy is.

That's where the hope is. That's where the best life possible is. The eternal
life that he has for you is to be lived out starting now.

Don't wait till you get to heaven to live the best life. Start living that life
right now. Jesus, we come to you and we ask that you help us to see the truth
about ourselves.

It's hard to admit sometimes that we struggle, that we get caught up in these
wages of wickedness and that Balaam is not just an example of something somebody
else does, but it's an example of something we can get caught up in. So Lord
help us to see where we're trying to avoid doing your will, where we're trying
to get something we shouldn't have, or have something that seems so important to
us but it's taken your place somehow, it's become an idol in our lives. Help us
to see that right now with clarity.

And instead of stubbornly hanging on to what we want, we come to you and we ask
right now that you give us a freedom of grace, a freedom to release this to you,
to trust in you, and to begin to tell the truth instead of telling a lie. To
begin to seek you instead of seeking some thing. To begin Lord to live for you
instead of living for some pleasure, some thrill.

That's where we want our lives to live because that's the life you have for us.
That's the life we can trust you for. And so we trust you for it right now, in
Jesus' name, Amen.