15.z. “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness”

John 6:65  And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Matthew 12:41   The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.  The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.  “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.  Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

2 Timothy 4:10    For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me

Hebrews 10:38   but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

2 Peter 2:20-22    For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.  What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

The Son of God was in their presence.  He spoke wisdom greater than the wisdom of Solomon and preached greater than the preaching of Jonah.  There were in His presence and many rejected Him.  In 2 Peter he says; “it would be better for those who did not know the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back.” Jesus said, “the last state of that person is worse than the first.”  When a person who knows the message of the Gospel and is aware of eternal life through it, and then chooses to reject it, then falls away or is drawn away by worldly passions and pleasures, what is it that so easily pulls them away from Jesus Christ?  How does a person who has tasted what the blessings of forgiveness are and then comes to reject the forgiver?  There are many things that come to mind.  Pleasures and things of this world devour the light of Jesus Christ.  They choose to become blind and deaf to things of God but open their ears and eyes to things of this world.  They choose to believe a lie rather than the truth of the Gospel.

The day of salvation is now.  If you hear His voice speaking to your heart and soul, do not reject Him.  Let Him in.  Hunger and thirst for Him.  A time is coming when the offer of salvation in the presence of the Holy Spirit will cease.  Rejecting it now means you reject eternal life and choose to go to eternal damnation and torment, hell.  You may not ever get another chance.  There are many who say they will choose to believe but sometime later in their lives.  We are not guaranteed a single day in the future.  Think about all of the people who die each day from a host of various accidents.  I am sure they would have said, “if I had only known today was my last day I would have come to Jesus Christ.”  The “day of salvation is now”, do not reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ a single moment longer.