Spiritual feast 12.11. March 9, 2012.
Scripture for this study: 2 Peter 2:20-22
Scriptures as recorded -->
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 are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 2Pe 2:21
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 command that was passed on to them.
Subject for this study:
How is “the last state is become worse with them than the first”?
Example #1 The case of Judas. Matt.27:1-5
1. Matt. 27:1--> Now when morning was come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
2. Matt. 27:2--> and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pilate the governor.
3. Matt. 27:3-4--> Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself,
and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. But they said, What is that to us? see thou (to it).
4. Matt. 27:5 And he cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.
Questions for consideration:
a. Luke 22:3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.
b. In what way Judas’ last state was worse than his state at the beginning?
Case #2 Scriptures--> Heb.10:26-27
For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remain no more a sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries.
How is it their last state worse than their beginning state?
Case #3 --> James 4:1-5
James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
James 4:2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.
You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
James 4:4-5 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
Case #4--> Heb.6:4-8
Heb. 6:4-6 For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and (then) fell away,
it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb. 6:7-8 For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bring forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled,
receive blessing from God: but if it bear thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
Case #5-->1 Tim 5:8
But if any provides not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
Question for consideration: In what way or ways he is worse than an unbeliever?
May the Lord bless you and keep you always! March 7, 2012.