Terry R. Baughman
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Matthew 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. {44) Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. {45) Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
2 Peter 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. {20) For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
The devil plays lots of tricks on people. He brings bondage on the lives of many causing them to do things they ought not to do. Sometimes you will be tempted to do what you don’t want to do. As one who has been touched by the Spirit of God, there is something that speaks to you and cautions you not to give in to these temptations. However, as a person of a free will you can do as you please. God will let you do as you wish.
These verses speak of what happens after you have escaped the “pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord” and you are overcome again. Our first text of Scripture talks of a man who has cleaned up, one who has begun to seek God, but has not received the Holy Ghost.
Let us continue on in the book of 2 Peter:
2 Peter 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. (22) But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
It would be better to go on than to turn back. He likens one who begins and turns back as to a dog that returns to his own vomit. Is that in the Bible? Yes, read it for yourself!
It is also like the sow that was washed that had returned to the mire. You can take an old hog and clean her up and take her to the fair. She is all pretty and washed clean. She may get the prize and receive the blue ribbon. But as soon and you take her back to the farm and unload her in the corral she will run to the watering hole and lay down in the mud. Why does she do it? Because she is a hog!
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