You Were Better Off Without Christ

Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, something has been lurking in the background all through our discussion of false teachers. That something is the question of apostasy. You see, there are people who grew up as Christians, who talked the talk, who said "I believe in Jesus," and then at some point walked away and today are living for and proclaiming something very far removed from the faith they once held dear. How does that happen? It happens by turning back to the defilements of the world. Whether you think of Lot's wife who looked back toward Sodom, or Demas who forsook Paul because he loved this present world, or other noted apostates like Judas Iscariot and King Saul, all of them performed this essential action of an apostate. They all turned away from the truth and back toward the defilements of the world. They once loved Jesus, or thought they did — but it turns out that they loved defilement more. Brothers and sisters, Peter addresses this question head-on in our text this morning. His conclusion: Apostasy is so serious because it makes you worse off for having known Christ. It turns your onetime faith into a curse rather than a blessing.