One can change his or her ways for a time, but only God through Jesus Christ can change our nature.

1. April 14, 2010

2. In 2 Peter 2 we are studying the dangers to the church of false teachers , And their judgment and damnation. They can readily deceive and pull away the unsaved, who are considering Christianity . They can also deceive, for a time , those who are saved but double-minded . They don't fully have their mind made up to serve the Lord.

3. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure (entice and entrap) through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness (filthy vices) , those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. To deny the sinfulness and destructiveness of sin is to deny God's Word . Such a message appeals only to those who are ruled by the lusts of the flesh.

4. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants (slaves) of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. So many today speak of Christianity as a life of bondage to rules . They advocate a life of licentiousness , wherein people live without rules . They claim to be free, but are, in truth , in a terrible bondage to sin.

5. Tiger Woods thought he was living free, but it wrecked his life.

6. "the extent to which he can recover -- seems to me to depend on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist; I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'" Brit Hume on Fox News Sunday January 3 Is the answer.

7. The world calls it a sickness or addiction, as if it can't be helped. God calls it slavery to sin, and He offers the only true deliverance : The Power of His Holy Spirit to live free from the power of sin . The Shed Blood of Jesus Christ will wash away our sins and make us fit for The Presence of God .

8. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the Knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. "They" know of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, But "they" do not know Him as Savior and Lord. Acts 26 28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

9. Perhaps they have even started attending church , and cleaned up some of their filthy vices. Unless and until they receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives, It won't last . John 14 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.

10. 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 Command-ment delivered unto them. For those who have heard the Gospel and have known that it is true, And yet have rejected Jesus as Savior and Lord -- Their eternal judgment and damnation is more severe than those who have never heard.

11. 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. They have never truly become sons and daughters of The Most High God. Peter is speaking of nature . We can change our ways for a time. But only God can change our nature.

12. God has provided the Way that all men may be saved from sin and from hell. John 3 16-17 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.