Deliverance From Sin 1 Cor. 10:13 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
This lesson today is on deliverance from sin. There is a common expression these days that goes like this, “I got saved and immediately the Lord delivered me from such and such a sin.” Sometimes, that happens. The appetite for the sin goes away and there is just no struggle to stay away from it. But more times than that, God doesn’t deliver a new convert from particular sins. In those cases, he just has to deal with the temptation from now on.
The trouble is that he has been led to believe that God is going to deliver him from that sin and so he lives a frustrated life while he waits for God to do something that he isn’t going to do. He’s inclined to believe that there’s something wrong with his faith or that something else is wrong because he hasn’t had his deliverance from sin.
Well, quit frustrating yourself. If the Lord hasn’t delivered you from a particular sin, then he’s probably not going to deliver you at all. Instead, he has given you other instructions in the Bible on how to deal with the temptation to sin. In 1 Cor 10:13, God said that he will provide a way to escape “with the temptation” that you may be able to bear it.
There are five things that we find in Romans 6-8 that will help you in dealing with the sin in your life. You ought to read these three chapters carefully after this broadcast.
First, you must be ashamed of your sin. See Rom 6:21 and Rom 7:15, 18. In these verses, Paul said that you ought to be ashamed of what you have done. You ought to “hate” it and you ought to recognize that your sin is “no good thing.” When you are disgusted with your sin, your desire is to quit it. If you aren’t ashamed of your sin, you won’t want to leave it. Ezek 20:43 says, “ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.” As long as you still find pleasure in the sin and only feel bad after you have committed it, you will never quit. Remember, dogs return to their vomit.
Second, you must yield to God and not to the sin. See Rom 6:13, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God…” Once you have become disgusted with your sin, then any time the temptation comes up, yield to God rather than to the sin. The temptation to sin is a temptation to yield to the lust of the flesh. And though the flesh is powerful, it is not as powerful as the Spirit of God. So, when you yield to God rather than to the flesh, you are relying upon the strength of the Spirit of God to get you past the less powerful strength of the sin in your weaker flesh. He will win. After all, to yield to the flesh is to be “carnally minded” and to be at “enmity against God,” at which time you “cannot please God,” (Rom 8:5-8).
Third, you must mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit. See Rom 8:13, “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” The Bible says that you are crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6), that he that is dead is freed from sin (Rom 6:7), and that the Spirit is going to quicken your mortal body (Rom 8:11). So, we must let the Spirit do his work, killing off fleshly desires and deeds and awakening in us spiritual desires. There are some practical things that you can do here. Regarding your sin, don’t think about it, don’t look at it, and don’t touch it. Regarding the work of the Spirit, pray, read and study the Bible, and stay faithful in church under the preaching and teaching of the word of God from a Bible believing pastor.
Fourth, you must apply yourself diligently to serve the Lord. See Rom 6:18. When we “were made free from sin,” we “became the servants of righteousness.” So, as you yield to the Lord, apply yourself diligently to his service (Eph 2:10). Prov 16:3 says, “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” Many of the difficult temptations come from our thoughts. The old adage says, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” By serving righteousness, your thoughts will be toward the Lord and his work rather than toward those sins that so easily beset you. Apply your whole heart to your work as unto the Lord (Col 3:23).
Fifth, you must suffer through the temptation with Christ. See Rom 8:17-18. According to that text, you are going to suffer, else why would Christ be willing to give you the crown of life for enduring temptation (Jas 1:12)? The trouble is that many saints just can’t take it. They are not resolved enough to deny themselves. And they are not yielded enough for the grace of God to dominate their sin (Rom 6:14). Only when they are faced with the prospect of death will some folks turn from sins that are killing them. Toughen up and realize that if Jesus was tough enough to die for those sins, you should be tough enough to fight off the seasonal pleasures of them.
Conclusion: Now, if you will follow these five simple scriptural steps, you will be able to escape the sin during temptation without having to wait for the Lord to “deliver” you permanently. And you will find that you won’t be nearly so frustrated waiting for a deliverance from sin that may never come.