Victory Over Sin, Part 2

In regards to victory over sin, last week we discussed a few things. First, sin comes from one of two problems. Either you are unsaved and therefore incapable of getting victory over sin or you are saved and don't know the scriptures that you need to believe to strengthen your faith in the battle with a particular sin. If you are unsaved, you are a slave to sin and it will rule over you always. If you are saved and struggling with sin then I have ten solutions for you.

First, you must know that temptation is a common problem. So, our root problem in this life is our lusts. James 1:14-16 confirms this when it says, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.”

Second, the root of all sin is lust. The Bible says in James 1:14-16, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.” James 4:2a says “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.” Also, Proverbs 11:6 says “The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.”

I once heard radio personality Paul Harvey share this story of how an Eskimo kills a problematic wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin. "First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. "Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more--until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!" It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate.

Third, your salvation did not get rid of the problem. We see this clearly from the writings of Paul in Romans 7:15-24, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I…For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me…O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” No, your sin problem will not go away until you die or the Lord comes back. In the meantime, you must learn how to fight it and win. How do you fight it and win?

Fourth, you must reckon yourself to be dead. Romans 6:11-14 says, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Dead men don’t get offended! Dead men don’t gossip! Dead men don’t sin! Remember that, as far as God is concerned, you are physically a "dead man."