The Unknown Bible - Pastor Bevans Welder

How can I be delivered from sin? Many times you cannot!

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 is what 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 the new convert from a particular sin. And then 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 believes that there is something wrong with his faith or something else because he has not had his deliverance.

Well, quit frustrating yourself. If the Lord has not delivered you from a particular sin it is probably because he is 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 that you may be able to bear it.

So, there are four things that we find in scripture that will help you in dealing with the sin in your life. They are found in Romans chapters 6-8. You ought to read those three chapters carefully as part of this study.

First, you have to be ashamed of what you have done. See Rom 6:21 and Rom 7:15, 18. In those 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 it is “no good thing.” You have to become disgusted with the sin or you will never 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 that the dog returns to his vomit.

Second, you have to 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 the sin, then any time the temptation to sin 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,” to be at “enmity against God,” and to make you so that you “cannot please God,” (Rom 8:5-8).

Third, you have to 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 the mortal body (Rom 8:11). So, we have to let the Spirit do his work in killing off fleshly desires and deeds and awaken in us spiritual desires. There are some practical things that you can do here. As regarding the sin, don’t think about it, don’t look at it, and don’t touch it. As 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 have to suffer with Christ through the temptation without giving in. 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, the martyr’s crown of Rev 2:10, for enduring temptation (Jas 1:12)? The trouble is that many saints just can’t take it. They are not tough enough to deny themselves. Only when they are faced with the prospect of death will some folks turn from sins that are already killing them. Toughen up and realize that if Jesus was tough enough to die for those sins why shouldn’t you be equally as tough in fighting off the seasonal pleasure of them.

Now, if you will follow these four 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 that may never come.

Hope this helps,

Pastor Welder