Part two of our examination of sin. Here we deal with some keys to victory over sin found in Scripture.

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So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. -- James 4: 7-10 (NLT)

In the previous devotional we took a long look at the nature of sin and how insidiously it can infect our lives. The devil has gone to great lengths to weaken Christianity in these last days by downplaying the importance of being concerned about sin. Using the victory at the cross, well intended preachers seemingly ignore the dire significance of daily sin and how it continues to damage our walk and debilitate the church. Christ's work on the cross deals with our sin condition when we stand before God -- not when we wake up today and have to navigate this treacherous world. We ignore sin at our own peril because it always costs us more than we were willing to pay and keeps us longer than we intended.

When we looked at the nature of sin we focused on David's sin with Bathsheba and the sin of Ananias and Sapphira from the Book of Acts. To focus on victory over sin, we turn to Joseph. He was the 11^th of 12 children that Jacob fathered. He was the most favored however, which drove the first ten children mad with jealousy. So jealous were they that they decided one day to kill him. Reason intervened briefly and instead of killing Joseph they merely sold him into Egyptian slavery and told Jacob that a wild animal had killed him! Remember that the next time you think you have family problems! Joseph found himself in the service of the Captain of the Guard, Potiphar, who made Joseph his personal attendant and put him in charge of his entire household. Even in his deep valley -- God prospered Joseph. No matter where we find ourselves though, sin will always come knocking at our door:

So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing--except what kind of food to eat! Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, and Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. "Come and sleep with me," she demanded. -- Genesis 39: 6-7 (NLT)

Sin doesn't care if you are a king like David or a slave like Joseph. This is quite tough spot for Joseph to be in. He cannot tell Potiphar for fear that he will not be believed. Turning down the boss's wife may lead to other unintended consequences, as Joseph would discover. In the initial response of Joseph we see some of the first keys for gaining victory over sin:

But Joseph refused. "Look," he told her, "my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God." -- Genesis 39: 8-9 (NLT)

There are two keys here. The first is to appreciate what you have. Joseph assesses his life and even though he is in slavery -- he sees all that he has to lose. He sees how well he is trusted. He sees how Potiphar has held nothing back from him. He has free reign within his house. He sees his blessings even within his wilderness. We can have trouble seeing the blessings we have been afforded and we are not in literal slavery! That is the damage of the bless me theology in this country. When we are constantly expecting blessings from God we lose sight of what we have already been given. The reality we need to grasp today is that blessing should be defined by what God has already done for us, not what we think we deserve. When you downplay sin, the blood and the cross you are left with needing to offer something else to entice people to come to church. That is how the seeker friendly nonsense began. There is nothing more seeker friendly than the Gospel -- uncompromised and not watered down.

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. -- 1Corinthians 2: 1-2 (NIV)

What we have today are theories of church growth that are oozing with eloquence and superior wisdom but they shove Christ into the background. Sure there is lip service paid to Him but when you are trying to sell something, you end up compromising to make the sale. The Gospel does not need to be sold. It does not need to be made friendly. It needs to be preached. Because sin is real beloved and it is crouching at our door every single day. The first key to victory over it is to assess all that you have to lose. If David had seen the death of two of his children and the loss of his kingdom I do not think he would have sinned with Bathsheba. If Ananias and Sapphira had seen themselves struck dead -- I am confident they would not have sinned by lying to the Apostles.

"But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? -- Luke 14: 28 (NLT)

Even though this verse is from counting the cost of being a disciple the principle remains the same. Allow me to save you some time -- you can put away your calculators. We can never afford the cost that is attached to sin. Never. Sure we might get away with something here or there but remember that God sees everything. The Bible says we will be held to account for every careless word, let alone deed. What we do in the dark, God will bring into the light. I would think that the vast majority of people who committed adultery would not have fell if they had counted the cost of everything they lost because of it. But we are generally not appreciative to begin with and therein lies the problem. There is a saying that says Jesus won't mean everything to you until He is all you have. Don't live by that saying. Count your blessings now. Value them dearly. Then when sin comes knocking -- count the cost!

The second key from these verses is to always reflect to God. The first key was what the sin will cost us temporally but now Joseph reflects eternally. He tells Potiphar's wife what a great sin he would be committing if he were to go through with it. Let us stop here for a second and realize that at this point, Joseph is a 17 year old male with the same raging hormones that 17 year old males have today. He is not some plaster saint. He was a real person. Yet despite what he might have felt and desired, he properly reflects upon what is being considered as sin. He now counts the cost eternally.

If we were to be honest we do not classify our sin so easily do we? We find excuses for it. We dress it up in pseudo-righteousness. Heck, we even wrap it up in Christ to suit ourselves sometimes. We spread gossip by pretending to be concerned that someone needs prayer. Again, this is a direct offshoot of the bless me theology which downplays sin. If you are not being taught about sin and you do not consider it then it is no wonder that we will seek to minimize it as much as possible in our lives. For example, the adulterous affair started as "innocent flirting." There is nothing innocent about flirting if you are married! Sin is sin. It does not matter if you dress it up, turn a blind eye to it, or proclaim it in the name of Jesus -- it will still be sin at the end of the day. It still will have an eternal cost. Look at the rebuke to David from God after the Bathsheba sin:

Then Nathan said to David, "You are that man! The Lord , the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master's house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah's wife to be your own. "This is what the Lord says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel." -- 2Samuel 11: 7-12 (NLT)

You can hear the disappointment in God's voice through the Prophet Nathan. David, David, David - why didn't you count the cost? Why didn't you appreciate everything I had given you and trust that I would have given you even more? Now David, I am sorry but there is a price that you will have to pay. I still love you, but what you sow -- you will indeed reap. Meanwhile, back to the story of Joseph we see the next key to victory in the next verse:

She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. -- Genesis 39: 10 (NLT)

Note here that Joseph kept out of her way as much as possible. He worked in the house that she lived in but he recognized where this was heading. He correctly has assessed the cost but now he has correctly assessed the danger. If he is to remain true and avoid this sin that keeps accosting him, Joseph tries his level best to avoid the situation that could lead to him falling. This is so crucial in our walks as well. We need to avoid the situations that can lead to sin. We know what they are. As a born again believer we do not have a place at the bar during happy hour. Light has no fellowship with darkness. That woman who wants to playfully flirt with you in the office needs to be avoided and if you can't -- you need to talk to her about your wife as much as possible! We fancy ourselves stronger than we really are -- it is all pride. We are not strong because of three things. One we live in a world that is fallen and depraved. Secondly we live in our flesh which wars against anything holy. Lastly, we have an enemy to our souls who never sleeps and is looking to destroy us. But by the grace of God go I. Remember what God said to Paul -- when we are truly weak -- then God can be strong in our lives. We need to remember this beloved. We are weak, sin is strong, God is stronger.

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. -- John 6: 63 (NIV)

The NLT version says that human effort accomplishes nothing. How true for us today. Joseph properly assesses the temporal and eternal cost and has now properly assessed the danger. The final key is when sin simply forces its way into the scene:

One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, "Come on, sleep with me!" Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. -- Genesis 39: 11-12 (NLT)

Joseph tried. Even on this day he waited until no one else was around to go in and do his work but sin was insistent and demanding as we learned in the previous devotional. But we also learned that no matter how insistent and demanding sin is, the act of committing sin is always an act of the will. Joseph could have given in here to the temptation, the badgering, the hormones or any other influence but as an act of his will -- he ran! That is the final key to victory over sin. Run! We must realize that we can do the first three things correctly and sin can still stand there defiantly knocking on the door to our soul. Demanding to have its way in our life. If we find ourselves in that position we must do what Joseph did and run! Run hard. Run fast. Run and keep running until we are clear from the imminent danger.

Sounds simple enough but the truth is that we like to play around a little bit too much with the prospects of sin. We flirt around the edges of it, toying with it. The reality is that it is toying with us and our foolish pride blinds us from seeing it. Do we fancy ourselves stronger than King David was on the night he first saw Bathsheba? Read his life up until that point and the only answer we should come away with is no. Foolish, foolish pride"which brings us to the key verses for today.

The best way to combat the foolish and blinding pride is to humble ourselves before God. Resist the devil and he must flee from us. It does not say dance with the devil, flirt with the devil, or even fight the devil -- just resist. Joseph resisted at every single turn and in the end -- he ran! James then cuts to the heart of the matter when it comes to our allowance for sin in our lives -- we have divided loyalty. We are split between God and this world and it should not be so:

Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. -- 1Peter 2: 11 (NLT)

The problem is that we do not act as temporary residents or foreigners in this world. We act sometimes as if this is where we belong. It is interesting that Peter here echoes what we have been discussing -- we need to keep away from the worldly desires which war against our very soul. We do that first by counting the costs both temporally and eternally. Appreciate what we have and we stand to lose. Secondly, we need to count the danger. We need to avoid the areas we know full well we have no business being in. Lastly, when all else fails we need to take off our prideful blinders and run away as fast as possible. Run away as if our life depends on it -- because it does beloved. It does.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- July 2, 2012 (Posted June 25th because of impending vacation)

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.