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Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (//)

Introduction:   

Ways To have Victory Over Sin

Judges 16:4-14

Of all the things that happened throughout history that could have been recorded in the Scriptures, why is it that the Lord wanted this man's story recorded---and how does he want that to affect us?

Let me ask you to look at two passages of Scripture:

I Cor. 10:6

As an example to us, so we would not lust after the same kinds of things Samson lusted after.

Romans 15:4

That we would have hope, because we have the Scriptures and the opportunity to learn to be different.

But, the seeds of Samson's rebellion and disobedience reside in your heart and mine---and so our goal is not just to enjoy the "story line"

Our goal is to scour these verses for all the biblical principles we can possibly muster.

With that mind, let me ask you some questions:

1) Did you face temptation this week?

Were there times where you clearly stood at the crossroads of doing something sinful, or doing something pleasing to God?

2) Now, let me ask you this -- How did you do?

Were you ready for it? - Did you have biblical truth to fight with? - Did you overcome that temptation with the help/enablement of God?

This evening, let's study five ways to have victory over sin.

Read 16:4

Here are some words that can bring great hope to the person living for the Lord, and should bring great fear for those who aren't---"And it came to pass afterward."

After what?

And the answer to that question in the broadest sense is, "after all the lustful things he had done up to this point."

What we're about to study would not have happened had Samson not already been on the slippery slope headed downward.

(Keep reading) verse 4

LOVE?? - Of course, it was anything but biblical love - these two people used each other, big time.

This wasn't love -- it was lust - his lust for women, her lust for money.

John MacArthur said - "Often, when someone says `I love you,' what they really mean is, `I love me and I want you".

READ verse 5

.

The men who came to make this offer were the five Lords of these five Philistine cities (each one of these cities had a ruler, or a lord) ---and they had had enough of Samson and his exploits.

Samson was Philistia’s Most Wanted.  These were High Stakes Indeed!!

So they bribed Delilah - they offered her 11 hundred pieces of silver each (a total of about 150 pounds of silver)

READ verses 6-7

So Delilah is trying to betray Samson - and Samson is lying to Delilah

Its already setting out to be a wonderful relationship!

The first time around - he tells her to use fresh bowstrings KJV? (a kind of twine)

Read 8-9

So the Lords of the Philstines brought her what she needed, and she bound Samson.

They also have a bunch of men ready to pounce on Samson, but the plan doesn't work.

READ 10-14

2nd time around - new rope

3rd time around -- he at least mentions his hair (thats an important point)

Thats a s far as we're going to go tonight - of course the story's far from over

But I'd like us to look for some principles from Samson's life that help us have victory over sin.

I. Strongly Avoid Anyone or Anything That Would Turn Your Heart Away From Following the Lord.

Samson's now been involved with three different women.

The woman at Timnah / Harlot in Gaza / Delilah from the Philistine town Sorek

Its important for us to note that the three people closest to Samson were all Philistines.

His three supposed "loves" were all from the camp of the enemy. Look at what those three women did to him.

For another example of this tendency READ I Kings 11:1-2

If you and I want to win out over sin, we must strongly, and tenaciously avoid anyone or anthing that might turn your heart away from following the Lord.

Do you need to take some steps to avoid them?

II. Never Adopt A Playful, Teasing Attitude Toward That Which Is Sinful.

To Samson, this whole senario is a big game.  Laughing, joking, telling riddles, having a good time.  Nothing seems to ever be too deeply serious with Samson.

The biggest problem he has is he doesn't know when to quit.  He doesn't have his life under control.

Samson should have never joked about something that was so holy and serious.

Hey, we all like to laugh, and tease, and joke around. - and we ought to do a good amount of that...

The Christian life is a life of joy!!

But the bottom line is -- there are some things we just don't tease about.

There's some subjects we're not going to joke about.  There's some things that just aren't funny to a believer in Jesus Christ.

What subjects do you think of that fit this category?

We're talking about a playful, teasing attitude toward things that we have no business joking about.

Ephesians 5:12  For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

Samson thought playing with Delilah was a game. It turned out to be Russian roulette, and he bought the bullet.

ILLUS: You cannot trifle with sin in your life.  You are playing with a lion.  You may stick your head in its mouth once and get away with it, even twice and three times.  But one of these times, the lion will shut its mouth, and you will lose your head, once and for all.

So how do we have victory over sin?

1) Avoid anyone or anything that would turn your heart away from following the Lord.

2) Never adopt a playful, teasing attitude toward that which is sinful.

III. Recognize That Temptation Comes In Attractive Packages

Our adversary the devil is no dummy.

Now, we don't believe that Satan is omniscient.  He doesn't know what we're thinking.

But he and his host can observe the way we sin.  And he's clever enough to line up his temptations in a way that fit our weaknesses.

He didn't say to Samson, “this woman is going to ruin your life - she's going to wear you down and wear you down and then she's going to have her friend put your eyes out.”

He didn't say, “getting involved with this woman is going to wreck your life.”

No, his temptation came in the "package of beautiful Delilah"

We have to notice that about our adversary.  Like the NT says(REF?), he often comes as "an angel of light."

Something that looks so good, so enticing, in many ways so innocent.

Temptation often comes in attractive packages.

INPUT - Can you think of an example in the Scripture of someone who gave into temptation because the offer looked so attractive?

Adam and Eve - the attractiveness of the apple

David - the attractiveness of Bathsheba

Ananias and Saphira - the attractiveness of the applause of giving more money than they really had.

IV. Be On The Lookout For Any Breakdown In Your Will

We ought to note a very important lesson about the progression in these verses.

Samson started by saying, "tie me with seven bowstrings" KJV????

Of course, that wasn't anything close to the truth.

The next time around he said, "tie me up with seven new ropes" - again, that wasn't close to the truth.

But the third time around -- he gets dangerously close when he starts talking about his hair.

Samson doesn't even see the progression.

That is a very important evaluator for how things are going in our relationship with the Lord.

As we look at our lives, our convictions - as we look at what we're willing to do and not do... are there any breakdowns?

Are we giving in on some things that we wouldn't have given in on before?

The words you find yourself saying, The programs you'll sit down and watch, The places you go?

Now the good news is, the other side of that is that choosing to stand firm against temptation makes it a little bit easier to stand up the next time.

There's some thoughts from this hymn that go right along with the point we're making:

ILLUS: Hymn #305 - Yield Not To Temptation

Are you building habits that will make it easier to say "no" to sinful temptation in the future...

Or are you building habits that will make it more likely that you'll say "yes"

V. Run From Temptation.

What Samson was doing here -- namely toying with temptation, is exactly the opposite of what God wants us to do.

Let's look at several NT passages quickly that make this point:

1) I Cor. 6:18 - Flee sexual immorality – KJV???

2) I Cor. 10:14 - Flee from idolatry– KJV???

3) I Tim. 6:11 - O man of God, flee from these things– KJV???

4) I Tim. 2:22 - Flee youthful lusts– KJV???

God's kind of person runs from temptation and sin.

God's kind of person performs radical amputation – Vs.??

And of course thats not speaking literally... - the idea is that we ought to go to extreme measures to try to avoid sin.

ILLUS: Joseph -- who when he was tempted by Potiphar's wife -- ran, and ran as fast and as hard as he could.

(Conclusion - samson as an object lesson to the nation Israel)

Conclusion:     (Review)