The Upper Hand
A sermon
(No. 901)
Delivered by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under Law,
but under Grace."- Romans 6:14.
WHAT a golden sentence! But does it not begin with a hard word? A sad
and sorrowful note is sounded in that word "sin." 'Twas Sin that
blighted Eden and drove our first parents forth to toil in weariness
outside its peaceful bowers. 'Twas Sin that polluted all our blood and
left the leprosy still in our veins, as a legacy of ill to the latest
generation. 'Tis Sin that has been the parent of all our earthly
sorrow. 'Tis Sin that will be the cause of our everlasting misery
unless we are delivered from it. Never has the world seen another
tyrant comparable to this. Beneath its dragon-wings the light has been
eclipsed, life has dwindled, joy has expired. Remember–you that fear
the Lord and are the servants of Jesus Christ–remember how many there
are that are still the slaves of sin!
There is no monarch who rules over so many souls as this tyrant
Iniquity. Millions that have departed now mourn forever the thralldom
from which they never shall escape–they have perished without Christ
and under the tyranny of Sin they must live forever. And millions more
that are still upon the earth bow down to Sin and suffer it to rule
over them and this fell monster lords it over the myriads of the human
race! Sad contemplation! But, perhaps, Christian, it will be to you,
personally, even sadder, still, when you reflect that whatever you are
now, you, too, were once the servant of Sin. You now have the will to
shake off that fetter but you once hugged the chain. You now abhor the
leprosy, but you once accounted the symptoms of your disease to be
indications of health and you were enamored of yourself notwithstanding
your revolting loathsomeness.
There was a time when every affection of your nature went after evil,
when you loved not the things of God nor served Him. Yet now you are
renewed in the spirit of your mind. Oh, what unspeakable joy! Though
you were the servant of Sin, you have now received the faith once
delivered to the saints and you have obeyed, from the heart, that form
of doctrine which was delivered unto you. But remember the hole of the
pit from where you were dug! Be not exalted as though there were any
goodness in your nature more than in that of other men, for had you
been left to yourself, you had still been the bond-slave of evil and so
you would have continued evermore!
The prediction is encouraging. Although we have to encounter this
horrible curse and deadly plague of Sin, there is an immunity for
Believers. Sin shall not have dominion over them! It sounds to me like
the note of a celestial harper cheering on an earthly pilgrim. It rings
out like a trumpet that proclaims a coming victory! Should not every
soldier fight with dauntless valor? Should not his spirit, faint and
cowed, wax brave in contest with Sin, when he hears as the argument of
a holy Apostle, as the oracle of the inspired Truth of God such a sure
word of prophecy–"Sin shall not have dominion over you"? You have been
delivered from it once and shall never come back to its slavery again!
It shall never "have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law
but under Grace."
I intend to use the text in three ways. First, as a test. Secondly, in
its proper acceptation, as a promise. And thirdly as an encouragement.
I. In these words we have an important TEST of our profession. Sin
shall not have dominion over true Believers. Has sin dominion over you?
If so, then you are not a Believer. I did not say–"Do you sin?"–"for
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in
us"–but I did say, "Has sin dominion over you?" Would you answer the
question? Would you try yourselves? Let me remind you of its
deceitfulness. You may be under the dominion of sin, while yet there
may be some forms of vice which you have successfully resisted. But it
matters not what kind of transgression enslaves you, if you are, after
all, in bondage.
Whatever sin it may be that is the lieutenant in your heart, it does
not matter–you are possessed of the devil. If there is but one sin
that usurps authority, then sin has dominion over you. Satan does not
send to all men the same temptations nor does evil reign in every heart
to gratify the same lusts or to satisfy the same propensities. The sin
is adapted to the constitution–but if there is a single cherished sin
in any one of you professors which is obvious you
cannot conquer and, perhaps, too apparent that you do not try–if you
sit down quietly under the yoke of it and cherish it as a friend rather
than withstand it as a foe, then that sin has got dominion over you and
you are not in Christ, you are not a child of God!
Does this appear unreasonably severe? I must speak the Truth of God.
There are some professors who are under the dominion of sin in the form
of anger. All constitutions are not alike. Happy for those who are not
troubled with the passionate temper that chafes, irritates, vexes and
annoys everybody they are associated with, as servants or companions.
What shall I say of those who have such a quick, hot temper? They are
like the small pot that quickly boils over and scalds terribly. There
are others whose temper is rather slower in coming up, but when it has
once risen it is horrible and will last long and make them sulky, so
that perhaps they will never forgive. I know not how long malice will
be burning in their hearts.
Now, mark you, a man may have a very bad temper and yet be a true
Christian, but if any man says, "My temper is so bad that I cannot curb
it. I do not try to restrain it, for it is impossible to keep it under
control," that temper has got dominion over him and, according to my
text, he is not a Christian! Do you ask, "How can a man master his
temper?" In reply, my Brothers and Sisters, I must ask, how can a man
go to Heaven if he does not? If the Divine Grace of God does not change
us and help us to bridle that lion that is within us, what has it done
for us? If a man says, "I cannot help it," I cannot help telling him
that if there is no help, nothing can remain for him but despair. Only
in salvation from sin is there salvation from wrath. In the name of
God, you must help it! You must overcome it and get it down, by God's
Grace, or else it will cast you down, down, down, where hope and light
will never come!
Do you imagine that Christ's Gospel comes into the world and says "You
may let that one sin alone"? My Lord Jesus Christ is no lover of sin
and makes no excuse for it. He will forgive your anger, if you repent
of it and renounce it, but if you allow it and tolerate it within your
spirit, then you are strangers to His Grace. O Sirs, I speak the Truth
of God and lie not in this respect! I have seen the Grace of God change
lions into lambs. Men of hot and fierce temper have become calm and
quiet and gentle. Although the old man has sometimes appeared with his
old propensities and they have had to blush for him and bite their lips
to keep back the hard word, or even to walk away, perhaps, for fear
they should say something which they know they would be sorry for
afterwards, yet they have resisted the vile propensity and prevailed!
They have mastered their temper and so must you. You must not be
content until you have done so, for if you sit down and say, "There, I
shall yield myself up to it and let it alone," it is clear as daylight
that it has dominion over you and you cannot be a child of God, for
over the children of God it shall not have dominion! It may break out,
sometimes, and hurl you down, but you will never allow it to keep you
down. You will never say of it, "I cannot overcome it," but you will
fight against it till you die and when it does break loose it will make
you wet your pillow with tears and repair to God with a broken heart
saying, "O God, forgive me and deliver me from this horrible sin which
my soul loathes!"
In some men the sin that does most easily beset, takes another shape.
Their propensity is to murmur, of which the Apostle speaks when he says
"Neither murmur you as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of
the Destroyer." I know people–they are very uncomfortable people to
live with–who are always grumbling at everything they meet with in
this world. Trade is bad. According to the account of certain persons
who were never successful–if they ever were industrious or
enterprising–trade was always bad. It never has been good since they
were born, or had anything to do with it. As for their meals–instead
of being thankful to God that they have an abundance while so many are
hungry, they are perpetually finding fault. No! Everything must be done
to a turn. If there is a little too much salt here, or a little too
much pepper there, what a noise they make about such trifles!
Their very garments are never to their minds. The weather never suits
them–it is "awfully hot," or it is "dreadfully cold." They go through
the world murmuring at everything. There are men who think that this is
not sin. But if it is a virtue to be thankful and contented with, it is
certainly a vice to be forever rebellious and discontented with our
lot, and at daggers drawn with every little thing that crosses our
pathway! Why did the Apostle put it so, "Neither murmur you as some of
them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer"? Now if any man
among you murmurs, he may be a Christian needing to be purged of this
defilement. But if you say, "I cannot help murmuring," then murmuring
has got dominion over you and you cannot be a child of God! You must
wage war against it, for if you are a child of God, neither this sin
nor any other shall have dominion over you.
Here, Brethren, I can speak from my own heart. I do not suppose there
is any person in this assembly who ever has stronger fits of depression
of spirits than I have myself, personally. I feel at times, when I come
into this pulpit, that instead of addressing you cheerfully, I could be
a very Jeremiah, with tears and sorrows. I scarcely know why, but so it
is, these constitutional mischiefs will happen to us. But shall I say I
cannot help it? Do you think I will give way to it? No, but in the name
of God I dare not say it! I must contend against it, lest if I should
speak murmuringly I should set an ill example unto others and thus open
their mouths to offend against God. This sin is hard to overcome, but
conquered it must be, for it must never have dominion over us.
With some other persons the peculiar reigning sin is covetousness. Oh,
how tight those fingers are when they are once closed! How pleased they
are when money accumulates! I do not say that they should be
indifferent to business when it behooves them to buy and sell and get
gain. But why so penurious? How unhappy they are if there is a little
demand made upon them for the poor, for the needy, for the Church of
God! How stingily they count out their three-piece! How seldom it comes
to four pence they contribute! What maneuvers they practice in limiting
themselves to the minimum of charity! How they grudge all they part
with and how much it seems to cost them when they give anything! It is,
indeed, a bleeding which reduces their vital force when anything is
given to further the interests of their Lord!
Now, this covetousness is smiled at–perhaps you say, "'Tis a
gentlemanly vice"–but I myself think it a grievous wrong, base as any
fraud! For what have you that you have not received? And what have you
received for which you are not accountable? And what have you earned
for which you should not pay tribute? Moreover, my God has said of it,
"Covetousness is idolatry." I do not doubt but you may fall into fits
of covetousness and yet be Christians. If, however, you are habitually
covetous and say, "Well, I cannot help it," then your covetousness has
got dominion over you and according to the text you cannot be a child
of God, for in the children of God sin shall not have dominion! O Sirs,
turn that covetousness out of doors!
Do as the good man did who had resolved to give a pound to some good
cause and the devil tempted him not to do it. Said he, "I will give
two, now." The devil said, "No, you will be ruining yourself with your
contributions." Said he, "I will give four." Another temptation came
and he said, "I will give eight, and if the devil does not leave off
tempting me I do not know to what lengths I shall go, but I will be
master of him somehow." Do anything, my Brothers and Sisters, rather
than let the golden calf run over you. Who can be a baser slave than he
who bows his neck to the mammon god? He is not a manly god. Do you live
as if the world were made for you and none beside? To get, to hoard?
But not to enjoy–he who loves not others is himself unblest.
It might so happen that some of my hearers never fell into that sin, it
never reigned over them. Yet possibly another vice may be in the
picture. Perhaps it is the sin ofpride. As I have already told you, it
does not matter what sin it is–if it has dominion over you–the text
cuts you off from hope. Pride and arrogance are an abomination to the
Lord! Know you not that the lofty looks of man shall be humbled and the
haughtiness, that is to say the arrogant bearing of men, shall be bowed
down in that day when the Lord, alone, is exalted? Ah, I know some who
are proud in this very manner. They treat all those they meet with, as
though they felt that they were altogether of a superior order. They do
not deign to notice the common herd, the vulgar. Or, if not tossing
their head and consequential in their manners–they are not quite so
foolish as that, perhaps–yet are they proud in everything else.
Nobody can pray as they do. Nobody can manage anything as they can. All
other Christian people are very imperfect and poor things, but they,
themselves, are quite of a superior class, casting their neighbors into
the shade. Now, my dear Friend, I do not say that you are no Christian
because you occasionally forget the lowliness of heart and the modesty
of demeanor that become you, but I do say that if pride reigns over you
and you tell me that you cannot help being proud, then you cannot be an
heir of Heaven–for if pride is your master, then Christ is not–and if
pride reigns in your spirit and fashions your character, depend upon
it–Jesus Christ will despise your image!
The dominant sin of many who profess and call themselves Christians is
sloth–downright idleness. They have said to themselves, "Soul, take
your ease." Therefore their faculties have become dormant. As asleep
they pass their lives in protracted insensibility. They never do
anything for Christ. Their hands are folded, their heart is sluggish,
their talents are hid. They have no zeal, no love for souls. Pleasures,
profits and private gratifications take the place of duty and service.
They like comfort remarkably much, but as to their ever enlisting in
Christ's army, it is not to be expected of them. They are an inglorious
neuter to the Church. Now, I will not say that the man who is sometimes
slothful is not a
Christian, for alas, we all have to contend with this disease! But the
man in whom sloth rules cannot be a child of God, because no sin can
have dominion over the man whom God has brought into the kingdom of
Grace!
But enough of this! I have given you sufficient tests to try
yourselves. Will you, Brothers and Sisters, be honest enough to subject
yourselves to self-examination? As I desire to do with myself, so would
I have you do with yourselves. Is there a reigning sin in your hearts?
Never mind what it is–is there any sin that reigns and rules there?
Then Jesus Christ cannot be in your soul, for–
"When He comes, He comes to reign," nor can the Spirit of God dwell in
you, for He is the Spirit of holiness!
II. But now, let us take a more pleasant view of the text, regarding it
as A PROMISE. To every true Believer the promise is–"Sin shall not
have dominion over you." It does not say that sin shall not dwell in
you. We know that it will dwell in you while you dwell in these
corruptible bodies. In the holiest man there is enough sin to destroy
him if it were not for the Grace of God which restrains its deadly
operation. You cannot turn the old enemy completely out. He lurks, like
aliens in a city ever ready to do mischief.
Nor are you told that you shall never fall into sin. Alas, alas! Some
of those who have walked very near to God have yet fallen very foully.
Need I mention such as David? O may we never repeat in our lives the
lapses that tarnished the reputation of such godly men! The word,
however, is passed and the security is given that "sin shall not have
dominion over you." The fair and lovely dove may fall into the mire,
but the mire has not any dominion over it, for she rises up as quickly
as she can and away she flies and seeks to cleanse herself at some
crystal fountain. As for the duck, put them into the mire and the mire
has dominion over its nature. So the Believer may fall into sin that he
hates and defile his garments with uncleanness that he loathes.
Let a sheep tumble into a ditch and it scrambles out again, but let the
swine go there and it rolls in it, for the mire has dominion over its
nature. There is nothing here to excuse you from watchfulness, no
reason shown nor any pledge that sin may not sometimes terribly
overcome you. It may carry the war right into the province of your
spirit and ravage it and the whole of your nature may, for awhile, seem
to be subdued, except the heart. Happily a limit is prescribed. Though
the enemy may seem to conquer the territory of your manhood, yet it
cannot establish a kingdom there, for it shall be driven out again, in
due time, and that before long. When the enemy comes in as a flood, the
Spirit of God will lift up the standard against him and the enemy shall
yet be worsted in the combat.
Notice the reason that is assigned for the assertion of the text. "Sin
shall not have dominion over you, for"–we will look at that reason for
a minute–when we have looked at a few others. Sin cannot get confirmed
dominion over the child of God because God has promised that it shall
not. "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Oh, how I love these
"shalls!" There seems something grand in them. "Sin shall not." Ah,
Satan may come with temptation, but when God says, "Sin shall not have
dominion," it is as when the sea comes up in the fullness of its
strength and the Almighty says, "To here shall you come, but no
farther. Here shall your proud waves be stopped." If there were no
other promise in the Bible but this one and I knew no more theology
than that promise teaches me, I would be most happy. "Sin shall not
have dominion." O my God, if you say it shall not, then I know it shall
not. Has He said and shall He not do it? Has He promised it and shall
it not stand good? If you trust in Jesus Christ, before sin can ever
fully rule over you, God's promise must be broken and, Beloved, that
shall never be!
Another reason sin shall not have dominion over you is because you
belong to Christ and He bought you at such a price that I am sure He
will never lose you. He paid for you in the drops of His own heart's
blood! As a Believer you are Christ's purchased possession. Do you
think that He will permit evil to come and run away with the heritage
that He bought at such a price? Ah, never! He that bought you will
fight for you against every enemy and preserve His blood-bought
heritage unto Himself. Sin shall not have dominion over you because the
Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you. If you are a Believer the Holy
Spirit dwells in you as a king within his palace and do you think that
He will be expelled by Satan and all his host of temptations?–
"Sin is strong, but Grace is stronger, Christ than Satan more supreme."
It is a hard struggle between you and Satan, but between the Holy
Spirit and Satan it is an easy war. He can hold His own and He will do
it.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in you and it is His
rule never to leave His work unfinished. The work which His wisdom
begins, the arm of His strength will complete. It shall not be said of
the Holy Spirit as we say of foolish builders, that they began to build
but were not able to finish. The first stone of Divine Grace laid in a
sinner's heart secures the top stone of the sacred edifice, let Hell
and sin say what they will! Is not this a safeguard to prevent you from
falling under the dominion of sin? Further still, my Brothers and
Sisters, there is in every Christian a new nature, a new nature which
cannot die and which cannot sin. Christ calls it, "a well of water
springing up into everlasting life." The Apostle calls it, "a living
incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever."
Now, if this seed within you is incorruptible, then sin cannot corrupt
it! If it abides forever, then sin cannot expel it! If the inner life
is there and it is, indeed, the very life of God within your spirit,
sin shall not have dominion over you! There is another reason also, my
dear Brothers and Sisters, that specially applies to you as a
Christian–your will is not the slave of sin and never has been since
your conversion. You sin, but if you could, you would never sin. To
will is present with you. The bent and bias of your mind are towards
righteousness if you are a Christian. Now, if such is the case, sin can
never get dominion over your whole nature, for the sovereignty of all
your manhood lies with Him who possesses the mastery of your will and
your affections.
As long as the blood-red flag of Christ's Cross floats over the castle
of your heart, Satan may get possession of eye-gate and ear-gate, and
mouth-gate awhile, but Christ is still King! Your will is still good
towards righteousness–sin has not dominion over you! You remember how
John Bunyan represents poor Feeble-Mind in the cave of Giant Slay-Good?
The giant had picked him up on the road and taken him home to devour
him at his leisure. But poor Feeble-Mind said he had one comfort, for
he had heard that the giant could never pick the bones of any man who
was brought there against his will. Ah, and so it is! If there is a man
who has fallen into sin, but still his heart cries out against the sin.
If he is saying, "Lord, I am in captivity to it. I am under bondage to
it. O that I could be free from it!" then sin has not dominion over
him, nor shall it destroy him, but he shall be set free before long.
We now come to the reason given in the text. I want you to observe it
narrowly, for it is not, at first sight, easy of apprehension–"Sin
shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law but
under Grace." Look at this a minute. There are two principles in the
world that are supposed to promote holiness. The one is the principle
of law and duty, the other the principle of Divine Grace and faith. It
is a popular notion that if you tell men what they ought to do, prove
to them the authority of the law-giver, and show them the penalty of
their wrong doing–this will enlighten their judgment, give a just bias
to their inclination and materially help to keep their conduct right.
All the history of mankind goes to show that this pretext is without
proof. Those who are under the Law are always under sin. I will show
you how it is so. The moment our mother Eve came under Law, she was
under Law only on one point. She was not to pluck the fruit of one
tree. She might eat as she liked of all the other fruits of the garden
and I do not know that she wanted to pluck any of them, or cared
particularly to do so, but the prohibition to pluck that one prompted
her desire and excited an ardent craving for the forbidden fruit. On
this very morning I talked with a person in great distress, who said to
me, "I read in the Word of God such-and-such a text about a sin that
was unto death and no sooner did I begin to know what that sin was than
I felt a fascination which made me want to do it."
Did you never notice the same in your children? You have a little
garden you wish to keep private and you, accordingly, forbid any of the
children to go into it. Well, you had better give them leave to go in
and then perhaps they will be indifferent about it, but if you say,
"Now, you may go anywhere else, but just inside that particular part of
the garden you must not go," why, they one and all want to go there at
once! There is a kind of curiosity about us, that if there is a
Blue-beard cupboard anywhere, we must go and try to find it out. The
moment we are commanded not to do a thing, such is our perverse
disposition–we try to do it!
Men who are under Law through the haughtiness of human nature, always
get to be under sin, too. There is a new crime lately come up. There is
to be a communication in railway carriages between the passengers and
the guard and nobody must pull the rope unless there is sufficient
reason for stopping the train. Now, I will be bound to say that
somebody will be sure to do it. If you must not do it you want to do
it. Such is our nature–the Law, instead of promoting holiness, does
not promote it–but the flesh takes occasion to gratify its desires,
lusts and cravings by infringing its precepts. Even the terrible
penalties of Hell have failed to inspire fear or promote holiness. When
was there ever so much sheep-stealing and theft, and highway robbery
and forgery, as when men were hanged for these things?
Then such sins were always being committed. When Draco wrote his laws
in blood and every sin was punished with death, crime was far more rife
than it is even now. Law has proved its utter powerlessness to protect
men from the dominion of sin!
There is another principle and it is steadfastly believed by some of us
to be fruitful in every good word and work, a main instigator to
righteousness and true holiness. Let me explain it. It is the principle
of Divine Grace on the part of God and operates by faith in the heart
of man. It is on this wise. Grace does not say to a man, "You must do
this or you shall be punished," but it says this, "God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you all your sins. You are saved. Heaven is yours
and you shall enter into the bliss of the angels before long. Now, for
the love you bear to God, who has done this for you, what will you do
for Him?"
This does not appear to furnish, at first sight, a very powerful
motive, but it has been proved in the history of Christ's Church to be
the most potent creator of virtue that was ever heard of. God's great
love wherewith He loved us has been indelibly impressed on the heart.
The wondrous sacrifice of Christ has been verily depicted before the
eyes. A constraining power, strong as death, has availed to consecrate
the lives of those who have felt the sacred rapturous spell. Dissolved
by mercy unmerited and Grace unexpected, they have surrendered
themselves in terms like these–
"Now, for the love I bear His name,
What was my gain I count my loss.
My former pride I call my shame,
And nail my glory to His Cross." Look at the lives of the Apostles and
the martyrs and those earnest confessors of Christ who did resist to
blood striving against sin. Why, my Brothers and Sisters, Christ has
had such servants as Moses never had! He has had such self-devotion,
such consecration, such zeal, purely and simply the result of gratitude
as mere Law and duty never could create!
Now, because you are not under the Law, you Christian people, God does
not say to you, "Do this and I will save you. Do not do that and I will
damn you." But He says to you, "I have saved you beyond the fear of
damnation–you are Mine, My children, My favorites–now, what will you
do for Me?" Such is the motive power, such the irresistible instinct of
love and gratitude that sin shall never get dominion over you. I will
give you an illustration. I rather think that I am indebted for it to a
passage in Cowper's works which I cannot at this moment recall. You
have a servant who engages to do his allotted work for the wages that
you give him–with no other motive than his stipend and no further
interest in his employment than to get over it as quickly as
possible–he is under law.
Notice how he watches your eyes, that he may do, while you are looking
at him, that which he must do. He renders you a service of a certain
sort, but it is generally very poor and not much to be accounted of.
But you have another servant, one who is old and tried, and honest to
the backbone. He remembers you when a boy and used to live with your
father, then. Now, if you could not pay him his wages it would not
destroy his attachment to you, or his zeal for your interest. If you
were to discharge him, I dare say he would tell you that if you did not
know when you had a good servant he knew when he had a good master and
he meant to stick by you!
Notice him how he watches your interests. He will not have anything
wasted through neglect. He will not have you defrauded in anything for
lack of oversight. And if you were ill in the middle of the night, he
would somehow or other discover it and be off for a doctor before you
could call him. If he traveled with you, what care and attention he
would pay you! He would be ready to risk his life for you. You could
not buy such service as his for gold–you could never get it as a mere
matter of duty. Love makes him do for you what mere duty never could.
So, even if the Law did make good servants, as it never does, yet it
never could make so good a servant as Divine Grace and love.
Indeed, the motive of love is always the stronger and if it came to the
pinch and your man who serves you for your pay could make more out of
betraying you than he could by being faithful to you, you know what he
would do! But your other servant who serves you out of love would no
more think of going beyond or imposing upon you than of sacrificing
himself! He would, perhaps, be like the Roman slave who was tortured to
death sooner than he would run and point out where his master was
concealed because his master was sought in order to be slain. Love!
Love is the mighty principle!
You Christian people are not under the Law. It is true, the moral law
is your rule of life, but it has no tyrannous government over you.
Christ fulfilled the Law for you! It has been kept! You owe it no
obedience as a matter of mere
justice. You have been delivered from that and being now under the law
of love and not under the law of force and duty, sin never shall have
dominion over you.
III. But I cannot tarry longer, as our time is gone. The last point is
to view the text as AN ENCOURAGEMENT. In this assembly I fear there are
not a few who are strangers to the holy jealousy which keeps a watch
over the heart and a guard upon the lips lest they should sin. I wish
we were all so on the alert–that we all kept our garments scrupulously
white. Dear Brothers and Sisters, cultivate a holy jealousy! Be very
watchful and let this text animate you–"Sin shall not have dominion
over you."
In this assembly, too, there are some who are consciously very weak.
You feel your depraved nature to be vigorous and you are afraid that
the Divine Grace within you is insufficient for the trials that beset
you. My dear Brethren, let this encourage you. Though you may be very
weak, if you are a child of God, sin shall no more get dominion over
the weak than over the strong! Though the life within you may be but a
spark, it shall not be quenched! Though it is but as a bruised reed, it
shall not be broken. The text is for the weak as well as the
strong–"Sin shall not have dominion over you."
In this company there may be those who are just now fighting with some
great sin. We noticed last Monday night the prayer of a dear Brother
evidently coming out of the bitterness of his soul, when he said, "O
God, help me, or I shall fall! Help me, or I shall fall!" Ah, Brethren,
we all know what it is to get to the pinch, when it is hand-to-hand
work with some inbred corruption! You that do not have strong passions
may be very thankful, for they that have a lusty manhood are often
drifted by terrible winds and have a hard fight to keep clear of the
rocks of sin. But oh, you warring Christians, you Believers who are
fighting–here is consolation for you! Put this bottle of cool water to
your lips and be refreshed! "Sin shall not have dominion over you." You
shall conquer yet! Fight on!
Possibly there may be some here lately converted–some man who was a
drunkard. Your chains are broken, but there are some links that are
left hanging and sometimes they will catch hold of a nail and you will
think you are tied up again. Oh, but, my Brethren, if you have given
your heart to Christ, sin shall not have dominion over you! You shall
yet be helped. Probably there is a man here whose life was very bad
before his conversion and he says to himself, "I have to go and mix up
with some of the people I used to sin with and they laugh at me and lay
all sorts of traps for me. I am afraid I shall yet go back." O cling to
the Cross! Lay hold of the garments of your dear Lord and Master, for
if you trust Him, though you are but a child lately born into the
family, "Sin shall not have dominion over you."
Perhaps I address a backslider tonight. O my Brother, my Sister–you
have gone into sin–you have defiled your garments. Perhaps the Church
of God has had to cast you out. But do you now hate your sin? Have you
now, again, began to cry unto God for mercy? Does the Lord help you to
look to the Cross and rest in the work of Jesus? If so, be of good
courage, still, for if you are His child sin may get a temporary
advantage, but it shall never have permanent dominion! You have sinned
very terribly–it is an awful thing–God have mercy upon you for it.
You will have to go with broken bones all your life, but you shall
still be saved, for sin shall not have dominion over you!
And now, the last sentence is this–if there is anyone here desirous to
be saved from the reigning power of sin within his body, however much
sin may now domineer over him–if he will come to Christ, my Lord and
Master–and put his trust in Him, He will take care to deliver him
altogether from sin, beginning the good work in him this very night and
carrying it on till He at last brings him to Heaven, without a spot or
a sin, to see the face of God! And this is for every one of you who
will trust Christ!
O that you may trust in Him now and God shall have the glory while you
will have the great salvation! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Romans 6