Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 901
Delivered by, 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.