Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1410
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, April 21, 1878
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace.” Romans 6:14.
OUR constant hearers will remember that a Sabbath or so ago we spoke upon, “Submit yourselves unto God.” [#1408, The Reason Why Many Cannot Find Peace.] It is both the way to peace and the way of peace to submit one’s whole self unto God. Nor is it an irksome task to a true Believer, but the desire of his heart, the pleasure of his life. He shudders at the idea of yielding his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but according to the language of the verse which precedes our text, he yields himself unto God as one who has been made alive from the dead and his members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Complete consecration of every faculty of mind and body unto the Lord is our soul’s deepest wish. We can sing most sincerely that sweet consecration hymn—
“Take my hands and let them move,
Take my feet and let them be,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King!
Take my lips and let them be,
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my intellect, and use
Every power as You shall choose.
So that all my powers combine,
To adore Your Grace Divine,
Heart and soul a living flame,
Glorifying Your great name.”
But, Beloved, we find another law in our members warring against the law of our mind. To the full yielding up of all our members we find a hindrance in the sin which dwells in us—that sin which finds its haunt and hiding place in our mortal body—in the desires, passions and appetites of our animal nature. These within proper limits are right enough— it is right that we eat and drink, and so forth, but our natural instincts are apt to demand indulgence and so to become lusts. Our mortal body, in its natural desires, affords dens for the foxes of sin. The carnal mind, also, readily leans to the indulgence of the body and thus there is presented a powerful opposition to the work of Divine Grace. Every true child of God must be conscious of the presence of the rebellious power and principle of sin within him.
We strive to keep it under, to subdue and conquer it, and we hope to see it utterly exterminated at the last, for our case is like that of Israel with the Canaanites and we long for the day when, “There shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the land.” Sin is a domineering force. A man cannot sin up to a fixed point and then say to sin, “Up to here shall you come, but no farther.” It is an imperious power and where it dwells it is hungry for the mastery. Just as our Lord, when He enters the soul, will never be content with a divided dominion, so is it with sin—it labors to bring our entire manhood under subjection.
Therefore we are compelled to strive daily against this ambitious principle—according to the working of the Spirit of God in us we wrestle against sin that it may not have dominion over us. It has unquestioned dominion over multitudes of human hearts and in some it has set up its horrid throne on high and keeps its seat with force of arms so that its empire
is undisturbed. In others the throne is disputed, for conscience mutinies, but yet the tyrant is not dethroned. Over the whole world sin exercises a dreadful tyranny. It would hold us in the same bondage were it not for One who is stronger than sin, who has undertaken to deliver us out of its hand and will certainly perform the redeeming work! Here is the charter of our liberty, the security of our safety—“Sin shall not have dominion over you.” It reigns over those who abide in unbelief, but it shall not have dominion over you, “because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
The whole world lies in the Wicked One, but, “you are not of the world” and, therefore, “sin shall not have dominion over you.” If we are distressed by the fear that sin will ultimately get the mastery over us, let us be comforted by our text. Holy jealousy leads us to fear that though we have for many years been enabled to maintain a spotless character before men, we may in some unguarded hour make shipwreck of faith and end our life voyage as castaways upon the rocks of shame. The flesh is frail and our strength is perfect weakness and, therefore, we dread lest we should make some terrible fall and bring dishonor upon the holy name by which we are called. Under such feelings we may fly for comfort to the rich assurance of the text, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.”
Three things will demand our consideration and afford us consolation this morning. The first is the peculiar position of Believers—“You are not under the Law, but under Grace.” Secondly, the special assurance made to them, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” And thirdly, the remarkable reason given for this statement, “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the Law, but under Grace.”