OUR CHANGE OF MASTERS.

À $ermon

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 6TH, 1879, DY
C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Romans vi. 18.

MAN was made to rule. In the divine original he was intended for a king, who should have dominion over the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea. He was designed to be the lord-lieutenant of this part of creation, and the form of his body and the dignity of his countenance betoken it. He walks erect among the animals, while they move upon all-fours; he subjugates and tames them to perform his will, and the fear and dread of him is upon all creatures, for they know their sovereign. Yet is it equally true that man was made to serve. At his beginning he was placed in the garden to keep it, and to dress it, and so to serve his Maker. His natural feebleness, his dependence upon rain, and sun, and dew, his instinctive awe of an unseen and omnipotent spirit, indicate that he is not the chief of the universe, but a subordinate being, whose lot it is to serve. We find within man various powers and propensities seeking to get dominion over him, so that his mind also is capable of servitude. The appetites which are essential for the sustenance of his bodily frame, even such as eating and drinking, endeavour to master him, and if they can they will do so, and reduce him below the level of the swine. Man is in part spirit, but he is also in part animal, and the animal strives to get dominion over the spiritual; and in many, many men it does so, till they are utterly degraded. Nothing can be worse than a soul enslaved by such a body as that of man. The brute nature of man is the worst sort of brute. There is no beast in wolf, or lion, or serpent that is so brutish as the beast in man. Did I not tell you last Sabbath day that whereas, according to the Levitical law, he that touched a dead animal was unclean till the evening, he who touched a dead man was unclean seven days, for man is a seven times more polluting creature than any of the beasts of the field when his animal nature rules him.

If evil aims at ruling man the good Spirit also strives with him. When God of his infinite mercy visits man by his Spirit, that Spirit does No. 1,482.

not come as a neutral power to dwell quietly within man, and to share his heart with the Prince of Darkness, but he enters with full intent to reign. Hence there is a conflict which cannot be ended by an armistice, but must be carried on to the end, and that end will be found either in the driving out of the evil or in the thrusting out of the good; for one or the other, either the Prince of Darkness or the King of Light, will have dominion over man. Man must have a master: he cannot serve two masters, but he must serve one. Of all sorts of men this has been true, and it has perhaps been most clearly seen in those who were evidently made to lead their fellow men: it is specially seen in such a man, for instance, as Alexander, a true king of men, so heroic and greathearted that one does not wonder that armies were fired with enthusiasm by his presence, and drove everything before them. Alexander conquered the world, and yet on occasions he became the captive of drunkenness and the bondsman of his passionate temper. At such times the king of men, the vanquisher of armies, was little better than a raving maniac. Look for further illustration at the busts of the emperors of Rome, the masters of the world; study their faces, and mark what grovelling creatures they must have been. Rome had many slaves, but he who wore her purple was the most in bonds. No slave that ground at the mill, or died in the amphitheatre, was more in bondage than such men as Tiberius and Nero, who were the bond-slaves of their passions. High rank does not save a man from being under a mastery: neither does learning nor philosophy deliver men from this bondage, for the teachers of liberty have not themselves been free, but it has happened as the apostle saith, "While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption." Solomon himself, with all his wisdom, played the fool exceedingly, and though he was the most sagacious ruler of his age he became for awhile completely subject to his fleshly desires.

Man is born to be a servant, and a servant he must be. Who shall be his master? That is the question. Our text proves the point with which I have started, for it speaks of "being made free from sin," and in the same breath it adds, "Ye became the servants of righteousness." There is no interregnum: there does not appear to be a moment left for an independent state, but out of one servitude we pass into another. Do not think I made a mistake in the use of the word servitude; I might have translated the Greek word by that of slave, and have been correct. "Being made free from sin, ye were enslaved to righteousness." The apostle makes an excuse for using the figure, and says, "I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh." He did not know how else to describe it, for when we come from under the absolute power of sin we come at once into a like subjection to righteousness; as we were governed and swayed by the love of sin, so we become in a similar manner subject to the forces of grace and truth. As sin took possession of us and controlled our acts, so grace claims us as its own, takes possession of us, and rules us with an absolute sway. Man passes from one master to another, but he is always in subjection. Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in blessed bonds of grace. The passions drive it hither and thither like a

rolling thing before a whirlwind; or the understanding sways it, and then, according as the understanding is darkened or enlightened, the will acts for good or evil. In any case the bit is in its mouth, and it is guided by a power beyond itself.

However, I leave that question, and call attention this morning first of all to our change of masters-"Being made free from sin, we become the servants of righteousness": secondly, to the reasons for that change; and thirdly, to the consequences of that change.

I. We begin with OUR CHANGE OF MASTERS. We must have a master, but some of us by divine grace have made a change of masters infinitely to our advantage. In describing this inward revolution we will begin with a word or two upon our old master. The apostle says in the verse preceding our text, "Ye were the servants of sin." How true that is! Those of us who now believe, and are free from sin, were all without exception the servants of sin. We were not all alike enslaved, but we were all under bondage. Sin has its liveried servants. Did you ever see a man dressed in the full livery of sin? A fine suit, I warrant you! Sin clothes its slave with rags, with shame, and often with disease. When fully dressed in Satan's uniform the sinner is abominable, even to his fellow sinners. If you want to see sin's liveried servants dressed out in their best or their worst, go to the prison, and you will find them there; or go to the dens of infamy in this great city, or to the liquorbars, or to the places of vicious amusement, and you will find them there. Many of them wear the badge of the devil's drudgery upon their backs in poverty and rags, upon their faces in the blotches born of drunkenness, and in their very bones in the consequences of their vice. Satan has regimentals for his soldiers, and they are worthy of the service.

But great folks have many servants who are out of livery, and so has sin. We were not all open transgressors before our new birth, though we were all the servants of sin. There are many slaves of evil whom you would not know to be such if you only saw the surface of their characters. They do not swear, or steal, or commit adultery, or even break the Sabbath outwardly; on the contrary, they are most moral in their conduct. They are the servants of sin, but they are secretly so, for fear of rebuke; they are non-professing sinners and yet sincerely in love with sin. They stood up and sung the hymn just now, they bowed their heads in prayer, and they are now listening to the sermon, and no one will know the difference between them and the servants of Christ by their exterior; but at heart they reject the Son of God, and refuse to believe in him, for they love the pleasures of sin and the wages of unrighteousness. A kind of selfish caution restrains them from overt acts of transgression, but their heart loves not God, and their desires are not towards his ways. O, my dear hearer, if thou art setting up thine own righteousness in thy soul as an anti-Christ against God's Christ, if thou art kicking against the sway of the Divine Spirit, if thou art secretly living in sin, if thou art following out some sweet sin in secret, even though thou darest to appear in the livery of Christ, yet still thou art the slave of sin. Hypocrites are worse slaves than any others, because they are laid under the restraints of religious men without enjoying their consolations, and they practise the sins of the ungodly without their pleasures. Every hypocrite is a fool and a coward; he has not the vill

to serve the Lord and yet he has not the courage to serve the devil out and out. These go-betweens are of all sorts of people the most to be pitied and the most to be blamed.

As long as we are unbelievers we are the servants of sin, but we are not all outdoor servants of sin. Sin has its domestic servants who keep quiet, as well as its soldiers who beat the drum. Many keep their sin to themselves: nobody hears of them in the street, they raise no public scandal, and yet at heart they are the faithful followers of wickedness and rebellion. Their idols are set up in secret chambers, but they are heartily loved. Their desires and aspirations are all selfish, but they try to conceal this fact even from themselves; they will not serve God, they will not bow before his Son, and yet they would shrink from avowing their rebellion. They are amiable, admirable, and excellent in their outward deportment; but they are the indoor servants of Satan for all that, and their heart is full of enmity against God. Some of us confess that it was so with us. When none found fault with us we were, nevertheless, rotten in heart. We used to pray, but it was a mockery of God; we went up to God's house, but we regarded not his word, and yet in all this we prided ourselves that we were righteous.

There are, however, many believers, who were once outdoor servants of Satan, sinning openly and in defiance of all law. I thank God that there are some here who are now the servants of Christ, upon whom I can look with great delight, although they were once the open, overt, zealous, diligent servants of the devil. Now they are washed, renewed, and sanctified. Glory be to God for it. Oh that the Lord would bring some more great sinners inside this house and turn them into great saints, for bold offenders make zealous lovers of Jesus when he puts away their sins. They love much because they have had much forgiven, and inasmuch as they desperately sinned so do they devoutly love; and their surrender to Christ is as entire and unreserved as their former surrender to the service of evil. In this let God be praised. Still, let us all humbly bow before the truth we are now speaking of, and own with great humiliation of spirit that we were the servants of sin.

In passing on we notice next the expression of the apostle, "Being made free from sin." Through divine grace we have been led to trust the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, and having done so we are at this moment free from sin. Come you who trust the Saviour's name, and rejoice in the words before us, for they describe you. You are made free from sin-not you shall be, but you are. In what sense

is this true?

First, in the sense of condemnation. The believer is no more condemned for sin. Your sin was laid on Christ of old, and he as your scapegoat took it all away. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." You are acquitted and justified through the Lord your righteousness. Clap your hands for joy! It is a mercy worth ten thousand worlds. You are made free from the damning power of sin, now and for ever.

As you cannot be coneven be accused; your "As far as the east is

Next, you are made free from the guilt of sin. demned so does the truth go further, you cannot transgression is forgiven you, your sin is covered. from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." You are delivered from sin's guilt at this moment-"made free from sin."

You are in consequence free from the punishment of sin. You shall never be cast into hell, for Jesus has suffered in your stead, and the justice of God is satisfied. As a believer in Christ, for you there is no bottomless pit, for you no undying worm, for you no fire unquenchable; but, guilty as you are by nature, Christ hath made you so completely clean that for you is reserved the "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world."

Nor is this all. You are made free from sin as to its reigning power, and this is a point in which you greatly delight. Sin once said to you, "Go," and you went: it says "Go" now, but you do not go. Sometimes sin stands in your way when grace says "Go," and then you would gladly run but sin opposes and hinders; and yet you will not yield to its demands, for grace holds dominion. You push, you struggle, you resolve that sin shall not be lord of your life, for you are not under the law but under grace. Sin hides itself in holes and corners of your nature, skulks in the dark about the streets of Mansoul, plots and plans if it can to get the mastery over you; but it never shall: it is cast out of the throne, and the Holy Ghost sits there ruling your nature, and there he will sit until you shall be perfected in holiness, and shall be caught up to dwell with Christ for ever and ever.

"Made free from sin." I wish I could now leave off preaching, and get into a quiet pew, and sit down with you and meditate upon that thought; chewing the cud as you farmers say, and getting the juice out of this rich pasturage. "Made free from sin!" Why, as Why, as I pronounce those blessed words I feel like an escaped negro in the old slave days when he leaped upon British soil in Canada. After all his running through the woods, and crossing of hills and rivers, he was free! How he leaped for joy! How he cried with delight! Even so did we exult in our liberty when at the first our Lord Jesus set us free. You who were never slaves, and never felt the taskmaster's lash, you do not know the value of liberty; and so in spiritual things, if you have never felt the slavery of sin, and have never escaped therefrom into the good land of grace where Christ hath made you free indeed, you do not know the joy of the redeemed. I am free! I am free! I am free!-I that was once a slave to every evil desire! I am made free by omnipotent love! I have escaped from the taskmaster's fetters, and I am the Lord's free man! Let all the angels praise my redeeming Lord. Let all the spirits before the throne praise the Lord, who hath led his people out of bondage, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for

ever.

Now, how came we to be free? We have become free in three ways. First, by purchase, for our Saviour has paid the full redemption money for us, and there is not a halfpenny due upon us. Blessed be his name, there is no mortgage on his inheritance; the price is all paid and we are Christ's unencumbered property for ever. Here we stand at this moment free, because we are ransomed, and we know that our Redeemer liveth.