Servants of Righteousness by Grace

In this part of the sermon: The sermon details the manifestations of the new condition, beginning with constant shame regarding the former life of sin. This shame is described as a deep, inner revulsion and…

Illustrates the feeling of shame by describing a child who would be embarrassed to bring shabby, unwashed parents to a neighborhood party, contrasting this with pride.

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now, and he uses a present tense verb, where you are now continued. And there the Apostle, as it were, touches the deep inner springs of the heart of the Roman Christians, and he says when you open up the springs of the heart, you will find this new condition manifesting itself continually in a sense of shame with regard to the life lived in obedience to that old master. Now the word shame, though it's difficult to give a formal definition, is obvious in its meaning. You children know what it is to be ashamed. If you had a father or mother ...

19:01 - 20:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Are you ashamed of what you once were, not just when caught, but because sin is ugly in God's sight?

Martin recounts his own childhood experience of crying real tears of shame when caught by his parents in sin, but notes the absence of godly shame when not caught.

I've rarely met a child who did not feel very ashamed when he got caught in his sins. I can remember as a boy when my mom and dad would catch me in my sins. I would cry, and it was very real tears. I didn't manufacture them.

34:37 - 34:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider your master: are you serving sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness and eternal life?

Presents a hypothetical choice between two masters: one cruel, self-centered, and destructive, the other kind, considerate, and adoptive. This highlights the irrationality of choosing sin over Christ.

He demands nothing less than that you give him your members to be instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. He demands that the price of your service to him will be violating the law of God and listen to me because we were made to obey God and find our true fulfillment as his creatures in obedience to him the price for service to sin is self-destruction. The price of service to sin is self-destruction. That's why the only wages he'll pay you at the end is death. The wages of sin is death. Now what would happen in the world if you were to stand a group of people before two masters and the master...

48:40 - 50:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My will is not my own till thou hast made it thine.

Quotes two stanzas from George Matheson's hymn, illustrating the paradox of finding freedom and strength in surrendering one's will to Christ.

Well I know at least six people were listening to the sermon because during the week I got six copies of the hymn. It's the hymn of George Matheson who lived in the 1800s or at least he wrote this hymn in 1890. And as I close tonight I want to read two stanzas of this hymn because it does indeed express the thought of the apostle in this passage and something of that which I've been trying to convey to you tonight. Make me a captive Lord and then I shall be free.

54:29 - 55:07 Read in full sermon