Servants of Sin
A Sermon on Romans 6:20-21
Originally preached March 6, 1959
Scripture
20For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Sermon Description
Why should the Christian live a holy and righteous life? Paul gives an argument and Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones encourages the listener to reason through it. Paul reminds the reader of the state and condition of their old life when they used to be slaves to sin and since one cannot serve two masters, they were not yet slaves to righteousness. In this sermon from Romans 6:20–21 titled “Changed from Glory into Glory,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out there are some people in this world that act moral but are not true Christians. The unsaved are governed by self and a Christian is governed by righteousness. Those who are slaves of sin and not of righteousness lead a fruitless and shameful life. Dr. Lloyd-Jones encourages the listener to ask themselves three questions to test if something is from the old life or the new life in Christ: Does it give satisfaction to the mind and heart? Does it help growth in fruit and knowledge? Does it help one lay in store for the future? If no is answered to any of these questions, that lifestyle may be leading down a path to eternal separation from God.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul is giving reasons to support his exhortation in verse 19.
- Verses 20-23 give arguments for why we should not continue in sin.
- Verse 20 reminds us of our old sinful state before becoming Christians. We were slaves to sin and free from righteousness.
- Being "free from righteousness" means we were not governed or controlled by righteousness. We were governed by sin instead.
- Moral and religious people who reject Christ are still "free from righteousness" and slaves to sin. Their good works are worthless to God.
- Verse 21 describes the old sinful life in detail. It was fruitless, shameful, and led to death.
- The old sinful life yielded no valuable or lasting fruit. It only gave temporary pleasure.
- The old sinful life was shameful, involving deceit, uncleanness, and debasing behavior. Many lost their sense of shame over sin.
- The old sinful life led to death - separation from God in this life and eternal destruction after death.
- We must constantly remember our old sinful state to avoid sinning again. Looking at the fruitless, shameful, and deadly nature of sin will make it unthinkable to continue in sin.
- Relying only on feelings or passively waiting for deliverance from sin is wrong. We must examine sin's nature from Scripture and reject it vigorously.
- Sanctification comes through understanding and applying God's Word, not passively waiting for deliverance from sin.
The Book of Romans
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.