Obedience from the Heart

Next Part Obedience from the Heart 2

"But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin—but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." Romans 6:17

The Holy Spirit foresaw the abuse which the depraved heart of man would make of the doctrines of grace. He foresaw that nature would argue, that because the elect are saved by grace without the works of the law, there was no obligation for them to perform good works at all; and that because they are accepted freely in the Beloved, "without money and without price," therefore they are discharged from all obedience to the revealed will and word of God. And not only did the Holy Spirit foresee the consequences that depraved nature would draw from the pure gospel of Jesus; but there were also characters in the apostolic days who were base enough to carry out these principles into practice. The apostle alludes to these when he says, "Shall we do evil that good may come? God forbid!" There were some then who said, we might do evil that good might come; but he adds of them, "whose damnation is just!"

If we look at the book of Jude, we shall find these base characters most accurately described as "wandering stars," "trees twice dead," "clouds without water," "spots in their feasts of charity;" in a word, 'practical Antinomians', living in sin under a mask of godliness; professing the truth, and disgracing it by their lives. The Holy Spirit, then, foreseeing the consequences that corrupt nature would draw from the doctrines of grace inspired the apostle to write Romans 6, which is almost entirely aimed at these perversions. He as it were, bursts out, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" He had said in the preceding chapter, that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The carnal heart might thence naturally argue, "If this be the case that grace superabounds, just in proportion as sin abounds, then the more we sin, the more will the grace of God abound; and, therefore, the more sin we commit, the more will the grace of God be glorified." Such would be the reasonings of depraved nature, the arguments of man's perverse heart.

The apostle, therefore, meets these horrid consequences with "God forbid!" that any who fear the Lord should draw such a conclusion. "How shall we," he adds, "who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" If "we have been buried with Christ in baptism," it is that, according to the power of his resurrection, we should "walk in newness of life." If we are delivered from the law, and brought under grace, it is that sin should not reign in our mortal body, or that we should obey it in the lust thereof. And then in a most beautiful, experimental, and convincing way, which I cannot now enter into, he goes through the whole argument, and shows that, so far from being discharged by grace from all obligations to obedience, or so far from grace setting us free to do the works of the flesh, it only binds us the more closely to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and to live in conformity to his holy image who died for us.

The main bent of what the apostle sets forth on this point seems to be summed up in the verse before us, from which I hope, with God's blessing and help, to speak this evening. "But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin—but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you."

The apostle commences by ascribing a solemn thanksgiving to God. "But God be thanked," he says. Now what was the object of this apostolic thanksgiving? What drew forth this expression of gratitude from his bosom? Not I believe, that they had been servants of sin. I do not think we can, for a moment, admit that the Apostle thanked God because the believers to whom he was writing had been the "servants of sin." I am sure my own experience could never bear that out to be the mind of the Holy Spirit. Nor do I believe that your experience, if God the Spirit has touched your conscience with his finger, would bear you out in such an interpretation, that Paul could thank God because they had been the "servants of sin." Did you ever on your knees bless God that you had gone to great lengths of wickedness before you were called by grace? Did you ever thank him because you once lived in uncleanness, drunkenness, or other open and base sins? You may have thanked God for having kept you from open sin in the days of unregeneracy, or for having mercifully pardoned and delivered you.

But I defy a living soul on his knees to thank God, because he had formerly been a servant of sin. So that we must understand the Apostle to mean here—"But God be thanked, that though you were the servants of sin," yet now the case is altered; you are so no longer; a mighty change has taken place; a blessed revolution has been affected in your hearts, lips, and lives. "God be thanked though you were the servants of sin," yet "now, through the grace of God, it is so no longer;" "you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you."

In looking, then, at these words, I shall, with God's blessing, endeavor to show,

I. What it is, in our fallen and unregenerate state, to be "the servants of sin."

II. What is the "form of doctrine" delivered to us.

III. How by "obeying it from the heart," we are no longer the servants of sin, but become the servants of God.

I. What it is, in our fallen and unregenerate state, to be "the servants of sin." Let us look, then, at the words, "You were the servants of sin." What a picture does this draw of our sad state, while walking in the darkness and death of unregeneracy! The Holy Spirit here sets forth Sin as a hard master, exercising tyrannical dominion over his slaves; for the word "servants" means literally "slaves;" there being few domestic servants in ancient times, nearly all being slaves, and compelled implicitly to obey their masters' will. How this sets forth our state and condition in a state of unregeneracy—slaves to sin! Just as a master commands his slave to go here and there, imposes on him a certain task, and has entire and despotic authority over him; so sin had a complete mastery over us, used us at its arbitrary will and pleasure, and drove us here and there on its commands.

But in this point we differed from physical slaves—that we did not murmur under our yoke, but gladly and cheerfully obeyed all sin's commands, and were never tired of doing the most servile drudgery!

Now it is a most certain truth, that all men whose hearts have not been touched by God the Spirit, are the "servants of sin." Sin, the lord, may be a more refined master; and man, the servant, may wear a more fashionable clothing in some cases, than others. But still, however refined the master may be, or however well-dressed the servant, the master is still the master, and the servant is still the servant.

Thus some have had sin as a very vulgar and tyrannical master, who drove them into open acts of drunkenness, uncleanness, and profligacy; yes, everything base, vile, and evil. Others have been preserved through education, through the watchfulness and example of parents, or other moral restraints, from going into such open lengths of iniquity, and outward breakings forth of evil; but still sin secretly reigned in their hearts. Pride, worldliness, love of the things of time and sense, hatred to God and aversion to his holy will, selfishness and stubbornness, in all their various forms, had a complete mastery over them; and though sin ruled over them more as a gentleman, he kept them in a more refined, though not less real or absolute slavery! Whatever sin bade them do, that they did, as implicitly as the most abject slave ever obeyed a tyrannical master's command. What a picture does the Holy Spirit here draw of what a man is! Nothing but a slave! and sin, as his master, first driving him upon God's sword, and then giving him eternal death as his wages!

II. But the Apostle shows how the soul is brought out of this servitude—how it is delivered from this hard bondage, and brought to serve a better master, and that from better motives—"But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." It was by obeying "from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered them," that they were rescued from the miserable servitude and hard bondage under which they lived in sin, and made to walk in newness of life.

Let us look, then, at the expression here used—"that form of doctrine which was delivered you." It is in the margin—and that is more agreeable to the original—that form of doctrine "whereto," or "into which, you were delivered." By the word "form," is meant 'mold;' and by "doctrine" is meant, not what we understand by the term as the article of a creed, but 'teaching'. This is a frequent meaning of the word "doctrine," in the New Testament. Thus Paul tells Timothy (1 Tim. 4:13) to give himself unto "doctrine"—that is to 'teaching'. And Titus 2:7, "in doctrine"—that is, teaching, "showing integrity." Thus we may consider the meaning of the text to be this—"God be thanked, that though you were the servants of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that mold of teaching into which you were cast, or delivered."

The figure is this—the impression which a coin takes from a die; or the effect produced upon melted metal run into a mold; the doctrine being the die, and the heart the coin; the teaching being the mold and the soul the cast. Thus, the "form of doctrine" signifies not so much a creed of sound doctrine, which the Apostle in a formal, systematic manner laid before his hearers—as the mold of heavenly teaching into which the Holy Spirit delivered their souls.

It is thus evident, that the Holy Spirit has a certain mold of teaching, into which he casts and delivers the soul, from which it comes out as a "coin from the mint", bearing the impression of the die upon it in every form and feature; or, which is perhaps the more exact interpretation of the figure, as a cast from a mold, bearing a perfect likeness to the original model. This "form" then, "of doctrine," or mold of teaching, into which they were delivered, was that which the Apostle, through divine instrumentality, had set before them.

Let us see, then, with God's blessing, WHAT was this "form of doctrine," or mold of divine teaching, into which, through grace, their souls had been cast—for it was by being delivered into this mold that they were delivered from being the "servants of sin," to be made "vessels of honor fit for the Master's use," as well as conformed to the Master's image.

WHAT this "form of doctrine" was, we may gather from what the Holy Spirit, by the Apostle Paul, has left on record.

1. He insisted, I believe, first, on the utter ruin and fall of man. He began from the beginning, and like a "wise master builder," raised up the structure by first digging a deep foundation. He knew as every rightly-taught man and minister knows, that unless a foundation be made by digging deep, the house will not be built upon the rock; that if a knowledge of our utter ruin by nature be not brought into the heart by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, all our religion will be like a house founded upon the sand. This therefore we find to run through all his Epistles. Thus, he tells the (Ephesians 2:1) But "you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." How he insists there on man's death in sin! Again, Rom. 5:6, he shows our helplessness, "When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." And more especially in Rom. 7 does the Apostle exhibit at large what we are by nature and practice, and describe from his own experience the desperate wickedness of the human heart. "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing." "I am carnal, sold under sin." He there sets forth, from his own experience, the complete fall of man, the entire ruin of the creature, the thorough wickedness of "the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not subject to his law, neither indeed can be."

This being a part of his ministry, and of the inspired Scriptures, into this mold of teaching does God the Spirit deliver the soul. And just in the same way as upon the piece of money you may read the exact lineaments of the original die, so when the heart is rightly taught by the Holy Spirit, and we are delivered into this "form of doctrine," it comes out of the mold bearing the exact impression. It is thus we are made to feel every line of what the Apostle says of our ruined, undone state, and to know by painful experience, that "in us, that is in our flesh, dwells no good thing;" that "when we would do good, evil is present with us;" that "the law in our members wars against the law of our mind."

And under these feelings, we sigh and groan, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" It is thus that Paul's experience becomes ours; and we find every line of Romans 7 engraved upon our hearts, and feel every expression to be as much ours as if it were drawn from the workings of our own mind. No coin bears a greater resemblance to the die, no cast is more the counterpart of the mold, than our experience corresponds to that of the Apostle, as the Holy Spirit delivers us into this mold of divine teaching.

2. But we find, that another part of the Apostle's ministry was to set forth the holy law of God in all its strictness and spirituality. He says (Rom. 7:14), "the law is spiritual;" "by the law is the knowledge of sin;" "what things soever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God." And describing his own experience, he says, "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." And therefore he adds, "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good."

He thus sets forth the law in all its purity, strictness, and spirituality, and shows how when it comes home with power to the conscience, it kills us to all hopes of justification by it. Into this "form of doctrine," or mold of heavenly teaching, is the soul delivered; and the law being brought into the conscience, as the 'die at the mint' is brought down upon a piece of gold to produce a coin, its spirituality is then and there revealed, stamped with all its lineaments and features, and thus a deep and lasting impression is made upon the heart to which it is supplied.

3. But the Apostle Paul, that workman who never needed to be ashamed of the tools or of his work, not merely sets forth man's utter ruin, and the spirituality of God's law, as slaughtering the sinner, and cutting up all his righteousness, root and branch; but his darling subject, his grand theme, was the mode by which god justifies the ungodly. What reason have we to bless God that he so instructed his Apostle to set forth how a sinner is justified! For how could we have attained to the knowledge of this mystery without divine revelation? How could we know in what way God could be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly? How could we see all the perfections of God harmonizing in the Person and work of Jesus? His law maintained in all its rigid purity and strictest justice—and yet mercy, grace, and love to have full play in a sinner's salvation? But the Spirit of God led Paul deeply into this blessed subject; and especially in the Epistle to the Romans does he trace out this grand foundation truth with such clearness, weight, and power, that the church of God can never be sufficiently thankful for this portion of divine revelation.

His grand object is, to show how God justifies the ungodly by the blood and obedience of his dear Son; so that "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." He declares that "the righteousness of God is unto and upon all those who believe;" and that "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood," he pardons the sinner, justifies the ungodly, and views him as righteous in the Son of his love.

In opening up this subject, the Apostle (Rom. 5) traces up this justification to the union of the church with her covenant head; shows us her standing in Christ as well as in Adam; and that all the miseries which she derives from her standing in the latter are overbalanced by the mercies that flow from her standing in the former—winding up with that heart-reviving truth, that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign unto eternal life."

This then is a "form of doctrine," or mold of teaching, into which the soul is delivered when it is brought into a heart-felt reception of, and a feeling acquaintance with it; and by being led more or less into the experimental enjoyment of it, is favored with a solemn acquiescence in, and a filial submission to it, as all its salvation and all its desire. And as the mold impresses its image upon the moist plaster or melted metal poured into it—so the heart, softened and melted by the blessed Spirit's teaching, receives the impress of this glorious truth with filial confidence, feels its sweetness and power, and is filled with a holy admiration of it as the only way in which God can justify an ungodly wretch, not only without sacrificing any one attribute of his holy character, but rather magnifying thereby the purity of his nature, and the demands of his unbending justice.

Next Part Obedience from the Heart 2

Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons