ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
Do you see the analogy, my friend? When Satan tempts us, we are to tell him we are dead to sin, that he is no longer our master. We are to reckon on this fact; that is to say. just as a dead man has no response to alluring music, so also we should have none to sin. But some may say, some young person perhaps: "That is a difficult thing. Must I reckon myself dead and buried? The world has attractive allurements. The world is pleasant, and I hate to reckon myself dead." But this is not a difficult thing to do if we take God's way of reckoning. Let me illustrate by one of the great sermons which pagan mythology teaches. You remember the tale of the alluring sirens who sang so beautifully on the rocks ashore that the sailors wanted to steer the ships in their direction. The captain tried to tum them from their purpose. He put something in their ears to keep out the sound. He even tied the sailors to the masts. But all his efforts failed, until it finally occurred to him to put better music on the ships than that the sirens sang. Then the sailors lost their desire to go headlong to certain death. That is what I understand about being dead to sin. It is not a sacrificial thing. It is not giving up joys and pleasures. On the contrary, it is having our minds filled with music so much better than that the world can give that all desire for the old sins is gone. The music which God puts in the human heart is far more beautiful than all that the devil can offer. When we have the love and grace of God in our hearts, when we have our horizon filled with His glory, we experience some- thing new, something the world can not give. That is reckoning ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God. To have our souls filled with the love of the Lord Jesus, filled with the glory of His coming-that is the result of union with Christ. "YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD" Now let us read carefully verses 12-14. The word "there- fore" in verse 12 connects the following with what has gone before; while "instruments" in verse 13 means "military [Page 101
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