Wake Up and Do It Now — The Time Is Short (Romans Sermon 102)

This morning we’re looking at Romans 13:11-14. Throughout history, humanity has been ingenious about the marking of time. We have been ingenious and developed amazing systems to mark the passing of time. Now, of course, from the beginning, God established the great time keepers in the sky. Genesis 1:14, And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky, to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.” And so the movement as far as we’re concerned, of the sun across the sky mark the passage of one day. There’s evening and there is morning the first day, and so we see the passage of a day. And then again the rhythm of the moon from full to new moon and then back to the full moon again, somewhat mark the passing of a month, although not precisely. The challenge of getting an exact calendar is one of the great achievements of the ancient world, because there were not exactly 30 days in a month, or exactly 360 days in the year.

But we saw with the passing of seasons, winter spring, summer, fall, the turning of the years. Now, it wasn’t until man developed the sundial, that we’re able to take one day and break it into smaller portions. And mark the passage of time by the tracing of a shadow across the face of the sundial. As a matter of fact, the ancient Romans were so in love with these sundials that they actually carried around pocket sundials. I don’t know how that would work, how you would hold it, etcetera. I prefer our wrist watch today. But they established the sundial as somewhat a form of the marking of passage of time, during the day. Now of course sundials had their problems, but it was nothing compared to the marking of the passage of time at night. How are you going to mark the passage of the hours? For example, a watchman standing on the wall, and he needs to know how much is left of the night.

And so man developed various ways of answering this problem. The first answer were water clocks. And so there would be bowls with a certain size hole, and the water would flow out of the bowl, and it would measure a certain number of hours. The problem is the bowl, the hole got larger and larger. It would wear out and so it was inaccurate. Also water changed depending on the temperature and it wouldn’t flow evenly. So then they developed hour glass, is the flow of sand, which was more impervious to temperature and all that. The problem is you had to be there to turn the thing over when the last grain of sand fell through, and that was inconvenient. Charlemagne developed a 12-hour hour glass filled with sand, but it was so heavy no one could turn it. And so, great ingenuity was shown in the development of water clocks and sand clocks. It’s really quite an amazing thing.

It wasn’t until the development of the mechanical escapement, which enabled force to be transferred, intermittently to a gear and the swinging of a pendulum that things got really accurate. Up to that point, the passage of time had been marked somewhat like a river, the flowing of something from a bowl into another bowl from the upper part of the hour glass down into the lower part. It was a little bit like a river. But ever since the 18th century, it’s been marked more like a certain pockets of action, tick-tock, tick-tock, and that’s what we’re used to. And we’ve been that way ever since. We don’t see time like a river flowing but rather certain things that happen. Points of action.

As a matter of fact, I can’t stand that sound, and I frequently take the battery out of our quartz clock so that I don’t have to listen to the passing of time. Any of you have been to my office, you see a beautiful octagon drop clock on the wall. It hasn’t moved in seven and a half years. People get nervous, they look up and they say, “Oh my goodness,” they think for sure they’re late or they’re incredibly early. But I didn’t like to be constantly reminded by the tick tock of the passing of time. Now, man’s ingenuity kept on moving, the vibration of the quartz in the middle of the 20th century. Now we’re in the atomic age where literally if you look up the definition of a second, it’s certain number of vibrations of the cesium atom. Who could ever know that? For me, I just click on the internet and it tells me the atomic time. Exactly perfect. But for all of his genius at marking the passage of time, man, has never been able to discover the answer to this mystery; how much time is left?

How much time is left? Now that we do not know. That is a mystery that God holds in His hand, and He will not tell us. But what he does tell us in this passage that we’re studying today is, it’s later than you think. Time is passing quickly. It will not be long before every one of us is quitted this life and we are standing before God on Judgment Day. It will not be long before this present age as we know it will end, it is later than you think.

About 35 centuries ago, the man of God, Moses, wrote in Psalm 90, “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to measure the number of days I have left. And therefore the heart of wisdom for me is to assume that today might be my last day on earth, and that I should make the most of the hours I have today, to live them to the fullest to the glory of God, and to me I think that’s the burden of this text. Look at Verse 11 and 12, it says, “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over the day is almost here, so let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

I. The Call for Personal Holiness

Now, what is Paul doing here? Well, look what it says right in verse 11. “And do this, understanding the present time.” What is he referring to? Well, it’s a call for personal holiness. The “do this” at the beginning of verse 11, looks back at the previous verses. Look at verses 9-10, it says, “The commandments; Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule. Love, love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to his neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law, and do this understanding the present time.” It really has to do with living a life of love, it has to do with fulfilling the commandments of God, in a life of love both to God and to our neighbor.

Now what is the context of Romans 13:11-14. Well, it’s in the Book of Romans. The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to explain to us the gospel, it is a synopsis of his gospel doctrine. And in this he explains how it is that the sovereign God, the holy God, take sinners like us and redeems us by the blood of Christ, through faith alone. And how He gives us the indwelling Holy Spirit and how he sets us on the path of his commandments that we may walk in newness of life. And how in the end, he will finish his redemptive work in us, that we might be glorified. Romans 8, that we might be transformed and part of a whole new creation with our resurrection bodies. It is the whole salvation story.

Romans 1-11, lays down the doctrine, makes it very plain and clear that the foundation of our hope before God is the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. The foundation of our personal daily holiness is the indwelling spirit, and the fact that God has written His laws in our minds and on our hearts, and by the power of the Spirit, we can walk in it. This is the context. Romans 12 through 16 is the everyday life application of this doctrine. We saw in Romans 12, life within the body of Christ, how we’re going to live using our spiritual gifts and loving each other and serving each other. Romans 13, perhaps life outside of the body of Christ, with secular government, and dealing with the sinful world. That is the context of what we’re looking at.

Now, God’s holiness is the pattern here for our holiness, I already heard read so beautifully Isaiah 6, how powerful is that? The vision that Isaiah saw of the risen Christ, the glorified Christ sitting on His throne, a vision he had of Christ. He saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple, and there were these seraphim, the Hebrew word means the burning ones, they are glorious, and they’re calling to one another, as though they can’t get enough of it, they are just so amazed at the holiness of God. Holy, holy, holy, they call to one another, and the whole earth is full of His glory, the holiness of God is our it’s our pattern, it’s our rule for life, it is also our future by grace amen and amen. He gives us his holiness as a gift. A gift of grace.

But it is also our call and we are called to be like God. We are created in Christ Jesus to be like God. We are renewed every day in our minds, transformed to be like Christ, that is the call on our lives and so he urges us to behave decently. Look what it says in verses 12-14. “The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime. Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” This is a call for personal holiness. This is a call to live a heavenly life while still here on earth. It is a call to resist the constant pull of the world, the flesh and the devil. It is a call to understand the significance of every passing moment of every passing minute and day and year. A call to understand what God is calling on us to do and to be in this world, a call to be children of light, in the image of our father. As it says in 1 Peter 1, “Be holy because I am holy.” That’s what Paul is calling on us to do.

II. The Urgency of Personal Holiness

Now he gets to it by a matter of urgency, there’s a sense of the urgency of the present time. This is an urgent call, for personal holiness. Look again at verses 11-12, and note the words of urgency. “And do this understanding the present time. The hour has come, for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.” Do you see these words, almost, nearly, it’s here, it’s coming. There’s a sense of urgency. Now that’s what this is about. A sense of urgency, pervades this passage, Paul wants us to feel that the time is running out. There’s less of it than you might imagine. And so we have to understand time from God’s point of view.

Now, God created time, He created the concept of time, the passage of time. Minutes and hours and days and months and years, they serve God’s unfolding redemptive plan. There’s a purpose to it all, God owns it, He made it and there’s a purpose to it. And that is the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Now, as Christians, we believe that history is linear, it’s moving from point to point to point. We are not like the Hindus who believe that history, that time is a big circle, it’s going around and round, the cycles of reincarnation and karma. We don’t believe that, we believe in the linearity of history. It moves from point A to point B to point C. We can even use that language for Jesus, our Lord, said at the end of the Book of Revelation. Revelation 22:13, He said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” That’s linear. And Jesus said it, so I would think we’d want to go to Jesus and say, “Teach us about time.” Don’t go to your physics professors or your philosophers. Let Jesus instruct you. Time is linear. “I am the Alpha and I will be the Omega.” Time is linear, it’s moving. But Paul’s basic concept here is it’s later than you think it’s not the Alpha day. No, it’s not the Omega day yet, but it’s further along than you think.

And so at last, we come to the sin of procrastination. Been meaning to talk to you about it, but I’ve been putting it off until now. Seem like a good time to talk about it now though. How many of you struggle with that? Don’t raise your hand and don’t shame yourself. But how many of you struggle with the idea of; I’ve been meaning to do something and I just keep putting it off. How many of you wrestle with the fact that you look at some things that just seem too difficult, and you just don’t want to do it. They call it task avoidance.

Jonathan Edwards, preached a sermon on procrastination, procrastination, the sin and folly of depending on a future time, depending is the key word in the sermon. Now he’s very balanced in the sermon, he says, we need to like the ant lay up in the summer for the coming winter. We need to make provision for that. But the idea is spiritually we ought not to depend on a future day because it might not ever come. His text there was Proverbs 27:1. “Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” Don’t boast about it as though it’s already yours. “We ought,” says Jonathan Edwards, “to behave ourselves every day as though we had not dependence on any other day.” It kills procrastination. Don’t put off to tomorrow spiritually what you ought to be doing today. Now, what could that be? Well, here I think he’s seizing the day or seizing the moment in the matter of personal holiness, but we in this church called that internal journey of growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ. He’s seizing the moment in the matter of personal holiness, the flesh is always making excuses. Isn’t it? Putting off to tomorrow, saying, Oh, you’ll get to it by and by. Holy Spirit may convict you of a matter of personal holiness, He wants you to address it now.

Do not imagine He’s telling you everything. He isn’t. Have you ever noticed that? You could go years blind to a certain area and then the Spirit brings illumination. And now it is time to deal with it. If the Spirit has brought illumination on many points you need to deal with all of them, whatever He has brought to your imagination, to your mind. It’s a sense of urgency in the matter of personal holiness. Perhaps it’s a spiritual discipline you’ve been meaning to start. You always thought at some point you would memorize a book of the Bible, you imagine that you would. Or, perhaps you always imagine that your family would be the kind that would have regular family devotions. Perhaps you imagined that you’d be the kind of person who would get up every day and have a regular quiet time. A meeting with your heavenly Father as Jesus did early in the morning. Perhaps you imagined yourself and you always could see yourself as the kind of person who would do that, but you know what, it’s been years now. It keeps moving on. It’s later than you think.

It’s the issue of procrastination or perhaps it’s a deadly sin pattern in your life. You fancy yourself some time in the future, when you’ll be clean of it at last. I’m not talking now about in heaven when we will be at last free of all death, mourning, crying, and pain, and all sin. But I mean, you think of yourself even in this world, at some point in the future, you’ll be free of that particular sin habit. Now it’s later than you think. Perhaps it’s an over-eating, a problem with overeating or with lust, or laziness, or pride or selfishness. You imagine at some point, you will effectively put it to death by the Spirit. But you know, the days just keep passing and nothing is done. Or, perhaps it’s a matter of witnessing, somebody that God has laid on your heart. He’s calling on you to be a witness. A co-worker, a relative, mother or father, a child. Somebody in your life, a neighbor. And he’s calling on you to reach out with the gospel and you’ll get to it by and by, but you never do, it’s later than you think.

In our home fellowship, we were studying Randy Alcorn’s book: Money, Possessions and Eternity. And he told a rather devastating story about an actress named Lisa Whelchel, perhaps you know the name, and she was in the popular TV program, Facts of Life. And she said that she heard a Christian speaker talking about thousands of starving children in Haiti. Her eyes were immediately opened at that point to what a selfish and privileged life she’d been leading. She was 18 years old. At the end of the service, she went to the front of the church, she took off her Rolex and an emerald ring she had and put it in the speaker’s pocket and said, “Sell it and give it to the poor.” She then went home filled with all kinds of zeal to look at different areas of her life, and this is what she said, “I decided I could live on 10% of my salary, I decided to sell my condominium and rent a simpler apartment more appropriate to my needs. I felt it was no longer necessary to drive around in a Porsche, selling the car and buying something more reasonable would free up thousands of dollars for the Lord’s work. I had money invested in real estate across the country. If I sold it the money would feed tens of thousands of children it was a no-brainer. My Zeal was strong, I knew I had heard from God and was doing the right thing.”

So what happened? Well, some Christian friends found out what she wanted to do and talked her out of it. They said she wasn’t behaving wisely, she needed to be a good steward. She needed to think about the future and consider. She needed to wait some, pray it through consider. She ended up doing none of it. None of it. This is what she said, “Less than 10 years later, all that money was gone anyway. A chunk of it had been invested in a high-rise office building in Pittsburgh that went belly up. Another significant portion was in Texas land that dried up during the oil crisis and was eventually foreclosed upon. When I got married I sold my condo and bought a house in the California real estate boom in the 1980s, only to give it back to the bank three years later when the bottom fell out of the market. The Facts of Life TV show was cancelled and I spent all the cash I had left making payments on everything for as long as I could. At 28 I was broke.”

She had at that moment, when she was 18, a window of opportunity. The Scripture says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” And she didn’t follow, she procrastinated, she imagined in the future she would get to it and she never did. And you know what? It was taken from her. All of it. The call in this text is for us to wake up. Look at verse 11, it says, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber.” The King James Version puts it this way, “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” Don’t you love that? It’s high time to wake up from your slumber.

Now the slumber, I believe, is a metaphor for the devil’s work in our lives and in our minds. Slumber, the Greek word for slumber here is hypnos from which we get hypnotize. And so the devil’s hypnotizing us about this matter of time and how we’re spending our lives. And we’re somewhat in a daze, kind of a stupor coming over us where it’s like we’re slumbering. In the midst of a battle we’re just standing there hypnotized, and we don’t seem to realize what everything is about. Satan deceives us on the matter of the urgency of personal holiness. He deceives us in the matter of the urgency of personal evangelism and witnessing mission’s work. He puts us into a slumber, a sluggish-ness.

I’ve got two illustrations of this from the literary world. The first is the great story, The Hobbit, by Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins is there with 12 dwarves and they’re on their way on some errand. It’s an incredible story, but nothing like Lord of the Rings which is so much higher and more intricate, but it’s a great story nonetheless. And there he is with these dwarves, and at some point they stumble into these woods where these monstrous huge spiders capture the dwarfs and sting them all with spider poison and wrap them up with sticky webbing and let them hang there to eat them later. Fresh meat for the monstrous spiders. And Bilbo has to rescue them with his little sword and he does. But they’re all sluggish and in a stupor, almost… Well, they’re drugged by the poison, the spider poison. That’s a picture of us and the work that Satan would like to do in us, we’re all just kind of waiting to be devoured. We’re in a stupor, sluggish, as though nothing were urgent, nothing really matters. We’re very mellow a society. There’s a time for urgency and the text is saying it’s now.

Another illustration is from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The allegory of the Christian life where the main character Christian is moving from the City of Destruction on to the Celestial City. It’s an allegory of the Christian life. Shortly after he comes to the cross and he loses his burden, he’s given a scroll which scholars say represents His assurance. And he looks in it frequently for comfort and consolation. Anyway, soon he comes to this place called The Hill Difficulty, and he’s making his way up the hill and it’s tough, it’s hard. And half way up he finds a shady arbor, a little tree place with a little bedding where he can just rest and be refreshed temporarily. And so he settles in there, but as one thing has it, he falls into a deep slumber and he sleeps away the rest of the day. And finally someone, it doesn’t say who, comes to him, perhaps an angel, and says, “Go to the end, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise.”

And he wakes up, and oh, he gets up and runs and continues his journey, makes it up to the top of the hill difficulty, continues on, but it’s getting tough and the next trial comes along and he needs some consolation. And he reaches for that scroll that was in his possession until recently to read in it and then find some consolation, it’s gone, he cannot find it anywhere. He doesn’t know where it is. He’s searching frantically. He retraced his steps. He has to go back halfway down the hill difficulty. Finally he remembers what happened, while he was sleeping he let it go. Well, he rejoices in finding his scroll again, but he laments over the wasting of the time. Now he has to retrace all those steps and now it’s dark, it’s dangerous and he laments bitterly, “Oh, that sinful sleep,” he calls it. Oh, that’s been so convicting for me. God has created from time to time pockets of rest and refreshment for us. And we end up staying there as though we’re meant to live there forever.

Recreation, rest, relaxation, all of these things, R&R, they’re meant to be these temporary shady arbors, and then we continue on our arduous journey, but instead we set up, say, “Well, I think, let’s put the end table over there, I’ll put the same way end up setting up. And we’ll live there in the shady arbor.” The sinful sleep. And the text is calling on us to wake up from our slumber. Satan is the druggist of that sinful sleep, isn’t he? He’s the apothecary, he’s mixing that and handing it to us so we drink some more of it. And we’re sluggish, we’re sleepy. Rather than on edge ready to serve our commanding officer. Christians underestimate the seriousness of sin. They overestimate how much time they will have to deal with it. And Paul says, “Wake up.” He says, “Wake up, wake up.” And why? Because the time is now. There’s an urgency to time, it’s later than you think. But he gives us a word of optimism here. Look what he says, I love this, I’ve already alluded to it.

Verse 11, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now then when we first believed.” Isn’t that sweet? All meditate on it, think much on it. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Not our condemnation, our salvation nearer now than when we first believed. Paul’s logic is someday we’re going to be fully saved from sin. We won’t even see it around. There will be no temptations around. The world will be purged forever, from everything that causes sin and all those who do evil. That’s what it says in Matthew 13. It will be a free pure world, and we will be fit for it and ready for it. That’s our salvation, it’s a complete salvation from sin.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones used an illustration of the closing days of World War II in a prisoner of war camp. Perhaps up to that point, the prisoners in the POW camp had been maybe collaborating at small levels with the German soldiers, maybe they’ve been acting in certain ways just to get by. Perhaps they were contemplating risky escape attempts or bribing the guards or doing some other things just to survive. But a short wave radio is smuggled into the camp and they find out that major victories have been won by the allies and frankly the troops are no more than four, five miles away. They’re going to be liberated within the week. They start to celebrate. This is the time to act like somebody who’s about to be released from prison. Our salvation is near now, nearer than we first believed. So why would we act like sinners? That’s what we’re being saved from. That’s Paul’s logic here in the passage.

What I get out of this, is that any effort we make in personal holiness, and I could add in from other places, any effort we make in worldwide evangelization will prove fruitful because God is in them. God is saving us from sin, and so when we wake up from our slumber, when we put sin to death vigorously by the power of the Spirit, when we move out in new areas of service to Him, God will bless that energy. He will bless the movement because he is in it. Now, what lessons do I get out of this phrase, “Our salvation is nearer now than when first believed.” Well, first our salvation is incomplete, it’s not done yet, we’re not fully saved. That shouldn’t be shocking to your ears. I’m not in any way denying that we could ask the question, “Are you saved? I know the scripture speaks in that way, but we’ve got more salvation yet to come. Our salvation is still in the future.

Salvation from Judgment Day, when all the nations will be gathered before Jesus and He will sit on His throne and He will separate the people, one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he’ll put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. That is in the future. We need salvation on that day, don’t we? We need to be saved from hell on that day and we will be through faith in Christ. So it’s a future salvation. But also there’s the ongoing work of sanctification, there’s the transformation of our bodies, when we will receive glorified resurrection bodies. Our salvation is in the future, it’s not finished yet, there’s still work to be done.

Secondly, do you see the unspeakable precious nature of time? Time is precious, it’s running out, there’s not much more of it. It’s nearer than when we first believed, it’s moving, it’s dynamic, we’re moving ahead. And therefore number three, we are making sure and steady progress every day, every passing week to see in Christ face to face. Amen and Hallelujah. It can be sad to watch the passing of time. It can be sad for parents to watch their kids grow up. I’ve done a lot of weddings, and I’ve seen again and again parents cry at their children’s weddings. Now, they will tell you it’s tears of joy. Don’t you believe it.

There’s a feeling of death almost, the end of a phase of life that’s precious to the mom and dad. It’s sad, actually. I remember I was doing a wedding and I saw my little girl come walking down in this white dress and I had a vision of the future, and I thought, “Oh, no.” It’s not going to be long before that’s me, that’s her. And I actually started to cry and I said, “Wait a minute, I got to do the wedding here. I got to pull myself together. I can’t crumble in the misery at the passage of time.” So we watch our children grow up and their phases, their sweet little developmental phases, they don’t last long. It’s like the sunset, and then it’s gone and it never comes back and you want to grab onto it. I actually have taught my kids bad grammar, their own bad grammar, to keep them from learning those right ways so they can stay young longer.

I admit it, my wife corrects it, she does, she’s a good mom. But I’m just trying to hold on to something that I can’t hold on to. It can be sad to watch the passage of time. And then just aging can be sad, losing capabilities. Things you used to be able to do, can’t do it anymore. It can be sad. Christians should not be sad about the passing of time. This verse liberates us from sadness about the passing of time. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Amen, celebrate, every passing week brings us closer to seeing Jesus face to face. Come on, be happy, look happy, if you’re a Christian. You’re getting closer and closer. You’re closer now then when I began this sermon. You know back in the 18th century, they actually put an hourglass over the pastor’s head in some parishes. And it was someone’s job to turn it once. Okay? I’ve got a clock right here, I know what time it is.

I know what progress we’re making. But every moment brings us closer and closer to seeing Jesus. Closer and closer to being liberated at last from this dreadful sin nature. No more fighting with it. Amen and amen. Closer and closer to a resurrection body which will feel no pain or fatigue or weariness. Closer and closer to salvation. Oh, is that sweet? Do not lament the passing of time, but make the most of every day. These days are precious, you’ll never live them again. Never, once they’re gone, they’re gone. Yes, you may have another Tuesday. But you’ll never have this Tuesday again. Make the most of every moment. That’s what I get out of this.

And he says in verse 12, “The Night is nearly over.” The night here, I think is satanic gloom of spiritual darkness that Satan has spread over the whole earth. It is now the age in the era of darkness, is it not? It’s a dark era. The night that Jesus was arrested, he said to the chief priest and the guards and the elders, Luke 22:53, “Every day I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me, but this is your hour, the hour of darkness.”

Oh, that’s significant. “This is your hour, the hour of darkness.” It’s a dark dreadful time that Satan has cast over the earth. It’s a dark age, but this verse tells me it’s nearly over. The night is nearly over, the day is going to shine with radiance and glory. It’s soon going to be over. All of it, over. The night also refers, I think, to deceptive concealment of sin. Most crimes happen at night when it seems like no one can see. It’s a time of deceptive concealment. Why do I call it deceptive? Because nothing’s hidden before the eyes or the One who really matters. We are the ones deceived by the night.

And so it says in Ephesians 5, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, ‘Wake up, oh sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Now disposed concealment of darkness is just a satanic trick of deception. Ever heard that saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”? I’ve never leaned on that. I want you to know, okay. That’s wickedness, isn’t that? It’s the idea that you can go to Vegas and do wicked things there and no one will find out. Well, no, what happens in Vegas is written down in God’s book and you’ll face it again on Judgment Day. There’s no concealment possible. He sees everything. Psalm 10:11, The sinner “says to himself, ‘God has forgotten, He covers His face and never sees.'” It’s not true. He sees it all. Christians need to understand by faith that true concealment is impossible.

Jeremiah 16:17 says, “My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.” I see it all, everything. Jesus said this, Luke 12:1-5, we Christians need to listen to these verses. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” That means looking good on the outside, but inside, wickedness. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. Do you believe that? Do you believe every word of that? There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. “I tell you, my friends,” said Jesus, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear Him who after the killing of the body has power to throw you into hell. Yes I tell you, fear Him.”

In Ezekiel 8, God brought Ezekiel on a Spirit journey into the depth, the bowels of the temple area. Through the walls where the elders of Israel were doing wicked disgusting things thinking that no one could see. God said, “Come on, I want to show you something.” And he took him on a tour of the wickedness of Israel. I see it all. A Christian understands the deception of darkness is merely deception. We see the light by faith even though it is night, even though it seems no one can see what we do, we know by faith God sees it all.

Job put it this way in Job 31, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl, for what is man’s lot from God above, his heritage from the All Mighty and High. Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? Does He not see my ways and count my every step?” In Hebrews 4:13 it says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight, everything’s uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.”

I believe as a pastor, it’s my job by preaching the word in this manner to make the day, Judgment Day, bright in your minds and hearts. To turn on the light inside your soul so that you’re not deceived by this deceptive darkness. And you live like you will wish you had lived on Judgment Day. You’ll wish you had lived purely and holy, in a holy manner. It’s my job to make that intense for you today, so that you are ready and you say with the apostle John, at the end of the Bible, Jesus said, “‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus.” It’s soon. Soon and very soon you’re going to be seeing Jesus. Are you ready? It’s my job to make it intensely bright for you because that’s what it’s going to be like on Judgment Day. Be ready for it.

III. The Nature of Personal Holiness

Now, what is personal holiness? Well, what does he say? Well, there’s a negative side to it. You’re going to put off the deeds of darkness. Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. These are some of the ugliest words in human experience. Rome was characterized by a flouting of natural moral laws. Sexual relationship within marriage wasn’t enough, they needed an orgy. Eating food was not enough, they needed gluttony. A small amount of wine wasn’t enough to gladden the heart of man, they need drunkenness. They were blowing through all of the barriers that God had set up. It was an age of excess just like ours. Paul says, “The time for these deeds of darkness is to be put off. Put off the deeds of darkness, those things will be ashamed of on Judgement Day. Put them off like a filthy discussing garment,” that’s the negative part.

Positively, put on the armor of light. Armor, like the Medieval Knights wore or like soldiers wear in Iraq. The body armor. The point of all armor is to prevent a vicious weapon from penetrating you and piercing your liver, your vital organs. Put on the armor of light, stand firm in the day of testing. Don’t allow the temptation to hit your vitals, put on the armor of God, Ephesians 6. Specifically in this text it’s, put on Christ. Know that Christ is your righteousness. Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, put His perfection on you. And make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its lust.

I think about that often. Sin takes provision. It takes equipment. The drunker needs to know where to go to get his alcohol, the drug addict needs to know what is sources of the drug. The pornographic user needs to know what websites to go to. The one who wants to share gossip needs to know where to go in the office to hear the juicy tidbits so that he or she can spread them around. The person who wants to sleep in and not have his quiet time in the morning, needs to know to not set the alarm, he’s making provision for the flesh. Turn off the alarm, don’t get up. No, he says no. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its lust.

IV. Application

We have seen this morning an urgent call for personal holiness. I have a number of applications there on the back, but I want to share with you something that’s transformed my way of thinking on this and then close with prayer. And some time ago when I was working as an engineer, I saw up on the wall of the office a year calendar. 12 months all in a row. January, February and March, all the way down to October, November, December. I have such a calendar on the back panel of your bullets and it’s small, you can’t really see it, but you know what I mean. You can see the whole year in one place. And I remember thinking as the year would go on, I would see it would be May, it’d be August. I could visually kind of make my way through the year. I remember at the end of June thinking, “Oh, we’re halfway done with the year.”

And one day a thought hit me. I said, “What if January 1st represented the day I was born and December 31st represented the day of my death. What month is it? Like I said, I have all kinds of ways to mark the passage of time, but I don’t know how much time is left. Was it July for me? Was it October or was it December 30th? I had no way of knowing. That was sobering to me. But then I extended, I said, “Well, suppose that represented my time here at that company, at Grandmaster.” January first, the day I was hired, December 31st, the day I left. Where am I in that? I had no way of knowing. It represented my marriage. January first, the day that we got married, December 31st, death parts us. I don’t know where I am. I have no idea how many more months or years I have with Christi, no idea. Same thing with every one of my relationships with all of you, I have no idea. January first, the day I met you, December 31st, the day we’re providentially parted.

I don’t know, I don’t know how much time is left. What does that tell me? Make the most of today, make the most of this afternoon with each other. Put aside dissension and jealousy and fighting and lust and all the evil things and make the most of it. If you’re not a Christian, the most important thing you can do is come to Christ. You don’t know you’ll be alive tomorrow, make the most of today, make the most of right now by trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I don’t believe that I’m preaching to a 100% regenerate audience. If today you hear his voice, come to Christ, come and trust in him for your salvation. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Introduction: Augustine and the Book of Romans

A long, long time ago, when the Roman empire was still in power, there sat in a walled garden in the city of Milan a professor of rhetoric and philosophy, weeping and in anguish. He had a godly mother who had prayed for years for his salvation, but instead he had spent his strength in immorality and debauchery, fathering a child out of wedlock and living for lustful pleasures still. Yet he felt within his soul the burning of God’s just sentence against him, yet he also still felt the burn of his own uncontrolled lusts, and he cried out against his own wretchedness… he knew fully that he was a slave to sin and could not rescue himself, for he had tried time and time again to be free from ungodly lusts.

So, he cried out to God, saying “How long, O Lord, how long? Will it be tomorrow and always tomorrow? Why does my uncleanness not end this very moment?” In this manner he tore at his own soul, but could find no relief from his guilt and bondage to sin. For a moment, however, he grew still, for he heard the delicate sound of a child’s voice wafting over the fence from the next yard. The child was chanting a rhyme in Latin… “Tolle, lege. Tolle, lege. Tolle, lege!” “Take up, and read! Take up, and read! Take up, and read!” For some strange reason, he felt a flicker of hope in his heart… he looked over to another place in the garden and there was a manuscript he had been reading earlier. He decided he would pick by random a place in the manuscript and see if it would help him… his finger came accidentally to a place in Romans, 13:14 “Not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to satisfy its lusts.” At that moment, Augustine, for that was his name, was reborn into a personal faith in Christ. By one line from the Book of Romans was born perhaps the greatest theologian of the church since the Apostle Paul himself. He was baptized the next spring, on Easter Sunday in the year 387.

Later, speaking of his conversion in his great spiritual autobiography, Confessions, he described his greatest discovery of the power of the Christian gospel

Paul says

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes

Salvation from what?

From everything that sin does to us… from the wrath of God, from hell, from the spiritual and mental pollution of sin, from slavery to sin, from bodies dying because of corruption by sin

■         Lust has a tremendous pull on us as sinners… we are surrounded by constant pulls to desire what we cannot have

■         Lust for sexual gratification did not begin with Hugh Heffner and Playboy magazine

■         Augustine said he came to Carthage “burning, burning, burning with lust”

■         It was salvation from this that he sought from Christ

1.    Augustine, enslaved by passion & lust… could not escape

2.    Made a startling discovery

a.    God commands sexual purity

Romans 13:14 “Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

b.  Through the Gospel, God gives the very righteousness He commands

[from Augustine’s Confessions, Book X, Chapter 29 NPNF 1:153]

And my whole hope is only in your exceeding great mercy. Give what You command, and command whatever You will. You impose sexual purity upon us, “Nevertheless, I when I perceived,” said someone, “that I could not otherwise obtain her, except God gave her me;… that was a point of wisdom also to know whose gift she was……………………………………. O charity, my God, kindle me! You command sexual purity; give what You command, and command what You wilt.

Augustine’s whole understanding of the Christian gospel began with this clear but impossible command

The whole Christian life is a call to constant repentance and faith in Christ as the only Savior from sin

Our text today calls on us to get serious about holiness NOW before it’s too late

… And it’s later than you think

I.   The Call for Personal Holiness

A.  “Do This”: Fulfill the Law

Context: verse 11, “And do this…” DO WHAT? Fulfill the Perfect Law of God by loving others

Romans 13:9-10 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Paul is calling the Roman Christians to accelerate their holiness, their sanctification, because the end of the world is coming

1.  The context:

a.  Romans

Romans is the fullest expression of the gospel in the Bible… a comprehensive look at how God saves sinners from their sins

Salvation from sin is the theme of Romans… it is the purpose of it

Paul is here describing an element of the full salvation that God is working in us through Christ

Romans 1-11 is the theology of how the blood of Christ shed on the Christ removes our guilt before God, and enables Him to impute Christ’s perfect righteousness to us by faith

It is also a description of how God causes His Holy Spirit to live in us so that we may live lives pleasing to Him in every respect

b.  Romans 12-16: practical matters of the Christian life… the gospel applied; answering the question “How then shall we live?”

i)  Section 1: Romans 12, living a godly life within the Body of Christ

ii)  Section 2: Romans 13, living a godly life in this Satanic, sinful world

c.  Romans 13:8-10

i)  Paul has just finished talking about our continuing debt to love one another, and how love is the fulfillment of the law

ii)  This is what Paul means at the beginning of verse 11

Romans 13:10-11 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 11 And do this, understanding the present time.

d.  This whole section is a call to personal holiness in the pattern of obedience to the law of God

2.  The Spirit-filled Life: Law’s Requirements Fully Met in Us

a.  The power of the Spirit within us: to walk decently and orderly in this world… to fulfill the law in how we live moment by moment

b.  Romans 8: the Spirit-filled life

Romans 8:7-9 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

c.  The path of righteousness laid out clearly in the law of God

Psalm 119:32 I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.

Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

B.  God’s Holiness Our Pattern and Destiny

1.  God’s holiness: His defining characteristic

Isaiah 6:1-5 they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

a.  The only attribute of God listed three times in a row

b.  The one attribute the powerful angels keep repeating to each other

c.  It means perfect separation from His creation (“high and lifted up”)

d.  It also means perfect separation from all evil

2.  Created in the image of God

3.  Recreated to be like God

Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

C.  Let Us Behave Decently

vs. 12-14 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

1.  This is the call in this section for holiness

2.  A call to live a heavenly life while still on earth

3.  A call to resist to constant pull of the world, the flesh, and the devil

4.  A call to understand the significance of the brief time we have left on earth

5.  A call to wake up, to clothe ourselves with our future perfection, Christ Himself

6.  A call to be children of the light because God is light

1 Peter 1:15-16 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

II.   The Urgency of Personal Holiness

A.  Understanding the Present Time

Vs. 11-12 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.

1.    A tremendous sense of urgency pervades this passage

2.  Paul wants us to sense the fact that time is running out

3.  Understanding time from God’s point of view

a.  God created time… time is connected to the story of redemptive history He is unfolding

b.  Minutes, hours, days, months, years all serve God’s redemptive plan

c.  History is linear, moving from one point to the final destination

i)  History not cyclical like the Hindus think… with endless cycles of reincarnation

ii)  Christianity sees history as a story unfolding with a beginning, middle and end… the Book of Revelation gives the clearest sense of this linear movement

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 22:12-13 “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

d.  Paul’s basic concept here: It is later than you think!!!

B.  Crush Procrastination, for The Hour Has Come

1.  Here we come to the issue of procrastination

Illus. Jonathan Edwards sermon on Procrastination

Procrastination; The Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time

Proverbs 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Subject: We ought to behave ourselves every day as though we had not dependence on any other day.

“The design of the wise man in this book of Proverbs, is to give us the precepts of true wisdom, or to teach us how to conduct ourselves wisely in the course of our lives. Wisdom very much consists in making a wise improvement of time, and of the opportunities we enjoy. This is often in Scripture spoken of as a great part of true wisdom; as Deu. 32:29, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” And Psa. 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” So the wisdom of the wise virgins is represented as consisting much in this, that they improved the proper season to buy oil.”

2.  Paul is calling on Christians to seize the moment and act decisively in the matter of personal holiness

a.  The flesh is always making excuses and putting off to tomorrow what God is calling on us to do today

b.  The Holy Spirit convicts you of a matter of holiness… He wants you to address it now

c.  Perhaps it is a spiritual discipline He wants you to start… like memorizing a book of the Bible, or having a consistent quiet time, or resuming family devotions, or setting aside a day of fasting and prayer with your wife for the direction of your family

d.  Perhaps it is a sin pattern in your life that you know is wrong, but you keep putting off addressing it: maybe overeating, or lust, or complaining, or

e.  Perhaps it’s a matter of generosity, of giving generously to the Lord’s work

Illus. Randy Alcorn’s stunning example of a woman’s intention to give away money

f.  Perhaps it is a matter of witnessing… someone that God has laid on your heart

C.  Wake Up from Your Slumber

vs. 11 The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber KJV: now it is high time to awake out of sleep

1.  The slumber is a metaphor for the devil’s work on our souls

a.  The Greek word for slumber here is “hupnos”

b.  From this we get the word “hypnotize”… as though Satan has hypnotized us from the proper alarm

2.  Satan deceives us concerning the urgency of personal holiness

3.  Satan deceives us concerning the urgency of evangelism… the salvation of lost people

4.  He puts us into a slumber… a sluggishness, a sleep of sin

Illus. The Hobbit: Bilbo Baggins and the spider’s sting… all the dwarves sleeping, waiting to be devoured

Illus. #2:Pilgrim’s Progress: the “sinful sleep”

5.  Christians underestimate the seriousness of sin, overestimate how much time we have to deal with it

6.  We are acting sleepy when it is the time for urgent action

a.  Urgent action in personal holiness

b.  Urgent action in evangelism and missions

D.  Our Salvation Nearer Now

vs. 11 The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

1.  Paul’s logic: someday we will be fully saved from sin… every day brings us closer to that reality… so why keep sinning if we are getting closer and closer to freedom

Illus. POWs in Germany at the end of WWII… perhaps they had been collaborating with the Germans just to survive the prison camp experience… perhaps they had lost hope, and were sinking into a depressed languor; perhaps they were willing to make risky attempts to jump the barbed wire and escape. But when a smuggled short wave radio in the camp told them that the Allies had won major battles and were now only a few miles from the camp, they put off these insane behaviors and celebrated because their liberation was immediately approaching… it was getting closer and closer

2.  Paul puts it positively: our SALVATION, not our CONDEMNATION

3.  For both personal holiness and worldwide evangelization, our efforts will be successful, so we should be urgent and exert ourselves

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed– not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence– continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

In other words, because our salvation is getting NEARER and NEARER, we should be exerting ourselves more and more in personal holiness… because this is the exact thing God is working in us

4.  Vital lessons

a.  #1: our salvation is INCOMPLETE… full salvation awaits a FUTURE FULFILLMENT

i)  Still waiting for salvation from God’s wrath on judgment day

ii)  Still waiting for the completion of His saving work in us by the resurrection of the body

b.  #2: time is unspeakably precious and there is less of it than you think, so make the most of every moment and every urging of the Spirit

c.  #3: every day we are making steady and sure progress to that future and final salvation

i)  Christians should be hopeful and say “Every minute brings me closer to my destination, heaven, and my full salvation: perfection in Christ”

ii)  There can be a certain sadness in seeing your children grow up or your body grow old… DON’T BE SAD!! Rejoice that we’re getting nearer and nearer our destination

E.  The Night is Nearly Over (vs. 12)

1.  The “night” here is the Satanic gloom of spiritual darkness Satan has spread over the whole earth

a.  It is the age of darkness, of shadows, of death and sin

When Jesus was arrested, He said to the chief priests, guards, and elders:

Luke 22:53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour– when darkness reigns.”

Literally this is the era when darkness has power, authority to rule

b.  BUT that “Dark Age” is almost over… Satan’s time of rule is almost ended

c.  Christ’s powerfully advancing Kingdom will soon finish Satan forever

2.  Night also refers to the deception of concealment

a.  Far more crimes happen at night than in the day

b.  Night conceals evil deeds

Ephesians 5:11-15 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” 15 Be very careful, then, how you live– not as unwise but as wise,

c.  The supposed concealment of darkness is a Satanic deception

i)  Satan lies to people concerning the possibility of concealment and deception

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”  No it doesn’t!!!

ii)  Satan tells us that it is possible to sin and not be discovered

iii)  The sinner believes Satan’s lie that God cannot see what we do in the darkness

Psalm 10:11 He says to himself, “God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.”

d.  Christians need to understand by faith that true concealment is IMPOSSIBLE

Jeremiah 16:17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.

Luke 12:1-5 “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

Terrifying passage in Ezekiel in which God takes Ezekiel on a spirit-empowered journey into the deep recesses of the temple court where some Israelites were doing very wicked things thinking no one would see them:

Ezekiel 8:7-12 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there. 9 And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. 12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.'”

The basic idea of temptation is that you can do something in secret that will never be discovered… but judgment day will uncover all men’s secrets

Job 31:1-4 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. 2 For what is man’s lot from God above, his heritage from the Almighty on high? 3 Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? 4 Does he not see my ways and count my every step?

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

e.  By faith then we should live as though the light of judgment day is already here

F.  The Day is Almost Here

Vs. 12 “The day draws near”

1.  Paul says that the day of full revelation is coming

2.  YES: When we will see God face to face, for which we deeply long

3.  BUT ALSO: when we will have to give an account for how we have lived in the body

4.  God’s view of time is different than ours

Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus said

Revelation 22:20 “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

5.  SOON AND VERY SOON

“Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King”

A key role for me as your pastor is to strengthen your vision of faith so that you can “SEE, FEEL, SENSE” the immediacy of your death and of Christ’s coming and of Judgment Day

You can only receive this by faith, and it is by the preaching of the Word that your faith is given the solid food it needs to sense the immediacy of our standing before Christ

III.   The Nature of Personal Holiness

Romans 13:12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

A.  Negative: Putting Off

1.  Slumber

2.  Deeds of darkness (vs. 13 lists them)

a.  Not in orgies and drunkenness

b.  Not in sexual immorality and debauchery

c.  Not in dissension and jealousy

3.  These are some of the ugliest words in human experience

a.  Rome was characterized by flouting of God’s moral laws

b.  Self-control is thrown out the window

i)  Marital relations are not enough… they yearn for orgies

ii)  A good meal is not enough… they yearn for gluttony, cramming their faces

iii)  A small amount of wine is not enough… they yearn for drunkenness

c.  A continual lust for more and more because sin does not satisfy

Illus. Adrift in the Pacific Ocean in a small boat, raging thirst, surrounded by immeasurable quantities of water, but unable to drink, because it is SALT WATER. Salt water gives an immediate sense of quenching of the thirst, followed by an even greater and more raging thirst

So it is with anyone who goes for a lifestyle of lust:

Nowadays, lust surrounds us like the Pacific Ocean surrounds that small boat… cyber- pornography stands like the harlot beckoning anyone who ventures to use the internet; fornication is accepted as merely “living together”

4.  Paul’s point: these things are DEEDS OF DARKNESS for which we will be greatly ashamed on Judgment Day

5.  PUT OFF = like a filthy, disgusting garment

B.  Positive: Putting On

1.  Armor of light

a.  Sanctification cannot merely be negative… we can’t merely STOP doing bad things

b.  Instead we are called to put on godliness like a beautiful, shining array of armor

c.  “Armor” is a military term

Illus. Medieval knights wore extensive armor to protect them in battle Modern-day soldiers now use body armor made of synthetic resins

All armor has the same function: to stop some offensive weapons from penetrating our bodies

“Light” is armor in that a Spirit-filled Christian cannot be penetrated by Satan’s filthy missiles because we are totally satisfied with Christ, with His perfect righteousness, and are thus not restless, roaming the earth for some emptiness to be filled

d.  Ephesians 6: “Full armor of God”

2.  Putting on Christ

a.  Understand that Christ alone is our only hope for a holy life

b.  He alone IS our righteousness positionally

c.  He alone lived through this sinful world perfectly without ever sinning

d.  As we spiritually “put on Christ” like a coat of armor, we are focusing our minds on Him, trusting in Him, relying on Him moment by moment

C.  Negative: Make No Provision for the Flesh

ESV Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

1.  Flesh = sinful nature tied to the body of sin

2.  Flesh has drives, desires, yearnings

3.  These drives take provision in order to meet their needs… there is EQUIPMENT for satisfying sin

a.  The drunkard must have his supply of alcohol… he must go where it is sold and provide a supply

b.  The lustful man must have his supply of lustful images to gratify his yearnings

c.  The gossip has to listen carefully and ask questions so they can spread the juicy stories

d.  The sluggard chooses not to set his alarm for his quiet time

4.  Scripture here calls on us to not to procure the equipment of sin

5.  The Greek word is literally “take no forethought for the flesh”… as soon as the thought pops up in your head, stomp it like a scorpion

6.  Scripture calls on us here to frustrate the flesh in its drives

IV.   Application

A.  Don’t Put Off Christ

1.  Don’t procrastinate!!!

Hebrews 3:7-8 “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts

2.  If you are not a Christian, trust in Christ today

3.  If God is calling on you to grow, DO IT NOW

4.  If God is calling on you to put a specific sin to death, DO IT NOW

5.  It is later than you think… you may not get the chance to do what you thought to do

6.  Good intentions are no substitute for actual obedience

B.  Don’t Rely on Your Obedience

1.  No matter how zealous you are for holiness, your best days will be insufficient

2.  In Christ alone is our righteousness

C.  Don’t regret the passing of Time…

1.  Unbelievers around us are constantly lamenting how quickly time passes

2.  BE GLAD that our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed