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What Time is It?
Romans 13:11-14
Each morning we wake up to
an alarm. I hate that clock.
But I'm thankful for it, because if not for it, we would be a mess.
We like to sleep. We
wouldn't have jobs, our kids would not pass school.
And we couldn't pastor a church.
Morning people--raise your
hands. You get on my nerves.
You folks who say you have an inner alarm.
I loathe you!
Our text is a spiritual
alarm clock. Love it or hate it,
it's a good thing. And time does
fly, and our time to reach the lost is fleeting!
We don't have much time on our hands!
When I was a kid in
1.
It's time to wake up.
v. 11-12a
We are in a spiritual slumber of lethargy and apathy and indifference
and laziness. We need a sense of
urgency.
Why?
Because our salvation is so near.
What? Wasn't I saved
immediately? Yes!
But remember the 3 tenses of salvation. I have been saved, am being
saved, and will be saved. [redemption complete!]
The first is justification,
second is sanctification, and last is glorification...still yet to come.
It's our glorification [return of Christ] which is nearer than when
we first believed. Nothing
should wake us up like that fact!
Titus 2:12
Teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly, in this present world;
Why do these things?
Titus 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Also,
Hebrews 10:25
Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one
another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
The unfaithful church
members had better wake up. This
is more important than baseball, weekend excursions, or family reunions!
James 5:8-9
8
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh.
9
...behold, the judge standeth before the door.
The sands of time are
quickly running out. Watching
the news can be depressing, but it can turn into a worship service as you
see it all coming together just as God predicted.
v. 12 Night is a reference to the
reign of Satan over this world.
Day is the return of this earth to Jesus' possession.
Jude 1:6
And the angels which kept not their
first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
ill.--how annoying it is
when the doorbell rings and you are in bed.
You jump up, and when you jump up you put clothes on and you look
into a mirror and your hair looks like 'bed head', but you are in a hurry so
you run, and you step on a sharp toy on the stairs and fall and break your
neck. [don't fall and break your
neck, switch to Directv!]
Paul is saying, when Jesus
soon returns...don't be caught off guard, w/ your pants down.
It won't just be annoying, it will be the most judgmentally awkward
moment of your life, and it will be too late to take it back!
The day is dawning, and
that's the time to wake up and look up!
ill.--children don't sleep
well on Christmas Eve. It's the
anticipation. Same w/ the night
before your wedding day.
GBC is a sleeping giant.
Our potential is thru the roof.
What could we do if we would all wake up?!
We need to anticipate His soon return!
2.
It's time to clean up.
It's what we do after we
wake up. Hopefully!
"Somebody's deodorant's
failing...can't be mine, I never wear the stuff!"
v. 12-13
This imagery is of a soldier out all night partying, and passes out
in a ditch in a stuper, and his C/O comes along and says to wake up, clean
up, and dress up for battle.
V. 13 is specific w/ 3
pairs of sins. [social
sins/sexual sins/spiritual sins]
Christians have no business
being involved in such things.
These deeds of darkness grieve the heart of God!
We are to clean up and lay these aside.
Rioting and drunkenness
- carousing is the Greek meaning of rioting.
Today it is called 'cruising' or just 'hanging'.
If we don't know where our kids are, we are asking for trouble to
find them. Most teens take their
first drink at a party. I have
to ask, why were they even present?
Chambering and wantonness
- Chambering is living together w/out the benefit of marriage...shacking up.
It's amazing how they have no compunction of conscience whatsoever
about this anymore. Society now
accepts it as a test drive before marriage.
God does not!
Hebrews 13:4
Marriage is honourable in
all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
"Everybody is doing it."
Then by definition, everybody is a whoremonger/adulterer!
I'm thankful that everybody is NOT doing it!
We have couples like this
all the time at church, and that's fine...we're a place for sinners to get
help with that. And in love
we've seen many separate and do it right, and many go on to get married, and
they are still here, PTL!
Wantonness is that place
where you are shameless about your sin.
You are no longer embarrassed.
You don't try to hide it at all.
Matter of fact, you post online about it w/out a thought.
I know we aren't supposed to be hypocrites to hide secret sins and
put on a front in public, but there's something even worse about the 'like
it or lump it' attitude, that takes no responsibility for how we affect
others around us. [stumblingblock]
Daytime TV has an endless
parade of perverts. This is the
reprobate mind...when you no longer care, and things that should make you
blush you now seem to brag about.
Strife and envying
- now he shifts gears from the flesh to the heart, because you can be clean
on the outside but very dirty on the inside.
Some may feel proud of yourself that you aren't a drunk or a
whoremonger. God says hold on,
and take a deeper look!
Strife here means personal
ambition. It's the desire for
power, prestige or recognition.
It's the spirit of competition, worrying about who is gonna get the credit.
There's no place for this in church.
A house divided like that cannot stand.
We can't have Paul and Apollos competitions.
It must be all about Jesus, and we must all be on the same team,
pulling in the same direction.
Envying is jealousy.
It will devastate a church, a marriage, a friendship.
It's time to wake up, and
clean up, and stop being petty.
3.
It's time to dress up.
v. 14 A positive and a negative.
First, you positively put
on Jesus. You wake up w/ a
determination to grow closer to God and pursue Jesus!
We dedicate our members [eyes, ears, hands, feet] to living each day
different than most.
He uses the full title,
"Lord Jesus Christ".
Lord = plan of God for our
lives.
Jesus = pattern of God for
our lives.
Christ = power of God for
our lives.
Lord means master.
And a slave doesn't wake up and decide how his day would be spent,
his master does!
Jesus.
He lived the perfect pattern of life for an example to us.
Christ.
His power defeated death, and can defeat sin in our lives.
There's two ways to put on
Jesus. We can try in our own
strength and fail, or depend on His help to do it thru us.
ill.--stairs vs. escalator.
I prefer the power of another than mine own to get me there!
On the negative side, it
continues and says not to make provision for the flesh.
Provisions are food, so don't feed it.
Literally though, to make provision means to plan ahead.
Some of us make plans to sin.
We don't just fall into it, we jump in!
All sin begins in the mind.
Thought leads to action
leads to habit. If you don't
immediately renounce a bad thought as being a sin that displeases God, then
it moves on to action. This is
why the Bible says lust brings forth sin.
But we all fall and sin, both in thought and then in action, which is
why we then must immediately renounce that sin, lest we repeat it and form a
habit. But it's easier to win on
the 'mind' level, than once it goes farther.
Make no provision for the
flesh! It's time to wake up,
clean up, and dress up, because Jesus is soon returning and the saved will
go up...who will it be who will show up?
And if you aren't saved,
here's what time it is: Later
than you think!
When we are a child Satan
tells us we're too young [or our parents]
When we are a teen Satan
tells us we're too popular
When we are an adult, Satan
tells us we're too busy
When we retire, Satan tells
us we're too old.
When we die, Satan tells us
it's too late, and then he's actually right!
2 Corinthians 6:2
... behold, now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
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