We'll begin in a few minutes.
Is there another thing to turn on
here? It is plugged in. It says power's on. I mean, we
don't touch this thing all the time. No. Is that on? Is that battery? You know what? It wasn't on. It wasn't? I don't hear it now. Maybe the battery might be dead.
We might need to... I hear it. It's going. Okay. We'll start in a minute. OK. I had a problem with my printer
this morning, so. I just have another few seconds. All right, brethren. We're gonna
begin, let's go to Romans 13. Romans 13, and we're gonna be
looking at verses 11 through 14. So we're gonna close the
chapter this morning. Now based on the instructions
that Paul has given to the church, he gives us here an exhortation. And what he's saying is we should
not be indifferent to our calling in Christ. And he's saying this
because many had fallen asleep, and not asleep in death, but
asleep in the light. They were slumbering in their
calling and in their knowledge of Christ, so that they were
slumbering in fleshly just living to their flesh and indifference
to the Lord, like the foolish virgins that the Lord spoke of
in one of his parables. And this present life is likened
to a darkness, to the falling of night. And so he's saying
to us, let us, who are children of light, labor therefore in
the light that our God has given us and let us shine forth, let
us be reflections of His brightness and His glory and what He has
done and revealed in us. Daniel chapter 12, Daniel chapter
12 verse 3 is, I think those two verses are very, very sweet,
two and three, but I'm going to read verse three. And the
Lord tells Daniel, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness
of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as
the stars forever and ever. And so we're not to be asleep
in the light, we're to be reflections of the glory that our God has
revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. And if you would
fulfill your obligation of what Paul said to us in verse 8 of
Romans 13, to owe no man anything but to love him, then we are
to live according to the calling and according to the practice
that our Lord and Savior has called us to. And I don't mean
that for our salvation. I don't mean that in a justifying
way or even in a sanctifying way, but we should live according
to the Lord because we are saved and because of what he has done
for us and revealed in us. And so we're to make use of the
means, the gracious means, which our God has given to us, whom
he's called by our savior. And we are to seek him for a
heart to do so. because it's not going to be
by this flesh that we're able to love others as we are and
serve him as we all. It's not going to be by this
flesh. So we seek him. Lord, I know what your word says.
Give me a heart. Give me your spirit to do it.
Help me, Lord. And then that soul that would
dare God to make them obedient. I'm not going to do this. I can't
do it in the flesh. You're going to do it. You're
just going to have to do it. And there is a sense in which
that is absolutely true. If the Lord doesn't do it for
us, we're not going to do it. But we that are indifferent to his
word, which he reveals to us, it may be through a very severe
reproof, a providential reproof, whereby we learn things that
we shouldn't know. And the Lord teaches us. Sometimes
that word comes very graciously to us. Often it comes very graciously
to us and with great patience. And sometimes it comes through
trying circumstances and difficulties in Providence. And sometimes
it comes as a severe reproof. And I can testify to that myself. And sometimes it just comes as
a severe reproof to show me and to show his people, don't do
those things. Hear my word. Listen to me. Heed
what I'm saying, all right? Now, I've titled this message,
Refocused for the Day. Refocused for the Day. And I
believe Paul would have us be encouraged by this word. I don't
want this to come as a heavy burden. To your flesh, it's a
burden. And I'm not speaking to the flesh.
I'm speaking his word, which comes to the spirit. And it should
be an encouragement to us. So I hope that's how we hear
it this morning. And the first part I want to
look at this morning with you is this Gospel day that Christ
has wrought for us. He's brought forth the Gospel
day, and that's the day in which we labor now in the Gospel. And then we'll see these works
of light that Paul speaks of in our text. Okay, so Romans
13, we'll begin, we'll get to verse 11, but let me just speak
a few things on this gospel day. So believers who are now living
in this gospel day of salvation, we are not in the glory which
is to follow, right? When we are raised again from
the dead and we have salvation, we know the Lord, he's revealed
himself to us, he's called us through his gospel and we believe
him. But we're yet in this flesh,
the weakness of this flesh, this corrupt flesh. It's not getting
better. It's not improving. It's not changed. It's yet corrupt
and sinful and full of darkness and iniquity and is as an enemy
to the new man which Christ has created in us. And so here we
are with all our weaknesses, all our faults, all our sin,
trials, suffering, and tribulation. And these things come to try
or to prove the faith which our God has revealed and given to
us. So when our Lord spoke of the
day and the night that comes in John 9 verse 4, he said, I
must work the works of him that sent me. while it is yet day,
the night cometh when no man can work. And so our Lord was
speaking there of the salvation which he must accomplish for
his people, to deliver us from the just punishment of our sin,
which we've committed, the debt of sin and unrighteousness, which
we've worked up, whereby we owe God perfect righteousness and
perfect obedience, which we cannot pay in this flesh, But our savior,
he justified us with his own blood. And so all for whom he
laid down his life, none shall be lost. All are saved, all will
come. But these things are worked out
in time. He justified us by his own death.
He justified us and reconciled us by the shedding of his blood
and his death. But he's going to call us. He's
going to bring us to a knowledge of what he's done. And so he's
not only delivered us out of the darkness that this world
sits under, but he's also delivered us from the judgment which is
to come upon this world. He's accomplished all these things.
We're told in scripture that the whole world lieth in wickedness. And that's in 1 John 5, 19. And
so we're reminded that this world is presently treasuring unto
itself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God. And we that live in Christ, we
that are alive in Christ, we have no part in that coming judgment
and that punishment which comes upon the world. And so Paul,
in his epistles, he's teaching the brethren. He's revealing
this salvation that is given to us in Christ. He's making
it known so that we have an understanding of these things. He said to the
Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 4 and 6, 4 through 6,
he said, but ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day
should overtake you as a thief. In other words, we watch, right? And you say, well, I thought
he said, no man knows the day or the hour. And that's true,
but we watch. So that day won't overtake us
as a thief, though we don't know the day or the hour, but it's
not going to come upon us in a manner that's surprising to
us because we're watching. He says in verse 5, ye are all
the children of light and the children of the day. We are not
of the night nor of darkness, therefore let us not sleep as
do others, but let us watch and be sober. Be aware that this
world is yet in darkness and coming into the judgment of God. Now because our Savior accomplished
our salvation, and brought us, translated us into the kingdom
of light. What that means is he calls us
to serve him and serve our brethren in this kingdom, right? We're
awakened to these things. We're made alive to our God and
to his spirit, to know him and to serve one another in love
and in peace and joy and gladness in our savior. And so he feeds
us. He nourishes us with the Gospel,
He's given us His Holy Spirit, whereby, that's how we hear His
Word, that's how we're enabled, being given eternal life, that's
how we're enabled to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
which the world doesn't hear. They hear of religion, they hear
of their works, they hear of what they need to do better,
and what they need to stop doing, but that's all they hear. look
to Christ as a savior because they don't have the spirit whereby
they hear what the spirit saith to the churches. But he's given
us his spirit so that we do hear it. And he's given us his gospel
whereby we're fed and nourished rather than shriveling up and
dying the way we would if we didn't eat and drink. If we didn't
make use of the food that we have and didn't drink water,
we would perish and die of these physical bodies. In the same
manner, he's given us his word and he's given us his spirit,
whereby we feed upon Christ, our savior. All right? Now, that
means we're in this gospel day. We're now presently under the
gospel, serving our Lord. All right? So with that understanding,
let's look at the text that we have here before us. In Romans 13, 11, Paul gives
us you that believe, in exhortation, saying in that, knowing the time,
that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. Now he's speaking to
you who have confessed Christ, to you who say, he's all my hope,
he's my salvation, I have no righteousness of my own, I have
no confidence in the flesh, I'm the Lord's, and he is mine. We're
thankful for our Savior. But he's speaking this to some
who have grown sleepy in the light that they have. And some
have even fallen into full slumber, just fallen asleep in the light
in their flesh, meaning that they've become careless. We know
we that have cares, any of you that have cares in this life,
that have bills, that have mouths to feed, that have loved ones,
and are friends or family members of others, you have cares, right? And these have a way of surrounding
us and choking out the light and choking out the hope that
we have in Christ, simply because we just forget about him. We
forget about the light that we've been shown. And our focus is
turned to our jobs and the problems of our family members and our
own problems and the things that are stressing us out. And so
these cares and concerns have a way of swallowing us up, right? And blinding us from the light
of the gospel of Christ. And we become dull and slumbering
and care little for the things which really should concern us
and give us hope and joy and confidence in Christ. Now turn
over to Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3 and go to verse 12
and we'll look at a few, three verses there together. Starting
in verse 12. And what the writer of Hebrews
is doing here is warning us of the deceitfulness of this flesh. As I said, we're yet in the flesh,
and this flesh is deceitful. And he's telling us this, that
we not entertain the lusts of the flesh. He's warning us. So
he says, verse 12, Hebrews 3.12, take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you evil heart of unbelief in departing from the
Living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin." Right? When lust takes hold of us, when
there's something that we set our hearts on our minds upon
that we know is sinful, that the Lord says in his word, don't
do these things. Well, lust has a way of convincing
us that either it's not so bad or to justify it. And we'll go
so far as to question, wait a minute, is Is this even true, the Lord? Is Christ, was he even really
here? We begin to question what we've
heard concerning the faith because this flesh is looking for a way
to justify its own sin and the lust that we may partake of those
things. And so we're looking and we become
our own worst enemy to the truth that our God has revealed to
us. in the day of his salvation.
We'll do that because of the deceitfulness of sin. And he
says, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. And what the Hebrew
writer is saying there is not that your salvation is in jeopardy. You that are blood-bought children
of Christ, you shall never fall away. But there are many who
do confess Christ and yet have no real hope in him. They did
it as a religious thing. They confessed him and or were
baptized and did many religious things thinking this was their
salvation but have no real hope in him. And so we see this, we
see many. that fall away. And the Lord
shows us our weakness. His word comes to us. It's not
for us to seek justification by our works. It's not even for
us to seek sanctification by our works. Our Savior Jesus Christ
alone accomplished our justification and our sanctification, assuring
us that we shall come to know him, to hear his gospel, to hear
it by the Spirit, and to believe and receive his word. And so he's using his word, though,
to teach us, to show us the deceitfulness of this flesh, that we see just
how weak and incompetent we are to save ourselves and our ever
need of ever having a need of him, of his grace daily to keep
us and teach us. All right, how many times have
you seen the sin of your own heart and moaned and groaned
in the spirit saying, Lord, Help me, I feel like I'm gonna fall
away. If you don't keep me, I'm gonna fall away, just like I
saw so-and-so do, or somebody else, right? And so the Lord
uses that to turn us from pride and to turn us from our own self-confidence. We know it, I'm confessing to
you right now, I have this flesh, and I'm a weak man in the flesh,
impossible to save or to keep myself. I ever need his grace,
and I trust that You know that's true of your own selves. We ever
need Him to keep us. Now let me show you one more
scripture over in Luke 22. This is a little different, but
it's still showing us the weakness of the flesh to save and our
need of Christ, our need of Him. Luke 22 and go to verse 35. Luke 22, means all right, well,
this is towards the end of our Savior's ministry here in the
flesh among the disciples, there in the flesh. And so he says
in verse 35, he said unto them, when I sent you without purse
and script and shoes, lack ye anything? And they said nothing. When they were with the Lord,
we never hear of them going hungry. If they were hungry, he could
just take fish and loaves or anything of food and multiply.
They never thirsted. They always had something to
drink. When they were in the ship and
the waves and the wind whipped up, then they feared for their
very lives because the boat was filling with water and Christ
was asleep underneath them, and they feared. But Christ awoke
and rebuked the wind and the waves and they became calm for
them. When they were ministering with Christ and the Sanhedrin
and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they never laid a hand on the
disciples. They never were in danger. Even when they came to
take Christ, he provided for them. Let these go. They never
were taken. They weren't crucified with Christ
that day. Christ alone was crucified. And
so he says, did you lack anything? Did you have any need? And they
said, no, no. We had no need. And then he says, verse 36, but
now he that hath a purse, let him take it. You need money?
You better have it, right? Peter, I'm not gonna be able
to send you down to the water to grab a fish and open its mouth
and get a couple coins out to pay your taxes and mine. You're
gonna need a purse. And he said, you that have a
script, take that, a backpack, something of your belongings.
And he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy
one." Now, are we to take that literally? Are we to go out and
get an AR-15 to protect ourselves today? That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is, when I was
with you, I provided and protected you from all these things. But
now, as you're preaching the gospel and serving me, you're
going to have difficulties. You're going to face trials. and tribulations and sufferings,
you that preach the gospel, your life will come into danger, right? Peter and John suffered beatings
for preaching Christ. And all of them, except for John,
the apostle John, were killed themselves, right? They were
all put to death for preaching the gospel. And that's what he's
saying is now that I'm going, When I lay down my life for you
and I go to the Father, I'll send you the Holy Spirit who's
going to provide you and strengthen you and keep you in the faith,
keep you ever looking to me, but you are going to have difficulties
and troubles in this flesh. And that's what he's saying there
to us, because we're not to hope. He's showing us that we need
him. We're going to cry out to him
and seek him for his grace and his provision. And sometimes
we're going to go long without an answer. Sometimes it'll be
answered quickly. Sometimes we may go long. And
sometimes, like Paul, he will say, my grace is sufficient for
you. You're going to do without this thing for now. My grace
is sufficient for you. And he's going to use all those
things to keep us and use us in the kingdom as he's purposed
it. All right, that the comfort that
we receive in it, even when we're denied something that we're asking
for, we are given his grace in measure so that we're yet comforted
in Christ, even without that fleshly comfort or provision. And then we're able to comfort
our brethren, being strengthened in the faith that he's given
to us. All right, so this is relevant to the time in which
we live, right? Every age in which the church
lives, she hears this word and is given this word to help her
and to comfort her in that time in which she's serving her Lord
and upholding the banner of Christ. And so he says in Romans 13,
11, back in our text, he says, and that knowing the time that
now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our
salvation near than when we believed. Well, what's an example of the
time that we're living in? Well, look over in Matthew 24. Matthew 24. Now, anytime someone
goes to Matthew 24, or Mark 13, or Luke 21, you know that this
is where Christ answers the question of the brethren, Lord, when is
the temple going to be taken apart? And when is the time of
your coming again? All right, that's what he speaks
of in these chapters. And so Matthew 24, 12, he says,
speaking of the time, and because iniquity shall abound, the love
of many shall wax cold. All right, the love of many shall
wax cold. And I'm looking at that verse
because it's indicative of the time in which we live. We know,
wow, yeah, the love of many has waxed cold, even in my own heart.
And Paul, in this context, in Romans 13, 8, had just said to
us, we saw it last week, he said, oh, no man anything but to love
one another. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. And in Romans 13, 10, love worketh
no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. And so we're to hear this, even
as our world is fracturing off into wars and rumors of wars
and pestilences and vaccines and, and, and governments and
people speaking of, you know, going to civil war and all kinds
of things that are swirling around out there right now. Right. And
what happens is. In the face of these things,
what happens to love and a willingness to serve others? It tightens
up to the point where it grows cold. It's the very thing that
Paul said, oh no man, anything but to love one another. And
in the face of these things, as our resources are threatened,
and the things that give us comfort and peace in the flesh As that
becomes threatened, it gets hard, your grip tightens on your resources
and your things. And so your ability to love,
you're willing to let that go before you let your own food
go or your own money or something like that. You'll let the love
go and the generosity, right? And so how do we? Responded in
our day. All right, and so, you know some
you know, are well, are we loving or are we falling asleep? Are
we just going indifferent to the coldness? You know to the
needs of our brethren and those in need or do we you know, have
we fallen asleep in the light? now He also spoke of this over
in 2nd Timothy 3 All right of what our Lord said about the
day in which we live and listen to 2nd Timothy 3 verses 1 through
5 He says, this know also that in the last days perilous times
will come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. Not
even being decent to your neighbor and to one another because there's
threats and concerns. truce breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, which means unrestrained or uncontrolled, fierce, despisers
of those that are good. You try to talk to someone, even
if you're in alignment with them, just because you say things a
little differently and they think, well, what are you saying here?
We shouldn't be concerned about what's going on. And they'll
attack you for just being honest. you know, or just expressing
your own opinion or concern about things or how you see it, right?
Traitors, we hear a lot about that in our day, despisers of,
I'm sorry, yeah, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying
the power thereof from such turn away. We hear this, though, and
it's a reminder to us that, wait a minute, I see the deceitfulness
of sin in my own flesh. Let me practice, therefore, to
go out of my way to show love to my brethren, to those that
need it. Lord, help me. Lord, help me,
right? Give me a heart and your spirit
and your grace to serve and lay down one another if things especially
if things continue to go the direction they feel like they're
going or seem to be going. We don't know, because I don't
know what the Lord has planned. We could have 10 or 20 more years
of peace, for all I know, or tomorrow war could break out.
We don't know what it is, but let us be found loving one another
and praying for his grace. So as the night falls upon this
slumbering, self-serving world, Showing love isn't going to get
any easier, right? It's not going to become easier
for this flesh. We shouldn't ever think that that's going
to happen. So Paul says in Romans 13 verse 12, the night is far
spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works or the armor of darkness, right? That which keeps you locked
in to this world and let us put on the armor or works of light. You can read Ephesians 6 verses
10-18 between services that speaks of the armor that our Savior
has equipped us with, which is the gospel, the hope of the gospel,
the hope of Christ in you. We see what the world's doing
and we know the sleepiness of our own flesh. I know the sleepiness
of my own flesh, right? I'm not unaware of its ways and
its deceitful workings and lusts in me, right? And we delight,
you know, we want to delight ourselves in the momentary pleasures
of this world. But remember, is that what we're
called to? And I'm not saying that recreation
and rest is wicked somehow. It's not. It's good to have some
recreational and some downtime. You know, that's good, but that's
not a hope. That's not what we're here for,
is to just pursue the things that all the world pursues. He
said in 1 Corinthians 6, 20, ye are bought with a price. Therefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So in light of that truth, if
we are Christ, he says, verse 13, Romans 13, 13, let us walk
honestly as in the day, not in rioting or drunkenness, not in
chambering, which is basically sleeping around, in wantonness,
right, more recklessness, usually of a sexual nature, not in strife
and envying, right? Those are all works of the flesh,
which we know in our flesh is fully capable of. We're all capable
of participating in any of those things according to the flesh.
We're not kidding ourselves or anyone. But don't seek to fulfill
those lusts. We know they're present in our
flesh. We know the thoughts that we're
capable of having and the things that we're capable of doing.
But he says don't do those things. Peter said, he said, dearly beloved,
meaning he's speaking to brethren. He said, as strangers and pilgrims
in this world, I beseech you, I'm begging you, abstain from
fleshly lusts which war against the soul. All right, because
they make war against the truth and the faith which has been
once delivered to us through his gospel given to us by the
spirit. All right, he says these things
war against the soul. They war against you. All right,
so don't do those things is what he's saying. And it's not about
putting on the flesh. We're just acknowledging, yeah,
these things are present. We all have the things that we're
predisposed to. And they may change or vary as
we get older, but it's all there. It's all there. And so we're
not fooling anybody, let alone our Lord, who sees and knows
our hearts. He knows us. And even Christ, when he found
his disciples asleep, said, watch and pray. that ye enter not into
temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak. Okay, so Paul says now in verse
14, but ye put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. All right, we
know we have examples even in the scripture where Demas forsook
Paul having loved this present world. All right, we see examples
where there are some that serve in the gospel, preaching the
gospel and declaring the truth, and yet they fell away. And so
we're not unaware of these things and we all need grace. And when you hear or see sin
in your brethren, be gentle, be kind and loving, pull the
curtain of grace over their sin and show them love and Christ. because we're all sinners in
need of his grace. It's not about becoming judgmental
of one another. If we're gonna be judges, let
us, well, Paul said, I don't even judge myself, because we
know what we are in the flesh. So preach Christ and love your
brethren to Christ. The law and terrors harden the
heart, but you show love to your brethren and gentleness. and
speak of Christ. That's how they're going to be
drawn and delivered from death. All right? And so this exhortation
to be clothed with Christ is meant to excite us, to encourage
us. Christ is coming again. The day,
we're long into the day of grace. And the night, we see the signs
in the world. We see the love of many growing
cold. And so it's not to burden you.
We're all, we all have our days and times and seasons where we're
asleep. And so it's not about whipping you or beating you.
It's about saying, reminding you, our Savior is alive. He's
risen. He's given us this hope that
we have in Him. Keep seeking Him. Keep watching. Don't fall asleep. Don't go the
way of this world. Don't believe the lies that they're
pushing. to make you think that Christ
is not true, or that gospel that you hope in, that your hope of
Christ isn't true, and that he won't come again, and just to
give that all up for momentary pleasures. Don't believe them.
He says that there will come strong delusion on this world. So it's not to burden you, it's
rather to refocus your attention, to remind us of the hope that
we have in Christ. And while we wait for him to
return, as he promised, Hebrews 10 23 through 25 says let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he
is faithful that promised and let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works 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
so I pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts and encourage
us in our Savior. Amen. All right, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and your grace to us in your Son, Jesus
Christ. Lord, we ask not for judgment
and for harshness, but we ask for your grace and your mercy
and that you would fill us with your spirit and give us a heart
of love and a willingness to show love to one another and
to serve you, even as the day gets darker and the willingness
of many to show love grows cold and hard. We pray that that would
not be so of us, but that we would serve you willingly and
with joy in Christ our Savior. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen. All right, brethren, so we're
gonna take Well, we'll take 15 minutes. So we'll start at about
five after the hour. And on my clock, it's 10 of.
So for you online, if you're not aligned with us, basically
15 minutes from now. Thank you.