Romans chapter 13. It's a cold,
rainy evening for us. I hope you all are well rested.
I think you might stick with me this evening. The title of
my message is Awake Out of Sleep or Wake Up. Wake up. I was going to say that the way
I used to say it when I got paid to say that. And I didn't want
to hurt the speakers, but wake up. Romans 13 beginning verse
10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law. Paul just told us about that
second table of the law. That's the fulfilling of the
whole law. Love the Lord God with all your
heart, mind, soul, and body. All you strengthen you and love
your neighbor as yourself. That's it. That's the law of
Moses fulfilled right there. We can't do it, can we? Verse
11, and that, knowing the time that it is, that now it is high
time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation nearer
than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let
us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness
not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." We'll be looking at wake up today,
awakening of the saints. Children of God are awakened
There, I woke up three different ways in three different times
or three different seasons. Did y'all know that? There's
three different ways the Lord wakes His people up, His children.
That'll be my divisions this evening. First way He does it,
we're awakened for that first time out of darkness into His
light. He comes to us and He turns the
light on. Never seen that before. Woke up. We were sleeping that
sleep of death. Comfy. Warm. Oh, it was nice. Soft pillow. Grandma made the covers. It's
a sleep of death. Snoozing away and He comes to
us and He wakes us up. After the Lord does that work
in us. After He gives us life, quickens us. Quickens the spirit. Then we're awakened repeatedly. Repeatedly. Physically and spiritually.
Physically, the Lord gives us awakeness every morning, doesn't
He? The sun comes up, He turns the light on every morning for
us. Spiritually, His children are woke up every day. Sometimes
He has to wake us up out of a long season of slumber. Of slothfulness. Laziness. That's what it is.
Lazy, sleeping child. He has to wake us up. Sometimes
that's every day. Sometimes that's minute by minute
throughout the day. He's got to turn the light on.
Wake us up. Then after the Holy Spirit's done this work in us
for the first time throughout the course of our lives, we're
repeatedly woken up. The light's turned on again.
We see Christ again, pointed back to Him again. Then that
last time, That last day, we'll finally wake up in His likeness. We will be woke up in our true
home, never to sleep again, never to be in darkness again. We'll
be saved. That's what the Lord says. You
hear people say a lot, He has saved His people. He is saving
His people and He shall save His people. The Lord saved me.
The Lord is saving me and the Lord shall save me. What's that
mean? Before time began, He chose His
people, He put them in Christ, and when Christ said, I'll be
their surety, they were saved. The deal was done. Take it to
the bank. He calls His people out in this
world. After He gives them life, He calls them out, He's got to
wake them up, over, and it's ain't a once and done. It's not
one shot and it's over. I accepted Jesus way back when. I walked the aisle way back when.
Didn't work, did it? Every morning you've got to wake
up and the Lord's got to come to you. Show you who He is. And then in that final day, we
call this salvation. That's when you're actually saved.
We're treading water, we're holding on to a life preserver. But we're
still in that water right now, aren't we? And we're up on that
ship. When He wakes us up for that
last time, boy, that's the fruition. That's the culmination of salvation.
When our bodies go to sleep at night, or we take a nap during
the day, we don't know we're sleeping, do we? We don't know
any different. So it is spiritually. Same thing,
when we're asleep, spiritually, we don't know the difference.
We think we're just fine. We think in these bodies, because
we're physically awake, I got up this morning, I put my clothes
on, I brushed my teeth, and I walked out the door. Well, then I must
be spiritually awake. I'm physically awake. I'm doing
the stuff I wake an awoken person does. Many times when we wake up, we
want to go back to bed, don't we? We hit snooze. The alarm
clock goes off. Don't want to hear it. I hope
we can look at that. Physically, sometimes it's necessary to yell.
to get somebody awake. You've got to create a sense
of urgency. Verse 2 popped in my head. You
ever had the alarm clock not go off? You've got to be at work
or you've got an appointment you've got to be at. Get up! Wake up! You've got to go! There's
an urgency. Somebody's driving a vehicle
and they start nodding off. Going over in that other lane.
Wake up! Wake up! Urgency. Physically, sometimes
we need to be woken up softly and tenderly, don't we? Come
to you young people, rub on your shoulder real easy. Hey, get
up. Happy birthday. Mommy's got breakfast ready.
Time to get up. Spiritually, how thankful I am
that our Lord applies His Word in the way that's needed. I tell
you what's in this Word and He either makes it urgent or He
makes it tender when it needs to be tender. That ain't on my
shoulders and I'm thankful. I'm thankful. It says there in
verse 11, and that knowing the time, that now it is high time
to wake out of sleep. This is a precious and a special
time. It's a special time. The preaching
of the gospel is a special and precious time. It ain't all over. This ain't Walmart. Every town
over a thousand people don't have one. It's a precious thing. The fellowship of God's saints.
When he's precious to you, his saints are precious to you. We
get to meet here twice a week. Sometimes I get to see you through
the week and oh, it's precious. If I bump into you at the store
or something, it's precious to see you. It's a precious time
to be with His saints. The reading of the Word, singing
praises to our Lord, those are special, precious times. Knowing
this, knowing the time, it is high time to awake. when we see
what this time is. We see how precious and special
this time is. I'm preaching to you, I'm preaching
at me. I need to wake up. Wake up. Paul wrote to us, for he saith,
I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have
I succored thee. Back then, whenever you were
saved, that day of salvation, succored is more than comfort.
It's a complete comfort. Total comfort. I've succored
thee. Now is the accepted time. Well, you said you had succored
me. And now is the accepted time to be succored. Behold, now is
the day of salvation. Today is that day. That's the
only time I'm ever alive is right now. That's the only time it
ever is to me. What time is it? It's right now.
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow ain't here yet. It's
right now. Right now is the time of salvation. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 3. Isaiah wrote, Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Now I ask you, is that to the
child of God that's yet to hear Christ? Or is he talking to believers
that's just walked with the Lord for decades? Decades. Oh, we've
known Christ for a long time. Yes. Yes, both of them. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Today's the day. Or if I never believed on you
before, make me believe today. Here in Hebrews 3 verse 7, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
years. Wherefore, I was grieved with
that generation and said, they do all way err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren. Take heed. Wake up. Lest there be any of
you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God. Instead of drifting off to sleep
in that sleep of death. It says take heed in speaking
the truth in love. That's what we just looked at.
Take heed and not steal the Lord's glory. And all our vain sayings. All that vain religion that we
just can't shake. Cut down to the truth. Get down
to it. Take heed to love and just give
yourself lock, stock and barrel to the brethren in the same way
that Christ loved you and gave Himself for you. Take heed. Wake
up. Verse 13, extort one another
daily. Paul is called today. Lest any
of you be hardened through your deceitfulness of sin. What do
we extort? What do we press? What do we
urge? Verse 14, for we are made partakers
of Christ. Boy, that's something good to
sort, isn't it? We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
That's a time precious to the believer, isn't it? If I can truly sit down and concentrate,
I'm a partaker of Christ. Boy, that's comfort. I'm awake then. You got my attention. We're partakers
of Christ and if we hold that to the end. He brought us to
life. He makes us to look at Him daily. If we are to keep
looking to our Savior till the end, we will be partakers of
Christ if He keeps us to the end. That's only appealing to
those that find Him precious. To receive an inheritance, somebody's
got to die. The one that died to give us
an inheritance, He is the inheritance. Yeah, be with Him. Partakers
of Christ. There's a time when every blood-bought
child of God is first awakened or will be first awakened. When
His sheep find Him precious for that very first time. Oh, He's
precious. I see Him. My eyes see Him. Lights turned on. I'm awake.
He's precious. When are we first brought from
darkness to light, what do we see? Our text tells us there
that love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law. I couldn't fulfill that law.
I couldn't justify myself. And then in light of that law,
it being the schoolmaster taking me to Christ, I see Christ's
righteousness. I thought that law made me look pretty bad.
Now when we see Him, we wake up and look at Him, a lot worse
off than what I thought I was. But the love of God for His people
and Christ, He fulfilled all of it for us. He remained just
and He justified us. He made us children. Made us
His heirs. Knowing how precious of a time
that is. What a precious time. Turn over
1 Peter chapter 2, a few pages. 1 Peter chapter 2. We see the
love of God. For His people in Christ, we
see the person and work of our Redeemer, that precious cornerstone,
the rock of our salvation. And He's no longer hidden in
darkness. He's revealed in His light. Just like being asleep. It was dark. We didn't know what
was around us. Can't see nothing. And then the lights come on.
We woke up and we saw Him. Look here in 1 Peter 2, verse
6. Wherefore, also, it is contained in the Scriptures, Behold, I
lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, that's Christ,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto
you, therefore, which believe, he's precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. and a stumbling stone,
a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them which
stumbled at the word, being disobedient. Whereunto also they were appointed."
In sleep, in darkness, we rejected Christ. We were offended by,
I'm tired of hearing this. I don't want to hear it no more.
I'm trying to sleep. Keep it down. stubbed my toe on it. It causes
pain. I don't want to hear it. I'm sick of it. Verse 9. But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. that ye should show forth the
praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness, out of that
darkness we were so comfortable in, out of our sleep, into His
marvelous light." Now we're awake. Now we see Christ. "...which
in time past were not a people." I was asleep. "...but now are
the people of God." Now I'm His. "...which had not attained mercy,
but now have attained mercy." I didn't know nothing about mercy.
It was a word in a dictionary. Webster would tell me all I needed
to know. then I met the one who was merciful." Is this just Peter
talking? This is all New Testament stuff.
I've heard people say, that's Old Testament God and New Testament
God. There's a God. And He is God. He doesn't change.
Turn over to Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60, they told us in chapter
9, they said, "...the people that walked in darkness have
seen a great light." They that dwell in the land of the shadow
of death, upon them hath the light shined." When He shows
us we're really in that shadow of death, when He shows us we're
really asleep, we're really needful, that's when He shines the light
of Christ on us. By Isaiah 60, Robert Harper here
said that he dared to speak, and he worded it in five or six
sentences I think, that this is the Father speaking to the
Son. And after reading it, I'm going to tell you, this is the
Father speaking to the Son. Isaiah 60, verse 1. Arise, shine,
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall
rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness
of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about,
and see. All they gather themselves together,
and they come unto thee. Thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow
together. together and flow together. And thine heart shall fear and
be enlarged." It will honor. It will grow. Because the abundance
of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the
Gentiles shall come unto thee. What a blessing when the Lord
calls for His saints to awake and rise. This is spoken to spiritual
Israel too. When He comes to His people and
He says, wake up, rise. And every one of His elect are
called to the same place. We all come to Christ. We are
gathered to Him. We're gathered from afar. We're
nursed. We're cared for as a family. Brothers and sisters brought
right up close to Him and cared for in His life, knit together,
and we flow together. like a river, that He turns whichever
way He wills, just like a king's heart. We work together, we flow
together, same direction, same cause, the glory of our Lord
and Savior. Then we're going to honor Him.
When He brings us there, He nurses us, we flow with Him, made one
with Him, travel with Him, follow Him, then our hearts are going
to truly honor Him and are going to be enlarged. My heart's grown. over the years. I wish it'd grow
more. I don't feel like it loves too
much. I don't feel like it believes
too much. But I wish it'd grow more. And it will. It will be
grown in grace. When is the time to call on the
Lord? When is the time to come to Christ? Now is the time. It's high time to wake up and
come to Him. Wake up and come to Him. The
Lord wakes us up. He makes us arise for the first
time when He comes to His children. First time we ever wake up. And
then He wakes us up after we have spiritual life, but when
we're sleeping. Turn one book to the left there to Song of
Solomon. Song of Solomon, chapter 5. Song of Solomon, chapter 5. Have
you ever been where you're almost asleep? You're just about asleep,
but you still wake. You're on that fence, just teeter-tottering,
ain't you? Almost asleep, but you still
wake. I told somebody the other day, every time I get my hair
cut, I fall asleep. Now, my head don't bob, thankfully.
Or I'll be missing an ear. But while I'm getting my hair
cut, I'm sitting real still, and I'm asleep. And if they say
something real small to me, Just ask a real light question. Something
don't matter. I'll act like I don't hear Him.
I'm comfy. And I'll stay right where I'm
at. Act like I don't hear Him. As believers, we do the exact
same thing to the Lord. As believers. As believers, we
do the same thing to the Lord. We're awake spiritually. He's
regenerated us. He's given us life. We now have
spiritual life. We've been quickened. We're not
dead in sins, but we sleep. We go to sleep. And I guarantee
you, somebody on the inside, I thought it. Somebody else probably
thought it too. I wouldn't sleep. Oh, that ain't
me. What'd Jonah do whenever he went
down there and bought that ticket to Tarsus? He got on the boat
and he went to sleep. There was three apostles up there
in the garden of Gethsemane. Christ said, you stay awake and
pray with me. It's heavy on me. I'm going to pray to my Father.
Almighty God is right in front of you praying to Almighty God.
You want to learn how to pray? Oh boy, I bet that would be a
good spot to stop and listen, wouldn't it? He turned around.
What was he doing? They was sleeping. Not once. Twice. He went back, prayed more,
came back to his sleep again. Apostles were. What do I think
I'm doing? How big-headed and prideful could
I be to think, oh, that wouldn't be me? It is me when I'm thinking
that. The moment I'm thinking that,
you're out cold. You're snoring. Spiritually. So when we hear Christ speak
to our conscience, He comes to us. We make excuses in order
to justify ourselves and whatever we're doing against His Word,
against His will is right. When we're in that place, Christ
wakes us so He can show us that He's been far removed from us.
He's gonna make us aware of what just happened. Look here in chapter
5, Song of Solomon, chapter 5, verse 2. I sleep, but my heart
waketh. I'm alive in the heart. I have
life. My heart waketh. I'm asleep.
My heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew,
and my locks with the drops of the night. I sleep, but my heart
waketh. That's often my exact condition. But Christ comes calling on us,
opening up to Him. But being asleep, we make excuses
for not listening to Him, don't we? We make excuses. Look here
in verse 3. I have put off my coat. How shall
I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall
I defile them? I'm already in bed. I've got my pajamas on.
I don't need to come open that door. I'm settled. These excuses,
they come in all shapes and sizes, don't they? All families in town,
football games on. I've got a trip. It comes in
all shapes and sizes, but each one is just us disobeying the
clear word of God. Wake up! I got my PJs on. This is how we know we're spiritually
asleep. We will not obey His word. But thanks be to God. Thanks
be to God. If we're His, He won't take no
for an answer. He won't let his bride sleep
that sleep of death, will he? He awakens. Let's go to verse
four. My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door, and
my bowels, my heart, deep inside of me, were moved for him. For
him. I rose up to open to my beloved,
and my hands dropped with myrrh, my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved. That ain't the end of the trial,
is it? He's starting to wake us up. It's going to be a little
bit rough. He's going to teach us a lesson.
Christ wakes us up to show us that while we've been asleep,
what's that, looking to our flesh, looking to others, looking to
this world around us, rather than looking to His Son, looking
to the Lord's Son, looking to Christ, we're made to realize
we've become far removed from Christ. He's going to show us
that. Verse 6, I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had withdrawn himself. and was gone. My soul failed when he spake.
I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he
gave no answer. He wasn't there. I finally put
my clothes on, got dressed, went and answered the door, and he
was gone. Where is he? What if he left us there? What
a sad state. What a sad state. To not know
him in this life is to be in this exact position whenever
this life's over. What a frightening, frightening
thing. But for His people, Christ sends
His preacher to preach to them. His watchman, His keeper of the
walls, with a sermon from God that Christ uses to rebuke us,
to chasten us with the gospel, to bring us right back to Him.
So I don't know if the Lord uses preachers. Well, He says He does. Would you stop Phillip on the
road and say, that eunuch's fine. He's got Isaiah to explain this
to him. Verse 7, the watchman that went out about the city
found me, and they smoked me. They wounded me. The keepers
of the wall took away my veil from me, my coverings. We've
been awakened and wounded and stripped our covers. The covers
have been yanked off of us. The Spirit of God makes us long
for Christ. Look at that urgency, the love
here, verse 8. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him, I am sick
of love. I'm lovesick. If you see him,
tell him, I love him. Where's he at? Wouldn't that
be a miracle to experience if Christ woke us up, made us sick
for His love? Made us want to see His love,
seek Him with all of our heart, Just like we did when we first
heard Him. Just like that first day when the flowers smelled
a little bit better, that sun was just a little bit brighter,
the birds' song was sweet. He makes us remember our first
love. What a precious thing. When it's the time for believers
to wake up out of our indifference, out of our lukewarmness, out
of our slumber, and not be slothful to business, but to be about
our Father's business. to serve our Lord that saved
us. Now's the time. It's high time. Awake. Awake. Now back in our text. I hope you know I'm speaking
to me first. I have to get it first. I have
to be shown my slothfulness. I have to be late to the door.
not to see His love and mercy before I can tell you. I ain't
picking at nobody. Y'all come here on a rainy night
and windy weather and everything else to come hear the gospel
and I hope I have it for you, but I gotta go through this first.
There in our text, knowing we've been called, we've been awakened
to the light of Christ, knowing we need His mercy every day.
He shows us that. He proves Himself to us. We need
to be kept looking to Him. A believer's got to hope that
what God begun, what He started, He's going to perform it all
the way to the end. And we will awaken His image.
That light He's shown in the beginning, that light He continually
shows in us, He's going to shine it all the way to the end. Look
at verse 11. And that, knowing the time, that
now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. We are grown in grace and knowledge
in the Lord. We're grown further from ourselves
and closer to Christ. But as we age, as we get closer
to waking up at that conclusion of our salvation, waking up in
His image, that climax, the finish line, that's where we are now. The psalmist said, ask for me,
I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. What's that going to be like?
What's it going to be like when that final day comes and we awake
in His likeness? I don't know. John didn't know
either. He told us, Beloved, now are
we of the sons of God. He's revealed Himself to us.
Light's been turned on. He's called us. He's woke us
up. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we're woke up in glory. We shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Imagine that. Christ waking you up. Hey! That'd be the first time, isn't
it, when we're nothing but a new man, isn't it? Wake you up and
you look Him in the eye. You see Him as He is. Holy. Perfect. Righteous. And understand what
those things mean. And wouldn't they? Good morning. It says, but for now, it is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. It's nearer. My grandfather
used to say, it won't be as long as it has been. And I thought
that man's a fool. It may be a whole lot longer
than it has been. We've known the Lord for six months, maybe
60 years before we get to see. What wisdom was in that, now
that I see? It won't be as long as it has
been. When did all this begin? Before the earth was made. Before
time began. The covenant of grace was established.
And from then to this short little life I have, what's 50 years
on this earth? It's a vapor. It's a vapor. won't be as long as it has been.
We're closer today. On our final day that we enter
that eternal rest, that day is much closer than when we first
believed. When's our final day? Today may be the day. Christ
may call one of His elect home today, or call them to knowledge
of Christ today, and this is it. This could be it. So our relationship with Christ
should be The concern is in the forefront of our minds at all
times. Looking at Him, not sleeping, awake and looking at Him. As
He said, watch therefore. Look for His coming. With this
mind, with Him in mind, verse 12, the night is far spent. All
that darkness we walked in, boy, we wasted it, didn't we? The
night is far spent, the day is at hand. We got light now. Let
us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on
the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the
day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envy. Don't put this world and the
things in it. Don't put that on. Put that off. Put it away. Verse 14, but put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the
lust thereof. Ephesians 6 speaks, but I won't
have you turn there. It speaks about putting on the
whole armor of God. Paul says, stand therefore and
gird your loins about with truth. That means wake up, stand up
and get dressed. It's the first thing we put on,
the truth of God. gird your loins in truth, wake up, get dressed,
put Christ on. I pray he will wake his sheep
up that's never seen him as he promised he will. He'll call
out his people. I pray he shines his light on
all that already believe. We so often sleep as he promised
he will. And I pray that as every day
passes, and we're closer to our salvation of eternity more so
than ever before. or closer to being in glory forever,
that we're given the faith to put on Christ. And not to sleep
in the lust of this flesh, not to sleep in the lust of this
world anymore. To put that off and to put on
Him. And He's promised He will. And
what a day that will be when we awaken His likeness. When
He wakes us up. You think He'll wake us up? He
woke us up the first time. Every time I turn away and I
get slothful, lazy, He wakes me up. And that final day, He'll
wake me up. He'll prove Himself fully to
me, won't He? Amen.