Let's turn in our Bibles again
to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. Many of you
know that several weeks ago we began looking at these verses
that are part of the practical teaching of Paul's letter to
the church at Rome, began in chapter 12, and tonight we've
come to the end of chapter 13. And I cannot think of any four
verses that are any more practical than the verses we are going
to look at tonight. not only none more practical,
but none more needful most of the time in the life of every
child of God. We'll begin, if you will, we
ended last time with verse 12. The scripture says, or we ended
last time rather with verse 10, love is the fulfilling of the
law. And tonight, beginning in verse
11, and 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. 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 you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. So we look at these four verses
tonight and divide our attention, thoughts into four divisions.
First, first we should see a warning of a constant and a universal
danger for all believers. And what is that constant and
universal danger? It is spiritual sleep, spiritual
sleep. The danger, this danger was not
something that was only true of those who lived in Rome, but
drowsiness can steal over believers, resulting in spiritual sleep
in every place where God has His people. In every place. There's no climb. There's no
climate or anything like that in which this danger is not real
and present. Present and real danger to every
child of God. We see this exhortation to the
believers in the church at Rome. The apostle says to wake out
of sleep. To the believers at Corinth,
The believers at Ephesus, the believers in Thessalonica, he
wrote the same thing. In Corinth, he wrote, Awake to
righteousness and sin not. Now all of these words are to
believers, remember that. This is part of the letter and
these verses that I'm reading from these other officials, they're
all part of the of the words which were written to believers,
to those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, those
who knew God. In Corinth, he wrote, awake to
righteousness and sin not. To those in Ephesus, he wrote,
awake thou that sleepest. And to those in Thessalonica,
he wrote, you are all the children of light. and the children of
the day. That shows that they're believers.
They're children of the light and children of the day. We're
not of the night nor of darkness, therefore, because we're children
of the day and no longer children of the night, therefore, let
us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. You know, John Bunyan, in his
allegory, Pilgrim. You remember he was about halfway
up the hill difficulty when he noticed that there was an arbor
that was built there and there was a soft couch inside the arbor
and so he turned in and went to sleep and when he awoke he
was in a hurry to leave trying to make up for the time he'd
lost and And he realized he'd lost, he'd left his role in that
harbor. But he didn't realize it at first.
And that role was his assurance that he would be accepted and
be received when he got to the Celestial City. But he had left
that role because of sleep. And he had to go back. He had
to make a return trip to that harbor. And that's where he found
that role. Arthur Pink made the following
comment on this matter, this matter of believers being sleepy,
going to sleep, spiritual sleep, slothfulness in the things of
God. Arthur Pink made the following
comment. A Christian, now listen, this
is his definition. A Christian is one who has been
taught experimentally the worthlessness of all mundane things and the
preciousness of divine things. A Christian's been taught that.
The worthlessness of everything that we can see. What should
it profit a man if he should gain the whole world? and lose
his own soul. And he's been taught the preciousness
of divine things. And I continue his quote. He
has turned his back on Vanity Fair. Remember Pilgrim passed
through Vanity Fair. That's the world with all of
its twinkling, all of its enticements. The Christians turned his back
on Vanity Fair and started out on his journey to the celestial
city. He has been quickened into newness
of life and supplied with the most powerful incentives to press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, nevertheless, it
is sadly possible for him to suffer a relapse for his zeal
to abate, his graces to languish, for him to leave his first love. That's what the church at Ephesus
was accused of doing, wasn't it? I have somewhat against thee,
thou hast left thy first love. And he ended that with saying,
and become weary in well doing. Weary in well doing. When, we
might ask this question as we think about spiritual sleep,
when is a Christian more likely to go to sleep? When is a Christian
more likely to go to sleep? Is it when everything is rough? When the way is rough and you're
constantly in need and going to the throne of grace? Or is
it when everything seems to be going well? Smooth sailing. The disciples of the Lord Jesus
Christ, when did they go to sleep? And they did. Three of them,
you remember, they went to sleep after they had had that most
blessed and unusual experience. in seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
glorified. And then they went to sleep.
And then, of course, all of them, in the end, when they were in
a garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, they went to sleep. They never,
listen, they never went to sleep when they were out there in that
ship. And the sea was against them, and the wind was against
them, and they was rowing and rowing, trying to make it to
the other side. They never went to sleep. When
is a believer, a child of God, most likely to go to sleep? When
everything seems to be going smoothly. When God sends trials
and afflictions, thank God for them. That's what the Apostle
James said. Count it all joy when you fall
into divers temptations, divers traps. Why? Well, for nothing
else, they'll cause you to seek the Lord. They'll cause you to
seek God. You won't be going to sleep. C.H. Spurgeon made this comment
on this subject. He said, take heed, joyous Christian. Good friends are near neighbors
to temptations. Be as happy as you will, only
be watchful. Be as happy as you will, only
be watchful. Consider these three truths about
physical sleep and the lessons that we may learn from them about
spiritual sleep. A person who is sleeping, when
we go home this evening and go to our beds and go to sleep,
a person who is sleeping is unaware of possible dangers. As believers,
we are warned, and these dangers are real. There are three enemies
that every child of God has. If you are a child of God tonight,
you have three very real enemies. And when I say enemies, they
will do everything they can to take you away from following
the Lord, from serving the Lord, from bringing glory unto the
Lord. We know they're real, they're
spiritual dangers. But when a person is asleep,
he's unaware of danger around him. How many times do we read
or hear about someone who has died, their house was on fire,
they were asleep, They didn't die from being burned, but from
smoke inhalation. There was danger in the house,
but because they were asleep, they were not aware of the danger. The believer has Satan against
him. I like what one of the old preachers
years ago said, I like a roaring devil more than a sleeping devil. Long as that devil is roaring.
You know, Pilgrim, as I mentioned to him earlier, he didn't go
to sleep when he had to go by those two lines, did he? He didn't
go to sleep then. No, he went to sleep when he
was about halfway up that hill difficulty. Halfway up. You know, when a person, a man,
a woman, a boy, a girl is first converted, full of zeal, and
that's good. Sometimes it's zeal without knowledge,
but still it's zeal. The longer we've been in this
warfare and this Christian race, the more apt we are to grow sluggish
and go to sleep. And when we do, we're in danger.
We're in danger from Satan. We're in danger from the world. We're in danger from the flesh.
We always have this flesh with us. And when we allow ourselves
to be lulled into spiritual sleep, then these spiritual enemies,
they have a great advantage over us. This is one reason we are
exhorted many times in the word of God, watch and pray. Watch and pray. Quit yourself
like man and watch. Watch. A Christian in a sleepy
condition loses concern for spiritual things. They're just not important.
Let me look at a verse over here in Philippians just a moment
if you want to turn with me. Philippians chapter 2. Chapter 2 and verse 13. The apostle
said, For it is God which worketh in you both the will and the
do of his good pleasure. We recognize God must work in
us to will and to do. his good pleasure, but realizing
that do we not have a responsibility to pray and ask the Lord to work
in us, work in us to will and to do that we not go to sleep
and need this exhortation awake. A second thing about physical
sleeping is when a person is asleep, he takes no nourishment.
No one eats while they're asleep, unless maybe you're a sleepwalker.
No one eats while they're asleep. We watched some programs recently,
my wife and I, about Alaska. And so we heard and saw some
things about bears. Bears are part of living in Alaska. And while speaking for myself,
I knew that bears hibernate But I had never thought about how
just instinctively, before they go into hibernation, they begin
to forage for food. They look for food and just fill
up on food. Well, it makes sense, doesn't
it? They're going to sleep for a while. They've got to have
some energy. They've got to have some food
to take them through that. But Christians, we're not to
hibernate. And there's one thing about our
spiritual food, we can't store it up. You can't store up food
tonight to feed upon a week from now. But day by day, give us
this day our daily bread, we are to pray. Christians do not hibernate. We constantly, daily, need spiritual
food. I want you to keep your places
here, but turn back with me to the Gospel of John just a moment. And find two places. Find John
chapter 6 and also John chapter 15. And first I want to read a verse
from John chapter 6 and then a verse from John chapter 15. But in John chapter 6, verse
56, For my flesh is meat indeed and
my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. Spiritual food. The spiritual food that we need
is to eat his flesh and drink his blood. You say, well what
does that mean? It means that by faith we feed,
we trust, we look to Christ And we need to eat His flesh and
drink His blood every day to trust in Him, to rely upon Him. All right, now this verse in
John 15, let me read that one in John 6 again. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood, notice, dwelleth, dwelleth in
me. How do we dwell in Christ? By
eating His flesh and drinking His blood. All right, here in
John 15 and verse 5, our Lord said, I am the vine, you are
the branches, he that abideth in me. That's the same word that's
translated dwelleth in John 6. He that abideth, he that dwelleth
in me. How do we dwell in him? How do
we abide in him? By eating his flesh and drinking
his blood. And what's the result? He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. For without me you can do nothing." Every believer We need to be
awake that we may be taking in spiritual nourishment. A third,
one other thing about sleep, physical sleep, a person who's
asleep, he's inactive. He's inactive. He's not working,
he's not doing anything. God's children, all of us, we
want to be active in the Lord's work, do we not? We want to be
active in His service. He's called us to be active. to serve Him. We want one day
to stand before Him, to enter into His presence, and for Him
to say to us, well done, thou good and faithful servant. We
want to be active. A person who is asleep is not
active. You know, the Apostle Paul, when
the Lord revealed Himself to him that day on the road to Damascus,
the first question was, who art thou? But the second question
he asked was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? We're saved to serve, are we
not? We're saved to serve him, and we want to serve him, but
we can't serve him if we are asleep. Sleep and inactivity
go together. Paul told Timothy, and I realize
he is special in this sense that the Apostle Paul had laid his
hands upon him, but Paul did tell him, stir up, told Timothy,
you stir up the gift of God that is in you. We have a responsibility
to stir up the gift, to stay awake, stay focused. All right,
second. Now, we should say the remedy
in these verses here in Romans chapter 13. First of all, the
danger, it's real and present. that we go to sleep. And the
warning, the exhortation is to wake out of sleep. Now, we should
see the remedy given to believers to avoid spiritual sleep. I see that in the last part of
verse 11, the first part of verse 12. For now, here's a remedy,
for now, to keep us from going to sleep, for now, Is our salvation
nearer than when we believe the night is for spent, the day is
at hand? I believe that we would all agree
that the remedy, any remedy for a sickness might be preventative,
it might be curative. And I think we would also agree
that, like sicknesses, it would be better, if possible, to prevent
sickness than to be sick and then be healed. Paul's remedy
is, the night is for spent. The day is at hand. Now this
truth will serve to keep us from and deliver us out of spiritual
sleep. If we just keep this in our heart
and mind, The night is far spent, the day is at hand. I believe the Apostle Paul had
learned to set time in the light of eternity. Let me say that
again. And this is something you and
I, we need to do. He had learned to set time, 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. He had learned to set time in
the light of eternity. Look with me in 2nd Corinthians
4 and verse 17. I don't believe he could have
written this verse of scripture had he not learned to set time
in the light of eternity. For he says, for our light affliction,
well if you know anything about Paul, You know he had a lot of
afflictions. He went through a lot of trials
and a lot of trouble for the cause of Christ and serving Christ,
but yet he is able to call his affliction light affliction. How can he do that? Because he
sets it in the light of eternity. His afflictions were light compared,
comparative. Comparatively speaking, with
the weight of glory, his afflictions were light. And the same thing,
he says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal. You see, you've got moment compared
to eternity, eternal. This remedy that he gives to
believers here is the night is far spent, the day is at hand. He uses two opposites, night
and day, which represent, the night represents sin and sorrow. That's our life here in this
world. Sin and sorrow, change and decay. and all around I see." That's
our life in this world. I don't like change, do you?
Most of us don't. But that's all this life is,
is change. That's the night. But the day,
the night is far spent. The day, the day he has He uses,
rather, to stand for the knowledge and the purity and the happiness
that awaits a child of God. Notice he says, the night is
far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness. And also in verse 11, before
this, he said, now is our salvation nearer than when we believed? He said, how do you explain that?
Well, the word salvation, of course, means deliverance. We
know that. Deliverance. Now is our deliverance
nearer than when we first believed? If a person just believed five
minutes ago, He was just born of the Spirit of God five minutes
ago. Now, five minutes later, he is
near to final deliverance, from absolute deliverance. Now is
our salvation near. Now, complete salvation near,
body, soul, and spirit delivered and in the presence of God. In
our Lord's parable of the ten virgins, you remember five of
those virgins were wise. They represent the saved. They
had oil in their lamps, but they all went to sleep, the wise as
well as the unwise. They all ceased to watch for
the bridegroom's coming. All of them did. Let us not lose
sight of the fact, the day cometh. The night is far spent, the day
cometh. The day that we are looking for,
the day of complete salvation when we are in the presence of
God. And the last thing, we should
use, or rather we should see the use The apostle makes of
light and darkness to regulate our conversation, our walk in
this world. Notice he said, let us walk honestly. And in the margin, there's a
marginal reading, let us walk decently. You know, there's some
things that are just not decent. It seems like we're living in
an age and in a society where decency has left us a long time
ago. But there's some things that
are just not decent for anyone and especially not decent for
God's children. Let us walk decently. And then
he uses the night, rioting, drunkenness, chambering, wantonness, strife,
and envy. They all go together. They're
works of the darkness. I was going to ask us to turn
to Ephesians 4, but I won't. I'll let you do that on your
own. In Ephesians 4, verses 17 through 32, where the apostle
Writing to believers exhorts us to put off the old man with
his works, the flesh, and to put on the new man, which is
created in righteousness and true holiness. That's something
we need to do every day, put off the old man. When we get
out of bed, put off the old man, the old man that likes to grumble,
likes to find fault, likes to criticize, likes to slander,
likes to do a whole lot of things. Let's put that man off. We live
that kind of life long enough before the Lord saved us. And
let's put on the new man. And let's not lie one to another. Well, you go through that list
there. I can't remember all of that. But put off the old man.
And then he ends with that Forgive one another. Oh, that's
part of the new man, isn't it? Oh, man, I want vengeance. I want my right. Forgive one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. I trust the Lord would bless
this word and this exhortation to all of us, especially to me. awake. A man asked me recently,
he said, Pastor, how can I, how can I pray for you? I said, brother,
you just pray for me, if you will, that, that, that I won't
take preaching like a job. When I, that I continue to seek
the Lord for a message, for a word from God. You know, someone one
time said, a message should come from the heart of God through
the heart of the preacher to the heart of the people. And
it's easy to become mechanical in our serving Christ in whatever
way we're serving him. And that's something we must
guard against. Brethren, pray for me. All right,
I'll ask the man