Wake Up!

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones described our passage this morning like this: “One of the most eloquent passages in the whole of the Bible.” Then he added, “I propose to chew this with you and to keep it in our mouths a good time before we swallow it.” And so, he preached nine sermons on these four verses. You will hear only one sermon on these four verses, but they are packed with a powerful message.

Romans 13:11-14, Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

I’ve entitled this message “Wake Up!” That implies you may be sleeping, so wake up. Too many have hit the doze button on their spiritual alarm clocks. They’re somnambulating through life in a sleepwalking state and Paul says, “Yo, Joe Christian, it’s time to wake up and get ready for battle.” Paul begins with “Do this.” Wake up and do it. What’s he talking about? He may be going all the way back to Romans 12:1 and following. You’ve learned a lot about God’s will for your life in Romans 12-13. Do this! Don’t just hear it, do it! James says, “Be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” If you are just listening to sermons without applying the truths to your life, James says you are deceiving yourself. Last week we learned that our #1 responsibility as believers is to love God with all our being and our neighbors as ourselves. Now Paul says, “Wake up and live it.”  

How do you know if you are sleeping spiritually? Here are a few symptoms that I’ve borrowed from a book entitled Revival by Richard Owen Roberts.

  • You’re spending almost no time praying.
  • You’ve lost the appetite for biblical truth.
  • You no longer are applying God’s Word to your life.
  • You’re no longer gripped about eternity and standing before God.
  • You’ve lost that anticipation and delight in the worship services. 
  • You spend more time with entertainment, sports, or social media than in reading God’s Word.
  • You can indulge in sin with your body or in your mind without an uproar of conscience.
  • You can watch degrading movies or read immoral literature without qualms of conscience.
  • You refuse to forgive or seek forgiveness in broken relationships.
  • You lose the joy and delight in the Lord and His saving grace in your life.

Satan works hard to put believers to sleep, and Paul says, “Wake up and prepare for battle!” We enjoy watching Sebastian Gorka on Newsmax. He always ends his program with a military charge: “Keep your head on a swivel. Watch your six. Hold the line. Never give up. Never give in. Stay frosty.”  Stay on the alert and ready for action. Paul would agree. This is no time to sleep. In Mark 13:33-37 Jesus said, “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you don’t know when the appointed time will come…. What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert.’”  Paul says, “It’s time to wake up, get your feet on the floor, get dressed and ready for battles. He gives us three powerful reasons.

IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP BECAUSE JESUS IS ALMOST HERE!

Romans 13:11, Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.

This verse is packed with truth. “Knowing the time” means be aware, discern where we are in God’s great redemptive plan. “Time” is the word “kairon” which speaks of epoch or period of time. From Genesis 1 to Christ’s first coming was one long period. The second epoch is when Christ came, lived his life, died, was buried, resurrected, and ascended to heaven. Now we’re in the third epoch, looking for the second coming of Christ. It’s been 2000 years, a long time, but with God, that’s only two days (a day is as a thousand years in 2 Peter 3:8). When Christ ascended to the right hand of God in Acts 1, two angels appeared beside the disciples and promised, “He’s coming back.” In Revelation 22:20 Jesus said, “Yes, I’m coming quickly!” James 5:9 says He’s right at the door; His hand on the doorknob. Discerning the time. Today we can easily see how the world with an economic global database for buying and selling is set up for the Antichrist in Revelation 13. The Bible looks at everything in light of Christ’s second coming. His return is imminent. He could come today. Paul says your salvation is nearer than when we believed. You say, “Wait a minute. I thought I was saved.” God saves His people in three phases.  

PHASE #1 SALVATION – JUSTIFICATION

Phase #1 is when you first believe. That’s when God justifies you or counts you righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. You weren’t born a Christian. Becoming a Christian happened at a point in time. You may not know exactly when you were saved, but don’t say, “I’ve always been a Christian.” You were born a sinner, separated from God and in need of salvation from sin’s penalty. If you are a true Christian, somewhere in your life you heard the gospel, God convicted you of your sin, and you came to Christ, just like in Acts 16 when God opened Lydia’s heart to respond to the gospel. Your infant baptism didn’t save you. Plus, you don’t just unconsciously slide into Christianity, or trust that your church will get you in, or even wait for God to give you a mystical feeling. God calls you through the good news that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins, you repent and believe the gospel message, and are born again a new creation in Christ. That’s phase #1, justification. 

PHASE #2 SALVATION – SANCTIFICATION 

Phase #2 is from the time you first believed until you die, or Jesus comes back for you. You probably have figured it out, but we’re in phase two right now. It’s in phase #2 when we can fall asleep. We can get lethargic, lukewarm, lose our first love, and stop learning, living, and loving God’s truth for our lives. So, Paul says, “Wake up Harold! It’s later than you think!”  We’ve got a battle to fight against the world, the devil, and our own flesh until we enter phase #3.

PHASE #3 SALVATION – GLORIFICATION

Phase #3 is when Christ returns in the clouds of the air and the dead in Christ rise first and those who are alive are caught up or raptured to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16-17).  Glorification comes when we leave our old flesh bodies behind and are transformed into the very likeness of Christ’s glorious body, and we will forever be with the Lord. We don’t know when phase three will happen, but it could be today! Stay frosty; be on the alert; Jesus is almost here!

Falling asleep is a real danger. Have you ever fallen asleep at the wheel? I have. We were returning from a trip in the south, had eaten lunch at one of those all-you-can-eat places, and we were going up the Pennyrile with the monotonous hum of the tires. Carolyn’s resting and I’m listening to R. C. Sproul talking about Martin Luther with my earbuds, when suddenly I felt us bumping along. I open my eyes, and I’m looking at green grass straight ahead. I had drifted down into the grassy median. When I finally got the car slowly back up onto the highway, I was wide awake. My adrenaline was pumping then! Thankfully, there were no culverts, signposts, or bridges crossing the road. Wake up! Falling asleep at the wheel is dangerous. And falling asleep spiritually is also dangerous. We need to pray and stay in the Word to keep our spiritual adrenalin pumping. The first reason to wake up, to stay frosty, on the alert, is because Christ is almost here. Are you awake?

WAKE UP AND GET DRESSED BECAUSE YOU’VE GOT A BATTLE TO FIGHT

Romans 13:12-13, The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.

In the summer of AD 386, a young man named Augustine was in a terrible plight. He had been a carouser and great sinner and was deeply distressed about his soul. He happened to be in a garden in Milan, Italy, when he decided to rest on the grass beneath a fig tree near a bench where lay a copy of Paul’s epistles. As he sat there in his intense spiritual struggle over his sin, he heard the voice of a youngster repeating the words, “Tolle lege, tolle lege.” “Take up and read, take up and read.” So, he reached over and picked up the copy of Paul’s epistles from the bench and it happened to open at our passage in Romans, “not in carousing and drunkenness, orgies and sensuality…but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In a flash the gospel became clear to him, and he trusted Christ as his Savior. He immediately went into the house and told his mother, Monica, how God answered her prayers. (Confessions, Book 8, Chapter 12)

There are two realities in this world – darkness and night and day and light. The darkness is the natural habitat of evil, like nocturnal animals thrive in the dark. We’re in a time of spiritual darkness. Sin and unbelief are everywhere. People are blind to the spiritual light. They can’t see the truth of God, creation, man, sin, redemption, death, future judgment. They are in darkness. Human reason without divine revelation is in thick darkness. Ephesians 4:17-18 says unbelievers walk in the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God. Thankfully, the present darkness, this present evil age is coming to an end. It’s almost gone. The day is about to dawn. The trumpet announcing the rapture is about to sound.

What do we do about these deeds of darkness? Paul says lay them aside or rip them off. Don’t slowly remove them or reluctantly take them off. Rip them off like you’d rip off a helmet if a wasp flew in there. These deeds of darkness are dangerous and filthy. Many years ago, I worked one day for a fertilizer plant called the stink factory in the little village of Elroy, Pennsylvania. I went with the driver over the hills and valleys of farm country picking up barrels of stinking stuff from farmers: dead animals, remains from butchering, anything filthy and stinking. Then we brought these barrels swimming with maggots back to the factory where they turned the stinking stuff into fertilizer. I couldn’t wait to get home and tear off those stinky clothes. I only worked there one day.

These deeds of darkness stink. They stink to God and should stink to us. Paul says rip them off and get rid of them. Matthew Henry says, “Not only cease from practicing them, but detest and abhor them, and have no more to do with them.” 

Now Paul targets three categories of these stinky deeds of darkness that every Christian needs to strip off as fast as possible. They are a stench to God. Don’t coddle them or make excuses for them. They are depraved darkness, deeds that bring misery, heartache, regret, destruction, even death. We are seeing the effect of these every day in our news feeds. Notice that one set leads to the next.

INDULGENT BEHAVIOR Strip off carousing and drunkenness. Speaking of drunkenness, commentator Haldane wrote, “This sin is one of the greatest destroyers of mankind….  No other evil has so great a share in bringing ruin to individuals and families. Every approach to it ought to be most carefully avoided.” Every 45 minutes someone is killed from drunk driving in America. “Carousing and drunkenness” is partying and getting drunk. This is what Americans pretty much do. When I worked in construction, those workers lived for the Friday night paycheck so they could stock up on beer for the weekend. Alcohol and drugs loosen you up, numb up your conscience, dull your mind, remove all fear of God or sense of accountability to God. Why does Paul zero in on this? Many of these Roman believers didn’t come from the honorable levels of society. The gospel reached into the dregs of society to redeem and rescue them, but they still lived with those fleshly desires. Paul is guarding them against relapsing back into godless living. Indulgent behavior leads to…

IMMORAL BEHAVIOR Strip off all immoral and sensual behavior, unbridled lust, living with no moral center. This is the new normal for Americans. Seventy percent of couples live together before marriage. God says in Hebrews 13:5 fornicators (all sex outside of marriage) and adulterers (any extramarital sex or hooking up) God will judge. There is nothing truly loving in sex between a man and a woman outside marriage. In 2 Samuel 13:15 Amnon quickly went from loving, or lusting, after Tamar to hating her. And Leviticus 18:22 says, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” I looked up that word abomination in the Hebrew “to ebah.” It means loathsome, detestable, disgusting. Rip this stuff off, immediately.  Make no excuse.

INFERNAL BEHAVIOR – strife and jealousy. This is the real ugly stuff that often leads to violence and homicide. James 3:15 says it’s demonic.  

You can see the progression here from irresponsible indulgence to immoral living to those infernal nasty relationship conflicts. They party, they become immoral, and then in their selfish living they fight and hurt one another. Here’s where the homicides, child abuse, domestic violence, hateful arguments in the presence of precious young children come in. I’ve told you about my cousin, David Godshall. He went from carousing to immorality to the deadly strife and jealousy when he hooked up with a married woman, took her to a house, and was found by the angry husband who proceeded to kick my cousin to death. A sorry testimony to the truthfulness of God’s Word.

All these deeds of darkness are selfish in nature and reflect that ugly, murky darkness of our own depravity. Rip off these sin-stinky behaviors. We’re all tempted to one degree or another by these deeds of darkness. Paul says put on the armor of light, which means walk in a way that glorifies God in your life. Let God’s light shine into your heart.

Ephesians 5:11-12, Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

Every day you’ve got to wake up to do battle with sin. And let’s bring the hope of God’s overcoming grace in here. First, thank God there’s forgiveness for those who repent and turn from their sins to Christ. And Christ is able to empower every believer to get victory in all three of these areas of darkness. Every sin, every dark habit can be overcome through Christ. No one can say, “I can’t.” Victory over sin for a believer comes in “cans.” “I can do all things through Christ who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will provide a way of escape, so you can bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).  

WAKE UP AND PUT ON THE GODLY VIRTUES OF JESUS CHRIST

Romans 13:14, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Galatians 3:27 says we’ve been baptized into Christ and have put on Christ. That’s a done deal. God already clothed you with His Son. You are in Christ. God dressed you in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and that’s how He sees you. That’s justification. Now put Him on every day as you wake up and go into battle. He is your motivation to change. Paul said, “To live is Christ.” Live in dependence on Him. Live to please Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Paul said, “Christ lives in me.” His grace and power are working in you, filling and empowering you, leading you out of the darkness of the flesh toward the light of holiness. This is phase 2 sanctification. 

Now, like Detective Columbo, “Uh, just one more ding.” Verse 14 ends with “make no provision for sin.” This literally means don’t plan ahead to sin. Don’t plan to wait till everyone’s in bed to get on that computer. One author wrote, “Don’t plan for sin; give it no welcome; offer it no opportunity. Kick it off your doorstep and you won’t have it in the house.” Jesus put it far more radically in Matthew 5:29-30, when tempted to sin in your thoughts or deeds, pluck out your eye, cut off your hand, chop off your foot. In other words, get rid of anything that makes sinning easier.  

SO WHAT?

Be honest. Are you a spiritual somnambulist, sleep-walking your way through your spiritual life? You may fall awake at the wheel and cause a disaster. If you fall asleep spiritually it will be a bigger disaster. Your children need to see you fighting the good fight of faith. Do you find it so easy to spend mindless hours scrolling through social media but no time to read and meditate in God’s Word? Kris Lundgaard in his book The Enemy Within wrote, “The flesh can curl up by your side and watch mindless movies all night long. But let the barest thought of meditations (in Scripture) flutter into your mind, and the flesh goes on Red Alert!” (p. 46). Wake up! Stay frosty! Be on the alert!