Grace mercy and peace are yours from God our Father and from our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Understand What Time It Is!
I.
Put aside the deeds of darkness.
II.
Put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:11-14 And do this, understanding the present time.
The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation
is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day
is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor
of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and
drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and
jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not
think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
In the name of Jesus, the Light
of the World, dear fellow redeemed Children of God,
Has it ever happened to you that you have
woken up from a good sound sleep and had to think for a minute about what time
it was? Parents have you ever had to
remind a child shuffling their feet slowly of what time it was- that it was
getting late? Sports fans, have you ever
yelled at the TV at your favorite player of head coach that they better get
going- the clock is ticking? God’s Word urges
us this morning to take a look at the time.
Remember Jesus words, “Behold I am coming soon.” Understand what time it is! I. Put
aside the deeds of darkness and II. Put on the armor of light.
God’s Old Testament Hebrew people had a
way of taking when they wanted to emphasize something. They use all kinds of different words and
ways to say the something when something was important. An example might be Psalm 119 where God tells
us how important His Word is. In the
church Year we just finished the season of End Times and today beginning the
season of Advent. Now the reading for
today might seem like we are backtracking into End Times again. But the message is important. Look around!
Understand what time it is!
Advent is a time when we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Lord
Jesus. Later in advent, the emphasis
will switch to getting ready to celebrate Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem. But for the first part of Advent our eyes
look to the skies to prepare for Jesus’ coming again on Judgment Day. This message is important so God’s Word puts
in a double stitch to urge us to Understand What Time It Is!
About a block away from where I grew up we
had a creek. As children we would go
there and play all the time. There were
places in the creek where you could cross without getting your shoes wet. Some kids had thrown some big rocks in the
creek in a neat little stepping stone path across the water. But those stones needed to be on solid ground
when someone stepped on them or they might slip off and get a “soaker.” It seems like the Apostle Paul thought of
the congregation in Rome as a solid
stepping stone to bring the Gospel to places in Western Europe like Spain. If this congregation was going to be the
stepping stone it would need to be very well anchored in the truths of God’s
Word. So the letter to the Romans lays out very clearly
what sin is and what God has done to save us and then moves on to apply God’s
great love to the way we live our lives. That’s where we pick up God’s Word today, “And
do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up
from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first
believed. The night is nearly over; the
day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness.” It
would appear from what God says to the Romans that they still had some
Christian growing to do. Some didn’t
understand the present time. Some were
wallowing in the deeds of darkness.
I
admit that one of the things I struggle with is procrastination. Sometime the things I don’t like to do work
their way down my to-do list. Our sinful
nature doesn’t like the items on our “to do” list that say we are going to
struggle against sin and get rid of the things in our life that make the Devil
and his buddies smile and evil smile.
God’s word tells us not to let spiritual things work their way down and
out of our “to do” lists. Now is the
time. Christ will come again. He will come in power and glory. And when he does come, all people will appear
before him, the judge of heaven and earth.
Those who do not believe will suffer eternal punishment for their
unbelief. Those who have been brought to
faith by the power of the Holy Spirit will receive and enjoy the gift of
eternal life. The alarm has
sounded. The time has come. We must wake up, for the night is nearly
over. Whether Jesus return is 5 minutes
or 5 years away, today is the day to put
off the deeds of darkness. There is work
for us to do because Satan doesn’t want us or anyone else in heaven. So he doesn’t want us in worship. He doesn’t want us living our faith. He wants us to have to spend eternity with
him in hell. And so he is going to use
every means possible to try and make that happen. He is going to tempt. He’s going to try to pull us away from
God.
That’s why Paul goes on to tell us,
"put aside the deeds of darkness" (v.12). To understand what he means Paul gives us a
checklist, a “to do” and “not to do list”
He said, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies
and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and
jealousy" (v.13). At times he will
be transparent and blatant, other times more subtle and sneaky.
I’ve heard it said and repeated it a
number of times, “Nothing good happens after 11:00 P.M.” I wonder if at least part of the reason for
that is that people do bad stuff under the shadows of darkness thinking no one
will see. But you know that is not true. I once
heard someone say that God has the best night vision glasses. God sees everything. He also sees the sins that are more subtle-
sins like the jealousy that creeps into our hearts. It is a little bit jolting to hear that sin
included in the “deeds of darkness” along with dissensions. We might like to
look at our hearts and say, “No debauchery here. I don’t even know what that word means.” But jealousy and dissension-we know what those
words mean. We feel them in our hearts
all the time and if we are honest we see the damage done in our lives. Again in Ephesians God’s Word has the
sweeping command to get rid of all
sin. “But among you there must not be even a hint
of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these
are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish
talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For
of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an
idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one
deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on
those who are disobedient. Therefore do
not be partners with them…Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of
darkness, but rather expose them.”
Do we look at a list like that and say,
“there is no hope for me”? The time is
getting short and sin finds its way into my heart and life everyday. The Lord has provided the answer. In the letter to the Roman congregation Paul
writes, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” God has prepared us for the second coming of
Jesus by the first coming of Jesus. He
has provided an armor of light Understand
what time it is and more and more put on Jesus, the armor of light.
“Put on the armor of light… clothe
yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
A hymn writer put it this
way. “Jesus your blood and righteousness- my beauty
are my glorious dress. Midst flaming
worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.” Jesus lived.
Jesus died. Jesus rose again for
you. Jesus covers you. When he comes again, Jesus’ perfect robe of
righteousness covers you.
That fact changes how we think about
sin. “Rather, clothe yourselves with the
Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the
sinful nature.” Jesus changes our mind
about sin. Since Jesus in His mercy
covers us, we don’t want to do those foolish sins anymore. We don’t want jealousy and dissension to set
up camps in our hearts again.
God’s word tells us about the armor of
light we wear by faith. It says that
Jesus “breaks the power of canceled sin.”
So as we live in this evil world filled with temptations we wear an
armor of light.
Have you ever heard the story of 1,000
marbles? It’s about a man who loved
Saturday mornings and figured out that the average person lives 75 years and
has on average 3900 Saturday mornings in a lifetime. He started doing that math when he was about
50 so he figured that he had about 1000 Saturday mornings left. He got a big jar and filled it with 1,000
marbles. Every Saturday morning he would
take a marble out of the jar. As he got
closer and closer to seeing the bottom of the jar, he thought more and more
about what was really important in life.
Today God’s Word does the same thing.
It shows us what is really important.
Understand what time it is! Get
rid of the deeds of darkness. Put on the
armor of light. Amen.
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