“Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the
hour for you to wake up
from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we
first believed.” (Romans 13:11 HCSB)
You’ve
said it: “Have a good day!” Someone has told
you that also. But, it may be only a
cliché—a pleasantry or wishful thinking—and nothing more. Frequently, that is all it is. But, I’m taking the time to tell you how to
have a good day. It can never be a good
day, unless it is a godly day, for God alone is good. If we want to experience the One who is all
good then we must devote ourselves to doing good—and thus, to position
ourselves in the environment where He can be encountered. Paul lists in Romans 13 some imperatives for
those who want to have a good day.
The
first one is that we must WAKE UP!
“Besides this,
knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up
from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we
first believed.” (v.11)
In
1775, the British troops intended to board boats and under cover of darkness
slip across the river and attack Concord and Lexington America
We
are in such a critical hour today. The
battle we face is spiritual in nature and against the forces of hell. I want to be a spiritual Paul Revere, calling
you today to wake up! That’s what another Paul—the Apostle—said in these
verses.
He
says, “knowing the time” that is, to have spiritual perception.
When
I was a teenager, the pop music group, Chicago, had a hit song that asked the
question, “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?”
Well, we better know and we better care that, “it is already the hour for you to wake up
from sleep.”
I
heard of an elderly farm couple that had turned in for the evening. Something went wrong with the clock, and an
hour past midnight, it chimed thirteen times!
The old farmer jumped out of bed and called to his wife, “Get up
Martha! It’s later than it’s ever been
before!” Indeed it is. This is what Paul is stressing in this
wake-up call, “for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”
He
is talking about the consummation of salvation—when we all get to heaven. Paul is looking for the return of Christ, and
the judgment accompanying it. In light
of that eternal accountability, he wants all believers to make the day
count. “Carpe diem”—seize the day!
I
believe things are winding up in this world and what we do for Christ is an
urgent matter! Of course, although I
expect it, I cannot be certain Christ’s Second Advent will be while I am still
alive. But even if Christ doesn’t return
in our lifetime, we must come to grips with the fact that each of us has a
limited allotment of days and we can’t afford to be sleeping when we ought to
be out serving! We’ve snuggled down in
our padded pews and the devil has sung us a lullaby of deception.
There
was a man the pastor called on to lead in prayer. The fellow was a shy guy, and had never
prayed publicly, and so got in a panic.
Petrified, he couldn’t get a word out.
After an uneasy silence settled over the congregation for what seemed an
eternity, his wife leaned over and whispered, “Just pray something” and he
began, “Now, I lay me down to sleep.” Sometimes it appears that prayer has been
answered as I look over the congregation! Wake up!
If
you are to have a good day, you also need to GET UP!
“The night is nearly
over, and the daylight is near.” (v.12a)
You
can wake up, but then reach over, hit the snooze alarm and go back to sleep! It’s important to wake up, but then you need
to get up! Why? “The night is nearly over, and the daylight is
near.”
There
are some days that it is exciting to get up and get with it—you are going
golfing or fishing. But, there are other
days that it is a chore to drag yourself from beneath the sheets—you face a
hard day at work or some dreaded project at home.
Which
way is it for you when the clock goes off on Sunday morning?
There
is a story I heard about a fellow whose wife called to him, “Sweetheart, time
to get up and get ready for church.” He grunted and said, “I don’t feel like
it.” She said, “Come on now, you’ve got to get ready.” He groaned and pulled
the blanket over his head, “Tell me one reason why!” She said, “Because you’re
the pastor!”
Don’t
lose the battle of the blankets and become mastered by the mattress next Sunday
morning! You won’t always get up because
you feel like it, but because you ought to do so. Sometimes, we are emotionally stirred with
anticipation, but many other times, it is an act of the will. It is a discipline.
But,
there is more to this matter than getting up and going to worship on Sunday;
each day we need to get up and go to work! The field is the world, the laborers are few,
every hand is to be put to the plow and we must work for the night is coming
when the day of opportunity will draw to a close—Jesus said all of that.
Old
Vance Havner—godly preacher now gone to glory—once quipped, “There is anarchy
in the world, apostasy in the church and apathy in the pew.” How true!
Even
as I type these words, I am mindful of the fact that in about fifteen more
minutes I have to go tell my youngest boy it is time to get up and get ready
for school. If things play out as usual,
I’ll have to shake him to wake him. May
the Holy Spirit take these words and give you a shake today. It’s time to get up!
After
you wake up and get up, then you had better DRESS UP!
“so let us
discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. …But put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.”
(v.12b,
14)
Get
out of your pajamas and put on your uniform.
We are soldiers of the cross, “so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the
armor of light.” You are going to war. This morning, you will head for hostile territory,
where the enemy is waiting to attack you.
You had better be clothed for combat!
What
is this armor of light? It is being clothed with Christ. Paul goes on to say, “put on the Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Clothes
adorn us—they are visible. Maybe you
have heard, “Clothes make the man.” That
may be going too far, but clothes do give a message about the man. They might indicate a person’s attention to
detail, or that they are sloppy. The
clothes may show they have money or lack it.
Someone’s garments may be gaudy or simple. You can recognize a soldier, sailor, police
officer, fire fighter, by looking at what they have on.
Everywhere
we go in public, we have clothes on—although some need to put more on! That conveys a message as well—and not a nice
one to advertise.
But,
here is the point Paul is making: people should see Christ on display as we
move through the world. We are to be
dressed in Him, so as others look at you and me, they see Jesus. Do they?
Wake
up, get up, and dress up! Then Paul
shares a fourth imperative: SHAPE UP!
“Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and
drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in
quarreling and jealousy.” (v.13)
Are
you in shape? Now, there is certainly
some value in exercising your body, but even more vital is toning up your
soul!
Paul
wrote to Timothy, “But have nothing to do with
irreverent and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in
godliness, for the training of the body
has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds
promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Tim.4:7-8)
Part of shaping up is to
deny ourselves unhealthy deeds and diets.
Becoming a couch potato, while consuming potatoes, as a lifestyle will
soon lead to a dead state. There are things that will be detrimental to your
physical health, and the things Paul warns about here will be lethal to your
spiritual health.
You cannot have a good
day, if you are “carousing.” This is a
word for a wild party. Sadly, some folks
don’t make it to the celebration of worship on Sunday morning because of the
carousing with the wicked on Saturday evening. It’s hard to focus on God on
Sunday morning if your eyes are bloodshot from the night before. You cannot have the reputation of being a
holy man or woman, if you are known as a party animal.
Paul warns us about the
danger of “drunkenness.” Alcohol
will make you see double and think half.
It is easy for liquor to become your lord. It mastered me, but I don’t need it
anymore. I’ve found Jesus can give
boundless joy—and you don’t have a hangover the next day! Some
may suggest, “I just drink socially and in moderation.” That’s playing with fire. What’s the point? There are plenty of other things to
drink. I am not going to run the risk of
consuming something that has the potential to consume me and all I hold dear.
It’s going to be a bad
day, when you practice “sexual impurity and promiscuity.” Getting naked and being nasty is spiritually
deadly. The first term, “sexual
impurity” has to do with sexual acts and the latter, “promiscuity,” with
sensual attitudes. Now, sex within
marriage is a wonderful gift of God, but outside it becomes defiling and
destructive. Hollywood
Then there are the more
“acceptable” sins, insofar as church folks are concerned: “quarreling and
jealousy.” You can still get some,
“Amens!” in a sermon when you decry drunkenness and scorn sexual sin, but it seems
to get awfully quiet when you mention sins of speech and selfishness. Some of us who may not consume alcohol and
commit adultery may excuse our failure to control anger! We may not be a drunk, or debauched, but we
are divisive—and that is defiling too! Are we jealous? Do we want what others have? It seems like the last time I checked, the
commandment, “You shall not covet” was included with, “You shall not murder”
and “you shall not commit adultery.”
There can be slanderous sins of the tongue and vile vices of the heart
which are poisonous to our own soul and to the saints around us. Shape up!
God wants you to have a
good day—and that leads us to a final matter: PAY UP!
“Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law. The commandments:
Do
not commit adultery;
do
not murder;
do
not steal;
do
not covet;
and
whatever other commandment — all are summed up by this: Love your neighbor as
yourself.
Love
does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.” (v.8-10)
You wake up, get up, dress
up and shape up, so you can go to work and pay up! You have obligations. There are bills to pay! The debt of love is the one we owe. That is what Paul is underscoring here.
We don’t work to earn
God’s love; we never could. It is
impossible for you to do anything to make God love you more and it is
impossible for you to do anything to make God love you less. We work for Him in response to His love for
us. As John says, “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
The proof that we love God
is that we love those made in His image.
Again, listen to what John goes on to say, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his
brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. And we have this command from Him: The one who
loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20-21)
All of God’s commands are
summed up in the biggest little word in the world: LOVE.
Out of the abundant love
God places in us by His Spirit, let us share that love with others.
Now, “Have a good day!”
No comments:
Post a Comment