Will please turn with me now to where we left off a few weeks ago in Romans chapter 13. We're going to be considering Romans 13 verses 11 through 14 today. Please give your attention to the reading of God's holy word. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone. The day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us to walk properly as in the daytime. not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. That's great. Father, we turn to you now, seeking your blessing on the reading and the preaching, and especially the hearing of your word. Transform us, Lord. that we might, as we consider this summary of your will for our lives under grace, work in each of us to embrace Christ and see what you've done and embrace the impact of the gospel in our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. The two sacraments that we observe today represent and confirm to us our new relationship to God and the promises God has made to us in the gospel. And so I want you to think about this question this morning. What impact does Christ have in your lives? What impact does Christ have in your lives today? You see, we still live in the world, and sin still has significant influence in our lives. When we leave worship, we will face a flood of influences that will pull us toward living like everyone else. When we leave worship and head back to our homes, we will be surrounded by people who still live in what Paul describes as the darkness. Today we must remember, though, that something wonderful has happened in the world. Today we must live by faith and not by sight. Today we must remember that Christ came 2,000 years ago and He changed our calendars from B.C. to A.D. He came and He changed our calendars and that has happened. There has been an impact on the world and human history and the history of the world because of the advent of Christ. He also changed our lives. And so we need to remember the new life we have received from Christ. And we should remember that we expect to gain the fullness of our salvation and eternity when Jesus returns. We also need to be taught how to live under the grace of God in the gospel. And Paul really brings these two things together. Our hope of the return of Jesus Christ, in theological terms, our eschatology, impacts how we're to live today. And so the bottom line from this passage is this. We need to wake up. We all need to wake up to this exciting time, these last days in which we live. and we need to live for Jesus now, just as our baptism calls us to do. I'd like you to consider the first point here, wake up and see how the gospel has impacted you today. In verses 11 through 14, Romans 13, Paul summarized his commands for our new lives under grace. And he begins this summary with a reminder of the times in which we live. He has already commanded us to serve and how to serve in the church. He's already taught us how to love our neighbors radically. He's already taught us that to love Jesus, that we are to love Jesus by submitting to our government. And before he gives us this last summary, he really wants to answer that question that all of us have been asking, that question why. He wants to explain what should motivate our obedience to Jesus. He's so insightful. He was insightful 2,000 years ago, and Paul's insight and care for us, the church, it really transcends even to the 21st century. See, I think that Paul knew the temptations that the Roman Christians faced in their culture. Jesus had just, you see, narrowed their lives. In a sense, the Christian must avoid much of the fun that the rest of the world seems to enjoy. I think this is a problem. It wasn't just a problem for the Roman Christian that came to Christ and saw her life transformed. It's been a problem for every Christian in every age. And I think this is especially a problem for young people, especially like teenagers and young 20s people as your life has expanded. Young people especially need to hear Paul's message in this passage, because as the world opens up to you, all you see is the world, because it's new. It's as if you were blind, and now all of a sudden you can see color, and the sun, and the trees, and birds, and things like that. And it overwhelms us. The world is exciting. The world is real. The world is visible right before our eyes. And because of this, and in this way, the gospel seems very disappointing to young people. But if you're honest, it's very disappointing to all of us as we look at the fun and the ease, supposedly, that everyone else around us seems to have. As you grow up, some of the freedom that you have gained is no longer for you to enjoy. You see, Jesus significantly narrows your life and distinguishes you from your friends and your neighbors, and quite frankly, everyone else in the world. And as you look out at the world that is now in your hands, but not really in your hands because you're a disciple of Christ, you see everyone enjoying all that the world offers, but you cannot live that way. because you love Jesus. You cannot live that way because he has impacted your life. And so we're really left with a hard question. Does Jesus simply leave us disappointed today? The answer is no. Now you're not going to see this answer if you don't look beyond today. You're just gonna be disappointed and bitter. But if you will do what Paul tells us to do and leads us to do, if you will look at life as Paul teaches here, you will find delight and hope in today. You see, you can be who Christ saved you to be, and you can be filled with joy even under the great sacrifices that you will experience by following Jesus. I want you to notice what Paul wrote about the impact of the gospel here in verse 11 and 12. The hour has come for us to wake up. In other words, salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. Every day that passes brings us another day closer to seeing the Lord. Another day closer to the great day of the Lord when Christ will come back for the resurrection and judgment. Paul wants us to understand the impact of the gospel on our history. Christ, the Son of God, came in the flesh already. He died on the cross for our sins already. He rose again from the grave. So Jesus is coming. The Son of God's coming has changed history. He has fulfilled the promises of God in the Old Testament. And now there is really one thing, one event left to expect. And that is this, Jesus will return soon to complete our salvation. Now Paul doesn't mean here that we aren't saved yet. He means that our resurrection and glorification is the next big event. The completion, the final putting to death of all of our sin, the giving to us eternal life, that is what we expect next. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I've heard people say, hmm, I wonder if these might be the last days. And I say, yes. I just excitedly say, yes, I don't know if they know what I mean all the time. But yeah, these are the last days. And that is to impact how you live. When Jesus rose from the grave and then ascended to God's right hand, he ushered in a new era of history. And the next big event is the return of Jesus in victory. for our resurrection, for the judgment, and the beauty is to usher us into eternity. And so if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, Jesus has given you eternity. It belongs to you now, and he's coming to usher you into it. Since Jesus has come to you in the gospel, it's time for you to wake up and start living for him. And yes, that means a sacrifice. but it's a sacrifice for the treasure of eternity, of sonship in Christ, of glorification in heaven. Today, we have observed a baptism, and that baptism reminds us of our baptism. And we will partake of the Lord's supper, which ultimately proclaims the Lord's death to us until he comes back. Both of these sacraments remind us how God has changed our lives with his grace. These sacraments call us to wake up and to live as disciples. As you bear that sign of baptism that you belong to Jesus, as you regularly come to the Lord's table and willingly take and eat these symbols of his body and blood, communicating that, yes, I need you, Jesus. These sacraments call you to wake up and live for Jesus. Don't live as if you're asleep. Live in the daylight for Jesus has come. Like in verse 12, the sacraments call us to cast off the work of darkness, the works of darkness, the works of sin. Baptism, as I already mentioned, remind us that Christ has washed our sins clean. And so what does Paul say? Then cast off your sin. Stop pursuing sin because you've been forgiven of your sin. You've been washed clean from your sin and guilt. The Lord's Supper reminds us that Jesus has died for the forgiveness of our sins. In the Lord's Supper, you get to take this bread and the wine that symbolize Christ's sacrifice, that purchased your salvation, that bore God's wrath for your sins. And so today is the day to stop living in the darkness of this age of sin. It's hard, because everyone else around you wants to pursue these things. Everyone else doesn't give a flip about Jesus. But you need to, because he came. You need to, because God raised him from the grave. You need to, because he's returning to you, because he's sealed what he has done in you by his grace in these sacraments. The sacraments confirm that you belong to Jesus as his disciples. You have now a new identity. You're not just history, but your lives have been changed. We are God's people. That's what baptism symbolizes. And when you come to the Lord's table, you willingly take those elements, acknowledging that you belong to Jesus and you belong to the rest of the church. Most of us will go to Christ soon because death ushers us into the eternity Christ has prepared for us. And so today is the day. Today is the day to stop living in darkness. Today is the day to start living by faith and trusting what God has done and embracing it. I mentioned that there is a disappointment in the gospel. I don't know if I'm the only weak person that feels this disappointment in the gospel. I felt it a lot as I've lived in the world and seen, wow, everyone else gets to do this other stuff. But you may think, well, you shouldn't as a Christian think that way. But I encourage you, don't be afraid to admit your disappointment about the impact of the gospel and Jesus in your life. We all need to wrestle with this reality. We live with one foot here on Earth and one foot in the kingdom of heaven. And we have to live by faith and not by sight, and the cost of discipleship The cost of following Jesus is before us every day, and you need to deal with it. You need to admit it. And I think the more honest you are with yourself about your struggle and your desire to live and partake in what the world gets to enjoy, the more you acknowledge that that is part of who you are. the better you can grow because you can begin to examine where the way the world leads. It leads to sin and death. And then you can apply the balm of the gospel and remember the grace that God has poured out on your life through Jesus. And you can begin to embrace the wonderful riches you've received and see that, yeah, I'm gonna miss out on some stuff in life because I follow Jesus. But what I've got, The value of the gospel, the value of God's grace eclipses any fleeting pleasure of sin. And so what Paul wants you to do is to start living the eternal life for Christ that Jesus is coming to give to you soon. You need to believe that Jesus is coming to usher in eternity and What he's doing is he causes that light and the joy and the blessing that you have for all eternity in the new heavens and earth to transcend back to today. And that's where our joy comes in from. That's where our happiness comes from. And we need to live now. We need to live now for the joy that is set before us. And Paul says, Jesus has come, so wake up. Wake up. If you're in Rome, living in that debaucherous, pagan world, wake up and live for Jesus. He's come and he's shined the light of his glory on your life in this world. But the question is, how do we do these things? How do we do these things? And so I want you to consider our second point. You need to live under the impact of the gospel today. Romans 12 began Paul's practical description of the Christian life. Paul didn't have enough paper or time to teach us how to act or respond to every situation in life. And how many of you wish that were the case? I have questions all the time about decisions, like what do I need to do in this case or that case? And I look in the Bible and the Lord did not give us a handbook for every single circumstance in life But what Paul did here in these verses, verse 13 and 14, is he summarized how you are to live under the impact of the gospel today. It's a principle that you are to take and apply with wisdom in every circumstance in your life. Paul knew the culture of Rome. And so what he did is he compared the worldliness of Rome to life in the darkness. And then he compared the way of life as a Christian to life in the daylight. And his point was simple. The life of the rest of the world is no longer appropriate for Christians. So the way people live outside of the church, your friends, your family, your neighbors that live around you, outside of Christ, that's no longer appropriate for you because you're a Christian. You and I now need to live under the impact of the gospel. Jesus came to bring God's kingdom. Jesus came to deliver us from the curse of sin, but he didn't just provide forgiveness. What he did is he also came to deliver us from the rain and bondage of sin in our lives. And so Paul wrote, let us walk properly. as in the daytime. Let us live as Christians because Jesus, the light of the world, has come. And if he's come to you in your life by his word and spirit, now's the time to wake up and live properly as a disciple. Let us live as those who have received God's grace and love the gospel. And in verse 13, he basically says, this is what it doesn't look like. Let us live as those who've received God's grace, but this means stop living like the world around you. And Paul describes in three comparisons, just the worldliness of Rome. But honestly, this describes the worldliness of our day-to-day. Orgies and drunkenness, sexual morality and sensuality, quarreling and fighting with one another, and jealousy. This is how the world lives. But Jesus has come. He has come into your life. He's come into the world. He's reigning, and he will come again. So these are not proper for you anymore as his disciple. These behaviors are sinful. You've been delivered from them. And so as you look out at the world and how they're living and they seem to be getting on fine, you need to interpret what's going on as Christ teaches you to in light of the resurrection and ascension and return of Christ. and realize that not only do all of those sinful behaviors just lead to death and destruction of your life, but they're just not proper if you're a disciple of Jesus Christ. And then Paul gives two things that you should do because of the impact of the gospel in your life. And you know what? This follows the pattern of Colossians. It follows the pattern of Ephesians, of 1 Peter, of James. This is just the logic of the impact of the gospel. The first thing you need to do is this. Since Christ has come to you, put on Christ. since Christ has come to you, put on Christ. What Paul does here is he reaches back to what he wrote and what we learned about in Romans 6. When God called you to faith in Jesus, he united you to Jesus. Now, that union with Christ is beautiful. Because it communicates that when Christ died to sin, you died to sin. When Christ was raised to righteousness, you were raised in righteousness. In union with Christ, he has died for your sin and paid for it, and now you are righteous. But you see, your baptism, which symbolizes that union with Christ by faith, also means that you've been united to Jesus's resurrection life, to live for the holiness of God. And so you see the Holy Spirit applies Christ in new life to you today. And so as Jesus died and was raised to new life to serve his God, no longer to serve the cross that he had come to do, you also have died to your sin and you have been raised to live for God. Jesus didn't come just to forgive your sins so you could feel comfortable and have a good conscience. He came to forgive your sin and give you new life. The gospel promises more than forgiveness of sin. The gospel gives you new life, and so Paul says, put on Christ. In other words, don't, and don't just start trying to live well because you're just gonna, in your own strength, fall on your face in discouragement. You'll ultimately hate God if you think that all the responsibility for transformation falls on yourself. That's why Paul says, put on the Lord Jesus. He doesn't just say, pick up yourself by your bootstraps and clean up your life. He says, put on Jesus, all of him. His grace, His righteousness that has been accounted to you by faith. But to put on His power, lean into His faithful care for you. Trust His power at work in you through the word and the spirit. Trust that you're right with God because Jesus made you right with God. And that's super important because when we sin, we are just, at least I become, I'm confronted with my guilt. And so you gotta remember, you put on Christ and know that, no, Jesus. poor bore the curse of your sin and guilt and has made you righteous, a son of God so that you might cry out to God as our Father and not fear Him as your judge. Turning from sin is difficult and it's even impossible for us and so you need to grasp the power and love of Christ and you need to let Him transform you. You need to let Him overwhelm you. and Jesus will provide grace for you to hear his commands and obey them. You know, I go back to this often, but when Jesus went to the Bethsaida well, and there was this guy that had to be carried to the well, he was crippled, he had to be carried to the well every day for 38 years, I think. I think it was 38. There's an eight, maybe it's 28 or 38. Nevertheless, a really long time. He couldn't help himself. He was so crippled, people had to move him, and yet Jesus said, get up, pick up your mat, and walk. And the Holy Spirit gave him power to do that. And you need to believe that Christ's spirit is working in his word. In Romans 12, in Romans 13, when he calls you to obey him, and live for him, and cast off the way of darkness, and put on the armor of life, when Jesus promises that, or commands you to do that. He promises the power to do it. So the first thing Paul says here, practically, is put on Jesus. And second, Paul says, since you belong to Christ, Starve your sinful flesh. That's my way of describing it. In verse 14 he says, but put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. Now just think about the deception of sin. Whenever you're tempted to sin and all your friends and people around you seem to be having fun doing all the sinful things that people do in the world, it seems like, wow, that'll fulfill my life. But Paul wrote in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death. So don't be deceived by the disappointment of the gospel. The fact that the gospel means you're going to make a sacrifice in this life as you await for the glory and the treasure that Christ purchased for you with his sacrifice on the cross. The way of the world leads to death and judgment. And I know you feel it, and I feel it, that sin and sinful desires, they live in us. But if you love Jesus and if you know the grace he has given to you, don't feed those desires. That's really one of the first, it's really the second step to dealing with your sin and growing in grace. This is incredibly difficult because whenever you have a desire for sin, it is just as strong as that desire for a cup of water when you've been in the desert all day long. but don't feed your sinful desires. It's your work and mine. It's time to live for Jesus. And so it's time for you to starve your desires. And practically, it looks like this. If you're jealous of someone else's blessing, don't dwell on that covetousness. Don't think, oh, I wish I had that, but praise the Lord. Begin praying, thanking the Lord for the blessing he's given to someone else. If you struggle with sexual lust, don't spend your time looking at men or women at the beach or in porn or whatever ways you do. Instead, thank the Lord for them. Pray for them. Think about your husband or your wife. Beg the Lord. Beg the Lord to put those sins to death. Instead of letting your anger come out in words, walk away and do something else. In concrete, try to love that person. that you wanted to hate in the moment. Starving your flesh is not easy. It's going to feel like shedding blood. At least that's how the apostle who wrote Hebrews wrote about it. But I want you to remember that your sinful desires only lead to death. It doesn't seem that way until you're wasting away in the corruption that sin brings to your life. Jesus, though, on the other hand, he came to give you life. He redeemed you to give you life, so put on Him. Starve that which in you leads to death. Now's the time. Now's the time to wake up and follow Jesus. Charles Hodge wrote, the nearness of eternity should operate on all Christians as a motive to purity and devotedness to God. That's how he wants us to live. To be excited, to live for the Lord. Today, baptism in the Lord's Supper confirm your motive, your hope of eternity. And so it's time to ask yourself, what impact will Christ have on your life from now on? As you think about Jesus, who's reigning and who will come back soon to usher you into eternity, what impact will Christ have on your life now? None of us, honestly, will perfectly serve Christ or even remember the impact of the gospel on our lives all the time. But I wanna say this, every time you and I open the scriptures, every time we come to public worship, Christ reminds us that today is the day to wake up and live for him. And so will you do that today? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we turn to you now just asking for your grace and your mercy. We have sinned, we do sin, we still feel the tug of sin in our lives. And so we pray that you would put it to death, that you would eclipse our appetite for sin, that you would eclipse the lies of the blessings of sin that so win our attention, eclipse these things with the awe and the anticipation of Jesus' return, that we indeed might wake up from the world, the influence that consumes our lives most days and that we might see beyond that to the reigning Christ, our Lord and our King. Give us grace to follow him. Help us to see that the sinful desires of the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life that so tempts us, that seems so satisfying, help us to see that that is no longer proper for us, that it only leads to death. And give us a great desire to follow Christ. Forgive us as we fall. but also as we put on Christ, cover us with your grace and comfort, restore to us the joy of salvation. Unite us together as a church corporately that we would not be a people characterized as quarreling and filled with jealousy for one another, but may we be a people that lay down our lives for our friends and express that true love that Jesus taught us to express with his own example and his own words. unite us together in this congregation in love for Christ, with one passion, to live for him and his glory in everything we do. Lord, as we also are reminded of marriages and conflicts and divorces, Lord, we ask, Lord, that you'd be with these people that are struggling in these relationships and that you would turn them to Christ to see hope that when you are working in the lives of a husband and a wife, that there is hope. Lord, please bring healing to these marriages. Please, Lord, open windows for opportunity to help those struggling marriages. Provide us wisdom to be able to speak into their lives and open up opportunities and soften hearts to hear the gospel. For we do believe, Lord, that when your grace transforms sinners, then you can totally transform and do wonderful things in marriages. Father, we also want to pray for our government today. Lord, please give clarity to medical professionals and to our government officials to help the COVID pandemic and to learn to and adapt to the reality of the data and what is really happening. We pray, Lord, that you might bring soon this new normal that we hope for. We realize we're never going to get back to the way we were living in February, but Lord, please improve our economy. Please provide for more freedom to move about. And please help us to know how to manage this disease that goes throughout so many people. We pray for those in our congregation that you would protect us from death and for those who are vulnerable that you would protect them and provide medical treatment as well. Lord, we pray that now that racism has been brought to the surface in our country, we just ask that that you would provide healing and transformation and growth that we might grow as a people to acknowledge that all men and women, boys and girls, are created in God's image. And as various cultures have expressed racism and this poor view of other humans in their various ways, Lord, we ask that you would open eyes to your word and transform hearts by the gospel, that we might embrace one another in our country, in every institution, in every part of society, embrace one another as image bearers of Christ, and that as we see the gospel, we might embrace one another as brothers. And may that, may your grace, may your transformative work in sinners' lives be what brings us all together. Lord, please also deliver us from the politics that have become the theme of our time and has been such a distraction from dealing with the coronavirus and the racism that exists in parts of our country and parts of our lives and finances and laws and policies and foreign policy. Lord, We ask that you would turn our leaders to Christ, to trust you to raise up those who you would have lead in our country. That we as one people with one voice might acknowledge Christ as King and seek to honor you in everything we do. We pray for our country. We pray for our state and our community here in Denver and ask for your blessing upon us and that your spirit would cause the gospel to go out powerfully to build your church even among us, even in these times. We lift all these things up to you, our Lord and our Savior and pray in the name of Jesus, amen.