Wow. All my love is due Him. That's what sanctification is all about. Loving Christ more. Either the pulpit got taller or I got shorter. It must be the shoes. Well, thank you for allowing me to speak. This is always a privilege for me when Jeff asks me. I love Jeff. He's a great friend. We've had a great time of fellowship over the past few years. I appreciate everything that he does in his ministry. It's an example to me and he's an encouragement to me. It's great now that we can work in partnership as churches. I just count it such a privilege. He's asked me to speak putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what I will attempt to do this morning. I would like us to stand as I read from Romans 13, verses 11-14, which are the verses that surround this theme. Paul says in Romans 13-11, and do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Father, thank you for your Word again as we come to it. We never tire of hearing the Word of God, Lord. draws us closer to you, closer to Christ, closer to heaven, closer to each other, Lord. Last night and tonight have been a blessing because your people have come together around your word. I thank you for the speakers. I thank you for the ladies who have sung. Also, thank you for Tim with the sound. and everyone who's been involved, Lord, with putting this mini-conference together. So I pray right now that You would open our hearts and our minds to understand a little bit more about sanctification, about pressing on for the prize, about becoming more like Christ, of laying hold of that which He has laid hold of us for. And we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you. The contemporary church, for the most part, is less concerned about knowing the theological time period it's living in than at any other time in history. It's less concerned about the day of Christ being at hand, less concerned about casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, less concerned about behaving properly instead of walking in sin, and less concerned about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh than it has been in the last 2,000 years. In short, those who profess to know Christ are less concerned now than they have ever been about the doctrine of sanctification, which is to be motivated by the nearness of our final salvation when Christ returns. As Paul says at the end of verse 11, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. But this really is completely opposite this mindset of people in the church is completely opposite of what the Bible teaches should happen. According to this passage, every day that goes by in the Christian life and every day that goes by in the history of the church should produce more of a compulsion to be holy than the day before, not less. If we're going to be biblical as Christians, the closer we get to meeting the Lord, whether in death or in the rapture, we should be escalating our efforts in sanctification, not diminishing them. As we get closer to meeting the Lord, the sense of urgency should grow hotter, not colder, larger, not smaller, greater, not lesser. Like no other time in the history of the church, Christians have been so entertained, so recreated, so pleasure-saturated, so wealth-oriented, so career-motivated, and so spiritually uninterested that a focus on sanctification has become virtually impossible for most who name the name of Christ. What pervades Christian culture today is so earthly focused that an eschatological focus is almost completely, if not totally, obscured. And this is all contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture, particularly with our Lord Himself. The New Testament over and over again tells us we must always be prepared to meet Christ. Concerning those who profess His name during the Tribulation, Jesus said that they must be ready to meet Him at all times because they don't know when He's coming back. In Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus stressed this readiness because no one knows the day or the hour that He's coming back. He said in Matthew 24, 37-39, but as in the days of Noah, so also will the Son of Man come, for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them away, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man How will it be in that day? He tells us in verses 40 to 42, Then two men will be left in the field, one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. When He returns at the end of the tribulation to judge the world, few will be ready, is His point. Even in a tribulation period, people will still be grasping for the everyday affairs of life. Of two men working in a field, one will be taken in judgment, the other will be left to go into Christ's kingdom. The same is true of the two women grinding. One will be ready to meet Christ, the other has no thought of it. He said again in Matthew 24, verses 43 to 44, but know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming an hour we don't expect him to come. So how's it going to be? It's going to be unexpected and sudden in the tribulation period. And that's a time when We should be, or people who name the name of Christ should be at their highest awareness and highest level of striving for sanctification. Those in the tribulation will meet him at the very time that they least expect him to come back. That's the point he's making. When you least expect me to come back, that's when I'm coming. And when he comes, if those who profess his name are not ready, they're not going to go into his kingdom. Jesus said in the parable of the ten virgins that five who had oil in their lamps went in with the bridegroom into the wedding, but five who didn't have oil didn't go in. They weren't ready. They all wanted to be there. They all were professing to be in the same company as the bridegroom, but five were ready and five weren't. In other words, those who are ready when Jesus returns will go with Him into His kingdom, and those who are not ready will not go in. Matthew 25, verse 46 says that those who are not ready to meet Christ when He returns at the end of the tribulation will be shut out of the kingdom and, quote, go away with everlasting punishment. Why? Because by their not being ready, not being prepared to meet their Lord, they will prove by their unreadiness, by their unpreparedness, that their profession of faith was a sham. It was phony. It was false. It was pretentious. It wasn't real. And it's not going to come out until Jesus comes back. That's when the wheat is separated from the tares. The same is true for believers during the church age. I use the tribulation because that's when people should be ready, It's the same in the church age that we live in. We don't go through the tribulation. We're not going to be judged at the second coming. But we are to constantly be ready to meet Him, either in death or in the rapture. And that's what Paul's addressing in these verses. The closer we get to the day we stand before Him demands an escalated, not a de-escalated readiness. what we're going to look at. This readiness is summed up in the last verse. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. The believer is to be ready at all times. He or she has to be fully prepared, fully expecting of His return because each of us is nearer to Christ's return than we were when we believed in Him. Jonathan Edwards said this in his famous resolutions. Resolved. Never to do anything which I should not be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. How's that for a way to live your life? That's the way it should be with us. We should never do anything that we would be afraid to do if we knew that we were going to meet Jesus in one hour. Well, the theme of Romans is righteousness. It's the righteousness of God. It's how to obtain God's righteousness and what the results are. And in this section that begins in Romans 12.1, Paul is in the results section. If I have been made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, how should I then act? How should I live my life? How should I respond to what He has done for me? What should characterize my life? What should be the pattern of my living? That's the section we're in based on the first 11 chapters. He tells us in 12.1 that if I have experienced God's mercy and salvation, if God has granted me a plain view of His wrath revealed against all my ungodliness and unrighteousness, from chapter 1 verse 18, if I have sensed the storing up of His wrath against my ongoing rebellion against Him in chapter 2 verse 5, and if I have felt my own inability to do anything to merit the payment for my sins, chapter 3 verse 20, And if I have then believed that God does justify the ungodly by sending His Son to be a propitiation for them, and I have personally believed on Christ for Him to be a propitiation for my sins, as he says in Romans 3.21-26, and if I believe I am now dead to the reigning power of sin in my life by the death and resurrection of Christ, chapter 6, if I experience all the mercies, and even more that Paul lists in these chapters in verses in chapters 1 to 11, then I should look at my life and say, how do I live? That's the section we're in. What should my life look like now that I have been saved from my sin and God's wrath? What should my life look like now that I am no longer an enemy but a friend? According to Romans 12.1, it completely changed the life. A life lived for God and others instead of self. A life lived for righteousness instead of sin. A life lived for the next world instead of this world. I should now have a heavenly focus instead of an earthly focus through the renewing of my mind in the Word of God instead of being transformed with the world like I was before I was saved. That's the way my life should look. If I'm going to a place where there is no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sin, if I am going to a place where I can be in eternal communion face to face with my Savior who has saved me from all of these things, then my life should reflect that, shouldn't it? And more specifically, Paul says that my life should be affected in my love for the brethren. That's the context of these verses. If you go back to verse 8 in the chapter, it says, Oh, no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Paul has just talked about us loving each other because of what Christ has done for us. That's the natural outworking of what should be in a Christian's heart. Why? Because verse 10 says, love does no harm to another neighbor. Therefore, love is a fulfillment of the law. If I truly love my brother or sister in Christ, I'm not going to sin against them. If I truly love my parents, I'm going to honor them. If I truly love the people around me, I'm not going to kill them. I'm not going to get angry with them. I'm not going to commit adultery against my neighbor's wife. I'm not going to steal from them. I'm not going to bear false witness. I'm not going to covet. If I love them, I will keep the law. Love is the motivator and the fulfillment for keeping the law of God. If you love, you can't break the law. So every time we sin, we show that we don't love. Well, more specifically in the context in chapter 14, I will love those who are weak in the faith. Those who mature less quickly in the faith than others do. in the areas of conscience. So you see, if I've been saved by grace through faith in Christ, I will be a living sacrifice. I won't be living for myself anymore. I'll be living for Christ and others. That's what the sacrifice is. I will stop living for myself and live in a worshipful service to God by loving the brethren, not singing against them, which was my habit to do before I was saved. And the reason is because I am getting closer to the day when I will stand before the One who saved me. And I will have to give an account to Him. That's what Paul is talking about here. And that's why he says, cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Because your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. So, you might be saying, well, I hear what you're saying. But I have not been living with the kind of passion for readiness that I should. I haven't been focused on my sanctification as I should. I haven't applied myself to preparation for living in the next world as I prepare for living in this one. How do I get that focus? Well, that's what Paul answers in this paragraph. How do I get the sanctification focus? How do I get the holiness focus? That's why he writes these verses right in the middle of this love section. So, this morning, just for the next few minutes, I want to show you how we can get this focus on sanctification from these verses. Paul lays down three ways. In verses 11 and the first part of 12, he says, first, we need to know the time. You want to get focused? You need to know the time that you're living in. Verse 11, and this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. In order for us to get a focus on sanctification, we need to know the theological time period we are living in. God has broken history down into different time periods. There's a lot of disagreement on this, but everyone who believes in Christ believes there are certain time periods that history has been divided into. Just a general survey is first there's a time of sinlessness, and that is Genesis chapters 1 and 2. We call it the time of innocence. It was a time when Adam walked with God in the cool of the day, had intimate face-to-face communion with Him without sin. There was pure desire for holiness and communion with God. But then second, there was a time before law. This is a time between Adam's fall and the giving of the law at Sinai after Adam had sinned in the garden. During this time, God wasn't revealing Himself as regularly to man as He did with Adam. He was now working through the law written on man's heart. You can read about that in Romans chapter 2. Third, there was a time of law. Here God began revealing Himself regularly to Israel beginning with Moses and the law at Sinai. And now instead of God's law only being written on man's heart, now He codified it into tables of stone. But then fourth, there was a time and there is a time of grace. It's the church age. It's the time that we live in. It's a time which began at Pentecost. This is a time period Paul is talking about in verse 11 that we need to know. What do we need to know? It's the last time. It's the last period before Christ comes back. There are no more time periods. You're in the last one. That's why he says, knowing this time, that it's high time to wake out of sleep. We don't get three or four more time periods. Before God closes the curtain of human history, this time period will run out, but there won't be any more. Paul says, knowing the time, the Greeks had two words for time, one was kairos, one was chronos. Chronos, we get the word chronological from, or chronology, that means successive time. The other word for time, which is chronos, is a specific time period. Paul uses chronos. He's saying you need to know the time period that you're living in. It's a specific time period. It's a theological time period. This time period has already lasted from Pentecost until now and will continue until Jesus comes back in the rapture. And Paul says in verse 12, The night that is far spent or far gone or greatly advanced is the time period that we're living in. We're living in the night. We're living in the night. The night is far spent. The day is coming. The day of Christ is really what he's referring to here. But the night is almost over. I mean, we're getting closer to the end. You need to wake up and start living for Christ. This time is also when the works of darkness or acts of sin are performed in verse 12. Acts such as revelry and drunkenness, lewdness and lust and strife and envy, as we see in verse 13. But it's also a time, the same time in which we live, that we are to put on the armor of light, verse 12, walk properly, verse 13, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, in verse 14. This is the time period that we're living in. It's a dark time, but it's a time to get ready for the light. It's a time when we as Christians are to swim against the tide of sin and live in a world where darkness is dominant. And in that world, we need to shine as lights as in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. It's exactly the same thing that Peter was talking about in 1 Peter 1.19. The dawn rising in our hearts will be the day that Christ comes back. This is the time that Paul is referring to in verse 11. It's also the time period that Jesus is absent from planet Earth. Jesus talked about this time regularly in his ministry. It's primarily the day or time period when Christ, as the light of the world, is absent from the world. In John 9, verses 4 and 5, Jesus said, I must work the works of Him who sent Me. While it is day, the night is coming when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. But Jesus wasn't in the world that much longer. He's saying that while He was in the world during His three and a half year ministry, He was the light of the world, the only true light, the only illumination for a person to come to salvation. He's also called the light of men in John 1.4, the true light in John 1.9. And for three and a half years, as Isaiah 9.2 says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. Jesus was just for three and a half years a light in a dark place. But then He left. That was a preview of what it's going to be when He comes back. We're going to be in the light one day permanently. But while he was here for three and a half years, it was a temporary preview of the attractions to come. He said in John 12, 35 and 36, a little while longer, the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light. When he left, the spiritual light left with him. That's one of the reasons it got dark at noon. The light was disappearing from the world. But by God's grace, there are and have always been individuals who have trusted in Him and who are now reflectors of that original light, which is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we as believers are called the Light of the World in Matthew 5.14, Sons of Light, Luke 16.8 and John 12.36, and also 1 Thessalonians 5.5, Children of Light, according to Ephesians 5.8, and Saints in the Light, Colossians 1.12. We merely reflect the light of Christ that was here when he was here for three and a half years. And now we become previews of coming attractions if we're walking according to the light. So the time period we're living in is the time of darkness for the world because Christ is not here to give it light. And that darkness is characterized by spiritual ignorance and willful sin and unbelief. It's a darkness completely opposed to the light ruled by the Prince of Darkness himself, Satan. And because we as believers live in the dark, where sin is as thick as darkness, Paul takes it for granted that we know the time we live in. That's why he says, and this, because you know the time. Christians are not to be ignorant of the time that they live in. Paul's taking this for granted. It's a present circumstantial participle. Knowing is causal. It means because we know. That's what he's saying here. He assumes that every believer knows their environment and that it's hostile to Christ and His Word and hostile to them. But I wonder how many Christians know that they are living in a dark world. A world filled with sin at every turn. A world begging for their sinful engagement. I think that many believers are so desensitized to sin that they don't even recognize they're living in a dark world. What was clearly considered sin in the past is not even blinked at today by many Christians. The continual intake of questionable entertainment, the overindulgence of work instead of serving the Lord, the continual friendship with unbelievers without ever letting their Christianity affect those unbelievers for the gospel, but rather allowing themselves to be affected by the unbelievers to sin. All of these things tell me that many Christians don't understand the time we live in. What are desensitized believers to do? Paul says that now it is high time to wake out of sleep. He's saying, as one of the Greek lexicons said, bid farewell to the works of darkness. Stop flirting with the world. Wake up out of your sleep and see what's going on. Why? What's the big deal? The big deal is this. Now is our salvation nearer than when it was when we first believed. We're getting closer to standing before the Lord. We're getting closer to stepping through the door of eternity. And if any believer thinks that he or she can flirt with sin in this world and have any kind of assurance of their salvation when Christ returns, is mistaken. That was one of the major emphases of his parables. You need to be ready to prove that you're mine. If you say you're a Christian, you need to live like one because Jesus' return is getting closer than it was yesterday. You and I need to make a decisive resolution to flee sin and pursue righteousness if we say that we are His. We cannot say we believe that Christ died for our sins and then still live in them. We can't say that we've been redeemed from sin and then continue to wear sin's garments. So, the first way we get focused on our sanctification is not to buy another book It's to just realize the time that we're living in. Know the time. This is it. But second, as Paul ratchets it up a notch, we need to prepare for war. Not only do we need to know the time, we need to prepare for war. This is wartime. This is not playtime. He says in the middle of verse 12, therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let's throw away all of the old life, like Bill was preaching on earlier, and now let's put on armor. The word literally is weapons. Same word that Paul uses in Ephesians 6. Once we know the time we live in, we need to prepare ourselves all the more to live in it until we meet Christ. Paul says, walk properly as in the day. To walk means to just go through your everyday routine. Everything that you do, this is what you do. You carry your weapons. As we go through our normal everyday lives, we are to walk as if we were in the day. Did you notice that? The night is far spent, the day is at hand. He says, let's cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light or the weapons of light. Really what he's saying here is, as we go through life, we're to walk as if we were already in heaven, already in the kingdom. I mean, just think about how you're going to live in heaven. Think about how you're going to live in the kingdom for a thousand years and then think about how you're going to live in heaven. We're supposed to arm ourselves with that, with that mindset, with the mindset of light. We're to walk as purely now as when we get to heaven or as when we get our glorified, sinless bodies and we live in the kingdom with Christ for a thousand years. Paul says the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 2.12. He says, I want you to walk worthy of God who called you into His own kingdom and glory. In other words, you're being called into His kingdom of glory and you need to walk as worthy of the calling to which He has called you. Live like you're already there. We're to walk as worthy to God's call as the holiness He has called us to. How do we do that? Paul says, prepare for war. Did you know that the Christian life is a war? Paul's using war language here. He does it in many other places. Literally, he says, unclothe yourselves of the works of darkness and instead clothe yourselves with weapons of light. Take off the old garments and put on the military attire. That's what he's saying. The word weapons is hapla. It means the weapons of an enlisted soldier during wartime. Paul describes the hapla in Ephesians 6, 11-17. There he calls it the panoplia, or here it is, the panhapla, the panoply, the all-encompassing weaponry. This is the whole or complete weaponry or armor of God that he's talking about. As Paul was sitting in prison watching the Roman soldiers and their armor when he was writing Ephesians, he likened the Christian armor to theirs, which consists of six pieces of weaponry. The girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This was the panoply. This was the whole hapla. of a Roman soldier. And now he says you need to take the spiritual weaponry as a Christian. And why does a believer need to clothe themselves with these weapons? Because there's a war going on. You don't walk into a war zone in a t-shirt and shorts. A spiritual war, a war waged by Satan himself who is hurling fiery darts of temptation against you. Every day temptations which many times you don't even see until it's too late. He's much too crafty for you to stay out of His path, so you need to be clothed with God's weapons to be able to stand against Him. If you're going to stay out of His path, you don't need any weapons. You can wear the t-shirt and the shorts and sit in the grandstands. But that's not the way he operates. He's operating as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, 3-5 that we are in a war, but it's not physical, for though we walk In the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Satan's war is a war against the mind, because the mind is where all temptation is fought or yielded to. The mind is the evaluating, decision-making instrument by which we sin or we resist sin. There's been a war raging against God's people ever since the Garden. Anyone who thinks they are in spiritual peacetime as a Christian needs to read their Bible again. There's an ongoing war raging against the devil, the world, and the flesh. Why do you think Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5.8, let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation. He's saying arm yourselves like soldiers. Why do you think Peter said in 1 Peter 2.11, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. This is a war. The Bible says this is wartime. The will of God for you is to arm yourselves with spiritual weapons for the battle, just as a soldier arms himself with physical weapons for the battle. Peter says, arm yourselves for war just like Christ did. He says in 1 Peter 4.1, Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. Christ was in a war. Read Matthew 4, where Satan launched three scud missiles against Christ. And he fired back with laser guided missiles from Deuteronomy. Christ knew there was a war going on. He knew that the enemy battled for keeps. This is no game, it's the real thing. Paul said in 2 Timothy 2, for to shore up Timothy in the war, no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier. Timothy, we're in war. Paul making himself an example to Timothy in his last hours in 2 Timothy 4.7 said, I have fought the good fight. He looks over his whole life and he says, I've been in a war, but I fought it. In 1 Timothy 6.12 he told Timothy, Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called. We've been called to a war. 1 Timothy 1.18, he tells Timothy, wage the good warfare. Muster Christ's army, Timothy. Gather the troops and fight for the gospel. But sadly today, there aren't enough Christians to field a platoon, much less an army, for Christ. Most Christians don't even know they're in a war. Most think they're on a playground rather than a battleground. One of the reasons the church is so weak today is because very few know there's a war going on and they're getting hit with fiery dart after fiery dart and they don't even know it. Many Christians are playing with the enemy rather than fighting him. Paul says, unclothe yourselves with the works of darkness. Unclothe yourselves with the world. This isn't your home. Well, he describes these works in verse 13. He lists three categories of sin in three pairs. They are the sins of overindulgence. Did you see that? Revelry and drunkenness. This is feasting and drinking. You know, just overindulging yourself. And then secondly, there's a pair of impurity, which are licentiousness and lewdness. This is just debauched. It's multiple acts of sexual intercourse and immodesty. We're not even going to describe those. And then third, there are sins of discord, which are strife and envy or jealousy. I mean, this is what the world goes after. Goes after overindulgence, impurity, and discord. I mean, I don't know what, there's not a better way to sum up how the world lives, right? Paul just gives us the umbrella. Three types of sin in the world. These are the worst sins, and if these are the worst, Paul is including any of the lesser sins underneath them that a believer might be tempted to engage in. Now, I want you to think about this. Imagine for a moment a soldier who engaged in these type of activities while he's in war time, while he's in battle. How damaging would they be to his life if not the lives of those around him if he engaged in these things? Walking properly in battle is essential, isn't it? I mean, if we are soldiers, and the Bible says we are, then we have to walk like a soldier does. There can be no distractions or encumbrances, or it might be deadly. Imagine how much a soldier's judgment would be impaired if he feasted and drank all night and was expected to fight in the morning. That's why he says, wake out of sleep. The night's almost gone. You cannot be engaged in the nightly activities and expect to be your best for Christ in the morning. A soldier would never do that. Why would you think about doing that? Imagine how much a soldier's judgment would be, his focus would be off of his duty if he was sexually involved with multiple women in a debauched lifestyle. Imagine trying to get a guy to fight the next morning. How much would he be distracted if he was in constant arguments and jealousies with his fellow soldiers, if they were constantly fighting with one another? How much worse is it for a Christian who is in a war against a much more powerful, knowledgeable, and cunning enemy? In our war, we need to walk as properly as a soldier does in his war, or it can be disastrous. Satan is walking around as a roaring lion. Listen, if you don't have the right weapons, try and go up against a lion without the right weapons. You wouldn't last a second. So the way you get focused on your sanctification is first to know the time you're living in, and second, prepare yourself for war. But third, we need to imitate the Master. Verse 14, "...but put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Imitate Him. You want to win the war? You want to have a Clear conscience when you stand before Him. When the day comes, when the darkness is gone and the daylight shines, put on Christ. You need to do it now. What does it mean to put on Christ? Well, it says first, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. It means, number one, submit to His Lordship. That's the first thing. We put on the Lord. We can say a lot about submitting to the Lordship of Christ, but there's so many today in the church that think it's optional. You'll never be sanctified. You'll never win the war if you don't put on the Lord. It's all or nothing. He's either Lord or you are. You can't have it both ways. There's nothing in between. The old saying is true. He's either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. But number two, putting on Christ also means the opposite of walking improperly, of verse 13. That's what the but is for. It's a contrast. You want to put on Christ? Quit sinning. It's that simple. You can't keep sinning and put on Christ. You can't have half of your old clothes on, your old street clothes on, and half a military outfit on. You can't do that. Imagine showing up for the battle with the top part, with the breastplate and the helmet, and you're walking around with shorts on and gym shoes. You can't get away with that. You put them all on. It means instead of sinning, we're not to sin, to walk like Christ walked. It means what Paul said in Ephesians 4.24, put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Instead of lying, speak the truth. Instead of being wrongfully angry, don't be angry. Don't go to bed angry. Instead of stealing, don't steal. Instead of speaking evil, speak good. Why? Because that's what Jesus did. He's the new man. You just imitate Him. Put on the new man. When we clothe ourselves with Christ, the only thing that should be seen is Christ. When someone puts on a baseball uniform, what do people see? They see a ball player. When someone puts on a policeman's uniform, what do they see? They see a policeman. When somebody puts on a soldier's uniform, they see a soldier. When you put on Christ, people are supposed to see Christ. Colossians 3.3 says, your life is hidden with Christ. You're gone. The only thing people see is Christ. Jeff talked about Galatians 2.20 last night. It's not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. People are to see Christ when we live. We put on Christ, we are so identified with Him that we pray like He prayed. We love like He loved. We hate sin like He hated sin. We obey the Father like He obeyed His Father. We study and memorize Scripture like He studied and memorized Scripture. We do battle against Satan with the Word like He battled against Satan with the Word. We think like He thought. We suffer like He suffered. We wash each other's feet like He washed the disciples' feet. 1 John 2 says, he who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. The same way. The word Christian originally meant little Christ. That's what we're supposed to be, little Christs. When we put on Christ, we look like Christ. Jesus Himself said in Luke 6.40, a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. You see the student, you see the teacher. There's no difference. Matthew 11.29 says, we are to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him so we can look like Him more and more each day. You say, how do I put on Christ? Well, you know what? Thank the Lord. You've already put them on positionally. Galatians 3.27 says that, that you have put on Christ in baptism. Now, that's not talking about your physical baptism. It's talking about when you were baptized into the body of Christ and baptized into Christ according to 1 Corinthians 12, 13. So, positionally, we've already put Him on. The moment we were saved, we were clothed with an impenetrable shield of Jesus Christ that we can never be taken away from Him. What that means in God's eyes from a positional or legal standpoint, you're as much like Christ as you're ever going to be. In God's eyes, you look as much like Christ as you will ever look. You're not going to look any more like Christ now than you will after you get your glorified body. Did you know that? You have totally put on Christ positionally. Your glorification will change none of that. That all happened at justification. The only thing glorification does is match up our practice with our position. From a legal standpoint, we've already put them on. But Paul's not talking about our legal or forensic position here. He's talking about our practical position. Until we arrive at the day when we're glorified and our practice will once match our position, we are to practically put on Christ to get as close as possible to what we are already positionally. That's what he's talking about. In other words, we want to get as close with our sanctification as we will be in our glorification. That's exactly what Paul said in Philippians 3.12 when he says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Christ laid hold of us to be perfect one day. I am just continually, daily living to strive for that. To be as close to that perfection as I possibly be. So first, this is what you do. You have to immerse yourself in God's Word. To get a crystal clear picture of Christ so you can imitate Him. We just don't go nonchalantly to our Bible study or our time with the Lord. We're going with a purpose. I need to know how to become like Christ because I'm in a war. Bible study should never be boring. Second, you need to cry out to God in prayer for Him to make you like Christ as you look into the mirror of His Word as He changes you from one level of glory to another. That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians. In chapter 3. He says, nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The veil off of the Scriptures. So now we can see the Lord of glory with spiritual eyesight. He says in verse 16, verse 17, the Lord is the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face now after our conversion, God takes the blinders off of our eyes. beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." It's talking about looking into the Word of God and we see His glory. And what happens when we see His glory as we look into the Word of God? We are being transformed, metamorphosized into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. If your time with the Lord in the Bible is not making you more like Christ, you're not doing it right. I'm not doing it right. There is a very clear process that God has for us to become more like Christ, to stand against the wiles of the devil. And we need to have a plan when we go to the Scriptures. I am a soldier. How am I going to arm myself? Well, you do it with the Word of God in becoming more like Christ. And then when you do that, as you're in there daily, He makes you More like him every day. One level of his glory to another level of his glory. Third, Paul says you are to make no provision for the flesh. If you've already enclosed yourself with sin, don't put it back on. If you're tempted in a certain area, remove that temptation from your life. If you don't want your house to burn down in a forest fire, you're supposed to cut the trees and the underbrush down around your house so the fire doesn't go from the trees to your house. You do the same thing in a Christian life. You take all the trees and the underbrush out of your life so temptation cannot jump, or sin can't jump from the temptation that you're facing to your life. You don't need any combustible materials in between you and the temptation. That's what he's saying. Make no provision for the flesh. Don't let any temptation have spiritual trees or underbrush to burn from it to your heart. Maybe those trees and underbrush are your TV or your computer or your friends or your job. I don't know what they are. I'm not going to sit up here or stand up here and tell you all the different temptations. You know what they are. They're different for all of us. Some things have to be removed. Listen, a soldier cannot entangle himself even with good things in the world, let alone sinful things. what Paul's saying. Don't make any provision for the flesh. Flesh doesn't necessarily have to be bad here. Okay? This can just be your normal, everyday human desires. That getting in the way of fighting the war. So how do we get focused? We have to know the time. We're getting closer to Christ. Are we ready? Are we like Jonathan Edwards? Are we living Every moment as if it was the last hour before we meet Christ. Second, we have to prepare for war. That means you have to know you're in one. And then third, we need to imitate the Master. Submit to His Lordship. Hide in Him. Put Him on as our spiritual clothing. So we're completely enveloped in Him. Someone would cut you open. Would you bleed Christ? Well, there's a lot more we could say. Father, thank you for your Word. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. It divides the soul and spirit. Lord, it's been convicting for me. Lord, I confess that I have not really applied my knowledge of knowing the time that I live in to the war. And maybe I speak for those here, some here, Lord, that have not been as engaged in the Christian life as we should be in getting ready to meet our Savior, more prepared to be like Him. Father, please forgive us for being nonchalant in our Christian life. Forgive us for showing up in street clothes rather than a war uniform to the war. Thank You for this opportunity to address my brothers and sisters. Lord, I pray that You would bless them in everything that they do for You. Encourage them Show them from your word, Lord, that if God is for us, who can be against us? Help us to love you with all of our hearts and really obey this truth to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.