tables under the pavilion, just chatting and fellowshipping. And at one point, Mike said, what kind of songs you guys sing in your churches? So I didn't know what to expect, because you never know what people are going to say when it comes to music. Just get over it. But anyway, different topic for another day. He specifically wanted to know if we were singing this song. in our church. And if we weren't, then we should be, because it's so good. And it is a great rendition. This has a couple of extra stanzas to it that the ones in our hymnal doesn't have, and so that's why we've added it to our songbook. I would invite you to turn to the book of Revelation. Now, I'm not going to start a series in the book of Revelation today before finishing with Romans. But there is something I want to cite, two things in particular, late in Revelation. So if you want to find Revelation 19, you can do that. And then I will use Revelation 19 and Revelation 22 to get us back to Romans 13 this morning. I'm sure you've all heard the saying, time flies when you're having fun. I must be having a blast preaching through Romans because next week is going to mark the 200th sermon from this greatest letter ever written, and it really does seem like we just started. And it's almost five years into this. It'll be five years in November. And so it's a great testimony to the grace of God for us to still be plugging away through the Book of Romans, especially, if I might say, a great testament to myself, since you know so well that there was a time in my life where I absolutely loathed to preach. And that is not too strong of a word to describe my feelings at one time about preaching. And so I am thankful beyond measure for God's work and never giving up on us and being patient with us. Why is he so patient with us? I don't know, but I'm struck by that. And I'm very thankful for it. So I had an entirely different introduction planned, and I changed it this morning. How often along the way in this almost five-year series in Romans have I started a sermon in the book of Romans by citing chapter 1, and then illustrating what we read in chapter one, and then saying, this is why we need to be preaching through Romans today. How many times have I done that along the way? I didn't look up, I didn't count it, I don't know, several at least. How many of you saw or read about the absolute debauchery associated with the opening ceremony of the Olympics? Did you hear anything about it? For those of you that didn't, which was the worst part, I guess the worst part has to have been the rendition of the Last Supper painting by drag queens in the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Did you know that the director and this is a direct quote from an article that I read, it's about himself, is a queer, and his goal was to make sure everyone felt presented by that, or represented by that ceremony. The slogan for the Olympic Games is, Games Wide Open. The very director of the Olympic Committee saying, we want these to be bold and creative games. that dare to take a step outside the box, to challenge current models, our ways of seeing things, our paradigms, to give us the opportunity to come together, to be proud together, to experience together. As altruistic as that may sound to some, it is spiritually deadly, because it boldly and blatantly denies Jesus. is the way, the truth, and the life. And nobody, nobody gets to Him, to God, but through Him. I don't need to think outside this box. I don't need the biblical model challenged. I don't need to see things differently. I don't need a new paradigm. I need Jesus. Janie Chaney writes for World Magazine. She's giving a personal account of in her family 40 years ago, her sister was married and divorced. Ron was the name of her ex-brother-in-law. He was not a religious man at all, but he was nice about it. So there was a divorce in the family. We're fast-forwarding now many years. He went through some very serious physical problems. There were seizures, there were things that happened to him that may have even caused in recent years a brain tumor that then put him in chemotherapy and even having a seizure so bad one night in his home by himself, an apartment, such a seizure that his bed flipped over on top of him and he wasn't found for three days. So this guy's in desperate physical situation, and another sister of Janie Chaney, not the one that was divorced from Ron, was visiting him in the hospital. One day as Melissa was leaving, he stared in her and said, give me the truth. Don't you wish your unbelieving friends and relatives would hand you an opening line like that? She gave him the gospel, and he didn't reject it, didn't accept it either. But when she told him she'd be back, he said, bring the book. She knew he meant the book. On her first day with the book, she got through the Sermon on the Mount. Next time, six more chapters in Matthew, on through Mark and into Luke. Was he listening? At one point, she asked him, is that enough for one day? By then, Ron could barely speak, but he managed to say, more Jesus. At Ron's memorial service, my sister shared how the only time he stopped her with a question was to ask what Hosanna meant. I think it means save, she told him. Whereupon, he held up his hands and said, Hosanna. Was he crying out to the Lord to save him? Melissa didn't lead him in the sinner's prayer or exact a confession so that we'd have verbal confirmation, but I believe we already had it. More Jesus is what he asked for. More Jesus is all we need. So what should our reaction be to such no-holds-barred, flaunted-in-your-face, unashamed debauchery and blasphemy? Righteous indignation for a start, tempered by a deep concern for the souls of those who participated and all who give approval to those practices which are worthy of death, according to Romans 1.32. By having the right perspective. Despite the flood of satanic deception and outright sinful behavior seemingly taking over this world, one thing is true. God knows exactly what he is doing. I share with you from the book of Revelation now, chapter 19, to then share with you what should be our rallying cry at times like this. Verse 11 of chapter 19, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it, is called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he judges and makes war, His eyes are like a flame of fire, and his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He's clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine crust of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty on his robe. And on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What's our rallying cry? Jesus wins. Which I think, as I just so happen to finish reading the book of Revelation this morning, leads us right to chapter 22, verses 10 to 13, which is going to naturally take us right back to Romans 13, 11 to 14. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book. Why? Because the time is near. Juxtapose that to what Daniel said. What did Daniel say about the words of his prophecy? Seal them up. Shut them up until the end. By the time 100 AD or so rolls around, don't shut this stuff up. Don't seal it. Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. Let the evil doer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. What does that mean? It means the people's character, especially when Jesus comes, behold, I'm coming soon, verse 12, is fixed. You will either be righteous or filthy for eternity when Jesus comes. So don't seal this up. Don't stop your mouth. Don't stop declaring the gospel and preaching the truth because the time is near. And isn't that what Paul is saying back in Romans 13? Verse 11, besides this you know the time. that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. Wake up, people! For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. So we're going to make a transition. We're going to make a transition from Revelation, time is near, don't seal it up, keep on speaking the truth, share the gospel, to this admonition of the time is near for Christians to wake up and do that and everything else you're supposed to do. And not do according to the text. This salvation that is nearer to us is the consummation of our salvation. This is the same as sanctification. It's the same as the consummation of redemptive history. It's not talking about the initial moment of salvation. The word salvation is used throughout the New Testament to describe the initial aspect of salvation, progressive sanctification, and ultimate glorification. we are pining for and longing for and, in God's timetable of things, soon to be glorified. I become so, so weary of myself, day after day, because I'm not where I want to be. I'm not who I want to be as consistently as I want to be that person. that child of God, that follower of Christ. And so, this text in particular, and I'll finish reading it now, and then I'll pray, and then I'll try to get through this sermon. This is a grave warning for Christians. Start over. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to awake from sleep. For salvation is near 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 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 our prayer, Lord, that you'll help us do that. Help us to see the sense of urgency through the power of the Spirit working in us, the word that He inspired. help this to change us radically, not just in mindset, and not even a tug or two on the heart, but so profoundly that it changes our actions, that it changes our way of thinking, that it permeates us in such a way that people start looking at us and saying, what's up with you? And we can say, Jesus is what's up with me. It's just Jesus. It's all Him. Let me tell you about Him. And so I'm just praying, God, that we heed this admonition and however many are in this text. Help now, in Jesus' name. Amen. I read to you last week the four major cross-references to these four verses in the New Testament, and then I briefly ran you through these four verses under these four points. Wake up, cast off, put on, and make no provision. coming back using that same outline this morning, but embellishing much further each one of those. With this in mind, and it is the first thing that came to my mind when I read these verses, Christians need to stop playing games with God and get on board with his agenda for what it looks like to live a holy life as a living sacrifice. This fence-sitting, lowest common denominator Christianity is pathetic, but it has permeated contemporary Christian culture in America. It's permeated it. And we need to, if it has inflicted us or infested us in any way, check ourselves now and get rid of it. And be loving, compassionate, consistent followers of Christ, authentic, sincere, no-holds-barred in truthfulness. Speaking it not with a judgmental tone. Believe me, God's going to take care of the judgment part. But with a firm, loving tone of, there is no other way. There is no other alternative for you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If even 10% of Christians in America would do that, I wonder what the impact would be. You all know the old adage, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. It is my prayer that that doesn't describe our reaction to this text. These four verses that are a fountain of thirst-quenching, sin-killing Water of life. And so we pick up with these same four points. The first point is wake up, verses 11 through 12a. Besides this, you know the time, 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. Turn back to Acts chapter 1. This is what I said last week about this text. I wanted you to see it as God grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you to wake you up. Now, we've all probably experienced, as parents or grandparents or friends of people that have children, a sleeping child. Children sometimes can get in such a deep sleep, but they have to get up. It's time to get up. You've got to go do this. You've got to do that. And so you go to the baby or the toddler, and you're like, OK, wake up. And you're rubbing their back, and you're being nice. And then you're like, OK, wake up. Time to get up. And they're like, ah, leave me alone. And you're like, get up. Well, you don't shake them that hard. You're like, it's time to get up. We have to go. That's what Paul's doing here for us spiritually. We're sleeping! He says, you gotta wake up! Gotta wake up! Besides this, at the beginning of the verse, is the same thing as saying something like, and the more. What Paul just said about loving our neighbor is still on his mind, and so we better love like that, love your neighbor as yourself, since we are essentially now in the last days. The word for time here is one of two in the Greek language and it is used specifically for a fixed short period of time. The clock has been ticking since the ascension of Christ. The eschatological clock has been ticking. Paul is writing to first century believers in Romans, and he's writing to them in a way that is supposed to give them a sense of urgency regarding the consummation of redemptive history. That ultimate aspect of that salvation that they longed for from the first moment they understood it after they were saved. There is so much more now for us. Life everlasting. How freeing that is. That we aren't just confined to whatever pleasures we can get out of this life. We are free in Christ. and we will be for eternity. So wake up! Wake up! Acts 1 verses 6-11, So when they had come together, they asked him, Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Oh, these poor, silly, stupid disciples still thinking there's a physical kingdom coming first. He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, Behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? And here it is, this Jesus, who has taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. I would argue that since the early church had the expectation of Christ's return in their lifetime, Not that they thought all prophecy about His return had been fulfilled, because as far as I can tell from reading the Bible, it still hasn't all been fulfilled. Read 2 Thessalonians 2. How much more of an expectation and sense of urgency should we have? And it is built right into this text in Romans 11 or 13. It's built right into this text. You see the phrase, you know the time. You see the phrase, salvation is nearer. You see the phrase, the night is far gone. You see the phrase, the day is at hand. All points to a sense of urgency. Here's the water. Drink. It is time to wake up from spiritual lethargy. Wake up from, as one commentator put it, your stupid, fatal indifference to eternal things. Robert Newell used the word torpor to describe spiritual laziness. This kind of spiritual laziness. Anybody ever heard the word torpor? I thought it was a misspelling in the commentary. I thought they meant to put stupor. So I got my dictionary out and I'm like, yeah, torpor. Oh, hey, it's a word. Here's what it means. State of being lazy, dormant or inactive. temporary loss of all or part of power or sensation or motion, sluggishness, stupor, dullness, sleep. That's what's being described here. Wake up from your sleep. This is describing a lethargic, non-aggressive, maybe almost dead, lazy Christian life. And so maybe instead of trying to wake up a kid from a nap, we should view it as the person that's been underwater for four minutes, that's up on the deck now, and they're pumping water out of his lungs and giving him CPR and mouth to mouth, and he's revived. Wasn't dead, almost. Wake up! And then Paul uses this imagery of light and of morning. The night is far gone, the day is at hand. That's the sense of urgency, right? That's this, in God's mind, short period of time, to us seems like long period of time, but when you consider night and its duration to the horizon at day when the sun comes up, we're real close to that time, he's saying. We don't appreciate this imagery in our part of the country because we have all these mountains and ridges around us, right? We have to the east where the sun comes up, we have this ridge right here. And sun won't even hit our house until about 12 o'clock sometimes. Because of the way it's going. We've got all these things that block it. And even the sun set to the west, it's blocked by the mountains. So you can see for 45 minutes after the sun goes behind those mountains, because it hasn't fully set yet. But there's places in this world and in our country where it is so flat for so long that it's like from dark to light, like that. Because when the sun comes up over the horizon, there's nothing blocking it. The night is far gone. The day is at hand. God's shaking us. Are we awake? Cast off comes next in the middle of verse 12 through 13. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Embellished this way, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness and in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. And I said this to you last week, and I disagree with it wholeheartedly, because Paul says at the beginning of verse 13, let us He says, let us. He's including himself. Because I told you last week there's some commentators that refuse to believe that Paul could be talking to the church in verse 13 because of those things that are listed. But he says, let us. Let us. What I said last week about this text very simply was, it is our duty as Christians to lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Light and darkness, one of the great antitheses found in the Bible. These two things couldn't be more opposite from one another. And as I mentioned already, I see this verse and a half as one of the greatest rebukes we have in the inspired Word of God. Paul says, for all of us, including himself, cast these things off, throw them aside, throw them away, all things associated with darkness, but especially these three categories. There's three couplets. The first two are referring to intemperance, the second two to impurity, and the third two to discord. Now, I think what makes matters worse when we're talking about the first four and those two categories is they're in the plural. We don't have them all translated in the plural in our English version. I don't know why. It was probably right for the translators of the ESV to not include me, because I don't have a wealth of knowledge of Greek, except for what I can read and study and trust others for. But it should read orgies, plural, drunkennesses, plural, sexual immoralities, plural, and sensualities, plural. Orgies and drunkenness refer to intemperance because they both refer to things that are associated with being drunk. Orgies refers to the disorderly religious festivals held in honor of the wine god Bacchus. Now there were temples that were built to Bacchus and they were constructed with troughs in them so that as you drank and drank and drank and drank you could go to a trough and throw up so you could keep on drinking more. Throw it off! Cast it aside! Context, there were Gentiles in the Roman Church, in the church at large, at this time, that were saved out of that. Essentially, what Paul is saying to them and to us is, don't bring your darkness baggage with you when you're saved. You're free from that. Get rid of it. Drunkenness, we know, is drunkenness. Sexual immoralities. Old translation. Chamberings. Odd word. Chamberings. The root word is couch or bed. And it came to refer to houses of debauchery, whoredoms, prostitutions of every kind that infest even Christian communities. And sensualities, which has been described as a socially uncontrolled abandonment to sensuality. Look around. That's the Olympics opening ceremony. Flaunted in your face. No shame. People don't have to come out of the closet anymore because there's no closet that they're hiding in. That's how bad it is. Another source I consulted about this word referred to it as uncleanness emphasizing sodomitical practices, uninhibited and unabashed lasciviousness. That's us. That's the world right now. That's America right now. You're the weird one! Well, me too. I've got to show you this from Ephesians that I read to you earlier. Chapter 5. So, I wish I could remember where I read it so I could have looked it up. to get the details, and I'm sorry I don't have them for you. I don't know what state or locale this happened in recently in America, but there was a higher court that ruled to support a lower court's ruling that children should be banned from drag queen events. Why in the world do we need a higher court to uphold a lower court's ruling that we need to protect our children? Are you kidding me? But we're not surprised. We are righteously indignant. And it's hard for us to keep intact with our righteous indignation a sincere passion for the souls of these people. That's the hard part for me. In Ephesians 5, verses 11 and following, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. No part in is co-fellowship with. You don't do those things. You expose them for what they are. Why? because it's even shameful to speak of the things that they do in secret. That's why they need to be exposed because they're that bad. This does not mean ignore it. This does not mean don't even talk about it. You can't even talk about it in secret amongst yourselves because it's so bad. It doesn't mean don't talk about it. It means it's so bad that it used to cause people shame to even talk about those things in secret, but now where are they? out in the wide open, in your face every single day. The things I see at the Wall Street market in Kingston on Saturdays, it's just no shame. The light must shine in order to dispel the darkness. Now, the next two. How does that even fit? We just looked at these four things that describe intemperance and infidelities, if you will. Immoralities of all kinds. So now you're throwing in jealousy and quarreling? How does that fit a list like this? It fits because that's the result of what comes before in those other two couplings. Those kinds of things going on leads to quarreling and jealousies, whether it's in the church or not in the church. And this is not, by any means, exhaustive but representative. It's unfortunately for the church, unfortunate, not a stretch to be told to cast all this aside. So I was going through my notes this morning, these phrases came into my mind. This isn't the only time Paul talks like this. Because, and again, I'm countering those people that say, Paul cannot possibly be talking to Christians here because of the debauchery that's being described. Well, we're all prone to it. Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. He says in other places, but such were some of you. Put off the old man. Stop presenting yourselves as instruments for unrighteousness. I don't do what I want to do, and I'm doing what I don't want to do. It's not an isolated case where Paul is saying to us, you deal. with, and we'll get to it in Make No Provision here in a minute, you deal with that unredeemed flesh. You wake up, and you cast it off, and you put on Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Assume His manners and thoughts. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Strong contrast. That word but, Allah, in the Greek, not the false god, A-L-L-A, Allah. This is not optional. Those who claim to be saved and refuse to drink this water are either steeped in their sin so far that they're in danger of God's discipline or they aren't saved. I leave that judgment up to God. I will say that we should be in such close communion with Christ that when people look at us, they see Him. Paul told the Corinthians to imitate Him as He did Christ. He reflected Christ in all things, and so should we. Put Him on! I know sometimes it feels like an impossible task, but it's not, because we're told to do it. If we're told to do it and expected to do it, it can't be impossible. In keeping with the themes of the Olympics, if somebody told me to resurrect my high school swimming and go over to the Olympics and jump in the pool, I'd say, you're crazy. That's an impossibility. And that is an impossibility at this point in time in my life. I couldn't even do the senior Olympics. It's not impossible to saturate yourself with Christ, and with His Word, and with His teachings, and with all of these moral instructions that we have, and reflect Him, mirror Him, instead of this. Then we finally get to the last part, the only command that's found in the text, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. So what I said about this last week was, it is the only command And yet this text is building up to it. So everything so far we have seen is building up to this. The wake up, the cast off, the put on. Not commands, but written in ways that we're supposed to be involved in doing those things. Now we get to the command. Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. In other words, stop making plans for the sole purpose of gratifying your unredeemed flesh. Robert Newell again, "...the flesh has endless desires and lusts, all clamoring for indulgence." Do you think Satan takes any time off? How many hours are there in a week? 168! Do you think he takes any time off? Any day, let's go smaller, any second, any minute, any hour, any day, any week, any month, any year, and keep on going on. You think he takes any time off? He's always attacking. So we better make sure we see the sense of urgencies here, because the consummation of redemption is nigh to stop making plans. to fulfill our lusts in whatever form they come. And I will say this, they are sensual desires. There is a lingering proclivity to sinning that we battle every day, but not only sexual in nature. Our last text is Colossians 3. This is one of those cross-references that I read to you last week. I'm not going to read the whole thing. Just a few verses. Colossians 3, verses 5 through 10. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. So this is... Paul's saying the same thing, he's just saying it differently. He says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. Make no provision for the flesh. Well, how am I supposed to do that? Kill it! Kill it! But you know what it is? It is... What's it like? Is there anything that you kill and comes back to life, and you kill and it comes back to life, and you kill and it comes back to life? What? Weeds. Alright, that's good enough. Yeah. You got to keep on killing. Because it keeps on coming back. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now put them all away. anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you've put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Make no provision for the flesh. Doesn't only mean sexual kinds of sins. Because our unredeemed flesh lusts and lingers after fulfilling all of these kinds of sins. So this point deserves another sermon next week. Because we do ourselves no good if we don't now cite the specific sins in all of these lists and specific ways to make no provision for them, to put them to death. And you know why it's so important? And you know why it's even possible to do? Right here. So that's the only thing I say in conclusion as we transition to the Lord's table. Thank God for Christ, thank God for victory over sin, and let's us just live for Him who died for us. And so, Father, here we are once again. We are bowing in your presence. We are casting aside anything that would distract us from the Word of God. I trust that's what's going on through the power of the Spirit in us now to take seriously the sense of urgency in this text, to take seriously the mortification of sin, to take seriously that we have an opportunity before us every day, and we must take heed to it, to witness of Christ and of the Gospel. That we would see people's souls, not just their debauchery. God, that we would know that we too were once one of them, and if not by the grace of God, where would we be? We'd be applauding. We'd think that opening ceremony was the greatest thing we ever saw. Thank you, God, for rescuing us. Thank you, God, for rescuing us. And I pray that we will just present ourselves to you, as we should each day, as living sacrifices through the Body and Blood of Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.