We Wake Up: Romans 13 Call to Cast Off Darkness — Pastor Josh Massaro, Middletown Baptist

For us?

Well, we're in Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles here this morning, I encourage you to

turn along with me and read along with me.

We're in Romans chapter 13, and we're going to be looking at

Romans 13 · chapter mention

verse number 11 and going down to the end of the chapter, Lord willing,

here this morning.

Romans 13, verse 11.

Romans 13:11

The title of the sermon this morning is wake up.

What wakes us up?

Well, for some of us, we're really literal and we say, you know,

what wakes me up?

An alarm clock.

All right.

Or my phone.

For some of you, you say it's alarm clock plus coffee and maybe

another cup of coffee.

Whatever it is that wakes us up in the mornings, you know, gets

us up to do what we need to do.

Some of us know that we can be awake, like physically awake, but

mentally we're not awake.

I remember there were some days when I was teaching at the Christian

school early on that I was staying up late doing college work.

I was at out at ball games really late at night.

So I was getting only like three or four hours of sleep on a

regular basis, which is not good, by the way.

Don't try that.

That does not work very well.

But I remember mornings when I was driving to work and I would get

to work and I would say, okay, and I probably shouldn't tell you

this, but I remember getting there, but I don't remember how I

got there.

I'm like, okay, I was turning the corner.

I know I didn't hit anything, but I was so tired.

It was basically like sleep walking.

And sometimes in our life we can be awake, but we're not aware

of the surroundings around us.

And so the Bible tells us here in Romans, chapter 13, verse 11,

Romans 13:11

to wake up to the things around us.

So the question here this morning is what wakes you up?

Well, for some it's an alarm clock.

For others, it's coffee.

Well, I would challenge us here this morning to allow the word

of God, the power of God, to wake us up from our slumber, to wake

us up to what we are called to do in our lives and the time that

we have.

Well, let's go ahead and open up with a word of prayer.

And then after that, we're going to jump right into our text

this morning.

Lord, we do thank you again for through this service today, reminding

us of the fact that you are our cornerstone, that you are our

hope, our salvation.

We're thankful for the sacrifice that you demonstrated for

us so long ago, but yet remind us daily of your love, Lord, and

I pray that through this service today, through the preaching

of your Word today, that we can be awaken from the things in

our life that cause us to slumber, that cause us to be lazy,

that cause us to lose sight of the priorities in our life according

to your word.

Lord, I pray that we can be encouraged, equipped and empowered

to do the things that you have called us to do.

Lord, I pray that there's someone here today who does not know

you as Savior, that today can be the day of salvation.

But I also pray for those believers here today to be renewed

and revived in the truth of your word.

Pray that you can remove me out of the way.

And Lord, I pray that your word shines brightly here this morning.

We ask all those things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Romans, chapter 13, verse 11 says, and that knowing the time,

Romans 13:11

Knowing the time, the Bible says there's only an allotted amount

of time for us here on this earth.

For some of us we might think that we have more time than others,

but.

But the reality is, is that we don't know how much time that we

have, but we do know the time that we are in right now.

So what Paul says here in verse 11 is, look around you and

know the time that you are in.

Witness the evil.

Witness what is at stake.

Witness what has been done for you by the Lord.

And he says, knowing the time that now is, it is high time to awake

out of sleep.

So he says, look around you know the time and realize that, that

it's time to wake up.

It's time to come out of our sleep and do the things that he has

called us to do.

There's another passage of scripture that says to redeem the

time because the days are evil, to buy back the time, to use

the time that we have.

Like I said, we don't know how much time we really do have.

We just dismiss the children out to kids church and we look at

those children and we see all that potential, potential, all of

that, you know, hope for them to go through school, get a career.

And of course that's the norm.

But sometimes we're not sure how long we have.

But when we look at this passage of scripture, what Paul is

telling us is that now is.

Now is the time to be ready to do the thing, to redeem the time,

to buy back the time.

Why?

Because the days are evil.

And I think all of us would admit to some degree that if we look

around us, the days are evil.

Things are going in such a way that we can evidently see that there

is Evil around us.

And there's a lot of questions that we have when it comes to that

evil around us.

How do we fix that evil?

How do we deal with that evil?

How do I fit into a world that is characterized by evil?

Well, the word of God tells us how we're supposed to respond.

We're supposed to respond not with more evil.

We saw that in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Some people think, well, if there's going to be people evil around

me, well, I'm just going to equal it back with more evil.

If people are going to lie about me, I'm going to lie about

them.

If people are going to steal from me, I'm going to steal from

them.

If people are going to hate me, I'm going to hate them.

But Romans chapter 12 says to not recompense evil for evil, right?

Romans 12 · chapter mention

We can't overcome evil with evil.

We overcome evil with good.

But where do we find that good?

Well, I'm trying, Pastor, maybe that's something that you've

said before.

I'm trying to be good.

You know, you get on the road, you're like, I'm going to try to

have a good day today.

And maybe you avoided all the conflict on the Middletown, Newark,

whatever roads you're driving, Wilmington roads, and you get to

your workplace and you say, I tried really hard and I didn't lose

my temper on the roads.

And then you get into the workplace, you clock in, and then

your co worker tests you on the first hour and you say, I'm trying.

Right?

There's a lot of trying involved with the human condition.

We try to be good, but the Bible says that, that good does not

come from us.

We're seeing here in the book of Romans that there is none good.

No, not one.

The goodness comes from our relationship with God and our identity

now found in Christ.

So he says here, know the time.

It's high time to wake up out of our sleep.

The first point here this morning is this.

It's time to wake up.

For some of us, you might say, well, I'm awake.

Obviously I'm at church.

Obviously, I read my Bible.

We know, like we said before, there's things that we can do that

technically we're doing, but we're asleep while we're doing it.

I don't know if you've ever watched somebody sleepwalk.

It's a very interesting experience.

You know, you're sitting there and you're seeing them walk around,

but they're, they're, they're awake, they're doing things.

I've Even heard of people getting up and making sandwiches

and cleaning the house and maybe cleaning it in such a way that

it doesn't make sense to them when they wake up in the morning.

And there's other people.

I had a friend in the past when we would have, like camp outs

and sleepovers, he would like yell in his sleep.

He would talk in his sleep.

And I would think he was talking about something, like warning

me about something.

I'd wake up and he'd be asleep, but he'd be talking.

So there's things that we can do as Christians that we say, well,

I'm in church, I'm reading my Bible, I'm serving.

But he's not asking that.

He's not saying, hey, are you doing things?

Because we can do things in such a manner that we're not aware

of the why behind what we're doing and, and the impact that it

is having.

And so he says here, not only are you doing things, but are you

awake?

Are you aware when you are doing them?

For now, is our salvation nearer than when we believed?

He says something that's basically stating the obvious.

We're closer now to being reunited with the Lord than we were

before.

He says, there's this moment in which we trust in God.

We believe that this is the new path that we are on.

We become new creations in Christ.

He trusts transforms our hearts.

He transforms our lives.

And now sometimes we think that it's a matter of just waiting.

And sometimes to some degree, it is.

It's patiently waiting for the Lord to return, or it's patiently

waiting in time in which we will be reunited with the Lord through

taking our last breath here on this earth.

But he says, hey, we're closer now than ever.

So what?

Be ready.

Verse 12.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand.

He's using all of this language, language that we understand.

He says, hey, you spent enough of your time.

You've wasted enough of your time.

I can tell you there's so many times in my life that I'll sit down

and I'll just kind of quantify how much time I have wasted.

And that's a very dangerous thing to do.

And I would be careful if you've wasted a lot of time in your

life to actually think about that, because that can bring you

to a place of really being sad.

Okay, I've wasted hours, days, weeks maybe for some of us, months

and years of our life for doing things that we think matter

but really don't matter at the end of the day.

I'm not saying that having hobbies or doing things that are

fun or just having relaxation time is a bad thing.

But the Bible does tell us that we have wasted time in our life.

And he says, you've gone through enough of the night.

The night is far spent.

The day is at hand.

So now there's a call to action here.

He says, wake up.

But then when you wake up, this is what you're supposed to do.

He says, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness.

There's this idea of casting off these things that characterized

us before we came to Christ.

There's this analogy that we see in Scripture over and over again,

darkness and light.

Darkness is who we were before we came to Christ.

Light is who we are now that we are in Christ.

The Bible even puts it this way, that when we trusted in the

Lord and salvation, he took us from darkness into marvelous light.

So here he says, cast off the old way of thinking.

Get rid of the old way of acting.

That's the old man.

That's the old way.

Cast off the works of darkness.

The idea here is wearing this robe that characterized us, this

robe of darkness, this robe of sin, the old way of thinking.

And he says, basically, cast it off.

Throw it away.

Get rid of it.

But he doesn't stop there.

He says more.

He says, cast off the ways of darkness, the works of darkness,

and let us put on the armor of light.

What is that?

What's the armor of God?

The armor of light.

We talked about the contrast between darkness and light.

Darkness is evil.

Darkness is sin.

Darkness is hopelessness.

Light is that life in Christ, that newness of life, that new creation.

So he says, now, instead of just throwing away the old ways,

we are to throw away the old ways and put on the new.

Put on the armor of God.

Some of you are very familiar with that study of the armor of God

in Ephesians, chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Now, for the sake of time, we won't go there.

But I would encourage you to study that out, to see what that

means, to arm ourselves with the things of God that he has given

us to fight in the battle that we call life.

Of course, there's the helmet of salvation.

There's the breastplate of righteousness.

There's the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

He says, put on these things that the Lord has given us.

And the armor of light has the context of the armor of Jesus Christ.

This is not done in our own strength.

This is done through putting on the identity that God has given

us.

Through a relationship with Jesus Christ, putting on the armor

of light.

So putting off and putting on this is another theme that we see

in the New Testament.

In Ephesians, chapter four, he says, put it off.

Put off the old man, put on the new part of the Christian life

is to be dressed up.

Now we're not talking about dressing up physically, even though

there's nothing wrong with dressing up nicely.

He's talking about putting on new clothes, the.

The robes of the Lord.

There's a song that I really love.

It has a great message in it.

It's called His Robes for Mine.

And it talks about how we can wear these robes of our own good

works.

And what does the Bible say about the robes of our good works?

They're like filthy rags.

But then we know that those robes are taken off in the concept

of our sin being removed in our salvation.

And then God's robes, his robes for mine, his robes that are

perfect are put upon us.

So here it's this idea of walking in Christ, relying in the

Lord, relying on our relationship with him, we relying

on the Holy Spirit to guide our lives.

So what he's describing here in verse 12 is not about effort,

even though there is effort in the Christian life.

He's describing a humility and a relinquishing of our control and

our desires and submitting ourselves to God to say, lord, I

want you to clothe me.

I want you to characterize me.

I want to live a life that reflects you.

The Bible tells us in Matthew, chapter 5, verse 16, to let our light

Matthew 5:16

so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify

not me, but my Father, which is in heaven.

Now, how do we get that light?

How does the light of God change us?

Well, maybe I go to church and see other people's light and try

to grab that from them.

Well, that's not what the Bible tells us.

The Bible tells us in John chapter one that that light comes

from Jesus Christ.

And when we trust in him, that light now shines out of us.

It's not our righteousness in and of ourselves, it's God's righteousness

being shown through us.

And that's what he's talking about here in verse 12.

It's not about trying harder, but it's about relinquishing control

of our own lives over to the Lord.

Then he says, here, this is what this looks like.

This is what putting on the armor of light looks like.

And now he's going to characterize the how a Christian

should be living as he is awake as she is awake.

This is what a Christian should look like to those that are

in the world, to those that are in unbelief, to those that are

walking in unrighteousness.

He says, let us walk honestly.

Obviously we know what that means, to walk honestly.

It means to walk without any hypocrisy.

It means to walk without hiding something.

It means to walk in the light.

That's actually what it says here.

To walk honestly, as in the day, meaning there's nothing to hide

in my life.

To walk honestly before the Lord and honestly before others.

By the way that we speak, by the way that we respond, by the way

that we deal with people.

Folks, there is a call for us as Christians to walk honestly.

Our life should be characterized by the truth.

Why?

Because it is the one who is called the truth.

Jesus, the way, the truth and the life who, who saved us and changed

us.

So as a Christian, we should never be walking in such a way that

people can characterize us as liars or as deceitful or as anything

that might not be characterized by honesty.

So he says, let us walk honestly as in the day.

And then he describes some things that we're not supposed to

do.

Not rioting.

Now, this idea of rioting doesn't just mean like going out

into the streets and, you know, holding up a sign.

This whole idea of rioting is just being out of control.

The whole idea of going out of what God has called us to do.

When it comes to being temperate, having self control, having

that idea of being under submission to God, this rioting means

I'm coming out fleshly and just going for whatever I want.

And then he says, we're not supposed to be in that righteous

lifestyle.

And then obviously drunkenness, I don't need to spend

a lot of time on that.

He says we're.

We shouldn't be characterized by drunkenness.

We shouldn't be allowing any substance to control us outside of

the Holy Spirit.

Be not drunk with wine, whereas in excess, but be filled

with the Spirit.

There's this contrast of something guiding us in our life

as a Christian, we should be guided by the Holy Spirit.

Then he goes on to say, not in chambering.

What is chambering?

That's an old King James word.

Chambering is essentially sexual immorality.

Any sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage.

That could look like many different things.

But he says we should not have that sexual sin in our life, characterizing

our life.

That idea of chambering could be anything that is in that realm.

And then he goes on to say, and wantonness.

Wantonness is just sensuality.

It goes further than just sexual immorality.

It goes to the place of just wanting things for our flesh, feeding

our flesh.

Now, before we go any further in this study, we need to define

the flesh and the Spirit.

Because I'm going to mention things about the flesh and you might

say, what is he talking about?

Well, the flesh is essentially those things that appeal to our feelings,

appeal to our hunger, appeal to our lust, appeal to our urges

as humans.

And I think we all can understand those things that appeal

to our flesh.

So he says we should not be living guided by our flesh.

But we know, biblically speaking, we should be guided by

the Spirit.

The Spirit is always going to lead us to do things and to respond

in a way that which God has called us to respond in his word.

Then he goes on to say more.

He says, not in strife.

What is strife?

That's fighting.

That's division.

That's always being at odds with somebody else.

Having anger and having malice and having bitterness towards someone.

Always being in conflict with one another.

He says, and strife.

And then envying.

We all know what envying is, desiring what someone else has and

allowing that to take control of our life.

He says that should not be characterized by someone who is walking

in the light.

That should not be the characterization of someone who is

a Christ like believer.

No, that is someone who is walking in darkness.

That is someone who is feeding the flesh.

So he says we should be walking differently.

The problem is, is that we have too many people that are walking

in rioting, drunkenness, chambering, wantonness, strife, envy,

that they're not able to see what God has actually called us to

do.

Because those are what we call distractions.

These fleshly actions are distracting us from doing what we

are called to do.

What are we called to do?

Very clearly in Scripture we have basic things that God has called

us to do.

When we're believing, number one, it's to obey him.

If we love God, we obey him.

We talked about that last week.

True love means that we will obey.

If we love God, we will keep his commandments.

And then what is that tied to?

That's tied to loving others.

It's gonna be really hard for me to love others properly if I'm

characterized by rioting, drunkenness, chambering, wantonness,

strife, envy.

That's not a characterization of somebody who is walking, loving

God and loving others.

It's someone who's selfish.

It's someone who's prideful.

It's someone who's saying, you know what I want, what I want when

I want it, and I don't want anything else.

Okay?

If someone is helped in that process, great.

But this is what I'm desiring.

He says, these are all distractions, and they're making

us fall asleep and not focus on the things that God has called

us to do.

So it's obedience.

It's loving God, it's loving others.

Then we see a further challenge later on in the gospels.

Matthew, chapter 28, we see something called the Great Commission

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

to go into the world and make disciples.

Folks, we cannot be going and making Christ like disciples if this

is the way that our life is characterized.

Like if someone looks at our life and says, well, man, that Christian

is just characterized by their flesh, characterized by their desires.

Well, if I'm all about myself, I'm never going to be looking to

build disciples for Jesus Christ, because I'm going to want

people following me.

I'm going to want people do things for me.

And so verse 13 tells us all of these distractions, along with

many other distractions that take us away from the great commission

that we are all called to follow in our life.

The Great Job.

As long as we say commission and we don't know what that means,

it basically means the great job that we have as a Christian to

make disciples.

Sometimes we read that and we think, well, that's the church's

job.

And you would be right.

But who is the church?

Well, that's the pastor.

Well, he's part of the church, but the church is you.

All right, so if we were to go and say, are you the church?

Well, no, I'm not the building.

Well, no, no, this building is not the church.

Even though I'm thankful for this building, I thank the Lord all

the time for the wonderful facilities God has given us here

at Middletown Baptist Church.

It's a blessing.

But at the same time, we have to understand the church is not the

pew.

The church is not the building.

The church is not the parking lot.

The church is the people that make up the body that is called to

glorify God by making disciples.

That's the whole idea.

Now, that doesn't mean that the building isn't important because

that's a reflection of our testimony.

It doesn't mean that the facilities are irrelevant.

No, but what it does mean is that as a church, we have to realize

that if the command for the church to do something is there,

that means that that command is for all of us.

As a pastor, My desire is not just for me to disciple people, even

though I love that process, but it is my desire to disciple people

so that they can disciple people so that we can see the.

That wonderful body of Christ growing in a healthy manner.

And that's what he's saying here.

He says that is all distractions away from what God has

called us to do.

What's distracting you?

What's lulling you into a sense of false security?

Well, I've done enough.

Well, let me tell you something.

Maybe that is surprising, maybe it's not.

You can never do enough.

Right?

I can never say this morning, or any morning for that matter, I've

served God enough.

I've reached my quota.

We talked about that last week.

I can never say I've reached my quota for love.

I've reached my quota for obedience.

I've reached my quota for service.

You can never do enough.

And then sometimes people, when they hear that, they go, oh,

that's stressful, Pastor, because now does that mean I have

to work forever?

Well, it's not the motivation of I have to.

The motivation should be that I want to serve my Lord and every

opportunity that I have in the time that I have, I want to serve

him to the best of my ability and what he has equipped me with.

So you can't do enough.

So then why do I serve?

Well, I don't serve because I'm trying to stay in God's good

graces.

I don't serve because I'm trying to keep my salvation.

I don't serve because what other people think about me.

I serve because Jesus changed me and renewed me and.

And gave me a new life.

And that's my only reasonable thing to do, is to give it all over

to him.

That's what Romans chapter 12 is all about.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It's a reasonable service to give everything to him, a living

sacrifice to God.

So what's distracting us from doing what God has called us to do?

What's lulling us to that sense of apathy in our lives?

And if you say, well, hey, talk about yourself.

Okay, well, I'm not saying you yourself are apathetic.

What I'm saying is that there is a level of apathy within the church

in America today, within the world today.

Right.

We've gotten to a place where we believe that setting foot in a

building and not getting in a fight that day and going home is

enough to say that we're acting like good godly Christians.

But it's not just about what we're avoiding, even though there

Are some things that we're supposed to do and not do, right.

We obviously see in verse 13 we're to put off darkness.

We're not to live in these lifestyles of sin with rioting, drunkenness

and all those sins that we see listed there in verse 13 and in other

places.

But it's more than that.

It's also putting on something.

Remember that Put on analogy, put off and put on.

So we're not supposed to just avoid something, but we're to put

on something.

Well, what does verse 14 say?

It's not about trying harder.

Cause it would be very, at least for me, the very depressing.

If I read verse 13, it says don't live this way and you're on

your own doing it.

But he says no verse 14, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

He gives us the remedy to what we would see as a difficult thing

to live a life.

Christ, like he says here, is the remedy put on Jesus.

Allow Jesus to take control of your life, submit to him, honor him,

call out to him.

And he says that's the remedy to the fleshliness in our life.

It's not about trying harder.

It's not about having more rules, it's not about performing.

It's not about people's opinions.

What it's about is being more Christ.

Like to rely on God in every element of our life to go to him

when we're fearful, to go to him when we're concerned, to go to

him when we feel the flesh coming back again.

And then that's the message that we see in Ephesians chapter

four.

That's the message that we see in the book of all of the book of

Galatians for that matter.

It's this idea of dying to our flesh and yielding to the Spirit

and allowing the Holy Spirit to dictate our actions, our desires.

And if you say, well, you know what?

I don't know if I'm walking in the flesh.

Well, there is a very good test in the book of Galatians that

talks about what are the fruit of the Spirit, what's the fruit of

the Spirit?

Love, joy, peace, long suffering, all these things that

are the opposite of what we see in this sinful life.

So if you want to have a test on whether or not you're responding

in the Spirit today or tomorrow or next week, you look to

that guide and say, is my life characterized by this type of love?

Is my life characterized by this type of patience?

Is my life characterized by this type of self control, by this

type of Meekness by this.

By this type of genuine concern and compassion for others?

Or is it all about me?

Is it all about that selfishness?

Well, if we're putting on Christ, our life is not about us.

It's about Him.

And if our life is about him, then it's about others.

And then he says something very interesting at the end of verse

14.

Here I tend to look at this verse and really be puzzled by what

this is all about.

But I. I believe that here he's telling us something amazing.

He says, make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust

thereof.

What is he saying?

He says, don't allow for anything to cause a temptation in

your life.

Now, temptations are gonna come from various directions, and

we can never necessarily understand where they're all gonna

come from and when they're gonna come.

But what he's telling us here is to not make a provision for the

flesh, to not allow ourselves to have a foothold, to not allow

ourselves to have this sin stronghold in our life that's gonna

hold us back.

So it would be like this, okay?

If I know that I struggle with something, I don't want to allow

that to have any place in my life so that I would be tempted to

go back and have a provision for the flesh, an open door, so to

speak.

There's things in our life that we need to get rid of.

We need to get as far away from sin as we possibly can.

And that's what he's talking about here at the end of Romans chapter

Romans 13 · chapter mention

13.

It's a very clear understanding that we should not

even allow any element of that flesh to come back in our life to

try to kill it, to try to cut it out.

The flesh is active, but the flesh is only as active as we allow

it to be.

So if I'm struggling or if someone's struggling with something,

maybe it's with what I'm looking at, okay?

I probably shouldn't put the things that I know are gonna make

me struggle right in front of my face.

I should do everything that I possibly can to remove that from

my life.

We have to allow God's power to allow us to walk properly.

Not to say that God's gonna remove every temptation from our

life, but we have to take steps in our life.

Guardrails sometimes is how I put it.

We have to put guardrails in our life to know that, hey, you know

what?

If I go down that route, I know that this is where I'm gonna

be tempted.

So I don't even want to go down that route.

You know, if I know that this person is a point of contention in

my life, and I know that this person is this way, and I know that

this is the conversation that's gonna happen, I need to be

very careful in how I deal with that person.

I need to be very careful in how I deal with the situation.

You know, if there's a substance that is causing me to sin,

I don't need to set up all those substances up on my table and

say, okay, these are all things that I'm gonna try to avoid,

but.

But I'm gonna put em up right in front of my face.

That's not a smart thing to do as a Christian.

It's not a wise thing to do as a Christian.

We have to avoid those things in our life that are causing us to

go back to those elements of the flesh.

The flesh is always going to be there.

But there's ways in which we can feed our flesh.

There's things that we can look at on our phones.

There's things that we can say, there's places that we can go,

there's substances that we can be around.

There's things that we can be associated with in our life that

can eventually cause.

Cause that flesh to be fed and lead us to a place where we don't

want to be as a believer.

So God is telling us in this passage to do everything that we

possibly can not to feed the flesh, not to give a provision for

the flesh.

Now, I want to take you to another passage of scripture that

I believe summarizes this concept very well.

And that's found in Titus, chapter two.

So keep your finger here in Romans, chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

And we're going to go to Titus chapter two.

So I know we've said a lot this morning.

We've talked about how we're supposed to live.

We're supposed to put on the new man, the spirit, and we're supposed

to throw away, cast away, the works of darkness, the works of the

flesh.

But how can we do that?

What happens when I don't do that?

What happens when I wake up in the morning and I get right into

my day?

I make a provision for the flesh, I turn into it over to my

flesh.

And I don't obey God today.

What do I do?

Am I.

Am I failure?

Am I done for?

Do I lose his good grace?

Well, look at Titus, chapter 2, verse 11.

Titus 2:11

Because here we see that everything that we have in our life,

whether it be our salvation, our sanctification, our purity, everything,

everything is because of the grace of God.

He says in verse 11, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation

hath appeared to all men.

So the grace of God, the gift of God, is what brings us the hope

of salvation.

I think we all can understand that here this morning.

It's not something that we do, it's not something that we earn.

It's by the grace of God we are saved because of the sacrifice

of Jesus Christ.

We are not saved because of our sacrifice.

But then oftentimes we think, yes, we're saved by Jesus sacrifice.

But I growing through my own work, my own efforts, or maybe who

I'm following here on this earth.

No, he says in verse 12, the very same grace that saves us, verse

12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we

should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present

world.

It's the grace of God that saves us, that also teaches us how

to live in this way that denies ungodliness or darkness, denies

the worldly lust.

And it teaches us how to live soberly, that seriously thinking

right about the right things, thinking properly, thinking properly,

righteously and godly in this present world.

The way that we do this is by trusting in the grace of God.

And when we stumble, we realize that we're in a process of

learning and God is teaching us.

So God saves us.

He shapes us, and then we know that he sends us.

He sends us out into the world.

He sends us to a place of service for Him.

But until we understand that it's God's grace that saves us, it's

God's grace that shapes us, and it's God's grace that sends us,

we're gonna think that we are something to be important in this

scenario.

Let me tell you, we're important in the scenario, in the

equation.

But if I think it's this, it's God plus my good works, then you

know what?

That's adding something to salvation.

If it's God plus my good works to my sanctification, I. I'm adding

something to the work of sanctification.

But what we see here is that it's all the work of God.

It's just us submitting to him and saying, lord, I want you to take

over in my life.

And that's what putting on Christ really means, submitting to

him, giving it all over to him, trusting in what he is going

to do in our life.

So Titus chapter 2, verses 11 and 12 tell us this beautiful thing.

Titus 2:11

And then he goes on to say in verse 14, who gave himself for us

that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself.

But peculiar, different people, zealous of good works.

That's where the zeal comes from.

That's when the passion comes in.

The passion comes in by understanding what God has done for

us.

And he separated us.

He's made us different.

How can we live differently in this world if we're copying everything

that the world does and loving the things that the world loves?

He says, no, we have to be different.

We have to desire him more than the things of this world.

So we go to other passages of Scripture.

Colossians, chapter three.

We started our service out this morning with this verse.

Colossians 3 says, if ye then be risen with Christ, if you're identified

with Christ in salvation, seek those things which are above where

Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

The Bible tells us where our desires should be.

On the things that honors Christ, on the things that glorify

Him.

Then he says, set your affection, set your heart on things

above, on the eternal things, not on the things of this earth.

For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also

appear with him in glory.

So the hope of all of this is that we have a bigger picture.

We have a bigger purpose.

We're going to be with our Savior one day.

There's going to be rewards for all of these things that we do

for him now.

But at the end of the day, he's telling us to set our hearts

on the things that he has his heart set on.

And I'm going to tell you that's sometimes a difficult thing

because I have my heart set on a lot of things.

I have places that I want to go.

I have things that I want to experience.

I have foods that I want to eat.

I have.

I have places.

And it doesn't mean that we're not going to get those things.

Hey, guess what?

You might surrender to the Lord and still take an awesome vacation

and have an awesome meal and do amazing things.

It's not that God wants to deny us from any pleasure in this

world.

That's not what he's saying.

He says to obtain the type of pleasure that he has created in the

right way, in the right time, in his will.

Folks, I'm going to tell you, there are times in our life where

we want the things that God wants for us, but we want it our

way on in our terms and, and in our timing and that's what wantonness

is.

That's what fleshly living is.

Fleshly living is.

I want this pleasure and I want it now.

And I don't want it with what God has called me to have it in.

I want to do it outside of the bonds of marriage, or I want to do

it outside of the way that God has called me to do this, or I want

to do it outside of this will and in this way.

And at the end of the day, what we see is that there's so many

people who don't understand that God wants us to have beautiful,

wonderful, grace filled lives, but at the same time he wants us

to follow him and do it in his way.

And that's what Romans 13 is all about.

It's about living a Christlike life around people who aren't living

Christ.

Like we live in a world today that for the most part is not Christ.

Like we live in a nation that still has Christian values.

But honestly, if you go out and many of you know this, you're

not going to see a lot of people living for Christ boldly.

Maybe they go to church, maybe they'll wear a cross around their

neck, maybe, maybe they won't do bad things.

But the Bible says that there's more to the Christian life

than just avoiding the bad.

It's putting on Christ.

It's allowing Christ to ooze out of every element of our life,

to shine through every crack in our life.

And that's what we're seeing here.

In Romans chapter 13, he ends with saying this.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh

to fulfill the lust thereof.

This doesn't mean that we're living outside of the world, okay?

I can't live outside of the world.

I'm in this world whether I like it or not, okay?

I have to deal with people, I have to deal with circumstances,

I have to deal with problems.

You know, as, as my kids get older, I used to be able to like,

shelter them.

Like, they didn't hear anything, they didn't know anything

that was bad.

But you know, now they're more aware and we're walking out in public

and they see things that are not Christlike, they hear things

that are not Christlike.

And what I'm tempted to do is just try to like plug their ears

everywhere I go and cover their eyes and go, all right, we're

walking in here.

But you can't do that, right?

You know, obviously you want to avoid as much sin as you can,

but there are places that you can avoid.

So as a Christian, what does that mean for us?

Well, it doesn't mean that we try to live outside of the world.

We're in the world, but we're not of the world.

And so that's an opportunity for us as a husband and wife to teach

our children that, yes, there are going to be people who do certain

things, but there's a way that we need to see that through the lens

of being a Christian.

Like that person is not doing the right thing.

But we don't hate them.

We teach them that they need the gospel, that that's something

that they're doing because they're away from God or they don't

know God.

And that's the same thing with us in our life.

How do we deal with evil around us?

Well, we don't try to live with blinders on and plug our ears

everywhere we go, because if we do that, then we're not able to

influence those people that need Jesus.

But at the same time, we don't go join all those people in their

evil and say, well, I'm doing this evil to try to make them good.

No, we live boldly for Christ in front of them, not avoiding them,

but we live boldly for Christ in that manner.

So that's how we don't give provision to the flesh.

Provision of the flesh as well.

I used to struggle with that.

I know that if I do this, it's going to cause me to do this, but

I'm just going to, like, maybe I won't do it fully, but I'm just

gonna put my toe in the water.

It's the classic analogy of this.

And none of you have asked me this, but let's say hypothetically,

some of you did.

You came up to me and you said, pastor, as a Christian, how

much can I do without sinning?

How close to the line can I get?

You know, like, how much can I watch on tv?

How much can I take in my body?

How much can I say that's not a sin?

You know, that's.

That's a lot of people ask that question because they want to

know how much they can do without sinning.

And I think the right question should be, as a Christian, according

to Romans 13, is how much can I not do?

Like, how far away can I get from that sin so that I'm not even

close to that anymore?

Now we have Christian liberty, which we're going to talk about in

Romans chapter 14, which is a difficult conversation to have, especially

Romans 14 · chapter mention

if we're not in Full understanding of what that's even

all about, which we're going to get to next week.

But what I'm saying is this.

Let's say there's this line of sin, right?

There's this line of sin right here.

I don't know what sin it is in your mind, create it in your own

mind, okay?

There's this line of sin.

And as a human being, I am going to stumble in my life.

All of us are going to stumble.

All of us are gonna have moments of weakness in our flesh.

And so if I'm toeing the line and I'm like, look, I'm not sinning.

I'm really close to it.

Everyone look at how close to sin that I can get without sinning.

I've got my Christian liberty and I stumble in the flesh, what

happens?

I'm over that line.

Oh, I never thought.

I never thought I would get here, but I'm only one step away

from it.

Instead of saying, you know what?

I have the freedom to get right here.

I probably do, and I'm not sinning.

But as a Christian who is discerning and not giving a provision

of the flesh, I probably should in a wise way, take multiple

steps away from that so that when my flesh is.

Is weak, I'm not at a place where I'm crossing over the line

and falling into a place that is going to be a condemnation to

my own self, but also to the name of God.

Now, I know that we don't live in condemnation in Jesus Christ,

but at the same time, there's things that we can do to bring shame

upon the Lord.

The Bible talks about grieving the Holy Spirit.

So at the same time, as a Christian, I think all of us should

realize that it's about not giving ourselves that provision of

the flesh so that we can avoid those things in our life that cause

us shame, that cause us what we would consider to be a place of

dishonor before the Lord.

And so that's the call.

The call is not to live a good life so that people will think we're

good.

The call is not to be a good citizen so that people will say,

look how great so and so is.

The call is to live that Christ like life so that we can have

a testimony to reach people and.

And do what God has called us to do in the Great Commission to

reach people for Christ.

That's the idea of Romans 13.

That's the idea of the whole book of Romans.

Know what God has done for you in his salvation.

And then Romans 12:on is all about how we're supposed to live.

So we're going to talk next time about Christian liberty.

We're going to go through Romans 14, and it's going to be difficult

because with Christian liberty means that there's going to be two

people that are not sinning, but they're going to have some conflict

maybe.

Well, I think you shouldn't do this.

Well, I think you should do this.

We're going to talk about how, biblically speaking, we're to deal

with that matter of Christian liberty.

Again, I think that it's a difficult topic to talk about, so

I encourage you to come back next week and look at that.

But what we're going to look at here this morning, and this is

what we're going to conclude with, is that idea of waking up.

Waking up to what God has called us to do what?

Waking up to the fact that we are in an evil world.

Waking up to the fact that we can possibly be wasting our time.

Waking up to the fact that there is a purpose and that there

is hope and that there is a call for us to live differently in

this present world and that God can teach us.

God can teach us what we can do in our lives to be more and more

like him.

So you could put it this way.

God calls us to walk honestly, to put on Christ and to make no provision

of the flesh.

That's a characteristic of Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

You could put it this way.

It's wake up, clean up and dress up, okay?

Wake up to what God has for you in your life.

Clean up according to the Spirit of God, and then put on that

newness of life, put on that new walk.

And so for some of us, we're at that new stage of our Christian

walk.

We're just trying to figure out what's going on.

I'm going to tell you that there is.

There is hope in that because God's going to teach you.

That's what we saw in Titus Chapter two.

He saves us by his grace, and he teaches us by his grace what it

means to live boldly for Christ.

The travesty.

The problem is, is that we have people that have been living

for 50 years as a Christian, or 70 years as a Christian or whatever

it is that necessarily haven't grown at the rate that they should

grow, or maybe 10 years or 20 years, whatever it is, the idea would

be for us is that sometimes our sleep, our slumbering, our laziness,

our apathy has caused us not to properly grow to a place in Our

life where we're maturing to the place where God has intended

us to be.

And there's passages of scripture that we'll talk about next

time about that.

It's.

Some people should have been on the meat, or they couldn't get

on the meat because they were still needing the milk.

And there is a really, really important distinction that we need

to make as a believer.

Okay, yes, I'm saved, but that doesn't mean that I'm done working.

Yes, I'm saved, but that doesn't mean that I'm done growing.

So we have to make a distinction between, yes, God has

saved me, but now the challenge is to take that next step

in my Christian walk.

And then after I take that next step, it's the next step, and

it's the next step.

And then hopefully there is a time in our life that we say, okay,

the Christian life is not all just about me growing, but it's about

how many other people I can reach, how many other people I can.

I can disciple, how many other people I can teach, how many other

people I can encourage.

And that's what the Christian life is all about.

And I think all of us understand that this world is evil.

And if we're not careful, we're going to leave the church worse

than we found it.

We don't want to do that.

We don't want to leave our next generation in a worse place.

We actually should leave them in a better place.

We should leave them in a place where more biblically literate.

We should leave them in a place more biblically encouraged.

We should leave them in a place where they're understanding

the grace of God even better than we understood it, so that they

can pass that on, and they can pass that on until the Lord returns.

And so that's the understanding that this whole passage

is about.

It's about taking what we have in our life and living a certain

way so that other people's lives are effective for Jesus Christ.

So the question might be for you this morning, are you awake?

Some of you physically might not be awake right now.

And I heard a preacher preaching this one time.

He, like, came up and he was, like, talking really monotone for

like, five minutes and very quiet all of a sudden.

Then he started yelling and smacking the pulpit and saying, wake

up.

I won't do that this morning.

But what I will say is that sometimes we do need to wake up.

And I'm not talking about physically waking up.

I'm talking about spiritually waking up.

And we're in this world today and the world around us is happening.

Evil is unfolding.

And we're sitting here going, wow, man.

We're just going to complain about it.

Complaining about, you know, I can sit, I look at.

Okay, I'll give you an analogy of this.

I stand in front of the mirror and complain about, man, you know,

I need to lose some weight.

I need to be in shape, I need to do this.

And I can sit there all day and look at that mirror and complain

about it.

But that complaining is not going to change anything.

It's going to take a decision of action to say, I need to start

eating healthy.

I need to stop eating junk food.

I need to stop doing all this stuff.

I need to stop sitting on my couch all day.

Like, there's things that I must do to get to the place where

I desire to be.

It's the same thing as a Christian.

I can't look at the world and say, this world is so evil, I'm just

gonna complain about it, man.

Let's get together as Christians and complain more about

how evil the world is.

Well, we could do that, or we could come together as Christians

and say, how can we affect the world around us for the cause of

the gospel?

Overcome evil with good instead of evil with evil.

And I think that's something for us to apply to our lives as believers

here today.

Let's go ahead and have a time of reflection, time of introspection,

a time of invitation.

If you're able to stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed,

we're going to have a time of invitation here.

Now, during this time of invitation, the challenge really

is this.

Are you awake?

Are you ready?

Have you allowed distractions?

The things of this world, the flesh of this world, the desires

of this world, pull you away from what God has called you to do?

You might say, I don't even know what God's called me to do.

Well, the first step that God's called you to do is believe

and trust in him.

He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should

come to repentance.

So the first step of taking a step in the will of God is to take

a step of salvation, to take a step of faith to start your relationship

with God.

But if you've done that already, the next step is what?

What's taking a step of growth?

It's taking a step of whatever it might be for you to say, I'm trusting

in God today.

I'm not going to allow this thing to control my life.

I'm not going to be defined by this thing that I failed in in my

life.

I'm gonna be defined by what Jesus says, and that is that I am

a child of the King, that I have hope in him, that I have confidence

in him, and that I have salvation in him.

Folks, sometimes we just need to be reminded of that.

How many of us would say that we're wasting our time?

I think all of us to some degree, waste our time.

I know for me what's speaking to my heart today is that sometimes

I replace something that isn't bad.

It might even be a good thing.

But I put it before the Lord.

And a good thing, if it becomes the first thing above Christ,

becomes a bad thing.

And maybe it's something in your life that's not an open rebellion

to God, maybe it's not an open sin, but it's become the first thing

and it's taken priority, it's taken precedent over what God has

called you to do in your life.

Maybe that's something today that you can get right with him.

Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working

hearts and life.

So there's someone here today who doesn't know you as Savior, maybe

walking in their own flesh, walking in their own way, their own

desires.

I pray that today can be the day of salvation.

But Lord, if there's Christians here today who need to

be reminded to wake up to what's around them, to wake up to

the evil, to wake up to the temptation, to wake up to the distractions.

Lord, I pray that today can be the day of renewal and revival in

the hearts of the church.

I pray that we can see the importance of what you've called

us to do and see the dangers of what this world brings.

And may we cast that off and put on the armor of light.

May we cast off the darkness and put on the truth.

Lord, may we rest in you and submit ourselves to you in every

element of our life.

Lord, I pray that we can see your work and see the fruit of your

work through us here at Middletown Baptist Church.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working

hearts and lives.

We ask all those things in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays follows the Lord leads here this morning.