Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ (Part 6)
October 16, 2008 7:09 am Chapter 13, Romans, Sermon-Texts
This is the sixth week of our fall sermon series, “Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ” dealing with Romans 12-16. Part 6, this week, is titled “Living in Light of the Day” and works with Romans 13:11-14 addressing the age we live in, the coming day of the Lord, and the armor we wear as Christians. This sermon was originally preached October 12th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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October 12th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“Life in Light of the Day”
Romans 13:11-14
Introduction
Good morning. So we’re half way through our fall series, Viva La Vida. Today we finish up with chapter 13 in the book of Romans. This week’s sermon title is “Living in Light of the Day.” I begin today with a part of the story written by John Bunyan called “Pilgrim’s Progress.”
The main character of Pilgrim’s Progress is a man named “Christian.” Christian is on a journey, taking a trip from a place called, “City of Destruction” to a new home, a place called the “Celestial City.” The journey is treacherous and there are many obstacles to overcome. There’s the “Slough of Despond” a miry swamp one easily sinks into under the weight of guilt. There’s the “Doubting Castle” he must pass through, where the “Giant Despair” lives and the only way out is with a key called “Promise.” There are valleys and rivers and places of rest and places of great danger and difficulty. Christian is traveling according to a map given to him by some shepherds. The map guides him on a path called “The King’s Highway.” In the second part of the book Christian’s family is following him with the help of a guide and while on the King’s Highway they go through the “Enchanted Ground.” While there here is what they experience there…
“By this time they got to the Enchanted Ground, where the air naturally tended to make one drowsy. The place was all grown over with briers and thorns…where was an enchanted arbour (a shaded spot for resting), upon which, if a man sits, or if a man sleeps, some say they shall never rise or wake again in this world…Now, when it was light, their guide could well enough tell how to miss those ways that led wrong, yet, in the dark, he was put to a test; but he had in his pocket a map of all ways leading to or from the Celestial City: therefore he struck a light (for he never went anywhere without his matchbox), and took a view of his map, which in all probability, without it they would have been smothered in the mud; for just a little way before them, and that at the end of the cleanest way too, was a pit–none knows how deep–full of nothing but mud, there made on purpose to destroy the pilgrims who fell into it.
And they came to an arbour and there lay two men whose names were Heedless and Too-Bold. These two went thus far on pilgrimage; but here, being wearied with their journey, they sat down to rest themselves, and so fell fast asleep. When the pilgrims saw them, they stood still and shook their heads; for they knew that the sleepers were in a pitiful case. Then they consulted what to do: whether to go on and leave them in their sleep, or to step to them and try to awake them. So they concluded to go to them and wake them–that is, if they could; but with this caution, namely, to take heed that they themselves did not sit down, nor embrace the offered benefit of that arbour.
(They tried desperately but the two men refused to wake. Then the guide struck up a light and) now they could see one another better, and the way they should walk. (Now, when they were almost through the forest and they came upon a man who was kneeling down and praying. So they went up to him quietly and waited for him to finish. After praying the man got up and looked walked ahead down the path to a clearing. Everyone followed him and when they got to the clearing they could see it at last, the Celestial City so close. And they all began to run.)”
I start out with that story this morning because it captures some key elements of our text in Romans today. The analogies or parallels between the Christian life being a journey fighting sleep and walking in the light. The key theme or thrust of our passage today is urgency, that there is urgency or incumbency for immediate action. There are two main bases for ethics within Christianity. One is what we talked about last week, the eternal law of love. The other is the future, eschatology, what is ahead for us that is supposed to have a profound effect on how we live now.
Well, let’s read our text and pray over it.
Lord God would you help us today to gain much from your Word. For many of us would it fill out our view of our lives and the world we live in, how we live in it, and who we’re living for. Would it further mature us as individuals and the moral quality of our lives and would it inspire us as a community together support each other and walk together in the light, armor and person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
The Age We Are In - A Time Between Time (vs. 11-12a)
I have three main points we’ll move through today as we work with this Bible passage, “The Age We Are In,” “The Apocalypse to Come.” and “The Armor We Wear.” The first point comes from verse 11 and the first part of verse 12 and this issue of time and being a Christian.
Look at all the time references here. We “know the time.” “The hour has come.” “Salvation is nearer to us now.” “The night is far gone.” And “The day is at hand.” That’s five time references in one and half verses.
Time. Time has a lot to do with what it means to be human and what it means to be a Christian. God is outside of time but he created time when he created the world. God’s creation and the people he made and saves is the big story, that is the essence of true history. It is the story of who God is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he has ahead.
There are two main time or age references in the Bible as I have taught you in the past. There is the old age, the age dominated by sin and evil since the garden of Eden, and there is the new age, the age of salvation free of sin and full of goodness that continues into heavenly eternity.
We spoke about that new age two weeks ago when we looked at how this chapter of Romans talks about the Christian’s relationship to the state. We learned the Christian is truly only a citizen, only a true part of one ruling government, a theocracy, where Jesus rules and reigns as King. We Christians believe Jesus is not just a spiritual crutch for the weak but is a real person who really came into this world as a God-man, who will really return, and when he does he will return not displaying his humility as a poor peasant carpenter but displaying his heavenly right and power as the king of all kings and he will set-up a physical kingdom here on earth.
So what we have are two ages or times, the age of the past and the age of the future. All of history falls into one of those two ages. Now here’s the deal, look at the text. The time and the hour has come. The reason the time and the hour has come is because Jesus has come, Jesus came into the world and he lived life the way it is supposed to be. The life of love for everyone, the life without sin, the life of continually giving God glory and thanks…and then Jesus died for death, the death we deserve for not living life right. When Jesus did that he dealt with sin and evil and he initiated or started the new age. So it’s begun since Jesus, the new future age.
But sin and evil are still all around a lot right? And salvation hasn’t yet fully happened right? You see salvation is mostly in regards to the future in the Bible, like here. Salvation is nearer. It’s not here yet, but it’s close. Salvation is to be saved from something…something bad that we don’t want to happen to us…that the wrath and judgment of God.
Sometimes we talk about already being saved, like Romans 8:24 and a few other passages do. When we talk that way as Christians what we are essentially talking about is being declared saved, we’ve received the hope or promise of salvation from God for our belief in Jesus. We are justified or made right with God through Jesus already through faith. We have a deposit of the Holy Spirit given to us. In that sense we are already saved, because God has already begun his work in us. We are saved now because have the security of being saved in the future.
Other times the Bible talks about salvation happening right now, like in 1 Corinthians 1:18 when it calls Christians “those who are being saved.” We actually get a sense of that here in our text for today don’t we? Salvation, the future, is nearer to us, since when? Since we “first believed.” When we first believed a process of purification or sanctification began in us, where we become less and less attracted to and entangled in sin and more and more attracted to and enraveled in righteousness. That’s the part of the Christian life which is a journey or is a process where progress is made…the being saved part, being saved from sin and wickedness in us.
Then there is the future, when we will all actually and physically be saved. There will be real danger, an eternity danger and we will escape it because of Jesus and will receive entrance into the Celestial City of joy and peace.
Now what we learn from this is that we live in an in-between time, a time between time, an already but not yet time (hand gesture). As Christians we’re a part of the new age to come, the future age of Jesus and his rule and reign. But we’re still also part of old age, the age of lingering sin and evil in us and around us. That creates some tension. I believe many many of the problem and difficulties you and I experience in this life as a Christian have to do with this tension. And that is the reason I believe God inspired this passage of Scripture for us…to teach us how to deal with the tension.
Essentially this passage calls us to put our attention and our focus on to the reality of the future age…Who we really are and what is really ahead for us in Christ. It is so easy for us as Christians just to live life the old way, like we are still just fully in the old age, but we’re not. Jesus has come…he has come into this world and into our lives and that changes things.
When we don’t realize this the analogy the Bible gives here is sleep, it is as though we have fallen asleep and forgotten what is really going on. Like the two men in The Pilgrim’s Progress, we can fall prey to an enchantment where the air and the age we live in can tend to make us drowsy and cause us to forget the reality of who God is, who we are as sinful humans, who Jesus is as God’s son, and the great significance of what Jesus has done for us.
This text stands as a wake up call to us to rise from our sleep. Sleep is an interesting thing. There was an interesting movie out not too ago called, “The Science of Sleep” where Stéphane, the main character becomes confused between what is real life and what he is actually dreaming. Have you guys ever had that experience? When you wake up and you can’t figure out if you’re dreaming or it’s real life?
Maybe you saw another movie, a little bit older, called “Waking Life.” It’s about a young man who is in this constant lucid dream like state. In it he listens to and participates in various philosophical discussions about things like reality, free will, our relationships with others, the meaning of life, existentialism, situation ethics and a whole host of other things.
Sleep. Have you fallen asleep? Are you walking through life just ignoring the real, lasting, eternal things as though you are asleep?
Sleep. Everyone sleeps. You cannot not sleep. The most I have ever gone without sleep was when I was in graduate school and I stayed awake for four days toward the end of writing my master’s thesis. I became a raving lunatic. My neck hurt so bad from bending over reading and typing, that I took a whole stack of books and set my computer on top of them so that I could just type while looking up. Amy thought I had completely gone nuts.
The Guiness World Book of Records says a man named Randy Gardner holds the record for not sleeping the longest. He stayed awake for 11 days before he crashed out. Everyone sleeps. And the Bible takes this common experience, sleep, and says that is what is like when live like God is not Lord of this world, that history is going somewhere, and that Jesus is who he said he was and will do what he said he would do.
I’ll give you another illustration. Have you ever tried to help someone? To really help someone? You give a listening ear and do your best to understand who they are and where they are coming from and what’s going on with them…and even still after all that it is just so clear to you what’s going on with them and what they need to do…but they just won’t listen. You just want to take the person and shake them and yell at them “WAKE UP!!!”
The other day I got in a conversation with a guy who is a senior in high school. He’s about to flunk out because he never goes to class. And the only thing the guy cares to talk about is gang’s. He wants to be in the SA’s. A big gang here in San Diego. This young man wants to be in the SA’s because “nobody messes with them, because if you do, they’ll kill your whole family in front of you.” I tried to tell the dude, “WAKE UP!” That’s what you want? People to be afraid of you because you will kill their family?! WAKE UP!
I actually feel like this a lot. Like the mission of my life is to call us all to WAKE UP! The realities of this world, of our lives, of our sin, of Jesus are so plain…and yet we so often refuse to wake up and get in gear.
The Apocalypse to Come - Jesus, Judgment and Redemption (vs.12-13a)
Well, after informing us that this is the age and hour of salvation and so we need to wake up, this text follows that positive call with a warning of judgment. This my second point for today, “The Apocalypse to Come.”
Look at verse 12 again, “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.” We’ll talk about clothes and armor and light in a minute, but first look at the contrast here between the night and the day.
Both the time when this book of the Bible was written and the culture of the land it was originally written to has a lot to do with this night and day stuff. They did not have the modern convenience of artificial lighting powered by electricity like we do today. All society was governed by the sun. Thus most people rose at dawn, just before the first glimpse of daylight. This was especially needed because in the middle east it gets really hot in the afternoon, so they would try and get the bulk of their work done early before the heat of the day.
Only slackers, fools, did not get up at the crack of dawn to work. You know these guys. A lot of dudes are like that in our day…living at his parent’s house playing video games until 4am and then sleeping in until noon.
That’s the wrong idea about life. The daytime is for working and the nighttime is for sleeping. The day is at hand! It’s time wake up and get up! The night is over. Look at verse 13, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime.” A parallel between righteous living and unrighteousness living. Between sin-free Jesus goodness living and guilt-infested evil living. The impetus or the thing propelling this urgency is “the day.”
Now the two words, “the day” was a technical phrase for Jews. Several of the Old Testament prophets talk about “the day.” It has two parts, a good part and a bad part. The bad part is it is the dark and furious wrathful judgment of God. Joel 1:15 says, “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.”
We learned just a few weeks ago at the end of Romans 12 that we are not to repay evil for evil because God says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord.” God is the judge of all and he promises in his word that no one guilty will ever get away with wrongdoing. He will judge and repay, so we are not supposed to personally retaliate against people. When will he do that? Because it sure seems like a lot of people are getting away with a lot of stuff right! When’s it going to happen? The day. The great day of the Lord. It’s going to be a dark day for many.
For those who have already died, the Bible teaches the Lord will raise up from the dead, because on “the day” everybody gets an immortal body, one that will not die. For the unrepentant, they will then be judged and experience an unending punishment in their body which cannot be killed. That’s an intense judgment.
For others “the day” will be a glorious day, when all sin and evil will finally be vanquished forever and ever. No more tears and sorrow, no more pain and seeming injustice, no more hurt just peace and joy in the presence of a good good God which will not end. Jesus will descend and sit on his throne and life the way it should be will be full at last. That’s the good part of the day.
There’s a good side and a bad side of the day depending on which side you stand on. If you’re on the side with Jesus, it’s a good day. If you’re not on the side with Jesus, it’ll be a bad day for you, one that won’t end. It will be the great and terrible apocalypse to come.
Now, I’ll try to avoid both the Kurt Vonnegut and Kirk Cameron end of things regarding end times stuff. But I do want to give us some eschatological, end times guidelines. People often seem to like to get attracted to the fanatical end of things and start imagining all kinds of crazy stuff into the Bible. Stuff like the book of Revelation (singular), talking about helicopters and people disappearing and all kinds of wild stuff. Some churches even get all fanatic about the end times and what’s going on in Israel and start trying to predict all this stuff.
Any time people get more excited about some spiritual fantasy of what could be in the future and they are more into that than Jesus himself you know its dangerous and wrong. It’s an ancient form of Gnosticism which loves “secret knowledge” rather than the clearly revealed knowledge of Jesus in the Bible.
So how are we as Christians supposed to view end times stuff? Ultimately, we do not know all the details, we only know what the Bible clearly says. So what does the Bible clearly say?
1. Christians win. God is good. He is in control of what happens. And we win. There will joy and peace for all believers in Jesus.
2. Total judgment. There will be judgment for those who refuse to be sorry for their lives and turn to Christ and change. We must confess our sins and turn to Jesus (1 Jn 1:9).
3. Unpredictable. Jesus himself said no one knows the day or the hour when it is going to happen (Mk 13:32). So the moment anybody starts predicting a certain time when it’s going to happen you know you got a false Jesus prophet on your hands who really doesn’t love Jesus.
4. Constant readiness. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 ” The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” You must get right with God now. We must wake up now.
This is the main point of all the end times stuff is for us to get right with God, to embrace the provision of his Son and a righteous life while God’s grace is being extended. As our text says, salvation is nearer, the hour has come, this is the time, the day is at hand…it is around the corner. This text is meant to stab us awake! Yes, in some senses to scare us.
Maybe you think that’s wrong. I know for some of you it makes you really uncomfortable whenever I talk about hell. There is a natural uneasiness with the subject. Yet it is one of the principle things which makes someone lost…you are lost if you think there will be no punishment. The consideration of hell is actually one of the first things which tends to rouse sleeping sinners. That’s why I try and mention hell at least once in every one of my sermons.
Let me ask you a question…Is it not a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house of fire? The most unloving thing I could do for you as a pastor is to never mention hell or the judgment of God. There are consequences and they will come if you do not repent.
But maybe that sounds manipulative to you. Like fear should never be a right motive. But I say is fear always bad? A sinful fear makes men afraid to come to God. A right fear makes men afraid to go [away] from him. A right fear of God fears not experiencing the love of Jesus and being close to him. I am terrified of any life outside of the love and acceptance of Christ.
Listen, all people want to avoid pain and cultivate pleasure. As Pascal once noted, even the man who hangs himself does so on want and hope of a happier and better life. The gospel does not deny us pleasures but on the contrary brings legitimate ones which actually have the effect of heightening pleasure rather than destroying it because in the gospel both reason and conscience are brought into harmony.
Oh how dangerous is sleepiness, lethargy, apathy! It is perhaps one of the most evil things in existence. I have had several friends who just get stuck. They get so engrossed in how they feel or what they don’t feel that they refuse to move forward and embrace the provisions of the gospel.
Do you get apathetic? Do you ever feel like not doing anything? Where you just lack motivation? God seems distant…it’s hard to see the purpose or immediate benefit of doing the things you know you should. You feel slow and groggy and find yourself gravitating towards people and things you know are not good for you?
I feel like that at times. I don’t know a person who doesn’t experience or have to fight apathy? We all do. The question is whether you fight it or not? This text by calling us out of our moral drowsiness and is meant to stab us awake so that we might live in the life and light of Christ.
The Armor We Wear - The Light of Christ (vs. 13b-14)
Maybe you’re there right now. You hear what I’m saying audibly with your ears and you know that’s you. You lack a passion for God. You can’t remember the last time you spent one on one time with him, reading his word and praying. You haven’t really been paying much attention to your life and how you’re living. You know that’s where you are.
And maybe you hear me and you think one of two things. Maybe you think…I don’t know what it’s like to be you and been where you’ve been and go through what you’re going through. Maybe, maybe that’s true. Or you think I’m just some freak with a bunch of emotional baggage who deal with it by yelling at a bunch of people every Sunday. Maybe that’s true too.
Or maybe a third option. Maybe you hear what I’m saying and you don’t just hear with your ears but you hear it in your soul and you know it’s true. You know you’ve been neglecting yourself and the Lord and the people around you and you know you need Jesus and you’re just not sure what to do. What do you do?
If that is you, I’m glad you’re here because we are in one of the most practical sections of the book of Romans that gives us a lot of clear instruction and aid. Let’s look at our text, this is our last main point for today, “The Armor We Wear.” “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.”
There’s three real practical things here. One is a reference to clothing. See those words “cast off” and “put on.” “Cast off works of darkness.” “Put on armor of light.” “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s getting dressed words. Take off, put on. Take off, put on. You do this every day with what you wear. At the end of the day you take off some clothes and the beginning of the next day you put other ones on. At several jobs in our city you have to wear a uniform to work there. Or maybe it is just expected that you show up in a suit. But there is a certain attire for the job.
That is the idea here…that every day you live as a Christian is like this. We must take off our old evil age clothes and works and put on the new Jesus age clothes of light and life. That’s the first thing. Every day you must get dressed as a Christian. Remember what clothes you’ve been given, don’t go back to wearing old out of style clothes that are not fit for the task at hand.
The second thing here is in this word “armor.” Armor is obviously a military term. It calls to mind, the worldview of the Christian which views this life, the time-between-the-time as a time of war, we are in a spiritual warfare battle. Ephesians 6 tells us we are in a spiritual battle against sin and we must fight.
If you think that being a Christian was going to be or is easy, you’re wrong. It’s hard and it’s going to take some hard work. Some of our resident military guys who have been over to Iraq can tell you, they act different when they’re over there. There is a wartime mentality. We have to think like that as Christians…it’s wartime. My third personal resolution which hangs in front of my desk in my office says this, “I Resolve to Consider Life on Earth War.” From the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep life is war against our flesh and sin and temptation all around us.
How do you fight? You put on the armor? What is the armor? It is light, armor of light. And then verse 14 expands on what this armor of light is. It is Jesus himself. Look at it. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” At the end of verse 12 we’re to put on the armor of light and at the beginning of verse 14 we learn that this armor of light is Jesus himself!
Paul puts it another way in Ephesians 5:12 he says this, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” You see the works of darkness are death. When you live and walk in them they are death to you.
The idea with walk is that this world is just our temporary home. You will live however many years God has determined for you to live here and then you will live forever in your permanent home. We used to sing a song in church when I was a kid…I don’t remember the title of it but the chorus said, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, my treasures are laid out, somewhere beyond the blue the angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” We are just walking through on our way to the Celestial City and how we walk matters.
We get six things listed here which the Bible states are clearly works of darkness and death that will kill you and keep you from reaching the great city and instead you will fall under the wrath of the day. These things are what the light of Christ shines on showing to be darkness and death. When you put on Jesus his light will make you feel uncomfortable about some things. Here’s sex…they come in pairs.
Interestingly, the first two pairs are things which actually usually only happen at night time in our culture. The ESV has “orgies and drunkenness” and “sexual immorality and sensuality.” The first word the ESV has as “orgies” is probably more likely “wild parities where you let loose” since it is coupled with drunkenness. The next set is literally sex with anyone you are not married to and the word sensuality here means indecency or debauchery or licentiousness…it’s being physically loose and morally uncontrolled.
These things are huge here in San Diego and they are huge for some of you in our church. You got to know these things are sin. They are not okay. They are extremely displeasing to God and destructive to yourselves.
The hard thing is it would be so much easier to not say anything. Because when I call people out on this stuff whether in person one on one or from up here when I’m talking… If you are getting drunk, doing drugs, being sexually active with someone you’re not married to and I say something about, there is a huge probability that you are not going to like it, feel like I’m judging you, and likely leave the church.
I know this because it has happened. I’ll be straight up honest with you. We had some of our core church members, people who had been around for over a year, who we loved and spent much time with…we had core people leave the commitment and community of our church this last year because of talking to them about these exact things…having sex with people their not married to, repeated drunkenness, and drug addiction.
It is really hard for me to talk about this stuff because I don’t want to be the bad guy and we’re trying to grow this church so I know I take a risk when I call people out on these things…but when it comes down to it the Bible is really clear here and I care more about honoring the Bible and Jesus being pleased with me as a pastor then I do about you liking me.
So I say this with the utmost love for you. Sex with people you are not married to and getting drunk (which I believe includes the recreational experience of drugs), is evidence that you’re walking on the dark road to hell and I fear for you life eternally unless you wake up and truly put on Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.
And just to be sure and to be clear…it’s not that we’re against sex and alcohol. I love sex and I love beer. I like having sex and beer as often as I can. God made sex and is glorified by husbands and wives having sex with each other. I love having sex with my wife. It’s great! And I love beer, especially dark beers and pale ales. God made alcohol, Jesus drank it, and he is glorified when we enjoy it by not drinking too much of it as G.K. Chesterton said. Drinking is not sin, drunkenness is.
Everything is beautiful and enjoyable if you do it God’s way and not your own way. The last couplet here I think is for the other type of people in the room. You see there are two types of sinners. We’re all sinners. Some fall in sin just because they get caught in these traps of doing immoral things they know are wrong. Others fall in sin because they are really good at restraining themselves and not doing those kind things and then this happens…they get proud and look down on everyone else and think they are better because they don’t do those things.
Here’s what usually happens if you’re in that camp. One, you probably tend to get into a lot of arguments with people. Why? Because you’re always justifying yourself, saying why you’re right and the other person is wrong. You’re a quarreler. It is the hardest thing for you to actually listen to another person and learn something from them because you tend to think everyone else is wrong and you’re always right.
The funny thing is people on this side of things tend to be very angry at other people. Why? Because they are jealous. They work so hard at not doing all the bad stuff…but the whole time they wish they could be free and do that stuff too because it looks like everyone else is having all the fun. So you just take it out on them. Quarrelling and jealousy is not good and is just as sinful and evil as sexual immorality and drunkenness. So cast those things off and put on Jesus.
Okay, so we got two things so far on how we walk in the daytime, not sleeping through life. One, we get dressed in Jesus each day. Two, we cast off dark works. And three, the last one…we plan properly.
Look at the last part of verse 14, “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify it’s desires.” What this is talking about is where you do not think ahead of time.
I’ll give you a couple examples. Since we’re talking about drinking, it’s an easy one. If you decide you’re going to go out with some friends or go to a part and you don’t decide beforehand how your going to drink, how much you’re going to have, and how much money you’re going to spend…you’re setting yourself up to fail. You’re making a provision for the flesh to gratify it’s desires.
How about sexual immorality. If you’re hanging out with a girl that’s not your wife and you’re all alone in a house or an apartment and you think that maybe laying down on the couch together to watch a movie is a good idea…it’s not. You’re going to make it very difficult for yourself to resist sexually enjoying yourself with her. Or how about for married people…it’s even easier. You don’t spend any time alone with people of the opposite sex who you are not married to because if you do you are opening the door for a relationship that belongs only with your husband or wife. That’s not wise. You’re making a provision for potential sin.
Now for some of you…I think this one applies. I have friends, people I care about deeply who are just stuck in their traps and patterns of sin and can’t seem to get out. Here’s why…bad company. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Bad company ruins good morals.” If you’re trying to change your life and the way you live and behave but all your closest friends…the people you spend the most time with…are all caught up into all the things you are trying not to do. It’s going to be very difficult. You’re making a provision for the flesh. Some of you just need to stop spending time with people and maybe even cut off relationship with some people for awhile because they are not good people for you.
So we have three things the armor of light in Jesus enables us see and fight with, so we don’t fall asleep. One, we get dressed in Jesus each day. Jesus is our identity. Two, we cast off dark works. We learn to love righteousness and hate wickedness. And three, we plan properly not making provisions for the flesh, not setting ourselves up to fail.
Conclusion
Okay, so this has been a little bit longer sermon. Let’s end it. I started out reading from “The Pilgrim’s Progress” today. I’ll just end with a simple question. Are you making progress? For each and every one of us who are Christians here, let’s ask ourselves are we making progress? Are we growing and maturing and becoming more and more like Jesus, putting him on more, walking more in his light? Or do you find yourself asleep? Getting caught up in the works of darkness and getting stuck in the enchanted forest. Are you just stuck?
Do you have your eyes set on the Celestial City? Does the fast approaching day give you motivation to run and press forward? Is there an urgency to your faith? Are you afraid of hell and excited for heaven? What is it Jesus armor of light needs to shine light on in you? Where do you need change in your life? You can’t change on your own…you need Jesus.
Let’s go to Jesus’ table and spend some time in prayer and reflection and thanks and receive the grace he gives us in this special communion.