Well, just as a fair warning for you sitting in this section over here, I was just told I have a great habit of, when I speak, looking in this direction. So if you do not want the evil eye, you might want to get up and move over here or there.
No, actually, I told the brother, I said the reason I do that is my neck turns easier to the left than it does to the right. So, that is just the way some things work.
Before we get started, I just wanted to share something. You know, when I got up this morning, I kind of felt a heaviness. That is probably not too unusual to you brothers that share up here, to maybe feel something a little heavy. But it just was different.
And I do not know if it has to do with what we are going to talk about—it probably does. But anyway, I say all that to say, when I looked at the email that was sent out, I was immediately encouraged. When it said, “May He be pleased. May He be blessed,” you know, that is really my burden of what I want to share this morning: that He would be pleased. He would be pleased with us.
Recently, we have been sharing around these phrases that we find in the Scriptures, in particular in the NASB, of laying aside, or putting off, and putting on.
On three occasions already, we have shared first out of Hebrews 12:1. That one says:
Let us lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.
Then the next time, we looked at these phrases in Colossians 3, and they are found in verses 9 and 10. They read:
Do not lie to one another,
since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
and have put on the new self,
who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.
And then last time, we looked at these phrases out of Ephesians 4, and they are found in verses 22 through 24. They read:
That, in reference to your former manner of life,
you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new self,
which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
So this morning, what we want to do is conclude this study, looking at the occurrence of these phrases in Romans 13:11-14. But before we do so, let us just have a word of prayer.
Lord, we do continue to bow in Your presence. You are worthy of all praise and honor and glory. You are worthy of us living pleasing unto You.
And Lord, as we look into these few verses this morning, we commit them into Your hands. Lord, we simply ask that You will bless them. We simply ask that You will give that anointing, both to speak and to hear.
Lord, because our desire is that this time would be a time that is fruitful, a time of value in Your sight. And we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now, we may find heartily that we agree with this principle of putting off and putting on, but we may find that we have no mainspring to propel us toward actually entering into the reality of this. And if that be the case, then what are we to do?
We believe we find in this first verse and a half of these Scriptures we are going to read the motivation that should lead us to lay aside that which is negative and to embrace, or put on, that which is positive—that which is spiritually essential.
You know, what good is it to know the way of life if we are not those who enter into the reality of it? You know, we will find that very knowledge will condemn us. But the Lord provides—or may we say, He Himself provides—that motivation that will enable us to enter into this principle, though much difficulty confronts us.
So, as we said last time, we want to look at this principle that we find in Romans 13:11-14. After we look at this principle, we are going to circle back and look at the motivating factor to enter into it.
So let us begin by reading Romans 13, beginning in verse 11, and we are going to read all the way through verse 14. I am reading in the NASB, in case you—I am sure you all know that by now.
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep;
for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
The night is almost gone, and the day is near.
Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness,
not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality,
not in strife and jealousy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
So we find here in verse 12 of this section this necessary principle, this matter of laying aside or putting off, and of putting on.
And let us say at the outset that the actual laying aside and putting on, in experience, are simultaneous. The one cannot effectively take place without the other. The one cannot effectively take place without the other.
You remember that little jingle we sang last time? You cannot have one without the other. That is because there is no effectual putting on without the laying aside. And we may reverse it and say there is no effectual laying aside without the putting on.
Remember Paul said in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I who live.
There is our putting off, or laying aside.
But Christ lives in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.
That is our putting on.
So verse 12 says:
Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
So we cannot effectively lay aside the deeds of darkness unless we put on the armor of light. But let us attempt to look at these two sides separately so that we can get a little better understanding from them.
Firstly, what we want to do is look at these deeds of darkness we are to lay aside. Let us look at a few verses in the Scriptures where the word darkness is found, to get a little background to this particular word.
Turning first to John 12:35—we are going to jump around a little bit. John 12:35. This is actually Jesus speaking:
For a little while longer the Light is among you.
Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you;
he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.
So we find in this verse that to be in darkness is connected with being blinded spiritually. One who is blinded spiritually cannot walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
And then in Ephesians 5:11:
Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness,
but instead even expose them.
So in this verse, we find deeds of darkness are unfruitful. And if you participate in deeds of darkness, you will be left barren spiritually, unable to produce any spiritual fruit.
And then in 1 John 2:11—just giving a little background to this darkness and what it actually means:
But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness
and walks in the darkness,
and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
So we can see in this verse that the deed of hate is equated with darkness.
And two verses that we are very familiar with: first, Colossians 1:13:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.
And in Ephesians 5:8:
For you were formerly darkness,
but now you are Light in the Lord;
walk as children of Light.
So these two verses speak of how we all formerly were in this place of darkness regarding our condition. We were blinded, unable to do anything pleasing in the sight of God. We were only capable of deeds of darkness, performing that which was an offense to God’s righteousness and holiness.
And two more verses: one in 1 John 1:6:
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth.
This verse says walking in darkness for the believer is equated with hypocrisy. We have been delivered out of the domain of darkness, so our deeds should not be those of darkness.
And then John 3:19. I would imagine most of you thought I would get to this verse. John 3:19:
This is the judgment,
that the Light has come into the world,
and men loved the darkness rather than the Light,
for their deeds were evil.
This verse may sum up what verse 12 in our text mainly speaks to: the deeds of darkness are practices of evil in the sight of God.
And we are told in verse 13 to lay aside the deeds of darkness. Now, of course, Paul identifies what some of these deeds of darkness are in verse 13. We read them earlier:
Let us behave properly as in the day,
not in carousing and drunkenness,
not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality,
not in strife and jealousy.
Obviously, there are more that can be added to this list. But notice Paul groups these deeds of darkness into three groups of two, because in each of the groups we find that the two deeds mentioned tend to go hand in hand.
Now, I dare say most, if not all of us, do not participate in the first two groups of two mentioned here. But I want to say this to the brothers regarding the second group of promiscuity and sensuality: be careful. Be careful what you set before your eyes.
For example, be careful of the entertainment shows that want you to see what the latest starlet wore down the red carpet at the awards dinner, or the team cheerleaders’ performance at your favorite sports game.
We have an enemy. We have an enemy who would love to take us down a slippery slope by starting with something that appears innocent.
And I want to say to you young people: beware of the new morality the media wants to expose you to, which is not any new morality, but is some of the same behavior of deeds of darkness that many have given themselves over to since sin entered into this world.
In particular, beware of situation comedies in which we find even young children—disgraceful—young children are included in sexually explicit jokes.
You know, I was shocked recently when I heard in a commercial what a young boy said in a scene that was advertising a new comedy that was going to come on television.
You know, I remember as a boy seeing some graffiti that was on the side of a wall, written in huge letters. It said, “You are what you eat.” Now, I do not know what you eat, but physically, you are what you eat.
But I have often since thought how true that is spiritually: you are what you consume or take into your life. So be careful. Let us be careful what we consume.
Now, we would be amiss if we said the two mentioned in the third group have never raised their ugly heads up in our midst. And we must be careful to guard against these two: strife and jealousy.
One brother has said both of these indicate a determination to have one’s own way, a self-willed readiness to quarrel.
Consider these definitions of strife. These are right out of the dictionary:
Or how about jealousy?
Think about it. How much harm to the body of Christ have these deeds of darkness produced? How many have been scarred and even fallen out of the race due to these?
You know, we who have been redeemed ought to be those who walk according to the light, not according to darkness. For what fellowship has light with darkness?
Which leads us to the other half of our principle, which is putting on. We are not only to lay aside the deeds of darkness, but to put on the armor of light. Put on the armor of light.
Now notice Paul did not contrast deeds of darkness with deeds of light. He said, “armor of light.” Why is that?
It is because we are in a spiritual conflict that includes a very real enemy who wants to halt all true spiritual progress in the Lord. We read earlier that we were delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s Son.
We are no longer slaves to Satan, but he wants to continue to provoke and tempt us so that we would be unfruitful servants of the Lord. He wants to keep us walking in darkness.
Paul used “armor of light” because we as believers are in a conflict that started long ago, and he does not want us to be ignorant of it. This enemy is relentless and will stop at nothing in the attempt to sideline believers out of the race of faith.
Just like groups like ISIS, we see a small picture of the character of our enemy, of our souls.
You know, the enemy may not be able to stop believers from having eternal salvation, but he tries to inflict loss concerning the salvation of their souls. Thus, we need to put on the armor of light to defend ourselves and stand against the wiles of the devil.
Consider 2 Corinthians 10:4, where we also find this word armor, but it is translated as weapons:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
This word fortresses here could be translated strongholds. The enemy wants to get strongholds in our lives in this area of deeds of darkness. But we are to put on the armor of light to safeguard ourselves and expose the attacks of the enemy.
Notice Paul here does not go into detail of what this armor is, but we find in Ephesians he defines it for us. And later on, of course, as groups, we will go through this. But let us take a little time now to identify these different parts of the armor we are to put on.
So if you will turn to Ephesians 6, we are going to read verses 10 through 17. Ephesians 6:10-17. I think these are familiar verses to most of us.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.Therefore, take up the full armor of God,
so that you will be able to resist in the evil day,
and having done everything, to stand firm.
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth,
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith
with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Notice Paul first mentions here to gird your loins with truth. You know, an important part of the armor was a belt that a soldier would wear that would hold all the other parts of the armor together.
We are told this piece of armor that holds all intact is the truth. This is speaking of the quality of truthfulness, or in other words, integrity. It speaks of ones who have welcomed the truth and desire to walk in it.
One who walks with a clear conscience before the Lord, with the absence of hypocrisy, need not fear any attacks of the enemy.
And look at the second one: the breastplate of righteousness. This piece of armor, which was made of metal, covered the body from the neck to the waist on both sides. It protected mainly the vital organs of the body, especially the heart.
How essential that we give the enemy no ground to accuse us on. This piece of armor speaks about practical righteousness—practical righteousness—a holy life, if you will.
If we are living an unrighteous life, the enemy has ground to attack us. But if we allow Christ to live in us as our practical righteousness, his mouth is stopped of any accusation.
Yes, it is true, we are covered by the blood of the Lamb, but we must also live righteously to guard our heart from attack.
The third thing: the shoes of the gospel of peace. I think most of us know how important shoes are, particularly here as we get into colder weather.
But the soldiers, they wore sandals that had hobnails in them to give them firm footing for the battle. Notice three times in this section of Ephesians, we are told to stand firm.
Where does the firm standing for the believer come from? Well, we know positionally it comes from being justified before God. Romans 5 tells us that because we have been justified by faith, we have what? We have peace with God.
And because of that, we have a firm standing that cannot be shaken before God. But specifically, the peace spoken of here is the peace of God that one has when one maintains a clear conscience before God.
When one is walking according to the light they have of the will of God, having already committed in their heart to follow the Lord.
The fourth item: the shield of faith. Now, the shield spoken of here was large, and it was at least four feet high. It could be lodged into the ground, and one could stand behind it for cover.
They also had the ability to be interlocked with other shields of the same sort, and a whole line of soldiers could stand behind the unified wall of protection.
You know, Satan loves to come to the believer and do what? To discredit God. To discredit God. To lie about his nature, as he did with Eve in the garden, to bring one to the point where they will distrust God.
But our confidence, or our faith, rests in the fact that we are acquainted with God’s nature and character. We are to take up the shield of faith and block the lies of the devil regarding who God is.
We are able to do this because He has revealed Himself to us through His word. His word speaks of His love to us through Calvary, and we need never again question if God loves us or is for us.
The fifth one: the helmet of salvation. The soldier’s helmet obviously was to protect him from a blow to the head.
The enemy loves to attack believers in this area of salvation. He likes to get them into mind games, questioning their eternal salvation.
Do you know a large part of Christianity believes one can lose their salvation after being saved? He knows if they have this understanding, they will be almost useless for God, as their motive for serving God will be skewed.
We need to know, like Paul, who said:
I know whom I have believed,
and He is able to keep me until that day.
We need to know that the salvation of God is secure and that, once given, will never be taken back.
And lastly, the sword of the Spirit—the sword of the Spirit, which the Bible says is the word of God.
And before the sword of the Spirit can be mentioned, it is to be assumed that all the other parts of the armor are in place. This is the only offensive part of the soldier’s equipment, and it can only be wielded effectively if all the other parts of the armor are securely in place.
One has no authority wielding the sword of the Spirit against the enemy where there are cracks in any of the other pieces of armor.
You know, we know the Lord walked before the Father in all integrity, having His face set toward Jerusalem, trusting the Father would complete all His will through Him to the end. Thus, the Lord was well able to wield the sword and defeat the enemy, as we see in the wilderness when He was tempted.
We likewise are able to wield the sword effectively if we walk before the Lord according to His provision and His purpose.
Now, I think it goes without saying that all these pieces of armor speak of what the Lord is to the believer. He is our truth. He is our positional and practical righteousness. He is our faith. He is our salvation, and He is the Word of God. He is our weapon against the wiles of the devil.
But there is another enemy that we need to mention. Paul says:
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
This other enemy we have to deal with is what? The flesh. What is meant by the flesh here? May we simply say that the flesh is the manifestation of that corrupted nature that we inherited from Adam.
It is only through the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross that we are able to make no provision for the flesh. We find that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. That is Galatians 5:24.
The flesh has been dealt with by the cross, and it is the Holy Spirit who will apply that death to the flesh as we put on—or, to say it in another way, as we appropriate—the Lord as our very life.
As a word of caution, we need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture says:
Walk by the Spirit,
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
That is Galatians 5:16.
So practically speaking, in regard to making no provision for the flesh, we need to be careful not to put ourselves into situations that will lead us down the road to arouse the flesh and maybe cause us to fall into these deeds of darkness.
The Scripture says:
Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
There is only one solution for the flesh, and that is crucifixion. The flesh—your flesh—was not altered by our new birth in Christ. It cannot be improved or repaired.
But I am afraid that we do not know ourselves, and that is why we need to go through many dealings, to expose the flesh for what it is: hostile to God. It is hostile to God. No good dwells in the flesh.
We know we should walk according to the Spirit when it comes to so-called spiritual things like praying and witnessing, maybe reading our Bible. But do we really know we should walk according to the Spirit at all times, even when doing the simplest things in life?
Do you think even for a moment Jesus walked according to the flesh? Even though He could have, because His flesh was not corrupted like ours. But no, He emptied Himself, and He walked according to the power of the Holy Spirit even unto death.
How much more should we deny ourselves and rely on the Holy Spirit, and not walk according to the flesh?
You know, Scripture points out that there are only two types of Christians: spiritual and fleshly, or we could say carnal. You know, our brother mentioned last week, we have two choices before us: to be conformed to this world or to be conformed to His image.
May we make that decision that we will put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.
Let me ask you a question. Did you put on a jacket this morning when you came outside because of the coolness?
You know, if it is cold outside, we do not hesitate in putting on a jacket to stay warm, do we? May we be as wise spiritually, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ so that we will not become cold spiritually.
Now, we mentioned in the beginning that we find in this section the motivation for entering into this principle of laying aside and putting on. So notice we have the word therefore mentioned before we have “lay aside” and “put on” in verse 12.
The therefore is pointing us back to the reason for the motivation of laying aside and putting on. So look again at verse 11 and the beginning of verse 12:
Knowing the time,
that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep;
for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
The night is almost gone, and the day is near.
Notice our motivation comes from this knowing the time, and that this knowing the time is connected to two facts which are closely related: that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed; and the night is almost gone, and the day is near.
You know, it seems to me that this first phrase is more of an encouragement in nature, and the second more of a warning, though certainly we do see both aspects in both of them.
Paul states in the first phrase, “It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep.” You know, sleep is done by who? It is done by the weary and drowsy ones.
And we find as we go through this spiritual journey, we at times become weary. The path we trudge is often difficult, and it is full of dangers. So we find at times that we just want to lie down and go to sleep, as the three disciples did in Gethsemane because of what? Because of the weakness of their flesh.
But also at times, we find we resist staying on the course that is before us. And we find that, just like Jonah, our conscience becomes numb, and we end up falling asleep as he did down in the hold of the boat. You remember that?
But whatever the case, the call comes to us to awaken from sleep. First Thessalonians 5:6 says:
Let us not sleep as others do,
but let us be alert and sober.
Why? Because now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
When we first believed in the Lord, when we were first born again, our spirit was made alive. But we are not called to stop there, to lie down and sleep for the rest of our journey here on earth.
No, we are called to enter into what? The salvation of our souls. We are to progress on into the great salvation Hebrews 1 speaks of.
And as we do so, as each day passes, as each year passes, we are getting closer to that complete, that full salvation. You know, we are destined unto full salvation. We are destined unto full salvation. Is that not encouraging? Salvation, not condemnation.
2 Timothy 2:10 says we are to obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and with it eternal glory. Eternal glory.
This salvation which is in Christ Jesus encompasses our whole being. It encompasses our spirit, our soul, and our body. And a very important part of our salvation God wants to complete in this period of time.
That part of our salvation He wants to complete is the salvation of our soul. He wants to bring your thoughts, your feelings, and your will under the lordship of Christ.
This is not the time for us to drift to sleep. Yes, it is hard. Yes, we get drowsy. Yes, sometimes we want to lie down.
But Revelation 16:15 says this. Revelation 16:15, the Lord speaking:
Behold, I am coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes,
so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.
And also in Revelation 20:6:
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection.
It is not automatic, being a part of this first resurrection.
Over these the second death has no power,
but they will be priests of God and of Christ
and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
You know, this is what God wants for us. This is what will satisfy His heart. This is what ought to motivate us toward holy living, toward the salvation of our souls.
You know, one brother asked me at lunch last week, he said, “What would become of those who refuse to wake up and pursue the Lord?”
I said, “If they resist the discipline of the Lord, if they choose not to allow the cross to work in their life now, they will have to go through it later, and it will be through a much longer period of time.”
So let us not be as the children of Israel, who wandered in the wilderness their whole lives, but those who lay hold of that for which we have been laid hold of, which is full salvation.
A question: do we not find in our heart a desire, even if it be ever so small, to want to satisfy His heart? Do we not understand that true satisfaction in our lives comes from satisfying His heart?
This is the hour to awaken, for we do not know how many more hours we will have in this age or in your life.
Now, in the second phrase, “The night is almost gone and the day is near,” we find this phrase speaks to a limited opportunity and a current urgency.
The night is almost gone, and when it is gone, there is no more opportunity within it. What is this night speaking of? It is speaking of the time we are living in now. We have been in the night since the fall of man in the garden.
The Lord in His first coming brought momentary light into the world, and now believers are called to be light in this world. But the world remains in darkness.
But the darkness, the night, will come to an end. And even now, I believe many of us know in our hearts the dawning—the day is dawning—as the coming of the Lord draws near. Yes, this night will come to an end.
And if that be the case, what type of people ought we to be? We ought to be those that lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light, and enter into the salvation of our souls.
You know, the day speaks of the appearing of the Lord, the Parousia of the Lord. And included in that will be the time when all the saints are gathered before Him at His judgment seat.
At that time, all opportunity to live for Him in this current age will be gone. And we will be either those who find ourselves ashamed in His presence, or those to whom He says, “Enter into His joy.”
You know, this is what drove the apostle Paul to be pleasing unto Him.
May we be warned. May we be encouraged not to miss this opportunity today, as long as it is called today, to pursue Him with all our heart. For we do not know how many days we have left on this earth.
So may the Lord grant us grace. Amen.