If you have your Bible, you want to turn to Romans 13, 11 through 14, as we continue with our study in Paul's letter to the Romans. Before we study the scriptures, let's go before the throne. Father, we are glad that we belong to you. Father, as we study your Word and stand before your throne, we are very much aware that we're not good people. Father, we recognize the times we have failed, the things we have thought, the places we have gone that we're not pleasing to you. And so we come before you, Father, asking that you would forgive us and that you would change us and make us different. Father, as we look to the coming week, it's your week. Help us to be sensitive to your agenda and sensitive to the people to whom you would send us. Father, keep us faithful and keep us close. We praise you and we worship you because you're worthy of our praise and our worship. As we study your Word as always, we pray for the one who teaches that you would forgive him his sins while they are many. We would see Jesus and him only and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this week, as I mentioned before, we're continuing with our study, the Book of Romans. And if you have your Bible, turn if you will, to the 13th chapter of Romans, verses 8 through 10. And while you're finding that, you Baptist have already found that most take a moment to review what we saw last week in our study of Romans. The text in it was Romans 13, 8 through 10 and if you were listening last week, you know, we went down three side roads. We saw the law behind the law, 13, 9. We saw the negative of religion and the positive of the Christian faith, Romans 13, 9. We saw that our relationship with people is determined by a relationship with God, Romans 13, 9. And we saw love is an obligation, verse 8, love is the only obligation, verse 10b, and love is the consummate obligation, verse 9b, now. With that review in hand, we're ready to continue with our study of Romans as we look at verses 11 through 14 of the 13th chapter of Romans, where my very good friend, the Apostle Paul, writes as well as, and do this, knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep. For now, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night's far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light, let us walk properly, as is then the day, not in revelry or drunkenness or lootness and lust, not in strife and envy put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Now, we're going to be talking most of this week about a motivation for moving, but I'm going to go down some side rows for we do that side road number one. Note, if you will, from the text that I read to you, that truth is the weapon of choice for the Christian. Romans 13, 12b, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Even a Bible, one of the meanings of life is truth and darkness refers to the absence of truth. For instance, when Jesus says that he is the light, what is he saying? He's saying that he's truth. I have a lot of Christian friends who hate to debate pagans. You know why? Because they're afraid. Let me give you some good news, don't be afraid, they're to it, and you have a wonderful advantage, just called truth. I've been amazed at the silly things that people say who seem to be so sophisticated, who are pagans. It is simply the fact of the reality of the way things are. That's our truth. Will Rogers once said that he didn't have a birth certificate because where he came from people assumed that if you were there, it was a good indication you had been born. Well, the Christian based something like that, but here, Paul is going beyond the defense of the faith he's talking about the truth of the gospel, that Jesus died for sinners and that if you are a sinner, go to him, he'll love and accept you. Not too long ago Richard Pratt, my colleague at Reform Seminary, where we teach, man what a great place to work. Just in my office area, there's Dr. Richard Pratt with a PhD from Harvard and Dr. Reggie Kid with a PhD from Duke, and then there's me and I'm not even a nurse, and then you're a Richard preached in Chapel for Romans 116 for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God's salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Richard had three points, the shame, the power and the reach of the gospel, and he said that the gospel should be to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, that that was more than a history lesson, or a priority, was a statement about how far the gospel goes. The Jew, he said, are nice religious people, and the Gentiles are the pains and the neck, and that the gospel was for them, then he said, when was the last time you saw the awesome power of the gospel change people's lives? Listen, you don't have to whip out your Christian, you got truth, all you got to do is speak it, you don't have to be afraid, truth is arbor, just put it on, just give it out, then stand back and watch what God does. What's the truth? Jesus loves you, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I'll tell you increasingly as I look at the world, I am so thankful for the gift that God has given us of truth. I mean things that seem to Christians to be but of course, archipagans, absolute nonsense. That's because, at first Corinthians 2, that's because they don't have the spirit of Christ, that's because they simply don't understand, but you keep speaking truth, it really does change people's lives. And it's not observation number two, I want you to note that we provide for our sin before we sin. Have you seen this before Romans 13, 14, be made no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust? People are always talking about conscious and known sin as opposed to plan sin. Well, I suspect that that kind of sin may exist someplace in the universe, but can we talk? Truth is, my sin is hardly ever been an accident, I thought about it and savored it and planned it, and then I did it. The fact is that most sin is first degree sin, people act like sin just sort of sneaked up on them and said, boo, nay, nay, the truth is that you made provision for it, losers that I can't prevent the birds from flying above my head, but I can prevent them from building a nest in my hair. Well, most of us, when we sin, prepare the nest and invite the birds to set up housekeeping. I heard a brother recently, I thought that I'd slipped until I thought about it, and the truth is, and I'm not proud to tell you this, he had done something to offend me, and I had operated under the rubric, don't get mad, just get back. I was just waiting for the opportunity, I didn't think I was, since the father's been dealing with me about it, and since misery loves company, I decided that I would let you share in the guilt that I'm feeling. Do you just slip, the sin just sneaked up on you, of course it doesn't, Paul says, make no provision for sin. If you're an alcoholic, don't witness in bars, if you're a gossip, don't become best friends with the town gossip, if you have a less problem, don't replay boy, you shouldn't replay boy anyway. If you're a Pharisee, don't gloat in your goodness. Just don't make the nest, the birds will come when you do, when you don't, they'll find somebody else. And so it's an interesting and very insightful and very profound statement when Paul says, don't make provision for sin. We prepare for it before it comes most of the time. I guess. I guess sometimes maybe we sin just by accident at this sneak up on us, but I'll tell you I was thinking about it when I wrote this when I was putting down notes to teach you what I'd learned from Romans, and I thought about my sin, and I can't think of hardly a single time when I didn't make room for sin in my life. You got to fill your life with something else, except the planning for sin. All right, enough of that. Let me introduce what we're going to be talking about the rest of the week. I don't teach much on eschatology. That's the study of the in things. My friend Ed Plounty tells a wonderful story about a cartoon that he saw where a man and his wife are sitting at the breakfast table and the man has a very startle look on his face as he reads the morning paper and the wife says, what's the matter, honey, he replies, my antichrist just died. Through this, most of the people who are sure about exactly how things are going to work out in the end don't hardly ever know what they're talking about. If you want to have an educational experience, go get the prophecy books that were written in the 50s and see what has come of all the great predictions that were predicted with such great power and authority as imagine as a matter of fact they didn't know what they're talking about. And so what I want to do this week is not so much to talk about the details of the second coming of Christ. I think most everybody's wrong about that, but he is coming back and he is going to clean up the mess. But let me tell you something, one of the problems with us when we get so detailed in our study of prophecy is that we forget the main point. The main point is that our hope of the second coming of Christ is that which makes us obedient. It makes us prepared. It reminds us that history is not moving in circles. It reminds us that no matter how bad it gets, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how messed up the world is, no matter how many Bosnians there are, the truth is that this world belongs to Jesus, he is Lord of everything, and he is simply allowing us to doattle for a little while before he comes back and fixes everything. You can hang your hat on it, see as Lewis said, that when that happens everyone will know the truth, but for some it will be too late to know the truth. But this broadcast is for Christians who know how history is going to end. Paul says some important things about that invent, that event. Let's check it out. First I want you to note, the ever-present reality of Christ's return, Romans 13-11, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. You know that on occasion I have been want to make fun of the guy who wrote 88 reasons the rapture would occur in 1988, and then the second book 89 reasons the rapture would occur in 1999, and he may still be writing like 95 reasons the rapture would occur in 1995. I suspect it isn't the bestseller, then I have probably said a couple of things about Dr. Camping's prediction earlier this year, but let me tell you something, they may be wrong about the details, but that's a lot better than ever thinking about the details. They may be wrong about the details, but at least, and this is what we are called as Christians to do, and they are doing it, they are thinking he could return tomorrow. This old thing could come to an end soon. Jesus never lied about anything, and he didn't lie about coming back. Many of us never make the second coming of Christ a reality in what we believe. We never think about it. We are too busy hustling a buck. Too busy trying to create the newest program in the church, too busy trying to save the world. Sometimes you ought to stop thinking, oh, sometimes Jesus is going to come back, and I want to be ready. My friend, Dave O'Dout, used to see me depressed, and he lived with us a while. He's a pastor in Tampa, and he's a professor at Reform Seminarian, and sometimes when he lived with us, he'd see me depressed, and he would say, Steve, cheer up, Jesus really is coming back. I'm glad that I'm doing better financially, and then I was when I was a young man starting out in the church. I'd gone from commercial broadcasting to the ministry, and I was making about $3,500. I was a year after making a lot of money, and the interesting thing is that we did better. We ate better and lived in a nicer house after the major cut in the salary than we did before. So God was faithful. At any rate, whenever Emma is out of town, I can always go to Burger King, or McDonald's, or Wendy's. See, I like variety. But in those early days, I couldn't even afford to do that. When Anna would be gone to visit her mother or somebody, I couldn't afford to go to those fancy restaurants. So she would fix casseroles, and she would put them in the freezer, and she would write on a little note on each casserole, the temperature at which they ought to be cooked, and for how long. But you know, she never told me that you had to farm out before you cooked them. And I had more casseroles with ice in the middle than you possibly know, and then I decided, one time she said, well, look, you can't handle these casseroles. So I'm going to get some TV dinners and leave them in the refrigerator. Well, she didn't tell me you had to take them out of a box. Yeah, and I could about caught the kitchen on fire. As you have gathered, I'm not wonderful in the kitchen. And I figured they told you the temperature to cook TV dinners and that if you double the temperature, they get done twice as fast. I'll tell you something, I love my wife. And I messed up things so bad that I always look forward to her coming home. Tell the truth is that we've messed things up so bad that we ought to look forward to his coming. I believe that our problems are beyond us. My friend Bill Bright said the problem of America. The problems are so great that our 10 greatest leaders had no earthly idea what to do. But he said, if God's spirit gave us a revival, a child could lead us out of our problems. Well, that may not happen. Just maybe that Jesus is going to have to come in soon. Do you know what deal Moody used to say to his followers who worked in the inner city there in Chicago? He would say, you guys worked hard. Some day I'll come down and join you. And they worked hard because they knew that Mr. Moody would come down and work with them on occasion. That's true of Jesus. I sometimes stop in the midst of all the things that I think are important and I think of the most important that this all belongs to him and that he will return. Secondly, I want you to note, not only the ever-present reality of Christ's return. I want you to note the ever-present necessity of our preparation, Romans 13, 11A, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. Dan Velcker, who is one of our staff members, saw a bumper sticker and he said, Jesus is coming back. Quick, look busy. Well, when I think about Jesus coming back, I'm reminded of the two great factual realities of living. What are they? The shortness of time and the vastness of eternity. The truth is that Jesus is coming back. He really is. Is there someone you've been meaning to tell about Jesus? Go tell them. Is there a relationship that needs to be repaired? Go repair it for God's sake. Is there something you need to do? Just go do it right now. Do you know what I do if I knew that Christ was going to return? Well, the first thing I would do is go out and run up and credit card bills. Then the second thing I would do is that I would preach the next sermon as if it were my last sermon. And you know something as a result of working on this text I've decided to preach every sermon as if it were my last sermon because you see Jesus really is coming back. And it may be that before this broadcast is over, the clouds will open and he will return and we will rejoice that finally it's over, finally it's together. Then thirdly, I want you to note not only the ever-present reality of Christ's return, the very present necessity of our preparation. I want you to note the ever-present requirement of our holiness. Look at verses 12-13. The night as far spent the days of hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in ludeness and lust, not in strife and envy. Now what's Paul saying here? Saying that if you are a sinner, you're going to lose your salvation? No, no, no. That is never the reason the motivation for a Christian to be obedient. The problem with most Christians is they're trying to be obedient because they think of God as a policeman and not their father. They're trying to be obedient with the gasoline of guilt, and you don't have to feel guilty anymore. See, you're covered. You don't have to please God. He's already pleased because of the doctrine, and we've talked about it a lot. The imputation of the righteousness of Christ to our account. So how come? Because when somebody's been that good and that kind, and you know they're coming to visit to clean up your house, it's that simple. When there's somebody you really like a lot, who's loved you a lot, who's done so much for you. When they come to visit, you clean up your house. It's that simple. You remember the incident when Peter had denied Jesus three times, and then they brought Jesus through the courtyard and Peter's eyes met the eyes of Jesus. Peter's an old friend of mine, and I know what I felt. He thought to himself, oh man, Jesus heard. He saw. I'm so ashamed. Jesus's never going to reject you. But I'll tell you, when your eyes meet his eyes, make sure you got it as clean as it can be. When I was going through a very legalistic stage of walking with Christ, I decided that Christians should never go to movies. Now I'm older and wiser now, and I know that there's some movies that Christian ought not go to. Anyway, this was a Jerry Lewis comedy, you know, something I didn't enjoy it, not because it wasn't funny, but because someone had told me that Jesus could come back at any time, and that I certainly wouldn't want him to come back and find me in a movie. I'm older now. I don't think I have mind, and I sort of feel that Jesus might stop and say, let's watch this together, and then we'll get on with the business of eschatology. I mean, there was a good movie, maybe you would. And Jesus might take some time to enjoy it himself, but I tell you the feeling I had in those days was not a bad feeling. I was just wrong about some of the details. The point is well taken. Is there anything in your life right now that would cause you embarrassment of Jesus should come back at the moment of your involvement? The truth is that I are looking forward to his return ought to inspire us to a wonderful motivation for obedience and holiness, the point is, dear friend, that when you know somebody's coming that you respect and you love, and you look up to, and you know they're going to visit you clean up your house. Sometimes I think about his return, and I think, oh man, I don't want him to find me this way. I want to be better. I want to love him more deeply. I want to be more pure in my lifestyle. I want to be the kind of person that he wants me to be. Now because of his love, and you remember Paul says, we're constrained by the love of Christ. That's an ongoing sense in my own heart, but that he would come back tomorrow, makes it even more powerful in my life. But remember he'll always come as your father, and never as your policeman. Now let me give you a fourth one. I want you to note not only the ever-present reality of Christ's return, the ever-present necessity of our preparation, and the ever-present requirement of our holiness. I want you to note, if you will, the ever-present calling to perspective. Since 1312, the night is far-spinned, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. You know something? Most of the problems we face are matters of perspective. I have this tendency to think that the world is revolving around me. I had a friend who once said, Steve, ever wondered what people are thinking about you, and I said, yes. I wondered that sometimes. He said, well, they're not thinking about you at all. I, because my world is so small, really think that everybody's dependent on me. I think that some things are important, that really aren't that important. So I learned a rule, and it's this, if it won't be important 100 years from now, I probably shouldn't be that important right now. I was in my dentist's office not too long ago and picked up a magazine. Now, usually, have you ever watched people reading magazines in dentist's office that are usually upside down? Most of them, most of the people reading those magazines aren't reading them at all. I think they can hear the sound of the drill in the back room. Did you see the movie, or read the book, Marathon Man? I read that book, and they tortured this guy by putting a drill, drilling a hole in his tooth. I don't know about you, but that scares me to death. In any rate, I'd probably give up Jesus with just the sound of the drill. Now, I'm aware that God gives you the money for the ticket just before you get on the train. If ever, they were going to torture me that way. I suspect that grace would be sufficient. But when I think about it, it is not a pleasant thought to be perfectly honest with you. Anyway, I was really reading this issue of Life Magazine. It may be the current one. It was titled 1947, and the magazine had stories that they had published back in 1947 and pictures. It was kind of a fun magazine to read. And then the back two pages, they had a section called Where Are They Now, and they had a picture of different people they'd used throughout the magazine. And I'd been able to read the little biographies under each of them, and almost every one of them were dead. I mean, it said deceased, 1983, deceased, 1989, deceased, 1990, almost all of them were dead. Even in those salient fact about a history book, is that all the people in history books are dead. You said, well, this is really an upper. I'm glad I listen to the key art today. I mean, I was having a downtime, and you're really helping a lot. Let me tell you something. It's really important that we as Christians remember our deaths, and that we remember Christ's return. One of the other is going to happen, and it is absolute as taxes. It is absolute as the sun coming up, and as long as we remember that, then we will keep things in perspective. My friend and colleague, Mike Glotto, at Reform Seminary gave me a great quote recently. It's from Plato, who said to his young male students, get married. If it's a good marriage, you'll have a happy life, and if it's a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. Well, maybe true. Well, let me tell you something that is absolutely true. All the great classical philosophers of the last century are all dead. It's the salient fact about Aristotle, and Plato, and Nietzsche, and all the others. They're all dead, cold, stone, dead, so you need to remember that. To keep things in perspective. Tell my students to never forget the relative unimportant of one sermon, because if it's a bad one, they'll think that all of Christendom is come to an end. The truth is that one sermon after Christ returns won't be that important. So try to keep things in perspective. Now, I don't want to make light of some of the things that some of you guys are going through right now. I read these letters, and sometimes, as we pray for you, I am absolutely overwhelmed with some of the pain that some of you are facing it, and I don't want to make light of that. That's real pain, and it really hurts. But remember, he's coming back. Or you're going to him. Remember to keep things in perspective. One final point. I want you to note not only the ever-present reality of Christ returned, the ever-present necessity of our preparation, the ever-present requirement of our holiness, and the ever-present calling of our perspective, note also the ever-present hope of our salvation, Romans 13-11. And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believe. Now there's an exegetical noke here, I don't want you to miss. Paul obviously felt that Christ's return was imminent, that Jesus was going to return in his lifetime. So did Augustin, and so did Martin Luther, and so did Billy Sunday, and the real truth is this. Christ's return is closer today than it was yesterday. And I don't know about you, but that thought inspires me. I love the way the Bible's written. You know what God remembered? He remembered that we would all need the hope of Jesus coming back and cleaning up the mess. And so the details are not so detailed that every Christian who ever lived could not, during his or her lifetime, think that Christ was going to return, Paul's not the exception. Christian are always trying to defend the wrong thing in the Bible. They read a text like this and they say, well, Paul obviously knew that Christ wasn't a return because there was a lot of stuff that hadn't happened yet. No, he didn't. He really thought Christ was going to return in his lifetime. And the Bible is written that way, so that every generation, every believer, every man, woman and child who is old enough to understand and smart enough to read that Jesus is coming back to clean up the mess that all of us at one time could think maybe tomorrow. There was a lady when I was a teenager. Her name was Aunt Gordy, and some of you guys who live in Western North Carolina will remember her. She's home now, but she had a house up on the side of a mountain and she used to have teenagers up there every week and we would study the Bible together. Even when she did every morning of the life, she would go to the window, she would open the window and she would look out the skyline of Asheville, North Carolina. And she would say, maybe, maybe today, maybe today. Well, maybe not today, too. The truth is we don't know for sure, and anybody who says they know for sure just simply wrong. I didn't say that Jesus did that. But it's important that we expect him, that we recognize that today is at least at minimum, closer than yesterday was. It's important we keep that in perspective and let that thought inspire us. It inspires me. You know why? Because my friend and brother John said this, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Renoir had arthritis in his old age, but he continued to paint. And with each stroke, there was incredible pain. If you have arthritis or you know anybody who has it, you know how difficult it was. And a friend once said to him, you've already done your great work, why don't you stop? That's got to be terrible all that pain, and this is what he said, the pain passes. The beauty remains. The pain passes. The beauty remains. God is painting a picture of your life right now. Sometimes it's painful and I know that. But you aren't home yet. Jesus may come before you die. Maybe you'll die before he comes. Either way, dear friend, you're going to be home, and the beauty will remain. You know whenever I think about death, I think about dear friends who have gone home fairly recently. Russ S.D. is one of those men. I can't tell you how much I loved Russ. Russ and I have been friends for 25 years, and he died a few weeks ago, went home to be with the Lord, and we all prayed that God would heal him, and God doesn't check with us, and I think Russ was tired, and God said, Russ, you come on home. Russ S.D. knew more of the Bible than any man I ever met. Sometimes he would give a devotional for us, and one time I saw him give the whole book of Ephesians by memory. He never talked to Russ that he didn't quote scripture, and I mean get chapter in verse. He'd memorized more scripture than anybody I'd ever met, and his life reflected it. He was the one who told me, said, Steve, when I'm not in the scripture for one day, I know it. When I'm not in the scripture for two days, my family will know it, and if I'm not in the scripture for three days, then everybody will know it. He was so consumed with the word of God that he was amazing, and in any rate, he died a few weeks ago, and his passing is a great loss to the kingdom, and his passing adds a great attraction to heaven. But anyway, tell me one time about William Randolph Hurst who used to have a castle in Wales was a magnificent home. It was sold in the fifties, but at any rate, from 1925 to the point when it was sold, Hurst had a full complement of servants, and every day they kept the house clean and prepared three wonderful meals, just in case Hurst should come. He rarely came, but they were prepared. Jesus is coming. We ought to be prepared, too. You think about that?