Wake Up
Notes
Transcript
Wake Up
Wake Up
Illustration
How many of you have ever been going about your normal business and all of a sudden somebody asks a seemingly random question.
Do you know what time it is?
You casually but inquisitively look at your watch or phone all the while your mind is racing a million miles a minute trying to figure out what significance the time has at this moment.
The moment you see the time, you kick into high gear because you realize you were supposed to be gone ten minutes ago
Illustration
Something similar may have happened as well
You just woke up from a restful night of sleep. You hear the owls hooting. It’s peaceful outside. The sun is peaking over the horizon.
And then you look at your phone and see the time
Your alarm clock didn’t go off or instead of hitting snooze you accidentally turned it off.
You jumped out of bed and rush around trying to make up for lost time
That peaceful, rested feeling you had 30 seconds ago is no longer a thing
It is so important that we know the time we live in
Paul says, that it is high time to awake out of sleep
He is saying, “Wake up! Don’t you know that the day is at hand. Christ is coming again!”
The night is far spent.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Our salvation is nearer than when we believed
Speaking of our glorification
Three tenses to our salvation
Past tense: Justification (saved from the penalty of sin)
Present tense: Sanctification (from the power of sin)
Future tense: Glorification (from the presence of sin)
It is time to stop wasting time
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
The daytime is time to work
Let’s get to work.
We ought to be like Christ when He said
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
Are going about doing the Father’s business
Or is your business more important than His
I believe the only reason many believers haven’t woke up is because the simple don’t know what time it is.
Some maybe be in the spot of willful ignorance
Listen to this small portion of a podcast showing where people are today.
Cast Off
Cast Off
The "casting off" and "putting on" in each case suggest a definite and complete act.
Imagine a young man reporting for duty at the army headquarters. He is wearing his civilian clothes.
He signs the papers which make him officially a member of the armed services and is issued a complete uniform.
The company of recruits lines up on the parade ground the next morning for its first inspection.
All the other soldiers are in full uniform but our friend has on his khaki pants but otherwise is dressed in a sports jacket, a white shirt and a green tie!
The sergeant major would make short work of him!
Once in the army he is to be through with the old dress, radically, completely and once-for-all.
In a decisive and complete act he discards his civilian clothes and puts on his uniform. From henceforth he is to be identified by his clothes.
It is just this very thing that Paul has in mind here.
Because he is saved the believer is to put off deliberately and decisively, through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the "works of darkness"—all those habits which once marked him out as an unbeliever.
In John’s Gospel we learn that people prefer darkness to light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19).
Darkness hides, but light discloses.
Evil flourishes in darkness because its perpetrators assume, although incorrectly, that what they are doing cannot be seen.
The desire for darkness is itself an admission of the wrongness of the act.
Along with the more socially repugnant acts of drunkenness and debauchery we find, rather unexpectedly, quarreling and jealousy.
These too are acts of darkness.
Unfortunately, the church is considerably more tolerant toward such sins.
Quarreling and jealousy, while not especially polite, are more acceptable than sexual immorality.
This is not to make a case for immorality but to remind ourselves that Paul placed them together as deeds of darkness.
Cast off
1) the works of darkness
2) rioting — revelling, binge partying, drinking, dancing, carousing
3) Drunkenness — intoxication
4) chambering — adultery, hooking up
5) wantonness — unbridled lust
6) Strife
7) Envying
Put on
Put on
In their place he is to put on the "armour of light," and thus arrayed go forth to battle against "the rulers of this world’s darkness" (Eph. 6:12-17).
Instead of maintaining a lingering relationship to all such activity, believers are to put on as their armor the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 14).
The verb calls for a decisive action.
The critical nature of the day in which we live demands that we separate ourselves unmistakably from all that belongs to darkness. Jesus Christ himself is our armor against wickedness.
Those who are “in him” know what it means to experience victory in spiritual warfare. There is no other place of security (cf. Eph 6:11, 13).
As a final word of advice, Paul counseled the believer against allowing any opportunity whatsoever for gratifying the evil desires of the lower nature.
New life in Christ stands diametrically opposed to the old life controlled by earthly passions.
To clothe ourselves with Christ is to take off and dispose of the old clothing of sin.
While the appetites of sin remain until the glorious day of our complete transformation into the likeness of Christ (1 John 3:2; Phil 3:21), we are to deny them any opportunity of expression.
We are not even to consider the possibility of allowing them to fulfill their evil intentions through us.
Put on
the armor of light
the Lord Jesus Christ