Opening illustration: All of us are slaves to time. We wear wristwatches or have timers on our smart phones to keep us on schedule. We have digital clocks in our car and alarm clocks on our nightstands. Lots of people keep a Day-Timer nearby so they can keep track of their appointments and responsibilities.
I ate lunch with a man who put his cell phone on the table beside him when we sat down at the restaurant. And in case his phone didn’t work, he had a beeper and a pager attached to his belt. All to ensure that he stayed on schedule and didn’t miss any important messages. Not long ago, while waiting at an airport for my flight to leave, I decided to study the faces of the people hurrying past me. I was struck by something that wouldn’t have been true 25 years ago. At least half the people had cell phones clued to their faces, and some people who appeared to be talking to themselves had a Bluetooth for hands-free conversation.
Time is money. Researchers tell us that time is the new currency. Today time is more important than money. People will spend money to save time whereas an earlier generation raised during the Depression would spend time to save money. In a world where most of us feel stressed out, we value our free time more than a few extra dollars in our pocket.
Since 1947, a magazine called the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has kept the “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic clock to show how close we are to global catastrophe. As the situation in the world gets better or worse, the hands of the clock are set closer or further away from midnight. The closest it ever came to ‘doomsday’ was two minutes until midnight during 1953; shortly after the United States and Soviet Union each tested hydrogen bombs. With 17 minutes the farthest it has been when the Cold War between USA and Russia was officially over. In 2002 the clock was set at seven minutes till midnight. With the present global situation, it is set at five minutes to midnight.
Introduction: How Much Time Do You Have Left?
Life is so uncertain. No one knows how long they have to live. However, the statisticians have figured out the average life expectancy for people of every age. There is a website called “Death Clock” that will tell you how long you will live according to the charts. It even gives you a projected date of death. I entered a few dates to see what it says about a few well-known people:
• Tiger Woods–October 11, 2049
• Tom Hanks–April 20, 2030
• Arnold Schwarzenegger–May 11, 2021
• Donald Trump–March 25, 2020
• Paris Hilton–April 30, 2060
• Billy Graham–August 18, 1992!
That means that Dr. Graham has outlived his projected date of death by almost 26 years, for which we can be thankful. I checked my projected date of death. It is Thursday, November 22nd, 2035.
That takes your breath away if you think about it. I realize that date is based only on certain mathematical calculations, but it is sobering to think that if it is correct, I have less than twenty years to live. Some may say this is morbid, but I think it’s the ultimate reality check. Psalm 90: 12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Martin Luther said we should live with the day of our death constantly before our eyes. It keeps us from the ultimate folly–thinking we will live forever and therefore giving us excuses to put off doing what we know we ought to do. There is an urgency for the times we live in.
What time it is?
1. Get up … from slumber (vs. 11-12a)
What do Christians look like who are "asleep" in this way? I believe such "spiritual slumber" shows itself in a slackening of the intensity of their faith. They may read their Bibles, but not with much excitement or application. They don't "tremble" at God's word (Isaiah 66:2). They may pray, but not with much earnestness, or effectiveness, or expectation (James 5:16). They may go to church, but only as "spectators" and "consumers", and not as a properly working part of the Body that contributes to its growth (Ephesians 4:16). They may be around non-believers, but they're not excited enough about their own faith to present it to others as "ambassadors of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:20). They're saved; but are just sort of taking a "spiritual siesta" all the time.
"Sleep" is the perfect word to use to describe the state of a passive, uninvolved, indifferent Christian. Great potential is there in them; but there's nothing happening.
That is why the author of Hebrews says, "You should be teachers by now, but you are not, you are dull of hearing." That is why James said, "You know, if you are not a doer of the Word of God, you have deceived yourself. You have deluded yourself. You think you know the truth. You came to church. You said you heard it, but you didn’t hear it. You were asleep." When you are asleep you are dull of hearing.
Not only that, but when you are asleep, you are in another world of dreams. What kind of world are you living in? Are you living in a dream world? Do you think that somehow you are not going to be accountable for all these truths that you are hearing from the Word of God one day? Do you think that you can just live the way you want to live and do whatever you want to do, and it is all going to be okay? What kind of dream world are you living in? When people are asleep, you see, they are not in reality.
Illustration: When you are asleep you are also vulnerable to danger. In the 70’s I saw a movie called “Grizzly” in which a huge bear grabs some campers and mutilates them. You know, one of the things I have found, there is a pattern in those stories. In those stories, the time the bear would get the people was not when they were up, not when they were sitting around the campfire, but when they went to bed. Because when you go to sleep, you see, you are open to all the dangers around you.
A lot of people are spiritually asleep. They don’t understand the dangers that are around them. As a matter of fact, they live as if they don’t even care. They live as if they have never heard and yet they will call themselves Christians.
Friend, listen, you need to wake up. That is what Paul is saying. Wake up. Come out of your spiritual stupor. Understand the urgency and understand the seriousness of what God is saying. Once you have awakened, he has something else to say. He says, "Get dressed." That is what you do, isn’t it? You wake up and get dressed.
It is a time to awaken up from insensitivity to sin as the salvation/coming of the Lord is near. In 2018 we much closer to the return of the Lord than ever before. Wake up from spiritual drowsiness.
2. Put off … the deeds of darkness (vs. 12b-13)
There are three "categories" of improper "walking" that Paul mentions in this verse. I believe you could consider them examples of the "works of darkness" he spoke of in the previous verse.
A first category is what we might call "the partying spirit". Paul says that behaving as "in the day" means we're not to be walking "in revelry and drunkenness". We're not to be given to "wild" behavior. We're not to allow our behavior to be influenced by drugs or alcohol. We're not to be "party animals" - like the lost people who try to fill the gnawing void in their soul with artificial, sinful "good times".
A second category is "sensuality". Behaving "in the day" means not walking "in lewdness and lust" - that is, in sexual promiscuity and sensual pleasures. We're not to gratify physical lusts. We're not to sleep with people who are not our spouses. We're not to lust after the sensual images that are shown on television, or movies, or in magazines, or over the internet.
Finally, a third category what we might call "selfish hostility". Paul says that behaving as "in the day" means not walking in "strife and envy". We're not to be back-biters. We're not to be gossip-mongers. We're not to hold resentment or unforgiveness toward others. We're not to hold others in contempt.
Knowing the time requires that we lay aside the deeds of darkness. You cannot continue in sin and selfishness if you wear the armor of the faith. Faith in God is incompatible with greed. Love for God and for one another is incompatible with gossip. Faithfulness is incompatible with deceit. And trust in God is incompatible with worry and fear. You tend to do one thing or the other. You lay aside the works of darkness, or you cannot put on the armor of light. If you know what time it is in the history of salvation and of the Church, you put on the armor of the Gospel. It’s like taking off your pajamas in the morning and putting on fresh clothes before you go to work.
Christians don't avoid such things just because the rules say so. We avoid them because we know the time. We avoid them because they distract us from that which is truly significant. We avoid them because they weaken us. We avoid them because they appeal to all that is in us that does not know Christ and cannot respond to Christ. We are at war with our flesh, and behaving properly keeps our flesh on the leash, as it were, so that the new man in Christ that was created in Baptism can live and thrive by God’s grace. It is part of knowing the time.
Illustration: Although this text is not directly evangelistic, it is the text that God used to save Augustine. He had been a promiscuous young man and had lived for some years with a mistress. He had come under conviction of sin and wanted to be saved, but he had not yet gained assurance of God’s forgiveness. He was weeping over his spiritual condition as he sat in the garden of a friend when he heard a child singing, “Take up and read! Take up and read!” He picked up a scroll that lay nearby and his eyes fell on the words, “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 regarding its lusts.” At that point, he said (Confessions, 8.12), “Instantly, as the sentence ended—by a light, as it were, of security infused into my heart—all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”
Saint Augustine said that at that moment he opened his life to Christ. He had known about him, debated about him, but he had never surrendered and given his life to him. He opened his life to Christ and felt the loving and cleansing touch of the Savior. Augustine was never the same again.
3. Put on … Christlikeness (v. 14)
What do well-dressed Christian's wear? They wear the Lord Jesus Christ. What should you wear to work tomorrow morning? After you put on your outward clothes, make sure you put on Jesus! What should you wear to class this week? The answer is Jesus! How about what you wear to the store or to the prom or on vacation or while you are just hanging around the house? Put on Jesus! He’s always appropriate for every occasion.
Clothe yourself with Jesus early in the morning and you will be well-dressed all-day long. What does this mean?
What does clothing do? It touches us, protects us, warms us, covers us, hides us.
• Put on his holiness.
• Put on his beauty.
• Put on his humility.
• Put on his purity.
• Put on his compassion.
• Put on his wisdom.
• Put on his forgiveness.
• Put on his righteousness.
• Put on his zeal.
• Put on his patience.
• Put on his love.
But there is one thing you need to know. Christ must be in you before he can be on you. He must live in your heart as Lord and Savior before you can take him with you to work. It’s not enough to know about Jesus; you must know him in your heart and trust him as your Savior and Lord.
Do you know Jesus? Does he live in your heart? Have you trusted him as your Lord and Savior or are you still trusting in the filthy rags of your own good works to take you to heaven? Without Jesus you can never get rid of the deeds of darkness that cling to you. Until he comes in you will live in your sin because you have no other choice. But when Christ comes in, everything changes.
Illustration: The great military genius Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as saying that a man "becomes" his uniform. And here, we're commanded to "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ. Similarly, Paul says, in Galatians 3:26-27, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." In Christ, you and I have a whole new identity. We have a new direction. We have a new purpose. We're wearing a whole new uniform.
Application: It’s time to take Jesus with you everywhere you go. It’s time to get serious about your faith. It’s time to stop sleepwalking though life. Look! Do you see the first rays of dawn? The night is almost over, the sun is rising. Jesus is coming soon. Have patience, child of God. Your Savior is on the way. Take hope, defeated Christian. The Lord is at hand. Be encouraged, suffering believer. The trumpet will soon sound. Keep believing, struggling saints. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. Though the world may persecute us, and evil may seem to prevail, we must still work for Christ. The Church must shine for Him. We must preach and demonstrate the gospel, for without us, how will the world know Christ? What do you need to do different to faithfully be a witness for Christ?
