WAKE UP!
ROMANS 13:11-14
INTRODUCTION: It is amazing how time has changed through the years of my life. Someone wrote: What Happened to Time
When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept.
When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked.
When I became a full-grown man, time ran.
And later as I older grew, time flew.
Soon I shall find while traveling on, time gone. – Source Unknown
So often we have dreams, aspirations, and things we are going-to-do and then we realize that time has slipped by so quickly and those things are left undone. Paul talking to the Roman Christians speaks about knowing the time and calls upon believers to wake up.
I. We are living at a time when many believers are spiritually asleep.
A. They are sleeping the slumber of indifference.
1. The core problem is not that we are too passionate about bad things, but that we are not passionate enough about good things. - Larry Crabb in Finding God. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 3.
2. A great king had prepared a magnificent wedding celebration for his son. He sent out invitations. In Matthew 22:4 we are told that “he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.” Note the response in verse 5, “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:”
3. They ignored and paid no attention to the king’s calling and desires, just as many today are slumbering and paying no attention to what is going on in the world and the dedication and service that God wants from His people, especially in light of the soon return of His Son Jesus Christ and the fast approaching wedding of the Lamb of God.
4. Some people think the opposite of love is hate, but it really is indifference.
5. Love will find a way--indifference will find an excuse.
B. They are sleeping the slumber of complacency
1. Complacency – self-satisfaction accompanied by an unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.
2. Too many are satisfied with their progress in the Christian life willing to allow Christ to be Savior but unwilling to let Him be Lord of their lives.
3. 2 Kings 10:31a “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart:”
4. If a man comes to a point where he is so content that he says, "I do not want to know any more, or do any more, or be any more," he is in a state in which he ought to be changed into a mummy. - Henry Ward Beecher. Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 3
5. It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are. – Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832).
6. Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”
7. Ronald Meredith, in his book Hurryin’ Big For Little Reasons, describes one quiet night in early spring: Suddenly out of the night came the sound of wild geese flying. I ran to the house and breathlessly announced the excitement I felt. What is to compare with wild geese across the moon? It might have ended there except for the sight of our tame mallards on the pond. They heard the wild call they had once known. The honking out of the night sent little arrows of prompting deep into their wild yesterdays. Their wings fluttered a feeble response. The urge to fly--to take their place in the sky for which God made them-- was sounding in their feathered breasts, but they never raised from the water. The matter had been settled long ago. The corn of the barnyard was too tempting! Now their desire to fly only made them uncomfortable. - copied
C. They are sleeping the slumber of slothfulness
1. Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed be he that does the work of the LORD deceitfully” (YLT) “Cursed is he who is doing the work of Jehovah slothfully…”
2. Too many are passing lazily through life with little if any commitment to serving Christ.
3. Proverbs 6:9-11 "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travels, and thy want as an armed man."
4. Matthew 25:24-28 "Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed: [25] And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. [26] His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed: [27] Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. [28] Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents."
5. Hebrews 6:12 "That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
6. Sleeping saints serve Satan.
II. We are living in a time when we as believers need to wake up.
A. We are to know the time.
1. Romans 13:11 “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
2. Literally “make sure you know – do not miss knowing” the time (a specific critical and pivotal period of time)
B. The time of our rapture (our salvation) is drawing near
1. Christ promised He would return. John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
2. Have you ever wondered why the right-hand door mirror on your car says "Objects are closer than they appear"? The reason is that the mirror is convex, allowing a much wider angle of vision. We may borrow the words, though, and say that the Second Coming may be much closer that it appears!
3. 2 Timothy 3:1-4 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, [4] Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;”
4. Luke 21:28 “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh.”
C. The time of judgment is quickly approaching.
1. “the day is at hand”
2. The Bible speaks of a Day of Judgment. Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
3. For the believer it is the judgment seat of Christ, for the unbeliever the Great White Throne judgment.
4. When I die the only epitaph that I desire to be engraved upon my tombstone is “Here lies George Whitefield; what sort of man he was the great day will discover.” - George Whitefield. Christian History, Issue 38.
5. Amos 4:12 “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”
III. We are to wake up that is to be aroused and stirred into action.
A. Romans 13:12-14 “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
B. Put on the right garments - cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
1. Strip off the darkness of this world and wrap oneself in the light of Christ.
2. Jude 1:23 “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
3. 2 Peter 3:14 “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”
4. Matthew 22:11-13 "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he said unto him, Friend, how did you come in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
C. Walk the right paths - walk honestly, as in the day
1. Walk honestly – proper, honorable, decent, noble
2. God didn’t call me to find fulfillment in the quantity of my work for him but in the quality of my walk with him. - Robert J. Morgan, Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 1.
3. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.”
4. 1 John 2:6 “He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
D. Keep the right relationship - put you on the Lord Jesus Christ
1. Colossians 3:1-3 "If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
2. Philippians 3:9 "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:"
3. William Barclay said, “The best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is never to forget the presence of Christ.”
CONCLUSION: Adoniram Judson once said, “A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated through eternity.... The same may be said of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks, which we put upon it, it will exhibit forever.... Each day will not only be a witness of our conduct, but will affect our everlasting destiny.... How shall we then wish to see each day marked with usefulness...! It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future is in our power. Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at night let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone, indelibly marked.” Adoniram Judson, in E. Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson (Anson, Randolph & Company, 1883), pp. 13-15. In light of the time are you wearing the right garments? Are you walking the right walk? Have you been maintaining the right relationship?
