Christian, know the Time
Time to awaken out of sleep and to cast off the works of darkness
Time to walk straight
Time to put on the Lord Jesus Christ
If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day...Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow. Source Unknown.
Christian our study today tells us we must know what time it is.
We are told to “make sure that you know; do not dare miss knowing the critical period”.
What is the period of human history not to overlook?
The day of “our salvation,” a day nearer than when we first believed…
Time to awaken out of sleep and to cast off the works of darkness
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. [12] 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 armour of light. Romans 13:11-12
Christian are you awake?
Far too many slumber and pay no attention to what is going on in the world, we are not to be of them.
It is time to get up and and act—now—before it is too late.
This is a forceful exhortation…
Why?
1. Our salvation is nearer than when we believed.
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).
“[God] hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2).
“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations [trials]” (1 Peter 1:5-6).
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:18; cp. 2 Tim. 3:1; 2 Peter 3:3; Jude 18).
2. Judgment is at hand.
“Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12).
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Matthew 3:3).
“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Cor. 15:34).
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephes. 5:14).
“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thes. 5:6).
It is time to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light.
Cast off works we do under the cover of darkness. They are sins... ·we know are unacceptable and cause hurt.
“For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night” (1 Thes. 5:7).
“In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light” (Job 24:16).
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
“Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” (Isaiah 29:15).
“Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin” (Isaiah 30:1).
And put on the armor of light.
Christians take off the clothing of darkness and put on the armor of light.
“But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God....by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left” (2 Cor. 6:4, 7).
Put on the armor of God. Ephes. 6:10-20
the belt of truth
the breastplate of righteousness
the sandals of the gospel
the shield of faith
the helmet of salvation
the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God
the supernatural resource of the soldier: prayer
“But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thes. 5:8).
Time to walk straight
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. Romans 13:13
Christian it is time to walk straight:honorable, decent, and noble.
Not in Rioting: revelling, carousing, partying and debauchery.
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest....envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, …they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19, 21).
“…when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead” (1 Peter 4:3-5).
Not in Drunkenness: to take intoxicating drink or drugs for the purpose of lust or pleasure and to loosen moral restraint for bodily pleasure.
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34).
“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!” (Habakkuk 2:15).
Not in Chambering: sexual immorality, adultery, fornication.
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet” (Romans 1:27).
Not in Wantonness: sensuality, running wild, debauchery; homosexuality, and immoral life.
“Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter” (James 5:5).
“For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error” (2 Peter 2:18).
Not in Strife: contention, quarreling, or arguing.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil. 2:3).
“…charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers” (2 Tim. 2:14).
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient” (2 Tim. 2:24).
Not in Envying: jealousy that begrudges others.
“Charity [love] suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up” (1 Cor. 13:4).
“Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:26).
“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth” (James 3:14).
Time to put on the Lord Jesus Christ
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Romans 13:14
Christian and non Christian it is time to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision for the flesh.
We clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephes. 4:24).
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1-3).
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
Christian do not make provision for the flesh.
“And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29).
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the souls” (1 Peter 2:11).
“That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2).
Remember: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12.
First, do you recognize the time…Are you saved?
You and I do not know when we might die or this current age come to an end?
Second, have you cast off the things of darkness, if not please come forward and do so today?
And finally, are you clothing yourself in Christ and in the fellowship He offers here?
We would love to welcome you to true fellowship and growth in Jesus, but you have to be here…Jesus loves you and so do we.
