Romans 13:11-14
Mike Doyle · Apr 6, 2025
Romans (2022-25), No. 118
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261938563620

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Morning. Nice to see you all, especially you, Brian. So I must admit, these verses were a challenge to say the least this week. And hopefully, as we go through them, I think within what we're going to study this morning is probably one of those secrets about how the Christian life is to be lived. So, as we start, we have an individual responsibility in the wilderness journey. See what, I don't know if I've got the right slides here. Are they right? Oh yeah, I'm reading my notes rather than paying attention.

The first is our body is the Lord's, Romans 12 one, presents your body of living sacrifice, which is acceptable. Be not conformed to this world, have your mind renewed. The next is that we're responsible with references to the church, the body of Christ, to be faithful to the grace committed to us and from the highest gifts down to the showing mercy with chill from us.

We're responsible for that. Our responsibility is first to the Lord Jesus and then to the church. And then in chapter 13, we talked the last few weeks about we have a responsibility to be submitted to the powers that be, the government that be, because God put them there.

And our job is to submit. Our job isn't to debate, to demonstrate or to obey him. Solely on the premise that God put him there, put that authority there. So we're subjects, as we talked about last week, we are not citizens of the world, but we're subjects to the environment that we live in, which is, in our case, the United States.

And we do what those authorities order, and we give honor to whom honor is due. We went through a list. Our testimony before the world is that we overcome evil with good, and we obey the powers that be, and we owe no man anything but to love him. That's kind of cool. You think, well, that makes it easy, easy for you to say. Finally, we abandon the works of darkness and we put on the armor of light. And that's what we're going to talk about today. That's as far as the first light goes. Therefore, we are very praiseworthy, peculiar, godly people upon this earth.

And that's the book of Romans. And I've said this before, and I think it's important for us to understand that the light given to us in Romans never takes us off the earth. This is not a book of heavenliness. This is a book of God coming here and doing, and this is where we live. while we're still here and we're not, we haven't been given Ephesians yet or Colossians.

So this has to do with how we function as heavenly people on the earth. So verse 11 says, and this, knowing the season that already it's time for you to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. And this, and this refers back to verse 10. That's why I had Jim read it. What is the this?

He urges the importance of you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In view of the nearness of the rapture and the judgment seat of Christ, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If there's any other command, all are summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that's pretty much all we talked about last week. So where does this love come through? Where does this love through us come from? I mean, most of us, you know, when we see a command like that, we say, okay, I'll give it a go.

And we find out in Galatians 2.20, a really interesting verse that says, and everybody in this congregation knows what this verse is.

I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And this begins to set the groundwork for I'm crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live. Who are the I's here? The believer can say I have already been crucified with Christ. It happened a long time ago when I first believed, but I was on that cross 2,000 years ago. And I no longer live, meaning I do not before God exist in the first Adam. I'm not from his line. I'm out of there. I'm new and kind and quality. And where does that take me?

Christ lives in me. It's not merely that he's given us life, but he lives in us. a much more wonderful grace. And then, the life which I now live in the flesh, the Lord Jesus in me, I live by faith of the Son of God. That's how you do it. Faith who loved me and gave himself for me. The reason these verses go together is because they focus on love. It gives us the motive why God has done everything that he's done. It's because he loved us.

My Father, in His grace, has come in and ended my, your, all believers' history in the flesh by the cross. It's over. And now, by the Spirit, I'm brought into association with His Son, the Lord Jesus, at His right hand in heaven. Boy, does that sound like pie in the sky, doesn't it? But that's the truth, because the Word of God says so.

It's not only that the Lord Jesus is the object of my heart, but like every, notice the theme of the three songs we sang this morning? Who was loving who in those? It wasn't one of those hymns that were, oh, how much I love Jesus. No, it's the other way around. The Lord Jesus is the object of my heart, but I find that the one I love has made me the object of his heart.

A Great Day for the Soul, a quote from Miles Stanford. People are ready to say, oh, how they love him. But how far can they say that they are conscious, aware of his love for them, and that they prize it, that it is the greatest secret of their heart? I would answer this question, I'm not so sure. How many believers, we love to talk about we love Him and we do this and we do that, but are we just aware of the fact of the intensity which the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, personally and intimately loves each one of us? Do I know what that's about?

When the Lord Jesus' love is before us, we find that His love draws us out of the darkness into His light. You can say, I'm going to leave the darkness and go into the light, but this has got to be in place. He begins by showing his desire for your or our spiritual advancement, and not by advancing you in earthly position. It's beautiful to see that the work of true love sets aside darkness, or anything that would interfere with this intimacy. Intimacy is a really great word because the love that the Father has and the Lord Jesus has for us isn't a broadcast, out loud, kind of fake it thing. It's personal, it's intimate.

I know the Lord Jesus loves me and I live every day on that basis, that's the point. So therefore, I'm not esteemed as I ought to be because we're looking for something on the earth. And the tendency is to judge his love by earthly gifts and favors down here. J.B. Stoney, I think that's really a true statement.

We pray for people and Christians who are in tough environmental straits, financial, whatever the earth is, but how often do you pray for one another that your friend through their suffering may come to a greater intimacy with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. How often do you do that? And I know that, and so he says, and this, knowing this, the season that already is time for you to wake out of sleep, and now is our salvation near to us and when we first believe. Three words, season, sleep, and our salvation.

So this word for season is the word kairos. It's not the word chronos. If it was the word chronos, I would say, well, it's what, 11 o'clock? That's not what this means. This means that it's a strategic period in time. It's springtime. Oh, it's a whole group of time, I see. And regarding having a character of its own full of significance for them. That's what he means. That's the season or the time that we're in right now. Sleep refers to lethargic, non-aggressive, lazy Christian life. What makes a Christian lazy? He doesn't seek the love of the Lord Jesus. He wants to get enough Christian merit badges that God will leave him alone.

Our is construed, what's coming up? We're nearer. to our salvation, the IBD being that salvation is nearer to us than it was at the time we put our faith in the Lord Jesus. But it's not, well, let's see, I have 45 days, seven hours and 22 minutes, and the Lord's gonna come. That's not what this means. This is the season time. So, We've all studied this a hundred times in this church, salvation in three tenses, right?

Pretty easy, past, present, and future. Justification, my salvation, the removal of all the guilt and all the penalty of sin for the believing sinner. And the bestowal of a righteousness, Christ Jesus himself is occurring at the moment of believing, that's present tense, that's true of everybody here, done, over with, I am saved. But sanctification is the present thing that's going on, and what's this all about? It's a continuous process by which the Holy Spirit puts sin out of our lives, produces his own fruit gradually conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus. That's what's going on right now and been going on since the minute you believed until the time the Lord takes you home, which is the glorification portion of our salvation, the transformation of our bodies at the rapture into a perfect body of a new nature. It is of the last that Paul is speaking. The idea is now is the completion of our salvation, all three of these things. nearer to us than the day we placed our faith in the Lord Jesus. And as we get older, Roger and I talk about this occasionally, we're really looking forward to that day. Roger said to Gary this morning, well talk to Mike, he's going to doctors all the time. I don't have to go anymore.

And all this knowing the season, A wake out of sleep. Let's talk about this a little bit. It shows the awful tendency to sink down into slumber and sleep to a state of spiritual lethargy in which no Christian responsibility are effectively done. Believers are to know the season. The season is to be a motivator. You see that? I'm close. You ever entertained this thought? God has called me and saved me, and he specifically has gifted me to serve him in some manner. And I have between right now and the return of the Lord to perform what he's called me to do, and then after that's over.

So we don't have a lot of time to do what God would have us do. There's no place or no room for irresponsibility, or as he puts it, can't be sleepy. Our Lord sternly accused the Jews in his day of their ignorance concerning time. I wanted to read, I didn't put it in here because I wanted to read it about, What he did, it's in Luke 12, 54 and 57.

Watch what he does. He says, he was also saying to the multitudes, when you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, a shower is coming. And so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, oh, it will be a hot day. And it turns out that way.

You hypocrites, you know how to analyze the appearances of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time, this present season? And why do you not even in your own initiative judge what is right? In other words, it's okay If you Jewish people know, can read the weather, but you don't spend any time reading what I'm telling you about who you are, where you are, and what's really going on spiritually. So he called them hypocrites for that.

So the night's almost gone. The day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. The night is almost gone, and I don't think we appreciate, if you live in darkness all your life, you don't really appreciate light very much. As long as the Lord was on the earth, he was the light of the world, John 9, 5. Since he's gone, though, the Bible says it's spiritual night, except for us.

It was night for the human race the moment Adam sinned, and it gets darker and darker as sin increases. I've never been to the Carlsbad Caverns, but Donna told me she was there one time, and you get down inside there, and they turn all the lights out, and you can't see your hand in front of your eyes. That's how dark it is there. There's no way, you know, slap myself in the face.

That's how dark it is, and yet we think We're moving around and existing in this darkness, or the world is, and they think they're light. Our Lord's coming brought a brief day, a visit of actual blessing. If they receive him, when he returns, it will again be the day. Close, close.

I don't know if you walk early in the morning, when I used to be able to walk a lot better than I can now. In the summertime, Don and I would go for a walk in the five o'clock range in the morning as it just was beginning daylight, just the first. And every time I was there, I always thought, boy, that's really, that's where I live spiritually. That's where we all live, that it's just starting to dawn, just barely getting light. It's good to know that our wrestling with the principalities and powers and world rulers of this darkness that night is far spent, the day is at hand.

Hebrews 10.25 says, not forsaking our assembling together, a really critical thing, people of light ought to be together.

As the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more, as you see the day drawing near again, It's the season, it's coming. No matter what others say about the second coming of Christ, the apostles and the early church lived in the expectation that it was right around the corner. That was 2,000 years ago. But they anticipated it, and I think you do too.

We talk about that a lot around here. So with that in mind, we should lay aside the deeds of darkness. Now we're gonna get into kinda what to do. Ephesians 5.8 says, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

Colossians 3, 8, and 9 says, but now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth, and don't lie to one another since you laid aside the old man with his evil practices. The works of darkness are to be put away, cast off, laid aside since the old man was, back to Galatians 2, 20, I was crucified. with Christ, we can see now that if I have, if that's a true statement, I'm to put all that I was in Adam away. Take it off. Don't consider it anymore. And then, in place of that, you put on the armor of light.

Luke 11.36 says, if then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light. And when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light, we're to be light. So we say, well, I got to do this program and that program and this program. No, you just walk in the light as he is in the light.

This is a redeemed one whom Satan hates. You know, you find that If you start functioning as one who's in the light, you're gonna have opposition more than you have now. One filled with light, armored with light, a blaze of light is harder to approach than the swords or bullets. William Newell said that. Wow.

But here it's more our walking in the light as God is in the light. In view of sin, we are light in the Lord, And that's where we walk, and that's where we live, and that's where we are involved in the warfare that goes on. And I have a buddy in California. Every time we talk, this is his whole thing. People don't realize that we're in a spiritual fight. I said, yeah, I guess we don't. Non-believers don't know that. I said, I know, we don't realize it.

So verse 13 tells us, let us behave or walk properly or honestly as in the day. Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity or sensuality, not in strife or jealousy. So as those of the day, we should be walking what we are. You know, the old saying that if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it probably is a duck.

If I walk in the light, somebody's gonna say, well, you know, it looks like they're people of the light. There's life there. Men choose the night for their revelries, but our night is gone, it's past. We are children of light in the day. So therefore, do only what is fit for the light and for the day. We belong to the day which our Lord's coming will usher in, and that shortly. Therefore, let us walk as those who are already in the daylight of that day, because we really are there. I went through, I thought, well, maybe I ought to just talk about these four or five nasty words and we'll get them over with. Walk isn't a nasty word.

To conduct oneself, order one's behavior. Here's the command, to conduct yourself, or you, order your behavior properly, honestly, in a seemly manner. The idea of honesty is seen in the fact that saints are to give an honest impression of themselves to the world. That's a pretty high order, isn't it? to give an honest impression of who you are to the world. Our outward expression should conform with our inner regenerated being. Carousing.

Now we've got to start talking about the, you know, when we went through these, this, I hate to admit this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I used to live like this, carousing, of revel, hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted late night and indulge in revelry. I would have met this guy there. We'd have been buddies.

Sexual promiscuity. I don't have to explain what that is. Sensuality, unbridled lust, excess decadence, shamelessness, insolence. Insolence is a big deal today. Strife is just contentious, and jealousy is envious and contentious, rivalry, all that. Walk away from that. But you know what's interesting?

The earth's steady increasing wave of Noah Day violence, and what I mean by Noah Day violence is that when Noah's, when God came to Noah and said, I'm gonna destroy the earth, so build a boat, He uses the word violence, that the earth is filled with violence. And Noah was the only righteous man he could find. And Andy Woods thinks that there were probably six or seven billion people living on the earth then, based on the amount of time and procreation and that kind of thing. Lawlessness would terrify us if we lived then.

If we did not know that the Lord is coming to deliver his saints and to judge this very wickedness, that's one of the reasons we really look forward to that day, that this day of lawlessness and violence will be over finally. Strife and jealousy here may also indicate the strife, envy, jealousy, which is so frequently remain not put away among believers. Like it or not, in the body of Christ, there's a lot of this that goes on. Paul has to warn us against over and over among believers. He's gotta tell us.

First Corinthians 3.3, for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal, behaving like mere men? He's telling the Corinthians that. You tell Christianity that today. Colossians 3 says, put away anger, wrath, malice, railing, all of those things.

And now, put on. Well, this is where it gets really interesting. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Put on, it's an imperative verb. It's aorist tense and middle voice. What's that mean? Aorist tense is a fact. It means that it happened as a fact in the past with abiding results in the future. So if it happened as something in the past, why is he telling us to put it on? Because we're acting like it didn't happen. That's why he's doing it.

Romans 6.10, for the death that he died, he died unto sin once and for all, but the life that he lives, he lives unto God. Even so, reckon yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. He wouldn't tell you to reckon if it wasn't true. Now, I don't know how I got reading Ruth Paxson this week, Life on the Highest Plain, and I recommend it. at least the first volume.

She says that God always takes the initiative in salvation. He certainly did in mine and everybody I've ever talked to in salvation. It was God's initiative. Before he asked or expects a man to act, he has acted ahead of time. The work of the Lord Jesus in salvation is a completed work.

Galatians 2.20 is true, not gonna be true, it already is true. So, she says, what the Father has made true of us positionally, and I don't have to explain position to you, you all know what it means.

He longs to make real in us experientially. This requires our intelligent cooperation and willing consent and an active choice, as the imperative put on clearly shows. Therefore, we should learn what our responsibilities are and seek to fill it. Let's say that you have been taught your whole life that what being a good Christian is, is to follow the commandments.

And then somebody comes along and starts telling you about the love of God. And starts telling you what it's like to be intimate with Christ. And that will have an effect. And then they say, oh, and the reason I can tell you that is because you were crucified and raised and Christ lives in you. So they would consider the three practical ways. Now, I put these in the handout today, and I know when you read them, they're going to sound kind of legal. But hopefully by the time I get through, you'll see the grace that's there. The first one, claim your position in Christ. This isn't name it and claim it.

When she's talking about Ephesians 4, 6, God states a fact of salvation, which is true of every saint, whether he ever knows the fact or not. Does every believer you've ever run into understand that they're positioned in Christ in the heavenlies? I don't think so. It's true that every believer is united with Christ in his death and resurrection, the moment he believed and is in Christ who is seated in the heavenlies at the Father's right hand. That's true.

This new position in Christ is the very foundation of the second part of salvation, which is sanctification and of a walk in newness of life, Romans 6.14. to take our position to Lord Jesus daily. Now this word sounds legal. By a definite act of faith and to see yourself far above it all. You ever just say to the Lord, I really believe you about this. I really do.

He wants to hear it. is to begin the day in victory, fortified against the power of the world, Satan, flesh, the greatest enemy. And we have the advantage, but we are called upon to use it. If I wake up in the morning, and my mind, you know, if your mind's like my mind, it's got all kinds of nonsense going through it. I say, wait a minute, let's start this day right. Let's look at things.

Who am I and what do I believe? I belong to the Lord and I'm going to stay in that focus all day long. That's what I want. That's what I'm after. Covet, which I don't like the word covet, so I've stuck in there, strong desire. Covet your positions, possessions in Christ. Have a strong desire for them, but what are they? Every believer is a possessor of every spiritual blessing by virtue of the fact of being in Christ. Do you covet the fact that you're in Christ? Do you really have a strong desire for that?

Perhaps our desire for spiritual treasures is at a low ebb. To claim this effectively, she says, you must covet eagerly. Now, the thing that hit me was, that's the way my mind works, easy for you to say. But then I remembered in Philippians, the Lord says that God will work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The willing is the eagerly covening to know who I am in Christ and to know him. To put on the new man will mean seeking after spiritual riches and setting the affections primarily and preeminently upon heavenly things rather than earthly things. Again, I know when you wake up, you're like me. The first thing that hits your mind is something from the world. some worry you have, some, you know, it's almost like your mind, your sin nature is sort of waiting for you to become conscious so it can attack you. You know, I want you to be thinking about this, and I want you to worry about that, and oh, what about that?

For co-resurrection with Christ lifts ones into a sphere where only Christ and his things ever satisfy. Nothing wrong at that point to say, Lord, all I want is to know you. That's it. I want you filling up my mind. Since you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. For Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affections, affections, on things above and not on things of the earth. Last one. count upon the power of the Spirit. And this is where how it shows you how the grace works. To take our possession or our position in the Lord Jesus and to cover our possessions in Him cannot be done by dependence on anything in ourselves.

Oh, now I'm lost. What do I do? You mean I don't have to try? I don't have to do some spiritual push-ups. I better get up an hour earlier and study the Bible so God will be really pleased with me. No. This puts us back into what we learned back in 13.1.

I'm to be subject to the authorities. Well, who's the authority in your believer's life? It's the Spirit of God. He runs the show. You don't. God made provision for such an impotency. The Holy Spirit is resonant within us to make Christ a living reality to us and in us. It's His ministry. I say to people all the time, just let Him do what He wants to do. Don't get in His way. It is His work to conform you to the image of Christ. It's His work.

Our part is to count upon the Holy Spirit both to keep the old man in place of death, where God has put it, and to manifest the life of the Lord Jesus. So if you're, like Newell said, if you're disappointed in yourself, you trust it in yourself in the first place. You have to trust the Spirit to do what he says he's gonna do. This is true growth in grace now.

Make no provision for the flesh. This is interesting. In other words, don't think about it. Don't plan your day out of the flesh. That's really what it's saying. Besides the lower desires of the natural self-sparing, self-sparing, I can't say that word, slothfulness, there are all forms of self-pleasing. You answer for yourself if this doesn't show up in your mind during the day.

Self-esteem. Sensitiveness? Love of praise? Man-fearing? Fleshly kindness? Flattery of others for selfish ends? Pride? How about your dignity? I have trouble with that one. Impatience of non-recognition by others? Why didn't they notice? sheer empathy, empty conceit, a thousand other desires of the flesh which no provision has ever to be made. I'm not saying this isn't going to show up in your mind. I'm saying that you don't make provision for it.

You say, wait a minute, that's not who I am. I am what the Word of God tells me I am in the Lord Jesus. When the Christian puts on Christ, he clothes his soul in the moral disposition and habits of Christ. A quote from Gifford. So, we are on the earth, strangers and pilgrims, running a race, and we are to love our neighbor as ourself. Yeah. This is my, Hal Malloy went through this, probably took two Sundays to get through this.

But there's a relationship in Christianity between God and man. And that's the first and most important relationship. And it's, I'm to go to God, and he comes to me, and that's where I learn about his love for me and all of the blessings that he has given me. And that's where the intimacy is learned, and that's where the conformity takes place, and that's where the Holy Spirit, he works from that position. He's always working there. From that comes the man to man. to horizontal relationships.

To love my neighbor as myself is totally impossible if I don't have this. You see that? So the focus has to be right. First things have to be first. If we don't keep up the condition, we will be what will be the consequences. We'll make provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires. That's what happens. If I'm not like this with the Lord most of the time, then I'm always responding to the flesh. And you know, the number one thing the flesh does? It desires. It desires. It desires for all of the things I mentioned two slides ago.

And it doesn't ever shut up. It doesn't have a week off. You can't turn the knob. You can't get rid of it. It's there. But you can put it off by being involved with the Lord Jesus this way. And that's what the Spirit works on. Now, Miles Stanford, in one of his great sayings, said, keep looking down, for your life is hid with Christ and God. I can't tell you how many people have said to me, where is that in the Bible? I said, it's not in the Bible. The phrase isn't in the Bible, but the principle is there.

I and you are heavenly people and we're to live, resting a comfortable life in an intimate relationship and fellowship with the God of the universe because he loves us and he wants us to know that. So why do you read your Bible? For this relationship. You don't read your Bible to, well, some people do, but you don't read your Bible to memorize a bunch of scriptures so you can pass the quiz on Sunday morning.

I can't tell you how many Sunday schools I've taught in my life, but I've always had, in most classes, not this year though, somebody in there that said, well, I didn't get the answer to number six. What does that tell me? They're interested in getting the answers, so they look good. What I'm interested in, did six help you here? Did six do something that gave you a greater intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ? That I learned grace, and I learned to live quietly by faith in what God has told me. so I can live the way he would have me live, putting off the old and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's close. Father, we thank you for your grace. Boy, we sure desire, we do covet learning of you more and more all the time, learning how gracious you have been to us, how you always are gracious to us. and you won't let us go. We thank you, Father, for loving us. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.