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(upbeat music) - Romans chapter 13, verses 11 through 14. - Welcome to Daily
Drive Time Devotions, Romans chapter 13, day five in our look at this chapter.
We're looking at verses 11 to 14 today.

It's some verses about how to understand the times that God has put us in. I'm
going to date myself and say that one of my favorite music groups growing up was
Chicago, and the phrase does anybody really know what time it is reminds me
always of their song, and the truth of the matter is, these verses remind us
that we should, we should know what time it is. Not just on our watch, but in
our generation.

How do you respond to the times? And these verses even talk about how do you
respond to the reality of the difficulty of our times? How do you respond to the
darkness of this world?

Should we be depressed? Should we give up? Should we just wait around and tell
heaven?

Well, in Romans chapter 13, verses 11 to 14, Paul compares the circumstances of
this world to the dark that's right before the dawn. And he says, here's what
you do. If you understand the times, here's what you do.

You wake up, you suit up, you clean up, and you dress up. Four things to do in
this chapter. You wake up in verse 11, you suit up in verse 12, you clean up in
verse 13, and you dress up in verse 14.

Wake up, verse 11, you wake up from your sleep. Let me read that verse. And do
this, understanding the present time.

The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is
nearer now than when we first believed. Don't bury your head in the sand of
self-pity. Don't bury your hand in the sand of just fellowshipping with
Christians.

Don't even bury your head in the sand of Christian devotion, reading your Bible
all the time and ignoring the world around you. Wake up, wake up from your
sleep. Honestly, these verses remind us that the more terrible the circumstances
around us, the more motivated we should be as believers.

Because he says, the day is almost here. Hope is our alarm clock. As a believer
in Christ, if you feel like you're continually pushing the snooze button, turn
it off the alarm clock.

Turn it on. Let it keep ringing. Let the hope of what we're looking forward to
guide your every day.

Let that wake you up to what's around you. Our salvation is nearer now than when
we first believed. Jesus came into this world to rescue us.

And yes, we've experienced that rescue in part just by knowing him in this
world, just by the abundant life that he's given us. But the rescue is far from
over. There is a day when we enjoy his perfection for all of eternity.

And it is nearer now than when we first believed. Let that hope wake you up.
Wake you up to live as light in this world.

You wake up. Then in verse 12, you suit up. Put on the armor of light.

Verse 12 says, the night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let us put
aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

The day is almost here. Now, that idea, by the way, the day is almost here. Wait
a minute, this was written 2,000 years ago.

Nearly 2,000 years ago. How in the world could the day almost be here? When
2,000 years ago, it was almost there.

Well, for 2,000 years, we've been looking forward to the almost here of Jesus'
return. Jesus may not return today. But he could return any day.

And for 2,000 years, Christians have lived every day in anticipation of the fact
that this could be the day that Jesus returns. There is this anticipation of his
return. And so, you put aside the deeds of darkness.

Why not, Paul says, the day is almost here. So why not do it now? And you put on
the armor.

What a picture, the armor of light. You don't make an impact on this world by
shooting arrows into this world of truth from towers high above it. The only way
to make an impact on this world, to bring light into this world, is to march
right into it, wearing the armor of light.

If you're going to march out into this world, you and I had better have some armor
on. 'Cause there's some tough things in this world. There's some evil things in
this world.

Evil things that would hurt us. Evil things that would tempt us. And so, you put
on the armor of light.

You put on the armor of God's truth, God's love, God's strength. We don't sleep,
these verses remind us. We battle.

We don't sit above and judge. We run into the world. Paul said at the end of his
life, I have finished the race.

Not I enjoyed the easy chair, I have finished the race. He said at the end of
his life, I fought the good fight. Not I napped the good nap, I fought the good
fight.

Now you should get the rest that you need. But the rest is for a reason. You get
the rest that you need, so that you can march out into the world and make a
difference.

This is not just simply a decision. I'm going to be light in a dark world. It is an
action.

It can only happen by choosing to do something, to serve someone, to make a
difference in the world today. Where does God want you to march? What does he
want you to do?

You put on the armor of light and you go there. You wake up, you suit up. Verse
13, you clean up.

Verse 13 says, let us behave decently, as in the daytime. Not in orgies and
drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and
jealousy. That's interesting, the words that are used here are very strong words
in the Bible.

It uses the word orgies, not in orgies and drunkenness. Orgies were wild
parties, usually held at night, many times at idols' temples. That's the word
that's used here.

Not in drunkenness, we know what that means. It means exactly what it says. Not
in sexual immorality is the next word.

That word in the Greek literally means getting into bed, has the idea of getting
into bed with someone before marriage or outside of marriage. It uses then this
word that most of us don't even know what it means, debauchery. That word means
sensuality, depravity, indecency.

It has the idea behind it of doing what you want just because you can. Not in
dissension, that has the idea of quarrels and fights, you're fighting with
someone else. And not in jealousy, it's an interesting word, jealousy.

It really means being passionately selfish. Now you can be passionately in love
with someone else, and so there's a positive kind of jealousy that's sometimes
talked about in the Bible, not here. This is talking about the negative time,
being passionately selfish, being filled with envy that someone has something
that you do not.

This verse, verse 13, has a lot of history behind it, and we're going to talk
about that more in just a moment. But before that, just focus on the personal
side of this verse. It's not just about someone else.

It's about the ways that I don't behave decently. C. S.

Lewis has said, "We are half-hearted creatures, "fooling around with drink and
sex and ambition "when infinite joy is offered us. "We are far too easily
pleased. " I've always liked the honesty of that quote.

How do you make a difference in our culture and our society? We make a
difference by how we live. You choose not to do some things.

You behave decently, but that's not enough. There's also a positive choice that
you must make, that I must make, and that is to dress up. You put on the Lord
Jesus Christ.

Now why do I use the phrase dress up? Well, verse 14 says, "Rather, clothe
yourselves "with the Lord Jesus Christ, "and do not think about how to gratify
the desires "of the sinful nature. " Do not think about how to gratify the
desires of the sinful nature.

How do you do that? How do you not think about something? If I told you don't
think about whatever, elephants for the next two minutes, it's all you would
think of unless, unless the only possible way to not think about something is to
think about something else.

You don't resist the thought, you replace the thought. And so the way to not
think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature is to instead clothe
yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what does that mean?

Clothe yourself with Jesus. Well, when I got up this morning, I put on my
clothes. And so did you, I hope.

You dress yourself every day. I put on my clothes with the intention that they
would be a part. They'd go with me all day long.

They'd go where I go, they'd do what I do. And I'm going to do the same thing the
next day, and the next day, and the next day. It's an everyday choice.

And the clothes that I put on were a decision about what I was going to do that
day. If I was going to some kind of formal event, I put on a suit. If I was
going to work out in the yard, I put on my old jeans.

A lot of people, when they wake up in the morning, they leave their options
open. They don't decide from the beginning of the day, I'm going to live my day
today for the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't clothe themselves with Jesus from
the beginning of the day.

What I'm saying is don't stay in your spiritual pajamas all day. Make this
decision the first thing, because it's going to go with you all the way throughout
the day. And so because of that, you don't think about how to gratify the
desires of the sinful nature.

Don't be selfish. Don't plan to be selfish. Don't even leave open the option of
being selfish.

But instead, start by clothing yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
sounds difficult. And that's why you start with the positive.

You start each day by clothing yourself with the character and direction of
Jesus Christ. Now these words in verse 13 and then into verse 14 are very famous
words. These verses have been made forever famous by their connection with the
conversion of St.

Augustine. Augustine lived a wild, carousing life, running around with friends
whose life were empty and even cruel to others, doing everything they were
doing. He was a man who forbade himself nothing.

He went into anything and everything. And as people still do today, he came to
hate himself for it. He was a man who struggled with some time with the pride of
admitting his own need.

He once told a friend, because others have preceded us to faith in Christ, are
we ashamed to follow? Why are we not instead ashamed of not following? Sometimes
it's our own pride that keeps us from faith because we think, well, other people
have done it and I want to be unique.

Other people have done it because God loved them. God loves you. Well,
Augustine's life was changed by the grace of God.

He recorded this change in his work, Confessions. On the first page of that work
is the famous line, "Thou hast formed us for thyself, "and our hearts are
restless "until they find their rest in thee. " And Augustine in his Confessions
writes about the day his life was changed.

He was with a friend in the garden and he walked up and down bemoaning his
inability to change. In his despair, he walked into the further reaches of the
garden and heard what he thought was the voice of a child. Some children may be
playing games saying, take and read, take and read, take and read.

He couldn't remember any children's games with those words, but the words stuck.
And he went back to the friend that he'd been speaking with in that garden and
he found Paul's letter to the Romans and he flipped it open and there were the
words from Romans 13. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies
and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and
jealousy, rather clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Augustine wrote, "No further would I read, "nor did I need, for instantly,
"as the sentence ended, "by a light of security infused into my heart, "all the
gloom of doubt vanished away. " He was never the same man again. He went on to
become one of the greatest Christian teachers and thinkers and influences of all
time.

There was a radical change in the direction of his life. So let me ask you, do
you need that? A radical change in the direction of your life.

Jesus Christ can make that change. Take and read. Maybe you have already been
radically changed by Jesus Christ.

What do you need? You need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ today. We all need
that every day of our lives.

We need it as a daily decision. Let's pray for God's strength in the radical
change and the daily decision. Our Father, we pray together that you'd help us
to wake up, to suit up, to clean up, to dress up.

God, if there is a radical change that needs to happen, we pray that you would
dispel the doubt and put in its place, like only you can, a sense of hope. Help
us to doubt our doubts and to trust in you. Father, if that radical change has
already happened, help us to not depend on what happened in the past, but to put
on the Lord Jesus Christ today, to determine today to live for you, because the
night is almost gone.

The day is almost here. Help us to live with joyful anticipation and hope every
day of our lives. We ask this, in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, next week, we're going to be looking together at Romans chapter 14, a chapter
that talks about how to serve one another in love, how to get along, maybe even
sometimes when we disagree with those we're trying to serve in love. Join us
next week as we look at Romans chapter 14.