Knowing the Time — David Ravenhill

Knowing the Time in Romans 13

Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 13. The last four verses, I believe, are a very relevant portion of Scripture. The Word of God, of course, is relevant, but I think this is a very timely word.

And I want to read it to you, outline it for you, and then we will work our way to 11. And do this, or this do, knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. For now your salvation is nearer than when you first believed.

The night is almost gone, the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly, as in the day, 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 in regard to its lusts.

Let me outline this for you, six very simple headings here. It's time to wise up, number one. It's time to wake up, number two. It's time to clean up, number three. It's time to dress up, number four.

It's time to grow up, number five. And it's time to lock up or close up, number six. Do this, knowing the time. It's time to wise up. We use the expression, wise up kid, get with it. You know, you're out of it, you don't know what's going on.

Spiritual Discernment and Seizing the Kairos Moment

And I believe the Spirit of God would say to us, we need to know the time. Paul says, do this, knowing the time. Time is a hard thing to define. It is so vast that we have to divide it into segments. If you took your car in to be repaired and you say, well, when will it be ready?

And he said, well, sometime. That could be the next hour, the next week, the next month, sometime. It could mean ten years from now. It's vague. And so we divide time into segments. I'll be with you in a second.

Give me a minute. You know, in the next hour he should be here. Tomorrow morning. Well, it may be afternoon. Well, it's going to be at least a week. In English we have a two week period called a fortnight.

Maybe a fortnight. We don't use that in America. A month. Well, sometime this year. Well, at least in the next decade. You know, in other words, we have ways of defining time, don't we? And the Greeks had ways of defining time.

And the word that Paul uses here for time, knowing the time, is the word kairos. And it means a specific time. It has behind it the concept of seizing the moment, the opportunity. It is the deer hunter who goes out and before daybreak climbs up in his tree or is blind.

And there he has a view of the clearing. And he waits patiently. The dawn begins to break and there into the clearing steps that beautiful, you know, 14 pointer. That beautiful buck. And it is walking slowly across that clearing.

But that is a kairos moment. If I don't pull the trigger now, two or three more steps and that trophy will forever be gone. It's the auctioneer or you're at the auction. You have your eye on an item. You have a price in mind.

And it is still well below the price. But then you hear the hammer begin to fall going once. And you know that is a kairos moment. If I don't, you know, twitch my ear or do something, I'm going to lose that thing forever.

I've got a strike now. It's the fisherman out on the lake who is watching his bobber sitting there motionless. And then all of a sudden it begins to bob and suddenly goes under the water. And you've got to set the hook.

Otherwise, you've lost that thing once and for all. Knowing the time. It's not just knowing the time generally what's going to happen a thousand years from now and so on. But this precise moment in time.

All of us will remember, I'm sure, what we were doing. A little over five years ago now, September 11th. It was a defining moment. You were on your way to work maybe. Somebody called you. You happened to turn on the television or somebody knocked on your door.

Guess what? And all of a sudden you were informed. I was asleep. I was at 40-something thousand feet flying on Korean Airlines to make my way to a camp in Malaysia. We were somewhere out over the Aleutian Islands.

Nancy dropped me off at the airport in Dallas on midnight of 9 -10. We left at 9 -11, 2 o 'clock in the morning. We were well out, just about ready to leave international or go into international airspace.

And all of a sudden the lights were dim. But then came the announcement. There's been a tragedy in America. All planes have been asked to be diverted back to the closest airport. And so about an hour later we landed in Anchorage.

I will never forget that moment. I'll never forget the next day when my wife called me to inform me my mother had passed away in Argentina. Again, defining moments. And we all have those defining moments.

Knowing the time, Paul says. Let me ask you, do you know what time it is? Jesus rebuked the scribes and the Pharisees because they were able to look at the sky and determine what sort of weather was going to happen.

What the day was going to be like. What the next day was going to be like. But he says you don't understand the spiritual season. You have absolutely no discernment when it comes to the realm of the spirit.

And what Paul is talking about here is how to react or how to act at this particular time spiritually. Being aware of what is going on round about us. The Bible time after time talks about time redeeming the time for the days of evil.

Being aware of what is going on. The Pharisees, scribes and so on, they missed the day of their visitation. What a tragedy. The very Messiah that they sought was there in their midst and yet they rejected him.

And we can be blinded to what is going on round about us. John in his epistle tells us this is the last hour. That was 2 ,000 years ago. If that is true and obviously the Word of God says it's true, then we've got to be down to the closing moments of time.

And so time after time after time in the Word of God we're told, Paul says the night is almost gone. The day is at hand. There is another season. There is something about to break in on us. Children, it is the last hour the Bible says.

And there are so many scriptures about the last hour. The closing moments of time. The disciples came to Jesus and they asked him a question. You know, tell us when will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age?

And you are familiar with that portion of scripture. The most popular one, of course, is Matthew chapter 24. Where Jesus said, listen, these are the things to be aware of. When you see these things begin to take place, look up.

Your redemption draws nigh. In other words, these are indications that things are about to come to an end. There is going to be an escalation of wars, rumors of wars. Earthquake, famine, pestilence as it was in the days of Noah.

So shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man. And so on. All those were signs that we are to be conscious of. It is interesting. Let me give you some statistics that I trust will wake you up to the reality of what Jesus was talking about.

Remember, he said there would be all these natural catastrophes as well as deception in the supernatural realm. There will be false Christs, false prophets, false teachers, signs, wonders, miracles, all dealing with the satanic realm of deception.

Beware lest any man deceive you. He mentions that word deceive two or three times. Spiritual deception that will come in in these last days. But he says that these are just the beginning of birth pangs.

In other words, when a woman is ready to deliver, the birth pangs do not diminish. Well, they're ten minutes apart. Now they've gone to fifteen. Now they've gone to an hour. The baby should be here any time now.

No, it's the other way around. I would to God, I imagine every woman said, I wish it did work that way. You know, a couple of quick intervals of a minute and then, you know, graduate just diminished. No, it's the other way around.

There is a hastening, there is a quickening. Between 1800 and 1900, that one hundred year period, there were eighteen major earthquakes recorded in the world. Between 1950 and 1991, there were ninety-three major earthquakes.

That's less than fifty years. An increase from eighteen to ninety-three. Jesus said these things will hasten, there will be less and less time in between. Famine, we now have something like nine million people that die every single year.

Despite all of our advances in science, there is still a major problem in the world with famines. This year alone, nine to ten million people will die. We see it in the Sudan and other places. Pestilence, there are thirty new diseases in the last thirty years that were hitherto unknown thirty years ago.

AIDS being one of them. The bird flu that they still think could be a major pandemic. Things like that that are beginning to come that we have no answer for. Persecution, Jesus said you will be hated by all nations for my namesake.

A hundred and sixty-three thousand people died for the cause of Christ, martyred for the cause of Christ, in one year. We need to realize that things are changing. I just turned on CNN this morning, or maybe it was Fox News, they were talking about a documentary I think they're going to show a little bit this afternoon called Obsession, where somebody has gone into the jihadist camps and they've gone into schools and they show again the hatred that is being bred, if you like, into children in school all over the Islamic world.

The hatred of Americans, hatred of anybody that does not worship their God. And they're being trained again to take over the world. The hatred, loyalty to, again, Satan himself. And we need to understand we will be hated by all nations.

All nations includes the United States. There is no exception clause. The kings of the earth, Psalm 2 says, will take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us tear apart the fetters.

It is the church that places fetters, restraints. We restrain abortion, we restrain pedophiles, we restrain, we are the ones that speak out. When I was a boy on the farm, we used to, you know, cut the grain and then we would bind it in sheaves by hand and we would stack them.

And you would put, again, take some of that, those stalks and you would wrap it around and tie it and set it there in the field. Again, it restrained, it kept that thing from just falling apart and having, if you like, freedom.

And the Bible says that the kings of the earth will take counsel. They will gang up. The nations will gang up against the Lord and His anointed and saying, these are the ones that are restraining us from having the freedom that we want.

And America will join with them. We have in England now 80 ,000 registered witches with the government. 80 ,000. Drugs, 16 million Americans are using drugs. And the book of Revelation says in Revelation 18 verse 23 that the whole world will be deceived by her sorceries.

And that word sorceries in the Greek is the word pharmakia. It's the word we get our word pharmacy from, the word for drugs. And as you know now, we have a nation that is controlled by drugs. A whole generation of young kids that have been controlled by Ritalin and so on and so forth.

Spare the rod and use Ritalin. We won't go there. Pornography, as it was in the days of Noah, where the thought of man's heart is only evil continually. 25 million websites devoted to pornography. It's a $57 billion a year industry.

We spend $20 billion a year on child pornography. We spend $5 billion a year on phone sex. 68 million Americans visit pornographic websites every single day. Does that wake you up? As it was in the days of Noah, knowing the time.

You know, we are just so conditioned. It just evolves gradually, doesn't it? And we just sort of adapt like the frogs in the water, so to speak. And we need a wake-up call. These are signs, Jesus said, look up, your redemption draws nigh.

Again, 53 of promise keepers said that they viewed pornography last week. I think I said last night 65%. There is a 65 one too. We have 20 million people that have already died of AIDS. We have 19 million children that have been orphaned because of AIDS.

We have 40 million people with HIV. 8 ,000 people die every single day of AIDS. 8 ,000. Then we have the human trafficking that it talks about in Revelation chapter 11, where it talks about trafficking in human lives.

There's over a million people now that cross international borders illegally, smuggled in from Eastern Europe and other places for the one sole purpose of the sex trade industry. It is one of the largest industries in the world.

We have 20 million girls sold into prostitution in Thailand and Cambodia alone. And when we're talking about girls, we're talking about girls, not young teenagers. 9, 10, 11, 12-year-old girls sold into prostitution.

20 million. I read a report the other day that one of the major trucking routes, and I forget which it was, but it literally went across the nation, either north, south, east or west, I can't remember.

They said at every major truck stop, there are young girls, 14, 15 years of age, runaways that are caught up in the prostitution ring. They've run out of money. Some pimp has taken them under his wing, and they just simply walk in front of these 18-wheelers at these huge truck stops, and all the guy has to do is flash his lights.

It's an indication that girl jumps into the cab, does what she does, jumps out, and all night long goes from cab to cab, making thousands and thousands of dollars a year for these men. They threaten their lives.

They threaten the lives of their family. Those girls do not know how to escape. Every once in a while, they're taken out, given a treat, given a special meal, and so on. Young girls, runaways, that are scared stiff to go home.

That's in America, not Thailand. Then we have all the natural catastrophes, the tsunamis. The Bible says in Luke chapter 21, there will be perplexity at the roaring of the seas. One of the signs, the last days, people, they won't understand what is going on with nature.

Something is happening. We don't understand the roaring of the seas. Something is, you know, all creation is groaning. Do this, knowing the time. It's time to wake up, number two. You see, knowing the time should sober us up.

Awakening from Spiritual Sleep

Romans 11, again, sorry, Romans 13 verse 11. It's the hour for you to awaken. You see, Paul is taking here just a very, very simple everyday routine. He's taking a page out of your life, a page out of my life, because every single one of us in this room went through this identical routine in the natural this morning.

You know, we woke up, at least we were half awake, and we looked at the alarm clock, and we became conscious of what time it was. It's time to wake up. It's time to get out of bed. I woke up in the middle of the night.

I looked at the clock. I realized it was not the time. The time determines what you do, how you respond. Knowing, once you know the time, then you have to take action. If the time is not right, obviously you roll over, try and get some more sleep.

But when you are aware of the time, and Paul says, once you're aware of the time, it's time for you to wake up. He's not talking in the natural now. He's talking about spiritually. When you're awake, you're oblivious to what is going on around about you.

You're ignorant. You don't know. Nancy and I, back in about 1971, 72, went to bed one night. We woke up in the morning, only to discover that some men had come into our house, and they had taken a number of our things.

They'd come right into our bedroom. They'd reached right about this far under Nancy's side of the bed, unplugged the tape recorder, and so on, left both doors open. We got up in the morning. We slept right through it.

Had absolutely no idea there were people standing right in our bedroom in the middle of the night. You see, that's what happens when you're asleep. You're ignorant. You don't know. These things are taking, going on round about you.

Paul says, spiritually, we can sleep. In other words, when he's talking about waking up, he's talking about being knowledgeable. He's talking about laying aside the indifference and the apathy and putting your, burying your head in the sand, so to speak, and not being aware.

You know, whatever will be, will be, sort of thing. That sort of lackadaisical, spiritual apathy that creeps into our life instead of realizing the shortness of time and the brevity of time. Again, it's the hour for you to wake up.

Lay aside the ignorance and the apathy, the lethargy. 1 Thessalonians 5 says this, let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. Notice the contrast to sleeping. The opposite of sleeping is being alert.

It's being sober. It's understanding what is going on. If there's one thing the enemy loves, it's the sleeping church. Isn't that right? In the Old Testament, we have an individual who terrorized the Philistines.

His name was Samson. He had supernatural strength. He was a threat to everything that they stood for. God anointed this man. It was not physical strength. It was supernatural strength. And the Philistines had to figure out how do we get rid of this man before he gets rid of us, basically.

And so they went to Delilah. They saw that he hung around this woman, set her up and said, listen, it's your job to find out the secret of this man's strength. And he played around with her a little bit.

Well, it's because of this and it's because of that and try this and try that. You know, everything failed. And then finally she tried tears. That always works. You know, you don't really love me. And he told her, listen, I'm a man of God.

I've made a vow to God. Ever since I was a child, I've stayed away from drink. I've stayed away from anything that would destroy my life spiritually. I'm committed to living a holy life, a separated life.

That's the secret to my power. My commitment to the ways of God and the purpose of God and so on and so forth. And she knew I've got it. So even when she had the information, she was powerless to do anything with it until she got him to sleep.

And the Bible says she made him sleep on her knees. You see, having the information, he still had the power. She couldn't do anything until he was in a place of apathy, a place of indifference, a place where he was not conscious of what was going on around about him.

So if I can get him to sleep. And when she got him to sleep, of course, they were able to come in and cut his hair. And he became weak like other men. We have the virgins who slept and while they were sleeping, the bridegroom came.

We have in Matthew 13 the story of the man that went and he sowed good seed in his field. And then he went to sleep and while he was sleeping, the enemy came and sowed tears. We have Peter who fell asleep and Jesus warned him, watch and pray.

Be alert right now. This is the time, Peter, when the enemy is going, if he can, to take you out. Interesting that he specified Peter. And it's only a matter of half an hour, an hour or so later when the little girl says, I recognize you.

And he says, no, I don't even know the guy. So you watch and pray. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil. Be alert. The Bible, it talks about waking up. And so it's time again for us to wake up. The next thing is it's time to clean up.

Laying Aside the Deeds of Darkness

Again, this is part of our routine, isn't it? We look at the time, knowing the time. Knowing the time determines how you respond. If it's two o 'clock in the morning, you don't respond, I hope. You go to bed unless you're some sort of night watchman.

But if it's six o 'clock or seven o 'clock, you say, boy, I better get going. The next thing you do when you wake up is you clean up. You head to the bathroom, brush your teeth, comb your hair, take a shower or whatever.

We all go through a routine every single day of cleaning up. Paul says, laying aside the deeds of darkness. In other words, we take off the night attire. We take off what we associate with the night. In the natural pajamas, we put on clothes that are fitting for the day.

Paul says, spiritually, we do the same thing. I mean, this is not some deep, you know, illustration here. This is not some great analogy. You know, this is just a very straightforward, everyday, practical illustration that Paul is using here.

And we've got to lay aside the deeds of darkness. Whatever it is that you're involved in, men love darkness rather than light. And I'm not saying that the Lord, you know, is going to come today or tomorrow.

I don't have all that figured out. But I know this, He could come for you today. And He could come for me today. I was in a meeting just a number of weeks ago where a man, 45 years of age, riding his motorcycle on a dirt road.

Dog ran out in front of him over the handlebars. Gone. And the church was still, couldn't believe it, grieving. How can it be? So while the Lord may tarry in that sense, it may be your time. We can't afford to be apathetic and indifferent.

We've got to lay aside, again, the deeds of darkness. The message prior to the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was a message of repentance. And the message prior to the second coming, I believe, is a message of repentance.

Again, he that is filthy, as I said last night, let him keep on being filthy. Revelation chapter 16. I was just reading this morning one verse there that ties in so well. Verse 15, Behold, I am coming like a thief.

Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments. Notice those two words there, wake up, clean up. Stay awake and watch out what you wear. Lay aside the night attire. Those things, again, that you've been involved in that are not in accordance with God's Word.

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. Jesus said to Peter, If I don't wash you, Peter, you have no part of me. And it's time for some of you to allow him to wash you.

He says, Listen, I don't associate with those that are unwashed. Peter, of course, says, Then give me a bath, basically. Jesus said, No. You don't need to get born again all over. You don't need to get saved.

But all of us walk through this life. We pick up, again, contaminants. The sole of our feet touches this earth, if you like, spiritually speaking. Again, we need our feet washed. It's something we've watched, something we've listened to, something we've overheard in song.

We need to say, Lord, just wash me that pollutant, that thing that I heard, that thing I watched. Sorry for that. Lord, wash me. He says, If I don't, you have no part of me. He's come back for a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle.

Putting on the Armor of Light

Number four, it's time to dress up. He says, We are to put on the armor of light. Clothes determine actions. You put on your work clothes, you're ready for work. We have all sorts, especially in America, we have a variety of clothes.

We have formal wear. You put on formal wear, you don't sort of lounge around and spread out, you know, not when you've got a tux on and a bow tie and so on. There's a certain formality that automatically, you know, you walk according to the clothes you've got on.

We have leisure clothes. You know, put on some sweats and so on, meaning we're just going to hang around today and not worry too much and so on. We have work clothes. We have certain clothes, and those clothes affect your behavior.

I'm going to put on some running gear. You know, I'm going to exercise. Going to put on some shorts and some shoes. You know, I mean, the clothes determine the way you act. Notice the sort of clothes you put on here.

Put on the armor of light. That doesn't mean you're going to sit around. Armor is the very opposite of leisure wear. I don't think most of us would put on a suit of armor and just say, well, I'm just going to relax in the backyard today.

You know, get a little bit of sun. You know, well, how come you're dressed like that? I mean, not that we have armor these days, but let's, you know, go back a few hundred years. How come you're putting that on, darling?

I just thought I'd some time for a while. I don't think so. Armor implies warfare. Notice you do not put on the armor until you clean up. The armor does not cover sin. We have to clean up. You don't put your clothes in, I trust, before you take a shower.

We clean up first. Then we put on the clothes. And in the spiritual realm, we've got to do the same thing. Let's clean up and then let's dress up. We put on the armor of light in contrast to darkness.

Lay aside the deeds of darkness. Light implies obedience. Light implies the Word of God and the God of the Word, relationship with Him. If we walk in the light, again, as He is in the light. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2, it says, We've renounced the hidden things of shame, the dark things.

It talks about the secret things and the light of your presence. In His light, we will see light. God is the God of light. I am the light of the world. And we put on that armor, the armor of righteousness, the armor of light.

Again, it's a choice. We have a choice in the morning what we put on. Most of us. Maybe if we lived in some other third world country, we'd be wearing the same old things. But most of us go to our closet and we have a variety of things.

I can put this on, I can dress in black, red, blue, green, you know, what will make me look good today and so on. I can put on a variety of clothes, I can put on jeans, or I can put on some, you know, slacks, or I can put on a formal dress.

We have a choice. And the Bible gives us choices as to what we wear, spiritually speaking. I can either clothe myself in darkness and proceed into a life of sin and debauchery and filth, or I can put on the light of God's Word and walk in obedience.

The Bible says, Pursue holiness without which no man will see the Lord. Pursue it. Go after it. God, I'm going to set my face like a flint. I am not going to be deterred. I am going to live a life that is pleasing to you by your grace.

Growing into Christlike Obedience

Number five, it's time to grow up. He says in verse 13, let us behave properly. Again, your clothing affects your behavior. The type of clothes that you wear cause you to react a certain way. And if we put on the armor of light, obviously it is going to cause us to behave like the one who is the light.

Not in drunkenness and carousing. One exposer that I looked up said, this is used to describe men walking through a city in the middle of the night. They are drunk. They're out of control. They're boisterous.

They're full of just the party spirit. They're loud and obnoxious. They're not concerned about who's sleeping or anything else. They're just walking through town out of control. I hope that doesn't describe you.

I'm sure it doesn't. But then it says sexual promiscuity. And it literally means the desire for the forbidden bed. The desire for the forbidden bed, that which is off limits. And like I said, that does apply to, unfortunately, many in the church.

Again, according to those statistics of promise keepers, at least 50 or more of men have a desire for the forbidden bed. They'll go on the internet. They'll look at things that they should not be looking at.

They will lust after certain things and so on and so forth. The next one is sensuality. It means having no shame when it comes to sin. Openly flaunting your sin. The sort of Mardi Gras spirit, if you like.

These days, you know, there's no shame. In fact, we have coined a term. I've come out of the closet. I'm no longer ashamed of what I do. The Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell, Oprah Winfrey.

Not ashamed anymore. Yes, I've got Stedman. We live together. Yes, I'm a homosexual. Yes, I'm a lesbian. Yes, I'm... No shame anymore. And in fact, let's crusade. Let's get into the streets. Let's make a, you know...

Do you know what time it is? We need to, again, become aware of what is going on around about us. He goes on to say, strife, it's the lust for power, position, basically pride, jealousy, the spirit that is never content with what it has.

And Paul says, let us behave properly, not getting involved in those things. One of the signs that Paul gives, writing to Timothy, he says, in the last days, men will be lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, lovers of self, more than lovers of God.

Boy, if that doesn't describe the day and age in which we live. The best, at least the most popular newspaper in America has to be USA Today. You see it on, you know, it's not confined to a certain city like the New York Times, Washington Post and so on and so forth.

You know, it's available in every airport. But it's interesting that it is divided into sections. There is the news section, and then there is the money section. The love of money. Lovers of money. Then there is the sports section.

Lovers of pleasure. Then there is the entertainment section. Lovers of self. There is no lover of God section. No religious section. Amazing, isn't it? To them, life is divided into sports, into entertainment, into money.

Exactly what Paul said would be the sign of the last days in which we live. Men will be lovers of these things. They will pursue those things more than God. The love of sport. Pleasure. The love of money.

The love of self. We need to grow up. He says, how do we grow up? We put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We put on Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. We have to put Him on in His fullness. As Lord. Master. Owner.

Boss. It means that we submit to His authority. Submit to His Kingdom. He is a King. He is Lord. Jesus, our Saviour. Our Redeemer. Christ, our Anointed. Our Strength. Our Sufficiency. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

His Name in all of its fullness. Otherwise, we are not walking according to the Word of God. We are not behaving properly. If you don't acknowledge Christ as your Lord, and only as your Saviour, it will affect the way you walk.

Making No Provision for the Flesh

When you put Him on as Lord, it's going to change your behavior. All of a sudden now, it's not my will, it's His will. It's not my way, it's His way. And finally, the last one, it's time to lock up. Or close up.

He says, I make no provision for the flesh. This building, somebody will be the last one out. And they will lock up. And the reason they will lock up is because they don't want to make provision for somebody coming in and destroying this place.

Somebody coming in, stealing the microwave, sound equipment and so on, walking off with chairs and so on. So we lock up. We lock up every night in our individual homes. We check the house. Are you sure you locked the doors?

Is the garage door down? So on and so forth. Why we don't want to make provision. Making provision means that we are intending on doing something. If I make provision to go camping, I am going to gather the things that are necessary for me to go camping.

I will get the sleeping bag down from the attic and air it out. I will get some ground cloth. I will check the tent and make sure all the things are there in order to erect it. I will get the stove, make sure I've got some kerosene or propane or whatever it is.

I will get some matches and some warm clothes. I'm making provision to do something. If I make provision to go fishing, I'm going to check the outboard. I don't have one. But I'm going to check the boat.