What Time Is It? — Warren Wiersbe

Romans 13 and the Responsibilities of Believers

We open the Word of God to the Book of Romans, chapter 13, beginning at verse 8, and reading through the end of the chapter, verse 14. I think these are good verses for us as we walk into a new year. Romans, chapter 13, beginning at verse 8.

Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet.

And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. For love worketh no ill to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

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, 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 reveling and drunkenness, not in immorality and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

As Christians, we do know what time it is. It behoves us to live as those who are waiting for the Lord. Dr. Vance Havner tells the story of the farmer who was lying awake in bed one night, and the clock began to chime.

And as the farmer counted, the clock chimed fifteen. And the farmer jumped out of bed and ran through the house saying, wake up, wake up, it's later than it's ever been before. I think Paul had something like that in mind when he wrote these verses in Romans chapter 13, and that knowing the time.

Paul is telling us that you and I are living in a very wonderful, needful time. The Apostle is reminding us that our salvation, the completion of our salvation, is nearer than when we believe. That's logical, isn't it?

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly closer to us today than it was back in Paul's day, or even thirty years ago when I was saved, or whenever you were saved. Our salvation, the return of the Lord Jesus, is nearer now than when we believed.

This being the case, we have some responsibilities. The fact that Jesus Christ is coming again is an encouragement to us to keep on going. It's an encouragement to us that the best is yet to come. Don't quit.

The fact that Jesus Christ is coming back again keeps us going. It keeps us from collapsing. But it also lays upon us some definite responsibilities, and there are at least four of them. I want to share them with you today.

As a Church family and as individual Christians, as we begin this new year, it's a year of responsibility. Our Lord Jesus Christ may return. Now we pray that he will. I pray that our situation here in this earth is not so pleasant and so wonderful that we don't want Jesus Christ to come back.

I pray that our only reason for wanting him to come back will not be deliverance. I trust we want to see him. I trust the coming of the Lord means more to us than deliverance from our physical burdens and our spiritual problems.

I trust that we want to see him. I'm sure this is true of many of you. There are many of you who are saying, oh, that I had wings like a dove, that I could just fly away and be with him. Well, until that time comes, you and I have responsibilities to carry and to fulfill.

And Paul gives them to us here. And Paul is saying to us that if we do fulfill these responsibilities, we will be ready for his coming. You say, well, Pastor, isn't every Christian ready for the coming of the Lord?

No. No, if that were the case, Paul would never have written these words. Every Christian who's truly born again and therefore is a Christian is ready to go to heaven. We go to heaven because of the grace of God.

It's faith in Jesus Christ that takes us to heaven. And so every truly born again person is ready for heaven. But I fear that there may be some of us who are not ready to stand before the Lord. The writer of the book of Hebrews says, knowing therefore, the writer to the book of Hebrews tells us that our God is a consuming fire.

Paul writes and says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. I trust that no one here will look upon the return of Jesus Christ and the judgment seat of Christ lightly or carelessly. To me, it's a very awesome thing that one day I shall stand before God and I shall give an account of my life and my ministry.

Waking Up from Spiritual Sleep

Responsibility number one is in verse 11. It's time, says Paul, to wake up 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 believe it's time to wake up.

As you read your Bible, you discover that sleep has many different meanings to it. Of course, there's the natural meaning to sleep. When God was going to give Adam a wife, he put him to sleep, performed the first surgery, the first anesthesia, put him to sleep and gave him a wife.

When he was going to make a covenant with Abraham, he put him to sleep. A deep sleep came upon Abraham. It's interesting to read in the Bible that sometimes God uses natural sleep as a means of blessing.

But that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's not writing to people who are asleep on their post-trapedic mattress. He's not talking about natural sleep. Nothing wrong with that. Natural sleep is a good thing.

It's an awful thing when a person can't sleep. It's rather amazing that you walk into a drug store and you see shelf after shelf of medicines to help people sleep. Ecclesiastes says, the sleep of the laboring man is sweet.

At the end of a busy day, it's a beautiful thing to be able to sleep. Doctors tell us that sleep is the closest thing to death. That when we are truly sleeping and resting as God wanted us to when he made us, the systems in our body are very, very close to death.

But Paul's not talking about natural sleep, nor is Paul talking about Christian death. In the Bible, death is pictured as sleep for the believer, not for the unbeliever, but for the believer. The word cemetery means a sleeping place.

It's the Greek word which means a sleeping place. The Latin word is dormitory, but nobody ever sleeps in a dormitory, but they do in a cemetery. When a Christian dies, his body goes to sleep. His soul doesn't go to sleep.

His soul goes home to be with the Lord, absent from the body, present with the Lord, but the body goes to sleep. This is why when one of our loved ones is called home, though we weep because it hurts, we realize that nobody's afraid of sleep.

When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to one of his children and says, all right, you've suffered long enough now. I'm just going to put you to sleep. And so the body goes to sleep and the soul goes home to be with the Lord.

This is the assurance that we have, but Paul's not talking about that. The sleep that Paul is talking about here is spiritual lethargy. The sleep that Paul is discussing here is the coldness or the lukewarmness, the apathetic attitude of believers.

He's talking about spiritual dullness and lethargy, the thing that happens to you when you're sitting in a room and the air is heavy and there's no ventilation. Maybe you've had this experience in lectures in school and you're sitting there looking at the instructor and you're getting heavier and heavier.

He's talking here about spiritual lethargy. Now, he uses the same illustration in 1 Thessalonians when he writes to the church there, just about the same idea. He says this, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, 1 Thessalonians 5, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

For when men shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in the darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Ye are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober-minded. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that are drunk are drunk in the night.

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. And so the opposite of sleep is alertness, being awake, being sober. And so our first responsibility as we walk into this new year is the responsibility to wake up.

You know, it's a tragedy when Christians go to sleep. Do you ever go through your Bible and pinpoint the people who missed out on blessing because they went to sleep? Now, there are some people who got blessing because God put them to sleep.

I mentioned Adam and I mentioned Abraham. I'm thinking, for example, of Jonah. Jonah was running away from God and disobeying God. Jonah didn't want to be a soul winner, and Jonah went to sleep. And while he was sleeping, a storm came, and you would think that a landlubber like Jonah, a Jewish prophet, would have been hanging over the rail in that storm, but he'd gotten into a spiritual stupor.

The pagan sailors were up on deck praying and making sacrifices and pleading that some God somewhere would send peace, and here's Jonah sound asleep. That's a tragedy of spiritual lethargy and dullness.

You don't know the danger that you're in. And someone says, well, pastor, I've got peace in my heart. It could be peace and it could be spiritual lethargy. It could be an absence of alertness and awareness.

I think, for example, of the greatest Bible conference that was ever held, the Mount of Transfiguration. Three people to listen. Peter, James, and John. Three people to minister. Jesus, Moses, Elijah.

The greatest speakers in the world. Jesus, the Son of God. Moses, the great lawgiver. Elijah, the great prophet. The greatest subject in the world. They discussed his decease at Jerusalem. And what are Peter and James and John doing?

Sleeping. I wonder how many times you and I have gotten into spiritual lethargy and God's wanted to talk to us we couldn't hear. I think of those same three disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. You know, when you're going through some kind of difficulty, you want somebody with you.

I'm so happy that the people of the Moody Church stand with each other. When someone's going in for surgery, there are some of the friends to pray. I thank God for the way you people hold each other up in prayer.

Jesus said to nine of his disciples, eight of his disciples, now you stay here and you three, Peter, James, John, you come in and pray with me. You see, the Son of God needs somebody to pray for him. He asked them for that.

He was going to go through the awful agony of Calvary and here's Peter and James and here's John. And he says, now pray with me. And they went to sleep. We wonder why God doesn't do things for us. It's because we're sleeping instead of praying.

I wonder if someone listening to me right now this morning was sleeping when you should have been praying. In the parable of the tares, Jesus said, while men slept, the enemy came in and sowed the weeds.

And while Christians sleep, the enemy gets into the church. And while Christians sleep, the enemy gets into Sunday school classes. And while Christians sleep, the enemy begins to plant dissension and trouble and false doctrine.

And Paul says, now look, as you walk into a brand new year, wake up. What is it that puts us to sleep? Why is it Christians are sleepwalking? They come into a service as though they're hypnotized. Why is it Christians go to sleep?

What happens to us that we go to sleep? I think sometimes we go to sleep because we're breathing the wrong atmosphere. I can recall only twice in my life, I went to sleep in a school room. I'm sorry that both of these were at seminary.

In one case, that room was so hot, the sun was just beating through the windows. And I'm sorry to say the lecture was just a little bit dull and I was tired and I just sat there and little by little, my head began to go down.

And I had to pull myself up. This happened once in chapel. The seat that I had in chapel was in the horse latitudes. I couldn't even see the speaker. And it was hot and it was drowsy. And I went to sleep.

And I'm embarrassed about that. I don't brag about it. Sometimes the atmosphere we're living in is heavy. It's not the pure breath of heaven that we sang about. Oh, breath of life, come sweeping o 'er us.

Sometimes you and I get into some of the places where we're not supposed to be. And we're breathing an atmosphere that's poisonous, that's heavy, that puts us to sleep. I think sometimes the Holy Spirit of God just has to come blowing through to clear away the smog.

Some years ago out in Los Angeles, a heavy smog moved in and they couldn't do a thing about it. And there was a whole city waiting for the wind to blow. This happens to our churches sometimes. We get apathetic, careless, lethargic, dull, and the Holy Spirit of God has to begin to blow.

Sometimes our drowsiness comes from the wrong kind of eating. I'm sure this last holiday season more than one person overate and then went and sat down and before long you just got a little bit heavy, a little bit heavy.

Overeating will do this. Sometimes we Christians get involved in the things of the world and we feed the flesh and we get dull and careless and sleepy. I'll tell you what puts people to sleep more than anything else, you get into the darkness.

If you're in the light it's kind of hard to go to sleep. I can recall when we were flying overseas a few years ago, got to be about 10 .30 and I was tired. And of course they, about that time, began to show a movie.

I didn't want to see a movie, I wanted to go to sleep. So I closed my eyes, there were changes of lights all the time. And finally the movie was over and I thought to myself, well praise the Lord I can now go to sleep.

Then the sun came up. It's a very difficult thing to go to sleep in the light. When a Christian starts walking in darkness instead of walking in the light, how easy it is for a Christian to go to sleep.

I'll tell you something else that makes people go to sleep. Nothing to do. Nothing to do. Nothing to do, just sit around and before long you get tired and drowsy. You know those Christians who are busy ministering to God's people, those Christians who are busy trying to win souls, they don't have time to go to sleep.

They don't have the desire to go to sleep. They're busy doing something. You say, but it's possible to do too much. Well, God says let's not be weary in well-doing. In due season we shall reap if we faint not.

We get tired in the Lord's work, we don't get tired of the Lord's work. And Paul says to us, wake up. Wake up to the opportunities that are around you. Wake up to the needs that are around you. Wake up to the burdens and wake up to the dangers.

You get excited anymore and people think you're crazy. Don't get too excited. You might turn somebody off. Well, I'd rather be turned on by the Lord and turn somebody off than be sleeping. And God never called the church to go to sleep.

Cleaning Up the Works of Darkness

God called the church to get out and fight and serve. And the time has come for us to wake up. Now, the second responsibility we have, according to the Apostle Paul, is given to us in verse 12. Wake up.

Clean up. It's almost a picture of somebody getting up in the morning and stretching and saying, oh, I better wake up. I've got to get to work today. I've got to get to school today. Taking a look in the mirror and saying, man, you better take a shower and you better shave and better clean up.

Paul says, I have the responsibility as I walk into a new year of cleaning up. Now, he talks in verse 12 about the night and the day. He says, now, the night is a picture of sin. Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, said Jesus.

Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. When people want to do dirty, sneaky, sinful things, they do it at night. One of the signs of the brazenness of this present age is that people are doing boldly, in the light, what they used to do very stealthily in the darkness.

It's time to clean up. It's time for us to put aside the works of darkness and to put out of our lives those things that displease the Lord. Look at them in verse 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 armor of light. Let us walk honestly, becomingly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in immorality and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

He's saying, take off the dirty clothes. Now, in the Bible, garments are a picture of character. For example, Isaiah 64 6, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And so, when the unsaved person comes to stand before God and he brings all of his religion and all of his good works, God says, I'm sorry, it's just rags.

Well, Lord, what can I do? Take off those rags and let me give you the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's why you have a verse like Isaiah 61 10, where he has dressed me in the robe of righteousness.

He has clothed me the way a bridegroom is clothed for the wedding. Now, if you're a Christian, this means at some point in your life you have repented. You've taken off the dirty clothes and you have received Jesus Christ, which is the garment of righteousness.

But now, says Paul, it's possible for us as Christians, if we aren't careful, to get dirty clothes. I don't mean we lose our salvation. I mean that we go back to the things of the old life. And this is why in almost every letter Paul writes to the churches, he warns about sin.

He wrote to the Corinthians and said, some of you are getting drunk. You're suing each other. You're fighting each other. One is building this clique and one is building that clique. Christians, not unsaved people, Christians.

He writes to the Galatians and he lists that long list of the works of the flesh. He was writing to Christians. Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. He talks about adultery and fornication and lasciviousness and fighting and anger.

Christians. I spoke at Pacific Garden Mission on New Year's Day. And during the invitation, I was walking around pleading with the men to give their hearts to Christ. And I stepped up to one man there and he looked like he was interested.

All during the message, he just looked at me and listened. I thought maybe God has prepared this man's heart. I said, sir, would you like to become a Christian? He said, not on your life. I said, well, sir, if you don't receive Jesus Christ, it means that you go to hell.

He said, I'd rather go to hell than be a Christian. You know, I don't know how a person gets like that. I don't know his story, but I've known people like him. He got into a church someplace where he was told about the Lord Jesus and about being saved.

And he saw Christians fighting with each other. He heard about Christians who were living for the devil in the world. And he said, if this is what it's all about, I don't want it. Now, my friends, let's not close our eyes as in the night.

Let's be open and honest. It's time for us to wake up and it's time for us to clean up. It's time for Christian people to realize we cannot wear the old grave clothes. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, Jesus said, loose him, let him go.

Paul says the same thing in Colossians chapter 3. Seek those things which are above. Now put off these things, anger, wrath, malice, and put on love and peace and kindness. We Christians walk around like we're perfect.

God looks upon us and says, I think it's time for you to clean up. That's what John means when he says, and now my little children abide in him. He says to John, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed, ashamed before him at his coming.

You mark my word, there are going to be some settlements made at the judgment seat of Christ. It's time to wake up. It's time to clean up. Thirdly, it's time to dress up. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Dressing in the Armor of Light

Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. He's picturing a soldier. Here is a soldier who has been careless at his post. And he suddenly wakes up and says, oh, it's almost, it's almost dawn.

I've gone to sleep on the post. Wake up, clean up, and dress up. It comes as a shock to some Christians to discover that we are soldiers. The Christian life is not a playground. It's a battleground. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has called him to be a soldier. There are many pictures of Christians in the Bible. We're compared to sheep, we're compared to children, we're compared to stones, we're compared to branches in a vine, we're compared to students in a school, we're compared to vessels, lights, salt.

Here, he says, you're soldiers. That means there's a battle going on. Now, some Christians have no idea there's a battle going on. The hosts of hell are warring against the church of Jesus Christ. And do you know where the devil is working?

Not outside, inside. We drive through the streets of Chicago, like any other city, and we say, oh, the devil's got a place there, and the devil's got a place there. I want you to know that when Paul writes about the work of the devil, it's not outside in the narcotics dens and in the nightclubs and in the gambling places.

He says the devil is inside the church. And you and I have got to dress up and put on our armor and pick up our sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and fight the battle. Now, we put on the armor for protection.

I think he's talking here about the kind of thing you and I should do every single morning. I make no apology for saying this. You and I are not going to win the battle and get the job done unless every morning we come to God, we report for duty, we pick up the sword of the Spirit, we feed ourselves with the Word of God, we equip ourselves with the truth of God, and we walk into the day wearing the armor.

It amazes me how some Christians can go day after day and week after week never starting their day with prayer, never starting their day with the Word of God. They wonder why they fail. It's time to dress up.

I suppose the greatest explanation of this is over in Colossians chapter 3, where he gets right down to brass tacks. Verse 8,. But now ye also put off all these, that's the cleaning up, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one to another, saying you've put off the old man with his deeds, you've put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

Now verse 12, Put on therefore, here are the clothes that we're supposed to wear as Christians, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another.

If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. Dress up. Each one of us today before we came to God's house dressed up.

You would have frozen to death had you not. There's nothing wrong with a person standing in front of a mirror and adjusting his tie or combing his hair. For some of us it doesn't take very long to do these things.

A person wants to look his best. Man does look on the outward appearance. No one glorifies God by having bad breath and body odor. And no one glorifies God by looking sloppy. If we took time to dress the outer man, how much more important it is to take time to dress the inner man.

Growing Up in Christ

It's time to wake up and it's time to clean up and it's time to dress up. And finally, we have a fourth responsibility. It's time to grow up. Verse 14, Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

Grow up. You see, as you grow older and grow up, your clothing changes. Somebody says, well, I sure can't wear last last winter's suit. And this is a bit tight for me. I've gotten bigger. He says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When David put on Saul's armor, he couldn't walk. It was too big for him. When you and I put on the Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder if he fits. Now, to put on Jesus Christ means to receive Him by faith, to appropriate all that He has for you.

It means His peace becomes your peace and His love becomes your love. It means putting Him on, clothing yourself with the Lord Jesus. But He's also saying to us, you better grow and grow and grow that you might get more of the Lord Jesus and that He might get more of you.

Some Christians never do grow up. Paul had this problem in Corinth. He said, I'd love to deal with you as with adult people, but I can't. I can't. I've got to deal with you as babies. There's only one way to teach babies.

Spank them. Little babies do not understand logic. They do not understand values. The only way to teach children when they've disobeyed is to spank them. And Paul had to spank the Corinthians. You see, the way God deals with me shows me where I am spiritually.

If I'm close to the Lord, He just has to look at me and I get the message. If I'm a little farther away, He talks to me and I should get the message. But you know, if I won't listen to God speak, then I've got to feel God spank.

God says, okay, Wiersbe, I can't deal with you as a mature person. You're acting like a baby. There's only one thing left to do. Spank you. And Paul says to you and me, as you walk into a new year, wake up and clean up and dress up and grow up.

You know why some Christians don't grow? It tells us in verse 14. They're making provision for the flesh, but not for the spirit. Paul is saying here, the only way to grow is to feed the spiritual life and starve the flesh.

Oh, we spend time feeding the flesh. It's not hard in the city of Chicago, if you own a TV set or even a newspaper, to feed the flesh. In fact, without those things, you can feed the flesh. Just use your imagination.

A dear friend of mine, now home with the Lord, was blind. And I made the statement one day when we were having dinner. I said, you know, it's tragic that you're blind, but it saves you from some of the temptations the rest of us had.

He said, are you trying to kid me? I face the very same temptations with my imagination that you face. Feeding the flesh. And Paul says, make no provision for the flesh. Don't feed the flesh. Don't feed the ego.

Feed the Holy Spirit. I can't get away from the fact that what Paul is saying is this. You're a soldier. I'm a soldier. This church is a company of soldiers. Our job is not to fight each other. Our job is to fight the enemy.

The battle is not in here. The battle is out there. Too many Christians are not equipped for the battle. And therefore, he gives us these four responsibilities. Jesus is coming. When he comes, are we going to be asleep?

And while they all slumbered and slept, behold, the cry came, the bridegroom cometh. And they woke up and half of those bridesmaids were not ready to meet the Lord. If the Lord Jesus would come back today, would he find us sleeping?

Careless, lethargic, or sober, alert, awake? He says, wake up. If Jesus came back, would he find us in dirty garments? He says, clean up. If Jesus came back, would he find us in the armor fighting the battle?

He says, dress up. If Jesus came back today, would he find us pygmies, little children, midgets, or stalwart soldiers who have fed on the word of God and grown in grace? He says, grow up. Jesus is coming.

And when he comes, we'll stand before him. And we'll discover the kind of soldiers that we've been. As we walk into a new year, I think it's good for us to remember the time is short. The Lord's coming is near.

Wake up. Clean up. Dress up. Grow up. And you'll be ready. And for those of you who don't know Jesus as your Savior, you aren't ready. And the only reason Jesus has delayed his coming is to give you a chance to be saved.

It's the only reason. He would have come back a long time ago. But Peter tells us that the Lord is delaying his coming because he's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. And so if you don't know our Savior, our loving invitation to you is to come and trust him and be saved.

Prayer for Spiritual Alertness and Growth

Gracious Father in heaven, I want to thank you for speaking to my heart from this word. And I pray that you'll use it to speak to all of our hearts. I pray, Heavenly Father, that as a church family, we'll be awake and alert.

Oh, God, awaken us out of sleep. Help us to realize we don't have time to waste. Cleanse us, oh, God. Dress us in the armor of light. And even though it's darkness in this world, help us to live as children of light.

And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you'll help us to grow. Oh, that you might not have to deal with us as with little babies. We don't want to be ashamed when we stand before Christ. We want to receive a full reward.

We want to have an abundant entrance. We don't want to be saved as by fire. Oh, I pray, Father, accomplish your will through this word in this church. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.