Awake - Be Alert — Erlo Stegen

Lord, we thank you for all we have heard and seen. Please Lord, be with us now and take the service into your hands, work through your Holy Spirit. And may your holy name be glorified. Amen. We'll read from Romans chapter 13.

The Call to Awake in Romans 13

From verse 11 to 14. And do this knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. And put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

Kairos and the Urgency of Immediate Obedience

The first point in this text that we have read, and do this knowing the time. Knowing the time. Now it says here that we, as we know the time, do we really recognize the time? What does this mean? What does this time mean that it's referring to?

Just the time as it is today, tomorrow and day after tomorrow, does it refer to just this type of time? No. In Greek it's the word kairos and that's the word used for time. It means this is the hour, now is the time, not after one but right now.

Right now. God is here referring to you that you must do something right now. No compromise, not negotiable, it's something you have to do immediately right now. Some people when they are challenged by the Lord to give their lives to the Lord, to commit their lives to the Lord, that they be saved, they say well I'll give it some thought, I'll think about it.

There's a demon which tells you it's not the time yet. But the word here says now is the hour, this is kairos, this is the time. And kairos is not just about the time, the moment which is right now, but it also refers to the fact that it's God giving you this command to act immediately, it comes from Him.

In fact you have no choice, God is commanding you to do it now. And if you don't do it, you're guilty before God, you're sinning. And it's this hour, that and your response that you give now which will decide whether you end up in heaven or in hell.

If you obey you will be saved, if you disobey you will be condemned. What then is God commanding us to do in this moment, this hour? He says awake out of your sleep. We've been challenged already, even the child that spoke here said that Christians are fast asleep.

Spiritual Sleep and the Consequences of Indifference

Well the truth is that things are like they are in the world today because we are asleep. That your children all run away from home, they forsake you, they forsake the gospel, they go into the world, go their own ways, it's because you parents are fast asleep.

Evil abounds, you know see what it's like, why? Because the children of God are asleep. You know what it means to be asleep. Many thieves they break into houses while people are asleep, they are there but they're asleep so they steal cell phones, they steal things, when you wake up things are not there anymore, why?

Because you were fast asleep. Abanye bale luktongu, abanye baya kimesa, noma be bona izi ndo amasai nibona galesu kuti, agu haam biga ashe gulengani, agu haam biga ashe gungami, agu haam biga ashe ndoteniyami, agu haam biga ashe gumzali, goto astati notisi, siya kimesa, uyo papama usumuga numpula, ozo kata ugi seleluan, le lapu yo jiwa kodu shaka.

And often we fast asleep because there are warning signs, you can see warning signs in your child, or in your parents, or whoever else, your wife, or your husband, you notice there's something not going as it should, but because you're asleep, you're swept away by the tide, you'll be swept away by the river, you'll wake up in the sea when the sharks eat you.

Uleluktongu, bona ngatingani ezako ziapila, ziagwaleni ezoto, kati ziafeba, kati ziakanga, si shugani suiteyotua, si shugani suisono. And you think, uma umute shugani, wokonduguti gungeni sono, agu koguni.

And you think, oh it's not so bad because my child has left me, is no longer with me, left our church, but at least they're still going to some other church. They're not there serving the Lord, they're actually living in sin.

They are living in sin, it's sin that separates us from one another. Don't be fast asleep, don't let your child bluff you and then you comfort yourself and say, oh well at least they still go to church.

You go to the bottom of it, you'll find them sleeping around. And those parents will even stick up for their children in spite of the fact that they're actually living in sin and secret, but they will fight for them, justify them, but because they fast asleep, they'll be on their side.

Awakening to Christ's Incarnation and Salvation

Now when you're asleep, you neither recognize the evil that's going on, nor do you recognize the good that is happening. You don't even recognize the significance that Jesus left heaven, came down to this earth, became flesh.

Jesus came into this world to save sinners because he loves you so much. He gave himself, his whole life for you, the last drop of blood he gave for you, but you feel nothing. All you're saying is, oh I'll think about it, I'll see one day.

Jesus put on the flesh, God became man, Jesus became our brother. You hear those words, Jesus became our brother, but it doesn't touch you, you feel nothing. And by that God, the creator of heaven and earth, he became our father.

Just imagine God becoming your father. But it doesn't touch you that he became your brother, he became your savior. God came so close to us. He made us heirs of the kingdom of heaven, that heaven becomes ours, but it leaves you cold, you don't feel anything.

Jesus came, the gospel came, but all you say is futzek. That's all you feel for him, you treat him like a dog. Now you've been asleep long enough, maybe you're 23, 18, or 16, or 60, whatever you are, you've been asleep for long enough.

Now God says, now is the time to wake up out of your sleep. You need to wake up to the things that are evil, but you also need to wake up to the things that are good and heavenly, things of God. And wake up, stop going, continuing in your blindness and drop the sin of indifference where you just don't care.

You are negligent. It's because of the sin of indifference that many will end up in hell. Now is the time to awaken, it's high time to wake out of our sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Whether you've believed for a year or 15 or 50 years, you've never been so close to your salvation as now. So that time will come soon where you will awake to that full salvation. But if you don't believe to eternal damnation, you need to wake out of your sleep.

Darkness, the Devil, and Faith Through Hearing

Get out of this darkness where you grope around in the darkness. You don't know where you're going. You don't know where you're treading. You stand on a snake. You don't even notice it. If you walk around at night, you stumble.

You fall over a stone. You find yourself lying on the ground. Why? Because it's dark. You don't see. You're fast asleep. That's why you don't see it. You're in darkness. Darkness is where the devil reigns.

If you haven't come out of darkness into the light which Jesus brings, you are in the realm of the devil where he is king and where he reigns with his demons. You should read the Bible. If you read the Bible, God comes close to you and he speaks to you.

And if you cannot read yourself, listen when God's word is read and preached because faith comes by hearing. I said I want to be brief and I'm just being very concise in what I'm saying. But if we'd have time, we could speak about the things which the devil does for you and the things God does for you.

If you're in darkness, the devil reigns your life. You are in death. You're in the world. But if you come into the light, then the darkness is dispelled. You then see things. In India, there was a lady missionary.

Amy Carmichael's Vision of the Lost

Her name was Amy Carmichael. She was known as a hero of the faith here in India. One night, she couldn't sleep. She had a huge burden for the people in that area, the Indian people praying and asking God to send his light into the darkness.

She was agonizing, pleading for these souls that were lost. And then she saw a vision. She found herself standing at the edge of a huge precipice. The ground just fell away into nothingness, almost like a bottomless pit.

You didn't see the end of it. And then she saw people coming from all different directions, heading towards this pit. And then she saw people coming from all different directions, heading towards this pit.

And then she saw a young mother walking with a child in her arms and another one holding onto her skirt, walking towards this precipice. But she didn't realize where she was heading for because she was blind.

But she didn't realize where she was heading for because she was blind. Can you imagine such a sight? This young mother, these two young children depending on her, and here they were heading for this precipice.

And there were countless others also heading towards this precipice. And then it was noticed that in fact everyone heading towards this precipice was blind. They were all blind. They didn't see where they were going.

And she says she saw these people heading towards this precipice, falling over the edge, and she says those screams you cannot describe the agony as they headed into that bottomless pit. As they fell into this darkness with no hope and they just disappeared forever.

Then she noticed that on the one side of the precipice there was someone who, there was a god and on the other side there was another god. But in between these two men there was just nobody. There was a huge gap.

These two watchmen they managed to save a few out of this huge crowd. But countless numbers fell over the edge. They couldn't get to them. And Amy says as she watched this site it was like it was a huge river cascading over into that bottomless pit.

While this was happening she noticed some people sitting under a tree not too far away totally oblivious of what's going on. Just enjoying themselves. They're having their little picnic. Busy with their own things.

They were totally indifferent. They didn't care about all these people falling into this hopeless situation into that pit. I don't know. Here were these people. She was shaken by it. Does it do anything to you?

Here she saw this second most populous nation in the world after the Chinese. Just falling into into a lost eternity. As I've said sin separates children from their parents. I remember when our brother Jablan Dube got married.

My brother got up and he said there's one thing that's going to separate us and that is sin. And that we become indifferent. That we don't care. That things just don't matter to us anymore. It's because we've become blunt because of sin.

Casting Off the Works of Darkness

Not anything else. And so this text says let us cast off all the works of darkness. You need to cast off the works of darkness. Not just put them here one side that you can go and get them again at a later stage.

No cast them off. Get rid of them. I remember the first Tsangoma that got converted when I started preaching the gospel. Her name was Posigile Mamsa Tuzan. She was a widow and she had no children. So she was all alone in the world.

But she was very bright. Now there was someone who had laid a complaint against her accusing her of having stolen her goat when she said she hadn't done it. So it was an unjust accusation. But this person insisted she must, in Zulu one says, wash him.

In other words that this false accusation can be washed off. He should pay for defamation. In other words, pay for defamation. Now the Nkosi was there with the whole people. All the people were gathered there.

And then eventually the Nkosi said, well, what is going to be said? And then she got up. And then she got up and she said, well, this man insists that I must wash him, so to say. In Zulu they literally say, you've got to wash me.

And she says, well, now Nkosi, what must I do? He wants me to wash him. Hasn't he got his own wife that should do that? And then she had a container with water in it. So she worked her way towards this man with this container.

And then she took the water and she splashed it all over him. They said, but what are you doing? She says, well, he wanted me to wash him. And then she got converted. And it was remarkable how the Lord spoke to her.

The Conversion of Posigile Mamsa Tuzan

She saw a way full of blood. And she said, but what does this blood mean? I said, that's the blood of Jesus that was shed for you. And she asked me to visit her at her place. So I had to go down into the valley, right down to the bottom.

And when I got there, she lived in a real hovel. But she had prepared a wonderful feast for me. She slaughtered a chicken for me. She cooked it, but it was only half cooked. So it was half raw. She got the chicken out of the pot and put it onto this wooden.

So she put it onto her wooden thing for me to eat of this meat. But on the side of this plate that she offered were some chicken droppings. Now, normally when you have a braai, you can cut up your meat nicely on this piece of wood.

And then you put your salt or your chili on the one corner where you can dip your meat into. And it tastes very nice. But this was a different combination. I really prayed and asked God to give me the grace that I could actually eat and swallow this food.

And he did help me because I didn't want to disappoint her. Because she had really done the very best for me. Then I went back home to where my parents lived. And I said, can't you help me? Because I've come across this Sangoma who's gotten converted.

She lives in a miserable situation there. I asked my father whether we couldn't just build a little place for her that she could come and live on the farm with us. My father agreed. We then fetched her.

And she lived on the farm. And then I tried to teach her. I said, look, it's good that we are hygienic and wash ourselves. And then she said, well, the problem is I don't like water. She had an old dress which she wore.

It was really very tattered already. She wasn't poor either. She once showed me the money she had. It was a pile of notes like this. And it wasn't just rands. They were pounds in those days. And she said, you could see there were old notes and she had kept them for a long time already.

And she said, look, I'm treating you like my son because I don't have my own. This is what I've got. And if I die, then you can get this. But I didn't actually ever get that inheritance. I think maybe she was just too old already.

She actually probably forgot and she gave it to someone else. It's a problem when someone makes a promise and forgets his promise. In fact, before God, that is a sin to make a promise and not to keep it.

And then we went to the service with her. And a white couple came along. And they noticed the dress, how tattered it was that she was wearing when she came to the service. And they felt sorry for her and gave me some money, quite a bit, and said, look, use this money.

Go and buy her a good, nice dress. We'll come back again later. And then we'd like to see her wearing this new dress. So we bought her a dress. So we bought the dress and I went to her. I said, look, I've heard that this couple is going to be at the service on Sunday again.

Now you have a good bath and put on this new dress. That they can see this nice new dress that they bought for you. And so we sat there in the service. I was sitting with these visitors. And in came this old lady.

And what had happened, she came there hobbling along with her walking stick. And what had she done? She had taken this new dress that we had bought and put it on over her old tattered dress. Your old dress was sticking out under the new one.

Putting Off the Old and Putting On Christ

I was so embarrassed. Afterwards, I said to the visitors, I said, please excuse her. She's old already. And just forgive her. But how many Christians don't do exactly that? They don't put off the old.

They just put the new over the old. Aren't you a Christian? Maybe you're still smoking. You're still drinking. You get irritable. You get angry. Yet you call yourself a Christian. You see, you've never put off the old.

But I heard of a Sangoma that got converted. But when she went to people to get advice, she said, what must I do about all these old skins that I'm wearing because I'm a Sangoma? They said, no, that doesn't matter.

You just keep that. Just take get yourself a dress and wear it over your old skins. Literally, she hadn't got converted. She just wanted to be a so-called Christian, being a church person. And the minister and the deacon said, just put the new garment of a Christian over those skins of a witch.

God doesn't allow that, that you put on the old, the new over the old. You must put aside, cast off the old and then put on the new. I don't know why you don't want to put off that old. Maybe you just enjoy that sin and you don't want to drop it.

You don't want to drop that boyfriend or girlfriend. You just you want to sing in the choir. You want to be in the church. You do all the things, but you haven't put off the old. You put on a good show.

You want to look like a good Christian that people think a lot of you, but underneath you've still got the old man alive. And even if the minister, even if no one else notices it, God sees what's in your heart.

God's Omniscience and the Exposure of Hypocrisy

Because this body that you've got is made out of glass in God's sight. When God looks at you, he looks right through you. He sees what's in your heart. You're made of glass in God's eyes. When he looks at you, the first thing he sees is your heart and your thoughts and all your little so-called little sins in your heart.

It doesn't help being a hypocrite, putting on a show and you think, well, no one knows it. God sees it. He sees right through you. Even your house, you may lock the doors and you may close it off, close it up.

But even those walls of your house are made of glass before God. The people outside don't see what's inside, but God sees it. Everything is open and evident, clear before God. You can lock something up in a box, lock it that no one can get at it, but God sees what's inside.

From their houses, from their windows, they said, we've got nothing to hide. Anyone can look inside. Even to this day, if you go to Holland, you see it. So even now you drive through the streets, you can look into the houses while they're busy eating.

They're sitting at table while they're together. They said, we've got nothing to hide. Now, cast off the old and put on the armor of Christ of light, the armor of Christ, which is God's word, which is like a two edged sword.

The Armor of God and the Fight of Faith

Now, I'm just rushing to get to the end. Use God's word, use that as a sword to fight with the world, with sin, with evil. The Bible says, fight the good fight of faith. And you don't just, that doesn't mean just sitting back, folding your hands very piously.

No, you must put on the armor. In Ephesians six from verse 10, you read about the armor of God. And one of the pieces of armor is the shield of faith. You cannot go into battle without a shield. If you put on the armor of God, the devil won't get at you easily.

In fact, he will even flee from you. And faith comes by hearing the word of God and putting it into action. And then it says, let us walk properly as a child, as a child of the light. Not in revelry and drunkenness.

Not in greed and lewdness and lust. Not in strife and envy. These are all things you dare not find in a life of a Christian. If you as a Christian have anything of this in your life, you just are a half-hearted Christian.

You're carnal. The final point, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember last Sunday service? We spoke of the woman who was closed with a son. You see, that's a picture of a Christian and of the church.

Putting on Christ as the Light of the World

We should put on Christ. We should clothe ourselves with him and that son should shine brightly. We should put off the old and put on Christ. Put on Christ who is the light of the world. Bring light to the world through your life.

Prayer for Repentance and Immediate Response

Let's bow our heads. I cry out to you Lord and pray that your word will not be in vain to us. May this preaching of your word bring faith to people that they can go away here being changed through your word.

Lord, my wish would be that there would not be one who wouldn't do it, but that each one will put off the old and put on Christ. Lord, reveal to us what Kairos means and that as you command us that we should do it now.

If we don't, we are guilty before you. That we'll do it before the sun sets, lest we be cast into hell. Lord, work that your word may not be in vain, but that it will grow and bear forth much fruit. We pray Lord Jesus that your grace will be with us all.

Amen. Amen.