WWUTT 1363 Put On the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:11-14)

Romans 13 14 says put on the Lord Jesus Christ put him on as a garment for the righteousness that we have comes not from ourselves it is the gift of God when we understand the text this is when we understand the text studying

God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ find all our videos online at www .t

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Pastor Gabe Hughes thank you Becky we come back to our study of Romans chapter 13 verses 11 through 14 as we finish up this chapter today this is the

Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome besides this you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed the night is far gone the day is at hand so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy but put on the

Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires we start here in verse 11 with this statement besides this you know the time besides what let's just look at those first two words there will this comes right after what we studied yesterday with Paul saying oh no one anything except to love each other for love is the fulfilling of the law you know the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet and every other commandment are summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law and that's how we are to be we are to love as Jesus loved us so we are to love one another if we have the mind of Christ Philippians 2 5 then we must consider others needs ahead of our own and if you love as God has told us to love then you're not doing anything in disobedience to the law you are fulfilling the law when you live out the love of Christ that has been poured into our hearts by the

Holy Spirit we do not have any goodness in us to be children of love in this way as God calls us to be we could not do that on our own we are able to love one another in keeping with God's commands because Christ has been given to us we wear the righteousness of Christ and keep that in mind the righteousness we have as a borrowed righteousness it is a gift a grace of God it's not a righteousness that is inherent in and of ourselves for as we come into this next section here in Romans 13 we are told put on the

Lord Christ verse 14 put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for your flesh be after the righteousness of Christ and not the enslavement of your flesh to the sins in which you formerly walked so now in this commandment and keeping this commandment to love your neighbor as yourself fulfilling the law remember back to Romans chapter 3 where Paul said do we overthrow the law by this faith like it does the law not matter to us anymore it has no application for us anymore

Paul says by no means on the contrary we uphold the law and how do we uphold the law by loving one another as God has commanded us to do as Christ exemplified in his life we love each other besides this besides the commandment to love one another you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep so there's more to this than love one another there's the call to righteousness and holiness and this is an active pursuit that's what

Paul is doing here he's calling the reader the listener in the Roman Church there and and the

Holy Spirit speaking to us today he is calling us to action this means we don't just sit around and wait for something to happen or maybe if I just don't do anything then

I won't sin and so by sitting here and doing nothing I'm there for a righteous man no righteousness is something that you must strive for we have it in Christ but we must grow in holiness we are being perfected in sanctification until the day that Christ returns you know the time the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed well wait a second

I thought we got salvation when we believe Paul is saying there's a salvation that we haven't received yet but is nearer to us than when we first believed this is a different application of salvation yes the moment you came to believe in Christ you are saved you're saved even now your eternal reward is bound up in heaven with God above you have fellowship with God now but a day is coming in which you will see

God face -to -face you will actually be in his presence and as it says in 1st

John 3 2 you will made you will be made to be like him and you will see him as he is and so salvation is applied in that same way here yes you have a salvation now but there is a day that is coming when you will see that salvation your

Lord Jesus Christ face -to -face it's the concept of the already but the not yet you are already saved but you're not yet there you haven't yet come into glory into his kingdom where you are completely safe for all time from all evil temptation from death from sickness from sorrow any of those things will be gone the former things will have passed away we will live in that eternal salvation forever with God that day is closer for you today than it was yesterday you are closer to being with God in heaven today than you were last week than you were last year and you may look at the current times and that's what

Paul is talking about here you know the time you you know what day we are in you know by what we have heard from Christ about his coming about the judgment that is to come you know where we are in in the timeline of all of this we're in that last age all we're waiting for next at this point is the return of Christ you know the time you can look around you can see the times you see things going from bad to worse especially once again speaking in my own

American context today this devotional is falling on inauguration day now

I record these devotionals in advance so there are probably some things that have happened that are pretty crazy even by the time you listen to this devotional that I did not see coming when

I recorded this who knows what sort of crazy zany things are going to happen on January 20th with the inauguration of Joe Biden and the and his vice president

Kamala Harris you're talking about the administration that is advancing LGBTQ causes faster than any administration in American history or perhaps even in the world you know

Rome and Greece they were this evil but there has never been a culture or a civilization that has said marriage can be between a man and a man like the law of that civilization has never acknowledged that until just about 20 years ago

I believe the never the Netherlands were the first to do it and the United States came along 15 years later so we have nations on earth that are the first in world history to be saying within their laws that marriage can be between a man and a man even among those nations as pagan as Rome was there was certainly rampant homosexuality but it wasn't that there was this idea that a marriage could be anything other than a man and a woman because that's where offspring comes from children cannot be the fruit of any other union except between a man and a woman and now you have so many civilizations on planet earth now that are trying to say within their own laws that a marriage can be between a man and a man or a woman and a woman a marriage is the beginning of a family and the same -sex unions can never result in that family cannot be produced from a relationship between a man and a man yet this is where the depravity of our minds have has gone

God is giving us over to a debased mind he's given mankind over to the passions of his own flesh and he's being consumed man is being consumed with passion for those things that are unnatural and will be coming into judgment as a result of this we are told in 2nd

Thessalonians chapter 2 starting in verse 9 the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved therefore

God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness what are we supposed to do how are we supposed to live as Christians do not in any way give passage to these abominable beliefs that God has said that he will judge but instead you are to wake from sleep and recognize that salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed the night is far gone the day is at hand so then

Paul says let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light it's in 1st

Thessalonians chapter 5 that the Apostle Paul talks there about not being children of the night but we belong to the day he says this 1st

Thessalonians 5 for but you are not in darkness brothers for that day to surprise you like a thief for you are all children of light children of the day we are not of the night or of the darkness so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation for God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our

Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him and the metaphor there in verse 10 is whether we're alive now or our bodies have died and and our souls are with Christ but we're waiting for the resurrection of the dead and kind of pulling the whole context of everything he's talking about there in 1st

Thessalonians 5 together then verse 11 says therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing we're seeing the world fall into worse and worse depravity and wickedness and my friends you will be persecuted

Jesus said we would be persecuted he said that following him was a hard path

Paul told Timothy in 2nd Timothy 312 all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived we see all of this going on around us we should not be surprised by it things are going to go from bad to worse but we encourage one another of the hope that we have in Christ Jesus not discouraged but longing all the more for that day and guess what my friends good news that day is closer to you today than it was yesterday amen my friend

Samuel C up in Canada said the following if you're not preparing yourself for persecution you're not preparing yourself for perseverance we must persevere through these times continue to hold fast to Christ knowing that we will be hated for our faith just the righteousness that we want to have that we have been given in Christ the godliness that we are pursuing the world's gonna hate us for that we should not be surprised by that open the doors of the church get together preach the gospel celebrate

Christ encourage one another in hope for the day that is coming for all who believe on his name salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed verse 12 the night is far gone repeating this again for you for your benefit the night is far gone the day is at hand we are living in the day of the

Lord now that day of deliverance into his heavenly kingdom has not yet come but this is the day that the

Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it as it says in Psalm 118 24 so then on this day let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light

I mentioned the armor of light as Paul refers to it in first Thessalonians chapter 5 we also have it of course in Ephesians chapter 6 the whole armor of God finally be strong in the

Lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm put on the armor of light as Paul describes it here we have we have armor that even reflects the light that is in our hearts through the truth of Christ that has come into our life

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 do not hide your light under a bushel but put it on a stand it gives light to the whole house so let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven yes we're going to be hated for the things that we do but let the world see that the works that we do are not like the world do not try to twist your faith into something that is going to be more palatable for the world to accept they're not going to if it is truly of Christ they will hate it we are told that they will and so we must not distort the message that's damnable it will damn others it will damn yourself you must cling to the truth of what

Christ's word says and do not be ashamed of it for it is that message that saves it is it is the truth of God's Word untainted unashamed that is exalting of Christ because it's his word if you twist it into something else you're no longer sharing

God's Word you're sharing your own and that has no power to save as we talked about yesterday you have no power to save yourself or live righteously in and of yourself you need the salvation of God you need the righteousness of Christ so do not change his word into anything other than what he has said in the

Bible and let us walk properly as in the daytime Romans 13 13 now these words here are rather are rather sensitive they're very particular but Paul is passionate about this group of people and does not want this church in such a pagan city one of the one of the most sordid cities on planet earth at that time he did not want them to be led astray into the wanton sin that so many of the

Romans were indulging in so he says let us walk properly as in the daytime not walking about doing those things in darkness that people do with dark hearts we walk properly as children of light in the daytime not in orgies and in drunkenness or in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy and you are seeing a certain aspects of evangelicalism in the

Western world today giving permission to the sexual sins and quarreling and in jealousy with one another this woke movement critical race theory black liberation theology is filled with quarreling and jealousy and sadly many of them are even giving passage to the

LGBTQ movement which has been using black lives matter to throw itself even more upon the culture but how are we as Christians to be verse 14 put on the

Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires once again

Galatians chapter 5 the works of the flesh are contrary to the fruit of the Spirit if you are in the

Spirit of God you're not gratifying the desires of the flesh but if you are in the flesh then you are not filled with the

Holy Spirit of God Paul said previously in Romans 6 verse 6 we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin if your old self has been crucified with Christ it's no longer you who lives but Christ who lives within you in the life that you now live you live not according to the flesh but according to Christ as Paul said also in Galatians chapter 2 so put on the

Lord Jesus Christ have the mind of Christ you've taken off the old self you've put on the new you have a righteousness that came not from yourself but is by the grace of God walk in that righteousness have nothing to do with your flesh hate the things that the flesh goes after that's contrary to what

God's Word has said hate those things because God hates those things love righteousness because God loves righteousness let your life be for Christ put on the

Lord Jesus Christ wear him as a garment let everyone see who is truly your king no matter what worldly leader they're gonna prop up in front of you

God has appointed even Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for such a time as this

God will use even these wicked leaders to bring about the repentance of some and the judgment of others the

Lord Jesus Christ is the true king and it is he and he alone that we worship let me conclude with with this parable of the wedding feast that Jesus tells in Matthew 22 and this going along with the instruction here to put on the

Lord Christ listen to what Jesus says here Matthew 22 starting in verse 1 and again

Jesus spoke to them in parables saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast but they would not come again he sent other servants saying tell those who are invited see

I have prepared my dinner my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready come to the wedding feast but they paid no attention and went off one to his farm another to his business while the rest seized his servants treated them shamefully and killed them the king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city then he said to his servants the wedding feast is ready but those invited were not worthy go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find and those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found both bad and good so the wedding hall was filled with guests this is now verses 11 through 14 but when the king came in to look at the guests he saw there a man who had no wedding garment and he said to him friend how did you get in here without a wedding garment and he was speechless then the king said to the attendants bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen what is this parable mean on the early part of the parable verses 1 through 10

Jesus is referring to the children of Israel that God had invited to the wedding feast but they didn't pay any attention they went and did their other business instead and some seized his servants treated them shamefully and killed them these are those who killed the prophets and the messengers of God the king was angry and he destroyed those murderers and burned their city and then said go to the highways and byways invite everybody that you can to come to the wedding feast and this is the story of how the gospel of Jesus Christ has now gone to the

Gentiles so Jews and Gentiles come together into the wedding feast of Christ by his invitation but when the king came in to look at the guests he saw a man there who had no wedding garment there even going to be some who claim to be of Christ to pretend that they are followers of Jesus they go to church they say the right words they speak

Christian ease they they say that they are Christians but maybe their definition of Christianity is not biblical doesn't look anything like what

Jesus says his disciples are supposed to look like they attach Jesus name to the things that they like the prejudices they love their biases the cultural stuff that they want to cling to and have their

Christianity at the same time and they end up distorting their Christianity into something that does not look like biblical

Christianity what does Jesus say to them verse 12 he said to them friend how did you get in here without a wedding garment and the man that Jesus said that to was speechless no one will be able to stand in the presence of God on that day and declare their own righteousness the

King said to the attendants bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth that's the description of hell for many are called but few are chosen

Matthew 22 14 remember that Jesus previously said in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 7 there are many who on that day are going to say

Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and then

I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness they claimed to be wearing the name of Christ but they were they were wearing a

Jesus that they liked not the Christ of the Bible what does Paul say here Romans 13 14 put on the

Lord Jesus Christ the Lord according to what God has said of Christ in his word the

Bible worship the true King follow his commandments live a life of righteousness as you wear the righteousness of Christ the day of salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed heavenly father thank you for the goodness that you show to us daily and help us not despair as we see the world go in the direction that it's in we've been told in scripture this would happen and that Christ will return to judge all wickedness and deliver his own by his mercy and grace work out in us this salvation with fear and trembling may we be be made more like Christ even as we persevere through the suffering that is coming upon us at the present time give us boldness to declare the gospel so that we may have mercy on those who doubt saving others by snatching them out of the fire and to others show mercy with fear hating even the garments stained by the flesh as it says in Jude verses 22 and 23 to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only

God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen you've been listening to when we understand the text of pastor

Gabe Hughes Monday Tuesday and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a New Testament study then on Thursday we look at an

Old Testament book on Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers tomorrow we'll pick up on an