Feb. 4, 2018 AM Time To Wake Up by Pastor Josh Sheldon

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Feb. 4, 2018 Time To Wake Up Rom. 13:11-14 Pastor Josh Sheldon

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I had those readings selected from Zephaniah That being typical of many of the prophets calls and warnings about the day of the
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Lord that is approaching And then I had him read from Ephesians 5 which is the response to the dawning of that day
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And so as I preach before we read from Romans and our text will be Romans chapter 13 verses 11 through 14
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This is what we need to think of this morning is the dawning of that day and what that means what the prophets had looked forward to and warned the people of and What came in small bits and pieces if you will in the judgments of God against his people when
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Assyria conquered us Israel for example or when Bob Babylon took
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Judah captive for another example and many other judgments like that those being precursors
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Warnings hints at what the ultimate day of the Lord will be like a day of judgment a day of determination and what we have then in Ephesians 5 and other places in the epistles is if you know that this day has
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Dawned if you know the times if you know what day we actually live in what era what aeon what epoch?
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then there's a necessary and a biblically explained response
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We need to know what times we live in and we need to know what caused that time in which we live now
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To have happened. So let's with these thoughts in mind look at Romans 13 11 through 14 and Then look to the
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Lord to open our eyes to these truths The Apostle Paul writes beginning at verse 11
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Besides this and of course, I immediately have to stop excuse me besides this He means besides all these things that I've given to you going back at least to Romans 12 to Which is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then all those things that we spent some weeks explaining besides that besides this may even go back further as we go to perhaps chapter 4 of Romans and The faith of Abraham, which is that model that paradigm of our faith because he believed
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God's promises Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake up from sleep
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For salvation is nearer to us now than it was when we first believed The night is far got far gone.
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The day is at hand So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light
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Let us walk properly as in the daytime not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality
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Not quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires our text this morning
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Has to do with time It has to do with time and not not time in its smallest sense time in its largest sense
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We could think of the preacher in Ecclesiastes when he wrote to us Everything there is a season and for a time for every matter under heaven
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And he speaks then about the cycles that we go through a time to kill a time to die
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There's a time to break down a time to build up weep and laugh and these sorts of things He's talking about the cycles that our life goes through We have this time and it goes to this time and then that cycle happens again and time again and again
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God has ordered things so that things happen in their time we might think of John chapter 7 when
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Jesus brother says well it's time for you to go to the feast and time for you to do the miracles and time for you to prove yourself to everyone and Jesus says no you any time is good for you.
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My time is not yet and he went in the father's time What's speaking then of a discreet in a particular moment then?
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What the Apostle Paul has in mind is time and he wants us He wants the church to understand the time in which we live
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And not a time as if from one moment to the next but from one era to the next from the promises of God Anticipated to the promises of God fulfilled
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What Paul sets before us is really the pivot point of history, and it's really not too much to say It's the pivot point the dividing line of all existence you see the advent of the
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Lord Jesus Christ Inaugurated the kingdom of God, and that's the time in which we now live not just a time to Plant in the time to reap what you plant
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Lord willing that will happen But he's speaking in bigger terms than this the
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Lord Jesus Christ Inaugurated the kingdom of God and so we live in that time
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Besides this you know that time you know when you live you live in this time of the kingdom of God and More than just living in the kingdom of God Jesus came and inaugurated it
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You live in the time of the Spirit's empowerment to make real and effectual in your life
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The qualities expected of citizens of that kingdom the time of the
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Spirit If you will the indwelling power of the Spirit making real and effectual the promises of God to the people which the prophets anticipated
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Christ inaugurated and the Spirit made effectual That's the time we live in besides this you know the time
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Lord willing you do know the time Lord willing you do this is the time we live in all that was before that is the far -gone night everything since that day since that great day of the
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Lord Jesus Christ this day that the prophets like Zephaniah which Ken read to you looked ahead to ever everything since that time is the morning it's like the
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Sun rising and Dispelling the gloom It's like he's
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Isaiah 9 With the people who sat in darkness people who sat in gloom saw a great light.
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What was that great light? It can't be other than Jesus Christ and this dawning age This time in which we now live
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Now is the day of salvation Today is the day of the Spirit's empowerment By which we are molded and shaped into what what
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Paul speaks of in Romans 8 Predestined to be in the image of Jesus Christ the Son of God That's happening now in this age in this time.
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Do you know that time? Are you aware of that time? That's when we live this dividing line
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You know even the secular world will say BC meaning before the year zero
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I guess but we know it's before Christ and AD the day of our
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Lord the year of our Lord and Jesus coming divides everything
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No less does he divide the age in which we live The breakdown of the four verses is really is verse 11 and then the first half of verse 12 and then the second
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Breakdown would be the second half of verse 12 and down to verse 14 in the first part of that Paul explains this that you need to know this time
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That salvation is drawn near and you're running out of time And if you understand the time in which you live, you'll understand that there's an urgency to this
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We'll get into that a bit and the second half tells us what to do with that urgency walk properly
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Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's these two breakdowns first verse 11 first half of verse 12
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Know the time wake up Wake up Let's be sure we understand the time because Paul writes.
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He says, you know the time He obviously doesn't mean some something so main mundane as to say.
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Well, you know that it's 1128 in the morning on February 4th 2018
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Now many of us know that But that's not what he means He means something much bigger than that.
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He means know the age know the epoch in which we lived Those who are swept up into the vortex of this new era era must leave behind all their vestiges of the old if you're in Christ Jesus if your soul has been regenerated by him if your hearts been remade by the
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Holy Spirit and You've been made able to believe and to repent and to come to Christ and to worship
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God in truth in his spirit If you are one of those You've been swept up into this
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Then over and over and over again Jesus and the Apostles say
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Dispense with the old that is from that other age. That is no longer applicable to you.
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It is obsolete It doesn't fit you He's going to say put on the
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Lord Jesus Christ be clothed in him. Well the clothes have to fit
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That's what he's gonna get at Now the old
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Has to be put aside We're living in a new age and Paul is confident.
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It's like what he says towards the end of Romans I'm confident in you brothers that you are able to admonish one another to counsel one another
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I Believe we could sort of bring that here and say I'm confident in you brothers and sisters that you do know this time
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So it's a new time. It's a new era. It's a new epoch. It's a new paradigm of existence
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Jesus spoke about this in many of his parables I'll just read one to you had to do with wine skins this metaphor
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He made he said and no one puts new wine into old wine skins If he does the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed
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But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins and no one after drinking old wine desires new for he says the old is good
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That wouldn't happen speaking of the remaking of Your soul by the
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Holy Spirit in this new age so that the put the cloth the clothing that is
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Jesus now Fits it's a work of the Spirit The age of the kingdom has come
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There's what Paul is saying wake up Know this you do know this now do something about it the age of the kingdom of God is here
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And it swept away everything that came before the prophets prophesied this
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The prophets is looking through a glass darkly if you will Hope for this let me read to you from Isaiah 40.
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Just the first five verses of that chapter Says comfort comfort my people says your God Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended that her iniquity is pardoned that she has received from the
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Lord's hand double for all her sins a Voice cries in the wilderness in a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way for the
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Lord Make straight in the desert a highway for our God Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain will be and hill will be made low the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a
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Plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the
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Lord has spoken This age which Isaiah could only prophesy could only look ahead to could only hope for He anticipated and then comes
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John the Baptist and what does he do? He proclaims this age the one that Paul is speaking of, you know the time
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Wake up. The night is gone. The day is at hand John the Baptist Proclaimed it. I Am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.
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There's Isaiah 40 that he is fulfilling make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet
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Isaiah said and Then back to John the Baptist staying with him for a moment He then saw the new dawn the new age in a person
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He proclaimed it and he saw it the next day he saw
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Jesus coming toward him and he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and More than that John the
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Baptist and we could stay with him for just another moment And it's worth our time Jesus said he's the greatest of the prophets they all prophesied until John and John Brings it all together because he was able to do what
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I'm bringing to us in such quick terms this morning John bore witness.
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I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him on Christ. I Myself did not know him
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But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain
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This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit This is Jesus and John the
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Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descend and rest upon Jesus and This is he
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Jesus is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit You If you by faith and repentance for your sin have come to Christ have been baptized with this
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Holy Spirit The same Holy Spirit we worship in this place The same
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Holy Spirit that empowers us to do the things of God in a way that brings honor to his name and good to our souls
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By conforming us more and more to Christ's image. That's the day in which you live
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This is the day of urgency This day that is close brings salvation closer to us than it was before John saw that he saw the
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Holy Spirit landing upon Jesus Christ and in that he saw the ultimate fulfillment of the promises of the prophets of which he was the last that the
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Holy Spirit would come and rest upon you Child in the
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Lord and Empower you to be like him who brought the
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Spirit to us, which is Jesus Christ Christ Inaugurated the
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Apostles preached it the Holy Spirit is actualized in the people of God in the citizens of his kingdom
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You see our passports have been issued Your citizenship has been certified by the
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Holy Spirit by the washing regeneration renewal of him the Spirit By that you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven
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If indeed he has remade your soul that passports been stamped valid That is the new age in which we live
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The far -gone night Paul speaks of everything before that age The day at hand is the now
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You see our watchman has in that sense cried out He said awake O sleeper for the day comes and is closer than we know
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Paul as it were is on the rampart and he's joining himself to the prophets and to Jesus's urgent message that God has done what he promised all those centuries of anticipation done
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Complete in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sending of the Holy Spirit These are the definitions of this new age
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That the Apostle would have us respond to He being confident that you know that this day is here and now
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Well Jesus has come and died for our sins and by that he has qualified us to become his people and He has sent his spirit who makes us able to be properly that people
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The kingdom which is now hasn't really been fully implemented nor shall it be until the
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Lord's return and When will that be? If that's what we're anticipating if we're looking ahead to that glorious coming of our
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Lord and Savior our great God and Savior Jesus Christ When will that be?
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Well, don't look for hints in the headlines The movements of nations to and from war won't give us even a clue
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Apocalyptic storms or disasters testify to God's power, but they say nothing of when this current epoch will come to a close
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What are we told? We're told the day is closer than it was yesterday
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And that's all we get to know about it. The day is closer than it was yesterday Now does that sound obvious we call that tautology a needless repetition if you are alive today
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Then obviously salvation is one day closer to you than it was yesterday and If the
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Lord should tarry and keep us alive tomorrow, then tomorrow we can look back on Sunday and say well today
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Monday is one day closer than it was Sunday Is that really all the Apostle means?
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No There's an intensity of effort that he's calling for here
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There's an urgency The Lord's return will hit when he will come and find his people so doing as the
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Lord Jesus himself Puts it this day is approaching and not one of us gets even the smallest clue or hint of when that will be
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That's the day we live in This day that has lasted for some 2 ,000 years a bit more obviously but about 2 ,000 years and may last another 2 ,000 years or 2 ,000 days or Hours or minutes or seconds you don't know and this is the urgency.
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This is the intensity That Paul would have us look upon this time
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One day the father will say to the son go The work of grace begun upon our conversion is nearer not so much in time, but in terms of its ultimate completion
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In terms of its ultimate completion the work of God in the believer
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Forming us into the image of Jesus Christ to whom we were predestined to be like Philippians 1 6
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I'm sure this that he who began a good work in you The kingdom didn't begin when you were converted it began with Jesus, but rather that work of molding you into Christ's image
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He who began that good work in you What will complete it will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ?
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The same day that we have in Romans 13 12 So wake up.
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This is what he says wake up be alert Get out of bed get ready.
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The day is approaching nearer by the moment when it was when it was begun
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It was begun by the Spirit and when it's finished it would be perfectly finished in the meantime we have only this one
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Incredibly short and getting shorter lifetime Scripture speaks of our lifespan as so fast moving that it's but a breath
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It's a vapor that evaporates almost soon as the breath that caused it is exhaled
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That's how quickly we pass on From this life. We're that kind of grass that springs up overnight and then at the first heat of the
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Sun fades away So what does this do to the value of this time that we have?
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This ever Shortening time between now and when the Lord might return however long that might be wherever quickly it might be
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What does that do? well far from denigrating the value of this present existence the importance of how we behave now as citizens of kingdom that is this age
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The importance is magnified It's made more important.
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I Was thinking about how do you how do you ever think of the difference between? this life and eternity
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I Speak of ultimate salvation. I think because the seeing Jesus as he is
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I think of standing before him without sin as a barrier in our communion with him
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I think of salvation for that will go on for all Eternity from the moment the
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Lord calls him to himself either by his return or by calling us home from that moment forward
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Well, how long is that? All we can say is it's forever. It's eternal How do you calculate that as a fraction compared to this life?
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I don't think the superest computer could figure out that faction because it's too small My question is does that make this life more or less important I would argue more
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I would argue to you as this day approaches we look at it that we say that as Small as this number is if a computer could actually figure it out and say that fraction is one over and whatever that bottom number would be if we could get that number turn it around and As small as that is make it that big and say that's how important it is that we live according to Christ now
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Because it's happening so quickly Far from denigrating the value of this present existence
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The importance how we now behave as citizens of kingdom in this age knowing this time
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Knowing that we live in the age of the Spirit's empowerment to do the things that Christ would have us to do
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Makes it all the more important and The Olivet discourse Jesus gives a series of parables with this these two primary emphases
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I'm gonna go through one of them pretty quickly and you know, there's others and when I read this one to you
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You'll be able to think of the others But one of those emphases is that we don't know when he'll return
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He was asked he says that's not for you to know That's not for me to know that's in the father's counsel and him alone
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Only he knows that moment when he will say to the Son go go back complete all this only he knows that and Because only he knows and you and I don't and I say again put away the newspapers unless you want to know
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What's happening in the world? Generally, but not to know when the Lord will return because you don't get to know that There's no hints.
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There's no clues. There's no patterns to put together. None of that Behave as though This is the truth, which it is you don't know.
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You just know it's coming You just know that if you're alive tomorrow, it's one day closer than it was yesterday.
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That's all we get and Because of that Back to the
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Olivet discourse in those parables that Jesus told I'll read one in a moment because of that Be ready
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Get up be alert behave as though your last chance to mortify that sin or to reconcile with that brother or Respect that husband or love that wife is about to disappear
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You may never get that next chance because the Lord will return
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And God willing when he returns he will see you as one he predestined
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To come to him in faith and repentance for your sins And he will accept you and say there's a sheep and come to your come to my side come to my right side
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Lord willing that will be the case And if you're in Christ if you've repented of your sins if you come to him in faith
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You won't be turned away and These sins won't be held against you and he will not say to you these kind of things
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I just thought of a moment ago and list it out to you won't say well Yeah, you know you didn't do that thing or you did that other bad thing therefore.
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I reject you now that no That's not what we're saying What I'm saying is we have this ever -shortening time to do the things
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That Christ would have us to do and during this time praise God and hallelujah You don't do them on your own effort though We do put in a lot of effort you do them because of the
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Spirit and his indwelling power within you that makes you desire to do those things and able to do those things
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I Promised to speak of a one of those all of that discourse
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Parables, I'll read it now Remember, we don't know when the return is remember therefore be ready and behave as though that return is coming
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Imminently at a time unknown to you parable of the ten virgins
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Then the kingdom of heaven. This is the Lord Jesus will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom
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Five of them were foolish and five were wise For when the foolish took their lamps they took no oil with them
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But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps as the bridegroom delayed They all became drowsy and slept, but at midnight.
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There is a cry. Here is the bridegroom come out to meet him Then all those virgins rose and trim their lamps and the foolish said to the wise give us some of your oil
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For our lamps are going out, but the wise answered saying since there will not be enough for us and for you
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Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves And while they're going to buy the bride groom, excuse me
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The bridegroom came and those were ready those who were ready went with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut
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Afterward the other virgins came also saying Lord Lord open to us, but he answered truly I say to you.
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I do not know you Watch therefore for you do not know for you know, neither the day nor the hour
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Well, if you've been told that the day of the Lord that Christ's return is coming and Importantly and you believe that You believe what the scripture says about this imminent return
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Then the message is simple act accordingly act accordingly
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The night slumber is over now up to your posts out of those nightclothes and on with your uniform This one that by the working of the
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Holy Spirit in you in this new age This one that fits you And what does he say put on the
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Lord Jesus Christ Put on comes from a Greek word, which means literally to be clothed in him be clothed in him
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Stop sleeping and get into the proper attire What is it to sleep?
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What is it to have to wake up? in this context, it means to carry on in this life as though nothing has changed as Though God's promises which in Christ are all yes, and amen those promises haven't been effectuated now
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It's to act as though the promises of God Aren't current and real and substantive
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The kingdom is here with power and with enabling from above wake up to what is real to reality
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To to an existence where what you do meets with the facts
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With what is true The alternative is to stay in the dream world to remain in something that is no longer real
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You ever had those dreams where you can't quite figure out if you're dreaming I mean usually in the back of my mind.
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I sort of know this is a dream And Sometimes I sleep so deep sort of a no brain no pain.
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No worry kind of a sleep That I dream so deeply and I don't remember them very long
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But I wake up and it takes me a few seconds, maybe 10 seconds sometimes To figure out that I'm not dreaming anymore
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Usually it happens when I bump into the dresser. Oh, that's solid But it's like that Paul says wake up out of your slumber stop stumbling around as if you're still asleep that visitors as if you're still in that dream
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Be it a good dream or a bad dream. It doesn't matter Get up open your eyes splash some cold water on your face and Oh touch something solid.
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Yes reality this age That's the sort of wake up Paul is saying
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The kingdom is here What is this is a worldview that we need to have several weeks ago we spoke about a worldview thinking differently having a concept of everything that is based upon the gospel and the truth of God in the scripture a worldview
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This is what we need to have here. Do not be conformed to this world Romans 12 to 1st Corinthians 731 for the present form
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Of this world is passing away It's passing away
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These things this stuff in the end won't matter
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Well our money matter to us when we're in heaven Not in a sense
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In another sense. Yes. It's very important that we in a godly way Proverbs has a lot to say about money we manage our money in a way that brings honor and glory to Christ and money is a common subject with Jesus as he as we read of him in the
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Gospels Says a good man leaves an inheritance for his kids money can be very very important.
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The question is what will it matter? What will it matter then? It will only matter that we were faithful to Christ now in all manner of behavior
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They need to have this worldview We need to have a view that is reality that this world is passing away that's the day of salvation the day of the
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Lord the final day when this era comes to an end and Salvation is finalized
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That needs to be our worldview and without it We may as well be a Buddhist or a Hindu or any other faith or religion or philosophy or none at all
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So had a good long nap Had a good long nap stop hitting the snooze control.
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Don't hit it again and again The kingdom has come and all the promise of God has been inaugurated
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We're not to live idly and just sit back and wait for our salvation like those five unwise virgins as Those of no matter what the
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Lord finds us doing when he comes What is it to wake up what does it mean to to wake up here?
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Well, that's the second half of this message and that's the second half of verse 12 down to verse 14
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Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light We won't go into detail, but if you read the end of Ephesians chapter 6 with the armor of God With the sword of the
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Spirit with the shield of faith with the helm of salvation with your feet with the preparation of the sandals of the gospel and all that is
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The armor of light and Paul here doesn't give us all the detail. He just says Cast off the works of darkness all that that was in that prior era.
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There is no longer a applicable to you Christ coming changes everything the gospel has to change everything
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All those things don't fit you anymore Cast off the works of darkness put on the armor of light and let us walk properly as in the daytime
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Not in orgies and drunkenness not in sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy
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But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires
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Darkness here is any and everything that belongs or belonged to that prior age to all that it was before Christ Cast it off.
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He says it no longer applies to you Now his examples here.
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We have to admit. They're pretty intensively bad Orgies and drunkenness and the like in the first century these and even worse were commonplace.
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They were acceptable But the list here is only representative As it is in other places where different modes of iniquity are listed such as Galatians 5 19 to 21
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Because we know that men is caught are constantly inventing new ways to sin against God new levels of depravity to which to sink take the list only as representative as Emblematic we have all these things
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That need to be put off that need to be set aside that need to be done with This is the process of sanctification and in this age this time which
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Paul says that you know this time Brethren, let's never forget that we have the
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Spirit that Jesus Christ sent the Spirit to guide and to direct To inspire us if you will to greater heights of holiness and sanctification and conformity to Christ's image
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We all have things that need to be put off We all have desires of the flesh that we need to mortify
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When will you do it when will I May hit that snooze again
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Delaying is tantamount to believing either that you know when the Lord will return and you've got time
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And you know how much time you have which of course you don't But you would be acting if you delay this great work of conformity to the image of Christ as though you did know
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That you know when that day of salvation is going to come and make you wholly into Christ's image but if we delay
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It would also imply. Maybe that you don't believe that this day is hastening on So what
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Paul is saying is something like this hey there Christian Know all these things you just read about Christ about being predestined to conformity to his image about being trained having transformed minds that lead to godly behavior
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Remember all that it was just a chapter or so ago What are you waiting for?
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Today is the day of salvation. Let's get with it You know they say pornography and divorce is as much a problem within the church as without now if you read these surveys if you delve into them in a detail you'll find that church is is sort of loosely defined more loosely than we
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We would define it, but nonetheless It makes a good point
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And we can look at these things. I can say well. I don't do that well There's quarreling, and that's not appropriate in the kingdom.
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That's Galatians 5 19 22 Gossip is the mode of those old days that prior age
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And we have to look at it and say well does the Spirit empower this or that particular behavior
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Is that what he came to do is that the work that he's doing in me now and if not?
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Then that's part of that old time that night that is far spent and Not the dawn that has broken upon Christ's coming and his sending of the
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Spirit Excuse me Well the message is
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Never just stop it. It's never just stop it But to give ourselves over to the
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Spirit of God who does more than make us not do something But makes us not want to do something
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Who remakes your soul gives you a new heart and evermore pours Christ into it so that we're more and more like him wanting to be like him and Then making us able to do that which we want
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I want to be like Jesus Is that natural to me? No, I wasn't born with such a desire.
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I didn't read a good self -help book and say well this looks easier This looks better. I'll have a easier life for a more productive career or anything like that.
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No I Want to be like Jesus? Because the Holy Spirit made me
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Want to be like Jesus and I look at him and I look what the Apostle says and all the to do's that we have
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I can't do that as if God says of course you cannot That's the point
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Because in this age, I've given the Spirit And he dwells in the heart of each believer
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Making us able he will complete that work which he began. I read that from Philippians.
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That's the age in which we live and so those deeds of darkness those flesh gratifying things that we still still hang on to Paul says your worldview here knowing that that age has passed and the new age has dawned and this new age is going to come to a close
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It's hastening onwards Knowing all that Give in to the
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Spirit be molded and actively mold
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Yourself by his power You know a chrysalis isn't a butterfly, but it has everything needed to become one
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It's a common metaphor that we use a common illustration, and it works It's like tadpoles and frogs a tadpole is not a frog, but it becomes one and in the prior age
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That's what we were before Christ's come before the regeneration of the Spirit I said a moment ago.
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How can Paul tell you to put on Christ? Simply this Know it or not
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Whether you believe it or not He fits you He fits you perfectly well in the sense of continual sanctification no
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But we have a perfect God and Savior who sent us a perfect Holy Spirit to conform us into the image according to his perfect Word And so more and more yes, we do fit that will we ever fit
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Jesus Christ perfectly not in this life It's the effort is the striving is reaching out towards that prize
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It's that desire that God gave you and then effectuates in you
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It's a chrysalis becoming the butterfly which was always destined to be and Always could have been because it has everything in it to become that but of course
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What we need to go from one to the other is exactly this new age gives us The empowerment
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I Don't want to say the ability because that sounds so fleshly as if I can do it, which
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I can't But there is an ability a spiritual ability a divine ability because God Makes you able
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What do we have to cast off in this new age we now have this worldview we know the time in which we live
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Well today we have a materialism, I think we might make J. Paul Getty blush We're so self -absorbed that we share every detail of our life with everyone who hasn't unfriended us or they us
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I I've heard of youth becoming suicidal because they don't have enough friends or they've been unfriended by too many
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There's a reason Paul calls the things of the past age deeds of darkness deeds of before Christ coming deeds of before the coming of the
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Holy Spirit And thankfully we have something more than just being told to stop doing bad stuff
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Douglas Moo puts it very well Being in Christ means we now have the power to do what
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God tells us to do to live Christianly from morning to night day in and day out with the kingdom comes the power to be transformed into its citizenship a
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Combined effort engaged by us in harmony with the Holy Spirit Now we'll look back at Romans chapter 6.
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Can you flip back there Romans 6 in verse 12 the
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Apostle Paul writes? Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions
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Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness But present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life
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Can I say those who have been brought out of that old age into the new age? Those have been made sensible that the world has changed by the coming of Christ Those have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness
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So there's the command stop it and that word therefore goes all the way back to the beginning of the chapter
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Which is verse 2 look up there. What does it say? You've died to sin
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A definitive act of God killing you to sin and then verse 3 you've been baptized into Jesus's death
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Which verse 4 makes us able to walk in newness of life He didn't just say stop it.
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We have the power So it's easy, right?
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Just give in to the Spirit just submit yourself to him just follow his leading Easy, right?
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No, it's not easy at all It's terribly hard The flesh still grabs at us and wants us to tries to make us want to do those things
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It's not easy at all, but praise God the commands don't stand by themselves. The Lord knows our weaknesses that we're frail
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We may want with all our might to to be like that But as Romans 7 so eloquently explains we have no wherewithal to do it as this could all seem very
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Despairing but then along comes verse 14 Still in chapter 6 there for a moment for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but under grace
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Fast forward to chapter 8 verse 1 of Romans. There is therefore now Now in this age now with the
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Spirit's empowerment There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Not condemned for those old sins they were put on Christ when he suffered for them on the cross
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In this new age because of him You're no longer condemned.
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You don't have to do those things. You don't have to be that way. That's the old That's the old wineskin trying to take in itself the new wine as Jesus says it just doesn't work
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You know Stephen said in Braveheart after William Wallace stirred the Scots to stand firm against that massive
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English army He says something to him like this. He says fine speech now.
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What do we do and Wallace's answer was just be yourselves Well Romans 8 1 leaves us wondering now.
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What do you do now? What do I do verse 2 answers for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death
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You are free of it those old ways that previous age that night that is now far gone.
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You are free Paul says wake up now step out of the netherworld open your eyes and see things for what they are
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Romans 13 8 through 10, which we Discussed a few weeks ago to applies here about our ongoing unending obligation to mutual love for each other
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And the idea there is whatever distracts from this is to be dispensed is to be set aside
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It's to be persecuted to its total demise Done writes here so whatever
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Vestige of the old self that part of ourselves still living as though Christ hadn't come as though the
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Spirit hadn't been given That remaining flesh in the words of the great Puritan John Owen must be mortified
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Titus 3 5 says that the Spirit has regenerated your soul Ephesians 1 12 and 13 says that we have that deposit that down payment that the
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Holy Spirit has been sent and has been given residing now in your heart The down payment on that great day that is to come has been duly made
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It's not like the kind of down payments we make where it sits there and waits for the rest of the money This is a down payment that grows
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It's like an investment, but it magnifies itself by God's power and by God's grace
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And God gives his spirit he grows us more and more into that image for which we're predestined
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The very purpose of giving the Spirit to make us like Jesus Put off the old put on the
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Christ The word means be clothed in him Clothing is something that is seen like the light set on the hill that's observed by all
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Put on means to assimilate his qualities It means to be like him as much as this spirit empowers us.
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We're responsible to be empowered. Let's put off and put on Praise God, it's more than just don't do that anymore
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It's put off the old and put on the new and the old is all those deeds of darkness
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All those flesh gratifying things. You know what they are Read Galatians 5 you'll get a nice list of them again if you need that All those things are simply be set aside mortified done away with Understand think differently about them be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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It's simply this they don't fit me anymore God by God's grace.
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I'm not that person Anymore, he says be clothed in Jesus Christ.
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The Holy Spirit makes us inwardly what Paul insists We must show outwardly up Wake up No more stupor
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No more snooze control. No more stumbling around like I do when I first wake up Not able to discern.
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What's the dream world? What's the real world? No more that The age of Christ's kingdom is here right now with all its promise and with all its power
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Power to transform us into the likeness of our King Jesus Paul writes to Titus for the grace of God has appeared.
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That's Jesus bringing salvation for all people Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled upright and godly lives in this present age
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Waiting for our blessed Hope the appearing of the go of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself to redeem us from our lawlessness
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And to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works
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This is the age in which you now live and Paul says, you know this time And if you have
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Christ You know his spirit's power to accomplish these things in you
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Ten virgins slept soundly all ten of them while they waited And they were all awakened by the announcement that Christ had come
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But then is the distinction between those who if I can push that into Romans 13 11 to 14 those who slept as though Christ wasn't coming and Those who slept as though he was seems like they all slept soundly
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They all needed to be woken up in that literal sense not in the sense Paul means here to wake up But in a little sense they need to be wake woken up and here
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I said literal. It's a power parable so Don't mean to confuse you. I just confused myself
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But they need to be woken up five slept as though Christ was coming and five slept as though he
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Wasn't five slept as though they were still in that old age that the darkness hadn't been dispelled by the coming of Christ in the giving of the
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Spirit and five slept as though he had That's the difference
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That's the difference Know this and with this we close All that the prophets anticipated
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Christ has accomplished God has kept his word
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The age of the kingdom of Christ in the Spirit's empowerment all the attendant ability that the
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Spirit gives us He's given us a scripture that is complete He's given us a spirit who is powerful and effective to accomplish in you his will all this has been done by God In his son
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Jesus Christ his death his burial his resurrection his ascension and ascending of the Spirit And that's all the definition of this new age in which we live and the goal of it all
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So simply this to put on Christ to be clothed in him to be conformed into his image
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And I just pray and trust it will be so do you know the time? Do you know when you live?
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Do you know what this era really is? We all need to look at that we all need to simply act accordingly amen
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Heavenly Father again thanking you for your word and for your spirit for this day that you've given us.
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I pray that you would add your blessing to the proclamation of your word this day and Father by the promise of your word by the power of your spirit make us more like your son