Thorpe, Sam: Romans-Lakeside Bible Chapel-11 ~ Romans 13:9-14

Just by way of continued prayer requests, um, Bernie and Francis and Barbara and I and Rebecca and, uh, excuse me, Rachel and Bethany will be headed to Cincinnati tomorrow morning for a week up at the Rise Up and Build conference, and be coming back, uh, Thursday night, Friday morning-ish. Uh, we'll be riding on a bus coming from Augusta, so appreciate your prayers. We have a good conference, a good time of spiritual challenge and fellowship with the believers, really from all over the world that will meet there, and at the same time, safety and good weather and all those good practical things that you worry about when you take a long trip like that. And also, if you come by and call us or try to find us, you'll, you'll know where we, where we are. We're not, we just didn't disappear, so just wanted to let you know where we're going to be. You might have thought the rapture occurred or something. You've been left behind. We didn't want that to happen. All right, we're going to look at Romans chapter thirteen and finish up this chapter this morning. And, uh, we looked at the first part of the chapter last week and tied it into the Christmas message in terms of the context of our Lord's birth and submission to the powers that be, and looked at the, uh, situation that Pa- that Christ was born into under the Roman government and, and all the ramifications that Joseph and Mary faced as they, uh, were submissive to the government at that time. And, uh, this morning, as we look at the balance of the chapter, hopefully we'll look at a challenge, a very practical challenge at the end of the chapter, in terms of our commitment and our walk with the Lord for this coming year before us. Let's just read verses, uh, eight through fourteen of Romans chapter thirteen. Owe no man anything, but love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time that now is, it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and in drunkenness and chambering and wantedness, not in strife and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. If I was going to put a little title on Romans chapter thirteen, I would suggest this: How do we live in the world? How do we live in the world? In verses one through four, we've already seen that, uh, our submission is to be to the laws of earthly leaders, recognizing that the powers, uh, that are there are powers from God. In other words, we're to be legal subjects. We're to be legal subjects. And then verses five to seven, we see our submission to our duty as nat- national citizens. Uh, and there we're to be lawful citizens, to be lawful citizens. We're to honor the government, we're to pay our taxes, we're to conduct ourselves in a respectable way within our society. And then beginning in verses eight through ten, we see submission to, uh, God's laws and the spirit that God has for us to have as we submit to God's laws. It's interesting in this chapter, it starts off by talking about the laws of man, and finishes out by talking about the law of God. So you see they're tied together here, and there's a progression in these, in these, uh, divisions of the chapter. And the spirit of God's laws is to be a loving neighbor, to be a loving neighbor. And then in verses eleven through fourteen, we see the subject finishes up on the subject of submission to the life of Christ, submission to the life of Christ, and there we're to be living examples, living examples reflecting the person and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as you see the progression as it's building, he first of all recognizes that we're in the world, we're subject to powers that are in the world, but subject to leaders, we're to be legal subjects of those governments, and we're to be lawful citizens, to understand our responsibility as citizens under the nation in which we live. Uh, but then he brings our attention to his law. Having addressed the law of the earth, the law of man, he now brings our attention to the law of God. And we see that the law of God supersedes all of man's law. And there is a spirit that he asks us to have as we address the law of God, and it's not the letter of the law of the Old Testament, but it's the spirit of love that he asks us to have as we approach his law. And as we submit ourselves to the law of God in the spirit of love, we will naturally be reflecting the life of Christ, and that's what the chapter finishes out on, is putting on Christ and what that means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you see a sort of a pro- progression of thought as it's tied together, as he brings us through this whole, uh, thought of being submissive, uh, from the government, our citizenship, his law, and then the very nature of Christ himself. But let's just take verse take and uh, and begin with this little phrase, owe no man anything. Uh, let me suggest that this is a transitional phrase. Owe no man anything. I'll tell you, first of all, what I don't think it's saying, and that is that I don't think it is saying that it's wrong to be in debt. Uh, I don't think that's the, the message there. Uh, there are times when you just can't, uh, operate, you can't live, you can't exist within society without knowing some measure of debt. Uh, and we're going to talk about the balance of that subject in a minute, but I don't think he's saying don't ever owe anybody anything. I think you take that first phrase of verse eight and put it up into the context of verse seven. Remember that the, that the, uh, divisions of the, of the verses and the chapters are not divinely inspired, and I think the thought is continuing on. It's a transitional thought, and he's first of all saying, in the context of rendering your dues and paying your taxes to the government, don't be in a position where you haven't paid your bills. Don't be in a position where you owe the government taxes. Uh, you're to owe no man anything in this regard of paying your taxes and paying your bills to the government. I can remember several years ago, I think it was probably about ten years ago, there was a movement going on in the United States, and it may still be active in some circles, where, uh, the proponents of this movement were saying that you really don't have to pay taxes. There was some loophole in the Constitution that they were, uh, hanging on to and interpreting it in such a way, and they, they were, they were saying that it's your constitutional right to not have to pay taxes. And, of course, they had all the attorneys on their side and and the like, and they were holding meetings in in du- in Augusta and Telfair and, uh, street and hotels in the area, and several of my friends at work got caught up in this and started attending these meetings and started following this philosophy and went for two or three years without paying any taxes. Well, Uncle Sam, you know, may not be the quickest, uh, agency in the world, but they eventually come around and catch up. And, uh, when Uncle Sa- Sam caught up with these individuals, uh, there were some pretty heavy penalties and pretty severe fines, and one of my friends even went to jail for a short period of time. You know, now I could have took them right here to Romans chapter thirteen and verse seven. You've got to pay your taxes, and don't be late, don't be in arrears in terms of paying your taxes. We're not to be owing to the government that that we should be paying. And so I think that's the, the primary meaning of that first verse. Uh, and, and the reason I say that in terms of not saying it should never owe anybody anything is because the Bible does talk about lenders, and it talks about those that are the borrowers and those that are the loaners, and talks about interest and, and how you're to charge one another interest and what's fair and what's right and that type of thing. So once again, taking the whole scripture together, the whole message of the Bible together on this subject, you don't come up with the conclusion that God says never owe anybody a penny. Uh, that's not the message. If you take and lift that out of the context, you certainly could preach that. But if you put it in the context of all of scripture on the subject of loaning and borrowing money and paying interest and that kind of thing, you'll see that scripture does not prohibit that. Now, there is what I would call a secondary meaning to this phrase, and that is that certainly our lives shouldn't be characterized as being always in debt. I think trying to be out of debt is a tremendous goal that every, uh, family, every individual should strive for. We should be seeking to be as efficient as we can in the payment of our bills, uh, in the payment of our credit cards. Um, I personally have been convicted many years ago that, uh, in the use of credit cards, if I couldn't pay it off at the end of the month, uh, I should tear it up. Take the card and cut it up if you can't pay the bill that's due at the end of the month. Use a credit card efficiently, but don't waste the Lord's money in interest. Don't be buying things that you can't afford. Don't be spending money that's outside your means. Don't spend money that you don't have. Our society has given you a mechanism to spend money that you don't have. Uh, it- they've made it so easy, so attractive. They've marketed the college, uh, kids, college students get three or four credit cards in the mail from all these different agencies because they want them to spend money that they don't have, and they'd just be more than happy to get them to pay two dollars a month and charge them interest on the balance. That's not a wise use of the Lord's money, and our lives can be so burdened, so, so, uh, uh, uh, just, just, uh, uh, entangled in debt that we become, uh, inefficient and, uh, not useful and fruitful for the Lord's work in other areas. And so I would just encourage you, in terms of this concept of borrowing money and owing money, that not, don't let your life be characterized by always being in debt. Obviously, most of us are going to have a, a mortgage payment on our house, uh, if we're going to have a car that was dependable, that we can trust, that we know when we have to go from point A to point B, it's going to get us there. More likely we're going to have some type of payment to the bank until we get it paid off. But outside of these things, particularly this time of year, I find it so alarming as I go back to work and I talk about, talk to people about the Christmas holidays, and all they're worrying about is how they're going to pay all the debt that they incurred and what they spent over the holiday season. That's not honoring to the Lord, especially for a Christian. We have to stay within our means. That's, I believe, the secondary meaning there. Uh, Psalm um twenty two seven says that the le- that the borrower becomes a servant to the lender. The borrower becomes a servant to the lender, and being in debt is a form of bondage, is a form of bondage in that you become owing to the person who has the note, and, uh, you have certain limits and certain restrictions that are upon you because of that financial obligation. But then I believe he uses this, Paul springs off of this little phrase, owe no man anything but, great transitional word, as you see that word but in scripture, always look for the transition, look for the change, but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. What Paul is saying is, if you want to be in debt, be in debt in the area of love. In other words, be so indebted to love one another. If you want to be obligated, if you want to be so indebted and obligated, allow yourself to be indebted to love one another. Allow yourself to owe love to one another, and never let it be ever paid up. Never let it ever be said, well, I've paid up my account of loving you. I don't have to love you anymore. You know, that debt is satisfied. No, I want to forever be obligated to you. I want to forever be in debt to you, to love you, to always be obligated to love you, to always be indebted to love you. If there is something that you're to be indebted with, it's to be indebted with love, not to be indebted over taxes and over money and financial matters. And I think that's the transition that Paul is taking us through. And he's bringing us into the spirit of God's law. He's taking us into the subject of what is the primary characteristic of the believer. I believe it's love. How do we know that people are truly believers? Well, uh, it's, it's by their love, their love for God and the fruit that is produced, uh, as they love the Lord that God says, you'll know my own, you'll know my disciples, uh, by their love for one another. In First Corinthians thirteen, we see that love is the motivator, the prime motivator of all of our deeds and actions. We can, uh, we can, uh, do great and wonderful, miraculous things and great sacrifices, but Paul says if it's not done out of love, even to the point of ultimately giving your body to be burned as a sacrifice, and I don't know of any of us that are willing to sacrifice to that point yet, but Paul is saying that if you did that, uh, as a sacrifice unto God, literally your body to be burned, and you didn't do it out of love, it would have been nothing, wasted, uh, just a tragedy, uh, and not anything in terms of the context of, uh, service to God. Romans chapter twelve, the previous chapter, talked us h- told us how to love. It showed us the methodology for love. Verses twelve through twenty one, how to love one another, how to love the world, how to love our enemies, et cetera, et cetera. And we went through that as we studied chapter twelve. Truly, if you were going to take one word and say, what is one word that should describe a Christian, that should describe a believer in Christ? That one word probably would be love, more than any other single word that you would seek to characterize, uh, a believer by. And so the Lord is now taking us into his law. He's dealt with the earthly laws, he's dealt with the laws of the rulers of the land, but he says, now I want to take you to my law. And he goes through the, the Ten Commandments as he reads them off by the Spirit of God through Paul here in verse nine. And, uh, it, it's an interesting subject, this subject of obedience and love. Um, you've heard the old expression, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Sometimes we get the cart before the horse. Uh, what we're talking about is antecedents. One thing prompts another. The antecedent is what prompts the response. And, uh, I would like to suggest that love and obedience are interchangeable antecedents. By that I mean that sometimes obedience comes first, and as we obey the Lord in terms of his word, in terms of his commandments, it causes our love to grow deeper, to grow greater for him. It started out with a commitment to obey, and as we committed to obey, our love for the Lord. But let's flip the antecedent. Sometimes we obey because we love. It's because of our love for the Lord, uh, and it's our love for him and our commitment for him that grows into a life of obedience. Because we love him, we don't want to dishonor him. Because we love him, we don't want to be ashamed. Because we love him, we want to keep his commandments, and so forth and so on. And so you see that these two concepts, love and obey, are, uh, often interchangeable in terms of what precedes what and what causes what. You find them interchanged all throughout the Word of God. Our love for God causes us to want to obey him, and our obedience to God causes our love for him to grow. And that is the spirit that Paul is bringing us into in this subject of God's command. Look at the end of verse nine. It is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the spirit behind all that God has given to us in his law. Why did God give us law? Why did God give us the Ten Commandments? Well, there are a lot of theological reasons that we can give, but one of the primary reasons why God gave us the Ten Commandments is because he loved us. Because, you see, the keeping of the Ten Commandments is in our best interest, and the keeping of the Ten Commandments will give you the best life that you can live here on this earth. And if everyone was fulfilling and keeping and obeying the Ten Commandments, our world would be a wonderful place to live. God gave us the law because he loved us. And love is the spirit behind the law. Love is the spirit for the believer to, to fulfill the law. Uh, you know, often in s- in, in, in talking with unsaved people and, and you get on the subject of the Bible, uh, sometimes the, the only thing that they know about the Bible, and it's a sad commentary, is, uh, well, I, I, I know that the golden rule is there, you know? I believe in the golden rule. Uh, and, and some of them, some will say, well, I know that it says that, uh, that, uh, godliness is next to cleanliness, or something like that, you know? Well, that verse isn't there. And some Christians have, uh, have even gone so far as to say, well, the golden rule isn't there. Do unto others as you would expect them to do unto you. Well, it's not really written exactly as we say it today, but I believe the golden rule is in scripture, and it is given to us, and it is a principle that we're to apply even as believers today. Matthew chapter seven and verse twelve, I believe, is the golden rule, as it is espoused to be said in today's vernacular, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In Matthew chapter seven and verse twelve, therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Isn't that saying the same thing? Those things that you want them to do to you, you should be doing that to them. If we want to be treated with kindness, we need to treat others with kindness. If we want to be treated with respect and dignity, then we need to treat others with respect and dignity. If we want to be loved, we need to be loving. If we not need to, if we want to be understood, we need to be understanding. And you can carry it on and on and on. If you want to be forgiven of your faults, you need to be forgiving, uh, with the faults of others. That's what that verse is saying, and that is part of the spirit behind the law that God has given us. It's that spirit of love, one with another. Now, the Lord carries this a little further and a little bit clearer, uh, in more of a distinct fashion in Matthew chapter twenty two. Matthew chapter twenty two. I know we looked at this before, but we'll mention it again. Matthew chapter twenty two and looking at verse thirty six. Keeping in mind we're talking about God's law and the spirit that we're to have with regard to God's law. In verse thirty six, we see in a lawyer approaching the Lord, and he says, Master, what is, what is the great commandment of the law? Which is the great commandment of the law? And Jesus said unto them, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Verse forty is a powerful verse. It's a key verse to understanding the law of God. He says that all of the law is wrapped up in two concepts. Two concepts. If you forget the ten commandments, just remember two: Love God, love your neighbor. If you're loving God, you're loving your neighbor, you're fulfilling all of the Ten Commandments. You're fulfilling all of the law. Now, I know we've, we've done this be- before when we studied, uh, the law, but I just think it's a good exercise. Let's go back to Exodus chapter twenty. Exodus chapter twenty and take a look at God's law. And let's identify it in relationship to those two overarching laws that God gave us in the New Testament, to love our na- our, our Lord and to love our neighbor. We see the first law is in verse three: thou shall have no other gods before me. Well, if we're loving God, we're not going to have any other gods before him. The second one is that we're not to have any graven images, uh, and we're not to, uh, bow down or serve them. And, uh, we see that if we're loving God, we're not going to be creating other images or idols, uh, that we will be serving. Uh, verse seven, we're not to take the Lord's name in vain. Well, if we're loving God, we're not going to be abusing his name. Uh, verse eight, we're to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. And of course, this is the one exception, I believe, that, uh, is changed in the New Testament, although the principle is the same. And I like to say this, that we don't keep the Sabbath as part of the Mosaic law, uh, but we do recognize respectfully the Lord's day, and it's a time of worship, a time we come together and honor him. But the honoring of the Lord's day, if we're loving God, we're going to honor his day, and we're going to keep it holy. Um, and then, uh, uh, we're to, uh, uh, honor our father and mother, in verse twelve. And if we're honoring God and loving God, then it's going to be hard for us not to honor and to love our parents at the same time. Now, verse thirteen picks up with the second one. You see, the first 5, the first 5 commandments relate to loving God. If you are loving God as you should, it's going to be awful hard for you to break the first loving of the God. commandments. And if you are loving your neighbor as you should, it's going to be awful hard for you to break the first five of the ten commandments. And if you are loving your neighbor as you should, it's going to be awful hard for you to break the last five Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, and thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house or thy neighbor's wife, etcetera. Uh, all those are in relation to loving our neighbor. And so Paul, uh, excuse me, Christ rightly gives us these two overarching principles, and he says that the real spirit of the law, if you really want to obey the law, if you really want to keep the law, you just remember two things. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. Now, Paul takes those two concepts, and he brings them down to that one word, the first word, love. He says, really, if you just want to remember submission to God's laws, if you just want to keep God's laws and the spirit of God's laws, just remember one word, love. If you are loving, as you should, you are going to be fulfilling the law of God, and that's exactly what he says there in Romans chapter thirteen and verse nine: uh Thou shalt love the thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Now I find it, uh, interesting that Paul, after the cross, after the church is established, after Pentecost, takes the Roman Christians back into the law. Why do we have the law? Why is Paul now dealing with the law? Well, I believe the Ten Commandments, with the one exception of the Sabbath, are timeless commands, timeless commands for our society from God. Uh, what were the functions of the law? Well, we've already studied it in some detail as we've gone through the book of Romans, but just as a quick review, Romans chapter three and verse twenty, we see that the law brings us the knowledge of sin. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. It's the law that points out what we're doing is contrary to God's will, God's character, and what God would have for us. Uh, not only does it bring us the knowledge of sin, but chapter five and verse twenty and twenty one, we see it paves the way for grace. Moreover, the law entered that the offense may abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Christ Jesus our Lord. One of the purposes of the law was not only just to point out what sin was, but also to bring us to the point of realizing that we never could stop sinning of ourselves. We never could reach perfection and righteousness under God's holy standard. We never can please God of ourselves. If we're ever going to get to a point where we are pleasing God, it's going to be have through God's grace. It's going to have to be through his grace. And so the law was our schoolmaster to teach us and to bring us to that point that we've got to come to God by faith through the grace that he has provided through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the law brings the grace of God to us. And, uh, and then in chapter seven and verse six of Romans, it says, but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. See, this is what Paul is bringing out again in chapter thirteen. As we approach the law of God, as we approach the commands of God, we don't approach it in the oldness of the letter. We don't approach the law of God from a legalistic standpoint. We don't approach the law of God from a, uh, from a standpoint, uh, uh, uh, if I break this, the Lord is going to come over me with a, a stick and hit me over the head. Uh, God is a mean, uh, taskmaster. Um, uh, God is using his law to condemn me and send me to hell. No, we're to come and to obey God's commandments in the newness of the spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. In the newness of the spirit. And what is the newness of the spirit? Well, that's what Paul told us. It's love. It's that spirit of love that, uh, the Lord has given us through the Holy Spirit to obey his commands. And so Paul kind of is wrapping it all up here in chapter thirteen. He's bringing it all together, and that's why he brought us back to the, to the law of God, to bring us back to that position of understanding that love is the newness of the Spirit that, uh, that we're to have as we approach the commands of God and obey God's law. Love fulfills the law. And then in verse eleven, he moves from the spirit of God's law to the life of Jesus Christ, in verses eleven through fourteen. Let's take that passage up now. He says, and that knowing that the time is now high time to wake out of sleep, for it is our salvation, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Now, stop and think about this, if you can get kind of twisted in those words if you're not careful. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Well, how could that be? You know, what salvation are we talking about here? Well, obviously, just by the reading of the text, it's got to be something other than our salvation from sin. It's got to be something other than the point at which we got saved and accepted Jesus Christ as our savior. Otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense to say that now is our salvation nearer than when we believed or when we got saved. If we're saved, we already experienced that salvation. So what is the salvation that Paul is speaking of here? Well, I s- I believe it's the deliverance from the body of sin. It's that third phase of salvation, um, as we've illustrated before from second Corinthians chapter one and verse nine, You may want to look at that. You- you're saved three times. Um, you- you've been saved, you're being saved, and you will be saved. You've been delivered, you're being delivered, and you will be delivered. If you want to have fun with the- with one another or a friend, you can, they ask if you're being, if you're saved, you say, well, which- which one? You know, I, I was saved, I'm being saved, and I'm yet still going to be saved. And, uh, when they start scratching their head and, uh, giving you a funny look, turn to second Corinthians chapter one and verse nine. Chapter, chapter one of second Corinthians and verse nine. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raised the dead, who delivered us, past tense, who delivered us from so great a death, that's past tense, and doth deliver, that's present tense, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver, that's future tense. You see, we've been delivered from the penalty of sin at the cross of Jesus Christ, and our sins have been forgiven, uh, eternally forgiven. Past, present, and future sins are all been forgiven at the cross of Jesus Christ. We've been delivered from the penalty of our sin. But today or yesterday, did you struggle with sin? Well, if I forced everyone here to be honest, probably everyone would have to raise their hand. Yes, I've struggled with sin yesterday. Well, what do you mean? I thought at the cross God dealt with your sin. Yes, he dealt with the penalty of your sin at the cross. But as we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit's power in our life, he delivers us from the power of sin today. If I went on to ask you, well, that struggle that you had with sin yesterday, what happened? Did you get the victory, or did sin get the victory? Well, if you got the victory, it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that was in you, and you were able to be victorious over that temptation. What happened? You were delivered from the power of sin yesterday. See, that's the present work of Christ in our lives, delivering us day by day from sin that comes into our lives that we're tempted with, he gives us the power over that sin so that it doesn't have to conquer us, we can conquer it, and we can be delivered from the power of sin. But let me ask you this, if you always experience tremendous victory and power over sin, have you yet been delivered from the presence of sin? No. Sin is still around. We still live in an evil world. We still have a fallen nature within us. We still have sin abounding all around us in our society. But there's coming a day when we will be delivered from the presence of sin. In other words, we'll be taken up out of this evil world, and our bodies will be changed from a corruptible to an incorruptible. This immortal, this, this mortal body will put on immortality. The old man will be totally removed, will be made new and glorified in, in Christ Jesus. We'll no longer be in an environment where sin exists. And that is our third area of salvation. That is our third level of deliverance. We've been delivered from the penalty of sin. In other words, we're made right with Christ. We have a home in heaven. Now, in today's present world, we struggle with the power of sin as we yield to the Holy Spirit. He gives us victory and deliverance over that day by day, and it's coming a day when he will take us out of the presence of sin for all eternity and make us right with him. Now, I believe that third phase, the presence of sin, is what Paul is speaking about here. The day when he is going to take us out of this world and give us deliverance from the very presence of sin is getting very, very close. For us as believers, we know that that day is the day of the rapture, when the Lord will come as a thief in the night, the trumpet shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That's what Paul is speaking of here, that salvation is nearer than when we believe. When we believe, he delivered us from the penalty of sin, but he's looking forward to the day which gets nearer every day that he will be delivered from the very presence of sin. We see this cry from Paul's heart in chapter seven and, uh, verse, uh, twenty four as he talks about the struggle in the present day power over sin, and he talks about the things that he wants to do that he doesn't do, and the things that he does do, those are the things he doesn't want to do. And we see Paul crying out in the frustration of the warfare of the Christian life, and he says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of death? Well, we know that deliverance is coming, that deliverance is coming in a day when we will be delivered from the body of death. We will be changed, and we will put on immortality and incorruption, and we will look like our Lord. You know, another thing that this, uh, scripture teaches me as I read this passage and as Paul speaks, he says, the night is far spent, the day at his hand. Uh, let's get ready, let's wake up because the Lord's coming. His salvation is close. That's what Paul is saying. Now, when did he say that? Well, he said that around fifty AD. fifty five fifty AD. Well, Paul has been nineteen hundred and forty five years since you said that. You see, this passage teaches me that the early church believed in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is a powerful doctrine. In Sunday school, we were talking about holding fast the things that we've been taught and that we believe in. One of the things that I believe the church is to hold fast in is the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every generation, every age, uh, every group of believers, the Bible shows that they had a hope of his soon return. In fact, the Thessalonians, they thought the Lord had already come, and Paul wrote the, the second epistle of Thessalonians to correct that problem, to tell them that the Lord hadn't already come, that before he would come, there'd be a manifestation of the man of sin, and all of these terrible things would begin to happen. Then the Lord would come, and he was able to console the saints at Thessalonica. You see, the early church has always believed that the Lord could come at any time. We look at ourselves as a privileged generation, and, uh, we look at ourselves and we say, well, my, we can look at nineteen forty eight, the fig tree budded, the Lord can come now, as if the Lord couldn't have come in nineteen hundred, The Lord couldn't come in the year one thousand fifty. And you know, the Lord doesn't have to come in the year two thousand or two thousand and twenty or twenty one hundred or twenty two hundred. The Lord is going to come when he is ready and when his will is fulfilled and complete, and the church is complete, and even the Son says he doesn't know the time or the hour that the Father has in his will when he will send his Son to take his church. And it's the Lord Jesus, uh, and I don't understand that theologically, how the Lord in, in his deity can say he doesn't know something that the Father only knows in his mind. I accept that because he said it. Uh, but if he doesn't have that knowledge, then certainly I don't have that knowledge. There's a lot of hype today about the Lord's coming, uh, the year two thousand, uh, all kind of number schemes and games in terms of dates and that kind of thing. Don't get caught up with that. Don't get sucked into that. Every generation and every age has held to the imminent return of our Lord Jesus, and he can come today just as soon as he can come tomorrow or a thousand years from now. His return is at any moment. And because of that, Paul goes on to speak of our conduct and how we're to act, uh, within the context of his soon return. Uh, and he brings it down to the bottom line, and that is that we're to put on Christ, and we're to make no provision for the flesh. To put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Why? Because our Lord's coming is soon, and he can come at any moment, at any moment. There's an interesting story about Alex, uh, Augustine. Augustine in the third century, actually the fourth century. Uh, Augustine was a, a critic of Christianity. He was a, a, a very world- worldly philosopher, a very liberal, uh, uh, man, and uh, very highly educated and renowned. And his ambition in life was to defeat Christianity and to prove that the Bible was wrong. And the, the Lord brought Augustine to a point, uh, where he stripped him of every argument. He stripped him of every, uh, logic and brought him to the point, uh, where he was about ready to give up. And Augustine in three eighty AD was sitting in a little villa outside of Rome, and he had the Bible in front of him. And Augustine says the voice came to him and said, pick up the word and read it. Pick up the word and read it. Came twice to him. This is according to his writings in Augustine's Confessions, book number eight. And so Augustine picked up the Bible, and he just opened it up, and as he opened it up, it fell to Romans chapter thirteen. and the first word that he read was verse thirteen. And he picked up the Bible, he opened it up, and he started reading, let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and in drunkenness, not in chambering and in wantedness, not in strife and in envy, but put on ye, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. He closed the Bible, he said, that's enough. I give up. I submit my life to Christ. And he fell on his knees and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Ever since that spectacular conversion, he's been called Saint Augustine, and his life has been dramatically transformed, and he became a powerful servant of God and one that served God mightily. Why? How? Because he simply learned to put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Remember we said your sins are paid for in the past. There's coming a day when he's going to take us out of the presence of sin, but in the meantime, we struggle and we need power over sin, and that's the deliverance that, uh, Paul is speaking of here. Make no provision for the flesh. The word provision there is an interesting Greek word. If you look it up, it means make no prior thought. Uh, the word pro means before, and the Greek word there for vision means to think. And so it's make no forethought, or don't think ahead of time about sinning. Don't give it any prior thought. Don't entertain these thoughts in your mind that will open up the door and give further provision for sin to come into your life. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. J. B. Phillips, in his translation, translates this, don't give no chance to the flesh to have its fling. Don't give chance to the flesh to have its fling. And I guess if I'm going to leave you with a challenge this morning for the year two thousand, I would say that most of us are doctrinally sound, most of us are committed to the New Testament church and to the principles of scripture. We understand this Bible to be the inspired word of God, and uh, we believe in it and trust in it. We're, we're law-abiding citizens. We, we pay our taxes. Uh, what is the challenge for us? Well, I dare say that all of us struggle with making provision for the flesh. All of us struggle with this area, and I would leave you with this challenge to examine our lives, to examine our environment, to examine our day-to-day practices, to examine our priorities of life, to examine the things that we think are important, and say, is there an avenue through which the flesh will get the best of me in this situation? And if there is a chance that the flesh is gonna move in, and it's a point of attack, it's a point of weakness, it's a weakness in our defense, think about how to bolster it up. Think about how to give the defense against that flesh. You know, Joseph had the best way of dealing with the temptations of the flesh, didn't he? He just jumped up and ran away from them. He said, I'm not got anything to do with it, and he jumped up and ran, he fleed. And that's what the New Testament tells us to do with temptation, to flee it, to flee it. And, uh, I would just challenge you with this closing thought of Romans chapter thirteen. as we face the new year, evaluate your life, evaluate your practices, evaluate your, your family environment, your home environment, your individual lives, your individual habits, your individual attractions and desires, things that interest you, and say, within this, is this an area that Satan can use to make a provision to my flesh, to cause my flesh to lead me to temptation and lust. And if it is, then we're to put together a game plan to defeat Satan in that regard, and to put up the defense, and to defend, um, our lives for God's honor and glory. Shall we just pray? Our Father, we do thank you for the word of God. We thank you that, uh, you have challenged us such with, uh, your law. We recognize that that you are holy, you are perfect, and that we fall short. And yet you've given us this challenge that if we truly love one another and love you, that in essence we are fulfilling your law, and in essence we are, uh, demonstrating your righteousness and your truth and your standards within our lives as we love you and as we love one another. And Lord, keep us sensitive, keep us tender to those things within our life that would distract, those, uh, thorns and thistles that would grow up in the garden of our life that, uh, are not of thyself, uh, that would seek to conquer and choke out our spirituality and our vitality for you. Keep us with, with, uh, with, uh, sharp, uh, shears that we might nip in the bud any thorn or thistle that would continue to grow and desire to take over our lives and, and, uh, influence us in a destructive way, that we might be vessels clean and fit and ready for the master's use. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.