Romans 13
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
God is commanding you to act now, before it is too late and you end up in hell. He commands you to awake out of your sleep. Will you obey Him?
The truth is that things are in the world as they are because the Christians are fast asleep. Evil abounds because the children of God are asleep.
Children run away from home because their parents are asleep spiritually. There are clear warning signs, but because the parents are asleep, the children are swept aside by the world. You as parent must be alert and act as you ought to save your child from death.
Some parents even stand up for their children even though they live in sin. They excuse their sin.
God says now is the time to awake out of sleep. Stop with the sin of indifference where you cannot care less about those going lost around you. Stop living for your own little kingdom on earth while your family goes lost.
Darkness is where the devil reigns. If you haven’t come out of the darkness into the light you are in the realm where the devil reigns.
There is a story of a certain missionary called Amy in India. She pleaded and prayed to God for the salvation of the people. One day she had a dream where she found herself on the edge of a deep precipice. She saw people from all directions heading for this pit. She saw a blind mother walking with her two children towards this precipice. She didn’t know where she was going for she was blind.
There were others also heading towards this precipice. Then she saw that in fact, everyone heading towards the precipice were blind. She saw them falling over the edge with terrible screams.
She also saw two watchmen on either side of the road close to the precipice saving some people from the edges but the vast majority fell over the edge. However what broke her heart even further – there were some who could see who were relaxing under the shade of a tree. They couldn’t care less about all those blind people falling headlong into hell. It didn’t touch them.
Does it touch you?
When we don’t care anymore for the multitudes going lost it is because of sin that has blunted us.
You need to cast off the works of darkness – get rid of them.
A certain old witch got converted, but she lived very primitively. She almost never bathed and only wore one, tattered dress. Someone bought her a new dress, but she simply put the new over her old tattered dress.
That is exactly what many so-called Christians do in our churches – they simply put the cloak of Christianity over their old rags of sin.
No, God doesn’t want you to put the new over the old. Put off the old. Cast it away and then put on the new.
Why do many refuse to put off the old? They want to keep that boyfriend or girlfriend, keep the old sins of irritability, envy, grudges, lust, but also sing in the choir and be respected in church.
Before God you are made of glass. He knows you through and through. It doesn’t help being a hypocrite. God sees the inside.
Therefore let each one present today put off the old rags of sin and put on Christ Who is the light of the world.