How much time do you have left?

In Romans 13, Paul urges believers to wake up and live, for "the night is far spent, the day is at hand." In this sermon, Dr. Toby Holt calls us to treat today as short and precious, living in the light of Christ's coming.

Questions this sermon answers:

1. What did Paul mean by "the night is far spent"? That the present age is passing and Christ's day is near — so believers should live with urgency and purpose.

2. What are we to cast off? "The works of darkness" — putting on instead "the armor of light," living as those who belong to the day.

3. What holds us back? Spiritual drowsiness and the pull of the night. Paul calls us to awake and number our days.

"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." — Romans 13:12 (NKJV)

Speaker: In Romans 13, Paul urges believers to wake up and live, for "the night is far spent, the day is at hand." In this sermon, Dr. Toby Holt calls us to treat today as short and precious, living in the light of Christ's coming.

In Romans 13 the Apostle Paul told his readers that the night was over and that

the day had come in other words Paul wanted his readers to cast off the works

of darkness and to put on the armor of light in today's study we'll see how

this instruction applies to us and to our own sanctification you know a number

centuries before Christ's time. There was a great storm at sea. Now, in and of itself, that's nothing

New. There's always storms at sea. However, this was no ordinary storm. History records this

particular storm as being a mighty tempest. Now, unfortunately for a particular crew, there was a

crew that was out at sea when this tempest struck. They were out doing their thing. They were ferrying

goods and passengers from one port to another, as was their charter. And as they were going about

their business. The wind picks up. It begins to just batter the boat. It begins to rip this boat

apart. Now, have you ever seen a movie where you'll have a captain in a situation like that,

and he'll yell something like this? He'll say, all hands on deck. Why does he yell that? What's

the objective? Why does he want the crew gathered? Well, the answer is simple, because everyone's

help is needed if they are to survive. All hands on deck. The situation couldn't be worse. Everyone

report to duty because the situation is so dark that we won't survive it if we don't have everybody

working toward a common goal. Now, when this particular storm hit, there was one guy, one guy

that was missing. The captain looks around. There's one guy that's missing, and because of the storm,

He might have wondered, well, maybe the guy fell off. Maybe he fell out to sea. So he looks around

the boat, and what he finds is that in the lowest part of the boat, there's this guy. What's he

doing? He's asleep. You know the story. It's because of sleep. Asleep at the bottom of the

boat. Everyone else is worried that they're doomed and he's well asleep. So the captain

encounters this guy and his mind is blown. He's flabbergasted. He can't believe what he's seeing.

And so he grabs the man by the collar, so to speak. He says, what are you doing? What do you

mean, oh sleeper? The words that are recorded for us. There are times to sleep and this is not one

of them. There are times in life where we can and should sleep. There's a whole lot of times when

we better not. Now, does anyone know the name of this sleepy guy, the sleepy passenger I'm talking

about in today's text? What's his name? Jonah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, there's a different

time when Jesus sleeps in a boat, but that's not what I'm referring to. Today, I'm referring to

jonah. However, in today's text in Romans, in today's passage from Romans 13, what we're going

to see is that the Apostle Paul is going to take on the role, not of Jonah, but of the captain.

And he's not just talking to Jonah, but he's talking to us. In today's text in Romans 13,

the Apostle Paul is going to take on the role of the boat captain. And he's going to write to his

audience in Rome, and by extension to you and I in Gulfport all these years later, and he's going to

say this, arise, O sleeper. What are you doing sleeping? Can you not see that the storm has come?

Do you not know the reality of your circumstances? Arise, O sleeper. I saw it in Jonah's day and

today we're going to see it in Romans chapter 13. All right, if you would, let's look at this. Let's

look at this text, consider what Paul has to say and why he says it. Let's look at verse 11 and

then we'll just work our way verse by verse through this passage. Verse 11, and do this,

knowing the time that now it is high time to be awake out of sleep for now our salvation is nearer

than when we first believed you know one of the one of the greatest catalysts for getting your

act together one of the greatest catalysts for doing the right thing is when you finally have

a sense of your own mortality when you start thinking about how much time you have to work

with the more aware that you become of your own mortality the more sensitive you are to how much

time you have left, the more you think about the reality that you may stand before your Maker

sooner as opposed to later, the more you let that seep in, the more you think about the amount of

time you have left and what God has called you to do with that time, the more likely you are to use

that time well. So one of the catalysts for right living is an understanding of the clock and what

time you've got to work with. On the other hand, the opposite is true as well. One of the greatest

inhibitors to righteousness, one of the greatest inhibitors to righteousness is the sense that

your days are endless. If all you see is just this highway into the future, that there's

no off-ramps, and you'll just be traveling it down all day long, all lifelong, as long as you

possibly can, if life seems endless to you, as it seemed at one point to all of us, especially in

our youth, then if life is endless, then so are eternal consequences. If life is endless, then

any reckoning that I might ever have, any standing before God and the like, it's not today or

tomorrow. Meanwhile, life's pleasures are right here. So one of the greatest inhibitors to

righteousness is when you have no sense of your own mortality. The more you understand your

mortality, the more likely you are to use your time well. So let me ask you, how much time do you got?

How much time do you got? Some have more than others. None of us has more than, I don't know,

100 years on the outset, some of us far less. I hope none of this is a shock. Whatever the case

is, the point is this, the clock is ticking. We talked about this hourglass. Remember last week,

we talked about the hourglass? The clock is ticking for all of us. Now, at face value,

that could be depressing. We go, oh my goodness, that's not what I want to hear. That's not good

news. It could be depressing. However, what I want you to notice is fascinating. In verse 11,

Paul's talking about the same thing, but he doesn't frame it in the negative. He frames it

in the overtly positive. Look at verse 11. In verse 11, Paul doesn't say that our death is near.

Instead, he makes the observation that our salvation is near. Our salvation is nearer

than when we first believed. Our salvation is closer than we can possibly imagine. So in verse

11, is he trying to remind us of our own mortality, talking about night and day and the like? Yes,

, and yes, but he doesn't do it to scare you. He does it to encourage the Christian.

He says, you know, the great homecoming, it's right around the bend. If you're a Christian,

I hope that you look for that day with expectation, not fear. The day is coming when we'll set foot

in that great, what Shakespeare called it, he called it the undiscovered country. And we'll

finally see the things that this book tells us that we'll see. We'll no longer apprehend Jesus

from a distance, but we will behold him in the flesh, look him in the eye, hold him in our arms.

That's a good day. It'll be the best day you've ever had. And what an irony it is that we live

in mortal fear. We live in fear of the day that's going to come into your life that's going to fix

everything. Everything that's broken to you right now, everything that's broken in you right now,

will be righted like that. It'll be the best day you've ever had. It's a day to be optimistic for,

and that's what Paul says in verse 11. That day, the day we've longed for, the day we desire,

the day of that wonderful transition, it's closer now than when we first believed. It's closer now

than when it's ever been, and he frames that in a positive sense. So what should we do right now?

To get back to his overarching point, although that day is coming and it's never been closer,

the fact remains we're still here. What do we do right now? What do we do with the time that is

immediately before us. Well, Paul suggests here, and in many of his epistles, he says,

shake the worldly sleep out of your eyes. It's still day. Shake the worldly sleep out of your

eyes. Get serious about your Savior's business. All right, let's look now at verse 12. Verse 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.

You know, the book of Proverbs, there's a verse that says this.

It says that the way of the wicked is like darkness.

They do not know over what they stumble.

In 1 John 1, Jesus also talked about darkness.

He said if we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie.

We do not practice the truth.

There are dozens, dozens of times in the Bible where sinful living is equated with darkness.

If you look at the book of Revelation, you have men and women who love darkness

to the point that when God shows up, what do these people desire?

They desire the rocks to fall upon them.

They'd rather have that and the darkness and the rocks upon them than an encounter with this God.

Now, here's a question for you as a believer.

Haven't you already spent enough time in your own life living in darkness,

volitionally, of your own desire?

Haven't you spent enough time immersing yourself in sin?

This is a rhetorical question.

you and I both know the answer.

1 Peter, the apostle said this in 1 Peter 4.

He says, we've spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we

walked in lewdness and lust and drunkenness and revelries and drinking parties and abominable

idolatries.

See, what Peter and Paul are both emphasizing is that we've spent enough time doing that.

What are you going to do with the time you have left?

So much of our life, if you were to calibrate, and it doesn't really matter if you're that

young or that old, so much of your life has already been spent by percentage doing that

which is dark, thinking things you ought not think, looking at that which you ought not look,

saying that which you ought not say, desiring that which you ought not desire. So Peter's saying,

you've done that. Stop. Stop. He says, high time to wake up. High time to wake up and to live in

the light. So the night is spent. The day is at hand. What do we have to do then? Well,

start by counting your hours. Have a reckoning with your own mortality. Again, that doesn't

have to be a scary prospect, but it is a necessary one. Scripture regularly tells you to count,

hours, so to speak, and understand, you know, we're like a blade of grass. We're like a vapor that

comes and goes. So have a reckoning with your own mortality, but then with the mortality you've got

left, use it wisely. And what that usually means is that we have to be honest with ourselves and

say the way I've used it in the past is not that great. I've spent enough time doing that. I'm not

going to do that anymore. Today is the day I chart a new course. Today is the day I put to death that

which I have been pursuing, knowing it won't lead anywhere but the tomb. Today I'm going to do

something different. Today, I'm going to live the way God would have me to live. And night and day,

again, that comes up time and time and time again. I could cite reference after reference

that suggests we use the time we've got. Even Jesus did that. John 9 verse 4, Jesus said the

same thing about night and day. He said this. He said, I must work the works of Him that sent me

while it's day, because the night is coming when no man can work. All right, let's look at verse 13.

Verse 13, let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and

lust, not in strife and envy. All right, let's stop for a minute. Sometimes it's helpful when

we're looking at a text to apply it immediately directly to ourselves, and sometimes it's very

important also to look at the text and contextualize it and understand who is Paul writing to?

Why is he using these sort of words? What is he talking about in the culture to which he

is writing. So, what's he doing here? Let me ask you a question. Who is the book of Romans written

to? Who? Romans. All right, we are in business. He's written to Romans. Now, generally speaking,

to Christians within Rome. He's not necessarily writing an evangelistic tract to the pagan

community per se, but he's writing to Romans who are living in the midst of that pagan community.

See, the church in Rome at this time, it was small and it was young, comparatively speaking,

and these were believers who were newer to their belief, newer to the faith, and they're trying to

live out their faith, live out their beliefs in the midst of a culture that is just antithetically

opposed to them. It would soon enough be lighting them on fire in Nero's gardens. It would soon

enough be feeding them to lions. They're trying to live out their faith in a culture that is as

dark and depraved as they come. Now, in the midst of this culture gone wild, Rome had gods. Now,

one of the gods that they had, one I think their favorite gods, was this dirty, dingy, depraved

God called Bacchus. Now, why did they like that God over the other options? Well, remember, the

gods are the pagans. They did this weird thing. They said, well, you can be the God of, you know,

the harvest and the tree frogs and the moonlight and all this other stuff, and this other God will

be the God of this region or that season or what have you. So they took gods and they gave them

different jurisdictions. And so you'd worship a God of this jurisdiction or worship a God of that

jurisdiction and the like. So Bacchus, what jurisdiction did he have? Oh, I think we already

know. Well, this is the God of the grape, the God of wine, and the God of fertility. And if there's

things that Rome really liked, that the Roman citizens were really down with, it was wine and

fertility. So Bacchus, Bacchus is their prime guy. He is the God that they all loved. And they'd have

these things called Bacchnelius. And which, guess what? They would honor, you know, we're honoring

bacchus, but they would honor him by engaging in all sorts of craziness. He was drunken on some

revelry and orgies and lusts and all this different stuff is going on in the midst of giving tribute

to this dingy, dirty, depraved God named Bacchus. So they'd get in these Bacchanalians. Now, was

their culture depraved? Well, yes, but so was ours. There's nothing about the Bacchanalians of Rome

that's fundamentally all that different than what you see on cable television.

Fundamentally all that different than what you see on Bourbon Street.

Fundamentally all that different than what you see in the culture in the world around us.

Revelry, drunkenness, lewdness, lust.

These are ever-present in our television and our movies, but also in our marketing.

It's not just television and movies to entertain us, but also marketing to solicit us.

It never stops fascinating me that in order to sell chocolate bars,

they determined that the phrase, sinfully delicious, was a way to go about it.

So this sort of mindset, that engaging in the sinfulness and the like, is not only something

to be seen on the screen, but also a way to appeal to individuals.

That was true in Rome.

It's true in Gulfport.

And it's not going to change as long as man is who man is.

Man's fundamental nature hasn't changed since the fall.

We believe that we are depraved.

We believe that we are fallen.

It's the concept of Original Sin.

It's a different sermon, but it's true.

We believe that we come into this world bearing this mark, bearing this stain of sin, and then we

act accordingly. Fallen sinful people drink down sin like it's water, so to speak. We gravitate

towards what our carnal desires want. We don't just live in the dark, but we love the dark. Now,

Jesus, he said the same thing. He said, the light has come into the world, but men love darkness

rather than light because their deeds were evil. What Jesus was saying is that sinners love the

camouflage that comes with darkness because if everything is dark and if your neighbor's dark

and your others, your co-workers are dark and the like, then it camouflages your darkness.

It camouflages your sins while the world around you is sinful. Sinners love the camouflage of

living in the darkness because then they can pursue all the wild things they might want to

pursue and it won't stand out as wicked because everyone else is doing the same thing. That's why

sinners love the darkness. With that said, you and I are supposed to be different. There is supposed

to be a distinction between the world and us. Dear heavens, when there's not, the problem is not with

the world, the problem is with us. When there's no distinction, when the world can't pick up the

difference between that which is holy and profane, when they're looking at the life and choices and

actions and attitudes and appetites of the believer, then something's wrong with the believer.

They've fallen into the mindset of the worst two words you could ever put together. The word's

carnal Christian. There's no such thing. But so many in the visible body of Christ act as if there

is. And Paul says, no. Paul is telling the people in Rome that as hard as it is to do what's right,

in the midst of that culture that they're supposed to put on light, the armor of light,

and not be dressed, decked out in the markings of sin that their culture was so engaged in.

So Paul says, walk properly, as in the day. Walk properly. It's true for them, it's true for us.

All right, let's look at our final verse. Let's look at verse 14.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

All right. As we consider that one verse, I want to read a short, similar passage from Galatians

5, where Paul says the same thing, but he explains a little bit more. In Galatians 5, he said this,

He says, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh

lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another

so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you're led by the Spirit, you are not under

the law. All right. Let's say that you're a Christian who is convicted of your sin. Let's

say that you're introspective right now and you say, well, it feels like this is a bit of a

spotlight. This sermon is a spotlight on me or at least on this one thing in my life.

What to do? I feel some sense of conviction on what to do. Let's say that you recognize

a disparity between how you're living and how God has called you to live. Now, what should you do

about it? Let's say that you have a disparity. Let's say you look in your life and go, you're

right. The word is right. God is right. There is a disparity between who I am and what I'm doing.

And if I see it, then God knows everyone else sees it too. Let's say that's where you're at.

You see this disparity. So what do you do? Let's say that you just feel weighed down. Let's say

you feel like you're trapped by your sinfulness? There's some desire, some impulse, something going

on in your life that you feel shackled to. What do you do about it? What do you do? How do you put

the brakes on your sin and stop giving in? Well, Paul gave us the answer in Galatians 5. He said

this. He says, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you do the

one, you will be less inclined to do the second. Walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit and you

shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If you're walking towards one thing, you can't help

but be walking away from something other. To put it in a geographic context, if here in Gulfport,

we start walking towards Atlanta, I start walking towards Atlanta, I'm simultaneously walking away

from New Orleans. As I approach one destination, I'm simultaneously leaving or departing or getting

further and further away from the other. The same general principle is true in faith. Walk in the

Spirit and you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. The more time you spend in this, the more

time as a Christian you spend in matters of faith, the more time you spend in prayer, the more time

you spend devotional, the more time you're focused on loving your God, doing what He has said,

it has the net effect of leading you away from the very things that you would otherwise pursue.

Walk in the Spirit. Again, this is 101 in sanctification. God says there's certain

things that if you pursue them will have a positive beneficial effect upon you, upon your

Spirit, upon your heart, upon your actions. Start doing those. If your problem right now is, I don't

know how to stop doing the things I love, well then start doing the things that have been difficult

spiritually for you to wrap your arms around. And you'll find as you walk towards the cross,

as you walk towards Christ, you'll find that you are led further and further away

from your fleshly desires. But you have to be intentional. You have to be intentional. You know,

there's no battle that's ever been won by a protagonist who's sitting on the ground.

There's no battle that's ever been won by a protagonist who just throws down the weapons

and just stands there. That's not how you do it. You're not going to win this by osmosis.

You're not going to get victory over your sin by just waiting for some cosmic ether to enfold you

and take you away. That's not the context. God says you are in the middle of a battlefield,

so start fighting. He says there is a war within your flesh, so start winning. God says, I know the

conflict you feel within you. I know that what you want with your body and your members and the like

runs counter to that which is in your heart and the Spirit that dwells there. God says, I know that

to be true. You know it to be true, so don't be shocked when you feel torn. You'll feel torn all

of your life, as long as you live in this mortal cold, you'll feel torn. Well, start fighting.

Pick up the armor that's been granted to you. Wear it, and you'll find it protects you. Pick

up the armor that God has given you. Pick up the sword he's given you. Wield it, and you'll find

you're protected from some of the very things that have otherwise just been gobbling you alive

and kneecapping your witness in front of watching families and spouses and children and others.

Now, as we look to wrap up this morning, there are two marks, two marks that every healthy

Christian has. Now, the first mark is what we call inner peace, inner peace. The second one

is what we would call inner war. Now, at face value, that sounds contradictory. How can that

work? Inner peace and inner war, I mean, I can't have both. Well, wrong. You can have both and you

do have both. See, inner peace is the tranquility that we have and we're supposed to have as

believers. We're supposed to be contented towards God and towards our circumstances,

even when our circumstances are bad. There's a sense of inner peace that Paul had even when he

was in jail in Philippi, allowed him to sing hymns and preach and share, right? His circumstances

were terrible. They were just awful. And yet he had a sense of contentment with God and even with

His circumstances. Now you should have that. If you get a diagnosis, a phone call from a doctor,

if there's something going on in your life that you don't like, well, no one's telling you to

like it, but you can't have contentment knowing that God's still on his throne. So there is a

sense of inner peace that comes with a right relationship with Him. At the same time, as

inner peace is something you have, I also hope you have a sense of inner war. I hope you have

a sense of inner war. It's every bit as biblical as inner peace. Inner war is this. It's when our

flesh wants one thing this week, but when our heart and our mind and our soul wants something

else, and we're willing to fight. Now, that's not fun. It's no fun to be at war with your own

members, but it's unavoidable. What have we just been reading here? It's unavoidable to the

believer. What your flesh wants and what your Spirit wants will often be antithetical things.

Now, in 1 Peter 2, the apostle Peter, he talked about this concept, and he used war to describe

it. He said this. He said, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly

lusts which war against the soul your flesh wants things it shouldn't have I know that's not a shock

to you your flesh wants things that you shouldn't have your flesh wants bacchus right your flesh

wants bacchus your Spirit wants jehovah and there are times and points of decision where you have to

choose. And you have to say, as torn as I am, as much as I want, Bacchus, as much as I want

what's offered there, as much as I want to gratify the things that are very real,

the impulses I have that can be very strong, I will not. I will not because the pull of Jehovah

is greater. And I want to do what the captain of my salvation would have me do. So let me ask you,

in your own life, is there a sense, not only of inner peace and contentment through your faith,

but also a sense of inner war? Is this something you can relate to, or is it a foreign concept?

Do your efforts to deal with your own sin cause you at times to strain, to sweat, to make it feel

like you're in a battle? Now, for most of us, for many of us, the answer is yes, especially if you've

been a Christian for some season of time, you can say, yes, by the grace of God, I'm not who I used

to be. But it wasn't easy because I wanted to be who I used to be. But God wanted something

better. And locking arms with Him in my sanctification, I'm no longer, you know,

the creep, the jerk, the whatever that I used to be. I no longer give in to that which I used to

give in to. Some of us know how that works. Others may have no idea how that works

because we've never heard of the word mortification. What is mortification? Mortification

is this. It's putting sin to death in your body. Mortification is the theological term for

everything we're talking about. It's saying that today, I am going to start killing sin before it's

killing me. Today, I'm going to stop. Today, I'm going to stop doing that which I was doing, and

I'm going to start doing that which I ought to do. And that's what verse 14 refers to. It says,

make no provision for our flesh. Because some of us compromise, right? You make a deal with yourself.

Well, I really have been righteous in this area, in this area, in this area, therefore I'm entitled

to do this other thing over here. Because, you know, these deeds offset that deed and the like.

Wrong. What do we see in verse 14? Make no provision for the flesh. Don't make deals with

yourself. Dear heavens, if there's things you want to do or things you're engaged in or deals or,

you know, things you've told yourself that you'll do, you try to make deals with God in order that

He might allow or overlook some of your transgressions, stop. Verse 14, make no provision

for our flesh. Stop giving in to what your eyes want to see. Stop giving in to what your tongue

wants to say. Stop giving in to what your stomach wants to eat. Stop giving in to what your libido

wants to have or what your hands want to hold. Now, that may seem counterintuitive, as we said

before, because rejecting your own impulses is hard. But if your impulses conflict with God's

law. Something's got to give. Something's got to go. If your body's impulses cause you to break

God's law in order to satiate them, put those impulses to death and don't wait. Again, that's

why John Owen is the one who said this. John Owen says, be killing sin or it will take to the bank

or it will be killing you.

This morning, closing, if you've been saved by Christ,

then the object of your life,

the object with the balance of your days,

however many you have or don't have,

if you are a believer this morning,

if you're a blood-bought, born-again, son and daughter,

the most high king, then the job you have,

the number one object that God has for you

for the rest of your days is to become more like his son,

to reflect his son more and more

in the time that has been given you.

Now, I trust that's what you want.

I trust that's your desire, but here's the thing.

You've got to get more serious about it.

We all do.

Why? Because the night is long gone and the day is at hand. On the day of our salvation,

when we'll have this opportunity, this moment, this reckoning, this encounter,

this embrace with our Savior that's never been closer. So before that day comes,

how do I want to live now? How do I want to live in the intermediate time? Well,

you've got to have a game plan, and you need to implement that game plan not in just philosophical,

theoretical, or even theological ways, but intentional ways. The final observation is

if you look at all the verbs in today's text, you'll notice that all action verbs. He says,

wake up, wake up out of sleep, cast off, cast off the works of darkness, put on,

put on the armor of life and walk properly as it is in the day. All those things require you not

only to give your intellectual assent to, everyone can say amen and amen when they hear propositional

truth, but that's not what this is calling us to do. This is not calling us just to give assent

to propositional truth, but it's asking us, demanding us, requiring us to act accordingly.

So this week, this week, wake up, cast off, put on, walk properly. Let's pray for the grace to do so.