Make No... Put On The Lord Jesus Christ!

We'll turn to Romans chapter 13. Romans 13. I was recently exhorting someone and I quoted Romans 13 14, but I only quoted part of it.

I quoted the part that says make no provision for the flesh. Make no provision, make no arrangements for the flesh's remaining desires to be welcomed. Now, as I quoted the passage to this individual, it crossed my mind, James, you should have quoted the first part of the verse.

So then I did, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desire. That's a pretty essential part of the text, right? Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision. But I realized in that moment of my own thinking, the second half, make no provision for the flesh, it seemed more immediately applicable to the individual.

And so that's what I quoted to them. But then right away I'm thinking I need to say the whole verse in this context or else I'm actually going to not help this person. And so that's not, Paul does not just come to a church and say make no provision for the flesh.

That's not what Paul does. He doesn't use it in an isolated way and simply tell the Romans to stop making and allowing for arrangements and provision for the flesh. Rather, the way they are to avoid making arrangements for the flesh starts with, and actually goes before the start of verse 14.

We're going to consider that. But at least right there in 14, it starts with putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul in a way issues two commands in one breath right here.

Romans 13, 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. I mean, these are two real commands, and yet Paul welds them together so tightly, so tightly that the second one flows out of the first, right? Making no provision for the flesh flows out of the first command, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet what's Paul's primary focus here? It's not making no provision for the flesh.

It's putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, not on making no provision for the flesh. Yet here I am in the driveway, and what was my, I caught myself putting an emphasis to this individual and making no provision from the flesh. It's as I have the whole verse memorized right away, I felt a check in my mind.

Come on, say the whole verse, say it in its context and rightly apply it. So I don't know if you've ever had that happen before. Certain verses you might throw out because something seems practical, make no provision for the flesh, and yet you disconnect it from its context.

And I'm not saying there's never a place to do that, but we can often misapply a truth if we do that. Imagine this, imagine a scuba diver sent to tighten a loose bolt on a piece of equipment. Okay, he's got to go tighten a loose bolt.

It's a basic task, right? You get the wrench and you tighten the bolt and it's, I mean, you're good to go. But where's the bolt at? It's a hundred feet or further below in the water. It's not on land.

And so before the dive, the captain gives two commands. He doesn't just say tighten the bolt. He says, put on the scuba gear, take your oxygen tank.

That's the first command that he gives. The second command is simple, but it's completely impossible if the first is ignored. If you ignore putting on Christ, if you're putting on the scuba gear and your oxygen tank, well, it's not going to happen.

Without oxygen, without gear, it's about a few minutes, let alone is he going to make it all the way down and complete the task. So in the same way, when Paul says make no provision for the flesh, you can't obey that in your own strength. That's an absolute impossibility.

We must first put on Christ, the scuba gear, and only when we're close with him, only when we're relying and thinking and having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, only when we're close with him, relying on his power, are we going to have any ability to have any sort of victory. And so this passage, though, goes further back than just 14. Obviously, verse 14 starts with but.

So he's contrasting something and it goes further than this. And so that's what I want to consider right now with you guys. The context that Paul gives this, these commands to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

The command to put on Christ is given because of another truth that is at hand. Another truth that is hand. And then even that truth was given because another command was at hand.

Right. So Paul's got a logical order here. And then all of these commands, where do all of the the exhortations and commands in Romans 12 and on, where do they rightly point back to? They point back to Romans 12, 1 and 2. Right.

If you flip a page to the left, you can read there what Paul states. He says, I appeal to you, therefore. He's just given all this doctrine, all this truth about Christ.

And then he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And he goes on to even say, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. But what Paul is basing all of our obedience, all of these exhortations in the gospel, Paul is very Christ centered.

Paul does not just come and give some moral teaching that's isolated. He's giving you the gospel. He's giving you what Christ has done.

He's giving you the crucified one. And then he's calling you to action. And so that action is based on truth.

It's not just action coming out of nowhere. And so I think that's why we've got to be very careful. If we isolate the second half of Romans 13, 14, we really risk missing Paul's intention entirely.

And get this, you can end up actually making provision for the flesh by telling someone to not make provision for the flesh. If that's all you're telling them, you're actually helping them make provision for the flesh by getting them to focus on not making provision for the flesh and leaving Christ and putting on Christ out of the picture. You're actually leaving them in a more vulnerable state.

Doesn't help, it backfires. It might look bold to go under the water and hold your breath in your own power and tighten the bolt deep without putting on your scuba gear. But I'll tell you this, you're going to see a lot of dead bodies floating to the surface who try to live the Christian life in that way.

They're not going to make it. They're not going to survive without the Lord. So focusing only on making no provision for the flesh is like telling someone to fight a fire without first handing them the hose.

You've got to give them the hose. You don't just say, go fight the fire. Don't go make no provision for the flesh.

No, you've got to give them the hose. You've got to give them that where there actually is an ability to put out that fire. So let's read Romans 13 starting in verse, we're going to start in verse eight, but remember Romans 12, one, right? This is all this one letter to this church here.

Context matters, but look at Romans eight, because something that Paul says, sorry, Romans 13 verse eight, something Paul says right here leads him in to this whole, for lack of a better word, a tangent. I know that's not, that's not rightly representing Paul, but that's what happens here. Verse eight, owe no one anything except to love each other.

Why is he talking about owing no one anything? We'll look back up at verse seven, pay to all what is owed to them taxes. So he's talking about taxes, talking about owing taxes. And then he starts talking about a debt that we all do owe and the debt that we need to be paying.

And that is loving each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. And he goes on verse nine, for the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder.

You shall not steal. You shall not covet and any other command are summed up in this word. You will love your neighbor as yourself.

And then he describes why is this true? Well, love is a principle. True sacrificial love is a principle. We don't do wrong to a neighbor.

Therefore, if your life is governed by this principle, then you're going to fulfill the law. You're going to make the decision that would be consistent with the law, not just consistent with the law. You're going to go beyond what is there.

And so then he says right after this, verse 11. Besides this, we're going to look at a few other translations in a little bit that I think make it clear Paul is actually about to give a motive. He's going to give a motive.

Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is near to us now than we first believed. The night is far gone. The day is at hand.

So how does this affect us? So then let us cast off the works of darkness. And we've got another put on, put on the armor of light. And then he says, let us walk properly as in daytime.

So back to this talk about night and day and darkness. And then he gives some practicals here, not in orgies, not in drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, not in sensuality. And then he says, not in quarreling and not in jealousy.

And then he says, but in contrast, in contrast to walking in these things, put on the Lord, walk in the Lord Jesus Christ, walk like Christ. You could even say, don't, what is it to walk properly? Obviously is to be like Christ. Verse 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the scuba gear we talked about. And now you have the ability to go down and tighten the bolt to make no provision for the flesh. It's happening as you're putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he starts chapter 14. And so we're going to end our reading right there at the end of verse 14 of chapter 13. So this is actually one of the first verses I ever memorized as a new Christian.

I was reading some book that dealt with purity and they mentioned this verse. And I don't remember how they mentioned the whole context, but I don't remember them emphasizing, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember them emphasizing, make no arrangements, make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

I hope you see here, Paul has got deeper thoughts behind why he even says this statement. He doesn't just take it in an isolated way, state this. He's saying other things and they're connected.

And if we're going to understand what Paul intended for us to understand, we need to see how these thoughts are connected here. So we already looked at one kind of broader contextual important truth. And that was that everything here in these chapters is Romans 12, one shows us is based on the, on the mercies of God.

And we could spend a hundred, a 500 or 50 sermons on the mercies of God previously, but let me just spend a few moments on that. I think of a few mercies in Romans six, a few merciful things that the Lord has done that you would have in your mind as you're already, as you're hearing Paul say what he says, you already know, oh yeah, Paul shared this truth in Romans six. Here one of those truths is verse six.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. So these Romans already know their old self is crucified. And that's interesting because here he's saying to put on the Lord Jesus Christ that the old man is crucified.

Well, again, we've got one of those already not yet realities of the Christian life. There's something that is true, but Paul here is not talking about justification. He's talking about our progressive sanctification.

That's one truth in Romans six. Another, how about Romans 6, 17? They've got Romans 6, 17 in their mind, but thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have what? That's not the full phrase. What's the rest of it? Yeah, that's the key.

It's not just to become obedient. There's a reason they're obedient. It's from the heart.

It's natural obedience because they've been regenerate and born again by the spirit of God. And they've been given a new heart. And Ezekiel 36 says he's causing these people to walk and obey the statue.

Despite all that being true, he still is in this chapter calling us to put on Christ and giving us practical exhortation because we don't just let go and let God. What are some other truths, some other mercies that he's talked about? He's talking about the fact we're elected. He's talked about the fact we're chosen.

I mean, he's brought us through Romans nine. All of this is truth to have as you're hearing what Paul is stating right here. And you know, Paul isn't just saying love each other without having first shown in Romans five, the love of Christ and his love for his enemies.

And Paul also says in these chapters, he's already said in chapter 12 that you're also called to love your enemies as well. You're called to not seek vengeance with your enemies. And so these are truths that are going to be in their minds.

So yes, positionally it's true. The old man is dead and there's a new man and we've put on Christ. Now, Paul's exhortations, they lead to verse 14.

That's kind of the verse I've been focused on, but let's look at what he says before. So let's look back at verse eight. I already mentioned, he just talked about owing taxes and now it brings in a debt we do owe and that is to pay the unpaid debt of love.

So that's Paul's calling the church to this. This is all connected to verse 14. It's this topic of loving each other, right? And it makes a lot of sense.

What are the last two things he mentions in verse 13? Do not walk in quarreling and jealousy, and even you go up sexual morality. You're not loving the brethren. If you're sexually immoral, you're not loving the brethren.

If you're jealous of them, none of these things are, are a loving thing. It's, it's rooted in selfishness. So he's calling the church at Rome, not just to pay their taxes, but to love, to love each other.

And notice, Paul here does not call us to a set of rules to memorize. That's not what he's doing, right? The New Testament calls us to a person, to the Lord Jesus Christ. And why is that? Love seeks the good of the other person.

Love is not seeking to harm that other person. True love is keeping the spirit, not just the letter of whatever this, of what the law is. Love isn't just avoiding sin.

It's not just, I'm not going to sin. Love is positively thinking about what good can I do today? What's a positive thing I can do? Right? You were not in need of a teacher because He Himself has taught you. Doesn't the Bible speak like that? There's something, there's a supernatural element.

It goes beyond what is written. I mean, Stephen is being stoned and he's basically praying for his persecutors. What Old Testament law did he learn that from? That's the thing.

He saw this in Christ, on the cross, saying something similar. Christ is the standard. Who else loves for, loves their enemies, prays for their enemies? Love doesn't wait for a rule to do the right thing, right? It's actually looking at a principle.

It's looking at a person and seeing, he says in John 13, 34, to love as I have loved. And you're seeing him live that out and you're automatically, you want to do that in your own life. How today can I love as Christ has loved? So that's what Paul's calling them to right here.

All knowing anything except to love each other, love each other. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Now, is verse 10 the end of his thought? And it's not the end of his thought.

He goes on, the ESV renders verse 11 in this way. Besides this, and I'm taking the this to be this truth he just taught about love. Besides this, love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Love is fulfilling of the law. He doesn't just give this command. You need to go love the standard.

He then actually says, besides this, you know the time. You know the time. And I'm saying this is him bringing in a motivation.

Listen to how this is rendered in the NET and the NASB. I think it makes it very clear. The NET says this, and do this, let's pay the debt of love, because we know the time.

Do this because we know the time. The NAS. Do this knowing the time that it is.

So Paul's calling all of us to love, to love, to pay this debt of love. He's already talked about Christ and his love for us and the Father and electing us and saving us and taking us from Romans 3 and justifying us in Romans 4. All of that's in our minds. And now we're called to go and love likewise, love our enemies even.

And then he doesn't just stop there. He says, actually I want to give you a motive. I want you to look at your clock and look what time it is.

And he's going to give them some urgency. So let's give ourselves some urgency if that's what Paul does. You know, what time is it? I mean, what clock am I supposed to look at? What's the clock, Paul? If we're supposed to look at a clock, what time is it? Well, notice the clock.

It's not that complicated. We can look at the hour hand and the minute hand right here in the text. So verse 11, if you just got here, Romans 13, 11, besides this, know the time the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

Four, salvation is nearer. What's salvation? Well, he makes it pretty clear. He's not talking about initial salvation with the next thing he says, right? Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

So he's not talking about people being initially converted. You see that? That's not what he's saying there because he actually points to a time when we first believed. There is a time you and I first believed, right? For me, that was what, 2007 when I first believed.

And then he says the night is far gone. Well, the night and Paul's idea is this current period we're in. It's the current period we're in.

And then he goes on to say the day is at hand. He's not saying the day's here yet. He's saying the day is about to be here.

So whatever the day is, it's not that we had a day the other day and this day has happened before. In Paul's mind, whatever day is, it's not ever happened. It's not actually come yet.

We're still in this period of darkness. The night is far gone. The day is at hand.

And then he gives logic here again. So then in view of this, brethren, in view of the fact that this is true, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. That's how he states verse 12 and verse 14 are basically stating, I take it as stating the same thing in two different ways.

Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus. Obviously, there's a greater, a clearer, a more specific expression of what it is to put on the armor of light.

I don't think they're two different things. We're going to look at that. And then he says, make no provision for the flesh by putting on Christ.

You're making no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. But Paul here is given a motive. So what time is it? What time is it? The night and day in verse 12 basically is interpreted as two eras in God's redemptive timeline.

That's how I'm interpreting it. The night represents what we're in right now, this present age of sin, spiritual darkness, and it's lasted long enough. Paul thinks that Paul looks at it and says it's lasted long enough.

And he said that 2,000 years ago. And then the day refers to the coming of Christ. That's how I take it, the dawn of the day of the Lord when Jesus returns in glory.

And Paul is saying children of the day should not act like it's midnight. We shouldn't act like it's midnight. Notice that for Paul, this present age can never again have a higher status than what? How does he word it? This present, the night is far gone.

I mean, he looks at this present era that you and I are in and he's saying this is just far spent. This darkness is just wearing itself out. We're going to get out of this.

Do you ever look at your life in that way? We're living in this midnight darkness of sin in this era of the world. We're to be children of light, clothed with light as we live in this dark world. And Paul looks at us and he says, guys, it's far gone.

I mean, it's getting near the end. It's going to be over. Like he's actually encouraging you with the fact that this is a very brief season before it's all wrapped up and the clouds burn away and Christ comes.

So we are actually currently in the darkest hour of world history. The darkest hour of world history was now when Adolf Hitler was alive. It was not when all these other wicked rulers were alive.

The darkest age of history has been since that fruit was eaten and sin has come into the world and through sin death has come and people die and they perish and they go to hell. And for Paul, even if the exact timing is unknown, what is known is there is a final rescue that's ever approaching. Right.

It's ever approaching. It's coming. In other words, we should be expectant.

Paul does not get into speculating dates and all of that. And we see this motive elsewhere. Turn just flip over to Hebrews 10.

Hebrews 10. This motive is right here as well. Hebrews 10 verse.

Yeah, let's just read verse 24. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as in the habit of some. So we need mutual encouragement, but encourage one another.

And notice verse 24. Stir up one another to what? Love. That's actually exactly what Paul has called the Roman church to, to love.

The same thing the Hebrew writer. Love is a big deal. It's fulfilling the law.

You're not going to get something bigger than that. He loved us. Verse 24.

Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet, but encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. You see the day drawing near idea there. There's this day and the authors in the Bible speak about it as it's drawing near.

That darkness is far gone. It's far spent. It's just right at the end.

It's going to be, it's going to be to love one another. And then that reminds you of what he does in Peter. It's been said many times before, but Peter, he's talking about the second coming of Christ and everything.

And then what exhortation does he give when he's talking about Christ is going to come back? He says to love one another continually. And he says to show hospitality without grumbling. And his one brother said, you think that's the last thing you bring up when you're thinking about the second coming of Christ is to have people over for a meal.

And that's exactly what Peter does. And that's what Paul is doing here. He's giving us a sense of urgency not to go build a bunker, but to go and love one another and excel in a self-sacrificial interest in others, in the needs of others.

I hope that's why you're here today. There are others here who have needs than your own. That is having the mind of Christ according to Philippians 2. The mind of Christ is not that I'm here and I've got all my own needs and that's my emphasis and that's my focus.

The mind of Christ is I'm holding others' interests as more important than my own. So Hebrews stirs one another up to love. If we go back to Romans 13.

So next, he says we're to walk as in the daytime, even though we live in a time that I'm saying Paul is calling darkness. You can think about the time zone, right? It's like Paul views that we're forever in a time zone where there's no sun in that sense, but one day that final rotation is going to happen. And us who are children of light are going to depart to be with the Lord in glory.

And we find Paul uses this day and sleep language. First Thessalonians 5. Listen to this. 5 verse 5. For you are children of light, children of the day.

We are not of the night or of the darkness. He's creating these, I believe it's eras, these periods. So then let us not sleep.

That's what he's calling us to right here. Not to wake from sleep. Verse 11.

Let us not sleep. For those who sleep, sleep at night. And those who get drunk are drunk at night.

That's meaning that's their present way of living in this world. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love. So in Thessalonians he's saying put on something and he says put on love and faith.

And he says the breastplate of faith and love. And for a helmet, the hope of salvation. And then this is the thing with First Thessalonians.

He uses the same type of language, but he doesn't have a Romans 12 one. So you know what he does? He actually gives us the Romans 12 one. He gives us the mercies of God right after he gives us the exhortation.

And he says this, he says, for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him who died for us. See, Paul is always taking Christ and he's putting Christ right there in the midst of these exhortations. We've got to do the same thing.

If we don't do that, like I'm saying, you're actually going to help someone make provision for the flesh in many ways. Paul teaches a Christ-centered obedience. Well, what does it mean to put on Christ? And I've in a way have stated different things throughout this sermon, so you might already have an idea of how I'm interpreting that.

Again, I think the statement in verse 12, cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. And then he talks about walking properly. And then he says, verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think he's just being more, he's being, he's being very specific here. I think he's saying the same thing. And then he's just getting real specific.

When I'm talking about armor, when I'm talking about love, when I'm talking about faith, he's saying in all these different ways, you know what I'm ultimately meaning, Christian? I'm ultimately meaning think and be and live like Jesus Christ. You're already positionally in Christ, now practically live like Christ. It says in Galatians 3.27, this is this positional, it says you've clothed yourselves with Christ.

I take that to be at the point of conversion. The Christian, it says they've been baptized into Christ, they've clothed themselves with Christ. But here Paul is exhorting us to live out that identity.

What did he already say in Romans 12, right at the beginning, he says, transform by the renewal of your mind, in verse two. He talks about the mind throughout this whole section. He talks about clothing yourselves in humility.

We know that's what Paul talks about in Philippians 2, have this mind among yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus. Paul here and elsewhere is constantly calling us to think and be like Jesus Christ, to think and be like Jesus Christ. And so he's saying the daylight's coming.

That can sound confusing. Let me put it this way. The daylight is coming.

So the soon arriving kingdom, which is a realm of what? Perfect love is coming. It's coming. This perfect kingdom of perfect love that you and I are going to partake in is coming.

And Paul is wanting us to practice that love now by simply living in step with and imitating Christ, to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, to think like the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like I said with Stephen, you're getting stoned. I imagine you're thinking about Christ praying for those who were stoning or crucifying him.

You're thinking about Christ. Isn't that what Paul says to husbands? Love your wife as Christ. Isn't that what he says to the Colossians? Colossians 3, forgiving one another as Christ is forgiving.

He's pointing them, he's wanting them to forgive, but to get them to forgive, he's pointing them to the forgiveness of Christ. And these Romans already have Christ loving his enemies in Romans 5. They've got these glorious truths in Romans 5 and 6. Colossians 3, in a way, spells it out in some way. Colossians 3, 12.

Put on then, and he doesn't say the Lord Jesus Christ. He actually defines specific characteristics of being Christ-like. This is what he says.

Put on then chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. That's put on Christ. But he's spelling it out in a real practical way.

We had someone at our Grace Group share this past Wednesday, wanting prayer that they would grow in their patience. It's interesting. That's exactly, he says that to put on then as God's chosen one, patience.

And who do you have with more patience than the Lord Jesus Christ? He's got people denying him. He's got people disrespecting him. And through it all, he's praying for them that their faith not fail.

Is that how you live? Because that's love. That's love incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. That's who Paul is calling us to live like.

He's calling to put on Christ. You're going to look at Christ and you're going to look at his crucified death for you. You're going to look at his electing love for you.

You're going to look at all of this and it's going to lead to a compassionate heart because you see how compassionate the Father and the Son were to you. It's going to give you humility. It's going to give you meekness.

It's going to give you patience. This is all going to happen as you behold the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. You are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next.

If you're looking to Christ, it's changing you and you go and you live like the Lord Jesus Christ. So I think that's the context. That's the idea here.

He's wanting them to love, but he's giving them a motive, urgency, and he's already given them a standard in the whole first part of Romans and that is Christ. And so when he says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not some great mystery. You and I are every day to wear the character of our Lord as the dress of our life.

What part of your life right now is not like the character of Christ? That would be a question to ask. Where am I not like the Lord Jesus Christ to live so near to him that his virtues, you can see it in what I do and what I say and others see that in you. It's like this, it's visible here.

This person reminds me of someone that I've read about, of Christ, right? We're his children. We are to be seen to be recognizable to having the same father, to who our father is. And Paul says this in verse 14, put on Christ, think like Christ, live like Christ, put on the armor of light, show kindness, show patience, show compassionate heart, let others' interests be more significant than your own, humble yourself.

I mean, that's what's going with these issues of conscience in Romans 14. Those truths are very helpful. If you have the mind of Christ, you're not going to quarrel over opinions about things and cause division where it is not needed.

If you don't have the mind of Christ, you're going to do what it says right here. You're going to be quarreling and having jealousy. And then what happens? You do this and you make no provision for the flesh.

Yes, it's a command as well. Make no provision for the flesh, but it's welded to Christ. Tighten the bolt.

Yes, you need to tighten the bolt, but you can't get down in that deep ocean. It's an impossibility for you to tighten that bolt unless you have the scuba gear on and that oxygen tank, unless you're thinking like the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you're abiding in him for all the strength, for all the power. They already had the truth in their mind in Romans 8, 13.

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you live. I mean, this is impossible apart from the Spirit of God. And so we actually get the privilege of looking to the Lord.

And brethren, all of these other things really do come together because our desires are right. You know, a soldier, he puts on a uniform of a new army. Let's say when you enlisted, when the Lord enlisted you as a soldier of Christ, when he saved you, you're no longer supplied by the former side.

Right? Or Romans 6, you no longer have to serve that master. You no longer work for the flesh. You no longer work for these remaining desires of the flesh.

You don't have to serve them anymore. Your old man is dead. You're daily putting on Christ.

You're daily thinking like the Lord Jesus Christ. You're daily relying on him for strength. And guess what? Since you're his soldier, he will supply you with every need.

Philippians 4, 19, all your needs according to riches and glory in Christ Jesus. First Peter 2.10, once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. This is what it's all about.

We're people of God. Once you had not received mercy, remember that? No mercy. Now you have received mercy.

And what would Peter say right after a statement like that? Beloved, in view of those things, I urge you as sojourners, oh, we're children of light. It's dark. We're children of light.

We're sojourners. We're exiles. And he says, abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your body.

He doesn't just say abstain from the passions of the flesh. He first tells you and I that you have received mercy. Do you see that? This really, really matters in the Christian life.

I'm looking first at the mercy I've received from Christ. And then I'm abstaining from the passions of the flesh. I'm first putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and looking to Christ.

And then there's no provision made for the flesh. Paul is Christ centered. Kind of echoing back to what Stuart shared Friday night at the Q&A about people who are struggling with, you know, reading the Bible.

And he said, so often people go right to the spiritual disciplines and they leave out the fuel, they leave out the motivation, they leave. And then you got someone basically doing a work of the flesh, trying to actually please God. But they're underwater without the scuba gear attached, and they're just going to end up drowning in the midst of trying to tighten the bolt because they don't have what it takes.

We're strangers and exiles. We've got another supply line from heaven. We're not of the dark.

Therefore, let's not live like people of the dark. So practically, what does this mean? Well, if there's discord or jealousy in my life or your life that sins against people, what was lacking? Yes, love was lacking, obviously. Why was love lacking? Paul's saying provision was made.

Well, how is provision made? You didn't put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You didn't meditate and think about Christ. You didn't look at His example and go and live in light of that.

You didn't, by faith, receive the Spirit and the power of God to put to death these selfish things that are going on in your heart. And so therefore, you did wrong your neighbor by being jealous of your neighbor. The way to overcome that is not to think, well, I better stop being jealous of this person.

No, the way to overcome that is you put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You think about Christ. You pray to Christ.

You look at His characters. You look at His compassionate heart. You look at His patience.

You look at His purity. You have this mind among yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus. Even though He was in equality with God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

He humbled Himself. They become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And then God exalted this person.

He took them out of this world of dark, where He was the perfect light. And we are called to be lights in the midst of this crooked and perverted generation. So put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

Why is it, though, that we want to be in the driveway and emphasize something practical like make no provision for the flesh? Brethren, that to me shows how often we can isolate little phrases that are true from their context. And I'm telling you, you're ultimately not going to help someone. You're not going to help them if you don't give the full truth that's trying to be communicated by the biblical author.

If you fail to do that, someone will end up with what we find in Colossians 2. Don't handle, don't touch. And what does Paul say? Those have the appearance of wisdom. But what do they fail to do? They have no power to stop the indulgences of the flesh.

Same thing. The remaining flesh has desires, and you're not able to stop those desires, even though you have don't handle, don't touch. You've got these laws in front of you.

Where is Christ? Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? So, yes, they're both commands. Make no provision is the command, but putting on Christ is what comes first, and they're well done. But I should illustrate make no provision.

Here's a way to illustrate that. During World War II, cities across Europe enforced strict blackout policies at night. Even a sliver of light from the window would be an indicator to the enemy planes that they would know where the city is at, and they would drop bombs on people.

They would slaughter them because that window being cracked. Here, make no provision for the flesh, these passions that wage war. For it to actually be gratified, Paul's saying something has to happen first.

The curtain is left open, and the light shines through, and the enemy is looking for targets. So, it's actually an encouragement. We don't have to sin, but the first sin to not commit is to not put on Christ and therefore make provision for the flesh.

So, Paul's given a wartime instruction, leaving any opportunity for sin, however small. It's like leaving a light on in a city that is being bombed by the enemy. It draws danger, and no wonder the house gets blown up in the smithereens, because you left the curtain open with a light on.

You're a prime target for the enemy. So, let me try to summarize and put this together, the flow here. So, Paul in Romans is first exhorting the believers.

Right here in these chapters 12 and on, all of these exhortations are rooted in God's mercy we've received in Christ. And I hope from all the other references I showed, all these places in Peter and Colossians, when you've got exhortation, you've got something about the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. So, the same thing should be true in our life and in our exhortations.

It's gospel-driven. That's the first thing. The second thing, we owe one another a debt.

I owe you a debt. I'm here today. There's something I owe, and it's not a bad debt.

It's a debt I want to pay, and there's times the flesh, the desires of the flesh. I want to be selfish. I want to be lazy.

I want to think about myself. I don't want to have to go drive out somewhere and have a five-hour conversation, and it's already 10 at night. But there's a debt of love, because Christ has so loved me, and so we're called to love each other.

Do you love each other? It's so easy to say, love each other. But is it actually being shown and manifested even in the smallest areas of your life, or do you wrongly define love? Do I wrongly define love in certain ways? You see it in Christ. You see His love for people, and His prayers for Peter, and His rebukes for Peter, and His kindness towards people.

You see it all lives out. This is one compassionate Savior, and then what should motivate? So Paul next, he gives what should motivate us. Verse 11, you know the time.

Paul actually gives you a sense of urgency, and that can strike you as odd. Why would Paul do that? And it's 2,000 years ago, and the Lord hasn't come. Brethren, the issue isn't when is it going to happen? Is it going to happen in our lifetime? The fact is, it is a certain event that will happen, and so there should be urgency based on the certainty that this era of darkness is going to come to a close, and Paul's not afraid to use that to give a sense of urgency, and even to motivate us and let us know this.

The night is far gone. The day, like this darkness that you're in, it's just a short-lived thing. Don't live for it.

Don't make this your home. It's just a momentary reality, and then what does he do after that? He says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. So he tells us to love, to love.

He gives us some urgency, and he tells you how. You got something opposing love, desires of the flesh, put on Christ. Be a Christ-centered person, thinking much of Christ, walking near to Christ, loving the Lord Jesus Christ, looking at his example, seeing his love for you, and as you do that, the window is shut.

No light is coming in. You're going to walk with a clear conscience, and the evidence of that is you are a person full of love for others, in a biblical way of sacrificing. Isn't that what he just called us to at the start of Romans 12? He called us to be this one sacrifice, renewing our mind, and here this area is we must renew our mind.

So again, to make it practical, what if there's sexual sin in your life? Right? What is missing? What's missing? It wasn't just you made provision by wasting time that evening that it began, that it happened. That's not it. You can't just look and say, well, I fell into something, and I was just wasting my time.

That's a shallow view. If you only see it, that's the full extent of it. You didn't put your daytime clothes on.

That's what happened. You were called to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You were called to love others, and that wasn't what was on your mind.

You weren't setting your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. You're starting to just live for self, for your fleshly desires, and you're okay feeding them because, you know, you really live for the Lord the majority of the day that day, and so you get a break, right? You can take off the armor. What verse says that? Paul sounds like there's one darkness, we're in it, and day has not come.

Well, when do you take the armor off? When the night is over and the day comes. Has the day come? It hasn't. So keep your armor on, right? If I have the mindset of Christ, He who never sinned, then I obviously wouldn't be falling into sin.

So anytime I fall into sin, there's something there where I'm not thinking and living like the Lord Jesus Christ. The absence of Christ in your thoughts will lead to a lack of Christ-likeness in your actions, which opens the door for fleshly desires to be fed. And so do you know what time it is? In the Korean War, there was a deadly mistake some of the troops made on the front lines, but they believed they were safe for the night, and that the enemy had retreated.

They took off their gear, their helmets, their vests, their weapons, they tried to rest. But under the cover of darkness, the enemy launched a counterattack in the midst of darkness. And many died not because they were outgunned.

It's not where they died. Same thing, you and I, when we sin, we weren't outgunned. I mean, who's got a cannon like the Spirit of God that we have to put to death the deeds of the flesh? No one's got a cannon like that.

So we don't lose because we're outgunned. It's not what's happening. They let down their guard too soon, and they assumed danger had passed, and they were caught exposed.

That's what happened. So brethren, the closer we are to the dawn, the more alert we should be. The King is coming.

He's coming. There is a sense of urgency. Even though I might live 50 more years and Christ doesn't come yet, it doesn't mean you shouldn't have a sense of urgency.

Paul's not afraid to give some urgency to the people of God. And you know what? He is nearer than we first believed. And He's nearer than when I first started preaching.

So He's just getting nearer and nearer. And you want to remember that. And there's a time you first believed.

Let's keep on believing. Let's keep on trusting. Let's keep on looking to the Lord.

Let's keep on being a gospel-centered church in how we counsel people. I'm telling you, as much as you might want to just get overly practical with people, and you give all these little things that you think are proven and tested and tried, I'll tell you, the proven and tested and tried thing is behold the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. That will change you from one degree of glory to the next.

And you're daily coming to the Lord. You're daily putting on Christ. You're daily reminded we're living in this period of darkness.

We're children of the light. Let me go out there and look like a child of the light, with a compassionate heart, with kindness, with patience, with all of these characteristics that they saw in the person of Christ as He lived on this earth. So that's my, I hope that's Paul's exhortation to you all.

Lord, help us. Let's pray. Father, we pray You'd help us to outdo one another in showing love.

Lord, if there's any competitive spirit in our hearts, Lord, that it be for something like that, outdoing one another and showing love. Lord, I'd love to outdo Robert Chapman and how he showed love. Lord, I'd love to have that that degree of Your Son imprinted in my own heart.

Lord, I pray You'd purge us of pride. Lord, I pray You'd purge us of the pride that keeps us from putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray You'd help us to not complicate the Christian life.

Lord, we need You every hour. Lord, we need You right now. Father, we've just thought about Your Son.

And Lord, in many ways, I've failed to talk as much about Your Son as Paul did in the Roman letter leading up to these exhortations. But Lord, I pray You would show us Christ, make us more like Christ. Lord, we're thankful that we who are people who had not received mercy.

Lord, we have received mercy. What is this? What love is this? Lord, help us to put on the armor of light. Lord, help us to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Lord, help my brothers and sisters and help myself, Lord, to have a sense of urgency in the Christian life. Lord, we are further along than when we first believed. Those who endure to the end will be saved.

Lord, would You help us to endure to the end? And what could keep us from not enduring to the end? Some fall away from the living God by an evil and unbelieving heart. That's what they fall away with, an evil and unbelieving heart. Lord, save us from an evil and unbelieving heart.

Lord, help us not doubt Your promises. Help us not doubt Your value, Lord, where something else just seems more appealing. It seems more infatuating, Lord.

Lord, Peter says that these passions of flesh, they wage war. Lord, we're in a war. Help us to be alert.

Lord, help my brethren to be alert. Lord, help us all to be satisfied in You. Lord, I pray You'd save us from the do not handle and do not touch, just legalistic garbage that does not produce true holiness.

Lord, if there's any, Lord, even like Stuart was trying to point out, Father, if there's any area in our life where it's really not actually consistent with biblical teaching, if there's any area where we are actually leaving Christ out and we're totally ignorant to that, Father, help us. Help us to not do that, Lord. We want to know You.

We want to know Your Word. We want to be consistent. And if we just ask for Your help, Lord, knowing that You will give strength.

And we're not, we have this infinite supply of power. Lord, we're thankful. That we have one bigger than us.

We can call and say help. Pray this in Christ's name. Amen.