Open your Bibles to Romans 13 and find verse 11. Romans 13 and verse 11. We'll read to the end of the chapter. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey, word of God. 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.

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. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever Let's pray father. We thank you for the power of your commands the goodness of them We thank you that you always lead us to green pastures You always lead us out of ourselves and into your glorious kingdom to be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you Father. I pray that you would fulfill all these words in my life and in all of our lives. Amen. Please be seated. Seated.

These verses here in Romans serve as a pretty strong wake-up call for all believers. And I think it's an especially relevant passage of scripture for those believers, those reformed believers, those conservative reformed believers who are in biblically sound churches urging them not to settle into spiritual apathy and complacency in their lives. Paul is not addressing unbelievers in this passage, but Christians who have been made alive by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. But, And here's the catch, they may be spiritually asleep, they may be saved but sleepwalking. And perhaps living with reduced awareness, dulled by sin, coasting, coasting on past experiences and victories and memories, but the present reality of the Lord Jesus Christ has faded.

And so what you find here, you'll see it in your outline, there's a fourfold call to wake up. That has to do with the urgency of the times. This is an urgent message. Wake up, check the time, that's the whole thing. And then cast off the works of darkness and then put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

It's a very strong and clear message. But it's simply the life of progressive sanctification in the life of a believer that includes daily repentance, daily consecration, daily intentional discipleship, spiritual vigilance and activity, and throwing off the laziness of a sleepwalking Christian. And so to be clothed with Christ in this passage is not the positional justification that believers are bequeathed with, but it's the practical everyday choices that identify a person as a Christian. And so Paul's alarm is timely for an older generation of Christians who've walked with the Lord for a long time. It's timely for a younger generation that haven't been walking with the Lord very long And it's an urgent call to break out of any kind of shallow, intellectual religiosity that you have.

Just because you believe the right things doesn't mean that you're not sleepwalking. This is one of the big problems in reformed churches. Their heads are very fat and their hearts are empty. And that's what he's addressing here. And he's really here to urge us not to waste a moment, but to live with a tremendous sense of purpose and intentionality for the purpose of holiness and love.

Now, frankly, all of Romans is really a wake-up call. The first 11 chapters are really that the church be awakened to the power of the gospel, the lostness of man. And then when you get to 12 through 16, the churches awaken to love one another. Every chapter from 12 to 16 is a call for the manifestations of the love of Jesus Christ in the church and in the civil realm as we've been talking about in the past. But what Paul is saying is, don't sleep through the times.

And this is, I think, very helpful for any church, even our church. You know a church can fall fall into ruts. A church can just hum right along in its liturgical coma. They sing the glory but they're dreaming about their hobbies. They're distracted.

They hit the snooze button when the alarm is sounded. I know that's happened in this church. Many times the pastors of this church have sounded alarm and many have just slept through it. They hit this news button and That's really what the apostle Paul is attacking here. You know, people often ask me, how's the church going?

Well, here's what I say. I say, I think the church is going pretty good. You know, there are no big problems right now. But is it? But is it really?

Is anybody in here stuck in a rut? Is anybody here sleepwalking their way through the Christian life? I mean that's really the question here. You know I hear it over and over again, and I'm thankful to hear it. People express so much gratitude for you people and the culture that we have in this church.

I am really, really thankful for it. It's really a blessing. But are we at all susceptible to be content to sing our theologically accurate songs, to be satisfied that we're doctrinally grounded, that we have the simplicity of the Word of God and the fellowship and the prayers of the church. Are we satisfied with just going through the motions or are we actually being energized by the Word of God as a by the power of the Holy Spirit. All of these things can be true.

You can have you can have a confessional well-ordered church with a really good culture and many people still be asleep. And so it's easy to become a contented minimalist in the church. Is that you? A contented minimalist. Did God call us to minimalism in the church in the Christian life in our family life in our life in the civil Realm in our church.

Are you a minimalist in this church in your family? Or in any any of the realms that God has called you to. This passage of scripture is an urgent call to break free of any kind of sleepwalking that's going on in the church. So I'm a messenger of this message that the Apostle Paul is preaching to the Roman Church. And you know, are we awake?

Are we progressively casting off the works of darkness? Are we clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we making provision for the flesh? That's the question. Are we alive to God?

Are we hungry for the word of God? Are we just on autopilot? This is a special danger, especially for biblically ordered, reformed, confessional, conservative churches. The chairs are set up and straight, but the people are sleeping. That's the problem.

And are we just existing? Are we growing in love for God and for one another and for the world around us. And that's why Romans 12 starts out with, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind which is your spiritual service. So this passage demands that we ask the question, am I awake?

So that's the first thing that he deals with. And verse 11 and 12, and do this, knowing the time that it is now high time to be awake out of sleep, For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. So this is the alarm for a sleepy church in Rome. There were sleepy Christians in Rome, obviously.

He's saying don't sleepwalk your way to the grave. Don't sleepwalk your way through the corridors of the local church. Don't walk yourself sleepwalking in your family. Don't be sleepwalking. You know, the church is not a morgue with a steeple.

Our church has a steeple, but what's inside? That's what the Apostle Paul is dealing with and You know, you don't want to be a saved but sluggish believer whose works will be burned up at the end. So this is a call to wake up, to wake up and walk with the Lord. And he says, he's speaking of the time, knowing this, knowing the time. It's high, he says it's high time.

And The word time here is not clock time, but a season of time. Knowing the time of your life, like the moment that you're in right now. Not whether it's 10.35, but the moment that you're in right now. Everybody goes through seasons of life, and you often go through ups and downs and things like that. What the apostle Paul is saying, know what that season is and this is just a wake up call for every generation to wake up.

The older generation, are you asleep? You who've walked with the Lord. The younger generation, are you asleep? Anyone on cruise control is in the target of these words here. God did not save you to sleep.

He saved you to stay awake and to be storming the gates of the devil's lair. Sometimes Christians' lives look like they're just lying in bed they're already awake but they just keep rolling over that's why in Psalm 90 the David says teach us to number our days he says you know your life is only gonna be 70 or 80 years, so teach us to number your days. You might not live that long. I don't know how long you'll live. You may live through today, you might not.

We've seen people die suddenly recently. You know, are you living on stale bread? Or do you have fresh bread every day to feed your soul? Are you living on stale bread? Do you just go from day to day without refreshing your nourishment in the word of God, but you're just continuing to eat that stale bread, you're hanging on that Bible verse that really moved you four years ago.

But you haven't really moved on from that. You're not refreshing your system. You know, for some, you know, waking up is hard. Waking up is really hard. You know, I read this story last week.

In 2009, there was a drunk driver. She was driving. She catapulted her car over a barrier, 20 feet in the air and landed right on top of the house and came right down on top of the bedroom of a couple sleeping in their bed. And The car crashed right through, right to the edge of the bed. The husband woke up because he could feel the exhaust heat.

But the strangest thing about what happened is that his wife didn't wake up. It was a pretty urgent moment and she was sleeping through it. You know, Christians can be like that as well. You know, things are crashing down, needs aren't being met, and people are just sleeping through it. I asked chat GPT what it means to be asleep.

You're now going to know what sleep is. Reduced awareness, low muscle activity, brain shifting into idle modes, less responsiveness to external things. Now there you have it. In other words, when you're asleep, you're disengaged, your motivations are low. And this is the danger that the apostle Paul is confronting here.

And this is a refusal to confront the things that need to change in your life. So I'm really here to ask you what needs to change in your life. This is a question I've been asking myself, particularly all week long, you know, preparing to come and try to represent this passage. Are you settling for the status quo? Are you just cruising?

Are you sleepwalking your way through the Christian life? You know, are you like that wife who's just still asleep even though there are real needs actually around you. First of all, needs for your own soul. You know, the wasting of time is just, is so legendary in our time. You know, these electronic devices just give us so many opportunities to waste our lives, completely waste our lives.

Here's Jonathan Edwards resolution number five. It was Jonathan Edwards birthday just just a few days ago. He said this resolution number five, resolved never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can. That's the mindset of Romans chapter 13, verses 11 through 14. You know, if you've wasted years, what will you do when you look back and see all those wasted years?

Will you be, Will you be thankful for the time you wasted mindlessly scrolling through nothingness that did nothing for you? It only did things to you. Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 5 echo this. You are all sons of light. Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

We are the people of the light, not the people of darkness, and we should live like it. And this entire section is really anchored in the commands to love in Romans 12 and going forward. You know, the French theologian Jacques Elul wrote a book on the book of Jonah. It's interesting, he says that Jonah asleep in the ship's hold, you know Jonah's asleep is a picture of the church today. He said that the people of God are asleep while the world around them is perishing.

You know, in Jonah 1, 6 the captain shouts, what do you mean sleeper, arise, arise and call on your God? And Christians are often like that, They're asleep at the wheel and there are things going on around them. So he issues this call to wake up. And then secondly, cast off the works of darkness. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

Now this is really, really important and I want all of us to think through run you know run through your life and ask are there any works of darkness that need to be cast out of my life. To cast off means to lay it down to lay it aside to get rid of something deliberately to get rid of something urgently. You know, we went to this pride celebration yesterday. You know, there were about 70 guys there. I was thrilled with what these men did at this celebration they were glorifying God it was it was just thrilling to me to watch it and but we were there we were really there to urge everyone to cast off the works of darkness.

That's what we were doing. And you know, look at, you can see the manifestations of the darkness out there. The disorder, the confusion. You've never seen more ugly women in your life than when you go to a pride festival. The twisted demeanor, the deceiving messages, the defiling things that are going on there, the lovelessness.

You know, these people are crying for love. They have no clue what love is. We know what love is. It's the law of God, manifest love with every word. And it actually creates order and beauty and symmetry and everything that's good.

But I was just so grateful, you know, there were so many men that came out to do that. You know, it's funny, you know, We were being accused of hate speech. And what were we actually doing? We were singing songs about the love and the power of Jesus. That's what we were, that was the hate speech.

Okay. So he cast off, cast off. Now, let me just talk to you kids for a second what are the works of darkness the works of darkness show up all the time not just in kids right They show up absolutely everywhere, but like for kids. Are you listening to me kids? Okay.

So when you wake up in the morning, are you grumpy? That's a work of darkness. Like it's sinful to be grumpy. It is. It's actually sinful to be grumpy.

And you know, y'all parents, you know, if your kids are grumpy, well what if you're grumpy in the morning? You need to repent of your grumpiness, y'all parents, and help your children to wake up and awaken the dawn like the psalm says I will awaken the dawn I will praise you I will praise you I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth well you know you parents need to teach your kids that there's a way you're supposed to wake up, not grumpy. That's like a work of darkness. Throw off the works of darkness. You know, your brother grabs something from you and you turn around and bonk him on the head.

Two works of darkness in one. So what are you gonna do about it? So the works of darkness are all over the place. Well, I want us to make sure we understand something. Darkness is always seeking you out.

It'll find you wherever you are. That's why your phone might be one of the most dangerous things that you have in your life. I'm gonna give you five words about the darkness. First, it's strategic. Secondly, it's proactive.

Thirdly, it's aggressive. And fourthly, it's progressive. You know, we talk about progressive sanctification. Well, there's also progressive devolution in the life of a believer and then finally it's destructive. The works of darkness are so harmful and that's why the Word of God is urging us repeatedly to put off anything that hinders us.

Let me just, I'll give you a smattering of this. In Hebrews 12, one, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run the race with endurance. And look to Jesus, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. How about Ephesians 4 22, where Paul says, to put off the old man which is corrupted by deceitful lusts and and And be renewed in your mind and put on the new man in Colossians 3 8 He names specific things to throw off. Throw off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language.

Do not lie. James 1 21 says it like this, lay aside all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness. Receive with meekness the implanted word. In Psalm 101 verse 3 David says, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away.

It shall not cling to me. It's so easy to love the work of those who fall away. And I guarantee you, it will cling to you. It will cling to you. I was thrilled when I heard Charlie Kirk say, you should stop listening to this corrupt music, secular music, listen to classical music.

Basically, throw away your country western music. That was kind of what he was saying. Because it will cling to you. The works of darkness will cling to you if you go and put yourself near it. And that means shutting the door.

Don't let it cling. You know, are there any doors that need to be shut among us? Any activities? The door needs to be shut. Images.

The door shut. Conversations. Shut. People. Shut.

Relationships. Evil thoughts. Make a covenant with your eyes like Job did. You know, often people, they come to church and they say, ah the worship wasn't really that great. You know what the real problem normally is?

You know they spent, they spent till two o'clock in the morning watching stupid things and so they woke up stupid and they come to church stupid. It's not the worship that was stupid. It was the worshiper that was stupid He says no instead, you know walk walk in the daylight let us walk properly as in the day Not in revelry and drunkenness not in lewdness and lust not in strife and an envy so he had noticed he uses the word walk and there's such a rich testimony behind the word walk in the Word of God. You remember Enoch walked with God in Genesis 5 24. Micah says you know walk humbly Micah 6 8 Deuteronomy 10 12 walk in obedience Psalm 119 1 walk according to the law.

Romans 6-4, walk in newness of life. Ephesians 2-2, we once walked in the course of this world. Ephesians or Galatians 5 16 walk by the spirit. 1 John 1 7 walk in the light as he is in the light. Walking is equivalent to your lifestyle.

It's really what you do. And then he gives three pairs of examples. First of all, revelry and drunkenness. That's just out of control gatherings. And then lewdness and lust.

This is sensuality and sexuality, the desire for it. Don't let anything awaken it. That's what he's saying. And then thirdly, strife and envy. This has to do with quarreling and and jealousy.

These are such easy traps to fall into because sometimes you're not treated right and you find yourself in need of forgiving somebody. You know what? One of The greatest hindrances to believers is unforgiveness. One of the reasons they can't move on in the Christian life is because they don't forgive. And if they, in a sustained way, can't forgive, they should not even think they're Christians.

That's what the Lord's Prayer says. You don't forgive other people's sins, your sins are not forgiven. You know, what's holding anybody back? Unforgiveness holds people back like nothing else. And it defiles everybody else around them.

Putting off the works of darkness. You know, there are different times when you're more vulnerable. You know, when you're bored, when you're lonely, when you feel hopeless. That's usually when temptation comes. You're alone at night, you're tired, you're discouraged, and you flip on the filth box, or you just go waste a bunch of time instead of fill your soul with something that will actually lift it.

And what the apostle is saying here in this verse is don't expose your mind to anything that dulls your soul. Don't indulge in images, don't indulge in conversations, don't indulge in relationships that sap your spiritual strength. These things impair your judgment. And frankly, how do you conquer this? Well, to flee is to conquer.

If you're not fleeing, you're being conquered. And so, how do you live this way? How do you live this way? Well, the Apostle Paul begins to unpack that in verse 14. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the first answer. The second answer is make no provision for the flesh. We'll get to that in a minute. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first answer.

The second answer is make no provision for the flesh. We'll get to that in a minute. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this language, it's the language of clothing symbolizing your identity and your character, your clothing identifies you. You're identifying with something with your clothing.

Everybody always is. It's just the way that clothing is wired. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, kids, what is it? I wanna talk to you kids again, just for a second.

I think I'm probably always talking to kids, but especially this. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ happens in really practical, nuts and bolts, things that you do with your mind. Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. That's what it's like to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, to fill your mind with things that are good. But the Bible uses clothing in two ways.

First of all, salvation, justification, positional righteousness. But it's also used in this sense, the progressive, practical, imperative call to continue to put on the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, to learn from him. Isaiah says, he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. In 1st Peter 5 5 he says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

I love Isaiah 52, it's one of my favorite passages of Scripture. Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments, put on your beautiful garments. Yikes, we saw a lot of ugly garments yesterday. But the church actually has beautiful garments to wear that reflect that they have been robed in the robes of righteousness. You know, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ is the most wonderful thing you can ever do.

This last week in my morning reading I was in Colossians chapter 2 verse 3 just slammed me. The Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do you want to be clothed with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Be clothed with Jesus Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And so this whole matter of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, well, it's explained in different ways in the Bible. I'll take you to 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Go ahead and turn there. 2 Corinthians 3, 18, this is really pivotal. It's explanatory to everything the Apostle Paul is saying here about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because it happens in a very simple way. It can happen to you. St. Corinthians 3, 18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. So you're beholding the glory of the Lord.

When you open the Word of God and you receive it with humility you are beholding the glory of the Lord and You're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, becoming more and more like Him, less and less like yourself, less and less like your friends, less and less like everyone, and more and more like Jesus Christ and then he says just as by the Spirit of the Lord you know the word is spirit that's what the Bible says your His words are spirit and our life in the Gospel of John. The Apostle Paul yearned for this among the churches and he said it really clearly about the church in Galatia. And frankly, he expresses really what every, I hope every elder of every church longs for and that is that the life of Jesus Christ would be manifested in the saints. That's our greatest hope. He says this, my little children for whom I labor in birth until Christ is formed in you.

That's really the only reason you have elders here in this church. If we weren't here to do that, we wouldn't want to be here. Because that's the most important thing in the world. Because in Jesus Christ are all the treasures and wisdom and knowledge. He said it very similarly to the Colossian Church as well.

He said, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith rooted and built up in him And I think this should be a strong confrontation to anybody who's not reading their Bible every day and actually reading it with a humble heart and taking actually the time to do it. In first John 3 2 we're told that we will be like him as he purifies us. He says, beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

So be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, don't just, the Lord Jesus Christ, those words are not throwaway words. They're not throwaway. We say them, the Lord Jesus Christ, okay, yeah, yeah, I know, that's common Christian language. No, the Lord, That means he has authority.

Jesus, he's the savior. Christ, he's the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then a second way that you that you wake up and cast off the works of darkness is you make no provision for the flesh. Make no provision for the flesh.

It says, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust there in verse 14. In other words, be clothed with Christ and trample on the flesh. Do damage to the flesh. The language that he uses is talking about planning ahead because sinful behavior always begins in the mind. It conceives of a situation.

The word that the Apostle uses is actually two words that means to perceive in advance, to think about it in advance, to note some sinful behavior beforehand. You're thinking about it to foresee, to know, to think in advance. That's the whole idea. And the truth is Christ likeness is always traced back to the mind. What we do in our minds, This is the battleground.

And that's why the apostle Paul in Romans 12 two said, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by what? By the renewing of your minds. That's the heart of this battleground. And so you have your mind has stirred up a desire for something sinful or unprofitable in your life. Maybe it's just wasting your life, wasting time.

Maybe it's a really explicit sin, which I think wasting your life is sinful. But James 1.14 speaks of this, he says, "'But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. This is an illustration of this verse, verse 14. And when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

So this is to perceive in advance, to be enticed by a desire, and then to nourish that desire and keep following it. Psalm 36 4 talks about a scene, a scene in your life. You're in bed and you're thinking about something in bed and he says he devises wickedness on his bed. He sets his way, he sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not abhor evil.

That's the problem. He did not abhor the thought. He cultivated it. Proverbs 6 14 speaks about the fact that there's often a secret tolerance and acceptance of sin in the heart. It's our greatest danger.

It says this, perversity is in his heart. He devises evil continually. In Proverbs 24, 8, we learn that this type of thing has to do with planning. He who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of foolishness is sin.

So the mind generates, the mind generates sinful thoughts. It generates soldiers in your mind that are seeking to conquer you. And these ideas can become armies that will overtake you. You know, and These soldiers that you create in your mind, they're either attackers or they're defenders. They're only two kinds.

And you will either be conquered by a good shepherd or by the one who seeks to kill and steal and destroy. And by the way, sin doesn't always knock at the door. Sometimes we knock. Sometimes we ask to be let in or sin knocks on the doors of our hearts and we hear the knock and we look through the peephole and we unlock the door and we turn the knob and we open the door and we invite it in. There are about six things you'd have to do to invite sin in.

And you can stop anywhere along the cycle. You know, if you're addicted to pornography, how many steps do you have to take to get there? A few steps. But Sin does not always sneak in. We hear the knock and we unlock the door and we open it.

And the remedy really is communicated all over the Bible, but in St. Corinthians 10, four and five, The apostle uses the language of casting down arguments and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. You know, John Owen made this really powerful statement that many of us have memorized. If you've memorized it, you know, we might just do a little refresh on it if this is what's actually happening in our lives, or is it just a cool quote from an old English Puritan? "'Do you mortify?

"'Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it while you live. Cease not a day from this work. Be killing sin or it will be killing you. So you don't want to be legitimizing disordered desires.

You mortify them. You cut the cable, you cancel the subscription, you close the computer, you break off the relationship, you starve the monster, you stop the scrolling, you cut off his food supply, you don't pet the monster. You know, people often are harmed because they're petting this lion that wants to eat them and they don't think it wants to eat them and it does want to eat them and it will eat them. Proverbs 14 16 says a wise man fears and departs from evil but a fool a fool rages and is self-confident. So you know close the gaps between the thought of sin, close the gaps between the impulses and repent, close the gaps between the sinful feelings and renounce them, Close the gaps between the sinful feelings and renounce them.

Close the gaps between the sinful activity and flee from it. Burn the bridge, just stop. You're not a victim. God has actually given you a will, and you can exercise it, you're not a victim. And I think it helps just to name the sin that is tying you down, and make a concrete plan to stave it off and remove all of its fuel.

So all of these words that we've been studying speak of the life of progressive sanctification. And it's one of the ways that Jesus Christ continues to save us from the corruptions of our hearts that have accumulated over the years and that pop up from time to time. And so the Bible talks about salvation in three ways and I'd just like to end with this. It speaks of salvation as something past. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, He made us alive together with Christ.

That's justification. That's salvation in the past. We've been talking about salvation in the present and St. Corinthians 2 verse 15 speaks of it that we are among those who are being saved. All of us are in one sense are being saved and that's what the Apostle Paul is addressing.

And then there's future salvation in Romans 8 23 those who are eagerly waiting for the adoption of as sons and the redemption of the body. We were saved for this hope. So you have these three categories of salvation but we haven't really talked about the first manifestation of salvation and that is are you saved? Are you really a Christian? Do you believe?

You know, do you believe that in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, God's only son? Do you believe that he was crucified and died and was buried and rose again? Do you believe that He'll come and He'll return to judge the living and the dead? Do you believe that? That's really extremely important.

That's why Jesus said in John 3, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So do you have that kind of life? Well we've been talking about the life of Sanctification. J.C.

Ryle summarizes this life of sanctification in his book Practical Religion. The women in our church are reading through this book. It's a great book. He says this, where is the man or woman who is really trying to grow in grace and to become a more thorough Christian every day? You may well ask such a one, where is the ground gained?

And then he answers it. Are you more holy, more humble, more spiritual, more heavenly minded, more watchful over your tongue, your temper and your time, more ready for prayer and the Bible, more zealous for the souls of others, more willing to bear the cross, more detached from the world than you were at this time last year. We are either going forward or we are going backward. We are either getting nearer to Christ or further off. And that's the whole message of these verses.

Wake up, cast off the works of darkness, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh. May that tribe increase. Would you pray with me? Father, your word is very penetrating, very convicting. We are thankful that you don't leave us alone in our indolence, but you call us into a great life, a beautiful life, a life of symmetry and glory and beauty and goodness and love.

Oh God, I pray that you would give us all the gift of identifying anything that's hindering us and that we would move forward and we would be together individually and as a church more holy, more loving, happier than ever as the years go by. Amen.