[0:00] So while you're getting there, Ephesians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul, over and over, he uses a very similar analogy in many of his epistles.
[0:11] It's a concept that I'd say it's not original to him. It's found in the Old Testament. It's also the Lord Jesus Christ himself spoke in similar terms. But it's a concept or an analogy that he uses quite regularly to charge Christians to live separated lives from the world, from sin, live their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the child of God that they are in Christ.
[0:40] And if you could put what any preacher or teacher or apostle in this Bible would want for believers, for their concepts, their converts, it's that.
[0:51] It's don't live for the world, live for God. And so he uses an analogy to try to convey that very common idea. The analogy has to do with night and day.
[1:03] It has to do with darkness and light. With being asleep and doing nothing to being awake and alive and active.
[1:14] And the doctrine of all of this is that in Jesus Christ, the believer is crucified. He's buried and he's risen again with Christ to walk in newness of life.
[1:27] And the life of Jesus Christ is now inside of the believer. And the spirit of Christ is inside of the believer. And as a result, we now have a relationship with God the Father and we have access to God the Father.
[1:42] The imagery that Paul uses in this analogy, though, shows that somebody is sleeping in a bed at night. And they're motionless.
[1:55] They're pointless. There's nothing happening in their life. And the picture is that person versus somebody who is awake during the daylight hours.
[2:09] And is ready to go and active, serving the Lord Jesus Christ and achieving the will of God. So I like to explore the several passages that the Apostle Paul brings up this analogy.
[2:23] And allow the Word of God to charge us with the same message, the same concept. But to build it in a certain order that I think it will make real clear sense to you. Because this thought of being asleep versus awake in the day.
[2:38] It's something that we relate to every single day of our lives. So let's pray and then we'll get into the Bible. Father, please now bless the times as we read these holy words.
[2:50] And Lord, as I try to challenge your people and charge them in this matter the way the Apostle Paul did. I pray that it's your words that does the work. And it's your spirit that pricks the hearts and that strengthens the hearts.
[3:04] Or that calls some man or woman to the work. Lord God, just take a complete advantage of this time and use it for your glory. Please help us to submit ourselves to you.
[3:17] And please take our attention and place them on Jesus Christ and on the Bible. And may the cares of this life just disappear right now as we study your word. Please, God, you have to do something because we'll get distracted and there's a lot going on in this world.
[3:32] And just please help us to focus. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So read with me from chapter 5, verse 6 down to verses 17. And follow along.
[3:42] The Bible says in verse 6, Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
[3:54] For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
[4:06] Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
[4:19] But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
[4:33] See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
[4:47] Now it's easy to see this analogy that Paul presents. It's just the beginning here. The other passages will just build it into clarity for sure. But the idea is that we were in darkness.
[5:04] Sinners are in darkness. And when we were in sin, we were in darkness. And we worked the works of darkness. And there are those children of darkness or of disobedience that he references earlier in this epistle.
[5:20] The works of darkness come natural to a sinner. And as far as God's concerned, that sinner is just dead. He's useless. He's laying in a grave.
[5:33] In a corpse. With no life in him at all. No ability to glorify God. No even option of working righteousness and good works in something that God would ever accept.
[5:46] He needs to be made alive. Look back to chapter number 2. And remember the words that Paul said earlier in this epistle. Chapter 2 and verse 1. That sinner, that dead man, needs life.
[6:01] He needs to be quickened. In verse number 1 of chapter 2. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And that dead man, in the next couple verses, it shows that he's not literally laying down in a tomb.
[6:19] He's actually following Satan. And he's fulfilling the desires of his dead flesh and of his corrupt mind. And he's just by nature a child of the wrath of God, which is upon him.
[6:32] But in the analogy, that sinner is a dead man in a grave, in a corpse. So when Paul addresses the Christian back in chapter 5.
[6:46] He says in verse 14. He quotes another author saying, Awake thou that sleepest. Wake up. Is what he calls for.
[6:57] He's addressing the Christians to wake up. To not be partakers with darkness and the works of darkness. To reprove them. To not have any fellowship with those works anymore.
[7:11] He calls them going into where we read in verse 15. This time, don't walk like fools, but walk as wise. Walk as children of light. Walk circumspectly. Understand what the will of the Lord is for you.
[7:24] He tells them not to be drunk with wine. That's what the world would do. But be filled with the Spirit instead. And then verses 19 and 20 describes a unity with other believers.
[7:36] A coming together to sing and to praise the Lord. And give thanks to God. And to submit one to another. So when Paul addresses them.
[7:47] The first thing that he tells them is to wake up. To awake thou that sleepest. Maybe you're here this morning. Maybe you're here this morning and you've been born again.
[7:58] And you have the life of Jesus Christ inside of you. You have the Spirit of Christ inside of you. But all too often. You find yourself going right back to the tomb that God got you out of.
[8:13] And laying down in a corpse. And assuming the position of a dead man. Laying there living in the body of the sins of the flesh.
[8:27] All too often God's children crawl back into the grave that he saved them out of. It's easy to do that. It's very easy to do that.
[8:39] Do you know why this analogy Paul's using is going to work so well? It's because it's something we experience every single day of our lives. It's waking up. Every day. We wake up.
[8:52] The preaching of the Word of God is something that God uses to wake you up. To get your attention. It's like that alarm clock that goes off in the morning.
[9:04] You're asleep. You're numb. You're not feeling anything spiritual. But then that alarm clock sounds off and oh! It's the preaching of the Word of God that comes after your spirit.
[9:17] It says wake up! You're laying in a tomb. What are you doing? God tries to get your attention. And just like in the morning. You're like oh!
[9:27] I don't want to hear that sound. That is the worst sound in my day. Is the sound of that alarm clock. I want to stay here. I'm comfortable here.
[9:39] I'm warm here. I don't want to get up and do those things that I'm supposed to do. Your flesh is gratified. Satisfied. And satisfied. But the Word of God comes and says to the child of God that falls back into the sin and into his flesh.
[9:57] And he says wake up! This is not what I called you to do. This is not who you are in Christ. Every day the world and the flesh and the devil directs you to go right back into that tomb.
[10:10] Go fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Go enjoy yourself. Live it up. Just go right back into that isolated filth. That darkness.
[10:22] And revel in it a little more. Go hang out with the people that are in the tombs. Be part of that crowd. God. It leads us.
[10:34] The devil. Our flesh leads us back to death. Back to darkness. It takes something that's alive. It takes the King James Bible to quicken our minds and to call to us.
[10:47] It takes the Holy Spirit inside of us to say this isn't you. This isn't you. Get up. Wake up thou that sleepest.
[10:59] Awake. Snap out of that slumber. I know that alarm clock to that old man is annoying. He doesn't want to hear it so he doesn't even want to come to church because he might have to hear it.
[11:11] So he'd rather just stay out. Stay in darkness. But the Lord God in his mercy calls for his children that fall back into the flesh to wake up.
[11:24] Sin is like a drug. It's like an overdose. It makes you pass out. It just knocks you out in the flesh. It weighs you down.
[11:34] It's so heavy on you. Sin is not the only thing. Misery and sorrow. That can be the same kind of weight upon the old man. It does the same thing to a child of God.
[11:46] It overwhelms them and pulls them down into their misery and sulking. And God comes by and he says, wake up. This is not where you're supposed to be.
[11:59] God has something better for you and I than dwelling in darkness. He did not give his son to pay the price for our sins upon the cross of Calvary so that we could go right back.
[12:12] Laying in that old dead man. God has something better for us. That's a place we don't belong. The old man is the one that God saved us from.
[12:23] The old man and his tomb was taking us to hell. It was taking us to damnation and complete separation, utter separation and judgment of a holy God.
[12:35] God called us out and he in his mercy called us out. And yet here we go right back in. So God calls to the sinner and God calls to his own child and says, wake up.
[12:54] And when he gets your attention, when the alarm clock sounds, when you hear it, you acknowledge it, then there's something else. You get kind of snapped out of that fleshly fog.
[13:05] Church is a great place for that. It's a great place because when God calls you to wake up, he can deal with your heart in a place where it's a little easier to respond. It's a little easier like you're surrounded by brothers and sisters with the same life in them.
[13:22] And it's a little easier to say, yes, God. Yes. You're right. You're right. But when you're off in your pity party, when you're off in your home and you're off isolated on your own and you're just left to your own devices and in that tomb of the flesh, it's a lot harder to not just keep hitting snooze.
[13:42] Shut up. Shut up. Shut that voice up. I don't want to hear that anymore. And the flesh will try to hit the snooze button once more. But God calls again, nine minutes later, wake up.
[13:58] Wake up. And when he tells you to wake up, there's something else he says. Back in chapter 5 and verse 14, we read the first phrase. It says, When God says, wake up, the next thing he says is, get up.
[14:23] Arise. I got your attention. Wake up. Now, come on. Get out of that tomb. Get away from that flesh and that old nature and that darkness.
[14:36] This analogy, I'll say it again, it's so relatable to us in every level of this because there's a big difference between waking up and getting up.
[14:48] Every parent here knows what it's like to tell your young children, wake up. And they say, I am awake. Then it's, get up.
[15:01] How many times have you gone by your child's door or knocked and opened up or told them in their bed, say, hey, get up. It's time to get up. And they're like, I am up. If you were up, I wouldn't be telling you to get up.
[15:15] Being awake is not the same as getting up. And every one of us, we know the feeling. We know the feeling of hearing the voice, the alarm, and knowing that it's time to get up, but fighting that fight of I just want to stay in here a little more.
[15:34] This thing is so relatable to every one of you every day of your life. God says, wake up. And then he says, get up. The Spirit of God can wake you up.
[15:48] The Word of God can wake you up. You can hear his voice and know, yes, God's calling. God doesn't want me in the filth.
[15:58] He doesn't want me in the tomb. He wants me to come up and come out. But he will not make you. He will not force you to rise up.
[16:10] The Lord God will allow you to exercise your free will in that moment. He'll get your attention. He'll make you hear his voice. If you're his child, he'll call. But it's going to be your decision if you get up out of bed.
[16:25] It'll be your decision if you get out of that tomb. The Bible says, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. And when you answer the call to get up out of that bed of your flesh and of your sin, you don't know how it's going to go.
[16:44] You don't know if you have the endurance to last the day. If this is going to be the last time and I'm going to be on for God from here forward. You don't know what a day will bring forth. The only thing you know is, I'm going to obey what God told me to do.
[16:58] I'm not going to stay here anymore. This is not me. And I don't belong here anymore. And so I'm going to get up. The Bible says, the just man falleth seven times and riseth up again.
[17:14] Do you know why? Because there's something in him that says, I don't want to stay down here. I don't want this to be my life anymore. This is not what I've been made for and built for or saved for.
[17:25] I want to get up. And yet he falls again. And the devil says, you loser. This is what you are. This is the best you'll ever be. And he says, no. God's calling me to get up again.
[17:38] And he gets up. He obeys the voice of God. Flip back to the Gospel of John and find chapter 11. In John chapter 11, there's a dead man that Jesus Christ calls to get out of the tomb.
[17:59] John chapter 11. And I'll begin in verse number 11, where we're introduced to this thought of Lazarus being dead.
[18:10] John 11, 11. These things said he after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. But I go that I may awake him out of sleep.
[18:22] Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death. But they thought that he had spoken of taking rest and sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
[18:35] Now, fast forward into the latter part of the chapter. And look at verse 43, where Jesus calls for Lazarus to come forth. Verse 43. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
[18:55] Lazarus, by name, got his attention. Woke him up. Now, secondly, get up. Come forth.
[19:07] If he would have said, Lazarus, I believe Lazarus would have come to life, laying there in that tomb. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
[19:18] Verse 44 says, And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face was bound upon with a napkin about. Jesus saith unto them, loose him and let him go.
[19:31] It might be that Jesus Christ is here this morning, coming through this place in these pews, calling your name, and saying, hey, come forth.
[19:46] You've been down there long enough. You've been hiding in that tomb long enough. You've been wrapped up in those grave clothes for long enough now. I want you to get up.
[19:59] First is wake up. Secondly is get up. And then we'll continue the analogy because it fits so well in our daily lives.
[20:10] Paul charges the believer to get dressed. Look at Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. And the last four verses of this chapter, verse 11 through 14.
[20:24] Paul says, wake up, get up, and then get dressed.
[20:35] Is that not a common thought of a... I can picture my kids when they were younger, and we've got to get to church, or we've got to get somewhere, school in the morning, and they get distracted with their toys.
[20:47] They get distracted somewhere along the way, and eventually it's like you come back, hey, get dressed. Let's go. And that's another step in this order.
[20:59] So you've woken up out of your slumber, out of your sin, and you've determined, I'm not going to stay here anymore.
[21:09] I'm a child of God. I know better. I'm going to do better. And the Spirit of God calls you forth, and you come up. You get up. Well, then there's something you need to do. Just like Lazarus was bound with those grave clothes, those things have to go.
[21:24] Christ said, loose him. That stuff doesn't belong on a living person. So now look at Romans chapter 13, verse 11. And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.
[21:42] For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
[21:58] Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
[22:19] When the believer arises out of the darkness that he crawled back into, he quickly notices there's a problem.
[22:31] These garments I can't wear anymore. They need to be cast off. Christ said, Loose him. Get those grave clothes off.
[22:43] This is a believer in Jesus Christ. He's fallen, but he's risen up again. The garments of the corpse are repulsive to the child of God.
[22:54] They're grave clothes. They're disgusting. They smell of death. And Paul says, Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
[23:06] Let's put on something clean. Let's put on something new. Let's put on something that was created by God in righteousness and in true holiness. Let's put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and get up and get dressed.
[23:23] Start looking like a child of God that you are. Find 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'm going to take you through a few verses now on this thought of what we're to be getting dressed with.
[23:36] 1 Thessalonians 5, and again the analogy continues, and yet another one of Paul's epistles. 1 Thessalonians 5.
[23:50] Let's look at verses 4 through 8. Verse 5 through 9. 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
[24:01] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.
[24:15] For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation.
[24:30] When the works of darkness are cast aside, when you're loosed from the grave clothes of the corpse, the believer is to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
[24:45] He's to awake. He's to become alive, and to be risen, and walking in the day, and clothed for the day. And there are several descriptions. In Romans, he called it the armor of light.
[24:59] In Ephesians 6, it's called the armor of God, the whole armor of God. Personally, I see that as the new man. And I know there's elements, a breakdown in analogy, but it's the whole armor.
[25:13] It's never just put this part on. It's the whole thing. It's put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, the armor of light, your children of light.
[25:24] Look at Ephesians again, and chapter number 4. And I'm going to be fast on this, and just skim this, because there's several passages, and I won't take you through all of them.
[25:37] If you're making the notes, write down chapter 4, verses 22 through 32, from 22 to the end of the chapter. Notice you've got to cast some things off, and put some things on.
[25:49] Get dressed. In verse 22 of Ephesians 4, that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts.
[26:01] He's disgusting. You need to get up, and get away from him, and throw him back into that tomb, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created, in righteousness and true holiness.
[26:15] Wherefore, putting away lying. You cast off the works of darkness. You put that aside. It doesn't leave the tomb, because you're leaving him.
[26:26] So you leave the old man aside. Flip ahead. You can read the rest of it later, but it's all individual points, and ideas of how that's possible.
[26:37] Look at Colossians chapter 3. Just a little bit to the right. Colossians chapter number 3. And this is a similar passage, but I'll go a little further, because he covers a whole lot more, on getting dressed.
[26:52] And what we're to put on. First, what we're to put off. Verse number 8. But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
[27:10] Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. All of the works of the flesh, Galatians chapter 5, all of the works are unfruitful works of darkness that we are to cast off and then get dressed.
[27:26] Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. He's described in several ways in verses 12, 13, and 14.
[27:37] Put on, therefore, as elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another.
[27:50] If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
[28:02] There's a lot to put on and there's a lot to put off. And this is the analogy of waking up and of getting up and then casting off those garments and those grave clothes, those works of darkness, and now getting dressed with something that God has fitted for you.
[28:24] Look to 1 Timothy, chapter number 2. 1 Timothy, chapter number 2. This passage is speaking specifically to women. And so let's just consider what it says here.
[28:38] 1 Timothy, chapter number 2, verses 9 and 10. 2 Timothy, chapter number 3. 2 Timothy, chapter number 3. 3 Timothy, chapter number 3. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works.
[29:06] The adorning, that's what he's talking about, what you're putting on, which you're decking yourself with is not fashion. It's not gold.
[29:19] It's not costly array. It's good works. It's putting on good works. Look to one more place, a very similar place, 1 Peter, chapter 3.
[29:32] Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, chapter 3. Again, addressing this time wives in very similar language, telling them, don't dress to impress outwardly, but let something else come through, showing itself forth.
[29:54] Let this adorn you. Verses 3 and 4. Who's adorning? Let it not be. Let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair and of wearing of gold and of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
[30:22] Adorn yourselves with godliness, with good works, with spiritual virtues. But would you notice, as he's even addressing the wives, in verse number 4, Peter says, let it be, let it not be the outward, but let it be the hidden man.
[30:42] Why does Peter tell wives to let it be the hidden man? Ladies, that man is not your husband. That man is Jesus Christ in you.
[30:56] Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? The Lord Jesus Christ is in you, and that's the person you're supposed to put on.
[31:08] Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you adorn yourselves with Jesus Christ, he's not going to be dressing to impress anybody.
[31:20] He's not going to be showing anything off. He's going to be showing himself off. And so we've got to get dressed. The new man has some clothes to clothe himself with.
[31:32] While you're in Peter, look at 1 Peter 5, and verse 15. I'm sorry, 5-5. Just one last thought, since we're so close. 5-5.
[31:42] Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility. Wake up.
[31:54] Get up. Get dressed. There's a new man. There's righteousness. Righteous garments awaited you.
[32:05] I know that when you're in your sin, and the alarm clock is going off, and it's saying, come on, wake up. And you're like, I don't want to deal with that. It's too hard.
[32:16] The Christian life, and fighting the devil, and the sin in my flesh, I can't live that life. All you've got to do is get up and get dressed. You put on the new man. In the new man, there's cleansing.
[32:31] The blood of Jesus Christ, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
[32:44] All of it. From this morning. From yesterday. From a bad week. You get up. You put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're cleansed from it all.
[32:57] You can start over again every day. His mercies are new every morning. Don't lay in that tomb of your flesh, and your filth, and feel like I can't do it.
[33:11] Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. There's one more thing to finish the charge.
[33:22] You wake up, you get up, you get dressed, and then Paul would have us to get busy. To get busy. You're dressed for what? You're dressed to do something.
[33:34] You put on the new man, and then you put away lying. Now you're going to speak every man truth with his neighbor. And now you're going to let these virtues of the righteousness of Christ come out.
[33:45] Now you're going to let the good works, they're going to adorn you. Because there's something to do for Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus in John chapter 9 said, I must work the works of Him that sent me.
[33:58] I must do that. I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. Get busy.
[34:11] Walk with God. At home. At work. In the morning. In the evening. Get busy in your Bible. Get busy in your prayer life.
[34:22] Get busy in your witness for Jesus Christ. I'm sure in this audience, I'm certain of it, that some of you are slacking on something that God has given you to do, or called you to do in this life, or gifted you to be a part of.
[34:37] You're slacking on it. And this morning, let this charge be a call to you to wake up, to get up, get back in the new man, and now get busy doing what God had called you to do.
[34:49] Do you remember when some of you first got saved, you couldn't shut up about Jesus Christ? You told your family. You told your friends. You invited them to church.
[35:00] You told your co-workers. And now that just has kind of gone away. And now you're just busy living the Christian life of reading your Bible, coming to church.
[35:12] Has God slacked on His calling? Or have you slacked on your busyness? In Matthew chapter 21, Jesus Christ told of two sons.
[35:29] Their father called both of his boys to work for him in his vineyard. And they had different reactions to the call. A certain man had two sons.
[35:41] He came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. But afterward, he repented and went.
[35:54] And he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir. And went not. And Christ then asked His audience, He said, Whether of them twain did the will of his father, or they say unto him, the first.
[36:11] Yeah. But He's the one that said, I go, no. I'm not listening to you. I'm not doing what you want. But He repented. And He went. You might know what it's like to ignore God's call.
[36:26] To get to work. Get busy. Do what I want you to do today. Do something for me. Stop wasting your time on your TVs and on your devices and on yourself.
[36:41] And do something for me with your life. You may know what it's like to ignore that call. Maybe it'll waste days or weeks or months, maybe years of your life just getting complacent toward what God's calling you to be.
[37:00] Falling into fleshly habits. But it's not too late today to wake up and to get back up and to get dressed in Jesus Christ and to get back to work.
[37:17] It's not too late today to repent and go. If you need to wake up, then let this message be a call to you.
[37:29] Let it be that alarm clock, that annoying alarm clock, the sound you hate the most in your flesh. But God is sending it to you because He cares about you, where you are, and He wants you to get back with Him.
[37:44] If this is a call to you, then answer the call that's sounding in your ear. But it's up to you to get up. It's up to you to exercise your free will and make that decision and obey the voice of God and say, I'm not staying here any longer.
[37:59] And may I warn you, the longer you stay with that old tube and that old man and that darkness and death, the worse it's going to get for you. The more you sow, the more you'll reap, you'll not get away with that one.
[38:14] My advice is, get up while He's calling. Get up today. Stop wasting another day, another week of your life, imagining it'll all align one day and it'll be easy for me.
[38:26] When God calls, Christian, get up. If you need to get dressed, maybe you need to do that. Cast off some of those dirty garments. Just cast off the works of darkness.
[38:39] It's not becoming of a child of God. Maybe you just need to get busy. We all do. We all have things to do for God.
[38:52] We all have lives to live for His glory. We all have things that work to accomplish in the field that can ultimately bring forth fruit that would be a pleasure to Him.
[39:04] The analogy that we're looking at here is it matches every day of our lives. Every day of our lives. Every morning we wake up and get up and get dressed and then get to it.
[39:19] And so, our Christian life should look much the same. The Bible says that our inward man is renewed day by day.
[39:32] Today. Tomorrow. The next day. You're going to have to wake up. You're going to have to get up and make a decision to serve God with this day.
[39:45] Day by day. Let's pray. Father, please use your words and please use these thoughts to help and to get the attention of some to perhaps convict or prick the conscience of others and may we be obedient to respond to your call and to your voice.
[40:08] God, there's nobody in here, not one of us in here that doesn't understand what it's like to fall into sin and to give in to the lust of our flesh and to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
[40:25] We know what it's like. I want to thank you for your faithful call to wake us up, to get us out of that fog of flesh and to call us to your side and to be reunited with your son in fellowship with him in the light.
[40:45] Thank you for the light. Thank you for a clean life. Thank you for power in your Holy Spirit. Lord, help your children.
[40:58] Help every single one of us. Give us courage. Give us strength. Help us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have come and they're here to pray and they talk to the Lord.
[41:12] I invite you. There's plenty of room for you. I invite you to come and talk over with God whatever it is that he laid on your heart, whatever he's calling you out of, whatever he's calling you to, you can surrender to it this morning.
[41:29] You can come and talk it over with him this morning. Remember the other week he said, my yoke is easy and my burden's light. He's not going to put anything on you.
[41:42] He's going to take something from you and he'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If he's calling, if that alarm is sounding in your heart, wake up and get up and talk it over with the Lord.
[41:57] Amen. Amen.