Night Is Far Spent; Day Is at Hand

Minister:
Date: PM (New Year's Eve)
Text: Romans 13:11,12
Psalters: 105, 80, 136, 274
  1. What time it is.
    1. The “time” refers to the particular season in which we are living (cf. 8:18; 9:9; 11:5).
      1. While non-believers use only calendars and cycles, believers “know” what time and history mean.
      2. We are in the time between our Savior’s first and second appearings.
      3. We know that we are living in the last period of earthly history.
    2. Our present time is characterized by “night” and “darkness.”
      1. God teaches us that unbelievers are “of darkness” (John 3:19; 8:12; Acts 26:16-18; Col. 1:13; I Peter 2:9; I John 2:8,9).
      2. Because God has given us light, we are strangers and pilgrims in this world.
        1. “Our salvation nearer” is better translated “nearer is of us the salvation” referring to objective salvation.
        2. Our full salvation will be realized when Jesus appears the second time.
  2. There is a powerful affect in the knowledge that Jesus appearing is soon: for it inspires us to holy living.
    1. We realize that we are able to live as those belonging to the day and no longer to the night.
      1. We follow Him Who is the light of the world, and we know that we are not to walk in darkness (John 8:12).
      2. We are enabled to see the inconsistency of still living as in darkness.
    2. It is “high time to awake out of sleep.”
      1. “High time” means that we are in an hour when we should be risen out of “sleep” (spiritual lethargy).
      2. We must shake ourselves awake and alert. When we nod off while reading, we must rouse ourselves and get fresh air.
    3. Then we are willing to “cast off the works of darkness” and to “put on the armor of life” (i.e., weapons of light).
      1. This is clothing given us by God Who is light.
      2. The weapons with which we fight are salvation, righteousness before God, peace, and truth.