Introduction to Romans 13:14

Introduction to the Sermon Series and Key Text

0:02 The following message was delivered on October 11, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. This is the first message in a series by Pastor Albert N. Martin on Romans chapter 13 and verse 14, entitled, Putting on Christ.

0:21 May I urge you please to turn in your Bibles with me to the 13th chapter of Paul's letter to the church at Rome, in the book of Romans, chapter 13, and follow as I read, beginning with verse 11, and conclude the reading at the end of that chapter, Romans 13, verses 11 through 14.

0:54 And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep, for now is salvation. In nearer to us than when we first believed, the night is far spent, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.

1:36 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Let us again unite in prayer, asking God by the Spirit to give us that ministry of His own illuminating presence, which we so desperately need as we come to the study of the Scriptures. Our Father, we have sung together. The longing of our hearts, that we may indeed discern your mind and will as contained in the Scriptures.

2:21 And we acknowledge afresh by this act of bowing our heads and our hearts in your presence, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps, and that apart from you we can do nothing. We therefore confess. This spiritual impotence, our native ignorance, the reality of prejudice and misconception that would keep us from understanding and obeying your word. And we pray that in grace and mercy, joined to power, that you will work in our minds and hearts, giving us light and understanding, sweeping away prejudice and misconceptions, and leading us into the way of truth and righteousness by the Spirit through the Word. Hear then this, our prayer, in the ministry of the Word this night. Amen.

The Magnifying Glass Text: Romans 13:14

3:33 A subject of perennial concern to the true people of God is that expressed in the question, How can I live a more consistent and holy life in the midst of a sinful world?

3:53 And in a very real sense, it would take the whole of the Bible to give the whole answer to that question. For we read in Matthew 4, 4, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Or in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. The clear teaching being that it takes the whole of the Bible to make a whole man.

4:35 And so as Christians wrestling with that question, How can I live a more consistent, and holy life in the midst of a sinful world? There is no simple key. There is no one principle which embodies the totality of the Bible's answer to that question. However, within the totality of the revelation of God in Scripture, there are some individual statements which take the general truth scattered far and wide, throughout the Scripture, and state them in a very concentrated form.

5:20 They act like the magnifying glass does upon the rays of the sun. If you were to go out on an ordinary sunny day, you would find the rays of the sun gently dispersed all around you. But if you take the magnifying glass, what you do is capture some of those rays, and by virtue of the, the peculiar properties of the magnifying glass, they are bent until they all come to a hot and burning focus. And with that magnifying glass you can start a fire, or as I once foolishly did, burn your skin.

5:58 I couldn't believe that it would take, I put my hand through the gentle rays and felt no heat, and the magnifying glass was cold, and I couldn't believe that it was really making that leaf smoke. So I was going to be smart, and put it to the test, so I took the magnifying glass, until it brought all the rays of the sun to a burning focus on my hand, and I said, ouch, and I probably have a scar somewhere to prove my folly. Well, I say, there are texts in the Bible which have that same, facility. They take truth scattered as it were by the gentle rays of divine light, all the way through the old and the new testaments, cu and they bring them to a very sharp and burning focus. And to understand and to live and to submit to the impress of such texts is in the true sense to have one of the keys to an understanding of the general teaching of the Word of God. Now Romans 13 and verse 14 is just such a text. One of those magnifying glass texts.

7:14 Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. And God willing, for the next few Lord's Day evenings, this text will form both the basis and the framework of our evening meditation. Now tonight, our reflection...

Recipients of the Command: God's Beloved Saints in Rome

7:39 our reflections upon this text will be merely introductory. We'll merely be spreading the tablecloth, putting the knife and fork and spoon and plate, and bringing in the main dish and setting it down and looking at it. Now we won't actually be chopping it up and masticating, swallowing, assimilating, but I trust you will see the wisdom of spending our initial meditation in this preparatory manner. And the first thing I want you to do, to understand with respect to this text, is who are the recipients of this word of direction.

8:19 To whom was the Apostle writing when he wrote these words, Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Well he was writing according to his own words in Romans 1, and verses 6 and 7, to a very distinct, a very specific class of people. Romans 1, verses 6 and 7.

8:50 Among whom are ye also called to be Jesus Christ, to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints, grace to you and peace. He's writing to a people who are described as beloved of God. The recipients of this word of direction are none other than God's peculiarly loved people. His elect and chosen ones.

9:26 And this designation, beloved of God, is peculiar to the people of God. And though the Bible clearly teaches that God has a general love for all of His creatures, not a mere benevolence, but a true and genuine love, He has a peculiar, a distinct love for those whom He has marked out to be His, and given to His own beloved Son, ere the world was ever framed. And so to be beloved of God is to have one of the peculiar designations of the people of God. And furthermore, we see in those opening words that this word of direction came not only to a people who are beloved of God, but to a people who are called ones. And the word called here does not mean merely designated, what shall I call you? But it has poured into it all of the richness of the biblical teaching of God's mighty work in actually bringing sinners out of the state of nature and into a state of grace. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son.

10:48 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 9. And to be designated as one of God's called ones is again a peculiar privilege of the true people of God. The word of the gospel is done more than glance off their ears. It is done more than sink into their minds and spirits to be the occasion of serious reflection.

11:14 The word of the gospel attended by the power of God has actually brought them out of darkness and into marvelous light. And then such people are called God's holy ones. His saints, those who are set apart, unto God in fellowship with His beloved Son. And so this text comes then to a people who are peculiarly loved of God, His elect ones, who have experienced the mighty power of God bringing them out of the state of nature and into a state of grace.

11:54 They have been set apart unto God. They are His holy ones. But wonder of wonders, they are all of this. In the midst of that bastion of paganism, they are the saints, the beloved, the called, who are in Rome.

12:17 And when we reflect upon what that indicates, something of the relevance of this text should come home to our hearts. Rome, the seat of that vast empire. Rome, the very bastion of paganism. A citadel of iniquity and of false religion where the emperor claimed allegiance from his subjects that did not stop short of religious homage.

12:49 You were to say that Caesar was Lord and to render unto him by way of confession and attitude that which belonged only unto God. And as paganism now, so then, with pagan thought and philosophy and religion were all of the vices of paganism at the level of ethical and moral standards. And there in the midst of that sea of paganism and ungodliness, God had a people pecuniarily loved of Him, effectually called into His fellowship, set apart unto Him, and set apart unto Himself through the power and grace of the Gospel. And as ordinary Christians there at Rome, experiencing the marvels of God's grace applied by the Spirit, they had to wrestle with the same things with which you and I wrestle as the beloved of God, His called ones, His saints, who live in the midst of our Rome, the modern New Jersey metropolitan area, which in many ways is the very bastion of paganism of the East Coast, the seat of iniquity and false religions, the center of commerce and people with their minds and hearts

14:19 steeped in greed, avarice, and the pursuit of carnal pleasures. And it is to just such a people, that Paul writes these words, Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Now why do I underscore that? Well, for the simple reason that according to Galatians 3 and verse 27, there is a putting on of the Lord Jesus that is identified with conversion.

14:56 There is a putting on of Christ that has to do with our emergence out of the world and into the fellowship of Christ and His people. But the apostle is not using the terminology in that way. He is writing to a people who have already put on Christ in conversion. He has described them as beloved of God, called in saints, who are living in the midst of Rome.

15:29 And I say that because there may be some here tonight who are not the called of God, who are not set apart unto God, who are not His holy ones. And you can never discover that you are an object of God's distinguishing, electing love until you obey the gospel. No man or woman, boy or girl, can know himself, continually beloved of God, until he first of all embraces the overtures of God's love and grace in the proclamation of the gospel. Paul can write to the Thessalonians and say, knowing brethren, beloved of God, your election, and how did he know it? He said, because our gospel came unto you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And so if you sit here tonight as one to whom the gospel has not come in power, you have not seen your sin and been driven out of that sin to the embrace of Christ as He's offered in the gospel. My friend, I appeal, I plead, I entreat in the name of Christ, join the ranks of the called.

General Setting: Romans' Doctrinal and Practical Structure

16:51 Join the ranks of the saints. Join the ranks of the beloved of God by embracing the Lord Jesus. But assuming that the vast majority of you are recipients of this word of direction because you are the called, the beloved, the holy ones of God, consider with me in the second place the general setting of this word of direction. Having briefly underscored who the recipients of this word are and were, now consider the general setting of this word of direction. Now most of you are aware, but not all of you, and I was struck with this just this past week in speaking with a new Christian about a very familiar incident in the Old Testament and I didn't see a look of recognition. And I asked this new Christian, I said, you're not familiar with the story of Jonah, are you? And they shook their head and said no.

17:57 Now we can assume too much and that was a real rebuke to me. And often in preaching I say, now all of you are aware of. Well I'm not going to say that, at least I'm going to try not to. Many of you are aware of, but some of you may not be aware of the fact that Paul's letter to the Romans manifests a very clear structure.

18:19 And that structure comes to a very decisive line of demarcation at the end of chapter 11 and the beginning of verse 12. Now the distinction is not artificial. You have heard it said that all doctrine is practical and all practical truth is rooted in doctrine. So that we can never think in terms of doctrine totally detached from practical implications or practical directions divorced from doctrine and so forth.

18:54 And so in the Bible it's not surprising in some of the richest doctrinal sections to find the most practical duties implied or explicitly enjoined and in some of the most practical passages of specific directive to find some of the richest doctrinal statements to be found anywhere in Scripture. So we're not talking about absolute distinctions but degree of density. Degree of density. And some passage, passages are more dense in their doctrinal teaching and less dense in practical.

19:31 Some more dense in the practical and less so with the doctrinal. Well the first 11 chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans is dense with doctrine. And the last four chapters, chapters 12 through 16, 12, 13, 14, 15, it's five chapters. I always make that mistake.

19:54 You never figure that out. 12 through 16 equals four and yet you've got five chapters 12 through 16. I can never get that straightened out in my head. It has bothered me for years.

20:04 But anyway, the last five chapters then, chapters 12 through 16 are dense with practical instruction and less dense in doctrinal orientation. And this text comes to us in this section of the epistle, that oozes, that throbs with practical directives for the people of God. And as Godet has very perceptibly pointed out, a French commentator, the practical instruction which begins in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, begins by reminding us that loving and believing response to the mercies of God forms the basis of all Christian living. Loving and believing response to the mercies of God forms the basis of all Christian living. I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God, the mercies unfolded in the first 11 chapters, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. Then in chapter 12, verse 3, all the way through chapter 13 and verse 10, we are instructed concerning the fact that the church and the state form the sphere in which we are to live under the supreme law of love

21:32 as the standard of the Christian life. If loving and believing response to the mercies of God is the basis of the Christian life, what is the sphere or are the spheres in which we live that life in the church and in society and we live it, in terms of God's immutable moral law, the sum total of which is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves? Then in chapter 13, verses 11 through 14, the passage read in your hearing, the apostle goes on to say that the eye of hope is to be fixed on the certainty of the coming of Christ as the spring of progress in the Christian life. The eye of hope is to be fixed upon the certainty of the coming of Christ as the spring of progress in the Christian life. And so in a real sense, you have that trilogy of those great graces, faith, hope, and love, forming the framework of the practical instruction of this passage. And our text, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, comes as the climactic statement of this section,

Immediate Context: Warnings Against Works of Darkness

23:01 verses 11 to 14, in which the Christian is urged not only to live the Christian life contemplating the mercies of God and in loving, believing response to those mercies, he is not only to live the life of the Christian responsibly working out his obligations of love in society, in church, and in the society in which God has placed him, but he is always to have his eye fixed upon the consummation of all things, recognizing that the day of salvation, final salvation, is drawing near. Now then, let's press on to consider the immediate context of this word of direction. You see what we're doing? We're coming in closer and closer to our plate with the food on it. Having contemplated briefly the recipients of this word of direction, the general setting of it now, look at the immediate context of this word of direction.

24:10 The apostle says in verse 11 that the time of your salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And in the light of that, he says, we must cast off all of the attitudes and practices that form part of what we might call the night life of the unconverted. Now I'm not speaking of night life in terms of the clock from nine o'clock onward, but the apostle here uses an extended imagery and indicates that the works of sin are works of night and of the darkness. And because we are children of the day and of the light awaiting that breaking forth of the glorious eternal day at the return of Christ, he says, be done with everything pertaining to the night life of the unconverted. Let us cast off the works of darkness. Put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day.

25:22 And then he specifies three distinct categories of the night life of the unconverted to which the people of God themselves are prone, they are exposed, and before which they can even fall. And the structure in the original makes it very evident that he is setting forth three couplets. Look at them. Verse 13.

25:54 Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and wantonness. A better translation would be not in excessive feasting and drunkenness. Excessive feasting and drunkenness. The sins of overindulgence of food and overindulgence of drink.

26:29 The second couplet, literally, not bedding down and sensuality. The word in the Greek is the word used for bed, then becomes a euphemism for the marriage bed, and then becomes an intensified euphemism for the abuse of the marriage bed. A present day rendering would be not bedding down and indulging in sensuality of any kind. And then the third couplet is not in quarreling and jealousy.

27:06 These evils of interpersonal relationships, attitudes, dispositions, and actions. And so the context of verse 14 is this general call to the sons of the day and of the light to live in a manner consistent with what they are. And in particular, he says, our walk must become what we are as children of the day and of the light. That means we must not be marked by excessive feasting and drunkenness, by bedding down and other forms of sensuality, and by quarreling, and by jealousy. And it's in the context of specifying these aggravated manifestations of the flesh that our text comes, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Now why have I taken the time to show you something of the pressure of the immediate context upon our text? Well, for the simple reason that it is this very connection which has played no little part

Pastoral Realism: Why Believers Need These Warnings

28:33 in my selection of this text. Some would question the Apostle's judgment in warning Christians about the sins of gluttony, drunkenness, sexual vice and jealousy and strife. Paul, aren't you speaking to those who are God's hagios, his holy ones? Have they not been called out of darkness and into marvelous light?

29:01 Have you not written in this very epistle, as many of us have been baptized into Christ, were baptized into his death, we have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall be like him in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him? Didn't this same Apostle say that sin shall not have dominion over you? Why is he now writing to such a people saying, don't be overcome by sins of gluttony and drunkenness, promiscuous bedding down in other forms of sensuality, by jealousy and by envy? Well, for the simple reason that Paul was a pastoral realist. He was a pastoral realist. And in being a pastoral realist, he was like his Lord. There is a striking parallel between this text and our Lord's words in Luke 21 and verse 34.

30:09 The context is our Lord's teaching about his return, both in judgment upon the nation of Israel in its destruction, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and then the ultimate destruction of the ungodly at the second coming. Notice our Lord's warning in Luke 21, 34, but take heed to yourselves, speaking to his disciples, lest happily your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, banqueting, gluttony, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life.

30:50 Please turn this cassette over to continue the message. Thank you. You mean Peter, Andrew, James, John, Bartholomew, Thomas, Thaddeus? You mean they were liable to gluttony and such a preoccupation with the cares of this life that the day would overtake them?

31:26 Well, if they weren't, Jesus was wasting his breath. No, no, our Lord was a pastoral realist, and so was the Apostle Paul. Realizing that though he was addressing himself to the holy ones, the called ones, the beloved of God, there were two great realities that he never forgot. They were in Rome and they were still in the flesh.

31:54 And anyone who is yet in the flesh with remaining corruption and who lives in a peculiarly vile and lawless society is prone to those very sins into which that society is sunk. Because his remaining corruption has a positive polarity for the negative polarity of the influence of that society. And there is that constant magnetism seeking to draw and pull. That's why in the opening exhortation of chapter 1 he said, Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.

32:33 It is exerting its influence relentlessly, continuously, and alas, too often powerfully and in some cases efficaciously upon the people of God. And it is my pastoral realism which has moved me to select this text. In fact I think I know you well enough and you know me well enough that I can say this without it appearing saccharine or hyper-spiritual. This text came to me on my knees two weeks ago as I was praying for you people and praying for specific members of the church who had bared their hearts to me and other elders with respect to sins with which they were wrestling. And as I was praying for some of you by name and praying for many of you in a more general sense pleading that as we live in the society in which these very sins predominate that some of you would come to a level of liberation you've never known before and that others would be preserved. This text came with such force to my own mind that seldom happens to me. And I grabbed my Greek testament while I was there on my knees and began to examine it and felt something of the grip

34:03 of this text because there are some of you who have bared your hearts acknowledging that you are finding the pull and the pressure of gluttony and drunkenness excesses of food and alcohol too much for you. And others who have acknowledged that there has been illicit bedding down and other forms of sensuality dabbling in dalliance with pornography and similar sins. And others who have acknowledged the vicious crippling power of jealousy and envy in your hearts. Oh, but you say, Pastor Martin, don't you know that this message by tape will go out all over the world?

34:47 What will happen if people find out that there are folk at Trinity who have problems like that? Won't that ruin the reputation of the church? Well, apparently, Paul didn't think it would ruin the reputation of the Roman church. He was writing to real saints in a real place.

35:07 Now these sins do not go unanswered. They go unchecked, openly and scandalously indulged in, in our assembly. If any one of these sins becomes a matter of common knowledge, it will become the very specific focal point of formal church discipline. It would be scandalous if these sins were allowed to go unchecked.

35:34 And those who committed them undisciplined but know I'm talking about the pastoral realism, knowing that there are some of you sitting here tonight, and I'm deliberately at this point looking down at my desk, lest anyone should say, well, he was looking over there, I wonder if it's so and so. No, no. I'm deliberately keeping my eyes right here now, something I don't like to do. But there are sitting here tonight people struggling and wrestling with gluttony, with drunkenness, with sensuality, with envy, and with strife.

36:10 And I've got a sneaking suspicion that not everyone who's struggling has come and talked to one of his elders. I've got enough pastoral realism to believe that the cases we know about are probably just the tip of the iceberg. You don't have a very high opinion of us, Pastor. You don't know how high my opinion is of you.

36:35 I just don't have a very high opinion of our Rome or of your flesh. So you see how relevant is the immediate setting of this passage? The words put on the Lord Jesus Christ do not come after a commendation of a people flourishing in grace. They come after a sober warning that the people of God avoid these three categories of sin, gluttony and drunkenness, sexual vice, envy and jealousy.

Structure of the Text: Two Distinct and Ordered Imperatives

37:19 Now then, having considered who the recipients of this text are, the general setting, the immediate context, now look carefully with me at the obvious structure of the text. The structure is very clear. You don't need to know a word of Greek. And I think it's just as clear in the old authorized version of 1611 as it is in the most racy modern version if it's true to the text.

37:46 It may not be. That's one of the problems with the racy modern versions. The structure should be evident to all of us. Look at it.

37:55 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, precept number one, and coordinating conjunction, joining things of equal value, make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. So we have in the obvious structure of the text two imperatives. One positive, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

38:27 One negative, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Now what I want you to notice with me tonight is three things about this structure. And if God will be pleased to make us feel something of the pressure of these things, I believe under God we'll be prepared to dig into the text itself next Lord's Day evening. Notice first of all the distinctiveness of each part.

38:56 Now the apostle could have used a construction which would have made the last part of the verse subordinate to the first. He could have written in Greek in such a way that we would have to translate it like this. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, thereby making no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. As though there were one duty, namely put on Christ, and in so doing the non-provision for the flesh will automatically take care of itself.

39:35 Now there are some who hold a view of the Christian life who would teach that that's what a verse like this ought to say. And even when they're preaching on it they'll make it say it though the grammar won't permit it. There is in this text a distinction between the two imperatives. One imperative has to do with a putting on with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.

40:01 Put on literally for yourselves, the middle voice, put on for yourselves the Lord Jesus Christ. That's one distinct Christian duty, privilege, and responsibility. But then there is another distinct Christian privilege, duty, and responsibility and it is this. Do not make provision for the flesh unto its lust.

40:28 Or you'll notice you have italics to fill in and make it smoother English to fulfill the lusts thereof. Two distinct duties each demanding its own consideration and its peculiar spiritual action. Now then notice in the second place in the structure of the text the order that exists between these two. Not only the separateness but the order.

40:57 Now sometimes the order in which things are set before us in life and in the Bible for the Bible is the book of God in the language of men. The order may be purely arbitrary. The arrangement may be simply born of necessity in that we can't dump everything at once. For instance, one of you kids.

41:19 Mom may call you in and say, Honey, will you go to the store please and get me five pounds of potatoes, two quarts of milk, and a bag of onions. Well there's no significance in the order in which she mentioned those. She couldn't say, Will you go to the store and get some . You say, Get what, Mom?

41:38 And you had a contraction, you see, of onions, a bag of onions, potatoes, and milk all mixed up together. No, you have to separate those things into their individual units of words to convey it. And there may be no significance whatsoever. Now sometimes the Bible will lay upon us responsibilities in a given order and we know by comparison and comparing Scripture with Scripture that there is no significance or great significance in that order because we'll find the same things reversed in another passage.

42:11 But let me suggest that in this passage there is a rationale for the order that exists as those two duties relate to one another. As the Apostle thinks of the saints of God at Rome living in the midst of all forms of excess, gluttony and drunkenness, everyone betting around, and all kinds of sexual vice, people giving vent to envy and jealousy and bitterness and all of their unholy fruits in interpersonal relationships, in society, and even liable to these sins in the church, he writes and says, Oh, as I call upon you to walk in a manner befitting the sons of the day and of the light, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision. And there is significance in the order in which He set those things before them. You see, apart from the perspectives derived from putting on the Lord Jesus and all that that entails, filling the mind and heart with the realities of our relationship to Him, drawing by faith upon the glorious privileges that are ours by virtue of that relationship,

43:35 having the heart continually suffused with motives that grow out of the glory of His work, His grace, our relationship to Him, apart from putting on the Lord Jesus, you will have neither motivation nor strength to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. There is significance in that order. But, and oh listen to me, it is not enough to fill the mind and the spirit with all of the glorious realities that make up this putting on the Lord Jesus if it is not followed by a decided, determined, calculated effort to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. As surely as the former is essential to the latter, the latter is essential to follow through and extend the former. And it is a tragic thing as a pastor to see people making so little progress in dealing with some of these grosser manifestations of the flesh because they are trying desperately setting up all kinds of rules and regulations to box up the avenues into fleshly indulgence.

45:04 They are really working at the matter of making no provision for the flesh. But Christ is pitifully absent in the whole process. And so there is a hardness, there is a Pharisaic negativism about the whole process and often there is a cold, steely-like legalism in the whole process. They have not soberly considered the divine order.

45:32 Put on the Lord Jesus Christ! And then make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. But then as a pastor, I have often seen people who are desperately seeking to use all of the means by which Christ can become precious. They are having their devotions.

45:54 They seek to set Christ before them in the public ministries, in coming to the Lord's table. And they seem to have moments when their hearts are ravished with the sight of Christ. And they feel, I could never again indulge my gluttony, be guilty of excessive drinking. I could never again fall before that sin of sensuality or be crippled by the demeaning sins of envy and jealousy.

46:26 But alas, they are not long away from the Lord's table when they go right back into those sins. Why? Because they have forgotten that it is not enough to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. That must be followed by making no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

The Inseparability of the Two Imperatives

46:46 So there are not only distinct mandates in this text. There is an order. And then I've already more than hinted at the third thing. And these things overlap.

46:56 The inseparability of these two things. We dare not separate what God has joined, not only in marriage, but in divine truth. What God has joined together let not man put asunder. And God has joined in this text for the saints at Rome, living in the midst of that sea of ungodliness.

47:18 He has joined these two things, putting on Christ, making no provision. And if we do not join what God has joined, we can only be crippled in our spiritual experience. Now why do I emphasize this? Well, again, for the simple reason that because of our temperament, because of our background, because of the influences that have been brought to bear upon us in our exposure to religious instruction, and perhaps a host of other influences, all of us tend to gravitate to one of these dimensions of responsibility at the expense of the other.

47:59 And some who are of a more mystical temperament will tend to gravitate to the first mandate. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. They are of the more contemplative, reflective cast of mind. And so to think upon Christ and His work for them, His agony in Gethsemane and upon the cross, to think of themselves as united to Him, represented by Him, to see themselves as crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him, it is a source of delight for them to contemplate these great gospel mysteries.

48:41 They are of the more reflective, contemplative temperament. And the things connected with putting on the Lord Jesus Christ come more natural to them. But they're hopelessly impractical. They never put their car keys in the same place two days in a row.

48:57 And every time they want to go out and get into the car, they're like a chicken with its head cut off and half its feathers plucked out. They say, I want my keys. I want my keys. I want my keys.

49:08 I'll put them over here. They're just not, they don't think ahead. Their head's in the clouds. I think the kids have a name for a person like that.

49:15 You call them an airhead, don't you? Head's up in the clouds, see? Now would to God, and I say that seriously, would to God that when we got converted, God changed our basic temperaments so that immediately you always put your keys in the same place when you come in from parking the car. No, you don't.

49:35 You carry that basic cast of temperament into your new life. Now do you see how important it is to see that these things are inseparable? And if you're one who is natively more contemplative and reflective, you've got to come to this text and say, Lord, you've joined to putting on Christ. Make no provision for the flesh.

49:56 And I must sit down and start doing some honest self-evaluation. What have been the steps that have left me vulnerable to excesses in appetite and drink? What are the avenues that have left me vulnerable to sexual sins of one kind or another? What are the relationships and circumstances that leave me more vulnerable to jealousy and envy and kindred sins?

50:23 Lord, help me to analyze. Help me to see the patterns. Help me to box up my way. Help me to make no provision.

50:32 And my friend, you can pray and fast-fry. You can pray and fast for a hundred years. But if you don't start doing what the last half of the text says, you won't make progress. God is not going to bend His directives to your temperament.

50:51 You've got to bend your temperament to His directives. And you've got to do it on for yourself, the Lord Jesus. And you must make no provision. You say and pray that the Lord will do it.

51:09 He's saying you've got to do it. And on the other hand, there's some of you, in fact, your wife probably wishes you just misplaced the keys once. You are so terribly disciplined and structured, it's sickening. Everything's always in its place.

51:29 You're one of these who won't die until you have your slippers lined up 90 degrees to the edge of your bed. That's right. Everything in you is structured. You always think ahead.

51:45 Your calendar, you've got everything mapped out for the entire year. Everything. That's the way you were put together, the way you were trained. And you come to a text like this and you say, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

51:57 That sounds hopelessly mystical. I mean, that's for the thinkers. That's for the meditators. But make no provision.

52:04 Ah, that's the part for me. I'm going to sit down and map out how it was that I was vulnerable. And you, oh, my friend, listen. Don't you skip over the first part because you're of a more structured and disciplined temperament.

52:17 Notice the inseparability of these two things. Now, do you think there was the full range of human temperament in the church at Rome? Sure there was. You had the hot-blooded character.

52:31 You had the sanguine guy. You had those elders who, when they preached, jumped around and hollered and shouted and had their jugular veins stand out. Then you had the more quiet ones. You had the whole bunch there as you have here.

52:47 You had in the congregation the full spectrum of temperament and personality, trait, and all of the rest. But Paul does not write under the inspiration of the Spirit and say, Ah, here is the directive for the sanguine ones, and here is the directive for the melancholics, and here is the directive for the...

53:07 No, no, no. He says to all the saints, all the beloved of God, all the callers, all the called, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Oh, my dear people, my brothers and sisters in Christ, do you really want to make progress in putting to death some of those sins that have been with you, alas, all too long? Then perhaps God would be pleased if together we pray and cry to Him for the help of the Spirit to take our studies in this text, a text, which, as I said, at the beginning was like the magnifying glass, takes many of the rays of divine light with regard to the Christian life and brings them all together and to a burning focal point put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. This same apostle clearly taught that no man or woman, boy or girl, has any biblical grounds to claim himself a Christian if he continues in any one of these sins. Those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom

54:36 of God. But the same apostle recognized that the best of saints could fall before any one of these sins. It's not the devil who wrote the chapter of Noah's drunkenness, of David's adultery, of Peter's denial. God the Holy Ghost gave us that record, not to imitate their sins, but to give additional motivation to us to recognize the necessity of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and of making no provision for the world.

Christ as Our Standard and Call to Progress

55:15 Now, if you're not a Christian, you've sat here tonight and said, what in the world is that preacher getting all excited about? I mean, I know these people here, and they're pretty straight-laced people. They live pretty clean, upright lives. You see, my friend, you don't know us. You don't know us on two fronts. First of all, you don't know the amount of sin that lurks in our hearts. And secondly, you don't know how high a standard we have, because God has laid that standard upon us. Nothing less than the absolute perfection of His holy law reflected in His own dear Son. And he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to walk, even as he walked. The blessed Lord

56:11 Jesus, who when He was at a feasting time, ate to the full and drank moderately to the full, so much that they called Him glutton and wine-bibbler, He was never guilty of one mouthful of excess in food or drink. Not one. If He had been, I would have no Savior. Nor would you. Think of it. That one or two mouthfuls between receiving food as a gift of God and being guilty of gluttony, had Jesus crossed the line, you and I would have no Savior.

56:55 One or two swigs, beyond that which was legitimate, to receive the wine at that marriage feast as a gift from God, would have constituted Him a sinner. So you see, the answer is not asceticism that says, I'll not eat, or necessarily a teetotaler, though in some cases that may be the part of wisdom, and in many cases, increasingly, I'm convinced it will be. But you see, the point is, as a Christian, Christ is our standard. A true man eating real food, drinking real drink, with all the normal appetites of a true man and yet, He was wholly harmless, undefiled! You see, my unconverted friend, you don't understand us. We're not content simply to live a few notches above the rest of our sin-stoked society. We want to be like our Savior. We want to be like Him not only in our

58:04 external context, but also in the external context. We want to be like Him not only in our spiritual context, but also in our spiritual but notice he said envy and jealousy in our internal dispositions as well.

58:14 And so for you, the people of God, I trust that this word has come more than anything else whetting your appetites for this text. Will you not cry to God with me that God will give me wisdom in opening it up to know how much, to flush it out in particulars, and then that God will come and visit us and give us such days of his presence as we sit, as it were, in this rich, lush field of biblical truth and nibble a while that the result will be that some of you, some of us, will make progress in grace in areas that hitherto have not yielded to the ordinary means of grace and that God will give us a season of blessed liberation purification and advancement in grace. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful that we have your word as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway.

59:29 We thank you for the full spectrum of your revealed mind and will in the scriptures. We thank you especially tonight for those passages which give us such a rich distillation of the general truth of the word and stated in such a way that with all of our feebleness of mind and tendency to forgetfulness, the truth sticks and grips and has hooks and barbs in it. We thank you for this text that we've begun to examine tonight and oh God, by the Holy Spirit, teach us what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach us what it means to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof and then having taught us, give us power to do what you command. We cry, oh Lord, with your servant of old, command what you will and then, oh God, give what you command. This is our prayer tonight and for those who, in the midst of their spiritual blindness, have no appetite to be like your Son, may some word spoken tonight fasten itself upon their consciences

60:55 and give them no rest until they too are put into the way of your saints, your called ones, your beloved ones. Hear then our prayer, seal the word to our hearts and for your presence with us, on this your day, we give you our heartfelt thanks and plead that we who name your name may walk in our Rome this week as sons of the light and daughters of the light, sons and daughters of the day. Oh God, we thank you that our final redemption is one Lord's day nearer. We bless you. We praise you and we cry from our hearts, even so come Lord Jesus. Amen.