The Armor of Light

The last part of what Jim already read to us, Romans 13, 13, and 14. Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not unraveling in drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its blood. One of his novels, the way it was in France, just before the outbreak of World War II, the signs of impending crisis were all over the place.

Anybody could see this. Anybody with half a mind already knew, if he just looked around and read the newspapers or whatever, that the serenity of those summer days was an illusion. Everybody went right on living as if that golden hour would last forever.

And they looked away from the storm clouds. Then suddenly the storm hit. And it's no more lying on the beach, looking up into the summer sky, idling away the time, spending lovely carefree afternoons in the park.

Now suddenly it's occupying army, tanks, guns, labor camps, cold, hunger, danger. And for millions of people it just happened like that. Today, again, we can see the storm clouds, if we want to.

We can hear the rumble of the thunder getting closer. And the people who are supposed to have some control over what's going on know in their hearts that something's happening now which is out of their control. They're like the officers on the ship that keep assuring the passengers that everything's fine when they already know the ship is.

And believers who have any sense of God working in history, who have even a half an ear left to be able to hear the voice of the Spirit, can see that divine judgment on a worldwide scale is no longer something we merely talk about in Bible studies. It's something we are now about to live through. Knowing this, as we see the structures of this world crack and crumble before our eyes, and the prophecies of final judgment unfolding before our eyes, we have to decide how we are going to live during these days.

We have three choices. First, we can live the way the Frenchmen did and others in Europe in the summer of 39. You know, we can just go on making the most of each golden day until the golden days end.

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. Or, we can start making provision for the flesh so that we can fulfill its lusts just a little bit longer. Knowing that there's going to be an energy or fuel crisis, we can start hoarding it up somehow.

Having the knowledge that it's quite likely there's going to be a depression, we can start taking appropriate action. We can hoard groceries in our basements. We can dig bomb shelters in our backyards.

And all the while we think we're licking this uncertain future, we have already succumbed. We've sold our souls to the demon of fear. Suppose you have enough wood stored in your garage to keep your house warm for the season.

Suppose you have a tank with a thousand gallons of gasoline in it somewhere. Suppose you have a cottage up north with everything you need to last you, to keep you going for two years. The very fact that you're living this way and thinking this way indicates that you have already lost your mind.

There's a third way in which we can live these few, and I believe they are few, remaining days of peace and plenty. We can put on, as Paul tells us, the armor of life. If we're going to talk about survival, we better be talking about something more than just physical survival.

What's the point of coming through the storm with our bodies in one piece, when in the process our minds and spirits are wrecked, twisted all out of shape, by fear, hate, adultery, fornication, any other kind of perversity, drunkenness, murder? You think, well, I'm never capable of those things. Don't kid yourself. The real dangers in the days that lie ahead of us, believe me, are not starvation and violence, though they will exist too, I believe.

They'll be happening for sure, but the real danger will be forms of spiritual corruption which are utterly beyond our grasp. You know, this world has never seen such things as what is coming. What's the point of having food and fuel stored neatly in your basement, if your mind is wide open to every delusion the evil one wants to send your way? You know, prepare indeed for the days that are coming, but for goodness sake, don't arm yourself for the coming days with guns and ammunition and money and food and gasoline and think you're ready.

Rather, arm yourself in light, so that no matter how chaotic, alarming, or confusing things become, you will be able to continue walking in the will of God. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

But that day which is at hand is not going to look like day for a while yet. As a matter of fact, you know, the more God pours out his light on his people, the more he causes his glory to rise upon them, the more darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the people of the earth. We see, for instance, in Revelation, when the Lamb breaks the seven seals and the seven prophets are blown.

In other words, when God begins to spread out with the light of divine judgment all over the earth, darkness rises up against that light in the form of a hideous trinity of evil in the dragon and the beast and the false prophet. And by that time, the minds of the people of this earth are so deluded that they see this grotesque Godhead, false Godhead, as something beautiful and deserving of worship. And it says, men worship the dragon who had given his authority to the beast.

And they worship the beast, saying, who is like the beast and who can fight against it? Might as well worship it. Now, these people had ample time to worship the true and living God, who had given his glory and his authority to his sons. See, but this didn't interest them.

The true and living God, who cares? But when the prince of this world comes along and discloses himself in all his hideous strength, they bow down. And that's what it means when it says, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people. We've had taste of this in the past, but more is coming.

And at the very time that the darkness sweeps over the earth in these things, the people of God recognize the lateness of the hour. These are signs of the dawn for them. Seeing with the eyes of the Spirit these deadly things that will be going on before your eyes and mine will be the signal to us that the day is about to dawn.

The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

And the time to put on the armor of light is not when you get near the end of the tunnel and you see the light shining. The time to put on the armor of light is when you're still going through that tunnel and it's getting darker and darker and darker. In today's epistle, Paul tells us what's involved in putting on the armor of light.

Several things. First, putting on the armor of light, first of all, is a thing of the mind. For now it is high time to awake out of sleep.

To make our minds face reality. No longer allow them the luxury, or whatever you want to call it, of escaping into dreams and delusions. No longer allow our minds to run back into the past, to escape the present.

Because the past isn't there anymore. It's not real. Besides that, the past is not what you keep telling yourself it was.

It's very different. Or to escape into an unreal future. Or to escape into dreams right now in the present.

The Spirit says, wake up and see things as they are. If you really want to face reality, God will open your eyes and enable you to see reality as it is. And we begin by facing reality concerning ourselves.

You know, you're not, and I'm not, we're not the big shots we like to think we are. Whoever we are. And our fellowship, whether it's this one or some other, is not the big shot fellowship we like to think it is.

Big or little. At very, very best, you and I are nothing but unworthy, unprofitable servants, doing our duties. And at very best, our fellowship, at very best, are just an infinitesimal part of what the Spirit of God is unfolding on the earth at this hour.

The only big one on earth is Jesus himself. And the only way you know him and walk with him is to get under his yoke and learn from him to be meek and lowly of heart. Wake up, says the Spirit to us.

Push these delusions of grandeur out of your so-called normal mind. And see the lines of battle being drawn up already for the final battle. Secondly, putting on the armor of light is a thing of daily living.

It involves daily casting off the works of darkness, and we know what they are pretty much. And living as men and women who know themselves to be under a light that sees all. Transparent.

And Paul enumerates this, you know. First of all, that means no pretenses. No, no Christian faith that we put on in front of brothers and sisters.

In that Christian voice. In that Christian language we even use. No wonder this man never comes into the kingdom of God.

His wife is a red-hot believer. And she's moping around the house, and she's griping about this, and she's not doing what she should be doing. And he knows it, and she knows it.

And the phone rings. Praise the Lord, sister! Hallelujah! You know, then she hangs up again, and goes right back into the old routine. Secondly, Paul tells us, you know, not in reveling in drunkenness.

Not in debauchery and licentiousness. In other words, as Phillips translates it, or paraphrases it, you know. No more getting drunk, and no more playing with sex.

No more indulging ourselves in any way that turns us into slobs. That's out for us. Now.

No, not when the comet gets big at the end of whatever it is. December. But now.

And finally. No more quarreling and jealousy. How much energy is consumed inside the body among brothers and sisters as they envy each other.

You know, and boil. And seethe with rage against each other. And jealousy.

We are now to live as men and women who know that we are living under a light that is nothing. Constant daylight. Who are we trying to fool? You know, we say the light is going to come on.

And finally. Putting on the armor of light is a thing of spirit. By faith.

Our spirit puts on Christ. By faith we look up and see the glory which stands above all this darkness. And we receive it into our minds and spirits and we welcome it into our hearts.

Jesus, fill us with your spirit. Flood us with your life. And that prayer is answered.

Always it is answered. Give us a prayer if it's meant. And the spirit comes and he keeps coming.

And he fills us. And he dwells in us. And he rules us.

And he guides us. And he continues to guide us. On and on.

As long as we obey him. And go where he leads. Shine.

For your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth.

And grow darkness to people. But the Lord shall arise upon you. And his glory shall be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to your light. And kings to the brightness of your rising. The ones who are going to survive the coming days are not those who have their basements full of hands and canned heat.

But those whose bodies, minds, and spirits are wrapped in light. The same light that shone in Bethlehem. That opened the eyes of the blind.

That bled and died on Calvary. That rose the third day. The same light that will very soon be causing presidents and kings, prime ministers and all the rest, to be clawing the earth.

Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day. Not in reveling in drunkenness. Not in debauchery and licentiousness.

Not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, O Spirit of God, we ask that you see what hour this is. And deliver us, O Spirit of the living God, from slumber and from false panic.

Impart to us the wisdom of heaven that we may so number the days we now live in that Jesus himself may prove indeed to be our Lord. That we may have a gospel for this world that is waiting to hear it. That we may have light for those who seek it.

And that we may have strength to walk right through all the things that are coming and still keep praising the living God. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.