The imminent return of Jesus Christ serves as a powerful incentive for believers to live a sanctified and godly life, casting off the works of darkness. The sermon emphasizes that the blessed hope of salvation is intrinsically linked to a holy walk, urging believers to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. It highlights that love for one another and honest conduct toward outsiders are hallmarks of those who walk in the light. Ultimately, the message calls for a conscious and immediate decision to reckon oneself dead to sin and alive to God, yielding to the Holy Spirit's filling to live a life that honors Christ.
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We have considered the question of believers asleep in the dark, and we spoke about it being high time to awake out of sleep. Then we went on to speak of that which is our blessed hope. Our salvation now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. We spoke of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our joy in seeing Him. It's been interesting to me to see how often in the Scriptures the coming of the Lord Jesus is coupled with practical exhortation concerning a godly walk on the part of those who wait and love for the brethren and for the world outside.
I'd like to read in First Thessalonians chapter four, that wonderful chapter, the key chapter, if you might say, concerning the parousia, the rapture. First Thessalonians four. For the sake of time, I'm going to mention, rather than read the chapter, mention certain items in the chapter. First Thessalonians four. It starts out by saying, you have received of us. how you ought to walk and to please God. It starts out with the God-pleasing walk. And it goes on in the third verse, this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
To walk and to please God. The will of God is your sanctification. And again, in verse seven, God has not called us to uncleanness but unto holiness. He therefore that despises not man but God who also hath given to us his Holy Spirit. In chapter three at verse twelve we read, The Lord makes you to increase and abound in love one toward another. Those who walk in light are characterized by their love of the brethren and their love of one another. And that is verse twelve of chapter three.
And then in verse nine of chapter four, as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, but ye yourselves are taught of God through love one another. Indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia. But we beseech your brethren, ye increase more and more. And then in the twelfth verse, that ye may walk honestly toward them that are outside or that are without, that ye may have lack of nothing. And then comes the wonderful exposition of that revealed secret, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for his own peace. And in the first chapter of the Thessalonians, we have the serving and waiting.
First Thessalonians one, verse three, your work of faith, your labor of love, and patience of hope. The work and the labor is coupled with the patience of hope. In verse nine, how he turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come. The blessed hope is a sanctifying hope. We live in a time when the coming of the Lord Jesus draws near. This should have a positive effect on our daily lives.
The Lord may come at any time. In Titus two, those well-known verses, many of us quote with great joy, concerning the fact that the grace of the Lord sent salvation to us, you know the grace, let me get the start from the scriptures. Titus chapter two. The grace of God that bringeth salvation, like the good Samaritan who came where he was and gave succor to him, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a people for a possession, a peculiar people zealous of good works.
The blessed hope is coupled with the godly walk. The two go together, and in preparation in waiting for the Lord Jesus, We would walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time for the days are evil. And in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, the chapter of resurrection that terminates with the wonderful news and the wonderful information concerning the coming of the Lord and the rapture. And we read this in the thirty-fourth verse of the First Corinthians epistle. Awake to righteousness and sin not. And then, behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. I was noticing this morning in First John something very similar to this. It is a joy to see these passages that are linked together, passages concerning the walk of the believer and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is your salvation nearer than when you believe, at any time the Lord Jesus may come. First John chapter two, twenty-eight. Little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. And then in chapter three, verse two, Beloved, now are we the sons of God.
It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, that's the coming of the Lord Jesus, we shall be like him. The whole creation groaneth in travail and pain until now, waiting for the adoption that is the redemption of the body. We ourselves are waiting for this. And when we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, the expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Now Romans chapter thirteen, the portion that we are considering in these days. I'm going to read the complete portion from verse eight through fourteen.
Notice that the two verses we have been considering are sort of sandwiched in between verses that have to do with the Christian walk, the walk of the believer. Verse eight, Oh, no man anything, but to love one another. Notice the love again, the love coupled with the godly walk or as an expression of it. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying, Namely, thou shalt love. Love thy neighbor as I shall. Love worketh no ill to its neighbor.
Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. We have love again coupled with the godly walk. and that knowing the time now, it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe the night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. And again to the Christian walk. Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in immorality and wantonness. not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.
And so we have here the definite... injunction, following a part in the chapter that has subjection to the higher powers and being careful regarding paying to those to whom we owe, custom to whom custom and so on, tribute to whom tribute, and then the personal walk in honesty in our relations, not to defraud one another, but to not to owe one another, but to pay our obligations, and then these moral issues that are involved, and the final words make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And the coming of the Lord is the present incentive to a godly walk.
We could grasp it in our minds and practice it in our lives. We would go away from the conference that are Christians walking closer to the Lord. The coming of the Lord is coupled in the scriptures with the godly walk. It says... Now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore, because of the coming of the Lord, because the Lord is near at hand. The glow of the sunrise is in the sky and the darkness is almost past. Let us cast off the works of darkness. Therefore, because the Lord is coming, because of the imminence of this tremendous event, the Lord's return and the translation of the saints, we're going to know more of His great salvation than when we believe.
We have new bodies that are free from sin and suffering. Because the time is near when we're going to give account to our Lord at His bema, at the judgment seat of Christ, as to the use of these bodies. Very soon we're going to stand before him and tell him, give him our report as to how we've lived our lives and used our time and those things he has given us as his stewards. In another connection in Peter, Second Peter three. When the apostle is speaking about the dissolving of the world and the physical elements, he said, Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all conversation, in all manner of life, living and godly?
It is quite appropriate in these verses that the coming of the Lord Jesus and the revelation of that full salvation which was obtained by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross purchased for us with his own precious blood. The fact of his coming should be coupled with the injunction to cast off the works of darkness. What are the works of darkness? We don't need to go into details or several instances in which these are enumerated in the scriptures and in this passage we're considering there are quite a number of them as well. In Ephesians chapter five verses one to seventeen we have them listed.
I don't know that our time is going to permit us to read these but I'll just mention one or two things in connection with. In Ephesians five one to seventeen we have again the thought of love coupled together with the injunctions through godly living. And this remark, where we are to have no fellowship with the unprovable works of darkness, but rather to reprove them. I'm sorry, I think we should perhaps read the portion because it is important. Ephesians chapter five, and we'll read part of it at least. Verse two, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.
for a sweet-smelling savor. And then come these definite references to immorality and ungodliness and covetousness and filthiness and other things right on through. And the verse eight fits into our portion concerning a forbidden fellowship. You were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. And verse eleven says, 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 in secret. All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light and whatever doth make manifest in his light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time for the days are evil. I'd like to mention that here and in Galatians five, you know that passage well, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. And in these we have various things mentioned, and some of them are very embarrassing to read in public, perhaps less embarrassing now when the vocabulary has included words that in my infancy, my childhood, my boyhood, were not current in mixed groups.
But now in... This day, it's like it is out in Zaire. A spade is a spade, and we speak right out and call things what they are. And this is the situation in the scriptures. These things are called by their own proper name. They're called the works of the flesh, the works of darkness. They have no fellowship with the works of darkness. They're the children of light. And we're enjoying to cast off the things of darkness. Throughout the years, as the work in Zaire has developed, and our work has changed somewhat in character, increasingly we have found that we have a responsibility of counseling with people.
During the time I was a chaplain in the army, during the war, serving the Lord and serving the Zaire Wah soldiers in Egypt and the Middle East, I learned some of the technique of the army procedure, the Belgian army procedure. And eleven o'clock every day they have what they call rapport. It's the time you take care of the troubles, the punishment of soldiers that have been disobedient, and the listening to questions, talking over things, and making decisions before that. Eleven o'clock. Well, coming back from the Army, I set up a routine that I've tried to follow through the years, and that is at eleven o'clock I'll receive anyone and have a private conversation with that person.
the Africans all know all around the country that if you get there at eleven o'clock, you can talk to Bonneville a little while. And this has brought many people in. They come from long distances. Of course, oftentimes I have to put another appointment for them later. But it means that apart from certain incidental contacts and the way of counseling, that that time between eleven and perhaps one o'clock, we're able to sit down and talk with people. We have gotten into the very intimate parts of their family lives and their homes. One of the things that is the most debilitating of all in connection with Christian testimony in Zaire is the matter of personal moral.
It's a matter of the lack of chastity as far as personal life is concerned. The many young men who come, the women, the girls. My wife works with me on this too and Often her conversations are with the women and girls. We get to see the innermost souls of some of these people as they come and cry to us. Families see their daughters who have grown up under the sound of the gospel. Some of them have been saved and brought into Christian fellowship. Go off and become prostitutes in the towns. Because of the incoming wealth of the city, of the country, or the country and the cities, This is a way for them to get the clothes they want and the material things that seem to be so desirable.
It's not at all an unusual thing to see a number of children, right, in our close proximity who are illegitimate children. This is one of the problems. And in the permissiveness of this country, this is a problem too that perhaps is a secret problem. And yet nevertheless, it's a true problem. And perhaps we should take these various lists here and in Ephesians and in Galatians and elsewhere and individually, privately, before the Lord, go through the list and see if any of these points condemn us in our own personal lives. Speaking about that besetting sin in Zaire, which is a great sorrow to so many of us, to the parents of children particularly, I was conferring with Mrs.
Tidmarsh of Ecuador and find that they have a different set of problems there among the Indians in Ecuador. Each country, no doubt, has its particular besetting sin. And the sins in this land, in the darkness at present, no doubt, are peculiar to this country in many ways, perhaps because of the affluence which has been mentioned by Brother Armadine, which is so general in this country. We have these interviews, we hear some very intimate things and some very sad things, and we advise them concerning these things. Cast off the works of darkness. The verb is a potitemi in Greek, according to Mr.
Vine, to put away only once used in the New Testament of material things, and that's in the seventh chapter of Acts at verse And that's in reference to clothes. Otherwise, it's used metaphorically, and it's here in the arrowist tense, suggesting immediate decision and completeness. Something that should be done now. In a sense of loathing, in a sense of realizing the worthlessness, cast it off. Throw it off. Cast off the works of darkness. What communion hath light and darkness? It's the separation of light from darkness that we're enjoying to do in this case.
We are the children of light. We are in a time of darkness. We live in a world of darkness dominated by the powers of darkness. And we're enjoying to cast off the works of darkness. The Lord has delivered us from the power of darkness. He's translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Galatians one, three, four, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of God our Father. Cast off. I feel that there is need for exercise in our own individual lives as to our volition in connection with putting aside these things.
As to the doctrine, there's no question we understand this doctrine, that this is true. We should walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time for the days are evil. But there is the personal desire, the personal willingness. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They love their sins. Can it be that believers love their sins? cast off, need for personal desire and willingness and action through the power of the Spirit of God, the desire to be rid of the works of darkness, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. I have found in Bible study through the years some difficulty in that which seems to be a paradox, that we are crucified with Christ.
The old man was crucified with Christ. And then we're joined to put off the old man and put on the new man. I think it can be perhaps briefly stated that in God's sight, truly, they that are Christ as we have in Galatians five, have crucified the flesh with its affections and lust. But then in a practical way, We should put off the works of darkness, and we should accept that as God sees it as a fact, and through the power of the Holy Spirit of God see it living out in our own lives. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians five.
Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And here in this verse, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. That Romans six chapter is a wonderful one. We use it in connection with baptism. But it's speaking of this very matter. Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. He that is dead is freed from sin. That is, verse fourteen, sin's domination. Sin shall not have dominion over you. And yet we ourselves oftentimes are not willing to reckon this as a reality and live accordingly. Colossians three five mortify, put to death, consider dead.
The Lord considers it thus, accepted as the Lord considers it, that which was done at Calvary's cross, giving us the victory over sin and death, giving us the spiritual power by the Holy Spirit of God to live according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. Colossians three five mortify your members upon the earth. which are fornication, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, covetousness. And in verse eight, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lies.
And then again, verse nine, you put off the old man with his deeds. Ephesians four, twenty-two. You've put off concerning your former manner of life, the old man which is corrupt according to its deeds. And now Romans six eleven, reckon yourselves therefore to be dead indeed under sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That that which is a reality might be considered such in our lives and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God, our lives lived in his fear. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed. unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans six, eleven, thirteen, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. You have yielded your members' servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, even so. Now yield your members' servants to righteousness unto holiness. There is much in this that has to do with our own volition and action on our own part in the presence of God, and accepting the position where God puts us and living according to it, reckoning ourselves to be dead unto sin.
I repeat that I would advise, as I have often done myself, a reading and rereading of these passages. Perhaps the sin which easily besets you is not the sin which besets our African friends. But there are other things in those lists that are indications of the works of darkness and evidence of the old life, evidence of that darkness from which we should be separated. We mentioned that in Genesis one. the Lord separated the light from the darkness. The Lord would have in our lives that separation, that our lives might be subject to the will of God daily, in a practical way, not in a theoretical, doctrinal way, but day by day being before the Lord, crying to him that we might know what it is to know that yieldedness of our bodies to his will.
But instead, alas, in the lives of so many defeated believers, Sin is tolerated. Its subtlety and result is spiritual slumber, making provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust, a deliberate sinning, and a willingness to go along with the world and the things the world offers. James one, fifteen, this speaks about the pampering of the flesh and the tolerating of wrong. Lust when it's conceived bringeth forth sin. Sin when it's finished bringeth forth death. We have a little, we don't like to have it, but we often have a little insect in Zaire called a chigger.
I don't know if we have them in California or not. Burrows its way into your flesh, into your foot. If you leave it there, it'll get bigger and bigger and bigger. Finally, you'll have some real trouble, and it itself will throw out little eggs in all directions, and there'll be a lot more of those chiggers born into the world. I think of that sometimes in connection with tolerating even the evil in the light, perhaps as something small. And later this grows, and it is a destruction of the testimony of the believer. We have in Zaire a lovely flower known as Baba. It's a pink flower.
And I remember when I used to go out into the villages trekking from place to place, we still do, but not as much as long in the days gone by. We used to see this flower. I remember one time commenting on it. There was in a garden, a nice open space in a garden. And I said, Oh, that's a lovely flower. I'm going to go and pick one. And the person that was guiding me looked in horror. That's a Baba. It's a baba. What does that mean? Wherever that flower grows, all the culture around it, all the vegetables around it die. And that piece of ground, not only at that spot, but in that whole area, becomes absolutely sterile and will not bear from then on for many years until it's been exposed to the elements and so on.
The African pulls out Baba when it's just growing. It's a beautiful flower. It looks like a lovely flower, like a Cosmos flower. Lovely flower. And the Africans hate it. And yet sometimes you'll see in some of the gardens one or two of these growing. And you know that fellow is going to be in trouble. He's going to lose some of his ground. What a picture it is of tolerating attractive sins in our lives, perhaps unknown to others. And yet... Inevitably, this will be a destruction of our testimony for the Lord. A lovely pink flower, but a bare spot all around. And then when its seeds spread, the seeds go to the rest of the garden, and the whole garden is going to be destroyed.
There needs to be in our lives a daily trimming of the wicks, even as the priests who served in the tabernacle went in and trimmed the lamps in the holy place. As we're before the Lord, we need constantly to be trimming the wicks. I notice the time's gone, and I notice that Bill picked up his Bible. Can I take a little bit more time? All right, I'll go on to say this, that in Africa, perhaps all over, but certainly in Zaire, the conception of sin, basically, to the unregenerate man, and in some measure to the regenerate man, is...
horizontal in character. As to how this thing I'm doing will affect others around about me. Not that he's too concerned in a secret thing, but he's thinking about it on a horizontal level as to the social consequences. It's the Holy Spirit of God who shows that we should think of sins from a vertical standpoint. You remember the story, you've probably heard it many times, of the boy and his father who went out into a garden of a neighbor, and the father wanted to steal a pumpkin. And the boy was with him, and he looked all around, and looked in all directions, and saw no one at all.
And he picked up the pumpkin and pulled it off the vine, and the boy said, Father, you didn't look everywhere. And the father said, what do you mean? He said, you forgot to look up. You forgot to look up. I'm thinking of Joseph when he was tempted by Potiphar's wife. He said, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And David, in Psalm fifty-one, against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Confession. If we are working the works of darkness, We who are children of light, we should come, as did David.
He said, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, my iniquity, have I not hid? I said, Lord, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. He said, wash me throughly or thoroughly for mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. There's a wonderful passage there in First John. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. It is a matter of abandoning and forsaking. One of the problems in Zaire is to have people who have been found out in something, coming quickly and confessing, in order that the horizontal situation might be improved, and that they might be restored perhaps to fellowship.
without real heart confessing and abandoning and forsaking. Paul calls the sinning brother in the Corinthian assembly that wicked person, that wicked person. Isaiah says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man is thought. Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Here it says, make no provision. for the flesh to fulfill its lust. One thing that has helped me is Paul's injunction to the Ephesians. Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit.
Not to ask the Lord to fill us. The Lord is willing. The Holy Spirit is there, longing to possess our beings. But we allow our lives to be cluttered by unspiritual things, by earthly things, by worldly things, by sinful things. And the Holy Spirit himself occupies only a small part of our beings when he longs to flow in. It is interesting that the Holy Spirit is referred to in Scripture so often as a liquid or a wind, oil or water or wind, coming in to accommodate itself to the space that's provided. Let us give the Lord space in our lives so that the Holy Spirit may fill us.
We don't have to ask Him to fill us. Let us get out of our lives before Him by confessing to the Lord those things that prevent His fullness and then be filled with the Spirit. The way to be filled with the Spirit is to yield ourselves to the Lord and let Him come in. If there is not a confession and not a putting away of the works of darkness, casting off the works of darkness, there will be very... probably be that which can be called the governmental judgment of God in the believer's life. If one is a true believer whom the Lord loveth, he chastens, that we might be partakers of His holiness, that we might be brought into a closer fellowship with Him.
Governmental judgment on the believer in this day is a reality, and we've seen it work over and over again in lives of those with whom we have worked yonder in Zaire. And then there is the reality that First Corinthians four, five says, when the Lord comes, he will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart. God shall judge the secrets of man, of men, by Jesus Christ. If we leave it there because our time is gone, thank you for giving me a few minutes more. May the Lord bless these random thoughts, more or less, to our hearts in a practical, individual way.
Our gracious God and Father, we thank thee for the Holy Spirit of God, whom thou hast sent to indwell us, take of the things of Christ and reveal them to our hearts, to convict us of sin in our lives. Thank thee for thy willingness to forgive us. We come to thee and confess. For the joy of walking in the light, as thou art in the light, and having fellowship with thee and fellowship with one another. Grant us, O Lord, that... Perhaps as a result of our being here together at Mount Hermon, we may know in a practical way what it is to cast off the works of darkness and to be filled with the Spirit in giving him unhindered access to every part of our beings.
Bless us as we further wait upon thee for thy blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus, who died upon the cruel tree? To think of his great sacrifice at Calvary.
I know my Lord expects the best from me. How many are the loss that I have lifted? How many are the chains I've helped to free? I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus when He has done so much for me. The hours that I have wasted are so many.
The hours I've spent for Christ. so few. Because of all my lack of love for Jesus, I wonder if his heart is breaking too. How many are the loss that I have lifted? How many are the chains I've helped to free? I wonder have I done my best for Jesus when he has done so much for me I wonder have I cared enough for others or have have I let them die alone?
I should have helped that wonder to my Savior, the seed of precious life I should have sown. How many are the lost? that I have lifted. How many are the chains I've helped to free? I wonder have I done my best for Jesus when He has done so much.