What a glorious thing it is this morning to awaken to the call of God in your life, if you know him, and if you know him not, today could be the day of your salvation. In Romans 13, Paul is chastising the believers who are resisting the higher powers, and in verse 2, tells them that; “they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” You should read the whole chapter! And wake up as you get to verse 11: for the admonition of the Lord is about to be revealed. “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day of the Lord is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let up put on the whole armor of light.” God is the God of all grace, and has called us unto Himself, to be light in a dark world, and yet God has been patient these many years, but will as it says in 1st Thessalonians 5:2 and many even living in the world have heard these words and mock them. “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, for when they shall say, Peace and safety: then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye brethren, (he speaks to believers at this point) are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”
Who is Paul writing too? Those who were suffering and wondering, he writes to believers who belong to Christ and he makes this amazing statement in Chapter 4:13-17. “But I would not have ye be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, ( physically dead) that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (dead) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall arise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Look around you, observe, listen and hear the voice of the world and know that as multitudes have cast off the message of the glorious gospel, maybe it is time to awake out of your slumber and sleep, and take redemption seriously. If you are a child of God, and know Christ, it is time to awaken out of darkness and put on the whole armor of God. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; be he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Will Christ return? Yes He will! When we read the scripture we see that everything concerning the coming of the Savior into the world was fulfilled just as the prophets of God had predicted. Now we have the Son of God testifying to the saints, the things pertaining to the times of His coming. Matthew 24 where the disciples asked him plainly in verse 3: “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall bethe sigh of they coming, and the end of the world?” Jesus answered them saying unto them, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ: and shall deceive many. (In these past 50+ years I have heard many false teachers, and have seen people deceived by their message, and yet holding fast to faith, and the promise of God, the Holy Spirit gives discernment and we continue in faith and doctrine.)
And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” In my life time, I cannot count the number of wars I have seen, and the amounts of devastation, deaths, and destruction, and yet this will pale compared to what goes on in the tribulation period of human history. Already today we hear of wars and insurgencies and bombings and attacks on innocent individuals in all walks of life, whose lives are lost, including children. We now abort babies like it really doesn’t matter, and yet God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. If a man sows to his flesh, he shall of the flesh reap destruction. So Paul writes and says to those believers in Thessalonica, “Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 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 an helmet, the hope of salvation. (Now listen to this carefully and rejoice.) “FOR GOD HATH NOT APPOINTED US UNTO WRATH, BUT TO OBTAIN SALVATION BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” I look for His coming knowing that God hath not appointed us unto wrath, and I pray that many others would come to Christ, even today, lest they perish in their sin, without repentance. I pray each time I share these truths, that God would open the eyes of the lost, that they might be found and that God would quicken them to life, having saved them. If you do not know Christ, ask Him into your heart today and believe on Him. He died for you! He was buried for you! And he overcame death and the grace and rose from the dead for you because death could not hold Him. He took your sin upon himself, and he waits for you to make a decision. Make that decision today and receive Jesus as your personal Savior!
