From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Most of you, I'm sure, will remember that we are engaged at the moment in studying the words that are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, in chapter 13, and from the beginning of verse 11 to the end of the chapter. Verses 11 to 14 of the 13th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. 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 is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. We began our consideration of this famous subsection in this 13th chapter of this Epistle to the Romans when we last met together on the 17th of March. On that occasion, we just looked at it in general. I believe I said that we were savoring it. It is a bad thing to bolt your food in a physical sense.

It is very much worse to do so in a spiritual sense. People who can take a whole chapter at a time seem to me to be guilty of bolting their food. It is good in the physical sense to masticate your food. You will get the full flavor of it if you do so, and it will do you more good. The same applies in the study of the Scripture. We took a general glance at this great statement, forever, of course, associated with the name of the great Saint Augustine, the words that were used to bring him into the liberty of the Gospel and to change his life completely—words that have often since then been used likewise in the case of others.

What have we got here? Well, what we have here, of course, as I was indicating last time, is the Apostle giving us a great final reason for doing what he has been exhorting us to do from the beginning of chapter 12, which he has summed up in the immediately preceding verses. Where he has said, owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Then he repeats that in verse 10, love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

This is what God desires of you. He has explained in the law the kind of people we should be and how we should live. But we could not do that. But Christ has come. And He has come not only to bear the guilt and the punishment of our sins, but to enable us to live the law of God. The Apostle has told us all that back in the eighth chapter. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

He is really saying the same thing here. This is what we are to do. This is how we are to live. He has given it to us in detail. Then he gives us a great argument, a great motive, if you like, for doing this, which he introduces with the words, and that. And that knowing the time, knowing the time, that it is now high time to awake out of sleep, etc. Very well, then, this is what we are considering together, this great reason supplied for us by the Apostle for fulfilling the royal law of love, which is a perfect summary of God's holy law.

What we saw last time was this: certain great principles emerge here at once. I am only reminding you of them because we cannot go on to the details without carrying these in our minds. Here we have got the New Testament way of dealing with doctrine and showing us the vital importance of doctrine. The only way to be saved from the terrible sin of antinomianism is always to put your doctrine first and to realize that Christian conduct is always the outcome and the outworking and the application of doctrine and of truth.

That is the great thing that we have seen. And that is exactly what he is doing here. What is the doctrine that he puts before us here? Because he really only puts one big doctrine before us in this final argument. And this is the doctrine, for me to use the jargon, the technical term, it is the doctrine of eschatology. Or if you prefer it, the doctrine of the last things—the doctrine of God's ultimate purpose. This is the doctrine that he uses here to enforce this appeal of his which he, remember, began in the 12th chapter in the first two verses.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. That is the thing that we are to do. And here he gives us this great reason for doing that. He has argued it out, of course, in detail. And as he has gone along, he has been supplying his reasons and his arguments as we've seen.

Now this is a kind of summing up of it all. He arrives at a great climax. And that. Do all this, he says, especially in view of—that is the way in which he introduces it. And it is this great doctrine of the last things, the doctrine of eschatology. Again, we have got to indicate that this is something which is unique, something which is special to Christianity and something which differentiates our Christian faith from every other form and type of teaching. We have had frequent occasions for remarking that there are many moral systems and ethical teachings in the world.

Christianity has not got a monopoly of that, never has had a monopoly of that. Even before our Lord came into this world, you had had the Greek philosophers and they had their systems of ethics and of morals. They talked about utopias. There was a man contemporary of Paul's called Seneca. He had many moral maxims. Critics have often tried to show that there is nothing new about Christianity or nothing unique because most of the things that we find in the New Testament can be found in Seneca. This is the thing they always miss.

The thing that differentiates the Christian teaching concerning conduct and behavior from every moral teaching or ethical system, from all your humanism, ancient and modern, is that they know nothing at all about and are not interested in this great doctrine of the last things. They lack the motive. And that is why they always fail in practice. This is the peculiar, differentiating, special thing about the Christian faith—that it puts everything in the light of this doctrine of the ultimate or the last things. It would be very simple indeed to show that this is the characteristic of the biblical teaching from beginning to end.

It is a great argument in the Old Testament as well as in the New. It is the dominating note, if you like, of the whole of the Bible from the very beginning to the very end. The Bible looks at everything in the light of that ultimate goal, that ultimate destiny, which awaits not only every one of us as an individual, but the whole world and indeed the whole cosmos. This is quite special to this. You will find it nowhere else at all. It is something obviously that we must pay very careful attention to because if we do not grasp this, well, we shall not only be missing the greatest motive of all for Christian living.

We shall fail to understand so much of the teaching that is to be found in the Bible. Those two verses I have just read to you again from the beginning of chapter 12 give us a hint of this. The Apostle goes on repeating it as he is bound to do, it is so important. You notice that second verse of chapter 12, be not conformed to this world. That is it, this world. This world suggests that there is another. And that is exactly what he is talking about. This world, the world to come, the unseen world, the spiritual world.

This is the great note that runs right through the whole of the Bible. And here in this subsection at the end of this 13th chapter, we have one of the best and the greatest and certainly one of the most moving statements of this doctrine of the last things and its intimate relationship to life and conduct in this world. The Apostle, as is indeed almost invariably the case with him, his matter divides itself into two parts. He mixes them. He does that sometimes. Sometimes he keeps them quite separate, but here he tends to mix them a bit.

It is for us to notice the two parts of this great statement. The first one, of course, is the doctrinal part because the motive is always to be found in the doctrine. And then the second is the outworking of this doctrine in our daily life and living and practice. What I mean is something like this, you see: now, he says, knowing the time. That is doctrine. Then, now it is high time to awake out of sleep. That is application, exhortation of the doctrine. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. That is doctrine again.

The night is far spent. Doctrine. The day is at hand. Doctrine. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Application. Let us put on the armor of light. Application, and so on. More or less application then until the very end of the chapter. Those are the obvious two parts in this composite statement, which is, as I say, a part of his final exhortation to live this life that he has been indicating to us in detail. Again, I have got to remind you of this. The Apostle assumes that we know what he is going to say.

He says, and that, knowing the time. His argument, his whole case depends upon our knowledge of these things. You noticed how in that first Epistle of John in the second chapter which we read a part of at the beginning, John puts it still more explicitly. He says, I write these things to you, not because you do not know them, but because you do know them. To me, that is a very wonderful thing. I never tire of saying that the whole art of teaching is repetition. Foolish Christian people say, I know that. But you do not know it.

You need to be reminded of what you do know. And that is what the Apostle is doing. I write these things unto you, not because you do not know them, but because you do know them. And Peter, you remember, in his second Epistle, his last Epistle, he makes exactly the same point. And it is a most important point for us to grasp. You know the people who have got the kind of tourist mentality when they come to the Scriptures. They do not like this sort of thing. They want to be hurrying on, always hurrying on.

They want to know the whole Bible and they end by knowing none of the Bible. That is because they have not grasped this point about repetition. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, says Peter, though you know them and be established in the present truth. He is not writing something they do not know. These people are always on the lookout for something new, betraying the fact that they are not Christians. No, no, this is something we know. Paul is assuming this: and that, knowing the time.

Do we know these things? Are we familiar with them? Have we realized the vital importance of doctrine? Have we realized that there is a sense in which you will never understand the practical teaching of the New Testament unless you already know these things, these doctrines, and here in particular, of course, this great doctrine of eschatology, the doctrine of the last things? Very well, that I may imitate the Apostles, I am going to remind you of what you know. What is this doctrine of the last things? Well, we can divide it up.

Let us take the terms that the Apostle uses and we therefore shall be discovering the New Testament teaching about the last and the ultimate things. The first is this: if we know this doctrine, well, then we will know the significance and the importance of the time in which we live. 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 is at hand. The first thing, therefore, is to realize and to know the significance and the importance of the time in which we live.

Some people would translate this expression 'the time' as 'the season.' All right, it is equally good. But what does it mean? It does not mean time in general. He is obviously referring to some special time—knowing the time, this time, this particular time season in which we live. That raises the question: is he referring to something that was happening at the time, some contemporary event that led him to make this great appeal for conduct? Is he saying, in view of the present circumstances of what is happening at the present time, you ought to live like this?

I think I can show you quite easily that he does not mean that at all. Sometimes there is that kind of appeal in the New Testament. If you read 1 Corinthians 7, for instance, you will realize that there were special circumstances at that time which the Apostle uses as an argument in connection with his exhortation. We read that there were times of persecution and so on, and there were special teachings for those. But here we are not dealing with that at all. We have got rather a big principle of teaching here, a great statement which we find in many places.

We have already found them in many places in this very Epistle. Knowing the time. What is this time that he is talking about? Well, now let us have a look at some of the ways in which he has already used this same expression. In the third chapter in verse 26, we read this: to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness. He has been saying this: being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.

Through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness. He is speaking about the Cross. It had not long taken place—our Lord's death was a comparatively recent event. Paul has got that in his mind, and he says, now God is declaring at this time his righteousness in overlooking the sins of the people in the past as they brought their offerings and their sacrifices, etc., into the temple. There is one illustration. Here is another in chapter 5, verse 6: for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

There is obviously something special about that. But a much better one again is in chapter 8, beginning at verse 18: for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. There it is. That is a most important one as well as a most moving one. You have got it again in chapter 9, in verse 9, which is really a quotation from the Old Testament: for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

It is a special time which God is indicating. And you've got it again in the 11th chapter and in the fifth verse: even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. What is the meaning of this? Well, it is clearly a special time. But what sort of special time? We can answer that best by putting it in the form of a statement: there is nothing which so differentiates the Christian more clearly from all who are not Christian than his view of time and his view of history.

That is what the Apostle is dealing with here. He says, you know this time. You know the time. You understand the time, the period in which you are living. He has got a special view of time and of history which nobody else has got. Let me show you hurriedly what I mean. Take the non-Christian view of time and of history. Incidentally, this is a very important question in this present century. There is more interest, perhaps, in this whole question of time and of history at the present time and has been since the beginning of the last World War than has been for many, many centuries.

Why is that? Well, because of the precariousness of life, because of the wars. And people have been made to think in a new way as to the whole meaning of life and of history and of time. You see, that was the trouble with the so-called Great Victorians—everything was too leisurely and everything was too safe, in a sense. That is what led many of them astray, led many of the theologians astray even. They were influenced by the calm and the quiet and the apparent endlessness of things as they were.

We have lived in a century of calamity and of catastrophe, a kind of earthquake of a century. And we have been forced in a new way to consider the whole meaning of history and of time. And therefore, it has been a subject that has been written about a great deal and especially, as I say, since 1939 and especially since the end of the war in 1945—the whole problem of time, so-called. To the non-Christian, time is very largely a matter of calendars. That is common to all of them. They disagree and differ amongst themselves.

There are many different theories. Some believe that time is something linear, like a line that goes on and on and on, stretches ever onwards. They would say that time and history indicate progress, development, and advance. Now, that has been a very popular view. It was, of course, especially popular, as I say, in the last century. Doctrine of evolution fitted the last century very well indeed. It was a part of the whole outlook—that everything was developing and was moving upwards towards some kind of perfection, though they were not clear at all about the coming of this perfection.

But they had this kind of feel that history was moving forward, advancing, developing, and progressing. But then to others, this is just nonsense. And I am still talking about non-Christians. Others, who were governed more by the study of history rather than by the study of biology or followers of Darwin—the historians did not hold very much to this linear view of history. They rather held the view that history is a matter of going round in cycles. You see, they were familiar with the fact that there had been great civilizations in the past.

In China, in Persia, in Egypt, in various other parts of the world. Great dynasties, great empires, great knowledge—Greece, Rome—you are familiar with them all. But they had all come to nothing. They had gone up, but they had gone down, as it were. You seem to be climbing up and up, but you suddenly find you've reached a plateau and you begin to go down. They say that is, after all, what is true of the whole of history. It is just a question of circles, cycles going round and round.

So, that has been a very popular view also. We need not go into these things. But it is very important that we should know about this because I sometimes think that you can do very good evangelistic work with intelligent people along this very line. It is a very good approach with such people always because they are bound to confront the facts that you put before them. Well, those have been the two main theories. But there is one thing about which they nearly all agree, and especially again the historians: and that is that they can detect no real purpose in history.

They cannot see any real purpose. A great statement of this was made by the late Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, professor of history in Oxford and a member of the government, the cabinet in the First World War and Minister of Education. Great authority on history, and he says in a preface to his book, I think, on European history, that having studied history all his life, he had come to the conclusion that there was no purpose discernible. Cannot see it. Things happen, but there is no purpose. There is no line.

They are nearly all agreed about this. Indeed, many of the scientific humanists like Sir Julian Huxley would say the same thing. He, holding the view that everything is accident, result of chance—he says in the same way that he can discern no purpose, no definite purpose in anything. Man may go up, he may go down. We do not know. There is a kind of agnosticism. And of course, you are familiar with the fact that physicists are agreed in talking about what they call the second law of thermodynamics.

That just means this: that the world is running down, that the world is slowly running itself down and running itself out. It is cooling down. I must not keep you with all this, but it is very interesting. You see, you have got a great contradiction here. You have got those who say that everything is going up, but then equally great scientists are saying that everything is running down. It seems to me that the facts are entirely on the side of those who say that everything is running down.

Radium is emitting its energy. There is a new way of testing the age of things that are found—fossils and others—on this principle. Carbon is giving out its energy. Everything is giving it out. That is why they say the world is running down—your second law of thermodynamics. All this, you see, comes to this: that they do not understand history. They do not understand time. Some of them say there is going to be an end because of this running down.

Others say, no, it is going on, but they do not know where, nor what, nor how—whether it is going to be better or worse, they do not know. Their view of history and their interest in history tends to be, therefore, the history of great men, history of personalities—men who have influenced the world, influenced history. The history of war, the history of conquests. But of course, that is outdated by now—they do not like that any longer. Although, of course, it is of tremendous importance if you merely take this secular view of history.

But the fashion today is to be interested in the history of trade and economics. It is not wars that matter; it is supply and demand. This dialectical view, the Marxist view, the view that is held by Russians—that it is a question of trade, supply, and demand. That this is the important history, and they are trying to explain everything in terms of that. Several books recently written which claim to be able to explain the whole of the Puritan movement in terms of economics. Things of that kind—this is the fashion at the moment.

And others who see nothing of importance in any history at all except the history of science—the history of scientific discovery. And that to them is of the very essence of science. Well, there it is. That is in general the non-Christian view of time and of history. What a difference there is between all that and this biblical view, this Christian view! And that, knowing the time. What time? Well, now. The time in which we are living. We understand this. Those other people do not—they have no idea, hence their rival contradictory theories.

But we know. Well, what do we know? What is the biblical teaching with regard to time and with regard to history? We can put it like this in general: it tells us that there are two types of history. There is that sort of history to which I have been referring. What is that? Well, if you like, you can call it man's history. But a better way of describing it is to say that it is the history that God permits—the history that God allows. God does allow.

There is the aspect of God's will which is called his permissive will. We are not machines, we are not automata. And God permits and allows man to do certain things, but always under his control—always under his ultimate control. That is the first type of history. But the second type of history is the important one. And that is the history that God produces. The second type of history is not a history that God permits—He produces this. And this is the really significant history.

This is the thing which the Bible is concerned about—God's history, holy history, or if you prefer it, redemption history. That is what the Bible is. It has got a lot, you see, about the history of other nations. It has got a lot about kings and births and marriages and deaths and wars and all that sort of thing. There is a lot of secular history in the Bible. And it belongs to secular history as it belongs to this. Yes, but that is only, as it were, background—that is only the setting, the stage in which God produces, acts, his history.

By his interventions, his eruptions into time and the things that he produces in time. This is the history that really matters. And this is the sort of history that Paul has in his mind when he uses this expression 'the time.' Knowing the time. This is, as I say, the history of redemption—the history of God's plan and God's purpose with respect to this world. What are the characteristics of this history? Well, there seem to me to be three main characteristics. The first is this: this is a history which is predetermined by God.

Obviously, He has planned it all, He has determined it all. I need not keep you with this. If you believe at all in prophecy in the sense of foretelling, well, that is exactly what it means. Prophecy is only possible because God has predetermined that certain things should happen at a given time. And that is exactly what the Bible teaches from beginning to end. You have got it in a negative sense in a phrase like 'the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.' God is not going to punish until the iniquity of the Amorites is full or complete.

But of course, you have got it in a more positive form in terms such as 'when the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.' In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And this is something which is, of course, not only fascinating, but it is one of the wonderful proofs of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. It is one of the most glorious arguments for the whole of the Christian faith: how the details are given about the coming of our Lord—the time, the place, the manner, and so on and so forth.

The same with regard to His death and His resurrection and so on. Now, all this, you see, is but a part of this history that God produces. He has predetermined it all and everything is known to Him with this exactitude that is only possible in God Himself. Second characteristic of this history which God produces is that it is progressive and that it is always leading on to a predetermined end. Known unto God are all things from the foundation of the world. And God knows the end as well as the beginning.

So the Bible keeps on in various ways using a phrase such as this: then cometh the end. Or if you like, then the end will come. The Bible is always got its eye on this end. And this is clearly an outstanding characteristic of this history that God produces. He does not act haphazardly. God does not act by way of reacting to what man does. We must get rid of that notion once and for all. God is always the initiator. He is the prime mover.

He is the great cause. And this whole history of His is something that He has planned before the foundation of the world and is bringing into action as events in this world of time and in history. It is all going on progressively and will lead to the ultimate end that God predetermined before He began any of it at all. That is the thing that stands out so clearly and in such a contrast to the statement of the historians and the scientific humanists and others who say that they see no end nor purpose in it all.

You see, it is a complete contradiction. And it is only the Christian who is aware of this. Then the next thing is this—and this is, of course, the most important of all: this history which God produces and the time element in this history must always be thought of primarily and essentially in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you divide time? Well, you see, the world even in its ignorance does the right thing. Even the world, the unbelieving world divides history into B.C. and A.D.

That is absolutely right. It does not know why it does it; it does not believe it, actually. But it still goes on doing it. It happens to be right. For the Bible divides time always in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are three divisions of time: time before He came into this world; the time when He came into this world and lived in it and went back out of it into the glory; and then His final coming again. That is the biblical division of time.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean. This is just the biblical teaching. Take it in the words of our Lord Himself, as you find them in the Gospel according to St. Mark, in the first chapter and in the 15th verse. I read, now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Here is 15th verse, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. It is His coming that has fulfilled the time.

Everything until then had been looking forward to this. So, all that is prior to that is time that looks forward to this time, His coming. He has arrived, so it is at hand, it is in front of us, it is with us. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. And there are other examples of the same thing. Let me give you one out of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11. Here is exactly the same idea again. He is referring to the past.

And he says, now all these things happened unto them for examples [or ensamples]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. That was written in the first century. But he can refer to that time as a time in which the ends of the world are come upon us. What does he mean by that? Well, what he means is this: that we are living now in this period of time, this era, this age, as it were, which is subsequent to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world.

Then I've already quoted to you Galatians 4:4, when the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. It is an end of the previous time and this is a new time. It is the fullness of that other time of expectation and of prophecy and of looking forward. That has come to an end, that has fulfilled itself, filled itself out. So we are starting with a new time. Then there is a great and moving statement of it, as you remember.

In the Epistle to Titus, in the second chapter beginning at verse 11: for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [or this present time]; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. In this present world or this present time—that is the idea. And then you have got it again in the second Epistle of Peter and in the third chapter and in the 14th verse.

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. Having said, nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and so on. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you. Probably referring to this very thing that we are studying together at this moment. Well, now then.

What does he mean then by 'the time'? Knowing the time. This is what you and I know. What do we know? Well, we know that we are living in the time between the two comings of the Son of God. That is what he means by 'the time.' You see, it is not the World Wars that determine time for me or what happens to me and so on. No, no, we are living in the age, in the time between His first coming and His second coming. That is the time.

That is what he is talking about. Or if you prefer it, the time is this interval of time between what He has done and what He is yet going to do. Or if you prefer it—and there is a great deal of Scripture which puts it like that—you and I, my friends, as these Roman Christians, are living in the last period in the history of this world. The last section of time because when He comes again, time shall be no more. We are living in the very last period of the history of the world.

That is why you will often find the writers, the New Testament Apostles, in their Epistles, tell these people and they say the same to us: that we are living in the last days. The last days have been in existence ever since the Son of God went back to Him. Last days began then and they are still going on. Take for instance 2 Timothy 3: this know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. That does not mean to some future last days. These last days have been in existence ever since the Son of God went back to Him.

There may be an accentuation towards the end—our Lord Himself has taught us that. He says that even as they were in the days of Noah, even so shall they be just before the end. But that is just a sort of climax to what is already in existence and already taking place. Or take again at the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews: God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us in his Son.

Very well then, so you had that expression in 1 Corinthians 10: we are living in a time when the end of the world is, as it were, upon us. This is the period of the end. It is the last phase, the last portion of human history. Or did you notice the way in which John put it in that section that we read at the beginning? He keeps on saying this in the first Epistle and especially in that second chapter: little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists.

Whereby we know that it is the last time. It is all meaning exactly the same thing. Well, now then, this is what the Apostle is saying. You and I as Christians, we know this time in which we are living. We understand it. We know all about kings and princes, births, marriages, deaths, war, acquisition, scientific discovery. All right, we are not here to depreciate it. But to us, that is not the way to look at history—that is not what is of significance.

Non-Christian lives for that kind of thing; he knows nothing more. But we know differently. We know that what really matters is what God has done in this world in the person of His only begotten, dearly beloved Son. We are here in this situation: He has been, He has come, He has lived, He has taught, He has borne our sins, He has died, He has risen, He has conquered the last enemy, He has ascended, He is seated at the right hand of God. He is waiting until His enemies shall be made His footstool.

We are living in the last period, the last phase in the history of this world. And that is the way in which as Christians we view history and we view time. Well now, there it is. We have got to leave it at that, I see, for tonight. That is only the first statement, of course. It is a very vital one because certain things follow from that as we shall see. We shall see that holding this view of time and of history, we must hold a very definite view of life in this world and still more important, of the future.

Christian conduct and behavior is governed by this kind of thing. And if you and I do not start with this knowledge—that we are living in this extraordinary time between the first coming and the last or the second coming—the Apostle's argument will not only not appeal to us, it won't help us, and we shall be missing the real point of one of the great exhortations of the Scripture. Very well, God willing, we will continue our discussion of this next Friday night.

O Lord our God, we come to thee and we thank thee more than ever for the Scriptures. We bless thy name that thou hast not left us merely with experiences, though we thank thee for them. We realize, O Lord, how unreliable they can be, how feelings and moods come and go and change. O God, we thank thee for the enlightenment that thou hast brought to us through thy word and by the unction and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our minds. Lord, enable us all to know and to realize and to discern and to understand.

The time in which we live, the true history that matters, the things, the only things that shall finally count. O God, receive our humble and unworthy praise and lead us on, we humbly beseech thee. Above all, enable us to be circumspect and to walk circumspectly, redeeming the time because the days are evil. And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now, this night, throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage.

Until He shall come again and time shall be no more. Amen.