From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We are still considering, as most of you will remember, the last section in the 13th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. So let me read again from verse 11 to the end of the chapter. "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."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: This is the last great appeal that the Apostle makes to us and to these Romans to whom he first wrote, to put into practice the instructions with regard to daily life and living which he has been outlining in the whole of chapter 12 and this chapter up until the end of the seventh verse.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: He's already given us another motive and that is that this is the way to fulfill the royal law of love. All the commandments are summed up briefly in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But then here is an additional inducement. Here is the grounds of his final appeal.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, I've suggested that this statement here in these verses, quite naturally, can be divided into two main sections. He puts doctrinal considerations to us. He reminds us of the doctrine which we have already believed. Indeed, his whole case is based on that. He introduces it with the word 'knowing'.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: If we don't know these things, well then his appeal falls to the ground. But he assumes that we know these things. And we've considered what those things are. We know the time in which we are living. We realize the nature and the character of the world in which we are living. We know something about where we are going and the life that awaits us there. And we are aware of what's happened to us, ourselves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, in the light of all these things, we draw certain deductions. And we've already done that. On last Friday, we were considering in a special manner this phrase of his about our salvation being nearer than when we believed, and the fact that the day is at hand. Now, then, there's the doctrinal section. But having dealt with that, we now come to the practical section.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And here the Apostle tells us in detail, once more, how we are to live. He's been telling us already, but he sums it up again. This, you see, is expert teaching. If we learn nothing else, let's try to learn from the Apostle how to teach. And there is no doubt about it, the whole art of teaching is repetition.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Nothing is so fatal than to assume that anybody knows these things, that it at any rate, that because we know them, they're in the forefront of our minds, they're not. You notice how Peter, in that first chapter of that second Epistle of his, does exactly the same thing. He says, while I'm left in this world, I'm going to go on reminding you of these things.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: He's going to repeat them. He says, "You know them. You already know them." But still he finds it necessary to remind them of the things that they already know. And that's what the Apostle is doing. So he works this out. The Apostle never stops at general principles only. He always applies them.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And it's very bad preaching and teaching that doesn't invariably end with application. There is nothing more fatal than to take a merely theoretical view of the scripture. Indeed, as we saw at the beginning of chapter 12, the whole point of the remainder of this great Epistle from chapter 12 to the end is to draw out the inevitable practical application of what he has been saying. And he keeps on doing this as he goes along from paragraph to paragraph.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Very well. Now, then, we are concerned with the practical application of the things which we know. What is this? Well, again, it seems clear that we can divide this up also. He starts with a general appeal.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And having started with his general appeal, he goes on to particular exhortations and then he winds it all up in a final exhortation. This man had been given a logical mind. He thinks clearly. He reasons from step to step and the Spirit of God used all those gifts which God had given him in his first creation as it were, in his natural birth.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Spirit uses all these in a very remarkable manner in order to bring out the real truth. Now, start then with this general appeal. What is it? Well, it is that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. That's the general appeal.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It's no use going on to the particular appeals unless we are clear about this. In other words, it's no use the Apostle going on to the details of his teaching if the people were either reading his letter or listening to it being read and half asleep. The first thing you do is to rouse your congregation. So he says, "Now, it is high time to awake out of sleep."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, this is a universal exhortation which is made to us. High time really means this. Now, an hour to be raised out of sleep. We are in an hour when we should be raised out of sleep. We've got to do it ourselves. We've got to raise ourselves out of sleep.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: That's his first general appeal and exhortation to us. Sleep simply means, of course, a lethargic condition. And he's telling them to rouse themselves, to awaken themselves, to shake themselves out of this condition of lethargy and torpor and sleepiness into which they had fallen.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: This is something which is done constantly in the scripture. It's a most remarkable thing. Our Lord Himself did this many times. It is, of course, the whole point about the five foolish virgins in the parable of the ten virgins. This carelessness, this sleepiness, this lack of watchfulness and of preparation.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And another one, listen to our Lord putting it like this in Luke 12:35, "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning." That's the position that the Christian should always be in. That his loins are to be girded about and his lights burning. It's to be his constant condition. Or take another very remarkable one which you find at the end of the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It's a very good exposition of what we are dealing with here. Luke 21, beginning at verse 34. "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: That's a tremendous statement of this same point as made by our Lord. And you are familiar with the way in which He frequently said, "Watch and pray. Watch, what I say unto all, I say unto you, watch." Nothing is more characteristic of our Lord's teaching than just this exhortation to awake out of sleep and to be watchful, to be on the alert always and always ready.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And it is something that you find frequently, likewise, in the teaching of this great Apostle. You've got it here, remember the phrase in 1 Corinthians 15, "Awake to righteousness and sin not. Awake to righteousness." That's the emphasis. And you've got it in the last chapter of 1 Corinthians, chapter 16.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Verses 13 and 14, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, let all your things be done with charity." This exhortation constantly to watchfulness. Then you remember how in Ephesians 5, the Apostle quoting from the Old Testament puts it in these words.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." A great statement. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." And in the great exhortations, you have a series of them, you remember, in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, the Apostle puts it in these kind of terms.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. 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 of love and for a helmet the hope of salvation," and so on. All these are typical, characteristic appeals to us to awake. There is high time for us to awake. To awaken ourselves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And you've really got the same idea in that first chapter of 2 Peter that we have read at the beginning, only that he puts it in these words, "Beside all this," he says, "giving all diligence." The fifth verse of that first chapter of 2 Peter, "Beside this, giving all diligence." That's the same idea. You've got to be diligent. In other words, you mustn't be half asleep, you mustn't be lethargic, you mustn't be slack. You've got to be diligent. It's the same kind of exhortation to us to rouse ourselves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, it's extraordinary, isn't it, that you get so much of this kind of appeal in the New Testament scriptures. So the question arises for us as to what exactly this means. What does he mean by telling us to awake out of sleep, to rouse ourselves? Well, it's a most important exhortation, this. And we really must know something about it in detail.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It means, for instance, general discipline. The Apostle has to address this to individuals as well as to churches. He has to say to Timothy, "Stir up the gift that is in thee." Now, there he's employing a picture, not so much of a man falling asleep and nodding at his purse, so much as a picture of a fire that is going out and there's just a little spark of life left in the fire.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "Stir it up," says the Apostle. "Rake it, shake it. Stir up the gift that is in thee. Rekindle the embers that are gradually dying." So this is an exhortation to us, to a general discipline of ourselves. In other words, one of our greatest dangers as Christian people is to be drifting along, just allowing things to come and go and to influence us without our being in charge.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Or if you like, it is the danger of spiritual laziness. I suppose this is the commonest of all the dangers afflicting us. And it is just when we are in this condition that the devil gets his opportunity with us. So we are exhorted by the Apostle literally to take ourselves in hand, and to shake ourselves, and to rouse ourselves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, you can think of many illustrations that lend force to this point. You've often found yourself reading a book and nodding as you're reading it. What do you do in such a condition? Well, the thing to do in such a condition is to stand up and to shake yourself, go out, perhaps, and have some fresh air. Take yourself in hand and shake yourself.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And really awaken yourself and rouse. There's no purpose in sitting with a book in front of you if you're half asleep. Nothing goes in at all and you've been wasting your time. Now, the way to deal with that is rouse yourself. Some people put wet towels around their head. All right, do that spiritually. Whatever you do, "See that you're awake," says the Apostle. "Pull yourself together. Away dull sloth and melancholy."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, this is all implicit in this exhortation. And it is something that is very essential in its spiritual application. I have a feeling that this is one of the greatest troubles with the modern Christian, that we are lethargic and that we are not awake and alive and alert. We haven't roused ourselves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And it is one of the main functions of preaching and of teaching to rouse us out of this lethargy and to get us to rouse ourselves. The danger, and it is particularly a danger, I feel, at the present time, when there is this increasing tendency for Christian people to think of themselves as those who just sit and listen and that everybody else, not everybody else, just a few are active, while the majority of Christians are just sitting back and looking on.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It's so false to the New Testament. We've got to rouse ourselves and to be alert and it involves a very definite act of discipline. You just pull yourself together, you shake yourself and make sure that you're awake and alive in a spiritual sense. And of course, you've got to go further. Having shaken yourself, you have to begin talking to yourself. And you begin asking yourself questions.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, I've often emphasized this point. A Christian is a man who should always be talking to himself and talking to himself about himself. A Christian who doesn't talk to himself is in a very bad condition indeed. It is an essential part of the Christian life that we should be addressing our souls and speaking to them.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Well, now we did it in the hymn which we sang at the beginning tonight, "Awake my soul!" That's it. You're talking to your soul. You're addressing your soul. "Awake my soul! Away my fears! Let every trembling thought be gone." That's the kind of thing I mean when I say that we must talk to ourselves and address ourselves and shout at ourselves, and make sure that this self, this soul, is really alive and awake and alert.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And that is a part of the way in which we do this. And of course, that leads, in turn, to self-examination. If we don't examine ourselves, we'll soon be soundly asleep. The way to avoid that is that we examine ourselves and we ask ourselves certain questions. And the questions we ask, the most important questions, are these.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: To what extent am I really being governed in my life and living by my Christian faith? What is the main governing factor in my life? What determines the general tenor of my life? Is it the world and its outlook and its teaching? Or is it Christian teaching? The message, the teaching of the Christian Church.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, we've got to examine ourselves about these things. There is such a terrible danger that we assume, as it were, that because we are members of the Christian Church, we're all right. Some do it because they were christened. Some do it because they took a decision many years ago. Others have been received in different ways.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: There is a tendency to feel, "Oh, well, we've done the big thing. We'll now just go on." And assume that all is well, that we are Christians. And in that state and condition, you can be falling asleep. You can unconsciously be becoming slack, or to use the metaphor that is often used in the scripture, you can be like a ship gradually drifting away from her moorings.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: There's practically no perceptible movement. But the whole time there is a little movement, and you're going down the stream, and you'll suddenly wake up and find that you've gone a long way down the stream without being conscious of it. That's the danger. So what you do is, you examine yourself constantly. You try yourselves, as Paul puts it to the Corinthians. "Prove your own selves, examine your own selves, whether you be in the faith or not."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, he addresses that to Christian people. You know, there's been a teaching this century which has disliked this very much and which regards this teaching about self-examination as almost being a condition of doubt. They say, "You must never do that. You've believed." So they say, "You never examine yourself, you're looking at yourself. You must never look at yourself. Look at the Lord." It's a very dangerous teaching.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Examine yourselves, prove your own selves, try yourselves whether you're in the faith or not. It's the Apostle, the inspired Apostle that gives that teaching. And they all give a similar kind of teaching. And so I say, in a very practical way, we examine ourselves in the light of this great teaching. And I ask myself, "Am I really living according to this? Is this the thing that determines how I spend my time? Is this the biggest factor in my life?" That's the essence of self-examination.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And so that leads, in turn, to a constantly minded of ourselves of these great truths that the Apostle reminds us of at the end of this chapter. Are we constantly aware of these things that he has told us that we already know? Are we alive to the age in which we are living? Have we an understanding of the times? Do we see the significance of the spiritual battle that is being waged round and about us and within us?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: These are the ways in which we awake out of sleep. The danger is, you see, that it's true of churches, it's true of individuals in churches. You go to meetings and you talk to your friends and you, oh, you feel all is well, you're in the Christian life and it goes on habitually and you're carried on by some kind of momentum. And you suddenly wake up one day when you find yourself very ill or you're in trouble, and you don't seem to have any reserves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: You've been living on meetings, or you've been living on friendships. You've been living on services. And you suddenly find that you've got nothing yourself. Now, that's because, unconsciously, you've been dropping off to sleep. You've been sitting back, you've been at ease, as it were, in Zion. And you've been losing, you haven't been taking in.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The presence of anyone in a meeting doesn't prove that such a person is really taking in and partaking of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. So you've got to examine yourself, and you've got to make certain that you can answer the questions that the scriptures put to you. And then that brings us to a final way in which this can be done in practice, of course.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And that is by reading, by constant reading of the scripture. And when I say reading, I really mean reading. I don't mean dashing through the portion for the day that's been allotted to you. Again, you can do that and get no profit at all. If it's mechanical, it's valueless.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We've got to read the word, we've got to listen to it. We've got to ask it questions. We've got to allow it to ask us questions. We've got to allow it to search us. And not only reading the scriptures, but reading books that are helpful to us to understand the scriptures. And not only that.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I've often advocated from this pulpit the reading of biographies. And for this reason, that there is a danger in reading in a purely theoretical manner. And sometimes, you see, reading can become a substitute for thinking. It is the danger of some people who are fond of reading. They read so much that they stop thinking.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: In other words, they're really putting themselves to sleep in a spiritual sense. You can have great knowledge in your mind. If you don't apply it, it's of no value to you. So balance your reading. If you are a great reader of theology, well, make sure that you're always reading something that's going to examine you and test you. And that's where biographies are so good.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: You read about spiritual men. Men used of God, men filled with the Spirit. And you read about their lives and they'll search you, they'll examine you. That's the great danger that confronts us. That you can be reading truth theoretically and it may not profit you because you're not applying it. But as you balance it with this other type of reading, it will search you, it will examine you and make you examine yourself.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And you'll say, "Well, now, if that man or that woman could be like that, why am I not like that?" That's the way to rouse yourself. To awaken out of sleep and to remind yourselves of the possibilities of the Christian life. Well, now there is the Apostle's first great general appeal.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And if we haven't responded to this, I say it is idle to go on to consider his particulars. But he does go on to the particulars. And it is essential that we should do so also. Now, he's got two groups or pairs, or two lots of pairs, if you like, under this particular heading.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Once more, he reminds us of how vital and important details are. Details count tremendously in the spiritual life. If we keep ourselves only to generalities, we will soon be going astray. You've got to come down to the practicalities, to the details. And the Apostle, of course, if you listen to him, will never allow us to escape because he always does this application for us.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And what he's really telling us here is this, that we are to pay heed to these practical details that he puts before us because of what we are and because of who we are, and because of what has happened to us. If you like, it can be put like this.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It is because the Christian has been washed that he's got to keep himself clean. Now, I rather like to think of it like that. You remember that that is the way our Lord Himself put it, actually, in the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Do you remember that incident where we are told, "Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, this is what happened. "Supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God, He rises from supper and laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself." And you remember what happened.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: He poured the water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Here's the message. "Then cometh He to Simon Peter. And Peter saith unto Him, 'Lord, dost thou wash my feet, my feet?' Jesus answered and said unto him, 'What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' Peter saith unto him, 'Thou shalt never wash my feet!' Jesus answered him, 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.' Simon Peter saith unto him, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.' Jesus saith unto him, 'He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all.'"

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, there, you see, is a real exposition of this very thing. Peter stumbles constantly. Having got over, our Lord having got over the first and the initial stumbling because the Lord was going to wash his feet, then Peter, of course, goes to the other extreme and says, "Well, not only my feet, but my hands and my head also." "No, no," says our Lord. "You have been washed. And because you've been washed, all that is necessary now is that you should just wash your feet. The feet should be washed. You have been washed and therefore, it is only necessary that the feet should be washed."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: In other words, you are clean. Just keep yourself clean from the defilement of the dust and so on that has gathered to you as you've walked through the world. Or take it as we saw it in that reading at the beginning, which is really just another way of saying this very thing that we are considering together, in the second Epistle of Peter. He's reminded them of what has happened to them.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: He says that they've been given, they've obtained this like precious faith. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. That by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature, "having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." They've already escaped it. They've been taken out of that.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And he says, "Because of that, beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity." But this is how he puts it in verse 8. "If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And then the negative. "But he that lacketh these things, the man who doesn't show this diligence and add to or furnish out his faith and keep on in this way, he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged, has been purged from his old sin." Now, there is exactly the same exhortation, or again, he puts it in another positive way. "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. You are elect, make it sure."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." Now, these things to some people sound as if they were contradictions, but they're not, of course. You are to keep yourself clean because you've been washed. It's no use telling the men to keep himself clean who's never had the original washing. This is only an exhortation to those who have been washed and cleansed.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Then because this is true of them, they are to go on keeping themselves clean in the way in which he indicates. And now he puts this in a most interesting and fascinating manner. What are we going to do in particular? Well, I say he puts it in two pairs of statements.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The first pair deals with our dress. Now, it's a moot point, a difficult point to decide. In fact, it can't be decided as to whether the Apostle is thinking in terms of what we do physically, you're asleep, you rouse yourself, you're awake, and then you dress. I tend to think that there is something in that that his mind was progressing in that way.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: You've been asleep, so you're awake, yourself. What do you do? Well, the first thing is you pay attention to your dress. And what do you do about the dress? Well, now, here you've got a negative and a positive. And in the second pair, again, we shall find that there is a negative and a positive. Only that he reverses the order, that he puts the positive before the negative.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But here in the first pair, we've roused ourselves. Now, then, how are we to dress ourselves? How are we to be attired? And he first of all gives us the negative in the form of an instruction. "Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness." Put off. We mustn't keep them on us. They mustn't be anywhere near us.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: He uses this same expression in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians in verse 8. "But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one to another," and so on. "Put off that, cast it off, throw it away. Don't let it be anywhere near you." And you've got the same thing in Hebrews 12:1. "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It's the same word. And the picture, of course, that he implies is the picture of casting away something. Of divesting yourself of it, throwing it away. Now, it's it's very interesting to notice that the Apostle uses a tense here which carries the meaning, "cast off once and for all." That's a better translation. Not just cast off, but cast off once and for all. That's the exhortation, really.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And yet it carries at the same time the idea that you go on doing that. You do it once and forever and you keep it like that. You don't let it come back, as it were. Now, here again, people are sometimes in trouble because there seems to be an apparent contradiction in the scriptures. They say that you have put off the old man, and yet they tell you to put off the old man.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But there's no contradiction. It is, in other words, to realize what you are, and that in an ultimate sense, this has been put on. But what he's saying is, in your constant practice, put it off. Finish with it in your mind. Put it away once and forever. That's what he's really saying. And what does he tell us to put off? Well, he tells us to put away once and forever the works of darkness.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness." Have you noticed how the scriptures, when they deal with sin, have a fondness for referring to them as works? You remember the example in the fifth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Where he puts it like this.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past also, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Those are the works of the flesh.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But then by contrast, he says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering," and so on. Now, you notice that he refers to those things as the works of the flesh. And in Ephesians 5:11, he does the same thing. "Have no fellowship," he says. "Have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, this is a very significant thing. What he's really saying is this. That those things which he describes there as the works of the flesh are the works of darkness. Really don't belong to men at all. They're not fruit, as it were. They're not the outcome of the essential, true character of men as God made him at the beginning in his own image and likeness.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: These are things which man has produced. They're the works of man. It's a very significant point this, and a most important point. What we really do should be the outcome of our character, it should be fruit. But these other things are not fruit. These things are artificial creations. These are things that man has introduced into life and into the world.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: God has never created these things. These are, you know, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings. Those are all the works of man. And they're foreign even to the true nature of man as God originally made him. It's a very good thing to hold that idea in our minds because it will help us to see those things for what they really are.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And what the Apostle is telling us is this, put them away, and have nothing to do with them. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Divest yourself of them. They don't suit you, they don't fit you. You are now born again. You're made in the image of God's dear Son. You've been fashioned anew. And these things, they're not becoming. Put them off, they don't belong to you. That's the thrust and the burden of what he's saying at this particular point.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, there is the negative. But then he puts it as he always does, positively as well. Scriptures never stop at the negative. They go on to the positive. "Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." Now, here again is a most interesting point. Put on, again, is in this same tense. Put on at once, put on once and for all.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: You notice that he doesn't put us the opposite or the parallel to the works of darkness. He doesn't say the works of light. He says, "the armor of light." It's the same point, again, being emphasized. And a better translation than the word armor here is the word weapons. "Let us cast off or put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the weapons of light."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, why does he call them weapons of light? This is the important point for us. Well, what he means is this. These, if you like, are the articles of clothing that are appropriate to us because we now belong to the light, because we belong to the day. "Let us walk honestly, as in the day." You remember we worked that out. We already belong to the day which is coming. We are already, as it were, out of this world.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: In that spiritual sense, our citizenship is in heaven, it isn't on earth. We are already in the light and we are already belonging to the day. So he says, "Let your clothing be suitable." You've got the same thing in Philippians 1:27. "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ." You know, as the children of the light must have clothing that is appropriate to you.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The works of darkness are not. You must have this clothing that is appropriate. And it is of light. And you can interpret that, if you like, by saying that it is this. That it is a clothing that is given to you by God. And God is light, and all that God gives us is of the light. Now, you remember how the Apostle, in dealing with this whole question of the armor in Ephesians 6, calls it, "the whole armor of God."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It is the armor that God supplies. God, in other words, has prepared clothes for his people. He has prepared clothing for his children. And as he is light, the clothing is light. And we, being children of the light as children of God, he has provided clothing for us that is appropriate to those who are walking in the light and belonging to the light. You know, this links up with all that John says in his first Epistle, you remember.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: That "if we walk in the light as He is in the light, then," he says, "we, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." It's all part of this same idea. In other words, you're having the privilege of walking with your Father, and you must be clothed in clothing that is appropriate and is suitable to walking with God who is light and appropriate to you as a child of light and a child of the day.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But there is also another meaning in this very way in which the Apostle puts it. "Put on," he says, "the weapons or the armor of light." Not only because it's appropriate, but for this reason, that you'll never be ashamed of it. Now, our Lord really has dealt with this very point in the third chapter of John's Gospel. Verse 19, "This is the condemnation, that light is come or has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Now, there is the fundamental idea. Then take the commentary, if you like, on that by the Apostle Paul, once more, in Ephesians 5. Where he reminds us that "that which maketh manifest is light." That's the principle. "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light." So, you can look at it like this, if you like. "Don't be clothed with the works of darkness," says the Apostle. "Why not?" "Well, because you as a child of light will constantly find yourself in the light of God. And then when you're in the light of God, your clothing will be revealed."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: If you, when you're walking in the darkness, you don't see it, nobody else sees it. But it's a terrible thing that suddenly you find yourself in the light and you see your clothing, and you're ashamed of it, and other people see it. Even non-Christians see it. And they say, "Fancy a Christian like that, and you're ashamed of yourself." The light makes manifest. But he that doeth truth, you see, he comes to the light. He's not ashamed, he's not afraid that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: But the men, he that doeth evil, he hates the light, and never comes to the light. Why? "Well, lest his deeds should be reproved." Now, then, says the Apostle, "You've got to apply all this. If you want to be in a condition that you'll never be ashamed." Well, then be clothed, not with the works of darkness, but always with the armor or the weapons of light.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And that leads me to my last question this evening. Why does he suddenly talk about weapons? Why does he suddenly talk about armor? He has, as it were, been talking about clothing. But now he suddenly changes the figure and says, "Put on the armor, the weapons of light." And there's no difficulty about answering the question, is there? It is to remind us that we are constantly, perpetually, in a war, that we are fighting, that we are soldiers.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Every Christian is a soldier. We are all in the midst of this tremendous battle. Life to the Christian is a constant warfare. He's fighting the good fight of faith. And that is why it is essential that he should be clothed with armor, with the whole armor of God. He needs to have defensive weapons, he needs to have offensive weapons.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: And in Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 20, as you remember, especially verse 14 and onwards, you are given the details of these weapons. You've got the similar statement in 1 Thessalonians 5. There are the weapons that we need. Feet, loins first, breastplate, feet, helmet, all that is necessary. Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, the shield of faith.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We must be clothed with these things, or if you prefer, to work it out in a less military manner, and yet the illustration is that of the Apostle himself. If you like to live it in another way, well, go back once more to that second Epistle of Peter and the first chapter. This is another way of saying, "Be clothed with or put on the armor of light." "Beside all this, giving diligence, all diligence." "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity." Those are the weapons of light.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: If you are clothed with those things, if you have supplied yourself and your faith with these things, if you are encompassed with these things, then you're in a position to fight the world and the flesh and the devil. And if you do these things, as Peter says, you will never fall. "Make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall." And so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Very well, we leave it at that for this evening. There you've got then the first pair under this heading of the practicalities. Put off, put on. How constantly does the Apostle say that? He says it in different ways. Put off the old man, put on the new man. Divest yourself of the works of darkness, put on the armor of light. It's all really meaning exactly the same thing. Very well, we've roused ourselves, we are awake, and we've clothed ourselves.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We are now in a position, next time, next Friday night, God willing, to consider how we are to walk. We're awake, we're clothed, we've got to walk. We've got to live. He tells us how to do it in his second pair, and then he ends it all off with that final summing up and putting the whole thing into its ultimate setting. And God willing, we shall consider that next Friday evening.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, we come to thee and once more, we thank thee that thou dost trouble with us in this manner, even down to these details. Oh God, thou knowest us. Thou knowest all about us. We humbly pray thee, so to grant us thy Spirit that we shall be enabled to rouse ourselves, to awaken out of sleep, and to realize the character and the nature of the fight in which we are set, and how we are to conduct and to comport ourselves as thy children and the thy people in such a situation. Oh Lord, have mercy upon us. Awaken us all, we pray thee, to righteousness, and enable us to put on this blessed armor that thou hast provided for us so freely and so liberally. And now may the grace of the Lord 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 and uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and evermore. Amen.