From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: As most of you will remember, we are now dealing with the words that are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans in Chapter 13, verses 11 to 14, the last four verses in 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 armour 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."

Now, we began our consideration of this great and moving and vital subsection of this chapter last Friday evening. And I pointed out that these words "and that" connect with what's been going before. Indeed, we'd started our consideration of this on a previous Friday evening.

He's ended by saying, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." The argument is roughly this: the Apostle, from the beginning of the 12th Chapter and especially from the third verse in that chapter, has been giving a number of detailed injunctions and instructions to these Roman Christians as to how they should live. And he says he's doing that because they are Christians. That great word "therefore" in the first verse of that 12th Chapter reminds us of that: "I beseech you, brethren, therefore, I therefore beseech you, by the mercies of God," etc.

Well now, having done all that, he's now winding it up. And he says you should do this because this is the way to fulfill the law. This is the way to carry out the royal law of love. That was his first appeal, as it were, the first motive that he presses upon them for fulfilling these instructions and injunctions in their daily life. Now having done that, he then adds another: "And that."

On top of that, in addition to that, he says you must do it. And then he provides this other great reason, which we described, of course, as being a kind of eschatological argument. He is making his appeal in terms of the doctrine of the last or the ultimate things. And we've indicated that this is a peculiar and special Christian motive for morality and ethics and good conduct.

It's a motive that nobody else knows anything about. It is unique and special to the Christian. That makes it all the more important that we should be perfectly clear about it and should know what it is to be influenced by it as an argument and as an inducement. The Apostle, as I've reminded you, as is his custom, divides his matter under two headings: the doctrinal aspect and then the practical application.

He always does that. And we should always do exactly the same thing. And we've taken a little time in emphasizing that these two things should never be considered in isolation, should never be separated. We have no right ever to consider the teaching of the scripture theoretically. We must never consider it only theologically or only practically. The two things must always be taken together, as the Apostle does here, and as we've seen, he even mixes them up as if to make sure that none of us should ever divide them and separate them or divorce them from one another.

Very well. There is the doctrinal, there is the practical, and we must start obviously with the doctrinal. He does, so we must. Now, I remind you again that he assumes that we know certain things: "And that, knowing the time." The argument doesn't apply if we don't know these things. That's why you can never have Christian conduct apart from Christian doctrine.

And that is why it is heresy to expect to get Christian conduct from people who are not Christians. That's Pelagianism. It's been quite common in this century; it's the fatal weakness in what is called pacifism, that it expects and desiderates a kind of Christian attitude to things in people who are not Christians. And that is, of course, nothing but sheer heresy.

Now, the Apostle, far from doing that, proceeds on the assumption that we know these things. "Knowing them." But nevertheless, though he knows that we know them, he repeats them to us. That, I say once more, is the essence of teaching. It's the repetition of things we already know because we are so ready either to forget them or to fail to apply them and to carry them always in our mind.

Now then, what does he assume we know? This is the first section. Well, we've already seen that he assumes that we know this time, the time in which we're living: "And that, knowing the time." Which we have defined as being the time between the two comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he means by the time: the time of the first advent, the time of the second advent.

This is the Christian view of time. If you like, the interval between what He has done and what He's yet going to do. Well now, we've dealt with that. And having done so, we proceed to the second matter that he takes for granted in his argument. The second thing that he assumes that we already know. But let me show you how he reminds us of it.

The second thing is our view of life in this world. Now, this is again essential to the understanding of Christian conduct and to the practice of Christian conduct: that we have the right and the correct view of our life in this world. It's another way of looking at this time. It is something that follows of necessity from that first postulate.

It is because we view time in that way that we inevitably have a given certain view of life in this world, which is entirely different from the view of life in this world which is taken by people who are not Christians. And the Apostle here reminds us of what that view is. He does so in two main words: the first is the night, and the second is darkness.

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand." But looking at this world, it is the night. He says, "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light," and so on. Then, of course, he works it out in detail. But the two important words for us now are the words night and darkness.

Now here is a tremendously important thing for us. The world is so much with us, it's too much with us. And in spite of the fact that we're Christians, we tend to be governed in our thinking so much by the prevailing notions and ideas that are current in the world round and about us. And this is especially true, of course, at this present time.

There have been periods in the history of the world when life has been very hard and very difficult and very cruel for people, when men had to work for a very meager wage, when there were pestilences and things of that kind. And everybody realized that life was grim. But as for various reasons and the result of various advances, so-called, that in general is no longer the case.

And people tend to take a different view of life in this world. And the view in general is, as it's often put in the phrase, "Isn't life wonderful?" And people talk about living life with a capital L and how wonderful the world has become, and we tend to feel sorry for all who lived in this world before us. Now, that in general is the view taken by the non-Christian.

But you see, the view taken by the Christian is the exact opposite. The Christian looks out upon life as it is today, and to him it is the night. It's darkness. And I want to stress this: that he takes that view of life in this world at its best, not only at its worst. Now, the moral man, the ethical man who is not a Christian—the so-called good pagan, the good man as the world regards him—he regards certain things, of course, as being dark and of the darkness.

But the Christian views the whole of life today as the night and as the darkness. Now, the Apostle has already given us a hint of this, of course. We had it at the beginning of the 12th Chapter, in the second verse, where he says, "Be not conformed to this world." He's really said it there. "This world" is something to which we should not be conformed.

Of course, he's given us other hints of it. In the 8th Chapter and the 23rd verse, he's already told us that we—not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Same thing put in a different way.

So that we're not surprised when we come across this teaching now in an explicit form. And indeed, the first seven verses of this 13th Chapter, with which we've dealt at great length, it's all implicit there. Why do you need the powers that be? Why do you need government? Why do you need magistrates? Why do you need a sword? Why are these things necessary?

The answer's obvious: it is because of the nature and the character of life in this world, because of the way in which man in sin conducts himself. So it's there implicit in all that. You wouldn't need these powers that be were it not that it is the night, the darkness. That's the character of life in this world. Now, this is not a teaching that is confined in any way to the great Apostle.

It is the teaching of the whole Bible, of course. The men of God, the children of God, are strangers in this world, and pilgrims. And of course, it's at its clearest in the New Testament. John 3:19: "This is the condemnation, what is it? Well, that light has come into the world, and that men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."

And again our Lord, you see, in His great claim, He stands up, as it were, in the world in the midst of men and He says, as we've got it in the 8th Chapter of John's Gospel in the 12th verse, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." As plain as anything can be.

And later on, He exhorts these people, "While ye have the light, walk in the light," and so on. I could give you endless quotations from our Lord's own teaching as they're found in the Gospels. But you find them scattered about everywhere in the Epistles of this Apostle. Take, for instance, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the 4th Chapter in the 5th verse.

He puts it like this: "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart." The same idea is implicit there. But one of the most glorious and moving statements of it all is in that first Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians. Listen to it.

Let me read to you verses—well, let's start at verse 10: "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

What a wonderful and glorious statement that is of this same principle. But Peter is not to be outclassed in this matter, and he has his own way of saying this. This is how he puts it: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth his praises, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

What a glorious statement of it that is, again. You see the contrast: out of the darkness into His marvelous light. And John is equally concerned about this and equally rejoices in it. Listen to him in his First Epistle, the first Chapter: "This is the message that we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but 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."

On he goes into the second Chapter, verse 8: "Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past"—that's the truth about us—"and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." You see, the whole of the New Testament is full of this idea.

And perhaps in the case of this Apostle Paul with whom we are dealing, it's not surprising that he makes a good deal of this because, in a sense, when he was commissioned to preach at all, he was commissioned in these very terms. This is how he reports, you remember, to Agrippa and Festus how he was called by the Lord: "But rise, stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee." What for? "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."

Now, there, you see, is explicit teaching which puts the whole thing in terms of the contrast between darkness and light, or night and day. And there are other places where it is implicit and where it is obviously the whole basis of the argument. And it's important we should keep our eye on them also and carry them with us as we are expounding what the Apostle says here.

For instance, at the beginning of Chapter 5 of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, it's the same thing: "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."

And again, you remember how he reminds the Galatians at the very beginning: "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins." What for? Why did He do it? "That he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." You remember the beginning of Ephesians 2: "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," and so on. Same thing worked out in the third verse.

Now, there, you see, we have this typical New Testament teaching about life in this world. John puts it very clearly in the First Epistle again, in the second Chapter: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." And again in the fifth Chapter of that Epistle: "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness," or in the wicked one.

Well now, here you see is the teaching that the Apostle is putting before us here in these two words: the night and darkness. And he assumes that we are clear about this, that this is our view of life in this world. What does he mean then by referring to it as night and as darkness? Well, he's using the term to convey the state and the condition of mankind outside Christ.

From an intellectual standpoint, it is the darkness of ignorance. Here, of course, is a theme that is elaborated everywhere in the scriptures. The ultimate trouble with mankind is that it's ignorant. That is what the original sin and fall did to man: cut him off from the vital, most essential knowledge. Now, the Apostle puts this perhaps in a more elaborate form; one of the clearest statements he's ever made about this is in Ephesians 4, beginning at verse 17: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk." Now, you are Christians, he says, and you mustn't go on living now as you used to live as Gentiles, unconverted, and as the unconverted Gentiles still live. You mustn't do that.

Why not? Well, now, this is it: "They walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart." And then he describes the kind of life they live because of that, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ.

You know differently. Very well, but it is, you see, put in terms of this intellectual darkness. Now, that's how he describes the world at its best, at its most enlightened: it's in the dark, it's blind, it's in the night. In what respect? Well, in all the really important matters. First and foremost with regard to God Himself. You remember our Lord at the end of His great High Priestly prayer: "O righteous Father," He says, "the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me."

The world has not known Thee. That's the whole trouble in the world tonight. It doesn't know God. Ignorant, blind, alienated by wicked works. It needs the light. It hasn't got it. Even your Greek philosophers fumbling after God, if haply they might seek after Him and find Him. They don't. They're in the dark; they're groping like men groping in the dark at noonday. This ignorance about God, it's darkness.

And it's equally true in the world's understanding of man and its knowledge of man. It's all very well for the Greek philosophers to put up as their great slogan, "Know thyself." But is there anything more difficult than that? That's where we fail, all of us, is in knowing ourselves and the truth about ourselves. And it's the same with regard to life and the whole purpose of life and living.

Mankind's in the dark about this. When it comes to death, nothing but impenetrable darkness. Without a hope to cheer the tomb. Can't see. Everything seems to collapse into final darkness. There it is. Ignorance. And the judgment beyond. The world is ignorant about this. It wouldn't go on living for a second as it does if it knew something about the judgment to come.

But it doesn't. It's completely ignorant. It's unaware of this. It's in the dark. And it's the same with regard to eternity and what lies beyond death and the judgment. This has often been put, of course; it's in many of our hymns. "O'er heathen lands afar, thick darkness broodeth yet." But it's as true of this country as any so-called heathen country at the present time.

It's true of all our civilized countries: thick darkness broodeth yet. Last century, two books were published about the same time: one was "In Darkest Africa" and General Booth published his book "In Darkest England." And he was quite right. Darkest Africa—everybody was more or less prepared to use that term. But they couldn't see that England was equally dark in this vital spiritual sense.

So it means, you see, the darkness of ignorance, intellectual darkness, lack of awareness of the things that really matter and count. But it's equally true as a description of the moral condition of mankind, the life which is lived by such people. Now, that's why I read to you that portion out of the 5th Chapter of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians at the beginning, because the Apostle puts it there so plainly and clearly in very terms of this thing that we are dealing with at the moment.

He says, "But ye, brethren, ye are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Let us not sleep, therefore, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." Then he describes it: "They that sleep sleep in the night; they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober."

Now, you see, there he's giving us a picture of the kind of life which is lived by people who lack the light of this knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They belong to the night. They belong to the darkness. What do they indulge in? They indulge in what he calls elsewhere "the unfruitful works of darkness."

Oh, there are many descriptions of this which are given to us by the Apostle. Look at this one in the 5th Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. "Ye," he says, "were sometimes darkness"—once upon a time you were in the darkness—"but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." And then he goes on to tell us, "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Why? "Well, it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

But if you want a real description of it, read the second half of the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Read Chapter 6 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the first half of it, and indeed right the way through. And there it is. Now that, you see, is darkness. It's moral darkness. It's the life of evil and sin. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles," etc. That's Peter.

Now, here you see is the description given of this darkness about which the Apostle is speaking, this night. The whole outlook of the man who's not a Christian and his mode of behavior. It belongs to that kind of realm. And if you like, you can add to that the darkness of the night and the gloom of despair and of hopelessness. Men die in darkness at Thy side without a hope to cheer the tomb. Nothing at all. The final bankruptcy as they approach death. And they hate it; they hate the thought of it. Everybody's trying to keep young and to look young, and we mustn't talk about death, that's said to be morbid. It's because of this utter, final despair. It's the darkness in that sense about our ultimate and final destiny.

Now, this you see is the essential teaching that the Apostle puts before us here, and which as I say is so typical of the teaching of the New Testament. Take another from the Sermon on the Mount: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body also shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body also shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"

What a text for today. But that's the Bible's description of life in this world as it is without Christ. The world, of course, talks about ages of enlightenment, and it says we're living in such an age. The world boasts about the 18th century when the enlightenment, as it were, came in. That's the thing that the world boasts of. It glories in that 18th century, calls it the enlightenment. And it's continued, it says, ever since, and the last century, and this one. All the knowledge we've accumulated and garnered, all the wonderful discoveries we've made. "This, we're living in an enlightened world." And as I say, we are so sorry for our rude and ignorant forefathers who lacked all this wonderful knowledge and enlightenment that we have.

But the Bible looks out upon it all and it says, "It's the night. It's the darkness." And all that the world is boasting about is entirely on the surface. There's no change whatsoever about the subjects I've been mentioning. There is no more light today than there has ever been. In fact, it is one of the encouraging things for the Christian preacher at the present time that learned authorities are tumbling one over another in their autobiographies and interviews and so on in telling us that really they are completely in the dark about themselves and about life and death, and above all, about God. All the enlightenment hasn't given us any light at all. "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" That's the scripture's verdict on the sophistication and the enlightenment and the culture of this present age.

Now, I say that is the world at its best, at its highest. It produces its artificial light, and it glories in it. But it's entirely artificial. And with regard to everything that is of vital and eternal importance, it is nothing but darkness both from the standpoint of understanding and of conduct and of behavior. That can easily be proved by the fact that men still commit the same sins as they've always done throughout the running centuries, and above all, in their ignorance of ultimate matters. Now, the Christian is a man who realizes this. He knows this. He realizes the character of the world in which he lives. And therefore, he never trusts to human culture. He never gets excited about it as the world does, never pins his faith to it.

Now let's be clear about this, as I was showing some weeks back. The Christian doesn't dismiss it; he doesn't say it's useless. It has its place. Yes, but it's a subordinate place. It comes under the heading of common grace. It's all right. The Christian mustn't despise culture. But what he never does is to put his faith in it or to glory in it and say how wonderful it is because he knows it isn't. It's like an artificial flower. It has its beauty. It can show certain of the faculties and propensities of man. But it isn't living; it isn't real; it hasn't got life. These things can be used to the glory of God. But in and of themselves, they belong to the realm of the night and to the realm of darkness.

The Christian, then, sees the limits to all these things always. He doesn't belong to the night. He doesn't belong to the darkness. He's a child of the day. He belongs to the light. We are children of light. So I can sum it up by putting it like this: the Christian realizes always that he's a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. He's in this world and he's fighting the world and the flesh and the devil. In this tabernacle he groans, being burdened. He remembers that our Lord said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." His view of this present world is that it is an evil world and that all the efforts of all the politicians of every party will never change it. They're mere ripples on the surface; they don't affect the real position at all. "In the world ye shall have tribulation." It's a dark world. It's an evil world. It's a doomed world. It's a condemned world. It's a world that's under the wrath of God.

But the Christian isn't depressed when he says that. He says it like this: "Here have we no continuing city, but—" that's all right. A door's open. This isn't always. And here the Apostle's doing exactly the same thing. It's crucial. Now, look at this first term: salvation. He says, "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." Now, I'm not going into that tonight. We'll have to do that, and I hope God willing to do that with you, I mean the "nearer than when we believed." I'm concerned now with the term salvation, and especially our salvation. "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

This is an important statement here: "our salvation." I agree with those who say that this is not the best translation here. It's all right in a way, but it rather tends to conceal the true meaning. Taken literally, you'd have to translate it like this: "Nearer is of us the salvation." Those are the actual words themselves: "Nearer is of us the salvation."

Now, why I prefer that is this: because instead of saying "our salvation," which you might interpret in a subjective experimental sense, it reminds us that the Apostle is not speaking about that. He is talking about the salvation—this objective salvation, the salvation that is outside us and toward which we're moving. That's why that's a better way of translating it. "Our salvation"—people will immediately rush to interpret in terms of feelings, moods, states, and experiences. All right, that's a part of the Christian life. That isn't actually what the Apostle's talking about. He says that the salvation is, as far as we are concerned, nearer than it was when we believed.

Now then, what does he mean by the salvation? I'm sure many of you are tempted to ask this question. When he says here that our salvation is nearer than when we believed, is the Apostle suggesting that we are not already saved? Is he here denying the doctrine of assurance of salvation? Is he simply saying that no man has a right to say while he's in this life and in this world, "I am saved," or "I am a saved person"? Is he correcting us and saying you mustn't say that; you are people who are going towards salvation?

Now, this is a point that people have often raised, and of course, people are very ready to divide over this. I have known very good Christian people—I've no doubt they are good Christian people, were good Christian people—who disliked the doctrine of assurance of salvation. They say, "I wouldn't like to say that I am saved; I'm hoping to be saved." But they regarded it rather as presumption to say that you are saved.

And they were always ready to quote a text such as this: "Our salvation is nearer than when we believed." "Don't say you are saved, say you're going to be saved, you're hoping to be saved." You're familiar with that kind of talk. You'll often get it amongst people who are of the high Calvinistic doctrine. And they live a kind of depressed life, never being sure of where they are but hoping.

Now, let's clear this up. This is quite wrong, of course. If you speak like that, what you're really doing is to make the great Apostle contradict himself. He says about himself that he is saved, and "we who are saved," and so on. Well, there's really no difficulty about this. This is just a question of what you may call the tenses of salvation.

And there are three tenses quite clearly: We have been saved. If we are Christians, we are already saved. It has happened to us. But there is another sense in which it is equally true to say that we are being saved. And there is a third sense in which it is equally true to say we shall be saved. How? Well, like this.

As regards the guilt of sin, I am already saved. Now, I say that by the grace of God, but you don't take my word for this. If you—this, you see, is how the Apostle puts it: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." You remember we dealt with that first verse in the 8th Chapter, and we interpreted it like this: not only is there no condemnation now, there never will be. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath already—ever—made me free from the law of sin and death. I am not under the law, I am under grace. I am saved. I am dead to sin. I have been crucified with Christ. I have died to sin with Him. Verse 6 of the 6th Chapter: "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him." It's happened.

And I assert that, and I must assert that. And as Christians, we should all assert it and rejoice in it and glory in it. We have been saved from the curse and the condemnation of the law. There is no condemnation now to them that are in Christ Jesus. All right, that's the guilt of sin. I've already been cleared. It's past, it's gone once and for all.

But when I consider the question of my relationship to the power of sin and the pollution of sin, I can't say that I am saved. It isn't true. There is the remaining pollution. There is the remaining falling into sin. Read the first Chapter of John's First Epistle and there you get it: the fight, the conflict, the failure. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." This is progressive, this is continuous, this is sanctification. I am progressively being saved from the power of sin, from the pollution of sin. Christ is being formed in me progressively. Oh, here you see is that second tense, the second way of looking at it.

But then, you see, there is equally this third way that the Apostle is dealing with here. Here he's looking to the ultimate, to the final, to the complete. You get—he puts this in many different ways. Take, for instance, in the 30th verse of the first Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness"—there's the first—"sanctification"—there's the second—"and redemption." I'm already a redeemed, yes. But the final redemption, which includes glorification and so on—all that lies in the future and is yet to come.

Now, here the Apostle has got his eye on this third tense, this future tense. Let me just as I close this evening remind you of how he's already said all this. You see, he's summing up in these last chapters, and he's summing up here particularly at the end of this chapter. But he's said it all in the 8th Chapter in these words: "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."

Then he goes on to say: "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was not made subject—the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." And this is equally true now; it's happening now. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for—" There's something I'm waiting for. I am redeemed, I am forgiven, I am justified, my guilt has gone, I am being sanctified, but I'm waiting for—what am I waiting for? "The redemption—waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

Well now, my friends, that's the thing the Apostle is talking about here. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is tremendously interested in the same thing. "What are angels?" he says at the end of the first Chapter. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" That's got nothing to do with this world. That's salvation in the world to come, of which he speaks, he says, in the 5th verse of the next Chapter. That's entirely future. Or take what he says at the end of the 9th Chapter of that Epistle to the Hebrews: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

This is the ultimate, the absolute, the final. And let me close with a word from the Apostle Peter in the first Chapter of his First Epistle: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time."

That's what he's talking about. In the same chapter, verses 8 and 9: "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Well, I've merely introduced this third strand in the teaching of the Apostle, the third of the things which he assumes that we know. And that is our outlook, our view of the future that lies ahead of us.

And God willing, we shall come back to work this out a little bit in detail together next Friday evening. My dear friends, do you know these things? Do you know them? Are you certain of them? Do you understand the time in which you're living? Do you understand the nature of life in this world? Have you this outlook upon your ultimate full, final salvation? And is it in the light of these things that you are living your daily life? That's what the Apostle is exhorting us to do.

O Lord our God, we come again to thank Thee for the provision Thou hast made for us. We realize we are without any excuse for our ignorance and for our failure. O God, have mercy upon us. Pardon us and cleanse us. We thank Thee that if we confess our sins, Thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Grant that we all may know this fully, freely, abundantly, in order that we may continue to walk with Thee in the light, as children of the light and children of the day.

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 uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and until we shall see Him as He is and be made like unto Him in the glory everlasting. Amen.