Living in the Light of the Dawn
Lord's Day Exhortation
In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Church to "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." The reason he says we ought to pursue these good works of love is because we know what time it is. He continues, "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light" (Rom. 13:11–12).
When you live in the flesh, when you make habits of sin and practice the deeds of darkness, you are making yourselves at home in a world that is perishing, in a world that is quickly passing away and heading for judgment. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, "Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience..." (Col. 3:6). Christians must not walk in the darkness because we are "children of light" (Eph. 5:8). We were once sons of disobedience, but now we have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).
Therefore, the exhortation to you this morning is to live like the new creatures you are. Live as one who inhabits the new creation. When sin comes creeping in, give it no quarter. Drag it out into the light of Christ—expose it, confess it, and get clean. Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only those who love Christ in this age will love Him in the age to come. If you don't walk with Christ now, you will not find yourself walking with Him after the judgment. As we read in Psalm 37, "Evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth" (v. 9).
This exhortation was given on August 17, AD 2025, at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.