The Bible Study: Romans | This Is Your Wake-Up Call

Romans 13:11-14 (NIV) And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Romans 13:11-14 (NLT) This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Romans 13:12 (NIV) “…let us put aside the deeds of darkness  …”

Romans 13:12 (NLT):  So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living.

Ephesians 4:22 “…put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man…”

Colossians 3:8 “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.”

Colossians 3:9 “…you have put off the old man with his deeds…”

Exodus 20:3-4 (NIV) 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

Deuteronomy 4:16-19 (NLT) So do not corrupt yourselves by making an idol in any form—whether of a man or a woman, 17 an animal on the ground, a bird in the sky, 18 a small animal that scurries along the ground, or a fish in the deepest sea. 19 And when you look up into the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the forces of heaven—don’t be seduced into worshiping them. 

Mark 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

1. IDENTIFY THE IDOLS IN YOUR LIFE

Psalm 24:3-4 (NKJV) asks the question: Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.

2. REMOVE THOSE IDOLS

Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 

3. CLOTHE YOURSELF IN CHRIST

Psalm 84:2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 

Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.  2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God… 

Romans 12:2 “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Galatians 3:27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Philippians 2:5-7 (NIV) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant