---Paul asks us to ask for a garment from
Christ. ---In the midst of all the nonsense around
us, Paul says "but". ---Despite a world collapsing around us,
seize the opportunity and overcome the problem with a dressing-up with our Lord
Jesus Christ. ---To properly understand Paul in Romans
13:14 we will start at the back and then go forward. ---The robe of righteousness is needed and
Job 29:14 speaks of it. (Thanks pastor Ettienne McClintock from Australia for
the text) ---We know that Satan targeted him. ---He remained standing like a pole. His
secret is the robe of righteousness. ---Adam and Eve lost their garment of
righteousness when they sinned. ---We don't know we are naked but if our
clothes suddenly disappear we will know it. ---If you have clothes on, people cannot
see your nakedness. ---If we have the garment of Christ on,
Satan cannot find us. He was still tempting us when we asked for the garment of
our Lord Jesus Christ. “Where is she? Where is he?” Satan asked totally confused.
"He was here now and now he's gone?" ---Paul says “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Romans 13:14 first part. ---The garment makes invisible and
invisibility has to do with the immediate overcoming of temptation. ---Our will is intertwined with the will
of the Holy Spirit. 1 + 1. If we have the garment on. ---We do not want to sin. We are not
looking for it. ---We live in peace and happiness. But
then Satan comes before Christ and declares that we are not susceptible to
temptation, because Christ gives the garment and because the Holy Spirit is
intertwined with our will. He claims that the Holy Spirit controls our will to
conform with all kinds of holy tricks. ---Christ unzips the garment and says:
“Tempt him/her. You will see that it is his/her will, not the Holy Spirit that
compels him/her." ---Satan tempts but the Christian prays
“Lead us not into temptation. They add, But clothe yourselves with the Lord
Jesus Christ". ---The zip closes. Immediately. The
temptation has been overcome! Thanks to Christ as Jude 24 says. ---Now we are ready to get to the heart of
the text. ---What temptation does Paul have in mind
in Romans 13:14? There are many temptations available to Satan daily. He is the
R&D of temptation. ---Paulus explains how the problem arises
and what we should not do. ---The problem arises, according to the
Greek of Romans 13:14 in the pronoian.
These are the pre-thoughts. So, fantasy or imagination. ---The imagination of the flesh [tes sarkes] is the imagination about the
body of man without the Holy Spirit. This is not good. ---Let's give an example. Nero became
emperor in Rome at 17 after the brutal Calgula died. ---Initially he was very popular, and made
beautiful music with his voice and lyre that had the audiences on their feet. ---His lifestyle then became a problem and
we must mention it because it is an example of what Paul is talking about here. ---Nero mutilated a young man in his
private parts and later went with him/it in the streets to entertain the people
with his new "girl". This is fantasy and forethought or pronoian of Nero. ---There are other terrible things that
Nero did that Suetonius, his biographer, tells about, but one's ears will turn
red if one has to mention them. ---It is premeditated objectives or
planning to go out on the streets deviantly to entertain audiences. The
imagination is a mental problem, a pro-noian.
It is an imagination of the flesh or tes
sarkes. ---It is a carnal focus of the fantasy on
the body. ---So what does Paul say is the solution? ---Don't do it. Me poiesthesthe. ---Don't take part in it. Don't go any
further with it. Leave it alone. Step away. Turn around. Refuse. Give way. ---This is what not doing means. ---Don't do what of the flesh? ---The identification now follows in the
Greek: eis epithumias. To desire. ---What desires? Tes sarkes = carnal. ---Summary now: Do not imagine or
fantasize the carnal desires in advance and do not do or bring about the carnal
desires. ---In order not to do this, clothe
yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. ---Does it make more sense now?